Striker879

I just wondered if Win 10 was silently "fixing" your changes (it has taken UAC to even higher levels of obtrusiveness is my understanding). Do you have a default install location for the game (or for Steam plus the game)? C:\Program Files (x86) plus any Windows version after WinXP is asking for trouble.

You aren't a Win 10 victim are you?

Likely a missing master crash. Installing "a ton of mods" and then expecting to be able to zero in on which is causing trouble isn't very reasonable. If you install one mod and then test and run into trouble it's a pretty trivial thing to figure out where to start troubleshooting. As to your other problem. ... I don't recommend NMM for use with Oblivion. The best tool for Oblivion is Wrye Bash. By the time you get back near your "ton of mods" you will probably require it's bashed patch to get the mods working together. Best tool for sorting Oblivion load order is BOSS.

When summer is done I can have a go at a beautiful Genie Contra. I could also ask my daughter if she'd be interested in voice acting the Genie if you want (she's an experienced actor, but hasn't done any game work that I know of).

Some of the Bosmer have black eyes as intended by Nuska (those will show hightlights in their eyes). Other are supposed to have violet eyes but a texture file wasn't included in the version 2.03 download (the missing texture is eye_bosmer_violet.dds if memory serves). That file can be found in the version 2.01 download. If you want the intentional black eyed Bosmer to have a different eye colour simple rename a copy of the desired colour's DDS file to match the black eyed Bosmer file (the file names must be exactly the same due to OCO v2 relying on Blockhead for asset management). To "un-Blockheadize" the black eyed Bosmer will take much editing of the race records I think ... far simpler to just do a renaming.

My guess would be your Archery Rebalance (though the mod description gives no hint to changes in perks ... perhaps the mod has a readme ... I wouldn't know as I don't use it).

I think if you say No that first time then you need to use the right click menu to enable Installers (so that it doesn't keep bugging you about it).

I don't recall Argonians receiving any love (though I've seen plenty asking for it). In my own game they use Roberts male and HGEC textures along with OCO v2 heads, and yes they are less than perfect. I'm away for most of the summer so I don't have access to my gaming machine to check for which HGEC textures I used ... pretty sure the males would be Roberts male v5. I use the clothing/armor replacers that come with Roberts male and EVE HGEC Eyecandy Variants Expansion along with individual pieces from other sources (some as replacers and some as extra added to individual NPCs).

The correct install order is OBSE then Blockhead then Roberts/HGEC then OCO v2 base package then OCO v2 Roberts/HGEC patches. If you look back in the OCO v2 mod comments you'll see I've linked to a replacement Khajiit texture for the males (there is also one for Khajiit females but I haven't tried it myself). Do not use the MaleBodyReplacerV5.esp that comes with Roberts male ... the OCO v2 ESP replaces it.

HGEC meshes will work on vanilla providing the mesh doesn't show any skin. - Edit - Granted ... HGEC meshes that don't show skin are few and far between.

So what are the exact file paths to the OBSE files such as obse_steam_loader.dll, obse_1_2_416.dll and obse_editor_1_2.dll?

Your Roberts problems sound like improper installation ... vanilla body textures on Robert's meshes will be messed up. Modding Oblivion takes much more than pushing a big green button. Even using Wyre Bash's BAIN installers will require you to learn things you will only learn by installing mods manually (unless you don't have any desire to actually understand what you are doing, and are satisfied with blindly following advice, in which case I'd advise sticking with BAINs that have a wizard to guide you through the options).

What is the exact path to the files you have installed from the OBSE extracted download in your game folders? How did you install those files?

The indication that OBSE is working is that after you save with OBSE working you will have two saves with the same base name and different file extensions each time you save (e.g. MySave09.ess and MySave09.obse). Other than that you will get no indication that OBSE is working unless you install a mod that runs an OBSE check and reports what it finds to the game display or refuses to run at all without OBSE (many will silently fail to use some of their features, without alerting you further).

I'm no modeller, so I couldn't say if it's a NifSkope-able task or would require Blender. You could start by looking through the Image Share and when you see a likely candidate contact the image uploader for details.

What would happen if you made an amulet mesh that is a mishmash of a bunch of amulet meshes saved as a single mesh (obviously each source mesh would need to be different enough that they wouldn't simply overlap pixel for pixel)? I'm no modeller, but I've seen screenshots that looked like that was done.

Will there be any level requiremnets for starting the quest? The reason I ask is that from my experience with the game that after about level 10 or so money becomes superfluous. Even on my current character using Enhanced Economy and using smiths to repair my gear except as much as needed to level armorer (as well as buying as much vanilla food as possible from merchants/inns to satisfy Basic Primary Needs) I've had gold out the whazoo since before level 10. This character doesn't even sell all the loot he finds ... something that adds more gold would just be adding one more thing that needs to be done that adds little or no value in my opinion. An on-going quest that adds hardships to be overcome would add much more play value in my eyes (but to be value adding would be much more difficult to implement). Stuff like finding replacements for staff that have left or died, but those replacements are neither easy to locate nor eager to take the position. Perhaps consequences to the remaining staff if you take too long to replace key personnel (i.e. the vintner leaves because you haven't replaced the foreman of the vinyard workers). I guess I find accumulating gold for the sake of accumulating gold a hollow reward (though a thought does just occur to me ... if you don't make at least a break even proposition of the estate then your characters total gold is reduced until either a profit is turned or you are completely out of gold).

The only mod that comes to mind is possibly Kvatch Rebuilt. One of the possible options in that mod is you can become Count of Kvatch. Don't know that there is much for your character to do after that point though. Something that might fit well with Kvatch Rebuilt after you are Count is Fluffy Follower Frill, which will allow you to recruit the Kvatch guards as followers (along with other NPCs).

Always start the vanilla game at least once before adding mods (this allows it to set itself up). I suggest you run through the tutorial using just vanilla and make a save just before you exit the sewer (at the part where you see the sewer exit in the distance, befrore you get the character finalization dialogues). Exit the sewer and make another save (this will be your mod testing save). Run around in vanilla and check out your performance and adjust your game settings as required. Once you are satisfied with your setup start adding mods, one at at time, and test thoroughly in between. When you run into problems it will be a trivial matter to figure out where to start troubleshooting.

I believe Contra got the OBMM part correct except the option will be named Add Archive, though like Contra I haven't used OBMM to install mods in years and while I'm away for the summer I don't have any way to confirm/discover the exact terminology OBMM uses. Basically when using OBMM to install mods there are two ways ... one for mods that are already in OBMM's format (mods that when downloaded or extracted that have the file extension OMOD like JoesCoolArmorMod.omod) and those that are distributed as simple archives (like your Dark Khajiit Race-1867.rar). The common simple archive formats used here on Nexus are .7z (extracted using 7-Zip), .rar and .zip (both of which can also be extracted by 7-Zip or alternatively by later versions of Windows natively). To install a mod with the Add Archive option (if that is the correct term) you do not need to extract the archive though. Using your Dark Khajiit Race-1867.rar as an example you would download it from the Oblivion Nexus page to a folder on your hard drive, and then in OBMM use Add Archive and in the dialogue boxes that then open navigate to where you downloaded the mod to and select Dark Khajiit Race-1867.rar. I have a folder I created on my Data drive (my own machines always include a separate physical hard drive just for downloads etc) named Oblivion_Downloads. In this case I would create a sub-folder for the mod, so it would be downloaded to Oblivion_Downloads\Dark_Khajiit_Race\Dark Khajiit Race-1867.rar on whichever drive you choose to use for downloads. That is the folder you would navigate to using OBMM's Add Archive. You will find some mods that say in their mod description that they are distributed in an OMOD ready format. Others will just say to use OBMM to install, without any further mention of how the download is organised. I like to know stuff beforehand so I always extract the download to see how the extracted download is structured. If I remember correctly the OMOD ready format will extract starting at the next level down from Data (so the highest level folders will be Meshes or Textures and any ESPs will be loose in your download folder above those). I'm stuck with just an Android tablet for the summer so I can't say what your Dark Khajiit Race-1876.rar will extract like. Mods that either download as OMODs or that extract to an OMOD are the simplest to install with OBMM. After you have OBMM installed you just download the mod and once you see the file with the OMOD extension just double left click it. OBMM will start and install the mod (the OMOD file extension is registered to OBMM when it installs). As usual for me, another rather lengthy post, and a lot is dredged up from memory (and remember I'm no longer a young guy). - Edit - Just to be clear ... if you do extract the download to examine it's structure before installing with the Add Archive option you will still navigate in OBMM to the downloaded archive, not the extracted files and folders (so in your Dark Khajiit you will select Dark Khajiit Race-1867.rar from the Add Archive dialogues even if you have already extracted the archive to your download folder). Most of what I know about OBMM I've learned from it's help file (opened by it's Help menu or by double clicking the Help.chm file ... if I'm remembering the help file name and extension correctly). Big wave to Contra from across the pond, hope your summer course is going well. Rainy Canada Day here, but's supposed to clear up in the afternoon (if you can believe the "weather lies from the weather guys").

Install the game and start it without mods. Verify that version 1.2.0416 is displayed in the lower left of the menu screen. That is all you require. Steam versions of the game will be properly patched up ... disk versions may require the official game patches to get up to version 1.2.0416. It is best to go through the tutorial dungeon before adding mods. The tutorial doesn't really stress your machine like the game world does. This way you will know the base game runs fine on your machine, and if you add mods one at a time you will also know where to start troubleshooting when you run into problems.

Mod conflicts (and discovering mod conflicts) is just a normal state of affairs when modding. He he ... it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the whole reason behind the exercise is to play the game (i.e. modding the game becomes the game we play). I use Trifle, but not in conjunction with any other music control type mod, and I have all other Trifle features turned off in the INI. I changed the distance before the battle music starts so I don't get that huge prewarning an enemy has me spotted, which in itself makes certain that Trifle has a permanent spot in the OBSE\Plugins folder. Sounds to me like you may just need to save all Tamriel or something (well at least until you find another mod to add to the mix).

Invariably the "time saved" by installing a bunch of mods and then starting the game is lost (and then some) by the time spent troubleshooting problems. Start with the vanilla game, go through the tutorial dungeon to just before the sewer exit and save (your character creation save). Exit the sewer and save again (your mod testing save). Then start adding mods one at a time and test in between. When you run into a problem it will be trivial to figure out where to start troubeshooting. - Edit - Try sorting your load order with BOSS and then build a bashed patch with Wrye Bash.

I'm not much of a texture guy myself. What little I have tried to do in the past was using PaintDotNET (a free program that is a few steps up from Microsoft Paint for what it can do). I think most texture artists tend to use either proffesional quality programs like Photoshop or the free equivalent GIMP. There is a whole section of these forums devoted to that: 2D Imaging. Like with anything else, if you run into a problem you can always post the details here and hope that somebody knows something to get you pointed in the right direction. I think it would be pretty difficult to permanently damage anything in the game with what you are wanting to do. I run the Construction Set (CS) on my own 2GB RAM machine without issues. Biggest thing will be if you want all Khajiits in the game to be black or just your character. The former could be done as a simple texture replacer (like my glass armor example) whereas for just your character you'd be getting into a custom race, which would require some CS work as well as texture development.

The reason I linked OBMM but not Wrye Bash is that in my opinion it will make a good starting point for you. Before you start adding mods take a look at your vanilla game's Data folder. You'll be surprized at how little there is in there with the vanilla game. That's because most of the game's resources like meshes, textures etc. are all hidden from view inside those BSA files you'll see (e.g. Oblivion - Meshes.bsa and Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa). Inside the BSA files (which are just compressed archives ... think ZIP files with a bit different compression and file extension)) the game has specific folder structure for it's vanilla assets. For example the iron cuirass will be found in meshes\armor\iron\m\cuirass.nif (for males) and meshes\armor\iron\f\cuirass.nif for females. Textures will follow a similar folder structure in the BSA, except that often male and female versions will use the same texture file (so textures\armor\iron\ironcuirass.dds for both male and female). Note that inside the compressed BSA files the file path omits the Data folder as all vanilla assets will be located in the Data folder. Mods for the most part use that same folder structure, except of course they are usually (though not always) installed as loose files and folders. Some mods will be distributed with a folder structure beginning at Data (e.g. Data\meshes\armor\JoesCoolArmor\cuirass.nif) and others will be distributed with a folder structure similar to the vanilla BSAs (meshes\armor\JoesCoolArmor\cuirass.nif). After you have installed a mod or two look at your Data folder and see the folder structure that OBMM has established. The key point is that to work the files and folders must be exactly right or the game will not find the new assets. There are two types of mods (in broad terms) ... replacer mods that simply replace vanilla assets (e.g. change the vanilla green glass armor to red) and those that add new content to the game. The second type requires an ESP file to instruct the game what assets to use and where they will be found in the game world (so in the above example the ESP may be named JoesCoolArmor.esp and the mod description tells you it will be found in a chest at the feet of some statue in the Market District). ESPs will always be installed in the Data folder. The replacers generally don't require an ESP ... all they will do is put the asset in the exact same folder path as the vanilla asset they are to replace (so Data\textures\armor\glass\cuirass.dds). To get the game to use the replacement asset instead of what it has in the BSA files requires something called "archive invalidation". OBMM has a simple way to implement archive invalidation ... just click on the Utilities button, make sure BSA Redirection is selected (the other methods are older and all have problems ... never follow any advice or mod install instructions that say to use BSA Alteration, the most common of the outmoded methods). Considering that you will be using the Steam version of the game click on Reset BSA Timestamps (Steam changed the dates on the vanilla game BSA files to recent and broke BSA Redirection ... changing the dates back to 2006 fixes it) and finally click on Update Now. BSA Redirection is a do once and forget about it solution (unless of course Steam does an update and changes your BSA dates again). On the subject of your CPU ... info like motherboard specs can be somewhat difficult to find out with machines coming from builders like HP or Dell. In general they don't want you upgrading ... much more profitable for them to sell you an entire new machine. They usually don't specify which components they use unless some marketing guy thinks he can use the info to push more sales. You will likely need to open your case and try to find the motherboard manufactures model stamp (often along one of the edges of the motherboard). Note that doing so will probably invalidate any warranty you have on the machine. Another alternative is try finding out using Google to search for your exact HP model ... even if a review site doesn't specify the motherboard they may make mention of what CPUs it will support. I like to find more than one site all saying the same thing before I'll take it as probable fact. Your machine may have even included a manual that either specifies the CPU compatibility specs or perhaps gives maufacturer info about the motherboard. Way way back when I bought my last prebuilt machine they did ... but dinosaurs had only been extinct for a few weeks back then I think. If it was me I'd see what your current machine does with the vanilla game and then some of the mods you'd like to try before committing too much to an upgrade. Run the game at the native resolution of your computer monitor and adjust the in-game video settings to achieve acceptable performance. See how you like that ... at the very least it will give you a personal baseline. - Edit - As far as I can recollect the game originally specified a 2GHz CPU or better, but that was back before CPUs were as "sophisticated" as today's CPUs. Today's CPUs have all kinds of tricks like multiple execution pipelines and prediction that try to make a slower CPU seem faster than it really is. Works well with software that was designed with those features in mind. Oblivion comes from an era where speed was King, and to make a truly fast CPU you make it as simple as you can and crank up the clock. That was the basis I used to say your CPU is marginal for the game ... a bit slow on clock speed and modern in terms of CPU architecture.