Striker879

Rule number one ... play the game vanilla to the end of the sewers tutorial. Make a save just before exiting the sewer (you can use this for creating a new character without redoing the entire tutorial each time). Exit the sewer and make another save (you can use this save for continuing the game after you finish installing at least your base mods). Go to the Market District of the Imperial City during the daylight hours and get a feel for how your hardware handles the base unmodded game. This will be valuable when you start adding mods and you suddenly notice a change in your game's performance. Make a save close to or in the IC to use as a mod testing save. Rule number two ... never overwrite saves. Always save in a new slot using the save from the Esc menu or console save command. Never use quicksave (it's a known corrupter of saves) and always exit the game to the desktop and then reload (you start out with a fresh computer memory as the game completely reloads, from the reload menu it only loads what it has to and carries over some memory contents). Rule number three ... install one mod at a time and test thoroughly before adding another mod. When you break something it's a trivial matter to figure out where to start troubleshooting. If a mod has requirements install those beforehand and if possible test between steps. Read the install instructions in a mod's description and/or readme. If it doesn't say "Using Nexus Mod Manager ... " then don't even think about using NMM. It may work great with newer games but other than some recent mods designed with it in mind it's a minefield for installing Oblivion mods. Read the recent comments for a mod before downloading. If it's got lots of complaints and you don't understand the problem and/or solutions offered you'd be better to wait until you have more experience and know what you're doing. JoesReallyReallyCoolUberMod won't be really cool to you if all it brings is frustration. Rule number four ... start small and build your skill set. Yes you want a super over the top modded to the Nth degree game and you want it now, but modding isn't something we are born knowing how to do instinctively. If you parkour jump before you know how to crawl it will do nothing except leave a mess on the sidewalk. Don't believe me ... read through mod comments and these forum for a while and you'll see the picture come into focus. OK, if I haven't discouraged you here's my suggestions: Maskars Oblivion Overhaul - Recent, completely customizeable using the included INI and if you look through the recent mod comments you'll see that crafting is coming very soon. Take the time to download and study the manual. Realistic Fatigue plus Basic Physical Activities - The changes these two make have completely changed how I play the game. No more carting an entire dungeon's worth of loot all the way to town chugging feather potions along the way. They are both also customizeable using their INIs. Packdonkeys ver 2 goes well with the combo. Basic Primary Needs - Compliments RF and BPA very well. When you are tired, thirsty and hungry you know it (also configurable using the INI). Enhanced Economy - Maybe a bit hardcore, but makes staying alive a job when coupled with BPN ... finding enough food, drink and beds to sleep in, all while getting a fraction of the gold for your loot. No more 1 million gold before you hit level 15. Stolen Item Ownership helps take some of the sting out of EE's changes (if you are not seen you can do a bit of "grocery shopping" for instance). HUD Status Bars - Makes staying on top of your hunger, thirst, tiredness and encumbrance a breeze. Oblivion Character Overhaul v2 - The current state of the art for character's faces. Couple it with the appropriate selections from the Seamless series (current state of the art for bodies and clothes/armor) ... the Seamless Equipment mod description has links to the rest of the series. You'll need to look elsewhere for advice on the many and various beautification of Tamriel type mods. The current state of the art for how the game displays whatever you choose is Oblivion reloaded OBGE v4 and it has benefits that go far beyond how the game looks (read the readme). The Unofficial Oblivion Patch is indispensable for fixing those problems that Bethesda has never addressed. If you also have the DLCs use the unofficial patches for those too. Don't for an instant think you are going to install all of these today and be playing. Some are not simple mods to install and configure. Some work best with a bashed patch (a feature of Wrye Bash that allows conflicting mods to work together). Start with those that are simple to install and configure. Read the install instructions for each mod and start with those that you understand. Took me weeks to get my current install's base game mods installed, and I had a few years of experience manually installing mods under my belt (in part perhaps because some of my "test sessions" lasted for long enough to qualify as "gaming sessions"). Modding is like taking a trip ... enjoy the scenery along the way

Probably a missing master crash, often resolved by sorting your load order with BOSS. If this is happening but you haven't installed any mods we will need far more detailed info ... your machine specs, where you have the game installed, what version of the game (Steam or disk) etc. That's as far as my crystal ball allows me to see.

Do you also have the other requirements for CSE (i.e. Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redist (x86), DirectX 9.0c Runtime and .NET Framework 4.0+)?

Ya I'm using Enhanced Economy too. Tweaked the INI so that at least there is a chance you'll find the item before the last dungeon ... and all that for such a measly bit of gold. It does get me to go into dungeons I guess, but mostly I do it to get that tiny disposition perk (and I do like everything else that EE does). Good that you've found a way to make it a "Here, why don't you use this sword Umbra" type situation.

An alternative for the complicated sword thing would be for Umbra to ask the player for a particular sword (let's say a fine iron longsword or maybe a fine steel longsword) and it's up to the player to find one for her. I hear you concerning the email address ... the one I PMed you isn't my primary but the one I use for more "one off" situations.

Do you have a lot of saves in your saves folder? If so try moving all but your most recent to a backup folder, outside of the game's save folder (I have a separate drive I archive to ... also where I download and extract mods).

I could be way off the mark, but I wonder if you are experiencing the A-Bomb bug (stuck animation). I see you use Wrye Bash. On the right click menu for the Saves tab near the bottom you'll see Repair ABomb. Run that and see if it helps (ignore it when it claims that you don't need to run the fix yet ... it makes a backup of the fixed save anyway and fixing doesn't hurt anything).

Could be a load order issue. Sort your load order with BOSS and see if it helps.

A word of advice on installing the mods ... don't forget to test every now and then throughout the install process, even if they're all mods you've used before. If something goes awry it's a lot easier to troubleshoot the fewer you added in one big whack.

If a mod is able to be merged and disabled I believe you can also ghost the ESP with Wrye to save another ESP slot (and I believe even BSAs count into the count). I've seen reported that the highest number possible with merge and disable plus ghosting as 400 (but I've only just reached half way on 255, so obviously I have no hands on with that limit).

Your choice on the author thing, but stuff like that isn't even on my radar by default. Only time I pay any attention to credits is when I'm looking to see if someone has permission for what they're releasing. I can't think of anything you've missed looking at your done/undone list. I'll PM you an email address if you just want to email the ESP and INI as an attachment.

Isn't the Anthology version a disk that needs to be activated using Steam after installation? I never have heard whether or not it uses the Steam method of starting the game + OBSE after installation and activation or the disk version. Are you also using Windows 8.1?

The advantage of having beta testers is exposing the mod to different load orders and machine specs before release. I agree that smaller simpler mods benefit less from beta testing than larger ones. I've beta tested a few mods, ranging from companions to houses to a large mod that was a recent file of the month. One of the problems you face when testing is you know "how it's supposed to go" so you're less likely to even think of the "what if I do it this way" scenarios. One of the things I try to do when beta testing is break things by doing the unexpected. If the beta testing corp is small then the beta can be distributed via email attachment (providing the mod is also reasonably small). The big mod was hosted on that author's site and distributed via a private download link (the mod was large and the beta testing corp was about a dozen people). Another option is as you've suggested, release on here and then fix any bugs as reported.

Have a look at Realistic Fatigue and Basic Physical Activities. When you use both together you will walk or run slower as you lose fatigue (after you get down below a certain threshold) and if your fatigue drops too low your character will collapse. Better yet it also affects NPCs (so fatigue spells can be a useful fighting strategy). Both mods come with an INI file so you can adjust settings to your preference.

The Steam version has a different file that needs to be installed than the disk version (obse_loader.exe for the disk version is replaced by obse_steam_loader.dll for the Steam version, of course along with obse_1_2_416.dll and obse_editor_1_2.dll). I'm not a Steam user myself but I have seen reports that the requirement to "Enable Steam Community In-Game" (aka "enable Steam overlay" in later version of Steam I think) is no longer required (reported by Alenet in the Oblivion Reloaded mod comments) . If you are still trying to launch the game with your old desktop shortcut that points to obse_loader.exe it won't work. Just start the game using the normal Steam method (i.e. pre-OBSE). Windows 8.1 + Steam + OBSE seems to be the most problematic combination.

If it's an older mod designed to be installed with Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) then chances are it will either be distributed as an OMOD file which requires OBMM or the mod includes a folder name "omod conversion" which will cause Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) to choke and die. In general NMM is a poor choice for modding Oblivion unless you are an expert manual installer and know how to repackage the older mods in a manner which NMM can understand.

Have you done anything in the past that would alter the vanilla game BSA files (i.e. Oblivion - Meshes.bsa)? The one possibility that comes to mind is an old outdated and not recommended method of archive invalidation called BSA Alteration.

I don't use it myself, but it is fairly popular. From the mod description I'd say what you want to do and what it does do have some differences though (your's being more spell centric being the biggest). Maybe you could use methods similar to the Bag o mod and just have the spell casting animation as fluff, sort of a smoke and mirrors kind of thing where the spell itself isn't actually doing anything and your script does all the heavy lifting.

Yes it would make sense to have a rough draft of dialogue initially. I've found in my own simple mods that often NPCs will do things differently on different run throughs, especially if you reload from the desktop to get a fresh game load (I'm just working with AI packages and generally Variety is the God I serve so that's what I'm trying to achieve ... scripted stuff could be different). After two or three playthroughs the dialogue could be tweaked where needed. I have saves from back before my guy befriended Umbra. I'm a packrat, so actually I have all of my guy's saves archived. They come in handy for beta testing!

Sounds like it has some ideas in common with Bag of Holding. Maybe you could get some pointers from looking at how it does it's stuff.

If you want you can PM anything you want me to look at, and if you find yourself stuck for ideas you know at one person who's willing to toss some around.

So are you saying you're my smarter twin? LOL Is the "ugh" about implementing the dialogue or is it about creating the actual text of the dialogue (i.e. what is actually said)? If it's the later and you want some help I can see what I can do.

If you are already using BSA Redirection and the original version of the skeleton.nif works then I'm afraid I can't be of any help (I know very little about Blender and not much more about NifSkope).

What form of archive invalidation are you using?

If I could conjure anything beyond the most basic scripts perhaps I would keep the ideas that seethe so close to the surface of my brain closer to my chest, but I'm a realist and I know that those ideas would just sit there bubbling and doing nothing without a skill set beyond my own. I recall reading a quote that went something like "The ability to execute is the only thing that has value ... ideas are a dime a dozen". If I can contribute an idea someone like you can give it value. There is a wayshrine to Dibella not far from Vindasel, but I think Umbra would be reluctant to walk past her old prison, at least without a supporter along. She could go to the wayshrine to Tiber Septim past the Inn of Ill Omen or the wayshrine to Zenithar right close to the Faregyl Inn. I could make a case for any of those wayshrine's blessing being something that Umbra/Lenwin would desire, luck at Zenithar, strength at Tiber Septim and personality at Dibella. What about a percent chance of either Zenithar or Tiber Septim say once a month and if she's with the player and going past the Dibella wayshrine near Vindasel she stops for the blessing? I personally like the infamy less than 10 idea but it would limit your target audience for the mod. People who have Knights of the Nine have a way to clear infamy but those without the KotN DLC have no way to reduce their infamy. Perhaps a fame greater than infamy by 10 would be a more universal method. That allows people to still do the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild quests without excluding themselves from your mod (at least the Umbra as a follower aspect). It would mean they'd need to be a "good guy" as well as a bad guy however (and I'm certain there will be some who abhor that notion).