Striker879

Changed my ninja hat for my "share the wealth" hat I guess. Realized last night it wasn't my typical post on the subject, but I guess all was well (I did wake up once again this morning ... at least I think I'm awake, but in any case if not I'm living my usual dream).

Archive Invalidation: The vanilla game comes with almost all of it's assets (meshes, textures etc.) inside compressed archives and decompresses and uses them as needed. By default if it needs something to display on the screen it will grab the asset from the BSA files (e.g. the texture for the female fur cuirass is inside Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa). So when a mod wants to change the colour of that female fur cuirass to pale almost white it has to use an ESP to direct the game to make that simple change. Archive Invalidation was developed to give a method to get the game to use replacement assets without an ESP (the default game is limited to 255 ESPs) if the change is a simple replacement like the female fur cuirass example. There have been a few different methods tried over the years. The most recent, problem free and successful is BSA Redirection. Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM): Not the most recent manager, and certainly not as up to date as some others (Wrye Bash is Oblivion's premier manager/swiss army knife). One of the functions it has to offer (as well as Wrye Bash) is archive invalidation. Something that OBMM can take care of that WB can't is resetting the dates on the vanilla game BSA archives (Steam in all of their infinite wisdom changed the dates on all of the vanilla game BSA files, thus breaking archive invalidation for all of the users). OBMM works reasonably well as an Oblivion mod installer ... not as sophisticated as WB, but certainly better than Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) for Oblivion. Most mods that don't come packaged specifically for WB can be installed with OBMM, in fact many if not most older mods come packaged in an OBMM friendly format, often with a folder named "omod conversion data" that contains files that help OBMM install the mod. Some mods come in a compressed format that is unique and specific for OBMM ... files with the OMOD file extension are designed to be installed with OBMM and often include scripts that walk you through selecting the various options provided in the mod. Pretty well any mod that isn't specifically designed for WB installation can be converted to an OMOD and installed using OBMM. The best way to learn how is using OBMM Help menu, and then asking here about anything that is unclear.

Here's a little "pre-present" for you Blades. Considering you are a gate closing machine I'm certain you've also been collecting plenty of essentially useless sigil stones along with the few the game let you have that are actually useful. Not any longer ... Sigil Stone Selector. Use the one for the vanilla game (SigilStoneSelector.esp), the other ones are for people who use other sigil stone mods and/or overhauls, pretty sure your not in that group ... yet.

I'm with Drake on this ... file date is all the game cares about, with one caveat. With replacer mods (mods that change something in the vanilla game but don't use an ESP file to achieve their change) install order is King. There can only be one female fur cuirass in the game without an ESP.

Downloaded last night ... will try to get it installed and tested over the next couple of days (why does stuff always come in bunches??).

Note that you need to be level 10 to start Nocturnal's Daedric quest (Blades ... don't click the link if you don't want to see a complete walkthrough of the quest ... click this one for just a map to get you pointed in the right direction). Once you have the Skeleton Key in your inventory you won't be able to level up your Security skill if it is currently at 60 or greater (you can however leave it in a non-respawning container and then you'll be able to level Security ... just be certain it's a non-respawning container or you'll lose it). - Edit - :ninja: ... up one on you again Ike!!

And why do you think I reconsidered and asked for the mask that Barney so willingly traded for gold? If captured I'd rather the opportunity to "enjoy" my captors (as well as keeping the herd healthy). I thought it may be best to take that particular mask out of "circulation". - Edit - To truly appreciate the "art of collection" one needs to employ this skeleton, and all the trimmings of course.

Excellent!! Don't forget to check in now and then to let us know you're doing well and livin' in Tamriel. And do let me know when you've saved the world ... I haven't forgotten that I promised a little something as a reward.

OK ... sounds like maybe you're OK. After you load the fixed save the game will go back to the regular save names (so for my guy after fixing "Save 1159 - Athal Sarano - Shetcombe Farm, Level 13, Playing Time 296.14.01.ess" and then loading "OAF_Save 1159 - Athal Sarano - Shetcombe Farm, Level 13, Playing Time 296.14.01.ess" his next save would be named "Save 1160 - Athal Sarano - Shetcombe Farm, Level 13, Playing Time 296.14.01.ess"). Notice my guy's playing time (296 hours). I've fixed that save line twice, though neither time did I let it get so bad I had any stuck animations. If you look at the Legion rider's torch flames you can tell it's getting close to time to fix again ... the flames start getting lazy little flame bits following along behind. That's the signal ... fix time again.

Somethings isn't fitting together for me ... you're certain the file you opened and then clicked on the FixMe button was an ESS file, not an OBSE file (though when I just tested loading an OBSE file the FixMe button wouldn't enable). The other thing is you don't click on the Save button that is right below the Open button ... you click on the FixMe button in the lower left corner. - Edit - Something else occurs to me ... was the save you fixed named Quicksave.ess or Autosave.ess ??

Hmm ... doesn't sound right. Do a test for me. Start OAF and open a save (make sure you're opening the one with ESS at the end, not the one with OBSE at the end. The file name of the save you loaded will appear in the box to the right of the Open button. In the box right below that (beside the Save button) single left click to move your cursor there. Now using the keyboard arrow keys move through the file name until you can see the actual file name part and not all the folder path leading up to it. Does it say OAF_ and then the name of the save?

You wear Aviance skin cream ... but not today.

I'd like to add to what Ike says that sometimes your can just load the fixed save without renaming the co-save and everything will be OK, but that's not guaranteed. If you where hold a sword at the moment you saved that required OBSE for some special effect you'd load your save and just crash unless you renamed the co-save. That's why I always advise renaming the co-save to match the fixed save ... do that and no problems will arise.

Yup you've got it on using OAF. The renaming thing is simple once you have it figured out. If you look in Windows Explorer in your Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves folder you will see two files with the same first part of the name and only the extension part is different. Your save file names will be different than my example names ... my current character's most recent save is "Save 1159 - Athal Sarano - Shetcombe Farm, Level 13, Playing Time 296.14.01.ess" and it has an OBSE co-save named "Save 1159 - Athal Sarano - Shetcombe Farm, Level 13, Playing Time 296.14.01.obse". When OAF fixes a save it adds "OAF_" to the start of the fixed save's file name so you know it's the one that's been fixed. Because the file name is now different than the OBSE co-save the game + OBSE won't find it when you load your fixed save. That's why you need to rename a copy of your co-save to match the OAF fixed save. You don't really need to rename a copy of the co-save ... I'm just a real conservative type. You could just right mouse click on the co-save and select Rename from the right click menu and then single left click at the front of the now highlighted name. The highlight will be gone and you'll see you are now in edit mode for the file name. If the cursor isn't at the very front of the file name just use your keyboard arrow keys to move it all the way to the left. Once it's at the start of the file name just type OAF_ (must be capital letters) and then hit Enter. That's it ... you're done.

First remind me ... are you using Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE)? If the answer is yes then what happens automatically every time you save is two saves are actually made ... one by the game (MySave07.ess in my example) and one by OBSE (the MySave07.obse in my example). When you run Oblivion Animation Fixer (OAF) it only works on and fixes the ESS save, but it appends OAF_ to the original file name, thus MySave07.ess fixed is named OAF_MySave07.ess (but OAF doesn't touch the OBSE co-save). If you don't rename the co-save to match sometimes when you load the fixed save it will work alright, sometimes not (depending on if your character was somewhere or had something equipped that requires OBSE at the time of the save). To be safe it's best to rename a copy of the co-save so that it matches the fixed save's name (thus MySave07.obse becomes OAF_MySave07.obse to match up with the fixed save's file name). OAF itself can be installed anywhere, even on a different drive. I have multiple hard drives on my machine ... G drive is where my games are installed, C drive is of course for the operating system (and is where my save games are), but I have OAF installed on my H drive (which is my big storage drive used for downloads etc). Just extract the downloaded ZIP OAF_v1_2-5127.zip to where ever you downloaded to (mines in a folder I created on H drive specifically for game patches ... for whatever reason when I first ran into the A-Bomb years ago I considered OAF a game patch, though that's not really what it is). It will extract and create a folder named OAF_v1_2 and inside will be a file named OAF.exe and a text file (OAF_v1_2.txt). Double click OAF.exe and click the Open button. Navigate to where your save files are (probably Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion) and make sure you are selecting the latest ESS save (so MySave07.ess in my example, not MySave07.obse). Click on the FixMe button and close OAF. Last thing is the co-save renaming and you're done until next time. - Edit - I'm with Ike on the quicksave thing ... forget it even exists. If you've been using it you'll see it has an OBSE co-save as well (providing you are using OBSE that is). Something else about saving ... don't overwrite saves, always save in a new slot. For one, if/when you run into the inevitable problem that makes a save unusable you will have a fall back position (keep going back in your saves until you find the newest one that doesn't have the problem), plus I did read something about overwriting contributing to the save game corruption problem (quicksave and autosave always overwrite). When your Saves folder starts getting a lot of saves either delete or backup the older ones (I have a Save_Backup folder on that big Data drive).

LOL ... a medley of meddling. Darn near symphonic!!

You could be running into the A-Bomb bug (stuck animation bug). Give OAF - Oblivion Animation Fixer a try. A couple of things to note about OAF ... first, the fix isn't permanent, so you'll need to rerun OAF periodically. I find the Legion rider torches are a good indicator. When you first start to see them trailing some lazy flame fragments it's time to rerun OAF. Second, if you use Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) you will need to rename a copy of the OBSE co-save to match the fixed OAF save. When you run OAF on a save (let's say one named MySave07.ess) it creates a fixed save named OAF_MySave07.ess (using my example save). After you start using OBSE it always creates an OBSE co-save each time you save ... for MySave07.ess there will be a corresponding MySave07.obse. What you need to do is rename a copy of MySave07.obse to OAF_MySave07.obse to match the OAF fixed save. It's more complicated to explain than it is to do.

Did you update the base non-SI game to version 1.2.0416 before installing SI? I don't know how the Steam version of the game handles this, but with the disk version if you use the official patch to update the game to version 1.2.0416 before you install SI you need to completely uninstall before you can install SI.

You could also be running into a mod de-isolation issue (which in a nutshell is you can't use an ESP as another ESP's master ... i.e. using Oblivion Sexualized Monsters to create your own female only version will not work unless you edit the ESP from Sexualized Monsters). Trying to create your own ESP with it as a master won't work without using the only two workarounds I know of ... Wrye Bash to temporarily ESM-ify the Oblivion Sexualized Monsters ESP or using Construction Set Extender.

Look in Wrye Bash's Wrye Bash Advanced Readme.html in the Advanced Bash Patch section.

At it's simplest, it's a mod manager, but a better description would be it's a swiss army knife for Oblivion. You can use it to install mods, manage different save profiles (each with their own mod load list), import/export character faces and more. It's greatest and most unique ability is it's "bashed patch" ... a compatibility patch created to allow conflicting mods to co-exist. There are quite a few Oblivion mods that won't work without a bashed patch. Used to be it had a pretty steep learning curve just to get it installed and working. Fortunately the latest versions are no longer like that. Install the standalone executable version and refer to the two HTML documents (Wrye Bash General Readme.html and Wrye Bash Advanced Readme.html, both found in the Mopy\Docs folder). Here's it's mod page: Wrye Bash.

Concerning your "where" query on Blade's thread I tend to the school of thought that the more remote locations are more lore friendly than "this weird thing just suddenly appeared right next to the IC" where nobody has to go look for it camp. Being underwater makes your options a bit more liberal though (plus easier to avoid conflicts). With Leyawiin being closer to Black Marsh and the traditional haunts of the Argonians (who would have easily run into Abysmer as they too are semi-aquatic) my vote goes for the sunny shores of the Gold Coast, maybe offshore of the mouth of the Brena River, NW of Garlas Malatar.

Are you using the Steam version now or a disk version? I think with Steam you need to buy the full meal deal GotY Deluxe to get everything. As far as I know there isn't any other way to get the expansions/DLCs ... hot flash ... I just recently bought the Morrowind GotY through Amazon ... guess what they also have Oblivion GotY for PC.

Oh ... have you saved the world too Ike?? Can't tell you if you haven't saved the world. Check your downloaders history on the HGEC patch ... been there, done that. I'm assuming that we're still waiting for the big updated version though, right ... you know the one where I had to give blood to be considered worthy and all that good stuff.

Vilja has a menu to select her combat options (I like to have her to just give me backup ... if you're getting your butt handed to you she'll jump in before you get too low on health with a "You leave my friend alone" and lay a beating on whoever you were fighting and losing). Once she progresses a bit in her own skills she will also optionally heal you. Being able to have that kind of control over when she fights and heals you gives your character the opportunity to develop his/her own skills. You can also cast a spell on a target and tell Vija to attack that target, handy when you have more than one foe to tackle at the same time and independent of her other combat orders. Don't think you'll find any other partners with those kinds of options, certainly not CMs (the CMs fall into the category of "act stupidly in battle" and are always in the way if you don't want to just sit back and watch). Can't say for certain how it works with vanilla (I think you just get so much per your own hit), but generally with the various leveling/XP type mods I think you get credit for your own kills, not theirs. I don't use any of the leveling/XP mods and prefer to do my own killing (I would often leave Vilja standing guard over the packdonkeys, though they don't actually need guarding).