Striker879

Have you seen the Wrye Bash Pictorial Guide (about the best learning tool I know of).

The issues with having the game installed in C:\Program Files (x86) are the things that UAC does behind your back ... relocating files but still showing them as though they were in their original folder, silently blocking changes, things like that. They're meant for protecting your machine from malware etc. but can effectively muck things up for the game as well. There seems to be mixed responses from different users on how much UAC interferes (some people say they aren't bothered by it at all for instance). The problem UAC presents troubleshooters is trying to figure our what may be UAC caused problems and what are not UAC related. The simple solution is install the game (and Steam if you use the Steam version of the game) in C:\Games ... no UAC interference, so any problems that present themselves are mod and/or install related. I'm not one for reinventing the wheel so I'll point you to two wiki articles that bben46 posted ... Oblivion reinstall procedure and Revert to vanilla data. The re-install procedure probably will have more relevance but use the revert to vanilla to make sure you've a good idea of what is included in a "base" game install vs what you have after adding mods. You will want to follow the part near the beginning (just after the heading Uninstall) where bben46 outlines backing up your Data folder for use after uninstalling. In your case you won't be uninstalling, but the same will apply to moving your XP install's Data folder to the new install. Also make sure you keep a copy of your old XP install's Oblivion.ini (found in Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion) which you can use to reapply any ini tweaks you want to preserve. Don't try to use the old ini on the new install ... start the new install and allow Oblivion to create a new Oblivion.ini tailored for the new machine and then use the old ini as a guide for editing the new Oblivion.ini. You should be able to install the game to C:\Games on the new machine and then use the linked procedures to transfer your Data folder and saves from the XP machine.

I generally give him some enchanted zero weight rings and amulet so I don't have to stand there healing him constantly (NPCs are strategically challenged as fighters).

Yup ... I'd suggest making them two spells, first with weakness to shock for a shorter time than the weakness to magicka to reduce casting cost and make sure the weakness to magicka is at the bottom of the list. The second spell would be your shock damage. Look at the magicka costs of your custom shock damage vs the vanilla shock damage spells as often you can get a cheaper vanilla spell. I'd also look at making your weakness spell just weakness to magicka for the same reason (cheaper casting cost). Having the weakness to magicka also makes it more versatile (you can combine it with any other spell without wasting the magicka cost of weakness to shock) ... or have one with just weakness to magicka and one with both weaknesses.

Something to consider is how much magicka cost your character can "afford". The reason is how the spell effects are applied by the game, especially when they are all included in a single spell cast. For example if you have a spell 25 pts fire damage, 50% weakness to fire for 5 seconds and 50% weakness to magicka for 5 seconds, on your first hit with the spell only the 25 pts fire damage will have an immediate effect on the target (in other words the two weakness effects won't alter the initial fire damage). If you hit the target with a second cast before the 5 seconds is up then the second fire damage will be increased by the two weakness effects from the first cast and the second cast's weakness effects will be added to the first (so weakness will be now up to 100% until the first timer times out). If your character's magicka can't support two casts within 5 seconds you'd be better served by just casting fire damage at lower magicka cost. As The_Vyper points out, the weakness effects need to be at the bottom of the list of spell effects (I always make sure weakness to magicka is the lowest on the list). I've tried different combinations using various damage amounts, and percent weakness amounts and durations on my various dark elf characters, who usually don't play as pure mage (95% spell effectiveness). I have a bunch of custom spells for my current level 22 guy, some chaining fortify magicka to make them continuous castable when starting out with full magicka, but I usually wind up getting the most mileage out of two simple spells. First is weakness to magicka 100% in 20 feet for 20 seconds on target (could be shorter duration for lower magicka cost and/or smaller radius). I hit the target with two or three casts of that while they're at a distance and then closing (which is why the 20 foot radius ... makes it easier to get hits while backpedaling). Then I switch to either a standard fire damage spell or better yet my favourite ... a custom absorb health 25 pts for 2 seconds plus damage health 25 pts for 4 seconds on touch. Even ogres will get knocked back and fall to the ground, sometimes dying just as they get back up.

The baseID for Martins Dagger of Sparks is 2b564 but I don't think removing it in favour of his silver Longsword of Frost will make much difference ... turns out they're both damage 5 enchantments.

I'd lean towards mod conflict ... you've got almost all of the UOP Martin's equipment fix, but not quite all of it. If you have the UOP in it's recommended spot in your load order near the top then whatever changes it makes can be overwritten by any mods loading lower in your load list. He's got his armor but not his sword. The baseID for his sword is b0705. Something else that would support my guess that it's a mod conflict would be whether or not his armor is playable ... it shouldn't be, and if it is then it's refID will help you track down the culprit.

The ini file that the game uses when you start the game is Oblivion.ini and it will be found in Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion. The ini file that OBMM is looking for is Oblivion_default.ini and that file will be found in your game install's Oblivion folder (in your case C:\Prgram Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Oblivion\Oblivion_default.ini). They are not the same thing ...Oblivion_default.ini is the file that the game uses as a base when it first runs and builds Oblivion.ini according to the hardware it finds on your machine. Check your C:\Prgram Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Oblivion folder for Oblivion_default.ini.

Use Oblivion Mod Manager, either to install the mod or use it to extract the mod to a temporary folder. If you are an experienced modder you can look over the folder structure and the OMOD install scripts and figure out what the various options the mod offers and select from those to create your own personalized install. Once you get to that point your can either copy and paste to install or do whatever you need to do to get NMM to understand it to install. By and large Nexus Mod Manager is a poor choice for installing Oblivion mods in general, and it's certainly never going to be able to handle OMODs.

Mods that only replace the vanilla meshes or textures don't need an ESP file, as long as they use the exact same folder structure and .nif or .dds name as the vanilla object they are replacing. Those types of mods do need archive invalidation so that the game will use the replacement assets. HGEC Body with BBB v1dot12 is easily installed using Oblivion Mod Manager. Click on the top listed file in the downloads list and when prompted for where to download it to select your Oblivion\obmm\mods folder (if the mods folder doesn't already exist create it in the Oblivion\obmm folder from the save dialogue). When you open OBMM you'll then see it listed in the right hand pane with a green box beside it. Click on it and then the Activate button down at the bottom of the OBMM window. It will bring up the installation script to walk you through the various options. I suggest you select the "no animations" option and then install NoMaaM BBB Animation Replacer.

The easiest way is using the mod list shown on the left panel of Oblivion Mod Manager (though it's not always 100% accurate if you also manual install mods). When you hover your mouse cursor over each one a tooltip will show the hexadecimal load order number. As far as I know the order from top to bottom shown in OBMM will be accurate even if you also manually install mods, but the tooltip number won't be accurate (OBMM won't show the load order number for manually installed mods). The best way is using Wrye Bash.

But you won't need to hold your breath after you finish helping him (I needed the reward before helping him the last time I gave him a hand ... did it when that character was level 2 or 3 and I think that character lost a leg to the darned fish). The only question I have concerning your mod list is did you run into issues using Natural Faces along with OCOv2 (install order and load order would be important there I'd think)?

A mod list would help (perhaps you have one of the "problem child" mods installed). Crashes can also start happening because of certain events, either added by a mod or even the vanilla game's quests (e.g. my latest playthrough was crashing at the point my Imperial Dragon Armor was ready for me to pick up). Often those types of problems can be solved by moving your character out of the active part of the game world and waiting three days to allow the cells to reset. To do so you open the console using the tilde (~) key found right below the Esc key on standard keyboards. At the console prompt type "coc center" (without the quote marks) and then hit Enter. You'll be transported to an open plain with some trees in the distance and a bunch of logs at your feet. Using the game Wait menu (default the t key) wait 72 hours plus a bit more for good measure (three full days and a bit). Then open the console and "coc weye" (again no quotes, you could substitute another location in Cyrodiil if you know the correct location name). You'll be transported to inside the fisherman's shack at Weye (don't worry about trespassing, he won't mind). See if that helps.

Are you trying to put a different texture on the sphere than it uses in it's original mod? If a mod's resources are in BSA files you can still use OBMM's BSA Browser the same way.

I use Oblivion Mod Manager's BSA Browser to extract meshes and textures I want to use from the vanilla game BSA files.

If you browse through the OCOv2 mod comments you'll see that it's a known issue, not just with OCOv2 but with Oblivion in general. Many talented people have tried, but none has succeeded in eliminating the problem. Best thing you can do for your own character is not touch (or maybe even think about touching) the tone slider. Ike recommends just using the age and geometry sliders. I know that when I edit NPCs faces tiny adjustments on either age or geometry can have big effects on the neckseam problem. Also note that the lighting in character generation isn't the same as once you exit the sewers, making it difficult to get that perfect face. Use a save from just prior to exiting the sewers, make small adjustments, exit and see how you did. Rinse and repeat until you're either satisfied or fed up. The other alternative is to develop something Ike and I are quite good at ... selective vision. We only see the neckseam when we want to see the neckseam.

Hmm ... I wonder if that item is generated after the game detects your hardware. I was going by what I saw in my own Oblivion.ini and what is reported in the Oblivion Tweak Guide (here on page 9 down in the Multithreading Tweaks section of "Update 2"). There is no entry for iNumHavokThreads in Oblivion_default.ini which is what has me thinking it's generated based on hardware (my own is Core2 Duo E6850).

I see the default value for iNumHavokThreads is 5 ... does restoring it to that value help?

We all started knowing squat (well I guess I should only speak for myself). The only dumb question is the one you don't ask. Everything I know about modding the game comes from reading posts in these forums and in the mod comments. It does rarely happen, but by and large there haven't been any "new" questions in a long time and most have been answered many many times. Search will often give you a list as long as your arm.

What form of archive invalidation are you using (BSA Redirection is the recommended method)?

There are settings that determine how far away from the player things (including NPCs) are visible. You don't have those sliders to the far left do you?

Do you have "Install Blockhead" across the faces? If not it means you have OBSE and Blockhead installed correctly. The other thing that should show if OCOv2 is working is the new Orc faces (though if you have any previous experience with Oblivion you should be able to see a difference in all faces).

Are you using a skeleton.nif replacer? If so, do you have a skeletonbeast.nif in your Oblivion\Data\meshes\characters\_male folder?

Well to fully highjack the thread, do you use my trick of unequipping and then re-equipping your bow to get around the sneak cursor/Blockhead problem? I feel like I cheated if I don't headshot deer. It is nice to make that final kill shot a headshot on NPCs too (between the eyes when possible ... you can tell I'm trying to level up my guy's marksman for a while now). @ particlepants, let us know how things are working out.

Your post leads me to think you've already been through the Notes and Bugs section of the UESP walkthrough for the Arena questline. The flag that waves hardest for me is that you are still stuck a Pit Dog (confirmed by the 50 gold). Some mods that alter the vanilla game leveling system also require special procedures before you uninstall them. Were you using one of those (e.g. Oblivion XP Update)?