Striker879

Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) adds extra script functions to the Oblivion scripting environment. Many (but not all) of newer mods use it's scripts to do things not possible (or not easily possible) without the extra OBSE script functions. OBSE has different installation instructions depending on whether you are using the Steam version of the game or the disk version. OBSE will not work with any other versions of the game (example Direct2Drive or Impulse/GameStop versions). Wrye Bash is kind of like a 'Swiss Army Knife' for Oblivion. It is a collection of utilities packaged in a common interface. It will do many things. The most commonly used/needed things are intelligently install/remove mods (it's BAIN installer) and manage conflicting mods so they'll work together (it's 'bashed patch'). Have a look through Wrye Bash Pictorial Guide to get started on Wrye Bash.

Correct, but only up to 95% when your armor skill in any armor you're wearing is above 50% for all types of armor worn. If you wear all heavy armor (head to toe and all your fingers) then if your heavy armor skill is 51% and your light armor skill is 40% your spell effectiveness will be 95%. Put on a single piece of light armor in that example (a pair of leather gloves) and your spell effectiveness will drop (probably to about 90% with the skills above). If your skill in both heavy and light armor are 51% or more your can wear whatever you desire and still maintain 95% spell effectiveness. The reason that time is effected for bound armor is because the only other alternative would be to reduce the armor rating of the bound armor. Bethesda chose to reduce the time of the spell instead. An elemental damage or health restore spell is reduced in effectiveness by reducing the damage done or healing done ( 50 points fire damage would become 47.5 points at 95% spell effectiveness ... same for 50 points healing). Even if those spell are x points over so many seconds the reduction is in points of damage/healing instead of time (time is typically a shorter amount in those spells so instead of 10 points fire damage for 1.9 seconds you get 9.5 points for 2 seconds ... which is why your restore health lasted longer than your bound spell). - Edit - Correction ... according to the UESP wiki article about spell effectiveness (found here, look at the Tips section at the bottom of the page) there are no fractional values for either spell magnitude or time. Both are rounded down.

No problem. Did it include a first person skeleton or did you need to use the trick? - Edit - Downloaded it to check it out ... I see now that it is only the first person skeleton.

Have you tried the BBB DeadlyReflex6UnnecessaryViolenceII CompatibilitySkeleton? Not sure if it includes a first person skeleton or not (if not try copying the skeleton.nif from the meshes\characters\_male folder to meshes\characters\_1stperson folder (after backing up the skeleton.nif that is currently in your meshes\characters\_1stperson folder of course)

Are you or have you ever in the past used Deadly Reflex/Unnecessary Violence?

You would be best served by starting your own thread, describing in detail the problem (i.e. exactly when the game crashes), version of the game and where you have the game installed (e.g GotY disk version patched to 1.2.0416 installed in C:\Games\Oblivion) and a complete list of all mods installed along with whether or not you have Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) installed and what if any OBSE plugins you are using.

Unless you are content to wear only clothing that has zero armor rating you will have a penalty to your spell effectiveness. That penalty will go down as your proficiency in your armor type goes up (max effectiveness while wearing even one piece of armor 95%). You can achieve 85 armor rating (the maximum in the vanilla game) by enchanting clothing with either shield or elemental shield effects. For example blacksmith's pant enchanted with a transcendent shock shield sigil stone plus a dark shirt enchanted with a transcendent frost shield sigil stone and doeskin shoes enchanted with a transcendent fire shield sigil stone combined with a black hood enchanted with a shield transcendent sigil stone gives 85 armor rating plus 25% shield on each of the three elemental damages (and you haven't even touched the two ring slots yet). The bonus ... your tank of a mage has 100% spell effectiveness and never needs to repair armor while enjoying just as much protection as that paladin clanking around in all that heavy armor who can get max 95% spell effectiveness. All vanilla, not one 'god item' cheat used.

Something has your spell effectiveness at 87.5%. Try casting your custom spell completely nude (no rings, no head covering, no shoes ... nude). If you still aren't getting your 120 seconds you have something 'stuck' on your character reducing your spell effectiveness (there are plenty of glitches due to things being removed by events like the Mythic Dawn initiation). - Edit - More info ... Exploitable Glitches

Cool, thanks for the link.

Could be ... as far as I know the game creates that folder. I know I never had to do anything other than edit it. Unless someone else chirps in with an idea you could try Bben46's Oblivion reinstall procedure. It has instructions for backing up your Data and Saves. Maybe a fresh install is in order. - Edit - At least you know where in the woods you are ... now just a matter of walking out.

I imagine where talveren was headed with this is what is your spell effectiveness? Put ordinary vanilla clothes on and see how your spells work.

OK ... you can delete the new Oblivion.ini and rename Oblivionini.old back to Oblivion.ini or just save the renamed Oblivionini.old in case you need to refer to it to get some settings. Other thing that comes to mind is shaders. Have a look in Oblivionini.old and see if you have the line 'bAllow30Shaders=1' (the default is 'bAllow30Shaders=0'). What I'm getting at is outlined in Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tweak Guide Advanced Tweaking section. Here's a quote: Back when the first of my two SLI cards died I had to reset which shader package was used, and before that I had gray sky.

Try renaming your Oblivion.ini to Oblivionini.old (NOT the file Oblivion_default.ini found in your game's Oblivion folder but the one found in Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion for Vista and Win 7 or Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion for Win XP). Then restart the game all the way to the menu screen. Exit and restart again (you may need to reset your video setting as Oblivion was last updated long before your Radeon was ever dreamed of).

Use the Top Lists to help narrow down the selection, but be aware you may miss out on some gems you'd really like if you stop there. I've tried going through the different categories myself (think I've made it to page 50 on the armor one more than once before I said 'Aarrgghh'). Mostly I lurk on the Oblivion Uploaded Files forum and keep an eye on the New Mods Today page on Oblivion Nexus. Some nice additions I'll suggest for Vilja (also all by Emma) are Packdonkeys and any of her many houses (my personal favourites are Aleswell Cottage and Maple Cottage, though Fishermans Cottage is such a nice place to relax away from all the distractions). An overhaul I've been following (and will use when I next start a new character) is Maskars Oblivion Overhaul (also check out his other mods). It's still being worked on, and Maskar is open to suggestions. It would be an alternative to MMM (though I believe the two could be used at the same time).

What method of archive invalidation are you using? The recommended method is BSA Redirection.

True enough. I will admit CM Partners are handy as a quick way to 'populate' the player homes if you don't mind their house manners.

Sorry Hickory ... got to disagree on the companion. Get Companion Vilja (you will never want a CM after you've experienced Vilja).

Yes you can. I tend to be a packrat, so I have Oblivionini.old1, Oblivionini.old2 ... (but I can't remember the last time I needed one of those 'backups of a backup'). - Edit - Native resolution of your monitor is the best one to use (looks best and will run the smoothest). That is if you are not using an old CRT monitor.

Try renaming your Oblivion.ini (NOT Oblivion_default.ini). You will find it in 'Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion' (at least that's the location for Vista and Windows 7). Change the name to Oblivionini.old (leaving it in the same folder you found it) and then start the game as far as the menu screen. Exit the game and restart (you may need to reset your video options, as Oblivion doesn't do a very good job of recognizing video cards that hadn't even been dreamed of when the game was last updated).

That's the power of the 'one mod at a time' method of installing (except where a mod's requirements dictate more than one). If you test thoroughly between installs it makes troubleshooting issues trivial. Also keep in mind that disabling a mod doesn't necessarily stop it from affecting the game. Uninstalling a mod is the only way to be sure that traces of the mod aren't gumming up the works (which would include reversing any Oblivion.ini edits a mod may have done).

Do an Oblivion Nexus search with 'umpa' in the uploaders name field (be sure to look at the second page of the search results).

Not a good idea posting your email address in an open forum. Use the private message system to exchange email addresses.

In the OAF window you'll see a box that says 'Byte:' above it (third box to the right of the 'FixMe' button). When the value in that box gets to 49 and greater you have the stuck animation problem. I don't wait until it gets that high (matter of fact mine is at 47 right now, so 'FixMe' it is). Then it's just a matter of renaming a copy of 'CustomClass1216.obse' to 'OAF_CustomClass1216.obse' to match 'OAF_CustomClass1216.ess'.

Efficient leveling ... the eternal problem for vanilla Oblivion. Can't tell you how long it takes, but I run the fixer every now and then, sometimes after I start noticing the Legion patrols torches get a little funny looking, sometimes even before I notice anything. If the bit is up to 46 or 47 I hit 'Fix me'. If you also run OBSE don't forget to rename the corresponding .obse save file (append OAF_ to the name). I do it to a copy of the original so I always have a fallback position.

I use Maskar's Hotkey Pro (a bit simpler than theNiceOne's Enhanced Hotkeys and doesn't have the MenuQue requirement). Your saving habits are 'cleaner' than mine. I save every hour or hour and a half (unless I'm about to start something special) and exit and reload every few hours. As to disabling 'that annoying feature' ... yes it can be annoying but it's a safety feature. Seatbelts are also an 'annoying feature' to some people (until something happens where they save you, then they're not so annoying anymore). - Edit - Back to the original complaint ... do you have a lot of hours on that particular save that's crashing on save? I'm wondering if you're hitting the 'A-Bomb' (animation bug) that plagues high playing time saves. I use Oblivion Animation Fixer myself, although if you're a Wrye Bash user it also has a utility for fixing the problem.