Striker879

You are still trying to use NMM, which as I said earlier is somewhat unreliable for installing Oblivion mods. Some newer mods or simple older mods will install fine, but plenty of the more popular mods for Oblivion will not install using NMM because of the folder structure they use for all the optional stuff they offer. You are also committing the mistake of installing a bunch of mods and then trying to figure out why things don't work. Could be installation problems, could be mod conflicts due to load order, could be archive invalidation issues ... could be a number of things. What you need to do is uninstall all mods, check in your C:\Games\Oblivion\Data folder and confirm no esp files remain and then play through the tutorial dungeon. Just before you exit the sewer (in the part where you can see the exit in the distance, before the character finalization) make a save using either the save from the Esc menu or a console named save (open the console using the tilde (~) key and at the console prompt 'save <MyNamedSave>' (without the quote marks or brackets) and hit Enter). This save will come in handy when you want to create a new character but don't want to go through the whole tutorial again. Exit the sewer and then make another save. Go to the Imperial City Market District and see how the game runs with a lot of NPCs around ... make another save (this will be a handy 'testing save'). Now install one mod. Pick a fairly simple one, how about a new house close to the IC with a short quest. I suggest Emma's Maple Cottage. It comes in two flavours, one for the 'purist' (i.e. no cheats for new players) and one comfortable version. It is also packaged in a manner that I don't think NMM will be able to handle (you could try and see if NMM makes you choose between a 'Purist' version and 'Comfortable' version). To manually install the mod is as simple as copying two files and activating one in NMM or the vanilla game launcher. Download the mod by clicking on the words 'Maple Cottage ver 1 04' or 'download manually' on the mod Files tab. Save the download to a folder (I save my downloads to H:\OblivionDownloads so this mod is saved in H:\Obliviondownloads\Maple_Cottage). Extract the download using 7-Zip. Using Windows Explorer you will see two folders inside your folder you downloaded to, 'Comfortable version esp' and 'Purist version esp' and three files ('MapleCottage_location.jpg', 'MapleCottage_readme.txt' and 'TinyHouse.bsa'). Right mouse click on the file 'TinyHouse.bsa' and select 'Copy' from the right click menu. Now navigate to your game's install folders and open them so you can see the game's 'Data' folder (should be C:\Games\Oblivion\Data if I've understood correctly where you re-installed the game). Right mouse click on the 'Data' folder and select 'Paste' from the right click menu. Next go back to the folder you downloaded and extracted the mod to and decide if you want the Purist version or the Comfortable version. Open that folder and right click/copy the file 'TinyHouse.esp'. Go back to your game's Data folder and paste in C:\Games\Oblivion\Data (same as you did for the bsa file). Activate the TinyHouse.esp in either NMM or using the vanilla game launcher 'Data Files'. Start the game and load your save from the IC Market District. Exit the city via the Talos District gate and go down the hill towards the bridge. About two thirds way down the hill (before you get to the bridge) take a left turn onto the pathway that crosses. About halfway to the Waterfront District (where you can see the Waterfront District in the distance), before you get to a pathway that branches off to the left you'll see a small house to the right of the path. I'll leave you to figure out the rest ... read the mod description and the mod readme. If you don't see the house report back. If you successfully install this mod then (and only then) move on to whichever mod you want to try next. Always do one mod at a time ... it makes troubleshooting a trivial matter.

If you make any quest that includes quest marker your active quest the red or green quest marker will move to your next target in that quest. Granted that is only for your current quest, but how would you know which marker went with which quest in the system you're proposing?

And it's appreciated ... many hands make lighter work. :thumbsup:

Quicksave is a known corrupter of save files. Back when I first started playing Oblivion I was the same as you ... quicksaving regularly. As my game became more and more unstable and I started researching what could be the causes I ran across some info about saving in Wrye Musings. I have since changed my saving habits and can tell you that unless I forget to follow my own advice or get too silly using console commands I rarely crash. Here's my advice: 1) Only use either save from the Esc menu (I call that manual save) or named console saves (open the console and then 'save <MySaveName>' without the quotes or brackets). Always save in a new slot, never overwrite. 2) Only load a save from restarting the game from the desktop. That means save, exit to the desktop, restart the game and then load a save. 3) Only load an autosave when you don't want to lose too much progress. I make either a named save or manual save every hour or so, depending on if I'm playing my old guy (manual saves) or new guy (named saves). I make a save before entering any dungeon or Oblivion gate as well as before entering a city if it's been a while since the last save. Every three hours or so I save and exit the game, even if I'm going to continue playing right away. My level 17 new guy has 693 hours playtime and my old guy (level 45) has well over 1300 hours. When I play my old guy I tend to save more often than my new guy, but keep in mind his saves are the ones I corrupted with quicksave and have 'recovered' by using good saving practices. Also keep in mind that I couldn't wait and save every hour with my old guy when I was trying to 'recover' his saves (can't recall for certain, but I think that was around the 400 or 500 hour mark on his saves ... I'd already been through the A-Bomb with him). Back then it was probably more like save every five minutes, and I was still crashing to desktop often enough I didn't worry about the save/exit/reload stuff. It took time, but like I say I'm still playing him today. Of course your mileage may vary, but that's been my experience.

OK ... part of troubleshooting is discovering what it's not. When you say you'd like to not need to save every five seconds I'd like to ask, when you save how do you do that? Do you use quicksave, or are you using save from the Esc menu or named saves from the console prompt? - Edit - Also, are you overwriting saves or saving in a new slot each time?

Is this a save that has a lot of hours on it? Do you notice any graphical glitches with flames (e.g. torches used by NPCs) or animated doors and gates? Those are signs of the 'A-Bomb'. If that's the case give OAF - Oblivion Animation fixer V1.2 a try. It's a small utility you run from Windows. If you look in the utility's window after you've loaded one of your saves you'll see a box labelled 'Byte' along the bottom row. If it's 47 or higher I recommend you click the 'FixMe' button. It will create a fixed copy of your save with the prefix 'OAF_'. If you run OBSE you'll notice that for each save you have an '.ess' file and a matching '.obse' file. For example, I use named saves. I have a save called 'CustomClass710.ess' and a corresponding 'CustomClass710.obse'. After I run OAF on my 'CustomClass710.ess' I have a new file named 'OAF_CustomClass.ess' (the fixed copy). Because OBSE expects a '.obse' partner for 'OAF_CustomClass710.ess' I make a renamed copy of 'CustomClass710.obse' (which is named 'OAF_CustomClass710.obse naturally). Takes a lot longer to explain than to do.

What folder are looking for Oblivion.ini in?

I saw your other thread. In future I'll lower my recommendation to 25 or less intelligence. Thanks for reporting what worked.

There are reason's I've resisted moving to Win 7 ... and not all are rooted in my being cheap.

Have a look at Bben46's wiki article Oblivion reinstall procedure. It will help you get your game out of C:\Program Files (x86) and away from UAC's interference. If you are using the Steam version of the game don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location. - Edit - Just saw your other thread ... NMM is unreliable for installing Oblivion mods. Many have folder structure for options and scripts meant for Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM). You'll have far more luck either using OBMM or installing manually. Read the mod install instructions and only install one mod at a time, testing in between (makes troubleshooting trivial).

Make sure her intelligence is less than 30 and she won't be able to use doors.

If by 'dirc' version of the game you mean the version from Direct2Drive I am afraid you will not be able to use BBB Designer Body Spell. The Direct2Drive version cannot work with OBSE for copywrite reasons and BBB Designer Body Spell requires OBSE to work. To uninstall OBSE change your desktop shortcut back to OblivionLoader.exe and delete the three OBSE files from your game's Oblivion folder. To uninstall BBB Designer Body Spell delete the folder 'Bombshell' from your game's 'Oblivion\Data\meshes\characters' folder and delete the file 'SetBody.esp' from your game's 'Oblivion\Data' folder. If you decide to get the Steam version of the game you can install OBSE and BBB Designer Body Spell using the instructions I previously gave. Either the Steam version of the game or the disk version of the game are the only ways to use OBSE. If you decide to stay with the Direct2Drive version of the game get in the habit of reading mod descriptions, paying close attention to whether or not the mod requires OBSE. If it does you will have to pass on using the mod.

This is about the most complete answer on the situation I've run across: How To Fix D3dx9_40.dll is Missing or Not Found Errors.

I think I may have stumbled across the cause of your problem ... look at this post on Personality Idles4 mod comments and the reply by dereko.

No problem. Sometimes it's hard to find a good Christmas tree with all that forest in the way.

It may not be '2012', but I recommend Noob up and running.

C:\Games\Oblivion is the most often recommended solution to UAC. Have a look through Bben46's wiki article Oblivion reinstall procedure for more info. If you use the Steam version of the game don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location.

What do you get in the console if you use 'getstage mq16'? It could be that your 'setstage mq16 60' and 'setstage mq16 65' didn't trigger the final stages of the quest (stages 80 and then 100).

First off, BBB Designer Body Spell won't install correctly using Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) because of the way that the compressed archive is organised. You will need to download the main file by clicking on the words 'BBB Designer Body Spell' under the title heading 'MAIN FILES' and then select a location to save the download. I suggest creating a new folder. When I download I do so to a new subfolder for each mod in my 'OblivionDownloads' folder that I created. For this mod I have it in H:\OblivionDownloads\BBB_Designer_Body_Spell. Once you download you will have a file named 'BBB_Designer_Body_Spell-34762.rar'. Next you need a utility to extract the archive contents. I suggest 7-Zip Archive Utility. After you have installed 7-Zip you will just doubleclick on the downloaded file BBB_Designer_Body_Spell-34762.rar in a Windows Explorer window opened to the folder you downloaded to, and then select the 'Extract' button at the top of the 7-Zip window. It defaults to extracting to the same folder the archive is in, making things easy to find when it's done. You will now see two folders, 'Main' and 'Optional'. In the Main folder there will be three folders, 'Data' 'ERA Fix for HGEC' and 'ERA Fix for RA'. Right mouse click on the folder Data and from the right click menu select 'Copy'. Now switch to your game install's 'Oblivion' folder (probably found in the path 'Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion'). I prefer to do this in a new Windows Explorer window myself, but you can just navigate to that folder in the window you have open. Right click on the 'Oblivion' folder and select 'Paste'. You will get a Windows warning about there already being a folder named 'Data'. Select 'Yes to All' (this mod doesn't overwrite any of the game's original files ... the folder names are the same so that's what the warning is about). Next you need to get Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) installed. On this OBSE page click on the link http://obse.silverlock.org/download/obse_0020.zip beside the word 'Download' near the top of the page. Download to a folder named OBSE (again in my case I have a folder H:\OblivionDownloads\OBSE). Extract the file 'obse_0020.zip'. You will now have a folder 'obse_0020'. Inside you'll see a subfolder 'src'. You don't need any of that as it is only for people who want to develop plugins for OBSE or contribute to the next version of OBSE. In the root of the obse_0020 folder you'll see seven files. Which of those files you'll need depends on which version of Oblivion you are using ... mainly one of the disk version of the game (e.g. Game of the Year disk version) or download version (e.g. Steam download version). An important thing to note if you are using a download version of the game ... it must be the Steam version. Direct2Drive, Impulse and GameSpot versions of the game will not work with OBSE. Also, if you are using a disk version of the game it must be patched to the latest version of the game, version 1.2.0416 (as shown in the lower left of your game's menu screen). For the disk version of the game you copy the files 'obse_1_2_416.dll', 'obse_editor_1_2.dll', and 'obse_loader.exe' to your game's Oblivion folder (so it would be 'Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\obse_loader.exe' for example). I'm not familiar with NMM myself. It may recognize that you are now going to be using OBSE to start the game and automatically switch to using obse_loader.exe. You'll need to refer to the NMM instructions on that. If you are starting the disk version of the game via a desktop shortcut you will need to edit that shortcut so that it starts the game using 'obse_loader.exe' instead of 'OblivionLauncher.exe'. Right click your desktop shortcut and select 'Properties'. In the 'Target' field single left click behind the words 'OblivionLauncher.exe' to remove the highlight, and change it to read obse_loader.exe. Make sure to keep the quote (") mark at the end and click 'Apply' then close out the dialogue. For the Steam version of the game you copy the files 'obse_1_2_416.dll', 'obse_editor_1_2.dll', and 'obse_steam_loader.dll' to your game's Oblivion folder (so it would be 'Steam\SteamApps\common\Oblivion\obse_steam_loader.dll' for example). You will need to have 'Enable Steam Community In-Game' enabled, and will start the game normally and Steam will load OBSE. The last piece of the puzzle is activating this mod's esp file (named 'SetBody.esp'). For Steam or NMM you'll find it and activate it the same way you always do with mods. If you are using the disk version of the game and used your desktop shortcut in the past you'll need to change how you activate mods a little. In the past (when your desktop shortcut still used OblivionLauncher.exe) it would bring up the game launcher and you'd select 'Data Files' and find your new 'SetBody.esp' in the list. Now that your desktop shortcut is changed to start the game using obse_loader.exe you won't get that game launcher (instead you'll see two small black windows and then go directly to the game's menu screen). To get to the game's launcher screen just go to your Windows Start button and using it navigate to your shortcut there (I'm using Windows XP still, so if you're on Vista or Windows 7 the steps will be slightly different but it will still be there in 'All Programs'). That shortcut will still bring up the original game launcher. Select 'Data Files' and activate 'SetBody.esp' (put the black X next to it) and then 'Exit' from the game launcher (it's very important now that you are using OBSE to not start the game using the original game launcher). Start the game and look at your list of spells. Near the top of the list in your 'Lesser Powers' you'll find two new spells, 'Set Body' and 'Set Body Self'. Enjoy!

Good troubleshooting and nice detective work. :thumbsup: This is kind of after the fact, but here's what Koroush Ghazi says about that ini setting in his Oblivion Tweak Guide, Advanced Tweaking section:

A Mature Spriggan would be good. I leave the mod deactivated until my guy is at least level 20 or so (they just take so long to hack to death until you get good and strong).

I'm not sure if this setting would affect things like what we can see in your pictures, but it's worth looking into. From Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tweak Guide, Advanced Tweaking section: Koroush shows the default value there for fSpecualrStartMax (found in your Oblivion.ini, which is located in 'Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion' for Vista and Windows 7 or in 'Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion' for WinXP). Is that what yours is set at? - Edit - Looking at that further you should check your slider for Specular Distance in the menus as well. Also quoted from the guide:

Don't worry, all but perhaps the most super savvy of us felt overwhelmed when we first started to mod the game (and by that I mean add mods to the game, because once you get the itch to make your own mods a whole new world unfolds). It's like learning anything new on-line ... the experts use acronyms because they know what it means (and it's much easier to type). I'm kind of old school. When I use an acronym it's always first presented by full name followed by acronym in brackets. Never be afraid of asking for more details either, even though I tend to give lots of details. First thing to get out of the way are some basics of modding the game. The game is very specific about where certain things are located folder or directory wise. If you open Windows Explorer and look at the folder structure of the game you'll see an 'Oblivion' folder that has a subfolder 'Data'. Initially the Data folder doesn't have much in it in the way of subfolders. That's because the game keeps most of the vanilla (original) assets such as meshes and textures in compressed archives called BSA files (think of zip or 7z compressed archives and you'll be very close). When mods add new things to the game they are really just recording changes that need to be made to the vanilla game. The vanilla game stores it's original state in ESM files (example Oblivion.esm found in your game's Data folder). The ESM or master file has all the instructions for changing the initial game state (character generation, getting the emperor and his guards into your cell etc.). When you save, you're recording changes to that initial state that are saved in ESS files. The changes that a mod needs to record are in ESP files (though there are certain types of mods that don't require an esp as they just replace vanilla assets with for example new meshes or textures, more on them later). So a basic mod will have an esp and possibly some meshes and textures (and perhaps more, voice files for example). The game requires that the esp be located in Oblivion\Data. If the mod includes meshes and textures they will be located in Oblivion\Data\meshes and Oblivion\Data\Textures. I've presented those basic concepts first because something that Microsoft introduced a long time after this game was released can interfere. The security feature called User Account Control (UAC) was introduced with the Vista operating system. It protects certain folders on your computer from unauthorized changes. One of those folders is C:\Program Files (and the 64 bit equivalent C:\Program Files (x86) more commonly found in Windows 7). Unfortunately the installer for Oblivion defaults to installing in C:\Program Files. UAC doesn't interfere in the vanilla unmodded game, but when it notices changes being made other than those made by the original game esm and esp files it steps in and 'protects' you. You'll see that the wiki article Bben46 linked you has specific instructions about getting the game installed outside of Program Files. If you are using the Steam version of the game don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location. If you are going to get started you may as well get off on the right foot. Next I'm going to ask that you give me the names of a few mods that you'd like to get started on. Don't pick big overhauls to start with, and even though you may like to change the default bodies used by the game I'd suggest you cut your teeth on something even more basic. A house or some armor is a good starting point, especially the armor as it will certainly have meshes and textures. To get yourself into position for installing mods and testing your handiwork I suggest you create a character and go through the tutorial dungeon before adding any mods. Just before you exit the tutorial dungeon (at the point where you can see the sewer exit in the distance) make a save. This save will enable you to create a new character without needing to redo the entire tutorial again as before you get to the exit the game pops up the character finalization menus. After you exit the sewer make another save, but don't overwrite your before the sewer exit save (in fact get in the habit of never overwriting saves). A further note on saving. Don't use quicksave, it's a known corrupter of save files. Use the save option off the Esc menu (there is another option for named saves that we can address later as well). Some basic details on your computer will help too (laptop or desktop, CPU and amount of RAM and whether or not you have a separate graphics card or onboard graphics).

Hickory ... you still da man!

Going through all the armor pages one at a time is a daunting endeavor. I think the highest I've ever made before I squeeked and said 'Give' is maybe fifty. I'm sure I've seen someone post a link to a 'Non-Revealing Armor' list, but I don't have the link myself, and a quick look through the List of Mod Lists didn't turn up anything.