Striker879

Note that you need to use the correct version of the patch, depending on whether or not Shivering Isles is installed. In addition to the different language versions the Bethesda site has different versions of the patch for whether or not you have SI installed. In addition, if you use the Game of the Year edition that includes SI you will get the game patched up to version 1.2.0416 when you install SI from the GotY disks. If you are trying to install the correct version of the patch and getting that error you may have messed up registry entries getting in the way. Using the Oblivion reinstall procedure uninstall the game, clean the registry and re-install. If you are going to install SI the correct order is install Oblivion then install SI, check your version number in the game menu (if you're unsure whether or not you have the GotY version) and then apply the correct patch if the version isn't already 1.2.0416 after installing SI. If you are using the Steam version of the game it should patch itself automatically. You can't use the Bethesda patches on the Steam version. If you have the disks for SI I suggest installing it even if you don't intend to play SI as once you have non-SI Oblivion patched to version 1.2.0416 you must uninstall the game to add SI at a later date.

Unfortunately I won't be home and at my gaming PC for quite a while (as in weeks type of quite a while). My own Oblivion install is on a hard drive dedicated to games. I don't recall much specifically around getting things set up ... read the readme, followed directions and it worked if I recall correctly. You'll know that MOM is finding your current install when you start the program. All your various installs (which at first will be just your original) will be listed in the box and your current active will be at the top of the screen (not necessarily the top of the list once you have multiple installs to chose from). Am I getting it right that your current install is in C:\Games\\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion (note the double backslash) or was that just a typo?

You could do that and hope you don't have a problem due to making an error one day or you can use Multiple Oblivion Manager (MOM). I use it to keep two characters separate. They have separate mod lists, save folders ... everything you could ask for. MOM is easy to install and simple to use.

Another way, if you don't care to also have an original version of the armor is to load the esp in the CS and make the original esp active. Make your changes and save. Viola! If you want to be real tricky and have both versions then load up the original esp in the CS and make it active. When you doubleclick the armor to edit it give it a new ID (if the original was called JoesCoolCuirass call yours MyJoesCoolCuirass). It will ask you if you want to create a new form ... say yes. Make your changes to MyJoesCoolCuirass and close the edit window, saving your changes. Now find the original mod's container and open it. Drag your MyJoesCoolCuirass into the container inventory and if you want more than one slowly doubleclick in the quantity. Be as generous as you want. When you're all done bulking up save the esp and exit. Go into the game and revel in your newfound riches. One last bit of advice ... save a backup copy of the original esp before you go to town on it.

If you can run other mods that makes it unlikely that the problem is archive invalidation or UAC related. If this is a mod that comes as a premade OMOD perhaps your download is corrupted. Try redownloading and see if the new copy has the same problems. If this is an 'OMOD ready archive' it may have files or folders that aren't quite right (i.e. need a choice of options you don't want removed before you create the OMOD or perhaps folder structure errors). Look through the mod comments for similar problems, as unless it's a brand new mod that type of error should be widely reported. Lastly make sure you actually have everything that is required in the mod requirements (example Shivering Isles if it says it requires SI).

Non-Skyrim guy here ... I take it they don't use the same keyboard layout. I was an old first person shooter type and found getting used to Oblivion's keyboard layout took a bit to get used to. At first things like having spacebar for 'Use' and not 'Jump' screwed me up and I thought about changing it. As I played the game I came to appreciate how the key mapping they chose worked well for what you do most in the game. The only deviation I have to their mapping now is I have 'Cast' mapped to the 'Back' button on my mouse as well as 'C'.

Are you able to successfully run other mods?

You are most likely running afoul of the Microsoft security feature called User Account Control (UAC). What is happening is UAC is 'protecting' you from those 'unauthorized' changes that the mods are trying to make to the base game. Oblivion was developed long before Microsoft ever dreamed up UAC, so UAC and the game don't cooperate well. Good news is that UAC only protects certain areas of your computer. If Oblivion is installed in C:\Games it will work without problems on Windows 7. One of the moderators here Bben46 has posted a wiki article that will help get Oblivion re-installed outside of C:\Program Files (x86) ... Oblivion reinstall procedure. 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, and don't skip the registry cleaning step ... it's important.

Do you have the game installed in the default location C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) and are you running either Vista or Windows 7?

Your mileage may differ, but many console players coming to Oblivion find using the controller with Oblivion less than satisfying. An old thread that wound it's way around a number of issues got focused on setting up controller to work with Oblivion about half way through it's 12 pages. Have a look through to get a feel for what some have thought about it, and if you decide to go the controller route Stemin and GnatGoSplat would be good ones to ask for advice.

One of the problems with installing a whole whack of mods and then testing is the situation you've found yourself in ... which of the dozen mods I added is causing the problem? Generally speaking, if you add one mod and thoroughly test, if it causes problems you can tell which mod caused it pretty easily. Many fall into the trap of thinking things will just work out and a whole bunch of time will be saved. Doesn't always turn out like that. Now you're at the point of deciding do you uninstall one mod at a time until the problem disappears, or use the uninstall half and see if the problem disappears method. I'm sure neither answer is what you were hoping for. - Edit - I seem to have some vague recollection of a problem report like your's, and I can't be sure or say why but I have an equally vague feeling it was related to an Ahtata mod ... if you wanted to start there.

If you only have a few mods you could either back up, redownload or if you saved the original downloads to a folder you can just re-install them from that folder. The guides need to be written to cover other possibilities, like the people with a couple of hundred mods installed and nothing saved or backed up from when they originally installed the mods. For you to move back to square one isn't nearly the same ... you're at something like square one and a half. To back up things I use the good old copy and paste method. I have the luxury of multiple physical hard drives on my machines so I also make sure my backups are on a different physical hard drive but a separate folder on C drive would suffice. What you want is stuff saved in a spot that wouldn't be affected if things went awry when you are upgrading, or moving things as in this example. Once you have Steam moved and working correctly you'll re-install Oblivion. As I suggested you'd be best off getting the game settings and tutorial dungeon out of the way with just plain old unmodded vanilla Oblivion and then start installing mods. If you had been playing Oblivion for years and had that big bunch of mods working before there are ways of just restoring your Data folder from your previous installation to save installing a couple of hundred mods ... you don't fall into that category.

The backup folder you'd create for your Steam saves would be outside of the current Steam folder structure altogether, something like C:\Games\MyBackups\Skyrim (and a separate subfolder for each Steam game you have that has saves to backup). Being the type of person I am I'd also have a little text file in each folder with any notes to myself I thought valuable, stuff like folder structure where each game's saves were located, mods I didn't intend to re-install after moving, whatever you'd find good to not forget. If you make it a subfolder off C:\Games you will already have the C:\Games folder for moving Steam and Oblivion to later, and you'll keep your game related stuff in one spot. I don't have Skyrim myself, but in Oblivion save games are not in the game folders at all ... they're found in 'Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion' for Vista and Win 7. I'd expect something similar for Skyrim (have a look for 'Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim') On the registry cleaning step, if you don't do it there's a good chance your re-install attempt after getting Steam moved could run into trouble because the installer finds registry entries from the older install and gets confused. Sometimes a bit of extra effort now proves to be a timesaver later (like the add one mod at a time and test in between advice ... take a look through these threads at how many have installed a big whack of mods and then can't get the game to run ... when asked what did you install since the game last ran all they can say is "All of them" and all we can advise is often "Uninstall all of them and start over one at a time, then call us when you get stuck"). I don't use Steam so I can't speak from experience but the order I'd do it is get your saves and any mods backed up, uninstall Oblivion from your current Steam location, run CCleaner for just the Oblivion registry entries and then follow the Steam instructions for moving Steam. If I recall correctly they claim you can just move the Steam folder and most of your Steam games will migrate correctly when you start Steam from the new location. After confirming that all the other games made the move OK then re-install Oblivion in the new location. I know that all this seems a royal pain in the butt. Thing is there are mods you'll likely want down the road for Oblivion that will require things like Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) or Wrye Bash, and getting those to work in Program Files can be problematic. Some people seem to have no problems, perhaps because they've turned off UAC (not something I recommend). Other's are posting problems on here for weeks with each new mod they want to try. The same as mods need a common starting point to work correctly (Oblivion version 1.2.0416), troubleshooting mod problems is much easier the more variables you wrestle into a common line beforehand.

Not to worry ... all is not lost. Here's a link to Bben46's wiki article Oblivion reinstall procedure. Don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location, and the link about registry cleaning. Once your game is installed outside of Program Files (and out from under UAC's clutches) you'll be off on the right foot. While it is possible that you may have luck getting some mods to run while still in Program Files, now is the time to get onto firm ground. Down the road you've a good chance of running into difficulties, and install location is one of the checks that a troubleshooter is going to ask. By installing to C:\Games\... you've eliminated one source of problems, which will allow troubleshooting to find the real root of whatever the problem may be. Consider it a minor blip now that will bear fruit in the future. You'll find some mods claiming OBMM is the way to go vs other's that insist on WB depending in part on which method the mod author is most comfortable and familiar with. Without doubt WB and BAIN installation is the robust solution, but as I said at the price of a steeper learning curve. There are mods (generally in the 'major overhaul' category) that will not work without the use of WB and something called a 'bashed patch'. When more than one mod tries to change the same thing in the game whichever is loaded in your load order last will prevail (and sometimes whichever is installed last). There are situations that anything a manual installer like me can do will not overcome. The only solution is a bashed patch. A bashed patch is 'a mod' which is created using options in WB (something called bashed tags) to create a personalized mash-up of those over lapping pieces from various mods. Using the bashed tags you decide which mod's changes win in the conflicts irrespective of load order (and if you are also using BAIN irrespective of install order). I'd suggest getting the game and Steam out of Program Files and then go through the tutorial dungeon. Just before you exit the sewers (at the part where you can see the sewer exit in the distance make a save using the Esc menu save option and save in a new slot. Go through the character finalization menu and exit the sewers. Make another save in a new slot. The first save will allow you to create a new character without needing to go through the whole tutorial in the future, and the second will come in handy for testing mods. Next get your game settings to your liking (view distance sliders, shadow quality etc. Here's a link to Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tewak Guide that may come in handy. Next go to the Market District of the Imperial City (preferable around mid day when it's busy) and see how the game is handling the strain at your chosen settings. Now you have a frame of reference of how the vanilla game runs on your machine. Now you can start adding mods, starting with the unofficial patches if you choose. A note on saving ... the quicksave function in the game is a known causer of save file corruption. Use Save off the Esc menu or named saves using the console command 'save <Your save name>' (without the quote marks and brackets).

Sorry for not replying earlier ... was a travel day for me. I don't want to discount what Nephenee has suggested. The most robust way to install and uninstall mods is using Wrye Bash and BAIN installation. It will do everything you would wish for as an installer/uninstaller and then some. The downside is because it's such a versatile multitude of utilities rolled into one it can be considered by some a tough thing to learn. The biggest shortcoming that OBMM and OMOD installation suffers from is a total lack of tracking what mod A overwrites when you install it, so it can't restore the preinstallation files when you uninstall mod A. Striker's patented extremely complicated manual install method (of which I've only shown you the absolute basics) overcomes all OBMM pitfalls, but admittedly doesn't do anything outside of what WB and BAIN can do without the complicated part (excluding learning to use it). If a mod comes as a premade OMOD and installation script I'll use OBMM to install, providing it's a big complex mod with lots of options to chose from. If it says to create an OMOD using the download I'll use my patented method. To help you weigh the merit of WB and BAIN vs manual install have a look through the Wrye Bash Pictorial Guide to get an idea of what it's like.

Sorry then ... I'm a neophyte too, trying to learn while following along with your questions.

You could create the OMOD using those directions or manually install as you've started. I always suggest extracting the download to a temporary folder so you can see what the extracted download contains. Simplest way to do that is download to a named folder (lets say C:\OblivionDownloads\MidasMagic using your example mod.). When prompted on where to save the download you just click on the arrow button that moves you up a level until you get to the root of C drive (highest level where you can see all of the folders below). Click on the button to create a new folder and then rename 'New Folder' to 'OblivionDownloads' (no quote marks). The text New Folder will already be highlighted so you can just type in your new name. Double click on that folder and you'll see that now you're in C:\OblivionDownloads (or whatever name you chose). Click the new folder button again and create your MidasMagic folder. Double click it and then click the save button. The next time you download a mod from Nexus you'll only need to click the up one level button until you're in C:\OblivionDownloads and then create a new folder. Once you have the file saved navigate to that folder with Windows Explorer and doubleclick the .7z file (occasionally a download will be .zip or .rar but providing you haven't installed WinZip or WinRAR 7-Zip will handle all situations). The nice thing about 7-Zip as opposed to WinZip (not sure about WinRAR as I don't use it) is that by default it will offer to extract to the folder the archive is located. With WinZip you need to navigate to the right folder each time ... a pain in the butt. Some mods will extract to a nicely laid out proper folder structure and others will have some version of a truncated folder structure. If you start off with some simpler mods, say a shiny new sword it will make it easier to get your head around where different types of files need to go. If you followed the link and download the swords, you'll see when you extract the archive you'll have folders starting at 'Gizmodian - Real Silver Swords' inside your C:\OblivionDownloads\RealSilverSwords folder you created when you downloaded. This is a mod that is packaged in what I would call 'the correct' way. Inside Gizmodian - Real Silver Swords you'll find a Data folder and inside that there's a Meshes folder and Textures folder (with subfolders inside them Mondstein's Armory and Gizmodians Real Silver Swords). Note that capitalization doesn't matter in the folder names (Gizmodians Real Silver Swords is the same as gizmodians real silver swords). If you look at the lowest level of folders (the Gizmodians Real Silver Swords level) you'll see that inside the Textures one you have a couple of .dds files and inside the Meshes lowest level you have .nif files. If you're not seeing file names like 'archest02New02.nif' and only seeing 'archest02New02' you probably have 'Hide file extensions for known file types' turned on in your folder option ... no big deal until you are troubleshooting a problem mod down the road some time, just some background information. If you click on the Data folder you'll see that it also contains one file, 'Gizmodian - Real Silver Swords.esp'. Not every mod will come with an .esp file, but most will (there are mods that just replace the vanilla game content, appropriately I refer to them as 'replacer mods'). So you see by examining the folder and file structure of this mod that .esp files go in the Data folder, mesh files have a .nif extension and go in a named subfolder of the Meshes folder, which will always be a subfolder directly below Data and ditto for the Textures (which have a .dds extension and go in a sub of Textures). If you run into a mod that just stuffs files into the root of Meshes or Textures I'd avoid it (i.e. not in a named subfolder off Meshes or Textures) ... not the mark of a good modder in my opinion. The final piece to explain before we get to installing the sword mod is mods that come with .bsa files. In big complicated mods, that have lots of folders and subfolder often the mod author will opt to take all the texture and mesh and sound etc. resources and compress them using the same format as the vanilla game uses (look in your Data folder and you'll find files like 'Oblivion - Meshes.bsa and 'Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa'). The same as the vanilla bsa files, those mod added bsa files need to go in the Data folder as well. So with this sword mod extracted into your C:\OblivionDownloads\RealSilverSwords folder you'll right mouse click on the 'Data' folder that is inside the C:\OblivionDownloads\RealSilverSwords\Gizmodian - Real Silver Swords folder and select 'Copy' from the right click menu. Then navigate to your game install folder (I generally use another Windows Explorer window, getting that one open and set to my game's 'Oblivion' folder). Right click on the Oblivion folder and select 'Paste' from the right click menu. The rule of thumb is, when copy and pasting folders you paste into one level higher than you copied. You will get a prompt about there already being a folder named Data, do you want to overwrite. Click 'Yes to all'. Windows will create the correct subfolders inside of your game's Data folder and as long as mod A doesn't have the same 'MyCoolSword.nif' as mod B, located in the same named folder as mod B (e.g meshes\MyCoolSword\MyCoolSword.nif for both mods) no files will be overwritten. Then it's just a matter of clicking on the 'Data Files' option in the game launcher, scrolling down to Gizmodian - Real Silver Swords.esp and clicking to put a black X next to it. Sounds big and complicated, and I don't do bare bones 1, 2, 3 partial sentence explanations. Your question used full sentences, so I figured I'd give you my full meal deal.

What if this piece: ; sends a NPC to jail, SetAv Health BaseHealth moveto JailMarker messagebox "This enemy have been thrown into your jail!" elseif (Button == 1) was changed to: ; sends a NPC to jail, SetAv CurrentHealth BaseHealth moveto JailMarker messagebox "This enemy have been thrown into your jail!" elseif (Button == 1)

It's always handy to have another NPC added by the same mod to get those first two digits from. I have a couple of girls added by an armor mod that I've resurrected and 'befriended'. One of them is almost always where she's supposed to be, right near her editor location. The other gets 'whisked off her feet' and winds up at the Tiber Septim Hotel about half the time I drop in for a visit with her. Happens often enough I have her refID almost committed to memory. Something to keep in mind is those first two digits are dependent on where the mod is in your load order. If it's high up on your list it probably won't change very often, unless you run BOSS after adding a mod and it moves another mod higher on your list. If it's near the bottom of your list it will likely change more frequently, if you add and delete mods often. When I try the wrong number for my missing girl and it doesn't work I'll often just try increasing or decreasing the first two digits by one or two when I'm too lazy to run over to the other girl to get the right numbers. How do I know she gets whisked off to the Tiber Septim? I've popped in there unexpectedly on occasion ... turns into quite a brawl. Just because I've befriended her doesn't make her popular with the Tiber Septim regulars.

Could be an install order issue, if your beard mod is a simple replacer (no esp in the download). With replacers whichever is installed last wins if two or more replace the same vanilla asset. Another possibility is that you haven't activated any form of archive invalidation (something that helps the game use newer assets instead of those it's programmed to look for in the vanilla game BSA files). Easiest way to take care of that is using Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM). Click the Utilities button, select Archive Invalidation and then click the BSA Redirection radio button. Leave everything else at defaults and close OBMM (it doesn't have a save changes option ... it saves it's changes when it closes). BSA Redirection is the recommended method these days and it's a do once and forget about it solution. Lastly is correct installation issues. Are the mesh and texture folders in the proper place? Is the esp (if it has one) in the Data folder and activated using the vanilla launcher Data Files (or method of your choice ... e.g. OBMM or Wyre Bash)?

That sounds a lot like missing or wrong skeleton type issue RazaCovek, probably skeletonbeast.nif or if you're not talking about Argonians then maybe a custom skeleton for whatever critter you're talking about.

The texture is 'meshes\fire\FireArcaneMedium01.nif' found in the vanilla game 'Oblivion - Meshes.bsa' (providing you're talking about the purple fires where you first come into the University). There is also a sound associated with the flames AMBTorchMountedLP that may or may not be missing. Look in your games Oblivion\Data\meshes for the folder 'fire' and the file 'FireArcaneMedium01.nif' and if you find it move it to a temporary location outside of the game folders. If your flames come back you can safely delete the file you moved ... it's a leftover just stinking up the fridge. - Edit - Must of had a brain cramp first time around ... the textures for that nif are in the Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa. Best I can determine they are 'textures\fire\firearcanemedium\firearcanemedium01.dds' through to 'textures\fire\firearcanemedium\firearcanemedium23.dds' (for animating the flames??). I also saw a series of firearcaneparticle dds files (01 through 10) but I'm not sure if they'd be associated with those flames or not.

Something else to be aware of ... if you are ever going to want SI the correct order to install is the vanilla game first, then install SI and last install the patch for the SI version. Once you have the non-SI patch applied to the game you cannot install SI. If you have patched Oblivion to version 1.2.0416 without installing SI your only option is to uninstall the game and then start over, installing Oblivion, then SI and then patch.

You don't need SI to patch the game. If you have SI installed you need to use the patch that is for the SI version of the game. If you do not have SI installed you need to use the non-SI version of the patch ... all in your correct language of course.

Your mod problem is likely related to your other thread about applying the Oblivion 1.2.0416 patch. Mods need to run on a known version of Oblivion because they are really just changes starting from a known point (which is version 1.2.0416). Because there are patches for the game if you don't have Shivering Isles that are different than patches for the game if you do have Shivering Isles (you need to remember how long ago these patches were released) you need to be careful and apply the correct patch, not just for your language but for whether or not SI is installed. If you have messed up in this regard, and say you tried to apply the SI version of the patch to a non-SI version of the unpatched game (or vice versa) your attempt will fail. You will probably need to uninstall the game and start out fresh. Here's a link to Bben46's Oblivion reinstall procedure. I will assume you have the disk version of the game, as the Steam version automatically updates itself.