Striker879

Do you have 'Show system and hidden files' enabled in Windows Explorer (or whatever it's called in Win 7 ... I'm a Win XP dinosaur)?

Ya fore, after I suggested it but gave the 'how to implement in-game' more thought I realized it wouldn't be something easily done. The runfastforward would need to first start with a flipping motion as the ball was collected into the hand and then at the end of running have the ball drop to the end of the chain. Considering (at least with my limited animation knowledge) that the running animation needs to begin and end with frames that can be easily repeated to give the seamless effect it's a no go. Watching those videos gave a pretty good appreciation for what facing or using a flail must have been like. I'm surprised nobody got hurt shooting them. In the second video there seemed to be less twirling the mace head before the attack and more straight forward swing and hit. Probably closer to the vanilla animations.

I'm wondering if your missing body parts may not be related to BSA Alteration. A quote from the article linked by AnimalRiot: Further down it mentions keeping a backup of your bsa files in case of corruption (using both OBMM and BSA Patcher is one possible way of corrupting the bsa). I'm sure I've seen advice from Hickory on the subject that favours BSA Redirection over BSA Alteration for that reason. My thinking here is that you've corrupted your bsa. If the bsa is pointing to a nif that has a broken texture path I believe you'll see the invisible body parts.

Just a suggestion/question that may simplify things (or maybe complicate them). If you were running with the chain mace pictured in fore's example wouldn't you grasp the chain close to the mace head while continuing to hold the handle, and then release the chain and mace head to swing free once you'd stopped running? To run with something like that free to swing around would be dangerous to yourself and would throw off your gait. Walking with the weapon at ready is completely understandable, however. I agree, this could lead to some awesome mods!

Here's a link to the UESP Wiki walkthrough for the Ultimate Heist. If you look at the bottom at the Bugs section you'll find a number of them, that can affect your game in different ways depending on which bug is triggered. Maybe you can recognize what point in the quest you are and what may be the problem.

For replacers to work you need archive invalidation enabled, most easily done using the default option offered in Oblivion Mod Manager in the Utilities menu. As true replacers don't use an esp and aren't activated using the launchers Data Files (or by OBMM for that matter) the archive invalidation step allows the game to find and use the new assets instead of the vanilla ones packaged in the game's bsa files (archive files that the game uses and decompresses on the fly while you play). You only need to do archive invalidation once. Because of this you can mix and match the parts you like from any replacer (whole armors, not individual pieces of armors). You can use the glass armor replacer from mod A and steel armor replacer from mod B and all the others from mod C if you want. Or decide to leave some as vanilla ... total freedom. What you need to do is download the replacer to a temporary folder and then extract the archive to that same folder (not overwriting anything in your game's Data folder yet). Examine the folder structure. That folder structure is hardwired into the game, so it will need to be exactly the same when you copy the files you want into your game's Data folder. Here's a simple way to insure that. Download all the replacers you want to try to their own unique folders ... mod A to a folder named 'mod A', mod B to mod B etc. Extract the archive to their respective folders. Create a new folder named MyReplacers or whatever you choose. Right click the Data folder in mod A's extracted archive and then select 'Copy'. Right click your MyReplacers folder and select 'Paste'. Now using the pictures on the mod A download page here on Nexus delete any subfolders for all the replacers for mod A you don't want to use (let's say for example everything except glass and steel for mod A). Make sure you get the meshes and textures for each one you don't want, but leave the ones you want. Now go through the other mod's extracted archives and delete the glass and steel meshes and textures (using this example). Using mod B's download page pictures decide what you want to use from mod B. Delete everything you don't want to use from mod B (let's say all except leather and mithril). After you've cleaned out all but what you want to keep from mod B right click it's Data folder and select copy. Paste into your MyReplacers folder and select 'Yes to All'. The folder names are the same but the actual contents you are pasting aren't. That's the secret of this method. Delete the leather and mithril folders from the remaining mod C, D etc folders and continue the same way until you have a MyReplacers folder that contains a Data folder and subfolders that only has what you want to install into your game. Then right click the Data folder in your MyReplacers folder and select copy. Now navigate to your Oblivion install folder, find the folder named Oblivion and right click and select paste. Again answer 'Yes to All' when prompted about overwriting folders and you're good to go!! Always keep in mind this rule about copying and pasting folders ... always paste into one level higher than you copied. If you copied the meshes folder you'd paste into Data, if you copy Data you paste into Oblivion. A dead giveaway you've messed up is if you don't get the prompt about overwriting folders. You'll see a Data folder inside your Data folder (or meshes inside meshes etc.). Just drag and drop or right click 'Cut' and paste into the proper location. Now if you're doing individual files they go into the same named folder they were copied from. Good luck!

I've just started using fore's NoMaaM Breathing Idles. It's amazing how big a difference such a small subtle change to NPC and player animation can make in the area of realism. Whether or not you use BBB (fore's download provides both options) you will immediately notice that everyone seems more alive. Coupled with Cliffworm's Idle Dialogues English Version and my personalized versions of Xtudo's Personality Idles - Modified Version NPCs and Companions and fore's NoMaaM BBB Animation Replacer my game is becoming a more vibrant experience. Check out fore's latest realism addition ... it's definitely worth the download.

Not sure about the basic pack but here's a link to the full K-Lite Codec Pack on Major Geeks.

Follow bben46's re-installation guide and you can save your old saves.

Like I said, I'm by no means a Wrye Bash/bashed patch expert. The only thing from your log that pops out is this: Couldn't say what the MAO patcher is, but like I suggested, a separate topic for this Wrye Bash problem may get better results than an old thread about a different problem (guys like Hickory may not even read your MAO thread after this much time).

You may get better help if you post the bashed patch and then crash to desktop problem as a separate thread. I'm certainly no expert on Wrye Bash and bashed patches, but one question that comes to mind is what warnings did you have in your BOSS log, especially things like missing masters. I commonly see that cited as a CTD cause.

A while back MarkInMKUK posted detailed step by step bashed patch instructions. He kindly gave me permission to repost them when it would be helpful. I've put them in spoiler tags to keep things neat here:

I think you may be at the point where you need to disable a block of your mods (if you have a bunch that are related or dependent on one another do them together), and see if you can narrow down the list of possible offenders. The other thing that comes to mind is that I don't see a bashed patch showing in your load order. Do you sort your mods with BOSS and then use Wrye Bash to make a bashed patch?

Earlier you mention that you think it may be something in your save game. If you have an earlier save, from well prior to all this happening you could try loading that save an check out the guards for the problem. Alternatively, you could start a new game and check out the guards. If the problem doesn't affect either of those games you know it's isolated to that particular save.

Checking out the pathgrid was meant as part of identifying the root of your problem. If a pathgrid is available, but they're not following it we can eliminate that as a possible cause. A while back fore was wondering if your problem could be related to one of your mods changing the IC and perhaps not having a pathgrid.

The blue ones mark the preferred path ... NPCs are supposed to follow the blue dots when they're available (although I've seen where they seem to ignore the preferred path for their own at times).

What you're looking for when you toggle the path grid on is areas that lack the orange or red dots. The NPC artificial intelligence (AI) can only move using the pathgrid (from dot to dot) unless it's following a follow player package (like can happen with companions when you're wandering the wilderness ... not all wilderness areas are fully pathgrided). With the pathgrid dis[play toggled on see if they stop when they get somewhere without a next node nearby.

You should be able to check for insufficient pathgrid by toggling it in the console. Here's an excerpt from the UESP Wiki for Script Functions:

If you previously had Oblivion installed and it 'somehow' got deleted you undoubtedly have a registry mess left behind. Uninstall the game completely, use a good registry cleaner to get rid of all Oblivion related registry entries and then re-install (and make sure you do that outside of C:\Program Files).

I suggest you post your question in the mod comments section, as electrro is quite diligent answering questions posted there but may not see your question posted here. I personally use the console to change NPC clothing to what I want them to wear (well when their birthday suit isn't my primary choice anyway). For some I'll just leave them as my default body (HGEC H cup) and then use selections from Pyramidhead123's BBB H-cup Stock (usually when I'm leaving them with their stock clothes, but then all NPC's who wear that clothing will also be changed). The true power of the BBB Designer Body Spell comes from when you find some clothing that isn't compatible with your installed default body, providing that clothing isn't a replacer (i.e. it comes with an esp). You use the spell to change them to that body (let's say Speedbuster Muki Muki for example), select them in the console to get their ID showing at the top of the screen. Use the console command 'kill', close the console and loot their clothes and put the Speedbuster compatible clothes into their inventory, then finally use the console command 'resurrect 1' on them (the one after the resurrect command is important as it will allow them to retain their inventory). Remember that when NPCs wear clothes, the clothes become the part of the body they cover. If the clothes you want them to wear are compatible with your installed default body (in my case HGEC) you don't need to use the body spell to change their appearance while clothed. Then the only advantage would be if you changed them to match the HGEC clothes size they are wearing you won't get the sudden bust size change when you loot their dead bodies (providing they are currently wearing clothes of a different bust size than your installed default).

To get started you will only need the appropriate program to extract the compressed download file. The 7-Zip Archive Utility hosted here is probably the most universally compatible selection (it will handle .zip, .rar as well as .7z formats). The other caveats are to carefully read the mod description and requirements to make sure the mod doesn't require OBSE or OBMM (some mods will come with a download for OBMM as well as one for manual installation) and most importantly make sure your game is NOT installed in the default C:\Program Files if your operating system is either Vista or Win 7. If it is the Microsoft security feature UAC will interfere with getting mods to run. The most common suggestion is create a subfolder for Oblivion C:\Games\Oblivion.

I had trouble getting NPCs to read while sitting. I looked over as many vanilla NPCs who read sitting as I could find. If I recall correctly (I don't have access to my gaming computer right now) I succeeded by Use Item At targeted on the chair I wanted to use as a location (chair must be a persistent reference to work) and the item is a specific book I put in their inventory.

Does he have a book in his inventory?