Striker879

Thanks Dr K.

I have never laid eyes on NMM myself either, so my guess would be it would on some menu or other ... maybe something like Utilities (but this is pure guessing). - Edit - Maybe it just calls it archive invalidation.

What form of archive invalidation are you using? The vanilla game will use resources found in the vanilla BSA files (e.g. Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa) unless an ESP assignes other assets or archive invalidation instructs the game to use loose files that are newer date than the BSA version of that same asset. BSA Redirection is the recommended method of archive invalidation. If by "I have installed Nexus" you mean you have installed Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) then I believe it has a method to enable BSA Redirection.

Ah, I think I'm getting the idea you are trying to create ... simulating that you are being ridden. If I'm correct are you trying to have the NPC conversation with you the dragon or the rider?

LOL ... what happens to me in situations like that is I can never "recreate the magic" to show somebody. Ducks, once lined up will do their best to resist lining up again. Is the funny part of 1st person dialogues that you are zooming in too much or looking at their face level where you should be looking down? I use a tweaked value for fDlgFocus in Oblivion.ini (mine is set to 5.9500) to control the amount of zoom when enter the dialogue screen. Not sure if there would be a way to manipulate that via scripts or not. Seems to me that the vanilla behaviour for 1st person dialogue when you are on horseback (like if a highwayman gives you the "Your money or your life" spiel) is that you are looking down at him and he is looking up at you. I don't know if you can initiate dialogue from on horseback without being forced ... I'm always in such a hurry to get somewhere.

OK ... make that an honourable, generous person. I always try to make certain to attribute the source of of any information I have to pass along, sometimes in the form of links to the source, or in cases of things I've learned from you with a note about my DrakesTips text file. On a side note, when I first read about your problem I was bothered by my own inability to offer anything to help, and relieved when you reported that the solution was found.

The most valuable things I have are my mistakes Drake. In my book you are (as usual) a very generous person.

I was thinking more along the line of looking for conflicts with other mods in your load order. If you have a large load order you may need to break it up into sections and check one section at a time (so a dozen or so mods at a time compared to Better Cities). If a conflict is found then look to how the current load order for those mods vs Better Cities is currently and try switching them to test for improvement. It will also give a specific mod to look for when looking for possible patches (though you can do that by just looking through the BC patch list I suppose).

Wouldn't have been at the top of my list either. Next tool for trying to figure out why ... TES4Edit. It will help to narrow down the exact conflict (if possible). I don't use RST myself, but I know the pedigree of it's mod author. Seems odd for it to cause problems. Do you see anything about it in the mod comments? - Edit - I see now that mod comments are disabled for the Nexus page. - Edit - Looking through the Bug Tracker at the TES Alliance page didn't turn up anything (at least that I could see).

If it was Maskar's you may not see the cave in that spot again soon (or possibly at all) as it adds much of it's content dynamically via scripts. Hang onto that problem save ... it may come in handy if you do turn to get Maskar's help. I always add single mods and test thoroughly between mods. Takes longer than piling on a whole bunch at a time if everything goes off without a hitch, but if you run into a snag it's a trivial matter to figure out where to start troubleshooting.

Because of how Maskar's puts things into the game via scripts (as opposed to directly via the Construction Set) it will probably require another round of "coc center" to clear out anything that it has added to the game (which is then part of your save). If disabling Heart of the Dead didn't solve the issue I'd say your next move would be to get Maskar involved via the MOO mod comments (well provided my coc center idea doesn't get you over the hump ... and even in that case it would be beneficial to bring the matter up for Maskar's consideration).

Depending on whether or not it has incorporated/merged stuff into the patch from the mod can change it's behaviour when you are trying to disable a mod for testing. There is probably a best way to go about it, but my guess is that the best way will vary depending on the specifics of how WB has interacted with the mod you want to disable. I'm more like you ... try things until something works (I'm harking back to the first time I wanted to disable a mod that was merged and deactivated ... a "learning" experience).

You mention a cave along the road ... in the vanilla game there is no cave in that area so it will be something added by a mod. After reading the Heart of the Dead's mod description that would be the first one I would try disabling for a test run. If it turns out to be Maskar's (or related to a conflict with Maskar's) you are in luck ... I don't know of a single person who is better at figuring out a problem like this than Maskar (I would rate Maskar as far and away above wizard status).

I've noticed the same with Google Chrome ... have gotten into the habit of pasting the copied URL into Notepad first, then copy from Notepad to paste into my forum post. Yes it is a pain in the butt.

Next thing to try is the good old "coc center" trick. Open the console and type coc center and hit Enter. You will be transported to an open plain with some trees in the distance. Using the game Wait menu wait 72 hours plus a bit for good measure (so three full days and a bit). Open the console and coc GottshawInnExterior and hit Enter (which should bring you just outside the Gottshaw Inn). Make your way to the Brina Cross Inn and see if that makes any difference.

I noticed your alternate start after my last post, which rules out the Oblivion gate crew if you haven't yet started the main quest. You mention mage character ... are you trying to get to Anvil to pick up the Anvil Mage's Guild recommendation quest, or have you already got that recommendation quest and are trying to get to the Brina Cross Inn?

Don't see a bashed patch listed ... have you tried that yet? Note if you do that Maskar's needs to be below the bashed patch.

I don't recall ever getting a consistent crash at that location, but I have one that pops up from time to time as you approach Bravil (as you come down the hill that has the bandit spawn point at the top at the point the road turns to the SW and you will pass just west of the Zenithar Wayshrine). I have found that if I head towards Veyond Cave and then work down the shoreline to the fort ruins just east of the Bravil gate I don't crash. Quite often I will see an NPC headed up the road towards the IC. My theory is that the game gets all knotted up when trying to place that NPC on the road to the spot it has selected it should be according to it's AI schedule at the same time my character is entering that cell. By skirting around the cell I give the game a chance to get the NPC on his/her way without my characters calculations interfering (and note that I said theory). The spot that you are talking about has two regularly encountered NPCs ... the Blackhorse courier rider and the Legion patrol. In addition there is a random Oblivion gate that opens just west of Garlas Agea down the hill south of the road after you get to the top of the hill you speak of. There is a Legion rider with a dead horse and a Daedra that spawns on the road just north of the gate. Looking at the map that shows the game cell boundaries your path as you approach that spot has you outside the cell in question until you are almost up the hill. The Oblivion gate Legion rider and dead horse are almost to the west boundary of that cell. What I am proposing as a troubleshooting test is to leave the road just past the Gottshaw Inn (before you get to your crash spot) and head NW to the Ayleid well. From there make your way a bit north of due west (so NNW) to Lord Drad's Estate and then down the road that connects back to the main road. Come back towards the Brina Cross Inn and see if you find either the courier or regular Legion rider, or perhaps the Oblivion gate rider etc.

If you are going to use BOSS with the latest versions of Wrye Bash you will need to turn off Lock Load Order in WB and run BOSS using the BOSS desktop GUI shortcut. Support for BOSS was dropped by WB some time ago. For more information read the recent comments on the Wrye Bash mod page.

TES4Edit is the better tool for that.

What a mod includes has a large bearing on what you'll need to do when troubleshooting. If a mod only has an ESP often just disabling the ESP will suffice for troubleshooting purposes. Even mods that come with meshes and textures can sometimes just have the ESP disabled for testing provided they only include custom meshes and/or textures (i.e. resources that will only load via an ESP). If a mod includes assets that work as a simple replacer (via archive invalidation) then a complete uninstall is the only way to be certain you are troubleshooting without any effects from the mod.

The meaning of Wrye Bash's symbols can be found in section 5c of Wrye Bash General Readme.html (found in the Oblivion\Mopy\Docs folder). I have never found an instance where I needed to not follow WB's suggestions, except the one case where I was trying to get a mod I created to work alongside the UOP and a bashed patch (but in that case I knew exactly what I was trying to achieve as I was the one who created the ESP).

I would suggest a slight improvement to your method ... only use Wrye Bash to manage and install your mods. Use OBMM to extract any mods that come exclusively as OMOD to a folder. For complex mods use the OBMM install script as a guide if needed, but for most you can see the parts you will need to select just from folder names and the mod description. Move the required files and folders into an install folder you create, and then archive that and add your customised archive to the WB Installers.

I'm surprised that you are finding your machine is requiring Oldblivion. Back when the game was first released the fastest CPUs were slower than that. In fact Oblivion was one of the "ya, but can it run Oblivion" benchmarks for any new hardware on the CPU/GPU front for years after the game was first released. Your good old P4 has one advantage that newer CPUs don't have ... a nice short execution pipeline with minimal "well let's see if we can just predict what comes next" tom foolery. Such attempts at speeding things up only actually work under two scenarios ... if they are successful in their prediction, or are working on software that is aware and takes advantage of such attempts at prediction. With old software like Oblivion a wrong prediction results in the pipeline needing to be completely flushed and then refilled through as many stages as the pipeline contains (which can take multiple clock cycles) ... all the while any other pipeline that depends on the result of the flushed pipeline's output is left sitting idle, waiting for it's next input. What kind of results do you get with just the vanilla game (no OBSE or mods) on your hardware?

OK ... I'm going to be away all day tomorrow myself but will be back at it on Friday. Will this be a ready to use EXE or am I going to need to put on my learning cap and do some assembly myself? - Edit - Also, will I be able to accumulate my contribution over more than a single session or will I need to get a big block of time set aside? - Edit 2 - To all others reading this ... just think of how good your lockpicking game will be after something like this ... opportunity is knocking, don't get left behind!! :laugh: