MarkInMKUK

You might want to have a browse on the "Proper" Khajiit and Argonian Bodyshapes/Animations thread too - while not specifically changing the main textures, we ARE changing the foot meshes and so a set of your textures to suit what we are doing would be very relevant. Remember also that to maximise downloads you need to support several different male and female body replacers, with options to suit each. Having a range of Argonian body colours would be nice, certainly, and green skin ifs very traditionally lizard-like, but think about what range of colours you'd get with the colour changers on the RaceSelect menu - make sure that you can still get a range from the yellows and oranges of some desert lizards through to the bright colours of some tropical ones- after all, there are anvironments of most types across Cyrodiil and the argonians should reflect that. As for the Khajiit - the more "big cat" variants the better. The Skyrim trailer shors a much more tiger-like one, so maybe that would be a good choice. Head mesh may need some work though.

"All things in moderation" :)

So... (1)The four weapon types are Sword / Bow / Axe / Staff? (2)Within Sword and Axe types there are one-hand and two-hand variations...? (3)...amd off-hand weapons are, in fact, fudged shields using a mirrored animation of the main animation for that weapon type? (4)Also, extra animations can be created and substituted/added, but only to the existing weapon classes. OK - so, leaving aside the complex problem of decent motion capture-based animations for new weapons for the moment, and the complexity of the scripting involved to reliably switch weapon types for specific equipped items, in theory, you could create: (a)Throwing weapons as a form of bow, with an invisible bow and quiver, and the thrown weapon as a type of arrow? (b)Crossbows as a variety of bow, with revised quiver? ©Pole weapons as staff variants. Dual wield would depend on some way of making a shield cause damage, but then would be limited (again) by animation as you'd want a proper "dual" movement not two separate left-then-right animations. There is, of course, hand-to-hand combat, and an arguement to say that knife/dagger fighting should be grouped with that in style, apart from when throwing the dagger. And dual-dagger fighting styles mainly for the arena. Or have I gone off and barked up the wrong tree, possibly in entirely the wrong forest? Speaking of the arena, there was also a net used in place of a shield in one standard gladiatorial costume - another custom animation I guess.

My limited understanding is that there is a limit to the number of types of weapon in Oblivion, and further to this, some kind of limitation on how you can contort or change this limit to add new items. There are also dual wield mods, and new wepon types such as muskets and crossbows, but no pole-based weapons or throwing weapons. Can some one please explain - in words of close to one syllable - what the limits are, and what the restrictions on stretching those limits cover. Also are any of these limits or limitations changed by the use of OBSE?

I love the new dog :)

Yes, that's the whole point. The Unofficial Patch Supplementals are set up to work for the Vanilla game, the MOBS ones are set up to change values to suit MOBS.

157 GB - but I'm cheating - that's the total across five installations using mTES4 Manager - one basic setup, one FCOM based, one my "realism" setup, one for testing mods generally, and one for Nehrim total conversion. Another installation will soon appear for the MERP total conversion...

What you COULD do is upload a suggested list of music and artists for each location, with suggested names to rename each track to. Also add a link to the file specification conversion info. If someone chooses to use any or all of your information to add music to their own game, then they have to have the music themselves first.

Before you do much modding, make sure your copy of Oblivion is installed away fronm the Program Files folder if you use Vista or Windows 7 - User Account Control is the kiss if death for mods. There's a handy utility called mTES4 Manager which allows you to clone your Oblivion installation - ideal for trying out mods you may not like and then have the hassle of uninstalling - with mTES4 manager you just delete the copy with the unwanted mod and make another copy of your master installation. As far as mods go, two of the best "big quest" mods are Lost Spires, and Integration: The Stranded Light. Neither gives you stupidly uber-weaponry, and both keep you occupied for ages. And much of the stuff on THIS site is worth a look - all categorised.

The lag will probably be fine IF you are the only one with a fancy glowing weapon. Add a group of eight Sith Zombies with dual-ended light-sabre-quarterstaffs, though ... :(

Who fancies working on "Oblivion II: The REAL Cyrodiil"? More seriously, yes, it could turn into a mammoth undertaking, at least the size of Nehrim (although there should be far more re-useable if we stuck with remaking the landscape in which the Oblivion game was played to suit our infrastructure, rather than redesigning everything from the ground up (and down). I'm keeping an eye on Vox Populi (the mod formerly known as The Evolving Society Mod) to see what they come up with too.

Worth checking ALL of your load order using BOSS - only alter the suggested order if you really have to in order for a specific mod to override another one.

If you mean you are right-clicking in Wrye Bash and selecting "Mark Mergeable" - that doesn't make a mod mergeable. All that does it indicate to you which ones ARE mergeable. The idea is to hightlight ALL the mods and use that function to indicate ALL of the mereable ones. Assuming the mod in question IS mergeable, something to check: Load order - the mod in question MUST come ABOVE the bashed Patch in the listing in Wrye Bash when sorted by load order.

The nearest I can see already made is a Mountain Lion companion mod. There is a modders resource with a "proper" lion in it, so maybe the two could be combined.

Grab Blender from HERE along with any other utilities you need

Thoughts on infrastructure. If we are to aim for a realistic "world" in Oblivion, then every item we see in the game must be traceable to a source. Ultimately that source may be physical, or magical, or a combination, but at some point someone or something has to have created it. So, what is needed to create (picking an example at random) a pair of boots? The following items spring to mind for me, please add any I've forgotten. Shoe manufacture: - Shops (at least two - one making lower class footwear and one making upper class) - Tools - NPC Cobblers -- NPC apprentices - Transportation of finished shoes to clothing stores in other cities Leather: - Animal Hides - usually a combination of cow and pig skin. Boots maybe made from monster hides sometimes as they are tougher? -- Farming?/Hunting? - Tanning process -- Wood for fires --- Logging -- Chemicals --- Chemical production facilities ---- Chemical collection facilities - Dying process -- Wood for fires --- Logging -- Chemicals --- Chemical production facilities ---- Chemical collection facilities ---- Water Nails: - Forge -- NPC Blacksmith --- NPC apprentice - Forge equipment -- Anvil -- Hammers -- Bellows -- Tongs - Raw material (Iron) -- Iron Bars --- Transportation from Ironworks - Water (for power too) Ironworks: - Smelter/Furnace(s) - Iron Ore - Slag - Coal -- Mining - Charcoal -- Charcoal Burners --- Logging - Water Transportation: (resource mod exists) - Horse - Wagon - NPC Driver Logging industry: - NPC Workers - Tree felling (?animation) - Horse pulling log from wood to track animation) - Accommodation (Camp/huts) I'm sure the list is far longer, but I'm trying to build up an idea of what we would need to add to Oblivion to make it represent the "real world" more closely. Much of this infrastructure would also be common to other tasks such as glass-making or weaving or building. Anything that can't be made in Cyrodiil needs a source - probably import via trade ports. But what can Cyrodil export? Did Rome export stuff, or just rule? If we want to add mining - what is Cyrodiil's underlying geology? What kinds of rocks do we find, and where? Morrowind was obviously volcanic, so rocks would have been ingeous, probably basaltic in type. Cyrodiil, however, is more likely to be sedimentary and then "crumpled" to form most of the height changes, and areas such as Elsweyr (desert) are probably either becoming, or eroding from, sandstone. However, Cyrodiil MAY have had a volcanic past, with volcanic peaks parallel to the coast overlying a subduction zone (like Japan or the Pacific coast of America). Thoughts and additions please. especially modders resource links to see what is already created, and what has yet to be even attempted.

I run All Natural with another mod called Real Lights - as well as its stated mode of operation it seems to compensate for that quite well as I'd never noticed it. Of course, it could be disabling the bloom effect totally - I've not checked. On the other hand, it may end up TOO dark for you.

There is the usual proviso on reinstalling Oblivion - regenerate the Oblivion.ini file to suit the new hardware. Also, any utility programs such as OBMM need to be installed on the new system.

You might want to have a browse through http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/369104-keeping-it-real/ as well, every time I find someth9ing which strikes me as "unrealistic" it comes up on that topic, and please feel free to plunder it for ideas.

Yes, I thought of Legolas and the arrow-through-an-eyeslit instantly when I saw the comment. However, a spontaneous use of one arrow as an improvised stilletto and a whole eange of arrow-based substitute weapons are two rather different things. I also thought of DC Comics "Green arrow" and his range of specialist arrows for different jobs. However, I believe that the alternate use for a bow might be eaier to create in practice, BUT ... we're banging into the limitations on new weapon classes built into Oblivion. The bow IS already an off-hand weapon, looked at one way, so it MIGHT be doable using something like the Defensive staves mod and a very ingenious modder.

Reviving the realism thread a bit: I've been watching a documentary series from 2003 about Landscape Mysteries in Britain. One item covered was the Yorkshire coast around Whitby, where the cliffs and rocks show mysterious traces of ruts and masonry. Apparently there was a massive local industry, now long defunct, which modified the whole of the landscape, to the tune of 25 million tonnes of rock being shifted. The industry? Dying cloth! Had you ever wondered why the richer characters wore brighter clothing than the poor, generally? Had you ever wondered WHY we refer to some strong, vibrant colours as "rich"? The answer lies in the middle ages initially, and the "sumptuary" laws, where it was decreed which social classes could wear which colours and qualities of cloth. Part of the process of creating bright, vibrant colours is a substance being used as a "mordant". This pre-prepares the cloth to take the dye, and makes the colour added more "fast", so that it does not fade or wash out so easily. During the middle ages, Britain's biggest export was cloth, and pre-died cloth would fetch a far higher price than raw undyed cloth. A commonly used mordant in the late 1500's and early 1600's was Alum, imported from Italy and Bengium or even further afield at great expense. Then a Yorkshire land owner noticed that the shales outcropping on his land were similar looking to the shales used to extract alum in Belgium, and Britain's first mass chemical industry was born. Outcroops of the same shale were discovered along the coast, where erosion had worn away the surface of the cliffs. Vast open-cast mineworkings were created to remove the shale, then to cook it (calcination) for nine months, and then various other processes, before the Alum could be shipped by sea to other areas of Britain. And the same ships taking the Alum away were bringing in processing materials - coal from Newcastle to the north, and stale urine from London to the south. This got me thinking even more than usual; about the lack of infrastructure in Oblivion. Why are the numbers of rich and poor so similar? Where is the labour force needed to sustain the upper classes? Why is there no trading at ports, bringing in goods for manufacturing? I guess it's a compliment to the quality of the game that ideas of adding in an infrastructure even occur to people. And with the tools the modding community has developed, some of that infrastructure could be added. But is Cyrodiil big enough? What kind of infrastructure could such a small (relatively speaking) area sustain? And which parts of infrastructure should be added first? Feel free to comment - I'm fascinated by the whole idea and would love to explore the whole concept some more.

Alternatively could a bow be used as a quarterstaff?

Suggestion - move the whole kit and caboodle from c:\Program files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion to c:\Games\Oblivion (Guide HERE). that will stop Windows assuming everything you do is a virus attack and preventing it. Uninstall and reinstall any modding utilities , ideally in the same Games directory, so that you can update those easily too. Then try everything again. It should have lost all the "virtual" bugs

@obmike - if you are seeing seams at hands and feet with the EVE mod in place, something is wrong, as those seams should be invisible. The only place I've noticed seams on the wrists since I dropped a stock replacer onto my HGEC body is in the tutorial cell, as for some reason the stock replacer didn't include the initial sackcloth shirt and stuff.

As the aim is NOT to actually PLAY the game as such, what I would suggest is: Grab mTES4 Manager from the nexus and clone your current Oblivion setup. That way you can carry on playing as well. Stick on Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, some of the big expansion mods such as Elsweyr Anequinae which add vast new worldspaces. Install Weather - All Natural Install QTP3 and every other eye-candy mod you fancy trying out. Natural Vegetation is useful too. Some of the Night Sky replacers make gorgeous eye candy. Wander around and check out the new scenery. Be prepared to use the kill command a lot in some areas as you may get such awful frame-rate droop that you HAVE to kill the swines before they get close. Use one of the "add your own markers" map mods to set links to favourite locations. And then screenshot away happily. If you make a new clone after every mod you decide you want to keep, you can revert easily if you dislike a mod - just wipe it and re-clone.