MarkInMKUK

Any citizen seeing you breaking and entering will, by default, inform the guards too. Only B&E when unobserved by npc's. ALSO:- by default several animal types notice you break in and the guards know because of that (Shades of Rin-tin-Tin and Champion the Wonder Horse there). In the Wrye Bash "Bashed Patch" build options there is a setting to make animals into "dumb" animals that can's send the guards a sworn written statement and won't testify against you in court, hence the guards don't get informed!

... usually about mudcrabs ... ugly little things, aren't they?

Changing your monitor to a 120Hz one won't make any difference if the game itself isn't producing frames that often. The two recommendations missing from the above as far as I can see are (1) defrag the drive completely (I use 'Defraggler' on a daily basis) and (2) check your antivirus isn't doing an "on file access" scan on the Oblivion and OBSE processs - as they both open dozens of data file this can cause major stutter when hitting a new area or anyplace where activity or animation changes for some reason (switching to combat for instance involves several animation files being opened (and scanned), plus music files opened (and scanned), plus any sound effect files opened (and scanned) - if you are fighting more than one opponent it involves a LOT of scanning). Finally, as it's Windows 7: (3) stick a fast pen drive into a slot and use it for Readyboost - that may well help. (4) Try the 3GB memory patch, as vanilla Oblivion doesn't actually USE memory very well - you may find it makes an improvement.

Double check the BOSS listing for files which are non-compatible. An example that I would check carefully is the combination of Mart's Monster Mod.esm and Mart's Monster Mod for OOO.esm , as it may be that you should only have one of thesze activated at any given time. that kind of thing can cause crashes especially where the two modules both try to do similar things in the same place.

OK, so a summary of my understanding of the recommendations above is: start with whichever mod it is that makes npc's actively search for you if they come across a body (this being the sort of alertness I am after), and trigger that behaviour if they are within a certain radius of the door/gate you open, with a distance modifier based on your stealth rating? Add a time-out for the searching behaviour (basic time-out since noise, plus a random amount to make it less obvious) and it would start to be pretty much what I was aiming for I think. Now all I have to do is learn enough to work out how to do it. At least no-one said "No, it's impossible"! BTW, are the "Hello, who's there?" queries just random in the game, or are they specifically triggered by something (proximity + movement + sneaking)?

I tend to play sneaky characters 0 a stealthy approach, a shot from concealment, etc. What I'm wondering is whether there is a way to make npc's respond to sounds, such as opening doors or gates (think the nasty screeching iron gates in the tutorial sewers), and then a way of adding noise-removers to the game (oil can to oil hinges, etc). It's always seemed odd that nothing responds to a screeching gate, yet you can be spotted through a pile of logs in near darkness visually. Any suggestions?

Regarding the bone structures in lizard legs, at the moment I think the cosmetic improvements are enough to make Argonians "feel" more right, without massively adding to the modder's work load. Obviously having a more reptilian hip/leg/foot shape would be ideal, but that would drastically increase the required mesh alteration work, as all of the lower body stuff would also need to be revised and scripted to change. The same comment more-or-less applies to cat bone structures and the Khajiit. My cat at home often pops up onto his hind legs to look at something or to cadge food, and if you based a Khajiit on his proportions you'd need to stretch the body to about 50-60% longer, and reduce the legs accordingly. Whilst being more anatomically correct, it would probably look VERY odd in-game. As regards the download of Drake's mods - I have re-grabbed them and checked with two virus checkers, and they are valid and virus/malware free. I strongly suspect the poster with problems has got another underlying error which caused a crash, possibly an earlier version of the archive extraction program which doesn't fully support the archive format, or possibly trying to extract to a system-protected area (Vista and Win7 have all sorts of quirks related to that problem).

Just to toss in my usual comments - do you have a separate sound card (helps with sound-related stuttering), and have you either turned off antivirus or at least turned off "on access scanning" - the antivirus in particular will knacker fps on Oblivion as it is continually accessing dozens of files.

Also check your antivirus. By default a lot of programs are set to "scan on file open" - with a program like Oblivion which continually accesses data files that's a real recipe for stutter. Set it up to ignore the Oblivion and OBSE processes except for the main scan (after all, you DO still want to check for viruses - just not while trying to play). Check your CPU speed - a fast single core will easily outperform a slower dual or quad core FOR OBLIVION - it's a single process program and as such it doesn't make much use of the extra cores, just needs raw GHz. Also try the Quiet feet mod - footfalls can really screw your speed up if you are using an integrated sound card.

Try Growlfs Body Resizing Mod - it uses variable skeletons to adjust heights

Windows 7 install - WHERE did you install Oblivion? If it's the default place, under c:\Program Files, that will stop many things working, possibly including patching the executable. In any case, Look up bben46's uninstall/reinstall guide, use that as a guide to clear up any saved information like registry entries and ini files/save games, and move the installation to c:\Games\Oblivion before trying any other tinkering. Generally, if the official patch for SI won't work, then you need to fix that before trying every other mod under the sun - if your car has a flat tyre, adding bolt-on spoilers and go-faster stripes won't help it move any better.

A few comments: Where in Cyrodiil do you want to put this castle/town? You'll need to make sure it integrates with the landscape wherever you site it, so that's an important decision. Compatibility with things like Better Cities and Unique Landscapes is also an important point. Transport doors - you'll need to define each and every place they end up, as you would presumably want them to work in reverse too (it could be a long walk back otherwise), so pick unused doors in each and every destination - or every destination without a door will need to have one added. Portal to the SI - you therefore have to make it dependent on SI being installed - or have to have a handler than scripts things to that connection doesn't even TRY to exist for a non-SI setup. NPCs - define EXACTLY what each one is doing every day for a week - the modders will need that information to write AI scripts. To define this mod well enough for someone(s) to take it on, you're going to need to put in a lot of work yourself. Draw up your castle plans and town plan, work out where each and every passage goes from/to, design walls that would be thick enough to fit a passage into, think about relative heights of structures, think about where water will come from for the moat, etc. As you're thinking of a dock, maybe a self-contained new island would be sensible, just off the coast - but then where do you get fresh water from? You have umpteen NPCs so you need to define each one properly - where they live, what they do, who they talk to, where they walk and at what times of day. Otherwise you might as well have a heap of console codes to do the npc functions and save several man-months of work.

If you find yourself tinkering with mods a lot, give mTES4 a try for the inevitable reinstalls. You can easily run multiple configs and setups, and try new mods without borking your current installation

"You have my ear, citizen. My specs keep falling off now!"

Pure speculation follows (unless someone out there HAS tried it)- If you spend a LOT of time on it, you MIGHT be able to rig full suits of armour into both the lower and upper body slots, and make one of them sit "over" the other one. However, I don't know whether it's ever been tried, and it may take a LOT of work. The outer armour would have to always be bigger than any possible "inner" armour, so you'd have to rescale every suit of outer armour, AND do some clever scripting so that if it was on the top half it would be "standard" mesh size, and on the bottom would be "bigger" mesh size.

That sounds like a mod order problem. If it used to soom, and now doesn't, then something else may be using the same hotkey. Look at the mods you have, and see if any of them have alternate hotkey assignments.

Suggestion - given the original Shivering Isles cover art, how about armour which is flesh coloured and covered with distorted screaming faces, possibly with stitched-up gashes and cuts on them? Add solid black eyes like an Iron Maiden cover art, or a fractal pattern on the eyes, or something equally disturbing... Then add bits of torture equipment or vicious looking piercings a little like the "Lord of the Rings" Orcs...Add a blood-coloured wet-looking background to the faces, and maybe hair still attached to the faces... and that'll be plenbty disturbing and mad.

LHammonds - true, it IS fantasy related - but I'd STILL prefer my sword not to break if something got snagged wrong... :(

Nice screenshot - mysterious and hinting at things to come. I can't mod myself, but I'm looking forward to a playable version

If you have the Direct2Drive version you will have problems with some mods, especially those which use ONSE as it won't run with the D2D version of Oblivion. You may do well to buy the full Game of the Year version, or the Steam Deluxe version, and follow the recommended install guides (especially if on Vista or Windows 7)

Did you also install the unofficial official mods patch?

Hi Razorpony - I guess it's true! I also get twitchy about many of the armours people upload - they often seem to be designed to guide a sword to the most painful or damaging bits of the wearer's anatomy. I'm too much of an engineer for my own good, perhaps.

I agree with Razorpony - they are "cool looking" swords. However, if they were real swords, with three of them you'd be adding in features which would render them either awkward or potentially breakable in use. Referring to the image above: Top row, left-hand sword: The blade would have two almost inevitable break points, at the point where the blade narrowed to half width, and again where it returned to full width. The saw-tooth effect between those two points would be a further source of weak points, and would be a swine to manufacture, and especially to clean. The change in width would also snag on armour badly, and the sawtooth area would hang up on cloth and leather. Top row, third sword and bottom row: The pointed areas on the blade would produce a potential fracture above each point. They would also tend to "hang up" in on opponent, snagging on bones, leather, cloth and armour, leaving you unable to defend against a second opponent. The hilt designs, however, look very functional, and the styling on the pommel and guard look perfectly ok to me. Maybe restore the full blade width on the first sword, and try a Flambergé effect along the edge of the other two sword blades rather than the points.

I think we've established that there's no obvious existing ruin you can use. Therefore you, or someone else, is going to have to create it from scratch. Time for some planning to define the scope of work. First, draw a map of your proposed ruin. Then work through your plot, marking on it all of the points you NEED to have accessible, and see just how much of it needs to be accessible, and how much can be "seen but inaccessible" or "totally inaccessible but there by implication". If your mod planning is done well, you could probably get away with a map. and maybe 15-20% of the structure needing to be built, plus a large area which is enclosed by accessible parts but inaccessible (it's a ruin - think blocked passages and rubble , tree roots, gates that are jammed, etc.) Think about how you would build it if you were filming it, and how many bits you would actually NEED to make to convey the entire impression. Also many cities or built structures are repetitive - how many identical-built houses does a typical town have, or how many identical office rooms in a tower block. Finally, think levels - several levels and having to move from one to the other can give the impression of a very extensive place, for the addition of very few extra cells. Once you have your proposed plan broken down that way, look for parts which can be used to fulfil those required areas. How many "great halls" do you need, and can you "borrow" the layout of an existing ruin to get the great hall, maybe moving just entrances and exits to make it unique. Staircases are also very generic - see what you can re-use. Also bear in mind lower sections may be flooded, and have roaming slaughterfish, thus reducing access to those areas at first. By breaking a massive job down into manageable bits, you can make the mod gradually, get people to play test it "as far as you can go", then expand the area in an update as you build more sections. You are far more likely to find modders who will make an individual custom area to fit a known map, as opposed to ones willing to spend months making a city-sized mod to a very vague overall plan. Good luck!

If you are using an on-board sound chip, you might also try a separate sound card. The "Quiet Feet" mod helps a lot, especially with integrated cards, but moving the sound off the motherboard reduces the strain still further. Also, if you do a bit of digging around, there's a problem with EAX sound on Windows 7 (it's not natively supported) but some of the card manufacturers have released patches/new drivers to allow EAX to work, and if you select a card with an available patch it can improve in-game sounds a lot.