tl;dr: where to start/which utilities I need/things I should know to make a successful install? + few mod questions Hello, years ago I played a modded Oblivion and I remember all the wonderful adventures with ground made of void, forests of yellow question marks, books shooting me in the face upon entering stores, guards following me around when I did nothing bad (only meant to), and crashes, crashes, crashes... :) I thought, maybe I should ask what's new nowadays and if there is some place with general tips "start like this" to avoid those pleasures this time around. I remember I need BOSS (got it), Wrye Bash for bashed patch (got it, don't remember much what it was about, but I'll figure it out if it's still needed), and I got NMM. Do I need something else? Also, what can't I install with NMM? I'm already bumping into fishy issues and I haven't even begun... I've downloaded a bunch of mods yesterday and today, I didn't install anything but the unofficial patches for now, but each time I run NMM it gives me a long list of plugins that it cannot load. It also refuses to download a few mods (like OOO or Operation Optimiziation - is that normal? Can I just get them manually or is this a sign of trouble?) Also, how do I add mods that aren't downloaded via NMM (no such option for some :() to NMM? Should I use NMM for all the ordering and all, or do I need the OBM thingie? But I also remember a bunch of cool things, that I think might've changed since. If someone would be so kind as to update me on: 1. There was a trick, I believe it involved console, that allowed to copy any static object from the world and place it somewhere else. For the life of me I can't remember what it was about, but it was a decorator's heaven. Did it have something to do with the 'Decorator's Assistant' mod too? Because I have a feeling it was another kind of animal... 2. I used to play with my favorite leveling system. I dug through the mods and I believe it was KCAS (sounds familiar). I was using the Nexus path which basically allowed to play as if I didn't have a class, the only thing that mattered was which skills I was using. Now it seems that KCAS is not updated and deprecated. Is there something I could use instead of it that I could customize to my liking? 3. Would you recommend some pretty and well-working race? I used to always pick Ainmhi, but it seems abandoned, I'm not sure if it would work with all the other new good mods that replace skin textures etc. Would hate to miss out on those (almost as much as having to play as a boring old Breton!) 4. I remember that time ago I was cleaning and merging some plugins - is it still something that needs to be done? 5. I also recall making FCOM Convergence work without MMM? (I think... I think I concluded MMM was too difficult, but maybe it was one of the other mods there? I don't remember...) Some mods require FCOM to function at all (the master), but is this still a recommended thing to do/use? I mainly want a leveled game, I think OOO does it on its own, but then again, maybe not fully? What is the recommended course of action when it comes to this? Man, I can't remember anything and the more I read about all these mods the more confused I get... :( Sorry for the big post. I's SO confusing to start modding these games (Oblivion/Skyrim) without the knowledge of all the bits around and going by some old preconceptions...