DigitalTemerity

This is a very frustrating thing. Why on earth did the developers of Vortex not automatically enable the DLC esm files for Oblivion? I understand that not everyone has them, but it isn't that hard to find them. All of them start with DLC and none of the mods start with those three letters so it's a cakewalk to pick them out. I don't want to pick on someone else's work especially someone who volunteered their time to build a tool like Vortex. It's a fantastic tool. It sorts your mods for you. It doesn't get better than that! This really blew my mind however. A notice somewhere on the mod screen instead of saying it can't find the DLCs it could've said "Enable the Plugins for any plugins inside the Data folder before you start" or something like that and I would've had a clue. Thanks to posts like this one and such a kind and understanding modding community and I'm able to usually figure out what I'm doing wrong. I suppose it's unrealistic to expect them to make it any simpler, but it causes intense frustration. On a side note - despite all the warnings that it can't find the DLCs Vortex will install an entire collection of mods (over 300 that work together without issue) and run the game with only one issue which was that OBSE wouldn't launch. I just made a few attempts and it finally worked. Truthfully I don't remember what I did to get it to work. Most likely I Googled it just like this problem. Google is your friend. DigitalTemerity Don't hate me. I'm just being honest about the frustration. Okay I'm going to make a confession here. Anyone who has ever modded an older game ever should have enough common sense to check and see if all the plugins are enabled. So I'm just an idiot.

Can you run the Unofficial Morrowind Patch and the Morrowind Code Patch at the same time or will they cause conflicts with each other? Seems like they shouldn't since the Code Patch modifies Morrowind.exe while the UMP modifies other files. Guess I will find out one way or the other, but thought it was worth asking.

This is was so obvious I'm embarrassed to even post this, but it may help somebody out, so here it is. The Data files are not packaged properly in the archive. You have to open the Data Folder and then there is another folder in there you have to open to get to the Data files. Go in there, copy the folders and files, and paste them in your Morrowind/Data folder and MGE/XE will work. If you don't do that MGEXE_gui.exe crashes whenever you try to do anything obviously. It takes a rocket scientist I guess.

I ran it, but it didn't find any dirty edits. Is there some other suggestion you have?

I really wanted Better Cities to work, as I have heard what a great mod it is. If so many people get it to work just fine I must be doing something wrong. I followed the directions carefully just as will my working mods. I don't understand, but I have read other posts where other people have had similar trouble getting Better Cities to work with their setup. I'm sure it is a conflict, but don't know how to find the afflicting mod. Is there a way for Wrye Bash to pin down what mod is conflicting with Better Cities or is that mod buggy for some reason?

I stand corrected. It does identify every ESP that is linked to that ESM or ESP you unchecked, but if you want it removed from your install you can't just uncheck it. You have to uninstall it.

Wrye Bash has a nice feature I just discovered. If you need to eliminate a mod to see if it is causing your game to hang all you need to worry about unchecking is the ESM file. Bash will automatically disable every ESP file that depends on that mod.

I took your advice and am managing my mods strictly with Wrye Bash. Things are going a lot smoother. Thanks for the suggestion.

One quick question on Wrye Bash edits: Following installing another mod and having to remove a mod to make a repair for some reason, should I recheck the unchecked ESPs? I want them in the patch if they need to be.

I probably should've mentioned that since you are running the Steam version of Oblivion you will have problems getting OBSE to work. It used to work properly with the Steam interface, but it no longer works. I ended up purchasing a copy from GOG. That copy is working fine. OBSE has a special launcher just for GOG. OBSE will provide instructions in its readme about how Steam is supposed to work, but it won't. @DrakeTheDragon thanks for the explanation on Wrye Bash. That should help out a lot.

That would probably help some; because keeping track of two different mod installers is complicated. I've gotten used to it though after trial and error enough times. I pretty much always get it right now.

Another thing to remember is to keep an eye on what is checked off in Wrye Bash. After you build your Bash Patch you may find that it unchecked some of your plugins for no apparent reason, and you have to recheck them. BOSS still ordered them right if you followed the right steps, so they work. It just appears to be some glitch with Wrye Bash. OBMM objects to it when you uncheck certain plugins, but it will still allow you to do it, and in many cases you are supposed to check say only one of a few options. Don't be afraid to uncheck plugins in OBMM.

If only it were that simple, but it isn't. You will find that some mods only have OBMM setup files. So for those you have to use OBMM. Vortex can decompress the files and install every option, but it doesn't have the ability to run the wizard scripts for OBMM, so it doesn't work with Oblivion. Some files will not install with OBMM either and you have to resort to Wrye Bash. It's difficult because you have to make sure anything you have checked off in OBMM is also checked off in Wrye Bash. It it isn't CTD most likely. Also for every mod you install you need to run BOSS, clean your mods with TES4Edit, and then rebuild your Wrye Bash patch. Otherwise you have no idea which mod is crashing the game. I do my mods one at a time like that. It's very slow going, but that's what you have to do. Always download manually never with mod manager because most of the files are not set up for a mod manager. Unzip the files and see what's inside, and then you know how to install it. That's the only way to know. On occasion the mod author makes it easy, but rarely did they back then. You had to know a lot more about modding then you do with Skyrim to get it to work. This link should help you out: http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Basic_guide_to_optimizing/modding_Oblivion.

I don't think it was PayPal that contacted me to let me know the donation had been accepted. I think it was Nexus.

I asked about this in another thread. I donated to 5 mod authors, because I appreciated how they updated their mods to match Bethesda's constant unnecessary updates, so they can make money with the Creation thing. These mods are required too for any other mods to work. I can't play without them. If everybody on here donated to a couple authors once a month it would add up. We all appreciate their work, but actions speak louder than words imo. However, of the 5 I sent out I only got one mod author that actually accepted the donation. I receive a notice when they accept it. That means I sent money to 4 authors that haven't even accepted the donation. I find that really frustrating.