I am starting a new playthrough...here are the mods I'll use

[MasterAub]

Tired of Skyrim, I want to see the white city again so I decided to start a new playthrough with a new character, a mage probably.

I don't want to have too many mods installed (25 max) and I want to keep it simple. However I still want to improve the look of the game (in order not to be too disapointed vs. Skyrim graphics) and to have some major mods installed mainly for gameplay reasons. Here is my list:

 

Tool Mods

Oblivion Mods Manager

Oblivion Script Extender

BOSS

 

Home Mod

Frostcrag Reborn

 

Quest Mod

The Lost Spire

 

Gameplay Mods

OOO v133

Deadly Reflex

Midas Magic

Sounds of Cyrodiil

 

Patch Mods

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

 

Graphic Mods

Oblivion Character Overall

Natural Environment

Waalx Animals & Creatures (W.A.C)

Animated Windows Lighting System & Chimney

Oblivion Graphic Extender

Alluring Potion Bottles v3

Really AEVWD

Enhanced Water v20

 

So despite the fact that I wanted to keep it simple I still have 19 mods lined up for installation. Let me know If there are unneeded ones or some I should consider. Make sure the mods you propose are "creme de la creme"...Remember I'll not go over 25 mods.

 

Thanks guys

Edited June 12, 2013 by MasterAub

[Lanceor]

It sounds like you have a reasonably beefy machine if you're planning to run RAEVWD, so I'll advise accordingly.

 

To improve the textures, Qarl's Texture Pack or Qarl's Texture Pack Redimized is often cited. Unique landscapes is another must-have if you want Cyrodiil to look gorgeous. I used OBGE Liquid Water rather than Enhanced water, but Liquid water is harder to install. Midas Magic and Frostcrag/Frostcrag Reborn are great choices for mage characters. Other than that, pick whatever mods catch your fancy!

 

I wouldn't worry about limiting the number of mods to 25 for performance reasons, but do install them one at a time otherwise you'll have weeks of headaches! Also, a fresh playthrough would be a good time to get acquainted with Wrye Bash if you aren't already.

[MasterAub]

Thanks Mate,

 

I do have a decent machine. Could not find the Qarl's Texture pack on the Nexus SIte (go figure). And I found the OBGE Liquid Water...so good advice...Thanks for your kind advice

[Oromish]

Copy/paste from graphics related mods from another post:

 

Graphics:

This one is a bit harder for me to answer, as I've mixed and matched so many different texture mods I lost count.

But QTP3 redmized is a good start.

I use a lot of ampolx textures. (especially his cave textures, which are amazing)

Amnes made mixed and matched a bunch of textures in his Landscape HD textures.

When it comes to land textures, it is your choice which you prefer. In my case: QTP as a base, then ampolx and lastly grass overhaul as I really enjoy his darker QTP grass textures.

Then you just need to find and add textures that aren't incuded in these, like for example textures like these:

Improved trees and flora 1 & 2

Alluring potion bottles.
Fire and Flames.
Septims.
Gothic Upperclass Clutter
Darooz upperclass.
Insanity's armoury textures.
Improved sky.
Art supplies.
Cloud ruler.
Oblivion Realm.
Arena HD.
Varla stones.
Clothes.
Mythic Animals.
Mythic Creatures.
Mythic Goblins and ghosts.
Mythic SI.
Book backgrounds.
Skulls & Iron.
Improved signs.
Unique signs.
Fruits & vegetables.
Sewers.

 

Extended lod:

Yes, RAEVWD is the best choice here. Maybe with this slapped on.

 

Water / trees / flora / animals:

During my last mod setup I've used Liquid water and I've not looked back. There is a performance hit, but I didn't notice much of it on my system. It is to me, worth the frames it does swallow up.

 

Magic effects:

I combine these two: 1 & 2 with duke patricks magic you can believe in on top.

Weapons - See above for insanity's armoury.

Take a look at OBGE and see what you like. (You need it for liquid water as well).

I personally only use: HLSLbleachbypass (0.5) CrysisDoF, God Rays and detailed terrain. (parts of it, I removed a few textures in favour of the darker grass overhaul)

 

Highly optional:

Unique landscapes. I personally would NOT play without these. They are really amazing and have spoiled me. However, I would disable the dark forest as it has caused me many issues and for me it made my game a lot more stable with not included. (Although I do like the dark forest, so it's a bit of a shame).

 

 

 

Optimisation:

For meshes you'll most likely have to do it yourself with pyffi 2.2.2.

Safe meshes folders (Architecture, Clutter, Dungeons, Furniture, Oblivion and Rocks - back up, move them to a folder, right click on it and choose "Optimize with pyffi, then place them back into DATA when it's done).

 

OSR - is extremely important.

Streamline - I only use it for streamsaves/streampurges

Oblivion crash preventer - Do NOT use. It will corrupt your game.

Clean up - prevents save game bloat

 

I recommend you clean most of your mods with TES4EDIT.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Oromish

[MasterAub]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to advise me and place me on the right track. i am checking all of your advice as I was not aware of most.

 

Thanks again.

[Oromish]

Out of curiousity, why the fear of going above 25? It will not in any way be more unstable with a few more. (Unless you bring out the big guns).

[MasterAub]

Out of curiousity, why the fear of going above 25? It will not in any way be more unstable with a few more. (Unless you bring out the big guns).

It's not so much about Fear of instability but more about Time constraint. You could spend days downloading / installing and fixing / cleaning your mods and unfortunately I don't have that kind of Time. By the way 25 is an indication, it can be a little bit more. The idea is to keep it as tidy as possible.

 

More over I've just made a speadsheet with all the mod I'll install and for each of them their internet link for download. Ones I've downloaded those mods, I'll keep them safe on my external drive just to make them handy. I'll do the same for Skyrim.

 

Last time I start from scratch... :wink:

[Oromish]

Ah yes, that is understandable, modding is really time consuming. :3

If you're interested in more mod suggestions take a look at the post I linked above and see if there's anything you find interesting.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Oromish

[MasterAub]

I've downloaded and installed almost all the WANTED mods. This evening I'll do the latest tweaks and hopefully will be able to start a playthrough. My character will be a mage, the race will be either the custom race from Drake the Dargon always wanted to play this one or an Argonian in case Drakes's mod give me headache at installation stage.

 

I've encounter problems with Open Cities, I guess I have yet to installed all the needed Patch. Where are those seperate esp by cities that used to be available? I'll try to make sure all the requested patch are installed and if it's still crash my game, I'll kiss Open Cities Good Bye...

 

By the way I've installed BOSS for the 1st time...if I understand correctly I just need to click on the launch icon and it provides me with a report, plus replaces the mods in the best way possible. Am I understanding it correctly?

 

Thanks for reading

 

I'll keep you posted on the progress

Edited June 17, 2013 by MasterAub

[Oromish]

Open cities reborn? It used to be modular at one point but it was probably too much work for Arthmoor keeping it that way as the mod grew. Only New Sheoth and imperial city is modular now. Uness you plan to use Better cities, keep Imperial city closed and maybe throw in ImpeREAL City - Unique districts (Textures: Darker regal city or Darker regal city redimized)

 

If you do experience any issues with crashing open cities (I've never managed to make that happen) post the load order and I can take a look.

 

Yes, it will sort the mods after its database, which is 90% of the time good enough. It will also attach bash tags to some mods so wrye bash knows what to do with them. Always run boss after you've added new mods.

As for "cleaning" reports, they're just that, reports only. You should always clean all your mods (Unless boss and/or the mod description tells you not to).