Mod Recommendations

[mezoya]

So I've owned this for the 360 for sometime now and it started to bore me. So I decided to buy the game for PC so I can play the game with mods, and hopefully have a better time in general. I was just wondering what mods you guys recommend that are not texture mods(I have a lower end laptop) . Any thing helps :smile:

Edited August 11, 2013 by mezoya

[Lanceor]

My standard response:

 

Everyone has their individual preferences so it's hard to recommend particular mods without knowing what you like.

 

I'd start with the Unofficial Patches as they fix a lot of bugs and annoyances that Bethesda had missed.

• The Unofficial Oblivion Patch
• The Unofficial Oblivion Patch Supplemental
• The Unofficial Official Mods Patch
• The Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

You'll need to have some way of sorting your load order:

• Better Oblivion Sorting Software - BOSS will auto-order most of the mods based on the collective experience of experienced mod users.

And to manually adjust the load order (pick one or more)...

• Nexus Mod Manager is the newest and allows automatic installation straight from Nexus. While his feature is handy, it is less reliable than manual installation.
• Oblivion mod manager is not as powerful as Wrye Bash (below), but is easier to use. It supports OMODs, a packaging method used by some mod authors.
• Wrye Bash is probably the most powerful load order manager and seems to be recommended by the most mod Authors.

Keep in mind that almost all complex mods require The Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) to function properly so make sure you have that installed if you download any mods that require it.

 

After that, browse around and pick whatever mods appeal to you. I'd suggest trying one or two simple mods first before attempting to install the mega-overhaul mods like OOO, UV or MMM (those acronyms will become familiar to you soon :wink:) Most mods have installation instructions that you should follow. You can check the Nexus Top 100 for the most popular mods, and filter it by category if you're after a particular type of mod.

 

If you haven't played through Oblivion though, many would suggest not adding new content until you've played Oblivion for a while and have an idea what would improve your gameplay the most.

 

Personal opinion: The only part of Oblivion that I think is "unplayably broken" is the default leveling system which forces you to play in odd ways if you want to maximise your character. So IMHO, a mod that alters the levelling system is something that I would recommend right from the beginning.

• All +5 Attribute Modifier or Attribute Plus X lets you use the default system without worrying about how many attribute points you'll get on level-up.
• Realistic Leveling and nGCD let you simply play the game and your attributes will increase automatically based on skills leveled.
• Oblivion XP gives a classic CRPG style leveling system: earn enough experience points to level up and spend your attributes as you see fit.

Have fun with the mods!

[mezoya]

Thank you!

[Oromish]

Here's a copy/paste mod list I wrote as a reply to another topic, you might find something useful here too.

 

Copy/paste:

Take a look at this post, there is some useful information there.

This is also worth taking a look at.

FCOM:

For the most up to date information, head over to the latest official thread, ask questions you might have there, or look at the previous threads.

 

It is correct that CBASH does not work very well with fcom, so you will have to use the normal bash option. (Simply, rebuild patch)

Use wrye bash 302.1 or 304.

 

Pictorial guide for Wrye bash.

 

You should perhaps take a look at Maskar's oblivion overhaul, it is light weight, highly customizable, and more or less fully compatible with FCOM or each of its seperate components. (It is actually compatible with pretty much everything out there due to its scripted nature)

(With OOO you should for example disable lock bashing and traps etc in MOO)

 

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

Enhanced Vegetation - I use the 125% option.

 

Alluring potion bottles.
Fire and Flames.
Septims.
Gothic Upperclass Clutter
Darooz upperclass.
Insanity's armoury textures.
Improved sky.

Brumbeks Sky Pack.
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.

Cooked steaks.

HiRes Hay Bail.

 

See Testg for more texture options.

 

Shaders:

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)

 

Extended lod:

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

 

Water

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.

As for other water mods it's all about what you prefer, search for "water" and see which you prefer. Here is a recent water mod.

 

Better player textures:

This all depends on your preference as well, perhaps take a look at the recent OCO in combination with HGEC body type.

 

Magic effects:

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

 

UL:

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).

 

Animation/idles:

Heroic female idle

Silver Ranger - Bow idle. Not needed if you use Combat Stance reanimation below.

DMC Stylish - if you prefer more anime like combat moves.

Natural walk

Personality idles - modified - would not play without this, the little it does, adds a lot of immersion.

Sensual walks - Varied walk animations for female NPCs.

Amazing jump or Stylish Jump

Combat Stance Reanimation - Unigender idles.

 

Immersion/random mods:

 

Enhanced Economy - Greatly improved economy.

Basic Primary need - hunger/thirst/sleep

Hud status bars - Useful for BPN above, and/or if you wish to have specific bars out.

Realistic health - Immersive shaders for when you get hurt/diseases.

Realistic Fatigue and/or Basic Physical Activities

COBL

Map marker overhaul

Dynamic Map

Phitts artifacts - Would not play without this. Hides interesting artifacts in dungeons

Crime has witnesses + Hear no evil + SM regional bounty

Morrowind lockpicking - Makes lockpicking much more like morrowind. (Note, it has issues with being jailed. You will not get a lockpick.)

Enhanced grabbing

Cava Obscura + Dungeon actors have torches - (These two are not needed if you use Maskar's oblivion overhaul)

No sneak eye - Permanently remove the sneak eye.

No enemy health bar - Permanently remove the enemy health bar.

Arena posters diversity - Have 10 different arena posters instead of just the one.

Cyrodiil travel services - if you dislike fast travel this is a must have.

Conduit Magic - Wish to be able to enchant your arrows with your known spells? Try this.

Alternative beginnings - lots of choices of starts.

Populated prisons - Adds prisoners to most prisons.

ALEX - Adds ayleid clutter to dungeons. Some are quite well hidden.

PWrunspeed - lowers the runspeed to be more like morrowind (direct link)

Average runspeed - Removes the running speed bonus from athletics.

Jump adjustment

Roads of cyrodiil - Especially great if you rarely use fast travel.

Better dungeons - Greatly enhances dungeons and makes them varied. A must have.

Tavern goers - adds all sorts of npcs to taverns.

CNRP - click on the authors profile to see all the projects.

Realistic physics and force - helps with the silly and immersion breaking physics.

Nephs Unique Thievery - hand places vendors unique items in the world so you can steal it. (Some are hidden).

Here's a tip - an npc helped you out? give him a tip!

At home alchemy - no more going into the inventory to brew potions

Leviathan Soulgems

More books teach - Adds more skillup to books that would make sense.

Skyrim ingredients

See you sleep DLL

Roleplaying Dialogues

Really immersive messages

Lore dialogue 300 updated

Something is not right

Better letters

Falling stars - Adds rare falling stars in the night sky. It's subtle, but very nice.

Sounds of cyrodiil

Atmospheric oblivion

Vaults of cyrodiil - Adds treasure vaults to each city. Good for thieves.

Jail break escape routes - adds new routes to escape through

Smash of the titans - From his un updated mod pack, makes very strong enemies and giants able to smack you around. (Already included in his combat overhaul.)

Magical Arrows - Adds visual magic effects to enchanted arrows (optionally, to poisoned arrows too.)

Fresh kills now alert the npcs

Near miss magic and arrows alert the target

 

Weather/dark nights:

All natural

Darker dungeons - see above for Cava obscura.

(Note: If you use maskar's oblivion overhaul you will not need cava obscura)

 

Indoors:

All natural above, combined with:

Immersive interiors + Immersive landscapes

 

Kvatch:

The kvatch rebuilt mod is hidden as of now, but Zaldiir is hoping to get the next version out soon.

 

Travelers:

Crowded roads is usually the popular response to this, however, it makes the roads much too crowded for my taste and drags the performance down all too much.

I use:

Tamriel Travellers

Roaming NPCs

Immersive travelers

Voila

Wandering encounters

And my own little mod with my previous characters as travellers.

As for city mods I cannot help, I don't really use any of those.

 

UI tweaks:

TQP - Updated

Keychain - Do not use this, it causes save game corruption, instead use the inbuilt function in Darn:

Dark UId DarN

Enhanced Hotkeys

Quest log manager - for sorting those annoying quests.

 

 

Stealth overhaul:

SDR - Look no further, this is the most advanced one and you can tweak it to great lengths.

 

Combat overhaul:

This depends on what you like, I currently use Deadly reflexes and duke patrick's combat archery, but if I were to reinstall I'd probably go for Duke patrick's melee combat instead of deadly reflexes (not because it is better as it is highly subjective, but because I've used DR during so many installs now) Duke Patrick's Melee combat goes for realism.

 

Magic Overhaul:

I'm currently not using any but these two combined is popular:

Supreme magicka + Lame

And duke patrick also got a magic "overhaul" here.

Not overhauls but still worth looking into:

Midas

Fearsome magicka - I very much enjoyed this last time I played as it made enemy mages very impressive and dangerous to fight. Trailer

 

City improvements:

Open cities are a must for me so I always go for open cities reborn + Unique Castles for OCR.

But there is also better cities which can be open and/or combined with OCR, but to me with all other heavy mods this gets too taxing and it is not worth it for me.

 

If you don't go for better cities, as it is included in it, take a look at ImpeREAL City - unique districts + Darker regal city or Darker regal city Redimized

 

 

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. (use the latest WIP)

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

Optimizer Textures - Safe to run on pretty much all textures. Just choose "minumum (safe)" and "oblivion". You might find the "resize if > 1024/512" option useful if you have a 1gb vram card or less.

 

I recommend you clean most of your mods with TES4EDIT.

 

 

Here are some more of the mods I use:

Alive waters - Adds wild life and vegetation to waters. (Looks pretty damn amazing with liquid water.)

AWLS - A must have really.

Book jackets - replaces the textures of books with some very nice looking ones. The ones that it doesn't catch Ampolx's textures above should catch.

display stats - displays more detailed stats

Drop lit torches OBSE

Migck Miscellaneous fixes

Adonnays Elven Weaponry for NPCs - Adds Adonnays amazing weapons to leveled lists.

Phinix dual-wielding imports - adds dual wield weapon sets to the leveled lists.

Armamentarium complete - adds TONS of items to the leveled lists

WEPON - adds even more items and item categories (mithril) to the leveled lists

Creature Diversity - more creatures! Plays fine with FCOM with bashed patch.

Arthmoor's villages - Adds and expands villages

Phitt's mudwater - Another village

Unique Forts - adds imperial forts, mainly for immersion

Auto potion - I hate having to use inventory during fights or hotkey potions, so I just set up automatic usage of potions.

Respawning varla and welkynd stone

Unequip broken armour - Unequips the armour when it breaks, just like with weapons.

Ayleid wells revamped - Gives you a permanent mana boost for each well you absorb.

Unholy darkness - excellent vampire overhaul, with usage of shaders.

Jpms vampire hunters - Adds a chance for vampire hunters to attack you while you sleep.

Active inventory spell

Refscope - mainly for troubleshooting

Skinned toned mannequins - For showing off your treasure.

Imperial Furniture Renovated - Buy some furniture for that player home!

Poison equipper - Toggle between poisons and add it to your weapon with hotkeys. (I bound mine to the arrow keys)

Oblivion XP - Makes levelling up more like old school rpgs.

Repair kits - Might be useful with oblivion XP.

AV uncapper + config files - Uncaps skills and gives bonuses.

Duke patrick's nosferatu - makes vampires a bit harder to fight

Ayleid steps - Very fun and random quest/dungeon mod

Kragenir's death quests - Tons of both large and small quests added to the world.

Tears of the fiend - excellent quest mod with choices

Integration - well integrated quests with emphasis on choices and your character stats

House Valranis - I've not had time to play this through yet, but it seems promising so far.

Dark Brotherhood Chronicles - Continues after the DB quest line, and is fully compatible with Whispered warning. (Alternative)

Reset the blood Decale Variable

My voice extender - Gives the player character personality, the character will comment during specific events.

Classic books - Adds 70 classic stories. Not very lore friendly, depending on how you choose to view it.

Enchantment restore over time - Enchanted items restores over time.

The Arsenal - Even more weapons to the leveled lists.

Lightweight potions - Automatically reweights player made potions (and other potions optionally)

Less predictable respawn - Randomize respawn time of dungeons.

Break into the arcane university

Guild Betrayal

Fast exit - Remove the error that appears when exiting heavily modded games.

Deadlier Creatures - Watch the video to see why you want this.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Oromish