Adding a new mod makes the game not start (Help please)

[phatpigeon]

I had a problem yesterday where after enabling the drow race mod through OBMM, I couldn't get the game to load all the way. It would say loading and lock up at the start of the loading. After much trial and error to discover it WAS the drow race (I had added about 10-15 others since the last time I started) I got the game working again. But NOW, if I try to enable ANY new mod, the game will exit without any error message immediately after I start. I can enable and disable the mods I've had for a while (at least 50 of them, maybe 75; mostly armor/weapon, body and race mods so far), but no matter how small it is, if I try to install a new one I get this problem. Can anyone help?

 

Thanks in advance.

[dezdimona]

General Load-Order Guidelines

Here are the guidelines that I adhere to, personally.

 

~ Unofficial Oblivon Patch should always be first on the list. The fixes are great, but most aren't essential, so if a mod overwrites them its not a big deal, and the fixes have the potential for screwing up other mods if loaded later.

 

~ Offical Content (DLC's) should be loaded last, until you complete all quests associated with them (that includes buying all furniture for the houses and whatnot). Once they're complete, they can be safely moved up in the list. This is especially important for Knights of the Nine, which will have some fairly major problems unless loaded last (unless you get the UOP for KotN)

 

~ Major overhaul mods (OOO, Frans, MMM) should be loaded near the end. That gives you the most complete experience with any of those particular mods. It also lets you carefully choose which other mods to load afterwards... only move mods that you know will conflict and that you want the changes from. For example, I have Improved Soul Gems below OOO because I know that OOO changes the icons of some of the SG's, and ISG needs to be below to show through.

 

Some people will recommend putting larger mods first, but personally I disagree. There are a number of mods out there that make minor tweaks, and loading after a large mod will end up completely overwriting a chunk from one of the bigger mods because of the way conflicts work in Oblivion (even one minor change will take precedence over the entire record... for example, simply tweaking the speed of a weapon can cause every stat of that weapon to be retained to vanilla levels if loaded later).

 

So basically, it stacks up like this...

 

Oblivion.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

<Minor Mods / DLC's (Post-Completion)>

<Major Overhaul Mod/Mods>

<Mods that specifically conflict with overhauls and need to take precedence>

<DLC's (Pre-Completion)>

 

 

 

Expanded Load-Order Guidelines

by dev_akm

 

I would extend this to include:

 

Oblivion.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

<Weather/Environment/Sound Mods>

<Minor Mods/New Items/Houses/DLC's (Post-Completion)>

<Major Overhaul Mods>

<Mods that specifically conflict with overhauls and need to take precedence>

<DLC's (Pre-Completion)>

<Quests>

<Compatibility Patches/UOMP/Merged Leveled Lists>

 

And a special-case warning for Knights.esp (Knights of the Nine) -- you may not be able to move it earlier than some other mods (some people have had problems after moving it before OOO, for example).

 

That's basically the structure I use and I have 140+ mods working well together.

 

Another way of describing this (posted by DMan77):

....

Oblivion

unoffical patch

Deeper realism mods that add sights and sounds

added content like weapons/items

gameplay changes, like 'must eat and sleep'

The OOO type

the 'new begining' type mod..

................................................................................

.................

[phatpigeon]

Thanks for the advice, I'll try that out. I've been thinking the major mods should come first, so I'll change it now.

[bben46]

Not a good idea to install a bunch of mods all at once. If one has a problem you will spend much more time finding it that if you had installed each mod alone, then tested it before adding another.

 

A load order list might help in troubleshooting.

 

How to use OBMM to make a load order list for posting.

 

Open OBMM - if you don't have it, get it. It is needed for a lot of things when you work with mods.

 

Look on the right, you will see a box with 'Import/Export'. Click that.

Then select the first option, 'View Load Order'

 

A new window will open with only your active mods listed in their load order. Any unchecked mods will not appear in this list.

 

Use your mouse to highlight the entire list, then left click on the highlighted list.

 

A box will open with Cut, copy paste.

 

Select copy – DO NOT SELECT CUT!

 

Now you can close the window and close OBMM (This might take a few minutes as OBMM takes a while to close.)

 

Go to where you want to put the load order list – I recommend creating either a text document or a word processing document and naming it load order and the date

(load order 6-22-08.txt)

 

Then open that document, place your cursor at the beginning and right click. Select paste.

 

This should copy your load order into the document.

 

Now, to get the load order into a post, open the forum, find where you want to place the load order list and paste it. The copied text will be inserted where you place the mouse cursor.