First time trying to play modded Oblivion.

[AmiovNartamI]

Hello all,

 

Greetings and thanks for this great site! In a way, I don't feel sorry for having Oblivion on my shelves for three years, since so many things have changed since then! And they've changed in the best possible fashion.

 

Now, since I've been playing with mods and stuff for a long time (300 different mods for Baldur's Gate BIG WORLD PROJECT was a piece of cake for me), I thought I'd try to get as many as possible of those recommended mods and start enjoying.

 

But, now it seems it is easier said than done. I am 99.999% positive I have installed all of them properly, but now the hardest part - loading order. I've kept all the readme fiels and site instructions, but there are just way too many of those to manage it all alone. I'm hoping someone kind will try to help me.

 

I'm trying with OOO 1.34, MMM 37beta1, Qarl's Texture pack III, Race Balancing Project 10,5, Cobl, unofficial patch, some cities and villages... now, I quite well understand the general order, but I'll show you my list and tell you what is confusing me. I've decided to stop with adding new mods here, while I still can. I've ordered them according to what I've read, but maybe I did miss some parts, since I didn't understand the whole process when I've just started downloading them. My mistake for sure. (I failed with thumbnails, so I've put direct links to screenshots.)

 

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/385/load1.jpg

 

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2447/secondfixedpic.jpg

 

MMM after OOO, right? bgBalancing in the end, but still not after Knights.Esp and unofficial patch for knights should be the last one?

 

I hope I did not make too much of a mess here.

 

Thanks in advance everyone...

[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..

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

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

[AmiovNartamI]

I've read that page many, many times; I'm here doing this for at least 10 hours now.

 

It sounds easy when put like that, but I'd really appreciate if someone took a look at those screenies.

 

Someone with experience could tell me if it's right to put Race Balancing after both OOO and MMM; those small DLC packages and their unofficial patches...

 

I could use a a suggestion on which leveling mod to use to have the best experience with those large mods I've already installed as well. :)

[AmiovNartamI]

Well, I think I've managed to sort them out using this list ( http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pb7...gmsEA&gid=0 ), since we share lots of similar mods used, but it surely does not follow the guidelines dezdimona gave me. I wanted to try it out, but now here is a serious problem... when I click launnch oblivion from the OMM, it starts obse and screen goes black, as if it is going to load the game, then all of a sudden I'm back to desktop; sounds like a CTD, although I don't see any screen from the game, beside that point when whole screen goes black like as if it's going to load the game.

 

What might be the problem?

[AmiovNartamI]

I've isolated a mod that was causing problems and got rid of it!

 

Amazing, game looks so amazing now! It's great!

 

All right, I have couple of more question and I think I'm done. :)

 

There is just one huge yellow "I need a mesh" sign I see in dungeons at the start of the game; nothing special, I didn't notice anything else unusual, even outside, so just wondering if you know which one might be the cause.

 

I have all settings at maximum, but still grass and enemies in front of me are showing at very close distances; it's showing up when I going towards it, although it should've been rendered / shown before. How to change / fix it?

 

Another thing, and this is more a real need for suggestion: my fatigue does not go down when I'm running, although I've expected it from all those major mods I've been using (OOO, MMM etc.). Which mod do you suggest for optimal realistic feel?

 

Did anyone use Deadly Reflex and Unnecessary Violence? Are they compatible together? Do you recommend both of them?

 

Thanks again!!

[bben46]

To find the missing mesh, you need to know what it is supposed to be and what mod places it there. Try this

 

Refscope is a good resource for finding what mod those yellow missing mesh blocks came from. It adds a spell that when cast on the missing mesh identifies it and what mod put it in the game. :thumbsup:

 

http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21862

[AmiovNartamI]

Hey, great thing. :)

 

Except it told me that those yellow stuff I saw is related to Oblivion.ese...

 

But it seems all those missing meshes are for items that have "rusty" as prefix; does it help? I've seen them in the tutorial only and one in the Imperial City, a guard wearing it. (Screenshot taking failed.) Any ideas on what meshes/textures to move to data folder again?

 

I have another problem - installed Realistic Fatigue, put it after OOO and stuff like that, but my fatigue is constantly on somewhere around 75% and it doesn't change, no matter if I run or not. Any ideas?

 

Best regards. :)

[bben46]

My guess on the rusty item is a mod you removed overwrote the mesh. And you only removed the .esp and not the meshes and textures that mod placed in those folders. Try going into your meshes folder and look for a subfolder with the name of a mod you removed. instead of deleting that folder, move it out of the data folder entirely - possibly into a new folder just for troubleshooting. Do the same thing with the textures folder. Then if it doesn't fix it, or causes new problems you can move it back.

 

As I have never used realistic fatigue I can't help you with that one. Try looking in the forum thread dedicated to that mod - every mod has one, they are automatically created by the sitebot when the mod is uploaded.

 

If I found the right one here is a link: http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=35507

[AmiovNartamI]

Thanks! I'm checking it and working on it! I really appreciate your help, thanks again.

 

I've just been attacked by an invisible wolf, and since I know both MMM and Cobl mess with wolves, any idea on what might be happening? There was a wolf attacking me, but I couldn't see him at all (except blood when I hit him).

[bben46]

There is a place in the game where you may find several invisible wolves.

 

Spoiler alert:

They are near the village of Aleswell

 

 

If you can see wolves in other places, but not there that may be it.