A bit of uncertainty, a bunch of questions: merging, cleaning, compabi

[Esteris]

EDIT: Ay ay, it ate my subject. And didn't warn it's too long. Sorry for that :ninja:

 

Hey guys, my first post here I think, so don't eat me if I posted in a wrong section. Or if it's been here before. Or... well, just don't. Thank you :rolleyes:

 

So, I've played with Oblivion mods before a year and a half ago or so, and now I've gotten back to the job. I've already noticed that tons of things changed, so I'd be grateful if you told me if something I have here is out of date.

 

I have also attached my boss.log to save anyone the trouble of asking in case it was needed to answer any question. Gods, I LOVE Boss. Had brainache in the time I didn't know about it.

 

What is this post going to be about? Well I've gathered (back in that long time ago as well as for the past few days) a bunch of miscelanous info concerning mods. I'm a greedy person, so I want more more more, always more, and so I ended up with over 400 .eps in my folder. And that, obviously, presents a problem. I know that the hardcoded limit for Oblivion is 255, no? I also saw somewhere that's it's advisable to keep it at least a bit lower than that. (I do remember learning that the hard time that year ago when I didn't know of the limit and it took me quite some uncheck/rerun to figure that it's not a mod that makes the game crash, but the quantity. Silly me, yes, but at least I remembered that lesson well).

 

Anyway, going through countless tutorials, guides, forum topics and random websites, I've collected a big knowledge of the modding. Problem is - some of these things contradict each other :yucky: And some I just failed to find.

 

1. Mod Cleaning

Okay, so, as far as I know, that's quite important process. But to be honest, I know nothing of the mods inner structure. There are programs that clean them automatically (TES4Gecko would be the best one right now, no?), thanks be the authors, but, as with anything where knowledge lacks, there's some chance that running them on specific .esps will just make everything go KABOOM. So.

 

- are there any mods besides: FCOM, Armamentarium, MMM and Supreme Magicka that should NOT be cleaned by a n00b like me?

- which of the mods DO REALLY require cleaning? I know of the Dulan Cult (but not using it since I heard it adds OverPowered items and stuff. I don't like cheating unless it's necessary [or I feel like resurrecting some good person D:<]. I know that UOP does, Bob's Armory, Warcry, Official DLCs.

 

- is there some place where one could find already cleaned .esps of the current mod versions? The cleaning process is truly a pain in the a..butt. Especially with knowing what should be loaded and what mods should depend on which and all that jazz. Confusing :yucky:

 

- Gecko also refuses to clean WarCry and Bob's Armory. What may be the cause?

 

2. Mod Merging

Yeeeah, now this is something I failed to find a good guide/tutorial to. I mean, I did that some time ago, and it even seemed to work, but really, I didn't know what exactly I was doing. It was like poking a blind hen or something. By logic I deduced that:

- mods that are being merged into one .esp should be of the same kind (items to items, buildings to buildings etc)

- they should not conflict with one another

- with my skill equal to 0 they should be small ones

 

Now. Are these 3 even true? I've seen in several places during my guide-search that some people were either merging everything into one huge .omod (or .esp) and one huge .bsa or at least though of making some über mod containing all the most important stuff. So I guess it's possibile to safely merge more than I think it is :P I just have no idea whatsoever what does it truly depend on, whether .esps should be cleaned beforehand, whether something needs to be done with the other data or just .esps are enough? Please, someone take pity on me and explain this in some n00b-comprehensible terms. As well as the creepy priorities thing, and, if you're bored, you can also tell me about merging to master and stuff like that. I'd like to know, though it's not that necessary. I must reduce the .esp amount most of all.

 

Can FCOM components be merged? Can Unique Lanscapes be merged? (I never attempted the first, I did attempt the second and game didn't blow up, but I don't know for sure if that was a good idea since I didn't get the chance to play for too long on that installation).

 

3. .omods

Okay. Another issue I've tried to research but the only article I found on it was actually deleted. So guys, what is that .omod? What's so great about it and why is these omod conversion data in so many mods? (and why does Windows fail to ctrl+f in the .7z archives...)

I've made an omod out of the Better Cities mod because it told me to do so. And I have some .omods that just came as an omod. BUT. For example, the UL compilation or these Better Cities, they don't even reduce the .esp limit, they throw them into my data folder after activation, so I simply fail to see the advantage of these. Not to mention amount of "do you want to overwrite" "file is not associated with an omod" "yadayada" notices I got when I've tried to install them (along with the 'not enough space on the disk' even though there over 100GB left, I had to restart then it went alright, just that it made me hold the "N" key for half a minute while it was trying to overwrite the files it already exctracted).

 

Generally - I don't grasp the concept. Someone even said that their games works slower with everything packed into .bsa files. I have all the issues and none the good with these, so I'll be grateful for any enlightment.

 

4. General Questions

 

a) Robert's Female Body Replacer or Exnem's Female EyeCandy? On which more mods are dependent? Is there something else that I should take into account while choosing?

b) Are any of my mods (from the boss.log) overpowered? Broken? Game-spoiling?

c) Would you suggest some epic mod I've missed during my extensive search?

d) I have some gray screen problem thing with Avariel race, sometimes it goes all dark gray, then it's okay then back to gray (while moving around the prison cell, so no big distances between that)

e) I like KCAS (Kobu's Character Advancement System). Do you think it's good or is there something you'd recommend more?

f) What are the best survival mods? Interesting and not some terrible pest? I AM using Cobl, but I'm not sure if that plate-business is not too troublesome. I haven't played it. Is it?

g) Is it true that Hunger and Thirst mods are truly leading to serious conflicts with vampire mods, even if they say "vampires taken into account"? I'm asking because I wonder if that means only dealing with vanilla vampires problems.

h) How many companions can you have with you around as to not provoke any bug? 2 or 3? And can you leave others at houses and let them do their "what we all expect of TES4 companions" stuff while you're taking these 2/3 of them for your travels?

i) Is the save game Cleaner mod really that necessary?

j) How long can I set the respawn rate to? I'd LOVE to have it set to 1 year, but I've heard it can be pretty much destructive. It pains me so. Is there a way to run a rate long like that safely? I think OOO had such settings, Fran has maximum 21 days. Is 21 days safe if 1 year absolutely cannot be? 1 year would be so epic :sick:

k) How does the Elys Uncapper work with mods: Legendary Mastery and Legendary Abilities? Do these three go together? And does KCAS disturb them? And do they slow down in progress more and more (as in, get trained slower and slower the higher they are).

l) I remember going into Blood & Mud Library/Shop last time, and after leaving and renetering I was faced with ARMAGEDDON. ALL the books, hundreds of them, began falling of the shelves upstairs. It was awesome sight, but I'd rather avoid this (had to steal them all to clean up, not to mention FPS that reached around 5 or so when they all started falling at once xP). What might have caused it?

m) Dremora Companion mod conflicts with Kvatch Aftermath. Does it also conflict with Kvatch Rebuilt?

n) Are .ini files okay to lay loose in Oblivion/Data?

o) Are weather mods really that likely to cause conflicts? I saw in several readme's some whining on the subject.

p) CUO - I've heard it doesn't like eachother with Overhaul mods (seeing that I'm using FCOM I have quite a few of these). Is that true? The Elder Council mod seemed interesting but it requires CUO.

 

I think that will be it (for now :yucky:). If anyone takes time to read it, even moreso REPLY to my questions, I'll be really grateful. Thanks guys!

 

And thanks all of you wonderful modders out there! I love you for your work and amount of joy it gives to people :D

[octavius243]

Mod cleaning: Use TES4EDIT. To be on the safe side only clean mods that are single ESPs or an ESP and a ESM resource file. Don't clean complex mods live big overhauls and magic overhauls that usually consist of several ESPs. And do *not* clean patches, as cleaning them may make them useless.

And any mods made ot updated by Arthmoor will already be cleaned.

 

Merging: Use TES4GECKO. General rule is not merge mods that conflict. Small mods with that don't edit vanilla content are perfect for merging.

 

OMODs: If you are starting a new game, then BAIN, a Wrye Bash utility will be better in the long run as it tracks files better.

 

4e. I think that one is a bit dated. I'd recommend nGCD + Progress as the best leveler.

 

4n. If the archive points to the Data folder, then there's where it should be.

 

4o. Not in my experience. As long as you use only one, of course.

 

4p. CUO does indeed conflict with OOO and FCOM. It will not lead to CTDs, though, but whichever is loaded last will be dominant. This is how Oblivion works and it is nothing to get exited about. Chose *one* overhaul.

Elder Council does not need CUO. The original version needed CURP, but the newer versions are stand-alone.

[Esteris]

Hey, thanks for your reply :)

 

I've tried using TES4Edit and it indeed did not refuse to clean the files, but having SO many of them I'd spend a year trying to clean them all. If anyone knew which require that critically, I'd be grateful for such list.

 

BAIN you say. We'll I'll see that one. Wasn't around last time I think, but I've seen the name in several places already. Should I use the omod conversion data to make more omods though?

 

I'll take a look at that leveler too, thank you.

 

Ah, well, I discovered just moments before that Origin of the Mages Guild DOES require it still. Or is there some version I don't know of? The mod looked simply awesome, it would be a pity to pass on it.

 

And what do you mean have one overhaul only? FCOM it kind of incorporates 3 or 4 of them at the same time, doesn't it?

 

 

Generally my biggest problem now is a huge .esp list that is hard to reduce due to some mods putting terrible amount of components there. FCOM, Better Cities, Mart's Monster mod for best examples. Is there something to remedy these in a safe way?

[bben46]

Some general info:

Just having a lot of mods in the data folder - even if they are not enabled can cause a problem. Move any unused mods to a holding folder outside of the oblivion folder. It seems that oblivion looks at every fie in the data folder, even if it is not checked in the data list. The when the total number exceeds some value, it crashes on start.

[octavius243]

BAIN you say. We'll I'll see that one. Wasn't around last time I think, but I've seen the name in several places already. Should I use the omod conversion data to make more omods though?

 

And what do you mean have one overhaul only? FCOM it kind of incorporates 3 or 4 of them at the same time, doesn't it?

 

Generally my biggest problem now is a huge .esp list that is hard to reduce due to some mods putting terrible amount of components there. FCOM, Better Cities, Mart's Monster mod for best examples. Is there something to remedy these in a safe way?

 

1. No need to make OMODs of you're going to use BAIN. BAIN uses the archive (zip) files, instead of that extra step that is OMODs.

 

2. FCOM is a special case. It is based mostly on OOO, though.

 

3. Not easily. For FCOM and MMM it all depends on how much or how little of the mods you want. For Better Cities there is a Better Cities Full esp that contains all the cities except the IC.

[Esteris]

Yeah, but the compability patches are killers. Can such be merged in Gecko? After picking out those I need, of course.

 

Also, there's plenty of unanswered questions, I'm still hoping someone will come around with some more answers :unsure:

[octavius243]

Yeah, but the compability patches are killers. Can such be merged in Gecko? After picking out those I need, of course.

 

Also, there's plenty of unanswered questions, I'm still hoping someone will come around with some more answers :unsure:

 

Patches can be merged, but things always get more complicated when dealing with ESPs that have other masters than oblivion.esm.

Merging too many files can also cause load order problems, as some mods need to load early and some need to load late. So you should also consider that when merging mods. Another problem is that many mods are constanty updated, so if they are merged you need to update the merged file regularly.

 

As for you remaining questions:

Spawn rates: check out this mod.

Personally I feel that in the wilderness there should be a short respawn time and in ruins and forts a long respawn time. With this mod you can adjust that to you liking. I haven't tested it personally, though, since my current game was started way before that mod was released.

 

As for epic mod, do you have Windfall, Kragenir's Death Quest and Bartholm?

[Esteris]

Hah, I was just planning to make around 5 merged esps with minor tweaks, quests, items, buildings and such (with just Oblivion.esm as their main) so that some kind of load order could be maintained (hence the grouping). Would that work? Or is it vital to take type of mod into account?

 

I see, so then merging patches that have a master of Oblivion, Better Cities and some other mod, theoretically unrelated, would be tricky, I see that. But then, what about merging an original plugin with it's own patch? Would that be fatal? It definitely looks to me like it HAS the potential to be fatal, but I could be wrong :yucky:

 

The spawn rates mod seems interesting, but still, I don't know if setting a respawn rate to something big as one year, even if only for interiors, wouldn't lead to some big issues. If it would, I'd just live with Fran's 14 days...

 

Hm, yes I have these three installed (found Windfall just yesterday... I'll never finish this modding, seriously). Seeing that you're saying they're epic I can't wait to play through them :teehee: