Starting out again - mod suggestions

[Mantear]

So I'm looking to start over again. My last play through was the first time I heavily applied mods (used Fransescos overhaul, etc). Some things I liked, others I didn't. So I'm asking for help finding the best mods for my tastes. I'm going with some basics like HGEC + default armor updates, various optimizers, etc.

 

Weapons mod - Fransesco came bundled with a weapons overhaul mod that didn't seem to work too well. Weapon balance was way out of whack. Mace of Molag Bol was like 3x better than Goldbrand, and a vanilla Daedric longsword was 2x better than the Mace of Molag Bol. Any weapon mod that adds more variety, but not necessarily puts everything out of whack would be nice.

Armor mods - more armor = better, as long as it's lore-friendly. HGEC compliant also a major bonus.

Body mods - as I've said before, using HGEC. But I'd also like a mod that lets me make a halfway decent looking face. So, better textures, texture seam fix, head/torso transition, etc. Last time I messed around with trying to import a pre-made nice looking face, I totaly screwed the faces of every NPC in the game. :( I could really use some pointers on body mods, I'm still pretty shakey on even the basics.

Additional quests - I really like the Hoarfrost castle, Lost Spires, Kvatch Rebuilt; anything else along the lines of those two would be great. Again, fairly lore-friendly is always a bonus.

Aethstetics - I really liked the window lights and chimney smoke mod. I haven't found a good weather system mod yet; one that doesn't try to get too crazy.

 

 

I'm willing to try another overhaul, but Fransecsos just seem too inconsistent, unbalanced, and potentially buggy (hard to say "buggy" with a list of other mods also running, though). I really like what it tried to do with keeping every lowly bandit in glass armor, but there were too many negatives to go along with it. Any other mods that are lore friendly and add to the existing Oblivion world without trying to change it's look and feel too much would be great.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Vagrant0]

I made a number of suggestions in a post here:

http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?s=&amp...t&p=1426220

 

Most of them seem to fit your wants.

[desicantia]

Weapons mod - Fransesco came bundled with a weapons overhaul mod that didn't seem to work too well. Weapon balance was way out of whack. Mace of Molag Bol was like 3x better than Goldbrand, and a vanilla Daedric longsword was 2x better than the Mace of Molag Bol. Any weapon mod that adds more variety, but not necessarily puts everything out of whack would be nice.

Armamentarium Complete?

 

Armor mods - more armor = better, as long as it's lore-friendly. HGEC compliant also a major bonus.

Same again? :) HGEC (the EVE kind) has a texture pack for this too.

 

Body mods - as I've said before, using HGEC. But I'd also like a mod that lets me make a halfway decent looking face. So, better textures, texture seam fix, head/torso transition, etc. Last time I messed around with trying to import a pre-made nice looking face, I totaly screwed the faces of every NPC in the game. :( I could really use some pointers on body mods, I'm still pretty shakey on even the basics.

EVE HGEC also has a hi-res face textures package, that works for all races I've ever used. Before installing that one, I generally install Natural Faces, then Enayla's Facial textures as well. That covers otehr stuff (guys, I suppose!)

 

Additional quests - I really like the Hoarfrost castle, Lost Spires, Kvatch Rebuilt; anything else along the lines of those two would be great. Again, fairly lore-friendly is always a bonus.

Cybiades sounds just right for you.

 

Aethstetics - I really liked the window lights and chimney smoke mod. I haven't found a good weather system mod yet; one that doesn't try to get too crazy.

I like All Natural, using its integrated Enhanced Weather. RAEVWD makes vistas far more pretty.

[Mantear]

I'm a bit confused by how to make the HGEC EVE play nice with Armamentarium. Won't the HGEC EVE overwrite the changes made by Armamentarium and vice versa?

 

EDIT: BTW, great suggestions so far, thanks!

[desicantia]

I did it this order: MEAT (choose 'customise install - using body replacer'), EVE HGEC Stock Body and Clothing Replacer, Armamentarium, EVE for Armamentarium. ANd it looks fine to me. :)

[ptbptb]

Check out the article I wrote recently My first twenty mods installed. Note that I didn't go the HGEC route so you won't be able to use all of them, but there may be some useful stuff in there (and the accompanying file).

 

Since writing it I have also added

Better Imperfect Water

Map Markers

Bag of Holding

to my mod list. Map Markers is very handy (UI replacement mods may have similar abilities) and I don't know how I did without a Bag of Holding.

[Tallcastle]

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul

and

COBL - Common Oblivion

 

These are the 2 most complete and well presented Mods i have seen so far. Both add massive amounts of new material to Vanilla Oblivion. And with a little effort you can use both at the same time without much hassle. If your looking to play threw again these are defiantly worth looking into.

[Branimirzg]

Quest mods review by JCP768- http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=157600&hl=

[Mantear]

EVE HGEC also has a hi-res face textures package, that works for all races I've ever used. Before installing that one, I generally install Natural Faces, then Enayla's Facial textures as well. That covers otehr stuff (guys, I suppose!)

 

I'm still a bit confused by this. Should the install order for the HGEC + textures be the following?

1. EVE HGEC Eyecandy Variants Expansion

2. Natural Faces

3. Facial Textures by Enayla

4. High Rez Skin Textures for HGEC

5. Luchaires HGEC Body Seam Reducer

[Mantear]

Ok, so here's my current list of mods I would like to run. The list will be in order of installation with some notes, as needed, if the load order in OBMM needs to be different than the install order. If anything looks out of whack, please let me know. Obviously, using the latest OBMM and OBSE. Thanks in advance!

 

1. Vanilla Oblivion, SI, Horse Armor and Spell Tomes DLC, Official Patches, Unofficial Patches

2. Hermaeus Mora Daedric Quest Fix

3. Fast Exit

4. LowPoly Grass

5. Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO) [*.esp will load LAST]

6. Kvatch Rebuilt

7. Hoarfrost Castle

8. Estirdalin_fix (for "Hoarfrost Castle")

9. Thievery in the Imperial City

10. Mannimarco Resurrection - Light and Dark

11. Living Economy [*.esp will load just before OOO, per OOO instructions. Not using the one bundled with OOO, is that OK?]

12. MaleBodyReplacerV4

13. EVE HGEC Eyecandy Variants Expansion + EVE for OOO 1.3 optional files

14. Natural Faces

15. Facial Textures by Enayla

16. High Rez Skin Textures for HGEC

17. Luchaires HGEC Body Seam Reducer [is this the right order for HGEC stuff?]

18. Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys

19. Weather - All Natural

20. Harvest Flora [not using the OOO bundled one as there is a more current version. This is OK, right?]

21. Landmarks with Wells

22. Book Jackets: Oblivion Standard Res

23. Grimbots DLC Book Jackets

24. Spell Icon Replace 1 Final

25. Leviathan Soulgems

26. Realistic Ragdolls and Force v3

27. Improved Signs

28. LBM Weathered Direction Signs

29. Unique Signs

30. Real Lava

31. Better Letters

32. Vas Better Gold

33. Kafeis Better Amulet Replacer

34. Kafeis Better Ring Replacer

35. better staffs texture

36. Elven Map Redux

37. Denock Arrow

38. Quest Award Leveler - Now supports Battlehorn Castle

39. All +5 Attribute Modifiers

40. Keychain

41. OblivionScriptOptimization [Will be the first *.esp loaded in OBMM right after all the *.esm's]

42. Operation Optimization

43. Streamline

 

 

Now, I'm not using "Harvest Containers". I loved what it did, but I always ran into a bug where I would try to open something, and the GUI would disappear and I couldn't walk. I could still look around, though. Can't even open the menu when it happened.

 

 

I tried OOO once and I have some questions about it. Will it have enough new weapons/armor that I won't need "EVE for Armamentarium"? The reason I stopped using OOO right away is this. I like to keep my friendly NPCs alive, even if I don't really need them. So, I always do the Main Quest up through Blood of the Daedra right away, especially for the Kvatch stuff. If I wait too long, the NPCs get slaughtered at Kvatch. So, I immediately go there when running OOO. I got creamed. I don't mind leveling up before doing this, but how will the guards stand up if I do it at a later time? What is the best level to do Kvatch to keep friendly NPCs alive?

 

 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks all!