New to Oblivion AND modding.

[FleshFiend]

I bought both Oblivion and Skyrim on Steam. I have never played either, but I would like to play Oblivion first. The only thing that bothers me with Oblivion is that the graphics are dated (wish I'd have played this game when it came out). I've been reading about different mods available but need some advice.

 

What mod will improve the entire game's textures, or at least most of them? I would like the most bang in no more than 3 downloads, if possible.

 

Being that I'm new to modding, I'd prefer to use NMM. I can't stress that enough. I work (a lot and long hours) and don't have time to get into the more complicated managers. I just want to enjoy the game with better graphics than vanilla, maybe an updated UI and/or an overall patch. That's it. Nothing too complicated. Am I asking too much?

 

 

Any help out there? All is is more than appreciated.

[Maskar]

I would suggest not using NMM for Oblivion. I myself use OBMM, which could hardly be considered complicated and is more suitable for Oblivion. If you want to stick to only a few mods there's no need to use Wrye Bash (the only other mod manager out there really).

 

There are quite a few texture replacers out there, which would be a bit more demanding on your system. You might be interested in Qarls Texture Pack and Oblivion Character Overhaul (2). You might also be interested in an overhaul to deal with some of the leveling issues and possibly a level mod (like realistic leveling). To improve the UI you could have a look at DarnUI.

[FleshFiend]

Many thanks for the reply Maskar

[evenstargw]

Not what you asked for, but since you're new to Oblivion you may not know about this: I'd recommend the unofficial oblivion patches to iron out a lot of the bugs that Bethesda never got around to fixing.

 

Qarls is still the most used texture replacer out there. There are several versions out there with reduced resolutions in case your system isn't that beefy. Personally I can't even run those in combination with my other mods so I use Really textured normal maps for vanilla instead.

 

Most people nowadays like to spruce up the graphics further by using Oblivion Graphics Externder (OBGE) or an ENB.

 

You could also look into a flora overhaul, like Brittainy's work or Discovery1's.

[Roach75]

Hi, sorry to OP, don't mean to hijack your thread if it happens but I'm in the same boat as you:)

 

I've been looking and searching online for modding guides and have been very spoilt by Gopher's tutorials and I'm pretty much looking for a similar amount of mods, nothing too fancy in terms of ENBs etc.

 

I've been looking through the top files list and there looks like some great mods but I don't really know what I'm looking at (Compared to alternatives/quality etc) so I'd like to just ask for some recomendations.

 

I listened to this advice and got OBMM even though I'm used to NMM now.

 

Got BOSS, not hosted here any more, now BOSS userlist apparently, went elsewhere for BOSS;(

 

Got the Unofficial Patches for everything, bought the GOTY deluxe from steam, 4th purchase of this game (1st RPG love)

 

Got Darnified UI and that's it so far.

 

I'm looking for

 

1. Graphics- got an AMD HD7970 GHZ edition so I can run most texture packs for FO3/NV and Skyrim so the best packs should be ok for me here too.

 

2. Sounds- Background noise, music, armour clanking anything that adds to Immersion

 

3. Face/Body- Not looking for nudity or skimpy stuff but anything that just makes things more realistic looking would be great

 

4. Weapons/Armour- Love the WMX mods and Immersive Weapons/Armour Mods for the other Bethesda Titles I have

 

5. UI- Mentioned I had Darnified already but anything else you'd recommend

 

6. Weather/Sky- I like Nevada Skies a lot as it is very easy to customise so anything similar would be great

 

7 Anything else you'd consider essential to a great Oblivion Experience, I'd like to keep it as close to the lore as possible but anything that would also help with efficient levelling(can't help it, sorry, am weak) I'd look at too

 

Anyway, apologies again to the OP, maybe you can help with what you've found already, I'll be off to explore the TOP rated files list again for now I guess.

[evenstargw]

I prefer Wrye Bash (BAIN) for installing. It makes removing mods completely painless as it automatically restores files that may have been overwritten. It also colour codes your installers to reveal conflicts, missing files, etc. It also has the bashed patch feature which is essential for any game with more than a handful of mods. That said, here's some recommendations for yoour list:

 

1. OBGEv3 + OBGE liquid water. The OBGE shader pack has loads of options that can be toggled ingame. Liquid water provides water visuals that can't be achieved by a conventional water mod. Advanced window lighting system & chimneys adds to the atmosphere of the game a lot.

2. I haven't tried it myself but there is a very recent sound overhaul that should be in the hot files or files of the month. May be worth a look.

3. OCOv2, Oblivion character overhaul. Much improved vanilla races. For bodies, I go with HGEC for female, EVE has conversions for all clothing and armor for HGEC. For male, Robert's is pretty much the only choice.

4. Maybe armamentarium fits there. Must be some other lore-friendly packs around.

5. HUD Status bars is my favorite addon to the UI. I also use DarkUI darnified.

6. Weather All Natural (this needs Wrye bash and I'm still thankful it introduced me to it in the first place). I can't live without All natural anymore.

7. Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul - Much much easier to install than FCOM but very customisable and adds a lot to gameplay. Plus it's still actively supported. For leveling, I use realistic leveling. It improves attributes as you level your skills, instead of having to go out of your way to get the best modifiers for each level. Another mod I can no longer do without.

 

Two other tiny mods that I use all the time are Chase Camera Mod (to remove the rubber band motion sickness inducing camera lag) and Vanity camera smoother (slows down the rotation of the camera when you hold the middle mouse button). Those have not left my load list since I first started modding.

[Roach75]

I prefer Wrye Bash (BAIN) for installing. It makes removing mods completely painless as it automatically restores files that may have been overwritten. It also colour codes your installers to reveal conflicts, missing files, etc. It also has the bashed patch feature which is essential for any game with more than a handful of mods. That said, here's some recommendations for yoour list:

 

1. OBGEv3 + OBGE liquid water. The OBGE shader pack has loads of options that can be toggled ingame. Liquid water provides water visuals that can't be achieved by a conventional water mod. Advanced window lighting system & chimneys adds to the atmosphere of the game a lot.

2. I haven't tried it myself but there is a very recent sound overhaul that should be in the hot files or files of the month. May be worth a look.

3. OCOv2, Oblivion character overhaul. Much improved vanilla races. For bodies, I go with HGEC for female, EVE has conversions for all clothing and armor for HGEC. For male, Robert's is pretty much the only choice.

4. Maybe armamentarium fits there. Must be some other lore-friendly packs around.

5. HUD Status bars is my favorite addon to the UI. I also use DarkUI darnified.

6. Weather All Natural (this needs Wrye bash and I'm still thankful it introduced me to it in the first place). I can't live without All natural anymore.

7. Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul - Much much easier to install than FCOM but very customisable and adds a lot to gameplay. Plus it's still actively supported. For leveling, I use realistic leveling. It improves attributes as you level your skills, instead of having to go out of your way to get the best modifiers for each level. Another mod I can no longer do without.

 

Two other tiny mods that I use all the time are Chase Camera Mod (to remove the rubber band motion sickness inducing camera lag) and Vanity camera smoother (slows down the rotation of the camera when you hold the middle mouse button). Those have not left my load list since I first started modding.

1. I've seen a lot of people using both OBGE and Qarls texture pack, is this easy to do, and does it give you the best of both?

2. All natural does seem to support conversion into an OMOD now but how does it stack up against Natural Environments for example?

3. Do you recommend the Better Cities and Rebuild Kavatch mods?

4. I've not seen any mention of a 3GB/4GB patch for Oblivion, having seen this for all other Bethesda games I own is there one?

5. I can't really tell what the difference is between Realistic Levelling and Oblivion XP, I want to be able to max out my stats, skills and attributes without having to grind, but maxing out around lvl 50-60 so enemies are always challenging is good, which way should I go?

 

Thanks

 

Roach

[evenstargw]

1. OBGE changes the shaders, adding support for lots of visual effects, it's totally unrelated to Qarls, which is a texture replacer. So they are indeed compatible. If you can use BAIN installers, then it should be a breeze to install both and also to remove either if they don't suit your taste or are too heavy. All it takes is knowing how your data folder is structured and how to use an archive tool (7zip or winrar for example).

2. It does? Natural environments does some different things with all the loose modules. Haven't used it for a while so I don't remember all but at least there's a part that adds more butterflies, birds, etc. All natural is mostly for weather and lighting. It also gives day/night cycles to interiors and the ability to see out the windows (not much there except the sky though, immersive interiors adds actual worlds outside the windows, a much bigger undertaking). For weather I believe All natural includes all of natural environments' weathers. As far as I know, you still need Wrye bash to patch interior weather into mods. Not really difficult if you use BOSS for load ordering. It sets up all the bash tags for mods and makes building a patch a matter of a few clicks.

3. I don't use better cities myself, but that's because my system has enough difficulty as it is and better cities adds a lot of extra stuff in cities. My FPS would go into single digits. Maybe when I next get a new PC. If you can handle it and you like the screenies, I say go for it. I haven't tried the most recent Kvatch rebuilt yet, it was unavailable when I was reinstalling. Howver I assume it is better still than before, and it was a nice addition to the game already. Well worth a try.

4. There is a 4GB patch. I personally just use CFF explorer to enable the >2GB flag myself. Saves having to look for patches for every game.

5. I haven't tried Oblivion XP, but from what I know it uses an experience system like traditional RPG's. Complete a quest, get XP. Kill a monster, get XP. Realistic leveling is much more like vanilla Oblivion, but without having to worry about getting those +5 attribute increases. Attributes just increase as you go. Get enough increases and you gain a level, which does very little by itself except change which items and monsters can be picked from leveled lists. What I like is that you can just play as you want without having to think about what skills you need to spam to get the best levelup or what skills to avoid so you don't waste attribute modifiers.