Troubleshooting FCOM

[tr0ubl3mak3r]

I'm hoping this is a simple fix. I just spent several days downloading, figuring out, and setting up FCOM... and FINALLY got the game to l load without crashing. Only, soon as I enter the game and spot a guard, his upper torso is missing/invisible.

 

I followed http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/fcominstall.html and http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/fcomloadorderexpanded.html as closely as possible... I'm not sure what I've done wrong. ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated is also working I believe, so I'm at a loss. What should I do first to figure out what's messed up?

[Megatarius]

Which town is it?

 

The first thing I would do is make sure you have all the textures. Did you install the meshes and textures for OOO 1.33 and 1.34 beta5. I was having problems as well, and it turned out I didn't install 1.34 beta 5's meshes and textures.

[tr0ubl3mak3r]

Hi, thanks for the fast reply. I have OOO 1.3 and the 1.34 beta 5 patch, yes. The town is the dock district of the imperial city. I'm using an alternative start mod, so I literally just started and arrived in the dock district.

 

I believe the guard was just one of the random ones that wander about imperial city. Also, his hair was missing... now that I think about it, that probably means his helmet was invisible too, yes?

[Megatarius]

Yep. You're missing textures is my guess. This is normal for FCOM. There's always something like this because it's so easy to overlook a little step.

 

Did you do the bashed patch? Maybe all the resources are in the right place, but the game doesn't know what to do because the inventories haven't been merged with the bashed patch. If so, did you put it all the way at the bottom except for Deadly Reflex if you're using it?

 

Is it possible that the alternate start is screwing with it? I recommend not using those mods. You can just as easily download a character save at the sewer gate, change the character into what you want, console add everything you need, and fast travel to where ever you want to "arrive". I like to make my characters approach from beyond the borders. There's a mod that adds fast travel markers to those regions, and I find them really tranquil and peaceful places to wander around. Monotonous, yes, but also not so crowded with extra stuff like too much grass (there is some). They remind me of forests back home.

[tr0ubl3mak3r]

I've did the bashed patch, yes, with the latest wrye bash. I am using deadly reflex and read that it should come after the bash patch.. but BOSS put it just before it. I'll manually move it to load after though just to see if it helps.

 

As for the alternate start, I'm using http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11495 . I really don't think it should be conflicting with anything, as it's made pretty module, and others have said that they also use FCOM with it. And yes, I used to do the sewer gate thing (my own save, didn't download any), but I really dislike having to console anything. Breaks the immersion for me. If by some chance this mod is causing the problems though, I'll gladly remove it, I just have my doubts.

 

I'll continue messing around with it, maybe I missed something. I do remember something like.. one of the optional's that modifies guards to use the new items. Could that be a culprit?

 

And would anyone be interested in seeing my load list?

[Megatarius]

The guards in FCOM do have new armor. Post your load list. Are you using Bob's Armory? I almost didn't, but then said screw it, and I'm glad I used it. Makes it much more medieval feeling.

 

That guard thing you mentioned might be the culprit.

 

 

It sucks I know, but you need to go through and make sure you didn't miss something. I have FCOM, and the only problem I had was what I mentioned earlier. So far after that, no problems that would be related to it. I have an annoying graphics bug with LOD, but it seems to have gone away as well. You'll find the culprit. Keep looking. It's worth the anguish, at least so far.

[Jenrai]

Meg's advice is all good (as per usual. :) ) but one I found the biggest problem with FCOM was ensuring the BSA's are installed and registered. See, Frans always does, and always has, to my knowledge, registered the BSA's in your Oblivion .ini. If you've recently rebuilt your .ini (after you installed Frans) your Frans BSA's are no longer loading. There are a couple of ways around this, but I'll shoot for the easy one to save you pratting around making blank esps or renaming any;

1. Navigate to your

Oblivion > Data

folder. Make a note of any BSA in there named anything to do with Francescos. EXACT NAMES. This doesn't work otherwise.

2. Open your .ini. The one in your

my documents > my games > Oblivion

If you edit the one in your Oblivion root directory I'ma sendin the winged monkeys to your place...

3. Search (control and F) for the word "Archive" without the "s. Look for where the games default .bsa's are registered. Things like Oblivion - Textures.bsa if I remember correctly. Frans BSA's should be on there if you've not rebuilt your .ini but its probably edited the lines wrong. If you look at the start of the Frans bsa's, you'll likely notice there is a comma and a full stop between it and the last one. Delete that full stop. It shouldn't be there. Its telling your .ini that thats the last bsa, which will mean it won't load Frans or anything else added after the full stop. Its also utterly redundant. You don't need to do that, just remember to put a comma after every bsa file you register in this way to tell the game that thats the end of the file name.

If you have rebuilt your .ini, chances are Fran's BSA won't be there at all. Find your note of the BSA name and add it EXACTLY as the file is named, but don't forget to put the .BSA bit on the end, and put a comma after it.

 

Now the fun one. MMM. See, MMM doesn't use BSA registration. At all. It works on the principle that you'll always have Martigens Monster Mod esp active, and loads the BSA the same way as the DLCs do - by using an esp of the same name. Of course, if you're running FCOM, you shouldn't have the MMM esp. At all. The add-ons, like MMM Diverse Creature Skins esp or whatever, sure, but not the actual Martigens esp, because the FCOM_Convergence.esp replaces that. Theres a couple of ways to rectify this;

1. Do as directed for Frans, above. Remember to keep a note of any personal customisations you add to your .ini. You'll like as hell have to rebuild it during troubleshooting, or if you add any hardware to your computer. I just make a little notepad doc with details of them in there and leave it in the folder.

2. Rename MMM's BSA to FCOM_Convergence.BSA - Seems simpler, yes? It isn't. Because if FCOM or MMM ever update, and they are very likely to, you'll forget about this too. Thats how I -used- to do it, how most major mods (ie better cities) do it, and how Beth do it to load the BSA's for the official DLCs. But if you ever change that esp, or the name of that BSA, or the mod updates, you'll loose it again and may not remember why. So I prefer method 1 these days.

 

Beyond that, for missing textures, particularly from your guards, I'd consider reinstalling the textures & meshes folders from Bobs Armoury. I think that includes the ones that the FCOM plugins diverse guard unity and Bobs guard unity or whatever use.

 

Apologies if I rambled on. Hope you get it sorted.

Good Luck.

Jenrai

[tr0ubl3mak3r]

Hello! New update, I disabled the suspicious mod in question.. and guard armor came back! And it was rusty looking armor, so it's new stuff. I had too many Legion armor mods turned on (2 instead of the only 1 I needed). However, I took a very short walk around the dock district, back through the houses then through the archway that leads to the pirates... soon as I got close, it crashed on me. Seems like I traded one thing for something worse lol. Although I've heard FCOM does have random crash issues, might've been just bad luck.

 

However.. as for BSA's, my ini does seem to be goofed up. They should probably make it a point to mention this in the FCOM tutorial...

 

I noticed and manually added ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated when I was first troubleshooting the missing armor yesterday hoping it was the reason for the missing armor, but I totally didn't think about the other BSA's like MMM. Going to add MMM.bsa right quick and report back later. ty!!

[tr0ubl3mak3r]

Everything seems to be working fine now, minus some really random crashes. But I guess that's to be expected.

 

I didn't realize FCOM would be so difficult though >_<. Although it might have something to do with the more random spawn levels mod I turned on.. maybe I'll turn that off. Tired of getting 1 hit killed on 3 different character builds xD.

[Megatarius]

Thanks Jenrai! :biggrin:

 

 

Yeah, FCOM is a pain to install, but it's worth it. You'll see as you play dungeons and such that things make so much more sense. No more totally predicable fights! Some skeletons go down with one swing of that Dwemer (Not Dwarven!) Longsword you found at level 4, and others take up to 10. No visible difference between those skeletons either. One of them is just much stronger than the other.

 

I recommend now that you've fixed the biggest issue with the game, you add some other cool mods. Better Cities is very, very nice. It's not an easy install but after FCOM everything is.

 

After that is my standard list of must haves for anyone that likes their video games to make sense:

 

 

Allow me to present my top 25 Oblivion fix mods. These are mods that improve the game itself, make changes that should have been there in the first place, and might have been, if they hadn't rushed it for the XBOX 360 launch date.

 

 

1. Better Music System http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26892

The crown jewel of Oblivion mods. People say Deadly Reflex, with very good reason, but this is something much more subtle and awesome. Music is so important. The quality of the music in the game is very good. But whoever programmed it didn't have nearly the inspiration that Soule did. If you haven't gotten it, get it. The first thing it does is vastly improve how battle music works. Do we really need epic trumpets and battle drums for every f'ing wolf in the forest and crab on the beach? Really? It's a much more improved system now. Also, do we actually even need battle music at all? How can it not get annoying and immersion breaking after a while? Well, now you can completely disable it!! You can add your own music to other locations as well. Each different kind of ruin. Each guild. Inns, Homes, Castles. It's a travesty that the namesake of the game, the Oblivion Realm, gets the standard dungeon music. :rolleyes: Not anymore. This mod changes the game in ways not obvious at first glance.

 

2. Automatic Difficulty Increaser http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28589

This little gem forces the difficulty slider to remain in a certain position that changes as you level up. Customizable in an .ini, but no longer can you break immersion by divinely affecting how strong everyone else is. Those Orc vampires in the Azura Shrine Quest are some bad-ass Samuel L. Jackson m---f---ers. Where's the satisfaction in defeating them if you weren't actually scared to death to face them? Also, cranking it up for 100 hits on a mudcrab just so you can farm your blade skill? Come on. Just use the console to raise your skill at the start if you're character was already a bad-ass before getting arrested. There's no shame in it then.

 

3. Let there be Darkness http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22819

Torches practically burn forever, they're all over the place and free, and you never even need them! Maybe for Namira's Shrine, but I wouldn't know because I was already using this mod before that. It's just plain more fun when everything you find has a real purpose, you know?

 

4. Actors have Torches http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11169

This adds a lot to dungeons.

 

5. Enhanced Quest Roleplaying http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12828

Doesn't affect every quest, but basically you have more options now. No longer will your Thieve's Guild character who wants nothing more than to be the Gray Fox jump at the opportunity to help the nice honest working shopkeeps get rid of Thoronir. Now you can select "Maybe Later", instead of "Start from the beginning!", like you actually care :rolleyes: . It's a dog eat dog world you guys. Deal. This is just one example. It makes a lot of difference if you like role playing.

 

6. Stolen Horse Ownership http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4243

Stealing a horse in Chorrol, riding it to Cheydinhal, getting off in front of the stable and guards, changing your mind, and getting back on, will no longer result in everyone psychically knowing you stole it.

 

7. Merchants Buy Stolen Goods http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7983

One of the most unrealistic parts of the game, merchants somehow knowing that you stole something. There is no explanation, short of magic, that would make stealing a silver jug from a basement in Leyawiin and not being able to sell it in Bruma believable. The fences in the Thieves' Guild can still be useful in a world where merchants aren't psychic, simply because the Thieves' Guild is an organization that controls a black market and if you want to rise in the ranks, you better chip in.

 

8. Actors Can Miss Now http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17706

Just a nice little mod that makes anyone shooting at you actually miss sometimes.

 

9. Denock Arrows http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9670

Canceling your bow attack? Oh yeah, of course you'd be able to do that! It makes so much sense! This seems to be a German version, but it doesn't matter. It's just pressing the grab key. Nothing to read.

 

10. Reneer's Name Mod http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26369

The man who fixed the guards also fixed NPC interaction in a very nice way. I can't remember the last time I knew somebody on the street's name before introducing myself to them.

 

11. Spell Delete and Item Remove http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23069

Get rid of those unwanted old spells and quest items just cluttering up your inventory.

 

12. Nirnroot Quest Mod http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2322

Changes the standard Nirnroot quest reward into something much more interesting, I think. However, I am willing to admit the regular reward is good too. It depends on your playing style really, and I personally think this is a vast improvement.

 

13. Rowboats http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6690

Actually use the rowboats on the shore. It's a little clunky. Maybe could have been done better, but it's still very nice. But why use them though, when you can just swim across the bay with all your heavy armor?

 

14. No Encumbered Swimming http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3331

I love this mod. It unfortunately does not affect NPC's, but it's still leagues better. Water is almost like lava now, to certain characters. Now you have to locate a rowboat to get across, or even better, use a walk on water spell that actually means something now. Changing the value at which you sink is kind of a pain, but I posted in the comments section how to do it. The readme is misleading.

 

15. More Staffs at Rendir http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16716

You know that shop in IC Market that sells staffs? Me neither.

 

16. A Bloody Mess http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11182

Really adds to the game. It has some limitations due to the game's design, so read all the documentation carefully. This is one of those mods you need to educate yourself on backwards and front, but it's worth it. Also, the cleaning rags are very hard to find. They aren't at nearly enough vendors. Just so you know.

 

17. Keychain http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3409

Just something nice to reduce inventory clutter.

 

18. Natural Rings Limit http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8635

Of course you don't want to wear all rings and become a god, but only one on each hand?

 

19. Third Person Animations in First Person View http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18617

One of my favorites. I grew up with Doom and Duke Nukem 3D and all those old 3D games had way better first person. Oblivion's first person looks like a floating camera with a sword and shield glued to it. Combine that with the crosshair and I feel like I'm in an editor, not the game. Buggy, but works with Deadly Reflex. The Shield Bash move breaks the skeleton, and the duck move makes the camera go below the ground. None of these are a problem if you fight in 3rd person. Why use this mod then? Well, for all the times you do want first person, it still makes a world of difference.

 

20. Improved No Crosshair http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2260

If you turn off the crosshair, you can't see the other icons. This keeps those icons, but gets rid of the immersion breaking crosshair. I don't need it to aim a bow, and I certainly don't need it when walking around town or using a sword. It works with DARNified UI and Immersive Interface as long as you load this crosshair after installing those.

 

21. Hand to Hand Idle Stance http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24587

Ever get tired of seeing your dainty female mage in an elegant silk dress putting up her dukes in the menu like she's spoiling for a bar brawl? This mod fixes the hand to hand "weapon drawn" pose to be the regular idle so you don't roll your eyes every time you press tab. As for actual hand to hand combat, your character will be standing normally after you raise your fists, but it's a small price to pay since any character that looks silly like this in the menu isn't likely to be engaging in fistfights anyway.

 

22. Perfect Working No Quest Markers http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8680

The simplest of the No Quest Marker mods. Just a straight file replacer. It gets rid of the purple custom marker too, which is kind of a pain, but in a good way I think. There are other mods, but this is the one I use. The less .esp's the better. Now God will no longer tell you where to go.

 

23. Running Revised http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7484

Nice little mod that allows you to sprint for short periods, as well as modify how the fatigue bar reacts to all running. I've tested it with two different fatigue mods, Tejon's Fatigue Effects, and Loup Sombre's Fatigue and Sleeping.

 

24. Cancel Attack http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25316

Press Block in the middle of your attack animation to cancel it. It's of course realistic that you're wide open and defenseless while attacking, but combine that with Besthesda's oftentimes laughably slow attack animations and what do you get? Crappy fights, that's what. Well, no longer! Works with Deadly Reflex!

 

25. Side's Backpacks http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29120

Where am I actually storing all these swords and cuirasses and ingredients if I only have two hands? Why do they suddenly appear out of nowhere when I equip them? If they're appearing out of nowhere, why am I being affected by this arbitrary and unrealistic encumbrance limit? Oh I know! They're in this awesome backpack I'm wearing! From the maker of Better Music System himself, no less. What really makes this mod great is not that it adds a backpack so you can pretend your items are in it. No, they actually are in it. You can drop them all at once before entering the water so you don't drown, and best of all, you can store more items in the backpack then you would normally be able to carry outside of it. Carrying too much outside of it can result in not being able to run or fight, sort of like your minor encumbrance limit. The newest version is practically perfect thanks to his attention to comments despite a busy schedule. :thumbsup: