Overwhelmed by mods

[joshdsalley]

Hi guys

 

I'm looking to start my second true play through. My first run was a couple of years ago without any mods. After that I played around with a bunch of mods, mostly visual, but I didn't get into all of the ones I really want experience. Now I am finding myself overwhelmed with all of the things to do in order to install mods. Before I would just download the mod, copy it to my oblivion folder, and use the Oblivion Mod Manager to sort out everything. Now it seems like so many mods have prerequisites, and then some of those have prerequisites.

 

A lot I have seen require OBSE, which I found is Oblivion Script Editor. What exactly is that and what does it do? Also, do I need to configure it in any way or just put it in my oblivion folder?

 

I also see a lot of people recommending BOSS. Is BOSS really necessary if I already use Oblivion Mod Manager?

 

Next question refers to a good mod/mods for a change to the combat. The deadly reflex looks pretty good. I would like to find one that enhances the archery combat.

 

Last question. What is the easiest way to find out if two or more mods are going to conflict with each other?

[bben46]

OBSE adds functions to the game engine that are used by modders to make mods to do things the original came can't. There are no options. Once it is in, that's it.

 

Get it here: http://obse.silverlock.org/

 

It is not a mod and must be installed according to the instructions. Then you must always start OBSE first (It then starts Oblivion). OBMM has a Oblivion launcher built in, if you have OBSE, it will automatically start it first.

 

While OBMM alows you to set the load order manually, when you have 20 or 30 mods, that can take a while. When you have 200 quite a while. BOSS automatically sets the load order of any mods in it's list. Then you can manually set any others with OBMM.

 

BOSS: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20516

 

Deadly reflex is a very complex mod. I always tell people to turn if off when troubleshooting because it changes so many things in the game. When it works, it's great. when it doesn't work, it's a bear to find what it is interfering with.

 

As to conflicting mods, there is no good way to say if a mod will conflict with your set up until you try it because every computer is different and every game is different. Read the forum messages on each mod for a good idea on what it will not work with. The OBMM conflict detector will show a conflict for every change - however that is not necessarily a bad thing as that is what mods do, modify (change) things. It will tell you what is changed and what mods were involved. So if you know what you are looking for it is a handy tool.

 

As to finding a mod, try the mod search function. Type in archery and see what comes up.

[joshdsalley]

Thanks

 

I decided to take on the daunting task of installing the FCOM Convergence. After three re-installs and about six hours of reading the different guides I believe I was successful.

 

Everything seems to be working good. Now I just have to install all of the other mods.

[Tomlong54210]

You should thoroughly test FCOM before adding other mods to your setup.

Running Oblivion <-- see the "Testing" section