Popular Overhauls and Combos?

[runlvlzero]

First of all I am starting this topic to see what other peoples opinions are so please vote =) or explain what you like, and maybe why. Maybe if you can avoid flaming try to explain why you might not like certain features but lets not be mean =)

 

I'll start off.

 

I think my favorites now have to be FransMMM plus all of the other little quest and adventure mods (lost spires etc) and area mods (Elswyr) right now of course body re placers too =). I really like FransMMM because it is pretty nonrestrictive on were you can go and what you can do for the most part and does not conflict with allot of other mods that like to tweak little things here and there. Frans and MMM with some extra item mods bashed in with frans rare bosses is great. Its takes everything good about oblivion and makes it better and polishes it. I'm gonna give this very easy to setup simple combo a 8 because it just was real easy to get working, worked with cobl and half the other billion crazy little mods I like. And I only had to read about 20 lines of a readme.... very elegant, this is the bar everyone should strive for for installation ease. Frans and MMM are very nice also in that they have a very modular plugin based aproach... I can use their plug-ins or switch to the original mods their based off with some skill and use those instead.

 

I use to play with OOO almost exclusively (for a year or so), then I switched to OOOMMM for awhile. I found OOO to be real hard to get to work nice with other mods and it kinda penalized early game exploration. It also makes the game slightly harder then I would like... also there are a few hard coded artificial barriers like minimal lock picking etc... Now all that off my chest, I think OOO was perfect, it accomplished all of its goals and the mod did everything it said and flawlessly. It truly made Oblivion's world unique. Another small drawback was that every game was almost the same as far as you knew were all the best stuff was so if you "learned" the mod... the exploration game was kinda over for me. It was also very hard to get working right with some of my other mods but it did make me learn some things about modding. So I would rate OOO or OOOMMM at around a 7, a vast improvement over vanilla oblivion.

 

Now FCOM, Warcry, and TIE, I have not tried these yet. I have to say FCOM looks promising and cool, but I still do like a very dynamic world, almost a random nethack style game generated every time I log in. From what I have read FCOM is still largely static like OOO. FCOM looks great, but is daunting to even a programmer, and someone who has dabbled with almost everything computer/gaming (10 year IT field veteran here). The list of compatibility patches can get kinda endless and tedious to manage. I'm not trying to bash anyone, but it is very daunting to a casual gamer. Just finding the right patches and ESP's and fixing the UOP patches to work with the MOBS system is a little harsh, the Wrye bashed stuff is easy compared to managing all the files and patches you will need. Being a big omod fan, it just is daunting to have to merge, build and create omods patched up to work properly with this mod. (But I do greatly thank the community for all the effort you have put into supporting those guys). I think in maybe a year or 2 if its still active the community will be able to consolidate allot of patches, fixes etc and make this install a breeze. I almost think a database program for managing all these files for FCOM needs to be written specifically outside of what Wyre and OBMM do =P

 

My wish for FCOM would be a very light on the combat, item stat, damage tweaks, maybe only included frans AI behavior, was more dynamic, maybe only a few "Trademark static dungeons" (the rest of the world 100% dynamic). I know you can still teak it greatly by installing OOO Lite and such, but I wish OOO was just a little more modular. I'm not gonna rate it as I have not actually spent more then a few hrs trying to get it to work and I really cant say what its like to go from 1-30 in FCOM.

 

Also the above mods really don't touch magic at all or all that much... so I would say Midas Magic was the coolest magic overhaul out there... I like a fast paced quick sandbox game on moderate difficulty 50% slider (I can die if I really rush into a fight etc). At level 30 I want to be an indisputable god =)

 

Some of the things that really shine about Francesco's to me are the AI tweaks... their amazing!!!

 

I plan on throwing deadly reflexes and unnecessary violence over my FransMMM not sure if adrenaline fueled combat will work on top of all that as well, but if I can get them working on top of FransMMM, I'll have one heck of a fun sandbox to play in =). There is also a stealth mod out there that really makes 1handers, and daggers viable for rogue types and brings a bit more combat fun to stealth characters, not sure if that will be compatable with frans and the other combat mods yet

[Wolfhound646]

Zomb 13 one?

[Tomlong54210]

FCOM: It's super version of OOO (one of the first mods I installed.)

[hellbishop]

I voted OSCURO'S OBLIVION OVERHAUL. It makes the world of OBLIVION very believable on many levels from seeing chests actually open to facing enemies and creatures i found myself running away from til i grew strong enough to have a chance to take on a raging bear or some supernatural spectre among many other dangers.

 

I have tried and loved many of the other mentioned mods like T.I.E., Frans, MMM etc but OOO had that full package covering all the bases and fleshing out the game world to a realistic commonsense level. The minute i saw posters warning of the dangers of the wilderness on the city walls it was like being there.

 

FCOM is too scary to even think about installing. Maybe one day..

[Tomlong54210]

I voted OSCURO'S OBLIVION OVERHAUL. It makes the world of OBLIVION very believable on many levels from seeing chests actually open to facing enemies and creatures i found myself running away from til i grew strong enough to have a chance to take on a raging bear or some supernatural spectre among many other dangers.

 

I have tried and loved many of the other mentioned mods like T.I.E., Frans, MMM etc but OOO had that full package covering all the bases and fleshing out the game world to a realistic commonsense level. The minute i saw posters warning of the dangers of the wilderness on the city walls it was like being there.

 

FCOM is too scary to even think about installing. Maybe one day..

I've written a "step-by-step guide" for it... - http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/walkthroughs/fcomguide

[runlvlzero]

Hey tom, thanks for your link, maybe i'll make a second copy of oblivion and install FCOM there =)

 

Hellbiship your right on with describing OOO... it really does a good job with the details, defiantly superb there in fleshing out all the "generic stuff" and making it special.

 

and Wolfhound646 by Zomb 13 one I mean http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19086 28 Days and a bit 2 zombies...

[TodaY]

OOO - tons of more armor, new quests, and it makes dungeon exploring more fun

[Pineapplerum]

Hi,

I got a question about the overhauls. If I overhauled my game-could I play with my present character or would I have to start from scratch? Thanks.

[Tomlong54210]

Hi,

I got a question about the overhauls. If I overhauled my game-could I play with my present character or would I have to start from scratch? Thanks.

Of course, you can start all of these whenever, but the recommendations would vary some, probably. For OOO and FCOM, at least, it is recommended that you start a new character so that you do not miss out on the mods' early content. The same applies to MMM as well, actually. TIE "fits" along side the vanilla game, so adding that one would not be too jarring at all. TIE is a very different sort of overhaul, however.

 

Scaling Overhaul Comparison - http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=820948&hl=

 

TIE - http://www.dreamingthepyramid.net/TNR-TIE.html

[Pineapplerum]

Thanks TomLong. :D