Hello.

[BarrowWight]

Bit of a generic thread title, innit? Yeah, no one ever accused me of being the most creative individual when it comes to naming things, though at times, I admit to coming up with some pretty good titles. Anywhom, I'm new to modding. Really new. Haven't even started to, so any questions I may have, and I do have some, will probably come across as stupid to more experienced modders. And so far, I have really only two questions. First, are there any real limitations to the amount of mods a person can apply to a game? I mean, I know the specs of the computer itself bear heavily on how well the mods actually run, but is it possible to have so much modding that the game just plain doesn't play? And second, do modders on this site require compensation for their work?

 

For anybody who may want to know, I am in fact a lifelong gamer, having started with Super Mario Bros. at the age of 3 back in 1989. Since then, I've gone on to play many games, including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins. It should be noted that I am actually somewhat computer gaming-phobic when it comes to games that weren't designed specifically to be played on a computer over the internet (read browser-based games like Mafia Wars or Adventure Quest or Dark Throne) having grown up with consoles like the afore-aluded NES and the current-gen PS3 and most systems in between. However, with Star Wars: The Old Republic looming and all the cool user-generated content I've seen for the aforementioned Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins, but mostly for the gross unreliability of two-thirds of the current-gen home consoles, I figure now's as good a time as any to come out of my shell, so to speak. I think it should also be noted that my area of specialization lies in cheating in video games, not modding or hacking. Big difference.

[Vindekarr]

OK: firstly, welcome to the nexus. Im Vindekarr, tyro modder and grump in residence.

 

You can have theoreticaly unlimited mods but only if they dont do the same thing. You only get issues if you have two mods that "conflict" by having two that do the same thing, this will cause the game to CTD and fail to run until you shut one off. Some examples of what might conflict are body mods, the really big mods like Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul(ooo) and Martigen's Monster Mod, and things like Better Cities might conflict with mods that alter cities.

 

Generaly speaking you can run a hundred or so really small mods for things like armour, weapons, gear and companions. But you'll want to limit the number of really big things. Typicaly you'll want ONE of the following, and only one: body mod, animation package, sound package, global texture replacer, overhaul(like ooo or mmm) and lastly, if like a lot of people, you've got Better Cities, you'll want to be a little bit careful about what you mod in the city worldspaces.

 

Secondly, modding is a pretty cheap process, the resource required is coffee, industrial amounts of coffee. The mods here are free, according to my knowledge it is not legal to SELL your mods for any price.

[BarrowWight]

Okay. So some things like OOO and MMM are obviously big, but what about mods that require other mods, like something that was made using OOO as their base, but aren't part of what was released as part of OOO? If they turn out to be particularly big in file size, but their effect is actually quite small compared to OOO, would that cause problems? Or does file size not have anything to do with it?

[Vindekarr]

OOO with all its updates is the biggest mod aside from Better Cities. It's a compilation of technological enhancements, some of them immense, new enemy types, and hundreds of new items and gear fully intergrated across said new adventures, drawn with permisions from some other leading mods.

 

It is however, an unwieldy behemoth in size. Weighing in at a total, including patches, updated versions and optional content as about half the size or more of the original 4GB game itself. Its extremely reliable and often acts as a "base mod"-the thing most people install and then choose mods around, as it gives you about double as many enemy groups and factions(everything from dunmer slavers to amazons and megaminotaurs) and a ton of new quests. But the only things it is not compatabile with are other similarly sized mods. You can run pretty much any number of virtualy any type of mod except for rarified overhauls OOO has only two incompatibilities that I'm aware of, all of them megamods:MMM, FRAN, and thats it. Pretty much any good mod that conflicts with OOO comes with a simple patch to resolve the issue.

 

For example Im running three gargantuan mods at the moment, Better Cities, OOO, and Midas Magic(all of which are truly brilliant and worth downloading if you have a few spare gigabytes) all in thats a BIG load of data, but despite occasional lag from the beautiful-yet-computer-intensive decoration in Better Cities, hasnt CTDed for a loooong time.

 

Basicaly, you can run as many mods as you like just as long as you follow the simple rule of never getting more than one body mod per gender (EG if you try and run DMGUTS parralel with my preffered TGND, the results are comedic and horrible, four breasted ladies with four legs and two butts) even more embarrising with male bodies mods because at one stage I accidently had a mod that adds Robert's V and Robert's IV installed, which meant that men had four arms, four legs, and um, a lot of balls. You also need to limit the amount of mods you download that alter city planning(If you choose to get Better Cities, DO NOT run any other cityscape mods, that would be a disaster) and the magic and combat system. For example if you have the superb Deadly Reflex Mod installed, running the equaly brilliant Unneccessary Violence is just aking for trouble.

 

You'll only run into trouble if you run two mods that do the same thing.

 

Oh, just one last thing. You'll want to pick up a little utility from here called BOSS. BOSS means Better Oblivion Sorting Software. You install it like a (very simple) mod, then double click the icon, BOSS will then view the contents of your various Oblivion folders, and re organise them and your Load Order for maximum performance and minimum crashes-BOSS solved a fatal error for me all on its own a few weeks ago, a must have.

[BarrowWight]

Good to know. Since I made the decision to get Oblivion for the PC (also seriously considering building a computer specifically for gaming with a big hard drive, just so things look good and I have room for it all), OOO was always on the list of mods I intended to use. If it's as good as everybody says, and all the lists of reccomended mods I've seen have it on them, why shouldn't I run with it, too? But other than that and Better Cities, I'm really only intending to add things that make the people actually different from one another and more attractive, as well as stuff that give more to do. I've seen mods for altering the speed at which your skills build up and put people on the roads and make the game so you have to actually build up and have certain skill levels to be able to do this or that. That's a bit much in my opinion, though things like giving your character a voice and other little odds and ends I've seen would be nice touches, particularly clocks and light fixtures that actually provide light.

[Vindekarr]

Yeah-Player Sound Sets not only is a good mod-and easy to use, but it also will really make you feel nostalgic if you liked Baldurs Gate or PlaneScape.

 

Another one I can recomend is Natural Environments. its just a little utility that makes tamriel a much better looking place without the powerdrain or epic download times involved with a texture overhaul. What NE does, aside from being the #1 easiest to install overhaul mod I've ever seen. Is it adds birds and insects as ambient effects, so you will occasionaly, depending on where you are, get area apropriate flies buzzing past, and occasionaly see birds in the sky. It also adds some really really beautiful hand made sky textures, and adds working seasons. So month changes really do make for diferent weather. It does this by subtle changes to the colour palet, viewing distance, and ofcourse, the weather and presence of animals.

 

As for mods for people, here are my picks: TGND, aka The Girl Next Door is overall the best female body mod http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30914(this contains the mod and the utility that auto configres the oblivon default clothing to fit it's mech, is also the most realistic fembody mod) though you'll need to get the textures for it seperately. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20022 (for the textures)

 

For male body mods, it goes without saying: Robert's Male Body mod. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32765

 

And for facial textures you'll want BOTH of these excellent mods. Because they mod a diferent part of the face each, and when combined, the diference in quality is astonishing. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5643 and http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9534

 

I use all of these mods myself, and I can tell you now that they are some of the best on the site-well worth a look if nothing else.

[Rheyne]

Bit of a generic thread title, innit? Yeah, no one ever accused me of being the most creative individual when it comes to naming things, though at times, I admit to coming up with some pretty good titles. Anywhom, I'm new to modding. Really new. Haven't even started to, so any questions I may have, and I do have some, will probably come across as stupid to more experienced modders. And so far, I have really only two questions. First, are there any real limitations to the amount of mods a person can apply to a game? I mean, I know the specs of the computer itself bear heavily on how well the mods actually run, but is it possible to have so much modding that the game just plain doesn't play? And second, do modders on this site require compensation for their work?

 

For anybody who may want to know, I am in fact a lifelong gamer, having started with Super Mario Bros. at the age of 3 back in 1989. Since then, I've gone on to play many games, including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins. It should be noted that I am actually somewhat computer gaming-phobic when it comes to games that weren't designed specifically to be played on a computer over the internet (read browser-based games like Mafia Wars or Adventure Quest or Dark Throne) having grown up with consoles like the afore-aluded NES and the current-gen PS3 and most systems in between. However, with Star Wars: The Old Republic looming and all the cool user-generated content I've seen for the aforementioned Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins, but mostly for the gross unreliability of two-thirds of the current-gen home consoles, I figure now's as good a time as any to come out of my shell, so to speak. I think it should also be noted that my area of specialization lies in cheating in video games, not modding or hacking. Big difference.

 

Well if you need anybody for voice acting, story writing or scripting, I'm interested! ^_^ I have not had the chance to participate in any projects yet and I'm looking forward to it. Just let me know!

[BarrowWight]

Bit of a generic thread title, innit? Yeah, no one ever accused me of being the most creative individual when it comes to naming things, though at times, I admit to coming up with some pretty good titles. Anywhom, I'm new to modding. Really new. Haven't even started to, so any questions I may have, and I do have some, will probably come across as stupid to more experienced modders. And so far, I have really only two questions. First, are there any real limitations to the amount of mods a person can apply to a game? I mean, I know the specs of the computer itself bear heavily on how well the mods actually run, but is it possible to have so much modding that the game just plain doesn't play? And second, do modders on this site require compensation for their work?

 

For anybody who may want to know, I am in fact a lifelong gamer, having started with Super Mario Bros. at the age of 3 back in 1989. Since then, I've gone on to play many games, including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins. It should be noted that I am actually somewhat computer gaming-phobic when it comes to games that weren't designed specifically to be played on a computer over the internet (read browser-based games like Mafia Wars or Adventure Quest or Dark Throne) having grown up with consoles like the afore-aluded NES and the current-gen PS3 and most systems in between. However, with Star Wars: The Old Republic looming and all the cool user-generated content I've seen for the aforementioned Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins, but mostly for the gross unreliability of two-thirds of the current-gen home consoles, I figure now's as good a time as any to come out of my shell, so to speak. I think it should also be noted that my area of specialization lies in cheating in video games, not modding or hacking. Big difference.

 

Well if you need anybody for voice acting, story writing or scripting, I'm interested! ^_^ I have not had the chance to participate in any projects yet and I'm looking forward to it. Just let me know!

Heh. I think I'm a bit of a ways out from doing my own mods, but if and when that day should come, I'll look you up.