Devjiro Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Hello again. Last night I spent about 5 hours messing around, installing, uninstalling, and overall just practicing with various mods. This morning, I uninstalled everything, and am starting with a clean slate, ready to really start getting some mods I want. Now I need more help. I have read the 'how to' and 'faq' stickies, and all the related readme's, and have done a quick search here on nexus, and a few of my questions were not answered to my satisfaction, so I will ask them here. Mod Tools There are a lot of tools available for the modding community and I just wanted to know which were the most respected. Currently, I have the following installed: 7-ZipBOSSCSOBMMOBSEFast Exit 2Wisdom Earle's Crash Prevention SystemWrye Bash Are all of these good? Are there more I should have? Which should I get to know and love, and use a lot? Folder and Mod Layout I like to keep my computer organized, and therefore usually have a folder system I used to keep all my wanted files in the right spots. Now, when you get into modding, it seems that the files will get a little more picky as to where they go, because Oblivion is looking in a specific spot for them. Right now I have Oblivion installed in the default spot. I put all my mod tools into a separate folder for now though. So, in my data folder (that is in my Oblivion folder) there is: A Meshes FolderA Music FolderA Shaders FolderA Textures FolderAnd A Video Folder The only folder I created is the meshes folder. All the other ones were already there. Are there any more folders I should create? How about folders within folders? Because in the textures folder (That was already there) has a folder inside called effects. I am guessing this will not interfere with anything, and I should just ignore that folder. It would be good if I could create folders specifically for my mods that way I can delete them all at the same time if I need to, but I am not sure if this would work. And, below those folders, within my data folder, I have a bunch of single files. There are various files that are textures and meshes files for Oblivion, Knights, and SI. Should I leave those alone, or drag them up into the texture and meshes folders? Also, should I move any of my mod tools here? How should I arrange them? My Desired Mods I narrowed my list down to about 7 mods I really want, but they are probably some of the biggest, most complicated mods available. ;) OOOQarl's Texture Pack III RedimizedAll NaturalNatural EnvironmentsBetter CitiesReneer's Guard OverhaulDeadly Reflexes Should I take the plunge, or get about another 100 hours under my belt before I even attempt it? In what order should I download it? Where should I put it? How long does it usually take to download? And give me any other advice or words of wisdom, I would even accept a step by step guide. ;) Patches, Updates, and Fixes Last night, I did not download any unofficial patches. But, just out of curiosity, how do these unofficial patches behave? Are they more like official patches, or mods? Anything else I should know about them? Thank you all in advance for any answers. I will definitely appreciate any and all information you can give me. And, sorry for the wall. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Unless you have WinXp it is not a good idea to install the game to the default location as that is protected by the Windows UAC (which does not like mods) in both Vista and Win7. Instead install to a folder outside of the program files location - such as C:\Games\Oblivion The list of mod tools you have is fine. Unless you are going to make your own mods, the CS is not needed but will not cause any problems. OBMM and Wrye Bash do have some overlap, but they will work together. As for patches, if you have the Game of the Year (GOTY) version, no patches are needed as long as you install the Shivering Isles part (for some reason Beth included the patch in the SI and not the Oblivion part.) If you don't have The GOTY version. Then you may need the official Oblivion Patch from BethSoft. To find out, launch te base game, and on the brown startup screen look in the lower left corner for a version number. If it is v1.2.0146 it is already patched. Patches are not like mods and cannot be undone once they are installed. If you install the wrong patch you will have to reinstall the game to recover. If you have Oblivion only, and not Shivering Isles - Only install the Oblivion patch for your language version. UK & US versions are different. If you do have Shivering Isles DO NOT install the Oblivion patch. use the Shivering Isles patch (UK & US versions are the same) DO NOT mess with the file structure - as the game expects to find certain types of files in certain places - and will do strange things if they are in the wrong place. Creating a Meshes folder will not do any harm as it would have been created the first time you installed a mod that needed it anyway. All of the DLC mods - Knights of the Nine, etc have installation programs and will install things in the proper places. User made mods do not have installation programs and you will have to place some things yourself - read the read me for each mod to be sure. Most mods you just extract directly into the data folder and the 7-zip program will place things in the proper folders. Many mods will not work without the latest patch or OBSE. So be sure you have both. It is a good idea to learn how to install mods as OMODs using OBMM, or as BAIN mods using Wrye Bash as this makes it so much easier to uninstall and reinstall them when you have a problem. Pick one or the other and use it. You probably picked some of the more difficult mods to get working properly. Install them ONE at a time and test to be sure it works before loading another. When you start having problems use BOSS to help with load order - often that fixes problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaihodgson Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Hello again. Last night I spent about 5 hours messing around, installing, uninstalling, and overall just practicing with various mods. This morning, I uninstalled everything, and am starting with a clean slate, ready to really start getting some mods I want. Now I need more help. I have read the 'how to' and 'faq' stickies, and all the related readme's, and have done a quick search here on nexus, and a few of my questions were not answered to my satisfaction, so I will ask them here. Mod Tools There are a lot of tools available for the modding community and I just wanted to know which were the most respected. Currently, I have the following installed: 7-ZipBOSSCSOBMMOBSEFast Exit 2Wisdom Earle's Crash Prevention SystemWrye Bash Are all of these good? Are there more I should have? Which should I get to know and love, and use a lot? Folder and Mod Layout I like to keep my computer organized, and therefore usually have a folder system I used to keep all my wanted files in the right spots. Now, when you get into modding, it seems that the files will get a little more picky as to where they go, because Oblivion is looking in a specific spot for them. Right now I have Oblivion installed in the default spot. I put all my mod tools into a separate folder for now though. So, in my data folder (that is in my Oblivion folder) there is: A Meshes FolderA Music FolderA Shaders FolderA Textures FolderAnd A Video Folder The only folder I created is the meshes folder. All the other ones were already there. Are there any more folders I should create? How about folders within folders? Because in the textures folder (That was already there) has a folder inside called effects. I am guessing this will not interfere with anything, and I should just ignore that folder. It would be good if I could create folders specifically for my mods that way I can delete them all at the same time if I need to, but I am not sure if this would work. And, below those folders, within my data folder, I have a bunch of single files. There are various files that are textures and meshes files for Oblivion, Knights, and SI. Should I leave those alone, or drag them up into the texture and meshes folders? Also, should I move any of my mod tools here? How should I arrange them? My Desired Mods I narrowed my list down to about 7 mods I really want, but they are probably some of the biggest, most complicated mods available. ;) OOOQarl's Texture Pack III RedimizedAll NaturalNatural EnvironmentsBetter CitiesReneer's Guard OverhaulDeadly Reflexes Should I take the plunge, or get about another 100 hours under my belt before I even attempt it? In what order should I download it? Where should I put it? How long does it usually take to download? And give me any other advice or words of wisdom, I would even accept a step by step guide. ;) Patches, Updates, and Fixes Last night, I did not download any unofficial patches. But, just out of curiosity, how do these unofficial patches behave? Are they more like official patches, or mods? Anything else I should know about them? Thank you all in advance for any answers. I will definitely appreciate any and all information you can give me. And, sorry for the wall. :) Welcome to oblivion modding I would recommend that you also install streamline as it really cuts down on stuttering and LOD pop up( if your computer can handle it turn off stream sight in the in game options menu)Also be sure to get the unoffical oblivion patches for the DLC's you have installedDeadly reflex has some pretty anoying textures so getting the deadly reflex texture replacer is highly recommended, also check out bloody mess it complements deadly reflex very wellAnd be sure not to use Natural environments weather options with All Natural, I personally use All Natural, Natural Environments Habitat plug in, and Enhanced VegetationAlso if you read the readme for OOO and MMM carefully you can install both these incredible mods with out the hassle of a full FCOM install -cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devjiro Posted August 26, 2010 Author Share Posted August 26, 2010 Okay. Thank you for the responses. When and how should I use my 'mod tools'. So far, I have downloaded some mods, and the only other program I used is 7-zip to unzip them, I did not have to use wryebash or obmm or anything. Is it just because the mods were set up nicely, to make it easy on my end? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Yup. When the mod author does everything right - it's actually easy. And with just a few mods you don't to worry much with load order yet. If you want to see the real load order, run OBMM. The data list in game is not a true load order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts