Essential First Time Mods?

[Demeggy]

Afternoon all,

 

I'm just about to revisit Oblivion and attempt to complete it for the first time since 2006, and was wondering if there's any essential mods I should get hold of that will really improve gameplay, or are particularly cool?

 

I'm looking for something that still retains the theme of Oblivion, but just wolfs up the gameplay a tad :)

 

Cheers for any suggestions,

 

Kris

[TodaY]

You should defintely try OOO and cobl

[Ferryt]

Unfortunately, one person's treasure is another person's garbage, so it really all depends upon your own, personal playing style. When I first got this game, based upon a recommendation by a friend, I approached it cautiously. My previous experience with games like Half-Life 2 had shown me that I have no talent for first person shooters, and role-playing or not, Oblivion is basically a first person shooter. I'll admit that I looked into cheat mods, even though I really don't like cheating in games, except in certain situations involving glitches or obvious game design flaws. I didn't even install the really uber cheats, and there are some awesome ones, ranging from 100% Chameleon rings to one-hit-one-kill god swords. I quickly found that cheats made the game ridiculously easy, at least at low levels, scratched that playthrough and started over with a completely Vanilla installation, and beat the game -- and had fun, for the most part, doing it.

 

Then came the experimentation with mods for my second character. I wasn't looking for ways to make the game easier, even though it's pretty challenging in some places. I definitely wasn't looking for ways to make it harder. I was looking for ways to increase its immersiveness and to give me additional role-playing opportunities. Touted as a role-playing game, there really isn't much "role-playing" in Oblivion. Most of your decisions are basically made for you by the game designers and there tends to be little, if any, consequences of your actions because there's just not a a moral/ethical framework built into this game. I went through what I call Mod Hell, so totally borking my game up that I eventually had to actually do a brand-new clean install. That said, I have a very small list of what I'd consider "essential first time mods".

 

COBL, definitely. I really cannot imagine playing this game without it because much of the best content available by modders relies upon this resource. For most of us it's a fire-and-forget mod. It's a modders resource -- although it does alter a lot of things in-game. One of its optional modules is COBL Races and that has a version called COBL Races Balanced. I use that because I like the way it rebalances the Vanilla races, even though I don't use any of the custom races.

 

I hate the guard AI, as do most players who've had to deal with, so I heartily recommend Reneer's Guard Overhaul. This will make them much more realistic.

 

I love playing stealth-based characters, so I'd suggest tying one or more of the various stealth overhaul mods if that's your playing style, too. I won't recommend any one in particular because I think the jury is still out regarding which one is "best" for me, but this IS a part of the game that is severely cramped and needs to be fixed.

 

Do you play female characters and absolutely hate the fact that they have male bodies? Then you'll want a body replacer mod. In fact, the Vanilla male body isn't all that great, either. Robert's Male Body, currently in version 5-beta is really your only alternative for male characters, and offers a number of body types from hunky to scrawny. The most popular female body replacer, I think, at least based upon clothing and armor mods made for it, is HGEC (Hentai Gentleman's Eye Candy), which is based upon the Exnem body replacer. I used to use that since it gave me the option of actually playing a female character with an average body type and average sized breasts, although the limbs were skinny and there other mesh and texture problems associated with it. I now use Robert's female body replacer, which only offers an average build with average breasts, but it's a much, much better done job, even if there's not a lot of modder support for it.

 

Are you into "companions"? There are lots of companion mods, ranging from the pretty basic "follow me ... attack that guy ... stay here", through mods like "The Romancing of Elyja" that introduce an element of real relationship, to one of the first and probably one of the best -- "Ruined Tail's Tale". I tried a lot of these, but became disenchanted with companions in general, mostly because they have a frightening talent to get in the way of your weapon strikes and offensive spells after you've completely committed to an attack and get themselves injured or killed because of it. Even so, "CM Partners" is a popular and basically sound companion mod with a huge and constantly growing "stable" of companions, since any modder can add more companions to it.

 

There are lots of mods to increase immersion in this game, but I don't consider any of them "essential". Some, like Better Cities and Unique Landscapes attempt to revise all of Cyrodiil, making the game more vibrant with lots of eye candy. If you have a mid-range or lower computer you'll be taking some serious fps hits with these, though. There are complete overhauls to the way the game operates, the most popular being Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul ("OOO"), and you might want to look into that, but I'd suggest doing it only after you've played the game in its Vanilla flavor. I don't use OOO because, for me, it has a few features which are "deal-breakers", but a lot of people love it.

 

Google "oblivion mod list" and you'll get list after list of people's favorite mods, and some of them actually go into detail as to why they like them. Those descriptions, while probably prejudiced, can be used to help you decide what you might or might not like, and some of the users will warn you of mod incompatibilities, which can virtually destroy your game.

[Ferryt]

Unfortunately, one person's treasure is another person's garbage, so it really all depends upon your own, personal playing style. When I first got this game, based upon a recommendation by a friend, I approached it cautiously. My previous experience with games like Half-Life 2 had shown me that I have no talent for first person shooters, and role-playing or not, Oblivion is basically a first person shooter. I'll admit that I looked into cheat mods, even though I really don't like cheating in games, except in certain situations involving glitches or obvious game design flaws. I didn't even install the really uber cheats, and there are some awesome ones, ranging from 100% Chameleon rings to one-hit-one-kill god swords. I quickly found that cheats made the game ridiculously easy, at least at low levels, scratched that playthrough and started over with a completely Vanilla installation, and beat the game -- and had fun, for the most part, doing it.

 

Then came the experimentation with mods for my second character. I wasn't looking for ways to make the game easier, even though it's pretty challenging in some places. I definitely wasn't looking for ways to make it harder. I was looking for ways to increase its immersiveness and to give me additional role-playing opportunities. Touted as a role-playing game, there really isn't much "role-playing" in Oblivion. Most of your decisions are basically made for you by the game designers and there tends to be little, if any, consequences of your actions because there's just not a a moral/ethical framework built into this game. I went through what I call Mod Hell, so totally borking my game up that I eventually had to actually do a brand-new clean install. That said, I have a very small list of what I'd consider "essential first time mods".

 

COBL, definitely. I really cannot imagine playing this game without it because much of the best content available by modders relies upon this resource. For most of us it's a fire-and-forget mod. It's a modders resource -- although it does alter a lot of things in-game. One of its optional modules is COBL Races and that has a version called COBL Races Balanced. I use that because I like the way it rebalances the Vanilla races, even though I don't use any of the custom races.

 

I hate the guard AI, as do most players who've had to deal with, so I heartily recommend Reneer's Guard Overhaul. This will make them much more realistic.

 

I love playing stealth-based characters, so I'd suggest tying one or more of the various stealth overhaul mods if that's your playing style, too. I won't recommend any one in particular because I think the jury is still out regarding which one is "best" for me, but this IS a part of the game that is severely cramped and needs to be fixed.

 

Do you play female characters and absolutely hate the fact that they have male bodies? Then you'll want a body replacer mod. In fact, the Vanilla male body isn't all that great, either. Robert's Male Body, currently in version 5-beta is really your only alternative for male characters, and offers a number of body types from hunky to scrawny. The most popular female body replacer, I think, at least based upon clothing and armor mods made for it, is HGEC (Hentai Gentleman's Eye Candy), which is based upon the Exnem body replacer. I used to use that since it gave me the option of actually playing a female character with an average body type and average sized breasts, although the limbs were skinny and there other mesh and texture problems associated with it. I now use Robert's female body replacer, which only offers an average build with average breasts, but it's a much, much better done job, even if there's not a lot of modder support for it.

 

Are you into "companions"? There are lots of companion mods, ranging from the pretty basic "follow me ... attack that guy ... stay here", through mods like "The Romancing of Eyja" that introduce an element of real relationship, to one of the first and probably one of the best -- "Ruined Tail's Tale". I tried a lot of these, but became disenchanted with companions in general, mostly because they have a frightening talent to get in the way of your weapon strikes and offensive spells after you've completely committed to an attack and get themselves injured or killed because of it. Even so, "CM Partners" is a popular and basically sound companion mod with a huge and constantly growing "stable" of companions, since any modder can add more companions to it.

 

There are lots of mods to increase immersion in this game, but I don't consider any of them "essential". Some, like Better Cities and Unique Landscapes attempt to revise all of Cyrodiil, making the game more vibrant with lots of eye candy. If you have a mid-range or lower computer you'll be taking some serious fps hits with these, though. There are complete overhauls to the way the game operates, the most popular being Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul ("OOO"), and you might want to look into that, but I'd suggest doing it only after you've played the game in its Vanilla flavor. I don't use OOO because, for me, it has a few features which are "deal-breakers", but a lot of people love it.

 

Google "oblivion mod list" and you'll get list after list of people's favorite mods, and some of them actually go into detail as to why they like them. Those descriptions, while probably prejudiced, can be used to help you decide what you might or might not like, and some of the users will warn you of mod incompatibilities, which can virtually destroy your game.

[Ferryt]

Sorry for the double post. Apparently I don't know how to edit posts, here, even though I hit the "edit" button. A moderator can delete the first one.

 

All I did (or tried to do) was change "Elyja" to "Eyja" in "The Romancing of Eyja", which I noticed when I was scanning my posted message.

[oldnotweak]

id say an essential first time mod would be the enchanted druid treehome and visual enchantments also illumination within adds alot of immersion

[LFact]

-snip-and visual enchantments also illumination within adds alot of immersion

 

Illumination Within can burden your system, although there's more optimized one. Rather, currently suggested one is 'Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys'.

For mod recommendation, do not forget to grab Unofficial Oblivion Patch(and UOSP if you have Shivering Isles as well).

[Deleted1848331User]

I think BBB is the most popular female body actually....

 

My first time mods would be Amazing Jump, another The Lost Spire. DMC Stylish I would get too, but I believe you said you want something more fitting with Oblivion.