spyder7723 Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 first, thanks for taking the time to read this. and warning, im a complete idiot at computers, so much so its amazing I can figure out how to install the game, let alone install mods. so I've been playing oblivion for about two weeks now. its an amazing game, reminds me a lot of the older rpgs such as the first couple might and magics, and ultima's. but now that I've gotten my feet wet, and have seen glimpses of what modding can do, im hoping someone can take the time to help me figure out how to enhance the game with some of the mods out here. so here is my set up. its the box set that has elder scrolls 1 and 2 on disk, and morrowind, oblivion and skyrim through steam.with all available expansions. (sorta like a complete colletors edition) the computer im running on is my hp pavillion dv7-6135dx laptop.intel core i5-2410 cpu @ 2.3GHz (pretty sure its a quad processor wtf ever that means)8.00 gb ramwindows 7 64 bitradeon hd 6490m graphics card with the int hd graphics family display adapter.maybe that info can help the techy folks tell me what mods and settings my laptop can or can not handle. ok, now that the technical stuff (that I completely don't understand) is over,what im trying to accomplish is to pretty the game up and add some of the companions, all while trying to keep the 'feel' of the game the same. don't want to change too much about the game play, except for maybe the leveling system. that part really sucks. I've read very good things about vilja and the packmules. plan on getting them.also the unofficial patches to fix stuff that got past the developers q/a department. the game crashes a lot (maybe 4 times over an evening of playing), so any suggestions that can limit those would be much appreciated. as for prettying the game up, I mean, environment graphics, pc graphics, and npc/monster type graphics. I've read of eve and Roberts male body replacer...but I don't really understand these, are they just the pc, or do they change all the npc's you run into in the game? a better ui/menus? last but certainly not least, a mod installer/organizer tool. ive come across a few including, obm, obm++ and obse. which do I need? do the run in unison? or is one preferred over the others? thanks for any suggestions/advice you may have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Striker879 Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 You will not find better than Vilja, and I wouldn't even consider playing without Emma's Packdonkeys (but it was likely me you saw touting their praises, so you know that). Both are as easy as it gets for cutting your teeth on modding. Download them to a folder you create on your hard drive by clicking on either the words "download manually" or the name of the download beside the magnifying glass (Emma has made life much easier for you by disabling the Download with Manager green button you'll find on many mods ... that's for Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) something that isn't recommended for Oblivion, but works well for Skyrim). After you go through the Nexus dialogue about getting the files ready you'll be presented with a standard Windows "Save As" dialogue. Click on the Create folder button (or whatever it's named in Win 7) and then use the dropdown box to navigate to where on your machine you want to create the folder. I have a top level folder I created with Windows Explorer named Oblivion_Downloads and then save to sub-folders inside that (so my Companion Vilja is saved in Oblivion_Downloads\Companion_Vilja and Packdonkeys is in Oblivion_Downloads\Packdonkeys). With Companion Vilja you'll see from reading the mod description Installing & Upgrading section that you need both the ESP download and the BSA download (recommended to read mod descriptions and install instructions for all mods before starting). Both can be saved to the same folder. The downloads both come as compressed files that use 7-Zip to extract. When you're done you'll have two files, 1em_Vilja.esp and 1em_Vilja.bsa (you may not see the file name extensions .esp and .bsa in Windows Explorer, in which case you'll just see two files named 1em_Vilja ... it's not a problem, just a setting in the viewing properties for Windows Explorer that can be changed if you want). To install all you need to do is right mouse click on the first file and then select Copy from the right click menu. Either change your view in Windows Explorer to show your game install's Data folder or use a second instance of Windows Explorer open to your game's Oblivion\Data folder (that's how I do it ... option two is just easier after you've gotten the hang of it). Right mouse click on the Data folder and select Paste from the right click menu. Do the same thing with the second file. When done you should have two files in your game's Oblivion\Data folder named 1em_Vilja (the ESP and the BSA). Now open the vanilla game launcher (the one that has Data Files listed right below Play). Click on Data Files and in the dialogue that opens you'll see 1em_Vilja.esp listed. Single left click on the empty box beside the ESP and you'll get an X. Click on OK and then when you're back at the game launcher click Play. Either load a save that has your character close to or in the Imperial City or in your current save make your way to the Bloated Float in the IC Waterfront District. Vija will be hanging out in the restaurant. Packdonkeys installs exactly the same way except the download is a single download that extracts to both files (the ESP and the BSA). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyder7723 Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 striker, thanks for the explanation. does it matter in which order I initially download and install mods? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Striker879 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 (edited) For some it does, for others no. Mods fall into two broad categories, what I call replacers that simply replace the vanilla content of the game with new models etc (think body replacers like HGEC and Roberts Male, as well as animation replacers like NoMaaM and armor/clothes replacers) and mods that add new content to the game like Companion Vilja and Packdonkeys (and a vast myriad of armor and clothes mods that add new stuff to the game). The replacers for the most part don't use ESP files to get their new content recognized by the game ... they use something called Archive Invalidation. In it's original form Oblivion has all of it's assets (meshes, textures, animations, voices etc.) stored in compressed files ... those BSA files that Vilja and the donkeys also use. After you first install the game, if you look in the Oblivion\Data folder you won't see folders named Meshes or Textures, but there will be files named Oblivion - Meshes.bsa and Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa (among others). If you install a mod that comes with an ESP like Companion Vilja the ESP file gives the base game instructions on how to use the new assets (and some of that is just telling the game to use stuff from the vanilla BSA files, like Vilja's outfit when you first meet her). If the game isn't instructed by an ESP on what to do it will default to looking in it's original BSA files and will ignore any newer files that are trying to replace the old stuff in the BSA (so instead of wearing a skimpy fur cuirass if you installed a replacer that replaced the vanilla fur cuirass with skimpy it would still put the vanilla fur cuirass on Vilja that it finds in Oblivion - Meshes.bsa). Archive Invalidation is the method developed to overcome that limitation. It gets the game to use any files it finds in the proper folder structure outside of the BSA files IF the file date is newer than the BSA file date. Now the trouble is there can only be one Data\Meshes\armor\fur\f\cuirass.nif (that's the exact path to the female fur cuirass mesh). If you install "Joe's Really Really Skimpy Fur Cuirass" today and then tomorrow decide to install "Fred's Total Female Armor Replacer" when you go to meet Vilja tomorrow night she'll be wearing the fur cuirass from Fred's mod and the one from Joe's will not exist in the game. The short answer ... with replacers install order matters, whatever you install last is what the game will use if both replacers try to replace the same thing. The better mods that require archive invalidation will tell you so in their mod description, but there are plenty of good mods out there from authors with poor skills in describing things. My advice is the same as what I do with any mods I'm considering ... read the mod description, then read the mod comments (at least the most recent few pages if there are lots of pages of comments). If a mod has problems chances are you'll read about it in the mod comments. As you learn more about modding you'll start to recognize when a mod author or people helping out have figured out the solution to those problems (most frequent problem with mods?? people don't follow instructions ... if they read them at all). Rule of thumb when starting out ... if you can't understand it move on to something you can get hold of until you learn enough to revisit those "tough to figure out" mods. And don't be afraid to ask questions ... we all started out knowing squat about modding. Edited January 7, 2015 by Striker879 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyder7723 Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 ok, I think I got it. next question. I downloaded the oblivion mod manager, and then darnified ui (which is amazing fyi. big thanks to the creater of that) it installed fine with the omod tool. but while I had omod opened I was clicking around checking it out, there is a button in the utilites "conflict detector" so I clicked it for shits and giggles to see what it did, and I get a pop up saying "an error occurred trying to check 'knights.esp'. the master file 'oblivion.esm' required by plugin 'knights.esp' is not active." it goes on to give the same pop up for all the dlc/expansions. I have the steam version that includes all the official patches/dlc's/expansion. is this confilict thingymajoohicky telling me something is not installed properly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Striker879 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 To be honest I don't really know how reliable OBMM's conflict detector is. OBMM itself hasn't been updated since before Steam took over the world as we know it. I do know that even if it's not "ticked" in Data Files the game will load Oblivion.esm when it starts up. After using it when I first started out to get HGEC and BBB working I've only used OBMM for two things ... I've used it's BSA Browser to extract assets I need for my own mods (either from the vanilla game BSAs or from mod added BSAs) and it's Archive Invalidation tool (which offers a nice segue into the next lesson, or rather a continuation of the last). On the right side of OBMM's window click on Utilities and then in the menu select Archive Invalidation. In the Archive Invalidation dialogue select BSA Redirection and then click on Reset BSA Timestamps (Steam in all their infinite wisdom changed the dates on all of the vanilla game BSA files, thus breaking archive invalidation for all their victims ... err, I mean users). Finally click on Update Now and close out the Archive Invalidation dialogue. BSA Redirection is a do once and forget about it solution. The older ways of archive invalidation all had problems, but before BSA Redirection came along they were the only game in town. In particular you will see BSA Alteration mentioned in some older mods. Ignore any advice suggesting that you should use BSA Alteration ... get BSA Redirection and you're good. Now I can't say that about the BSA timestamp problem ... I believe I've heard people talk about Steam doing an update and re-breaking things. Just redo the Reset BSA Timestamps if they get broken in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyder7723 Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 ok, this one will probably result in you telling me im hopeless and to go buy an xbox. but I am confused on how to apply the unofficial patches. I downloaded them, and got them to unzip with the zip7 program you recommended. my confusion is when I go to copy and paste into the oblivion file, there share many folder names...do I need to replace the originals with the new folders? or do I go inside the folders and cut and paste the files themselves? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IkeCoast Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 The Oblivion Mod Manager Conflict Detector is virtually useless, believe me. And the error it gave you is natural, since you need to include the Oblivion.esm there for it to work. I personally stick to OMM because when comes to merge or make mutually compatible mods, I prefer to do it manually. Wrye Wash is THE TOOL for managing mods, does lots of things, but I prefer the straightforwardness and simplicity of OMM. By the way, never think about using NMM for Oblivion. It's not intended for this game. About installing the Unofficial Patches, and manually installing mods in general, don't worry, the fact that they share the same folder structures is the way they should be. Just drag and drop the complete file structure of the Unofficial Patches to the folder they instruct you (usually the game's root folder) and when the prompt "Warning, this folder already contains a folder named "Data", content will be overwritten with the new one and you will die a slow and painful death and all your bloodline will be cursed for all Eternity", just hit the "Yes to all" button. Summarizing: yes, you are expected to "replace the old folders with the new ones". Do not fiddle with them. Just follow the installation instructions TO THE LETTER. Always, and I mean ALWAYS, read the Readmes and follow the instructions. You don't understand the instructions? No worries (/me bro-fists Striker), you're not alone in this jungle. Do not buy an XBox. The game is not the same as in a pc. In a box, you don't have all these mods. About Body Replacers, like Robert's, they apply the body change to ALL the characters, not just the player character. New systems using Blockhead are being developed, but are scarce still (my Abysmer Race applies a specific body shape to the player character and ONLY to the player character). Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyder7723 Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 ikecoast, thank you much for the answer about the patches. problem was there is no readme in the download for the unofficial patch I got here. and I wont buy an xbox. ever. just was laughing at myself over being so well...stupid with this kind of thing. it just occurred to me. I should probably back up the entire oblivion file before doing anything else just incase. I have several hundred gb worth of space on my hard drive. can I copy and paste the entire file out of the steam folders to another on say my desktop and label it 'safe copy of oblivion' for example? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IkeCoast Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Hey, Spider! Yes, if you have enough drive space on your computer, it's good to back-up your game installation. Just don't forget to back-up too the MyGames folder where the savegames and ini file are stored. Does anybody know if Profile Managers such as mTES4 and MOM work with Steam? Spyder wuould greatly benefit from this. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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