Cannot get Oblivion to run, please help

[Smooth613]

Crashing at the title menu indicates a Missing Master. A Master file is something the mod requires to work. You can view masters for each mod and your saves in Wrye Bash.

 

For example: If you install a patch for a mod but don't actually have the mod installed your game will crash due to a missing master. Below I've given an example.

 

DLCHorseArmor.esp -- This is the parent, or master.

DLCHorseArmor - Unofficial Patch.esp -- This is the child, or slave.

 

Even if you install both of those files but load them in the wrong order you will crash due to a delinquent master. An example of a wrong load order that would result in a delinquent master is given below.

 

DLCHorseArmor - Unofficial Patch.esp -- This is the child, or slave.

DLCHorseArmor.esp -- This is the parent, or master.

 

The child cannot function without the parent. Therefor your game will immediately crash at the tile screen. BOSS and Wrye Bash have ways of notifying you of Delinquent files. Read your BOSS Log for suggestions and errors.

 

Also you do not have to delete your My Games\Oblivion folder before installing a new mod. This is actually bad practice since some mods alter the Oblivion.ini and rely on these edits to function properly.

Edited November 26, 2010 by Smooth613

[Timuri]

According to Wrye Bash and BOSS, I have all the masters for the files I have loaded and they're in the proper order. All I've got at present is the DLC stuff that came with the Steam version, the UOP and its patch, and the Unique Landscapes mod compilation. Before I tried to install the UL mods it was all working fine. I tried to install Robert's male & female body replacers first with no dice, the same thing was happening with a crash instead of the intro movie. I then reverted to my stable build after UOP, verified it did work, and then installed the UL compilation. Could it be that they should load before the DLC stuff, instead of afterwards as BOSS has it? I know I must be misunderstanding or missing something here, because I just went through Wrye Bash and my BOSSlog to verify that the masters are all present and that the load order puts the master files before the child files. Could I be doing something wrong with Wrye Bash in making the Bash Patch? When I did a conflict detection with OBMM it came up with hundreds of conflicts between the Bash Patch and the DLC mods. Is it supposed to have that?

[Smooth613]

First: OBMM's conflict detection is pure rubbish, ignore it. Every mod "conflicts" with Oblivion.esm or it wouldn't be a mod. A "conflict" is just a record that differs from the original. The trick is knowing how mods work and how to identify "bad" conflicts. There are conflict winners and conflict losers, and always will be when you have multiple mods. This is how it works. But this is another discussion entirely. If you want to learn more about conflicts I suggest you read the Construction Set Wiki or even better, download TES4Edit's manual. It has excellent info on conflicts.

 

You need to post your Load Order from Wrye Bash so we can examine it. Under the Mods tab > Right click File Header > Click List Mods > Copy & Paste ALL of that information here.

 

If you are incorrectly importing something into your Bashed Patch that can cause this crash. There are some tweaks in the Bashed Patch that require other mods to be present. There are very very few of these, but it only takes one. An example is the P1DCandles under the Replace FormID section.

 

Another possible reason is if you have a filter mod fully active instead of merged or virtually active, this will cause a missing masters crash. Again, we need your LO posted from Wrye Bash to get complete information.

Edited November 26, 2010 by Smooth613

[Timuri]

Okay, here's the load order pasted from the Wrye Bash:

 

 

 

Active Mod Files:
00  Oblivion.esm
01  Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp  [Version 3.3.3]
02  UOP Vampire Aging & Face Fix.esp  [Version 1.0.0]
03  DLCShiveringIsles.esp
04  DLCHorseArmor.esp
05  DLCHorseArmor - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.6]
06  DLCOrrery.esp
07  DLCOrrery - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.4]
08  DLCVileLair.esp
09  DLCVileLair - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.6]
0A  DLCMehrunesRazor.esp
0B  DLCMehrunesRazor - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.5]
0C  DLCSpellTomes.esp
0D  DLCSpellTomes - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.1]
0E  DLCThievesDen.esp
0F  DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.7]
**  DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch - SSSB.esp  [Version 1.0.4]
10  DLCBattlehornCastle.esp
11  DLCBattlehornCastle - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.5]
12  DLCFrostcrag.esp
13  DLCFrostcrag - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.0.5]
14  Knights.esp
15  Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp  [Version 1.1]
16  xuldarkforest.esp  [Version 1.0.5]
17  xulStendarrValley.esp  [Version 1.2.2]
18  xulTheHeath.esp
19  XulEntiusGorge.esp
1A  xulFallenleafEverglade.esp  [Version 1.3.1]
1B  xulColovianHighlands_EV.esp  [Version 1.2.1]
1C  xulChorrolHinterland.esp  [Version 1.2.2]
1D  xulBeachesOfCyrodiilLostCoast.esp  [Version 1.6.4]
1E  xulBravilBarrowfields.esp  [Version 1.3.2]
1F  xulLushWoodlands.esp  [Version 1.3.1]
20  xulAncientYews.esp  [Version 1.4.3]
21  xulAncientRedwoods.esp  [Version 1.6]
22  xulCloudtopMountains.esp  [Version 1.0.3]
23  xulArriusCreek.esp  [Version 1.1.3]
24  xulRollingHills_EV.esp  [Version 1.3.2]
25  xulPantherRiver.esp
26  xulRiverEthe.esp  [Version 1.0.2]
27  xulBrenaRiverRavine.esp  [Version 1.1]
28  xulImperialIsle.esp  [Version 1.6.6]
29  xulBlackwoodForest.esp  [Version 1.1.0]
2A  xulCheydinhalFalls.esp  [Version 1.0.1]
2B  xulAspenWood.esp  [Version 1.0.2]
2C  xulSkingradOutskirts.esp  [Version 1.0.1]
2D  xulSnowdale.esp  [Version 1.0]
2E  Bashed Patch, 0.esp

 

 

Under Wrye Bash, the things I have checked are:

 

 

 

Import Actors-Import Actors from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp and from Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp

Import Actors [AI Packages]-Import AI Packages from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp and from Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp

Import Death Items-Import Items from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp

Import Cells-Import Cells from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp, DLCHorseArmor - Unofficial Patch.esp, DLCThievesDen.esp, DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch.esp, DLCThievesDen -

Unofficial Patch - SSSB.esp, DLCFrostcrag.esp, DLCFrostcrag - Unofficial Patch.esp, and Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp

Import Factions-Import Factions from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp and from Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp

Import Graphics-Import Graphics from DLCVileLair - Unofficial Patch.esp

Import Inventory-Import Inventory from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp and from Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp

Import Names-Import Names from Oblivion.esm, Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp, Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp, Guard_Names.csv, and Rational_Names.csv

Import Relations-Import Relations from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp and from Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp

Import Scripts-Import Scripts from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp

Import Stats-Import Stats from Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp and from Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp

Tweak Assorted-Armor Shows Amulets, Armor Shows Rings, Clothing Shows Amulets, Clothing Shows Rings

Tweak Cloths-Gloves Show Rings, Robes Show Amulets

Tweak Names-Lore Friendly Names (Dwarved -> Dwemer)

Tweak Settings-Compass Disable (Quests)

Contents Checker

Leveled Lists (With Automatic Checked at the right)

Race Records (Because I intend to import custom races when I get things worked out, Slof's Clouded Leopards and Snow Leopards, and Burmecian's Moogles and Burmecians)

 

 

 

I wasn't aware that the tweaks relied on parent mods to work....that could well be the problem, but it was working with those tweaks checked off after I loaded up the Unofficial Oblivion Patch and the Unofficial Oblivion Mods Patch and their supplementals.

Edited November 26, 2010 by Timuri

[Smooth613]

Your LO is rather simple at this point so identifying the problem will be relatively quick and easy.

 

Remember I said very very few Bashed options require parent mods. Don't let that scare you. Just read the descriptions before you check certain options. As I mentioned before the P1DCandles option for Replace FormIDs is one of those, only a handful or less, options that require a parent (master) file to be present.

 

You need to remove the ** DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch - SSSB.esp [Version 1.0.4]. It's no longer necessary with the latest UOP supplemental, which you have. v3.3.3

 

The only thing I see that might be causing a problem is Race Records. You say you have this selected but are not using any Race type mods? Deselect this option until you actually have mods installed that could utilize this feature. This could be one of those very few options that require a parent mod to be installed. Deselect and Rebuild your Bashed Patch.

 

1.) Does the game still crash? If no, great that was it. If yes, lets move on to #2.

 

2.) Now deselect your Bashed Patch and try to start your game. Does it load correctly now? If no, move to #3. If Yes, then you are indeed incorrectly importing something into your Bashed Patch. You will have to figure out exactly what is the troublesome import by systematically deselecting options, Rebuild Patch, until your game starts. Once it starts you know the last option you deselected was the culprit. You can then enable other options you may want, cautiously.

 

3.) If you still crash without the Bashed Patch active you know it's another mod in your LO that's causing the problem. You need to deactivate them one by one until your game correctly loads. When your game correctly loads you will know the last mod you deactivated was the troublesome mod or it's conflicting with another. With your LO I highly doubt you have conflicts, unless it's with your Bashed Patch options as mentioned above, since all of those mods should work perfectly together.

 

Suggestion: Remove the UOP Vampire Aging & Face Fix.esp. There is an option to fix this in the Bashed Patch. It's possible that if you're using both, the esp and the Bashed tweak, that's the reason for the crashing. Either way, there is no need to use the esp for the Vampire fix. Use the Bashed tweak only to save an ESP slot.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Smooth613

[Timuri]

Argh.....and if none of those works? I don't know what happened. After following the first two steps, I disabled the UL mods one by one until none of them were active, then I deactivated the OMOD that installed them, and the crash at the intro movie still happened. It's gotta be something else. When I erased everything about Oblivion off of my computer except my stable backup version and then restored that, the backup was now having that same problem! I'm downloading it once more through Steam. I'm frustrated beyond words with this. It is making no sense whatsoever. I'm following all instructions to the letter, and appeared to be making slow headway, but now it backslides!? I'll do the vanilla and UOP-only checks again when it finishes downloading sometime tomorrow. I really don't want to play without mods....they're the main reason for even buying Oblivion.

[Smooth613]

Something you are installing, or doing, is causing this error, obviously. Here's what you need to do.

 

Don't forget to follow the procedure in THIS POST when reinstalling Oblivion. It's very important to delete the Oblivion.ini file.

 

• Install Oblivion and all Official DLC content
  
• Start Oblivion and test to ensure everything is working
  
• Install the Unofficial Patches for the content you have
  
• Install the UOP Supplemental Pack to update the Unofficial Patches to the most recent release
  
• Start Oblivion and test to ensure everything is working
  
• Install and Activate additional mods ONE AT A TIME
  
• Start Oblivion and test to ensure everything is working
  
• Continue to install mods ONE AT A TIME and testing after each. If using Wrye Bash, rebuild your Bashed Patch after installing a mod.
  

 

If at anytime during this procedure you crash, STOP!, and deactivate the last mod you just installed. Then rebuild your Bashed Patch to ensure nothing from that mod is being imported. Then you test again to ensure Oblivion will properly start and is stable. Anytime you crash due to a mod feel free to report that here and we can try to determine if it's a "bad mod" or a conflict and go from there. You have to take it slow and be sure you read the ReadMe for each mod! This is very important since some mods have special requirements to fully function.

 

Good luck.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Smooth613

[Timuri]

Well...this is odd. The crash is occurring as soon as I install the Unofficial Oblivion Patch. UOP is the only thing I have installed since the last stable, which was just with OBMM, OBSE, BOSS, and Wrye Bash.

 

Edit: I think I may have found my problem. I was reading through the 'Troubleshooting' portion of the Readme for UOP and it mentioned that if you have anything other than textures in the archive invalidation file it can cause crashes. I had been having OBMM generate an archive invalidation for basically everything, checking boxes for any file type that had been added by a mod. I erased the old archive invalidation and had OBMM generate a new one, creating entries for textures only, and it's running with UOP now. No guarantees on other stuff, but it was the same sort of crash I had been having, so that may have fixed most of my problems.

 

Edit 2: Well, that worked. I've been playing for most of two days now without a crash. Infuriating how just a simple seeming thing like that can bring the entire game crashing to a halt. Thanks a lot for all your help, Smooth613.

Edited November 28, 2010 by Timuri