Coming from Xbox - Essential Mods?

[RelicLTD]

I know there are lots of excellent mods, and even lists like this out there, but I really want up-to-date information. I've played through vanilla Oblivion a few times on my Xbox, and finally bought a gaming computer.

 

I really like the sound of OOO, but some of my friends have said to use WarCry, or Francesco instead. I read up on FCOM, and I don't know if that is ideal, nor do I think I have the computer knowledge to install it. So... what are your thoughts? FCOM, OOO, WarCry, Francesco?

 

Also, I assume there are some good environment/texture mods that play nice with the above. And finally, the combat was kinda blah in Vanilla. Is Deadly Reflex worth a go? I also wanted to get some kind of deadly archery mod, without it being overpowered (if this is possible.)

 

I'm also open to any other suggestions. What other mods do you think significantly improve the playing experience?

[Fonger]

start with what looks interesting to you

 

(Besides all of the Unofficial Oblivion patches that could possibly apply to your game)

 

then browse

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/filesofthemonth.php

 

and

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/top/alltime.php

[Yamcakes]

Here are a few off the top of my head.

Qarl's Texture Pack is what you want for beautiful hi-res environments.

Unique Landscapes. (Ought to do a search for that, because there are a lot of installments)

Waalx Animals and Creatures For an amazing plethora of monsters and wildlife, more realistic bandits, an arsenal of lore-friendly weaponry and travellers on roads so the world feels less empty. One of the best mods I have ever used.

Alive Waters This adds tons of underwater vegetation and life. It's wonderful.

Natural Environments Weather overhaul.

More Immersive Sound Great SFX overhaul.

Dungeon Ambience Adds lots of different sound effects to vanilla dungeons. Based on what you might find there. Really great.

Voice For Your Character This is one I love. You can add so much personality to your character. They have combat voices when they hit and take damage. They have something to say when they accept/finish a quest. They have commentary on just about everything from finding locations, to death. It's reminiscent of other RPG's. If you're afk for a while, they might grumble and insult you. xD

Visually Realistic Lava To emulate a heat effect coming off of the lava in Oblivion. A simple mod, but one of my favourites.

[JCP768]

Generic post for these topics. I can personalize my response to you if you answer the questions contained withen:

 

 

 

List of lists:

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?showtopic=1010109

Top 100

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/top/alltime.php

Files of the months:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/filesofthemonth.php

Hall of fame:

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.HOF

Categories, Tag search, advanced search

TESIV Positive

 

List of topics exactly like yours that have already been answered:

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1072579-the-any-mods-list-of-topics/

Read the AZERessential topics to get the basic "get wryebash, OBMM, OBSE, start slow" basic advice for starters recommendations

 

If you want any further help I suggest you tell us about yourself; what you like and what you're looking for... Here's some questions to get you started:

 

Have you played Oblivion already?

What sort of things interest you?

What type of Character do you usually play? (good/evil, theif/mage, roleplayer/random-no-story-hack-and-slasher?)

Are there specific types of mods you think would interest you? (Quests, graphic mods, gameplay mods, overhauls, etc.)

When did you leave?

What did you not like about Oblivion? What did Oblivion not have or need more of?

Male or female character?

 

 

For the occasional "What are your must haves?"

Mostly quest mods: http://kno.li/i

 

My favorite quests are:

Integration (my most favorite)

Malevolent, Runied tail, Tears of the fiend

Windfall

The Blackwood company

Dremora Companion

Servant of the Dawn

Imperial Legion Faction

 

 

Gameplay mods:

 

Hear No Evil

Vector

Crime Has Witnesses

Audacious Magery

Conduit magic

Custom spell Icons

Training cattle

Keychain

Refscope(good for troubleshooting)

Vows and Covenants

Pluke's roleplaying persuasion

LAME (Needed for Integration)

RBP (Needed for Integration)

 

I'm mostly a quest mod player and I recently posted a big rundown for most of them that I've played here and here.

 

(Some of these are probably outdated by now)

S'lider's Copy/paste

SkyRanger-1's

Pseron Wyrd's top 10 (Don't really want a lot top 10's or simple lists but I'm desperate for cop/pastes at the moment)

Tommy H's

 

[RelicLTD]

Thanks all! There is just an incredible amount to sort through!

 

I didn't like level scaling, I didn't like how easy/mindless combat was. I want the combat to be more involved and more visceral. I also love realism/immersion, but I think I'll start slow.

 

I usually play a hybrid melee/archer character. Male, good. I do enjoy roleplaying different types. I'm down with all kinds of mods, starting with more challenging interesting combat, then graphical updates, then content (items/quests), as well as general improvements (sounds, weather, UI)

 

I have decided to go with OOO to start, as well as getting all the unofficial patches, and a UI upgrade. Then I'm going to upgrade the graphics a bit. I don't know how/if OOO changes combat, so I guess I'll wait an see if I want Unnecessary Violence, Deadly Reflex, or Duke Patrick's SCA combat.

 

Thank you all for your specific advice!

 

So far my list comprises:

OBSE

Mod Manager

Unofficial Patches

OOO

Qarl's Texture

...I'll start to add Some of the environment/creature/immersion things as I go.

Edited February 28, 2011 by RelicLTD

[JCP768]

Yeah good idea starting slow. It's very hard for anyone to go from Xbox to 50+ mods right away. Personally I had some experience with mods before Oblivion, but even when I started I started out slow. I think like... 3-5 mods to begin with and then like 1 or 2 mods at a time over the weeks-months. Right now I have like 160 and I've been playing Oblivion mods for about 3 years.

 

1: Well OOO will take care of level scaling. As for combat, most of the more dramatic and extreme overhauls are a bit complicated and need a lot of utilities and there's lot's of potential for mistakes when installing it.... Maybe try out an old 4.0 version of Deadly Reflex (5.0 was pretty glitchy, and 6.0 is very complex) Maybe check the combat category not many mods in it, and some don't fit.

 

Duke Patrick has a number of combat mods too, not sure how simple they are or how goodthey are, because I've only ever played one of his mods and it was a companion.... but she had one of the most realistic personalities, and she was defintely the most tactical companion.

 

2: Thieves Arsenal is good for archery, There's some shadow ranger modI recall constantly coming up whenever someone asked for archery mods. Conduit Magic is cool because it allows you to channel your spells into your weapons.

 

Beside the more extreme combat mods there are things like OOO(which you have), Less Annoying Magic Experience, Fearsome Magicka, etc. that improve combat by making attacks (magic for LAME, and Fearsome Magicka... normal weapons for OOO) more deadly, and/or giving the enemies more spells/attacks to use on you....

personally I'm kind of a pacifist, combat is boring for me because it usually boils down to kill or be killed and for me that makes them feel less like actual characters/creatures and more like walls that shout: "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" If you feel a similar sentiment you might like: Vows and Covenants, and/or NPCs Yield.

 

I can't really help with graphical stuff, there's plenty of lists and popular mods related to graphical things, but I usually don't follow them very closely

 

Quests are pretty much my thing. My earlier copy/paste has some pretty good links, and recommendations... but since you're new I''ll give you some simple quest mods to try out, nothing too complicated:

Windfall

Blackwood Company ( a bit buggy, you may have to use some console commands to get past them at times)

Dark Brotherhood renewed

Dremora Companion

Krageniers Death quest (not very immersive though... fairy tale characters like Snow White and the 7 dwarfs are some of the people you'll meet)

Ruined Tails Tale

Servant of the Dawn

The Alyeid steps

Lost Spires (first run through is good, but I could never bring myself to replay it do to bland quests, bland story, dungeon crawls, and overpowered rewards.... lot's of other people love it though)

For later on:

Integration: The Stranded Light (very big, and very unique, also very immersive and lore correct. In a way it's kind of like the RPG that the action game Oblivion should have been.)

 

DarnUI is the UI mod that most people use.