New install

[QuanYin]

This will be my third attempt at Mt. Oblivion. My first attempt was in 2011, the 2nd in 2013. Apparently I'm on a biennial program. Even my Sherpas are starting to wonder.

 

The first time I installed, ran, and played with no problem. Lotsa mods. Love the mods.

 

The 2nd time when I came back, vast changes. I required a little help getting things set up again. I soon found I had installed some things with BASH and some with the Oblivion Mod Manager and uninstallation had become a horrendous logistical problem. Things ran ok, it was just a morass from having used TWO tools.

 

This time I am totally at sea. I have no idea why. Except I'm guessing that helpful websites I used the last couple of times have gone down, or at least I'm not finding them any more.

 

My first installation attempt ended in tears. I got no farther than realizing I had managed to install the wrong version of one of the patches, and apparently in the wrong order to boot. Gave up and uninstalled everything and nuked any leftover files to start over.

 

I have the Steam version, the only version I've ever had. Same as always.

 

I downloaded the following patches:

 

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

Unofficial Oblivion DLC Patches

Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

QTP3 Compatibility Patch (because I intend to install Quarl's Texture Package)

 

I have tools:

 

TES4Edit

BOSS

TES Mod Manager

OB Script Extension (from GitHub)

Wrye Bash

 

I reinstalled Oblivion from Steam, then installed BOSS again to the same place I had it before (ditto Oblivion, same install path).

 

However, now BOSS doesn't find the Oblivion installation. So that's one problem.

 

I've been trying to write this up for 3 hours now, and I just keep struggling with the complexity of all this.

 

Basically I need a HOW-TO that goes over these issues point by point. Just saying "install the patches" isn't enough - exactly HOW do I install the patches? The read me in the UOP zip isn't all that helpful, it refers to a directory that doesn't seem to exist anywhere on my computer, and only by a fragment of the entire path, at that. \Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion Mods\ was not find-able, and there is no indication of where that directory would normally be to help in the search.

 

I've done all this before but apparently I'm on a negative learning curve at this point in my life. I seem to struggle more with every repetition.

 

The few things I think I remember are that you are not supposed to clean more than one mod at a time, eg you load the master module and ONE of its dependents, clean that one, save, and then go on to the next. ONE module at a time. And that you use BOSS to get the right load order - though now there is a separate updated for the BOSS master list that I have yet to figure out how to use. Yay.

 

I remember making BASHED patches, so obviously I've used BASH before, but I have also used what used to be the Oblivion Mod Manager, apparently now the TES Mod Manager. On the other hand I remember having modified OMOD files to make them usable by BASH so ... too bad I can't remember HOW I did any of this, LOL!

 

Other than that, I have no idea what order to use the tools in, plus now I am reading that not only load order, but also installation order matter. And apparently I am now supposed to run BOSS from INSIDE BASH, which I also haven't figured out how to do, or when.

 

So assuming I ever get the patches installed properly and fix BOSS so it can see Oblivion again (uninstalling and reinstalling it again didn't help fix that), in what order do you run BOSS, BASH, TES4Edit, and anything else I've forgotten when installing a new mod?

 

I seriously need a tutorial that goes through cleaning and installing one mod without skimping on the actual details ("OK, now install the patches" just doesn't do it for me), but can't seem to find what I need on the net.

 

Help?

[eric31415]

The most thorough, step-by-step guide i have seen is over at http://wiki.theassimilationlab.com/tescosi/Oblivion

 

It covers all the how-to, plus things like installation order that most guides do not even touch.

 

A note on cleaning mods; I would only clean a mod if you have a very specific reason to do so. TES4Edit is primarily designed to be used by mod authors to clean thier mods prior to release. Most are pretty good about it, but some forget. But TES4Edit is not perfect. Sometimes it will falsely lebel something an ITM, and sometimes the ITM was done intentionally by the mod author. Even if the mod was not cleaned, most of the time the ITM references will be harmless. But if they were intentional, there is a very good chance that the mod will not work as intended after cleaning.

 

OBMM is still around, NMM is the new guy on the block.

[QuanYin]

I've never had a mod not work after cleaning - unless it didn't work before, either. Since I downloaded nearly all stuff I've run before, I don't expect any problems between that stuff and TS4Edit, since I have always cleaned everything before installing it and I've been using mostly the same mods since 2011 (except for those that have fallen beside the wayside).

 

I already know that there are some conflicts between some of my preferred mods, but there are patches for a lot of them, and I'll just have to perform triage as I go along for those that absolutely will not work together (if any). COBL is supposed to conflict with something else I wanted - but I'm pretty sure I've run them together in the past (whatever the other mod is that's supposed to conflict). If not, I'll have to give up on the other mod since I have several mods that I don't want to do without that rely on COBL.

 

Thanks for the link, I've got it bookmarked and will be going over it when I get home later today. I swear this process of installation gets worse every time, but I just can't bring myself to do without all the great mods that really make this game.

[QuanYin]

Well I've got the patches installed.

 

But when I try to install COBL v174 I end up with a bunch of red checkmarks in the MODS tab of BASH labeled "Item Interchange for xxx"

 

Item Interchange - Extraction.esp

Item Interchange - Placement.esp

Item Interchange - Placement for Frostcrag.esp

Item Interchange - Option, Ingredients in bulk.esp

COBL Filter Late MERGE ONLY.esp

 

All in green letters, Italics as noted. With a red plus sign icon in front, which if you click on it toggles between a red checkmark and a red plus.

 

When I went to build the Bash Patch, it sucked DLCSpellTomes Unnofficial Patch.esp and COBL Tweaks - SI.esp into the merge, and those are now displayed with green plus signs next to them in the MODS tab of BASH.

 

I did run BOSS and I have cleaned the DLC prior to this. Everything seemed normal-ish until I tried to add COBL.

 

Did I break something?

Edited October 13, 2015 by QuanYin

[eric31415]

Item Interchange lists Cobl as a requirement, so Cobl must be installed before Item Interchange.

 

I have always found that Cobl works best when installed first, even before the UOP. A lot of mods will want to overwrite some of Cobl's files, and things work best if you let them.

[QuanYin]

OK, off to take another stab at this.

 

I saw a guy who's sig says he spends more time trying to get mods installed than he does playing the game. That is starting to feel true to me, LOL!

 

EDIT - BACK! Well that cleared up another problem I was having, in the Installer tab, with little brown checkmarks on a yellow background in front of several archive files. COBL was the first thing after the patches, but apparently (as you so correctly pointed out) it has to be first in the list. All the weird little wrong-colored icons disappeared as soon as I moved it.

 

I tried doing anneal all, re-running BOSS, re-building the BASH Patch, and looking again at the MODS tab, the red PLUS signs on the pink background remain. These are not documented in the BASH manual I found at

 

When I try to add RAEVWD I get some of those brown checkmarks on pale yellow backgrounds on the Installation tab again. I assume something is in the wrong installation order, but as few things as I have in there, moving things around doesn't seem to help this time. It seems you have to know the order to install before you start. Same thing happens when I try to install QTP3.

 

I can't find anything in the BASH documentation that comes in the zip what those brown PLUS signs mean in the Installers tab - or any PLUS mark at all, for that matter. The pale yellow background behind them purportedly means:

 

"All the package files are installed, but some resource (ie. non-plugin) files are not identical (eg. another package has overwritten them with another version of the files)"

 

No instructions for how, or even whether, to fix this situation. Plowing on ...

Edited October 13, 2015 by QuanYin

[bben46]

Welcome to the club. I put that in my sig way back when playing Oblivion - and nothing has made me want to change it yet. But I am a mod junkie and tend to add new mods and remove old ones - causing problems that require a lot of fiddling with various things. The new NMM with profiles may make it easier, but my guess is I will still screw things up from time to time.

[QuanYin]

NMM doesn't even work with the vast majority of Oblivion mods - I won't touch it with a ten foot pole!

 

Purportedly it works OK with Skyrim, though the way things have been going, I'm never going to get through Oblivion to even start on Skyrim. So far I've lost both save games to disk crashes. I suppose I shouldn't even be trying to start another game, as it seems that tolls the death knell for my hard drives, LOL!