So frustrated right now with mods.

[tomisafish]

So this morning I have spent 6 hours trying to get a nice Oblivion set-up from scratch and have completely failed.

 

I now have uninstalled everything and would like to start from scratch, this time with some guidance.

 

I am mainly only looking for mods that improve graphics and fix bugs with only a couple of gameplay changing mods so here is a list of what i'm trying to install. I really just want to be able to play the game with a character that doesnt look stupid, talking to NPC's that look retarded and walk in a nice environment.

 

Any advice on these choices, either on alternative, additional or unneeded mods would be greatly appreciated.

 

Darnified UI

Quarl Texture Pack 3

Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys

All Natural

HG EyeCandy Body

Colourwheels Sexy Stock Armour and Clothing Replacer

Sexywalks

Unique Landscapes Compilation

Enhanced Magic Effects

Beautiful People

Improved Trees and Flora

Improved Signs

High Res Colour Map

Zira's Horse Ranch & Clydesdale Horses (possibly, i want nice looking horses :D)

 

I have Oblivion, Most DLC and Shimmering Isles but I am quite happy playing just Oblivion if it is easier to set-up.

 

Thanks.

Edited May 5, 2011 by tomisafish

[Telyn]

I'm not sure what went wrong when you tried to get these mods working with Oblivion, but if you have Vista or Windows 7 and your game is in Program Files, you should really consider reinstalling it somewhere else, like C:\Games\Oblivion for example. That gets the game away from the overeager Windows security feature called User Account Controls. UAC tends to consider many things games do to be suspicious and can cause all kinds of problems modding if you leave the game there.

 

Before you install any of those mods, I recommend patching your game, and also adding the Unofficial Oblivion patches for Oblivion and also the DLCs you decide to use, if you do. Shivering Isles is almost like a game in itself, and adding that in would also increase compatibility with many mods. I have all the DLCs installed and like all but one of them. I am not a big fan of Vile Lair, but that's probably because I don't tend to play evil characters. After you have decided which DLCs you wish to install, you will also want to patch those with the Unofficial Oblivion Mod Patches. Only patch the ones you have loaded.

 

The installation and load order of some of the mods you have chosen is important. QTP3 should be installed after the Unofficial Oblivion Patches. Improved Trees and Flora needs to be after QTP3 for all of it to show up. I don't use UL, but you should check the directions because it may need to be installed before or after QTP3. AWLS must be after All Natural.

 

I tried Beautiful People but it conflicted with some other mods I prefer, so I'm afraid I can't help you much with that one. All I can say is read the read mes of all of them and check the file descriptions for incompatibility and load order warnings. Make sure you have any other mods the descriptions say are required.

 

If textures do not show up, you will need to do archive invalidation. Oblivion Mod Manager can do this for you or you can download Archive Invalidation Invalidated and use that instead. The preferred method of archive invalidation in OBMM is redirection, which should be the default.

 

I recommend not installing all these at once, but launching the game after every one or two mods you add to make sure nothing has gone wrong and everything is working. Once they are all installed, download BOSS and run that to get a proper load order. I also highly recommend that you get Wrye Bash but since this is a very small list of mods you have here, you don't have to do that yet if it looks too complicated to you at this point.

 

Your mod list looks like a good start toward your stated goals. A couple extras to consider adding. I would suggest a good high resolution body texture for HGEC body. You might want to consider a male body replacer too just so the male NPCs don't look awful next to the female ones. You may wish to consider Really Almost Everything Visible When Distant (RAEVWD) so your beautiful landscapes and cities don't turn into ugly blocky mountains in the distance. Koldorns LOD Noise Replacer really blends everything in beautifully.

 

Two mods I really could not play without are Fast Exit 2 and Windom Earle's Oblivion Crash Prevention System. They both require Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE), but between them they will prevent many crashes that would otherwise have occurred, including the infamous crash on exit crash which eventually affects most players at some point.

 

Good luck! When you get those mods you have chosen working, you will see a huge difference.

[tomisafish]

Well, I reinstalled the game and DLC's I wanted. Applied the official patches followed by the unofficial ones (using obmm) and I am crashing even with just Oblivion.esm ticked and am stumped on what to do now. :wallbash:

[csgators]

I'd start from scratch at this point and use bben's reinstall procedure.

 

When you re-install make sure Oblivion runs before adding any mods and after adding each (or every couple) of mods. Use OBMM to install ALL your mods (except something like OBSE). Download/create omods for every mod you want to install so you can easily remove it for troubleshooting. Use BOSS to sort your load order after making any changes. I hope you get it running, loading a bunch of mods on a new install can be frustrating but when I have problems I can usually trace it down to me not following all the instructions for one of the mods.

[Telyn]

When you use bben's reinstall guide, make sure you don't skip any steps and do use CCleaner. It will get rid of any leftovers in your registry from the previous install. Leftover bits from previous installs can cause a lot of problems.

[tomisafish]

So I have been following bben's guide but when trying to install the SI patch I get a message along the lines of "Old file not found. However a file of the same was found...."

 

This is really frustrating as I have previously had a fully working patched Oblivion with mods working fine before I messed it up.

Any advice? Or should I just bare with Vanilla Oblivion's appearance?

[bben46]

Bben's Patch Advice

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=327

[tomisafish]

Bben's Patch Advicehttp://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=327

 

Thanks but it doesnt help too much as I have had it working on previous occasions. I am gonna try one more time tomorrow though and see how it goes.