New to Oblivion, Mod Recommendations?

[zifnab76]

Hello. I'm new to Oblivion, never played. I was never really into RPG games, played mostly RTS games like WC2/WC3, Warhammer 40K and some FPS games in between. But recently I've been more interested in story driven games and been playing either point and click puzzle games like Machinima and a few RPG games. I enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins but it's linear and predictablity was it's flaw, DA2 finished by was appalled by how terrible and nonsensical the story plot was, ME2 and again appalled by how linear the story was. Witcher 2 has been my favorite RPG so far, the story, the decision making, has been astounding. While carousing through forums for Witcher 2, Oblivion recommendation has popped up repeatedly so now I want to play, been told this is probably the only RPG of the recent games to go toe to toe with Witcher 2.

 

So straight to the point here. I like 3rd Person view for RPG games. I'm running an i7 quad and a HD5770 with 8GB of ram. So what are the recommended mods for someone who likes 3rd person view with the system specs I have. Visual mods? Also I'm not a loot/inventory prostitute, not a fan of micro-managing that stuff. For Witcher 2 I used a zero weight mod since I just don't want to bother with managing which junk to keep or sell. But that's the only mod I will use for Witcher 2 for now, unless a mod expands the story more quests etc is released.

 

So the short version. I have i7 Quad and HD5770. Recommended visual mods? I prefer 3rd Person view, best 3rd person mod?

- I've found the list for unofficial patches so have that taken care of.

 

 

Thanks

Edited May 25, 2011 by zifnab76

[Faivon]

Hi there, zifnab76~

 

Welcome to Oblivion world then :)

Here are some mods I recommend :

- Bag of Holding - Let you store anything inside! Yep, free of weight-problem but the only problem is it's heavily guarded by high leveled minotaurs.

- Deadly Reflex - It lets you decapitate your enemies, requires OBSE, I think.

- Midas Magic - Adds tons of new unique magic.

- Supreme Magicka - Overhaul default magic in Oblivion, basically it powered up vanilla spell and adds new spell effect. No, it doesn't break the game, the vanilla magic is way too underpowered.

- Oblivion XP - It changes the way you level up to mainstream RPG style, earn exp by doing various stuffs ; Killing enemies, making potions, completing quests, etc but I recommend you have fun with vanilla leveling system first if you like the vanilla one.

- Glenvar Castle - Quest mod, completing the quest will get you a huge castle of your own with various stuffs inside.

- Qarl Texture Pack - Essential texture mod, if you like pretty graphics

- Lost Paladins of The Divines - Quest mod, personally I love this one. Neat quest with cool armor.

- Weather - All Natural - Almost forgot this one, essential if you want the outdoor looks more realistic.

- Realistic Water - As the title says, it makes the water more realistic and pretty.

- DMC Stylish - It replaces your default attack animations. Very recommended.

- Sephs Hand to Hand Animation Replacer - This one replaces your hand to hand idle animation and attack animation plus power attack, as well.

- Spell Singer - Replaces default spell-casting animation and idle animation too, if I'm not mistaken

- BTMod - Essential mod. It replaces your default menu screen. There's Darnified UI as well, but I like this one better.

 

You will need Oblivion Mod Manager for some mods there. I think that's all for now, enough to keep you amuse for quite some time~ There are more, of course, huge mod like FCOM (Combination of MMM, Francesco and OOO. Personally I just pick MMM and Francesco. FCOM changes the game way too much against my liking). There are also cosmetic mod if you like your character looks pretty such as Ren Beauty Pack, The Synx or Desuchan Dolls.

 

Ask away if you need help ;)

Edited May 25, 2011 by Faivon

[zifnab76]

Wow, what an amazing reply. Thanks I'll be checking out those texture mods and the BTMod.

[roiyaru]

Wow, what an amazing reply. Thanks I'll be checking out those texture mods and the BTMod.

 

Keep in mind, that making Deadly reflex and DMC stylish work together is hell since they dont do it naturally. I reccomend picking one or the other until your better at modding as its a bit more advanced. That is if you use them, however i 2000% reccomend picking at least one

 

Deadly reflex basically makes combat a ton more immersive by adding the ability to shield bash, kick, dodge and making your enemies smarter at combat. You can decapitate, slit throats, cuts off hands, slice people in half and much much more with this mod. Overall it makes the combat system tougher but a lot more unique and fun.

 

DMC adds amazing looking anime style attack animations and character stances in the third person. All the attacks look beautiful and definetly beat out the original attacks. However this overwrites the original attacks so make sure its something you like, the mod has videos of it in the videos tab.

Edited May 25, 2011 by roiyaru

[MichikoUnknownFox]

been told this is probably the only RPG of the recent games to go toe to toe with Witcher 2.

Who said that? lol

I'd have to disagree. Don't get me wrong, Oblivion is obviously a very good game (otherwise I wouldn't even play it after all these years). And its popularity is a testament to its success as a game. But if you ask me, the real charm of Oblivion isn't really the graphics, which are not only poorly optimized but by now are actually already outdated, nor in the storyline (though good as it is). The charm is that it's more like a sandbox game. All the mods, the wide open world, the lots of places to explore, all the mods, messing with NPCs, all the mods, etc., are kinda like unleashing a very imaginative kid in a large roomful of Play-Doh or Legos.

 

HD5770

Nice. :o It's one of the cards I'm looking at for a possible CrossFire set up.

 

I prefer 3rd Person view, best 3rd person mod?

In my opinion, there aren't many good 3rd person mods out yet. There's a few you might like, but the truth of the mater is that Oblivion (particularly the camera) gets a bit buggy especially in crowded areas. It doesn't have smart camera control in 3rd person, so even the camera mods will still subject you to the camera clipping into walls at times. Actually, there are only a few mods that deal with camera or 3rd person. I warn you though, most of them are really buggy.

 

Your card should be able to handle pretty much all the high res textures and LOD stuff. Just search around and look at the screenshots. There's a few choices and you can make a good decision. Read the comments for reviews too.

 

Oblivion tends to get stuttery sometimes, even with a good machine, because of its inefficient engine. Try running around the the forest or something, and see if it ever stutters for you. If it does, don't feel bad or think your system sucks (cuz it doesn't); it's just really an inefficient program. You may want those mods that reduce the unnecessarily huge amount of polygons the game uses. Operation Optimization is the one that first comes to mind. It doesn't really reduce visual quality or anything, so you can still enjoy the scenery. You can also try Streamline. You don't need to bother with stuff that boosts FPS. Read the documentation on how to turn those off. What you really need is the stuff that keeps your FPS fairly constant and "smooth". Heck, my machine is dust compared to yours, and I still get a very stable 60 FPS even in combat in a very foggy dungeon, and a very stable 40 FPS when outdoors with my view distance pretty good. Again, read the documentation on how to accomplish that.

 

 

DMC Stylish + Deadly Reflex (DR5) are a very good combination for 3rd person, if you like over-the-top animations that is. Vanilla animations are pretty dorky to begin with anyway. To install them properly, start off with DR5. Then install the individual animation replacements from DMC Stylish. I don't recommend installing DR6 just yet. It's pretty buggy and requires some extra plugins that are also buggy for me. The last straw for me was when DR6 messed up my first-person skeleton so that my view was like a foot above where my head actually should've been. But there are a few other bugs that can really frustrate you. It's still in its testing phase, so don't expect it to be something you'll stick with and actually play for a while.

 

DR5, on the other hand, is already pretty stable. It's still buggy, but not so much. You kinda learn to live with or counter some of its bugs and other quirks.

 

Unnecessary Violence is another combat mod. It's actually compatible with DR5, but it's actually a pain in the butt to install, has a lot of bugs too, and tends to be overly ambitious in some of its stuff. It's not a full final version yet either, but may be fun to try out if you're looking for a fun combat mod.

 

If you like fast-paced action and danger, I highly recommend this mod made by my favorite immersion/realism modder, Phitt (actually he's my favorite primarily because of this mod lol). It actually changes a lot of things, but the most notable one is the extra damage. It's the best damage calculation mod out there (and I've tried a lot) because it doesn't simply add x6 damage, like all the other damage mods do, but it actually has some simple and dynamic calculations based on your settings. In vanilla Oblivion, as you gain levels, you'll notice that combat will start to drag out, like it takes 3 minutes of slashing an armored enemy. Meanwhile, you yourself can also take your time and do a few attacks here and there, learn the minor heal spell and have some basic potions and you'd be pretty safe. Phitt's mod will make the game dangerous, so that you can kill in a few hits, but you can also get killed in a few hits. Very good if you're the type that likes real life skills in combat rather than just relying purely on stats and equipment.