Motivate me! Long

[mymee]

I've spent the past week relearning Oblivion since I just got it on the PC. Having played the 360 to death, of course I wanted to look into Oblivion modding.

 

Oh...my...god...

 

I must have tried to mod my Oblivion a dozen times, deleting clean, reinstalling, modding, deleting again, because something always goes wrong.

I'm a modnoob, semi-technonoob(semi because at least I'm good with directions), and PC oblivion noob. But the gods smiled on me and I actually managed to get the game working with 20+ mods that I liked. HURRAY, for a day or so. Then out of nowhere the game won't start again, I tried everything and finally had to reinstall.

 

So here I'm thinking, with a week's worth of modding experience, I can try again and make things better! But how? I've already read the s*** JUST GOT REAL guide to death. I really enjoy mods that add to realism on the gameplay side, because I'm quite satisfied with the graphics. So I know I like mods such as Deadly Reflex(ps which leveling mod works best with DR), Duke Patrick's archery, all the stealth, alchemy, and magic overhauls, etc. But I know there are still so much I haven't tried, like the mods from FCOM, and mods that add to quests, items, locations, resources, etc.

 

The point is there's so much to do, and I'm getting demotivated thinking about another day just reinstalling all the base mods like BOSS, OBMM, Wrye Bash, all the unofficial patches, all the optimization mods... ... will the end results be worth it??

 

And if so, can someone please please provide a decent guide? I mean the SJGR guide was great, but still has a lot of incompatibility issues, and most of its graphics mods I don't care for.

 

Sigh... this is what happens when I can't stand to wait for Skyrim, I obsess on the next best thing. If only there wasn't so much work, like a day's worth of downloading and installing to get Oblivion to play awesomer

[JCP768]

1: go slow, only install a few mods at a time.

 

2: Go for trusted mods. Mods by authors that are known to be clean, immersive, and overall professionally made... Note that some people are very goodat PR, so it might look like they're a professional when in fact it's just good PR,so you'll have to watch out for that. you can usually tell a rookie's mod for an experienced modders mod pretty quickly

 

3: Tell us exactly what it is you want and we may be able to suggest some mods for you.

 

4: Don't get caught up in the PR or peer pressure. Yeah FCOM is great and everything, but it may be too complex for you right now, so don't feel compelled to use it. Same goes for any of the "complex" mods like: deadly reflex, unecessary violence, etc.

 

5:Try the mods you have out before adding any more. if you test your mods before adding more you'll have an idea of what mod is causing problems when there is a problem.

 

My generic copy/paste for these topics:

 

 

 

 

Lists and resources for finding many popular mods, and some good mods:

(note the distinction between the two, don't just follow mindless peer pressure, try and make your own opinions and find what you'll like)

 

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

 

General help in terms of installing, utilities, workshops, etc.:

 

TESIV Positive

Oblivion mod wiki

TES Alliance (Check The Enclave forum, the Oblivion forum, or the Voice actor forum depending on your pursuits)

Bethsoft forums-Oblivion: (Hardware/software for non mod related issues, Mods for mod users, Construction set for making mods.)

 

 

List of topics exactly like yours generic pleadings for "Any mods?" 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

 

[mymee]

Thank you JCP, you've given me some more confidence.

 

Not sure if I should make a new thread for this, but can I ask you for a list of mods like you suggested? Oh and I only found 2 working links in your List of lists, which I'm reading as well.

 

Okay

(What I'm looking for): (blank means none I know of, 1 means its the only one I know of, multiple means I can't decide)

 

Combat

-Melee: Deadly Reflex, Duke Patrick SCA Combat

-Ranged: Eagle Eye, Duke Patrick Combat Archery

-Magic: Supreme Magicka (not Midas Magic, too overpowered)

-Assassin-esque immersion:

-Dual Wielding:

Core Mechanics

-Leveling: Realistic Leveling(since their update I thought it's very good)

-Stealth: Stealth Overhaul

-Alchemy:

-Horses:

-Crime and Law:

-Inventory management:

-Weight, fatigue:

World

-More equipment, arms, armour:

-Monsters:

-Quests(whether just quest packs or coupled with addons, especially assassin-esque ones):

Interface

-UI: Darnified Dark UI

-Minimap: Minimap

-Any utilities big or small: keychain, A to Take All, (welcome any other suggestions)

Immersion: don't know of much, any suggestions are helpful, (though I don't need graphics overhauls, care more about gameplay)

 

I'm looking for mods that don't stray too far from the essence of Oblivion(big reason I don't prefer Midas Magic), adds to realism and immersion, help improve balance and gameplay, are made by professionals, are stable and either up-to-date or in a complete/final state, finally any mods that add to the assassin flavor is appreciated(and yeah I'm reading Slawter's most list)

 

Can you help me choose, find alternatives, or just fill in the blanks?

 

Also, if any files you see or are about to offer have known compatibility issues with something else here, just let me know so I don't rape my game trying to install both

 

Thank you very much!!

[JCP768]

Personally I'm a major proponent of the LAME+RBP+Integration combo

 

Lame= magic changes

RBP= race changes

Integration= huge quest mod requiring both.

 

They're all made by bg2408 who is a very good modder, and one of the most knowledgable lore experts I've ever seen. Integration has a ton of lore and immersion, but presents it in a very cool way, not dry and boring.

 

Don't have much more time sooo I'll reply later on Wednesday for now:

 

Assassin stuff: thieves arsenal, assassin trip wires, Stealth detection revamped (recent mod, seems to be pretty good)

 

utilities: refscope is good for troubleshooting missing meshesa nd stuff

 

anuyway gotta go.

 

 

Edit: found some more time today. Wednesday iswhen I go home to my own computer and have a 2 week vacation from Job Corps woo!

 

Combat:

Might want to just try some of the sca/duke patrick mods. I'm not sure, but I think they're a bit easier to install and more stable than Deadly Reflex. Some people recommend getting deadly reflex 5.0 with the hotfix for it since version 6.0 had a big up in requirements and it's a beta version so there's bugs galore. nothing I say right here is certain, just what I've heard about DR 6.

 

magic: LAME( less annoying magic experience), conduit magic, audacious magery, chargeable spells. (all of these mods are either specific gameplay changes or lore/balance correct, and they can all be used together)

 

Dual weild: Unecessary violence has this, but it's very buggy and finicky.

 

Alchemy: There's a number of mods like grandmaster alchemy, alchemy extended, etc.that looked good to me but I've never really been motivated enough to install one.... maybe if I ever make an alchemist/druggie/drunk type character.

 

Horses: Slof Horses, Dude where's my horse? I think there's also a few saddle pack and advanced horse control type mods.

 

crime and law: Put it in its place (fixes the stupid grab crime reaction)

reneers guard overhaul

OR

crime has witnesses

hear no evil

one of the gang

other disguise mods.

Reneers does a lot of things and as such is kind of incompatible with some of the other mods mentioned, so it's like an "either/or" type thing.

 

inventory: speedy depositing system... or something like that.

 

fatigue: there's a few realism mods for this like real fatigue, and stuff that like makes it where you can't back pedal at full speed, etc.

 

equipment: there's a leveled items list on bethsoft forums. search for "integrated items" over there to find it.

 

monsters:

MMM

or

Waalx

(not sure if they work together or not)

 

quests:

my generic copy/paste thing has some of my favorite quest mods and 2 times where I didquick reviews of every one i played.

 

minimap: map marker overhaul

 

immersion: there's a list for it on bethsoft. there's all sorts of realism and immersion mods anything ranging from horses crapping to people responding to arrows that miss them.

 

Also I'd like to second what David Brasher said below. If need be just get a few things you really want and play with that for a while.

Edited June 29, 2011 by JCP768

[David Brasher]

If you are spending all your time installing mods and troubleshooting problems and not enjoying it, then you should simplify. Install less mods. This means you will troubleshoot less problems. You can just sit back, relax, and play the game.