First time modding oblivion, will not start,

[Cantido]

For the first time in ten years, I have a gaming PC, and enthusiastically began modding Oblivion.

 

My first attempt, the game crashed right when I was about to leave the first sewers. I was so hyped. I completely reinstalled on Steam. This time I made a backup.

 

The second time it will not run at all, and certain additional mods are sitting out errors during installation via OMOD. For example, I could not install All Natural It says that MMM for Fransesco.esp is missing. However, I installed FCOM for the big four mods. So I looked on Wyre Bash and this is what I saw:

 

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4292/errorscreen1.gif

 

All the darkened marks say master files are missing. A lot of them have dirty edits, which I don't know how to fix. I deleted a handful of things that BOSS told me to, because FCOM made them obsolete, perhaps BOSS was wrong?

[Striker879]

As a first time modder you need to cover some basics before you begin to add mods. Top of the list, if you have Steam (and thus the Steam version of Oblivion) located in C:\Program Files you will need to relocate it (this only applies if you are using Vista or Windows 7 ... ignore this if you are running Windows XP). One of the moderators here bben46 has posted this uninstall/re-install guide to get the job done properly. In your case you only need to follow the instructions on this link to the Steam FAQs on moving a Steam installation that bben46 has at the top of his guide (but read through his guide for a better understanding of the issues).

 

The next thing is lower your sights considerably for the first few mods to install. Don't start with the ones that have several paragraphs of install instructions, and lists of conflicts and conflict resolution patches. Get some simple house mods or clothing/armor mods and start to learn how to install and run mods. Learn the concepts behind the location of various games resources (texture, meshes, sounds etc.) so you'll recognize problems with complicated installs down the road.

 

Install all the official patches (as a bare minimum ... the unofficial patches fix many unpatched problems with the game and are recommended) and install Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) as it will be required for most of those complicated mods you have on your wish list. Get it installed and working properly early in your modding experience and then you'll only need the occasional update. Pay careful attention to the installation instructions in the OBSE readme and be sure to install the correct files for the Steam version of Oblivion.

 

Once you have the game patched and OBSE installed and working make a baseline (no mods installed) save outside the sewers (something you can fall back on when you run into mod installation woes down the road). You may want to consider bben46's advice in his revert to vanilla data article.

 

Edit: As you are using the Steam version you should be automatically patched to the latest version of the official patches (version 1.2.0.416). The unofficial patches advice still applies.

Edited July 5, 2011 by Striker879

[Cantido]

As a first time modder you need to cover some basics before you begin to add mods. Top of the list, if you have Steam (and thus the Steam version of Oblivion) located in C:\Program Files you will need to relocate it (this only applies if you are using Vista or Windows 7 ... ignore this if you are running Windows XP). One of the moderators here bben46 has posted this uninstall/re-install guide to get the job done properly. In your case you only need to follow the instructions on this link to the Steam FAQs on moving a Steam installation that bben46 has at the top of his guide (but read through his guide for a better understanding of the issues).

 

The next thing is lower your sights considerably for the first few mods to install. Don't start with the ones that have several paragraphs of install instructions, and lists of conflicts and conflict resolution patches. Get some simple house mods or clothing/armor mods and start to learn how to install and run mods. Learn the concepts behind the location of various games resources (texture, meshes, sounds etc.) so you'll recognize problems with complicated installs down the road.

 

Install all the official patches (as a bare minimum ... the unofficial patches fix many unpatched problems with the game and are recommended) and install Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) as it will be required for most of those complicated mods you have on your wish list. Get it installed and working properly early in your modding experience and then you'll only need the occasional update. Pay careful attention to the installation instructions in the OBSE readme and be sure to install the correct files for the Steam version of Oblivion.

 

Once you have the game patched and OBSE installed and working make a baseline (no mods installed) save outside the sewers (something you can fall back on when you run into mod installation woes down the road). You may want to consider bben46's advice in his revert to vanilla data article.

 

Edit: As you are using the Steam version you should be automatically patched to the latest version of the official patches (version 1.2.0.416). The unofficial patches advice still applies.

 

Lowering my sights sounds like a good idea. I will just install Realistic Leveling and All Natural. I want my game prettier and less aggravating.

 

However, those instructions for moving Oblivion intimidate me. I'm not willing to delete all the stuff I have on Steam for the time being.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\oblivion

 

What I don't know how to use is Wyre Bash. First I install something is OMOD, and then choose BOSS right after. For now, I'll just see if I can get All Natural, Realistic Leveling, and the Hi Res Texture Pack online. Those are the only three I really want.

 

Not even the FAQ says "how to make a Batched Patch." How do I do that?

Edited July 8, 2011 by Cantido

[Striker879]

MarkInMKUK has graciously given me permission to repost his bashed patch detailed instructions:

OK, so, we will assume that you have a correct Python install, and have installed Wrye Bash, and BOSS as well. There SHOULD be a shortcut labelled "Wrye Bash Launcher" on your desktop if all went well. Double-click it as you would any other desktop shortcut, and Wrye Bash will pop up a small window while starting, then its main window.

 

At the top of the Wrye Bash window is a series of tabs labelled "Installers", "Mods", "Saves", etc. Make sure the one labelled "Mods" is selected - the others can be ignored for the moment.

 

Next, look right at the bottom of the window. You should see a series of icons, including a pale green and pale pink aquare, and the familiar Oblivion icon. Depending which other Oblivion-related programs you also have installed, you may see icons for paint.NET, Blender, Bink Video utilities, and plenty of programs which I also don't have installed. The one to look for is the word "Boss" in black lettering.

 

If you have both of those, you are well on your way to building a "Bashed Patch". Next - a little bit of setting up...

 

Firstly the second column on the screen currently shows something like "Lo...". In the same way you would if using a spreadsheet, hover your mouse next to that label until you find the vertical bar separating it from the next column (labelled "R"). Click and drag that to the right, until the header says "Load order". Once you can see that, release the mouse click, and then click ON the words "Load Order". The column below, and the associated mods, should organise themselves into numerical order, starting with "00" at the top, and increasing as you go down the column. With me so far?

 

Secondly, right-click anywhere on the bar with the "File" and "Load Order" labels in. A pop-up menu should appear. Remoce the tick from "Lock Times" if there is one, and make sure there are ticks in front of "BOSS disable lock times" and "Always update BOSS masterlist prior to running BOSS".

 

Now, click the BOSS icon at the bottom of the screen. There will be a small popup while the Masterlist updates, and BOSS runs, and then a window will open with the "Better Oblivion Sorting Software Log" in it. Read down it, and you should see familiar mod names, along with some arcane comments about "Bash tag suggestions". Check through the whole list for anything labelled "Error" or "Warning" - these need to be dealt with (or at the very least, understood) before trying to go further.

 

If you close the BOSS log and go back to the Wrye Bash window, you may well find that mods have changed order in the window. BOSS has used its Masterlist to determine what it thinks is the best load order, and adjusted the date and time stamps of the files so that they load in that order.

 

Now, left-click on ANY one of the mods, and press Ctrl+A to select all of the mods. They should all be highlighted. Right-click the highlight, and select "Mark Mergeable" from the Pop-up. After a few seconds, a window will pop up giving a list of the files that Wrye Bash believes can be merged, either partially or fully, into its Bashed Patch file. If they weren't alredy, you may now notice that the text has changed colour for some of the mod names, and the boxes to the left of the names may also have changed colour.

 

Scroll down towards the bottom of your mod list. Ideally right at the bottom, you should find a file marked "Bashed Patch, 0.esp". If this is not present, follow the instructions in the Wrye Bash readme to locate it and copy it (NOT move it) to the correct place, then re-run BOSS.

 

Once you have a Bashed Patch" file, the next stage is to USE it. Right-click the file, and select "Rebuild patch". Another popup will appear (unless you, for some reason, have no mergeable mods)...

 

"The following mods are mergeable. While it is not important to Wrye Bash functionality or the end contents of the bashed patch, it is suggest that they be deactivated and merged into the patch; this (helps) avoid the Oblivion maximum esp/m limit."

 

There will then be a list of mod files, followed by

 

"Automatically deactivate those mods now?"

 

Click "Yes".

 

The next popup has DOZENS of options in the left-hand window. The one we are interested in this first time through is the second item on the list, "Merge Patches". Put a tick in the box next to it, and then tick all of the files which appear in the right-hand window by selecting the "Select all" button. Now click the button marked "Build Patch". A popup will tell you that the program is working, and give you a progress bar.

 

Once completed, another popup will tell you what it did, so just hit "OK". It will probably prompt you to "Activate the Bashed patch" - do so by clicking the box next to it, and a tick will appear. The ticks in some of the other boxes will have disappeared now, or been replaced with + or dot marks. This tells you what their new status is.

 

You may now close Wrye Bash, and run Oblivion, and the whole things SHOULD work just as before, but with less files active, so a smaller load list.

 

I'm a non-Steam type myself, but from feedback I've seen the moving your Steam out of Program Files is worth the effort and not that difficult, but it's ultimately your decision. Be aware that UAC will cause you problems running mods with Oblivion and your Steam folder located in Prgram Files.

[Tomlong54210]

Oblivion:Complete Installation Guide

 

Oblivion:Bashed Patch

 

If you are using Wrye Bash v293, use the regular Rebuild command, not the CBash version. Wait until v294 before trying CBash. It's much, much faster and powerful, but a few wrinkles need to be ironed out first.

 

 

--Tomlong54210