recommend me a house mod

[diosoth]

I'm looking for 2 things in a player-owned house mod

 

1) plenty of empty display room and cases for weapons and placing mannequins with armor

2) a place that won't send my frame rate into the single digits, especially important as placing mannequins will slowly impact that

 

Battlehorn Castle offers some space but hardly enough. I installed Vaernlor Manor but it offers little extra space for mannequins and is a bit of a frame rate hog. Some of the house mods I've come across with high endorsement ratings also seem to be rather intensive mods and I'm really just looking for a nice place to display mannequins and such. I could makemy own place but I wonder if anything exists already that can serve my needs. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[shinobi2008]

If you don't mind going through a few quests to obtain your manor, AFK Weye might suit you. It's located near the IC and it's generally middle of the map. You have options to buy display cases when you get the chance. Word of caution though do not put items in the display case. They will be gone forever. Other than that... I think it's probably one of the best house mod out there. Good luck and have fun.

[bben46]

Both Glenvar castle and Verona House Bloodlines have massive display areas. Both require extensive and difficult quests also.

 

Glenvar is a real castle with walkways along the top of the walls, large stable, garden (with a gardener) working gate, guards with your own livery, a dozen or so NPCs and 2 quests. plus at least 3 secret areas. Then, once you do get ownership of Glenvar, the main mannikin display area is a secret area that you must find - absolutely worth it. There is a room full of about 20 display cases in the room where the secret entrance to the mannikin/armor display vault is.

 

 

Verona house requires that you complete the main Oblivion game quest before starting on the Verona House quest. It is a huge house with too many surprises to list here.

[jamochawoke]

Battlehorn Castle official DLC from Bethesda...

[bben46]

Battlehorn Castle DLC does have a display area, but nowhere near what Glenvar has. Also, the quest to get Battlehorn is ridiculously easy. The big problem is getting the DLC. Beth dropped the ball on selling DLCs.Their store was shut down when they made their deal with steam. And steam only sells it (as far as I know) as part of the deluxe GOTY version of the entire game. :wallbash:

 

Battlehorn is also a small castle - It will fit inside the courtyard of Glenvar. :tongue:

[Striker879]

My favourite is Anakondrak's Aranmathi Ayleid Home. The install is a bit convoluted (install version 1 for meshes and textures and then version 1.04 to replace the esp). I also recommend (but don't personally use, as I found out about it after I'd already personalized version 1.04 in the CS and moved in with my girls) Miltiades' version 1.05 update as it resolves some of the issues left outstanding in version 1.04. If you're handy with the CS either makes a good starting point.

 

The only places I see any slowdown is when first entering the first area (Throne room) and second area (Armory), but in each case it's only for a second or two while resources load and AI packages start. Version 1.04 comes with decent display options, and I've added more mannequin bases in my copy. It's located not far from Bravil (I personally don't want a bunch of homes three steps away from the IC).

[diosoth]

Battlehorn, I have it but it's too small once you've got all the upgrades and trophies and it has 5 display cases. Though on the other hand, my frame rate seems to shoot up high when I'm in there for some reason- my average is 15-20 on current settings, when I go into the main hall it shoots up to 50. But when I finish buying the upgrades that may change.

 

I read the comments on Aranmathi, some people are having problems with CTD using the statue or teleports and others report that the display cases aren't safe and lose weapons. Is that a common problem or did some people not install correctly? I tend to read the posted comments of any mod to see if there are issues. I also have to compare these house mods and see if there may be any potential conflicts with anything else I run(I've come across two that conflict with Myths & Legends so far).

[Striker879]

You are very wise to research first diosoth. I do the same, and had the same concerns before trying out Aranmathi. As far as I've been able to determine those issues were related to some resources that have been removed from the latest versions of the mod. At the bottom of version 1.04's mod description Anakondrak talks about using the AranMathi_WithoutStargate.esp instead of the regular one (a change that came at version 1.01). There's no mention of changing the regular esp to the no Stargate version in any of the change logs for versions 1.02, 1.03 or 1.04 but I've not found any 'Stargates' in my version 1.04. I've tried the teleport amulet, teleport spell, player house teleport portal and Oblivion gate portal and all worked for me without problem. The statue is no different than the Bruma statue, in as far as the game picks what it considers the 'best' items in your inventory to display, so you need to empty out all items except what you want on the statue from your inventory. At least with this statue you can change it later if you want.

 

The only change I've made in my copy is the elevation (z axis) of the exterior. As is mentioned in Miltiades' version 1.05 description the entrance will have water in it with version 1.04 and earlier. I've looked at the version 1.05 esp in the CS, and if I ever do an Oblivion re-install, or decide to drop my old character and start a new guy I'll go with the version 1.05 as the base for my own tweaks. Outside of the elevation change my edits to the version 1.04 esp have been additions (mannequin bases and NPCs primarily). And I do have the entrance door problem mentioned in the version 1.05 description ... don't visit the area with version 1.04 loaded before you update to version 1.05, or if you do (so that you can see the difference between the two versions) make a clean save after you've deactivated version 104 and load that save with version 1.05.

 

I think if you give Aranmathi a try you'll like it.

[diosoth]

I installed Aranmathi using the 1.05 version. The frame rate is very smooth and I tested out storage of weapons in the cases(put them in, fast travel elsewhere, wait away 3 game days, go back). Looks like it might suit my needs. It has more room than Battlehorn, more storage than Frostcrag and no FPS issues.

 

I installed a few others- Blackmarsh Hall, which I can't comment on as ownership requires purchase. Cyrodiil Champion's manor which you can't really access until you beat the main quest, as well as Verona House SI fixed.

 

I tried out one called Malus Pulima which is a nice house(though loses points with me for the free magic altars) but a bit low on frame rate and little room to redecorate. But the bathroom area is very nice. I installed one called Zeeland Manor which dropped my horse into the water to drown when I fast traveled. I checked it out and found the place littered with "cheat" stuff like daedric artifacts. I uninstalled it, and I suspect it's that mansion which put a total of 8 sets of daedric armor into my Frostcrag vault chests, which I had to collect and use the console to remove.

[Striker879]

Another home I've tried out but had to uninstall as my machine doesn't quite have the oomph for it is Highwood by Ithlia and Hickory. There are a lot of innovative features about the house. I particularly liked the use of static armor and weapon meshes as storage, as well as the armor stand. The interior is a bit busy and cramped for my tastes on initial impression, but I think it could be a house (as opposed to castle) that grows on you.