Why does my mod show up as coding in a notepad instead of extractable

[MShoap13]

Are you running Windows Vista/7 and is your \Oblivion\ or \Steam\ directory in the default location (C:\Program Files\)? If so, Windows UAC is known to cause all kinds of issues while modding Oblivion and it's highly recommended to go ahead and move steam to somewhere Windows UAC doesn't affect, like C:\Games and reinstall Oblivion. If you're on XP you can skip all of this as Windows UAC isn't implemented.

 

Then, go ahead and install OBMM and/or Wrye Bash and run BSA Redirection as your form of Archive Invalidation one time. Without using some form of Archive Invalidation Oblivion has problems with using user created textures and animations instead of the vanilla content. BSA Redirection is the best solution to Archive Invalidation as it's practically fool proof and never needs to be updated after you've done it once.

 

The next step for a Steam installation is to use File Date Changer to roll back the "Last Modified" dates of all of the .bsa archives that come in your Vanilla Oblivion install (plus the DLC of course) to somewhere around 2005. This is necessary for BSA Redirection to work properly.

 

From here, be sure to make at least one character save in Oblivion so that you have a known working standard. I personally recommend playing through the tutorial dungeon (the sewers) up until right before the exit that allows you to change your character's aspects and keeping that save around permanently. This gives you a good testing base for adding mods in the future and you never have to play through the sewers again.

 

Now you're ready to start modding. I'd say take it easy and try something simple like a sword or a simple texture replacer and then go ensure that it's actually taking effect in your game. Moving on you can add other mods, though I recommend installing them one or two at a time and trying them out for a little bit before adding more. This way when an issue does occur (and it's bound to happen) you'll have a pretty good idea of where to start troubleshooting.

 

Here's a list of mods I'd recommend for any Oblivion install whether you're after grossly modded content or not:

The Unofficial Oblivion Patch and the Unofficial Patch Supplementals (Be sure to get the Shivering Isles patch for SI and the Unofficial Official Mods Patch for any other DLC you may be running)

Darn UI or Dark Darn UI

Natural Environments or All Natural

MiniMap

 

That's my "Beginner's Guide" post. It pretty much covers all the possible causes of your issue (most likely it's a UAC problem).

Edited October 26, 2011 by MShoap13

[Striker879]

The other thing to consider is that OBMM is 'OBSE aware' meaning that if it sees you have installed OBSE it will try to start the game using the obse_loader.exe. Try starting the game from your old desktop shortcut and see what happens (I'm not a Steam user, so I'm not sure what happens normally if you try to start the Steam version with OblivionLauncher.exe). If you are installed in C:\Program Files (or C:\Program Files (x86) if you are using a 64 bit OS) I totally agree with MShoup13 that you need to get your entire Steam installation out from under UAC's clutches.