What mods would you recommend?

[Ignoral]

I'm sure threads like this are made quite often, and I apologize in advance if it annoys those of you who have been around a while and seen about a thousand of them.

 

So yeah, I'm looking for recommended mods for someone semi-experienced with Oblivion (but almost nill experience at installing the mods.. I got OOO to work once.) What I'd like are mods that change the game aesthetically - as much as possible.

I have always hated how characters look in Oblivion, especially the hair, oh god the default hairs.. I have seen some mods on certain screenshots of them looking.. well, a LOT better but have never been able to replicate the results myself, so mods that improve on that are much appreciated. I would also like mods that.. balance the game more. I did like how OOO changed mobs so that they had their own levels rather than leveling with my character making each fight as easy as the last. What I'm looking for is a better, more in-depth version of OOO?

 

If possible I'd also appreciate if I could get links to tutorials on installing the mods. I've read the pages of some mods over and over without understanding it, I'm probably just stupid but I'd really like a very simple way to install mods.

 

I'm looking for something that will eat up the time I'm spending waiting for Skyrim.

 

TL;DR

Mods that make the game look better and improve the gameplay overall.

I wouldn't mind mods that make the game more realistic either, as long as they're not too hard to turn off after I get tired of having to eat/sleep. =b

 

So yah, thanks for any help.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Ignoral

[Rydan]

Hmm, off the top of my head I can think of the following mods:

 

ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10724

 

Skip Tutorial v3

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30093

 

Alive Waters

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6914

 

Real Lava

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6854

 

VAs Better Gold

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1826

 

Harvest Flora

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2037

 

See you sleep

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16005

 

Oblivion Stutter Remover

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23208

 

Kyoma Journal Mod

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15294

 

OBSE

http://obse.silverlock.org

 

Miknmel1's "Improved" mod series, e.g.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10487

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8298

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8500

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11891

etc.

 

Oh and there's a huge mods list that might interest you at http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25101

[AnimalRiot]

Oblivion the Beautiful thread at the Bethesda Softworks forum should help you out.

[Ignoral]

@Rydan Thanks for those, especially the list at the end and the skip tutorial one.

 

@Animal Well damn. I'm reading through that thread at the moment and it's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot. :P

[Rennn]

If you don't like the npc appearances, you could try hgec female bodies, plus Robert's male bodies. I believe there's an underwear version as well, if you're squeamish. Also, I would recommend 'Natural Faces'. They get rid of some JPEG artifacts, and make them look much less like potatoes covered in cellophane. The Real Swords collection is awesome as well. It's a fairly long download, and some weapons in it are a bit overpowered, but it adds literally hundreds of new, unique, awesome swords (plus a few maces, bows, and arrows) to the levelled lists. It has to be the best weapon mod series in all of Oblivion.

 

Also, you can try 'Very Textured Normal Maps For Vanilla'. It uses the game's vanilla textures, but adds bumpmapping to them and makes the game environments look twice as good. I prefer it over Qarl's Texture Pack, actually, and it doesn't hurt performance much.

 

What else... well, if you have performance to spare you could install lighted windows. It looks much, much better at night, but it hits your frames per second like a battleaxe. It adds many new dynamic lights, so you can't expect it to be easy to run.

 

I also recommend 'low poly grass'. I don't even notice the graphical difference most of the time, but it's a big help to the framerate.

[Rydan]

And also:

• Enhanced Magic Effects: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9424
  
• Baurus runs in sewers: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17339
  
• Beaming Sunglare - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16533
  
• Darker Nights - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4135
  

Edited October 30, 2011 by Rydan

[erikisvet22]

Well, the mods I use are as following:

 

> Brighter Torches

> Enchanced Water

> Eshmes Bodies

> Harvest [Flora]

> Illumination Within

> Illumination Without

> Loading Screens

> Natural Habitat

> Natural Vegitation 200%

> Natural Vegitation

> Natural Water

> Natural Weather HDR w/ Darker Nights

> OOO mod

> Ren's Beauty Pack Full

> (?) Distant LOD

 

 

Do you guys know any great-scalish mods? Except Elysweyr (?) Dessert Mod.

[bben46]

Or, you could look at the mods that MOST people who have been around a while recommend. They are the top 100 list. Actually that's what the top 100 list(s) are, the most recommended mods. - and there are more than one for different tastes. :thumbsup: