Confused by so many recommended mods.

[TheOrlyFactor]

I originally started playing Oblivion for the PS3 and recently I decided to buy it and Skyrim on the PC. I've been trying to find (and have found) beginner's guides on essential mods. The only problem is that some of these guides seem to contradict one another.

 

I have one telling me to download NMM. I have another that says don't download it and download TESModManager instead. Then I have another one that recommends Wyre Bash. Honestly, all I want to do is download and install the unofficial patches, any PC-friendly UI's, and a noob-friendly mod manager for when I'm ready to download custom/new quests, lands, etc. D:

 

I don't care about GFX overhauls, I don't care about game play tweaks. I just want bug fixes and an easy, straight-forward way to download new quest/land mods. ;_;

 

Anyone willing to give me some mod recommendations that don't make my head spin, leave me confused, and are just newb friendly in general? D:

 

Also, sorry if this has been asked 9,001 times already. I tried to find a sticky for this kind of thing and I couldn't find anything. o:

Edited July 9, 2016 by TheOrlyFactor

[Oubliette]

TESModManager is a precursor to NMM literally made by the same people just officially integrated into the site some years ago. So if something recommends TESModManager or Oblivion Mod Manager (also precursor) then you can safely just go with NMM. Wrye on the other hand isn't a mod manager, a profile editor, a save game cleaner, a leveled list generator - it's all those things. You need it and NMM in more robust mod installations because it helps you find and fix a lot of errors that come into play when you've got more than a handful of mods (also it does face transfers, has its own special plugins for Oblivion that make some things awesome etc) it is a more complex tool than NMM however and therefore has a more complex readme/help file. You're going to have to read it to learn it and once you do you'll love it. It's vital for pretty much all TES games and there's also a version for the Fallout games (Mash=Morrowind, Bash=Oblivion, Smash=Skyrim, Flash=fallout; just call it Wrye and be done with it).

 

Look, I'm going to be honest with you: your head is going to spin. Using mods isn't easy, especially for the older games and especially for Oblivion which is glitchy and conflict ridden on the mod side. If you really don't understand how to follow directions and can't read carefully.- modding is not for you.

[bevilex]

Oblivion is less easy to mod compared to Skyrim, due to its age, engine limitations ... But you don't need to be a genius to install mods :

 

Use Wrye Bash to install your mods. Learn how to use it. It is not complicated. Forget NMM and other mod manager. If you have one mod manager to use, this is WB. Installing mods with it is quite simple (a drag and drop of the archive, a right click to install, and an esp activation )

 

Read carefully the description, readme and comments of every mods you install, and it should be ok.

Edited July 10, 2016 by bevilex

[zdswulyx]

I don't care about GFX overhauls, I don't care about game play tweaks. I just want bug fixes and an easy, straight-forward way to download new quest/land mods. ;_;

 

Oblivion is fairly large already, if you don't care about all that stuff. Don't download any.

 

The point is, what is important for a nice gameplay experience is quite personal. For example I'd dislike the game much more without DarnUI or Francesco. As mentioned use Wrye Bash to install. In few cases you might need to package because the author made it in a unusual way, but in most cases few clicks are all you need to install.

 

So here my absolute needed:

 

Patches

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/5296

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/10739

 

DarNified UI by DarN

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/10763/?

 

Oblivion XP Update by SirFrederik and AndalayBay

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/35333

Race Balancing Project 10.0 LIGHT [EV - English Version]

http://theelderscrolls.info/?go=dlfile&fileid=318

Less Annoying Magic Experience [English Version, 1.7]

http://theelderscrolls.info/?go=dlfile&fileid=219

Migck's Miscellaneous fixes tweaks and additions by Migck

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42658

MOBS - Medieval Oblivion Equipment Balance System by Corepc - BFG

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/28537

Francescos Creatures and Items by Francesco and SomeWelshGuy

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40190

about extra quests:

Kragenirs Death Quest by Povuholo and Malchik

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/26219

[pitip]

For Oblivion and Skyrim, I originally always downloaded and manually installed all my mods, because I was hesitant to use mod managers like NMM. After a while I downloaded OBMM (Oblivion Mod Manager) for installing Oblivion mods. I never looked back. For an Oblivion mod managing utility I personally would recommend this program to anyone very highly. The Oblivion Mod Manager is pretty handy because it can do it's own archive invalidation, detect conflicts between mods and report them, allow the user to modify the load list of their mods, and a variety of other useful tasks. For Skyrim I downloaded NMM, which is pretty good, it's fairly simple to use and can also connect with your nexus account. That's just my suggestion for using a mod manager for each of the games.

[Oblivionaddicted]

I have more than 100 mods active and use ObMM + BOSS and Wrye Bash to manage them, my game works fine and often wait 15 min between each quicksave that it to say how confident I am.

 

For a good modding experiance, install 1 mod, start a game, check if it works, install another.

If something makes your game crash check your conflicts with ObMM, remember what you did lastly and at worst disable your mods by groups, start a game and check if the problem remains.

[MalachiDelacot]

Everybody has their opinions on "must have" mods, etc.

Wrye Bash, like some others have said, is the way to go.

I have used it for years and rarely have a problem,

and I am running about 250 mods.

As per mods, take a look at the top 100 list and that

should give you ideas on what you may want.

Also, you might need to keep in mind if more than one

mod does basically the same thing, the mod loaded

last will be the dominate one.