Unofficial patches a good start?

[Rangoon]

It's been a long time since I've played Oblivion. I had done an entire FCOM install in the past, but have never actually played the vanilla game. I just picked up the deluxe game of the year edition from Steam. Would it be a good idea to install the various Unofficial patches on top of that if I want the best "vanilla" experience possible? I don't want to change the game this time around, but do want to have it working as well as possible. Are these unofficial patches a must-have in that sense? Or do they bring their own problems along with them?

 

I also plan on doing some basic ini tweaking for graphics, but don't plan to use graphics mods. I think that gives a pretty clear idea what I'm after. Thanks for any advice.

[Nephenee13]

If you do nothing else, do install the Unofficial Patches, for both Oblivion and SI. There are a few additional patches to the patches floating around as well. But the number of things fixed just by those two patches is astonishing.

[Lanceor]

Here's my usual informative copy/paste - the second half pertains to mods so I greyed it out. :)

 

Everyone has their individual preferences so it's hard to recommend particular mods without knowing what you like.

 

To start with, most people will recommend the Unofficial Patches. These fix a lot of bugs and annoyances that Bethesda had missed.

 

The Unofficial Oblivion Patch

The Unofficial Oblivion Patch Supplemental

The Unofficial Official Mods Patch

The Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

 

Almost all complex mods require The Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) to function properly so that may be your next step.

 

If you're going to have more than a couple of mods, Oblivion mod manager will help you arrange your load order. If you're going to have a lot more than a couple, Better Oblivion Sorting Software - BOSS will auto-order most of the mods based on the collective experience of experienced mod users.

 

After that, check the Top 100 for the most popular mods. Or, if you have an idea of what interests you, look through the categories that appeal to you. You can sort them by Endorsements or Downloads to check which ones are the most liked or most popular.

 

If yu haven't played through Oblivion though, many would suggest not adding mods until you've played Oblivion for a while and have an idea what would improve your gameplay the most.

 

Have fun with the mods!

[Striker879]

Actually Lanceor, I believe you need to update that advice, as I've heard that the latest version of the Unofficial Oblivion Patch now includes the additional changes made previously by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch Supplemental (and in fact the Supplemental is no longer available for download ... info thanks to omeletted). Edited November 18, 2011 by Striker879

[Rangoon]

Thanks for the help, guys! Can't wait to get rolling on this one again.