Modding Oblivion: It's Scary!

[TheUprightMan]

Hi!

 

So, jumping in as an Oblivion noob is freaking terrifying; there is a half a decade worth of mods, and most of which, I'm assuming, don't work together. (But they all look so cool.)

 

I just installed OOO 1.33 and COBL, the unofficial OBLV + SI patches, OBSE, weocps.dll, OBMM and Wyre Bash. So far so good, I used OBMM instead of BAIN, but looking it over it's not showing any conflicts. (I decided to leave MMM and FCOM alone for now.)

 

The thing is, though, I want -everything-. I want to try Elsewyr: Deserts of Antiquina(?), Valenwood Improved, Shezries Towns, Deadly Reflex 6, Unnecessary Violence II, Unique Landscapes, MMM, Thieves Arsenel, Better Cities, Persuasion Overhaul.. and a lot more.

 

So, question:

 

If I install these one at a time, should Wyre be enough to be able to detect various types of conflicts, if they are to arise? Should I grab "Land magic" for province mods? I'm not a total modding noob, I have a totally modded version of NV that runs with little to no problems (it took a while), but NV is a different animal because it doesn't have the same history.

 

What should I do from here?

 

Thanks for reading.

[kingtitan]

Suggestions from a *somewhat* experienced modder/mod user? Don't!! Or at least not at one time :)

 

It sounds like you are on the right track. Getting OBMM, Wrye, and OBSE are musts from the start. The most important thing to remember to do is to READ! Usually authours provide very extensive information on what is or what isn't compatible with their mod. For instance, Deadly Reflex requires a specific skeleton while BBB requires another. (I saw a skeleton reconciling the two the other day, but I have no idea if it works well as I haven't used it). But that is just one instance. Gameplay modifiers usually require the most scrutiny, whereas custom clothing and armors rarely do.

 

Another suggestion- Although Wrye is an extremely powerful tool, I highly suggest that you not entirely rely on it to detect and fix everything. While it still will pick up on most, you have to employ common sense far too often as well :)

 

An just one more: Please, Please play test a mod after installing a SINGLE mod! Far too many people install a horde of mods without playtesting them for their rig one at a time, and then come to the forums whining about how "Oblivion no longer works, Plz heeeelp!" (same grammar too, I promise). You can save yourself a headache and the rest of the community time by taking a little extra time to be a little extra careful!

 

Hope that is helpful :)

[Septfox]

I'd just like to point out, people have been having a lot of trouble getting DR6 to run at all, let alone properly. If it doesn't outright crash the game from the start, the init script screws up or one or two of the main scripts don't fire properly. It's probably an awesome mod and all, but it's a pain to get working right. If you have trouble getting the game to run after installing a batch of mods, my money's on it.

 

DR5, however, works perfectly. A little lacking in functionality in comparison, but less features is better than no features at all, eh?

[Rennn]

I didn't even use OBMM until a couple days ago, and that was running 50+ bug free mods, including large ones like Unecessary Violence 2. It's not difficult if you know what you're doing. I only installed OBMM so that my in-progress overhaul would be easier to get working. It's a good tool though.

 

Unique Landscapes (get the collection, not the individuals if you're a noob) is amazing, and it won't conflict with any mod that doesn't drastically change the environment. It's also the easiest of the 'big' mods to install. Get it!

 

I doubt Shezries Towns and Better Cities will work together; pick one or the other. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

 

Elsewyr and Valenwood will work together (and with all the other mods) as long as you get the patch to merge their border. Valenwood is nice, though unfinished. It's very dense and scenic.

 

Unnecessary Violence is either included in Deadly Reflex, or required for it. I forget which. Find out beforehand. Deadly Reflex 6 is tough to install and has many mod requirements and load order requirements. Back up your stuff before you try to install it, because it won't be easy to uninstall if something goes wrong. Deadly Reflex 5 should be a better choice for most people.

 

Thieves Arsenal looks nice, and though I haven't installed it, it looks like it should be compatible with almost every other individual mod, though I'm not sure about the big ones.

 

Midas Magic is epic, and easy to install and uninstall if need be, so you should look at that as well.

 

Note that the big overhauls, like OOO and MMM will be very tough, or impossible, to get working with a lot of other mods.

[JackTownsend]

Are you the same Renn that did the guard overhaul?

 

Either way, you're all a bunch of sweethearts, thanks for replying. :D

 

I'm trying to get Better Cities to work right now but it's quite difficult. I tried installing the resource packages first, and then the ESP but it didn't seem to quite work. I'm going to re-read the read-me when I get home and try to troubleshoot it myself before I come back to annoy you guys.

 

 

I don't see a reason why Shez's towns wouldn't work with BC, Shez's towns (i believe) don't alter the vanilla cities whatsoever. I think Pell's Gate looks like an amazing town for my crum-bum horse thief anyway.

 

I was looking at the New Lands mods and I almost died, I want all of it. I'm definitely, definitely definitely going to load up Elsewyr after I make sure that BC is working, then on to Valenwood Improved. I'd reckon landscape/land and city overhauls are first on my list, then onto gameplay mods like DR5 and UVII.

 

Another question: When I bash mods, do scripts compile in the bash-patch? Meaning, if UVII alters shovels, and I have some sort of crafting mod that also alters shovels, can I bash it so that they're compatible, or no?

 

 

Again, thanks for all your timely responses. You guys make this incredibly difficult task a little easier. <3