What mods are best

[Netjera]

Answering this question is really a matter of posting personal opinion, so I'll post mine. :D (Having just been in this boat myself.) I don't run a lot of graphics fixes/tweaks or retextures. I was interested in supporting functions that enhance gameplay and make things more convenient. I was also interested in "fixing" things that I saw as specific problems. I wasn't interested in playing a god, or making the storyline easier, or anything of that nature.

 

Keeping in mind that my choices are entirely based upon this line of reasoning, here's what I selected:

 

Improved Barter Gold: An easy fix for the "low funds" shopkeepers usually have. It doesn't unbalance the game by making them have unlimited money, but it scales the funds they have according to your merchant ability. I could have gone with something that revamps the economy, but many of those limit the other mods you can install, because they're a major overhaul. This was a simple and believable solution, at least. I find that there are still things that don't sell for full value (even though I'm an Expert Merchant), but I'd say about 80% of my items are now "in range".

 

Dreightons Clutter and Gems Price and Name Revision: I thought this was an excellent idea for adding more flavor to the game. I also liked Morrowind's method of pricing clutter better than the current Oblivion "no-value" system. This renames all copies of the clutter to better names (no more "planter" for all planters, each different type of planter that shows up separately in inventory, is now named for its depiction in game "Striped planter with white flowers"). It reprices all clutter to low, or believable values (scales are priced higher because they'd take some craftsmanship to create). It reprices gems according to type (pearl, emerald, etc) and condition (flawed, flawless). Personally, I find nothing to be exorbitant, all prices are believable. Flawless diamonds are worth a LOT at 10k, but considering how much flawless diamonds are worth, I don't find that surprising. Also, they're pretty rare, so it's not like you'll be finding them everywhere.

 

Bone Grind: A must-have for alchemists, or people who like to sell alchemy ingredients. It allows you to grind any bone into bonemeal. At higher levels, you even get 2 bonemeal out of one bone. (I'm a Master Alchemist, and don't get 2 bonemeal all the time, but often enough for it to be believable.) Be warned: It conflicts with bone-naming in Dreighton's mod, and must be loaded afterwards in order to function correctly.

 

Denock Arrows: A must-have for any archer. Allows you to remove a nocked arrow from the bow, by using the "Z" key. (It still functions properly when you don't have your bow out.) (I find this invaluable, as I have a tendency of nocking an arrow, and sliding around a blind corner ready to fire. I can then remove and save the arrow, without having to fire and pick it back up.)

 

Enhanced Hand-to-Hand: If you're a monk, or other h2h fighter, you'll love this. I'm playing on Easy difficulty (because I'm a girlie-wimp, and I admit it ;D ). Without this mod, it took me like 50 blows to kill something. Now, it's 5 - 20 when I'm facing someone head-on. Also, I occasionally get a 1-hit kill when in stealth mode (my stealth is 120, and my agility is over 100 as well). I don't one-hit everything, even stealthed. It takes 2 hits, when stealthed to take down big things like ogres and trolls. I find this very well-balanced.

 

Fame and Infamy Announcer: This basically tells me whenever my fame or infamy has changed, when I've done jail time, etc. Sometimes, I miss a message because it goes by a little bit fast, but it conflicts with nothing, and makes me a bit more aware of my actions.

 

Faster Horses: Someone said that a fast person could run faster than horses in the game, and since my Speed is over 80, I find this to be true. While it's realistic to expect that I might be faster than some horses under some circumstances, I didn't find it believable that I could outrun *all* of them, so I added this in. Each horse type has a different speed in relation to the others. I'm still faster than Paints, but they're much faster than they used to be, which is nice.

 

Greater Souls: My one "cheat"-type mod. I'm not a magic-user, (although I'm doing the magic-using quests). I have a lot of magical equipment, and with the scarcity of soul gems (if you aren't going to make them yourself) it's nice to get a little more "bang for the buck"

 

House Map Markers: Allows me to fast-travel directly to my houses, instead of having to navigate in-city. Comes in a "purchased" and "all" version. I like the being able to fast-travel only to houses I've purchased, personally.

 

Keychain - God, I can't say enough good things about this! Being a thief, I have a habit of sneaking around in broad daylight and picking keys out of people's pockets. Then I go back when they aren't home, and let myself in using their keys. This means, that I was either trying to remember what town a person's key came from, so I could leave it in a chest at my house in that town, and only use it when I was there; or I was carrying a million keys. This keychain acts like a container to hold all your keys. It means you have only one item in the normal view, instead of scrolling through miles of key clutter. The creator wisely created a "turn on/off" and "link/unlink all keys" setting. I've had only one problem so far: When doing the Bruma quest with Arnora and Jorund, I found that it let me open Arnora's chest, but counted it as a thievery, if I had the key on the ring. The simple solution: Turn off the keyring, quickly unhook all keys, open the chest, turn on the keyring and rehook them all. (Hooking them all takes a double-click.. very fast)

 

(Alters meshes/towns): Clocks of Cyrodil: If you like flavor, and convenience, this is a gem. It adds clocks to reasonable locations in all towns and cities, and in certain buildings (although not in your houses - yet). I love being able to walk around the corner and see what time it is, rather than having to open up a menu. It does alter locations though, and so you should backup your original Oblivion-meshes.bsa file, before using, just in case.

 

(Alters meshes/towns): Survival: Hunger, Thirst, Sleep: There's also a version of this mod that includes the "Get Wet" mod. The original SHTS mod basically adds in a requirement for those functions. You must carry waterskins with you, or you lose functioning as you dehydrate. You must carry rations with you, or you lose functioning as you starve. A portable bedroll is a must, or you actually hallucinate, if you don't get enough sleep. All three items are purchasable in many places, and they respawn, so you never run out. The Get wet version allows your waterskins to automatically refill when it rains or you swim (I found that I took too much of a graphics hit, and the wells added-into the towns were pretty convenient, so I removed it). (EDIT: Forgot to mention, you should backup your original Oblivion-meshes.bsa file for this too. Although I haven't had a problem with either this or Clocks, I did have a problem while testing another mod. I installed/uninstalled it, and it took some meshes with it. :/ My life would be SO much easier, if I'd just backed this up to start with.)

 

I have MANY more mods installed. I'll list the rest, but not bore anyone else with more description. Let me mention, though, that Dragonfire Trade and Travel is my ALL-TIME favorite for convenience and fun.

 

Female Eye-Candy Body Replacer

Female Eye-Candy Wardrobe

Madh's Working Training Dolls

Multiple Enchantments

Purse of Wonders (with Kea's alchemical organizer)

Regrow Nirnroot (Disappearing version)

Soul Gem Filler (Let's me use personal fatigue to fill empty soul gems)

Steer Horses with Mouse

Upperclass Clothing

Word of Recall

Training Uncap

EDIT: Monks Armor (forgot to add this! This is a great mod that actually makes wearing no armor and playing a real monk fun!)

 

I also use the Unlimited Rings mod, with the limit set to 10, so I can realistically wear a ring on every finger. =D

 

Hope this helps, and sorry about the length!

 

PS - I'm a Monk/Thief who is capable of doing all quests, but who favors stealthy hand-to-hand and sniping with a bow. (And stealing anything that isn't nailed down, and a few things that are.)

 

EDIT: Edited for readability (bolding, etc) and to include two notes, as mentioned.