Noob with basic questions regards Oblivion

[greenraven55]

Hi I just joined and don't know if I should ask this question here or in a different forum. It is about Oblivion so I guess I should do it there but just wanted to say hi here first and anyone checking out that a noob has a basic question ... err, questions ... and wanting to help I'll post there next ... if I can find the forum that is, heh.

 

[greenraven55]

Actually I can't seem to find a separate Oblivion forum so I'll try asking here. Sorry if I'm missing something obvious. I'll try to lay this out logically:

 

1. I've never added a mod to a game ever.

 

2. I'm on Steam and have Oblivion.

 

3. I have a laptop with no video card but can play Oblivion fine if set to medium video settings. But I'm a little scared to go crazy on mods because I don't want to overload my Dell laptop with visual mods it can't handle or run way too hot with. So I've read stuff and it seems I should be interested in these three:

 

4. Something called OBSE that allows mods to work period maybe? Is this here?

 

5. Does Steam include something called the Unofficial Oblivion Patch? If not can I find it here and add it and if so how?

 

6. I'm only wanting these to then find some mod to mod the mercantile stuff in Oblivion that takes forever to sell one item at a time. That's all I want out of all the mods out there now because of fear of visual graphic overload on my laptop. So do I need the two above before I get this and which "this" do I get? I've seen several listed online and am confused. Nothing fancy changing massive things. Just want to sell one item at a time without getting carpal wrist from using the slider bar endlessly.

 

7. If I find the first two above and some recommended mercantile mod as well then what? How do I add all of them? I see things online that say add to root or data and stuff like that and I have NO idea what they are talking about. I need someone to tell a dummy in plain English how to add/place these things in what Steam folder etc.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help me.

Edited October 8, 2018 by greenraven55

[DrakeTheDragon]

First of all: Welcome to the Nexusmods community!

The fine folks on here will get you started in no time. Whenever lost just ask your way around.

 

 

The Oblivion forum section would be here: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?c=91,243,248

You'll also get right there by clicking the "Support > Support forum" pull-down link on the Oblivion site: https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/

And the right section for your questions would be either https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/forum/134-oblivion-mod-talk/ or https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/forum/180-oblivion-mod-troubleshooting/.

 

That said, modding the Steam version of the game doesn't work much differently than modding a retail disc version does.

All (usual) mods do is putting plugins (ESP)/masterfiles (ESM) into the game's Data folder (for Steam usually found inside ".../steam/steamapps/common/Oblivion/", if I recall it right) and/or loose resource files (NIF, DDS, whatever) into their respective sub-folders inside there.

Some mods do without any resources, some mods without plugins/masterfiles, and some mods even ship with so-called BSA archives instead of loose resources, which are no different than the game's own ones ("Oblivion Meshes.bsa", "Oblivion Textures Compressed.bsa", what have you).

The folder structure inside BSAs always mirrors the folder structure inside the Data folder. You could theoretically "extract" all BSAs and make them loose files instead and get the same results. Or you could (albeit far less probable) compress all loose files up into their own BSAs and again have the same results.

 

(Refer for the most basic knowledge to here: https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Oblivion_mods_FAQ But definitely ignore the Archive Invalidation part, as everything said there is dangerously outdated by now. Read below.)

 

The only crucial difference for the Steam version of the game is the need for Archive Invalidation for just about everything to do with replacements.

By default Oblivion uses the resources found inside its own BSAs only. The disc versions also automatically use loose files other than textures (DDS) over ones in the same place and with the same name inside its BSAs, i.e. "replacer"-type mods. Textures, however, require something called Archive Invalidation for the game to use replacements instead of its own. And only for the Steam version of the game this goes for all other resource types than textures as well. And sadly the Steam version also comes with ridiculously "dated" BSAs (last time of install?), while "last modified" date is the key factor for override priority decisions in this game, so any replacer-type mods won't have a chance in hell to ever work, unless the BSA archives have been re-dated back to something rather old (somewhere around 2006 is the date on the disc versions' BSAs). (see https://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php?title=Oblivion_Mods_FAQ#Archive_Invalidation for a more up-to-date guide)

 

If you're on an OS of Windows Vista or newer and you have the game/Steam installed at the default location (somewhere inside program files), you'll also quickly become victim of the infamous User Account Control (UAC) of these OS, forbidding any other tool/app/software (sometimes even "you") to access these folders, and instead just "pretending" to show them to you, while in actuality you're looking into some "VirtualStore" folder hidden somewhere inside your User files instead. You won't even notice the files you or a mod manager tried to put into your game folder actually aren't there, but the game cannot be fooled by this like the Windows Explorer will fool you and won't find the files, even though you're clearly seeing them exactly where they should be. But they aren't, you're just lied to. For this reason it's always advised to install your game somewhere outside of program files, or any other Windows folder for that matter. Most people use something like "C:/Games/" or similar. "C:/Games/Steam/steamapps/common/..." would also be okay for your Steam install. There's simple instructions floating around on how to "move" either/or. (see https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Installing_Games_on_Windows_Vista%2B)

 

Generally the WiKi gives a huge amount of insight into modding this game. But sadly many of its articles are by now heavily outdated already it seems. But keep in mind when they were created. This game is after all heavily modded since 2006.

 

 

Now to your direct points (as far as I can reply):

 

4. OBSE is the Oblivion Script Extender. It doesn't do anything at all on its own, but it expands Oblivion's scripting library by multiple useful functions, and a means to add your own via DLL plugins, and thus enables mod authors to achieve things previously deemed absolutely impossible to do.

If you use an OBSE-dependent plugin and don't start your game "through" the OBSE loader (in case of Steam this works automatically, provided the integration mechanism was correctly applied/OBSE correctly installed), the plugin's scripts will break the moment they hit an OBSE function and the mod thus not work correctly. OBSE itself can be found either on here or on its developers' own website: http://obse.silverlock.org

 

5. Steam, as far as I know, doesn't provide any mods for Oblivion, only official DLC, perhaps. So the Unofficial Oblivion Patch (UOP) is to be found here: https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/5296 (Mind the links to more of its kind inside the description.)

 

6. There's definitely some mods to improve the mercantile aspect of the game. If you can't find any by simple searches on the Oblivion site, the best place to ask for them, or any other existing ones, would be here: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/30512-oblivion-mod-detectives/

 

 

Now if you have any further questions or need other/more help, please post inside the dedicated sections I linked you to above. There me and the others in the know will way much faster find them and respond. :thumbsup:

[greenraven55]

Thanks so much for your detailed and very informative answers to my questions as well as links to where I should have been posting all along. Very much appreciated.