Complete n00b

[tbukdahl]

Hi everybody

 

I bought Oblivion as well as Shrivering Isle and the Knights of the Nine, and are now ready to start gaming.

However, call me nerdy or whatever, but I've read A LOT about mods, and immersion, and have also started downloading mods, so, tonight when getting home from work, I'll be ready to start installing these mods - yup, got to have that realistic feeling to it, right. (By the way, I've games Oblivion about 4 hours before - borrowed it from a friend a couple of months ago).

 

But, the question is; using OMM(mod manager), which MODS should I use, and which load order should I use, to get the most realistic feel to it?

 

Thank you in advance :thanks:

[maYuYang]

I highly recommand you playing the vanilla game 1st. That way, you will have an easier time looking for the mods you want to use(because you then will know what you disliked in the game).

 

But if you're impatient, you should propably search for mods which's title includes "realistic". Also, Install all Patches and Unoffical patches 1st(<-very important!)

The major overhauls might also be interesting to you(Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, Martigen's Monster Mod, WarCry and Fran's). When installing them, you should 1st read all readmes!! Then install them one by one. Always test them by starting the game. It might be slowly, but it's the best way to pinpoint a bug or solve a CTD.

You need special attention when installing the Overhauls, they are very load order sensitive! Especially when installing all of them(in that case, you better also go for Fran's Convergence). You should also look for the patches those mods require to work with others. You should also check google for "oblivion load order"(sorry, cannot insert the link right now...)

 

Then, once you finished that and the game works properly, look for fps optimizers like Streamline(believe me, you will need them...).

[dezdimona]

General Load-Order Guidelines

by ElecManEXE

 

Here are the guidelines that I adhere to, personally.

 

~ Unofficial Oblivon Patch should always be first on the list. The fixes are great, but most aren't essential, so if a mod overwrites them its not a big deal, and the fixes have the potential for screwing up other mods if loaded later.

 

~ Offical Content (DLC's) should be loaded last, until you complete all quests associated with them (that includes buying all furniture for the houses and whatnot). Once they're complete, they can be safely moved up in the list. This is especially important for Knights of the Nine, which will have some fairly major problems unless loaded last (unless you get the UOP for KotN)

 

~ Major overhaul mods (OOO, Frans, MMM) should be loaded near the end. That gives you the most complete experience with any of those particular mods. It also lets you carefully choose which other mods to load afterwards... only move mods that you know will conflict and that you want the changes from. For example, I have Improved Soul Gems below OOO because I know that OOO changes the icons of some of the SG's, and ISG needs to be below to show through.

 

Some people will recommend putting larger mods first, but personally I disagree. There are a number of mods out there that make minor tweaks, and loading after a large mod will end up completely overwriting a chunk from one of the bigger mods because of the way conflicts work in Oblivion (even one minor change will take precedence over the entire record... for example, simply tweaking the speed of a weapon can cause every stat of that weapon to be retained to vanilla levels if loaded later).

 

So basically, it stacks up like this...

 

Oblivion.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

<Minor Mods / DLC's (Post-Completion)>

<Major Overhaul Mod/Mods>

<Mods that specifically conflict with overhauls and need to take precedence>

<DLC's (Pre-Completion)>

 

 

 

Expanded Load-Order Guidelines

by dev_akm

 

I would extend this to include:

 

Oblivion.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

<Weather/Environment/Sound Mods>

<Minor Mods/New Items/Houses/DLC's (Post-Completion)>

<Major Overhaul Mods>

<Mods that specifically conflict with overhauls and need to take precedence>

<DLC's (Pre-Completion)>

<Quests>

<Compatibility Patches/UOMP/Merged Leveled Lists>

 

And a special-case warning for Knights.esp (Knights of the Nine) -- you may not be able to move it earlier than some other mods (some people have had problems after moving it before OOO, for example).

 

That's basically the structure I use and I have 140+ mods working well together.

 

Another way of describing this (posted by DMan77):

....

Oblivion

unoffical patch

Deeper realism mods that add sights and sounds

added content like weapons/items

gameplay changes, like 'must eat and sleep'

The OOO type

the 'new begining' type mod..

...

 

listen to maYuYang, see what you don't like,then mod to change it.

OBMM is the best way to install mods,and there easy to create

[tbukdahl]

Thx for the quick replies to ´both of you - especially your way of suggesting a "recipe" dezdimona is very helpful :thanks:

 

But, like I said, I've already been gaming this for a short period of time, a couple of months back, so have a small idea of what to expect.

What I actually just would like, is to have the most realistic experience in regards to weather, road encounters (NPC's), monster spawns (and different types, instead of plain vanilla), you know - simple diversity, as in the game of life, really.

 

But, the thought had crossed my mind, to give the vanilla game a spin, before starting to mod the game, heavily, anyway :whistling:

 

Any further suggestions are welcome, by the way :thumbsup:

[maYuYang]

You propably want to use Enhanced Weather together with Screen Effects. Also Natural Environment and Oblivion Landscape compilation will be of your taste.

 

Martigen's Monster Mod(MMM) changes the NPCs and Monsters propably exactly to what you want them to be. Obscuro's Oblivon Overhaul(OOO) will make Tamriel more dangerous and challenging. I think MMM will also give you an optional Plugin for the Road Encounters, but I'm not sure now.

 

And if you're sick of the unrealistic loading times when entering a city, you will really like Open Cities or maybe even Open Better Cities.

 

Those are some mods I'm using at least.

[tyreil829]

in my view i would only use texture upgrades if your Graphics Card can take it or your PC might be quite slow and lag quite

 

as for Open Cities its moves everything into the the tamreail world space if you ever placed morrowind its like that all the cites are outside you can have all the cites as open or just a select few i believe

 

Shepard

[xachan86]

anyway, if you plan to use more than one overhaul (Fran, MMM, OOO, etc...), you will definitely need FCOM to ensure perfect compatibility. And if you intend to have quite a lot of mod (believe me, it goes faster than you think, i'm already use more than 200 mods !!), then you will definitely need FCOMHelper, which will save you a considerable amount of time in setting your load order. Every one of these mods are here on TESNexus.

[bben46]

My advice: Start simple! don't start with a big overhaul mod that changes everything. they are complicated to install and configure.

 

Start with a simple mod. a single weapon or item. Then when you have that one working, move up to a slightly more complicated mod. be sure to back up everything before installing a mod. then back up when you have it right before installing another mod. Especially back up when starting with a big overhaul mod as a mistake there could cause you to have to completely reinstall the game.

 

Then when you do have to reinstall, check the board for advice before uninstalling and reinstalling because it isn't as simple as you would think.

[billypnats]

a wonderful tool for load ordering is FCOMhelper, its really ez to use, be sure to get it

[tbukdahl]

Thanks to everyone for your advice.

So far I've been playing the vanilla game for a couple of hours, just to get the

feel of the game, again.

 

I've been looking a bit at OMM.

 

I'm just wondering, do I use OMM along with FCOM HELPER, or do I have to choose one over the other?