Silly noob mod questions

[777onizuka]

I've been playing regular Oblivion for the last week or two - after a very long break from it - and now want to get some mods for it. The mod I want the most is FCOM, so my first question is it any good? I've heard things about it that go from awe to saying that it's horrible and crashes a lot, so which is it?

 

Some other questions are how do I tell if a mod is working the way it should or not - specifically OOO, at the moment, at least. And I made an omod for the 1.34 beta version of OOO. I have both that and the 1.33 version though, so was I supposed to make an omod of 1.33 instead, or both, or what? And btw, I have BOSS downloaded, so that means I don't have to worry about the order I download stuff, right?

 

Anyway, thanks in advance and apologies for the noobishness and cluelessness.

[Shadowcran]

There's nothing wrong with not knowing. The only problem is when you're not willing to learn. We were all clueless at one time.

 

FCOM may not be where you want to start though. It can be complicated. FCOM is the combination of 4 of the biggest Overhaul Mods there is into a cohesive unit by using FCOM convergence. However, if you must start here, then use this excellent guide.

 

http://fivefries.googlepages.com/fcominstallationguide

 

AND

 

http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/convergence

I do recommend starting smaller. Perhaps just DL Oblivion WarCry and it's patch for a start(Use the EV or english version of the mod). FCOM can be hard even for experienced modder. Is it eventually worth the trouble? Hell yes, it's great. Also, use this guide I've created to help with performance and the proper utilities:

 

Enhancing your Oblivion Performance.

 

What this attempts to do:

1- Limit CTD's(crashes to desktop) as much as possible.

2- Limit corrupted Saves as much as possible.

3- Limit in game freezes as much as possible.

4- Limit the "black screen" as much as possible.

5- Make people aware of Mods that cause 1-4 too much.

 

You are an Oblivion player seeking to make a great game even greater through mods. However, problems in Vanilla Oblivion will follow into the mods if not addressed. CTD's, corrupted saves, game freezes, These and more are almost standard in any PC game and are completely unpreventable from ever happening. This means they will happen no matter what. The goal of this information contained herein is to cut down on them as much as possible and keep Oblivion a great playing experience, if not a perfect one.

 

The following additions take into account low end machines as well. The advice I'm going to give is designed to help ALL the different computers and their Oblivion playing.

 

Step 1: DL and Install The Latest Oblivion patches. If you are playing with Shivering Isles(SI) then download the patches for this as well.You get these OFFICIAL patches off of the Bethesda site.

 

Step 2: DL and Install the Latest Unofficial patches. If you use Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, get the unofficial patches for these as well.

 

 

Unofficial Oblivion Patch v3.2

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/theelde.../mod/27022.html

 

Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10739

 

Unofficial Knights of The Nine Patch

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12146

 

Step 3: For load order, Dl and install FCOM helper with the LATEST database for it. This is a small mod that fixes your load order in mere seconds.

FCOM Helper. Download the 1st and 4th file on the link.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/download.php?id=31497

 

Step 4: DL and install Wrye Bash. Seriously, I can't stress using this utility enough. Learn to use it slowly if it seems too complex. Before long, you'll master the use of it and realize all it's benefits.Wrye Bash contains some utilities to "clean up" your saves. It contains ways to look at your mods in detail. It has a NVIDIA fog fix that you can use on all your mods and thus prevent that. It has a ton of useful utilities.

Wrye Bash requires the DL of 3 small mods. Don't forget to get Python and wxPython so that Wrye bash will work.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/User:Wrye

 

Step 5: Dl and install the latest OBSE(Oblivion Script Extender)

http://obse.silverlock.org

 

Step 6: DL and install the latest OBMM(Oblivion Mod Manager) when you first start playing with mods, you may mistakenly think that only this is needed to add mods. I cannot stress getting out of dependance of this mod as soon as you can and get used to Wrye Bash. Wrye Bash does a ton of things that help out in fixing later on that OBMM doesn't. Plus Obmm reads conflicts where there are none.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097

 

Step 7: DL and install Streamline 3.0. Do not get the 3.1 version as it has too many problems that will NOT be addressed or fixed in the future. Streamline also has an alternative to Quick and auto saves. Quick and auto eventually lead into CORRUPTED SAVES, so I stress not using them and instead use manual or streamlined saves instead.

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10400

 

Step 8: Learn to make BSA files for the textures, sounds, and mesh folders that come with most mods. I've been doing this for the past few weeks and not only do I have almost no "missing textures or meshes" I also seem to have better performance. It's actually simpler than it looks. The Oblivion Mod Manager has utilities that do this better than the BSA commander.

 

Step 9: The following mods will help performance by usually getting rid of a component you truly don't need in the game or one that is a resource hog like the high polyed grass that Vanilla Oblivion contains.

 

Low Poly Trees:

http://oblivionmodgods.de/rpg-blackdragons...trees-t245.html

 

Low Poly Grass:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12280

 

No lights flicker:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6150

 

No Wind:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2578

 

Quiet Feet:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13016

 

Oblivion Poly Overhaul:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6981

 

Optimized Illumination:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6331

 

Operation Optimization:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6331

 

Hrmns Oblivion Script Optimization:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13092

 

Duke Patricks Script Effect Silencer:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15677

 

OAF (Oblivion Animation Fixer)

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5127

 

Step 10: Avoid the major texture mods if you have a low end machine. You may have "the best looking Oblivion ever" but that's small comfort if you can only see it for 5 seconds before it crashes.

 

Step 11: Avoid mods that cause too many problems. If you DL a mod that Causes CTD's, Shutdowns and saves, then it's not a good mod to have. So far, I've found a few I recommend never downloading. I'm probably going to be accused of "mod bashing" for this but I'm tired of people having major problems with no warning.

 

Deadly Reflex, any version. Look at the "help me" threads for Nexus and any other forum. You'll notice there's twice as many of them devoted to DR than all other mods put together. "but Shadow, I want to decapitate a foe". This is a cool feature that even I want, so I found a better mod that does it without bugs.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20163 Not only does this do all DR does(except horse combat, and this is the buggiest, never workingest feature of DR)it does even more. Decapitations? yes. Blood splatters? yep. Hitting a minotaur in the groin causing more damage than other areas? Yes.

 

BD&R Deepgrave. A quest mod causing trouble? Yes, this one does. It messes with being able to level up.

 

The Pilgrims Path. This mod is FILLED with, I think, intenional malicious content. What kind? How about a message that repeats constantly, stopping play while it flashes on screen? How about causing most regular NPC's text to be completely screwed up? Yes, this one will make them utter stupid nonsense. How about a place appearing on your map at the Anvil Docks called "poop" that's a map marker to a nonexistant area? How about some of the regular NPC's screaming out in Wookie? DR may be the buggiest mod in existance but it does so unintentionally. I think SkyCaptain honestly does his best with the mod, but is blind to all the trouble caused due to it's popularity.

 

Altessian. Will not work with 90% of other mods no matter the load order.

 

*****Special. Often new players mistake FCOM helper and FCOM convergence. These are 2 totally different mods but both are good to have. If you want to run "FCOM' you'll actually need them both. FCOM helper to fix the load order and FCOM convergence to combine the best overhaul mods.

[777onizuka]

Wow... Thanks for the quick and informative response - those links and other stuff you provided are going to be invaluable. At the moment though, I'm trying to get Wrye Bash to run. It keeps saying that installation seems to be incomplete and that I need to re un-zip bash to the Oblivion directory so that all files are installed. And then says that correct insallation will create Oblivion\Mopy, Oblivion\Data\Docs and Oblivion\Data\INI Tweaks directories.

 

I have all of those, only for me they aren't in Oblivion\whatever, but in Oblivion\Wrye Bash 212\and then Data or Mopy. I copied Data and Mopy to the main directory though - I had to in order for Wrye to even open - but it's still saying that insallation is incomplete. Any suggestions on what I should do? Thanks again. :thanks:

[Shadowcran]

I'm sorry about that. For Wrye Bash to work you need to DL and install 2 other programs. These are very small programs and are easy to install

 

http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.5/

 

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading...se_mirror=voxel

 

Sorry about that. For further Wrye Advice go to:

 

http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=869328

[777onizuka]

I downloaded the two programs, and I did the bugdump thing already - that's how I got it to work in the first place. My problem is that it's saying that it wasn't fully installed, though I can't figure out what could be wrong with it, since all the files that it says should have been created were created just like they're supposed to. It's very strange.