Nub in need of info

[Crash250f]

Okay, I know you guys probably get posts like this all the time, so I apologize, but I have limited time, and I've spent over 2 hours tonight looking up info on how to fix my problem, and couldn't come up with much. My knowledge of oblivion mods is very basic, and I just don't have the time to learn how the system works to further troublshoot my problem.

 

My problem is, well, random crashing in certain areas because of mods. I avoided these areas until I found one that I really needed to go to (Weynon). I have downloaded TES4View and Wyre Bash to try and fix the problem myself, but haven't gotten anywhere. Heres what I've done so far. I've disabled mods one by one to figure out which one was causing the problem. It ended up being Oscuros. I would crash in an area (I used Weynon Priory to test, but I crash in a few areas) when I had OOO loaded, but nothing else, and I wouldn't crash when I had everything but OOO loaded. I went into TES4View, and found that there was a conflict in the regions section in OOO, and one or two in other places, that I didn't think were causing crashes. Heres a screeny of it: http://img240.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tes4sg8.jpg So with my uneducated detective work, I'm guessing that thats the problem. The thing is, I have no idea what to do about it. Load order can't fix it if it's crashing with only 1 mod running.

 

Am I on the right track? If so, what can I do about it? If not, help! :P

 

Mods I have running (though I don't think it matters):

Natural Vegetation/Weather/Habitat...., Harvest [Flora], Living Economy, OOO water weeds, MM _NoMoreAnnoyingMessages, DeadlyReflex, Brighter Torches (was a conflict with this and OOO but never crashed due to torches), Ivellon, OOO

 

Current load order is about that. I believe I have some increased texture res packs / LOD texture mods and stuff, but its been awhile. Any help would be appreciated.

[dezdimona]

General Load-Order Guidelines

 

 

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..

...

[Crash250f]

Ya, that was one of the posts I was actually looking at while I was attempting to solve my own problem. Thing is, if only one mod is active, and the problem persists, doesn't that rule out load order? I mean the only things I had checked in Wrye Bash were Oblivion.esm, OOO.esm, HorseCombatMaster.esm (no idea what this is) and OOO.esp, and the crashes continued.

[Crash250f]

Oh, and I guess I dont have the unofficial patch with this install (I've had it for past installs but with less mods). This wouldn't be causing the problem with OOO would it? I guess it would be possible if OOO was based on content in that patch, but it is not the patch on its own, considering the game works fine with OOO disabled.

 

And btw, you can tell I was using that post, as the load order I wrote in my first post follows the advice of that post, or at leat attempted to follow it. :P

[dezdimona]

have you done a recent un-install re-install

[Crash250f]

Well, probably 3-5 months ago, but I only play when I have time so not a ton of gameplay on this install. I think the crashes have been going on since the reinstall though. I would have just done a full reinstall, but I think it was Oscuros that said save games are dangerous to switch between installs running different mods, and I know if I reinstall I'll end up with some new mods, or forget a few mods, or have different versions of the same mods. . If its relatively safe, I'll try it.