Never played Oblivion - Mod Recommendations

[Merum]

...so I'm sitting here and looking at this brand new, unopened copy of Oblivion, GOTY edition. I bought it when I picked up Fallout 3 a few weeks ago.

 

What I'm wondering, since I've never played the game before and read lots of comments on the FO3 boards about how modding "saved" the game, I'd like to collect some thoughts along the following lines:

 

1. Should I play it through unmodded the first go?

2. If the answer to 1 is no, what mods would you recommend for somebody who has never played the game?

 

Caveat: I would like to experience the OOB story content unaltered, but I'm not averse to additions.

 

Side question: I've never played any of the TES series, but I also have access to a copy of Morrowind. Should I play that first?

 

If you can answer without spoiling, that would be great. Thanks!

[exanimis]

I've never played morrowind so I don't know if you should play that first or not. As for Oblivion, I'd play it a while before modding just to get the feel of how the game works. You can add mods at any time so if you find something that bothers you or you would like it fixed, find the mod you want and add it.

 

You can always ask for help and advice here on the nexus when you want a certain type of mod.

[Puddles404]

Slight thread Hijack...

 

I too have just fired up Oblivion for the first time, and was looking for some suggestions for body, face (cos the base Oblivion Pumpkin heads are just plain scary), armour and weapon mods, as well as possibly some additional content.

 

Im an old TES fan who did some very limited modding in Morrowind, so pretty much anything that people would recommend, as the TES Nexus site has an astronomical amount of downloads available, and it's proving a pain to fish through the resource packs for actual working mods.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! :thanks:

[exanimis]

There are plenty of others but I use Exnems eye candy for the body replacer.

 

If you don't like being over encumbered you can use the Purse of wonders or the Bag of holding

 

other than something like that, you should try to play the game a while before making any major changes.

 

the best thing to do would be to check the Top 100

[SickleYield]

I use a huge number of mods. So playing for a while without them is a good idea to see what you will and won't want. ;)

 

I use Fantasy Figures for females and Robert's Males for males as far as body replacers. I mod for these as well. Just depends on what figure type you like; I also like them because they have the nicest UV to work with and I mod as well as play.

 

The FCOM suite takes a while to download with all the mods involved, but is worth it as far as I'm concerned - especially now that BOSS is available to ease load order arrangement. I like house mods and can recommend some if you're interested. For new quest content have a look at dev_akm's list, some real prizes there.

 

Streamline is a good one for improving framerate. Oblivion isn't very optimized so even good systems can choke on it.

[SavageArtistry]

I don't think playing Morrowind first is necessary. I've played both and while both stories occur in the same universe at relatively the same time (events in Morrowind are right before events in Oblivion) the stories and characters are not the same. If you play Morrowind first it helps you appreciate some of the random comments the NPC's make in Oblivion, but it's not critical to understanding what's happening in Oblivion.

[dezdimona]

play the game thru without any mods,then you can see what you want to change for yourself.Personalising your game will bring you much more enjoyment than relying on other peoples likes and tastes.

[nosisab]

Shameless self advertisement :)

 

Try using the Afinity Sword ... it shall keep you alive without killing the fun and danger sense.

 

And if you do, please comment the quest voice (it is synthesized and I think it amazing no one complained yet :)

[dretcher2]

First, before you get any mods, you should go to the elder scrolls website, and go to the oblivion patches section and get the latest oblivion patch. Most mods require this, and it helps. Also, since u have the GOTY edition, you can pick up the shivering isles one as well. And u may want to consider grabbing the unofficial oblivion patch. Its on the top 100, and since u got the game of the year edition, you can pick up the other ones that he recommends in the description section. I believe it would be the shivering isles one and the unofficial official oblivion mods one. These both fix a lot of just random bugs.

 

As for armor, i would recommend the sauron armor and weapons mod. Sauron, meaning the lord of the rings sauron. Hes even got the ring!!!(Doesn't make you invisible, although it never did make sauron invisible) It's on the top 100 list, and it comes with a nice mace that makes your enemies go flying whether u kill them or not. You have to go through a pretty long cave to find it, but its definitely worth it.

 

******MINOR SPOILERS******

DON'T READ TILL UR DONE THE FIRST PART OF THE STORYLINE AND YOU GET TO SEE CLOUD RULER TEMPLE

There's another mod called kvatch rebuilt. Get the one off here made by the Kvatch rebuilt team, it basically fixes kvatch and makes it a city again.

***************END SPOILERS***************

 

Also, since u have the GOTY, you can get Origin of the Mage's guild if u like playing a mage character which adds some great content, and makes the mage's guild thing a little more detailed and fun.

 

Now, some of these i listed add significant new content to the game, but it doesn't really change the storyline. It kinda just makes it longer, and more interesting. However, it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least run the main storyline and any guilds that interest you first before you start modding. This way you know what Bethesda originally made.

[dretcher2]

as for playing morrowind first, i've never played it. I suppose you could, but I'm not exactly confused by any part of the game, so I don't think it's necessary. You may be better of taking the advice of someone who has played morrowind before, though.