Best order to install mods for olbivion goty

[Wolfy707]

Im trying to find the best order to download/install many of the popular mods without having them all conflict with one another like i keep seeing in many comments. I have Oblivion GOTY edition and all the official mods such as frostcrag spire, battlehorn castle, horse armor, etc. I have already downloaded the Oblivion Mod manager and the script extender and nothing else so far. Ive viewed the deadly reflex 1 and 2 as well as the midas magic ones and the main overhauls and spent quite a lot of time following all the other mods required by them and the mods they require and reading the comments about many mods conflicting with one another and i would like to see if anybody can simply give me the best order to download some of the mods that greatly change and improve upon the oblivion experience and gameplay. I'm rather new to the game modding experience but i understand mostly all the terms so im fairly certain i shouldn't have many if any problems installing them properly. Even if the list is small i would greatly appreciate anything to help me get the proper order right. Thank you very much for anyone who takes the time to respond :)

[mhahn123]

As you may have already noticed there are a ton of mods out there. And some are much easier to install than others. I would suggest starting small, with a core of say a dozen or so small, simple, plug and play mods. Then you can build onto that once you get used to installing, setting load order, etc.

 

So let's start by finding out what kind of mods you are interested in. What about the game would you like to enhance or completely overhaul? What would make the game more interesting for you?

[JessicaPH]

Get BOSS to help sort your load order, and a very good program that tells you what files get overwritten is wrye bash, but I would trying that out later, it's a more complicated mod manager to use.

 

One mod I would reccomend is Realistic Leveling, no more micro managing to get the best character :)

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/13879

Edited December 6, 2012 by PerpetualHappiness

[Striker879]

Here's one person's well documented journey: Nood up and running.

[Wolfy707]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, im very grateful and as for the type of mods/overhauls im interested in, i would like to try and get the ones that add on large amounts of new weapons/armor/spells and creatures before others if possible and also the ones that add new homes/areas/towns/dungeons/guilds to explore later on. Starting with the more simple plugins and such is fine with me since as you say i need to get used to setting order and such. I know i will want midas spells and the deadly reflex mods without a doubt in the end though. Also the realistic leveling one sounds pretty good and does wyrebash/BOSS/OBMM all work together? Edited December 7, 2012 by Wolfy707

[mhahn123]

Last question first..yes all three of them work just fine together. OBMM and Wrye can both be be used as mod installer/manager applications, although wrye has a LOT more side functions. BOSS is a load order setting utility. Whether to use wrye for installing mods is all a matter of personal taste, wrye does a better job of uninstalling, but IMO OBMM is just simpler to use and simpler to package mods for installing. Again a matter of taste.

 

The following will fill the large amounts of armor, weapons, creatures but may not be the easiest to install. Again you may want to get some practice in before trying to install some of these.

 

1. Francescos ( weapons, armors, creatures)

2. Marts Monster Mod ( Lots of creatures plus some weapons / armors)

3. Walx Animals and Creatures ( Lots of creatures some weapons and armors)

4. Oblivion Warcry New Dimension (all of the above)

 

 

 

For guilds the first things that come to mind are these:

 

1. The Lost Spires

2. Integration The Stranded Light

3. The Blackwood Company

4. If you do a search for David Brasher he has some mods that expand Mage and Fighter guild quests as well as Vampire Hunting

 

 

For magic and spells Midas Magic would be the top pick. For homes, towns, dungeons there are soooooo many to choose from, here are some.

 

Settlements and this is a short list...

 

1. Region Revive: Lake Rumare

2. AFK Weye

3. MTC Expanded Villages ( you will need my patch also if you want to use these first three together) (there are also patches by other authors for MTC and Lost Spires, MTC and Faregyl, etc. Just type in MTC and you will see a whole list)

 

4. Brina Cross Village

5. Gottshaw Village

6. Faregyl Village

7. Feldscar

8. Midland

9. Molapi

10. Mudwater

11. Reedstand

12. Sacred Oak Settlement

13. Shezries Towns

14. Stalhrim Village

15. Suliin

16. Sutch Village

17. Urasek (requires my patch if used with Sacred Oak Settlement)

18. Vergayun (Midland and Vergayun also require one of my patches if used together)

19. Wellspring Vale

 

The only dungeons I keep on hand all the time are Gates to Aesgaard 1 & 2, Scarlett Monastary, and Shadowfang Keep. I mainly use the vanilla homes (modded of course) and official DLCs (modded) as bases of operation. The only other full time home I use is Bravil Sea Domes.

 

Some other must have for me are Roads of Cyrodiil, A Brotherhood Renewed, and Better Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. This should be more than enough to get you started. And most of the settlements listed are very simple to install. Good luck and have fun.

Edited December 7, 2012 by mhahn123

[Wolfy707]

Awesome thank you very much, im sure ill be more than happy even if i only have a few of all those haha and good to know about wyrebash and OBMM. Also about marts monster mod / francescos would it cause conflicts if i installed oscuros and just had either marts or oscuros turnt off while playing or should i just stick to the ones you listed and download fcom later on if i really wanted all 3? Anyways I will probably be using OBMM untill im used to the processes more, and ill probably be downloading many of the mods listed over the weekend. And just so i know whats the general amount of mods (if there even is one) most people can have activated before the game starts running badly?

[mhahn123]

You probably shouldn't attempt FCOM just yet as it's a more difficult install. In fact, Marts, Frans, and OOO can all be tricky to install properly for beginners.

 

Marts will run fine alongside Francescos since Marts has an optional plugin just for that purpose. Marts also has an optional install to run alongside OOO. It gets a little more complicated when using all three together which is more or less what FCOM is. Also gets a little harder to add in other mods when using FCOM or OOO since OOO adds things all over the place and increases the chance for mod conflicts exponentially.

 

OBMM has a lot less of a learning curve than wrye bash for sure. But as you gain experience and use more advanced mods, it's almost impossible to get by without using wrye. So you do want to learn how.

 

As for how much you can run...tricky question that nobody can really answer for you. There is a plugin cap for the game, but I can't remember what it is, somewhere around 200 maybe. What YOU can actually run all depends on your pc hardware. You will have to figure that out by trial and error. Mods in general have an impact on your pc, and the more you install the greater the effect. Hi res texture replacers and visible when distant packages are the ones to use caution with. They will lag weak systems more so than any other type of mod.

[Wolfy707]

Alright thats some very helpful information for sure, ill probably stick to just francesecos and marts then once ive got the other small mods set up. As for my pc, im using a laptop thats maybe a year old and its unable to play skyrim on low graphics without it playing choppily so ill just try and avoid getting most large texture mods and maybe just get Qarls. Ill begin using the OBMM for the smaller settlements you were talking about then ill switch to wyrebash once ive figured out the basic way to do it. I should be able to get things working properly by myself with help from youtube or comments if necessary now, so I thank you for all the help/time you have given me and I wish you Happy Holidays haha.