Best way to install mods

[wayneout]

I am thinking about getting Oblivion from Steam. I am wondering the best way to install mods. I have Vortex. Most of the mods that I have seen recommend using either Wyre Bash or OBMM. I think that they were created before Vortex. I know that certain files cannot be installed with Wyre Bash and you have to use OBMM. Can Vortex do all of the files? Or should I use the other two installers? Also there is something called Archive Invalidation via BSA redirection. I see on an website how to use it with Wyre Bash or OBMM but not with Vortex. Is this something like FNIS for Skyrim? What is the best way to install mods? Thank you.

[CHASE6]

Vortex will not work. WB has a steep learning curve and in my experience isnât required. The âbest wayâ is to use OBMM to mange plugins and install mod files manually to Data. Some mods are only in OMOD so having OBMM is key.

[Striker879]

The most important part is ... install one mod at a time and test thoroughly in between.

 

Or you could install a whole bunch at once, and have the game refuse to even start (at worst) and then hope that one of us can untangle the balled up mess.

 

Yes Wrye Bash has some aspects that require learning, but so does Vortex from all I see reported around here on Nexus. You may be able to just install OBMM and stumble your way into getting it to work ... that was how I got my start. OBMM's use instructions are hidden away in the Help menu.

 

Which tool will serve you best will depend on what tools you are already familiar with from other games, especially if some of those were Bethesda titles (maybe even older Bethesda titles).

[Oblivionaddicted]

Install one mod at a time and before using it check for identical to master records, errors https://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php?title=TES4Edit_Cleaning_Guide and if the editor ID's start with letters, if they start with numbers fix them or get ready for frequent crashes to desktop.

[DrakeTheDragon]

What choice of mod manager, or manual, you use is totally up to you.

 

OBMM is fine for automated guided installs, its wizard-like scripted installs (.omod) being key to many more complicated sessions otherwise.

 

Wrye Bash's BAIN is more like "automated manual install". The mod packages are split into many optional, and overwriting, pieces, and each one of these is just a manual install pack, put 1:1 into the Data folder. They're named/numbered in a way so you can pick&choose, and BAIN will install the combined outcome of your choices.

 

In Vortex, and previously NMM, you had FOMOD (originally from the Fallout modding scene) install directives, which again resulted in a step-by-step make-your-choices install wizard, or even with C# scripts. I heard rumors Vortex may even understand the .omod format and/or a BAIN folder structure. I'm not yet using it myself though, so I can't say if it's true.

 

You will run into mod packaged in a way "no" manager on earth will be able to correctly install, or others only certain managers will be able to understand, while others won't. That's just the result of these mods having been released long before mod managers were even an idea, and things like a standardized folder structure were not yet heard of.

 

"Most" mods can likely be installed fine by whatever manager you choose, especially simply structured ones, where it's only an excerpt from a Data folder with no options or choices inside.

 

OMOD files can be opened with OBMM and exported into so-called OMOD-ready ZIP files, which can then be installed manually or by another manager of choice, provided it understands the underlying folder structure, which thanks to scripted installs can be whatever the author had in mind and make totally no sense.

 

OMOD-ready packages (containing an "omod conversion data" folder with an optional install script inside, which you can easily turn into an OMOD in OBMM), however, in the past have killed NMM, as it was mistaking the OMOD script it found for a FOMOD script and failed to understand the first function call it tried. You absolutely had to remove the folder from the packages first for them to be usable in NMM. Not sure about Vortex though.

 

You can always take apart a BAIN-ready install, as those aren't special file types but simply folder structures consisting of a bunch of "install me manually" individual parts. These are also easy to convert into whatever other manager's folder structure you need or to install manually.

 

 

I myself have started out with manual install (as back when I started there was no other option, yet), later got into OBMM and its fancy OMOD installs, then came NMM where I had to convert many mods into fitting folder structure and to convert OMOD scripts into FOMOD directives, and now I'm with BAIN for a while, as the work involved to make these old mods installable in the newer managers is more hassle than to take the few complicated installs apart into manual install and/or BAIN structure. But I "can" work them all around into any manager ever I want to try next at any time.

 

 

Nowadays OBMM is handy for its tools, like BSA browsing and/or Archive Invalidation.

 

Wrye Bash, the Swiss Army Knife tool of modding, is of course still invaluable just for that, its abundance of tools for managing conflicts (the invaluable bashed patch!), unbloating save games, fine tuning game settings without the need for an extra mod, and that's just the start of what all it can do, whether you also use its BAIN for managing your mods or not. And yes, it also has an option to apply Archive Invalidation to your game.

 

Vortex/NMM also have some tools available which might come in handy even without using them for install. At least Archive Invalidation is something they all can apply.

 

And managing your load order is something they all can do. Vortex even has integrated LOOT, if that's your choice of auto-sorting tool. For all others you can either use LOOT or its predecessor BOSS run stand-alone. Wrye Bash, I think, though can also run BOSS from inside.

 

The only tool completely worthless for managing load order is the "Data Files" menu from the official Oblivion Launcher tool. This one doesn't even show plugins in loading order but in alphabetical instead. Completely useless for the most vital task.

 

 

And as to Archive Invalidation/BSA Redirection, yes and no. No, it's nothing to do with what FNIS or similar do in Skyrim. In Oblivion you don't need any tools to get custom animations working off the bat, just a mod with a plugin for putting them into the game.

However, yes, it's definitely as vital and inevitable as such a tool, because in Oblivion, especially when from Steam or another digital distribution platform, for external loose files to be used over the Vanilla ones inside the game's BSAs, proper Archive Invalidation is an absolute must. In other words, "no" replacer mod ever will work without it properly in place, textures, meshes, animations, whatever.

 

And yes, BSA Redirection is the only sane and still advisable approach towards Archive Invalidation nowadays. All others come with unnecessary risks or drawbacks. And all mod managers I know can apply it one way or another.

 

What it does is simple. It puts an empty dummy BSA into your Data folder and edits your Oblivion.ini so this one's loaded at a special place in the "sArchiveList" entry. It's not quite clear as to why, but this in effect makes it so from then on the only remaining BSA file needing Archive Invalidation for external files to be used over its internal contents is just this empty dummy BSA, which respectively invalidates the very need for Archive Invalidation itself once and for all (or until either the dummy BSA or the changes to the Oblivion.ini become undone).

 

Special care has to be taken with installations from Steam or other digital distribution platforms. They have the habit of putting "last modified" dates on their BSAs which are way more recently than any replacer mod in existence will ever be. And in Oblivion file date trumps everything. No replacer mod with a file older than the BSA will ever have a chance to work, Archive Invalidation in place or not. This is when another feature I've only seen in OBMM so far comes into play: In its Archive Invalidation dialog there's a button "Reset BSA timestamps", which you simply press once before applying BSA Redirection to fix their dates. Without it you'll have to use a 3rd party file re-date tool, which was likely massively discussed on Steam Oblivion modding forums or similar.

 

 

Uhh... that's again become quite a lot longer than I had in mind. I hope I didn't forget anything else important now. :ermm:

[Striker879]

 

~ snip ~

And managing your load order is something they all can do. Vortex even has integrated LOOT, if that's your choice of auto-sorting tool. For all others you can either use LOOT or its predecessor BOSS run stand-alone. Wrye Bash, I think, though can also run BOSS from inside.

 

~ snip ~

 

Just wanted to clarify that all of the later versions of Wrye Bash (certainly all of those since versions in the 300s) no longer support BOSS and won't recognise BOSS internally as a tool that can be run from within WB.

 

You can still use BOSS to sort your load order but a couple of extra steps need to be added.

 

First turn off Lock Load Order in WB. Next run BOSS from it's desktop shortcut. After BOSS has run you can close it and start WB and do whatever task you needed to do (e.g. Rebuild Bashed Patch etc). If you leave Lock Load Order turned off you can just run BOSS from the desktop and then start WB each time.

 

Thank you for the detailed answer Drake ... for once I didn't :ninja:

[DrakeTheDragon]

Just wanted to clarify that all of the later versions of Wrye Bash (certainly all of those since versions in the 300s) no longer support BOSS and won't recognise BOSS internally as a tool that can be run from within WB.

Ah, yes, totally forgot that. Shows my current install of WB is still a bunch of major versions behind the latest release. Never change a running... never run a changing... ah, you get it I think. :sweat:

 

I'm still running the sorters all externally, not through any of the managers' tool buttons instead. But yes, "lock load order" needs to be turned off for a sorting run to work. I usually turn it back on immediately afterwards, or after I manually tweaked the order myself that is.

[wayneout]

Thanks for everyone's input. I learned quite a lot reading these posts.

[CHASE6]

Thanks for everyone's input. I learned quite a lot reading these posts.

Glad to help.

 

Have fun!

[Oblivionaddicted]

Glad to be helpful too. :-)

 

Enjoy.