Load Orders and Conflicts

[urbychief117]

Hi, I'm new to the modding community and I was adding some mods onto Oblivion. Namely such mods as ImpeReal City, Unique Landscapes, SoVvM, DarkNified UI, and a few other Nostalgia and armor mods. I modified the load order of the mods to create as little conflict as possible, and added in mods towards the end as instructed by the mod makers. Then I ran OBMM's conflict checker, both the new and old one.

 

I got a pleasant surprise however, as the conflict checker showed a conflict between each DLC plug-in, and its unofficial plug-in patch counterpart. So for example, there was a conflict between the Horse armor DLC and the Unofficial Official Plug-in Patch for Horse Armor.

 

If someone could suggest what might be the cause of this conflict it would be greatly appreciated.

 

I am currently running all mods on the latest version of OBMM, OBSE, Wrye Bash, with all the official and unofficial patches updated to most recent versions available. If you need additional information please tell me, as this is the first time I'm installing this many mods and reporting on a problem here in the forums.

 

Thanks in advance, Urby

[bben46]

One part of The OBMM conflict detector shows where one mod overwrites a part of another. The bug in the mod is overwritten by the patch. As that is what the patch is supposed to do, it is normal. Many of the conflicts shown by OBMM are minor and will not affect your game.

[urbychief117]

Thanks for replying.

 

I can now ignore the LINES of text in the conflict report and move on to more important issues. Which I should have posted initially, because its obvious it doesn't tie in with any of these minor conflicts. The specific problem, as opposed to conflict now, is that all the torch effects in the game seem to be missing or corrupted. The result is a bunch of purple squares floating away from the torch. Any idea what that might be?

 

Also, would there be a major issue between SoVvM and Unique Landscapes? as far as cells that they might share, or a conflict regarding a cell where there would be clipping or possible inability to use/display any static objects?

 

Thanks, Urby

 

On a side note, I know this might not be the place to ask this, but any ideas on how to complete the Gift of Kynareth quest in that mod? Or who to contact for more details? I can't seem to get rid of one of the hearts, or interact with the statue. Any insight would be awesome.

[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..

...

[urbychief117]

Thanks for all the help guys. The game works really well now. I'll make sure to come here for help if I need anything in the future.

 

EDIT

 

Just to be sure. Would this be a good load order? The game seems fine right now, though I disabled the Imperial Palace guard armor mod because it seems to cause the chest armor of regular IC guards to disappear.

 

Oblivion.esm

Kvatch Rebuilt.esm

Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch.esp

nVidia Black Screen Fix.esp

[GFX]_Initial_Glow-all.esp

Sheepherder's Vampirism Fix - OBSE.esp

Toggleable Quantity Prompt.esp

LostTelvanniCodex.esp

bgMagicEV.esp

gardening.esp

ArmoryLab.esp

Bob's Armory Oblivion.esp

Gift of Kynareth.esp

Armor of Heaven's Fury-Light-Alt-helm.esp

Armor of Heaven's Fury-Gold-Heavy-Alt-helm.esp

Daedric Lord Armor.esp

javbmb.esp

javrmb.esp

Sauron_Armor_Chest.esp

WeaponsOfTheNine.esp

TheForgottenShields.esp

Cryos Ordinator Lite.esp

Gaenor in Dementia.esp

Guild Chests V.1.esp

Spears of Cyrodiil.esp

P1DrobesOver.esp

Leviathan Soulgems.esp

Kvatch Rebuilt.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Talos Plaza.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Temple.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - The Arcane University.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Waterfront.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Arboretum.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Arena.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Elven Gardens.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Green Emperor Way.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Market.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - Prison.esp

ImpeREAL City Unique Districts - The Arcane University Towers Visible From Outside.esp

300 Regal Imperial City 2.esp

Elder Council Plugin 1.1.esp

Natural_Weather_HDR_with_darker_Nights_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Vegetation_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp

DLCHorseArmor.esp

DLCOrrery.esp

DLCFrostcrag.esp

DLCThievesDen.esp

DLCVileLair.esp

DLCMehrunesRazor.esp

DLCSpellTomes.esp

Knights.esp

DLCShiveringIsles.esp

[GrieverFX]

One part of The OBMM conflict detector shows where one mod overwrites a part of another. The bug in the mod is overwritten by the patch. As that is what the patch is supposed to do, it is normal. Many of the conflicts shown by OBMM are minor and will not affect your game.

That is a nice info. So which one is better, official or unofficial patch? I have Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isle.