How I wish I could delete this idiotic mod.

[Striker879]

You open the console with the tilde (~) key located below the Esc key on standard keyboards (not available on some laptop keyboards). The only real advantage over saving into a new slot with the Esc menu save is that you can give the save a descriptive name. Before I started using Multiple Oblivion Manager - MOM I used named saves for my new character and Esc menu manual saves for my old character for example (MOM makes that unnecessary).

 

So to make a console named save you hit tilde and then type 'save <YourSaveNameHere>' (without the quote marks or brackets) and hit Enter. You'll see a notification that the save was made and then you hit tilde again to go back to your game.

[Hickory]

You also need to make sure that you enable (if it isn't already) the console in your \Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini

 

Look under [interface] and make sure that this line is set as shown:

 

bAllowConsole=1

 

If it isn't, change it, or add it (under Interface) if it isn't there to start with.

[Vulcanao]

Thanks.

 

OK I'm having trouble with my first mod already... companion Velja...

Oblivion doesn't start if I activate the sensual walk for NPC omod...

 

I didn't realize how much complicated modding was. Kind of frustrating, all these awesome creations so hard to make work.

[Striker879]

I suggest you get Companion Vilja working first before you try adding Sensual Walks. Even if you are planning on using any of the optional Vilja files from Companion Vilja get the base files installed and confirmed working first (so just the files 1emVilja.bsa and 1emVilja.esp in your Oblivion\Data folder with 1emVilja.esp checked in Data Files). Once you have gone to the Bloated Float and met with Vilja and know that the base files are working move onto any Companion Vilja add-ons from the Companion Vilja page that you may want to use. After you get those installed and confirmed working move on to the Sensual Walks.

 

I know that Sensual Walks has some specific install instructions, and I'm pretty sure that Wrye Bash and a bashed patch are included in those directions (I don't use the mod myself). The mod author Surazal actively supports the mod and would be the best one to get advice on getting it to work. If you get Companion Vilja working first it takes one more variable out of the troubleshooting process.

 

Modding is methodical work. The slightest mistake will stop a mod from working or maybe even the whole game. That's why it's important to only do one thing at a time and test in between. As you make mistakes and correct them you'll begin to understand how to mod the game. I myself have never learned a thing by doing things right the first time (except maybe 'Huh ... that was easy', which only sets me up for making a big mistake next minute). Remember to read the mod install instructions (and I know lots of them leave plenty to be desired). Leave mods with poor install instructions or lots of problems IDed in the mod comments for later, once you get a handle on installing and troubleshooting. And don't forget to play the game a bit too ... it's supposed to be fun you know.

[Vulcanao]

Yes sir, as I said before, I meticulously followed your procedure and it is just fine. What you said about making mistakes and better understanding modding is absolutely true. I'm slowly familiarizing with mods and I thouroughly test each one of them sometimes pushing them a bit to see if they fail somehow.

 

For every mod (even the mere keychain) I read carefully install instructions, faqs, troubleshooting, compatibility and known issues.

 

So far I managed to install about 15 mods, some of them quite complicated. I can throw in All Natural, Companion Vilja, Ren Beauty, Sensual Walking Female NPCs, Qarl's Texture Pack III, Kvatch rebuilt, Immersive interiors, Apachii Godess and more. Some were definitely hardcore to set up but I love challenge. I'm currently not too bad on X-Universe games if you heard of them (tricky tricky tricky).

 

Also you're right about some poor install instructions... That's a shame given they've done all the hard work making awesome mods, all they had left to do was to type a few coherent sentences with maybe a few details. But well, as you say in France "I'm not one to spit in the soup" : some guys have made fabulous work on this game, I'm won't criticize. I can't wait to start over.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Vulcanao

[Striker879]

The keychain mod doesn't have a sterling reputation (just saying in case you run into trouble down the road). Sounds like you're well on your way. Next thing we'll be seeing you answer questions on here (and more hands make lighter work). And remind me not ask to try your soup (just in case).

[Vulcanao]

:biggrin: Yeah sure!

I'm going to *have* to answer a couple of questions around here. First because I was helped by you and also because I know for a fact that there are games unlike any others that have a great community, free from what I call K3v1ns (brats that come ask for stuff, insult a couple of people, and disappear as soon as they get their answer), and that's especially when the game is very special (like the aforementioned X games) or very complicated (like mods in TES4)

Anyway, I did not get the answer I wanted here, to separate my save game from a flawed mod : I guess there will forever be helmets wandering around on giants exclamation points in an unfinished, out of bounds castle. Instead I'm getting precious advices from seasoned modders and that is priceless. And by the way, the keychain thing, I'm taking notes, thanks.

In case you're curious, here's what mods I planned on trying so far

Adventurez

- Bartholm
- Blood & Dirt Deluxe
- Claudia's Little Secret (I'm not especially perverted but you know how much painstaking some modders can get when it comes to making a sex mod and I just love a well built mod).
- Daggerfall Memories
- Frostcrag Village
- Gates To Aesgaard part one and two (It's a horror mod. According to screenshots and comments, it kicks ass).
- Heart Of The Dead
- Hentai Mania (Nothing to do with sex or anything, just a bunch of hardcore fighter girls kicking your ass in several dungeons if I'm right)
- Integration - The stranded Light
- Knights Of The Nine Revelation
- Lost Paladins of the Divine (leads to an breathtaking lawful good paladin armor)
- Malevolent
- Ruined Tail's Tale (Looks promising)
- Sentient Weapon
- Servant Of The Dawn (I think it's about resuming the main quest when it ends only to rebuild the mythic dawn and rule Cyrodiil!)
- Tears Of The Fiend
- The Ayleid Steps
- The Blackwood company (A much much more elaborate quest on this faction)
- The Dungeons Of Ivellon
- The Lost Spires
- The Other Spheres
- Verone House Bloodlines

 

Game Mechanizm

- OBSE (Done)
- BOSS (Done)
- OBMM (Done)
- Sensual Walks for female NPCs (Done. Takes some configuring.)
- Streamline (I think it's about optimizing the way the game deals with its graphics. My PC is powerful so I'm not sure I'll need it)
- Unofficial Patch (Done)
- Wrye Bash (Done)

Additionz

- Abandoned Mountain Shack (may not seem attractive but according to a reviewer, it's a great one)
- Ancient Towers (One of the most impressive works I've seen so far)
- Apachii Godess Store (Done. Amazing stuff for females. A must-have if you want your companion(s) female(s) to look like the ones on screenshots and videos around the web)
- Berserk Armor (A personal favorite : it's a couple of superb armors from the best manga ever. Period)
- Bruma Mage Guild Restored (I just hate that kind of sloppy stuff in an opened world like Oblivion)
- Cobl (A world enrichment mod as its author says. It adds lots of objects in the game making gameplay a lot nicer)
- Companion Vilja (Done. First one I tried. Didn't have the opportunity to test what it's worth so far. Noticed weirdies in the very first moment though)
- Dwemer Skyship (Yes a freakin skyship, gremlin style)
- Estrus (A sexual mod, extremely well built apparently)
- Frostmourne & lich king armor (just splendid)
- Glenvar Castle (Yeah I'm still suspicious about castles...)
- Kvatch Rebuilt (Done. Same as bruma mage guild restored. What was Bethesda thinking?)
- Midas Magic Spells (It seems like a must-have but as per my suspicious policy about mods I'm not sure something this big is totally harmless...)
- Sauron's Armor (All said, but I would rather have had the sorcerer-king of Angmar's instead)
- The Fight For Castle Ravenpride
- The Romancing Of Eyja (very very suspicious about this one. Feels just like a geek's fantasy, no more. Unlike other sex stuff a mentioned it doesn't seem to show any remarkable craftsmanship of modding. Will see more details)
- The Black Cat Jewelry Store (a beautiful little store)
- Trade and Commerce (sick of the prehistoric base trade system (loot & sell)? Own your own VERY elaborate store)
- Viconia DeVir (Ever since I first played the Neverwinter's add-on Hordes of the Underdark, I have something for dark elves from the Underdark so when I discovered this one...)

Usefulz

- CM partners mod (a very useful mod that creates potential companions in many inns and possibilities to manage raid parties if I'm right. looks promising)
- Deadly Reflex (still suspicious about it. The base fighting system looked good enough for me)
- Decorator assistant (very good stuff for one like me who spent countless hours trying to fit dozens of books in a shelf...)
- Keychain (Done. You seem to know it)
- Loading screens (beautiful, but rendered obsolete by Darnified UI mentioned later I believe)
- Portable Campsite (The very idea of this one appeals to me so hard. Lots of testing to be made though.)

Visualz

- All Natural (Done. Result is astounding)
- Better Cities (Known paradox with Immersive Interiors : from the inside you see a vanilla outside whereas it becomes quite different with Better Cities. But bah! what the hell)
- DarkUId Darn (Splendid UI from the creator of Darnified UI)
- HGEC Body (Done. Sigh... Am I the only one who thinks these skanks don't look like fighters but brainless models? Too bad it's a must-have for many mods).
- Immersive Interiors (Done. Result is bluffing)
- Natural Environments (Suspicious about many recorded issues with other mods)
- Qarl's Texture Pack (Done. We ALL owe this guy a debt of gratitude).
- Rens Beauty (Done. Don't know why it is so famous. Many mods rely on it. Can't see the assets)

Voila!

I downloaded these all and looked for information about them in a couple of nights. Not bad huh?

After a few years of playing vanilla and letting mods grow mature I am pleasantly surprised to see how far modding got in Oblivion and now I'm ready for harvest!

Edited February 22, 2013 by Vulcanao

[Hickory]

- Streamline (I think it's about optimizing the way the game deals with its graphics. My PC is powerful so I'm not sure I'll need it)

 

If your machine is up to it, don't install Streamline. It can, and will, work against you unless you're an expert at setting it up, and even then why bother?

 

 

- Natural Environments (Suspicious about many recorded issues with other mods)

 

You already have All Natural, which includes an updated version of NI -- you don't need it.

[bben46]

Streamline was intended for weak systems and works by trading visual effects for FPS. I used it on an older system and it did what it was supposed to do, allowed me to play at a reasonable FPS - usually around 25 FPS. Without it a fight with more than one opponent was nearly impossible as the frame rate was so low I was swinging blindly most of the time. Try fighting 3 bandits with a FPS of 5. :pinch:

 

Then When I moved my game to a more powerful system, capable of a constant FPS well over 30 - even with a group of enemies, it became a nuisance and I removed it.

 

Things like invisible archers hitting you as you walk along a road, or a bandit appearing out of nowhere already too close to fire an arrow or throw a fireball. Terrain and buildings fading in and out as you move, shadows coming and going. Then when you stop and are still for a few seconds, your vision gradually improving and distant things fading into view.

[Striker879]

If Hickory didn't offer any advice about using Wrye Bash to try fixing that save either I'm wrong about WB having that ability or it's something that has very low probability of success. A resource I often suggest for WB is the Wrye Bash Picorial Guide. It covers the most commonly used features.

 

I see you have Claudia's Little Secret on your list. Be aware that once you finish playing through CLS you can't really continue on playing through the rest of the vanilla game (or use a great number of other mods that it's not compatible with). The mod team's advice is play through CLS and then disable it before moving onto other things (which also means you can't do CLS concurrent with many of the vanilla quests). In light of that I suggest it's a perfect reason to get acquainted with Multiple Oblivion Manager (MOM). After you get your base mods installed (environment, body replacers etc.) make a clone using MOM. Install CLS and it's requirements on that clone (and trim your original load order as may be required to get CLS to run). When you're done with CLS you just switch back to your regular profile. Everything is kept separate between the profiles. You can have different load lists, game settings, characters (each with their own set of saves) ... anything you can do to the game can be different between profiles. When I'm beta testing a mod for someone I always do the testing on a different profile. My characters games and saves are never at risk (you can sort of see the implications of what that could have had for your bad save ... if you'd been a MOM user and used a testing profile for that castle mod you would have never needed to start this thread).

 

Even if you have no interest in seeing bouncing breasts I suggest you install a BBB enabled skeleton. That will save you some troubleshooting down the road if you install some clothing/armor that requires BBB. You won't see any BBB action until you install BBB enabled animations such as NoMaaM and that will prevent the 'boobs to infinity' problem you'll run into with BBBed clothes/armor and a non-BBBed skeleton. My suggestion is Universal Skeleton Nif. Install the ControlableSkeleton version unless you know you have a mod that requires the TotalControlableSkeleton version (and in that case be aware of the limitations and work-arounds for that version).

 

Companion Vilja author Emma has plenty of additional content available (Aleswell Cottage and Maple Cottage are my favourites ... Red Rose Manor is also very popular). Extra content for Vilja is available as a separate download for each of those. I would never play without her Packdonkeys ... I always have one or two of them in tow.

 

I don't use it myself but COBL opens up the possibility to use many mods, and even some that have a non-COBL variant come with a COBL version that offers more than the non-COBL version.

 

Read through some of the more recent Glenvar Castle mod comments and you'll see that TheRomans is the go to guy for answers to the most common problems and glitches.

 

To be honest, after you start using Companion Vilja you are going to have trouble putting up with the limitations of other companions. I still have CM Partners installed and enabled. In my old guy's game the women are all used as eyecandy for my various houses and the guys are all left where they started (well except a few of the essential ones I've taken to remote camps and abandoned ... it's interesting to find where you run across them next). The women are efficient at trashing the decor in the houses, I'll say that for them. My new guy's game has all but one or two at their original locations. They do help make the inns and hotels more populated (but they're also known for killing the vanilla populace with their spell casting practice ... learn how to revive them with the console).

 

Deadly Reflex 6 is a good one to have a long read through the mod comments before trying. Look back a couple of years ago or so for advice given by Xtudo and omeletted. After the mod was mostly abandoned they were the most knowledgeable supporters. There hasn't been anyone of their caliber recently.

 

One last suggestion. If your rig is powerful enough give Hickory and Ithlia's Highwood a look. Sadly even before my rig's SLI died I didn't have the horsepower for it, but it's unique features and atmosphere are impressive.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Striker879