Finding a mod that breaks standard dialogue?

[EndlessWaves]

I've just reinstalled oblivion after a couple of years and added a long list of mods and by and large they work fine. However, with the occasional piece of normal non-mod oblivion dialogue the trigger word has been changed (for example from 'Advancement' to '...and?') and the line triggered by it has lost it's voice acting, although any triggered events seem to work fine.

 

Is there a direct way of finding the culprit or do I have to play divide and conquer with the mod list until I narrow it down?

[Lucherenren]

I've just reinstalled oblivion after a couple of years and added a long list of mods and by and large they work fine. However, with the occasional piece of normal non-mod oblivion dialogue the trigger word has been changed (for example from 'Advancement' to '...and?') and the line triggered by it has lost it's voice acting, although any triggered events seem to work fine.

 

Is there a direct way of finding the culprit or do I have to play divide and conquer with the mod list until I narrow it down?

 

 

Are you using foreign language mods on a national release?

While a good number mods usually have small or no impact whatsoever on dialogue/voice acting, some may display problems, especially when race names are concerned.

 

In that instance, it's usually a quick fix - going in the CS, load the offending mod and put back the correct names; while IDs for vanilla races don't change, their names sometimes do (for one, in Italian the "Imperial" race is correctly translated into "Imperiale"). You might also notice changes in the race description during character creation, I.E. you're either missing it or reading it in another language entirely.

 

Also, check the release notes of your mods. If a mod is available in your native language, you might also consider using that release over the basic version.

[EndlessWaves]

Are you using foreign language mods on a national release?

 

Nope, I'm using the English (preumably British English if there are different versions) game and as far as I know all mods are the english versions (the new dialogue words are english). Race names are fine and I didn't see any problems during character creation.

 

Is there no way I can target the dialogue option and find out what mod it's from like you can do for objects?

[Deleted269910User]

It could be a mod conflict, try disabling all the mods you're using to see if the problem disappears, if it does, start activating the mods in a group of 2-3 and test between to see if it still works. When it stops working, deactivate the mod group that caused it and test them individually. Now de-activate all mods but the one that caused the problem, if the problem isn't there with only that mod active, it is with 100% certainty a conflict.

 

Once you find out the other one of the culprits in the case where it is a mod conflict, keep the other mod active and deactivate all the rest, then start activating them again in groups of 2-3 until you find the second culprit, after you know the problem causing mods, you can choose which one you want to use more and de-activate the other, or try and assemble a compatibility patch by yourself/merge the mods together with an utility such as Wrye Bash, if the mods don't conflict with eachother too badly that is. You may shorten the entire search process by looking for mods that change similar things in-game, which by the looks of your problem would have something to do with changes to NPC:s/dialogue.

 

However; If the problem persists even on a clean save with no mods active, that means the installation is corrupt and you will need to do a clean install. Also on a secondary note; When you last uninstalled and later reinstalled Oblivion, did you also remove the oblivion.ini and the other .ini files from the "...\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion" -directory as it would not be unheard of that null references to mods you had installed previously would muck up everything you have in your current game.(Oblivion does not delete these files when it's uninstalled, it will be entirely up to the person doing the uninstallation. You can back up your old/new saves, but pretty much everything else needs to go.) If you did not delete them, you could do that now, back up your saves if you want and try again to see if the problem is there, the files will be generated automatically again, but this time there shouldn't be anything extra in them, yet. IF all else fails, do a perfectly clean install by following this guide made by Bben;

 

To uninstall you need to use the original disk. Using the windows uninstall leaves things behind. Even using the disk will leave a lot behind that will come back and haunt you later. Here is my recommended uninstall/reinstall procedure.

 

Bben46 Complete Reinstall Procedure for Oblivion

 

This is usually a last resort and your game is already trashed. I cannot be responsible for any damage you manage to do to your game when trying this. You are free to use this procedure and post it as you see fit.

 

When you uninstall Oblivion it doesn't really uninstall everything. Then when you start adding mods before you have started the game, some things may not get initialized properly. Here is my recommended procedure for uninstalling and reinstalling.

 

The game uninstaller does not remove your mods, save games or Oblivion.ini or the entries that the original installation of Oblivion placed in your Windows registry. It also does not remove helper programs such as OBSE, OBMM, Wrye Bash, The construction set or any other programs you have installed in the \Oblivion folder or the save game folder. I recommend that you go ahead and delete them, then re download and install the latest version of them again later. After you have verified that the game works.

 

I would appreciate any feedback on this as it is something I expect to post often and I hate to give bogus or useless information.

 

Uninstalling Oblivion

 

DO NOT DELETE THE GAME FOLDERS YET! This is very important.If you delete them,it causes problems later.

 

My instructions assume you are using Windows XP and have installed Oblivion into the default location. If you are using Vista or Linux, the file locations may be different, however, the procedure will be the same.

 

For a full reinstall, first you can try to preserve your mods and save games. I recommend that you save them in a new folder with a new name. Create the new folder in C:\Backup_Oblivion - or any other name you will remember, just as long as it is not in the programs folder.

 

Then copy the data folder where your mods are to the new folder - do not erase them, copy them. And in the new folder, rename the \data folder to \olddata. Then copy and rename the folder that has your saved games and Oblivion.ini, C:\documents and settings\your user name\my documents\My Games\oblivion to something like \My games\Old Oblivion - this saves your saved games and the oblivion.ini file.

 

 

Then, using the original CD, NOT the Launcher on your Hard drive. Select uninstall.

 

After it completes the uninstall, reboot your computer - this is important as it allows Windows to remove some references to the original Oblivion.

 

This would be the time to erase all of the helper programs you have in the \Oblivion folder. Such as OBMM, OBSE and some others. The simplest way is to delete the folder completely. The new install will re create the folder for you along with a fresh oblivion.ini and when you start the game and make a save, a new save folder and new \data folder.

 

Now you can delete the game folders if you want to do a complete fresh reinstall. Your original saved games & mods are backed up if you want to try to resurrect them later.

 

To remove the registry entries that were left behind. If all else fails, this usually works to resurrect your game.

 

I do not recommend manually editing the registry unless you know what you are doing. A mistake here could make your entire computer unusable.

 

There are several good programs for removing left behind entries. The one I use is ccleaner. Be sure to reboot before using it, and again after. It is free and available here:

 

http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

 

This would also be a good time to do a file clean up. Run the built in Windows 'Disk Cleanup' routine. If you uses the ccleaner, most of this has already been done, but it won't hurt to do it anyway.

 

Now that everything is cleaned up, do a full defrag on your hard drive to leave a large uncluttered area to reinstall to. This prevents your game from installing in a fragmented way, with parts scattered all over the drive. It also will speed up the install a little. It takes a while, but may speed up you game as well as the rest of your computer.

 

 

 

Now to Reinstall.

 

Again using the original CD, install Oblivion.

 

NOTE: If you are using Vista, DO NOT install to the default directory. Instead make a new directory I recommend C:\Games. Install Oblivion there to avoid the hassle with Vista UAC blocking mods.

 

Before adding any mods, patches, helper programs, Shivering Isles or anything else, start the game and make a save. This initializes some stuff that needs to be initialized.

 

If you are using the Game of the Year version of Oblivion you should not need any patches, skip the patching part.

 

Now, If you DO NOT use Shivering Isles, patch the game using ONLY the latest Oblivion patch. All of the stuff from the earlier patches is included.

 

Be sure you use the proper language patch. If you use the wrong one it may work, but with a strange mixture of languages. (Germanglish?) Or it may crash.

 

NOTE: there are two English Patches UK & US and they are different. (Some people actually think we speak the same language) Use the one that matches your original disk.

 

If you use Shivering Isles, Install it now. DO NOT install the Oblivion patch. Install Shivering Isles, then ONLY the latest Shivering Isles patch. All of the updates for Oblivion are included. There is only one Shivering Isles patch for both US & UK English (Maybe sometimes we do speak the same language.)

 

Now, again start the game, make sure it looks right, move around a little to test it, and make a save. Test to be sure everything is working right (No purple objects or yellow blocks)

 

Before adding any mods, back up both your \data folder and the save game folder. Copy them, don't move or rename them, to a different folder - such as \Bethesda\Clean Oblivion\data and \Bethesda\clean Oblivion\saves. Note that this is a different folder than the one used for your old data and saves.

 

Note, Your Oblivion.ini file is in the same folder, but separate from, the save game folder.

 

Now, if you want to try to run with your old mods, first rename the original folders. The \data folder to \newdata and the \oldata back to \data. this restores all of your mods. You should now have 2 data folders \data, and \newdata in your \oblivion folder

 

To restore your original saves and ini file, rename the new My Games\Oblivion to something like \New Oblivion. and the \Old oblivion to \oblivion - this restores all of your saved games and your original Oblivion.ini file.

 

DO NOT erase the files you renamed. These are your backup files in case the original mods do not work or give you the same problem.

 

If you have the same problem, it is most likely caused by a mod. However, you now have a clean install to fall back on. You can You can COPY (NOT move or rename) the backup files back to what they were and be back to your clean install without having to reinstall again.

 

Sounds like lots of work, but you will have a clean install and a back up clean install when you are finished.

 

Post your comments here: http://s1.zetaboards.com/TheStormRavenLibrary/forum/236320/

 

 

~Elraine

 

P.S. Sorry bout' the rather long post. :D

[EndlessWaves]

It could be a mod conflict, try disabling all the mods you're using to see if the problem disappears, if it does, start activating the mods in a group of 2-3 and test between to see if it still works. When it stops working, deactivate the mod group that caused it and test them individually. Now de-activate all mods but the one that caused the problem, if the problem isn't there with only that mod active, it is with 100% certainty a conflict.

 

I didn't even consider that it might not be a mod-related issue, but I just ran the game without mods and the dialogue was fine. So it's definitely a mod, or mods, causing the problem.

 

Once you find out the other one of the culprits in the case where it is a mod conflict, keep the other mod active and deactivate all the rest, then start activating them again in groups of 2-3 until you find the second culprit, after you know the problem causing mods, you can choose which one you want to use more and de-activate the other, or try and assemble a compatibility patch by yourself/merge the mods together with an utility such as Wrye Bash, if the mods don't conflict with eachother too badly that is. You may shorten the entire search process by looking for mods that change similar things in-game, which by the looks of your problem would have something to do with changes to NPC:s/dialogue.

 

Is there any way to get a list of the installed mods that modify/contain dialogue using Wyre bash or a similar tool? Wyre Bash is telling me I've got 262 mods installed and while some of them are unlikely to be the culprit (such as denock arrows) it still leaves an awful lot that could be the problem.

 

P.S. Sorry bout' the rather long post. :D

 

I'm happy to read anything that helps :)

[Deleted269910User]

I'm afraid checking them in groups is the only solution, to fasten up the process you could simply leave the mods you know for sure aren't the culprits, out of it, and then activate the rest as groups of 3-5 mods at a time. It's slow I know, but it is a surefire way to find the conflict, if OBMM/Wrye doesn't detect it.

[EndlessWaves]

Well I spent the time going through them and it turned out to be the 'Castle of Night' mod.