OBSE help!

[dashmay]

Hi, im wondering if someone can help me (a newb) overcome my modding confusion :confused: I must say ive been pretty overwhelmed by the colossal amount of information involved with modding oblivion, and not to mention the drowning in jargon (even with basic FAQs!), but i think ive managed to get a basic handle on whats involved. however, theres a few mods i just cant for the life of me get working. i think it has something to do with my OBSE setup but im wondering, for mods (or OMODS) that need OBSE do i have to have the plugins in both the oblivion\data folder AND the Oblivion\Data\OBSE\Plugins folder? all the OMODs im using just dump the .esp files in the data folder but can OBSE read them even if they arent in its own folder? and conversely, if i put them in the OBSE\plugins do i needa double up in oblivion\data so OBMM can access them?

 

anyway, i dunno what setup i need exactly and i cant get any clarity from the readme's of FAQs, so if anyone can shed some light on this it'll be much appreciated.

 

...oh, just while im here, one specific mod i cant figure out right now is the 'keychains' one. with my current plugins setup in the data folder the keychain just doesnt show up in-game, PLUS all keys that my character has have disappeared and are nowhere to be found so theres no way to get thru unpickable doors. anyone have any ideas how to fix this?

 

ok, heres my mod list and load order for those who wanna pitch in-

 

Oblivion.esm

Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items Mod.esm

Francesco's Optional New Items Add-On.esm

Francesco's Optional New Creatures Add-On.esm

MD_Saddle_Master.esm

EnhancedWeather.esm

Kvatch Rebuilt.esm

Better Cities Resources.esm

Open Cities Resources.esm

Toaster Says Share v3.esm

nVidia Black Screen Fix.esp

Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp

UOP Vampire Aging & Face Fix.esp

Oblivion Citadel Door Fix.esp

DLCShiveringIsles.esp

Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch.esp

_Real_Lights.esp

Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp

EnhancedWeather.esp

EnhancedWeather - SI.esp

EnhancedWeather - Darker Nights, 80.esp

EW_WeatherOrb.esp

aaaBorsBedrolls.esp

Brighter_Torches.esp

Lock Bash v99.91.esp

FF_Real_Thirst.esp

Expanded Hotkeys and Spell Delete v1.0.esp

Expanded Hotkeys Brief Equip Message.esp

DLCHorseArmor.esp

DLCHorseArmor - Unofficial Patch.esp

DLCOrrery.esp

DLCOrrery - Unofficial Patch.esp

DLCVileLair.esp

DLCVileLair - Unofficial Patch.esp

DLCMehrunesRazor.esp

DLCMehrunesRazor - Unofficial Patch.esp

DLCSpellTomes.esp

DLCSpellTomes - Unofficial Patch.esp

BlackLuster.esp

Extinguish the Lights.esp

Dude Wheres My Horse.esp

MD Saddlebags v3.0.esp

HRMHorseCommands.esp

DLCThievesDen.esp

DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch.esp

DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch - SSSB.esp

Francesco's More Wilderness Life.esp

Francesco's Optional Chance of Stronger Bosses.esp

Francesco's Optional Chance of Stronger Enemies.esp

Francesco's Optional Dungeon Chest Loot.esp

Francesco's Optional Dungeon Chest Locks.esp

Francesco's Optional Leveled Guards.esp

Francesco's Optional House Chest Loot.esp

Francesco's Optional New Adventurers.esp

Francesco's Optional Vendor Tweaks.esp

Francesco's Optional Chance of More Enemies.esp

Francesco's Optional Leveled Quests.esp

Francesco's Optional Leveled Arena.esp

ClocksOfCyrodiil.esp

ClocksOfCyrodiil_BC_OBC_OC_OCLR_Vanilla.esp

DLCBattlehornCastle.esp

DLCBattlehornCastle - Unofficial Patch.esp

DLCFrostcrag.esp

DLCFrostcrag - Unofficial Patch.esp

Knights.esp

Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp

Kvatch Rebuilt.esp

OCC-KR-Patch.esp

Open Cities Anvil.esp

Open Cities Bravil.esp

Open Cities Bruma.esp

Open Cities Cheydinhal.esp

Open Cities Chorrol.esp

Open Cities Leyawiin.esp

Open Cities Skingrad.esp

Open Cities Road Record.esp

Open Cities Outer Districts.esp

Natural_Vegetation_by_Max_Tael.esp

BlackScreenSneakFix.esp

BlackScreenToggleFix.esp

P1DkeyChain.esp

RealHungerv1.4_NO_MMM.esp

RealSleepExtended.esp

AFLevelMod.esp

Francesco's Slower skills x1.5.esp

No More Annoying Comments.esp

Francesco's day lenght rescale 1-12.esp

Real Lava 1.3.esp

Toaster Says Share Faction Recruitment.esp

Companion Postal Service.esp

Brivas Assassin Clothes.esp

BEER_Inebriation.esp

TSS Custom Companion Template.esp

Bashed Patch, 0.esp

 

ok, thanks alot if you can help me out. cheers! :thanks:

[SpacemanSpIiff]

an OMOD is an archive of the actual mod that becomes a self installing file once activated. In english that means once you activate your omod it SHOULD work. there are certain instances where an omod has failed me, namely HGEC body replacer.

 

If an OMOD fails to work, delete it, and download the .rar/.7z/.zip file, and install it manually.

 

One thing that i find that happens with oblivion mod manager is that after every set of changes you make with your .esps (checking/unchecking/moving up and down), you need to close out of it and restart it to make sure those changes are in effect.

 

To install OBSE properly just drag and drop all its contents into your OBLIVION folder, not the DATA folder.

 

Then MAKE SURE YOU ARE CLICKING OBSE.EXE TO START OBLIVION!!

 

As for the rest, look around some load order FAQS, they may be useful.

 

I hope this helped. and welcome to the forums

[bben46]

Once OBSE is installed correctly, you MUST start it before Oblivion EVERY time. Either use the OBSE launcher, or the launcher built into OBMM But read the instructions in OBMM on this.

 

OBSE and OBMM are not mods and are loaded before Oblivion. OBMM sets load order and allows OMODS. OBSE adds functions to the Oblivion game engine.

 

There is no set up to OBSE beyond installing it in the right place.

 

An OMOD must be in your OMOD folder, When you run OBMM you select the OMOD in the right pane, active OMODs will be blue. When it is active it will place any needed esp in the load list - left pane. If it detects a problem, it may flag the OMOD with black or red to let you know there is a problem.

 

You seem to have jumped in the deep end as far as mods are concerned. It's much easier to start with just a few, then build up to the more complicated mods. Remember, not all mods will work together. If a mod changes the same thing as another mod, it will either overwrite the first one or cause a problem.

 

Mods are not an exact science, getting a lot of them to work together is more like an art, or trial and error, mostly error.

[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..

................

[nosisab]

Some concepts presented here may be confusing and a clearance is in order. Omod, as stated, is just a installer format that can keep track of what it installs; "but" doesn't have anything to do with the game itself (not even when 'activated'). What occurs is in that activation it installs the mod the same way a hand install does and afterwards sit down and isn't need anymore (just like that 7z file...). So, if an OMOD fails to install is because it is packed wrongly, wrongly scripted or whatever the moder did for mistake. In fewer words, what you see at the right window in OBMM just shows what you have installed... you could even delete those OMODs with the explorer and the game would not perceive (this isn't advised, obviously, since the biggest advantage of OMODs is the ability to uninstall and remove all files it installed without the need of the search and destroy normal procedure). So, OMOD "never" is the guilt of something going wrong with the mod itself, not more than a wrong install would be whichever the way this install is done.

 

About OBMM, this is an application that shall not be running together with the game unlike OBSE that "MUST" be, whenever some mod uses functions from it. The advise to keep OMODs in their's default folder is sound because you have a common place to keep the mods you are actually using. For it I make OMODs of all mods I use, even those that aren't omod aware from start. To do so, with complexes mods, I choose between place in the folder I'll use to make it just the features I want, or do create a script to allow that choose on the 'activate' procedure (what claims for scripting skills, of course). This way I aways have a clear setup I can replicate easily even if facing the need of a complete reinstall (since if something forces me to it I don't rely on the data folder content anymore). Here I must point I prefer keeping the OMODs away from the default folder (the /Data folder, I mean) because the risk of deleting them by mistake. Once this is done I can even delete the original 7z files (remember an OMOD can easily be unpacked the same way a 7z is).

[dashmay]

Hey guys, thanks for replying.

 

yeah bben46, ur right. jumped in the deep end i have :blink: i just saw all these really cool mods and wanted to make oblivion way cooler than it already was. but who woulda guessed it'd be so convoluted eh?

 

anyway, i figured out my main problem and that was for some reason i thought OBSE automatically loaded if u launched oblivion from wrye bash. i swear i read that somewhere. plus its got that little 'disable OBSE' button down the bottom so i just figured wrye bash did the work for me. however, i started up with the OBSE loader and VOILA! most of my malfunctioning mods worked ...man, something so simple and yet so easily missed :rolleyes:

 

also, dezdimona the load order im using is the automated one configured by BOSS/FCOM-helper so i figured the guys who put that together would have way more idea than my few measly hours of testing. but ill definitely try out ur suggestions, and i guess as i get further down the road (and with many more hours of keyboard head bashing :P) ill figure out the optimal setup for the mods i like.

 

ok, cheers everyone for ur help. im looking forward to asking many more question and learning many more things as i delve into this modding business. i hope ur just as keen to assist me when i get stuck :)

 

ok, thanks again!