Deleted269910User Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 To be honest there are only a very few mods that pretty much everyone should have and the rest are up to the personal preferences of each person modding their game. I've been thinking of creating a list of mods that I've tested to be working perfectly for a while now, which would include graphic enhancing mods, quest mods, overhauls etc. while giving pointers about what type of experience you would be looking forward to in each specific mod; this would be some kind of personal "Top 100-list" which should give some various options for people looking for different things in their game.(I've got fairly well thought out categories atm, just need to finish the work of getting all the links etc.) ..::Elraine's List Of Mods And Other Utilities::.. Must have mods; Unofficial Oblivion Patch"This mod is a joint effort to fix the vast amount of bugs currently existing in Oblivion v1.2.0.416, fixing over 1,800 bugs so far!";Direct quote from the description page of UOPatch, this mod is a must have to lower the insane amount of bugs and glitches vanilla Oblivion has. Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch"This mod is a joint effort to fix the vast amount of bugs currently existing in the Shivering Isles expansion pack for Oblivion v1.2.0416, fixing over 270 bugs so far!";Direct quote from the description page of USIPatch, this mod is a must have to lower the amount of bugs/glitches SI has. Unofficial Official Mods PatchThe mod files fix a multitude of bugs/glitches in the official DLC mods purchased from Bethesda. ATTENTION;Please note that correct load order is of utmost importance, for easy organization of your mods and their load order, use Oblivion Mod Manager. The unofficial patches must always load AFTER the mods they intend to fix, so they must be below their targets in the load order. For easy load order management use Better Oblivion Sorting Software - BOSS and read the instructions provided in the description page, BOSS is great, but not perfect. Graphic enhancing mods(Tested at a high mid end gaming rig/low high end gaming rig. Intel® Xeon CPU 3.60GHz, 2GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 86000GT 512mb); Atmospheric Weather System - AWSOMOD210AWS provides a greatly enhanced weather compared to vanilla Oblivion and it has a separate plugin for SI also. I haven't noticed any odd performance hits while using it, but I would advice anyone who isn't able to run Oblivion at least on medium settings to stay away from this. The mod provided in the link is in OMOD-format and requires you to use OBMM(Oblivion Mod Manager) for install, refer to the previous section for more details regarding that. Natural EnvironmentsHas 4 .esp files each changing different aspects of the game environment. This mod can be used alone, or with AWS if you so prefer, but you will need to un-check the Natural_Weather_by_Max_Tael.esp/Natural_Weather_HDR_by_Max_Tael.esp, the rest are compatible. You may expect a small FPS hit with this mod, but it shouldn't be anything drastic and should be usable with low/mid level rigs. Arthur Natural Environments v2 9 7"Mod which combines and tweaks AWS & NE"; As is said in the mod description, thus it will conflict with NE, AWS and all other mods that affect the weather in any way. This mod does offer the best of both mods, it will however require you to use HDR, which is why my personal preference is to use NE & AWS in conjunction with eachother.(HDR has it's good sides, but jagged characters isn't one of them and those bother me enough to use Bloom.) If you like to use HDR, this is the mod for you. Really Aesthetic Visible When Distant - RAEWVDThis mod enhances the level of detail on the distant objects when you're looking far yonder and adds lots of more objects that were not previously visible. This mod I would not recommend to anyone who can't run Oblivion on at least high settings, although if you are running Streamline(Link and details of Streamline in Performance enhancing mods.), this may be worth giving a shot even on a mid level gaming rig. Almost Everything Visible When Distant - AEVWDThis mod comes with very low res textures for the distant objects, so pretty much everyone should be able to run this without getting a large FPS hit, which also explains the popularity of this mod. This is likely the best choice for all low end/mid level gaming rigs. TVWD is also another choice in this category you should take a look at and thus ti comes next on the list. Tamriel Visible When Distant - Tamriel VWD v05You could be expecting an FPS hit with this mod active, but mid level/high end gaming rigs should be able to run this just fine, if your mid level rig is having problems you could try with streamline active. This mod is the second most popular in the VWD category and not far behind of AEVWD, take a look at both and pick the one you prefer. QTP 3 - Qarls Texture Pack III Full v1_3_OMODThis is a mod I assume everyone knows. It enhances the graphics of Oblivion far more than any other mod in it's category and it will require you to have a high end rig if you want to run the game without any stuttering and is guaranteed to drop your FPS by 10-80% depending on your PC specs. Anyone who has a new high end gaming rig should at least try this mod and if you are able to run it, I can guarantee you don't wanna go back into not using it. QTP 3 ReducedThis mod effectively halves the the amount of detail the original QTP 3 has, but still enhances the base Oblivion graphics by a great amount. This is the choice for the mid level/low high end gaming rig users and shouldn't cause major stuttering unless you're using a low end rig, if you are however having problems with a mid level rig, you should try using Streamline. QTP3 UOP32 Compatibility PatchNeedless to say, if you're using UOP and QTP3, you should install this mod also to get the best of both. This patch will be needed to install last, after both QTP3 and UOP have been installed. Better grass texture without tilingWhat this mod does, should be pretty obvious, although seeing the screenshot of before/after should make it clear.http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/2415-1-1195239928.jpg Performance enhancing mods; StreamlineStreamline is currently one of the best, if not THE best performance enhancing mod for Oblivion. The newest version of Streamline however isn't adviced for general use, but instead you should try either 3.0 or 2.1 versions as they are the most stable ones. Streamline enhances the performance of Oblivion by reducing stuttering and lag, and smoothing out gameplay. It does this by maintaining much cleaner cell buffer and video ram caches while the game is running and the player is moving from place to place. You can find more details of this in the file description and the readme provided in the file. This mod will require OBSE.(Link and details provided slightly later.) OldblivionI have no personal experience with this, but it is aimed to help all the seriously outdated rigs to run Oblivion with normally unsupported graphic cards etc. You can read more info on it from their site, to which the link leads to. Use of Oldblivion is not adviced for people who are able to run Oblivion normally. Wisemans Reduced Textures v11 Part 1This mod aims to give a small FPS boost at the cost of little to none visual quality loss and succeeds at that fairly well. The mod description may not be perfect, but the user feedback speaks for itself. There are two additional parts to this mod and an extra package;Wisemans Reduced Textures v11 Part 2Wisemans Reduced Textures v11 Part 3Wisemans Additional Reduced Textures Other Oblivion utilities and Oblivion patches; Oblivion Script Extender - OBSEThis tool is used/required by many different kinds of mods and is a valuable tool to modders. Unfortunately, OBSE will not work in any Direct2Drive version of Oblivion or Shivering Isles. The Oblivion.exe provided by D2D is encrypted, and the OBSE team cannot patch it without breaking the encryption. They will not do it, as it would be illegal. You will also have to make sure you're running the latest Oblivion/SI patch 1.2.0416 as 15a and newer versions of OBSE will not run in outdated versions of Oblivion. Oblivion PatchesThis is the link for Bethesda's Oblivion site and it has all the different patch versions. Prior to downloading/installing make sure you are downloading the patch that is correct for your version/region of the game. Also note that the D2D version of the game is already patched, so if you're using a new D2D version, you can just skip this. Official Oblivion Construction SetThis is the basic set of tools for modding Oblivion provided by Bethesda. You can find more info and tutorials on it's use fromTES CS Wiki. You will also find what other tools you will need in your modding endeavours from there. Wrye BashWrye Bash/Basher is an utility that allows you to merge and make compatibility patches for mods and tons of other nifty features. You can find all the necessary information regarding Wrye Bash from the linked site. Oblivion overhauls and other large mods; CDM-Character Generation OverhaulThis is a mod that every roleplayer will love, but you don't need to be one to enjoy what this mod does. CGO gives you lots of different options and greatly enhances the character generation in general. Just read the long description on the file page. Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul - OOO"You must be prepared to cast aside your previous notions about Cyrodiil. The world no longer revolves around you, the player. Do not expect to be able to beat every monster or NPC you meet. Previously familiar areas may now be much more dangerous and you will frequently be forced to retreat from enemies who are too powerful to beat until you are stronger. You will probably die a lot more often now. However, if you have the ingenuity, skill, and luck to survive the odds stacked against you then you will be justly rewarded for your bravery!"; Is a direct quote of the description of the mod and it describes the mod perfectly, nothing more to say about that. Martigen's Monster Mod - MMMMMM adds over 160 new creatures to the game and a plethora of other stuff. All the things that this mod adds are far too numerous to mention here, but needless to say if you're a friend of major overhauls this is definately something worth getting. Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items"This mod changes nearly all creatures lists to provide a more static, non leveled, experience. At higher levs you will still find very strong stuff but you will often (for example) find normal skeletons and zombies in dungeons, common wolves in the wilderness and so on.. not every NPC will level up with you... some of them will have level caps.. others will be completely static... on the other hand.. at lower levs life will be much harder as, depending on where you will adventure, you will be able to meet high level enemies. Items lists were changed with the same goal, in vanilla Oblivion at say level 20 you used to find only high level armors/weapons and low-mid stuff nearly disappeared from the game, now it will be much harder to find high lev equipment, and low-mid lev one will still be common at high levs (you can also decide between 3 loot systems: normal/hardcore/extra-hardcore)" Fran's is also a completely cuztomizable mod, but regarding that, you should read the full description of the mod and all the installation details. Oblivion WarCry"Oblivion WarCry is a mod, that should enhance fun and long-run motivation to play the game.This is achieved by an improved balance of the Oblivion world and by new game content likeadditional opponents/creatures and items. In particular highlevel characters will get theirmoney's worth."- and much, much more. You can read more regarding OWC from the provided link. FCOM ConvergenceThe aim of FCOM Convergence is to make the four largest overhauls mentioned above compatible with eachother, however you will have to follow the installation instructions to the letter unless you want to have your game crash before it even starts up. Once you get this to work, you won't even believe you're playing Oblivion anymore! Cyrodiil Upgrade Overhaul v6"Those of you who install this overhaul should find a more realistic, challenging game facing you, with randomized opponents and creatures appearing in the factions and groups where they were meant to be. Loot is based on the type of opponent guarding it and you will never know until you face them, just how hard that loot will be to gain. Now, you will have to use some of those skills you thought you could avoid before!"- from the v4 release thread. CUO is a very well done overhaul mod, however it will have compatibility issues with the other overhaul mods mentioned above. None the less, this is the overhaul mod that I prefer out of all of these. You will need to have Cyrodiil Upgrade Resource Pack installed in order to have this mod working.(CURP can be found in here.) Midas Magic Spells of AurumThis mod could be in extremely many categories and this is one of them. MMSoA adds over 200 fully customized spells, with fully customized animations for each spell. This is a must have mod for anyone that has ever even thought of playing a mage! Medium size/Large Quest mods; WindfallWindfall is a large adventure or quest mod where the player's actions and choices help determine the course and outcome of the stories. To complete the mod, the player will have to play through a minimum of 38 quests and a maximum of 52 quests. The Lost SpiresWhat better way to explore ancient lore than through an Archeology Guild! That's right, a fully functional Archeology Guild is now stationed in Cyrodiil. The Archeology Guild is a hub for systematic ruin exploration -- and you can bet there are plenty of new ruins to explore. When you first join up with the Archeology Guild, you'll find everyone hard at work excavating an entirely original ruin: the Spire. I want to be careful what I reveal at this point because the entire mod revolves around discovering the sinister nature of these Spires and the Warlock beings who inhabited them. I will say this, however: Spires predate Ayleid ruins, and Warlocks are now extinct. Why? That's for you to discover. Oh, and did I mention that there are powerful new artifacts to discover along the way? That's right, Warlock artifacts await the resourceful archeologist. You can find powerful loot either through exploration, or by advancing through the Archeology Guild's ranks. You'll be doing both! The Heart of the DeadYou approach the beggar slowly, the man's sickly smile reminding you of the horrors of living on the street. "Spare a coin?" He asks. Reluctantly you toss him a gold piece and tell him to go get dinner. "Ah, what mercy," the man says. "You might be just the one I'm looking for..." And thus your adventure begins... MALEVOLENTMalevolent is a complex, multi-pathed, story-driven quest MOD revolving around the Player's relationship (be it good or bad) with a sentient suit of armour called "The Armour of Malevolence." The Armour himself is a charismatic, manipulative and deceptive personality who likes to consider himself "Articulate Evil" and -after the Player dons the Armour for the first time- decides to invade a quiet corner of the Player's mind and call it his home. The story that evolves from that point changes depending on the relationship the player has with the Armour, and whether or not you choose to resist the Armour's whims, or submit to them (or any combination of the two.) Daggerfall Memories - CybiadesA first episode taking place on Cybiades island, straight from the Daggerfall game. A second episode taking place in a very unusual, totally custom dungeon. Tons of new content, npcs, creatures, dialogue and much, much more. Ancient TowersOne day, you find yourself traveling South on the Yellow road. After passing the bridge over the Corbolo River, you are attacked by a bandit screaming wildly at you. After dispacthing the crazy thief, you see a tent in the woods with a strange light emanating from it. You cautiously look around and slowly approach the bandits camp site. On a rock inside the tent are several glowing welkyd gems, and next to them is a scroll with the bandits diary explaining his most recent adventure in the hills to the East. He found a set of ancient towers guarded by amazing creatures of great power. Will you be able to gain control of this fabulous site? Can you defeat the tower guardians? Glenvar CastleTired of those drafty dark ruins they call castles ? Where all you'll ever get is damp clothing and a bad case of rheumatism? Then you might be interested in this mod, which allows the player - after a rather elaborate quest - to possess one of the finest monuments in Tamriel, serviced by a staff of 18 NPC's.(Voice acting available from here.) Hoarfrost CastleHoarfrost Castle is a cold place, but the roaring pit fire in the great hall always served to bar the chill from the keep itself. The keep and castle grounds played host to a chapel, graveyard, stables, master bedroom, dining chamber, kitchen, basement, smithy, servant's and guard's quarters, mage's study and workshop, display hall, and of course the warmest part of the keep: the great hall. A hive of activity and an outpost unto itself. At least, this was the case until the castle's previous occupants were lost to some malevolent force that rose up within the keep. Rumour has it that only the Castle Steward survived to tell the horrific tale; and is now willing to give ownership of the castle up to whoever proves powerful enough to wrest control of the keep from whatever monstrosities now dwell inside. He keeps a solitary watch over Hoarfrost Castle's gate; waiting for some brave soul to come, and offer their help. Weapon/Armor mods; Frostmourne and Lich Kings ArmorThis mod gets a place here for it's EXTREMELY high quality. I have honestly saying never seen any other armor or weapon set made at this high quality. AT2 01-Shiki Armor SetThis mod contains female only armors(That actually look like armors.), but it also has a few weapons. AT2 02-Shiki Armor SetThis mod contains a few female armors and one male armor. This mod is fully compatible with the AT2 01-Shiki Armor Set. Berserk_Berserker_Armor _v06This mod is very well done with high quality heavy armor, you'll know once you check the screenshots. Seirei-No-Hitokiri KatanaThis is the best looking single katana mod I've ever seen and I've been using it ever since the mod was released. And plenty of more to be added into the list... Further categories such as clothing, animations and poses will be added when I get the free time to update this. ~Elraine. P.S. I would appreciate if this post wouldn't be used by anyone, as I intend to publish an article when I complete this list and I still need to double check all the information I have written up. There are also lots of other mods that I will have to put up in some of the categories. I'm also quite certain that I have a load of typos waiting to be fixed, not to even speak of the fact that I still need to sort the order of the categories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canor Morum Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 Nice and in-depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.