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Oblivion: What are the essential mods?

T

TheExodu5

Banned
About to install Oblivion. I really disliked the level scaling and having everything opened to me from the bat. A mod that rectifies this would be great. Any other mods that enhance the experience would also be welcome.
 
TheExodu5 said:
About to install Oblivion. I really disliked the level scaling and having everything opened to me from the bat. A mod that rectifies this would be great. Any other mods that enhance the experience would also be welcome.
Click to expand...

FCOM
 
TheExodu5 said:
About to install Oblivion. I really disliked the level scaling and having everything opened to me from the bat. A mod that rectifies this would be great. Any other mods that enhance the experience would also be welcome.
Click to expand...
Check the official thread bro. There are some goodies there.
 
 
MotherFan said:
Start with these:
Qarl's texture Pack
OOO
Oblivion Stutter remover
Lost Spires
Supreme magika
Mannimarco revisited
Frastcrag reborn

Those are some of the must haves imo.
Click to expand...

I'm debating in between OOO and the previously linked FCOM (which incorporates 3 other monster/item/leveling mods with it).

The texture pack and stutter remover seem like they should be must haves.

Are there any sound improvements or better character mods out there?
 
TheExodu5 said:
I'm debating in between OOO and the previously linked FCOM (which incorporates 3 other monster/item/leveling mods with it).

The texture pack and stutter remover seem like they should be must haves.

Are there any sound improvements or better character mods out there?
Click to expand...

Have not really looked in sound improvements, but there is a quiet feet if your audio is causing glitchers/stutters. As for character models, there are a ton but I personally have not gotten any of those yet. The elder scroll nexus is a great place to look and I have linked to it several times above (just edited the links in).

Edit: Also there is an explanation on mod load order that I am gonna look for as the order in which the game loads mods can be important.

http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/loadorder.html
 
I checked a month or so back and FCOM has been in beta for the latest patch for a long time, any news on when it'll get a new "stable" patch?
 
Looks like my disc has issues...tried cleaning it a few times but no dice. Fails somewhere while installing the Oblivion.esm file. =\

Well, I was always contemplating rebuying on Steam, so I guess that's my excuse. Now, I understand the Steam version doesn't work with some Script Extender mods...otherwise I assume it's fine? If ever I have any issues I guess I'll just download a cracked .exe.
 
Highly recommend the Lost Spires mod, it adds a new quest line through a new archeology guild. Their headquarters and the quests themselves are fully realized, voice acted and everything.
 
Pahncrd's Oblivion Enhanced Edition - RC1, because installing 80 or whatever mods is the most boring/time consuming thing in gaming
 
I just asked the same question a few days ago on another forum. Here's the response I received from a very thoughtful poster:

Essential

* Official Patches
* Unofficial Patches - base game, SI, any DLCs
* Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) - these two things or BOSS, for organizing / load-order setting
* Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) - required for many mods' scripting
* StutterRemover - used to have the game stutter for some milliseconds every three or four seconds or so.
* Oblivion Optimizer - another performance fix that does something to meshes. This is probably the right name for it



Baseline Gameplay

* Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul or something similar. Includes many additional mods besides altering the autolevelling of game areas and other basic balance fixes, like showing a visual change to plants and containers after you harvest or loot them.
* AllPlusFiveAttributeModifiers - no longer have to micromanage skillgains to make sure you don't level up before guaranteeing +5 attribute modifiers. By level 5 I was short 21 attribute points simply because of the number of times I used Detect Life, Night Eye, Feather, or Stealth in various combinations while exploring caves. The second time I got two +2 level gains I installed this thing and fixed my attributes via console. The game simply shouldn't have been designed with that ridiculous leveling scheme.
* QuestAwardLeveler - makes sure you don't screw yourself out of good quest rewards by doing the quest at a low level; the crappy low level versions of quest rewards will now gain levels with you
* PiiiP - Enhanced Grabbing - supposedly makes Grabbing work better, but more importantly doesn't count moving stuff around as theft
* Enchantment Restore Over Time - reduces the obscene expense of keeping enchanted weapons charged. 10 points per 10 seconds might be too high, but it can be adjusted. Long or constant fighting can still completely deplete an enchantment, I'd imagine, especially if you design a powerful enchant with a low base charge
* 100PercentHarvestChance - supposed to no longer let you fail to gather, but might be sensitive to load order (still getting less than 50% success)
* 300ft crime detection - the guards are no longer omniscient; you or your escaping victim must be within 300' of one to acquire bounties
* Realistic Physics and Force Package - fixes ragdoll floppiness a bit, or makes the game less funny



Interface

* Darnified UI - if you modify the default, the settings have to be manually entered into an XML file. In game, set up the elements where you want them via the last journal tab, and note the X/Y values. Then set the X/Y positions and true/false flags in the hud XML file to match what you liked in game.
* Expanded Hotkeys and Spell Delete - adds modified hotkeys (shift+number, etc) and exposes the hotkey wheel thing when setting those hotkeys so you can see what has been set
* Keychain - all your dozens of keys put into this internal UI container
* ToggleQuantityPrompt - hold down shift to autobuy/loot/sell an entire stack
* Decorator Assistant - fine-tuned object placement via a bought spell



Gameplay Expansions

* Alchemy Advanced - overhauls Alchemy a little and gives a better interface for it as well
* LessAnnoyingMagicExperience - a re-balance of the magic system (similar to the alterations of the leveling experience by OOO) and adds some magic spells at start.
* Stealth Overhaul - makes cloak and dagger a bit more cloak and daggery
* All In One Basement - puts a basement hatch into the (original) houses you can buy. All your houses are connected to this one basement, and you can use it as your collection warehouse. There are two bits of cheating that this addon allows though -- there's an alchemy room that has built-in enchanting/spellcrafting lecterns (though they still cost gold and soulshards to use), and it also has one of every ingredient growing in it. Also, you can essentially use the basement to warp between owned houses without losing travel time. On the upside, in the alchemy room are a couple hundred jars that will automatically sort all your reagents and tools for storage and usage, and some extra pots you can store uncategorized ingredients in. I keep rare books in the trophy room and all my special armors/weapons in the bedroom.
* BHC Expanded - adds more Black Horse Courier newspapers, and makes it easier to get all the stories.
* Open Cities Classic + OOO Compatibility Patch - including Leyawiin Reborn - All cities except the Imperial City and Kvatch are now part of the world map. These mods have to be loaded last-ish otherwise Oblivion will CTD while starting. Leyawiin Reborn turns the port city into something special -- it straddles the river now with the fortified castle on an island between the two halves. I'm pretty sure that's the right name for the mod.



Graphics

* Better grass texture without tiling
* Improved Water For Oblivion And SI
* Landscape LOD Texture Replacement
* Landscape LOD Texture Replacement Border regions
* QarlTP3 + patch
* Real Lights - underground areas are a much darker place, lit only by actual light sources present. You will actually need torches/light staffs, night vision spells, or your light spells.
* Visually Realistic Lava
Click to expand...

I'm also using Mart's Monster Mod and Deady Reflex, and I'm having a blast with it.
 
Wow SirButterStick, that list is exactly what I was looking for.

The stutter remover is awesome. The game feels so good. It's important to note the stutter removal mod sticks the game to 30fps by default...I brought it back up to 60fps. Now time to install the rest of the mods...I should be done in about 5 hours. :lol

I stuck the game on my SSD. I shouldn't be seeing any load stutter.
 
You might want BOSS and FastExit2. The first fixes the load order for you and the second makes sure the game closes when you exit Oblivion. After installing dozen of mods, mine used to get stuck.

- Deadly Reflex makes combat more enjoyable and deep.
- Natural Enviroments is the definitive enviromental mod, for me.
- Denock Arrow is a must if you plan on using a bow. Most simple yet usefull bow mod.
- AWLS will make your night cities all the more beautiful.

I would list a lot more mods, but I suggest you to visit these two sites. They have some very nice mods suggestions:

http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=983734
http://amito.freehostia.com/index.html

And this other one is a must to tweak some thing without having to resort to mods.

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html
 
Wow the game looks awesome and runs so damn well. Barely ever a drop below 60fps, and the game looks 10x better than it used to. Hopefully it plays a lot better too. :D

Just went with OOO. FCOM was just too much work to install for now.
 
Once you've played OOO for a while, I recommend you try FCOM. The extra monsters and equipment you gain through MMM and Francesco's are brilliant.

Be prepared to be arse raped though - its tough on a newbie.
 
Grooski said:
Be prepared to be arse raped though - its tough on a newbie.
Click to expand...
even with an infinite health cheat code enabled?
 
I need to figure out how to make the grass and tree pop in distance further out. I'm holding a constant 60fps everywhere, and I've got 8GB of RAM and I'm running off an SSD. I can stress this thing a little more.
 
I've also though about starting playing it and think I'll go for the Pahncrd solution (Pahncrd's Oblivion Enhanced Edition) since I haven't got the patience to build up a good list of mods myself.
There seems to be a second rc coming out in a not too distant future though:
Originally Posted by tefal
Decided to just dl the beta 4 in the end [because of problems getting rc1]
Click to expand...
Bah, you can just snag rc2 when it goes up here in a while.
Dec 30, 2009, 03:44 PM
pahncrd
Click to expand...
 
Ponti said:
Oblivion XP is pretty neat if you're not a fan of vanilla Oblivions leveling style. Works with Darn UI too.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah I'm definitely going to be doing that. On top of that, it seems to be tweaked for use in FCOM, so I guess that means I'll be installing it.
 
Recap

Never a fan of the original game. There was a decent framework there, but a broken leveling system and level scaling kind of killed it for me.

So, I've been spending the last little while modding the game. I have the following mods installed:

Unofficial patches
FCOM (complete overhaul)
Qarls Texture Pack 3 (makes the game look 10x better)
Natural Environments
Beautiful People
Subtle Sunshine (beautiful)
Deadly Reflex (combat mod)
Oblivion XP (traditional leveling system...get xp by killing/questing)
+5 Attributes on Level Up (no more skill leveling micromanagement)
Darnified UI (much better UI)

The game finally plays very well, the leveling system is fine, no level scaling, tons more enemies and items, and the game looks gorgeous to boot.

obliv1.png


Anyone with Oblivion PC should check some of this stuff out. I'm glad I gave the game a second chance.
 
Playing through Oblivion my first time here on PC. I think I'll give it a shot vanilla once through but I will definitely try some of these on a second playthrough, thanks for the suggestions guys!
 
Ookami-kun said:
Any mod that alters the skins/models of the characters? They all look horrible.
Click to expand...
There're plenty of them. I use BABS, Beautiful People, Natural Faces and TNR All Races Final.

- BABS changes the character's models for some more realistic. These have a good balance between nice and beliable bodies.
- Beautifull people adds new hairs, new races and eyes and stuff. It also has new bodies, but I like BABs better. Not to talk about the extensive BABs armor and clothing support.
- Natural Faces betters texture quality of faces.
- TNR All Races modifies all the NPCs in the game. Now they look much better. They may be uglier or godlooking. But they don't look like abortions anymore.
 
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