hi all...

yup, yet another "which overhaul' question. Now that I have about 90 mods, mods like better cities and such with qarls textures redimized reduced, and all natural and others, like Integration; I Face The Overhauls.

Oh I have read. googled. some of the fact posts are over four years old. there are new overhauls...

I really do not want an overhaul that changes all of my stats, alone. I would want an overhaul that reduces that level scaling and adds new content. must be somewhat stable and somewhat conflict free and suitable for my older cpu computer. thus FCOM is out.

MMM adds monsters but I really do not want just a monster adding mod.

there is old warcry and the newer warcry new demensions. then wac too. oblivion Intensity, anyone?

Tie sounds too hard for my taste. I want to enjoy the scenery far more than fighting endless monsters and npcs.

seems that for every thread that I find, someone really has problems. maybe install issues but maybe mod issues. someone had like 1500 errors in a log file, for one of these!

then there is CUO-CURP. plus all of the other mods that go with it. love or hate, I read.

lgs loot and monster mod?!

so what am I looking for, in an Overhaul?

---besides the level scaling stuff, I want to see new content. does not have to be lore-perfect. new people, places, items, buildings. an overhaul that makes the landscape and towns a more Interesting place to explore.

One of the reason I like games, especially the first person and third person games, is to experience vicariously alternate worlds. to see how creative other modders have become. Thus does not bother me in the least to see a very complicated clock in weye that is a work of art. I am not even so much interested in questing, having to go to some far off dungeon, say, to do or find something where I would have to spend 20 hours just to get there!

[too too many of us just take the interstate autobahn to get *there* as fast as possible and not even to look out of the car window beyond the roadside! I like to travel the back roads, myself, and to stop in little towns and wander about and then to have a cup of coffee with the local people, in some café. takes forever to get to my destination!]

I want to play my games like that too. I *hate* beginning a new game and three seconds in there are ten monsters to defeat and I have to become hyperactive from the get-go! I just want to stand there and savor the new world I am in. then slowly to test the controls; why I might take 30 minutes before I walk ten feet!

[Skyrim, I am looking at you!! freestone tossed into dragon attack world and I have to run run run....insta stress! hooray for Alternate Life mod!!]

I still recall to this day my various exit-moments out of the sewer tunnel into Oblivions world. I would spend an hour or more just wandering around and looking at the sky and landscape. and yes, killing monsters and opening plants and chests and going into caves....

what kind of overhaul will answer best *that* need for my new game?! if none is found I might well do without any overhaul! or maybe the lg mods. some of these overhauls weigh in at like a gig or even two gigs of memory! I think owcnd does.

so what overhaul, if any?

thanks...freestone

Reading your description, my first recommendation would be to look at http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42780/? The great thing about MOO is that it is so configurable, and it is configurable via an ini. Which means no adding or removing additional plugins to get the results you want. You're pretty particular about what you want in your games so I think you will like this aspect of MOO.

Here's a copy/paste list containing a few of the changes MOO is able to make to a game:

• Unpredictable encounters;
• Loot and equipment improvements;
• New creature abilities;
• New and better looking creatures;
• Fully configurable level scaling;
• New warring factions;
• Combat AI fixes;
• Climbing ability (player and creatures);
• Spellbooks;
• Skill based equipment system;
• Traps and the ability to disarm them;
• Bashing locks ability;
• Feign death ability;
• Darker dungeons and nights;
• Npcs in dungeons and outdoors having torches;

Most of this can be turned off or modified to suit your taste. Since you're looking for a stress-free game, you'll probably want to put MOO on its easiest settings.

MOO.Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul. It's everything you just listed.

I too recommend Maskar's Overhaul for the reasons above stated, and second Pseron's suggestion to put Maskar's on the easiest setting in the ini.

Maskar purposefully does not add the type of content that would introduce incompatibilities with other mods, so Maskar's does not include new places, buildings and items. Maskar's adds new creatures, and some new people with its new notice board random quests, but for the most part it does not add new places, items and buildings.

However, there are so many other mods that add such things, that I prefer to use Maskar's to overhaul the game and use other mods to add new content. For example, Better Cities and Unique Landscapes add new places, people, items and quests.