I would like to suggest that maybe you should try to install some sort of FCOM built, yes you have some reading to do, but trust me, after you finish it you will get an amazing experience, and very, very stable, anyway here are some useful links:

If he's having trouble just getting basic mods to work, there's no way in hell he's going to be able to figure out FCOM. That's meant for experienced modders, not for someone just starting out. He has to learn how to walk before he can run.

Yes, but in these days with a site like TESIV Positive, and with threads like the BAIN installation by Psymon, the install is a lot easier to understand and do.

Yes, but in these days with a site like TESIV Positive, and with threads like the BAIN installation by Psymon, the install is a lot easier to understand and do.

Anyways, thanks for the replies, but I really don't have the time to read up on all that kind of stuff.

To install:

Download to Desktop. Now unzip to Desktop (Download ZipGenius for free off the net if you don't
have a program to unzip)
Open My Computer/Local Disk (C:)/ Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Oblivion
Then click once on Data Files to highlight it
Minimize size of screen to allow you to see the extracted folders on Desktop
Drag each extracted folder (ESP, Meshes, Textures, Sound, LOD) and "Drop" onto "DataFiles"
A message will come up for each one, just click "yes to all"
Start up Oblivion
Go into Data Files
Click the box to the side of "Mod name" to activate this

Not sure what is illegal about it, it has nothing but mods from mod makers in it, none of gamesas stuff is in it,

Also I wouldn't be posting about it here, anjieb1. All of those mods were used without the authors permissions, something the person who made the compilation couldn't care less about and credit is not given to those modders. Not only is this a slap in the face of the modders who actually contributed their hard work, knowledge and time to make those mods and believe me there is thousands and thousands of hours of work stolen in that compilation, but it also discourages modders from releasing their mods. I know more then one modder who has decided not to publically release anymore mods other then to distribute to close friends because of compilations like this. Kinda like 'biting the hand that feeds you'. I also know that there is work that is supposed to be exclusive to ORE in that compilation. The author of the compilation has no morals and knows no boundaries, he went on my website and stole mods from there and from Tes Alliance. He has no consideration for any of our hard work....not the modders or the website owners or the community as a whole. I have nothing but contempt for his pure idiocy, selfishness and arrogance.

His original compilation included Shivering Isles and all the DLCs, whether or not he has actually removed those from the download I don't know.

If the mod works for you anjieb1, then you must be extremely lucky. However I highly doubt that it will continue to work for any length of time. Sooner or later you will encounter a game breaking error.

What meek said. Also, forget about getting support for any issues that you might get. Not sure which mods that are included, but I'm not going to support OOO/FCOM issues for someone who's using such a compilation. :shrug:

He says in his instructions to not bother any of the mod makers for any problems at all, but instead let him know he'll get it figured out, and it looks like he has been doing a good job at that with what I am seeing on some forums.

Really don't know how he is being selfish when he has spent hundreds of hours himself putting the compilation together, making the mods work together and doing this for others.

Because he is stealing the work of other modders by using their mods without their permission.

The authors gave permission as soon as they put it on the internet for the public to use. Compilations are the next phase after making mods just seems so natural for that to happen, even File Planet has Mod compilations for Oblivion on their site. I know if I had the skills to make mods I would embrace the idea of mod compilations and give my support to them.

The authors gave permission as soon as they put it on the internet for the public to use. Compilations are the next phase after making mods just seems so natural for that to happen, even File Planet has Mod compilations for Oblivion on their site. I know if I had the skills to make mods I would embrace the idea of mod compilations and give my support to them.

No they didn't and that is a rather weak excuse for theft. Otherwise why would all those modders even bother to make a readme. This attitude will ensure people don't put work on the internet at all. Then you would have no mods at all and those mod compilors have nothing to steal and compile. Just to put things in perspective.

Everyone in this thread has given very valid reasons why mod compilations are not a good idea and do not work. If you could mod, you would not be looking at compilations instead you would have the technical understanding of why they don't work and why modders do not make them.

The authors gave permission as soon as they put it on the internet for the public to use. Compilations are the next phase after making mods just seems so natural for that to happen, even File Planet has Mod compilations for Oblivion on their site. I know if I had the skills to make mods I would embrace the idea of mod compilations and give my support to them.

OK, a few things.

One, for a modder who is still working on a mod, unofficial copies of their mod (modified or not) being available for download present a very serious headache. If you don't know where it is, you don't know to update it, you get angry e-mails from people who downloaded it elsewhere and have an out-of-date issue. You run around trying to figure out why someone is still having a bug you thought you fixed - only to learn that they're using a version of the mod that shouldn't be available anywhere.

In the case of mod compilations (which ROM is... and then some. But at the base it's a compilation with your own tweaks applied on top), this is especially problematic - people can't (easily) update to new versions that you might release. Aside for mod compilations' sullied history (almost always done without permission, and often without credit being given to those its due - which I realize you did not do), it's a very significant problem.

Therefore, the default is to assume that the modder does not want the mod re-uploaded. Most modders want to control distribution - for credit, but more important for their own sanity. Unofficial uploads, mirrors, and forks result in having to deal with e-mails of bugs, complaints, etc etc, that have nothing to do with your work but with someone else's. There basically is no modder ever who relishes the thought of dealing with bug reports - they're complicated, difficult, and time-consuming, due to the complex nature of a heavily-modified Oblivion game. Tracking down bugs, glitches, and conflicts is bad enough when it's only your own work you have to worry about. If you're also getting complaints about what others have done - that does not make a modder happy.

Modders should state what they'd like done with their mods. They should give notice when they're leaving the community, and state what they would like done with their mods. Ultimately, neither happens regularly. When it doesn't, we have to go back to that default - that they don't want anyone else messing with their mods.

And what I think is a major point: every mod that has been released to this community was released under those assumptions. To change them now, especially when we cannot contact the original authors, would be grossly unfair.

So yes, respecting modders' work requires that we not re-use it without permission. Even if they've left, even if we've tried to contact them, even if they probably wouldn't mind - unless you can say for certain that they definitely won't mind, that's just not your call to make. Until a modder releases their work for re-use, to assume it would be disrespectful.

You think your situation is bad? Well, story-time! In addition to having my name on nearly every Discussion page on the Wiki (by the way, I really do appreciate the note there about that; made me happy to see it appreciated), I'm also currently one of the longest-standing members of the Oblivion modding community, having joined this forum years before the game was even released and modded Morrowind a bit (there are a handful of others who are also part of the old-old-old-guard, plus from what I understand quite a few of the people I used to mod Morrowind with are still in the Morrowind forum, modding it). Therefore, I can remember what very few people on this forum can, which would be a website called Euro-RPG.

Euro-RPG was, in its day, the #1 Morrowind mod host. It was popular for a number of reasons (but the main one was that your mod was available for download as soon as you uploaded it), and it hosted thousands of mods (it's worth noting that it was not as large as TES Nexus, however). There were many, many mods that could only be found there - including many that were extremely popular.

Then, one day, for whatever reason (and the possible reasons are myriad; server costs, real life affecting the admins, whatever), Euro-RPG shut down. It was gone - and so was every mod on it. TES Source (the precursor to TES Nexus) went down, a long time back, but luckily Dark0ne managed to retain the mod database, and recreate the site as TES Nexus, complete with every mod on it. That didn't happen with Euro-RPG. The database was lost.

A great many of those mods didn't include information on what should happen to them if such a thing should happen. And the authors of far too many could not be contacted. The result? Those mods were never publicly available again. People who had downloaded them previously still had them, of course, but the community agreed - no one could re-upload them without permission. It was a tough time for the community; a huge blow. The Oblivion modding community has never faced anything like that, but ultimately, this community is an extension of that one.

And the importance of respecting modders' rights - even when we suspect, but cannot know for sure, that the modder would rather we didn't - has been a foundation of this community from before this community started. Whatever your opinion on the matter, really, I think it's rather clear that changing our basic assumptions about how modders' work should be treated is something we simply cannot do without notifying the authors, which in many cases is impossible.

This is also why modders should explain how they want this situation handled. Some modders do specify "if I've been gone for X months, and you e-mail me and I don't respond for Y weeks, feel free to do what you wish with the mod" is something I have seen in many readmes - but probably more from Morrowind, when people remembered the Euro-RPG fiasco, then for Oblivion, most modders of which have never heard of Euro-RPG.

To clarify what I was saying, I had to do the research because if I did not, my company could be sued. Lawsuits like that can bring a company to its knees.

No one will be sued over this, fortunately. But you have to try to understand that the principles remain the same. You say it's not about egos. I agree. But it most certainly is about respect. At the end of the day, modders don't have teams of lawyers that will come after you. They know darn well there really isn't a lot that will happen. They count on you to respect them, you see?