Hello everyone, I tend to go back to playing Oblivion every six months or so and in that time lots of mod-related stuff changes. So I would really appreciate few updates on:
1) What is the best way for installing mods at the moment? I plan to use lots of mods including FCOM.
2) What are best performance increasing mods? I remember using Streamline and some texture and model replacers.
3) Is HGEC still the most popular and supported body mod?
4) I remember a mod called Unnecessary Violence 2 being made at the time when I was last playing. If it's done, what are your opinions on it?
5) Most popular leveling mods and short description of each if possible?
6) Lastly, I'm looking for archery-oriented mods, so all suggestions are welcome.
Thank you for your time.

BAIN (Wrye Bash's built in installation system). You'll need Wrye Bash, and therefore Wrye Python, to do that.



Oblivion Stutter Remover, and Streamline. Also, PyFFI. Possibly, cleaning some mods. Oh, and Quiet Feet MAX - unless you have a proper sound card, maybe. You could also try disabling music altogether. Personally, I find that quite immersive, but YMMV, natch.



Definitely. perhaps followed by Robert's Male. Then all the other female body types. If you like HGEC, check out EVE HGEC for an easy, all-in-one body, clothing and armour replacer.



Not done yet. Deadly Reflex 6 (beta) is out, however. And UV2 can't be too far away...



I recommend either FCOM Archery (beta, I think) or Duke Patrick's SCA Archery.


Also, make sure you check out http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/, in general, if you haven't already. Even if you have...


edit: Oops, I forgot about levelling mods. Well, the most popular would be nGCD + Progress, Realistic Leveling, and Oblivion XP. Check their threads here for details.

Thanks for the quick response,much appreciated!
Speaking about performance increasing, are there any replacers for textures which help with performance but with little to none visual loss?
I've never tried Quiet Feet but obviously I should have since I lack a sound card.
Also thanks for that website it's really helpful. Going to get back into modding in no time!

You could try CorePC's Vibrant Textures or MTGR's textures.

They are both sampled at the same resolution as the Vanilla textures, so you'll lose no performance over them.

Not that I'm aware of. Just sticking with vanilla is your best bet, if you want no additional taxing of your system. Or, you could try Vibrant Textures, or Mtgr Texture Pack, because neither of those is any more demanding than default Oblivion. You could even try out "Bomret's Detailed Normals for Vanilla" (you can use them with vanilla textures, or with either of those I mentioned just now). More detail, no FPS loss. But nothing springs to mind, texture-wise, for *gains* (over vanilla). :shrug:

You could try messing with the sliders in the Video options menu, in Oblivion. Also, Streamline's settings include ways of boosting and/or smoothing FPS. Have a look at the ini, and see what might work.

And PyFFI optimises meshes, which does genuinely help.


edit: Totally ninjaed. :ninja:

Thanks I'll check those replacers.
One more question, what are favourite Quest/Adventure mods currently? And face texture mods compatible with HGEC (if HGEC doesn't come with it's own facial textures of course - can't remember anymore)?

I used to have a barely-good-enough Oblivion computer. Wiseman's Reduced Textures parts 1,2,3 were a blessing. Think they are on TES nexus.

Also, try playing with a really high-res grass texture and disabling grass if you have real performance issues. I had a slow graphics card with quite a lot of memory, the real grass killed it a lot faster than a high-res texture. YMMV.

Check this list here: http://knol.google.com/k/toql-the-oblivion-quest-list#
Very nice for finding info on questmods. Oh and if you decide to try out Verona House: Bloodlines from that list, Arthmoor has released a fixed version of it http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36389.
For facetextures, I use http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5643 with F-INevOblivion (no link due to nudity in pics, just do a search on nexus) installed on top of it. Make sure to install the latter after HGEC.