So due to computer issues I haven't been able to play Oblivion for nearly a year and a half now. I just got a new rig and am really looking forward to reinstalling. I used to have quite a few mods, but the problem is, I've been out of the loop for a long time and now I feel out of my depth!

I guess I really just need some guidance, a place to start. It all seems kinda intimidating coming back to it after so long. I know it seems like an annoyingly vague noob post, but what are everyone's top ten recommended mods at the moment? What body replacers are now the most advanced and most supported? Would people still recommend OOO or is there something better out there? What's the most up-to-date compilation of cosmetic hair/eye/race etc (as long as it's lore-friendly)? Which mod lists are the most recent and reliable?

Help me BGSF, you're my only hope!

One stop mod shopping. http://www.gamesas.com/?showtopic=1010109&h

the nexus is a good place to start: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/top/alltime.php

and for some more recent mods: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/top/index.php

OOO is definitely recommended, its amazing! it adds all kinds of new content as well as removing level scaling. TIE (Tamriel Immersion Experience) is another interesting overhaul allowing anything to be found at level 1. Supposedly its more difficult at lower levels then OOO. As far as body replacers go theres a pile of them! HGEC is the most popular female body replacer and Roberts male is the make body replacer. Robert also has a female body replacer which is pretty popular too. I use both of roberts bodies

*strokes beard* "BGSF. Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. A long time."

Anyway...here is the list of mods I use with every character.


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=3953 by Oscuro, dev_akm, MadCat221.
Not just a 'creature-adding' mod, not just a 'difficulty' mod, not just a 'gameplay-tweaking' mod, Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is actually one of the finest finest roleplaying mods around. http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=1757 by Martigen, Corepc Dev_Akm Shadowborn is the perfect complement to Oscuro, adding much-needed spontaneity to Oscuro's static world. Crank Martigen's mod all the way up and Oblivion will feel as wonderfully unpredictable as an MMO. These mods are so inseparable to me I count them as one.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=2764 by, of course, DarN.
This essential mod goes a long way toward making Oblivion's consolized interface useable. Configurable from within the game via a menu. I modify it with one of Luchaire's re-colorings, either http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16387 or http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16897 I also use http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14822 by WillieSea and http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19063 by Badmagic to enliven the map with color and to replace what I consider to be ugly map markers with more aesthetically pleasing X's.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14065 by tejon, or http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13879 bu ABO.
Two excellent character-levelling mods that do away with stat management, excel spreadsheets, visits to Wiki pages, etc, to research "builds". With these mods a player can just play and let a mod handle leveling seamlessly and invisibly in the background. I tend to prefer RL but I am using nGCD in my current game and am very impressed.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14304 by tejon.
This mod allows the player to control the speed of advancement of each skill. Easily configurable via an .ini.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11237 by tejon. Willpower again has an affect on the player's vulnerability to magic, as in previous ES games.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7484 by Deathless Aphrodite.
Makes the player lose fatigue when running. When the player's fatigue hits 0 he starts to walk. Also allows the player to sprint for a brief time.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25078 by TheNiceOne.
Using this mod merchants' gold goes up and down with each trade. Also does away with the haggle slider (what a relief!) Allows the player to specify how much gold they recive from looting containers, enemies, as quest rewards, etc. All configurable via .ini.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12149 by tejon. Attempts to expand on Bethesda's concept of Birthsigns and make them for interesting and fun, at all levels.

http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35300 by ZenshinZenrei. Introduces three special advantages to each of the predefined Oblivion classes in order to make them more unique. Advantages are similar to special class traits from Arena and Daggerfall. Custom classes pick three Advantages manually.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2037 by Quarn and Dejunai.
Removes flowers from plants after you have picked them. This is a great little visual aid when picking many plants very close together.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1840 by Woodman, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=21 by Tandem, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5138 by Soor, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5919 by b3w4r3, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=129 by Talonhoff and http://morrowind4kids.com/pseronwyrd/PWRunSpeed.zip by Pseron Wyrd are a collection of small tweak mods that I cannot bear to play without. Chase Camera Mod is essential to me because I play exclusively in third person and will quickly become nauseous without it; Bethesda went to great lengths to create the illusion of a seamless worl when they made Oblivion and then went and ruined it by spamming messages onto the player's screen everytime they enter a new cell, and No Load gets rid of that; Initial Glow gets rid of what I consider to be a very ugly 'plastic wrap' enchantment effect; Sleep Rest Wait Any Time, because no game has any business telling me when I can sleep, or where; No Psychic Guards tones down guards' clairvoyance a little bit; Run Speed Tweak slows down the base running/walking speed of the game to Morrowind's running/walking speeds.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16005 by mmmpld'
A fun little 'immersion' mod that allows the player to see their character use the same getting-into and getting-out-of bed animations used by NPCs.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11449 by RamyEnfant.
Adds a collection of new jump animations. The characters execute a cool Night-Elf-style forward roll with weapons sheathed and a variety of other jumps with different weapons drawn. I often jump just to watch these animations. I'm easily pleased.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4387 by CorePC.
Adds much-needed life to Cyrodiil's roads. The merchants are great if you like to spend extended time away from cities as I do. To this I add http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20575 by LazyAltmer. These two mods do a lot to make Cyrodiil a lot less lonely when travelling the roads. They also help fight, too, which has saved my character's life more than once when playing all these overhaul mods.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16513 by Bananasplit, Wolfslady, Reckless, SilentResident, Nernie, Vorians and Ismelda.
The way the cities of Tamriel should have looked. Spend hours wandering around like a tourist, awestruck at how different (and gorgeous) everything looks. Comes in modular form - you can choose to redo all of Cyrodiil's cities or just one. It's your choice. When I'm not using Better Cities I use Arthmoor's http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1019807, which tranfers the vanilla cities into the Cyrodiil worldspace, ala Morrowind. Wonderful for those of us who love to ride horses through town.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2536 by Max Tael.
This is one of the plugins in Max Tael's Natural Environments suite of mods. It adds several non-hostile flying animals such as birds and butterflies.

http://morrowind4kids.com/pseronwyrd/PW_MorrowindFog.zip by Pseron Wyrd.
Oblivion's near-infinite view distance is ugly, in my opinion, and it also makes Cyrodiil feel much smaller than it ought to. This is my attempt to simulate Morrowind's fog. Combined with Run Speed Tweak, Cyrodiil feels as large and wonderfully mysterious as Vvardenfell once did.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=942911 by Arthmoor.
Adds Morrowind-style transport to the game. A nicely immersive touch.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=984109 by XMarksTheSpot, Brumbek & Ismelda.
Another mod I can't play without anymore. It adds windows that turn off and on in synch with day/night cycles and also, optionally, smoke from chimneys. Comes with a nice variety of window color tints too.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28977 by Emma.
An Alchemist-oriented companion with a mind of her own (and, as a bonus, dialog voiced by Emma herself).

http://oblivion.brashendeavors.net/bows/ by Brash.
A wonderful mod for anyone who loves light, ranger-ish amror and slightly more natural, non-fantasy-type bows. I also love the ranger camp just outside Weye (conflicts with Weye TICS, but not AFK Weye).

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22828 by afk_dwip - or - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9514 by TamaraVico.
I tend to alternate these two mods, as I love them both. I absolutely and without equivocation adore Tamara's Weye mod - but it does come with a framerate hit. I just love her cramped medieval-looking alleys and its attention to detail. It is quite possibly my favorite town expansion mod for either Morrowind or Oblivion. The area occupied by dwip's mod is smaller and, thus, conflicts with fewer mods and also does not hurt framerates quite as much (in my experience). It comes with some interesting quests though and is also nicely-laid out.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21562 and http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30000 by Arthmoor.
Faregyl is a nice little farm south of the Imperial City. Feldscar is a wonderful village north of the Frostcrag area. Both are excellently crafted.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22401 by The Tamriel Rebuilt Team.
Stirk is a small but highly detailed island in the Abecean Sea west of Anvil. Anyone who has seen what the multi-talented folks at Tamriel Rebuilt have done for Morrowind will know this is high-quality modding with an eye towards accuracy in matters of lore.

Wow, thank you so much - that was incredibly helpful, thank you for taking the time to put it together! I realise there are lists around but what I really wanted was people's opinions, so this is great. I'll use your suggestions as my starting point.

They all do pretty much the same thing, so... "advanced"? No chance. Anyway, HGEC or Roberts Female or TGND or BAB would be the most supported female body types, I guess. For male, there's Roberts Male.



OOO is still good. ROM is a new, heavily modified, "augmented" version of it. FCOM combines OOO, MMM, Fran's and Oblivion WarCry, along with some other things if you like. You can opt for OOO+MMM instead, or MMM+Fran's. Francesco's by itself is another alternative. TIE uses only vanilla resources, but is still an "overhaul", just of a slightly different kind. And so on... Depends on your preferred playing style.



Race Balancing Project, I suppose.



Have a good look through http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/ for such things. And just in general - it's incredibly useful and informative.


http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/advancedsearch.php is well worth exploring, as are their http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/categories.php. Everything is sortable as you like it, which is neat. The other thing I feel is worth pointing to is the Mod Detectives thread, whose sole purpose is to provide a place for Q&A re: searching for mods of patricualr kinds. It's generally in the first two or three pages of threads here, if not the front page most often.