I'd personally go the other route and add your choice of mods before graphic enhancers, and those only if installed using OBMM or BAIN to make removal painless if necessary.
As I stated above, many PC's that can run recent and more graphically intense games than Oblivion can choke when heavily modded, particularly so when using hi rez body, LOD and graphic re-placers.
Go slow and don't make the often made mistake of adding dozens of mods, launching and finding you have serious issues.
That scenario is no fun to solve....


edit - IMO for what it's worth FCOM is far more enjoyable with a fresh character and slow leveling mod so it can be savoured, not devoured. :liplick:

It's kinda hard to tell what exactly you are asking, but I'll try...

If you want to install only OOO and MMM and NOT the rest of FCOM, that is possible. Search the forum for the relevant threads, use google... the info is out there.

If you are asking what you would miss out on... It's kinda obvious isn't it? the rest of the FCOM setup: Fran's and WarCry.

One more thing. I notice in your first post, the one you are editing as you progress through your setup, you are posting your BOSSlog, not your actual load order. Your actual load order is the one people will need to see.

gothemasticator

Doesn't BOSS automatically adjust the load order? Only time I have noticed a variance is when I deviate from what its suggesting. So far I have seen no reason to do so - unless you see some potential conflicts?

One reason is that Boss reorders even the esps that are not active in your load order. Also, Boss cannot show what has and hasn't been merged into the Bashed patch.

In a more general sense, if you run into problems, anyone trying to help will be able to help much more accurately when viewing the actual situation instead of just the helper-utility's suggestions.

gothemasticator

I am new to this so work with me here. I don't keep any unused/inactive ESP or ESM files in my data folder. Instead, I place them in a sub folder within the Data one and take them out when wanting to use them. So the BOSS log should only be showing ones I have activated - right?

As for merging, to be honest, I have no idea how to do that. I was thinking perhaps near the end I would attempt it unless of course its prudent to do it now?

Actually, that's quite a good idea. Well thought-out.

A slightly better idea: Wrye Bash actually includes this as a function. If you right-click on any mod, one of your options is "hide." This moves the file to another folder, outside of the Data folder. The advantage of moving the files outside Data is that the entire Data folder loads when you load up Oblivion - all files, active or not. And, there is a hard limit as to how many esp + esm files (total, active or not) that you can have in your Data folder before the game starts crashing. The limit is 255 or so, I think. I'm not positive; the info is around the boards somewhere. And, if you keep modding, chances are that one day you'll approach the limit and start worrying about it. So, using Wrye Bash's "hide" function now is just good practice.


You should build the bashed patch (which includes merging) before you run the game at any point. And it would be a good idea to run the game at the end of your basic FCOM install, before loading anything else, to test things out, make sure everything's okay.

Building the bashed patch is easy. Essentially, you right-click on the bashed patch, which automatically appears in your load order, and choose "Rebuild Patch." Then a window pops up and you choose from among many options (this part you can get help on when you get there), and then it builds itself.


Yes. However, inevitably something will go wrong (sort of like plumbing), and, when it does and you ask someone for help (the plumber), they will ask at some point to see the load order (the leak) for themselves. It has nothing to do with trusting or not trusting you or BOSS. It's just that, when troubleshooting, your helper wants the evidence to be as close to first-hand as possible. Thus, posting the load order from Wrye Bash is just, in general, a better approach.

gothemasticator

Correct me if I am wrong, but a bashed patch is actually mandatory for a full FCOM set up? Many new users find Wrye Bash intimidating, primarily because of the extensive readme. The key thing to remember about that is that the only thing you really need to be familiar with when you start out is to know how to (re)build a bashed patch. There is a neat little section in the Wrye Bash readme devoted to just that.

I hate when I judge a topic title wrong and come in late as hell realizing it's a topic I would actually reply to. I thought this was a strictly load order topic, someone would say BOSS and then boom, done!

Anyway....

Search http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?act=Search&CODE=show&searchid=6100ea77ac406f1c5a439a11266ef829&search_in=posts&result_type=topics&highlite=%2Bazerbagb for 3 pages of mod recommendation topics. It has many different opinions, many different requests, and overall shows some of the redundancy that happenswhen there's so many topics like this.

Also http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1010109. Pretty much the same thing as Azerbagb except instead of getting the vague opinions on a few mods from several different people. you instead get the singular opinion of the list maker, detailed and listing many mods.

I see no one has helped you with quests yet, so http://knol.google.com/k/devnull-devakm/toql-big-quest-mods/2xu0v7u1nzut0/4# Seeing as how I maintain the azerbagb search query and I'm a quest player you can get most of my opinions on this list from the azerbagb link.

Good Morning to everyone.

Talk about great community. Really blown away by the amount of support/help everyone has offered.
All the help is greatly appreciated - my sincere thanks.

-Ray

Looking to rebuild patch but apprehensive about what to toggle and it potentially screwing up all I have done so far.

Thanks for tips. I did as you suggested, used Bash to 'hide' the unused files. Also managed to print out the actual load order. Below it I included the BOSS Log. Though FCOM is not fully installed, I would not mind doing a rebuild patch but am concerned about toggling something that may cause problems.

I didn't want to clutter up the MMM thread so I will ask the question here:

In the MMM thread it states: If you use Beautiful People, or any other mod based on Elaborate Eyes, don't use the
'Races Resized' optional plugin

Beautiful People site states: It is compatible with MMM: http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:r8ioZTutAQAJ:www.jeuxvideopc.com/downloads/8690-the-elder-scrolls-4-oblivion/973-personnages/details-25045.php+oblivion+beautiful+people+race+resize&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=safari

Can anyone help clear this up?

Probably the info in the MMM thread is more up to date.

Change of Plans. I am not going to go the FCOM route but instead opt to install OOO, MMM & Francesco's independently. Main reason - the updated version of MMM carries over to Shivering Isles.

You get the SI changes of MMM 3.7 in FCOM too, it's just that FCOM doesn't do anything else with them. And you can't have OOO, Frans and MMM together without FCOM anyway.

I just read the documentation here: http://pages.suddenlink.net/corepc/#KeyFeatures
and it does not mention incompatibility with Fran or OOO. I am new though, so enlighten me if I am wrong! lol

That section of MMM Manual has not been updated and in dire need of overhauling..

Beautiful People will Work with MMM once again, but will require Wrye Bash in order to Use.

Has Will nearly all other races mods, require Wrye Bash in order to get them to work just right .

Suggested Race Mods are either Cobl Races or Race Balancing Project to use with MMM has they tend to work a little better.

Nothing against beatufiul people mod once again. But, RBP or Cobl Races is preferred by many of nowdays..With RBP being the favorite currently.





Frans and OOO will not work together has they both are Overhaul and touch some of the same aspect of game. If you tried to load Frans and OOO, depending on your load order of them, one will be dominate mod and features from the other will not work.

FCOM is what make them work together. By pulling features from Frans into OOO and making it all work together.

If you just want to go Frans+MMM or OOO+MMM route that is fine has well. But if you want to use frans, OOO, and MMM> Then you must go FCOM route, no way around this.

Corepc

As CorePC says, OOO and Frans installed together outside of an FCOM install doesn't make sense. I use OOO + MMM, and I also use the Armamentarium Complete, which adds a lot of nice weapons and loot and some special items that require a little thought. That sufficed as a good replacement for Frans, for me, as one of the reasons I used Fran's for a long time was the loot.

You have read this thread about http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=775917, haven't you Ray?

Thanks for tip, and yes I did read through it and did get a 'grasp' of how things work though I think the big problem for me is after 7 installs of Oblivion, I am very leery of making a mistake. I am going BACK to installing FCOM now! lol I attempted installing it 6 times, why stop now right?

I got a case of beer here, so hopefully this goes smoothly cause the longer it takes the less chances I will of succeeding!

I used the http://fivefries.googlepages.com/fcominstallationguide the first time I installed FCOM. It's like the Cliff's notes for the main readme installation instructions.

Are you aware of my http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=995334? They make it extremely much easier to create a correct MMM/FCOM installation if you're inexperienced. You'll also find similar scripts I have made for other difficult-to-install mods http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1037276.

FCOM -is- the compatiblity mod that makes OOO, MMM, Frans (and Warcry) work together. Have you installed any mods yet? This may just be my opinion, but you should not be "leery of making a mistake"--you should expect it, since this is your first time through. This way, you won't be disappointed if you do make a mistake. Frankly, we learn more from our mistakes than successes...just do it.

1) Installation
Oblivion
Official mods
Official Patch
Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Unofficial Patch for Official mods
FCOM

2) Set Load Order using BOSS
- if using only the above mods, all should be detected by the latest BOSS masterlist. BOSS output log will tell you if otherwise.

3) Build Bash Patch

4) Play for an hour to see if you experience CTDs or see missing meshes/textures.

How the heck do I get those hidden ESP & ESM files backs? lol They are suppose to be in some hidden folder but for the life of me I can't find them.

Wrye Bash site states:
? Note that there's a corresponding "Unhide..." command in the column context menu.
? If the file's group is defined (e.g. Heads), and if the Bash\Hidden directory has a subdirectory with the same name (e.g. Bash\Hidden\Heads), then the file will be hidden in it.

Found it, sub direction of Bethesda. I was searching in the Oblivion folder and its subfolders.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\Bash\Hidden