Hello all, I am a seasoned veteran of Morrowind, and a relative noob of Skyrim (owned and played fairly extensively since Christmas), and I decided to buy Oblivion to round out my Elder Scrolls collection. However, I've found Oblivion's world to be quite devoid of people. I started in the Imperial CIty, and after seeing maybe 2 or 3 people on the streets in the middle of the day, I ran to Chorrol to start the main quest, and was greeted there by maybe 4 people total. Does this seem right? Should there really be that few people on the streets? I added one mod (to add static levels to NPCs), so I want to make sure that's not doing something, but compared to Skyrim (and possibly even to Morrowind), things are feeling a bit empty. Maybe it's city design, but I figured I would ask here to get some thoughts... I'm sure that as I dig more into it, I won't notice it as much, but it's been a bit jarring so far.

Also, any mods to make it feel more alive (like a Morrowind Comes Alive mod)?

In the early part of the game, before the NPCs get killed by the game world, or wander off somewhere, the towns should have a bunch of people, especially the first time you walk in to the town. Note the towns never feel over populated, but they do feel like someone is there, at least in the early parts.

So, what time of day are you arriving at? The NPCs are on schedules so there are more during the day than at night.