I edited the ini. found in the main directory rather than My Games and it works like a charm for me, I've tested it extensively by adding quite a few texture mods I used in FO3 (Who obviously work in NV seeing as so many items are the same) and they all work just fine.

What has me confused is this line in the .ini:

bInvalidateOlderFiles=1

Isn't this the main setting that we have to change in order to override the BSA's and use our own files? I ask because my .ini _came this way_. I didn't need to do archive invalidation at all to make this change...

Do I have it backwards?

That line already said 1 in my ini when I set up AAI manually. So it may be that Obsidian left it like that on purpose to accomodate texture mods, I don't know. They've already stated weapon mods were done because the Weapon Mod Kits mod was so popular, so it's possible.

If I recall Oscuro, who did OOO for Oblivion got a job at Obsidian, which may further indicate that they're fans of modding over there.

I managed to get the manual archive invalidation invalidated! thing to work for one mod (a male body replacer. I don't need no t-shirts ). Without it things are messed up, after installing it that fixed it.

But it's not working for Skykappa's http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/images/12978-5-1275916868.jpg replacer. Then again, I took those directly from the FO3 page. Still, the location and name of the meshes/textures are identical to FO3's, so I don't see why it shouldn't work, but only the texture is getting replaced.

If I create an esp mod and use a different name for the mesh it works fine. Any ideas?