No thanks, don't bother with it - OBMM is just fine.

I have no money to spend on frivolities such as games, nor the time in which to play them. Currently trying to get back into Oblivion and finish Dawn Of War 2 story mode, forgetting all the multiplayer games I've got for ages but never managed to play.

Does it show the file sizes of the conflicting individual files? Or even better, is it possible to preview them?




Heh, when am I gonna get time to play Fallout 3? First I need to install Oblivion (almost done with installing 100+ replacers and 400+ mods), then I expect the game to last half a year or 1000+ game hours.
And anol as I am I have to play the original Fallouts and possibly even Fallout Tactics (I really like tactical combat, which is the only thing Oblivion can't offer me) before playing Fallout 3.
And then there's Nehrim which probably should keep me occupied a long while. What is the expected game hours for it?

I have it installed with mods also but I haven't even opened it once in half a year. I don't know why but its depressing for me. I like the life and nature in Oblivion. Since I have it I will play it eventually once I get over that feeling.


I played both Fallout 1 and 2 and they were worth it in my opinion. I had lots of fun.

Well I didn't mean to hijack the thread with that question - kinda rhetorical. Why aren't I playing Warband? Oh yeah Nehrim.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo54/psymon11b/fommfilemanager.jpg of the file manager with FOMM - this is looking at a file in Darn UI for Fallout, but the problem is I don't have but like 5 fomods installed so hard to tell. Maybe someone with more fomods installed could give a screenshot of theirs.

You can drag and drop the winner for each file. You do that in the bottom right panel. The top right gives some file info (no preview). You can sort by fomod or by going through the loose files in the left column.

Fallout is fun for me. But really without mods it is the worst gun oriented game I've ever played. VATS is the dumbest idea ever. But I've always been taken by apocalytpic/zombie themes, so I'm cool with the devastation the game shows.

The masterlist that is installed at setup is as old as the hills, but FOMM has a "Check for updates" link that automatically downloads the latest BOSS masterlist.



Right now the File MAnager just shows the size of the currently winning file, but ti could easily be altered to display the sizes of the conflicting files as well. I am (even if I do say so myself) receptive/responsive to feature requests.

As a former Oblivion player and modder gone to the dark side (Fallout 3), I just wanted to add a few comments on the qualities of Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM). I never used OBMM much, mainly due to TES4Edit being the better conflict detector, and Wrye Bashs capability for making bashed patches as well as managing load order.

One of the major strengths of FOMM (compated to Wrye Bash and TES4Edit) is its package manager. It is able to recognize the most common ways of packaging a mod and remembers which mod added which file, which is great for installing and uninstalling mods. Previous posters have discussed some of these abilities, but I would like to point to one capability that has been neglected: The ability to program custom install scripts.

If your mod is somewhat complicated to install (ie. not just extract everything to the Data folder), it is possible to write custom scripts to handle things like

• ini updates
  
• detecting FOSE version (FOSE is Fallout Script Extender, ie. OBSE for Fallout) and warning the user if it is needed but not there
  
• detecting other mods (which can be used to automatically install compatibility patches if needed)
  
• manipulating load order
  
• and presenting all these options in a nice gui

These custom install scripts are used by a number of large overhauls (including the Fallout 3 version of MMM), body replacers and a bunch of other mods. They provides a nice, common interface, without the need for throwing around executables. There are some elaborations on the hows and whys in the FOMM and FOMOD tutorial series in my signature.

As I'm neither actively playing nor modding Oblivion, I haven't voted in the poll.

Edit: I should note that the screenshots in the tutorials are from FOMM v 0.9, where it is now in version 0.12, and a number of extra features have been added.

This might come across as a bit snarky, but: [sarcasm]custom install scripts. woo hoo.[/sarcasm]

That's nothing new, OBMM already does all the things you've mentioned perfectly well. The only thing I've seen that would perhaps warrant a port is the file/resource manager someone mentioned, though I'm not sure how much better this can be than what BAIN has.

The only advantages OBMM currently has over Wrye Bash are in installing shader edits and BSA reading, editing and creation, and some more advanced scripted installs. The only worthwhile change FOMM brings seems to be the file manager, which I've expressed interest in above, but if that comes at the cost of another unique file format (FOMODS on top of OMODS), that's not worth it IMHO. OMODS are, I find, a right pain in the ass, as they're only readable by OBMM, and for seemingly no good reason - you could just have easily supported plain .7z/.zip archives with an "omod data" folder (with the contents being equivalent to the contents of "omod conversion data" folders), but for some reason this wasn't chosen. I can't stand it when programs introduce new file formats when they're not necessary, it just complicates everything so much more, and that's part of the reason BAIN is so great IMHO. No having to re-compress archives when you've downloaded them. I am dismayed that FOMM decided to go the same route...

Apologies if this came across as a bash-OBMM/FOMM-in-favour-of-WB post, but it's just my opinion that there's little reason to port an app if something already exists that does the same job better. :shrug:

FOMODs = OMODs if I understand Kaburke correctly he is offering to make it backward compatible to work with OMODs too.

The advantage of the File Manager over BAIN is that you can go through your data folder loose files and if all is installed with FOMM then you can opt which omod overwrite which other omod on a file by file basis. It will even recognize loose unassociated files.

Least of all - someone expressing interest in doing the work and for a time anyway willing to support - how often does that happen for a tool? I'm the one who kinda suggested this poll - I thought for certain this would be taken well - guess not.

I think one of the reasons that most Fallout 3 users use it instead of Gary Bash is because of how well this works. Oblivion/Fallout such different mindsets of the users at times.

Learning a bit more about FOMM was nice - so to be clear, I can make individual files take precedence from different mods?

For e.g., if I have QTP3 and Vibrabnt Textures, and I want particular textures from QTP3, and particular ones from Vibrant Textures, I can do that with FOMM? I guess I can't do that with BAIN, can I?

OBMM is just fine, until you run into mod installation problems, and have to troubleshoot. Then you wish you never even bothered... so I completely disagree with your statement...

Well you can if they are packaged in seperate fomods yes.

The only way to do that with BAIN is to break the archives up, which was my whole inspiration for http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/957424-custom-bain-projects/.

Plus I know that BOSS is due for an update in format but I wish that BOSS worked like it does with this anyway - giving you a list of what is wrong and then telling you how it will change it if you opt to.

If I understand what you are saying....this feature alone would make it something I would use.

Regards,

Hem

Seems like lot of work to port this to Oblivion if it's only marginally better than BAIN. It would probably be less work to give BAIN the ability to manage individual files, or at least display file size information in the conflict window.

To begin, the port wouldn't force a new file format onto Oblivion users. Part of the port would be to make FOMM able to use OMODs, as they currently are. With respect to file formats, there seems to be some misunderstanding. FOMods aren't another file format, they are exactly what you describe: a simple compressed archive (any format you want) that contains a well-known info folder whose contents are roughly equivalent to "omod conversion data," so no need to be dismayed


No worries, the whole point of this thread is to see if this is how people feel.



Yes, FOMM allows that sort of file customization.

As an aside, I'm not trying to convince anyone that FOMM (or OBMM) is better than any other manager. I'm simply trying to guage the level of interest in the possible port of FOMM to Oblivion. So, if you don't think it's a good idea let me know; I shan't take it personally.