After trying out fcom I have decided its not for me, I found it simple to get up and running as long as I followed the instructions carefully and while it added a huge amount of content to the game it crashed a few too many times for me and I just didnt seem to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed OOO by itself. I have decided though that I want to keep using overhauls as they make the game game much more exciting and challenging to play. I know that I want to use MMM in conjunction with either OOO or Frans but I do not know which combination is more stable, adds the most new content and is mroe fun. I have read comparisons of the overhauls and what they do to the game and while OOO is great (I know from playing it) and Frans sounds great I am not sure which to use, changing the leveling system is not important as I use Oblivion Xp and while Frans adds many new items and creatures OOO+MMM and Aramanterium would add just as much content.I do not know anything about the combinations of overhauls gameplay wise and how stable they are so im looking for some advice on these two aspects to help me make my decision.

I also thought War-cry looked interesting but to me it just doesnt look like it 'does as much' as Frans or OOO so I'm not too interested in that

Any advice on any of these things would be much appreciated

If you played FCOM then you played OOO.

I have used Frans+MMM and it was very stable. If you decide on this make sure you follow MMM install for Frans instructions as much of Frans is in MMM. And you get to use Frans optimized BSA files just like in FCOM.

That is my recommendation. Frans + MMM. Then add quests and content. Install MOBS and always look for MOBS added content if you can find it as Frans is MOBS based.

The question is, why play 2 when you can play the whole pack! Anyways, it is your decision so I'll answer to your original question.

Frans + MMM is the way to go if you don't want to use FCOM. It is the combination that will add the most to the game out of all the others. If you are looking for a challenge later (and you will when you get to higher levels) start looking for custom quests/dungeons, and mods that make fighting harder (Realistic Fatigue will make you struggle even with the monsters of vanilla Oblivion) and try out other leveling system mods such as Oblivion XP (classic RPG leveling by gaining XP) or nGCD + Progress (and any addon such as skill decay, anyclass, etc) All of these will keep you entertained for a long looong time.

Thanks for the replys

I already use realistic fatigue and oblivion xp so Im all set there

I didnt want to keep using fcom as it crashed a fair few times even though I wrinkled out as many conflicts as possible and set my load order properly etc, at one point it crashed the entire main questline for me, I think it was a conflict between fcom and another mod but I didnt want to go hunting down this mod as I have over 200 installed so simply not using fcom seemed the easiest choice for me but I wanted to continue using overhauls

It sounds like Frans+MMM is the best option so it looks like I will be using that, thanks for the advice

I use over a 100 mods too, but I never have had a crash with FCOM. But if you just feel lazy to go hunting for the wrong mod (I understand, 200 mods is just way too much to look for compatibility issues) However, I would recommend two things if you ever want to go back to play FCOM:

1. Post your load order so that other people can tell you (although if you use BOSS everything should be fine) but maybe they can spot any compatibility issues for you.
2. When you use BOSS, you should read the comments under each mod, and look for any red text, maybe there's a hint as to what mod is incompatible.

Whatever you do, happy gaming!

I've always had CTD trouble with Frans+MMM and found OOO+MMM+Armentium extremely stable, though I'm when looking back there may have been other factors involved (getting rid of excess MMM plugins can be a big factor in reducing instability).

There's not really a terrible lot in Frans compared to OOO. If you're looking for a 'lighter' overhaul then Frans is the way to go, but IMO OOO+MMM is better in terms of gameplay content.

FCOM runs very stable for many users, indicating that CTD issue are caused by user side faults and other mods used at the same time rather. In short, FCOM isn't unstable in itself - and if it has issues it's better to report them in the release thread so they can be looked into and fixed rather than judging the mod unstable in future posts based on, in all probability, a faulty install or other mods/issues.



My first CTD with my current char and FCOM+ was at Lvl 8 or something - and then it was an overload CTD not connected to FCOM in particular. Blade Of Mercy played a 19 hours http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1160601-my-new-personal-best-playtime-without-ctd/.

FCOM is more difficult to achieve stability in though than other overhauls and overhaul combination's though because it is larger and more complicated. Which is why it is definitely not something for beginners to dive straight into and even people with a reasonable amount of experience can have problems.

I second this. But me being a beginner myself I instantly jumped to FCOM and got it running at the first attempt. It is time consuming and you need to think a little, but there are plenty of sites that offer guides that are easy to follow.

I have not had any CTD due to FCOM, I used to think it was FCOM but it was actually some mods I had with dirty edits in them.

I do agree that FCOM is a lot easier to install than is made out. The problem is more with the long run stability. In my case I think the crashes I was getting due to FCOM were to do with resource overload and possibly a bottleneck in my PC, as I had quite a lot running alongside FCOM mixed in with a good processor and weak graphics card.

Cleaning mods also helped me a lot to, though I think cutting down to a lighter OOO+MMM combination helped me out moreso.

When it comes to straining the system, there shouldn't be much difference between an OOO+MMM and a core FCOM install, depending on spawn rates in both cases of course. I noticed next to no difference when switching from OOO+MMM to FCOM once upon a time and the main issue is AI processing which should be appr. the same. It shouldn't matter much if the weapon wielded is from Fran's optionals or the enemy wielding it is from WarCry.

I cut out a heap of MMM plug in's at the same time, which I think was a big part of it and lowered the spawn rates even further. So in that sense, no, my issues weren't from FCOM.

Though to be honest, I actually prefer the feel of OOO+MMM rather than FCOM, but that's just personal taste.

Agreed. OOO + MMM is an awesome combination. With FCOM, I really appreciate the addition of WarCry monsters and the compatibility patches for Knights and Mighty Umbra, for example, but it's not that different from OOO+MMM actually (not using Fran's personally, for example).

I agree, OOO + MMM is the best combination if you have never played neither of them.

I just started a new game (finally after weeks of modding and testing) and I'm using Realistic fatigue + nGCD + FCOM. Realistic Fatigue is a pain in the butt combined with nGCD, since using that leveling system your stats are reduced at the beginning, and so is my encumbrance so my fatigue goes down in a sec, with the difficulty slider ramped up, I can only carry 50/90 weight, if I exceed that, I'm done (my damage goes to like 1/5)

The best tactic I use here is, despite my love for melee, I have to use bow and magic. With these couple of mods I am really having fun, since at the beginning you REALLY REALLY have a hard time. It takes me now around 3x the time it used to take me to get out of the tutorial dungeon.