Mod Help: First own playthrough : IV

» Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:15 am

Hello,
I've played this game a few times on my friends console, and decided to buy it off Steam. I decided to do a few mods at start, as a few things were lacking, and just asking for advice on them, especially regarding compatibility while it downloads.

Mods I'm looking at are (high to low interest):
Unofficial Patch and SI Patch
OBSE and OBMM
Deadly Reflex
Unnecessary Violence II
((HUD Status Bars, Drop Lit Torches, Nifse, DR6-Nifse Compatibility Patch, 1st Person Legs, MenuQue)) - all required for DR and UV
Oblivion XP
Qarl Texture Pack
Francesco's Leveled Creatures
Darnified UI
Quest Award Leveller
Color Map
At Home Alchemy
Streamline

Any idea if I'll have any issues with these?
Any suggestion for install and load orders?
Any better looking faces/hair mods which I could add without issues?

Thanks for any help, going to be a month without internet so going to use this to kill time.

» Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:43 am

If you're just getting into modding for the first time, I'd highly recommend using Wrye Bash's BAIN to handle your mod installs rather than OBMM. It takes more work to setup initially, but it saves you a ridiculous amount of time and effort down the road. I found http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35230 extremely helpful to get started understanding it. OBMM can still be a good thing to install though due to its capabilities to unpack and repack BSAs - that's the only thing I use it for.

Many of the things you list are staples. Duke Patrick's series of mods for melee, archery, etc may be worth considering as alternatives to Deadly Reflex depending on what style of combat you prefer. I'm not as familiar with UV.

Make sure to get the Unofficial Patch Supplementals. For Quest Award Leveller, there are a bazillion versions, but you'll probably want the one from the Nexus which says that it now supports battlehorn castle.

I'm sure others will chime in with links to other lists of mods/etc that you might be interested in.

» Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:08 pm

If this is your first time modding-- hell, if this is your first time modding Oblivion; you might want to avoid Deadly Reflex, and Unnecessary violence. I mean just look at all of those extra things you had to download, and install just for them. Last I heard DR 6 was still pretty buggy, The new version of UV just came out and I haven't really been staying up to date with it, but I know the earlier version was very finicky and complex, andI know that there's special patches and stuff you have to do in order to get it working with DR. Personally I've found the Duke Patrick mods to be more stable, tactical, and realistic whereas with DR/UV a lot of it is flashy and over the top. They have some great features though, and they are very good mods, I just don't know if you'll find them very "new user friendly."

STUFF FOR NEW MOD USERS:
Alright, let's see if I can find something I said before for a quick copy paste.... ahh, here:

My usual copy/pastes for the common newbie mod request topics can be found below. The most important thing to remember is to take it easy, and take it slow. Strat off with just some small well known mods that are known to be clean, reliable, and easy to install. Get a taste for the little mods and tweaks you might want. As you need to slowly look into utilities and stuff you might need. You see this little mod you really want that requires OBSE, then look into OBSE for a bit. A week later you see another mod that mentions Wrye Bash a lot look into wrye bash. Once you have like 10-20 mods look into BOSS for sorting that load order. etc.

Basically start out slow, install small safe things, slowly expand your knowledge as you need to, and don't add a bunch of mods at once.
If you just decide to install FCOM, 8 quest mods, 3 texture overhauls, 5 gameplay mods, 4 race mods, all the utilities, extenders, and potential requirements you might need and do all that right off the bat then of course it's going to be intimidating. Just take it slow, do some searching and research, install the mods YOU really want, and do it all at your own pace. Personally I didn't install a major gameplay mod until like 1 year and half after I started modding, and I didn't install OOO+MMM until 2 years after.

GENERIC PART THAT EVERYONE GETS:

If you want the most help possible it helps to give as much information, and uniqueness as possible.

Here's my generic written thing for these topics. if you want something specific give more details. I ask some questions in the below text as a small guide line. You can answer them if you wish:

Spoiler

Lists and resources for finding many popular mods, and some good mods:
(note the distinction between the two, don't just follow mindless peer pressure, try and make your own opinions and find what you'll like)

List of lists:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1010109
Top 100
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/top/alltime.php
Files of the months:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/filesofthemonth.php
Hall of fame:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.HOF
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/categories.php, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/tags/search.php, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/advancedsearch.php

General help in terms of installing, utilities, workshops, etc.:

http://tescosi.com/wiki/Main_Page/
http://www.oblivionmodwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page
http://tesalliance.org/forums/ (Check The Enclave forum, the Oblivion forum, or the Voice actor forum depending on your pursuits)
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/forum/87-iv-oblivion/ (Hardware/software for non mod related issues, Mods for mod users, Construction set for making mods.)

List of topics exactly like ~~yours~~ generic pleadings for "Any mods?" that have already been answered:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1072579-the-any-mods-list-of-topics/
Read the AZERessential topics to get the basic "get wryebash, OBMM, OBSE, start slow" basic advice for starters recommendations

If you want any further help I suggest you tell us about yourself; what you like and what you're looking for... Here's some questions to get you started:

Have you played Oblivion already?
What sort of things interest you?
What type of Character do you usually play? (good/evil, theif/mage, roleplayer/random-no-story-hack-and-slasher?)
Are there specific types of mods you think would interest you? (Quests, graphic mods, gameplay mods, overhauls, etc.)
When did you leave?
What did you not like about Oblivion? What did Oblivion not have or need more of?
Male or female character?

For the occasional "What are your must haves?"

Mostly quest mods: http://kno.li/i

My favorite quests are:
http://theelderscrolls.info/?go=dlfile&fileid=349 (my most favorite)
http://www.tesnexus.com/modules/members/index.php?id=125368
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21989
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17448
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6977
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6855
Ihttp://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19591

[b]Gameplay mods:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25462
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25835
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22894
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25844
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25844
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26196
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18442
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3409
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21862(good for troubleshooting)
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20736
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20807
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20371 (Needed for Integration)
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22124 (Needed for Integration)

I'm mostly a quest mod player and I recently posted a big rundown for most of them that I've playedhttp://thenexusforums.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=157600&view=findpost&p=1349075 and http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=924363&topic=51137901.

(Some of these are probably outdated by now)
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=15598757
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1147875-which-magic-mod/page__view__findpost__p__16778426
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=1073167&view=findpost&p=15602927 (Don't really want a lot top 10's or simple lists but I'm desperate for cop/pastes at the moment)
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=1075680&view=findpost&p=15650213