Now I`m finally ready to present a project to you I was working on for almost a year: OBLIVION EVOLUTION, a collection of some of the finest Oblivion mods, carefully crafted into an homogenous entity under the guideline of a well-thought design philosophy, fully customizable by the user and open to updates on a regular basis. But why did I name this project OBLIVION EVOLUTION? Because an evolution (in its general meaning) could be understood as a metaphor for the process of modding itself, for what happens to games, when they offer the possibility of being modified by a group of dedicated modders: they become somehow fluid, as their parts are set into motion, constantly challenged by concepts and visions, slowly evolving into something more advanced, polished and sophisticated. An evolution is a process, that has a beginning... but no end.
The following days after the release of this thread more than hundred people will get requests for a permission to feature their creations. I`m taking the legal stuff very serious and I`m ready to take a lot of trouble to be sure I have the permission for every mod I want to feature. To serve this purpose I`ve checked up every single readme I came across and gathered all the necessary information (contact data, legal info, and credits) for such an enormous undertaking. The result is a huge excel sheet with everything I need to keep track of. Please respect, that I won`t publish the definitive list of mods I plan to feature. The example screenshots you can find below do not reflect the final status of the mod setup! Now, before you judge too hastily, please give me an opportunity to introduce my project to you in detail. I`m sure you`ll like the concept and its realization, as I put a lot of thinking and effort in it.

Beside the documentation all content Oblivion Evolution features or relies on is listed in the Wrye Bash Installers section. There is a logic order for the categories (which are indicated by markers) you can read about in the "Customizability" paragraph above. Please note, that the text below isn`t supposed to be a complete list of featured mods. Not all of them are listed here! Furthermore, not every author of these mods did get a permission request yet. With 100 featured mods sometimes created by several authors this process takes some time, as I`m sending most of the requests to their TES Nexus account, their Bethesda Softworks Official Forums account and (if available) to their email account. So you`ll get the requests sooner or later.

I call the first category on top of the list Prerequisites. The listed installers of this subcategory do not necessarily install their signified content, instead their main purpose is to provide information about the additional software Oblivion Evolution relies on. However, these installers contain a folder with the downloaded archive of this software and (as all the other installers) the software`s documentation in a separate folder. They also feature the same database functionality as the other installers, so you can quickly look up who is responsible for this software or check up, if an update is available by copying the link to the download location into your browser. There are several subcategories to the "Prerequisites" category: "Mod Managing and Sorting Tools" like Wrye Bash, "Editing Tools" like TES4LODGen, "Script Extenders" like OBSE and of course "OBSE Plugins" like the Oblivion Stutter Remover or MenuQue just to name two of them.

The second category is called Unofficial Patches and contains the collected efforts of Quarn, Kivan and Arthmoor.

The third category is called Minor Improvements and Fixes. It features mods that allow you to skip the game`s introduction and get to the sewer exit immediately, that extend your FOV slightly (I made sure there is no clipping), that get rid of annoying messages (like "Loading area" for example), that smooth out the vanity camera, etc.

The fourth category is called UI Improvements. It`s supposed to feature DarNified UI and a lot of the brilliant work by TheNiceOne: Enhanced Hotkeys, HUD Status Bars, Display Stats, Map Marker Overhaul and Quest Log Manager. Also included are the DarNified UI Additions and Config Addon, Spell Delete, A to take All, and Toggleable Quantity Prompt. I think most of these mods are well-known.

The fifth category is called Improvements to Sound and Music. There`s not much yet in this category, because mods, which add new sounds and music do not belong here, but to another category I call "New Content" (more information about this category will follow below). However, there are two mods in the fifth category that I regard as must-haves, both created by side777: Better Music System and EAX Control. The first one does quite a lot, but most of all it gets rid of an annoying side effect of combat music: warning you about incoming attacks. Surprisingly getting hit by someone while walking unsuspecting through the wilderness is now what it should be: an experience, that makes you scream in sudden terror. But you don`t want to miss EAX Control too. At least if you ever entered an ayleid ruin while running this mod. This mod adds so much to the atmosphere, you really have to hear it, to believe it.

The sixth category called Visual Improvements has four subcategories: Character, Texture Replacers, Environments and LOD. The subcategory called Character improves the visual aspects of the player character and the NPCs. Featured are common body replacers for male and female bodies but with underwear (no nudity here, sorry). A combination of different face texture replacers can also be found here. Mods, which allow to put your shield and one-handed weapons on your back are included too in this subcategory. The subcategory Texture Replacers features big mods like Qarl`s Texture Pack 3 Redimized and Bomret`s Texture Pack for Shivering Isles. For textures not covered by these mods there are a lot of smaller texture replacers like Improved Trees and Flora, Improved Fruits, Vegetables and Meats, Improved Amulets and Rings, and many others etc. The subcategory Environments is supposed to feature mods like All Natural, Immersive Interiors, Animated Windows Lighting System and Chimneys, Enhanced Vegetation, Enhanced Water and two gems by Phitt: Falling Stars and Autumn Trees. The last subcategory called LOD should feature texture replacers for the LOD landscapes and of course Really AEVWD, the latter being deactivated by default because of the hardware it demands.

The seventh category is called New Content. This category is supposed to feature mods, which add or completely change existing content. It`s a part of Oblivion Evolution`s design philosophy to be cautious regarding this aspect (read the "Evolution, Not Revolution" paragraph above), but I created this category, because I`m planing to add more custom content mods in the future, most of all quest or landscape mods. There are several subcategories like Armor & Clothing and Sound & Music, but there is not much to be found here yet.

The eight and last category at the bottom of the installers list features mods, which change the gameplay. Therefore it`s called Gameplay Improvements. This category affects more than any other the very core of Oblivion and it relies more than any other on subjective preference and because of that is highly controversial. I was not even sure if I should[implement such a category at all (read the "Evolution, Not Revolution" paragraph above if you haven`t read it already). But I assume that most gamers think a good game is at least a game that is challenging (at least more challenging and less prone to exploits than the original Oblivion) and my mod choices in this category are guided by exactly this concept of gameplay (read more about this aspect in the "Challenging Gameplay" paragraph above).

There are three subcategories here. The first one is called Anti-Exploit Mods. The mods featured here are so far: AV Uncapper Settings (based on JRoush`s AV Uncapper), Magick Overlap, Stickier Enemy Targeting and of course Phitt`s Phighting Phixes. I want to explain shortly what the benefits of AV Uncapper are, because it`s one of the most overlooked mods out there. Its achievement is to finally allow to weaken overpowered spell effects like Resist Magic, Reflect Damage, Spell Reflect, etc. I remember these spell effects ruining my OOO gameplay as I was able to kill Lord Volmyr very early by simply stacking Resist Magic. I could get practically invulnerable at a very early stage. With my AV Uncapper settings if you get to a a value of 100 with Resist Magic the damage you receive from offensive spells won`t be reduced by 100% anymore (making you immune to all magic attacks), but only by 33%. This applies to all similar spell effects. There is a disadvantage to this mod though, but I won`t talk about it now, because I would have to get too much into details. However, I think most of the gamers want to have these anti-exploit mods active to have a more challenging, a more skill-based gameplay.

The second subcategory is called Minor Gameplay Changes. This is pretty self-explanatory. Mods like SPAWN, Cava Obscura and Soulgem Magic are featured here, most of them not being very controversial, right?

At good last, there is the subcategory called Major Gameplay Changes, at the bottom of the installers list. The main feature of this category is Oscuro`s Oblivion Overhaul with carefully updated or replaced parts of its bundled mods (OMOBS, Harvest Flora, OOO Geomancy & Gem Dust, Enhanced Economy instead of Living Economy, and Drop Lit Torches OBSE). But why did I choose OOO? Because it handles the most controversial gameplay feature of the original Oblivion (the player-centric game progression) as good as no other mod available. Needless to say, OOO is also one of the most popular Oblivion mods ever conceived, a mod that most of the dedicated mod users at least played through one time. It`s also the backbone of the very popular FCOM, the "nonplusultra" for a lot of experienced mod users. So all that speaks for itself. But the meain reason for me is its way to create a world-centric game progression and offering a more challenging gameplay experience. Two other mods featured in this category are bg2408`s highly appreciated Race Balancing Project (only the Light version though) and Less Annoying Magic Experience. The latter improves the basic gameplay of spellcasting and does not change it completely, so I decided to include it as these two mods are made to fit together. Last but not least there is Oblivion XP (of course incl. its update by Andalaybay), perhaps the most popular leveling mod available. At least this way indicated by a recent poll. But it`s not the popularity or the high standard of quality that made me choose it for this mod compilation. It was the second goal of gameplay improvement Oblivion Evolution is focused beside a more challenging, less exploitable game: an extended level progression. Oblivion XP is giving me the right tools to structure the level and skill progression, because I want to make it not just more desirable, but necessary to level beyond level 20. I do see the strenghts and weaknesses of both leveling systems (the original one and the classic XP leveling) though, but I decided to give preference to Oblivion XP because it makes every action you do meaningful to your progression. There was almost no reward for making quests in the original game, but now you can adjust how much the game rewards you for making quests, after all this is an integral part of Oblivion. Oblivion XP will of course (as most other mods) be adjusted carefully to support the overallgameplay vision of Oblivion Evolution.

PLEASE READ THROUGH THESE NOTES BEFORE CHECKING THE LIST BELOW!

• As for now there are only three permission status categories to serve the purpose of an overview. Don`t forget: If a mod is colored in green, this can be due to several reasons (see legend below).
  
• Some mod authors stated they will make their decision to give permission depend on the permission for another mod their own mod relies on. In this case I marked the mod green (see legend below). Note, that there still can be other conditions to meet too.
  
• I included a version number of each mod in the list below. However, this doesn`t mean at all I got permissions for a particular mod version. All content Oblivion Evolution features will be updated shortly before release.
  
• As previously announced I decided to the major gameplay-changing mods for the first release. That`s why they are struck out. I kept Enhanced Economy, Harvest Flora and Drop Lit Torches OBSE though (which were supposed to update parts of OOO) and moved them to other categories. I`ll probably exclude some of the minor gameplay-changing and anti-exploit mods too.
  
• Please respect the decision of the mod authors regarding the permission, whether it is given or refused.

Permission Status Categories:

• Permission given / Permission given under conditions / Permission not needed
  
• Permission outstanding
  
• Permission refused / Permission refused temporarily

Now I need your feedback on this mod setup mainly regarding the following areas:

1. Removals: Which mods are known to cause issues? Which problems do they cause and how critical are they? Is a removal justified?
2. Exchanges: Are there mods which do the same but are better than the ones listed?
3. Suggestions: Are there any mods you consider essential that I forgot?

I`ve spent a lot of time in the seemingly bottomless pit of TES Nexus and in the "Oblivion Mods" forum the last twelve months. Primarily out of interest, but also to acquire the knowledge to able to pick the right mods for such a project. At the end there are almost a hundred of them (at least for now). To come up with the above concepts took a lot of time too, mostly lost to trial and error. But putting everything together turned to be out the real timesink. It included making all the mods BAIN-ready, adjusting them (I`ve studied every single INI the mods come up to not miss somehting and be sure everything is adjusted right, that is true to the overall vision of OBLIVION EVOLUTION), collecting the right data from over a hundred readmes, feeding the database with all the information it needed, writing remarks for every single mod including the documentation regarding the adjustments I made. Needless to say I endorsed every mod I want to see featured. But apart from coming up and actually realizing such a crazy project I have some "real" contributions in terms of mods to offer specifically made for OBLIVION EVOLUTION. I`m proud to present them to you now after such a long time of keeping them back.

OBLIVION EVOLUTION: THE GLORY OF CYRODIIL
"Oblivion Evolution: The Glory of Cyrodiil" is a successor to the main menu background video replacer I made three years ago, but this time it`s made specifically for OBLIVION EVOLUTION as you`ll notice after seeing the title screen. You`ll see the awakening of Cyrodiil in the dawn, Lake Rumare shimmering in the morning sun, rays of light falling through golden leaves in the Great Forest, the sun wandering above the Imperial City, blooming meadows with colorful plants peacefully swaying in the wind, a shining moon floating in the skies and finally the sun disappearing behind the mountains of the Colovian Highlands. All that in stunning Full HD (1920x1080) with graphical enhancements from several mods enabled.
After keeping this baby back since last fall I`m very happy to finally present this mod to you. You can watch it on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o245FzwpUc (including artifacts and overall bluriness, that comes with YouTube compression) or download the video (in the original quality) http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TFYGFGKJ. Here`s some additional info on the mod:

• The name of the mod comes from the song used: "The Glory of Cyrodiil", composed by Jeremy Soule, who is responsible for all the beautiful music of "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion".
  
• You see a lot of mods in action while watching this video, especially these ones: "Fintilgin`s ForeverView", "Beaming Sunglare", "Enhanced Vegetation", "Water Reflection Blur", "Deathb0rns Modified Qarls LOD Normal Maps", and "Really AEVWD".
  
• The video you see comes in two parts like the one from the original game. You will be able to skip the dawn scene and jump right to the title screen when you start up the game. Or you jump to the title screen by simply pressing Escape.

Unfortunately I found that the main menu doesn`t seem to support BIK files in a higher resolution than 720p. The video seems to get downscaled by the game, but nevertheless looks beautiful. If you find a way to make the game show BIK files in a larger resolution, please let me know.

OBLIVION EVOLUTION: INTERFACE TWEAKS AND SETTINGS
I worked really hard on this one. It builds upon "DarNified UI" and its purpose is to make the interface even more subtle and immersive. Some of the outstanding features are:

• A new standard font for DarNified UI. A lot of XMLs needed to be adjusted for this. See example screenshots of the new font in action: http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2051/13582842.jpg, http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/725/12350931.jpg, http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7493/98418645.jpg, http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/6691/96462840.jpg, http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7041/92539609.jpg, http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5245/80753195.jpg, http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/913/77517146.jpg, http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/4397/15926519.jpg, http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/9561/56017007.jpg, http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/3651/54531002.jpg, http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7274/89458203.jpg, http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/4586/72894960.jpg.
  
• A new visual appearance of dialog text (click http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3807/45259634.jpg for an example screenshot) and info moved to top of the screen to prevent screen clutter (click http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2489/71467413.jpg for an example screenshot)
  
• A streamlined HUD inspired by "Immersive Interface" by h4rfleur (click http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6228/interfacegb.jpg for an example screenshot)
  
• A subtle, barely noticeable crosshair to further enhance immersion (click http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/8834/62706137.jpg for an example screenshot)

OBLIVION EVOLUTION: LOADING SCREEN TEXTS
I always liked the idea of being to able to read useful hints while loading. This mod features over a hundred new loading screen texts specifically for use with OBLIVION EVOLUTION. The mod contains:

• Corrections to hints from the original game that were proven to be wrong
  
• Adjustments to old loading screen texts to fit the changes made by mods
  
• Hints to unique features of mods that are part of OBLIVION EVOLUTION
  
• Additional hints to almost every key binding, especially those who are introduced by mods that are part of OBLIVION EVOLUTION
  
• Additional hints to gameplay mechanics, mostly taken from UESP Wiki

All the information the user gets through the loading screens are 100% correct now, but he also learns more than ever before on the core mechanics of the game.
Please note that all of these mod contributions are going to be released as standalone packages for those people who don`t want to use OBLIVION EVOLUTION.

OBLIVION EVOLUTION is finished to 90%. Now, what`s left to do?

• Getting permissions for the mods I plan to feature
  
• There are some minor bugs left to fix
  
• I need to figure out how to make an installer out of all the data and how to be able to create separate installation routines for people who use the retail and Steam version of Oblivion and have or don`t have Shivering Isles and the additional DLCs
  
• Writing a short documentation on Oblivion Evolution itself explaining its features and how the mod setup can be customized
  
• Creating a printer-friendly keyboard layout with instructions on key bindings
  
• Creating a separate documentation including all the contributing mod authors and their mods (data basically copied from the OBLIVION EVOLUTION database)
  
• Betatesting the game itself

LATEST POSTS ON PROGRESSION

This paragraph includes statements by myself to clarify some things after reading how people reacted (both positively and negatively) to this project. I posted these statements in the last thread and maybe they got lost between all other posts, so I`m gonna add them here, because I think they can be useful to get an idea of my goals:

STATEMENT POSTED ON 30 JULY 2011
STATEMENT POSTED ON 02 AUGUST 2011
STATEMENT POSTED ON 30 SEPTEMBER 2011