Hello! After several months without a functioning PC, I was forced to stop playing one of my favorite video games, of course: Oblivion. I mainly posted this topic in order to refresh my memory about some "must have" mods. I remember having FCOM and the other mods that are involved with it such as MMM/WarCry/Frans etc. But maybe I can enhance my future game play with your recommended mods. Thanks!

You can search the forums for threads with titles that contain "essential" and come up with a pretty good list. You can also read the first four or five pages of this forum and get a pretty good idea.

Happy hunting!

gothemasticator

A few of my favorites:

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=3953 by Oscuro, dev_akm, MadCat221. Not just a 'creature-adding' mod, not just a 'difficulty' mod, not just a 'gameplay-tweaking' mod, Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is actually one of the finest finest roleplaying mods around. http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=1757 by Martigen, Corepc Dev_Akm Shadowborn is the perfect complement to Oscuro, adding much-needed spontaneity to Oscuro's static world. Crank Martigen's mod all the way up and Oblivion will feel as wonderfully unpredictable as an MMO. These mods are so inseparable to me I count them as one.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=2764 by, of course, DarN.
This essential mod goes a long way toward making Oblivion's consolized interface useable. Configurable from within the game via a menu.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14065 by tej?n, or http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13879 bu ABO.
Two excellent character-levelling mods that do away with stat management, excel spreadsheets, visits to Wiki pages, etc, to research "builds". With these mods a player can just play and let a mod handle leveling seamlessly and invisibly in the background. I tend to prefer RL but I am using nGCD in my current game and am very impressed.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14304 by tej?n.
This mod allows the player to control the speed of advancement of each skill. Easily configurable via an .ini.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11237 by tej?n. (My games would be unplayable without tej?n.)
Willpower again has an affect on the player's vulnerability to magic, as in previous ES games.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7484 by Deathless Aphrodite.
Makes the player lose fatigue when running. When the player's fatigue hits 0 he starts to walk. Also allows the player to sprint for a brief time.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25078 by TheNiceOne.
Using this mod merchants' gold goes up and down with each trade. Also does away with the haggle slider (what a relief!) Allows the player to specify how much gold they recive from looting containers, enemies, as quest rewards, etc. All configurable via .ini.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4387 by CorePC. Adds much-needed life to Cyrodiil's roads. The merchants are great if you like to spend extended time away from cities as I do.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16513 by Bananasplit, Wolfslady, Reckless, SilentResident, Nernie, Vorians and last but not least, Ismelda.
The way the cities of Tamriel should have looked. Spend hours wandering around like a tourist, awestruck at how different (and gorgeous) everything looks. Comes in modular form - you can choose to redo all of Cyrodiil's cities or just one. It's your choice. When I'm not using Better Cities I'm using Arthmoor's http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1019807, which tranfers the vanilla cities into the Cyrodiil worldspace. Wonderful for those of us who love to ride horses through town.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=942911, also by Arthmoor, adds Morrwind-style transport to the game. A nicely immersive touch.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=984109 by XMarksTheSpot, Brumbek & Ismelda is another mod I can't play without anymore. It adds windows that turn off and on in synch with day/night cycles and also, optionally, smoke from chimneys. Comes with a nice variety of window color tints too.

Emma has recently released one of her wonderful companion mods for Oblivion, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28977, an Alchemist-oriented companion with a mind of her own (and, as a bonus, dialog voiced by Emma herself).

My favorite armor mod is Brash's http://oblivion.brashendeavors.net/bows/. A great mod for anyone who loves light, ranger-ish amror and slightly more natural, non-fantasy-type bows. I also love the ranger camp just outside Weye.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1073491 by onra. If you like to explore, this is the mod series for you. Replaces the 'placeholder' landscape of Valenwood and Elseweyre (and, soon, Summerset Isles) with fully-realized land, ready to be modded. Which goes perfectly with:

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1072969 by Side777, which adds seven ships of varying sizes you can pilot around all this new coastline.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25023 by Iliana.
An ambitious project whose aim is to recreate the province of Elseweyr, home to Khajiits and, of course, Moon Sugar. Compatible with Tamriel Heightmaps.

After the basic FCOM, utils (Streamline, OSR, etc):

DUKE PATRICK'S COMBAT MODS - this is mainly why i returned to playing OB and i simply refuse to play without them. combat with Duke's mods make me focus on the screen action so much my eyes tear up during battles. lol. im gonna have to get eyeglasses eventually. damn you Spooky!

May I suggest the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7819 by Blackie.

Thanks for all the help, Ill be sure to give those mods a look. Bump for anymore feedback

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21104 - required by many mods, and has plenty to offer in its own right

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14259 - makes harvesting flora for alchemy less tedious
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17557 - makes npc's inventories more varied with items from whatever supported mods you have installed
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3409 - makes the inventory less cluttered
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9835 - sort your loot into containers for you, so you can go back to adventuring faster
http://www.dreamingthepyramid.net/TNR-home.html - makes npc faces more interesting
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12859 - makes buying/selling much simpler when you can hold ctrl to buy/sell one item and shift to buy/sell the entire stack (disclaimer, I'm the author)