Hi all,

Since I put Oblivion down for a while and recently picked it back up, a lot of the mods I am using have updated versions. And for all I know there are other mods that serve similar purposes that might be desired, so I think I want to start clean. I want to keep things streamlined so the fewer the better. My problems seem to snowball the more mods I have.

These mods are absolute, must have for me. If there is something similar but better than please let me know:

Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul
Mart's Monster Mod
CraftyBits
Vim and Vigor Advanced
100% Harvest chance
Crowded Roads
ChaseCameraMod
NoMerchentBarterpvssyr
SleepRestAnytime
Living Economy
Spell Delete
Natural_Vegetation_by_Max_Tael.esp
Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp
Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp
Natural_Weather_HDR_by_Max_Tael.esp
nGCD
Enhanced Grabbing
RENS Guard Overhaul
Kobu's Lighter Backpack Mod
Alternative Start by Robert Evrae
za_bankmod

So my main desires are the overhauls, various tweaks that I cant live without and graphical enhancements. I am going to look for the recent versions of these but if there is something that perhaps another mod does better, or a mod that combines any of these, those are the types of tips I would appreciate.

Replace Living Economy with Enhanced Economy, though you can keep the Items plugin. EE may also have a banking system, though I'm not sure, so double check that befire removing za_bankmod.

Make sure you're using Ryu Doppler's fixed version of Natural Weather, though no doubt others will advise using an *ahem* more up-to-date weather mod.

An alternative to Natural Vegetation is Enhanced Vegetation, which offers much more options and better LOD compatibility. I personally don't use any since I did comparisons in game, and found that with the UL mods the added impact is very little IMHO.

Cobl includes spell delete, and is awesome all-round, so consider that.

You should ditch the item plugin as well, since EE have added its own (the local economy feature) - which has the advantage over LE by working for all mod-added items (like MMM and OOO loot) and mod-added merchants, and being easily configurable.

Note that with EE, you have a setting for how much the merchants will pvssyr, so there's no reason to use the NoMerchentBarterpvssyr mod. Instead just set the barterpvssyr setting in EE to a low value.

EE doesn't have any banking included, but recognizes za_bankmod and is therefore compatible.


Yep. Go for Enhanced Weather if you want the best simple (as in easy to install and use) weather mod, or All Natural if you want to go all the way.


Also, update Crowded Roads to Crowded Roads Revisited. It works better and avoids savegame bloat.

Ooh, good to know. I'll remove my copy now then.

Excellent, this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for!

Thanks.

What about the Guard overhauls? Is Rens still the way to go?

And another one I forgot to mention...the keychain. Is that included in any of the popular ones anymore or do I still need it? Not that its a big deal being a pretty minor mod.

If you're going to use Darnified UI, then you won't need keychain since its possible to expand/collapse categories of items in inventory.

Ah, another good call. Yea Darnified is another must have for me, can hardly stand the vanilla UI anymore. :talk:

FCOM.


Just started a thread, as I would also like to know!


Revised or Revisited? Anyway, I believe there is a more recent version, yes.


Enhanced Economy, definitely.


Enhanced, Enhanced, and All Natural, I would suggest.


+ Progress, for greater control over many factors.


Revamped, IIRC. Slightly different, but much more flexible. In fact, it includes a (better, IMO) version of that alternative start as one of many options, as well as the vanilla start.

Hope that helps.