Ugh probably a horrificly overasked question but i have spent 12 hours following different mods and im finding the whole process confusing.

The first thing i tried to do was to install the Convergence mod following outdated and then an advanced forum post somewhere and you were expected to hash together these 2 so that they made sense. The downside is that i dont have the skills. I followed it word for word and oblivion started, but many textures were invisible

So i did a fresh install.

I think Convergence isnt worth the effort but theres so much others around.

Has anyone got a good selection of non-conflicting mods setup and working well? Is there anything i can google for this style of mod list or on these forums?

Also it occured to me, why is the whole mod process so awkward? Id have though in 2006, it was new, fragmented and so on. But in 2010 id have thought that something like the entire FilePlanet Hall of Fame would have been merged and called an "overhaul" as opposed to mods calling themselfs overhauls.

Sigh

I realise that this is perhaps not the most marketable of perspectives, but it is mine, so there you go:

1. Freedom of choice is a good thing. The more the better, in fact.
2. That reading text files / web pages / forum threads is necessary, is not a bad thing.

Besides, it really isn't all that difficult. It needn't be "awkward" in the slightest. People make it that way for themselves, is all.

Unfortunately, There is no way you are going to get the answer you are looking for. There are literally thousands and thousands of mods out there and no two load orders are the same. FCOM is not the best place to start if you are new to mods. I'd suggest browsing some of the top mods on TESnexus. Keep it simple at first and slowly build your load order. http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/index

The idea of mods is that you can pick and choose the mods you like. I love searching for new interesting mods. But if you do want to steal someone else's setup you'll need to tell us what kind of mods you want.

in my opinion building a modded Oblivion is only awkward if you decide you want it all immediately. if, instead you decide to try a few mods that deal with the things that most irritate you, then build slowly as you play (I mean over weeks and months0, you will gain the skills you need progressively. At least that's what worked for me.

my oblivion mod using history

1. played 6 months with vanilla.
2. Installed Unofficial oblivion patch and Kvatch Rebuilt. (Which had just been released)
3. Say a month later I grasped the nettle and installed OOO along with OBMM.
4. By 3 months later I had the above mods plus Tamriel Travellers, Bookjackets, a spell delete mod, Salmo the Bakerr and a book placement mod.

Things just kept going from there.