Rationale: I am installing Oblivion again to take advantage of Deadly Reflex 6, Unnecessary Violence 2, Nehrim, and whatever other mods might be fun. I've been away from the modding scene for a bit, and I need to get caught up on utilities. I think it would be helpful to create a comprehensive list of utilities that the community sees as must-haves when it comes to modding Oblivion.

What I have so far:

OBSE19 (when it's out of beta)
WRYE Bash (I'm not sure where this is right now)
NifSE (When it comes out of beta)
OBGE (not sure about this one)
OBMM (or some mod manager of some sort)

What do you guys think? What am I missing? And could someone fill me in on where WRYE Bash is at the moment?

Thanks

G

Here is a http://www.tesivpositive.animolious.com/?page=programs_and_utilities just for you.

Wrye Bash is very active and at v 287. If used properly, you may not need OBMM. There is an active thread on this very forum, most probably on the first page about WB.

You also need BOSS, and if you have MS Word, also get BOMM.

Also get TES4LODGen.

Insanity Sorrow's Oblivion Launcher is a nice way to launch all of these. Search for it on TesNexus.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1112746-relz-tes4files-v34/page__p__16323232__fromsearch__1&#entry16323232 is also handy for both weeding out a large mod's unneeded meshes, textures and sounds, and then pack the needed resource files in a BSA.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1074487-relzoblivion-stutter-remover/page__p__15627210__fromsearch__1&#entry15627210 is also a must for a heavily modded game!

Thanks guys. I appreciate it

Perhaps not strictly necessary for mod users, but TES4Edit is an excellent tool, both for modding and for checking conflicts. Also, FormID Finder and RefScope are very useful for checking which mod(s) that affect stuff ingame.

I'm sort of honored that you have NifSE on the list, but it's not really "necessary" at all - you only need it if you want to use a mod that uses it - of which there are currently none. Until UV2 comes out (or someone else beats HeX_0ff to being the first), NifSE will be pretty pointless for a mod user.

Well I see UV2 and Deadly Reflex (doesn't it use NifSE?) as necessary mods themselves so I include NifSE in my necessary list.

DR... might use NifScript (I'm not sure), but not NifSE, I believe. Or, at least, the version of DR that would use NifSE isn't out yet, I'm pretty sure. So kind of the same deal as UV.

Don't forget OBME!

Streamline too. And Fast Exit 2.

There are a few mods I would also suggest using, no matter what (though, do check that any given mod will work with Nehrim, if you are going to play that TC) - however, they're not what you asked for. So, the above, plus those mentioned upthread, and you'll be fine.

Oh, and the 4GB patch, if you have a 64-bit OS, and > 4GB RAM.

edit: I strongly recommend getting used to BAIN (Wrye Bash's inbuilt installation method), and using it for as many mods as possible. Once you get the hang of it, you won't look back.