I have now d/l over a dozen mods, some few as OMOD (skip intro and better bodies), and COBL 172 is still zipped. And there is a reason: there is so much stuff in it, with lots of folders... My question is: how exactly do I extract these using the OMM? There are so many sub-folders that i think i have to manually place all in data or whatever, and then there is the question of whether sub-folders with existing names should replace / override them... ?

One of the main reasons i wanted to use this mod is the better faces in there (I dont need the new races whatever, just my Breton lady would look better), so I am just being cautious, coz I've no idea if it will mess with other mods...

BTW, the new and old conflict reports show some conflicts , is there a way to know if any is critical?

many thx!

Read the docs, decide want you want, extract to a temporary folder. In OBMM click 'create', then 'add folder'. Navigate to the temporary folder you created and select it. I had to this for COBL resources only, the main archive is omod and bain ready.

As to over-writes, you have to use your own judgement. The conflict detector only tells you if the files are the same or not.

thx - so its actually not just a simple 'drag to obmm mods folder' and activating it...

i didnt know about having to create a temp file as a trampolin to allow ativating it later.

thx again.

Authors say temp files in their readme's but that is only as a safety net for people that don't fully understand what they are doing.

If you have an omod it is very easy. If using Wrye Bash you read the instructions, decide, click the appropriate plugins in WB, and install.

It is if it's an omod otherwise no.

But COBL is omod-ready, and that means that it is as easy as clicking on create, selecting "Add archive", selecting the compressed 7zip archive and creating the omod answering yes to all questions.

In 99% of the cases, unpacking the downloaded archive first is wrong - or at least a way of making it more difficult to install it correctly - the correct thing is to just add the downloaded archive as described above. The 1% where this is not the best way, is if the mod contains esp files in several directories, and is not omod-ready.

From the OP I assumed the archive in question wasn't omod-ready. My copy of COBL resources (not the main COBL archive) has multiple folders and is neither in BAIN format or omod-ready. If I've confused the issue, apologies.

sorry - i didnot make clear that i dl it as a omod version, i kept it zipped, coz there is so much stuff and i didnt understand well how to use the OMM to include it.

thx NiceOne for the detailed step-by-step - i managed to install the things i wanted to (faces, eyes hair for my character and NPC's, only).

then i tested it for a while and some features just do not seem to apply for hair and eyes.... u just keep pressing the arrows to see other styles and r kinda stuck with one option (well, will start a new character just to mess with these in more detail).

many thx for the attention !

Didn't mean to sound harsh, but I see that the general advice for using OBMM is to extract the archive first, and then use "Add folder". That is, as I wrote in the previous post, a bad advice for 99% of the mods, but still a very common advice. COBL 172 comes as a single, omod-ready archive which should be added the way I said.

Agreed. I personally use it more often since I mostly use gameplay mods in which I wish to edit the ini before creating an omod.