Greetings. OK, I finally decided to put down MW and give an all fairness play to OB. I've NEVER played OB because
I have been to engrossed with MW and I suppose I let to many folks around here sway me away from OB mainly
because of the lacking of lore compared to MW. Iv'e played since the inception stopping once to briefly play FO3.
I'm ready to get back to TES. BUT I read about 11/11/11. Then I realized that I can't play Skyrim until I have played OB.
Or can I?

Anyway, I decided that it's time to go out and get my paws on copy of the 5th anniversary of Oblivion.
Can some one help me get started with some suggestions on a game build? It's probably best
to play vanilla 1st. UNLESS there is a mod or two that I can't and shouldn't play without???

Someone hook me up with some ideas for a 1st time OB player would ya please?
And please please tell me OB is in a 16:9 AR. Thanks! -oldplayer

My current rig: Intel Quad core @ 4.3GHz on an Asus RE with 4 gig of RAM
2x300 gig Raptors @R0/ 1x1 terabyte for back-up.
4870x2 H2O cooled GPU pushing a 30" display @2560x1600
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit OS/G5 mouse/Saitek Eclipse keyboard/
5:1 surround sound

Nice rig. Oblivion should run fine on it; it's capable of slowing down any system if you mod it heavily enough, though.

I'd suggest vanilla to get a feel for it. You should install the Unofficial Oblivion Patch, and the UOP Supplemental, as well as the Unofficial patches for any DLC (like KOTN.) They fix most of the bugs that Bethesda left in the game. Links http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Recommended_Mods.

It works fine in 16x9 or any other "standard" AR. I run it at 1920x1200 on one system and 1920x1080 on the other.

Hey, thanks for the suggestions. I was actually under the impression that OB has a much better engine than
MW and therefore will run smoother with less pull on the cpu. I just did a 'can you run it' test and this thing easily passed
every qual, except one. And that was some warning about W7 was built after OB and therefore may be an issue.

Gonna go find out what that DLC thing is you spoke of and get started. -oldplayer

Just install somewhere other than "Program Files" and you should be fine with W7. Vanilla OB will run fine on that; it's only heavy modding that slows systems down, and yours should handle mods pretty well too.

You've been engrossed with Morrowind for 9 years? WOW! I wish I could do that. You certainly got your money's worth for that game.
Don't get me wrong, Morrowind is a fantastic game. But I can only play one game for so long before I need to move on to something else.

Since you're on a PC, I would highly recommend Darn's UI. I can't play the game without it. The mod will make the UI much more PC friendly. You can try without it for a little bit, but keeping the old UI around isn't going to make your mouse wheel feel any better.

Just be aware that Oblivion is not intended for 16:9 because of when it was made and the standards at that time. It will run fine, though. It was one of the first releases for the Xbox 360 and was optimized for that system, so a bit of tolerance is needed for PC users (okay, maybe more than a bit...)

You may want to put in some cosmetics mods that simply change textures, again because of when Oblivion was created. Such mods won't change gameplay or mechanics, nor will they add races or other changes. Qarl's Texture Pack 3 (QTP3) is one overall texture replacer to help the landscapes and other features.

One other mod you may want to consider is Harvest Flora. Technically, it is an .esp and does change the mechanics a bit, including having a .bsa that must be added in the .ini. However, what it does is simply make it so that whenever you harvest ingredients, the plant actually changes visually to show that it has been harvested. Not only is this helpful, it also helps roleplaying immensely, and it doesn't even have any real impact on gameplay aside from helping you immerse yourself by seeing what has and has not been harvested.

I don't use DarnUI with Oblivion, but I do use some custom fonts I created myself using the Oblivion Font Creator tool (which is why I don't really bother with Darn, I suppose). You can take either approach if you find the fonts to be bothersome.

Finally, you may want to read the "Oblivion for Morrowind Players" on the UESP wiki simply to understand specific changes that were made between the two games. I don't really think that spoils anything. Or you may wish to spend time anolyzing the differences on your own.

Having spent many many hours on the PC version of Oblivion there are certain mods/patches that i just wont play without now.

BTMod - fixes the god awful inventory screen
Elven map redux - adds a far superior coloured map to the game.
Keychain (Requires OBSE) - adds all of your keys to a single expandable slot.
unofficial patch + SI patch - fixes over 1000+ bugs/glitches.
Frans + MMM - adds tons of new creatures/weapons/items to the game, can make it considerably more of a challenge,(not difficult - just makes you need to plan ahead). This also fixes the broken level/item/creature scaling.


Having played vanilla Oblivion for many years before i got into mods, I personally would suggest not playing vanilla first/ever/at all. There are plenty of people here that will say you should try vanilla before you add mods and that fine, it's your choice and it won't stop you from playing the game......but it may damage your early perception of it..

Yes you can play without any mods and patches and deliberatly bork your character, gimp him/her and add several major skills that you won't ever use in order to keep your level down and stop the world around you from becoming to overpowered.. OR you can just install a few mods and play the game the way it should have been in the first place.

I can pick all 7 majors as ones that i will use without worrying about getting my ass kicked by a goblin at level 30 because i didn't efficiently level up.