Hello. I'd like to mod Oblivion, mostly game experience and not graphics. Are there any simple and easy to use "packs", like exes for me to install because I don't want to spend days screwing around with mods. I've tried Nehrim but I don't really like it and still feels unbalanced and too focused towards magic.

Thanks

No; in general mod users don't like exes because of the possibility of malicious code hiding in them, and in general mod authors don't like packs because they create enormous headaches for the author, and because historically most pack makers have completely and utterly disregarded the rights and wishes of the authors whose work is included.

If you are too lazy to learn how to use mods (it's really not that hard, see the FAQ), I'm not exactly sure what you think we should do for you, or why you think we should do it. Modders already put enormous amount of effort into making mods, for absolutely no compensation of any kind; if you can't be bothered to read a guide or two and read a few readmes, then quite frankly you're not exactly the kind of person I'm interested in giving the products of my many hours of hard work to.

If you want to mod this game, you need to put in the effort to learn the craft. Managing a modded game is almost like a second game altogether.

Those of us who are running stable with 100+ mods in our games have put in A LOT of effort to learning how they work, how to avoid and resolve conflicts, how to install them, and so much more.

This is not something you can learn overnight. I could probably teach a short-term college class for all the things you need to learn in order to mod this game.

Start as DragoonWraith said, and read the stickies to get the basic picture. Then head over to TES Nexus and search for the Wrye Bash Pictorial Guide, as you will NEED this tool if you want to mod your game heavily.

That's overstating things; you may learn that much material over time, but that is way more than you need to simply "mod the game". There are hundreds of thousands of mods that can be installed by dragging and dropping and checking them off in the loader. Yes, some are more complicated, in particular overhauls, but there is no need to scare someone off with the prospect of a "short-term college class".

Seriously, the basics are dead-simple, and there are an enormous number of quality mods that require nothing but the basics. You only need more advanced techniques if you get into more complicated mods, which I do eventually recommend but not at first.

Thomas is correct, as I was saying, that some effort is always necessary — and as my post suggests, I personally have very little patience for those who expect everything on a silver platter — but Thomas is really making it sound like you need to dive off the deep end to use any mods ever, which is not the case.

Maybe I am overstating things...

Anyways, start by reading the stickies, then download a few mods along with Oblivion Mod Manager and get some practice on the basics (drag-n-dropping and manual installations). Once you feel you are okay there, try your hand at a few OMODs to get your feet wet with install management. Those are the two parts of modding I consider essential. Knowing how to manage your load order will allow you to address conflicts, and knowing how to manage your installations will allow you to easily correct any mistakes you might make.

There are other things you will need to brush up on as well, like Archive Invalidation for texture replacers. But set your own pace; learn things as you need them. Don't jump off the deep end until you are sure you are ready.

Thank you guys. As you sad, I wanted everything delivered on a silver platter and that's only because I've already spent literally days trying to get over 200 different mods working in Morrowind. I needed to get myself familiar with programs such as Wyre Mash, MGEgui and others. It's extremely difficulty to try to understand stuff you have no experience in, especially when your English isn't "that" good. I have always stumbled on problems, small ones I couldn't even locate, but those problems made the game buggy, caused errors or made the it completely unenjoyable. I just can't handle weeks of time to fix such problems.
Now, after giving up on that milestone, I've decided to try with Oblivion. I honestly need just "game experience" mods because I do not care about graphics. I can and will spent hours searching mods and then trying to get them working, but I just thought it would be a simpler way asking you and seeing if there is an easier way to do it.
So if you don't mind I will really appreciate if you could redirect me to, maybe a list of mods you consider to be "core". Something that's not too hard to deal with (as I got an impression its hell of a job getting mods to work), but it's a start in this lovely journey of modding.

Thank you.

Well you have done some of the hard work.

Wrye Mash and Wrye Bash have a lot of similarities being based on the same program. Bash being a bit more complex.

I don't think Thomas overstated things or pushed you to the deep end too soon. See the thing is (and as you may have learned from morrowind modding) is that you don't know you are in the deep end until you are there.

An unfortunate thing about the forum alterations that happened is that many of the links http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1010109-list-list-of-mod-lists/ are no longer good - they can still be found with searching though.

To save you a few research headaches, here's a quick checklist.

Essential:
• If you're running on Vista or Windows 7, install Oblivion outside of Program Files or the UAC anti-hacking safeguards will make installing mods a total nightmare. C:\Games is a popular location.
  
• http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20516. Load order is very important, and this makes it 99% automatic.
  
• http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22368. This has the toughest learning curve of anything on the list, and it took me a long time to get around to it. But in hindsight, the time it took to get Bash working is nothing compared to the time I spent making things work without it... and I'm hardly the average user, most people wouldn't know half the tricks I used. Summary: just get this, it might be a headache to learn but it will save you a million headaches after.
  
• http://obse.silverlock.org/. If you don't have this, many mods won't work, especially recent ones. There are plenty of good ones that still will, but there's literally no reason not to install it. (No performance or stability issues, it does nothing on its own.)

Optional:
• http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11536. Bash and BOSS will sometimes tell you that a mod should be cleaned. This is what you use to clean it. It's also a fantastic tool if you ever get in to making mods yourself, or if you just want to look at how they're laid out internally.
  
• http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15781. Creates reduced meshes for use with mods that let you see more stuff in the distance (e.g. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20053). Safe to skip otherwise.
  
• http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097. A handful of mods that edit fullscreen shader effects require this for installation (e.g. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7327). Safe to skip otherwise.

Here is my "essential" mods list: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1232576-complete-modded-oblivion-installation-guide/

Covers latest mods in different categories, hope it helps you as a reference at least.

I swear Oblivion is the only game where the community can't come together to make a mod collaboration. FCOM is still a mess, and mod lists consist of hundreds of things that still exist as a daunting task to the user. Don't want malicious code? Open source it. Morrowind Overhaul (http://morrowindoverhaul.net) is probably one of the most successful Morrowind downloads ever, full rights approved for every mod. And guess what - it works. It works insanely well. The problem isn't installing mods, its picking the right ones and knowing you have the fullest experience. Morrowind Overhaul was created as a community effort of people (especially modders) contributing. "Oh you forgot this awesome texture replacer here!" Added in. I've read through that previous topic on the proposed Oblivion compilation and how you mercilessly shot down every rebuttal the poor man had, and even still you display that "almighty modder" aura about you. I'm not going to resort to ad hominem attacks, but I will say I find it pretty hilarious when you imply unless he appreciate the "work of art" of NifSE he shouldn't be allowed to use it.

I agree Mortimer, thats why I promote more complete overhauls like OWC-ND.

I have supported and encourged compilation projects because elitists seem to ignore the common man that a) doesn't have the time to learn, and b ) simply doesn't have the ability and no matter of time will make it better. Unfortunately it has a lot to do with politics and peoples egos and using stupid excuses like "oh noes, the mods won't be up to date.." and "but what about the bugz reportz?!?!?!".

It's a shame and maybe one day when most of the modders move onto Skyrim, we can have something like this for Oblivion.

Interesting observation there. I've come from a Morrowind background and I noticed that the MW community is more flexible and united it seems than the Oblivion forum. Could it be because there are more Oblivion players and thus more chances of conflict? Anyways, good observation.

I've never played Morrowind, but I get the feeling there aren't nearly as many mods and modders for Morrowind as there is for Oblivion. Egos aside, the main problem is preference and choice. There are SO MANY options, I don't think you can possibly make a compilation that would please everyone. The amount of work that goes into making just one mod is enormous. A compilation would be over 100 times more complicated and take a lot of hours to make sure everything worked with everything else. If all the best mod authors sent me an e-mail and said "Hey, we want to do this, and want you to take point", I would politely decline, and then wonder what insane fool would actually be willing to take on such a task.

I have only created one mod, and well over 50% of the requests I get are "is it/can you make it compatible with mod x?"

Which combat system do you pick?
Which leveling system do you go with?
Should the UL series be included?
Weapons, armor, gear in general?
Magic system?
Quests?
Races?
Custom homes?
City overhauls?
Texture packs?
Stealth system?
AI overhauls and changes?
etc.

So let's say you make those decisions, and send out requests to the authors to get permission. Is it really ego or artistic license if they say no? Or maybe it's just the simple fact that providing technical support on your own mod is difficult enough as it is, but then trying to support it within the context of a compilation brings about an entirely new set of headaches.

I personally have a very specific ideal of how I want Oblivion to play, and how the mod I created fits into that ideal. I have the flexibility of choosing other mods that mesh with that ideal. If someone puts together a compilation, and I don't feel that the overall design of the compilation is suitable for my mod, am I a bad guy for saying no? What if I say yes out of courtesy, am I going to be asked to make customized changes just for the compilation? And what if those changes go against the principled of the mod I created?

For the end user, that may seem like ego and selfishness. But it's my time they are asking me to spend, so I think I am fully justified to say yes or no to any request. And considering that I am the only one who truly knows how complicated my mod is, and you have to figure all the other top modders have mods that are vastly more complicated, the fact that there is so much resistance to doing it should tell you something.

It's not the idea of a compilation that is bad. The idea is a good one. It's just not a very practical one when it comes to taking into consideration the amount of time and effort required balanced against the "reward".

There is a difference between ego and artistic license? Who knew?

Mortimer - this forum just weathered a whole series of threads about creating a compilation. The author of said work who actually completed most of the work - bowed out from the amount of refusals and negative attitude toward it.

I think the resistance will fade as people move on to Skyrim and their mods go into final status. It is much easier to get that kind of thing accomplished after all the artists are done with their projects. So too soon.

On the other hand a mod like OOO or OWC ND is both a compilation and an overhaul. There is a sharp difference compilation implies just collecting and making choices for others and then real solutions must be directed toward the mod authors. Overhaul usually means the compiler is going to give support of some kind and that work was done to integrate the mods.

One of the biggest disadvantages of compilation mods is that it NEEDS to be updated when a mod in the compilation has a newer version. The creator of the compilation takes a tremendous responsibility of being active because even if just one mod is outdated, then that can bring havoc to the whole compilation. There were some modders in MW that didn't want their mods to be included in the MW compilation mod, for example, the prolific and scripting talent, Fliggerty. He didn't want his mods to be included because he wanted to be totally in control of his mods for quality purposes because, according to him, he's constantly fixing his mods for any bugs and whatnot and it will be much easier to answer user's Q and keep track of all of his mods which otherwise would be spread and buried all over in compilations. Perhaps the reason why the mentioned MW compilation mod has been so successful is because the bulk of the mods haven't been updated(since some have already reach its pinnacle) and of course, an active creator.

Nice.
Explained in depth and well veiled in the middle of a thread that has nothing whatsoever to do with the mod.
Your quite obviously well versed with a working knowledge in dealing with the intricacies, development and support of a mod of this scope and magnitude.

Please, bring your solutions to the FCOM thread, and I'll be more than willing to discuss the "mess" with you.

Now, let's get the OP's thread back on track.

I don't mean to derail this thread further but since I've already given a (hopefully) constructive post earlier that was on topic, I have something to add to the derailed discussion..

I'd like to just point out something I noticed, that this "compilation-phobia" seems to be quite unique to Oblivion from what I've noticed. Granted, Oblivion is probably one of the largest modding communities out there but I have not come across this for the Civ series which has been around for a long time and has a large community for Civ4 for example. Modpacks are very common and the norm and people compete with each other to make bigger and better modpacks.

I guess complexity and the nature of the games have something to do about it but still the fact remains that there is no good reason to resist it SINCE we have such a fantastic utility like BOSS that is full of helpful messages for people wishing to update AND the fact that if anyone was to release a mod compilation in a STABLE state after much testing, whats wrong with not updating it? It is possible for minor bugs to be found months later but as long as many people have been playing it for months without issue and the compilation was thoroughly tested there is no reason to need to update it.

Also if the compilation is popular, someone will take up the reigns, it happens often.

The biggest difference with this modding community from others is remarkably simple.
You quote Civ4 as an example of a compilation pack. How many of the included mods are still being updated?
Oblivion modding is quite frankly different from almost every other game.
How many can you name that has such a huge variety of mods that can alter the environment (e.g. All Natural, Unique Landscapes etc), game world (Overhauls etc), Magic, (SM, LAME etc), Combat (DR,UV etc), leveling mods, interface etc, etc, etc. so significantly by the addition or alteration of one mod? Some of these effect how the entire game world works.
I can't think of any with perhaps the exception of Morrowind. A compilation pack is viable there as nearly every mod that's included is no longer a work in progress. The game being 10 years old means that just about everything modable has been done, completed, finished and never likely to be worked on again.
Can you say the same about any of the mods I mentioned?
Support and updates for such a compilation would be done by whom?
The arguement has been brought up so many times that it's tiring.

We're miles off topic here. I'm sure the opening poster has no interest in this discussion.

Isnt FCOM a compilation of many mods also?