Hello dear community. I truly hope this forum section is not full dead, especially with Skyrim being the hottest topic right now. However, I wish to play oblivion, while I wait for Skyrim UI mod.
Could some of you recommend me a couple of mods?

After browsing sometime on TESNexus I could not make up my mind which one I want to use, therefore I am here asking for your assistance.
I am mainly on the lookout for good user interface mod and high resolution texture for Oblivion. Any other suggestions or "Must have mods" are very welcome
It should be easy to install if possible or come with a good guide on how to.


Thank you for your time
Zing

I think you cannot go wrong with InsanitySorrow's retextures: http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&search_app=downloads&mid=378 (you can find them all there, among other things.) Also nice is http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40367 - and apparently, there might be more of that yet to come.

As for UI mods, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10763 or its more... gothic(?) sister, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11280 is generally considered the best way to go.

Must have mods? That is entirely subjective. But for my tastes, at least as they were a little while ago, my post http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1211132-new-to-the-game-what-mods-do-you-find-necessary-for-oblivion/page__view__findpost__p__18130121 might prove illustrative. Impossible to say whether our preferences will overlap even in the slightest, naturally!


edit: Oh, and http://tescosi.com/wiki/Main_Page is an excellent guide to installing mods. Recommended, to bookmark and read through (the parts that might apply to you).

I suggest you to install http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18677 (vanilla res,but it looks better) + http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38204+http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10419+http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=2363 or http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.detail&id=3813+ http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40367

Install order:
Vibrant
Really textured normal maps
Bomret detailed normals
QTP3 FULL/REDIMIZED (if you use qtp3 full,you'll need to install the 1.3 patch)
L&G floriana requiem

Also,for Shivering Isles,try http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28378

A good list of replacers is here, though it's a tad outdated:

http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/obliviontextureoverhaul.html

You'll very probably want some overhauls mod to enhance the gameworld; Good choices include http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.detail&id=268, http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35265 or maybe http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/convergence.html, though this one is quite big and is much harder to install, being a combination of several big overhauls.

I personally use Francescos + TIE along with http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37904

The best place to start would just be to look through these two sites and pick what you want:

http://tesnexus.com/index.php
http://planetelderscrolls.ign.com/

Essentials for me are:

-Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul for level scaling
-nGCD + Progress for leveling
-LAME/Supreme Magicka (or both) for magic
-Sneak Detection Recalibrated for stealth
and a combat mod such as Deadly Reflex 6, Unnecessary Violence II or Phitt's Phiting Phixes (much, much lighter, makes more difficult to fight in melee without being a "splatter" and has no requirements aside from OBSE)

Obviously if you want to use the bow wothout bother yourself with the very low range Vanilla has you should pick an archery mod. There are plenty, and Duke Patrick's one is the most accurate, but it is heavy and with too many features (in my opinion)

OBSE === some mods need this.

user interface mods:
DarNified UI === lets u select many user options for ui info plus shows more stuff in the menus.
Map Marker Overhaul === lets u muck with icons and names on the big map.
Toggleable Quantity Prompt === i mostly use the "take one" or "take all" options.
Denock Arrows === i hated being forced to fire the readied arrow.
Harvest [Containers] and [Flora] === no more guessing on whether i picked that flower or opened a chest.
Menu Escape === quick exit with default action.

better look:
HGEC Body === better looking bodies.
Qarl's Texture Pack III for TES IV: Oblivion === gives a lot more detail to a lot of stuff.

Game changers:
Midas Magic === a lot of new spells and some quests. i only started using these with a very high level guy.
Smarter Mercantile Leveling === unless you like the idea to selling 25000 items one at a time...
nGCD === this is a smooth levelling system. just do your thing and don't worry about it.

===================

make sure your game patches are up to date.
add one mod at a time.

check out Planet Elder Scrolls and TESNexus for mods and info.
i would recommend UESPWiki but their site is slower than *&$#$( right now and they deleted the only info on Midas Magic quests on the net. grrrr.

First of all, thank you very much for your informative replies. I've made my first attempt to mod Oblivion with varied success, but after I installed and understood the value of OMOD, things become much easier. At fist I assumed OBSE means Oblivion Shivering Isles, but I was wrong, it stands for Oblivion Script Extended, now I get it
But I cant figure out where to find Less Annoying Magic Experience (LAME ) or why I should use both LAME and Supreme Magica, wont they overlap?

I never got to complete Oblivion, I spent a lot of time messing about in game and eventually overtaken by the next "game in line". Some of you have suggested Levelling Overhaul/Adjustment mods, which one should I pick?
Since I never completed Oblivion to begin with, I don't feel like using advanced overhaul mod, unless it enhances instead of changing game experience. After reading Tamriel Immersion Experience description I didn't felt it was my piece of cake.... Yet.
On the other hand Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul 133 sounds interesting, I might explore it later on.


Mods I have installed and confirmed the game to run without crashing, at least right from the start.
UI Modified with DarkUId DarN by Gothic251, looks fabulous.
HGEC Body with BBB v1dot12 by Several installed together with High Rez Skin Textures for HGEC (Default high res pack) by Ozmo. Sadly there seem to be lack for Khajiit body and I intend to play Khajiit character, but it still looks great.
Oblivion Script Extender installed for STEAM client, working fine.
Supreme Magicka Update by flyfightflea Strategy Master - console says it working fine.
DLL - Dynamic Leveled Lists by Leviathan1753, adjusted settings in .jar file after my taste.

Did I miss something or do you recommend some additional mods?



Now what remains is graphical overhaul. It is getting pretty late now, so I have to perform head to pillow connection soon. I have pretty good laptop here (Asus G74SX), able to run Skyrim at 1920x1080 with Ultra Settings. So what mods would give me maximum graphical quality for Oblivion? Does it matter what order I install them in?

I have downloaded Lush and Gaudy Compromise, but didn't install it yet.



Your help and advices are much appreciated, thank you very much.
Regards
Zing

I would recommend Open Cities Reborn, Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, Supreme Magicka, Realistic Levelling and Cyrodiil Travel Services as five excellent mods, with QTP III and Dark DarN UI as the last word intexture and UI replacers. I would never be without Peter & Alien Slof's Aundae 1.3 mod if you're intending to playing a vampire.

I'm still in the installing/setup process to go poke around Oblivion again myself, so haven't been able to test but I intend to try:
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40853

Other addons that I liked and will be re-using:
FCOM (OOO/Fran's base only, MMM/Warcry/Fran's items & creatures are just too much extra junk)
Qarl's texture pack
Capes & cloaks
Reznod's mannequins
Reneer's guard overhaul
Dungeon actors have torches
other minor visual tweaks- dark green glass, ungoggled helms, ebony texture replacement, visually relistic lava (mod name is misspelled like that)
TES4LODgen and Really AEVWD

And the concept for Game Companion sounds interesting if it works as described.

I suggest instead avoiding FCOM if you are not really experienced with mod installing...
Dynamic Leveled Lists works fine (I assume), but it is pointless without overhauls. It has been designed to run with "overspawn and creature adding" mods like MMM, WAC or FCOM. I personally use OOO+MMM setup, FCOM is too much for me. (http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/820948-scaling-overhaul-comparison/page__hl__scaling+overhaul+comparison)

LAME works with Supreme Magicka. I run both. It is only a matter of load order. if you want LAME's stats for spells and only the spells (and not the stats) from SM, then load LAME after SM. Otherwise, load SM last and you will have its stats and only new spells from LAME. I personally load LAME after, because I like its stats more, and still SM covers other things thanks to OBSE, integrating LAME's lacks.