A few questions, thinking I'll replay Oblivion since all this news about Skyrim just kind of made me want to play it once more.

1. Where should I put it? I usually just put games in C:/Game_Name, but I know for mods sometimes they need to be in default folders. I can't remember if that is so with Oblivion.
2. Patches, I just need the SI official and unofficial Oblivion and SI patches from TESNexus right? Since SI comes with the official I believe?
3. What leveling mod is the most balanced would you say? I know this was the worst aspect of vanilla for me. It's hard to tell which leveling mods are good just from description though. I was looking @ nGCD or Oblivion XP maybe? :S I am considering using Francesco's leveled creatures/items which affects difficulty to some degree, so hopefully there's something that combines well with that to give a pretty reasonable difficulty balance?
4. I've got a list of graphic mods I'm planning/hoping on getting installed -

• Natural faces
  
• Landscape LOD Texture Replacement
  
• Improved Signs, Trees, Flora and so on I believe all by same author
  
• Short Grass V3
  (I have a solid gaming comp I think but IIRC the Oblivion grass was annoyingly tall so I'll take the performance boost along with the benefit of being able to actually see wolves and cougars coming at me this time.)
  
• Improved Sky Textures
  
• Ambient Dungeons
  
• Darker Dungeons and Nights Mod Pack
  
• Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys
  
• Weather - All Natural
  
• Natural Environments
  
• Unique Landscapes Compilation
  
• Redimised Qarl's Texture Pack
  
• Oblivion Graphics Extender

I'm wondering -
A. Are there any conflicts with the above? Do they need to be installed in a specific order?
B. Is anything I should obviously want missing, or are any of the above made obsolete by newer/better mods?
C. I have a radeon HD 4870 saphhire 512mb 256 bit with an intel core 2 duo e8500 wolfdale, 4g ram - are any of the above going to be too much for that to handle(or in total, too much)? If so what should I drop?
D. What utilities do I need? I'm assuming Oblivion Mod Manager, but do I need wrye bash or the script extender?
E. I do not have Knights of the Nine - Will that be an issue? I'm assuming not but some mods I remember in the past required all official expansions/DLCs to work.


I know that's probably a lot to respond to, so much thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read through it all and answer.

If you are looking for compatibility and stability, keep obmm just to convert omods to BAIN, and use Wrye Bash to manage ALL your mods, you will thank me later on this one. If you use Wrye Bash BAIN packages, you can arrange your load order for your texture packs like you do with your mods, which makes installing/uninstalling incredibly easy and compatibility even better.

I'm pretty sure All Natural uses the same stuff from Natural Environments, I use All Natural alone and it does everything you'd need. If packs like Improved sky textures conflict with said mods, it is easily visible in the "conflicts" tab of the BAIN packages installer, allowing you to order them in the priority of your choosing. For instance, you can make sure that Sky Textures is always installed OVER All Natural.

If you need help with any of this, you can add me on Gtalk or Skype (Via my forum name) I'm always here to help.

1. Data folder. Anyway some special tools like Wrye Bash or OBSE, are installed differently but they come with clear enough instructions. This is something positive about TES modding comunity, normally authors include a readme.
2. Correct
3. Those mods affect YOUR leveling pace, while the worst aspect of Oblivion is enemies levelling with you. I'm not sure about levelling mods but for avoiding enemies leveling with you, try OOO, MMM, Francesco, warcry, various of the previous in FCOM (very complicated to install) or TIE (this is the easiest one to install).
4
A: I didn't use most of them but not didn't seem to conflict.
B: not sure.
C: I would avoid quarl LOD, but you could allways try them the last, after testing the performance without them.
D: script extender (OBSE) is needed for many mods (oblivion graphics extender for example). Wrye bash is invalueble if you want to install more than a bunch of mods, sad news is that you'll need to do a little learning (not hardcoe computing science but you'll need to study a little). BOSS will order your mods automatically to avoid conflicts. As you said Oblivion mod manager will be extremelly helpfull.
E: No. Maybe there is a mod or two requiring it for using an armor, but nothing more.

I am no expert mod user at all but here are my thoughts:



C:\game_name will do just fine, and it's actually strongly advised as your preferred install folder if you're on vista/seven as the crappy UAC feature might prevent some mods to be installed correctly if you're going to install the game in the default c:\program files folder.



You'll need the following, in this order:

http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5296
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10739
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9969
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27710



At first I was a bit skeptical but I found out that Oblivion XP is FUNNY AS HELL strongly advised



Qarl needs to be installed almost first. This is my install order, which an user more expert than me might want to revise a bit:

http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5296
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.detail&id=3813
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11261
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28378
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10739
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9969
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27710



Short Grass V3 is not working as intended. You'll need to edit the grass meshes to actually make the grass shorter, which is not what the mod does. What the mod does is increasing the grass spreading, hence improving a bit the performance but NOT by making it shorter.



Should be enough to run just about everything above. You're a little short on vram but you'll be fine if you choose the further redimized qarl texture pack, which is included in the package linked above [or maybe it's not? Hmm can't remember where I d'l that]



You'll need OBSE to run OBGE and, yes, you'll need Wrye Bash which is needed by All Natural. Also, AN is not fully compatible with NE so you might want to drop the latter or keep only its Natural Habitat part, as I do.



I can't spot anything you listed above that will need KOTN.

Thanks guys, that should be enough for me to work with and hopefully get everything working in one install. Crossing my fingers...

Guessing this is the further reduced QTP3 you recommended?

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14057

Yup. Actually those are primarly meant to be installed on top of the Regular QTP3 but as far as I know they should work also on top of the Redimized version. If you're going to use OBMM I'd recommend http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=3985 package which comes as a convenient include-it-all OMOD so you can easily switch from one version to another as needed. You'll need Wrye Bash anyway if you're going to install All Natural, so you might want to use BAIN instead to install those four packages on top of either QTP3/QTP3R.

In essence, either use OBMM and download only http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=3985 package or learn to use Wrye Bash first and download http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.detail&id=3813 package plus the four reduced packages from http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14057. Your choice.

Yeah I ended up finding the OMOD version and already went with that. Haven't installed wrye bash yet.

I recommend Cava Obscura for your dungeon darkener. Requires Wrye Bash for best usage, but that gets you nice dark dungeons in a ton of mods. As to darker night skies, I believe Weather - All Nature, already on your list, has settings to handle that.

-Decrepit-

dAB, why is XP funny as hell?

"At first I was a bit skeptical but I found out that Oblivion XP is FUNNY AS HELL strongly advised"

Ok so far I've installed -
Oblivion
SI
Official SI Patch
Unofficial Oblivion Patch
QTP redimized and reduced OMOD
QTP UOP patch
Bomret's SI textures OMOD
Unofficial SI patch

and now after installing the Unofficial Mods Patch, the game will not start - I run Oblivion via either OBMM launch or default launcher and it starts up, then goes back to desktop, no error message or anything. I tested running it after each step post official patch, so it appears to be an issue with the Unofficial SI patch, but that doesn't seem a likely problem causer so I'm a bit lost.

:unsure:

Arg, nevermind, it was the Battlehorn Castle UOP specifically, I assumed I had all DLCs minus Knights of the Nine and only unchecked that one, but I don't have Battlhorn Castle either which I guess is relatively new since I've never heard of it.

nvm again :/

Thanks a lot guys, everything is working!

Yeah I forgot to mention that since you are missing KOTN you have to leave its UMP/UOPS patch unchecked, otherwise you experience an immediate crash due to the missing esp master, and the same applies to any other DLCs like Battlehorn Castle.

DOH2005Morrow -- the fun part of OBXP is that you don't have to worry anymore of what you're doing to improve your skills. Basically you're free to play as you wish and when you level up you are free to improve any skill you can name, just like in ye good ol' days of classic RPGs.