Hi!
I've never used a single mod ever but I would like to try out some.
I would like to install the Unoffcial Oblivion Patch and the Quest Award Leveller, so I've got 3 simple questions:

1. Can I use both of these mods at the same time without any big issues?
2. Where can I find the latest versions of these mods?
3. Does it matter which one of them I install first? If yes, which one should go first?

Would be great to get some answers from u guys.

c64

1. Yes

2. Unofficial Oblivion Patch: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5296 - Install 3.2.0 first and then 3.4.1 over it.
Unofficial SI Patch http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10739
Unofficial DLCs Patch http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9969
Auto Update Leveled Items and Spells does what Quest Award Leveller does but better, and you can get it here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=39635
Do note that you will need OBSE for it to work, which you can get at http://obse.silverlock.org

3. If installing manually or with OBMM rather than Wrye Bash, then install the unofficial patches first and in the order I linked to them.

You can use any mod with the UOP, thats one of the entire points of the UOP.

The best place to check for mods is http://www.tesnexus.com/index.php, though there is a thread on this board for the UOP, which would have a link to the most recent version.

Here is the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5296 on the Nexus.

As for Quest Award Leveler, I would actually recommend instead http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=39635, which works completely seamlessly and without any of the (admittedly few) bugs and glitches QAL has. For AULIS, you will need to install the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37952, but you will want that anyway.

If you plan to do more modding than just this, I highly recommend becoming familiar with Wrye Bash. It may be daunting, but time spent learning it now will be time saved later. Trust me. Check the thread on this board for more details and help with it.

Thanx alot guys.
Regarding the unofficial DLS patch, do I need that because I have the GOTY edition (KOTN)? Or is it just a general advice?

Even if KOTN is the only DLC you have, I recommend you get it, yes. Just only apply the KOTN patch and not the rest.

AULIS? A better alternative to Quest Award Leveler? Why haven't I heard of this mod before? Actually, I know why. My current play-through stands at 1.7k hours with an avatar in his 40s. I've not needed the services of a leveler in some time. Still, QAL remains in my order order. I might just swap it out for AULIS. If nothing else, AULIS might level a few items / spells that QAL neglects.

-Decrepit-

Will the Natural Environments mod work with these mods as well?

It should. In general, the rule of thumb is that each modder is responsible for compatibility. The vast majority of mods are compatible with each other, even ones that edit similar areas. It all depends on load order and what is being changed. If two mods are changing a lot of things within the same area of interest, then they probably are not compatible (for instance, two mods that change combat, or two mods that try to put a new building on the same spot of land). If the modder has followed proper due diligence procedures, the documentation should describe if there are any known incompatibility issues, what they are, and whether or not you can do anything about them (such as a .ini setting or a separate patch.esp).

http://tescosi.com/wiki/Main_Page is a really good starting point for new modders. It's worth a read, and will answer the vast majority of your noob questions. There's a lot of material, so set aside some time.

Forgot to say that I'm running Oblivion GOTY on Steam on a Win 7 x64 machine. I hope that won't be a problem running these mods.
If so, please let me know what the issue is. Thanx again for taking the time to answer me.

If you just want to focus on basic (what I would call Essential) mods, then in addition to the unofficial patches I would recommend:
--FastExit 2. This makes Oblivion not stall so long at exit, and (usually) prevents it from crashing at exit. It also requires the Oblivion Script Extender, but sounds like you're already installing that. (Search for FastExit on TESNexus.)
--Oblivion Stutter Remover. This program improves some of the basic functionality of the Oblivion EXE. Translation: Oblivion usually ends up being more stable, and you get a performance boost to boot. It's highly customizable, but if you don't want to mess with the customizations, the default settings generally work well. (Search for this on TESNexus.)
--Oblvion 4GB Patch. Since you're on a Windows x64 machine, you would benefit from patching your copy of Oblivion to use 4 GB of RAM, instead of the 2 GB it is normally limited to. (Just do a general Google search for this and you should find it.) Just be careful, as a few people (the minority) have reported that this increased crashes on their machines.
--Additionally, a lot of people have seen additional benefits by making tweaks to the Oblivion.ini file. There are entire websites and guides dedicated to doing this, though, and it can take a while to find a combination that works well for your machine.

Only if he also has more than 4 GB of RAM.

Heh, good point. You don't want Oblivion monopolizing your system, after all
Though, to tell the truth, Oblivion rarely ever uses all 4 gigs.

I have a laptop with Windows x64 Ultimate, 4GB of RAM, and a 16GB SD card that I use for ReadyBoost. That combination runs just fine.

Take it from me; Move your steam installation out of Program Files IMMEDIATELY. That caused ridiculous amounts of trouble for me even with UAC completely shut off. Once you do that, Steam won't cause any other issues for you.

Most games shouldn't be installed in Program Files<(x86)> (<...> only for 64-bit Windows) due to the constant modifications to the files by other things. Heck, some games screw up if installed there by default without any modifications or other tools or anything.

You know, I've been told that time and time again, but I've never had any trouble with my copy installed in Program Files (x86)\Games\Bethesda. That said, I do have a DVD based copy, not Steam, which could make a difference.

Some of my old games on CDs don't even load when installed in Program Files. So, I guess some things will trigger it more than others. I just change the drive letter (as C is the only protected area by default, may vary by manufacturer if using a prebuilt with their Windows install instead of your own) as I like having all my stuff thrown into the same pile. Same reason why most of my files are in the roots of my drives just littered around >.>

Maybe I was just unlucky but when I had steam in program files, everything I installed with OBMM completely failed to install. It would put all the files into their place like it should, but EVERY file was a 0kb file meaning they were all useless. I hadn't used BAIN yet so I don't know if it would happen with that as well. But anyway, moving Steam made debugging my game soooooooo much easier since things are legitimately installed now.

I've used Steam for almost a year in the default folder and all the games are running without any issues so far (knock on wood), so I won't do any changes until the [censored] hits the fan.
The 4GB Oblivion exe sounds interesting, but the game is running so smooth for me with all full settings, so I really don't feel like I need to change anything. I've had one soft-crash (game freezes when exiting a dungeon and ctrl+alt+delete took me out) in over 20hrs gameplay, and the loading screen is fast as well. I'd rather not do any bigger changes if not necessary. My first step is to download these mods and OBSE, try to install it, and see how the game plays.

Here's my specs since u were discussing it:
Win 7 64
i7 870 quad core 2.93 GHz
GTX 260 1.8GB
8GB ram

I was the same as you until I touched Oblivion I'm guessing if you use Wrye Bash to install things, you'll have less of an issue that what I had.

I found myself asking the exact same thing... I'll never get around to skyrim if I keep finding things like this.

I have now installed the Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.4.1, and Shivering Isles 1.5, and now when I'm trying to install the Unofficial Official Mods Patch v16 (with OBMM) it says that this patch has a conflict with an already active mod.
Please help.

The Mods Patch will conflict with the UOP and USIP, but that's intentional. There's probably other places where the various unofficial patches conflict, but the first one I can think of is on Mehrunes' Razor--Bethesda's version of that DLC makes incorrect changes to basic Oblivion's Daedric War Axe, which screws up every single Daedric War Axe in the game. To fix that, the unofficial Mehrunes Razor patch has to modify Oblivion's Daedric War Axe, which I think UOP does as well.

Having not used OBMM, I don't know if this is an option, but if you can "ignore conflict" that's what you should do.

So I can install the patch without serious issues?

So, I managed to install all the patches using OBMM, OBSE and some manual installing. The game is running well.
Here is a list of the patches I'm using. Let me know if something seems wrong.
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/5205/modsu.jpg

Again, thanx for helping. This whole mod-thing is a new world to me and I think I'll love it.

Since it hasn't been mentioned in this thread already, look at using BOSS once you have more than a few mods. It makes sure that the load order of your mods avoids conflicts (and will tell you when two mods are completely incompatible).

Using Wrye Bash and BAIN installation where available will make sure you don't have resource conflicts that you can't undo. Once you start using mods that replace things, you need control over what gets replaced, and what stays the same. I also like Wrye Bash's profiles, that let me run different combo's of mods for different characters.

P.S. "conflict" just means that two mods are changing the same thing. It's not necessarily bad, especially if the second one is a correction to the first!