Hey,

Ok.. so I've picked up Oblivion and ready to play it. I have not played Oblivion before so will be a fresh playthrough and will first apply texture mods as per this youtube guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t95gbVdPQgs

I don't know whether I should mod the game mechanics before I play. I know OOO is supposed to be really good but I don't want to read through the change list and spoil the story/quests/items I will come across. I've also heard a few complaints regarding the player level scaling with the enemy and people fiddling around with Major/Minor skills in all sorts of elaborate ways to prevent levelling up.

Is there any mods out there that you feel would improve the experience of Oblivion and which you deem as pretty much essential and also get around the level scaling issue?

Thank you

Okay. This is the list from that video:

1. Unofficial Oblivion Patch
2. Really AEVWD Cities, Imperial City, and New Sheoth
3. Natural Environments: Weather, Vegetation, Water, and Habitat
4. Oblivion Graphics Extender v2: Volumetric_SSAO.fx and Godrays.fx
5. DarNified UI
6. Qarl's Texture Pack v3
7. Color Map Mod (1.1)

1. The Unofficial patches are a must. Make sure to get all of the ones relevant to your game (the base one, Shivering Isle and for the DLCs)
These are something to include even if playing an essentially unmodded game, they don't add anything new, just correct errors.

2. RAEVWD is good. It can cause a framerate hit, but with a decent machine most of the options are well worth it.

3. Disagree with this one.
Weather: http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/18305l is by far the superior weather mod. It requires Wrye Bash, which is a useful tool to use anyway.
Vegetation: Just makes trees bigger. If you want that I think the preferred is http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/23783
Water: The front runner is definitely http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/37825, and if you are using OBGE anyway why not.
Habitat: Adds non-interactive insects and birds overhead. The only one of the Natural Environments mod that I would recommend.

4. No real opinion. I would suggest playing without them first, then see what you like.

5. Check out http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11280: Mnor update of Darnified UI, but Mainly offers the change of colouring (there are other colour schemes to be found on the Nexus as well.)

6. Check out QTP3 Redimized Reduced: Offers optimized and reduced version of QTP, without much if any loss in quality.

7. There are a number of map options. Dynamic Map is well worth checking out.

there are some gameplay mods you should try out but things will get very gory and action packed

not for the weak hearted

I would add a section to 5 (User interface) and some Gameplay mods from a modder known as "The Nice One / Ole Boy". His hotkey mod, mapping mods and display mods are a part of any base setup i run. I think I use almost all of his stuff and never regretted the learning curve on his INIs (there is a small one).

When you're ready and want to expand the world itself, see Arthmoor's great City mods.

Couldn't agree more with Vargr on Weather- All Natural, the best of the best.

And I'm wondering if you skipped over some of the programs you really want to have to mod your setup. Wrye Bash, BOSS and BUM are on my essential list.

I don't have time to add links but a quick look as TESNexus for these modders will show you wht I'm talking about.

Have Fun!
Hawk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XneMbc8nO4Q

This is a really good guide on getting FCOM working. There are MANY more mods other than FCOM, like quests, item and world texture mods etc. I have a huge BAIN collection of many mods but it's not on my current HDD so I can't name all the mods I use to use.

I know some other ones like http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/18305, http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/34199, http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/19628 just to name a few... but there are a ton. Make sure you use Wrye Bash's install feature BAIN so you can organize your mods well.

I'll go the other way and say if you've never played Oblivion before, you really ought to just play it for a while. At least take a character through to level 20 or so on vanilla. See what you like and what you don't like without letting other people's opinions dictate your gaming experience. Once you know what you don't like, then start looking for mods to fix those things. I'm sure you'll get plenty of suggestions though.

The only thing you really, really need to install in the beginning is the http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/5296 (plus the Unofficial Patches http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/10739 and any of http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/9969 you may be running).

For me the list of "must have" mods is pretty much http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/2037, http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/18305, http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11280 (or whatever it's called), http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/34735, and if you're running any DLC's there's the much-needed http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11474. There's lots of other good stuff obviously, but I believe you need to know what kind of game you want to play first.

I have to agree with dreamed1.
I recommend playing Oblivion basically as is at first.
Then look around and add mods based on what extra you want out of the game.

Can't disagree with you there though Hawk Kelly; the nice one has some good mods, another modder whose work takes up a fair few slots in my load order is Arthmoor.

Play the game modless, at least for a while. Get a sense of what's missing, of what you exactly want. Then, ask. We'll supply. Until then, you're just the ten thousandth person to ask for help choosing mods, who doesn't explain what they want, and waits for us to spend a lot of time recommending our favorites.

Serious advice: do not attempt to install FCOM until you are familiar with the game and very familiar with modding. One poster above advised it with a link to a youtube guide. Don't do it!

I second the advice to play for a while (level 15 or 20) before modding at all (just the Unofficial patches). You'll quickly figure out what you think needs fixing, and then you'll be able to search and ask questions effectively.

Also, if totally new to the game, unmodded (except for patches) will give you a pretty crash- and glitch-free experience, which, once you start adding mods, you may not experience again for a long time!