After two years of saying I should reinstall from scratch, I am finally going to do so. I am probably going to have to start all my chars over from scratch too, but I'll survive that. As we all know, character generation is half the fun of playing!

I'm modding heavily in Oblivion (as opposed to the lightly modded Morrowind that I run) and I want to make sure I install and load everything in the best order. While my previous installation wasn't completely hooped, it was pretty wonky with the Windows error message popping on exit, and some weird sound error popping up randomly throughout the game where it sounded like cymbals crashing in static forcing an exit and reload to try to fix it (sometimes requiring several exits and system reboots). So I'm trying to do this as cleanly as possible. I figured out how to create OMODs out of existing mods, so for everything I plan on running that isn't a plain .esp file, I am going to OMOD everything for the sake of a cleaner /data directory.

In a nutshell, in what order should I install OBMM, OBSE, and Wrye Bash?

Should it go something like:

Oblivion
Shivering Isles
Official Patch
TES Construction Set
Unofficial Patches
DLC officals
OBMM
OBSE
Wrye Bash
Item Interchange
COBL
Francesco's (or go full FCOM - I've been running Francesco's for several months, and once I adjusted to the early levels learning curve I fell in love with it.)
Quest mods (Windfall, Bloodlines - I haven't run either of these before, but they look intriguing)
Better Cities
Unique Landscapes
item and clothing additions
animation replacers
tweaks
toggled cosmetics

(I use vanilla bodies and races, but toggle Coms Argonian Headsets, Capucine's Colorable Beast Hair, All In One hair/Breton freckles, Cat Eyes, and Vanilla Eyelashes.)

Many thanks for the help.

do these first

OBMM
OBSE
Wrye Bash

then shivering isles, dlc, official patch, then unofficial patches(use the omod oversion of the patches too. you can also make an omod of the DLC by installing into a dummy folder and then using obmm to create an omod)


as for the rest, I don't use a lot of those, so I don't know

Oh! So if I move the DLC to a dummy folder and OMOD them, will it make them into one file?

I've never used OBSE before so I'm plunging into slightly new territory, but I suspect installing it will make Item Interchange work (Wrye always flagged II as having a missing parent file before).

Thanks very much!

I think it`s also very important how you install the game:

Install this way if you do NOT install Shivering Isles:

1. Install Oblivion 1.0
2. Install Official 1.1.511 Patch (only if you want the launcher to be fully functional)
3. Install Official 1.2.416 Patch
4. Install all Official Add-ons (DLCs and Knights)
5. Install the Unofficial Oblivion Patch (user-made mod)
6. Install the Unofficial Official Mod Patch (user-made mod)


Install this way if you include Shivering Isles:

1. Install Oblivion 1.0
2. Install Official 1.1.511 Patch (only if you want the launcher to be fully functional)
3. Install Shivering Isles (which brings Oblivion to 1.2.201)
4. Install Official 1.2.0416 Shivering Isles Patch
5. Install Official Add-ons (DLCs and Knights)
6. Install the Unofficial Oblivion Patch (user-made mod)
7. Install the Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch (user-made mod)
8. Install the Unofficial Official Mod Patch (user-made mod)


Link:

- http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16271 ( Read the comment from LHammonds 01:47, 30 March 2008 )

yes, you can make them all one omod or keep them separate.

If you're new to obse, I highly recommend http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22282
and http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22410

make sure you run http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20516 to sort your load order, that should prevent missing masters. Also get the newest masterlist, and check back periodically to see if there's a newer one




You only need one patch. the latest version of whichever version you are using, you don't need to install 1.1.511 and then 1.2.416. Also, if you use the shivering isles patch, you don't need the original oblivion patch

I'm just printing out the BOSS installation instructions and then I'll be closing up everything and starting the re-installation. It looks like Fast Exit and Windom's Earle's will be a great assistance, since I started crashing on exit after adding Better Cities and Unique Landscapes. Hopefully this fixes my sound issues also, as well as cleaning up all the excess unused files I had bloating my /Data directory.

Thank you both! Happy adventuring!

Item Interchange - some of the plugins will always show missing masters. It has nothing to do with OBSE. It has to do with the bashed patch. II is set up to work with a whole host of mods, many of which you won't have installed - thus the missing masters. Thus it is also tagged with "Filter" which allows the bashed patch to use the info, merge the mod, without causing a problem with missing masters.

If that was unclear, here's a shorter version: OBSE is irrelevant to II. Configure your bashed patch correctly, and don't worry about the missing masters.

gothemasticator

Ah, okay. So I wasn't bashing correctly. I'm not surprised. I'll make a note of the Filter and read up on that. Thanks!

Up to the SI installation.

BOSS automagically adds tags to mods. So, good practice every time you change your mod list (add or subtract):

• Run BOSS.
  
• Read the BOSSlog and follow instructions given.
  
• Leave the bashed patch deactivated - also leave deactivated all mods whose text is green as well as the missing-master mods like II.
  
• Rebuild the bashed patch following the tag suggestions. That is, if a mod shows up in the scripts options, or the merged options, etc., check it.
  
• When the patch is finished loading, it will ask if you want to activate the bashed patch. Click yes.
  
• You will see all the green text mods as well as II now show a '+' instead of a checkmark. This is what you want.

gothemasticator

I am currently d/ling the OMOD patches (I have previously used the .exe versions). I ran BOSS with just the vanilla installations and patch. As I add all the player-made mods should I be updating my BOSS and Bash as I install, wait and update it at the end of all installations, or update them after each overhaul (like Fran's, Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, etc) and then add all the other little bits (like candles for kleptos, clothing, etc) and BOSS and Bash again?

Thanks for all the great help, folks! I'd rather be spending my day off work playing, but the goal is to be without tears the next time I play, so this is time well spent.

BOSS and Bash with each new overhaul addition or addition of a few small mods.

Also, playtest after each bashed patch rebuild. You want to see problems when you know what you just changed, not at the end when you have 100 things that could've caused it.

gothemasticator

Mais oui! I also know I should just delete all my previous saved games and start anew (oh the pain of recreating a blue and pink argonian!) Part of my bloated problem was having saved games that carried bits of data from improperly installed, deleted, improperly uninstalled, and deactivated mods, and I'm sure every saved game I have contains broken data pointers.

Many many thanks for all responses. I've been defragging with each group I've been installing too. It's tedious going and, even when I know I'm doing exactly what I should, I fear pushing the launcher button and hearing a voice say, "Denied!" So it's nice to get instruction and encouragement. Merci!

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