I have finally got my install finished using the Steam version of Oblivion. I am using a moderate number of mods, primarily QTP3, Better Cities, All Natural, Darnified UI, RAVWD, and several other texture mods.

I have spent about 3 hours on a new game traveling / fast traveling around the world, including between IC Waterfront and Anvil without any CTDs. I have had issues while getting this build set up with saves that CTDS while fast traveling in those areas, but my latest effort seems to be stable.

From reading various forums, I worry that this stability will not last, especially with Better Cities, QTP, and RAVWD. I do own the DVD GOTY version of the game as well and I have read that with mods, the disc version of the game is more stable than the Steam version over the long run.

So my question is whether I should stick with the initially stable Steam version, or if I should start anew with the GOTY version and reapply all of my mods?

As I understand it, I can take the .esm files for the DLC from the Steam version, along with the Steam Oblivion .esm, and add them to the GOTY version so I have the complete version of the game.

Any comments or thoughts would be appreciated. I would like to keep the game stable, so if I have to spend some more set-up time now it would be totally worth it over time. But if the Steam version is just as stable, I would rather spend my time playing the game. (getting all of the mods running stable has been a game in-and-of itself!)

Thanks in advance!

I don't think it really matters which version you have, but I would recommend the disc version, since you don't need to be online while playing the game, and Steam can lower performance.

Along with that, some mods may not work with the Steam version of the game (I'm not really sure which, but I do recall reading on this one mod that it doesn't work with the Steam version of the game).

In my experience, the Steam version is perfectly stable. Your mileage may vary of course.

On a side note: at first I thought this was in the support section, so facepalm moment there.


Steam has an offline mode. I've played my games plenty of times without an Internet connection.

Also, I have yet to see any performance difference between the two versions on my end.