Ok, I know this is the post you've read a hundred times before - some newb coming in and wanting to jump in at the deep end with an over ambitious list of mods he's going to try to throw on the game.

But please, help?

I've read a hundred readmes the past week, downloaded untold gigs worth of .rar and .7z files and even got a semi stable game a couple of times but I need your help.

First off, let me get something out of the way. No, I haven't played oblivion before (not for more than an hour or two anyway) and I know you're going to tell me I should play through vanilla before modding but that just isn't going to happen. I bought it a couple years ago through steam and it's going to sit here unplayed in it's current vanilla state.

Some questions to begin.

1) One of the modding guides I read and attempted to follow had me move the installation out of program files (presumably to avoid UAC), make a regedit entry and then use a 4gb patcher to patch oblivion.exe to use 4gb of RAM rather than being stuck on 2GB. This is the only guy I've seen make mention of doing that - is that normal, necessary or recommended?

2) I started using OBMM and downloading OMODs, I got a semi stable game but then I was introduced to WryeBash/BOSS and kinda got to learn that system. Is there any (reasonable) way for me to unpack the OMOD files into the component .esp and mesh/texture/whatever folders so I can zip them back up and use Wrye to install them? It feels like I'm just asking for trouble using a mix of OBMM Installed mods and BAIN installed mods because I'm going to get some kind of conflict somewhere and be sad about it.

So I spent a day or two following that guide I linked tried to link but the forum wouldn't let me and installed all those mods (mainly upgrading/updating graphics) and it mostly worked. I had a few problems, the ground in the distance looked terrible, and the textures immediately surrounding the sewer exit flickered (even when I put my torch away). Oh and I just couldn't get Better Cities to work. I decided to push on anyway and went to go get FCOM, where I discovered that the FCOM process was supposed to be the first thing I added to a clean install. Oh well, some might look at the past few days as wasted time, but I learned a lot about using Wrye and BOSS and hopefully that will serve me well.

My Box:

It's about a year old, a laptop, I hope it should be able to handle any mods I need. If not, let me know.

Intel Core i7-3610QM

6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz

2x 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7970M (in Crossfire)

Does Crossfire even work on Oblivion?

I went through a bunch of peoples recommended/suggested/favourite mods and tried to come up with a list that looked like it was going to what I wanted however I don't know if any of these are outdated, conflicting, or not supported or if any of them are duplicating effects and I should drop one. Here is my list, I'll try to group theminto some kind of order:

Utilities

OBSE

Wyre Bash

BOSS

OBMM

TES4LODGEN

TES4EDIT

Stability

Windom Earle's Oblivion Crash Prevention System

Fast Exit 2

Oblivion Stutter Remover

Elys Universal Silent Voice

Streamline

Patches

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

Unofficial Official Oblivion Mods Patch

FCOM

Francesco's Levelled Creatures/Items

OOO

OWC

Bob's Armory

FCOM Convergence 1.0

MMM

OMOBS

Gameplay Changes

Deadly Reflex

Supreme Magicka

Midas Magic: Spells of Aurum

Enhanced Economy

Realistic Fatigue

Realistic Health

Levelling Changes

Realistic Levelling

Progress

Quest Award Leveller

Quest Award Leveller (SI)

Oblivion -Elys- Uncapper

Legendary Abilities

Legendary Mastery

Alternative Start (by ship)

UI Changes

Darnified UI

Display Stats

Map Marker Overhaul

Chase Camera Mod

TTHud Reticle

- Some kind of update to the Map screen, any suggestions?

"Quality of Life" tweaks

Harvest Flora

Harvest Flora for Shivering Isles

Harvest Containers

At Home Alchemy

Drop Lit Torches OBSE

Denock Arrow

Get Level Spell

Keychain

MD Saddle Bags

Dude, Where's my Horse?

Portable Campsite

Additional Content

Better Cities (Ideally install as Open Better Cities)

Unique Landscape Compilation

Frostcrag Reborn

Kvatch Rebuilt

Glenvar Castle

Knightes of the Nine: Revelation

Let the people drink

Companion Vilja

AFK Weye

Akaviri Stronghold

The Lost Spire

Ruined Tail's Tale

- Open to suggestions on any mods that add content (quests, npc's, locations) to the world.

Graphics Updates (environment)

RAEVWD

QTP3 (redimized)

Bomrets Texture Pack for SI

Book Jackets

Better Letters

Improved Xxxxxx (Doors and Flora, Trees and Flora, Trees and Flora 2, Bark)

Koldorn's Ayeleid Ruins

OBGE Shaders (Core, Standalone Effects, Luminance HDR, Parralax Occlusion Mapping, Water, Physically Correct Sky, Improved Cloud Shadow)

Ambient Dungeons (and You are here)

Night Sky

Natural Habitat

Enhanced Vegetation

All Natural Weather

Animated Window Lighting System

Immersive Interiors

- I think I need to update the "maps" from 512x512 to 2048x2048 (or better) and/or get "Koldorn's LOD Noise Replacer".

- Open to suggestions on any mods that improve the look of the game.

Graphics Updates (actors)

Race Balancing Project

Facial Textures by Enayla

- Open to suggestions on any mods that make character/npc models look better, not looking for any of the "advlt" stuff, but anything that makes people in Cyrodiil look less like apes and less blocky is good.

Sound Updates

Symphony of Violence

Combat Sounds 300

- Open to suggestions on any mods that improve the sound of the game.

So, what do you think? Are there any mods on my list that jump out to you and being bad or having a newer/better replacement? Any groups of mods that you see that don't play well together? Any mods you *don't* see on the list that should probably be there?

Is this an achievable goal? Any suggestions on what order to start loading stuff in once FCOM is installed and working?

I'm going to get started on FCOM tonight and I'll be coming back to this thread with updates on how my install is going and looking for help when I hit a problem. Thanks in advance for any help or assistance with this project, I'm really excited to build my own version of the game out of all these great mods, I hope I complete it so I can get to play it some day!

1. Absolutely required in order to avoid the hassle in the future.

2. You did the right thing. In order to convert OMOD just drop it into the installers folder and let the Wrye Bash convert it into an archive. Then you can unzip it if necessary and turn it back to BAIN convertible archive.

Regards to mods however, it greatly depends on what you want to achieve and also depends on your personal taste. Remember not to go overboard or your PC will start to complain. The game is more than 6 year old engine. It does not use multi-core CPUs unfortunately. That's all I can think of at any rate.

Congrats on having done your homework. You have got an excellent start. I'm betting your 'modding guide' was TESCOSI, which is recommended. Even though there have been some updates to mods it mentions, all of it's basics are still sound. You should also check out 'http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html' for hardware configuration advice. Basics seldom need revision simply due to age.

As for what order to start installing stuff, look at TESCOSI again, http://tescosi.com/wiki/Oblivion:Load_Order. Otherwise, check out the FCOM Convergence http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1454648-relz-fcom-convergence-10.

Though I want to caution you: FCOM for a novice modder is a challenge at the best of times, simply because of the number of options you have to make choices among. Even the authors say so. Please consider starting with one of the simpler overhauls mentioned in the 'http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/820948-scaling-overhaul-comparison' thread, especially if you aren't absolutely sure FCOM is your only solution.

Your choice of other mods must of necessity be constrained by what works well with your previous choices. Consequently, install your lower priority mods last. This is the major reason you have to distinguish between 'install order' (IO) and 'load order' (LO). LO only comes into play after IO has done it's work.

Personally I would recommend getting your graphic improvements inline before installing any overhaul. That way you don't have other complicated factors to worry about while working out what looks good. Game play overhauls seldom touch on the same files as texture replacers. http://testg.wikidot.com/main was specifically established to help people get the best looking game possible. We don't make recommendations; just try to explain. We do have a suggested 'generic' install order for graphic mods.

As for Actor graphic updates, TESTG has an extensive http://testg.wikidot.com/oblivion:characters. Be sure to check out 'http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1460950-relz-oblivion-character-overhau'. It's the newest entrant, and getting rave reviews.

Not clear if you are aware there are a couple of caps on mods: 253 active ESP/ESM files (other than the Oblivion ESM); 400 including BSAs in the game '\Data' folder. Wrye Bash (WB) gets around some of that by 'ghosting' (renaming) files it doesn't need if they are completely incorporated into the WB patch. Files without one of those extensions or in other folders do not count against the caps.

Which means you can't have everything. Every file an overhaul or extensive mod requires, reduces the number of other choices you have left. Sooner or later you have to make choices. Better to start out by determining your priorities up front.

-Dubious-

Keychain - Do not use. Causes save game bloat. Darn UI already got this covered.

Windom Earle's Oblivion Crash Prevention System - Do not use. Causes save game corruption.

If it's generally suggested to patch my executable to use 4gb of ram, is there a good guide to do that? The only guide for that I saw mentioned that steam installs keep reverting your executable to the 2gb version and he had to install a "cracked" nocd exe to stop it looking for steam but I'm not terribly comfortable doing that kind of thing. Is there a steam-friendly way to patch your executable to use 4gb and not revert?

The guide I was following was at forums(dot)overclockers(dot)co(dot)uk/showthread(dot)php?t=18247684

I think I'm going to try and bash (excuse the pun) my head against FCOM for a little but before I give in.

FCOM suggests using a clean install so that's what I was going with for now, maybe I'll make two installs one to work on FCOM, the other to work on experimenting with graphics stuff.

Great, this was exactly the kind of insight I was looking for, they are removed from my list!

Imgur's not working for me, so I can't give new member fishy stick.