Hi All.

I am a PC gaming enthusiast and modded Oblivion fanatic. I have now retired from the workforce and managed to coincide that with upgrading my hardware to a reasonable level. What I would like to achieve is to make Tamriel (plus expansion mods) as beautiful as possible within the limits of my hardware.

In the past I have taken advantage of several installation guides as a reference. Of course Tomlong has provided the unbelievably detailed guide (TESCOSI). I had planned to closely follow that and merrily install mod after mod till finished. After spending a couple of weeks following forum threads here, I have found that there are many newish "Must Have" mods that weren't established when I last did a major install. TESCOSI is still valid as a general guide but hasn't been updated to include these "Must Haves".

What I am hoping to do is ask questions as I go (install) and get advice as to which mods would be best suited to my hardware which is as follows:-

Intel 8 core i7-5960X CPU

32GB DDR4 RAM

2 x GTX Titan X 12GB

Windows 10 64bit

Samsung 850 PRO 1TB SSD

My limitations are, unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the hang of Wrye Bash (other than the patch) or Bain. So I use OBMM (now TMM) and manual installs. Hopefully that will still get me by.

Actually I am puzzled virtually right from the start of my install and I would like to clear this up before I go any further.

In her guide (TESCOSI), Tomlong has said the following:-

1. (Even if you have GOTY!!) Install the latest official patch for Oblivion (not SI) of the appropriate language.>> notes: 1) The SI v1.2.0416 patch does not patch the original textures BSA or OblivionLauncher.exe. Only use the v1.2.0416 patch for Oblivion. 2) If you have trouble installing the official patch, read the Unofficial Technical FAQ's patches section. 3) Many mods require Shivering Isles, so it may be worth installing even if you never go to the SI worldspace. Its instrusion into the main worldspace is very small.


2. (Shivering Isles) Run SI's setup. For GOTY users, can do this by installing disc 2.

Notice she says not to install the SI version of the official patch even if installing SI. Every other guide I have seen says to use the SI version if installing SI as well. I must admit I am inclined to follow Tomlong's advice as she

is so specific with the advice. Does anyone know whether not loading the SI patch could lead to problems in the SI worldspace?

Graham