I am getting ready to start installing my Oblivion mods that I decided to use. I have looked over Blade Of Mercy 50 steps and although a great guide, you start the game with ALL the mods active hoping they all work trouble free as they do for him. My past experiences have not been as good and trying to find the troubling mod is a long process.

So I am looking for help as to a good procedure to use when adding a mod to see if it may cause problems. The only problem with having a procedure is that some mods do not kick in until higher levels, or need some quests to be complete. The other problem is that I am starting a new game with a new character.

What I have figured so far to test when I add mods is this:
1. from utside sewers coc testinghall
check all rooms to see if everything looks OK
***Question: does testing hall only have Vanilla items or does it add everything from ALL active mods?
2. Visit (fast travel) each town and run around
3. Visit a cave
4. Visit a fort
5. Visit a ruin
6. Try something from what the mod does (i.e. start the quest, try the item, etc)
This is difficult for mods that do not start until higher levels
*Question: what is the thought on NOT installing such mod until you are at a level to acutally play it?

Now I am looking for feedback based on your experience as to the most likely places a game might crash which should be checked (i.e. must visit Chorrol Mages Guild, must run from Skingrad to Anvil, etc).

It is understood that the entire FCOM installation should be activated at once and tested, same as Better Cities, UL, etc.

I hope to have each test be under 1 hour.

Thanks in advance.

A lot of mods cannot be tested until there quests start or you run into their content, but then it is easy to identify the culprit, so I would worry more about general testing. Try to test every mod in your setup would take too long. I think it is impractical to venture after each one. If you install a city-revamping mod like BC or AWLS, run around the IC and maybe Bravil. For FCOM, run through Vilverin or some other well used (by your overhauls) dungeon. If you can run through Skingrad to Anvil without crashing, your setup is doing very well. Use COC testinghall to check mods' contents if they add things there. (Many mods do not. Most of the rooms that are used by the vanilla game for testing are left alone by mods.)

Thanks for the feedback. I would rather test up front and add mods than to add everything and start removing. What do you thnk about not addind mods which start at higher levels until you reach that level?

The best thing you can do is read the readme of mods to realize what they do exactly before you just drop them in your data folder because the short description at Nexus sounds pretty cool. Then you need to understand how mods work and you're set. My load order includes ~100 mods, I've made the load order myself with OBMM only and I didn't have a single crash or bug in more than 10 hours playtime.

What you say is almost like you already know that at some point a mod will make your game crash or become unplayable. If you are careful about the mods you add and how you add them there is no reason to think that.

Personally I find it a bit stupid to run around like crazy after each mod you add. Where is the fun? Running around for ten hours only to say 'Yep, 'Pompom's Awesome Sword of Destruction' works without problems! Now let's try the next mod!'. I probably play through the whole game in the same time you need to make sure that your mods don't cause any problems.

EDIT: What I do to make sure my mods work is the following:

1. Make sure you choose and add mods that change gameplay first. Mods that just add to the game (like new quests, weapons, armor, houses etc) are less likely to cause serious problems. Character leveling mods, gameplay tweaks, mods that change leveled lists etc should work without problems before you add quests and other things.

2. Choose the mod from Nexus. Check the comment section to see whether people (preferably with an IQ of 90+) report bugs. If the same bug is reported over and over look for a fix, if there is none and you can't make one yourself don't use the mod...unless you can live with the bug.

3. Read the readme carefully, especially if the mod is a complicated mod that doesn't just add an armor or a weapon. Most mod problems occur because people don't read the readme or at least not as carefully as they should. Read the compatibility section as well to make sure your mods work with each other. In some cases you need a patch and/or a special load order, in other cases mods simply don't work with each other and you have to choose the one you prefer.

I agree with Phitt. Generally, if you do the quick up front couple of hours test and are careful to check on compatibility issues, you should be fine. The #1 item Phitt described matches with Blade of Mercy's and my First Run guides because that describes the general load order. You can really get around a lot of extra testing if you are already familiar with the mods. New users should not throw a 100+ plugin load order together because they are not familiar with them or how they play together.

In fact, if you read the mods ReadMes, a number of quest mods even suggest adding to new games. That is almost always the safest option. Adding new mods to your load order changes form IDs, and the game and your saves are form ID sensitive. This is usually a bigger problem when removing mods, but adding plugins does not always work cleanly either. I say try to build your entire setup at the beginning.

Logical. Only problem I encounter with that is that some modders should take "readme writing classes"

Well I was pretty ready with what I wanted to install until I took a second look at your BAIN list and now I am looking through some of the mod descriptions to see if it would fit with my setup. Sometimes too much informations is not good.

I appreciate the feedback on testing.

True, so maybe you do not want to use their mods. I think you can go overboard on the testing, however. I put in a week to create my setup, do a couple quick test and then really hope the game does not crash on the way to Anvil (which you cannot do much about in a heavily modded game it seems.)

I figure it will be a few weeks for me as the real life is getting in the way. I am doing alot of tests creating BAIN projects using your guide and Psymon's information. For me to learn I need to look at examples and try them to see how it works. So with this I hope to FINALLY play a character.

Yup, put in the time beforehand so that you are not starting over after 10 hours or so. Every little bit hurts.