how is it?

is it much of a FPS hit? (am playing on low end laptop)

is it stable? im talking about obnoxious error messages.

i have a weak 1.8 sempron 1.5 gig ram an 128mb ati and could run Balmora expansion lite, MCA and Creatures X with not much of a bad hit in FPS. Balmora expansion on it's own was a hog at least for my 486 lol

i guess i left out that it's been in most of my last few games! also a neat thing is that if either mca Balmora gaurd or Balmora expansion guard catch you doing someting and the other doesn't they will start a war with each other it was cool.

I didn't notice any "significant" loss in frame rate, at least compared to several other mods. It's "stable", but there are a few potential conflicts with other mods that change the landscape in the area or make other chnages to Balmora.

Personally, I found it "interesting", but of "mixed" usefulness and lore-compatibility. If you don't mind the stuff that's blatantly spoiler-ish being offered for sale all around you, and things which totally change the "feel" of the game, then it's pretty good over-all. Since it's a compilation of the works of several different modders, the quality, compatibility, and credibility varies by quite a bit from one shop or NPC to another. Ultimately, it turned out that I did not want certain parts of it in my game, and I unchecked the mod, but most of it is great work. I'm still considering adding one or two of those individual mods seperately one of these days, if I can find them.

It doesn't hurt to try it, and there's enough "good stuff" there to at least warrant a look.

My opinion is pretty much the same: you'll have to try it and see by yourself if Balmora Expansion is your thing.

Overall it's a good mod, but being essentially a "merge" of different mods, the quality vary and it stretches lore in some places.
Also, it should be noted that it's pretty old: the average quality of mods has risen a lot. Not only that, but some of the shops look pretty outdated by now.

The "undeground" part especially bothered me... let's just say that difficulty of that section is on the level of Tribunal, so definitely excessive for a starting character; which may come as an unpleasant surprise, since Balmora is the typical starting city for new PCs.

I played with BE for a time, and also modded it a bit to make it better meet my personal taste... in the end, thought, I felt too many things in it clashed with the feeling I like in my games, so I removed it.

I say it's an essential mod (at least in my modlist)

A very medium computer should manage it.

Balmora Expanded used to be on everyone's "must have" list, and great care was taken with it so that it was as stable as you could hope for other than a bit of an FPS hit. Saying that, it conflicted with a lot of mods even ones that did not center around Balmora; and that must also be true of many mods that have come since its release. I thought it was a wonderful snapshot of the best of the community's modding abilities around 6 years ago. The other nice thing about it is that it makes Balmora a believable city with tons of things to see and do (and buy), lots of new areas to explore. It is perhaps the best attempt ever to make any Vvardenfell city a living, breathing place of merchants, commoners, nobles, mages, fighters, vampires, brewers, bakers, beggars & thieves.

Because the mod is a collection of a lot of modders' work it is somewhat eclectic: some of it is lore-friendly, some of it isn't. Some of it provides great atmosphere, some of it will seem a bit of an out-dated joke. Some of the items available are quite uber and powerful - not a problem if you have put many hours into the game already, but could certainly break the game for a low-level character.

Personally I don't use it anymore as I have a more lore-friendly purist build to my game these days. That is not to say that there isn't a great deal about it that I really enjoy about the mod, but I would prefer to tweak it a fair bit so that it would fit in with the newer Balmora mods I use: e.g. I would keep the Baths, I can do without Britney Spears. Like others have said above, some buildings you will find you won't enter more than once out of interest, and might find yourself wishing that the space had been used for something that was left out from the mod (like a Bank).

It will

• conflict with almost any other Balmora mods
  
• seem a bit out-dated in places
  
• provide great atmosphere
  
• ensure you spend many happy hours in Balmora