Hi, everyone. I don't know if I'll be remembered. If so, it will probably be from my constant questions and problems, which Shikishima and others tirelessly assisted me with.

I'd been running, and loving, FCOM for a while and had a game where I'd played 60 hours and barely scratched the surface. I had a few niggling crashes and things. Eventually, my hard drive died. Well, I've got a fancy new laptop now which seems to handle Oblivion REALLY well. I'm hoping to install it better this time to avoid any persistent crashing, and I'm also hoping my new hardware will be able to juice the maximum detail out of the game, even with the awesome viewable when distant mods going.

What's the point of this post?

Well, I'm intimidated as ever by the installation. You'd think that having done it before, I wouldn't be so scared, and that's true, I'm grateful for my experience, but I'm still certainly not an expert. If it goes not well, I may just skip it and go with OOO and whatever other things work along with it.

But will I really be satisfied with "just" OOO?

Probably not.

Here's to hoping it goes well.

I'm using the FCOM install guide, of course, and I'm also using something that was not here last year, that being
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1079933-50-steps-to-ctd-almost-free-fcom-game/ .

I'm skipping a few of the steps that I don't really understand that I never did before and don't seem to be in the FCOM install guide; I'm also not using every single add-on in the 50 steps. I don't want too much beyond FCOM and the... er... necessities.

Sorry, kind of a pointless post. I'm sure there are other returnees who share my terror. However, memories of my glee are enough to push me to continue.

...I think...

Hi Welcome back. try not to get overwhelmed with adding mods. Play and fix what you don't like

Edit: Redundent as you will soon see. But this is an execelent New Guide....http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/

Wow! Not redundant--it looks great! Thanks very much.

Yeah, FCOM really does have a ton of stuff in it. If I get bogged down or something (I already feel like I need a nap), I might just go with OOO and a few of the things it supports.

The FCOM Convergence homepage is out of date, which is why you may see steps that you do not recognize. You should check the first post of the current FCOM thread for installation updates. Blade of Mercy's guide is up-to-date.
http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/walkthroughs/fcomguide <-- this guide is new-user friendly (or at least I am trying to get it to that point) but do not mix installation guides together or you may get confused by slightly differing directions

http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/fcominstall.html, like the homepage, is a little outdated, but its instructions are very clear. Since you are not a newer mod user, his guide, along with the first post of the FCOM thread, should suffice for installing FCOM with OBMM.


Edit: TESIV:POSItive also has an http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/walkthroughs/mmmooo, if you want to try something a little bigger than OOO but smaller than FCOM. Hopefully, I will get the OOO Installation guide up before the end of the day.

Redundant wasn't the right word ..meaning you have to Stick to one or the other guide . not try to do things on one or the other.

Ah, okay, got it--thanks, guys.

Well, I'm really liking the step-by-step nature of Tom's guide above ( http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/walkthroughs/fcomguide ), so I think I'll stick to that one. The 50 Steps leaves a fellow in the dark about a few things, as far as I can tell, I suppose allowing for usage of the "official" install guide. I need hand-holding, and it looks like Tom's guide is more the ticket.

Yup, Blade of Mercy's guide is very helpful and informative, but as Shikishima's quote at the top says, it is not for newer users. It is really good for users that have previously installed FCOM. The focus is the method by which you can install a stable FCOM+++ setup, and presumes that you either know how to install everything or are also following the "official" FCOM docs when it comes to the FCOM installation part.

I've installed it before, but it's still scary for me. :s I'm currently following your guide and am practically weeping because it's so easy to follow. Hopefully I'll keep having such good luck, or I'll unleash my mercurial emotions on my keyboard or the neighbor children. RAAARRRR! Was happy, now just want to smasssh!!

I'm figuring that once I get the basic installation done, as per your guide, I'll be able to add in a couple other things (which may or may not be in your guide--I guess I haven't read the whole thing yet!) like body and clothing replacers, normal maps, vibrant textures, viewable when distant, OblivionXP... And hopefully not flub anything up. :s

I hate to start a new thread for something that I know has been discussed over and over and over, but do you guys (anyone reading) have opinions on the official DLC? I played Knights of the Nine on Xbox and enjoyed it but really have no desire to do it again and will probably just leave it turned off. Shivering Isles is, of course, awesome. But what about the downloadable stuff? I had it ALL on Xbox, never played much of it, and darn it, I don't want to buy it again, but I don't want to miss out either. I thought the big dungeon for Mehrune's Razor looked kinda neat.

Under "Lists", you can find my load order, and use it as a reference. You can also browse the real load orders (under "Running Oblivion") that various users have graciously allowed me to host.

Woo! Very cool. I'll definitely make use of that.

Links to a number of recommended mods can be found on the "Downloading Mods" page, and 90% of the mods I used can be easily found by looking at my package list, also under "Lists". I leave the Nexus page IDs on my archives, so you can reconstruct the page path as per the instructions at the top of that page.

Edit: The same goes for my TES Alliance downloads, so I need to get the instructions for rebuilding those paths up as well.

It's a great resource. So comprehensive!

Most people are not that impressed by the smaller DLC stuff. You've mentioned SI and Knights of the Nine, bothof which are excellent. Mehrunes Razor is a nice, and unique dungeon with a story attached and some unique stuff in it, so maybe go for that one. Most of the rest are player homes, and are easily surpassed by many excellent user made mods. i don't think you'll be missing out by not buying them.

One exception is perhaps FrostCrag Spire (The Wizards Tower), there is an excellent user made mod called Frostcrag Revisited that massively expands the DLC. If you want the mod you will need to buy the DLC first.

Edit, actually the Frostcrag mod I was thinking of is Frostcrag Reborn.

I use Knights (because its Knights) DLCSpellTomes (because of the new books) and DLCBattlehornCastle (because no unofficial mod has replaced the trainer.) The rest of the DLCs are gathering dust on my HDD. I have not even played Mehrunes, and my PC does not need a player home. I have added a mod to redress Benirus, but it will be years before he can afford that. He and his companion just do the rogue thing, primarily.

Tom, sort of off-topic (but hey, it's my thread, right? uhhh kinda), but--what's your PC's companion like? I am intrigued by their "story".

I remember using Frostcrag on the Xbox version because I liked the enchantment altars, but getting them "early" is kinda cheating anyway in FCOM. (In vanilla, it didn't really matter one way or another...)

Maybe I'll use Knights after all. It just seems a little useless for a rogue PC, and I get tired of the prophet yapping and everyone yapping about him. And messing up the chapel! Huff.

My companion is SultericDrum's Viconia. I tweaked her face a little bit though. (See my Avatar.) The only other primary companion I have used is thePriest909' Sonia (and Red Sonia). I only use one companion (unless playing through a companion quest or something.)


Edit: Yup, I am not a modder or an author, just a happy consumer...

Maybe I'll have to try a companion sometime...

I've got a question, though maybe it would be better to ask in the main thread.

After installing Fran's to the temporary directory, I noticed I had to remove the Fran registration in the oblivion.ini manually. Probably a Windows 7 thing. However, what I'm unsure about is all the extra Fran plugins I have in my Fran folder. I had to take a lot of those out the last time I installed FCOM. In fact, I think only a few were left in. Does that matter when installing via this method, whether I leave the extra stuff in there or take it out before making the OMOD? I'm still in the making OMODs step.

Leave the extra stuff out so that does not clutter up your oblivion data folder and count toward totall amount of esp,esm,bsa you can have. Just use what you need once again ..

Get BASE FCOM working then slowly add mods. test and repeat.

Got it. Thanks, Corepc!

I don't know why you felt the need for an independent thread when everything you need is http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1085113-relz-fcom-convergence-and-ufcom-relz/.
I've even supplied all of the required links to get a basic FCOM installation running.
Download from those links, install, run your mod listing through BOSS, address anything it reports, make the bashed patch.
It's not really rocket science eh, especially since you've installed it before.

Sorry. I just made it to chat, not to sabotage...