Good afternoon all,

After a two year hiatus I would like to pick up where I left off playing Oblivion... however I appear to have lost my notes on what mods I was running. Is there any way of finding out?

Also, because this is the first time I will have tried it, is there any chance of getting an old save up and running when the game has been heavily modded... or is it a non-starter and I should simply start again (would rather not, was doing quite well)?

Thanks in advance.

Martin

PS. I did search around but could not find anything that would answer my question.

Wrye bash, saves tab, masterslist for the save http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=4536673Untitled.jpg

Edit: Missed your second question - If you can get all your mods installed as they were, you should be able to just carry on. You may not have got into it before but Wrye Bash BAIN installation method makes picking up where you left off after a computer meltdown/total re-install a breeze. Needs a bit of work getting used to BAINs and creating them, but after a few it gets easier (depends on your knowledge of mods). Have a backup of your Bash Installers folder for those devastating moments and all your worries are gone. BAINs also give you the confidence that what you expect in game .. actually is, with its annealing of files. I can go from game not installed, to carrying on from where I left off in any of my saves in about 25 minutes now.

See the links in my sig for lots more info if new to Wrye Bash.

Sweet, I'll give that a go.

Thanks

M

Ooh for a new installation of the game - Dont install the game into the default location, whilst installing change the game installation from C:\program files\bethesda softworks\Oblivion to somewhere else like C:\Games\bethesda softworks\Oblivion instead.

If using Vista or windows 7 UAC will cause you no end of problems because it protects the program files folder - So utilities like Wrye Bash/OBMM/BOSS . whatever end up having conflicts with UAC.

If you have already installed the game, I would highly recommend re-doing that now (un-install it, re-install it in a custom location) before you start heavy modding again, it will either end in tears or you will go for the easy option of turning off UAC - Not recommended.

Yeah, thanks for the heads-up...

I am using Win7 x64 and have only installed the game and official patch at this point... just installed Wry Bash and am looking at the mod list.

I remember when I was using Vista that modding was a pain due to permissions/UAC... kept finding mod files all over the place - roaming profile folders I seem to remember.

I will uninstall now and do it again, now I have a full list of what mods I was using that will be a great help to me, my last save was 19/04/2008 and I was enjoying that run-through and would rather not start from scratch.

The biggest game-changers I was using were OOO and MMM, they were all installed before I began that character, because it has been a long time I cannot remember what I have to do, do I need to use Wry Bash to update anything, or is all of the leveling/balancing info stored in the save?

Thanks,

M

Edit: missed your update/edit... will see what all that is about. Thanks.

Ok, I'll move on to BAINs now and see what they are, however I have just been reading through this:

http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/OOO/OOO_Guide.html#upSave

and see about updating saves... this rings a bell now from back in 2007 when I added OOO to a running game, my memory is lagging now in my old age.

On to BAINs now.

M

You will probably find http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/ very helpfull too, she is like a whirling dervish when not studying and has made an amazing collection of advice there, including OOO (I dont use it, prefer T.I.E)

Just read up on BOSS, how cool is that?

Where was all this sweet stuff when I started modding the game, was always SUCH an pain in the [censored] to manage it all... number of times I would see a yellow ? dotted about because a shader file had gone all wonky/missing/overwritten, or having to trawl forums to figure this stuff out.

Anyway, I am only kidding... I know this stuff was all made because of the issues we used to suffer... actually looking forward to getting back into it all now, shame the weekend is nearly over.

M

Yep BOSS is brilliant, the masterlist is regularly updated via the topic on this site. And updating the masterlist is automatic now too (Wrye Bash has a setting which makes that happen if launching BOSS from the Wrye Bash button).

If you find BAIN a bit too much for now, you can still use OBMM or manual installs, and just load up Wrye bash to put in the finishing touches, use its button for BOSS load ordering and then create the Bashed Patch for more game stability.

Ref' OBMM, even if you use Wrye Bash BAIN method of installation, OBMM is still useful for extracting OMODS to create your BAINs, and it has various tools which still come in handy from time to time, BSA redating (Reset Timestamps) for instance.

If you come across the Archive Invalidation topics, its no longer a concern with either Wrye Bash or OBMM, both use the current recommended method of Redirection automatically by default (dont change this in its settings, there are a few old mods around which still recommend using BSA Alteration - Not a good idea).

Lastly - OBMM has been developed a bit more by a new programmer over the last year - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32277, you dont need the original OBMM.