Oblivion; is there an all-in-one modpack I should get?

MindLib

I want to re-install and mod the shit out of Oblivion. Can anyone recommend a quick, easy way to do this via a modpack?

TychoCelchuuu

Modding Oblivion isn't quick and easy. It takes hours but luckily they're fun hours (although I know the prospect doesn't look fun at the outset). Start with these guides. They're really quite outdated but they give you a good feel for the sort of stuff that's out there:

http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/home.html
http://sites.google.com/site/aelius28/home
http://sites.google.com/site/ballofflame/balloffire'soblivionmodlist

And here is a list of lists:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Recommended_Mods

MindLib

*cry* I was hoping to avoid all the BS, but I suppose it's worth it. Thanks.

TychoCelchuuu

Also this is a pretty good FAQ:

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/449239-oblivion-mods-faq/

I guess if you wanted to have as few as possible, you could install FCOM, which is a combination of 3 (four?) huge mods and changes everything, more or less, but it's kind of a bitch to install and if you want to go through that you might as well just pick mods that YOU want.

MindLib

What about total conversion mods, are there any that can hold a candle to a well-modded vanilla?

Edit:http://sites.google.com/site/ballofflame/balloffire%27soblivionmodlist
This looks good, and seems to be one of the only updated lists, albeit just over a year ago.

Movitz

Honestly, just go for FCOM. It's a pack that let's you play the 4 most popular overhaul mods at the same time (they'll be incompatible otherwise).

It took me the better part of a day to install that but I had no previous experience of Oblivion's mod system so installing anything would have taken time I guess. It's supposed to be released in one big install file some day. But as it is now, be prepared it's a pain in the ass.

But the results are like sweet sweet nectar of make-believe life. I did my second play through with that pack and it's pretty much how they should have made the game from the start. More diverse equipment and no retarded level scaling.

Link http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/

Satsumomo

Oblivion mods are worth it all the way. The game's fun factor increases exponentially.

Scrublet

I can't look up any of my actual mods right now (work blocks game stuff), but of the mods I have I particularly recommend this one mod that greatly expands/improves weather/environment features, and one mod that upps the texture size substantially. Made the game look way better than it already did.

Farout Foolio

A magic spell that costs 1mp and flings your opponents into the sky at rocket speed is worth the time and effort.

Raekreu

In addition to some of the graphics packs (obviously), I highly recommend a mod called deadly reflex that completely overhauls the combat system. It's kind of a pig to work with at first but the install instructions give you URLs to follow for the foundation mods that you need. IIRC it's only 2 mods and they're pretty simple to install.

The deadly reflex mod itself adds a crapton of features - you can dodge/roll much more easily, shield bashing (punching if you're using a 2h weapon) is bound to a button for interrupts, instant stealth kills on targets that are sleeping, critical strikes from weapons (you can decapitate with a sword, smash heads with a blunt weapons, or puncture a lung with an arrow) and spells (chance to freeze someone solid, burn them to cinders, or best of all - electrocute them, which will send them flying and melt anything metal they're carrying). Might not be everyone's cup of tea but if you're like me then you get sick of 'block heavy attack attack attack attack repeat' for every single bad guy you face.

Henroid

I don't recommend Deadly Reflex actually. It overly complicates the combat system in the game. If you want to spice things up, get mods for different combat animations.

I had written up a bunch of stuff regarding an LP I intend to do, and heyo, it's relevant to this thread. It's a list of all mods I use, as well as a brief description of all of them. Included is a link to the TES Nexus, the site I got it all from. Some of it is adult-content related, but you can spot it out.

Mods Being Used

I have a fair amount of mods being put to use in the game, and I thought I'd list them all and credit accordingly. All mods listed here can be found at the TES Nexus. I apologize if some aren't as easy to find as others, I didn't save their links when getting them myself. I'll separate them by two categories - mods for looks and mods for gameplay. Some might not fight 100% but it should be an understandable categorizing anyhow.

Mods for Looks

• Amazing Jump (by Ramy)
  • Changes the jump animation in the game to some cool shit.
• Black Luster Weapons & Armor for Exnem's Body (by hide)
  • Adds a set of heavy armor and bows for sale in the Imperial City. Has different color varieties.
• DMC Stylish (by beni)
  • Changes all attack animations to be very much like Devil May Cry styled attacks. It actually looks great. It conflicts with Alternative Start (puts you back in prison clothes; AS removes that).
• Elven Map Redux (by Xythen)
  • Makes the world map prettier.
• Face Texture for High Rez Skin Textures (by Ozmo)
  • Changes face textures to be higher res and to match another skin pack. Alters some NPC faces (intentional?).
• HGEC (by RAIAR & MadCat 221)
  • Changes female bodies in the game, and allows for nudity - but I'm not using that function (besides, it'd make all this NSFW and then we'd be nowhere). Allows for use of other mods, such as some armor mods.
• HGEC Sexy Armor Replacer (by duddly01)
  • Changes a lot of the stock armor in the game to mesh with the HGEC mod. While the name has "sexy" in it, for the most part things are tame. I chose this mod because it actually got creative with the armor changes; colourwheels, another mod maker, had a similar idea but his is more lewd and his only idea was to change the pants into miniskirts. No thanks.
• Idles Replacer (by Shaklin)
  • Changes the pose your character takes when holding bows, staves, and other weapons. Has 3 options available for each.
• Natural Environments (by Max Tael)
  • Makes lots of changes to the game world. Adds and enhances weather effects, enhances sky boxes (super pretty), adds more passive flying creatures (butterlies and such), and increases the size of trees and foilage.
• Ren's Beauty Pack (by Ren)
  • Adds some sort of race, which I ignore, but adds a bunch of hairstyles. Definitely anime and emo inspired. But some are alright. They all have a variety of coming with or without a blinder over the eyes or a mask over the face (give a decent bandit look). Doesn't apply to NPCs.
• Spell Singer (by beni)
  • Changes some spell casting animations, as well as the pose for holding a staff and walking with it. Also comes with audio that is super annoying but is easily left out.
• Symphony of Violence (by MigTheGreat)
  • Changes a lot of weapon related sounds (sheathing, hitting, cutting, etc) to be more... well, just better.
• WhiteSquall Armor for HGEC (by tona)
  • Adds a set of armor (three color types) to the Imperial City for purchase. It's high-value armor, being both expensive but providing a lot of defense. This is the mod that made me decide on the character being female by the way.
• YAARM Fur Armor Replacer (author unknown)
  • Changes fur armor to work with HGEC. It actually looks neat. Comes in two varieties; one showing as much boobs as possible and the other without - I use the one without, because it's actually armor in that case.
• YAARM Iron Armor Fixed (author unknown)
  • Does the same as above only with iron armor.
• High Rez Skin Textures for HGEC (by Ozmo)
  • Enhances the skin textures in game, to a really ridiculous degree. We're talking gigs on gigs.
• Depth of Field (by Qarl and Timeslip)
  • This is cool. It makes things in the background blurry, not unlike a film camera.
• Better Letters (by Cliffworms)
  • Changes every letter in the game to be unique. I haven't made a point of testing it, but I'll take its stated purpose as functioning.
• Vampire Hunter Armor (by Eyren)
  • Adds a set of light armor for purchase in the Imperial City. So-so effectiveness as armor, not terrible expensive. The coat looks ridiculous and cool.
• Vampire Hunter FIX (by Eyren)
  • Fixed a problem with the above mod, boots related.
• Sinkpoint's Martial Arts Animation Replacer (by sinkpoint)
  • Changes the hand to hand animations, works in 1st and 3rd person (though, leg animations in first person are a problem). As you gain perks that change hand to hand power attacks, the animations change.
• Silver Raner (by beni)
  • Changes the bow attack animation in third person (optionally first person).
• Natural Walk (by beni)
  • Changes the third person animations for walking backwards and strafing to walking normally in those directions, unless you've got your weapon drawn. Because why would you strafe when not in combat?

Mods for Gameplay

• Francesco's Mod (by Francesco)
  • This is one of the big overhaulers, but I like it for it's subtlety. It adds a bunch of weapons and armors, as well as enemies. It works with balancing and all sorts of shit. It changes skill progression (recommended 50% slower but can go for more), how fast time passes in game, and the respawn timer. It also adds a living economy in the game.
• Galerion Natural Leveling (by Galerion)
  • This drastically changes leveling. First, no matter what you do skills wise, you can only increase a stat by 1 point. Sounds bad so far right? It fixes that by making it so that every 4 skill ups or so a related stat will go up (like 4 blade increases increases strength by 1). Luck will also go up every now and then on its own. In order for the mod to take effect, you need to stand at the point where you'd exit the tutorial dungeon / sewer.
• Attack and Hide (by Antrix)
  • This mod makes it so that enemies will not auto-home on you once your location is revealed. It'll take some working on stealth, but once you push on a certain point with it, enemies will be hard pressed to find you and combat will be exited! Comes in three difficulties, easier and medium making things too easy.
• No Psychic Guards (by Talonhoff)
  • Makes it so that committing a crime won't make a guard come rushing at you. They have to catch you or you need to be reported.
• Quest Award Leveling (by Quarn)
  • Some of the quest rewards in the game attain their stats based on your level. This means you can get a potentially good weapon early, but it'll suck because you got it early. This mod removes that bullshit, and anything that has stats based on your level will 'level up' with you when appropriate.
• Keychain (by haama)
  • Slings up all your keys into a keychain, making the inventory not feel cluttered.
• Alternative Start (by Robert Evrae)
  • Hate the tutorial starting dungeon? This mod removes it. You start on a ship cabin, filling out immigration forms. You even choose a social status / job that dictates the money and inventory you start with. You choose to arrive in Anvil or the Imperial City. You can find the Amulet of Kings on a rat in the sewer.
• Landmarks w Wells (by Daleth)
  • Adds more things to your map as you discover them, such as the wells. Why this didn't happen with the game as shipped, who knows.
• House Map Markers (by Mordrid)
  • Adds map markers for the houses you can / do purchase. Comes in two varieties; show all, and show only what you've purchased.
• Enchantment Restore Over Time (by Flyfightflea)
  • Allows weapon / staff charge to recover over time. How much you can alter on your own. You can input the ticker for when the charge arrives (if set to 10, every ten seconds an amount will return), and you can input a flat amount to return. You can also make it based of Mysticism skill, but I don't know the math. Hard to find a balance.
• Smarter Mercantile Leveling (by wavion)
  • Changes how mercantile levels. Originally, you gain skill experience per transaction. Selling 10 arrows is the same as selling 1 arrow. It's shit. This changes it so that it operates off gold exchanged. If you need 1000 gold to get a skill up, you can sell 10 items for 100 gold each, sell one item for 1000 gold, or buy an item for 2000 gold. You can alter how purchases operate in relation to sales - suggested is half the effect.
• Stealth Overhaul (by JOG)
  • Changes lots of stealth shit. Having a weapon drawn will penalize your stealth. Wearing heavy armor penalizes sneak. No armor at all grants a 10% bonus. Adds an "assassinate" spell at journeyman to very briefly, once a day, drastically increase sneak attack damage. Most importantly, it changes the multiplier on sneak attacks based on the size / speed of the weapon used. Two handed weapons have shit multipliers, but daggers have crazy high multipliers. You can adjust the multiplier gained per perk via options (3 / 6 / 9 / 12, 2 / 4 / 8 / 16, etc).
• Supreme Magicka (by Flyfightflea)
  • A drastic overhaul of the game's spell system. It does too many things to list here, I'll try to give an idea: adds sneak-attack bonus to spells, adds 'circle' spells for AoE, and spell skills level based on the amount of magicka used for a spell cast (no longer a cast-count level system). Restoration is still a bitch to level.
• Retroactive Health (unknown author)
  • Originally, the game only adds to your health based on the endurance you have the moment you level, making endurance a stat you need to rush to not be a squishy. This removes that, as endurance gains in the future will affect your health from previous level ups. You can balance the game still by not working on endurance as much.
• DarNified UI (by, uh... Darn I guess)
  • A drastic UI overhaul, which includes small text across all menus, can remove the journal-update popups, and more.
• Crowded Roads (by MaXiMiUS)
  • Adds random travellers to the roads outside.
• Crowded Cities (by BkWyrm13)
  • Adds some or a lot of random people (two varieties) to the cities. There's a daytime set of people and night time, and the actors will switch out when the time is appropriate. At night time, muggers and vampires might attack you in the streets.
• Oblivion Gate Map Marker Remover (by Quarn)
  • Removes the map markers for Oblivion Gates you shut.
• Unlimited Training (unknown author)
  • The game, by default, limits you to paying someone to train you in skills to 10 training sessions per level. This mod gets around that by allowing you to train 2,100 times a level. Un-screws you for training things that aren't your major skills and you're level capped. Comes with an alternate file that not only does this but makes training sessions five times more expensive, as a balancing act (and to match Morrowind it claims).
• Spell Delete and Item Remove (by troybayliss)
  • Allows you to remove spells from your spell book and quest items from your inventory that might get otherwise stuck there.

Henroid

Oh, almost forgot - You'll want to look up OBSE (Oblivion Script Enhancer) and BOSS. OBSE is required by some mods to operate properly. It can be found through TES Nexus. BOSS is a .bat file you run inside the Data folder (where all mods go) that sorts out the load order of mods so that there's little to no conflicts.

You'll also want OBMM, Oblivion Mod Manager. Instead of checking off files in the "Files" menu when you're bringing up Oblivion, this file does that as well as let you work with 'complex' mods that install via options (it's hard to explain but feel free to ask questions about them).

Last recommendation: Make sure you have the latest patches for Oblivion, and get the Unofficial patch, as it fixes a metric ton of shit.

Edit - I also recommend against getting FCOM. Aside from being difficult to install properly, I don't trust the OOO portion of it. Franceco's mod is enough of a big mod for me.