Oblivion Mods - The Return

Topia

So, I've read over this thread and picked out some mods that seem good for me. I am thinking of replaying Oblivion again, and want to enhance my experience this time around.

I am looking for mods that may, for example, add spells. Maybe some additional weapons/armor (good ones). Additional and unique dungeons perhaps.

I want you to list me your favorite mods, and why. Even if it doesn't fit with the (terrible vague) description I just gave, lay em on me.

PS. I always hated how monsters from the main questline leveled up with you.

edit: also more character creator options to enhance the immersion

Seeks

http://www.tesnexus.com

I'd suggest Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, Deadly Reflexes and a nude patch.

What. Don't look at me like that.


Also, you'll need the Oblivion Script Extender, and probably the Mod Manager. I don't know much about adding spells or whatever, but there's a mod that seems like it might just do that right at the top of the "top 100 mods" list.

Xtarath

There is a thread for TES, you could also look there.

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=84875

nealcm

I liked this one mod that added spells I think called Midas' Spells. It added a shopkeeper who you didn't buy spells from, but he owned this device that would teach you spells if you put in certain objects to sort of "combine". Made you have to work for it, I liked that. I didn't get a LOT of the spells, cause some of the materials can get pretty hard to find, but the ones I did get were great. Cool animations, etc.

One was pretty much cheating, but it was sooo useful. Casting the spell let you open a chest that didn't really exist no matter where you were, and put items in it. If you are the kinda guy who refuses to waste any loot in a dungeon (like me) it saved you a crapload of return trips since you wouldn't be encumbered. I get all the armor, all the herbs, all the utensils. Every little thing.

AJAlkaline40

Seeks wrote: »

http://www.tesnexus.com

I'd suggest Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, Deadly Reflexes and a nude patch.

What. Don't look at me like that.


Also, you'll need the Oblivion Script Extender, and probably the Mod Manager. I don't know much about adding spells or whatever, but there's a mod that seems like it might just do that right at the top of the "top 100 mods" list.

Apparently they now have a mod where you can have full-on sex in the game.

That's just what I heard, though.

I mean, like, I wouldn't know anything about that...

*shifty eyes*

IceBurner

I consider Unique Landscapes (full package) necessary so that I can tell where the heck I am. It improves the landscape to something on par with Morrowind's visual uniqueness. In addition to giving different areas their own truly distinct feel, many neat little spots (such as statues and a bench cleverly hidden just off the road) and scenic vistas have been added to reward exploring for its own sake.

EddieDean

Bethesda themselves recently released a standalone Oblivion mod which was quite enjoyable, but, it being an in-house mod, you have to pay for it, and it's almost the price of a full game. It introduced new ranged weapons, including some energy weapons, a new user interface, and a different setting quite different to Cyrodil - a war-ravaged world where the future the 50s were worried about came true. I think they called it 'Fallout 3'.

Oh no he di-int!

ronya

I wonder whether FCOM is ever going to release 1.0.

firekiun

Better Cities is a great plugin, there also a lot of great quests out there.

Martin Monster Mod is a great addition too...... just download a few great one and go on with the game.

There's also various mod that add prettier custom races, better body shape and textures, and better clothing if you want to make a pretty character.

I once spent days gathering and making all mods working with each other, by the time everything was working correctly, I was too tire to play the actual game.

Henroid

Attack & Hide. It's not perfect, but fuck that whole system of "once you attack from hidden position everything homes in on you."

Fission_Mailed

firekiun wrote: »

Better Cities is a great plugin, there also a lot of great quests out there.

Martin Monster Mod is a great addition too...... just download a few great one and go on with the game.

There's also various mod that add prettier custom races, better body shape and textures, and better clothing if you want to make a pretty character.

I once spent days gathering and making all mods working with each other, by the time everything was working correctly, I was too tire to play the actual game.

This same thing happens to me ALL the time. I spend days gathering all the latest mods and getting them to work together, only to end up playing Oblivion for about 4 hours then getting bored.

BlueDestiny

Fission_Mailed wrote: »

firekiun wrote: »

Better Cities is a great plugin, there also a lot of great quests out there.

Martin Monster Mod is a great addition too...... just download a few great one and go on with the game.

There's also various mod that add prettier custom races, better body shape and textures, and better clothing if you want to make a pretty character.

I once spent days gathering and making all mods working with each other, by the time everything was working correctly, I was too tire to play the actual game.

This same thing happens to me ALL the time. I spend days gathering all the latest mods and getting them to work together, only to end up playing Oblivion for about 4 hours then getting bored.

I think this is becoming a yearly ritual for me.

NATIK

My problem isn't that I get bored, but I go overboard on the mods, I find a nice balance and then I think this is great but then browsing mods I find a bunch of neat things to add and then I think "better restart on a new char", then I find new stuff and restart, I continue doing this until my game becomes bloated, then I delete it and start over.

Topia

NATIK wrote: »

My problem isn't that I get bored, but I go overboard on the mods, I find a nice balance and then I think this is great but then browsing mods I find a bunch of neat things to add and then I think "better restart on a new char", then I find new stuff and restart, I continue doing this until my game becomes bloated, then I delete it and start over.

I have a feeling that, if anything, this will be me.

Henroid

So I'm curious what mods there are that alter the game's leveling system in various ways. More than just faster or slower level ups. I mean, if it's at all possible someone made a mod that has a BETTER leveling system in place.

Machismo

Brutal Combat was pretty cool. I think it offered some dismemberment and some slick new moves.

Lost Spires was an EXCELLENT and very hard quest chain. I never did beat it.

TK-42-1

I suggest these as a base to work from. It's mainly just item management for stuff you dont need all the time:

Keychain <-- seriously get this. no more scrolling through pages of keys to get to your soul gems

Bag of Alchemy: pretty much speaks for itself. It works the same as the keychain by sticking everything into a separate container. You can set it to autoplace ingredients into it or you can sort it occasionally if you want to keep track of what you picked up. If you take the latter route you get message spammed as it says 'xxx was removed'. This one bugs out occasionally and doesnt encumber you properly all the time. Theres an option to recalculate the weight if youre the kind of person that cares about that stuff.

Borys

Yeah I would be looking for GFX enhancing mods too.

Unique Landscapes sounds cool. Anything else? Maybe something like HD Rocks & Roads/ HD Megaton etc. for Fallout 3?

Kreutz

ronya wrote: »

I wonder whether FCOM is ever going to release 1.0.

I guess when you rely on other people's mods to comprise your own it's kinda hard to make it out of beta.

Havelock

BlueDestiny wrote: »

Fission_Mailed wrote: »

firekiun wrote: »

Better Cities is a great plugin, there also a lot of great quests out there.

Martin Monster Mod is a great addition too...... just download a few great one and go on with the game.

There's also various mod that add prettier custom races, better body shape and textures, and better clothing if you want to make a pretty character.

I once spent days gathering and making all mods working with each other, by the time everything was working correctly, I was too tire to play the actual game.

This same thing happens to me ALL the time. I spend days gathering all the latest mods and getting them to work together, only to end up playing Oblivion for about 4 hours then getting bored.

I think this is becoming a yearly ritual for me.

Used to be for me. Not so much anymore.

Now I just do the same thing with FO3.

Barcardi

I recently have finished up playing a oblivion "new race" and actually beating shivering isles. I think i had over 100 mods, with about another 100 texture/etc redos that are not technically mods, when i get home from work ill post my "BOSS" list order, with highlights of what ones were downright awesome.

But starting off the top of my head: download the archeology guild lost spires. do it now. I eventually beat it about a month ago, good times. There are also some great "scary" dungeon mods, not really scary, but definitely creepy.

Fort1tude

I really hope my HP Mini 311 can run this

Lork

Henroid wrote: »

So I'm curious what mods there are that alter the game's leveling system in various ways. More than just faster or slower level ups. I mean, if it's at all possible someone made a mod that has a BETTER leveling system in place.

Yep, there are plenty. GCD is the one you want.

Edit: Fix the link

slash000

What are the best graphical upgrade mods for this?

I"m about to play Oblivion for the first time and so I'd like to know what the best lump of graphics enhancements mods are.

IceBurner

Lork wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

So I'm curious what mods there are that alter the game's leveling system in various ways. More than just faster or slower level ups. I mean, if it's at all possible someone made a mod that has a BETTER leveling system in place.

Yep, there are plenty. GCD is the one you want.

I'd recommend Kobu's Character Advancement System for Oblivion, and Galsiah's Character Development for Morrowind instead. They both do essentially the same thing in their respective game.

For whatever reason, Galsiah took a different route in Oblivion and so GCD Oblivion is entirely different and doesn't offer seamless, customizable leveling.

nGCD (Not Galsiah's Character Development) is similar for Kobu's, but doesn't offer the amazing in-game configuration option--or many options at all.

Oblivion Mod Wiki links with detailed descriptions:
Kobu's
nGCD

Henroid

Lork wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

So I'm curious what mods there are that alter the game's leveling system in various ways. More than just faster or slower level ups. I mean, if it's at all possible someone made a mod that has a BETTER leveling system in place.

Yep, there are plenty. GCD is the one you want.

Your link seems to be, erm...

Can you tell me what it does specifically?

IceBurner

I can't actually find GCD for Oblivion any more. Trust me, nGCD and KCAS are far better. nGCD is the "don't make me think" option. KCAS can be used the same way, but also offers flexibility for those who want to fine-tune leveling for themselves (and easily, through a wonderfully well-thought out in-game system).

Henroid

Okay but can you tell me what it does specifically?

IceBurner

See "Oblivion Mod Wiki links" in my post above. These pages describe each mod.

To generalize both remove the absurd leveling screen/method and trivialize "raising your level". In effect, this allows one to play naturally and focusing on increasing skills and/or attributes.

Kobu's system allows you to go beyond that and customize a shitton of stuff about how you level (with a number of presets), and also has built-in support to properly account for custom races, the only leveling system I know of which does.

Barcardi

Another good leveling option is called "Galerion Natural Leveling"

Basically it removes levels, when you level you only get to increase your stats by 1. HOWEVER, every time you increase a set of skills 5-10 points, you gain a point in your main stats. Ie you work on a bunch of skills that are strength based, blade, blunt, 3 in some other strength related skills, and then strength increases one point.

it makes the game really natural, and takes away the "jump jump grind"

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3392

it mixes nice when you also add in a better magical system that dosnt break the game: ie supreme magica NOT midas magic + a basic mod that just gives you more magic points to begin with so you can actually use good spells + a mod that slows down skill increases.

Also Qarl's texture pack is a must, as is anything submitted by miknmel1

Henroid

Barcardi wrote: »

Another good leveling option is called "quest award leveling"

Basically it removes levels, when you level you only get to increase your stats by 1. HOWEVER, every time you increase a set of skills 5-10 points, you gain a point in your main stats. Ie you work on a bunch of skills that are strength based, blade, blunt, 3 in some other strength related skills, and then strength increases one point.

it makes the game really natural, and takes away the "jump jump grind"

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3392

it mixes nice when you also add in a better magical system that dosnt break the game: ie supreme magica NOT midas magic + a basic mod that just gives you more magic points to begin with so you can actually use good spells + a mod that slows down skill increases.

Also Qarl's texture pack is a must, as is anything submitted by miknmel1

See, that's a mod I can get behind. It keeps the idea that you increase your character's stats by working on specific things without exactly gimping yourself. Thanks for the heads up.

Barcardi

Im trying to figure out how to export a list of my mods from BOSS or OMM but i cannot figure out how to do so... oh well. I want to show that its possible to do a lot without ever dealing with wrye bash or whatever that POS is called.

Barcardi

Henroid wrote: »

Barcardi wrote: »

Another good leveling option is called "quest award leveling"

Basically it removes levels, when you level you only get to increase your stats by 1. HOWEVER, every time you increase a set of skills 5-10 points, you gain a point in your main stats. Ie you work on a bunch of skills that are strength based, blade, blunt, 3 in some other strength related skills, and then strength increases one point.

it makes the game really natural, and takes away the "jump jump grind"

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3392

it mixes nice when you also add in a better magical system that dosnt break the game: ie supreme magica NOT midas magic + a basic mod that just gives you more magic points to begin with so you can actually use good spells + a mod that slows down skill increases.

Also Qarl's texture pack is a must, as is anything submitted by miknmel1

See, that's a mod I can get behind. It keeps the idea that you increase your character's stats by working on specific things without exactly gimping yourself. Thanks for the heads up.

my bad, its called Galerion Natural Leveling

Henroid

Yeah Quest Award Leveling is the one where it doesn't gimp your quest rewards by locking their stats at the level range you obtained them. That's actually a must-have. It comes with an option of not increasing that one spell (something about a Mountain) since it scaling will eventually make it non-castable due to low mana.

IceBurner

Kobu's is also the only character development mod I know of which lets you adjust things in-game. When first activated with a character, its very elegant menu pops up and allows you to pick how you want to develop your character, and then gives you the option of retaining access to the menu via the Power "Alter Destiny", or close it off (for the hardcore RPer crowd).

Screens:

All I've ever done with Kobu's is pick a Path of Destiny (I roll with Vagabond Hero, 'cuz I dig Luck going up with exploration), and input any custom race/birthsign stats so the thing works correctly (other systems don't take them into account). It works marvelously, it's easy as hell to use, and the power is there should I need it. I also use its addon "Cure for Fatigue", which replaces the word "Fatigue" with "Stamina" throughout the UI, since that makes a hell of a lot more sense.

Lork

Whoops, I meant to link nGCD but for some reason it didn't take. That's fixed now.

Galsiah's Character Development is a replacement for the TES leveling system which effectively eliminates the idea of "levels". Instead of being tied to level ups or any of that multiplier bullshit, stats go up naturally based on your skills. What this does is make leveling completely hands off - you don't even have to look at your stats if you don't want to, and your character will automatically gain appropriate strengths and weaknesses based on how you play.

And yeah, I meant to link to nGCD, which is, as IceBurner said, a clone of the original GCD for Morrowind; sorry about that. I haven't tried KCAS, but from the looks of it I'd still prefer nGCD. I know some people enjoy customizing every little detail of their experience, but I'd rather go with something that just works. Just a personal preference thing I guess.

IceBurner

I'm terrible at explaining things. nGCD and KCAS by default do the same exact thing. KCAS just offers 7 more "self-improvement method" presets to choose from, the flexibility to design your own, and the ability to change your mind at any time--entirely from within the game.

nGCD was created to eliminate the leveling system while sticking to the other default rules of self-improvement. Works for most players, but not everyone.
KCAS was created to be able to please everyone, and arguably pulled it off. Unnecessary if you feel the default way you raise certain skills to raise associated attributes is fine.

Thus is the distinction.

DiannaoChong

Kreutz wrote: »

ronya wrote: »

I wonder whether FCOM is ever going to release 1.0.

I guess when you rely on other people's mods to comprise your own it's kinda hard to make it out of beta.

Noone is going to make it easier then a 4 hour rapeathon to install their damn mod, thats why itill never leave beta. every 12 months or so weill get a new feature like NOW FEATURING ORAL SO YOU GET DONE TWICE AS FAST, ONLY TWO HOURS TO INSTALL!

Henroid

FCOM is a goddamn nightmare because it's so lazily handled. Instead of a bundle of mods, it should be a single mod specifically made by putting the features together in a way that doesn't result in conflicts. But who would take the time for such a thing...

Tube

I've been playing Oblivion again and I was curious as to whether a few mods I was interested in exist. Firstly I was wondering if there was a mod that prevents the first stage of vampirism from looking different from a normal human but leaves the other stages. There are so many vampire mods (and so dreadful) that it's hard to search for one. I was also wondering if there are any good interface mods, because the interface in Oblivion is pretty terrible.

Regarding levelling, I think if most of the guys that hated the levelling install something like arkmultiplier and the quest award leveller you'll have a lot more fun and perhaps come to the conclusion that the levelled monsters aren't the problem so much as the stupid fucking stat advancement.

Henroid

The only interface mods I'm aware of are the keychain one and the smaller-text interface (which is a godsend, I've never played the game without it but screenshots are just awful of the default). Oh and someone mentioned one that acts like keychain, only it works for alchemy supplies. That sounds nifty.

Y'know, I've never given it any thought but a mod that removes the graphic effect of the first stage of vampirism, or at least reduces it to maybe just the eye color, would be a good thing. The first stage of vampirism is pretty great to roll with throughout the game (the hunter vision spell is so good) but having a character that suddenly looks like an old hag isn't very appealing.