I really liked playing Oblivion for the exploration when it came out. What I didn't like was that my characters always got their faces smashed in because I picked the wrong skills to focus on. I also didn't like how Bandits were wearing Daedric/Glass armor and my mages' spells were too shitty to kill things.
I'm having a hard time just browsing mod sites, there are a ton of mods and no way to tell if any are actually good or do what I want.
So, G&T, I need your help. I'm going to play Oblivion again but not until I get some mods that balance out this stuff so I can enjoy it my way. If there are mods that make leveling up a good thing instead of something to be avoided, show me please. Also, if random bandits and other enemies can be made to dress more realistically, and if there are mods that make magic less of a boondoggle I'd like to know.
Oh and the interface is totally crappy, what can be done about that?
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But there are a good few interface mods. I cannot recall any of the names right now, though.
Kobu's Character Advancement System.
Those two should make you pretty happy. Oscuro's makes the game a bit more difficult, however, so be careful at lower levels.
EDIT: Difficulty doesn't change the "Oh, I played a Mage. I am level 30 and have no hitpoints." problem.
Considering the long history of RPG mages, I'm pretty darned sure that's a feature.
Edit: Oscuros is one of those cases where for each thing it does that I like, it does about two other things that are utterly infuriating.
Looking about it seems like Qarl's Texture Pack is rated pretty high on most sites, but it's like a gig. Does it really add that much to the game to be worth the download?
Good point. However, it would be nice to be able to take more than two hits from Mr. Random Bandit.
Shogun Streams Vidya
edit: In regards to the above, yes...that's true...random street thugs will still have equipment that they should not have. But with the lower difficulty, it won't hurt you as much when they hit you with it, and you'll survive long enough to put up a fight.
It just makes everything look nicer, if you have a very powerful video card, with a lot of video ram, it might be worth a shot, but it brings my 8800GTS 320 to it's knees
Most of the time, though, it tends to be packaged in with some other mod that adds uber half-naked amazon warriors or a new type of elf.
That said, about OOO's modularity, it tends to be really wierd. For example, it includes some really kickin' rad new weapon and armor models.
However, said weapon and armor models are part of the same module that adds ridiculously powerful wood elf rebels, and turns Vilverin (the first dungeon) into a horrendously overpowered death-trap.
You could try not focusing in any of the following: sneak, alchemy, athletics, acrobatics, speechcraft, mercantile, or conjuration. Usually if you don't have any of those, you'll level fairly slowly.
Also, a lot of those problems can be solved by getting some nice gear of your own - make sure you do the Mages Guild quests to unlock the custom spell/enchantment altars, and then just go crazy with them.
They seemed worthless to me, at least while using OOO. Perhaps that's because I was playing somebody sneaky, but quest armor and random chest items seemed far superior.
Custom spells are definitely the way to go, you can totally break the game open if you want.
Spoilered for twinkism.
Prep A:
Fire Damage 1 point /1 second
Weakness to Fire 100% for 20 seconds
Weakness to Magicka 100% for 20 seconds
Prep B:
Fire Damage 1 point /1 second
Weakness to Fire 100% for 20 seconds
Weakness to Magicka 100% for 20 seconds
Fire:
Fire damage 50 points for 1 second
Cast Prep A, then Prep B, then Prep A, then Prep B, etc on the target, alternating them. Then cast Fire on them for fucktons of damage.
Maybe I'm missing something, but what's the difference between preps A and B?
So Prep A gives a 100% weakness to fire/magicka, Prep B makes it 200%, Prep A again makes it 400%, and so on.