Oblivion mod list
Jul. 18th, 2015 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjorteoThe thing about modding Oblivion is that I now have so many mods.
I got back into this game again after being away from it for several years and several new hard drives. By the time I did, I didn't even remember a lot of the mods I used to use (which is just as well since most of them updated since then anyway) and I had to go looking all over again.
So now that I'm more or less set up again, allow me to list everything I have installed! This is half future-proofing in case this ever happens again (like, if some future version of me needs to get back into Oblivion again and needs to know what I had running back in 2015,) and half for friends and such who may be looking for mod recommendations.
NOTE ON INSTALLATION: I am running Nexus Mod Manager and Oblivion Mod Manager (which are two different things) with the retail (CD) version of Oblivion + Knights of the Nine + Shivering Isles (purchased separately back when they were out.) I am not running Wrye Bash, though I'm sure it's a fine program that could very easily handle all this stuff, too. I am by no means claiming that my setup is the best or most efficient/effective solution. It's just, you know, my solution. With the zillions of mod managing programs and the zillions of mods whose authors get picky about "THIS MOD IS DESIGNED ONLY TO WORK IN XXXXX DO NOT TRY TO INSTALL IT IN YYYYY OR IT WON'T WORK AND I'LL HATE YOU FOREVER," it can be confusing to try to get every mod you want into one cohesive installation. So consider this nothing more than a setup that enables me to use the mods I'm using. If you have a better way to do it, by all means.
Anyway, [NMM] means I run this mod using Nexus Mod Manager. [OBMM] means I run it through Oblivion Mod Manager. [MANUAL] means I didn't feed it into any mod managing programs at all; I just did the good old fashioned "extract the contents of this archive into your \Oblivion\Data folder" thing. Note that some of the [MANUAL] installs include a .esp file that needs to be turned on. Even though I didn't need a mod manager to extract the files, I still use OBMM to manage which .esp files are actually running. This can also be done under "Data Files" in the Oblivion launcher, but I find OBMM easier.
ANYWAY ONTO THE MODS. I may go back to this post later and edit more in as I encounter them! Or maybe not, who knows.
BASIC ESSENTIALS:
Oblivion Script Extender [MANUAL]
This mod does absolutely nothing by itself, but several other mods require it as a base. Basically, it's a new front-end (including a replacement Oblivion.exe file) that greatly expands the potential scripting elements and such that Oblivion is capable of. Again, OBSE by itself does not actually do anything with these new scripting powers, it just makes it so that these new scripting powers exist. Since a few other mods use these new scripting powers, though, OBSE is needed so that the mods that rely on it actually work. I put a "[REQUIRES OBSE]" tag on the mods that are affected by this. If you want to install any of them, then you need to install OBSE.
Unofficial Oblivion Patch, Unofficial Oblivion DLC Patches, and Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch [NMM]
Oblivion is a Bethesda game. Being a Bethesda game, even after several rounds of official patches, there was enough broken junk left over for these mods to boast over 1,800 bugs and over 70,000 object placement errors fixed. Those numbers look impressive and all, but if you really want a feel for how necessary these mods are, go to the UESP wiki and look up the article on almost any quest in the game. See if there's a "Bugs" section that includes the footnote "This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch." See how many of those you can find before you become convinced that you need these mods.
MenuQue [MANUAL] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Some sort of extender to give more options like fonts and stuff for menu overhauls? To be honest, I'm not really sure what it does and I don't use it directly--my UI overhaul of choice is DarNified which handles all that stuff on its own. However, another one of the mods below (Advanced Magecraft) claims to need it, so....
CONTENT:
Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul 136 [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
(Note: There are also extra add-on files in the Files subsection.)
It's a bit hard to explain what OOO does because it's a bit hard to explain what doesn't it do. Basically it's a giant collection of gameplay tweaks plus extra content. Redoes the leveling system to remove the scaling, redoes the stats and game balance on basically everything to basically make combat more dangerous and less spongy for both sides and harder (or at least more strategic) overall. I actually have to use my potions now, something I've basically never done before even though I took Alchemy as a major skill. I also have to think carefully about what combination of poisons and various enchanted weapons and staves I'm carrying around would give me the edge I need to get through particular situations. Combat in vanilla Oblivion stops being interesting around level 15-20; I'm 30 and OOO makes my Oblivion experience feel more alive than it has in ages. Oh, and there's new weapons and armor, new quests, new monsters and enemy types....
Note that the add-ons are all controlled through optional .esp files, get into OBMM or launcher/Data Files and activate the ones you want. Be prepared to do some searching to figure out what each individual one does (and therefore whether you want it.)
Ruined Tail's Tale [NMM]
(Note: There's also an extra update to fix some bugs in the Files subsection)
RTT is a hybrid quest/companion mod; it gives you a new companion in the form of a shifty and nervous Argonian Battlemage named Ruined-Tail hanging around just outside the Arena in the Imperial City and suspiciously eager to join the first person who's willing to give him the time of day, and a deep story and quest line as you slowly try to figure out what his deal is. Be prepared for philosophical discussions with moral choices that are actually hard (save every time you get a "Ruin wants to talk..." update before you actually do, as these are not your typical "would you rather pet this kitten or set it on fire" Bioware moral choices and he asks some tough questions that can trip you up if you're not careful,) a compelling character you enjoy spending time with, and buckets upon buckets of tears.
The Lost Spires [MANUAL] [REQUIRES OBSE]
A quest mod recommended by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xyzzysqrl that I don't know much about, but I'm enjoying a lot so far! It gives you a new joinable faction (the Archaeologists Guild) and a whole line of quests to work your way through it, much like the Mages or Fighters Guilds. It is very, very big.
Kvatch Rebuilt [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
I haven't actually played this one yet and I have no idea if it's any good, but it looks really promising from the previews. Stay tuned! NOTE: Causes issues with Unique Landscapes, but you can find a compatibility patch by going to the "Patches" section and following a few links.
Knights of the Nine Revelation [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
I haven't actually played this one yet and I have no idea if it's any good, but it looks really promising from the previews. Stay tuned!
APPEARANCE:
Unique Landscapes Compilation [NMM]
Completely redoes the landscape of Cyrodiil. Each region is unique (ensured because this is a compilation of region overhaul mods by different authors) and very pretty.
Qarl's Texture Pack III Redimized [NMM]
Because this. Redimized is good for minimizing performance hits while still having that.
Unofficial Oblivion Patch - QTP3 UOP350 Compatibility Patch [NMM]
If you're running the Unofficial Oblivion Patches and any variant of Qarl's Texture Pack III at the same time, you need this compatibility patch mod to make them work together. That link takes you to the download page for the UOP itself; the latest version of the QTP3 Compatibility Patch for it is in under "Optional Files."
DarNified UI [OBMM]
This mod does to the menus, text, and all other facets of the UI what QTP3 does to the textures: you may have thought Oblivion looked okay as-is but this will quickly make you wonder how you ever lived without it.
RobertMaleBodyReplacerV52 [OBMM]
(Warning: nonsexual nudity in the screenshots)
There are tons of body replacer mods out there, but I've always been super brand-loyal to Robert's male bodies and my loyalty appears to have been rewarded with V52. An absurd amount of options for everything from body type (scrawny, slender, muscular...) and foot size to the new body's default undressed state (loincloths, underwear, or unobstructed full frontal dangly parts, with several varieties of each.) Even the regular "average" body looks so much better than the vanilla stock models, and if you have enough of a preference to pick any of the others then seeing your character built like however you wanted is amazing.
Robert Male Average Stock Clothing And Armor Final and Robert Male Average Stock Clothing And Armor SI (and Robert Male Muscular OOO Armor) [NMM]
Unless you're roleplaying your character as a devout nudist, odds are you will probably be wearing clothing and/or armor at some point. If you're using Robert's male body replacer, you will very quickly run into the problem that the clothing and armor all use the vanilla stock model meshes, which means your character will suddenly gain thirty pounds and get weirder proportions every time you put on a shirt. These mods are simple mesh replacers so that the clothing and armor use Robert's meshes instead and therefore match your character. Note that I was only able to find meshes for Robert's "average" build for basic and Shivering Isles equipment (and only "muscular" for OOO equipment) so if you're running one of the scrawnier base bodies, you'll still be a little bulkier with clothes on. But compared to vanilla? My God. Simply put, if you're running Robert's body then you really need the wearables to match.
Roberts Female Body v13 [MANUAL]
(Warning: nonsexual nudity in the screenshots)
Because I needed a female body replacer as well and Robert is the brand I'm familiar with. There may be better ones on the female side for all I know, but as an "eh, good enough" female body replacer this one definitely does the job. Unlike Robert Male, this package even includes the new clothing and armor meshes for standard Oblivion and Shivering Isles (but not OOO). Here's the one for OOO (and a few other popular mods) I guess, but to be honest fixing OOO-specific armor for females ins't something I care enough about to bother fiddling with it myself. YMMV.
Oblivion - Enhanced Camera [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Gives you a visible body in first person view. Also makes things that normally switch you to third person view (sitting in a chair, etc.) remain in first person view. I find it helps with combat immersion since that also includes being knocked down/paralyzed.
Argonian Beautification [MANUAL]
New textures and meshes and stuff to make Argonians prettier, with a downright terrifying combination of options. Manual for both downloading (picking which specific files you need in the Files subsection) and installing recommended because of how many different components there are. You have files matched to most of the popular body replacers (the Robert ones and, like, almost all the other ones too,) an optional spiked tails component, an optional freaky digitigrade raptor feet component.... Note that the Robert-specific ones rely on claw resources that come from an old mod called Slof's Better Beasts which is no longer available, but the author has extracted the claw part of it and included it separately as the "AB Requirements" Miscellaneous file.
IAFT Improved Argonian Facial Textures [NMM]
Argonian Beautification should already include the IABT Improved Argonian Body Textures, but for whatever reason the improved facial textures come separately. Well, here they are.
Nighteye Shader Replacement [OBMM]
This is something that occurred to me while I was going through the first dungeon of Lost Spires with OOO also on. The dungeon was dark, but if I used a torch or my enchanted Light equipment, I would alert too many enemies to my presence (which is actually a big deal again in OOO.) That's what Night Eye is for, but Night Eye runs everything through a hideous blue filter which I thought was unfair to the people who made Lost Spires. They worked hard to make this brand new cave environment and make it look amazing; they deserve to have their work shown in the best light. Enter this mod, which replaces Night Eye's blue filter with one of 16 possible alternatives depending on which one you choose.
Natural Environemnts [NMM/MANUAL]
Makes the world pretty. NOTE: The water part is incompatible with Improved Water (below). I used NMM to install the overall mod (which includes five different ESP files) and then went back in the data files list and manually disabled one of the Natural Weather ESPs (you don't need them both) and the Natural Water ESP, leaving the rest on.
Book Jackets: Oblivion and Grimbots DLC Book Jackets [NMM]
Makes books pretty and much more visually distinctive. Try going into The First Edition in the Imperial City and just looking around. You can see so much about the books just by looking at them on the shelves. It's amazing.
Oblivion Grass Overhaul [NMM]
Improved Water [MANUAL] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Real Lava [NMM]
Improved Trees and Flora [NMM]
Improved Trees and Flora 2 [NMM]
Improved Amulets and Rings [NMM]
VAs Better Gold [NMM]
Makes things pretty.
MUSIC AND SOUND:
Sounds of Cyrodiil [NMM]
Adds background noises depending on environment. Crickets and other insects outside at night, busy people chatter in the market district, etc. The world feels so much less empty now, it's unreal. Hell, I went to an inn that was literally 100% empty except for the world's loneliest proprietor behind the counter in the center of the room, and even just having the crowded bar noises almost had me convinced. This description makes it sound like "oh that's kind of neat I guess" but you will not believe what a difference it makes.
Oblivion Music Overdose and Michikawa's music (hub link because Michikawa has like five different download pages) [MANUAL]
The music in Oblivion is really really good, but by the time you get to level 30 and you've sunk over a hundred hours into this game, you start to feel like maybe there could be a little more of it, so that you're not hearing the same songs over and over and over again. Well, just dump these into the appropriate directories and you're good to go.
MISCELLANEOUS:
Advanced Magecraft [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE AND MENUQUE]
Enables menu hotkeys to do all sorts of cool stuff, from transferring enchantments between items, multiple enchantments, and quick anywhere/anytime hotkey access to Spellmaking and Enchanting Altar menus, to cloning items (for a configurable cost.) This can be a blatant cheat mod if you abuse it but it's also a tremendous quality of life improvement to fix little annoyances if you can restrain yourself.
Book Placement [NMM]
Because trying to organize a bookshelf with the Grab function is like playing QWOP or Surgeon Simulator 2013.
Elz - Realistic Gravity [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Deals with the obvious problem of Oblivion taking place on the moon, and also throws in some more subtle but very cool effects like temporary freezing when landing and stuff like that for added realism. It's hard to describe just how much better this game feels now, but, I mean, you definitely feel it. (Note: This can cause issues with certain mods that have platform-jumping segments that were designed around the expectation of moon gravity. I've already found one or two optional treasure rooms in Lost Spires and one actual main story segment in Ruined Tail's Tale that require you to disable this mod to proceed, and I can't vouch for certain Thieves' Guild quests in the main game as I've never tried them. You can still have this mod running for regular day-to-day gameplay and just temporarily turn it off and back on again whenever you hit certain sections like that, which is kind of a hassle, but I personally think it's worth it just for how much better the game feels when it's on.)
Imperial Furniture Renovated [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
It's a furniture store. You can customize your home, now. Tired of those absurdly dark corners in Benirus Manor? Buy some lights for them! Frostcrag Spire has an alchemy table but doesn't have any containers for reagents within easy reach of it? Buy some! Need bookshelves? Display cases? Beds? Chairs? If you at any point have a "this house needs a ____ here"-related grievance, this can probably fix it. Look at what I was able to do with it. Look at that.
Poison Fist Workaround [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Two of my major skills are Alchemy and Hand to Hand. I can make amazing and devastating poisons but I have nothing to put them on. That's not fair. This fixes that.
Increased Damage [NMM]
Vanilla Oblivion becomes spongy at high levels; nothing really damages you but your hits barely scratch them, either. Combat is a tedious exercise in who will succumb to death of a thousand cuts first. This fixes that.
Toggleable Quantity Prompt [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
This mod creates keyboard shortcuts to bypass the accursed "How many?" prompt when moving items between containers, buying or selling them, dropping them, or otherwise interacting with stacks of them in any way. Clicking the stack while holding Shift automatically means "ALL OF THEM, THE ENTIRE STACK" and clicking while holding Ctrl means "JUST ONE THANKS." Another one of those things that sounds small, but, again, I have Alchemy as a major skill. The first time I ever looted my entire cabinet full of reagents just so I could make a bunch of potions, then went to put them all back, and put them all back just by click-click-click-clicking through the entire section without stopping just by holing Shift, I knew I would never play without this mod ever again.
FormID Finder [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Ever have a quest item that you can't get rid of even after the quest is done? You can fix it in the console but you need the FormID of the item so you can use the command. The UESP Wiki is pretty good about listing the FormIDs for all base vanilla Oblivion/Shivering Isles items, equipment, NPCs, etc. Ever have a mod with something you need to fix in the console? You need this.
Crowded Cities 12 [MANUAL]
Adds a ton of random NPCs wandering around cities. They don't have unique dialogue or quests or even names (you can always tell the Crowded Cities NPCs from the real NPCs because the former are just "Traveler," "Mage," "Hunter," etc.) They're just your basic townsfolk that you can talk to about Rumors but that's more or less it. It doesn't sound impressive, but trust me, just having them makes cities feel so much more alive. Pair this with Sounds of Cyrodiil (above) and walk around the Imperial City. It feels like there's a population now. Amazing.
More Merchant Money balanced [NMM]
Once you get to be around level 15-20+, pretty much every piece of equipment you find and loot in the game is worth several times what any merchant in the game actually has, max-money-wise. On top of making you miss out on extra money, this also makes Mercantile as a skill useless. Why bother haggling over whether the shopkeeper will pay 2600 or won't go any higher than 2000, if the actual sale gets truncated down to 800 either way? This mod eases that limit a little but still keeps it balanced (i.e. not just "cheating your way into everyone pays 999999999999 for everything now" territory) and even adds in a bit of realism balance in that big-name merchants in the Market District of the Imperial City have more gold than some random guy selling turnips out of his shack in the middle of nowhere.
Fast Exit [MANUAL] [REQUIRES OBSE]
The drawback to having all these mods is that Oblivion will now crash to desktop every time you quit the game. It doesn't affect anything (I mean, you were already quitting anyway) but having the crash prompt to deal with on your way out is just obnoxious. If it bothers you too much, this mod will fix it.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
(This is like a little mini-FAQ I wrote for my future self. If I had a problem with something, struggled with it for a bit, and then figured it out, I am chronicling it here so that if I ever come back to Oblivion after a prolonged absence again, and if I ever run into that issue again, I will know what to do.)
Q: I installed all these mods and now Oblivion won't launch. Like, at all. It doesn't crash with an error message or anything; it just gets to about where the Bethesda splash screen would be and then silently closes the window.
A: When this happened to me, the culprit turned out to be DLCBattlehornCastle - Unofficial Patch.esp, from the Unofficial Oblivion DLC patches. I later realized that the Fighter's Stronghold DLC itself had never been installed. So either 1) The UOP for Battlehorn Castle itself has issues, or 2) this happens when you accidentally install the UOP for certain DLC without having the actual DLC the UOP should be patching. Either way, deactivating DLCBattlehornCastle - Unofficial Patch.esp fixed it for me.
Q: I installed all these mods and now Oblivion crashes to desktop every time I quit the game.
A: Use Fast Exit.
Q: I installed all these mods and now containers won't close anymore, visually. It's neat for dungeons and stuff but I live in a house which is now a mess because all my cabinets and stuff are forever stuck looking open.
A: Believe it or not, this is an intentional feature of OOO. To close them again, activate them in sneak mode. Yes, it's a little unintuitive, but you will eventually get used to it once you at least know that's the solution. Plus, yeah, it is pretty handy in dungeons.
Q: Argonian Beautification toe claws are misaligned.
A: Unfortunately, the toe claws are a product of a bygone era. Robert bodies of both genders have changed foot shape in more recent versions, and there are even customization options for several foot shapes on the male side. The old toe claws just can't keep up, especially because the author decided to discontinue them entirely because they were poking through shoes anyway. The problem is that AB's "AB Requirements" files (for if you want to use the claws with Robert bodies without having to download the mostly-unrelated Slof's Better Bodies mod) contains outdated tail.nif meshes that still have the toe claws. You will need to get a version that is otherwise the same but with those toe claws removed. There are two ways to do this: 1) open the AB Requirements tail.nif files in NifSkope, erase the toe claws, and save them, or 2) download Slof's Better Bodies just to pull the updated tail.nif files from that.
I got back into this game again after being away from it for several years and several new hard drives. By the time I did, I didn't even remember a lot of the mods I used to use (which is just as well since most of them updated since then anyway) and I had to go looking all over again.
So now that I'm more or less set up again, allow me to list everything I have installed! This is half future-proofing in case this ever happens again (like, if some future version of me needs to get back into Oblivion again and needs to know what I had running back in 2015,) and half for friends and such who may be looking for mod recommendations.
NOTE ON INSTALLATION: I am running Nexus Mod Manager and Oblivion Mod Manager (which are two different things) with the retail (CD) version of Oblivion + Knights of the Nine + Shivering Isles (purchased separately back when they were out.) I am not running Wrye Bash, though I'm sure it's a fine program that could very easily handle all this stuff, too. I am by no means claiming that my setup is the best or most efficient/effective solution. It's just, you know, my solution. With the zillions of mod managing programs and the zillions of mods whose authors get picky about "THIS MOD IS DESIGNED ONLY TO WORK IN XXXXX DO NOT TRY TO INSTALL IT IN YYYYY OR IT WON'T WORK AND I'LL HATE YOU FOREVER," it can be confusing to try to get every mod you want into one cohesive installation. So consider this nothing more than a setup that enables me to use the mods I'm using. If you have a better way to do it, by all means.
Anyway, [NMM] means I run this mod using Nexus Mod Manager. [OBMM] means I run it through Oblivion Mod Manager. [MANUAL] means I didn't feed it into any mod managing programs at all; I just did the good old fashioned "extract the contents of this archive into your \Oblivion\Data folder" thing. Note that some of the [MANUAL] installs include a .esp file that needs to be turned on. Even though I didn't need a mod manager to extract the files, I still use OBMM to manage which .esp files are actually running. This can also be done under "Data Files" in the Oblivion launcher, but I find OBMM easier.
ANYWAY ONTO THE MODS. I may go back to this post later and edit more in as I encounter them! Or maybe not, who knows.
BASIC ESSENTIALS:
Oblivion Script Extender [MANUAL]
This mod does absolutely nothing by itself, but several other mods require it as a base. Basically, it's a new front-end (including a replacement Oblivion.exe file) that greatly expands the potential scripting elements and such that Oblivion is capable of. Again, OBSE by itself does not actually do anything with these new scripting powers, it just makes it so that these new scripting powers exist. Since a few other mods use these new scripting powers, though, OBSE is needed so that the mods that rely on it actually work. I put a "[REQUIRES OBSE]" tag on the mods that are affected by this. If you want to install any of them, then you need to install OBSE.
Unofficial Oblivion Patch, Unofficial Oblivion DLC Patches, and Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch [NMM]
Oblivion is a Bethesda game. Being a Bethesda game, even after several rounds of official patches, there was enough broken junk left over for these mods to boast over 1,800 bugs and over 70,000 object placement errors fixed. Those numbers look impressive and all, but if you really want a feel for how necessary these mods are, go to the UESP wiki and look up the article on almost any quest in the game. See if there's a "Bugs" section that includes the footnote "This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch." See how many of those you can find before you become convinced that you need these mods.
MenuQue [MANUAL] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Some sort of extender to give more options like fonts and stuff for menu overhauls? To be honest, I'm not really sure what it does and I don't use it directly--my UI overhaul of choice is DarNified which handles all that stuff on its own. However, another one of the mods below (Advanced Magecraft) claims to need it, so....
CONTENT:
Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul 136 [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
(Note: There are also extra add-on files in the Files subsection.)
It's a bit hard to explain what OOO does because it's a bit hard to explain what doesn't it do. Basically it's a giant collection of gameplay tweaks plus extra content. Redoes the leveling system to remove the scaling, redoes the stats and game balance on basically everything to basically make combat more dangerous and less spongy for both sides and harder (or at least more strategic) overall. I actually have to use my potions now, something I've basically never done before even though I took Alchemy as a major skill. I also have to think carefully about what combination of poisons and various enchanted weapons and staves I'm carrying around would give me the edge I need to get through particular situations. Combat in vanilla Oblivion stops being interesting around level 15-20; I'm 30 and OOO makes my Oblivion experience feel more alive than it has in ages. Oh, and there's new weapons and armor, new quests, new monsters and enemy types....
Note that the add-ons are all controlled through optional .esp files, get into OBMM or launcher/Data Files and activate the ones you want. Be prepared to do some searching to figure out what each individual one does (and therefore whether you want it.)
Ruined Tail's Tale [NMM]
(Note: There's also an extra update to fix some bugs in the Files subsection)
RTT is a hybrid quest/companion mod; it gives you a new companion in the form of a shifty and nervous Argonian Battlemage named Ruined-Tail hanging around just outside the Arena in the Imperial City and suspiciously eager to join the first person who's willing to give him the time of day, and a deep story and quest line as you slowly try to figure out what his deal is. Be prepared for philosophical discussions with moral choices that are actually hard (save every time you get a "Ruin wants to talk..." update before you actually do, as these are not your typical "would you rather pet this kitten or set it on fire" Bioware moral choices and he asks some tough questions that can trip you up if you're not careful,) a compelling character you enjoy spending time with, and buckets upon buckets of tears.
The Lost Spires [MANUAL] [REQUIRES OBSE]
A quest mod recommended by
xyzzysqrl that I don't know much about, but I'm enjoying a lot so far! It gives you a new joinable faction (the Archaeologists Guild) and a whole line of quests to work your way through it, much like the Mages or Fighters Guilds. It is very, very big.Kvatch Rebuilt [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
I haven't actually played this one yet and I have no idea if it's any good, but it looks really promising from the previews. Stay tuned! NOTE: Causes issues with Unique Landscapes, but you can find a compatibility patch by going to the "Patches" section and following a few links.
Knights of the Nine Revelation [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
I haven't actually played this one yet and I have no idea if it's any good, but it looks really promising from the previews. Stay tuned!
APPEARANCE:
Unique Landscapes Compilation [NMM]
Completely redoes the landscape of Cyrodiil. Each region is unique (ensured because this is a compilation of region overhaul mods by different authors) and very pretty.
Qarl's Texture Pack III Redimized [NMM]
Because this. Redimized is good for minimizing performance hits while still having that.
Unofficial Oblivion Patch - QTP3 UOP350 Compatibility Patch [NMM]
If you're running the Unofficial Oblivion Patches and any variant of Qarl's Texture Pack III at the same time, you need this compatibility patch mod to make them work together. That link takes you to the download page for the UOP itself; the latest version of the QTP3 Compatibility Patch for it is in under "Optional Files."
DarNified UI [OBMM]
This mod does to the menus, text, and all other facets of the UI what QTP3 does to the textures: you may have thought Oblivion looked okay as-is but this will quickly make you wonder how you ever lived without it.
RobertMaleBodyReplacerV52 [OBMM]
(Warning: nonsexual nudity in the screenshots)
There are tons of body replacer mods out there, but I've always been super brand-loyal to Robert's male bodies and my loyalty appears to have been rewarded with V52. An absurd amount of options for everything from body type (scrawny, slender, muscular...) and foot size to the new body's default undressed state (loincloths, underwear, or unobstructed full frontal dangly parts, with several varieties of each.) Even the regular "average" body looks so much better than the vanilla stock models, and if you have enough of a preference to pick any of the others then seeing your character built like however you wanted is amazing.
Robert Male Average Stock Clothing And Armor Final and Robert Male Average Stock Clothing And Armor SI (and Robert Male Muscular OOO Armor) [NMM]
Unless you're roleplaying your character as a devout nudist, odds are you will probably be wearing clothing and/or armor at some point. If you're using Robert's male body replacer, you will very quickly run into the problem that the clothing and armor all use the vanilla stock model meshes, which means your character will suddenly gain thirty pounds and get weirder proportions every time you put on a shirt. These mods are simple mesh replacers so that the clothing and armor use Robert's meshes instead and therefore match your character. Note that I was only able to find meshes for Robert's "average" build for basic and Shivering Isles equipment (and only "muscular" for OOO equipment) so if you're running one of the scrawnier base bodies, you'll still be a little bulkier with clothes on. But compared to vanilla? My God. Simply put, if you're running Robert's body then you really need the wearables to match.
Roberts Female Body v13 [MANUAL]
(Warning: nonsexual nudity in the screenshots)
Because I needed a female body replacer as well and Robert is the brand I'm familiar with. There may be better ones on the female side for all I know, but as an "eh, good enough" female body replacer this one definitely does the job. Unlike Robert Male, this package even includes the new clothing and armor meshes for standard Oblivion and Shivering Isles (but not OOO). Here's the one for OOO (and a few other popular mods) I guess, but to be honest fixing OOO-specific armor for females ins't something I care enough about to bother fiddling with it myself. YMMV.
Oblivion - Enhanced Camera [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Gives you a visible body in first person view. Also makes things that normally switch you to third person view (sitting in a chair, etc.) remain in first person view. I find it helps with combat immersion since that also includes being knocked down/paralyzed.
Argonian Beautification [MANUAL]
New textures and meshes and stuff to make Argonians prettier, with a downright terrifying combination of options. Manual for both downloading (picking which specific files you need in the Files subsection) and installing recommended because of how many different components there are. You have files matched to most of the popular body replacers (the Robert ones and, like, almost all the other ones too,) an optional spiked tails component, an optional freaky digitigrade raptor feet component.... Note that the Robert-specific ones rely on claw resources that come from an old mod called Slof's Better Beasts which is no longer available, but the author has extracted the claw part of it and included it separately as the "AB Requirements" Miscellaneous file.
IAFT Improved Argonian Facial Textures [NMM]
Argonian Beautification should already include the IABT Improved Argonian Body Textures, but for whatever reason the improved facial textures come separately. Well, here they are.
Nighteye Shader Replacement [OBMM]
This is something that occurred to me while I was going through the first dungeon of Lost Spires with OOO also on. The dungeon was dark, but if I used a torch or my enchanted Light equipment, I would alert too many enemies to my presence (which is actually a big deal again in OOO.) That's what Night Eye is for, but Night Eye runs everything through a hideous blue filter which I thought was unfair to the people who made Lost Spires. They worked hard to make this brand new cave environment and make it look amazing; they deserve to have their work shown in the best light. Enter this mod, which replaces Night Eye's blue filter with one of 16 possible alternatives depending on which one you choose.
Natural Environemnts [NMM/MANUAL]
Makes the world pretty. NOTE: The water part is incompatible with Improved Water (below). I used NMM to install the overall mod (which includes five different ESP files) and then went back in the data files list and manually disabled one of the Natural Weather ESPs (you don't need them both) and the Natural Water ESP, leaving the rest on.
Book Jackets: Oblivion and Grimbots DLC Book Jackets [NMM]
Makes books pretty and much more visually distinctive. Try going into The First Edition in the Imperial City and just looking around. You can see so much about the books just by looking at them on the shelves. It's amazing.
Oblivion Grass Overhaul [NMM]
Improved Water [MANUAL] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Real Lava [NMM]
Improved Trees and Flora [NMM]
Improved Trees and Flora 2 [NMM]
Improved Amulets and Rings [NMM]
VAs Better Gold [NMM]
Makes things pretty.
MUSIC AND SOUND:
Sounds of Cyrodiil [NMM]
Adds background noises depending on environment. Crickets and other insects outside at night, busy people chatter in the market district, etc. The world feels so much less empty now, it's unreal. Hell, I went to an inn that was literally 100% empty except for the world's loneliest proprietor behind the counter in the center of the room, and even just having the crowded bar noises almost had me convinced. This description makes it sound like "oh that's kind of neat I guess" but you will not believe what a difference it makes.
Oblivion Music Overdose and Michikawa's music (hub link because Michikawa has like five different download pages) [MANUAL]
The music in Oblivion is really really good, but by the time you get to level 30 and you've sunk over a hundred hours into this game, you start to feel like maybe there could be a little more of it, so that you're not hearing the same songs over and over and over again. Well, just dump these into the appropriate directories and you're good to go.
MISCELLANEOUS:
Advanced Magecraft [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE AND MENUQUE]
Enables menu hotkeys to do all sorts of cool stuff, from transferring enchantments between items, multiple enchantments, and quick anywhere/anytime hotkey access to Spellmaking and Enchanting Altar menus, to cloning items (for a configurable cost.) This can be a blatant cheat mod if you abuse it but it's also a tremendous quality of life improvement to fix little annoyances if you can restrain yourself.
Book Placement [NMM]
Because trying to organize a bookshelf with the Grab function is like playing QWOP or Surgeon Simulator 2013.
Elz - Realistic Gravity [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Deals with the obvious problem of Oblivion taking place on the moon, and also throws in some more subtle but very cool effects like temporary freezing when landing and stuff like that for added realism. It's hard to describe just how much better this game feels now, but, I mean, you definitely feel it. (Note: This can cause issues with certain mods that have platform-jumping segments that were designed around the expectation of moon gravity. I've already found one or two optional treasure rooms in Lost Spires and one actual main story segment in Ruined Tail's Tale that require you to disable this mod to proceed, and I can't vouch for certain Thieves' Guild quests in the main game as I've never tried them. You can still have this mod running for regular day-to-day gameplay and just temporarily turn it off and back on again whenever you hit certain sections like that, which is kind of a hassle, but I personally think it's worth it just for how much better the game feels when it's on.)
Imperial Furniture Renovated [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
It's a furniture store. You can customize your home, now. Tired of those absurdly dark corners in Benirus Manor? Buy some lights for them! Frostcrag Spire has an alchemy table but doesn't have any containers for reagents within easy reach of it? Buy some! Need bookshelves? Display cases? Beds? Chairs? If you at any point have a "this house needs a ____ here"-related grievance, this can probably fix it. Look at what I was able to do with it. Look at that.
Poison Fist Workaround [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Two of my major skills are Alchemy and Hand to Hand. I can make amazing and devastating poisons but I have nothing to put them on. That's not fair. This fixes that.
Increased Damage [NMM]
Vanilla Oblivion becomes spongy at high levels; nothing really damages you but your hits barely scratch them, either. Combat is a tedious exercise in who will succumb to death of a thousand cuts first. This fixes that.
Toggleable Quantity Prompt [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
This mod creates keyboard shortcuts to bypass the accursed "How many?" prompt when moving items between containers, buying or selling them, dropping them, or otherwise interacting with stacks of them in any way. Clicking the stack while holding Shift automatically means "ALL OF THEM, THE ENTIRE STACK" and clicking while holding Ctrl means "JUST ONE THANKS." Another one of those things that sounds small, but, again, I have Alchemy as a major skill. The first time I ever looted my entire cabinet full of reagents just so I could make a bunch of potions, then went to put them all back, and put them all back just by click-click-click-clicking through the entire section without stopping just by holing Shift, I knew I would never play without this mod ever again.
FormID Finder [NMM] [REQUIRES OBSE]
Ever have a quest item that you can't get rid of even after the quest is done? You can fix it in the console but you need the FormID of the item so you can use the command. The UESP Wiki is pretty good about listing the FormIDs for all base vanilla Oblivion/Shivering Isles items, equipment, NPCs, etc. Ever have a mod with something you need to fix in the console? You need this.
Crowded Cities 12 [MANUAL]
Adds a ton of random NPCs wandering around cities. They don't have unique dialogue or quests or even names (you can always tell the Crowded Cities NPCs from the real NPCs because the former are just "Traveler," "Mage," "Hunter," etc.) They're just your basic townsfolk that you can talk to about Rumors but that's more or less it. It doesn't sound impressive, but trust me, just having them makes cities feel so much more alive. Pair this with Sounds of Cyrodiil (above) and walk around the Imperial City. It feels like there's a population now. Amazing.
More Merchant Money balanced [NMM]
Once you get to be around level 15-20+, pretty much every piece of equipment you find and loot in the game is worth several times what any merchant in the game actually has, max-money-wise. On top of making you miss out on extra money, this also makes Mercantile as a skill useless. Why bother haggling over whether the shopkeeper will pay 2600 or won't go any higher than 2000, if the actual sale gets truncated down to 800 either way? This mod eases that limit a little but still keeps it balanced (i.e. not just "cheating your way into everyone pays 999999999999 for everything now" territory) and even adds in a bit of realism balance in that big-name merchants in the Market District of the Imperial City have more gold than some random guy selling turnips out of his shack in the middle of nowhere.
Fast Exit [MANUAL] [REQUIRES OBSE]
The drawback to having all these mods is that Oblivion will now crash to desktop every time you quit the game. It doesn't affect anything (I mean, you were already quitting anyway) but having the crash prompt to deal with on your way out is just obnoxious. If it bothers you too much, this mod will fix it.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
(This is like a little mini-FAQ I wrote for my future self. If I had a problem with something, struggled with it for a bit, and then figured it out, I am chronicling it here so that if I ever come back to Oblivion after a prolonged absence again, and if I ever run into that issue again, I will know what to do.)
Q: I installed all these mods and now Oblivion won't launch. Like, at all. It doesn't crash with an error message or anything; it just gets to about where the Bethesda splash screen would be and then silently closes the window.
A: When this happened to me, the culprit turned out to be DLCBattlehornCastle - Unofficial Patch.esp, from the Unofficial Oblivion DLC patches. I later realized that the Fighter's Stronghold DLC itself had never been installed. So either 1) The UOP for Battlehorn Castle itself has issues, or 2) this happens when you accidentally install the UOP for certain DLC without having the actual DLC the UOP should be patching. Either way, deactivating DLCBattlehornCastle - Unofficial Patch.esp fixed it for me.
Q: I installed all these mods and now Oblivion crashes to desktop every time I quit the game.
A: Use Fast Exit.
Q: I installed all these mods and now containers won't close anymore, visually. It's neat for dungeons and stuff but I live in a house which is now a mess because all my cabinets and stuff are forever stuck looking open.
A: Believe it or not, this is an intentional feature of OOO. To close them again, activate them in sneak mode. Yes, it's a little unintuitive, but you will eventually get used to it once you at least know that's the solution. Plus, yeah, it is pretty handy in dungeons.
Q: Argonian Beautification toe claws are misaligned.
A: Unfortunately, the toe claws are a product of a bygone era. Robert bodies of both genders have changed foot shape in more recent versions, and there are even customization options for several foot shapes on the male side. The old toe claws just can't keep up, especially because the author decided to discontinue them entirely because they were poking through shoes anyway. The problem is that AB's "AB Requirements" files (for if you want to use the claws with Robert bodies without having to download the mostly-unrelated Slof's Better Bodies mod) contains outdated tail.nif meshes that still have the toe claws. You will need to get a version that is otherwise the same but with those toe claws removed. There are two ways to do this: 1) open the AB Requirements tail.nif files in NifSkope, erase the toe claws, and save them, or 2) download Slof's Better Bodies just to pull the updated tail.nif files from that.