ES4: Oblivion - 10 Essential Mods @ PC Gamer

If it's time to dust off Oblivion, PC Gamer has their list of 10 Essential Mods - although it's a pretty basic list that most will already know. Oscuro's, Unique Landscapes and Darnified UI are among the suggestions, for example.
More information.

Turd will remain a turd no matter how much you try polishing it.

Well, many Oblivion gamers will agree that the game runs and plays much more interestingly when mods are installed, they add a bit more sparkle that otherwise might not be there and there's a decent selection, more than can be said of some other games. I doubt i would run 'Big Ob' ever again but you never know.. some mods look quite interesting. A multi-mod'ed game could be worth the fun for the trying.

I need a list like that for Fallout 3.....

There's a (very) unofficial mod compliation that is something like 14GB… believe it or not, but it really makes a big difference I didnt agree with all the changes those mods did though.. I especially disliked many of the texture packs, where colors will look really off at times.

A properly modded Oblivion (or even better, Morrowind) is an unbeatable RPG experience imo. It does takes weeks to set it up good though, you got to be extremely dedicated and interested to do it hehe, but well worth it!

JDR13 said:

I need a list like that for Fallout 3…..

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At Fallout 3 Nexus check out:
Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch
FWE - FO3 Wanderers Edition (overhaul)
GNR — More Where That Came From (new radio songs)
Weapon Mod Kits
Marts Mutant Mod - RC 5 (new monsters etc)
Fellout (removes the green weather tint etc)
Fallout Interoperability Program - FOIP (patches to make some mods play together)


As for the original topic, a pretty good selection.

Personally, I wouldn´t put Midas in such top ten - it´s an impressive mod and its quests are quite fun, but it doesn´t really help poor vanilla magic system. Supreme Magicka along with LAME are much better for that.

Natural Environments is really nice but very buggy, latest All Natural along with Enhanced Vegetation is a much better choice.

Since they´re listing Unique Landscapes, listing Better Cities should be mandatory because that mod improves all cities tenfold.

Original Quarl III is needlessly demanding, Quarl Redimized is the best option.

Finally, they missed Oblivion Xp mod which is an absolute must imo, since it removes retarded need for grinding skills and replaces it with traditional experience gain for kills, quests etc. It´s really well thought out too and makes the whole game flow much, much better.

My top 10 essentials (with a bit of cheating) would be:

Unofficial Oblivion Patch
FCOM
Oblivion Xp
Quarl Redimized
All Natural + Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys
LAME
DarkUId DarN (better than Darnified imo, the dark palette is more tasteful and easier on the eyes)
Unique Landscapes
Better Cities
Deadly Reflex

By now, with carefully chosen and carefully installed mods, Oblivion can be a lot of fun. Ten surely isn´t enough though .

In my case, the only reason why I´ve managed to spend quite a hefty amount of hours with the game was Integration - The Stranded Light, which is by far the best quest mod ever made for any game.

Does anyone know if the mods in the article all work together at the same time? Do they create any conflicts?

bemushroomed said:

There's a (very) unofficial mod compliation that is something like 14GB… believe it or not, but it really makes a big difference

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Do you know where we can find this?

The 1 must have mod for Oblivion would be Oblivion Stutter Remover.. It made the game 10x more smooth and more immersive because of that.

TheMadGamer: sorry i dont + i would really advice against it, it was pure hell setting it up, its like 2 pages of reading just on how to set it up.. make 1 mistake and it wont work, uninstall all / restart from scratch, it was hours of work and i didnt really like the end result tbh. I think its better to start slow and install only the mods that you think are important for you, better experience + a smoother game too..

DeepO said:

Better Cities

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I'd really love to install that mod, but the installation seems like something impossible for me since I'm not familiar with Wrye bash.

I installed Better Cities without needing Wrye Bash. OMM will do it.

Davion said:

I'd really love to install that mod, but the installation seems like something impossible for me since I'm not familiar with Wrye bash.

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It´s quite straightforward to install using Oblivion Mod Manager.
If you have it installed (downloadable from here http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097), you just download all three main Better Cities files, extract the resources, then run Manager, click create, add archive, choose Better Cities 4-5-2b, click create OMOD, click "yes" if prompted and wait till it´s done. Then do the same with the Resources archive.
Both should appear in the main Manager window with a colour square besides. Double click Better Cities 4-5-2b to activate it, then do the same with Resources. You´ll be asked some question during the procedure, just choose what fits your setup.

When Oblivion was released in 2006, it was a huge disappointment for me. I played it for a while and cast it aside. Now, 4 years have passed and there are countless good mods out there, so I want to give Oblivion a second chance. This article wil be very useful for me to play 2010 model Oblivion.

Gokyabgu said:

When Oblivion was released in 2006, it was a huge disappointment for me. I played it for a while and cast it aside. Now, 4 years have passed and there are countless good mods out there, so I want to give Oblivion a second chance. This article wil be very useful for me to play 2010 model Oblivion.

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Just make sure you at least grab a mod that modifies the leveling speed by slowing it down. That alone made a huge difference to me.

And to the people who've helped me with better cities, thanks. I wasn't aware that you didn't need Wrye bash.

TheMadGamer: The only mods in that list that conflict are OOO and Frans but if you do an FCOM installation then they will work together. Just make sure that if you use OOO or Frans and MMM together then use the corresponding compatibility plugin (included in MMM) so that they work together properly.

just incase you don't know
OOO = Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul
Frans = Francesco’s Leveled Creatures and Items Mod
MMM = Martigen’s Monster Mod

PS. I recommend going to the Oblivion mod forums for Bethesda if you need help with any of this.

From my experience in using mods with Oblivion and Fallout 3, avoid unofficial patches like plague. Apart from breaking the game (even more) these patchers "fix and balance" the game, which is another way of saying "this is how we think game should HAVE been ruined".

I am willing to bet that if Oblivion came out with all these changes they would still find a reason to improve it further, look at previous games for example (the apparently "good" games like Morrowind..uhh.. *pukes*).

PS: I only use texture/model mods for both games, here's the list of mods I use for Fallout 3 with all DLC's..



There are some male body replacers, but I don't really like to stare at a guys ass for hours while playing a RPG so I stick to female characters..


EDIT: "Sounds" folder contain sound mods, but I don't think most people would want that (though the mods add new radio stations and like 100 new songs).

DeepO said:

At Fallout 3 Nexus check out:
Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch
FWE - FO3 Wanderers Edition (overhaul)
GNR — More Where That Came From (new radio songs)
Weapon Mod Kits
Marts Mutant Mod - RC 5 (new monsters etc)
Fellout (removes the green weather tint etc)
Fallout Interoperability Program - FOIP (patches to make some mods play together).

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Thanks, I'll be sure to check those out. I'm about to start a FO3 run within the next few days.

I remember looking at FWE before, and while I liked a lot of the changes listed, I didn't like the fact that it added so many fan-made items.

ortucis said:

There are some male body replacers, but I don't really like to stare at a guys ass for hours while playing a RPG so I stick to female characters..

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Did you also prefer cute dolls over action figures when you were a kid? dressing up in womens clothes maybe? j/k

i could never play as a female, would totally ruin the immersion for me i also dont get all the sex theme mods for oblivion and FO, but i guess im just getting old, or something.

Heh, you mean the porno mods? Yeah those are hilarious (never tried them though, don't care about them).

As far as making women in-game look good, I don't like staring at hags everywhere I turn up in-game. I mean ghouls I understand, but when everyone else looks same it becomes a big issue in a game I am about to spend 70+ hrs in.

Also, playing as a female character never ruined the immersion for me, crappy story and generic characters with shitty voice artists sure did (and there are a lot of crappy voice actors in F3 and Oblivion, esp. that annoying Redguard guy who doesn't have any emotion whatsoever in any line he speaks).

bemushroomed said:

I could never play as a female, would totally ruin the immersion for me

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I'd normally say the same, but the male animations of Oblivion feel too feminine when viewed in 3rd person. So for Oblivion, I made an exception.