Oblivion Modding Guide 3.0

2016+1 Anniversary Edition

This is a WIP guide to setting up a foundation for a modded installation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It will first cover mods or frameworks that are considered essential - including mod managers, script extenders and patches - and then categories of mods with working alternatives. The mod suggestions have come from extensive debates about and investigations into Oblivion mods and I've always been trying to learn more, so in most cases the mods listed are the top of their game.

In this article you will see check boxes. If the box is checked it's a mod that I absolutely always use, if it's not I may or may not use it depending on my installation. Just a small insight. I also have a lot of other guides on the website covering mods that you may not see listed here.

Make sure you read the readme for mods you end up installing. And if they're giving you trouble, check out the comments section of the problematic mods' page. This isn't a step-by-step installation or a mod pack, so you have to pay attention to what you're doing. If you're wondering why there are no mod packs for the game, it's because they can't possibly work well with Oblivion's ever growing modding scene and its buggy diversity.

Heavily modding Oblivion is a casual filter so good luck. If you have any Oblivion modding questions or suggestions just throw them up in /tesg/ or contact me on Steam.

Check this out for acronyms.
Essentials for any modded install

You need all of these.
☑ Install Oblivion & Shivering Isles.
☑ Make sure the game is up-to-date.

☑ Apply the 4gb patch to Oblivion.exe.

☑ Delete your Oblivion.ini in 'C:\Users\____\Documents\My Games\Oblivion'.
☑ Launch Oblivion to generate a new .ini, then use this tool or follow this guide if you want to edit your .ini.
☑ Install Wrye Bash Standalone.
☑ Install Oblivion Mod Manager.
☑ Install BOSS, do not use LOOT for Oblivion.
☑ Install TES4Edit

☑ Install Oblivion Script Extender
Use Wrye Bash 90% of the time for installing mods, only use OBMM for the very few mods(OMODs) that require it.

Unofficial Patches
Probably essential.
☑ Unofficial Oblivion Patch - Essential.
☑ Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch - Essential.
☑ Unofficial DLC Patch - Essential(if you use any DLC).
☑ Kuertee Clean Up - I sometimes use this but I'm not sure how essential it is.

Graphics Injectors

For advanced shaders and game stability.

Oblivion Reloaded(OR) - WIP "Do Anything" graphics mod. Works with MSAA unlike OBGE and you can use it with ENB. You'll most likely want to use this one instead of OBGE, particularly for the features unrelated to graphics. OBGE has more shaders to use however.

ENB - You have to find presets for it on the Nexus.

Oblivion Graphics Extender(OBGE) - Install guide here and shader guide here. Easiest to tweak and its suite of shaders are made to compliment Oblivion's art style instead of overriding it.

Nvidia Inspector - Advanced tool for forcing SSAO, AA, AF, etc into games. Avoid unless you're using OBGE, consider forcing SSAO/AA if you are using OBGE.

SweetFX / Reshade - Generic graphics injectors. Not a good alternative for this game.

OBSE plugins

A lot of these are dependencies for other mods but many also add unique features.

☑ Oblivion Stutter Remover(OSR) - Open the .ini and do "bReplaceHeap = 1".

☑ Elys Silent Voice - Most mods that add NPCs to the game require this.

☑ Dynamic Music System & its requirements here and here - BMS below is deprecated by this mod. It's very fun to set up your own soundtracks for the game's areas.
☐ BetterMusicSystem & its requirements here & here - Superseded by the above mod.
☑ MoreHeap - Can't hurt.

☑ Trifle - Adds your shadow to your first person view, make sure you read the readme so this and the above mod work together.

☑ Elys Uncapper - Removes the hard coded caps on attributes and skills.

☑ EngineBugFixes - Does a lot of things and it's completely modular.
☑ ConsoleCommands - Adds nifty new console commands.
☑ Blockhead - this is more like a mod so read the readme
☑ Pluggy
☑ Conscribe

☐ MenuQue
☐ AddActorValues
☐ Nifse

☐ Construction Set Extender - If you're doing some serious modding this may come in handy.

☐ Fast Exit - Alternatively you can use the function in OSR or OR.

User Interface(UI)

UI mods should be installed carefully as they can break your installation, I suggest finalizing your UI setup before anything else. UI mods are any mods that add to the "Menus" folder, it's a good practice to back-up this folder just in case.
☑ Darnified UI and this plugin - DarnUI is typically the reason why a fresh installation of Oblivion will crash as it edits the Oblivion.ini, causing the game to look for something you haven't yet installed.
☑ Rotating Compass - My preferred compass mod.
☐ Unofficial update to DarnUI - I don't use this but you might want to.
☐ HUD Status Bars & its add-on - Many mods use this framework, you might need it. Or want it.
☐ Display Stats - A mod that lets you see previously hidden stats.
☑ Dynamic Map & Extended Map if you need it - The definitive map texture mods. Probably. There are a lot of map mods.
☐ Map Marker Overhaul - The definitive map marker overhaul.
☑ Enhanced Hotkeys - A robust hotkey manager.
☐ Quest Log Manager - If you feel your quest log is cluttered.
☐ Minimap - Adds a minimap to your HUD.

Progression

Anything to do with leveling and your skills.

☑ Realistic Levelling - A leveling overhaul that works great.

☐ Oblivion XP Update - An alternative leveling overhaul but sadly very outdated. Not recommended for a heavily modded game.

Economy
Mods to do with making and managing your gold

☐ Trade and Commerce & its update / Alternative link - A mod that lets you run your own shop.

☐ Enhanced Economy + Unofficial Patch - An overhaul focused on everything to do with gold in the game, it's extremely comprehensive and highly recommended for role-playing.

Miscellaneous
Mods that add unique functionality.
☑ QZ Easy Menus - Absolutely essential mod that makes your input devices useful, here is my .ini.
☑ Common Oblivion(Cobl)(I only install the .esm) - A mod that adds an in-game menu for various functions like spell deletion or the ability to denock arrows.

☑ Menu and Camera Toggler - Adds toggle keys for screenshot tools.

☐ ShowCrosshairTarget - A Japanese mod that shows the name of whatever object or NPC that's in your crosshair when you hold the right mouse button or nock an arrow.
☑ Elz Realistic Gravity - Fixes jumping and other things.

Point of View

Mods that adjust your camera.

☐ Enhanced Camera - Adds an immersive first person mode.
☐ External Camera - Useful for screenshots.
☐ New Third Person Camera - Same as above but more tuned for gameplay.
☐ FOV Modifier - If you aren't using Oblivion Reloaded you can use this to modify your FOV.

Combat Overhauls

For adjusting and enhancing combat scenarios.

☐ Deadly Reflex - v5 and v6 both have their merits, v5 has this plugin for instance(video here).

☐ Unnecessary Violence III - An even better combat mod.
☐ Vanilla Combat Enhanced - This is probably your go-to combat overhaul.

☐ Duke Patrick's mods - Some people like his stuff, I've only used his archery modules but thought it was too heavy albeit very cool.
☐ Eagle Eye - Archery tweak.

☐ Archery Rebalance - An alternative archery tweak..

Combat Additions
Spicing up combat scenarios.

☑ Demolish System - A lighter combat enhancer that's modular.

☐ Special Ability and Bad Status - A fun anime-inspired combat mod.

☑ Oblivion Combat Skill System and its translation - 2.0 of the above mod.
☐ C2 Special Combat Moves - Another anime-inspired combat mod.

☐ Smokin' Sick Style - Korean Devil May Cry inspired combat mod, it's a really neat mod but absolutely not lore friendly.

☐ SM Combat Hide - Lets you escape from pursuers.

☐ Stagger Recoil and HitStop - I think there is another hitstop mod, but maybe not.

☐ Unidirectional Attack - Small but substantial change to enemy AI.

☐ Doc Dodge - Similar to the above mod.

Hand to Hand
Probably only for use in a fisticuffs playthrough.

Hand to Hand Advanced - You can now knock out and knock down your opponents.

Adrenaline Fueled Combat - Locational damage. Punch mages in the head to make them dumber (lower mana), Hit warriors in the right arm to lessen their weapon skill(damage) or their left arm(reduces block) combo chains, See your damage and a lot more.

Realistic Blocking - This is good for surviving since you lack a weapon.
Duke Patrick's Combat Magic - While it's technically a magical mod, it has overpowered benefits for hand to hand.
Better Hand to Hand Combat - Alternative to the above mods.

Magic

There are magic mods that re-balance, add, re-texture, and redesign various magic effects. Most of them are good and can be used with one another so I'm at a loss for definitive recommendations. I will however list mods that aren't in the magic section.

Magical Arrows - Gives the enchantment aura to your arrows.
Magic Magnitude Multipliers - Allows your to customize your magical damage.
LAME, Supreme Magicka, or Balanced Magic? - These are the three popular magic overhauls I've heard of but I don't use magic so..

Overhauls

Mods that drastically overhaul the way you play the game.
☑ Waalx Animals and Creatures(Alternative link here, includes patches) and it's required patches that can be found here - it also has patches for UL's Lost Coast and Dark Forest, OOO(can't find the patch), and for some assets here. I personally use this overhaul.

☑ Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul - Fantastic overhaul with hundreds of toggle-able features. Very compatible and absolutely essential for me.
☐ Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul - The preferred overhaul among the masses. Be sure to look out for the various OOO patches as the mod conflicts with basically everything. And consider using tes4edit to make sure patches are working properly. There's also this notable add-on.

☐ Oblivion Scaling Unclusterfucked - This is worth a mention too, It's similar to Morrowloot(a Skyrim mod).

The other overhauls I know of are ROM, TIE, OWC, MOBS, MMM, and Frans but I can't recommend them for their compatibility problems or just because I find them boring. FCOM used to be popular but honestly it's always been a mess. You should look into these mods if you're inquisitive though because oftentimes I have controversial opinions. As an example you might like TIE if you just want to be a sneaky dickweed.

WAC + MOO are my preferred overhauls but OOO can be used alongside WAC with a patch. The reason I use WAC over OOO is because OOO makes the game harder and in ways more realistic whereas WAC adds a seemingly infinite amount of new monsters, weapons, armors, npcs, beards, accessories, mounts, and critters which makes the game feel barren without WAC. Difficulty enhancing mods are all over the place and many people have went out of their way to make alternatives to OOO's features, for instance dropping lit torches. OOO to me just isn't necessary and it's a pain to mod around due to conflicts.

Gameplay

Mods that enhance gameplay.
☐ Alternative Start Arrive by Ship, Alternative Beginnings, or New Beginnings - I don't know which one is the best to use.
☐ Reneer's Guard Overhaul or Hear no Evil - STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM. Reneer's is buggy as hell though so use Hear no Evil or an alternative if you find one. You can easily adjust crime distances in your bashed patch "Tweak Settings" menu so that's what I do.
☐ Cyrodiil Travel Services - Morrowind-esque travelling.
☑ Put it in its Place - Enhanced Grabbing - Absolutely essential mod, it simply makes the game better.
☐ Real Sleep Extended with portable bedrolls - If you don't use OR use this mod instead. See You Sleep mod has an alternative bedroll mod if you don't want to use this but still want to have immersive sleeps.
☐ ROM Drop Lit Torches - If you don't use OOO but want to drop torches, use this plugin instead,
☐ Dynamic Levelled Lists - Some sorcery that governs the levelled lists. Maskar's overhaul seems to supersede this mod, so I wouldn't use it.
☐ SHOUT - Have you ever wanted to yell for help?
☑ Real Hunger with Animation - Best eating and drinking mod that I've tried. Very basic and immersive.
☐ NPCs Yield Refined - I haven't used this a lot but it seemed to work well.
☐ Realistic Fatigue - You will want to edit the .ini if you use this mod. I love the feature that adds a chance to trip when you or NPCs run backwards, or uphill.
☐ Spell Deflect - Works just like the mirror shield in Zelda.
☐ Vacuity - Allows you to see the contents of containers.
☐ Craftybits - Real time crafting mod. Dig ore in caves, skin animals and gather meat and bones, chop wood from the trees. Pretty much any weapon can be used and a lot of the clutter tools like shears, tongs, shovels can be converted into usable items to make vanilla and new clothing, objects, foods. Even lets you make a yurt, canoe, and playable lute.

Environment
I've also made this guide for landscape mods. Make sure you check it out.

☑ All Natural(has an .ini you can edit) - The definitive weather mod.
☑ Immersive Interiors and its patch, patch 2, and patch 3 - Allows you to see outside of interior windows.
☑ Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys - Does what the name implies.
☑ Natural Habitat - Adds bugs and birds. This is a re-uploaded standalone mod from Natural Environments. You only need the .esm or .esp, not both.
☑ QQuix - Rock rock rock your ship - This mod makes ships bob around.
☐ Falling Leaves - This mod has a performance hit but it looks nice.
☐ Project Ambiance - Various environment enhancing mods.
☑ Better Dungeons - Use the non-BSA version. Enhances all of the dungeons.

Make sure you get all the required patches to make your mods work with whatever other mods you're using. Then make sure you run BOSS, make yourself a bashed patch, inspect your load order in tes4edit, then clean the dirty mods, and then launch up the game to see if it still works. It's good to be incredibly cautious about compatibility or you will probably crash.
Generally every landscape/environment mod will have a compatibility patch so don't be too afraid of piling on the mods. Personally I use quite a few mods that add or modify towns and the like.

Textures

Mods that make the game look more detailed.
☐ QTP3 Redimized 1.0 & QTP3 Redimized Patch - There's also this which has a bunch of QTP3 download links. And another QTP3R 1.0. And here is QTP3R 1.3 which is rather sharp.
☑ QTP2 - If you just want a light texture base.
☐ Grass Overhaul - I don't like it but you probably will!

☐ Foaming Falls - Changes what waterfalls look like.

☐ DOWNPOUR - A rain retexture.
☑ Enhanced Vegetation and this - Essential for me. Max out the tree size.
☐ Really Textured Normal Maps - I only install the armour, clothes, creatures, Oblivion, and weapon folders.
☑ Miknmel1's texture mods - These are all good, I install them on top of QTP.
☑ Detailed Terrain - You have to install this with OBMM. It repacks shader files.

☐ TES4LODGen - if this hits your performance too hard you can remove some files in the DistantLOD folder

☐ Lush and Gaudy Landscape - Conflicts with every texture mod I've listed but you may prefer it, I used to use the Emerald version.
☐ Lush and Gaudy Floriana Australis - Same as above but makes the landscape arid.
☐ These four loading screen replacers - Gilboron put them in one pack here.

☑ Reflection Maps
☐ Anything Improved - Pick and choose which parts of this mod you want. The terrain noise is okay for instance.

☑ BTQ Landscape LODs - "Better Tiling Qarl" is the best landscape lod retexture I could find. I use it alongside BTQ Textures, the above terrain noise.dds, and I feel it looks okay. You can also find a normal map replacement or higher resolution textures for the area surrounding the IC.
There are many more good texture mods but these are the only ones I can personally recommend. Testg and Mr. dev_akm cover more textures than I ever will so check it out if you really want to dig deep. There is also this and this.

Immersion
Mods that make Oblivion feel like other, better, WRPGs.
☑ Companion Vilja - Some people don't like her voice but it's by far the best and most immersive follower mod.
☐ http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/47703/ - Very cool mod. Consider using Nice To Meet You as an alternative, if you want your game to crash.
☐ Reneer's Varied NPC Mod - Allows NPCs to have different body shape.s
☑ A Bloody Mess - You may want this and this too. This mod covers your character in the blood of his enemies.
☑ Claymore Sheath re-uploaded here - Alternatively you can use this but it has some UV issues.
☐ Exterior and Dungeon Actors Have Torches - Deprecated by MOO.
☑ Smokeable Skooma Pipe - Might have some bugs but I really like this mod, there's also a smokeable pipe mod.
☐ Get Wet - Adds a shader to your character when it gets wet, conflicts with A Bloody Mess though. Use the "droplets only" plugin if you decide to use it.
☐ Physical Throwable Crates n Chests - I doubt it's good to play with since the meshes don't reset but it's a very fun mod.
☐ AFK_PrayerIdles - NPCs gain various temple idols
☐ Personality idles - gives you and/or NPCs idles depending on how you set it up

☐ Talk with your hands - compliments the above mod giving NPCs dialogue animations

☐ Expanded Greetings - Makes NPCs less annoying when you get high stats
☐ Longer Days Shorter Nights or Longer Nights Shorter Days

Dialogue

If you have an eye for the little things.

☐ Better Letters - Improves all of the letters.

☐ Idle Dialogues - NPCs talk to themselves while idle.
☑ Migck's Miscellaneous fixes, tweaks and additions - This mod improves on the above Idle Dialogues mod. And it does some other stuff you can turn off.
☐ Oblivifall - Something Is Not Right - Very immersive way to find dungeons.
☑ Dialogue Tweaks Fixes and Restorations - Does what it says.
☐ Realistic Player Dialogue Overhaul - Adjusts your player's dialogue options.

Quests
I don't know much about quest mods but here are some uncut quests from the game.
☐ Oblivion Uncut
☐ The Statlilia Stables

Sound
A category of mods that is difficult to form an opinion on.

☐ GOSH - A sound overhaul.

☐ Atmospheric Oblivion & it's patch that may or may not be outdated - Adds lots of noises.

☐ Better Bell Sounds - This makes bell sounds better.
☐ Sounds of Cyrodiil - You should definitely read the readme and replace/remove some of the noises this mod adds, a chunk of them(urban areas especially) sound terrible. Good mod otherwise though.
☐ Symphony of Violence - Same deal as above.
☐ More Immersive Sound - Ambient sounds.

☐ Oblivion Stereo Sound Overhaul - Replaces and adds new sounds.

☐ Elz - Unique Footstep Sounds - If you really need to customize every single sound, you'll need this.

I honestly have no idea which of these mods you should use. It's a tremendous effort to test mods that all add dozens or hundreds of sound files. I have done it in the past, but I have forgotten everything I had learned.

Character Voices

Mods that bring your character to life.
☑ Elz - More Voice and it's addon - Really fun to customize this mod, you can get lots of video game voices from here.
☐ Oblivion Sound Sets - Update of the retro player voice mod. Deprecated by Elz's mod imo, but useful as a resource.
☐ My Voice Extender - Haven't tried this one.
☑ Diverse Voices - Adjusts the pitch of some of the races so give more voice variety.

Animation

I spend ridiculous amounts of time modifying .nif files.
☐ CCAO - allows you to have different animation sets(meaning spears and anything else) and comes with a lot of animations
☐ KamiCas - I think this is similar to CCAO but without the animations
☐ Sensual Walks - this mod lets you customize the walk animation for a lot of NPCs, left alone it will make your game look retarded but if you put care into it you can make the game more immersive
☑ Seductive Idles & 'nudeshy' - adds contextual animated idles, they're not perverted despite their titles
☐ Look at Shrines - alternatively you could use Look Here You
☐ VipCxjs Air Fight System - could be handy if you are RPing as something gay or edgy
☑ Dynamic Foot Position - I don't care to use this but it seems neat
☑ Sit Down - Japanese mod that lets you and whatever NPC sit wherever, can customize the idles and hotkeys
☑ NakayoshiMODs - if you want to hug, carry, or 2p ride a horse with an NPC
☐ Grab Companion - I haven't used this but from what I can tell it improves the above's carry companion feature
☐ HugBench - if you want to mack on NPCs or something
☐ See You Sleep - Comfy sleeping mod, superseded by OR.

As for animation replacers and pose mods, you can find all of them on the Nexus and/or re-uploaded by me on 4shared. Here's my animation folder, Goma animations, and most CTaddpose mods. Rather than using the .esp's contained in animation mods try to use the Vipcxj's Pose Extend System or other animation system overhaul mods for convenience. Also it's worth mentioning that in the CS you can set custom animations for any NPC(including yourself but CCAO/KamiCas/Blockhead could make that redundant) by messing around with the actor's animation tab.

Forever Alone?

If you are very lonely in life.
☐ Estrus - Cotyounoyume is an animation god
☐ Lovers with PK and the various other adult mods on Lovers Lab
☐ Montana's Sexy Companion II - a voiced companion with 'those' options
☐ Little Baron Water Beasts - Not sure where else to put this mod. It adds some Lamia's to the water.

It's probably a really bad idea to install the PK stuff on top of your main Oblivion install but you should try them at least once. One minute you'll be a strong Orc who don't need no GF and the next you'll be giving birth to your newborn baby slaughterfishes child who will NTR you then imprison you in the sex trade run by loli demoras and other monster girls, all while being witness to the most god-forsaken animation and scripting bugs in all of video games and wondering what you're doing with your life.

Character Stuff
Slightly more in-depth guide here. There's also this guide detailing how to improve what NPCs look like.
☑ VipCxj's Hair Eye Extend System - lets you switch hairs and eyes of you and NPCs

☐ Oblivion Character Overhaul v2 - haven't used it but it seems to be all the rage
One day I'll do something great for anyone wanting to make an Oblivion character. But by then no one will care.

Character Body
There are a lot more body mods but I don't care to list them all.

☑ Robert's Male Body
☑ BBB RA - If you use another nude female replacer you just might be gay.
☑ Universal Skeleton - needed for lots of animation mods and BBB
☐ ZKEC Female Body - One of many underwear replacers.

Skeletons
Spooky. These are probably not compatible with one another but I like the idea of all of them. WAC also has dank skeletons.
☐ Restored Skeleton Shaders - Uncuts shader applications to skeleton types
☐ Armored Skeletons - Adds armor to skeletons.
☐ Skeletons Crumble - Skeletons will break apart more.

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Oblivion

October 13, 2015

Dem Waifus

Oblivion Modding Guide 3.0

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