Installing mods

[Antar]

is there a detailed guide on how to instal mods into Oblivion? There is absolute nothing on nexusmods.com (but ofc they beg for donations on each step, what a crappy website lmao). After hours of googling I have nothing beside some very general "use obbm" (or w/e).

I wanted to try out all sorts of mods, but seeing how extremely difficult it is I ONLY want the unofficial patches. But that alone seems a mammoth task.

In the old days modding used to be so easy, mods came with installation instructions and you installed them where they needed to be....sigh

[Arrancar]

Just copy and paste them. Mods(most of them at least) go into Data folder in your Oblivion folder. Mesh goes into mesh, texture into texture etc...
It's pretty easy to figure out....
And yes some mods require Oblivion Mod Manager(you have to install it first). Their installation is even "harder" just open mod in OBMM and click activate.
Dunno if you ever played Skyrim, but it is pretty much same.

[PainkilleR]

Originally posted by Antar:

After hours of googling I have nothing beside some very general "use obbm" (or w/e).

Well, it's hard to find anything less generic than that, because there is nothing to explain really. You download mod, extract it into your Oblivion folder, activate plugins and that's it.

Here is an example with Unofficial patches.

1. Download Unofficial Patch http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/5296/?
2. Download Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/10739/?
3. If you have Game of the Year DELUXE version of Oblivion download Unofficial DLC Patches http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/9969/?
4. Open Unofficial Oblivion Patch archive, open Unofficial Oblivion Patch in that archive, extract everything (Trees folder, Textures folder, etc) to Steam\steamapps\common\Oblivion\Data\
5. Do the same for second and third archives you've downloaded.
6. Download Oblivion Mod Manager http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/2097/?
7. Extract it into your oblivion folder ( Steam\steamapps\common\Oblivion )
8. Launch OblivionModManager.exe
9. Activate all plugins (all esp files listed in Oblivion Mod Manager).
10. Re-order them using Move up/Move down buttons

Load order should look like this:

Oblivion.esm
Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp
Oblivion Citadel Door Fix.esp
UOP Vampire Aging & Face Fix.esp
DLCShiveringIsles.esp
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch.esp
Knights.esp
Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp
DLCFrostcrag.esp
DLCFrostcrag - Unofficial Patch.esp
DLCBattlehornCastle.esp
DLCBattlehornCastle - Unofficial Patch.esp
DLCOrrery.esp
DLCOrrery - Unofficial Patch.esp
DLCThievesDen.esp
DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch.esp
DLCThievesDen - Unofficial Patch - SSSB.esp
DLCVileLair.esp
DLCVileLair - Unofficial Patch.esp
DLCMehrunesRazor.esp
DLCMehrunesRazor - Unofficial Patch.esp
DLCSpellTomes.esp
DLCSpellTomes - Unofficial Patch.esp
DLCHorseArmor.esp
DLCHorseArmor - Unofficial Patch.esp

If you don't have any DLC (Regular Game of the Year edition)

Load order would look like this:

Oblivion.esm
Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp
Oblivion Citadel Door Fix.esp
UOP Vampire Aging & Face Fix.esp
DLCShiveringIsles.esp
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch.esp
Knights.esp

11. Close Oblivion Mod Manager and launch the game.

[Kongha]

For your own well beeing please use a mod manager so you can roll back if you mess things up. Nexus Mod manager (NMM) is good option to keep it safe. Many mods for Oblivion is packaged in away that NMM dosent like. So this is how its done and I will use the excellent overhaul "Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul 1.35" as an example:

a) First manually download OOO (and the optionals that you want).
b) Create a folder called "data".
c) Unzip evertyhing from OOO into data. It should look like this for example: "/data/texture", "/data/meshes" and "/data/ Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.bsa"
d) zip/rar the data folder. Name it to OOO 1.35.rar
e) open up NMM and select "add mode from file"
f) activate the file.
g) archive invalidation (its under the toolbox)

There is exception ofc, such as "All natural" and "Unique landscape" that needs Oblivion mod manager and Wrye bash.

Also, if you want some lore friendly mods have a look at my up to date mod list .)
https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1483493-an-up-to-date-mod-list-created-2014-03-08/

[CullinB]

Hmm OP wants to install only UOP.
And i know how he feels UOP 3.5.x are badly packaged.
UOP 3.4.x was packaged into installer.exe so everyone can install UOP very easily.

But Arrancar's instructions is fairly good to follow.

[Great Duck]

"Install Nexus Mod Manager 63.14" is literally in the upper right corner of website. But then if don't know what you're looking for I suppose that doesn't help!

While the more advanced mods need Oblivion Mod Manager or other more detailed programs, NMM covers most simpler things, unofficial patches included, and most mods even have a "download with manager" button right in their download pages that lets the software do all the work- provided you have an account, but the 2 MB download size limits effectively requires one. Most mods should have manual install instructions too, which usually boils down to "drop the contents into your Oblivion data folder than tick the .esp with "data files" menu in the launcher".

[Shrimpins]

LUL calling nexus a crappy website, and being inept at the same time.

[cyäegha]

Originally posted by CullinB:

UOP 3.5.x are badly packaged.
UOP 3.4.x was packaged into installer.exe so everyone can install UOP very easily.

i wouldn't call it 'badly packaged', as it's packaged correctly for manual installation
perhaps 'not enabling laziness', but by no means 'bad'

[CullinB]

Ah you are right. I choose wrong word.

[Kimmaz]

I install mods manually by copying the files into the oblivion folder :D most mod managers do the same thing.

[CullinB]

You will learn