how do i mod oblivion

[Ozzarkka]

i beat the game 5+ times and i want to spice it up a lil so how do i mod the game, pls and thank you

[Olivinism]

Here's the best place to start: Download the Oblivion Mod Manager[www.nexusmods.com].

Using this program, you can load mods into it and then install/uninstall from your game much, MUCH easier. I'd recommend using this over other mod handlers, simply because it's designed with Oblivion in mind. Newer ones will work, but may cause issues.

Wrye Bash[www.nexusmods.com] is a highly recommended alternate though, and at the very least it can be used to "bash patch", meaning it will take various mods and pseudo-merge them to work nicely together. It's all very technical and case-by-case, so I'd recommend only using it once you see an install call for it to be done.

LOOT, or the Load Order Optimisation Tool[loot.github.io], is another must-have. It organises your installed mods to load in the "correct" order. One of the most common crashes is when you try to launch and the game immediately crashes to desktop; this is almost certainly because a mod is loading BEFORE another mod it requires, and therefore can't find the files it needs and crashes the game. LOOT fixes this.

You're going to want to use OBSE, or Oblivion Script Extender[www.nexusmods.com] as well. It basically adds new libraries and methods for mod developers. You won't notice it, but many mods rely on those new functions to work properly. Just download it and follow the instructions; namely export, drag and drop. It's one of a handful of mods you need to manually install; the rest can be done by an organiser.


Now, browse a mod website for mods! I'd recommend Nexus[www.nexusmods.com] for starters, but there's a bunch out there. Download files manually, then in OMM:

- click "create"
- in the pop-up click "add archive" to load the .zip, .7z or .rar files in.
- Give it a name in the window, then click "create OMOD".

Once it's done, you'll see it in the right pane with a blue square; double click and it'll go green, BOOM you've installed a mod!

Run LOOT, let it do its thing, and you're good to go. Message if you have any questions, these are really just the basics and it can get very confusing at times. I learned how to mod Skyrim and thought I'd be golden when I moved to Oblivion. Nope.

(Oh, and on each page for a mod you're installing it'll have install instructions and required mods to work alongside. Check these, every single time)

[Ozzarkka]

Thank you so much :)

[truecharliebean]

Another great alternative to OBMM is Mod Organiser 2.

[arottweiler]

Good advice with OBMM to start adding mods. You then launch the game using the OBMM shortcut to launch the OBMM menu where you can activate new mods.

When you install OBSE that is needed for a lot of mods to run you can't launch the game using the OBSE shortcut and still access the OBMM menu before launching the game which means you can't activate new mods. Or maybe you can but you just can't access the OBMM menu via the OBSE menu. I forget but the general rule is when you have installed OBSE is to always launch with the OBMM shortcut.

Start off with small file size mods that have minimal dependencies to make the whole download, unpacking and installation process quicker so it should make it easier when you're new to modding. Some excellent mods require SI and KOTN with the patches to run but if you're new to modding that is not something to worry about now.

I had also played Oblivion about five times before I started adding mods and it's addictive because of all the thousands of quality mods. My word of warning is that on the way to becoming proficient in adding mods and keeping the game stable at the same time is almost certainly going to result in re-installing the base game and starting from scratch maybe multiple times before you get it working but this doesn't affect saved game files which are in a different folder. Always a good idea to back them up to a different location though.

You also absolutely need the official Oblivion 1.2.416 Patch to run almost all mods but your version might already be patched to 1.2.416. It should show the version on the splash screen. The unofficial patch is also essential.

It can take some time to get it working and perhaps a few weeks so some patience, re-installing if things go wrong and coffee might be required but it's well worth it. No matter what mods you're interested in there are countless of them out there to enhance the vanilla experience.

[Wanderer]

Vortex(auto load order) from nexusmods is also enough,you may have to read the description(load order,incompatibilities,etc) of every mod and the comment section(the comments really save your ass) It will save you a lot of Frustration,sometimes Vortex can't handle some mods,so you've to do It manually.

You will also need OBSE for physics much more stuff. I manged to get by without Wrybash or OBMM. I used instead Nifse & Tes4Edit,both are useful tools for modification & some editing,but especially Tes4Edit. Just google the names,you will find Instant information about this.

Also consider modding it with morroblivion(owning Morrowind),graphics are worse than oblivion vanilla-sadly it's not voiced as the original didn't had this aswell. I started modding it after my first playthrough,as the ugly faces were just too much & i drifted apart.
Soo many mods,CTD's,mesh errors, conflicts and suffering(Can't play Skyrim anymore because of that). It's possible to play all the big quest mods together,but there's much work (testing,reading) behind it,aswell as Bugs and the possible solutions to this. Currently i'm having ~100 mods together and mostly without CTD's.
Really,less is more,just use one Thing for one specific modification. There is also for ingame bugs the console very important to quest-stucks etc. The unoffical oblivion patch conflicts with quite a few mods-i Had increase CTD's after that,so i'm playing without,the console fixes the bugs anyways.

[dantès]

don't you have to move the entire game directory outside the 'Program Files (x86)" folder for a better modding experience?

[76561197971992647]

depends on OS dantes, i use win7 and was told to move install outside of x86, i just disabled UAC and havent had a problem with anything, i believe its an issue with admin privs read/write access on protected folders like program files (x64/x86), installing to c/games or some other folder avoids all of the issues as these folders arent protected by ... windows or w/e it is specifically