Currently recommended mod manager

[Brandybuck]

I've been trying to use Mod Organizer, and so far it's 99% what I want. Biggest feature I love is it's convenient to try out mods without polluting the install directory, it keeps the install pristine. But... archive invalidation seems to be completely broken. I've read all the docs and wikis and everything, and I seem to be doing what I am supposed to (profiles, etc). The docs out there in the wild is terribly outdated, so it's largely guesswork.

I'm only gong to be using about 30 mods in total.

So I am thinking of using MO to play around with mods (and their order) that I want, and then install them for real with a more traditional mod manager. But what mod manager?

I do not like NMM for various reasons, so what else is there? Is OBMM still working well? I've see that it hasn't been updated in years. Should I just screw it and install everything by hand?

What's the current state of the art for 2016, in other words? Thanks.

[Craftian]

NMM doesn't work well with Oblivion, considering the latter's age.

I suggest you try using OBMM or Wrye Bash.

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/2097
http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/22368/

[cyäegha]

OBMM is easier to get acquainted with and has compatibility with .OMOD packages, making it better suited to your use-case

wrye bash is more powerful, has it's own advantages, and is what i stand by firmly, but only really comes to the fore if you have to merge levelled lists or if you're exceeding the 255-mod cap

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I use OBMM to handle a few OMODs and Nexus Mod Manager for simpler mods and Textures since NMM provides virtual installation which makes it easier to install and uninstall textures without permanently overwritting your old textures unlike OBMM.

I have never used Mod Organizer, but maybe you can use it in a similiar way in place of NMM.

One problem I encountered when using NMM is that some Oblivion mods do not come properly formatted to install using NMM. I had to re-organize some mod file structures so that they were NMM compatible.

[Brandybuck]

I will give Mod Organizer one more try, because I really love it. I'll blow it away, then reinstall all my mods again. Everything was working just fine until I tried one mod with that managed to b0rk everything, even after it was uninstalled, so hoping if I avoid that mod I can get back to a working game.

If it doesn't work, I'll go with OBMM.

[Brandybuck]

Wait... OBMM only supports OMOD format? Are you kidding me? WTF? I have to go convert every single mod to OMOD format? Screw this.

[Craftian]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Wait... OBMM only supports OMOD format? Are you kidding me? WTF? I have to go convert every single mod to OMOD format? Screw this.

No, you don't have to convert every single mod to .omod format. It's just the only manager to properly deal with the file type. You can install (most) other mod archives as normal or convert them into .omod files.

[Brandybuck]

Well, I was never able to figure out how to get it to do that. OMODs only, plus an option to convert regular mods to OMODs after you've filled in the name and author and stuff.

In any case, I want to be starting a new game this weekend, and I just don't have time any more to be monkeying about with mod managers. So for now I've settled on NMM despite my dislike of it. So far it seems to be working even though it's slow and awkward and buggy as hell. If it fails I'm just dumping files raw into the game the old fashioned way.

[Brandybuck]

p.s. This is not how I remember my last playthrough of Oblivion, and I realize now that I must not have used a mod manager before, and what I remember as OBMM was really FOMM.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Using NMM with Oblivion is literally the worst way to install mods and you WILL break your game. No questions about it. 90% of problems people have with Oblivion mods nowadays is because they used NMM.

OBMM isn't really hard to understand at all. There are plenty of tutorials still on the internet, some of them in video format. Some mods you can convert the archived files they come in into OMODs (so like .zip, .7z, etc), some let you blatantly download the OMOD. if it's not one of those two, you will have to install it manually, and that is not a bad thing.

[Craftian]

Converting files into the .omod format is relatively straightforward. You click the Create option in the main OBMM screen, add the compressed (most likely .zip) archive that you've downloaded and then allow it to load in. Sometimes it'll come with conversion data, but if not.. remember to name it so you know what the mod is.

Once that's done, all you need to do is activate it.

It's understandable to be irritated by the lengthy process of setting up and organising a variety of mods for Oblivion but it will save you headaches in the long run. Like a lot of other games of a similar age, it takes a significant amount of time to setup and mod properly but it can be worth it.

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Craftian:

Once that's done, all you need to do is activate it.

It's more than that. You have to name the OMOD... AND give it an author. It will not proceed without that. After two mods, I gave up looking up the author's name on Nexus. It's pointless busy work.

What gets me is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON FOR IT! I don't want to use just out of protest. All a mod is is a collection of files in a particular structure. That structure already exists inside the .zip and .7z files, there is zero purpose to convert it into a tool specific format.

FOMM does not do this, it can use regular mods as well as FOMODs. Why can't OBMM do the same?

p.s. Sorry this question turned into a gripe fest, but I had no idea how b0rked the Oblivion modding environment.

[Oddbrother]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

FOMM does not do this, it can use regular mods as well as FOMODs. Why can't OBMM do the same?

Because it wasn't updated to support the feature. A pity to see that such an old, outdated program had been abandoned before the fact despite it's continued reliability to this very day.

[Brandybuck]

I guess this is a religious issue then. I just find it annoying as all hell.

Anyway, I ended up using it only because NMM was even more annoying. I've got everything setup now, and hopefully I won't have to touch it any more.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Originally posted by Craftian:

Once that's done, all you need to do is activate it.

It's more than that. You have to name the OMOD... AND give it an author. It will not proceed without that. After two mods, I gave up looking up the author's name on Nexus. It's pointless busy work.

What gets me is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON FOR IT! I don't want to use just out of protest. All a mod is is a collection of files in a particular structure. That structure already exists inside the .zip and .7z files, there is zero purpose to convert it into a tool specific format.

FOMM does not do this, it can use regular mods as well as FOMODs. Why can't OBMM do the same?

p.s. Sorry this question turned into a gripe fest, but I had no idea how b0rked the Oblivion modding environment.

You only have to do this if you're doing it wrong or if it's a mod you can install manually anyways.

When I load an archive into the OBMM omod creator, if it's compatible into being made into an OMOD, it fills out all of those fields automatically. I don't need to worry about that stuff.

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by StarFox Fanboy:

When I load an archive into the OBMM omod creator, if it's compatible into being made into an OMOD, it fills out all of those fields automatically. I don't need to worry about that stuff.

But most mods are not "compatible". In the thirty mods I managed to convert, only one had conversion information.