GameBanshee Forums

OK, since the modding community has now done quite a bit to address a number of turnoffs (for me personally at least) in Oblivion, and the Game of the Year edition is fairly reasonable in price, I'm probably going to pick this game up tomorrow..

I have just been browsing through various threads, mod sites etc. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, and I have some questions

First of all, I intend to start installing mods right off the bat, so I am wondering if mod installation is the same as in Morrowind. In Morrowind I generally installed mods manually (much easier and more fool proof), is it possible to do this in Oblivion?

Secondly, I have seen some mixed views on OOO vs Francesco's... sooo.. I'm collecting opinions here, what do people think on these two?

Third, Wrye Bash... Is it a good idea to use it? I'm not the most technically inclined, and Wrye Mash for MW confused the Hell out of me

As far as mods go, right now I'm probably just going to go with those that improve/tweak gameplay so that Oblivion actually feels like an RPG... I'm pretty much looking at the mods described on [url="http://amito.freehostia.com/Oblivion/OB-mods.htm"]this page[/url] as my basis. Thoughts?

And if there's anything else I should know, please tell me (though no content spoilers please).

Thanks for any info

I can only comment that Fransesca's was a great improvement to the game. I never played OOO so I don't know. The thing I noticed most about Fransesca's is: a lot of added content so there was more interesting gear and enemies, 2 more variation in encounters so that at each level your not facing the same 5 enemies and as the mod description states it makes some encounters quite hard (with a reward) and some easy (so every battle isn't epic), 3 it prevents you from leveling up every second and makes it easier to feel like you are powerful due to 12 skills up/level rather than 10. It also made certain elements more realistic like the economy. But of course could not fix the convo mini-game lol.

I hated the game without the mod and yet I played maybe 50 hours with it before I would always drift to another game (although thats true for me of every game including ones I enjoy like BG2).

I wanted to try OOO because I thought it would be different and also make it more like morrowind where there are placed (rather than level dependent) tough and easy opponents + loot.

Changing the number of skills needed to level up in Francescos is optional, and not worth bothering with IMO, I never had any problem leveling up 'too quickly' in Oblivion.

The ESP that adds higher level creatures should be used with caution, it's very unbalancing. Trying to fight your way through the Kvatch gate when you're third level, and getting jumped by Clanfears is no fun at all!

The great thing about Francescos as I've mentioned is that it's modular, there are eleven ESPs and three ESMs to mix and match to get the result you want.

There's the Francesco's base ESM, Leveled Creatures-Items Mod.esm plus two other ESMs:Francesco's Optional New Items Add-On.esm and Francesco's Optional New Creatures Add-On.esm. I use all three plus

Francesco's More Wilderness Life.esp, Francesco's Optional Chance of More Enemies.esp, Francesco's Optional Dungeon Chest Locks.esp, Francesco's Optional Dungeon Chest Loot.esp, Francesco's Optional House Chest Loot.esp, Francesco's Optional Leveled Quests.esp.

I tried Francesco's Optional Chance of Stronger Enemies.esp and Francesco's Optional Chance of Stronger Bosses.esp but as I already mentioned, too unbalanced, especially early in the game. Worth adding later when you are starting to find the game too easy.

Word of warning, if you opt for a mage character the game will be too easy from the start, in which case I would suggest using the last two mods.

OK, thanks guys
I took the suggestions for Fran's to heart, and I've also added:
Cyrodiil Transportation
BaB
Ethereal Eyes
some face retextures
Islet Cottage
Alchemist's Cave

I'll probably install more mods, but I'm going slow while I find my way. Initially I had quite a few more, like Tamriel Merchants, but my game would not load...so I reinstalled
Could have been the load order though... I have installed the Oblivion Mod Manager, so at least now I can adjust the order.

I'm not sure what to think so far, though I haven't done too much, just made it to Cheydinhal.

I think I actually preferred the faces (modded) in Morrowind... Oblivion's seem to have an odd cartoony look to them... even with a couple of mods installed.
Gameplay-wise... maybe I'm just not used to it yet, but I find the inventory and interface a bit clunky..
I don't care for the hand-holding either (with regard to the map/quests etc.), but getting rid of those features seems a bit challenging.. *sigh* In my case, probably just a technical learning curve.

The graphics are indeed pretty... not sure if they are as immersive as those in a fully-textured Morrowind though....

Uhm... and this is *really* embarrassing.. but I missed the hand-holding part about spell-casting.. .. er.. what the hell do I do? I tried going into my inventory and selecting a spell, but after that I got lost
EDIT - OK, scrap that, I figured out how to cast.. but wow... just hitting "C".. I'd have thought it would be more complex than that..

There are many mods that improve the inventory. Just search for "ui" (user interface) at PES.

I haven't really noticed much difference with the faces but it does take annoyingly longer than morrowind to make a decent one.