Reinstalling Oblivion... Want Mods...

[Zovc]

I'm reinstalling oblivion tonight, what addons should I install?

It'd definitely be nice to imrpove the game's graphics--my desktop should be able to handle the game on the highest settings.

What are some good graphics improvement mods? Both Characters (and Items) and Environments.

As far as gameplay, feel free to suggest anything, I don't particularly dislike anything about Oblivion, but I do really enjoy enchanting items and using alchemy (for poisons and potions). I've had a lot of fun running around with a weapon that does 0 damage enchanted with paralysis. It's so fun to paralyse NPCs to watch them ragdoll.

I remember there being "alternate starting point" mods, some of which give you ingame options. It'd be cool if I could get one that includes the actual game's starting point, if at all possible.

[SilentDragoon]

Probably the first mod I'd recommend is something to fix the leveling system. I use Kobu's Character Advancement System, but there are many decent to good fixes out there. Harvest Flora is incredibly useful for what it does, and I use a combination of Max Tael's Natural Environments stuff with a recolor someone else did to help fix the environment. Really, just poke around at planetelderscrolls or TES Nexus for mods with >9.25 rating for the first and >5000 downloads for the second.

Edit: It goes without saying to download patches/SI before anything else. Also you might want to check out the Unofficial patch on one of the two sites.

[Eldan]

I could post you the long list of mods I have...

But basically:
This lists 100 pretty good mods... (http://www.n4g.com/gaming/News-372376.aspx)

Then there's the Nexus' Top 100:
Top 100 (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/top/alltime.php)

Just go through these two lists and get what sounds good.
Make sure to get the mod manager and unofficial patches. Best start with them before you download other patches.

Other mods I like:
The unique landscape series (Just search the nexus for "Unique Landscapes"):
Changes a lot of the generic parts of the map by adding more trees, terrain features and so on. The game looks beautiful with them. Make sure to download compatibility patches which are linked with the mods.

Natural X, where X is: Habitats, Water, Weather, Vegetation: adds birds, insects, better water and weather effects. Makes a difference, really.

Smaller graphic mods:
Real Lava: changes the colour of Lava

Dark Green Glass Armour: changes glass armor from a bright green to a darker one, like it was in Morrowind. Small fix, but just looks better.

Book Jackets: Gives every book in a game a high-res cover, including the name of the book and sometimes a picture. Looks nice in a bookshelf.

Now, I'm too lazy to actually link you to all of them :smallwink:, but they are all on the nexus.

[SilentDragoon]

The Natural X is lumped together in the Natural Environments mod I mentioned.
I've never tried the Unique landscapes mods, because I get scared away by the fact that it seems like most of them have conflicts with each other. The conflicts can be resolved, but parsing through each and every one to make sure they play nice with each other is just too much of a headache. Did they ever make a compilation or grouping of all of them?

[Eldan]

Not that I know. They also tend to interfere with some other mods... like when I got Lost Spires, I had to turn one ofthem off, despite the compatibility patch, since apparently the ground on some hill was about a meter higher, blocking thenetrance to a cave added by Lost Spires.

[13_CBS]

For a whole new Oblivion experience, try Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. Installing is slightly tricky, but once you do it you get some really cool stuff included in the game. It does up the difficulty factor by quite a bit, though.

[Triaxx]

This is my preferred glass re-tex: Kalikut's Retex (http://kalikut.silgrad.com/ob_mods1.html)

[Green Bean]

Any mods out there with decent two-piece outfits? I don't want to give up an enchantable armour slot for a robe, and the vanilla outfits are getting a little boring for me.

[Triaxx]

None that I've seen, but by definition, outfits are two or more slot items.

[Green Bean]

I meant outfits in the colloquial sense, not as a game term. Hmm, maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. Is there a mod that lets you double-enchant robes?

[Eldan]

There's a cloak mod, that might help. I think they are enchantable too.

[Triaxx]

h_v: Then you'll have to hunt down the individual pieces of clothing that match, since you can only add one enchantment.

Eldan: True, but IIRC, it takes up a ring slot.

[Eldan]

Right. Wasn't there a mod too that allowed you to equip as much stuff as you wanted, effectively eliminating slot limitations?

[Zovc]

I enjoy Oblivion a lot more now, having a computer that can run the game well. I have all the settings up (I'm using 8x Antialiasing and Bloom instead of HDR, I haven't tried HDR), and keep a smooth framerate. In spite of how well the game is running, I'm a little disappointed with some things.

The leveling system is a little broken, I think. It rewards me for being "cheap" by continuously casting Fortify Fatigue, Protect, and Detect Life... What alternate leveling systems are there? Oblivion's built-in leveling system encourages players to put easy skills as their primary skills, then level up once they've gotten five levels in skills for each attribute. In other words, in case you don't know (and do care), each time you raise a skill, you get a point towards it's associated attribute; this holds true for major and minor skills. Increasing minor skills only gives you points to attributes, once you raise ten major skills, you level up. The most points you can stock up on for a skill is 5, and it is most beneficial to do so. When you level up, you select three attributes to raise. This means, if you only raised major attributes and leveled up as soon as you could, you can't 'fully' raise three attributes. Is there a mod that simply lets me choose what attributes I want to raise by 5?

I installed Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul 1.33, and I really like the amped difficulty, but it did do weird things to the game's economy. Some magic items I see in stores sell for nearly 50,000 gold at roughly 250-225%, but the ones I've sold were only worth almost 500 as a base, and I can only sell things for about 20-40%. The mod's randomisation of stores led me to being able to obtain a Dwemer Longsword at level 1. If I'm not mistaken, that's one of the best (unenchanted) one-handed swords in the game. There's also a Dwemer 2H Axe (or something to that effect), but I don't use 'blunt weapons.'