Basics of Oblivion Modding

I'm downloading right now, so I figured I'd make the promised post on Oblivion modding basics. Keep in mind, this is how to install them not design them. I really have no interest in designing them, so you'll need to go elsewhere for that.

There's three essential tools for using mods: Oblivion Scripting Extension (OBSE), Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) and Wrye Bash.

OBSE - Oblivion Scripting Extension basically lets mods do more. A lot of them don't use it at all, but a good percentage of them do. You want to install this even if you don't have any mods right now that use it. You eventually will get one that does. A very few mods are OBSE optional; they have more functionality with OBSE than without, but you can get by without. Link: http://obse.silverlock.org/

OBMM - Oblivion Mod Manager is my most used tool. It lets you install mods via OMOD (think of it like an automated mod installer), lets you rearrange loading order, do archive invalidation, and a lot more. Generally, when I install a non-OMOD mod, I copy everything into the correct directories, then fire up OBMM and activate ("check") them all. OMOD files are even easier: double click the OMOD and it'll load into OBMM automatically. Highlight it and click the "activate" button. OBMM will copy everything to the correct directory for you and sometimes even activate the mod for you. Archive invalidation is good for things like Qarl's, as they won't work without archive invalidation. Link: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097

Wrye Bash - Mostly the same functionality as OBMM. Instead of OMOD, it uses BAIN packages. (Same general concept, though.) The thing that makes Wrye Bash so useful is it can create bash patches. These are useful for getting mods to work together, but they need a bit of explanation. Perhaps in another post I'll talk about those. Generally, I only use Wrye Bash when I need to work with bash patches. Link: The Wrye Bash website seems down ATM. I'll get a link as soon as I can.

Not essential, but extremely useful, is BOSS. (Better Oblivion Sorting Software) BOSS automatically sets your load order. Believe me, load order is IMPORTANT. Put your mods in a random order and then try to play Oblivion. Unless you're the luckiest person around, you'll be getting crashes and weird behavior aplenty. BOSS will sort everything out and sometimes can warn you of conflicting mods. It won't always catch conflicts, but it sometimes does. (For instance, it missed when I accidentally had Robert's Female Body Replacer and Eve HGEC active at the same time, but it caught an MMM mod that conflicted with OOO.) Link: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20516

The basic idea of most mods is to copy them into your Oblivion data directory. On Vista/7 it's usually something like "c:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data", XP would be fairly similar: "c:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data". Just a note: Be careful, as most mod documentation gives you the old XP file structure. There IS a c:\Program Files on Vista/7, but that's only for 64 bit programs, which Oblivion isn't. I'm not sure how it'd work on 32 bit Vista or 7. I'd imagine it's just c:\Program Files ... If anyone knows for sure, please inform me.

Once they're in the data directory, activate the files through OBMM, Wrye Bash or the Oblivion launcher itself. Most documentation says "check" the files. This means put a tick in the box next to the file name. I prefer the term activate, though.

Most mods come with either an .ESP or .ESM file, sometimes both. READ THE DOCUMENTATION. It'll tell you what to install. Sometimes they come with multiple.ESP/.ESM files and you're only supposed to use certain ones, depending on what you want the mod to do. So far, I've only ever come across one mod that didn't have installation instructions (Origins of the Mage Guild.) Once you have everything activated and sorted via BOSS, you're good to go.

If you have a crash on startup, go into OBMM and deactivate every mod. Activate a single mod, load Oblivion. If it works, exit out and activate a second mod. Load Oblivion, see if it works. Repeat this until you find the one making it crash. How to proceed from there depends on the problem. Is the mod installed correctly? If so, is it conflicting with something else? Check the documentation as the best mod makers will tell you if it's likely to be incompatible with anything else or if it's known to be. A lot of mod makers don't bother to include that (if they even know), but the best will include it. If the mod is conflicting with something else, there may be a compatibility patch out there to make it work with the conflicting mod.

If textures didn't work, make sure you performed Archive Invalidation (or used the Archive Invalidation Invalidated! mod.) If it still doesn't work after that, you may have installed it incorrectly. Check the installation. This is when OMODs come in useful. For instance, if you used Qarl's via OMOD, you could just deactivate the mod through OBMM. If you installed manually, you have to go through every single file (and Qarl's is 2 gigs) and delete them manually. Do you really want to spend 3 hours doing that? Honestly, it'd probably be faster to uninstall and reinstall Oblivion and then reinstall the mod.

That's all for now! Next post will be either Correctly Installing Better Cities or increasing Oblivion performance. Not sure which yet.

Happy playing!