New Oblivion Player, what to grab for mods?

[Kelinas]

Basicly title. I don't mind grabbing a few naughty mods, but for now I'm curious about what are the most suggested mods in general, as I got no idea what I should be doing or grabbing (technically that counts ingame as well but I'm getting there on that one ^^; )

[Poontank]

If I was to recommend two essential mods that add lots of interesting content and helpful things, these two I'm using for more than one year:

'The Lost Spires' - A questline that has not much to do with classic 'Elder Scrolls' lore, the mod puts you into the role of an enforcer for a completely new guild and makes you explore unique dungeons and unravel long-forgotten mysteries. A hidden threat is rising in the shadows, and in the end it's only you to save Nirn from monstrous doom compared to which the Oblivion crisis was only a walk in the park...

/>http://www.lostspires.com/pages/downloads.htm

Depending on what other mods you will install, you might need to grab a patch from here: http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/12997

And then there is naturally the definite magic mod by the great Xilver: http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/9562/

'Midas Magic' adds its own magic system independent from vanilla Oblivion's, expanding sorcery with countless new and quite useful effects. New and funny summons, powerful visually attractive offensive magic, helpful support spells. And those spells aren't just bought from some random mage but you have to actually work for them by completing quests that will take you to rather exotic locations.

Also worth mentioning: http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/19140

Sam Lake's wonderful collectible cards mod. It features a moderately-sized questline, but the real joy of having the mod installed is the very addictive collecting. Treasure chest loot and the inventory of hostile characters is modified to give you those cards (besides the usual stuff). Getting all the cards is a Gargantuan endeavour... Even more than one year after installing it I'm still missing out on a few. Some rare cards are also scattered out in the open all over the game world, so you can be sure of many surprise findings in your travels.

[Symon]

I'd reccomend Integration:The stranded Light for scanarios.

My preference is Supreme Magic and/or LAME for magic. You can use either or both.

I honestly think that though The Lost Spires is well done, it's flaws detract from it. The continuous 'you know nothing about the Ayleids' grated when I'd finished The Ayleid steps. They could have checked if I'd completed the Vanilla Ayyleid questline and modified things somewhat. The assumption that you can't teleport also made me smile. Naturally I did. (grin).

As for Midas, I'd say it is nowhere near as good as SM and LAME, especially in combination. Some find it a bit silly, so it might not be to yout taste.

[Iris86]

first... the unofficial oblivion patches... (you don't wanna end up with dead npcs you need for quests due to their poorly made traveling packages), next, the expansions (shivering isles, knights of the nine, etc), and now for neat quests, the underdark... also install vilja for a nice companion on your OBSCENNELY LONG adventure, add hentaimania 1 & 2 for added difficulty (and a nice quest line), next if you feel like it... sexy mods (sexy maid of chorrol, claudia little secret of course, and some loverswithpk mods, you can get the full package all included here, watch the load order tough), oh yeah, and avoid Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul at all costs, you might like the added difficulty but that mod adds way too much of it... it also adds a lot of useless armor so avoid it, unless you wanna murder a From2chlives character to get decent armor, i went to murder a guild porter just to get steel, that's how wrong it is... so welcome to the wonderful world of modding, have fun

[gregathit]

And here I won't play the game with having OOO installed. It just goes to show you that everyone's tastes are different.

[Kelinas]

So I tracked down all the various unofficial patches (Oblivion, Shivering Isle, and the other DLCs) earlier, but then I saw someone mention 'Build Order'. Eh? I'm guessing that means the order ya install the mods in, however I'm not sure how that can have a major effect unless uncompatable mods

Also found a tempting UI mod, anyone able to vouch for it? http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/10763

[Symon]

Works a treat. Use that UI myself. The Beth UI is to be avoided at all costs.

[Kashiwaba Tomoe]

The Beth UI is to be avoided at all costs.

Also keep in mind, this applies to ALL bethesda games, as they're too fucking cheap to bother to dev a game for PC, they just port from console.

[Kelinas]

When it mentions 'OBSE' in the mod description, is that referring to Shivering Isle, or a specific mod in particular?

[Poontank]

My main reasons for liking and using 'Midas Magic':

- 'Midas Astral Mark/Astral Recall'

- 'Summon Midas Avatar' (11 500 barter gold...)

- 'Midas Oblivion Portal' - all the random gates in the world are already closed, boohoo, wanna go back there!

- 'Midas Consume Flesh/Consume Soul' (be sure to put on the Grey Cowl Of Nocturnal before using these spells!)

- 'Midas Nuclear Blast'

The other spells I actually don't care much about. Sure, there is a lot of silly stuff in there, but I just love silly. Cheese Atronach?!!

OBSE, the 'Oblivion Script Extender', is not a mod per se but an important component that makes a lot of advanced mods functional in the first place because it "...expands the scripting capabilities of Oblivion". You will definitely need to have it installed.

The latest version is 0021, but 0020 is the one guaranteed to work with any current mod that requires the OBSE system.

[gregathit]

So I tracked down all the various unofficial patches (Oblivion' date=' Shivering Isle, and the other DLCs) earlier, but then I saw someone mention 'Build Order'. Eh? I'm guessing that means the order ya install the mods in, however I'm not sure how that can have a major effect unless uncompatable mods

Also found a tempting UI mod, anyone able to vouch for it? http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/10763

[/quote']

I actually recommend using a newer version of that UI called DarkUid DarN: http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11280

It is very stable and adds a little flavor to the UI.