The Popehat Forum

So let's do a show!

See the other Oblivion thread in this forum towards the bottom of page 3. I'd like to do a big compilation of mods collected in modular format that can each be installed with a double click. The entire collection would work brilliantly together, but would also function if people wanted to pick and choose stuff as well.

The idea is to make Oblivion look more kick-ass, and to fix a few things without upsetting the game balance or messing up the quests or anything else. I'd like for things to be fairly class un-specific, if possible, too.

The Project would assume for either the GOTY edition of Oblivion, or at least an Oblvion where the expansions are installed.

I'll organize things into folders with a job order on them. The first folder will be necessary utilities: OBMM, OBSE, and Wrye Bash, and then the unofficial patches. The remaining folders will do the other stuff.

Want to be a part of it? Great!

First we need a mod list. It doesn't need to be totally comprehensive, but it should have the biggies. Rob Morton's loadout is a great place to start, to be honest, and Duane has some great stuff on his list as well. The mod discussion will be first up.

Once we settle on a mod list, we'll need folks to convert current versions of them to OMOD format.

Then we'll start making trial versions of the Project. I'll host "beta" versions for people here to try out. If can get a preponderance of a group of us getting everything on our mod list installed and activated and running smoothly, then we can call it final and share with our friends elsewhere on other forums like GT and Qt3.

First up: Mod list discussion. Go!

A few starters:

QTP Redimized (smaller than full-on Qarl's, runs smoother, no need for qtp3 patch or parallaxed texture pack)
Francesco's suite
Reneer's Guard Overhaul
Kobu (as an option for those that want it)
The XUL mods suggested by Duane
TNR All races
Illumination Within Revisited Suite
Illumination within/without (as an option for folks with older CPU's)
Harvest containers
Harvest Flora

Brilliant acronym.

I almost went for Popehat Oblivion Overhaul, but discretion being the better part of valor and all...

Here is QTP Redimized and Further Reduced as an OMOD: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15399
This has a menu for choosing options you want to install. There are three additional levels of reduction for those with lower memory video cards.

I have pretty much all of the mods you listed OMODed BUT I don't have any of the expansions so if there were options for say, Shivering Isles, I didn't include it. I can certainly recreate any though.

If we're really serious about this I'd be willing to try adding scripting to OMODs. With scripting the OMOD could give you the option to install either a GOTY or vanilla Oblivion version of the mod. We could pack all the XUL mods into one OMOD and have a menu to selectively install the ones you want. I'd have to look into it some more as I don't know what limitations there are to it.

That's a great idea, Brian. XUL Unique Landscapes, Tamriel's NPC's Revamped, and the Real Swords collection (assuming that one is deemed fit for the collection) all have multiple parts that would really benefit from being packed together. Having a little installer that let you pick and choose what you wanted would be great. Even without, it would be helpful to have one OMOD that installed all the esp's. We could even include Imperial Isle, Fallenleaf Everglade, and the Beaches of Cyrodiil in the XUL pack in case people wanted those.

As Brian said in the other thread, if we're going to do it properly, we should definitely make sure the OMOD attributes are properly labeled with author names and descriptions and stuff. Few of mine are, but I think it's just a matter of highlighting the mod, selecting EDIT, then filling in the appropriate data fields.

POMP!

I only played Oblivion on the 360 but if you folks pull this off I will be buying the PC version so I can play it. The 3 page thread already had me thinking about it but this would just be perfect.

Thanks for the hard work

I submit that it's not too late to change it to the Popehat Oblivion Omod Project.

Those are all definites. But yeah, Kobu's should maybe go in an "optional" folder.

A few more nominees:

Enhanced Water 2.0
Slof's Horses
Real Lava (I think I noticed Brian had a different lava texture mod. We should discuss and use whichever one is best.)
Dark UI'ed Darnified
Quest Award Leveler (I'm not entirely sure what changes this makes under the hood... we should discuss.)
Fine Weapons
Rusty Items
VA's Better Gold
Book Jackets
Better Letters
Leviathan Soulgems
Visually Enchanted

What about Deadly Reflexes?

And we should include either Atmospheric Weather Systems or Natural Weather. I'm not sure I have a clear favorite, though I've been playing with AWS. Maybe I'll swap it out for Max Tael's Natural esp's and compare again.

Would we include any quest mods like Lost Spires or Kvatch Rebuilt? Or is that outside the scope of the POO POOP POMP? They could go in an optional folder for those who want them. The only one I've played is Let the People drink which has a trifle of a quest but the result/reward is outstanding.

Of course you'll have to give a sentence or two explaining what all these various mods do.

I have Oblivion and the two expansions, but still haven't played it. I've been waiting for a system upgrade.

For this reason, I'm grateful to those of you who have blazed this particular trail. When I finally have the opportunity to play, I'll be able to set the game up with an array of enhancements that tweak but conserve the core look, feel, and gameplay. And I'll get to do this with a minimum of confusion on account of the work that has gone on in these threads.

Thanks! It's a great service, especially to those of us caught in the backlog!

For handling load order, the latest Wrye Bash has something called BALO (Bash Auto Load Ordering I think). Mods are assigned to groups (overhauls, tweaks, quests, weapons, etc.) and are then re-sorted based on their group assignment. I'm using it now and it seems to work well.

You can read up on it here: http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Wrye%20Bash.html#Balo.

There are two ways Bash can auto assign mods to groups, a tag in the .esp's description or from a database (text list really) in csv format. BALO is a new feature so it doesn't have much support in place right now, we would have to provide our own at least at the start. Description tags look like they might be the most time consuming to maintain so I'm not sure we want to get involved with that. The database format seems easier to deal with. The one that comes with Bash is pretty limited at this time, Wrye put some things in it as a starting point but he's expecting the Oblivion community to take over and maintain it. We could manage our own database for our approved mods initially, then if the community does take on the task and create a well maintained list of mods we can defer to that.

I, too, am fully prepared to leech.

Perfect.

I've started compiling and even putting OMOD mods into organized folders from my end, starting with the QTP3 Redimized OMOD that BHBZ linked to earlier.

RunningBrian has some interesting looking mods in his loadout that I haven't seen before, and I'm going to be playing around with 'em over the next few days. If they make the game look more beautiful, they're in.

Optional quests should be a folder inside POOP. We need to be careful, but stuff like Kvatch Rebuilt and Glenvar Castle and Lost Spires and Let The People Drink seem to add a lot to the game without breaking anything. Since these files tend to be larger, we might want to think about POOP for everything but optional quests, and a separate POOP Optional Quests .zip file as an adjunct download for those interested.

I think deadly reflexes is absolutely worth putting in. Makes combat much more...involved? Interactive? Fun?

So how about some structure here.

In a day or two I'll start listing the mods that are officially in. I'll also list mods open for yea or nay. I'm working a 10-day week, so that's all I'm really up for until a week from Saturday--getting this organized...although, mods that are definitely in, we can at least start making into omods.

By Friday, let's have a final list: Mods, a few optionals, and then a list of solid optional quests.

That weekend, anything un-omodded, we could sure use some help omodding.

Hopefully shortly after that, we have everything in folders, ready to be zipped, hopefully under 10gb.

At that point: we play. conflicts, ripping, screwy stuff, everything. Not looking for a full on QA playtest, but if four or five of us could get 3-5 hours in on the mod builds at least and dork around with the optional quests a bit, that'd be awesome.

And then it's done.

Sounds good. I await your command.

I'm just letting you know, if we come out with multiple downloads for different flavors of POOP, we are going to be referring to them as Dumps.

Still exhausted, but a few things I like from Brian's list:

1. Better Letters (that might have been on Rob's too)
2. Better Signs
3. Better Doors & Flora

I'm not sold on any of the other "Better >>>>>" mods, nor am I sold on Beautiful Stars or any of the sky mods I've seen, mostly because I think Natural Weather and AWS and QTP3 do what they set out to do in just as well.

So, starting with texture/graphics mods:

1. QTP3 Redimized*
2. AWS
3. Natural Weather suite*
4. Illuminated Within Revisited*
5. Real Swords suite
6. Better Gold
7. Visually Enchanted suite
8. Book Jackets
9. Enhanced Water (which has a couple of flavors depending on your hardware and preferences)
10.XUL mods, but only those that Duane approved for not containing game-breaking content.*
11.Better Signs
12.Better Doors & Flora
13.Fine Weapons
14.Rusty Items
15.


Leveling/XP/Game mechanic mods:
1. Full Francesco (Leveled creatures and Optional New Creatures and Items)
2. Quest Award Levelers for the game and any DLC's
3. Kobu as an option

General Game stuff:
1. Realistic Force
2. Deadly Reflex
3. Denock Arrows
4. Reneer's Guard Overhaul*
5. Harder Repairs
6. Durable Equipment
7. Streamline
8. Slof's Horses
9. Harvest Containers/Flora*
10.DarNified UI suite*
11.Dude Where's My Horse*

Utilities:
1. OBMM
2. OBSE
3. Wrye Bash

New Game Content:
1. Kvatch Rebuilt*
2. Glenvar Castle
3. Lost Spires*
4. Let The People Drink*

Unofficial Patches:
1. All unofficial patches for the game, expansions, and DLC.

* =mods that I know are already in OMOD format for ease of use

What am I missing/leaving out/favorite mod I skipped?

Looks good so far.

One suggestion... I remember Duane saying that Natural Weather and Atmospheric Weather Systems do the same thing... if that's the case, we should choose one or the other.

Add TNR-All Races Final to the list, btw.

I like Max Tael's Natural Environments suite a lot, but can be talked out of it.

If this wasn't included, I wouldn't even bother. NE is a must have mod.

I don't use the Natural Water though, I use Enhanced Water HD or whatever instead.

Seeing as I just upgraded to a computer than can finally run Oblivion respectably and immediately purchased all the PC games I've wanted to play over the past 3 years but couldn't run (including the Oblivion GOTY edition), let me add my thanks for those responsible for POOP.

I won't be much (scratch that) any help getting it all together (these Oblivion threads read like another language to me), but I'm happy to serve as a guinea pig once you get the package together.

I just loaded up the Natural Environments mods (all except water) and you guys are right. Very handsome. I think we should go with that over AWS.

I'll take a look at what I have installed when I get home. I followed Blackhawk Morrowind folder structure when I was downloading the mods which was very helpful. Deadly Relexes is very cool but I'd make it optional since it changes the combat system.

Oh I found this site very helpful when I was trying to find mods.

http://www.oblivionmodwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

I would be glad to help playtest this noble effort. Who knew the Hat could be used for good as well as evil?

How important is it to have Knights of the Nine? Shivering Isles looks interesting enough that I'm tempted to pick it up and restart Oblivion with a bunch of mods. But Knights of the Nine looks dull and getting it as well pushes the whole idea back into full priced game territory.

I played through the both expansions on the 360 because my computer was crappy. I'm not intending to buy them again. That being said here are a couple of mods I have installed.

Deadlier Traps (Name says it all)
Attack and Hide (Gets rid of the guards spotting you from 9 miles away)
Clocks of Cyrodill (I think Mort already mentioned this one)
Dark Alters (I think Blackhawk made this one)
Slof's Horses
Darker Dungeons

I don't think Knights particularly adds a ton of content...

...but now the expansions are so cheap, or the GOTY is so ubiquitous that I've decided to make that the main aim. A lot of the stuff I'll be including works with the expansions, but even so should work fine without them.

Huh. I must be looking in the wrong places for the expansions - they were still full price everywhere I looked. Maybe I'll troll the GT trade forum.

I never see Knights of The Nine for sale anymore. Isle is one long expansion pack. I think it took me like 40 hours to beat and I didn't wander around at all. Maybe I'll troll around and see if I can find it. I have to nuke my Oblivion install because I borked it somehow. When I load the game I get like 8 billion creatures attacking me and I can't figure out which mod broke it.

Just a heads-up--I am finally getting to the end of perhaps the most challenging time I've ever had at work. Forget Christmas season, forget new menu rollouts...this has taken the cake. Our marketing department direct-mailed some pretty enticing coupons to 5,000 addresses in our area and the redemption rate on them has been astonishing, like 25%. The last two weeks we went from $75k in net sales per week to $110k in net sales per week. In other words, I've been working my ass off. Didn't help that the guy who is supposed to be our general manager took the week off and scheduled me 11 straight days, and that the company vice president who is in charge of our fine dining division has been in town since Monday...

....so yeah, my days have been 12 hours at work, come home to shower and sleep, and then back to work. That should end on Saturday (day 11), which is when I re-read this thread, lock the number of mods, and start begging for OMOD versions of the mods here. Any help those of you who feel skilled with OBMM can give would be greatly appreciated.

For now, back to the trenches.

Damn, that sucks. Just get some magic markers, construction paper, and a stapler and make your own coupon book. "I CAN REDEEM THIS COUPON TO MY BOSS FOR ONE (1) DAY OFF ANY TIME I WANT TO PLAY OBLIVION ALL DAY INSTEAD." You're welcome.

I'd also vote for that mod being optional, if anyone cares what the useless non-helpful crowd thinks.

Ok.

I made a whole lotta OMODS today. Actually, I made OMODS of everything I'm considering putting in.

Whew.

I've also tested a whole bunch of them. Like for instance, our whole Natural Environments vs. AWS thing? Yeah, you *do* want both, it turns out. NE gets almost everything right...except two things: water and weather. AWS does a much prettier storm, and Enhanced Water does better water (IMO). All of them in.

Now then, here's the help wanted sign: I need folks who understand scripting on OMODS, if anyone can help. There are a few mods that will need some sort of installation script. A few to start with:

1. Book Jackets. Ugh. This is the crankiest mod of them all, it just doesn't play well with others. Need someone to put up the various prompts so it only installs one flavor of itself.

2. Reneer's Guard overhaul. Need a script to prompt for both Oblivion and SI flavors.

3. Realistic Ragdolls And Force. Need a script to prompt for user's choice of what flavor on this.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Cool! Nice work.

So you have AWS and NE running at the same time? I guess I'll try that out but I'm surprised that doesn't cause problems, or that one doesn't completely supercede the other.

Wish I could help but I have no clue how to do any of that scripting. Brian_HBZ? You out there?

Here.

I'll take a stab at doing these tonight. It'll be the first time scripting for me but it looks straightforward enough.

I assume that he is not running Natural Weather or Natural Water, but is running the other two NE mods, plus Enhanced Water, plus AWS. Shouldn't be any conflicts if that's how it's being done.

Yep, Natural Habitat and Natural Vegetation, with AWS and Enhanced Water.