RG4's PC Modding Crisis Thread Options

[Renee]

Check it out, my very first post in a modding forum. Interestingly enough this forum happens to be rather slow. I can see some threads haven't been touched since summer or even earlier.

Enough with the small talk though. I am starting this thread because (let's face it) I am new to PC gaming and I'm going to need a LOT of help in the upcoming months and years. So this thread is a place to hopefully get all my answers questions, and questions answers. And of course if somebody else has questions they can ask 'em too.

I keep a 'modding file' on a Word Pad page located in one of my PC's folders, and I've been adding a lot of helpful random advice there, but one of my probs is sometimes I'll read something online in some thread, and then later I'll go to have a look at that thread, trying to remember what the solution is to a problem, but I can't find it anymore.

I'm somewhat of a PC dummy, but also a fast learner. I'm not sure if Beth's forums have a decent modding community; I'm sure it's great (and with a low rate of flaming), but I also can sometimes get too overwhelmed by Bethesda's official forums. I also know that Beth is packed with rude gamers, and I don't have time for that sort of nonsense.

Also, Why ask questions there when everybody I trust is already here, right?

I've been hearing about how great Wrye Bash is, so this is one of the very first things I think I'll mess with. I have also heard Nexus is better than Steam to get mods from, so I'm following that advice. When I go on Nexus and try to locate Wrye Bash, I find a page which has several different versions (?) attached to it.

Which one do I choose? I am assuming it's this one?

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Dec 22 2013, 01:49 PM

[SubRosa]

Hi Renee. You installed OBMM to the right place. The same place I did.

.esp is the file extension of the most mods for Elder Scrolls games. I believe it stands for Elder Scrolls Plugin. Where .esm stands for Elder Scrolls Master. You will only see a few of the .esm's. One for the vanilla game, and once in a while one from a mod.

An .esp is what you create when you use the Construction Set to make a mod. Say like one that changes the stats of an NPC, or puts a new house on the map, or changes how quickly magicka regenerates, etc... Some mods have more than just an .esp. Things like new meshes (.nif files), new textures (.dds files), sound effects, music, voices, and so on. Some mods don't even have an .esp. They are ones that simply replace vanilla files with new ones. Texture replacers for things like armor or clothing are common examples.

In any case, a .esp files gets copied to your Oblivion\Data folder. It will be the same folder your Oblivion.esm file is in. If all you have is an .esp, you do not need OBMM to install it. Just copy it over manually, open OBMM, and select the .esp file in the list to make it active.

It is when you have mods with extra files, like those new textures or meshes, that OBMM comes in really handy. Rather than manually copy the files to your Oblivion\Data folder, you have two options. I am sure every mod you download is going to come in a .zip, .rar, or .7z file. The first option is to extract the files to some temporary folder on your hard drive. I keep a folder called Temp off of the root of every hard drive for this sort of thing. Make sure the directory structure is kept intact, if whatever you are extracting with has an option for that.

Then open OBMM, and go down to the bottom and click on the Create button. That brings up a new Omod Creator window. Put in a name that you want to use for the .omod file. The same name as the mod is obviously a good idea. Version Number, Author, and that stuff you can leave blank unless you want to put it in. You can leave the compression rates at the defaults too. Though I always set them to the lowest or none. That takes up more space on my hard drive, but I have plenty to spare.

Now look in the middle of this window and click on Add Folder. A Browse For Folder window pops up. Use it to go to the folder you extracted your mod to. Make sure it is the same folder that the .esp file is in. This is the tricky part, since a lot of people who make mods bury the actual files in a few layers of folder names that are completely useless. Like NickAwesomeUberSword\Uber\Oblivion\Data\<the .esp file>. You just want to select that Data folder with the .esp in it. Click on OK, and wait for OBMM to do its thing. It will take you back to the previous window. From there you can add a description. This is a good idea, so you remember just what the heck Nick's Uber Sword actually does and where to find it. I usually just copy and paste the readme file from the mod. If it does not have one, I copy and paste the description page of the mod from the Nexus. When you are done, click on the red X in the upper right corner. It will ask you if you want to save your changes. Say Yes, and it takes you back to the new Omod Creator window. Now click on Create Omod at the lower right. It will take a few moments to do build the file. When it is done, a little window will pop up saying so.

What this does is take all of those loose files and packs them all together into a single archive. You will now see it in the big window pane on the right side of the program. To activate it, just double click. Or click once to select it, and then click on the Activate button at the bottom. What this does is automatically pull out all those loose files and copy them to your Oblivion folder and all the proper subfolders. It also makes the .esp that came with it active. Do the same to deactivate it. If you want to delete an .omod, make sure you Deactivate it first, then Delete. That makes sure all those files get cleaned up. The beauty of this is that you do not have to keep track of all those loose files. OBMM does it all for you.

The second option I mentioned to creating an .omod above is to skip extracting it to your hard drive. Instead in the Omod Creator window click on Add Archive, and then navigate to the .zip file you downloaded. This works so long as the mod author put all of their files in the right folders. But sometimes mods come with option files, which are stuck in extra folders that OBMM does not know what to do with. This method won't get those options working, and you have to manually extract the files first, and move around the ones you want to use into the correct folders. Because of that I almost always just extract my mods to a folder first, and make my omods from there.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 3 2014, 01:34 AM