Say, Look What I Found, Keeping up to date with mods for Oblivion Options

[Lena Wolf]

I think most people thought that bottled blood in its vanilla version was a missed opportunity. May be it was one of those things that Bethesda had bigger plans for but then had to abandon. Not surprising then that pretty much every vampire mod changes something about bottled blood...

PS. I decided to release that mod, imperfect as it is, so that others could have fun with it too. It works fine in my game, but I guarantee nothing!

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Sep 16 2021, 01:12 PM

[Renee]

I always wanted Holy Water in the game, since we had this in our table games, though Holy Water probably doesn't fit lore.

Anyway, good luck!

[Renee]

A Takes All -- Haven't tried this yet but later I will. Wonder if there's a Morrowind version...

[Renee]

Personality Idles 4. This mod promises to add something I've always wanted in Oblivion, without even knowing that a plug-in exists. Personality Idles is not a Pose mod (like Actors In Charge), instead, it promises to automatically add idle reactions to our player characters, such as yawning, clapping when appropriate, shivering if our character is in a cold area, and so on. And these animations work in real-time instead of via menus. Apparently they work if we're in 3rd person, and haven't moved our character in 15 seconds or so. Cool. Sort of like Sims, actually.

(Sorry if y'all already know about this one! I just discovered it.)

I keep saying the word "promise" because I haven't used PI4 yet, and I expect it'll be somewhat buggy. I don't care though, it's just going to be rad seeing my characters making their own idle animations, without me delving into a bunch of menus, as per Actor's Ball.

There is also Personality Idles, which is from 2007 and therefore older than PI4. Sometimes the older mods are more to my taste, though. Or they work better, somehow. Anyway, I'll be updating here to let you all know how these mods work.

Edit: since both of these include animations for lying down in bed, maybe See You Sleep might no longer be needed. Or it'll get mixed in when I use Wrye Bash or something.

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 28 2021, 06:12 PM

[macole]

Looking forward to your assessment on this mod.

In a previous game 2010-2013 I used this mod with the nopc.esp, no player idles just Npc idles. Since I primarily play in 1st person it worked well for me at the time. It seemed natural to me since I was the one who stood at the edge of the bandstage watching everyone else have good time. Don't do that anymore.

Don’t know why I didn’t include it this time. Probably has to do with conflicting with other animation mods I’ve installed.

This post has been edited by macole: Sep 28 2021, 06:26 PM

[Lena Wolf]

It sounded really nice, so I tried it... Sorry, but Lena does not stand like that. And neither do Garrus or Hauk. Very disappointing, really.

[mALX]

I have used all the Personality Idles versions including the 4. They all worked really well and added a whole lot of immersion to the game = but any mods like these need to be as much on the bottom of the load order as possible (just like "See You Sleep" did) in order to minimize conflicts or glitches in the mod's function.

[Renee]

Lena: It's okay, no apology necessary. In fact I am noting that the default idle for females is some sort of 'sexy pose', and that might only work for some really specific characters, none of whom I roll with currently. So maybe I can axe that somehow. Maybe if I ever play a vixen or prostitute they would work. But it's unlikely I'm going to roll anybody like that, or anybody new for that matter.


mALX & macole, thanks for your assessments. I can't wait to mess around with Personality Idles.

[Lena Wolf]

There are several idles you can choose from for your own character, and none is neutral. Well, they don't fit Lena. The vanilla default is better.

Another thing is that it adds idles to NPCs, and there you can't choose what it picks. And... I didn't like it.

[Renee]

Another thing is that it adds idles to NPCs, and there you can't choose what it picks. And... I didn't like it.

Not if you choose the PC only version.

[Lena Wolf]

Continuing with immersion here is a mod I've been using for a while, it is quite new: Radiant AI - NPCs Alive - Cyrodiil - Beta. You suddenly see a lot more people around without adding new NPCs (which you can still do, for even larger crowds).

[Renee]

Awesome, that does look really fun, Lena.

Personality Idles won't work...not enough options. By default ladies, go into a 'sexy pose', which won't work for Saga's game. Maybe Renee Gade's game (she's supposed to be sort of saucy). But overall the mod hasn't got as much. I'll try the more recent version of PI.

[Lena Wolf]

So you've defeated Mehrunes Dagon and think yourself a Champion... Try this!

[macole]

So you've defeated Mehrunes Dagon and think yourself a Champion... Try this!

Terrifying.

I came close at least once

or

twice.

[Lena Wolf]

Whoa!! Look at that winged one...

I do hope those pants are enchanted, because otherwise the girl in the second picture is going to have a very bruised bum...

[Lena Wolf]

Another mod for those who find Oblivion too easy: Carnivorous plants.

[Renee]

Yikes, those things look scary. That would be fun to lure some baddies into one of those!

[SubRosa]

Do they say: "Feed Me! I'm hungry!"?

In a nice piece of synchronicity MonsterTalk just dropped an episode on Carnivorous Plants

[Lena Wolf]

Here's something I found today: Super's Oblivion Overhaul. It's different. From the description:

Oblivion is, in a sense, no longer an RPG. You don't level up and your stuck at level 1. ... Your skills are pre-determined are not really important to pay attention to. ... Attributes start at 50 and almost never change unless damaged of buffed with magic. ... Every race / gender has the same attributes and skills. The only difference is 1 passive race ability. This ensures that you are picking a race that you like as opposed to the race that is most likely to result in the strongest possible character. Similarly, classes still exist simply to aid in role playing your character; they have no effect on gameplay.

The difficulty of the game is considerably higher (think Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul). The health values are balanced so that every individual fight is a fight to the death. The ability to cheat death by saving and reloading constantly is now a requirement rather than an exploit. There is no difficulty slider.

It is what the author says: Oblivion is no more.

How do you people feel about this?

[Renee]

It is what the author says: Oblivion is no more.

How do you people feel about this?

So the mod-author says he or she has changed Oblivion so that it's no longer an RPG? I didn't read the entire page, but that seems to be the gist of what the mod author is saying, going by the part you quoted.

The way Oblivion levels upwards (esp into the teens / 20s) is very jarring and abrupt. A lot of folks had problems with it, including me. So that is what a lot of the overhaul mods attempt to change.

But none of this has any bearing on Oblivion being an RPG. In my opinion. When we play a role in a role-playing game, we play a role. That is the focus of the game, our ability to play that role, to me that is what an RPG actually is. All the other stuff (skills / leveling ... and so on) have little do with whether the game is an RPG or not. Leveling progression, the building of Attributes, the progression of skills, those are RPG elements for sure, since they are put into place so we can see our characters grow stronger or weaker with time. But they don't determine what category of game Oblivion is, IMO.

So I won't be installing this one. I like the idea of character leveling. I like seeing my character grow stronger over time. This mod sounds like it gives up the ability to level upwards while sleeping, which is something I enjoy.

I also am noticing toward the end where he or she says something about needing to reload a lot. For gamers who need a lot of challenge this is fine, but I'll pass. I use realism mods (food, drink, sleep, etc.) to make my game more complex, I don't need to see every fight go on and on 'til my Xbox controller's worn out again.

Am I off base? If so, how far?

This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 2 2021, 09:55 PM