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

[tegeus-Cromis]

Here's the weird thing. This Elder Council mod was originally a Giskard creation. The mod in that link is an earlier version of Giskard's mod, so I went to The Engineering Guild's website to get the latest version. But apparently, he no longer offers ANY of his mods to the public (according to his blog). It's so weird. He seems like such a brilliant guy, but very negative, and paranoid, and even offensive. I don't entirely get it.

Careful not to mention the G-name on the Beth forums, can be enough to get a thread locked, he's usually known as He Who Shall Not Be Named. He's banned there and on Nexus. It's all before my time, but I did end up reading a lot of the sorry saga surrounding this with fascinated horror - and it's still hard to comprehend. Anyway, no clogging up this thread - but there's a (very long) account of the shenanigans here, which I'm inclined to trust, given the respectability of the contributors (Vorians, Ismelda, Arthmoor among others).

On-topic, comedy mods - I recently found Hilarity , which I mentioned on another thread. It really is hilarious - for example getting everyone in the Market District to follow you round; then starting them all rioting while disco dancing, priceless...

Not a recent one, but I like to fire up JM's Bar Fights now and then, too. (Ah, should try both of those at once, would probably destroy my machine though.)

Anyone else got any other silly mod tips? (Will be raining all week here, need a bit of a laugh...)

[mALX]

Here's the weird thing. This Elder Council mod was originally a Giskard creation. The mod in that link is an earlier version of Giskard's mod, so I went to The Engineering Guild's website to get the latest version. But apparently, he no longer offers ANY of his mods to the public (according to his blog). It's so weird. He seems like such a brilliant guy, but very negative, and paranoid, and even offensive. I don't entirely get it.

Careful not to mention the G-name on the Beth forums, can be enough to get a thread locked, he's usually known as He Who Shall Not Be Named. He's banned there and on Nexus. It's all before my time, but I did end up reading a lot of the sorry saga surrounding this with fascinated horror - and it's still hard to comprehend. Anyway, no clogging up this thread - but there's a (very long) account of the shenanigans here, which I'm inclined to trust, given the respectability of the contributors (Vorians, Ismelda, Arthmoor among others).

On-topic, comedy mods - I recently found Hilarity , which I mentioned on another thread. It really is hilarious - for example getting everyone in the Market District to follow you round; then starting them all rioting while disco dancing, priceless...

Not a recent one, but I like to fire up JM's Bar Fights now and then, too. (Ah, should try both of those at once, would probably destroy my machine though.)

Anyone else got any other silly mod tips? (Will be raining all week here, need a bit of a laugh...)

If you are seeking Giskard's mods, he is on Steam; and has had his own website since 2009:

I have no knowledge of the issues between them, but from reading that link you posted - Arthmoor and Hanaisse are both highly respected modders, so I have to believe that whatever side they are on in an issue is probably the correct one, they know their stuff.

What I do know: Dirty edits are not caused by the CS/CK - they are a by product that is very hard to avoid when making any mod that effects the landscape; you can just look into a cell while working on your mod and end up with a dirty edit for that peek.

That is why cleaning those references from your mod is important, so the game doesn't have to be stuttered by that faulty reference. The CS/CK did not make that reference, the mod author did - so the mod author has to clean it out of there.

I use TESEdit religiously, but there are other programs that work also. TESEdit is just my particular choice.









This post has been edited by mALX: Aug 25 2015, 09:06 PM

[tegeus-Cromis]

What I do know: Dirty edits are not caused by the CS/CK - they are a by product that is very hard to avoid when making any mod that effects the landscape; you can just look into a cell while working on your mod and end up with a dirty edit for that peek.

That is why cleaning those references from your mod is important, so the game doesn't have to be stuttered by that faulty reference. The CS/CK did not make that reference, the mod author did - so the mod author has to clean it out of there.

I use TESEdit religiously, but there are other programs that work also. TESEdit is just my particular choice.

Well, agreed on most of that, but (especially) landscape issues are often caused by the CS. That's not just reports from other people, it's happened to me repeatedly. An edit to a cell in one place can sometimes cause changes to another cell miles away without you even looking at it - and some locales are more sensitive to this than others.

So Tes4Edit is utterly essential. I would not even know about this issue if it weren't for scrolling through records using it. But hey - agreed, many dirty edits are probably the result of someone not realising they've affected the cell and other human errors, but the CS does have its little quirks...

This post has been edited by tegeus-Cromis: Aug 26 2015, 01:23 AM

[Renee]

Careful not to mention the G-name on the Beth forums, can be enough to get a thread locked, he's usually known as He Who Shall Not Be Named.

Really? Wow.

He's banned there and on Nexus. It's all before my time, but I did end up reading a lot of the sorry saga surrounding this with fascinated horror - and it's still hard to comprehend.

It is fascinating, and horrible at the same time. I think guy's a genius, but like some geniuses, he seems really unbalanced. Such a shame.


That bar fight mod sounds cool, by the way. If only it didn't replace so much stuff. I'm not liking the sound of that. Everything else about sounds neat.

This post has been edited by Renee: Aug 26 2015, 02:58 AM

[tegeus-Cromis]

It is fascinating, and horrible at the same time. I think guy's a genius, but like some geniuses, he seems really unbalanced. Such a shame.

I'd say talented and hardworking rather than genius level. The additional assets he uses in his mods were nearly all made by other modders, for example. Which is ironic, considering he affects to despise TES modders so much.

I only have any idea from part playing through a couple of his mods. Then I read the thread I linked to and scrubbed every bit of his work off my PC. It's enough that he actively set out to break end-users' games (those who were also running mods he disapproved of), never mind his casual attitude to publishing mods full of dirty and wild edits. It's easy to sort out the former, but you have to scan manually with TES4Edit to catch the latter. Life's just too short. Anyway, now he's largely irrelevant, lives in a closed-off echo chamber he's set up at TEG. So, I guess, everyone on all sides is happy at last...

That bar fight mod sounds cool, by the way. If only it didn't replace so much stuff. I'm not liking the sound of that. Everything else about sounds neat.

Oh, agreed. But it's just one of those mods I activate when I need a laugh (which I do right now, actually), then turn off and revert to an earlier save. You wouldn't want to keep Hilarity going either, those spells are powerful...

[Renee]

I agree, Hilarity sounds like too much for me! That mod has "game-breaking" written all over it (that is to say, it would break the mood of my characters' in-game worlds ).

Didn't know about all that stuff with Giskard. I'm okay with it in my game. But yeah, he doesn't seem like quite the genius, after reading that info you posted.

This post has been edited by Renee: Aug 27 2015, 01:23 PM

[Decrepit]

Careful not to mention the G-name on the Beth forums, can be enough to get a thread locked, he's usually known as He Who Shall Not Be Named.

It comes to me that I might have coined 'He Who Is Not Named'. I began modding Oblivion and joined the official forums soon after things exploded. Yet several of the gentleman's mods became favorites, Elder Council first and foremost. As such I sometimes felt a need to discuss them, usually in reply to someone else's query. Not wanting to rock the boat, I began referring to the creator as He Who is Not Named. Others might have beaten me to the punch, but if so I was not aware of it at the time.

I use the creator's own version of Elder Council, Kvatch Rising, Temple of the One, and a few lesser mods, acquired back when they were readily available at one of the several incarnations of his site.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Oct 4 2015, 12:35 PM

[Renee]

I use the creator's own version of Elder Council, Kvatch Rising, Temple of the One, and a few lesser mods, acquired back when they were readily available at his site.

Hey Decrepit, good to see you! Be sure to enjoy our Oblivion forums too, and any of Chorrol's forums, for that matter.

I'm interested in Temple of the One, if you can somehow share this.

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 11 2015, 12:55 AM

[tegeus-Cromis]

Careful not to mention the G-name on the Beth forums, can be enough to get a thread locked, he's usually known as He Who Shall Not Be Named.

It comes to me that I might have coined He Who Is Not Named. I bought Oblivion and joined the official forums soon after things exploded. Yet several the gentleman's mods became favorites, Elder Council first and foremost. As such I sometimes felt a need to discuss them, usually in reply to someone else's query. Not wanting to rock the boat, I began referring to the creator as He Who is Not Named. Others might have beaten me to the punch, but if so I was not aware of it at the time.

I use the creator's own version of Elder Council, Kvatch Rising, Temple of the One, and a few lesser mods, acquired back when they were readily available at his site.

Oh, hi there - so it's all your fault Well, perhaps I'm unduly harsh about his actual mods, but I don't think I am about his attitude. Perhaps they would work quite well if you weren't running too many of other people's mods, but otherwise, well, he doesn't care about compatibility and even complains when people, like the Better Cities team, create patches to make sure his mod will run alongside theirs. Sensibly, you would expect that to be a welcome development that would expand your own profile, but no....

On a positive note regarding mods, hadn't got round to installing the 2014 Elsweyr Anequina, should have. Apart from adding the Kingdom of Rimmen (with a whole new city that's also supported by lore), it integrates Elsweyr more closely with Cyrodiil. Just as an example, it now makes sense, as it should, to travel from Leyawiin to Skingrad by road via Elsweyr, the old EA made you brave the deserts of Halkarn Land, though you do get to see oliphaunts that way, I suppose. (A crashed game installation does have a silver lining, bringing everything up to date now...)

This post has been edited by tegeus-Cromis: Sep 11 2015, 02:11 PM

[ghastley]

I'd imagine that a game using only G's mods would be quite stable, as it was only other people's mods that were a problem.

Thanks for that link to Anequina. It might take me back to playing Oblivion for a while (once I've finished the mods for Skyrim I'm working on).

[Lopov]

Not really a standard mod but it helped me improving performance when running big mods like Better Cities -> Oblivion RAM Booster?.

[tegeus-Cromis]

Not really a standard mod but it helped me improving performance when running big mods like Better Cities -> Oblivion RAM Booster?.

Judging from the pix, it just looks like CFF Explorer repackaged. Admittedly that is a program that every PC Gamer should keep by, especially if (like me) you tend to play decade-old games.

[Cue discussion as to whether you should reset the header flags for every single dll, not just the .exe. I'd say yes, as it can do no harm and might do some good. Not forgetting to include the CS, of course...]

[Decrepit]

Though I've already mention it elsewhere, I just wanna draw everyone's attention to the still fairly new Bettys Sewer Textures. Comes in "wet" and "dry" variants, with a "small bricks" option available. I swear by the "wet" variant. Been looking for a satisfactory Sewer textures for ages. These are the first I've been wholly happy with. (My two screen captures are amongst those seen in the mod's "FROM USERS" image section.)

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Dec 7 2016, 06:40 PM

[mALX]

Though I've already mention it elsewhere, I just wanna draw everyone's attention to the still fairly new Bettys Sewer Textures?. Comes in "wet" and "dry" variants, with a "small bricks" option available. I swear by the "wet" variant. Been looking for a satisfactory Sewer textures for ages. These are the first I've been wholly happy with. (My two screen captures are amongst those seen in the mod's "FROM USERS" image section.)

Those are Awesome !!!! I love that brick, it looks almost like one JBVW made/used that I fell in love with!








This post has been edited by mALX: Dec 9 2016, 09:04 PM

[Renee]

Adventurers and Travelers is one I just tried for Skyrim, and really like. It adds more people on roads, but the cool thing is, we can configure all the different NPC types (Adventurers, Dovahkiins, Robbers and Travelers) in different ways.

For instance, for Bjorn's game, it makes sense for Adventurers to be hostile to him, since he often goes around dressed and acting like a bandit. I also made Robbers indifferent to him. These choices wouldn't make sense in Claire or White Wizard's game though, so for them Adventurers are neutral, while robbers are hostile.

All of these NPCs are generic too, so if one gets killed, the game will respawn another one somewhere.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 12 2017, 10:52 PM

[Decrepit]

Found something of interest at OblivionNexus. Not a mod but someone's recommendations for mostly graphics replacers, utilities, plus a few odds and ends. Nice thing about this list is that it's brand spanking new (as of Mar 2017) so includes some of the more modern texture/mesh replacers. Also includes some foreign mods I was unaware of 'til now. From the list already downloaded and installed Engine Bug Fixes and can happily report that, at the very least, it causes no harm. Admittedly I've played only one reasonably lengthy Oblivion session with it in place, but have hopes it might reduce random wilderness crashes, which I tend to get more often than than city/interior crashes.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 16 2017, 12:52 PM

[mALX]

Found something of interest at OblivionNexus. Not a mod but someone's recommendations for mostly graphics replacers, utilities, plus a few odds and ends?. Nice thing about this list is that it's brand spanking new (as of Mar 2017) so includes some of the more modern texture/mesh replacers. Also includes some foreign mods I was unaware of 'til now. From the list already downloaded and installed Engine Bug Fixes? and can happily report that, at the very least, it causes no harm. Admittedly I've played only one reasonably lengthy Oblivion session with it in place, but have hopes it might reduce random wilderness crashes, which I tend to get more often than than city/interior crashes.

Wow, this is an Awesome find, Decrepit !!!

[Decrepit]

A newly posted YouTube video (not mine) showcasing 2017 modded Oblivion graphics, utilizing many of the graphics mods from the Nexus List linked several posts above. It's limited to a walk through the woods, but boy o boy is it impressive! Graphics are to die for, which is what my increasingly ancient PC would do should I attempt to install the lot of them. Makes me yearn all the more to assemble a shiny new computer. A word of warning. For understandable reasons this video offers only 720p and higher resolutions. Those with slowish connections might experience periodic pauses. My DSL connection certainly does. Worth it though.

[Grits]

Oh my gosh. That is beautiful. Thank you for this resource, Decrepit! It has been a long time since I had a functioning Oblivion game. When I put one together again, I will look at this list first!

[mALX]

A newly posted YouTube video (not mine) showcasing 2017 modded Oblivion graphics, utilizing many of the graphics mods from the Nexus List linked several posts above. It's limited to a walk through the woods, but boy o boy is it impressive! Graphics are to die for, which is what my increasingly ancient PC would do should I attempt to install the lot of them. Makes me yearn all the more to assemble a shiny new computer. A word of warning. For understandable reasons this video offers only 720p and higher resolutions. Those with slowish connections might experience periodic pauses. My DSL connection certainly does. Worth it though.

Beautiful, but boy what a reminder of how that camera angle was messed up in first person outdoors in Oblivion! It is hard to imagine why they thought the camera should be in the grass when you were walking outdoors, was it attached to your feet? But yeah, before ESO it was the most gorgeous game I had ever seen.