Recently in .. Mods in use Category

I am still maintaining it when I get a chance. I spent up to 250 hours of game play so far without touching the Main Quest other than to get the amulet of kings. All thanks to the many mods I have been enjoying so far.

With recent updates (especially the latest MMM), the list reached the maximum number of mods allowed.

In order to accommodate all the mods listed, you will have to enabled Merge Patches when updating your Bash Patch. I only selected a few texture only mods (such as real lava) to bring my list under the limit.

Recent updates include :

- replacement of Natural Weather for Enhanced Weather from HTF (with optional mod Oblivion Visual Screen Effects).
- upgrades of MMM, Supreme Magicka and Reneer's Guard Overhaul
- added Really Almost Everything Viewable When Distant
- added the now indispensable Sorcery's Toll.

(loosely copied from my post in the Bethseda forum).

For a change, this is not a cry for help for a review of a load order but rather the opposite.

After about two years of trial and errors, tests and troubleshooting, I have reached what looks like a stable version of my load order, so I spent some time making a colored version of the list, with notes about the purpose of each mod and why they are in that particular order.

Annotated Load Order
Other mods (non-load order related)

As a rule of thumb, I tried to group related mods as much as possible. Patches are loaded after their respective mod (with the exception of the Unofficial Shivering Isle patch that can be loaded before the corresponding .esp file since that file is only a place holder anyway).

I left out some optional mods as well, most of the time for performance reasons on my system (for example, I kept only the Natural Weather mod from Natural Environment and left out all the other optional mods in that set).

Some mods are oddly placed before or after the area you would expect in the list - this is usually due to a reading of the mod conflicts with TES4View and a decision as to where the mod makes sense in that load order.

As far as color coding goes :
- Mods in green are cosmetic mods (sounds, textures, weather, water, scenery)
- Mods in blue are new content for the player (armors, weapons, accessories, quests, houses)
- Mods in yellow change the rules of the game (gameplay mods, spells, NPCs)
- Mods in orange and bold are the 'absolutely necessary mods I could not play without'
- Mods in white and red are patches to other files in the list
- Mods in gold are official mods

I'm posting this in the hope it could help someone else with Load Order issues.

:: Martigen's Monster Mod v3.0

MMM is a massive enhancement to Oblivion, with a strong focus on encounters and creatures.

From the Readme file "Over 800M in 145+ brand new creatures and NPCs, 1900+ variant creatures and NPCs, unique encounters, advanced behaviour AI, advanced combat AI, tailored loot drops and more!"

This release includes new features such as Racial Zombies, Undead Overhaul, New Creatures (Wyverns, Night trolls, undead lords), improved system of crafting and gems, and a real compatibility with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul quests and factions.

Official video 

Status:Version 3.5.5 Open Beta is out

:: Tamriel Travelers 1.35

This mod adds traveling merchants with unique personalities, pets, and travel schedules. They sit down to eat, run from place to place, enter inns and cities when their pets are small enough and even help you when they feel threatened.

This is a perfect companion mod to balance the difficulty of playing with MMM and OOO by providing much needed relief in the wilderness of Tamriel without forcing you to return to cities for repairs and supplies.

With v1.36 beta, the Travelers are now a welcome sight on the roads of the Shivering Isles !.

Status: Version 1.3.6 beta is available.

:: Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul v1.3

Gameplay Improvement -  OOO is a major redesign of thousands of aspects of the experience of Oblivion. It incorporates dozens of existing mods, and adds new dungeons, underwater life, new races, and brings back slave traders in Cyrodiil among other things.

Official page for this project

Official video

Status: Version 1.33 is out !

Note: Remember to recreate the Bashed Patch file if you are using TNR in combination of OOO. 

OOO - Getting started page

Known incompatibilities (MMM, FCOM, etc)

:: TNR - All Races v1.01

A massive redesign of most NPCs in Tamriel. This mod updates 1700 NPCs from all major races and gives them unique looks and personality.

Next releases will focus on Vampires and Shivering Isles.

(Continue reading for instructions on how to make TNR compatible with OOO)

Exnem Eye Candy female body

Textures -  This mod replaces the default mesh for female body by a more 'feminine' one. This is one of a few body replacements available. I happen to like the proportions of this one (not too extreme nor too skinny, although the shoulders and hands are a little too large).. .and judging from the number of clothing mods updated to use this shape, I am not the only one.

FEMALE EYECANDY BODY REPLACER Underwear version - v1.0

FEMALE EYECANDY BODY REPLACER Nude version - v1.0

FEMALE EYECANDY WARDROBE

Continue for a list of mods that update existing armures, clothing to this particular body mesh. 

After testing for a while, I finally uninstalled Advanced Weather System and reinstalled Natural Environments. I simply missed these kinds of vistas from NE.

Morning
Day
Storm
Sunset
Night

Ayelid ruins at dawn
Clear weather over Imperial City

To be fair, NE has a tendency to be too yellow but I prefer its color sky more and the clouds are just fantastic. In particular, NE's storms are frightneing, with gushes of rain and multiple layers of fast moving clouds. Sunsets and dawns are a beauty and at times, sunny weather is impressive... although it has a tendency to be cloudless a lot (in sunny weather). By contrast, I found AWS too blue at times.

Now to think of it, another reason I chose NE over AWS is that I found AWS used too much ambient light, which tends to wash out shadows. I prefer the crispness of NE's light.

On the other hand, I also prefered AWS at night

I know I am not making it easier on you... it comes down to a question of compromise and personal taste.

My advice - play for a while with on, then with the other. They install textures in different folders so there is no risk of overlap. You can install them side by side and acticate one or the other.

When you want to switch, make sure you go back inside, load your game without any weather mod activated to clear up your game and load the clean game with the other weather mod activated.

'Unique Landscapes' is a very ambitious community project aiming at changing entire areas of the game into unique places modeled after such diverse landscapes as swamps, lush orchards, rolling hills or steep gorges. Each area is a project in itself, designed to keep changes to the map to mostly cosmetic ones and minimizing overlap with other Unique Landscapes.

:: Beaches of Cyrodiil : The Lost Coast v1.4.1

New Lands and Quests - Redesign of the west coast of Cyrodiil, with shipwrecks, sand beaches. The Lost Coast is the first of a planned series of three overhaul of the coastlines in the game.

:: Fallenleaf Everglade v1.1

New Lands and Quests - Mystical swamp, river and deep gorge south east of Skingrad.

:: Rolling Hills v1.01

New Lands and Quests - This UL project adds a farm south of Cheydnehal, surrounded by fenced in grassy hills with roaming horses, wheat fields and an old windmill.  

:: Entius Gorge v1.1

New Lands and Quests -  This plugin adds a deep gorge to the Nibenay Basin Region. It features mist and firefly ambience effects and a new creature, the degenerated slaughterfish. 

:: Stendarr Valley v1.0

New Lands and Quests -  This plugin adds a winter wilderness, dead forest and a few places of interest to the Jerral Mountains Region.

:: Ancient Yews v1.3

New Lands and Quests - Another addition to the Unique Landscape project. This one features a spectacular and intricate Landscape makeover, inspired by the Yew trees of England. It includes a major water feature with waterfalls and stone pathways. Adorning the hill is Arkveds Spike which is the ideal spot to survey the land. Longmans Barrow is an ancient sealed tomb that is closed due to unknown reasons at this stage.

:: The Great Forest - Lush Woodland v1.1

New Lands and Quests - Another section of the Unique Landscape project is complete. 'Lush Woodlands' replaces the woods east of Chorrol by making it denser.

:: The Dark Forest v1.0

New Lands and Quests - Contribution to the Unique Landscapes project. This one adds a desolate forest south of the Imperial City, with an abandonned village, hostile weeds, poisoned waters and a magically preserved grove with a unicorn.

:: The Great Forest - Ancient Redwoods v1.4

New Lands and Quests - This plugin adds a dense Redwood Forest to the Great Forest, south-east of Chorrol. Additionally there are Kodiak Bears who inhabit the area featuring advanced AI.

:: Imperial Isle v1.2

New Lands and Quests -  This plugin overhauls the Imperial City island to make it a place that complies with the magnificence of Imperial City. It adds a lot of trees and scenic details such as gardens and shrines.

:: The Heath v1.1

New Lands and Quests -  This plugin adds a Wetland type landscape to County Kvatch including waterfall mist and mist effects over water at night. Its inhabited by Musk Rats with new AI.

:: Chorrol Hinterland v0.9.1 Beta

New Lands and Quests -  This plugin puts a belt of farmland around Chorrol. 

:: Illumination Within Revived Optimised v1.0

Atmosphere Improvements - Extends the work on lighting in windows of buildings introduced by 'Illumination Within' to all cities in the game and optimizes the scripts to be more CPU friendly. A must have to add some life to cities at night.

Note: This is an upgrade from the original mod. It is meant to be installed over Illumination Within Revived