After a few months dealing with a multitude of mods for Oblivion, here are a few rules I have come to follow:
– Save a copy of the original archive of every mod you care about (zip, rar, 7z files).
I ran into a few situations where a new version of a mod introduced issues or features that I didn’t like. I was glad to be able to return to a previous version of these mods, as the earlier files were not available for download.
– Make backups of your Oblivion folder
Once you are satisfied with a particular combination of mods, SAVE a copy of your Oblivion folder, along with a copy of your ‘My Games/Oblivion’ folder. If things get seriously messed up after installing a mod (and sometimes they do), you will be glad to have a working copy of the game to return to.
– Install new mods with extreme care
Use a separate folder to unwrap archive files (I use ‘Oblivion/data/install’). Once the files are in that folder, review the readme files for special installation instructions and move the readme / screenshots / documentation files to a special folder (‘Oblivion/Data/Readme’) to reduce the clutter in your main Data folder.
– When upgrading existing mods, if possible, use Clean Saves.
- Start Oblivion – Save.
- Run Oblivion Mods Manager – disable the mods you want to upgrade
- Start Oblivion – Save again
- Run Oblivion Mods Manager – activate the new versions, and move them to the same load order as the old versions
- Run Oblivion – Save again
- Quit Oblivion
You should be able to minimize conflicts and save games corruptions doing things this way.
Be careful though, as you will loose any item acquired through any mod you are upgrading with this method.
– If clean saves are not possible, upgrade using the same name for the esp files (rename if necessary) and the same load order.
Keep a separate copy of your load order as a text file for future reference.
– The first time after adding new mods, run Oblivion in Windowed mode.
It will make it easier to kill it or recover from a crash in case the game gets stuck on the first Loading screen (usually a sympthom of a bad load order).
– Keep older copies of mods you no longer want to use or special versions of esp files.
Some mods come with different esp files with specific settings. You usually have to chose one of them and discard the others. Do not delete them … simply copy them in another folder (I use ‘Oblivion / Data/ unused’). You will be happy to have them later if you change your mind.
Managing mods cleanly in Oblivion (or Morrowind for that matter) requires some level of organization, but it pay offs greatly in prevented frustrations and enjoyable game time.