After a few months dealing with a multitude of mods for Oblivion, here are a few rules I have come to follow:<\/p>\n
– Save a copy of the original archive of every mod you care about (zip, rar, 7z files).<\/strong> <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n – Make backups of your Oblivion folder<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n – Install new mods with extreme care<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n – When upgrading existing mods, if possible, use Clean Saves.<\/strong> <\/p>\n You should be able to minimize conflicts and save games corruptions doing things this way.<\/p>\n Be careful though, as you will loose any item acquired through any mod you are upgrading with this method.<\/p>\n – If clean saves are not possible, upgrade using the same name for the esp files (rename if necessary) and the same load order.<\/strong><\/p>\n Keep a separate copy of your load order as a text file for future reference. <\/p>\n – The first time after adding new mods, run Oblivion in Windowed mode.<\/strong><\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n – Keep older copies of mods you no longer want to use or special versions of esp files.<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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… <\/p>\n\n