JohnStark1776

Crackomint, thanks for the links to the Darn fix. I missed that one while looking for a solution. As to the rest of you advice, I appreciate you taking the time to offer up several points to think about. Thanks you.

I'll check out the Java version of Wrye, since I have Java on my computer, and give some thought on how to best manage my computer resources while using it. I didn't realize it was that much of a resource hog, and mistook it to be instability with the program itself or perhaps a bad install. As to adding mods, I'll stick to one at a time, or just a few, per your advice. I'm due for a thorough backup of some of my files as it is, so I'll be sure to add my Oblivion data folder to that list. Thanks for your specific answers to my questions, you've been very helpful.

Fun! I'd rather play something challenging than milquetoast. I'm an old school pen and paper RPGer from way back, which is what attracted me to FCOM and the higher difficulty in the first place. Save often and early should keep me from jamming myself up too bad, heh. /crosses fingers If you don't mind, I'll ask a few more questions with regards to your first response in this thread. First, I cannot get the Darn UI to keep my settings when I set them in the inventory menu. I can move the various HUD elements around, and they remain the same if I reload, but when I quit the game they are all back to default. Is this because I've been using Wrye to add mods, and then rebuilding the patch? Or something else I'm overlooking? Or maybe Darn conflicts with the parts of OOO, Frans, MMM, etc., that FCOM bashes together? This is the first real issue I've had with my FCOM install, and not a big one, but a customizable UI to me is like having a good AC in my car. I may not need it all the time, but I want it when I want it! My second question has to do with Wrye and adding mods. I understand that shoving a hundred mods all at once into Wrye and expecting the game to work after that is not going to work out well. I'd imagine that problem gets worse the larger and more intricate the mods are that I'd be adding (i.e., large content mods with new cities and so on are more likely to clog the process up). My intention had been to add each of the larger quest, city, lands, etc., mods one at a time using Wrye, rebuild the patch each time, and then test the game to see how it runs and whether anything conflicts. However, I'm finding this to be extremely time consuming. For starters, Wrye seems a bit unstable, and while it has not crashed on me while adding stuff and rebuiling the Bash patch, it does hang up and says its "not responding" a lot. It still get the job done if I just let it be and finish the task, but it takes quite a bit of time simply to add a mod to the Install tab, install it, then activate it in the Mod tab. Is this normal, or might there be something on my end making Bash unstable? And even worse, it then takes about 20 minutes to rebuild the Bash Patch after adding each mod. I understand that Bashing the patch takes a fair amount of time, but coupled with the how long it takes to install and activate, its really making the process of adding mods frustrating. So, my question is, how many mods can "safely" be installed/activated at any given time, and then Bashed together once they are installed/activated? I've done 3-5 smaller tweak mods together at the same time, and the game loads and runs no sweat so far (other than Darn not saving my UI settings). I'm looking for a balance between preserving stability and preventing corruption of game files that might force me to reinstall, versus the amount of time its taking at present in my attempt to keep the game stable and without conflicts. My emphasis for adding mods leans way over on the side of having more content to play, like quests and dungeons, than better graphics, sounds, more items in game, and so on. My preference is content over eyecandy, in other words, so I'm more interested in getting as much into the game as quickly as possible than I am tweaking it forever to look nice or whatever. Sorry for the long post, and I appreciate any input. Thanks.

Thank you for your reply and the welcome. Following your advice, I added some other mods last night using Wrye Bash and Boss, and so far everything is working very well. Darn UI is so much better! Much obliged.

Greetings. First time posting here, and first time playing Oblivion. I played Morrowind back in the day before the two expansions were released for it, but never made it into Oblivion. My apologies in advance for being a newb! After playing Oblivion for a bit, I went on the web looking for a mod to change the UI, and stumbled upon many of the other mods for the game. After doing a fair bit of reading, I saw OOO, MMM, Fran's, etc. pop up with frequency, and then stumbled upon FCOM. Great mod! I finished adding all of the necessary files for FCOM today using Wrye Bash and a good guide for FCOM 1.0, and so far Oblivion is running fine with no errors, CTDs, or other hiccups. It was a bit of learning curve and took some time to manage, but the guide and the FCOM site were very helfpul. Not having to choose OOO vs. MMM vs. Fran's thanks to FCOM was a pleasant surprise. Great work guys! Now that I have everything working together, I'm reluctant to add other content mods willy nilly. There seem to be a number of large mods that add whole cities, towns, villages, with tons of new quests and storylines, and those are my main interest. A few other tweaks for the UI and so on have caught my eye as well. I'd like the play the game with as many of these new areas and quests available as possible. I'm wondering how compatible these various content mods would be with FCOM. I'll give some examples: Alluring Potion Bottles Alternative Start DarNified UI Midas Magic Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina (it was hard to find a copy of this one) Anvil Bay Expansion Kvatch Rebuilt Mannimarco Resurrection Stirk Thievery in the Imperial City Etc. Most of the mods in FCOM seem to have their own FCOM specific files to make them work together, making me unsure how compatible other mods will be with FCOM. Do other mods need their own FCOM_esp file to work with FCOM, in the same manner as the mods already included with FCOM like Bob's Armor and so on? Will other mods like the ones I've listed work as long as they are set in the proper order using via BOSS? Some of the mods I'm interested add a lot of new areas to the game, or alter existing ones, and seem like they could easily conflict with stuff that is in FCOM. I'm leary of adding stuff that might make the game unstable or unplayable, or mess up the clean install of Oblivion and FCOM that I managed to complete today. Any input or advice would be appreciated. Thanks.