Recomended mods for starting out with Oblivion.

[Zerengil]

So, a friend of mine is starting out with Oblivion, and as I've lost all the mods I had, I can't remember many.

...and so it comes that in the forests of the Oblivion mod community, we are lost.

Only the might of an old powerful Alliance may save us.

He / we are mostly interested in gameplay and immersion mods.

[InsanitySorrow]

If it's your friends first time playing Oblivion then I'd highly suggest he/she plays through at least once with no mods

[grond]

I agree with IS, start without mods!

Except for this one:

Scantifreeze - for five o' clock shadow on your char - without a blue body.

[Hanaisse]

I have to agree, have your friend play through at least the main quest without any mods to truly appreciate the experience. There's a lot there to enjoy already. You should, however, have these;

Must Have Tools of the trade:

- Wrye BASH for installation and general care of mods

- BOSS for sorting mod load orders

- OBSE, a small app that enhances scripting and quite a few mods require

- Refscope, invaluable for troubleshooting conflicts

- All the Unofficial Patches - UOP, UOPS (installed over top of UOP), UOMPS (if you have any of the DLC's), USIP (if you have Shivering Isles)

For game stability:

- Oblivion Stutter Remover

- Fast Exit 2

For better playability:

- DarNUI or DarkDarNUI to change the ugly vanilla hud and menus, plus any of the coloured updates (search Darn at Nexus)

- Elys Universal Silent voice to slow down displayed dialogue when voice files are absent

- Eleven Map Redux for a pretty colourful map (plus New Roads & Bridges update if using that)

Once you're ready these would be my bare-bones recommendations for immersion.

- Weather - All Natural

- Open Cities Reborn

- Mythic Creatures

- Animated Window Lighting System & Chimneys

- Storms & Sounds v3

- New Roads & Bridges

- Any of the Unique Landscapes mods (don't forget patches where required)

- AFK-Weye

- Any of Arthmoor's village mods (search his name at Nexus)

Then, of course, there are graphical enhancements, which is probably a whole separate thread as it would depend entirely on your PC's ability.

One final word about overhaul mods such as OOO, MMM, TIE, FCOM, etc. Personally I would not recommend them for a beginner, as they greatly increase difficulty. But once you and your friend are more comfortable with the game, go ahead and challenge yourself.

[Joben]

Yeh if we're talking a new player....go through the MQ. Or a Guild questline or two and get the hang of the game, and some idea of what you do and don't like.

Especially since some of the best mods dont just improve or add things, they alter core gameplay drastically. Which his often a matter of personal taste.

Personally though, I don't play without Realistic Leveling, or similar mod that handles stats automatically.

There are a couple mods that add things that probably should have been there in the first place.

Put It In It's Place, basically makes picking up world objects work the way it should.

Unique Landscapes makes the world nicer (bit of a performance hog though)

COBL is a bit tricky to get running but adds hundreds of individually small things that help bring the world the life and help unify whatever other mods you have going.

Companion Share and Recruit lets you make friends and recruit an adventuring party (warning, potential game balance issues)

Personally I won't play this game without a pet, if i may be so bold as to suggest one of my creatures...

[Rowan]

Nice list Hanaisse!

I generally agree with the others that one should play the game without mods for a while for all the reasons mentioned. Once you do decide to get mods, here a few that I never play without:

TES Positive - a useful guide for the beginning mod user

Alternate Start Arrive by Ship - allows you to skip the initial dungeon and even choose not to accept the main quest. Also adds roleplaying choices for your character.

Streamline - improves the playability of the game. I like it best for its auto saving.

Darnified UI - an absolute must for me.

In addition to those, I would say character improvement mods are pretty high on the list for me.

Improved Facial Textures

HGEC and Roberts body replacers

cosmetic hair and eye packs

you should check out these two threads:

List of Mod Lists

Never Play without mods

[Beana]

I would have to agree with IS but if your going to put some mods in I would probably go with one quest related one..

Ayleid Steps, OBMM and a few body mods, HGEC a few outfits/armor and eyelashes LOL. I think its so necessary to play without altering things too much or mods would kinda be pointless if you cant see the change between vanilla and modded.

[Zerengil]

It's not first time with Oblivion, he has already played through it on X360, and now bought it at a sale for PC.

Also, I don't think that the graphical enhancements will work as it's barely playable on medium graphics for the both of us. (Yes we have identical computers)

Thanks for all the answers, I'll show this to him on monday, if he haven't already seen it.

[Nic-V]

Lulz I just necroed this thread by accident

Edited October 28, 2010 by Nic-V