Best way to install and manage mods?

[Game3nder]

So it seems that there are a number of methods to acquire new mods and manage them. From what I can tell, there is manual (which I can see getting very complicated with tens or hundreds of mods), Wrye Bash, Bain, and OBMM. From what I understand, OBMM is useless except for .OMOD files, in which case it's very convenient. That leaves Wrye Bash and Bain. I tried to find out about these, but I'm afraid I got lost very quickly. However, I gather that these tools are extremely useful and worth getting comfortable with.

Sooo, I would be much obliged if you all could shed some light on what exactly the fundamental purpose of these tools is and how to utilize them? Or, if you have another superior system of organizing your mods, I'd love to know that too. I realize this is probably a huge question, but I'm fresh off the 360 boat and don't know enough at this point to be more specific. Thanks!

[AndalayBay]

Re. OBMM - that's not true. You can install anything you like with OBMM. You just need to create the omod which can be done in a few simple steps. There are a lot of mods, especially anything by TheNiceOne, that are packaged as BAIN compatible with omod conversion information. That means that it's really easy to make an omod out of them and they may even have an OBMM script to help with the installation.

Once you are comfortable with Oblivion mods, you may wish to give BAIN a try. BAIN does keep track of mod assets better, so if you remove a mod that overwrote some files from another, BAIN will restore the files that got overwritten. With OBMM, you will have to reinstall the original mod that got overwritten.

Tomlong's website has a lot of information about installing mods. In particular, this page explains how to create omod's.

Edited March 14, 2011 by AndalayBay

[Hanaisse]

You'll get a different answer from everyone about mod management, depending on what they know and are comfortable with.

That said, the fundamental purpose is to take the "manual" process and automate it for installing mods. OBMM and BAIN (which is part of Wrye Bash) both do this in different ways. Again, it'll come down to what you learn and what you feel comfortable with. AndalayBay is correct in that BAIN is a little more insightful than OBMM in terms of reverting back to previous assets when a mod is uninstalled, which to me is a great plus.

After installation comes mod management. This is where BOSS comes in. It will take all your installed mods and order them properly and logically to get the most out of everything.

After that you might want to tweak your mods better. Wrye Bash is handy for this. It has numerous options to merge patches, graphics, race mods, leveled lists, etc so that you get the benefits of all of them, not just the last mod loaded.

Explaining how to utilize them all just wouldn't be feasible here. My suggestion is to go to Nexus and read the ReadMe's of all of them, find what makes sense to you and give it a try. There are also official threads with more information at the Beth forums.

One thing I can suggest is this Wrye Bash Guide. It's easy to follow and understand, worth a read.

[donnato]

Personally I`m very file challenged and have been taught about OMODs so now at least I can load mods and have them work. This is what I use and find it for the most part very easy to do.

[WillieSea]

I grew up wtih DOS and am way happier to install the files myself. That way I Know what I am getting with the mod.

[greenwarden]

My install method (warning: it's not for everyone, but it works for me, and I like it): I always unpack mods to my desktop and take a look at the contents, then repack them with only the options I want for storage purposes, like if the mod has multiple esps or folders marked "optional". Then I usually install the mod manually. In some cases I OMOD it, if it is a mod I know I want to keep, but not use with every game/character (pose mods come to mind here). I also use OBMM to manage my load order, which you can also do with Wrye Bash. Your choice.

If I've manually installed a particularly large mod and then decide to uninstall it, I make an OMOD out of it, then install it via OBMM, allowing it to overwrite, then I uninstall the OMOD. This doesn't happen much nowadays since BSAs are so popular. Those you can usually just uninstall by deleting the BSA and the esp.

Have fun playing Mod-blivion.

[Game3nder]

Thanks everyone

Follow-up questions: What is a BSA? And can I use BOSS with OBMM, or does it have to be with Bash?

[Hanaisse]

A bsa is a file compression type that Oblivion uses. If you ever looked into your Oblivion\Data folder you'd see all the meshes, textures, sounds, etc are in their own bsa's. Some large-medium sized mods also pack up their resources in bsa's.

Yes, you can use BOSS with OBMM. You can also use BOSS even if you decide to install all your mods manually.