Oblivion Mods, Dirty Dozen and Counting Feb 26, 200912:05 PST

by Lisa Gus

The fourth installment of Bethesda Softworks’ epic Elder Scrolls RPG series – TES IV: Oblivion – has been flying off store shelves like yummy rats-on-a-stick since 2006. Unless you’ve been living in cave (or a dungeon), you know that Oblivion is one of – if not THE – most replayable games available on the market. The reason: its robust modding community and powerful tools made available to all by the good folks at BethSoft.

Whether you are a wet-nosed newbie looking for your first goblin to spank (er… kinky?), or an uber-nerd looking for new cruel and unusual ways of making the game more difficult and fun, here’s the list for you.

1. FCOM
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Yes, this unwieldy acronym, which might as well stand for “F**k! Come on, motherf****r!”, attributing to the relatively complicated installation process and compatibility rules, will nevertheless make the biggest impact on the gameworld and gameplay, making this THE must have mod out there.

It is not just a stand-alone mod, but rather the glue that holds together lots of different mods that sounds like a “Who’s Who” list of Oblivion modding – Francesco’s Levelled Creatures and Items, Oblivion WarCry, Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul, and Martingen’s Monster Mod, to
name a few.

FCOM adds hundreds of new monsters, items, and NPCs – even quests. And between all the included mods, there are plenty of (often optional) gameplay changes that will make your Oblivion experience fresh and exciting.

2. Bananasplit’s Better Cities
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If immersion is your cup of Daedric Lava Whiskey, then this mod is a shoo-in. All aspects of the cities in the game are lovingly tweaked and re-crafted by hand, to make them more beautiful, livable, and realistic.

Better Cities literally adds a metric ass-load (that means ‘donkey’, you dirty-minded freaks – I’ll get to you in a minute!) of new content, and after getting our hands dirty with FCOM, it is truly a
piece of cake to install.

3. Unique Landscapes
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What Better Cities does for cities, Unique Landscapes does for… er… landscapes. Imagine that! Why not enjoy enhanced immersion and beautiful sights when you leave the city walls? You’re not going outside anyway, so might as well enjoy them in-game.

Unique Landscapes comes in a modular format, with each area as a separate mod but there is also a combined version, which you can download here.

You should also make sure that your other mods are compatible with Unique Landscapes – and if not, there is more likely than not a patch available. You might even request one.

4. Exnems EyeCandy, HGEC, and Robert’s Male
Download Links:
- Exnems EyeCandy
- HGEC
- Robert’s Male

In a word, BOOBIES! These mods greatly improves the appearance of female (and in the case of Robert’s, male) bodies in the game, so all you “female” characters can ogle your own derrière all day long (you know who you are).

There are underwear and ‘nudie’ versions for each of the above, as well as an obscene cornucopia of tastelessly revealing getups available through TESEyeCandy.com – but even among the Japanese schoolgirl outfits and furry costumes, you can find a few nuggets of modding platinum, such as the EVE Project (NOTE: You’ll need to register a member account on this forum before you can view the page), which is aimed at standardizing and modernizing the body mods and vanilla clothing and armor items.

5. Qarl’s Texture Pack 3 Redimized
Download Link

So you have all these lovely eyecandy mods, but the game world STILL looks drab and mundane to you? Then lets make the curtains match the drapes, with the help of this massive texture improvement. Most in-game environment textures are presented in a much higher resolution, and so the game looks strikingly better overall.

Keep in mind that all those big, delicious textures take a toll on your performance. Thankfully, they are “Redimized” – which is geek speak for “Reduced and Optimized”. Nevertheless, I would recommend a decent video card with 512mb of memory, to avoid turning your revamped
Oblivion experience into a slideshow.

If you have an dinkier video card than what QTP3 comfortably works with, you can also give the older QTP2 a try.

6. Cobl (Common Oblivion)
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So you’ve got the curtains, and the drapes, but what are you having for dinner?

This easy to install mod from the creator of Wrye Bash (which we will talk about, you better believe it) significantly enriches the Oblivion world: new races, new books, new ingredients, new foods, crafting, mining capabilities - the works. There are no quests, but the entire gameplay is just, well, better cobbled together, fancy that.

7. The Lost Spires
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“Uncover the mysteries of ancient Tamriel as one only can through the Archeology Guild. Scale the guild’s ranks and explore new, exotic locales to unravel a plot of sinister deceit, betrayal, and doom.”

So there you have it – become sword-wielding (and/or spell-slinging) Indiana Jones in this mystical quest that spans many lands and introduces you to a heap of interesting characters (all fully voice-acted and featuring an array of endearing quirks) while providing many hours of new gameplay. Its not your typical hack n’ slash adventure.

8. Ruined Tail’s Tale
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“Ruined-Tail’s Tale is a story-driven Companion-MOD featuring an Argonian Battlemage by the name of Ruined-Tail (or Ruin, for short). Throughout the course of your time together you will learn more about what drives Ruin and what haunts him, and through numerous multi-path conversations, complex scripted sequences, and challenging strategy-orientated encounters, you will play an integral part in shaping Ruined-Tail’s Tale to its ultimate conclusion.”

So Indy needs a loyal sidekick? Introducing Ruined Tail – a morose, introspective, and quite thoroughly messed-up lizard who can’t seem to shut up. But he is a capable companion – and will happily carry your loot for you. Every conversation you have with Ruin is significant – it shapes his character and will ultimately determine what kind of a person he will decide to be. Where else can you find a companion that combines the reliability of a pack animal with the psychological malleability of an infant? Take a hike, Short Round!

9. Tears of the Fiend
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“A Demon whose entire existence thrives on manipulation. A General whose entire existence is dictated by the Demon that drives him. And You, whose entire existence has somehow manipulated and dictated the existence of those around you.”

This one is a doozy – it is not one, but TWO (and a half) major quest mods: The Legacy, The Butcher of Armindale, and a new much-expanded conclusion that ties the two together. Aimed at higher level characters, this complex mod features multiple progression paths, companions, and a rich, suspenseful – and altogether CREEPY – story. Who needs the main vanilla quest when you’ve got this?

10. Integration: The Stranded Light
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“Years before Uriel Septim’s death Talos appeared before the Nerevarine, foretold that the Empire is about to end. More so, that it is time for a change – but without knowing, which form the change may take.”

Integration has to be one of my favorite mods – not just for its generous helping of over 30 quests “with an emphasis on thinking, character interaction, choices, consequences, and lore” – but also because it constantly grows and new quests are added through “slices”.

These quests feel very different from the ones included in Oblivion – they have multiple solutions, rely on your social skills and accomplishments as much as on your smackdown abilities, and are more like a collection of “short stories” rather than one epic novel. The
point of honor for the modder is that the map markers don’t exist, not a one. After all, the best you have to go by in life is GPS.

Considering the inhabitants of Oblivion are yet to meet an electric bulb (well, minus the poor bastards exposed to those sci-fi total conversions), admittedly, it is realistic that all your character has to help them along is a vanilla map and his or her wits.

It also has the added benefit of relying on several other mods by the same author, which further enhance the game: Race Balancing Project and Less Annoying Magic Experience.

11. Project Windfall
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“Upon the death of the beloved Count Alconis, the Varo family and lands fell upon hard times. The Count’s eldest son, Brend Varo, is a leader of questionable competence, and his other son, Stilus, is banished. Brend’s arrogance has sparked a rebellion in Windfall’s Slums. Will you help the rightful ruler, Brend Varo, put down the rebellion and restore peace to the City? Or will you help the peasants overthrow the oppressive ruler and liberate the city? The choice is yours.”

I’ve been following the development of this mod for several months, and was not disappointed when it was finally released – over 50 quests across multiple storylines, new dungeons, and multiple factions to deal with in your quest to restore order to this once-prosperous island. Side with the snooty-nosed nobles and help clean up the place of riffraff, or join the rebellious peasants and laborers to give The People a rightful place at the table. And what about the island
natives? Find out their story and determine Windfall’s future. Oh, and there’s also Imperial Legion, stuck on a peace-keeping mission between a rock and a hard place. Remind you of anything? I guess the creators like the CNN politics section.

12. Verona House: Bloodlines
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“The gates of Oblivion have been closed, but across a wounded land their smoke still casts a long shadow. A Champion has emerged to protect the people, but victory has been bought at a terrible price. A great city is ruins and
the last of the Septim line has gone. In the corridors of the Imperial Palace, the High Council must face up to the task of ruling Cyrodiil alone. As uncertainty sweeps across a ravaged land, they must seek to bring order, peace and the rule of law back to a desperate people. And
in the deep dark places of the land, an evil force, one that has remained hidden for centuries, now sense that their time has come. Their charismatic leader will urge them to abandon the shadows and emerge to seize power.”

So, took you a while (with all these side quests), but those pesky Daedra are sealed off again. Cue fanfares! What’s next, the official Expansion Pack, Shivering Isles? Been there, done that. And yes, you have blazed through all the downloadable content (the last one, The
Fighter’s Stronghold, was released October 15th, 2007), now what? That’s easy, the Verona House. More of an extension than a mod, it features more than 20 hours of new gameplay spread across 11 challenging quests. There are huge multi-level dungeons, entire cities, and a new plane of Oblivion — on top of an engrossing storyline AND full voice acting throughout. What’s not to like?

Well, for me, my self-enforced 6 gameplay / 6 quest mods limit. Pity. There’s hell of a lot more spectacular content out there, but you’ll have to try the rest all by yourself and see what else

you just HAVE to stick into your groaning Data folder. Which brings me to, honorary number 0 (too important to languish at 13), the one and only…

0. Wrye Bash
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Self-described “mod/save game management utility for Oblivion. Aside from file management, it also provides advanced features for manipulating save games and mod files.”

Modest and to the point — and completely missing the sheer awesomeness of the thing. Updated all but weekly and requiring basic Python programming language components to install and use, this little beauty is what basically allows you to…ah, BASH all your damn mods into a semblance of order, and keep compatibility problems at bay. Not to mention the Merge feature letting you maintain more than the maximum number of mods Oblivion can support at the same time. And what’s a coupla hundred mods to a dedicated player? But with the help of the Bashed Patch, wooh! the sky’s your limit.

Make sure you also grab the Better Oblivion Sorting Software, to rearrange your load order and further reduce mod incompatibilities.

HAPPY MODDING!

Yes, that’s me!