Oblivion Tools and Utils and other fun stuff

[Faram]

I love this game and as a mod in G&C I have decided to make a new sticky.

List your favorite tools, mods whatever in this thread.

Also humorous stories, strange stuff and whatever is welcome!

Spoilers should be shrunk and if you want to bitch about somthing, make your own thread!

So get it on!

[Ace Pace]

I havn't checked this, but this is a storage mod, adds chests to guild halls that are global(carry over into other cities).

A nice mod that turns guards/horses/whatever into people with names, very cute

Potentially unbalencing but very usful mod, lowers recharge cost for enchanted items to .2 gold per charge

More Alchemy Perks mod, made the max bonuses per potion skill dependent

Must have lighter ingridients mod

To those who play custom races, this is a must have mod, fixs the prisoner at start of game so that he can talk to custom races

[Ace Pace]

Another must have mod, this mod fixs the annoying enchantment aura around characters

A stealing mod, makes the clutter you aquire such as bowls etc. worth something

The famous INI tweaker, a usful program for tweaking ini settings without muking around with actual ini

[Arrow]

Tired of swimming through mud? Wondering where that slaughter fish came from? Look no further than the Better Water Mod!

[Faram]

Got a chock today.

Did a thives quest about a stolen ring in a castle.

The guard spotted me, no big deal I thought just run through a door and wait a while for him to tire.

I did not realise that guards follow through zones and open doors, damn that jolted me!

I only have ~4h playtime so I have close to no expirience but this was a fun supprice!

[DPDarkPrimus]

Oblivion Save Manager

Invaluable if you're going to be having more than one character.

[Darth Quorthon]

UIM Compilation. Takes a number of user interface changes and compiles them into a single mod. You also need the Oblivion Mod manger for this one - there's a link to it on the same page.

[Stark]

Must haves: Darker dungeons and darker nights. Try them: they make dungeons gloomy and night darker than overcast.

[Darth Quorthon]

Quickstart. Skip to the end of the tutorial dungeon. Sounds good to me.

[Darth Quorthon]

Death Star Mod. A little silly, but I couldn't help mentioning it.

Bettered leveled lists. No more bandits with Daedric armor, no obsolete monsters or armor, most named NPCs have static levels.

Light spell color pack. Changes the green Light Spell color to some others. I prefer the blue one.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Bettered leveled lists. No more bandits with Daedric armor, no obsolete monsters or armor, most named NPCs have static levels.

"More like Morrowind" means once you're level 25~ it's pretty easy?

[Darth Quorthon]

Bettered leveled lists. No more bandits with Daedric armor, no obsolete monsters or armor, most named NPCs have static levels.

"More like Morrowind" means once you're level 25~ it's pretty easy?

Let me put it this way: My Redguard warrior is level 23. I was walking down the road near Bravil and encountered a bandit wearing leather armor and wielding an iron warhammer.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Bettered leveled lists. No more bandits with Daedric armor, no obsolete monsters or armor, most named NPCs have static levels.

"More like Morrowind" means once you're level 25~ it's pretty easy?

Let me put it this way: My Redguard warrior is level 23. I was walking down the road near Bravil and encountered a bandit wearing leather armor and wielding an iron warhammer.

Sounds positively delightful!

[Stark]

Call me nuts, but once you're level 25 (with the gushing 'you are teh godz0r' text when levelling) I don't care how easy it is to kill bandits et al. Having zero sense of achievement *ever* basically kills the game

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I haven't checked this mod yet, but judging by some screens I saw it looks awesomely uber for creating attractive characters with the face generator.

[Stark]

Heh. When even Mount and Blade has a better face-creator than you (not to mention Silent Storms licensed system), it's sad.

[Faram]

Bethsoft is starting to sell plugins:

bigass link

Take any debate about the proes and cons of this to the other thread.

[Chardok]

Mod that addresses many of our concerns re: scaling, loot rarity, etc.

This links to the version posted on 04/03/2006. In the post he states that the newest one is dated 04/05/2006, but the link he provides for that is dead. Nothing but good reviews for this one, outside of a few morons who think a five minute test run with a lvl 1 toon is a good indicator of how well a mod performs.

New version uploaded on 04-05. Mod is compatible with its prior releases. The two most important things addressed in this version are:

Several loot table and NPC/Creature gear table tweaks to reduce the drop frequency of certain magical items/lowered the tables for a few different npc classes (notably vampires, though they still will undergo further tweaking), fixed random npc's tables and Arena's fighters to reflect their new difficulty as the bouts progress.

Second major change was done to NPCs. Now most of the enemy types that you encounter through Cyrodiil will be a bit more resilient and durable, to put them in closer par to mythic creatures, goblins, daedra, etc. They are still weaker in HP, level for level, but should hold their ground a bit longer.

Further upgrades later. Enjoy. For download, use link at the bottom of main message.

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I will paste below the original message that opened the previous thread, as well as the current link to the mod. A couple of notes:

the link at the bottom of the message directs you to the version of the mod released this morning (04-04) There are some important fixes in this new file and I recommend that you update your old one. Savegames should work fine, and so far I have not experienced or received notice that the mod is incompatible with an already started game (sadly, it is not fully compatible with other great mods out there.)

Hopefully tonight I will have a new version that will tune a few things more.

Would be happy to keep discussing the topics that are coming up. Thank you all for the input, once more!

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Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul

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I decided to make this mod after realizing that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion suffered from significant gameplay and "realism" problems that, in my view, detracted from the potential enjoyment of such a beautiful and massive RPG. Creating, balancing, and testing the needed changes was a time-consuming task, but the result is a more rewarding experience that I hope also helps those of you that found the game wanting upon release.

The following list describes the problems and how I addressed them:

The first major issue is that of linearity of challenge. In Oblivion, quests, combat encounters and rewards are "leveled" relative to the level of the player's character. This concept, while offering some good gameplay elements (freedom of choice, gentle learning curve, etc.) was implemented too indiscriminately. The sense of accomplishment in improving one's avatar suffers because the world is constantly changing to meet a pre-designed level of challenge. Also, "realism" and "immersion" disappear when the player notices glitches in the continuity of the world (Town guards so high in level that one wonders why they need a "hero" after all; lowly creatures that can suddenly give High-Chancellor Ocato a senseless beating, etc.)

The goal of this mod is to increase the overall challenge of the game, to increase the chances of the unexpected to happen, to reduce the flaws that hurt the "realism-factor" of the "leveled" system, to tweak item rarity and presence in the world, to add some new content and, lastly, to change some of the variables of the game system to balance its gameplay.

To preserve the positive aspects of the "leveled" system and remedy the negative ones, this mod changes the following:

I went through every NPC and creature in order to cap their max level. In general, the caps fall mostly between 4 and 40, with some special cases. Every modification allowed a range where the creature or NPC can level relative to the level of the player; those that were capped or static by default I left mostly untouched. The criteria to choose the level of caps took into account the relative power of the creature, the frequency, the status (named, boss, occupation), the relevance for the main quest and guild quests, the lore of tamriel, etc. Also, most of these changes also included a minimum level. This will enhance the sense of danger when traveling into unknown areas, it will also add to the realism of the game's world and, finally, provide a sense of accomplishment when what once was a threat becomes a hunt for sport. A complete list would be too large for a readme file, here are some of the most significant and common changes:

1- Daedra remain unchanged except for capped levels. Also, their spawn lists were changed to give a more random chance of encountering weaker daedra at higher levels. For example, Fire atronarchs, clannfears and scamps can appear in oblivion areas, gates, special dungeons, etc, regardless of the level of the player. The higher level daedra have a slightly higher chance of spawning, to keep the player on guard.

2- Dremoras are now significantly more powerful. Markynaz and Valkynaz have their levels capped but with a range where they keep up with the player. Every leveled list that included dremoras is now updated, even quest ones. This means that some quests, specially the main quest, will be more difficult and the player will not be able to complete them at low levels. Roughly, a level 20-25 will stand a chance, anything below that and it will be a world of hurt. At a player level of 40+ almost all dremoras will be lower than the player, with the exception of some special cases. At lvl 50 the player should be able to mop the floor with just about every creature in Cyrodiil. (Example: Kynval are lvl 12, in most cases they will not spawn unless the player is level 13--the intervals of Dremora reach near lvl 40)

3- Vampires are very different now. There are four different types of vampires: regular, fearsome, deadly and ancient. They all have an interval where they will appear in the usual vampire havens and dungeons. The space between the intervals allows the player to experience both challenge and a good ol-fashioned vampire-killing spree. For example, at lvl 16 there is a good chance that you can clean up a vampire nest with ease (except if patriarchs or matriarchs are around) Anything below level 8 will have a very tough time against the regular vampires. Deadly and ancient vampires carry specially good loot, but they will not show up until level 25 or so. Again, some surprises are in store for the daring adventurer. The most powerful vampires are the ancient patriarchs and matriarchs. These will appear in the late stages of the game provided that you have not cleaned every other regular patriarch or matriarch in Cyrodiil, something hard to do unless you reach mid twenties. Some dungeons will become "re-occupied" if you clean them early on. Rumor has it that a very powerful vampire lord has brought to Cyrodiil a feared relic in order to cleanse it of its power with the aid of other elder buddies of his kin.

4- Goblins of different tribes vary now in power. Some are rather scrawny, others are now very strong in comparison. All of their levels and loot tables are capped and adjusted accordingly, plus a new item here and there if you can find them. Regular, run-of-the-mill gobbies are also capped and tweaked, the warlords will give you a good beating unless you are a seasoned adventurer.

5- Mythic creature leveled lists are modified so that there is a chance that lower level critters will spawn even at high levels. This is specially prevalent in wilderness areas, where now there is also the chance that powerful creatures may surprise the wandering player. That is, there is now the slight possibility that you will run into very tough fights while exploring the wild. The more remote and inaccessible the area, the higher the likelihood of an untimely encounter. The strongest of mythic creatures, the Minotaurs, are capped but can put up a fight even against the experienced player.

6- Undead are mostly untouched, except for level caps on their strongest versions: wraiths/Lichs. Some skeletons are a bit stronger but they remain among the weakest of the undead, alongside zombies. Leveled lists for undead are modified so that there is now the chance that they will spawn weak undead regardless of the level of the player. Again, higher level undead have a greater chance of appearing in these situations.

8- Bandits, Marauders, Conjurers and Necromancers are capped, their loot lists adjusted and spread at variety of level ranges so that some difference between them is apparent. Bandits can be very low level and reach early twenties. Some exceptions are the bandit bosses and the infamous Black Bow Bandit crew. Marauders tend to be slightly more powerful. Necromancers and Conjurers will give some trouble to the inexperienced adventurer, but later on they will easily become cannon-fodder. However, the boss versions are rather powerful. The expulsion of necromancers from the Mages Guild has bred resentment. Necromancers of Tamriel, under the guide of the experienced Fayth Noor, gather in Cyrodiil to plot against the Archmage.

9- Every guard in game is now level-capped. They are not lowly beginners, but you will not get the feeling that they are so powerful that your presence in Cyrodiil is a nuisance. At high levels you will be able to school most guards. Some towns have stronger regiments, others are weaker. Guards in the stages of the main quest are leveled appropriately, stocked with some healing potions and ready to rumble. Still, powerful enemies will take them down more easily than they can do the same to you. This also applies to the blades and the imperial guards.

10- Every citizen of Cyrodiil, friendly or not, is level capped, when possible, in-synch with the difficulty of the quests with which they are associated. I have tried to give them a generous level range so as not to stiffle or demean the quest progression. With that said, a lot of npcs involved in quests have minimum level caps which means that you may not be able to finish the hard guild quests early on. A great feature of this change is that you will no longer get your ass handed down to you by a hoe wielding punk of a farmer after you pilfer his house clean or take his daughter to the "barn."

11- The levels of the Arena fights are completely changed. They do not simply scale according to your level. Now, each batch of fighters has its own level range, increasing up until a much more epic fight with the Grandchampion. You will not be able to beat the Arena unless you are highly experienced and decked out. This is a significant change from the original, where the Grandchampion of Cyrodiil, capital of Tamriel, was a fearsome level 10 warrior! Morituri te salutan!

12- Finally, every loot table and NPC-gear table has been adjusted to match their occupation and status. You will not find hardly any npcs with Elven, Ebony or above, except in some cases to flesh out the mysteries of Tamriel. The same applies to monsters, except powerful ones, and Bandits, Highwaymen and Marauders. Also, even at higher levels they will not constantly sport chainmail, mithril, dwarven and orcish. They will still appear in leather, iron, fur and steel on a regular basis.

Those changes addressed some of the problems that I found with the "leveled" system. I believe that the game's atmosphere and gameplay improve greatly with them. I added a few more changes for the sake of rounding the mod, also with the aim of improving realism, tweaking lackluster skills, birthsigns and a few other issues. The changes are:

1- Every loot table for armor, weapons, gems, jewelry and special items has been revamped, except most of the quest-related ones. The aim here was to make items more scarce and rare until higher levels. For example, Dwarven will not appear at lvl 6, but lvl 13+; Daedric will not begin to drop until around very early thirties. The same formula, scaled appropriately, I applied to the remaining lists. Powerful items will be more special and not simply lying around at every corner after level 20. (As an aside, the editor for Oblivion has a few bugs, one of which affects how items and levels in lists are organized, I went through the lists as many times as I could before going completely bananas--you try going through hundreds of items across hundreds of cross-referenced lists--but inconsistencies may remain here, some by design, others by bug and yet others because I didn't feel like tweaking them any longer.)

2- The value of gems, jewelry, silver house-wares and pelts is now higher so that thieves have a greater enticement in risking their neck than the measly gold coin that they can squeeze out of a silver fork.

3- A few new items now appear near or in powerful NPCs. These are not mighty or common enough to imbalance the game, but they add some flavor to the also new NPCs.

4- Birthsigns have changed. I have kept the original spirit of each constellation but I have modified their effects, and added new ones, to balance them out. Unless you are interested in roleplaying a cursed character, very few people would choose the sign of the Lord (90 hit point heal spell, 25% weakness to fire) over the Mage (50 points of Magicka, as much as a 25 bonus to INT would give, without penalties)

5- The skills of Hand to Hand and Sneak have some modifications. Hand to Hand was sorely lacking at release. Its range is very short, its damage can't hold a candle to powerful weapons, its rate of block was half of wielded weapons and the player cannot use gauntlets to add offensive on-hit spell effects as with every other weapon. Now, hand to hand damage max is higher, its rate of block also went up (although still lower than that for weapons), it has a longer reach and its staggering chance while blocking was adjusted upwards. Sneak Attacks now do slightly higher damage at Journeyman and Expert ranks, x7 and x8 respectively. Marksman Sneak attacks in the same ranks are x3.5 (displays just as the normal x3) and x4 respectively. Also, disarming chances of Special Attacks and Blocks are now higher than a poor 5%, which meant that only 1 out of 20 blows would actually disarm an opponent. The chances to Knockdown and Paralyze with Marksman Special Attacks also went up slightly.

6- Descriptions for the notices of Mastery achievement in-game are re-written now to reflect a higher sense of pride and accomplishment, rather than the same old text used in the prior perks' notices. Descriptions of Birthsigns differ so as to include the changes and additions. Finally, changes to the perks of Sneak also appear in the notices brought up when a player reaches a new rank.

7- The speed of arrows and magic attacks increases by 20% and 10% respectively. This is done to offset the ease with which one could avoid the ranged attacks of NPCs and monsters by timing sidesteps.

8- The minimum levels necessary to receive Daedra Lord quests at their shrines is now higher for most of them--anywhere from lvl 15 to lvl 20. This change obeys two reasons. First, it did not make a lot of sense to me that a Daedric Lord would grant a lowly lvl 2 the honor of serving under them with the promise of an item of power. Now, in order to be a worthy champion, you are going to need to know how to skin some beast other than sheep. The second one is related to acquiring a decent level before tackling more dangerous stages of the main quest--a build-up towards a more epic finale.

9- Fighter's and Mage's Guilds in the main towns of Cyrodiil now have special Storage Chests to stash the player's growing inventory.

10- Last, the day-time length is now doubled. It takes twice as long to transverse between dusk and dawn. This change aims at both "realism" and practicality.


These are the main changes that the mod addresses. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

For now, you can get it here: Gaming Town


Oscuro
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oscuro9@msn.com



INSTALLATION:
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Unzip Oscuro_Oblivion_Overhaul.zip and extract the file Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esp into the "Data" folder that can be found inside the main Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Folder.

(Example: C:/Program Files/Bethesda/Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion/Data/)

Once Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esp is copied inside the "Data" folder, enable it through Oblivion's Game Launcher under the "Data Files" tab.



A word of caution:
-----------------------
Because of increased difficulty, it is wise to use a permanent save slot before you embark upon further stages of the main quest, lest you find yourself unable to return from of the plane of Oblivion.

The amount and nature of these changes means that some may not be compatible with existing savegames. It seems that this is not the case. More than likely, this mod will not give any problems with previous saves (However, since I was not completely certain, I thought it prudent to give fair warning: Make a copy of your last savegame, just in case something happens down the line)


Feel free to modify this mod as you see fit for your personal use, although if you release it to the public then make sure to let them know that you used Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul as a base, in order to preserve compatibility among mods. Please, let me know if you plan on doing this, and in what way. I can perhaps help a bit with explaining the inner workings of the mod as they pertain to your proposed changes.

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Ok. Some clarification about how the leveling of normal creatures vs quest creatures is in order.

First, Kvatch is not very changed now. I purposely left it mostly as it was, only tweaking some things so that if you fought it at high levels the guards that run with you would not be killed so easily. So yes, it is normal that you can do Kvatch early on. Most of the main quests are still leveled but their minimum level requirements begin to raise significantly after having to do the daedra lord item quest for Martin. I did not want to completely hard-cast the main quest, but instead to make it harder while still allowing for some freedom as to when you can engage on it.

Second, most npcs and creatures are capped both in min and max levels, meaning that there is a window of levels where they level up with the player and offer a consistent regularity of challenge. Once their max caps are reached, then soon after they will be cannon fodder for the experienced player.

Third, as it is now, most creatures drop goodies based on the character's level and not their own level. I did this for two reasons: 1- it did not involve crafting specialized loot tables for every npc and creature out there and 2- until their difficulty range is more tweaked and solid, that is, until I get a good feel of how hard they really are, against what types of fighting/magic techniques, etc, I was not sure about what kind of loot they deserved to have. The good news: I plan to make personalized loot tables for monsters based on level soon, as I am now beginning to get a feel for how hard some of these challenges are. (for example, I read about the player who killed Lord Volmyr, a tough vampire SOB at lvl 17 with lots and lots of GP spent and lots of fighting time. That was good, Volmyr is supposed to be that tough, so in my opinion, the player deserved the set of ebony armor and the new Dai-Katana, although I think he may need to be even a bit harder ) Also, another person posted winning against a patriarch at lvl 9. Those mofos are lvl 24+, so it is clear that they need to be beefed up more, although still killable if a lvl 9 with creative skills can tackle them--they should not be easy however.

Fourth, depending on feedback for the main quest experience, I may up its difficulty more. I think I will, since it never made much sense to me that the main quest of the game could be finished so early in the original. Now you can't, but still may not be as hard as I would like it to be.

Fifth, I am reworking still some loot tables for chests and dungeons since their respawning makes their need to have good rewards less imperative, as you can retry them every few days. Hopefully I can modify how long certain dungeons take to repopulate compared to others, and adjust loot accordingly.

Sixth, more creature/lvl variety is also in the works. Soon there will be more diversity within types of enemies (ala vampires) and where they dwell, and what they equip and drop. The same for wilderness monsters--I am a little tired of Mino lords, Ogres and Brown Bears being the only tough critters out there.

Seventh, I will release the next version in two formats,,, if the desire for that is common enough. I am still not sure however, but I can see that the timescale choice and the birthsigns choice should be up to the player since so many great mods do amazing work with that. I am happy that Auryn's leveling mod works with this one now however, awesome! I will look into that, so that more of you have more choices. Still, I will continue to release Oblivion Overhaul with many changes, not just loot/creature tables.

Eight, I can't easily break the mod in parts, that is, get the creature part and detach the loot changes. Many creatures have now modified tables in their inventory tabs which would not be compatible with other loot mods... too much reworking, essentially having to do all npcs/creatures from scratch. Sorry, not in the near future. More stuff soon, btw. Gotta go now but will be back here in a few

Cheers

Updated info: I will look into the problem with timescale and swaying of flora. This mod approaches the changes in game time the same way other mods do, I am sure. So the problem must appear here as well... Yet another good argument to trim the mod of some of its features that clash with a lot of people's preferences.

So far I only got it uploaded into gaming town. I am now sending it over to other sites, although it would be great to have a specific address where every new version and info on the mod and its undergoing changes could be posted. Looking into that too, I am not that well versed in website editing plus I do not own a hosting site.

[Stark]

If Ace Pace is still up for the gruntwork, I'll be able to present him with a table of changes to weapons/armour.

That mod looks neat - but on what level does compatibility work? I mean, I've already got storage chest and time-changing mods: which one gets primacy? My storage chest mod has resident-evil style chests, so will that work or will I be stuck with the ones from this mod? I'v never used mods with confictling changes before.

[Chardok]

If Ace Pace is still up for the gruntwork, I'll be able to present him with a table of changes to weapons/armour.

That mod looks neat - but on what level does compatibility work? I mean, I've already got storage chest and time-changing mods: which one gets primacy? My storage chest mod has resident-evil style chests, so will that work or will I be stuck with the ones from this mod? I'v never used mods with confictling changes before.

you should load oscuro's last, as it has some kind of time change thing in it that conflicts, but it's been thouroughly tested with many, many other mods according to the forum, and the only rough patches are user-error. One guy going so far as to call himself a tool!

[Zac Naloen]

I stumbled upon a mod that unlocks topless female characters (its actually a skin included in the game..)

If anyones interested... you know where to find me pm

[Laughing Mechanicus]

The author of TweakGuides.com has put up a 13 page Oblivion tweak guide here. It's almost certainly the most comprehensive one written so far, explaining all the ingame settings and ini files tweaks in detail. Definately worth a look if your experiencing low frame rates, stuttering or any technical problems.

Also that guide links to several mods that nicely improve the look of distant terrain without causing too much of a performance hit.

[Chardok]

CHUCK NORRIS IN TAMRIEL! SUCK IT, URIEL SEPTIM!

[DPDarkPrimus]

You know what Oblivion was missing? A "collect the materials to make an absolutely bad-ass weapon" quest. The best part? It's a sentient weapon! That's right, not only do you have your choice of the weapon being a sword, claymore, battle-axe, hammer, or bow, but you also get a choice of three distinct personalties, each with hundreds of lines of dialouge.

YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT.