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Contents

This article is a (frozen) Authored List. General editors may make technical corrections (fix links, note updated versions, solved problems), but may not change the subjective content of the list. In other words: You may fix links, note updated versions, solved problems, etc.

You may not edit, extend or remove subjective judgments in the list.

edit, extend or remove subjective judgments in the list. Any added notes should appear in italics at the end of existing text, and should be kept as short as possible.

Review/Archiving Note

This page is an Archive of A's List of Recommended Mods by Aelius.

A's List of Recommended Mods was probably the list of Oblivion mods for quite a while and is still very well regarded (despite not having been updated since August 2007). The list has been copied here in order to update links (mostly to reflect move from TesSource to TesNexus) and note the release of new versions.

list of Oblivion mods for quite a while and is still very well regarded (despite not having been updated since August 2007). The list has been copied here in order to update links (mostly to reflect move from TesSource to TesNexus) and note the release of new versions. Keep in mind that this list is somewhat outdated and will become more so over time. For links to other lists, see Recommended Mods.

Introduction

This is a list of the mods that I feel are the best of the many thousands available. Before we list some mods, what use would it be without knowing what a mod does? Or how to make one work? For anyone unfamiliar with mods, read this first.

If you wish to put my list in your browser's Favourites, you may want to do so with my Google Pages list. Since it's not a forum, you don't have to worry about changing links "every 200 posts" :) But just note that there's a lot of updates happening all of the time, so the Google Pages list might be a few days behind the forum list here.

Throughout this list the term "Vanilla Oblivion" is used frequently, or simply "vanilla". Vanilla Oblivion is Oblivion without the addition of any mods.

BallOfFire has a mod list, similar to mine, but on a smaller scale. You can find it here, and you may also find some mods that I don't have listed :)

Be sure to check the top of this page for the updates, that way you can easily see what mods have been added in the last few weeks. This way, you don't have to sift through the list, trying to remember what mods you've already seen.

Be sure to download Oblivion Mod Manager, which is almost essential for texture mods.

If you have the Shivering Isles expansion then be sure to download this, unless you have the Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch, which already fixes it. It's a fix for a bug that is present in all SI games. Speaking of Shivering Isles, I do not own that expansion, nor do I ever plan on owning it. In turn, I will not be adding any mods designed for use exclusively with Shivering Isles unless it is absolutely necessary, such as the one linked above.

As of May 4th, I've made this list much more user friendly for newcomers, much thanks to Jaga Telesin's idea. I've colour coded some arrows that I put before each mod.

§ My personal favourites.

† Mods that are popular in the community.

‡ Outstanding mods, simply must-haves.

Misc. Additions

Misc. Changes/Removals

New Buildings/Lands

Overhaul Mods

Adrenaline Oblivion - Adds many more creatures to the game, so you don't encounter only 3 or 4 enemies inside a dungeon for example. Incompatible with OOO.

Adventurer's Oblivion: This mod is an alternative to Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, changing many things. Check out both OOO and Adventurer's, and choose which you like best.

FCOM ( F rancesco's + War C ry + O OO + M MM) †: This mod allows the top 4 overhaul mods to work together at the same time. The author has done a lot of work to make them all combine seamlessly. The mod still is in beta, but many thousands of people use it with very little trouble. Some people prefer just using one of the big mods rather than all 4. I would be one of those people. But some people might like this one.

rancesco's + War ry + OO + MM) †: This mod allows the top 4 overhaul mods to work together at the same time. The author has done a lot of work to make them all combine seamlessly. The mod still is in beta, but many thousands of people use it with very little trouble. Some people prefer just using one of the big mods rather than all 4. I would be one of those people. But some people might like this one. Francesco's Leveled Creatures Items † - This mod makes numerous changes to creatures, NPCs and items. Some prefer this as opposed to Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul.

G_'s Loot Mod - Find it rather odd that bandits wear high level armour, even though they're Bandits? This mod changes the loot for almost everything in the game. This mod is much older than OOO, MMM and Francesco's, and the latter 3 mods do it much better, in my opinion. Incompatible with OOO.

Martigen's Monster Mod (MMM) §†‡ - This popular mod, designed to be used along with either OOO or Francesco's, includes 120+ brand new creatures and NPCs, 1500+ variant creatures and NPCs, unique encounters, advanced behaviour AI, advanced combat AI, tailored loot drops and more! Although the mod only focuses on creatures, unlike OOO and Francesco's, the work it does on creatures and NPCs is done to a greater extent than OOO and Francesco's, I think. It includes a version that is compatible with OOO/Francesco's, or you can use MMM by itself.

to be used along with either OOO or Francesco's, includes 120+ brand new creatures and NPCs, 1500+ variant creatures and NPCs, unique encounters, advanced behaviour AI, advanced combat AI, tailored loot drops and more! Although the mod only focuses on creatures, unlike OOO and Francesco's, the work it does on creatures and NPCs is done to a greater extent than OOO and Francesco's, I think. It includes a version that is compatible with OOO/Francesco's, or you can use MMM by itself. NPC Static Level - Makes NPCs have static levels so they don't level up with your character. After all, it's your game, and your character who's leveling. Incompatible with OOO.

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul §†‡ The biggest mod ever created for Oblivion, OOO changes almost everything in the game! Be sure to get the 1.32 addition! The 1.32 addition is in to be used with the main OOO mod, so be sure to get both!

Performance Enhancers

De-Parallaxer - This mod removes Parallax Mapping from many objects, which may result in increased frames per second, at the cost of objects being more dull and flat.

Low Poly Grass §‡ - Another solution to greatly increase frames per second. This mod reduces the number of polys in the grass. Frankly, I think it looks better than vanilla's grass. Works well with Short Grass, below.

than vanilla's grass. Works well with Short Grass, below. No Lights Flicker - This mod removes the flicker from every light source in the game, improving performance.

No Wind - This mod removes the sway effect given to trees and other flora, resulting in increased performance

Operation Optimization †‡ - This mod improves frames per second by as much as over 30, according to tests. In most cases though, it improves it by maybe 10-20 fps. There's no loss in quality, it simply optimizes the meshes. It works with texture mods that don't modity the .nif files (CaptNKill's mod, Qarl's mod etc.)

Quiet Feet - This mod fixes a sound bug on some systems, due to loud feet from animals.

Streamline §†‡ - This mod increases Oblivion's performance and reduces in-game stutter by clearing memory buffers on an intelligent schedule.

Quest Mods

The Oblivion Quest List specializes in quest mods, it does a much better job listing quests than I would be able to. So what I would recommend for quest mods is looking through that list.

Skill/Class/Ability/Attribute/Weapon Changes

Utilities

Buddah's List o' Links §† - This list contains nearly 100% of the mods released for Oblivion. Unfortunately, there's no way to know which mod is good, but this list provides the mods for you. Honestly, I find the list is excellent if you're looking for a specific mod which you know the name of, but can't find. But if you're new to mods and are looking for good ones, this list would be a nightmare to have to sort though. Also, say you're looking for a mod that changes water in game, this list is perfect because you can just Ctrl+F (Windows command for 'find') and then type in "water" and keep going through the list and find one that suits you. And finally, this mod (actually, more of a utility) requires Microsoft Excel to view it. If you don't want to have to dish out hundreds of dollars to buy Excel, there's a free program called Excel Viewer, which you can get here. Alternatively, you could view the online list of links here, which includes a search function.

Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) §†‡: No mod-user should be without this utility. It's invaluable, especially for texture mods.

Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) §†‡: This utility is necessary for many of the big mods out there. Essentially, it just allows modders to do much more with their mods, and in turn the mod- users must also have the utility.

must also have the utility. Wrye Bash: Wrye Bash has a lot of features. I mean a LOT. It's like twenty tools rolled into one. It includes as subfeatures the entire feature sets of other tools, and offers plenty of other features that no other mod tool has. Except installation. It's the "everything but installation" tool!

Weapon and Armour/Clothing additions

Texture Mods

Note: - The vast majority of texture mods (if not all) are compatible with OOO.

Creature/NPC/Face Texture Enhancers

Equipment Texture Enhancers

Landscape/Environment Enhancers

Map and Menu Texture Changes

Misc. Item Texture Enhancers

Misc. Texture Mods

§‡ The ultimate sign combination: Actually, this is 3 mods. But instead of having them as individual listings, I decided to combine them into one listing. The three mods are:

All three of them improve roughly 99% of the signs in game. Maybe even 100%. The problem is that all 3 mods have overlapping files. That's okay though, because we'll assign them priority. Better Signs and Improved Signs both deal with all sorts of signs in the game. Improved Signs does more, however. Better Signs was an incomplete project that, thankfully, the modder released in its unfinished form rather than scrapped it. Improved Signs retextures about 95% of the signs in game, including road signs (direction signs). Weathered Direction Signs only deals with direction signs. The difference between the direction signs in Improved Signs and Weathered Direction Signs is that the latter doesn't just retexture them, as Improved Signs does, it gives them a different look entirely, best just to see the screenshots.

So with that said, I recommend installing Better Signs first (giving it lowest priority), and then install Improved Signs on top of that, and then finally Weathered Direction Signs (Giving Weathered Direction Signs full prioty of the three). Doing this will ensure that Weathered Direction Sign's road signs are used, and then Improved Signs is used for everything else. And for the 5% of signs that Improved Signs didn't do, Better Signs will fill in the gaps :)