Hello.
For all of those who play Oblivion on PC and mod/are thinking of modding, here is a guide of my personal selections of must have mods, updated for 2009:
***Please ignore grammatical errors.
Note: All of these mods are available at www.tesnexus.com, or www.planetelderscrolls.com
#1: Tamriel Viewable when Distant
This mod allows you see distant castles, ruins, villages and farms. Features of the landscape not normally able to be seen across the distance in Oblivion and they barely affect how the game runs. There is not much to say on it, as it is a small mod that greatly increases immersion.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6403
#2: Obscuros Oblivion Overhaul
Honestly, what can be said about this mod. Its massive and game changing. You will suddenly find yourself immersed in a world far deeper that what the original oblivion offered. The new weapons and armor are great, plus the new characters, creatures and items. The mod takes a while to download but it is so worth it. For a better description simply look it up on youtube, you will be impressed.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256
#3: mart's Monster Mod
Once again another huge mod that vastly improves gameplay through the wild life aspect of oblivion. Some of the greatest differences it offers are things like: crabs won't attack you unless provoked, a huge variety of animals including Jaguars, guars, various species of rat and wolf. All sorts of of new enemies in dungeons and ruins and now they all interact with each other. Ever wondered why a wolf never attacked a deer, well now they do. And beware entering Oblivion at a high level, cause now it has dragons
. Watching a group of gore rats attack a family of imps and the fight that ensues is most entertaining.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17784 (this is an update you have to download the actual file from planet elder scrolls)
#4 Deadly Reflex
THIS IS A MUST HAVE MOD!!!!
Ever wanted the fights to be more realistic! Well heres your answer! Now (with high enough skill) you can cut peoples heads off, their hands off or even cut them in half. Stick an arrow in a vital organ and watch them bleed to death. Turn something into a flaming corpse or freeze it solid. Even explode people! Not only this, but enemies can fight better. They hit you, they dodge, they can even flip. I highly recommend this mod.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8273
#5 Beautiful People
Someone once said all the NPCs in Oblivion looked like they have down syndrome... now you can fix it. Beautiful peoples adds multiple new playable races to the game and just makes the people look better in general. Also the selection of eye choices you get is phenomenal.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5175.
#6 Natural Environments and Unique Landscapes
Ok, the scenery in Oblivion is good, but it can be much better. NAtural environments adds birds in the air, clears up the water, makes the trees more realistic and improves the weather. By Combining it with a mod like 'Alive Waters' you feel as if your in a living, breathing world.
Seeing flocks of birds overhead and multiple species of bug fly past your face is worth every second of this short download.
Don't get me started on the Unique Landscapes. They are magical. There is 20 of them now (I think) and each one changes portions of the map to make them dynamic and diverse. Seriously, if you enjoying exploring the country side then you will love these mods. From farmland with cattle, to great redwood forests and white sandy beaches, with rivers and glades and collosal canyons cyrodil becomes a very idyllic country.
For Unique Landscapes: search the taskbar on Tesnexus.
natural Environments: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2536
#7: 10 travellers and Tamriel travellers.
For me the roads of cyrodil were a little to bland. They needed to people, and there were two great mods to put them there. If you want to see travelling monks, travelling merchants or just people moving from town to town then this is the mod for you. And if you don't, still download this mod, cause it just makes oblivion so much more life like.
*** Oh and incidently, you may find them wander through oblivion gates and meet some on the planes of oblivion, especially if you have midas magic installed. Also very amusing.
10 Travellers: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3958
Tamriel travellers: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4387
#8: Anvil Bay Harbour Expansion
This mod is great, Anvils harbour suddenly becomes a lot busier. More ships, more people, more buildings and you can even pilot your own ship which is purchasable from a new anvil Harbour building.When combined with 'Unique landscapes: the Lost Coast' Anvil becomes a place you will spend a few hours just on exploring. Another Terrific mod.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10080
#9: Portable campsite
Another small and simple mod, it lets you have a portable tent, portable campfire, protable swag and portable sack. If you want to stop and sleep for the night, just set up your tent and lay down your swag, set up a campfire and its all good. It may not seem like much but it greatly adds to the overall immersion of the game. You can even sleep in Oblvion if you want, providing theres no enemies around of course.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5684
#10: DarkUId_DarN_16_Manual_Version-11280
This mod is fantastic, it is a complex to install though so anyone who doesnt want to edit the ini file should avoid this. Saying that its brilliant, as this list is for brilliant mods. It edits the menu fantastically and makes everything clearer and easier to use, say goodbye to your cluttered, difficult-to-manage inventory with this mod. A+
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11280
***If this thread gets enough hits or someone requests it I will continue the list (with a new thread), hope this helped anyone.
Well, since this list got some good replies I will list 5 extra MODS I personally enjoy and use.
#11 Kvatch Rebuilt
This mod should have been listed in the original post, and Personally I would rate this as a must have mod for the oblivion player. When I first heard of Kvatch rebuilt I was a bit 'iffy' about whether or not it was good, in other words I thought it might be dodgy. How I was wrong. This mod doesn't instantly put a new Kvatch in Cyrodil, it rebuilts it slowly over time. The people of Kvatch will require your help, and to see the process of transformation of ruins to a city is spectacular. First you see the people move their camp back into Kvatch, after the quests in that area are completed. Then the rubble is cleared, and buildings begin to be built. To see everything in its pre-fixed stage is great and the BEST THING is it takes a long time to finish. It is a really fantastic mod and I give kudos to the author.
#12 Theives Arsenal
This mod adds some unique, very good items to the game. You can douse candles, scale buildings and (my favourite part) knock people unconscious. Use vine arrows to ascend up buildings away from your attackers, douse any lights with water arrows so you can sneak undetected. This mod is perfect for anyone who plays as stealth and it simply greatly improves the stealth aspect of the game.
#13 Clocks of Cyrodil
This mod is purely astetic (excuse my poor spelling). It adds functioning clocks with sounds and unique features to the game world. The clocks look very real and their are various kinds from grand farther clocks to wall mounted clocks. I like it and it improves the game world, a small mod the increases your immersion.
#14 The Lost Spires
Much #2 and #3 this is another large scale mod that you will need to take some time to download. It is great, it adds a professional new guild and an enthralling story line. Multiple new items, loading screens and information into Tamriels past (for the lore lover).
I do have one problem with it though, it is not voice acted, which decreases immersion. If you don't mind reading chracter scripts without a voice coming out then this mod is fine. Also, the spires are so well designed and the music for them so eerily good it makes it immediately worth the download time.
#15 Get Wet
A small simple mod, when it starts raining, you get wet. You can see drops running down people and animals and its another simple immersion increaser.
#?? Slof's Dogs and Slof's Horses
These 2 mods are listed as ?? as I can no longer find them. Everyone can admit the horses look terrible in oblivion, and Slof's horses improves them greatly, far better than any other horse improving mod. The same occurs with Slof's dogs, the dogs of cyrodil become incredibly diverse but I can't find the mod.
Check out the 4th post in this thread for some good mods.
***For some mods (namely #4) OBSE (oblivion script extender is required), it is easy to install and can be found here. http://obse.silverlock.org/
NOTES on Tesnexus' Top 100 mod list:
This list was once upon a time very good, but now it is full of many meaningless mods that have taken over the places of better ones. Because everyone now has the older mods that are still the best, new ones need to be made publicly available. Don't get me wrong, many are great, like Lost Paladins of the Divines, but they are not required to enrich your game experience.
For all of those who play Oblivion on PC and mod/are thinking of modding, here is a guide of my personal selections of must have mods, updated for 2009:
***Please ignore grammatical errors.
Note: All of these mods are available at www.tesnexus.com, or www.planetelderscrolls.com
#1: Tamriel Viewable when Distant
This mod allows you see distant castles, ruins, villages and farms. Features of the landscape not normally able to be seen across the distance in Oblivion and they barely affect how the game runs. There is not much to say on it, as it is a small mod that greatly increases immersion.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6403
#2: Obscuros Oblivion Overhaul
Honestly, what can be said about this mod. Its massive and game changing. You will suddenly find yourself immersed in a world far deeper that what the original oblivion offered. The new weapons and armor are great, plus the new characters, creatures and items. The mod takes a while to download but it is so worth it. For a better description simply look it up on youtube, you will be impressed.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256
#3: mart's Monster Mod
Once again another huge mod that vastly improves gameplay through the wild life aspect of oblivion. Some of the greatest differences it offers are things like: crabs won't attack you unless provoked, a huge variety of animals including Jaguars, guars, various species of rat and wolf. All sorts of of new enemies in dungeons and ruins and now they all interact with each other. Ever wondered why a wolf never attacked a deer, well now they do. And beware entering Oblivion at a high level, cause now it has dragons
. Watching a group of gore rats attack a family of imps and the fight that ensues is most entertaining. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17784 (this is an update you have to download the actual file from planet elder scrolls)
#4 Deadly Reflex
THIS IS A MUST HAVE MOD!!!!
Ever wanted the fights to be more realistic! Well heres your answer! Now (with high enough skill) you can cut peoples heads off, their hands off or even cut them in half. Stick an arrow in a vital organ and watch them bleed to death. Turn something into a flaming corpse or freeze it solid. Even explode people! Not only this, but enemies can fight better. They hit you, they dodge, they can even flip. I highly recommend this mod.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8273
#5 Beautiful People
Someone once said all the NPCs in Oblivion looked like they have down syndrome... now you can fix it. Beautiful peoples adds multiple new playable races to the game and just makes the people look better in general. Also the selection of eye choices you get is phenomenal.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5175.
#6 Natural Environments and Unique Landscapes
Ok, the scenery in Oblivion is good, but it can be much better. NAtural environments adds birds in the air, clears up the water, makes the trees more realistic and improves the weather. By Combining it with a mod like 'Alive Waters' you feel as if your in a living, breathing world.
Seeing flocks of birds overhead and multiple species of bug fly past your face is worth every second of this short download.
Don't get me started on the Unique Landscapes. They are magical. There is 20 of them now (I think) and each one changes portions of the map to make them dynamic and diverse. Seriously, if you enjoying exploring the country side then you will love these mods. From farmland with cattle, to great redwood forests and white sandy beaches, with rivers and glades and collosal canyons cyrodil becomes a very idyllic country.
For Unique Landscapes: search the taskbar on Tesnexus.
natural Environments: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2536
#7: 10 travellers and Tamriel travellers.
For me the roads of cyrodil were a little to bland. They needed to people, and there were two great mods to put them there. If you want to see travelling monks, travelling merchants or just people moving from town to town then this is the mod for you. And if you don't, still download this mod, cause it just makes oblivion so much more life like.
*** Oh and incidently, you may find them wander through oblivion gates and meet some on the planes of oblivion, especially if you have midas magic installed. Also very amusing
.10 Travellers: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3958
Tamriel travellers: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4387
#8: Anvil Bay Harbour Expansion
This mod is great, Anvils harbour suddenly becomes a lot busier. More ships, more people, more buildings and you can even pilot your own ship which is purchasable from a new anvil Harbour building.When combined with 'Unique landscapes: the Lost Coast' Anvil becomes a place you will spend a few hours just on exploring. Another Terrific mod.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10080
#9: Portable campsite
Another small and simple mod, it lets you have a portable tent, portable campfire, protable swag and portable sack. If you want to stop and sleep for the night, just set up your tent and lay down your swag, set up a campfire and its all good. It may not seem like much but it greatly adds to the overall immersion of the game. You can even sleep in Oblvion if you want, providing theres no enemies around of course.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5684
#10: DarkUId_DarN_16_Manual_Version-11280
This mod is fantastic, it is a complex to install though so anyone who doesnt want to edit the ini file should avoid this. Saying that its brilliant, as this list is for brilliant mods. It edits the menu fantastically and makes everything clearer and easier to use, say goodbye to your cluttered, difficult-to-manage inventory with this mod. A+
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11280
***If this thread gets enough hits or someone requests it I will continue the list (with a new thread), hope this helped anyone.
Well, since this list got some good replies I will list 5 extra MODS I personally enjoy and use.
#11 Kvatch Rebuilt
This mod should have been listed in the original post, and Personally I would rate this as a must have mod for the oblivion player. When I first heard of Kvatch rebuilt I was a bit 'iffy' about whether or not it was good, in other words I thought it might be dodgy. How I was wrong. This mod doesn't instantly put a new Kvatch in Cyrodil, it rebuilts it slowly over time. The people of Kvatch will require your help, and to see the process of transformation of ruins to a city is spectacular. First you see the people move their camp back into Kvatch, after the quests in that area are completed. Then the rubble is cleared, and buildings begin to be built. To see everything in its pre-fixed stage is great and the BEST THING is it takes a long time to finish. It is a really fantastic mod and I give kudos to the author.
#12 Theives Arsenal
This mod adds some unique, very good items to the game. You can douse candles, scale buildings and (my favourite part) knock people unconscious. Use vine arrows to ascend up buildings away from your attackers, douse any lights with water arrows so you can sneak undetected. This mod is perfect for anyone who plays as stealth and it simply greatly improves the stealth aspect of the game.
#13 Clocks of Cyrodil
This mod is purely astetic (excuse my poor spelling). It adds functioning clocks with sounds and unique features to the game world. The clocks look very real and their are various kinds from grand farther clocks to wall mounted clocks. I like it and it improves the game world, a small mod the increases your immersion.
#14 The Lost Spires
Much #2 and #3 this is another large scale mod that you will need to take some time to download. It is great, it adds a professional new guild and an enthralling story line. Multiple new items, loading screens and information into Tamriels past (for the lore lover).
I do have one problem with it though, it is not voice acted, which decreases immersion. If you don't mind reading chracter scripts without a voice coming out then this mod is fine. Also, the spires are so well designed and the music for them so eerily good it makes it immediately worth the download time.
#15 Get Wet
A small simple mod, when it starts raining, you get wet. You can see drops running down people and animals and its another simple immersion increaser.
#?? Slof's Dogs and Slof's Horses
These 2 mods are listed as ?? as I can no longer find them. Everyone can admit the horses look terrible in oblivion, and Slof's horses improves them greatly, far better than any other horse improving mod. The same occurs with Slof's dogs, the dogs of cyrodil become incredibly diverse but I can't find the mod.
Check out the 4th post in this thread for some good mods.
***For some mods (namely #4) OBSE (oblivion script extender is required), it is easy to install and can be found here. http://obse.silverlock.org/
NOTES on Tesnexus' Top 100 mod list:
This list was once upon a time very good, but now it is full of many meaningless mods that have taken over the places of better ones. Because everyone now has the older mods that are still the best, new ones need to be made publicly available. Don't get me wrong, many are great, like Lost Paladins of the Divines, but they are not required to enrich your game experience.
