The Fallout 3/Oblivion Mod-Help-Thread

n3rd · #1 07-25-2009, 11:36 AM

Heya

Okay, so here we are. The purpose of this post is to provide Help and Knowledge concerning modding of Fallout 3 and Oblivion (basically Bethesdas "Gamebyro"-Engine).

a) Introduction
b) Modding in General (IMPORTANT)
c) Essential Mods
d) Where to getz teh stuff?!?!???!! (Modding Sites)
e) Conclusion

a) Introduction
Modding in Oblivion and Fallout 3 can be a very extensive and time consuming task. I myself have gone so far as to learn how to alter Mods myself and change global variables. That´s not what this thread is about, though. What i want to do is provide a base for people who are new to the whole modding-game and want a small how-to guide and useful stuff to get started easily, as it took me forever to figure all those things out by myself.

Please excuse grammar and spelling errors, I´m not a native speaker. Corrections are very welcome.

b) Modding in General
There are a few things you should be aware of before throwing yourself into the great world of modding the Gamebyro-Engine. As first and foremost:

-THE LOAD ORDER!
The load order is the soul of every modded f3/obv. It´s the order the different mods are loaded in (oh rly

). There are some important ground rules:

.ESM-Files ALWAYS before .ESP files, NO exceptions.
The settings in latter .ESPs in the loadorder overwrite the former, this means if you have two .ESPs that change the same setting in a different way, the latter always wins.
You may find in the description of any given addon to load it last. That´s due to the above mentioned fact.
Usually, the load order is defined by the date the ESP/ESM was created. To circumvent this, we use different tools (see Essential Mods).
FALLOUT 3 EXTRA WARNING: In Patch 1.5, Bethesda managed to introduce a bug into Fallout that causes the game not to read ESP-Files properly. This problem is solvable by an relatively easy fix provided by the great modding community. More in Essentials.

-ARCHIVE INVALIDATION (wut )
This is a necessary step by Bethesda to include new content (Textures, Meshes, Sounds etc.) in the game. Usually, you would need to enter every single new file in a textdocument located in your F3/OBV %GAMEDIR%.
But again thanks to the modding community this also got solved (=> Essentials)

-bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
This setting is needed to run Mods properly. It can be changed in the Ini-File of the game. This setting is changed by Archive Invalidation Invalidated (=> Essentials)

c) Essential Mods
1) Fallout 3
Fallout Mod Manager [FOMM]
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=640

Allows the changing of the load order without having to edit the datestamps. Also brings some useful tools for more experienced users. Introduces the .FOMM format, wich allows easy install for mods (see mod page).

Fallout Script Extender [FOSE]
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4888
Extends the scripting in FO3. Needed for several mods.

Archive Invalidation Invalidated
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=944
Removes the need for entrys in Archiveinvalidation.txt when adding new content, sets bInvalidateOlderFiles=1 (0).

FO3Edit
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=637
Used to fix the Patch 1.5 ESP-Error (called MasterUpdate). Allows ESP/ESM editing for advanced users. You can run it in MasterUpdate mode by passing the parameter "-masterupdate" when running FO3Edit.exe or you can simply rename the exe to FO3MasterUpdate.exe

2) Oblivion
Oblivion Mod Manager [OBMM]
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097
Allows the changing of the load order without having to edit the datestamps. Also brings some useful tools for more experienced users. Introduces the .OBMM format, wich allows easy install for mods (see mod page).

Oblivion Script Extender [OBSE]
http://obse.silverlock.org/
Extends the scripting in Oblivion. Needed for several mods.

Archive Invalidation Invalidated
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10724
Removes the need for entrys in Archiveinvalidation.txt when adding new content, sets bInvalidateOlderFiles=1 (0).

Note to Oblivion: Some Big Mods (like OOO, Frans, WarCry, MMM, FCom) need WyreBash, but how this works you will need to gather yourself from the corresponding mod-pages.

d) Where to getz teh stuff?!?!???!! (Modding Sites)
Fallout 3:
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/
Big hostingsite for Fallout 3 Mods
http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/in...p?showforum=45
Official Fallout 3 Mod-Forum

Oblivion:
http://www.tesnexus.com/
Big hostingsite for Oblivion Mods
http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/
Site for several big Mods including FCOM (Francesco + WarCry + Oscuro + Martigen compatibility Mod)
http://qarl.rpgmods2.com/Qindex.html
HUGE Texture Pack for Oblivion, USE ONLY WITH HIGH END PERFORMANCE MACHINES!
http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/in...p?showforum=25
Official Oblivion Mod-Forum
Has own guides and stickies, very useful.

Additional Tip: On both Nexus-Sites there are TOP50-Categories, there you can find some pretty nice and popular mods.
There are, of course, more modding sites, but that´s for you to find

Oblivion+Fallout3 Game-Tweaking:
http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_1.html
http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

e) Conclusion
So that was my little guide to modding FO3 and Oblivion. If you have questions or problems, don´t hesitate to ask here or via PM. If anything is hard to understand or otherwise seems odd, just tell me. If this is the wrong forum or otherwise not needed here, you may kick it out. Thanks for reading,

n3rd

Mishy · #2 07-27-2009, 01:21 AM

Mod Manager isn't always needed i work fine without using it at all and i stay away from script extenders i think scripting is challenging enough as it is

n3rd · #3 08-05-2009, 05:55 AM

I myself am always using ModManagers since Freelancer. It just makes things easier and lets you control your mods better then the usual layout.

As for scriptext., i´ve got to say that is probably the only thing i NEVER had problems with :P