I had just spent all afternoon putting a list together for a couple of people requesting a list of mods I use. And now that it's finished, I thought maybe others might appreciate it as well. So Im gonna make this thread. I hope its alright, just let me know if Im posting in the wrong area, or if I shouldn't have created a new thread for it.
Mods that are simply MUST HAVE! Unless your PC is unable to cope...
Better Cities This is just amazing, I don't think I would find it easy to play without. There are things you just have to see for yourself that aren't in the image section or description. And don't be too intimidated by the 'Installation Difficulty', if you're installing the entire pack, which I recommend, then it is easier than you expect
Qarl's Texture Pack This will heavily tax your PC performance if you don't have an awesome computer like me
But seriously, its a pretty big file, it took me a couple of days to download, but that was okay because it comes in 10 parts, and each part can be used stand alone. So you can just gradually get each one and eventually all your textures will be replaced and voila! Oblivion will look better than Crysis 2. And that's not an exaggeration, I have Crysis 2 and my Oblivion game has better graphics and uses 3x the power. After playing Oblivion, my PC finds Crysis 2 to be a breeze
Unique Landscapes Compilation Does or the environment what Better cities does for cities
It is a really really nice mod, and it's definitely a must have.
Midas Spells of Aurum Even if you're not a fan of magic, this is a really rewarding mod, it adds a lot. And so many things to play around with. Even if you don't think you will use it, install it anyways - the file size is quite small - and just have it there for the sake of having it, you never know.
Deadly Reflex This is extremely awesome. But it is infamous for causing many glitches if you dont handle it right. I did have some seemingly incurable problems caused by it, but it worked out in the end, and now it works perfectly. Throwing a dagger of even a claymore at someone and actually seeing it impale them is very satisfying. Theres a tone of other features, you'll just have to read the description.
Alive Waters The underwater world no longer looks like the surface of the moon
There are fish and seaweed. Although the water surface replacement that comes with this isn't very nice, so here are some mods to replace the surface of the water:
Enhanced Water and
The Shivering Isles Addon This makes the water surfaces really nice. Now when you look out at sea, you wont see a big seam where the long distance rendering fades out
If you install this mod, go to Anvil and take a look out at sea, I needed to hug someone when I saw it, so I hugged myself... And reflections are better too.
Or as an alternative:Realistic Water You can use this instead of Enhanced Water. It does look really beautiful, I dare say better than Enhanced Water, but it hasn't taken care of that long distance seam like Enhanced Water has. I actually have them both, and I alternate between them as I please, for its quite easy to do so.
Fast Exit No more CTRL+ALT+DELETE every time you exit the game
And if you say you don't have that problem so you're fine, well, once you start modding that will change. This works 98% of the time, and is very convenient.
Cobl This adds a bunch of nice features, it's just good to have it.
Improved Trees and Flora 2 also requires
Improved Trees and Flora This makes the trees and flora almost photo-realistic. If you had seen some of the screenshots I posted in the Photographer's thread a while back you could see how nice it looks.
CM Partners Adds a lot of companion NPC's around Cyrodiil. You never know who you will randomly find
This is really cool paired with other companion related mods. But there's too many of them to list so I'll leave that to you
DarkDarnifiedUi This definitely deserves a place on this list, it replaces all the interface stuff with something much more sharp and sexy looking
It is a must have.
Free Leveling The enemies and loot, and items no longer spawn in accordance to your level, everything is free with its own random-ness. Now even at level 1, you can happen across a Minotaur Lord, or find some Ebony armor.
Natural Environments Greatly enhances the environment. This is a must have, I cant be bothered explaining this one that much, the link will tell it all
Oblivion Graphics Extender The description is slightly complicated, its another one thats just good to have, even if you're not sure what it does.
Realistic Ragdolls and Force This is a must MUST have. It greatly improves what the title states. You can choose from three options, I use the High option.
Book Jackets and
Shivering Book Jackets These are must have, your eyes will jizz in their pants - sockets, rather - when you see the book covers in game.
Supreme Magicka Update This does a a lot for the magic system, take a look at the description and you'll see why it's so popular.
Mythic Creatures This makes the creatures look better. Take a look at the images to decided whether you like them.
Immersive Interiors This mod lets you see out windows. Take a look at the images. This is sort of difficult to install, and caused me a tonne of problems, but it worked out in the end. You will need Wrye Bash, and also the following mod is required to use this:
All Natural You will need this to use Immersive Interiors. Also, if you installed Natural Environments like I recommended earlier, dont forget to deactivate the weather part of that mod. If you aren't clear on that let me know.
Animated Window Lighting System Now windows are lit up from outside, and if you wish, chimneys emit smoke as well. You get to choose your preferred color or tint of lighted window, and even what time they light up. This actually isn't really difficult to install, but I had a few problems with it, and I want to make sure you dont have the same problems.
Other Mods that are really awesome, perhaps some even better than the 'must have' ones, but still subject to preference:Combat Sounds 300 This makes the combat sounds sound better, like the ringing of a sword whence pulled from its sheath, or the collision of blades, etc etc.
Bloody Mess This covers the player in blood from fights, Dragon Age style. It can look really bad when your player is covered in blood and there is foggy weather. I still use it though, probably because I forget to deactivate it, but I know other people really love it so yeah
Advanced Magecraft This is very useful, the description might sound boring somehow, but it works very well. See for yourself.
Alluring Potion Bottles Its really simple, but makes a huge improvement, it's honestly the best potion bottle enhancement mod out there. Well at least in my opinion
Alternative Start Arrive by Ship This is great if you dont like the whole prison thing at the beginning of the game. I used this for my character. You can choose your social status when signing the emigration forms, and you also choose which port arrive by. The Imperial City Waterfront District option is only for those who have Better Cities installed, because in the Vanilla, there isn't actually a proper moat that goes through Leyawiin
Which brings to question how the heck did the Bloated Float and Marie Elena got in their... Actually, sorry to ramble on
But when I first downloaded this mod, there were only around 12 endorsements, Ive just looked at its page, there are now 975
Ambient Dungeons Makes the atmosphere of dungeons more eerie and dark. Im pretty sure this is the one that makes the dungeons darker, or maybe Im thinking of LetThereBeDarkness, Im not sure, all I know is this mod makes the dungeons more atmospheric
Ambient Town Sounds Makes towns and city areas sound like they have living people in them, no more graveyard feeling...
Atmospheric Oblivion Pretty much the same as the aforementioned, accept it has sounds for everywhere.
Atmospheric DarkUi Loading Screens This replaces the boring muddy loading screens with more nice pictures, you can choose what types of pictures to include, I think, I cant remember properly. A nice feature you can choose is to have - for the quotes that show during loading screens - quotes by famous philosophers. Its good cos there's pretty much a new quote every time, for a while that is.
Black-Powder Bombs You may be skeptical at first, I was at least, but this works perfectly and looks really good. The video in the description actually shows the old version of the bomb, I can tell because I saw the 'damage health' effects on the player that got hit, the new version does 'fire damage', which looks a lot more natural. Its really fun messing around with the bombs, I was in the imperial city, and I lit a fuse, then I picked the bomb up with telekinesis and shot it into a crowd (the flinging ability is added to your telekinesis spell with one of the magic mods I mentioned, and the 'crowd' was due to a mod I haven't yet mentioned) and they all went sprawling, it was great
And theres also remote triggers which work perfectly, and tripwire detonators.
Bloody Spray Pretty much just more blood...
Crowded Cities and
Crowded Roads They both, respectively, add more population to the cities and roads. It makes places feel more like the societies that are represented in the lore. And a lot more people to mow down if it pleases you
Curse of Hircine Resurrected This adds werewolves, and you can take part in the sickness yourself
I have it installed, but Ive never actually become a werewolf, yet. I roleplay like its my
only life, so Im just waiting for a werewolf to eventually come bite me while Im out on the road traveling or something. But Ive noticed a lot of people have problems with this mod, so be wary when installing
Actors in Charge and
Actors in Madness and
Actos in Emotion All add pose packs that allow you to do all the idle poses and animations that you see NPC's doing, you wouldn't think there are that many, but there are quite a few interesting ones
The Druid Mod Supposedly its called the 'Old Version' now, which is what I have. But if you want the new version - that I didn't know existed until now - here is
the link to that one. The old one works perfectly fine though, it's your decision of course, I actually haven't read the description to the new version...
Eagle Eye's Archery Mechanics Enhancement It makes archery a lot more satisfying. Arrows travel FAST, like they do in real life, and they have more power, knocking enemies down more frequently and such. I don't actually use a bow and arrow, but this definitely makes archery more satisfying, it felt good when I was testing it out.
Eek's Poisoning and Skooma Refining Im not sure why this mod still only has 2 endorsements, because its really neat. Maybe its the incredibly poor description... It adds the ability to poison foods with a number of different effects, there is the paralysis effect, sickness effect (which makes them faint from fatigue loss) and the deadly poison (same effect as the Poison Apple) It's pretty fun going around a dinner table, injecting poison into each and every piece of food, then sitting down and watching everyone gather all civilized like with their civilized clothes and DIE!! Im pretty sure there's more info in the readme.
Elsweyr and the Deserts of Anequina This is an incredibly well done mod. The author created the entire province of Elsweyr - nearly - and it looks stunning. But you've probably heard of it already
Forward Motion Blur It is what it says. I like it, but more people dislike it than like it. It sup to you.
Kyoma's Journal Mod This is quintessential for the roleplayer. It adds a journal that can be written in and everything. Its great, and depending on your settings, every entry is automatically exported to a folder on you hard-drive so you never lose your writing.
Let There be Darkness Makes night-time actually feel like night time. Everyone complains that its too dark, but I like it, it makes torches useful, and night-eye. Its realistic
Leviathan Soul Gems It makes soul gems much better looking.
Lynges Unlimited Death Reload Time Now you can look at your own dead body for as long as you feel like, instead of the load screen surprise raping you out of nowhere. You press esc to bring up the load screen whenever you feel like it.
Enhanced Grabbing - Put it in its Place This is a fun mod. Read the description.
Imperial Furniture Renovated This is a pretty neat mod, you can carry furniture around and buy furniture and re-arrange your rooms and stuff
And you can lock the furniture in place to ensure stability. I was wondering whether this belongs in the MUST HAVE list, but oh well...
Realswords Compilation Adds heaps of new weapons that are lore friendly and specific to each race, its good for diversity.
Side's Backpacks This is really good, and realistic. And if you mess around with ini to your liking you can make it even better
But yeah, this should probably be in the 'must have' section...
First Person Sitting Perspective Fix I don't no about you, but the first person perspective when sitting always sort of bothered me, so this fixes it, you no longer tower over everyone else when joining a table of people you are about to watch DIE!!
Blood Time Now blood wont fade away really quickly.
Telekinetic Mastery Adds a bunch of 'use the force'-esque type spells. They are pretty fun to use, especially when you use telekinetic pulse on a large crowd of people, and they all go sprawling
Universal Silent Voice This is essential if you are using a mod that has NPC dialogue that doesn't have voice acting, in this case, you only get a few seconds to read the subtitles. This mod gives people who cant read a paragraph in 2 seconds a chance to read the dialogue.
Okay, Im gonna end the list here, there are heaps I haven't mentioned to you that probably deserve to be mentioned, but this is enough to occupy you for at least a good couple of weeks, and I cant remember the others at the moment, maybe I'll send you updates, if you wish
I hope this list serves as a good archive you can look back on whenever you feel like looking for a good modification