Oblivion

About this mod

Another Oblivion Overhaul. This one is meant to keep the game as close to vanilla feel as possible while improving on various aspects of the game. Examples: No more hordes of bandits and marauders in daedric or glass armor, adjusted level scaling of NPCs, lower level enemies don't dissapear, new armor variations and more smaller and greater changes

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Changelogs
Donations
Foreword
========
After some time thinking about it and some consideration, I'm not really satisfied with the quality and content of this mod of mine anymore and I plan on majorly reworking it (Whenever I may find the time for that). While I like it in it's current state and will keep using it for myself, I noticed that it might be a bit too much after my taste to be considered a good experience for other people than just me. For now, I can recommend using "Ascension" Overhaul instead: https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/50237. It is similar in many aspects, but without some of the flaws my mod brings with it.
I will leave my mod available of course, variety and choice is good and for everyone who is like me, reads the description and thinks "Yep, that's what I want!" it is still a good mod, after all.
Mixxa 21.12.2020


1) Description
2) Introduction
3) What has been changed/done?
4) Incompatibilities
5) Installation
6) Trivia
7) Credits

Starting a new game/save is highly recommended after installing this mod, as some changes may not be properly applied with existing saves.
(This also applies if you change from any version of ZOO to version 2.1, as it introduces changes to the Shivering Isles.)

1) Description
===========

Another Oblivion Overhaul. This overhaul/compilation is meant to keep the game as close to vanilla feel as possible while improving on various aspects of the game. I hope for this mod to be appealing for new players, people who come back after some time to replay once in a while or people not interested in doing huge mod-lists, installations or configurations by themselfes.

To put it simply, I don't have the genius of Oscuro, the skill of Maskar, Arthmoor or the people who continued OOOs divine work, but if you feel overwhelmed by the "weight" of these overhauls and think you want something smaller that still gets the job done, this might be for you.

2) Introduction
============

A list of features and changes can be found below at 3).

ZOO is based on Brashers Oblivion Overhaul and expanded with various mods, assets and edits from other modders and myself to provide an enhanced Oblivion experience that is easy to install and, hopefully, just as enjoyable.

Every feedback, especially regarding balancing and bugs, is very much welcomed, as everyone has a different playstile and I want the mod to feel balanced for as many as possible playstiles.

You may decide to additionally install Quarls texture pack and a mod that makes the faces look better (=> King of the Hill in that regard is OCOv2 (Load ZOO's esp after OCOv2)) then slap this Overhaul on top of it and you are ready for your first playthrough or revisiting the game while having a solution to the level scaling problem and improvements in other aspects of the game, together with graphical enhancements.
(The "grand list of graphics" is bevilex modlist, if you are ready to invest quite a lot of time.)

If you already have an extensive modlist but still want to add this mod, then I recommend that you (due to possible incompatibilities) move this one far up in the load order, as this overhaul may not look like it, but it touches quite a lot of things in the background and you would most likely want the other mods to win the conflicts.)

In any way, make sure to install this mod with any mod manager of your choice to easily remove it again, if you don't like it.
(And always keep a Backup if anything has to be overwritten, Wrye Bash mod manager is king here.)
(Another thing for Wrye Bash users: Fitting Bash Tags for easier creation of bashed patches have been added too.)

Manual install of the mod is of course possible too. Just copy the downloaded files into Oblivion's Data folder as usual and activate this mod's esp.


3) What has been changed/done?
===========================

*) Adjusted level scaling:
Spoiler:  
Show
Bandit and Marauder grunts will no longer indefinitely scale with you, just like various necromancers or enemy mages/conjurers. They are now stuck at levels on a range of 10 - 15 - 20 depending on their rank and skill and the highest quality of armor and weaponry they will have are steel, silver and maybe dwarven respectively. No more hordes of bandits and marauders in glass and daedric armor!

But having only these few types of armors and weapons for enemy grunts would very quickly become very boring. As such, various new variatons of iron, steel and other sorts of fitting armor with unique looks and stats have been added!

"But wait, how will I get my beautiful elven, mithril, ebony, daedric, etc. armor and weaponry?"
As stated above, the grunts will no longer level with you. The warlords and bosses will still level with you, as such, their armor and weapons can in rare occasions be better than the one of their grunts.

But bosses and warlords only wear better armor and weapons on rare occassions. How you mainly will get higher quality armor and weaponry is either through good old loot (loot has not been reduced to only lower materials) or (importantly) through merchants, they are no longer useless!
Depending on your level, they will now sell high quality armor and weaponry.
Higher quality gear also has been made available for a little bit earlier levels this way. Now you just need the money or a high enough mercantile or thieving to cheaply get your hands on it. Visiting weaponsmiths and armorers is now worth your while (if you have the money).

But be aware that this means that larger groups of bandits and marauders (maybe even only single individuals) prove to be a much greater challenge for a low level character than they did before! If you don't want to take the risk or don't think that's worth the trouble early on, then there are still creatures and oblivion gates to level up and loot. Why? See below.).



*) Creature variety:
Spoiler:  
Show
Lower level enemies/creatures like wolfes, imps, scamps, etc. do not vanish, they will still appear next to more powerful enemies after you advance in level. Higher level creatures will only start to appear once you start to get stronger too. This is to ensure that there are is always a way for your character to level, if you don't want to take on bandits and marauders early level and to keep variety going.
Important to note: Most of these creatures have also been given level limits, similar to how described above, as such, some creatures will at one point stop leveling with you, while others will not to still provide challenge.



*) No artificially delaying quests because of rewards:
Spoiler:  
Show
Items that are quest rewards are now static and no longer scale with your level. You don't simply get the best version of the item either, this depends on how important/relevant the quest is to the aspect of the main story or world of Cyrodiil. That means: No more worrying about artificially delaying quests with items as reward.



*) Less frustrating and quicker combat:
Spoiler:  
Show
All combat damage has been increased, in order to not have battles just go on forever without either side doing any notable damage. This overhaul has been balanced with the difficulty slider at it's default state, but that doesn't mean that it has to be played like this, you can adjust it however you want.



*) Less frustrating leveling up:
Spoiler:  
Show
Leveling up has been made more generous, in order to receive +5 bonuse, you no longer need to have 10 skill ups, now 8 or 9 will be enough too. The threshold for +4 and +3 modifiers has been slightly altered too, making for a less frustrating leveling experience.



*) New and diverse Weaponry:
Spoiler:  
Show
Various new weapons similiar to how they appeared in Morrowind have been added; Cutlasses, ninjatos, katanas, war staves, dai-katanas, halberds, spears etc. mode of varying resources from iron to daedric.



*) Enhanced and expanded enchanting:
Spoiler:  
Show
You can now enchant clothing and armor with multiple effects, instead of just one!
Additionally, negative enchantments can be used to give you extra charge. For example, you might want to enchant an item to drain your own strength in order to have a more powerful fortify intelligence effect or other multiple different effects on an item.



*) Unique City Equipment:
Spoiler:  
Show
Guards in cities have been given unique equipment, to make them distinct and better looking. Some cities also got special chapel
guards with special shields, befitting the deity of their chapel.



*) Resized vanilla menus:
Spoiler:  
Show
The inventory and other menus have been scaled better and are now better readable and usable for a pc game, while still keeping the vanilla look.



*) Better spell icons:
Spoiler:  
Show
Magic effects and spells have been given more colorful icons to make them easier to distinguish.



*) Enchanting arrows:
Spoiler:  
Show
You can now enchant arrows by yourself, instead of only relying on loot and buying them, to bring doom to your enemies by a distance.
Quote: "One soul gem will enchant as many arrows as a normal weapon would get strikes from the enchantment."



*) Ayleid Well bonuses:
Spoiler:  
Show
Using the power of Ayleid Wells now restores all your enchanted weapons charges. Your actively equipped weapon will additionally recharge over time, based on your skills of the magic arts.



*) Better thieving:
Spoiler:  
Show
Thievery and looting is now more worthwhile! Random stuff like pewter mugs, brooms, calipers, etc. have been given a worth, instead of just being of 0
worth. Silver gear and gems are (as should be expected) quite expensive.
And the best of it all? Thanks to the genius of lubronbrons, all these items like plates, food and everything an npc had placed in their house (not in cointainers, really placed on tables, shelfes or the ground, etc.) will respawn! You no longer have to feel bad for robbing someones dinner-table, they will simply restock it after some time!



*) More marked areas:
Spoiler:  
Show
Doomstones, Runestones and Wayshrines now have map markers you can discover (not visible from the beginning), so more for you to explore.



*) Better looking Soulgems:
Spoiler:  
Show
Soulgems have been given distinct looks and colors, inspired by how they looked in Morrowind.



*) New armor for imperial battlemages:
Spoiler:  
Show
Arch-Mage Traven and Imperial Battlemages now wear armor that is befitting of their status.



*) Playable imperial palace armor:
Spoiler:  
Show
Imperial Palace armor has been made playable.



*) Diverse staves:
Spoiler:  
Show
Staves have been given diverse but vanilla friendly looks.



*) Additional daedric armor:
Spoiler:  
Show
Dremora Valkynaz will now wear very awesome looking armor you may recognise from the past.



*) Even better thieving:
Spoiler:  
Show
If you are skilled enough, you can now loot the inventory of shops, as the "invisible/hidden" chests of the merchants have been given keys to
open and have been put into their respective shops. The keys have mostly been given to the owners of the shops.



*) Better pickpocketing:
Spoiler:  
Show
Pickpocketing is now governed by your sneak skill, if you ever turn out to be a master (100) of sneak, then you may find yourself to be able to pickpocket without getting caught. If you want to reverse pickpocket an item, press the "T" key while hovering over an item in your inventory and you will attempt to place it in your victims pockets.



*) Populated tavers:
Spoiler:  
Show
The taverns around Cyrodiil have been populated with random travelers, adventurers, mages, etc.



*) Unused dialogue has been enabled:
Spoiler:  
Show

Previously unused idle dialogue (fully voiced by the original voice actors) has been enabled.



*) Noticeable skillbooks:
Spoiler:  
Show
Skillbooks are now more distinct, as their name has been given an asterisk in front of their name. I.e.: "*Immortal Blood".



*) Better conjuration:
Spoiler:  
Show
Scales the limit of your summonable creatures based on your conjuration skill.
Limits:
Novice (< 25 Skill): One creature.
Apprentice (>= 25 Skill): Two creatures.
Journeyman (>= 50 Skill): Three creatures.
Expert (>= 75 Skill): Four creatures.
Master (>= 100 Skill): Five creatures.



And various smaller things which you can find in the "Changelog" dropdown at the top of the page.


Please refer to the credits section below to find out more about where I got various ressources/ideas from.


4) Incompatibilities
=================

Very likely a lot. This mod may not look like it, but it touches a lot. Leveled lists, npcs, armor, weapons, creatures, etc.
If you take a look at the credits, you may figure out possible incompatibilities with other mods.


5) Installation
============

Every Mod Manager for Oblivion should be able to handle this.

Otherwise you can easily install it manually by copying the content of the archive to Oblivion's Data folder and then activating the ESP in the game launcher or mod manager of your choice.

You may need to download and install 7zip if your archivar programm doesn't support .7z archives.
https://www.7-zip.org/

6) Trivia
======

Why Zensalin's Overhaul if your username is Mixxa77?
Well, since MOO is already a thing, I went for ZOO, as Zensalin1 is another online username I use on various sites.


7) Credits
=======

David Brasher - Brashers Oblivion Overhaul.
Aestherus - Lower Level Enemies Don't Disappear.
tbsk - Local Guards Features.
Edocsil - Blackwood Ceremonial Armor.
Wikinger9048 - Brigandine.
Jester814 - Lightrider Armor Modders Resource.
Jeremy
Lancilotto
da mage
Ghogiel
Ryu Doppler
themythofstrider
Levithan
Phitt
Arthmoor and the UOP team - Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
antomi8 - Morrowindesque Orcish Samurai Armor.
Guinefort1 - Expanded Weaponry, Morrowind-esque Valkynaz Armor, Diversified Staves.
mirz619 - Steel Shield Replacer.
Trollf - Divine Shields.
Gorv - Gorv Ressource Pack.
Rotak - Realistic Misc Item Value.
Riklund - Diverse Effect Icons.
E2B2 - Lootable Merchant Chests.
a_saffin - Doomstone Map Markers.
Quazzy - Improved Soulgems.
Axeface - Archmage Battle Armour.
Wikinger9048 - Medieval Armor Resources.
mikegemini - Mikes Clothes Replacer v11.
oddbasket / constin - Oddbasket Imperial Armor Replacement.
SRJoben - Irresponsible Horses.
itsbooby - Inspiration for improved Faction Relations in his Mod "Bandits and Marauders will fight Creatures and Goblins".
ReteroX - Closed Ebony Helmet.
Aelius28 - As Silver Ebony and NPC Static Level
McMuffin - Daedric Lord Armor.
Bieder / Beider - BTmod.
gamingsrc - My Custom BTmod.
Sendoria - Noticeable Skill Books.
Mezlo - Wayshrine Map Markers.
Andragorn - Andragorns weapons and armors.
Oblivionuzer - Tavern-Goers.
Shadow-She-Wolf and Cliffworms - Idle Dialogues.
miguick - Idea for improvement of Idle Dialogue.
lubronbrons - Greed Snatcher (AoG) and The Advanced Reverse Pickpocket (AoG).
SPARTAN VI - Elderscrolls Font Pack.
DemonLord7654 - His idea of having conjurers wear different types of robes and clothing, as shown in his mod "Casual Conjurers".
zertualpro - Underworld armor.
ElderScrollsFan001 - Legion Dragon Sword and Shield and Real Black Bow Bandits Revised.
hatcher29 - Imperial Dragon Heavy Shield and Armor.
TheNiceOne - Soulgem Magic.
TheTalkieToaster - Enchantment Enhanced.
flyfightflea - Enchantment Restore Over Time OBSE.
kab, ZeRo2545 and GabryDX - Inspiration/Idea for multiple summons.
freeb0rn - Colored Map Markers.
coronerra - Coronerras Maximum Compatibility Skeletons.
amnes and Billyro - Remade Refined Legion Armor.