The Popehat Oblivion Omods Project

…first the bad news:  although we’ve been lax over the last two-three weeks, today makes it official:  we will no longer be supporting any part of POOP v.1 via this site.  That version of POOP was really always intended as a sort of beta for things, and then we made it a torrent to get it out to friends and the whole thing took on a momentum of its own.  Well, it’s dead now.

Reason for that and the good news?  POOP v.2 is pretty much sort of kind of done.  Last night (well, this morning) at well past 4 am, I got a full working version of POOP v.2 running like prairie gazelles on my computer.

So what does that mean for when you can play with our POOP?  Well, here’s the itinerary:

1.  When I get home from work tonight, I’ll compile the list of mods we’re including (and in some cases hoping to include; we were a little tardy on some of our permission requests, so we’re awaiting those), with the version numbers.

2.  By doing that, you’ll see what’s in store for POOP v.2.  I think it’ll be a better version of Oblivion than the proto POOP ever was, though.  If you’re a modder and you see one of your mods, you’ll be able to check to see if the version is up-to-date (it should be; I spent the better part of 15 hours straight re-downloading *everything* from around the ‘Net.)  It’ll also serve as a last call for modders we haven’t heard from or been able to contact to step in and say “whoah hoss!”

3.  This weekend a few friends of mine will be playing with POOP to see that the install documentation and everything works correctly and to fix any crashes or oddities they’re seeing.

4.  Don’t ask to be in the beta.  Since that part will be a direct download, I have to make sure that there are only 5-10 people doing the Beta, or this site will overload and crash and burn.  Sorry!

5.  If all goes well, I have  a favor to try to cash in from a person and a website to get POOP v.2 available as a direct download to everyone, rather than a torrent that is tougher to regulate.

So there it is!  I apologize for taking so long; the last complication was indeed a blown power supply and mobo on my gaming rig about the third week of July.  I had a vacation scheduled for the end of July/early August, so I held off on repairing it until I got home, and then didn’t get to it until Monday.

But here we are, and there we go!  I can’t wait for you all to get a chance to use this!

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Hi, everyone.

Sorry to report we’ve been delayed by some hardware trouble. The Chief’s motherboard failed so POOPv2 has been on hold while he gets his gaming rig back up and running. We were hoping to get it out this week, but it didn’t quite happen. Our new target is mid-to-late next week.

In the meantime, we’re finalizing our list of mods, securing the final permissions, and updating the documentation.

Thanks for your patience and sorry for the delay!

-Team POOP

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Hi all, I figured I’d give an update to where things stand with POOP.

First off, the “asking permissions” phase is almost done.  When I finish writing here, I’m sending out 5 individually written permissions to folks whom I suspect will be the most likely to say “no”.  Everyone else I’ve asked has given their blessing, but I’ve saved these folks for last so as not to have my mojo blunted with early rejection.  Cross your fingers!  (If permissions aren’t granted, we’ll at least put up links here after the fact; it’s an easy work-around, but sort of defeats the POOP purpose of not having to spend valuable time hunting down mods at various places online.)

I’m doing a lot of testing right now.  You’ve probably noticed that I’ve reigned back on posting updates to mods that appeared in POOP v.1.  Fact is, there are only so many hours in the day and I’m spending the majority of recreational computer time I have testing mods and mod updates for POOP v.2 right now, making sure everyone plays well together.   One of my major areas of testing is LOD graphics/texturing.  I wasn’t really sold on the way we handled that in POOP v.1, and wanted to spend some real quality time with that aspect of it (If you’re an LOD modder of color maps or normal maps and are wondering why I haven’t begged permissions from you yet, that’s coming after I figure out how POOP v.2 will handle it…;)).  Since what I know about how graphics are processed wouldn’t fill a thimble, what my “testing” involves is taking screenshots from various areas and comparing them with a variety of different LOD mod setups, and then also taking FPS notes.  Basically it’s the Bugs Bunny method of “Bomb or Dud” detection as applied to Oblivion, so the going is a little slow with that, although I’ve seen some light at the end of the tunnel here.

Finally, we’re also rewriting some of the documentation and instructions for clarity.

The very, very final step before we see POOP v.2 is to go back and make one last sweep to make sure every mod in POOP v.2 is the most current and up-to-date version on the day POOP goes back live.

I was hoping to be done this week, but now it looks like next week is the best target I can put on it.

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Yep, Reneer has overhauled his guards again!

Reneer’s Guard Overhaul is a wonderful mod, but one in an almost perpetual state of development.  Luckily, the core structure of the mod, at least for now, stays the same.  I say “luckily”, because that allows us to use the omod script for previous versions of RGO with newer versions.  This is an important thing to learn to do with Oblivion mods, so I’ll walk y’all through it once again, but going forward from here I’m going to be pretty quick about mentioning that you need to do this step.  Learn it now, if you haven’t already, I suppose is what I’m saying.

There are a few different ways to do this, but here’s how I do it.

1.  Download the new version of RGo here. It should be a small zip file.  I usually download it to my desktop.

2.  Extract the zip file contents into a folder you can easily find/remember the location of.   At this point, I usually just double click the zip file and extract it to the default folder name that winRAR gives me on my desktop, since that’ll have the name of the mod and version.  I have an Oblivion Mod archive folder on my archival USB drive that I’ll move my work when I’m done with it to unclutter my desktop.

3.  Open OBMM.  Double click Reneer’s Guard Overhaul on your omods list to deactivate it.

4.  Right-click the deactivated RGO omod.  Select “Export omod conversion data”.

5.  When the popup box comes up, save that data to the folder you unzipped to in step 2.

6.  Delete the outdated version of RGO from your omod list.

7.  Click “create”.

8.  Click “add folder”.   Add the folder we created in step 2.

9.  OBMM should ask you if you want to use the omod conversion data.  You do.

10.In the version box, manually change the version to 1.82.1.  Reneer updates this mod frequently, and it’ll be helpful to know which version you’re running (Reneer calls this version 1.82a, but OBMM won’t let us use letters, so “1.82.1″ will do.)

11. Click “create omod”

12. Install it, answering the prompts as needed.

13. Regular RGO sits in the upper third of your mods in load order.  The .esp for SI obviously has to sit below that and also the SI .esp itself.

We’re done!

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One of the player-made campaign-sized quests we included in the original POOP was one called “The Lost Spires”.  It added an archaeology guild and featured a whole lot of stuff for players to do.  I *think* I’m maybe halfway through it, and I’m finding it to be utterly superb.  Like many such massive efforts–Kvatch Rebuilt and Glenvar Castle and Let The People Drink, to name a few–the polish and sheer amount of stuff present in such “quest packs” are so well-polished that you’d think they were paid DLC, even though they aren’t.

The version of Lost Spires in POOP is 13.  Version 14 came out just before the weekend, and features voice overs.  I meant to just check out the voice overs yesterday and come back with instructions on making the expansion into an omod…but instead I got caught up in the story and ended up playing The Lost Spires quest for 3 hours.  The voice overs are fantastic, with the only caveat being that there’s no voicing in the “influence” mini-game thing (which isn’t a bad thing; I don’t need to hear “That’s great!  That’s really great!!” or “Where did you get that?!” ever again).  The folks who put this together are to be saluted for such a professional effort.

To update it:

Grab all 318 mb of The Lost Spires, version 14 here.

While that’s downloading, fire up OBMM, and deactivate and delete version 13.  Leave it open.

Once you’ve got the Lost Spires 14 zip file downloaded….

1.  Select “create”

2.  Select “add archive”

3.  Pick the Lost Spires zip file you downloaded.

4.  Right click the .esp in the box, and select “Import Mod Details”.  There’s not much that it’ll import, but it will put the author (Leo Gura) in the the credits box.

5.  I had to manually change the version number to 14.  Please do so as well.

6.  Select “Create Omod”

7.  Wait a while (big file archive to compress/uncompress).  Put the Lost Spires .esp fairly toward the bottom in your load order.

8.  Have fun!

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Nice enhancement to Enhanced Weather to start your day today.

Firstly, grab the new version here. You’ll need both files.  Download them to someplace you’ll be able to find easily.

Ok.  Let’s install it.

1.  Fire up OBMM, and deactivate and then delete EW 1.0.7

2.  Click “Create”, click “Add archive”, and then start with the EW 1.1.0 OMOD ready file, the larger of the two you downloaded.

3.  When it asks if you want to use omod conversion data, you do.  You knew this. Click “create omod”.

4.  Install it by double clicking it.  You’ll have to click and drag EW 1.1 up pretty high in your load order.  The Shivering Isles .esp that this installs also needs to be moved up, but must sit below the Shivering Isles.esp itself.  You probably knew that, too. 

5.  Now click “create” again.  Click “add archive”, and use the 1.1.4 patch file, the smaller of the two we downloaded from Nexus.  It should put an .esm and .esp file in the box.

6.  Just for clarity and housekeeping, right-click the .esp file and select “import mod details” so the authors get proper credit.  Also, in the version number section, change the version from “1.0″ (which is the OBMM default) to “1.1.4″.

7.  Click “create omod”.

8.  You’ll notice that the uninstalled 1.1.4 omod will have a black box next to it (as opposed to red, green, or blue).  No biggie.  Double click to install it.

9.  You’ll get a warning that installing it will overwrite a file.  You want this to happen, so click through it.

10. Move the “Enhanced Seasons.esp” up a bit in your load order, and that’s done.

11. Do an archive invalidation.  Just because.

12. Do a new Bashed Patch.

Have fun!

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Sorry for those of you in .ca and .uk and elsewhere.  We Yanks had an extended Independence Day weekend of barbecue and beer (and baseball, natch) to take precedence over Oblivion for a few days.

At any rate, check the Enhanced Weather post below in the comments section, as EW has been updated again!  More coming on that.

In other exciting news, we’re almost done getting POOP v.2 permissioned up, as Barney Stinson would say.  Yee ha!

Finally, we’ll also get you updated on Lost Spires.  They’ve added full voice-overs to what was already a wonderful, professionally polished quest mod.

For now, I need aspirin for a hangover, three cups of coffee, and the morning paper.  Back with mod stuff in a bit!

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Skycaptain has updated his excellent Deadly Reflex combat mod to version 4.03. This latest release fixes a few lingering bugs and adds a new animation so you can properly “shield bash” with a bow. No more bare-handing it for you archers.

This should be an easy upgrade from version 4.02 which was included in the original POOP. Following these steps, you’ll download the latest version of Deadly Reflex, upgrade it to include triggercut’s easy-installation POOP scripting, and then create a new OMOD in the Oblivion Mod Manager for easy activation. Let’s get to it!

—–

1. Start by clicking here to grab Deadly Reflex 4.03. Save it to your desktop.

2. Open OBMM and double-click the “Deadly Reflex” OMOD that came with POOP to deactivate it. Don’t delete it though!

3. Right-click the Deadly Reflex OMOD you just deactivated and choose “Export OMOD Conversion Data” from the menu. This will open a popup window asking you to save it somewhere. Choose your desktop and click OK. OBMM will create a folder there called “omod conversion data”.

4. Now we need to add the “omod conversion data” folder into that Deadly Reflex 4.03 zip archive you just downloaded. To do that, click the zip file to open whatever zip program you use.

5. Now you should be able to just drag and drop the “omod conversion data” folder into your zip program’s main window to add it to the archive.

6. Once that’s done, just resave the file and quit. Your Deadly Reflex zip has just been POOPified!

7. Next, go back to OBMM and click the lower button labeled “create”. Select “add archive” and choose that 4.03 .zip file you just worked on. You should see a warning but just click through it. Now OBMM should tell you that omod conversion data was found, and ask you if you want to import it it. You do.

8. One last housekeeping step: POOP v1 did not include the proper version number (4.0.2) of Deadly Reflex. It just said 1.0. To keep track of your mod versions in the future, you should edit the version number that appears just below the box with the name of the mod in it so it reads “4.0.3.”

9. Now click “Create Omod” and let OBMM do it’s thing. When it’s done, double click to activate it. The POOP scripting should offer you choices on how you want to set up Deadly Reflex for play.

And that’s it! You’re done. You can delete the folder and zip file from your desktop.

Remember that the “Deadly Reflex-Combat Moves.esp” has to be the last one in your loadout, just after the Bashed Patch. Here’s the load order info from the Deadly Reflex Readme…

After enabling the three main files, and possibly one of the optional files, your load order should look like this - IT´S IMPORTANT!:
——————————–
Oblivion.esm
[ALL OTHER ESM´s YOU HAVE]
HorseCombatMaster.esm
[ALL ESP´S FROM OTHER MODS - REALLY, *ALL*]
[ONE of the "Timed block esp´s, IF you want to use any]
Mounted Spellcasting.esp
Deadly Reflex - Combat Moves.esp
———————————

You’ll also want to do an archive invalidation in OBMM and rebuild your bashed patch in Wrye Bash before playing.

Deadly Reflex is a terrific combat mod that will keep showing you new things the longer you play. To get the most out of it, you should really take a look at the readme (just right-click the OMOD in the OBMM window and select View Readme) to learn a few of the ins and outs. For example, Horse Combat and the sneak attack Neck Stabs require specific keystrokes, so to get the most out of Deadly Reflex, we suggest you RTFM!

That’s it! Enjoy!

Huge thanks to Skycaptain for continuing to improve upon this excellent Oblivion mod.

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Woot!  This is a big one, so be sure to grab it.

OBSE (Oblivion Script Extender) has been updated to version .0015.   You can grab it here.

Extract it to a file folder and then install as follows.

1.  Open up the folder you just extracted from the zip.  Should be labeled “0015″.

2.  Hold down the CTRL key, and CTRL-click every file there that ends with a DLL extension.

3.  Also CTRL-click the OBSE_Loader.exe file.

4.  Right click one of the selected files and choose “Copy”.

5.  Open up the install directory where you have Oblivion installed.  NOT the Data folder, but the one that should be one heirarchy above it.

6.  In that install folder you should see the same DLL and “OBSE_Loader.exe” from version 0013 if you installed POOP.

7.  Right click empty space in this folder and choose “Paste”.

8.  When asked if you want to overwrite older files, you do.

That’s it.  OBSE is now updated!

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