First off, if you’re looking for the last version of The Popehat Oblivion OMODs Project (POOP), the direct download of version 2.1 is available here for a very limited time–like 48 hours. At that point it disappears forever, at least from our server. That’s right, no more POOP.
What’s goin’ on with that?
It’s like this. When we put the second, entirely permissioned version of POOP together, one of the things we promised the various artists and creators of the Oblivion Mods we included was that we’d stay current with as their mods were updated and grew over time. We haven’t been able to do that. Various members of Team POOP have babies on the way, or have job promotions and significant others who they need to make time for and other fun stuff. POOP support suffered. Sometime around February I pulled the plug and the site here went dark. We weren’t keeping our promise.
The other thing you probably need to know is that from the time some of us started tinkering with the idea of POOP to the final release here was nearly a year of playing Oblivion, a lot of times to the exclusion of playing other games. The entire POOP Team are gamers, and we have short attention spans. Towards the very end of getting this Mod Project released, I think we were all burnt out on Oblivion. At one point in mid-October, I realized that I probably never, not ever, wanted to play the game again. I uninstalled it. I played some other games. I found that Lord Of The Rings Online really scratched a lot of the itches that originally pulled me into the world of Oblivion. I wasn’t missing The Elder Scrolls at all. Not one tiny bit.
…and then something interesting happened. On the recommendation of some friends I read Scott Lynch’s wonderful fantasy novel The Lies Of Locke Lamora while traveling out west for a ski trip. I got home and found myself intrigued by the idea of having a character in a computer RPG who was rather morally ambiguous and self-centered, even if he did seem to stumble onto a conscience every now and again. I realized that I almost always play goody-two-shoes type characters even in single-player games that allow you to be evil. I also realized that there was no way to play such a character in LOTRO. Hmm. In Oblivion you can, though….
A few weeks ago I reinstalled the game and all expansions. It took me all of 90 minutes to reinstall POOPv2. It took me about 3 hours to junk out-of-date versions of mods and install newer ones. Then I set about grabbing some cool thieving mods I hadn’t used before.
And then, for the first time in maybe a year, I sat down to play Oblvion. Not to test out mods, but to actually play the game for the sake of having fun and enjoying myself. I’ve been playing since, having a blast, occasionally taking a time out to fiddle with adding a mod here and there.
So here it is. POOP is dead. I don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to update it (and it greatly needs updating). If you want it, grab it now. You’ve got two days.
What I will do is use this site to mention mods worth having, new versions of old favorites, OMOD creation and installation, and all that jazz. I’ll be happy to try to help anyone out having trouble getting a modded game to run properly. I’ll talk about cool adventures and player-created content that I’ve discovered. It won’t be POOP, though. If you enjoyed the Project, I’m happy. If you didn’t, you have our regrets and apologies.
Now then. Inger the 14th-level rogue is fatigued and starving and needing to kill some game and make a camp. I’m hoping I can do that before the patrol that’s looking for him catches up!