Lord Chambers said:
dongle, did you read the entire readme, or are you just parodying an ESF poster's reading comprehension?
Nope. I'm a Graphic Whore, remember? I clicked the link, clicked on "screenshots", saw Amazonian bikini chicks in the first two shots, lost all respect for the mod author.
<short pause>
OK, now I've read the FAQ & readme. (whew, lotsa words) My opinion remains unchanged.
You can sort of chart the mods history through the readme. He started out trying to fix the leveled lists, to reduce the obviousness of the scaling. Then threw in some skill/birthsign/interface text improvements. Looks like a good job too, some rational thought went into it, and he's tweaked his system back and forth to perfect it. Must have been a lot of tedious work to fix something Bethesda should have done right in the first place. DoublePlusGood +1. He should have stopped there.
Then we start adding stuff. Corralling a bunch of other mods, and trying to cram it all into the one true mod to rule them all. And we go steadily downhill from there.
Coloring a Minotaur white and giving it slightly different stats is the type of mod I never appreciate. (this is in the sixth screenshot down) For me it glaringly highlights the fact that it's the same old model used over and over, not add new levels of immersion. To me it's the most amateur type of mod out there. Don't get me wrong, I understand why folks enjoy doing it, and it's the first thing I ever did to Morrowind. If I were to play this mod tho, it'd jar the immersion right outa me.
By contrast, the worn armor looks pretty good. I can see that adding to the game in a subtle realistic way. Still, I think it doesn't belong in this mod.
I hate mods that add things that make no sense within the game universe. I can remember playing the highly regarded marksman mod for Morrowind and finding a vampire's coffin with a big red cross on it. In a world that doesn't know Christ, or have any crucifixion myth, that made no sense, and reminded me I was playing an amateurish mod. In OOO take, well, Amazonian Bikini Warriors. Having them run around in their underwear serves no purpose other than to make the kiddes go "OMFG, b00bies"
sproooing. (although, to be fair, Bethesda has played that card often enough) Then, within two seconds, I wondered in a world without an Amazon river, why are they called that? Sorry, but this content is extremely sub-par to my eyes.
He should have polished off the leveled list mod, maybe add some other transparent fixes, and called it a day. If he wants to do a B00bie Warriorz mod, fine, but keep it separate.
Lord Chambers said:
Surely the addition of factions, where your choices impact your standing with them ala Daggerfall, is not a bad thing.
Sorry, I didn't see anything about complex non-linear quest-lines in the readme or FAQ. They may be in there, but it doesn't pimp them on the linked site.
That's the main problem I'm having here. Folks are holding OOO up as the one solution to any complaint about Oblivion. It may well do an admirable job fixing the level scaling, which is it's main purpose. It also adds some half-assed poorly thought-out content. It does -not- fix every other issue that keeps one from enjoying Oblivion.