Wrye Bash has upped the level of complexity of the Oblivion load order, in a good way (for those that use it or plan to use it.) The presence of the Bashed Patch introduces two new plugin states, merged and imported, and they allow for much greater compatibility among mods.

(Ex: 'A is B's dependency.' => 'B is a master of A.' => 'B modifies A.'.

dependency (or master) - plugin a plugin depends upon.

(Ex: 'Give B priority (over A.)' => 'Have B load later (after A.)'.

If a load order breaks these enforced rules, the game will throw errors and problems at the user. Then, all of the ESMs are loaded after it, followed by the ESPs. First and foremost, Oblivion.esm load first. Certain groups of mods are better off loading in certain locations in a load order because of how they overlap with other mods in that load order. There are a few rules that are forced by the game, and then there are many more rules that as a result of plugin interactions. Even if you have only a few mods, your small load order can still be very order-dependent. Once you have more than a few plugins, putting a well-structured load order together is no simple task.

Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp (timestamp=2008).

This becomes another of the motivations for installing a mod management utility (i.e, OBMM, Wrye Bash, etc.) These tools let you move plugins around (by modifying their timestamps) through a GUI, with buttons and your mouse.Įxample #1 - a simple load order (with fake timestamps) Oblivion's launcher does not allow you to do much with your load order outside of activating and deactivating plugins. A plugin is installed once you put it in your data folder, but it is only active if the launcher shows that it is checked. Active plugins are plugins loaded into the game. A load order is the 'date modified' ordering of your the plugins that are processed in the game from earliest to most recent, the order in which content is processed by the game engine.

Load order oblivion dlcs