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For those of you getting back into Oblivion (or those who’ve never left!), here’s a little tip to make your modding more productive.

I always used to take a lot of care which files from which mods I was overwriting, and in what order, using Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM). If you installed the wrong mod last, it could overwrite changes from who-knows-what-other-mods. Wrye Bash and BAIN (Bash Installers) helps out a lot here–you don’t have to worry about the order in which you install mods, as BAIN tracks all files from all mods and makes sure higher priority ones take precedence. If you uninstall the higher priority mod, BAIN will automatically extract the now-missing files from the next mod in line that uses them.

But what about mods that replace original game files? If you ever want to go back to the original file(s), or uninstall the mod, you’ll need to get the files from a backup, or potentially even reinstall the game. This can be a huge annoyance, especially when you don’t know which files were original and which were put there by a mod.

BAIN to the rescue again! Thanks to Bash Installers, you can protect your original game files the same way your other mod files are protected. Here’s an example to show you how:

1. In your Bash Installers folder (usually right next to the Oblivion game folder), create a new subdirectory named “Bethesda Default Videos 1.0″ (or you can omit a version number, or use the game’s version number–whatever you prefer).
2. Under this new folder, create a new subdirectory named “Videos”
3. Go to your Oblivion directory, then to Data\Videos. Copy the following videos and paste them in the “Videos” folder you just created:
   2k games.bik
   bethesda softworks HD720p.bik
   CreditsMenu.bik
   game studios.bik
   Map loop.bik
   Oblivion iv logo.bik
   Oblivion Legal.bik
   OblivionIntro.bik
   OblivionOutro.bik
4. The mentioned .bik files should now exist in both the Oblivion Data directory as well as the Bash Installer directory you created.
5. Open Wrye Bash and go to the Installers tab.
6. At (or toward) the top, you should see a mod named ‘Bethesda Default Videos 1.0′ (or whatever name you chose). Right-click the mod and choose Pack to Archive. Leave the default name, and choose whether or not to use Solid Compression (I chose not to).
7. When it’s finished, right-click the project again and choose Delete.
8. Now scroll down and look in the mod list for ‘Bethesda Default Videos 1.0.7z’ (or the name you chose). It should appear green but not actually be installed.
9. Right-click it, and choose ‘Move To…’ and move it to position number 1. This will allow any other mod to overwrite these videos.
10. Right-click it and choose ‘Install’. This will re-extract the same identical video files over the existing ones in your Oblivion Data directory. No changes will be made–the files are exactly the same, and you will notice no difference in the game.

It seems like a lot of steps for a little benefit, but it really took under a minute to perform this whole process, and the best is yet to come.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Well, now you can feel free to install any mod which replaces the original video files. When you install a mod which does, you’ll notice it will list a Conflict with ‘Bethesda Default Videos 1.0′. No worries, you will see in the Conflicts tab that the mod has a higher priority and will overwrite the existing video.

The best part comes when you decide to uninstall that same mod. When you uninstall the mod through BAIN, it will delete the mod’s new video files, and will extract the original videos from Bethesda Default Videos 1.0 automatically in their place.

No missing files, no hunting through backups or reinstalling the game, and no needing to worry about the original files ever again. I’ve used the same trick for most of the files in my Data directory–Knights of the Nine and all of the DLC are excellent choices because there are so many mods that replace the original ESPs.

While I haven’t taken the time to do so, in theory you could go so far as to BAIN-ify the entire Data directory from a patched (but otherwise clean) Oblivion install and place the installer at position 1 in BAIN. Activate it (I know, it probably takes forever), then you will know when any mod overwrites original files, and those files will be restored whenever any mod that replaced them is uninstalled.

Now that’s automation!

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Just when I started winding down from the recent onslaught of daily Steam deals, Valve caught me offguard with their latest sale, entitled Perils of Summer. You can find a veritable pant-load of games and even entire publisher collections on sale… many of them even 50-75% off of their regular prices.

Check out just a tiny selection of the deals to be had:

• Got $5? Why not get the entire Overlord Complete Pack–that’s a lot of bang for a few bucks!
• Still haven’t checked out Bioshock 2? It would be a shame not to for $15.
• Find the indie fantasy platforming gem Trine for only $4–you can’t go wrong here.
• DiRT 2, my new favorite racing game on the PC alongside Burnout: Paraside, is only $10. Yes, $10!
• The newly-updated Counter-Strike: Source is going for only $6.80, practically a steal.
• Get (almost) every Unreal game for a total of $13.60 with the Unreal Deal Pack. Yes, this even includes Unreal Tournament III Black Edition!
• Get all of the Call of Duty games up through World At War for $29.99
• Better yet, why not get every 2K game released on Steam (except Civ V) for $89–a 75% discount.
• THQ is also offering their entire collection for only $50, half off an already amazing deal.

This is barely a fraction of the games available in this sale, and many of these are only on sale today (June 24th) other than the publishers collections, which will be available for the duration of the sale.

Don’t miss out, but don’t spend all your hard-earned money today–check back tomorrow to see if Valve has anything else in store during this truly outstanding sale.

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The Scenario: You really love Steam, Valve Software’s online game marketplace, distribution platform, and community tool. You purchase all of your games there and rely on it for nearly all of your gaming needs.

You have even gone so far as to re-purchase many games you already own, just to have them on Steam. You’ve spent thousands and have well over 400 games in your Steam collection.

The Problem: During a sale, you buy a $9.99 game bundle with Click-n-Buy, which is literally as easy as clicking and buying from within Steam. But you spend that $10 before the payment clears, and Valve is then charged back for $9.99 on your account.

Roll ahead a couple of days when you return from Christmas vacation and want to play some games over New Years break. But when you restart Steam, you find out your account has been disabled and you have lost access to all of your precious games.

The Solution: There isn’t one. Pay Click-n-Buy back, who will pay Valve back, who will hopefully enable your account again after they get their money.

This is the problem inherent in digital distribution today. If you want the convenience of having your game library managed by a third party, you need to rely on the to give you access to what you would otherwise own outright. If you get on their bad side, they usually have the right to take it all away with little to no notice to the user at all.

I didn’t mean to charge Valve back $9.99, and that would be stupid to do, given that I have happily given them thousands of dollars for my current Steam-powered game collection. None-the-less, I had no games over New Years break, and am still waiting for my personal Steam account to be enabled again.

I am no hacker. I am no fraud. I am a loyal patron, game developer, and industry fan who has spent thousands on Steam and made one small $9.99 mistake. While it will likely be corrected and all will be back to normal, it is still a scary thought, and it still makes me cherish the few games that I do have boxes and discs for–even in hard financial times, I can always get them out and play them no matter what.

But I still love Steam. And I encourage everyone who likes the idea of digital distribution to utilize the service to its fullest. Just don’t ever mess with the distributor because they truly do have the power.

For years we have been enjoying a well-sorted list of Oblivion mods thanks to the wonderful BOSS (formerly fcomhelper). But Fallout 3 users have been left in the cold, with sparse, scattered, and/or conflicting information about where their mods should go in their load order.

Early on this year, the developers at our partner SingularityShift (eg. mostly myself) released the first pre-beta of FOMS, whose final version (0.6.6.1) was released in April. FOMS used XML templates to facilitate sorting and management of conflicts, dependencies, and related information for Fallout 3 mods. It was very basic with a very limited UI that provided just enough functionality to sort and manage mods, but it had some inherent issues in the fact that it was developed with hand-written tools in a scripting language that has some serious limitations.

Recently, SingularityShift released the first alpha (Alpha 1) of FOMS 2, which is a complete rewrite taking advantage of the robust features of the .NET Framework and WPF to provide a greatly-enhanced sorting experience, including a Template Manager to create and manage XML templates, live conflict/dependency/message tracking, robust backup/restore options, and more all driven by a flexible Preferences system that will ultimately allow users to customize many aspects of the application.

Given that it was a first release, users have uncovered many bugs and submitted many wishlist items and feature requests. Now, FOMS 2 Alpha 2 is nearing its release, and some of its new features that have been recently unveiled are:

• Refactored windows and unified resources for a smaller size, tighter code, and better performance and stability
• The Template Manager is being dumped and replaced by Template Studio, allowing much-enhanced functionality such as template downloads, backups, merging, cleaning, upgrading, and much more.
• Conflict/Dependency recommendations and resolving are now included, so you don’t need to hunt through your list to find and fix the conflicts/dependencies yourself.
• Many smaller fixes and improvements for a better overall experience.

Keep your eyes peeled for the new release!

As always, you can follow along with the software’s development at its project site.
You can discuss it with other Fallout 3 users at Fallout3Nexus and don’t forget to watch the official site at falloutmodsorter.com for release information and more details!

(If I have some shame, can it really be considered a shameless plug?)