Tes4Mod:FCOM

FCOM: Convergence is a collection of compatibility patches for various mods that conflict with each other. FCOM's goal is to make as many mods as possible work together in one game. It started with four of the largest overhaul mods, but has now grown to include a wide variety of other popular mods.

The FCOM pages here at UESP are specifically focused on the bigger picture -- compatibility issues, implications, and solutions going beyond what's included in the base FCOM distribution. Many of these patches, solutions, warnings and tips are applicable to any of the large overhaul mods included in FCOM.

Frequently Asked Questions
This page is focused on compatibility questions. For more general FAQs, see FCOM/FAQ.

Hints & Spoilers
If you really must know, here's the (official) spoilers page.

Compatible Mods
These are mods that are already designed for compatibility or have patches available to make them work well with each other and with FCOM.

MOBS/OMOBS Weapons

This is a general list of mods that have been designed or adapted for balance with MOBS -- aka the "Medieval Oblivion (Equipment) Balance System"   and  .

Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items and Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul both support similar versions of MOBS. Oscuro's version is known as OMOBS because it has some variations from the base formulae. You can find details in the OMOBS Weapon Stats Guide.

Released mods:
Official DLC and UOMP -- If you use Knights of the Nine, Thieves Den, Mehrunes razor, Vile Lair or Battlehorn Castle, you can get the   patches. The Knights of the Nine patch is adapted from FCOM_Knights (the one included in FCOM). This standalone version of MOBS_Knights only includes the rebalanced weapons, so it will work for everyone. If you also use the  , then you can get MOBS versions of the UOMP 1.5 patches for Knights of the Nine, Thieves Den, Vile Lair, Mehrunes Razor, and Battlehorn castle from the Patches for Frans 4_5b   file.

 

  

Armamentarium for MOBS/OOO/FCOM. See notes below about compatibility options for Trollf's Armamentarium.

  (already included in both OOO and Fran)

Bob's Armory Rebalance  (included in FCOM, but maybe usable standalone)

 

   (included as an option in the base mod). FCOM provides its own OMOBS adaptation for Loth's Blunt Weapons.

  includes an MOU - Items.esp that gives OMOBS-stats to items from Mart's Monster Mod. Can probably be used standalone (i.e., without OOO). This is also now incorporated into FCOM and MMM for OOO.

 

 

 

 

 

Compatibility Guidelines & Patches
Alphabetical Listing.

A -- Alternate Start, Ancient Towers, Armamentarium Complete
Alternate Start Mods -- Some alternate start mods may cause the start-game Map Markers to still appear even though OOO normally disables them. If anyone knows of an alternate start mod that does not do this, please let us know so we can list it here. So far we've got recommendations that these work: 
 
 
 .

  -- may cause Oscuro's Drop Lit Torches to stop working. Load Ancient Towers before OOO.esp to avoid the problem.

  -- combines all of the Armamentarium mods and has a OOO/FCOM patch that should be used (ArmamentariumLL4OOO.esp).
  is an older version that requires the ArmamentariumWeapons4OOO.esp plugin from Armamentarium for Npcs.
Armamentarium for NPCs and Yorkmaster's MOBS version are not compatible with each other as they both use a modified master file - Yorkmaster's version gives the armors a different formID, while Corepc's version adds in Trollf's Katanas as well. (use Corepc's version if you want the items in the leveled loot or Yorkmaster's if you'd rather have them to buy in stores.

B-C -- Book Jackets, Cats and Rats, Choices and Consequences
  -- a retexture for all of the stock hardcover books in Oblivion. However, the books are also resized to give a better feel. This touches all instances of the books in the game instead of just replacing the textures, making the mod conflict with OOO. If loaded before, OOO reverts to the vanilla textures. If loaded after, OOO's property status added to the books (i.e. Mages Guild books are owned so you cannot take them until you are higher ranked) is lost. This is what you can do:
Load   early (before OOO and anything else that affects books). Tag with   and use "Import Graphics" in the Bashed patch. 
Leave Book Jackets active since the mod also fixes book placement in a number of cells. 

  -- The original version 2.5 by Martigen works great with old versions of OOO but is not compatible with more recent releases. If you use OOO/MMM/FCOM, then get the updated Cats and Rats 2.5b for better compatibility. 

  -- has quest and bandit/marauder conflicts with OOO/MMM/FCOM. Compatibility Patches for OOO/MMM/FCOM are included in the main package starting with version 1.2.

D -- DarNified Books, Darker Dungeons, Dungeons of Ivellon

DarNified Books -- As of DarNified UI 1.3.1, DarNified Books is no longer used. Use the Tweak Assorted ==> DarNified Books Bashed Patch option present in Wrye Bash v1.54 instead. This applies DarN's tweaks to all books, not just edited ones, so is a much better alternative. Here's a short tutorial on how to do this.

  -- Overlaps some cell settings from OOO, so tag it with   and import it to your Bashed Patch. 

  -- restores some vanilla border regions, making OOO's Arctic Wolf camp unreachable (north of Dragon Claw Rock, east of Bruma). To avoid this problem, either set bBorderRegionsEnabled=0 in your Olivion.ini or add a border regions remover like   and make sure it loads after Dungeons of Ivellon. This also applies to Tamriel Rebuilt: The Isle of Stirk

F -- Fighter's Guild United, Francesco's Optional Leveled Quests

'''  -- get the   patch.

Francesco's Optional Leveled Quests''' -- Although the normal version of this is on the "don't use with FCOM" list, the Shivering Isles portion works fine with FCOM. Get Dewshine's SI-only version of Fran's Optional Leveled Quests for use with FCOM here:  . It only has the Amber and Madness Ore changes from Fran's Optional Leveled Quests. This is required if you also use the standard USIP_MOBS_1-4 version of the Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch (see further down in the list). If you instead use USIP_MOBS_FCOM_1-4, then you don't have to use Frans Optional Leveled Quests-SI Only, but you'll miss out on Fran's Amber and Madness ore overhauls.

K -- KD Circlets OOO Optimized, Kingdom of Almar, Kvatch Aftermath, Kvatch Rebuilt

  -- There's no problem using the Loot Only version, but if you have the NPC Equip version then you'll need the FCOM patch included in FCOM 0.9.9 (or later). 
If you don't use FCOM 0.9.9, then you'll need to get Axil's fixed NPC Equip version. Otherwise you'll have possible CTDs and/or serious FPS slowdowns when some MMM Ogres (Champions, Berserkers, Elders) get the circlets as loot. See here for details. Note that the meshes/textures and other resources from the full   mod is still required. Also, Axil's fixed NPC Equip version still has one issue - it can cause topless guards for those Imperial City guards using caped cuirasses from OOO - use this patch to alter the guards' leveled loot to avoid this (load it after the  FCOM guards plugins and use bashed patch to incorporate the patch in the leveled list).

  -- has some minor cell conflicts with OOO, but you can get this patch to help. Be sure you load the patch last and put both after OOO.esp.

Kvatch Aftermath -- older versions suffer from lots of pathgrid conflicts with other mods, including OOO, but this issue has largely been resolved in  .  Most of the remaining conflicts with FCOM can be fixed by using the FCOM patch included in  .  The patch will work with KA 6.6 as well, but 6.6 does not include all of the "Cleaned and Fixed" elements from ElminsterEU.  If KA 6.6 causes conflicts, you can use the C&F 6.3 version, but you will miss fixes for KA elements added by Giskard after 6.3's release. It's currently unknown whether all of the other issues addressed in the C&F 6.3 version have been resolved in 6.6.

  -- includes FCOM support patch.

L-M -- LSTR, Magic Shields, MMM Hunting and Crafting, moDem's City Life

  -- Some items added by OOO, especially the "worn" armor variants, may be worth more than the normal versions. If you have this problem, you can add the   to correct it.

 
Get the   patch. If you want to also run LSTR:SI, then be sure to use the LoadingScreensSI.esp file instead of the optional merged one (the merged one only works for the original version of LSTR).
Or: Tag both loading screens replacer mods with  , then deactivate them and use Import Graphics in the Bashed Patch.

  -- overlaps shield changes made by UOP/OOO/FCOM. To make this work properly, place it early in your load order, leave it inactive, and tag it with   (in the description field). After doing that, make sure you actually select it during the Bashed Patch config process (right-click Bashed Patch->Rebuild Patch->Import Graphics->checkmark).

'''Martigen's Monster Mod - Hunting and Crafting Old versions caused CTDs when used with other mods like FCOM even though it worked fine with a minimal MMM/vanilla load list. Shadowborn fixed this problem in an updated version of H&C for MMM 3.6 and that fix is now included in MMM 3.7 and later releases.

 ''' -- causes crashes around IC Waterfront. It seems the AI package FWTalilFollow has problems   because no target is selected. Changing it from "follow" to "wander" (and presumably with a less capricious target, to be on the safe side) gets rid of the CTD. May be fixed in  .

N-O-P -- No Quest Item, NPC New Clothes, Origin of the Mages Guild, Player Leveling Mods, PowerAttack Voicemod

No Quest Item -- item changes conflict with FCOM/OOO/MMM/Fran/UOP, so you get either quest status removed or FCOM/OOO/MMM/Fran/UOP stats, prices, bug fixes, but not both. Use   instead (requires OBSE).

NPC New Clothes -- NPC changes conflict with FCOM/OOO/MMM, so you get either new clothes or FCOM/OOO/MMM stats, gear, loot, but not both.
Get the   patch.

  -- Version 5.0 and lower overlaps a critical container used by OOO during the Mages Guild quest. Get the OMG_OOO_Patch or use the patch included with FCOM 0.9.6 to fix this problem. Load the OOO patch after OMG. Requires OOO 1.32 (any version of 1.32) or 1.33 and OMG. Version 5.1 fixes this issue, but FCOM_OMG.esp is still required to fix cell, NPC and Faction issues.

Player Leveling Mods -- Many mods that alter the player leveling system, such KCAS, AF Level Mod, Balor, Experience Leveling System, Galerion, and KseAli, all suffer to some degree from incompatibility with other mods that add skill or attribute fortification abilities. This includes most vampire mods, the rewards from Knights of the Nine, and the racial bonuses from RealSwords (including FCOM_RealSwords).   and   were the first to avoid this problem. Both SPAM and nGCD have recently been updated to correct this issue. 

  -- causes OOO Lock Bashing to fail if loaded after OOO.esp. Load it before OOO.esp to avoid the problem.

R-S -- Race Balancing Project, Slof's Horses, Spells No Lighting, Stock Clothing Replacer

Race Balancing Project -- includes an NPCDiversity option that needs to be treated just like TNR. Leave it inactive and use Import NPC Faces in the Bashed Patch. It should already have the proper tag for  .

  -- Needs to be loaded after OOO.esp to avoid landscape problems around Imperial City. However, doing this breaks the OOO LockBash feature. This happens because RRLR changes the same PowerAttack topic used by OOO for detecting a LockBash attempt. RRLR v1.3 also includes a lot of other seemingly unnecessary changes to generic dialogue topics. Hopefully these unnecessary changes will be removed in a future version. In the meantime, you can solve the problem by loading this patch after Region Revive - Lake Rumare.esp.

'''Slof's Horses''' --  . Has just been re-released! The mod conflicts with the new horse loot lists from OOO and reins do not always appear in Mounted Imperial Guard's horses. This is what you can do:
Load Slof's Horses/Armored Horses early (before OOO).
Tag Slof's Horses Base.esp with   and use "Import Graphics" in the Bashed patch. Leave it virtually active.
Can be safely used with the optional '''Pekka's Armored Horses for OOO'''. (original discussion)
Alternatively, you can use a different mod that is compatible with FCOM, such as  .

   -- Removal of lighting reduces the FPS hit from spells, but without the patch you'll get vanilla Magic Effects.
Use the OOO-Compatible Spells No Lighting instead. Load it after OOO.esp.
Or: Move No Lighting before other magic mods, deactivate it, tag it with   and use Import Graphics in the Bashed Patch.

  -- Load before FCOM_Convergence.esp. Overlaps with OOO vampire changes, causing faction fights and container conflicts. New vampires will be very weak compared to those in FCOM. Light of Dawn does not give kill count credit for the new vampires. The container overlaps and faction conflicts are resolved with Ziggy's  .  

  -- Overlaps some clothing and armor changes by OOO, UOP, etc. Move it early in your load order, deactivate it, tag it with   and use Import Graphics in the Bashed Patch.

 

Unique Landscapes [UL] -- these should generally be loaded after FCOM (especially after OOO.esp and MMM - More Wilderness Life.esp). If you use FCOM 0.9.8 or later, then FCOM_MoreWildernessLife.esp is deprecated, so you should be using MMM - More Wilderness Life.esp, which means you need to use the  . As more Unique Landscape mods appear it's advisable always to check for any required patches.

'''Unofficial Lv30 Francesco's Leveled Item and Unofficial Francesco's Mod Armor AddOn''' -- load them early and get the FCOM patch (now included in FCOM 0.9.7).

  -- If you are using Francesco's mod with FCOM and Shivering Isles, then you need the Fran-compatible MOBS version of USIP. You first need to install the complete USIP 1.4, then replace the USIP plugin with the MOBS version of USIP from the  . There are several options here. The recommended file is listed as USIP_MOBS_1-4. However, this includes the Amber and Madness Ore changes from Fran's Optional Leveled Quests, so you also need Dewshine's SI-only version of Fran's Optional Leveled Quests, which is compatible with FCOM. The file is listed as Frans Optional Leveled Quests-SI Only. Alternately, you can instead use USIP_MOBS_FCOM_1-4, which does not require Frans Optional Leveled Quests-SI Only, but then you'll miss out on Fran's Amber and Madness ore overhauls.

V-Y -- Vampire Mods, Waalx Realswords, Younger Hotter NPCs
Vampire Mods -- Most mods that alter the player vampire experience have no problem working with FCOM because none of the FCOM components alter the player vampire experience. However, a few major vampire mods that alter NPC vampires do have issues, notably   and  . These two will only work if loaded after FCOM, in which case they will revert most vampires to vanilla stats. A patch is being created to resolve this issue.

Waalx Realswords -- Prior to FCOM 0.9.9, RealSwords was problematic because NPC changes conflict with FCOM/OOO/MMM, so you get either Waalx changes (new swords) or FCOM/OOO/MMM changes (stats, gear, loot), but not both. FCOM 0.9.9 added support for RealSwords. The new Nord module is not yet supported.

  -- this mod needs to be treated just like TNR. Leave it inactive, tag it with   and use Import NPC Faces in the Bashed Patch.

Game Balance Issues 
Magic Overhauls -- such as Supreme Magicka, LAME, Mighty Magicka, etc. all work with FCOM, but some of them may unbalance the game. See Magic Overhaul Comparison for details.

Other Issues & Solutions

Wrye Bash Issues 
Current Minimal Version: 159 
If your Wrye Bash version is older than this, you should upgrade and rebuild your Bashed Patch.
: 
Checking Wrye Bash
If you suspect that a problem is related to use of Wrye Bash (e.g. problem goes away when you deactivate some part of the Bashed patch), then you should review the Bashed Patch with Tes4View and look for inconsistencies. Both of the recently discovered problems (merging scripts and merging magic effects) were found this way. If a clear problem is found, then report it to Wrye in the current [RELZ] Wrye Bash topic (on the BethSoft Forums).
Content Checker Broken 
Recent versions of Wrye Bash added a Content Checker feature in the Bashed Patch config. Unfortunately, this feature is broken in Wrye Bash versions 264-266. Do not use Content Checker with FCOM until the problem is corrected.

General CTD Patches  
(not specific to FCOM/OOO/MMM)

   -- May crash when casting certain spells. The DR5 temporary patch should solve this issue.

   -- HF 3.0 has a bug in the script used on Harrada that will cause a CTD if you leave an Oblivion gate and then return. Most people seem to encounter this problem during the Kvatch Oblivion gate. Deathless Aphrodite made a patch to fix this bug and now mmmpld has released an update to fix this issue.

General Issues
(Not directly related to FCOM/OOO/MMM/etc.)

  may cause delays in dialog with NPCs and prevent the player from opening containers outside. The NPC problem is generic, but the container problem appears to be specific to Harvest Containers, which is included in OOO.

Strange Dialog from Generic NPCs -- When talking to a non-quest NPC, you get a message like "The ghosts mouth moves but you cannot hear what he says." This can happen when one of your mods has a dialog condition with faulty condition checks, such as a priority of 100, which makes everyone say it. The plugin mythsandlegends.esp has been identified as a likely culprit. Moving it earlier in your load order may resolve the problem.

General Instability Issues
(Most of these are not directly related to FCOM.)

Selling Stolen/Duplicated Alchemy Equipment can cause CTDs and possible savegame corruption. Here's a good description of the general sequence for this bug adapted from a post by Bagger: "Trying to meet my fence quota, I stole a bunch of alchemy equipment from the Mages Guild and went off to sell it to Ongar. I sold several things to him, and then as I clicked to sell an alembic, it appeared to sell it to him, but then it was immediately replaced in my inventory with a group of 3 alembics. This happened again with calcinators and mortar and pestles. I could sell the single ones, but one of each would seem to get replaced by a group of three. If I tried to sell one or all of the group of three, I would immediately CTD. Same thing happened if I just tried to drop them." This happens sometimes with stolen items being mixed with non-stolen items, and seems especially prone to happening with alchemy gear stolen from a guild you're a member of. The counts get mixed up and when you sell one or more then the others suddenly appear.  When it happens, do not try to sell the newly revealed ones. Instead, skip over them and finish selling the rest of your stuff, then exit the barter screens and save your game.  After that you can attempt to sell them, but you may need to just throw them away since they appear to be corrupted at some level. The problem is exacerbated by Guild Item Ownership (included in OOO). Using the No Guild Item Ownership option included with OOO 1.33 may help to avoid the issue.

  can cause CTDs. Skycaptain resolved this problem in DR5. If you're using DR4 with MMM, then you may be able to improve reliability of DR4 by disabling MMM - Extra Wounding. For DR5, see the General CTD Patches section above.

'''Michikawa's Extra MP3 Music Packs cause CTDs (probably only on certain sound cards).

Many Weather Mods''' - Improper uninstallation can lead to savegame CTD. Can be fixed by following correct uninstallation procedure using a clean save. Adapted from Enhanced Weather's Readme:
:* 1. Open the console and type in "fw 38EEE" (without quotes). This will change the weather to 'Clear'.
:* 2. Enter an interior, and save in a new slot.
:* 3. Uninstall the weather mod.
:* 4. Load, then save in a 2nd new slot.

Guard Diversity Overhaul BETA causes CTDs in Leyawiin.

AutoSaves. This option should be disabled anytime you're using lots of mods, and especially with OOO and/or FCOM. Otherwise you'll get CTDs when going through load doors.

Trapped Containers Crash Some HUDs. See OOO Known Issues, specifically the part about "User Interface Mods and Official 1.2 Patch".

Unresolved Non-CTD Compatibility Issues for FCOM/OOO/MMM 

Giskard's Cyrodiil Upgrade Overhaul does NOT work well with FCOM or any other overhauls, despite the claims made in its description. Most of the features offered by CUO require CUO_UnleveledNpcs&Creatures.esp, but if you load this after your Bashed Patch it will block a very large percentage of the content from FCOM, especially the MMM/OOO unification. The best part of this is that you will still find some of OOO, especially the static enemies and loot. On the other hand, you'll find that MMM enemies, WarCry enemies, and Fran's Named Bosses will be completely blocked from appearing in your game. FCOM loot will be almost completely blocked from appearing in your game, so no RealSwords, Fran items, Bob items, WarCry items, Loth items, etc. Not a very practical option.

:If you include CUO in your Bashed Patch then you will not find CUO enemies very often, and this will generally only find them at low levels -- you'll find them only at Lvl-16 or less unless you use FCOM_MoreRandomSpawns, in which case you'll have a very small chance of meeting CUO enemies up to Lvl-32. This is due to the way CUO redirects all vanilla lists at Lvl-1. Not great, but definitely better than loading it after the Bashed Patch. On the rare occasions where you do find a CUO spawn, you'll find they have a high probability of fighting with non-CUO variants they should normally be friendly with (CUO uses vanilla factions and does not include any support for MMM/OOO/FCOM diverse factions). Still, this option is far better than loading CUO after the Bashed Patch. If you do use it, you should NOT use Relev/Delev tags on the plugins (especially CUO_UnleveledNpcs&Creatures.esp) and it makes almost no difference where they are placed in the load order.

Giskard's The Necromancer  has some landscape issues with OOO, specifically between the Tower of Imperfection and Bandit Camp nearby. Patch needed to correct holes in the landscape.

'''Mart's Monster Mod - Gems & Gem Dust'''  -- Clashes with the OOO system for Geomancy, among other things. Load it before OOO.esp to avoid losing a lot of the Geomancy spells from OOO. If you don't use Geomancy in OOO, then you can load it after OOO.esp to get the full effect of Gems & Gem Dust. However, if you do use G&GD, be aware that it adds Platinum Coins back into the game even if you're using Tarnsman's Ayleid Coin replacer for OOO. Selling the Platinum Coins from either OOO or G&GD is a known source of CTDs and potential savegame corruption. Tarnsman's merged OOO/G&GD replacer is outdated and should not be used with recent versions of G&GD. Future plans for COBL may provide a good solution to some of these issues.

Slofs Playable Xivilai (specifically the Add-On Xivilai Creature Replacer for OOO) -- New Xivilai NPCs do not appear when using FCOM (you get the FCOM/MMM/OOO creature versions instead). Patch planned.

Physical Throwable Crates -- This is not a confirmed issue, but there's a very high probability of issues with OOO/FCOM, specifically the Harvest Containers aspect of OOO. Further investigation needed.

Background Info
Tagging
Tagging a mod means adding a Wrye Bash tag like   to the description field of the mod. Bash uses such tags to provide special handling for the mod -- e.g. while building the Bashed Patch.

To tag a mod, select the mod in Wrye Bash and then edit the description field displayed on the right side of the screen. When done editing, be sure to click "Save".

The order of individual tags (NoMerge, NpcFaces, Relev) does not matter, but capitalization does! Be sure to capitalize as shown.

For more info on tagging and the Bashed Patch, see   and the FCOM Official Thread on the Bethesda Forums.




These pages are regularly monitored and updated by Shikishima

If you have comments or concerns over the content of these pages please leave a message on my talk page before making edits.

I can also be contacted through the Official FCOM thread on the Bethesda ES Forums.
Thank you. 

Shikishima 23:18, 5 August 2010 (UTC)