Mods cannot redesign a game, modders do not have access to the source-code. Oblivion's entire gameplay was designed around level-scaling

Morrowind and Oblivion have their strengths and weaknesses towards each other.

In Morrowind, you get more armor/weapon options by default. Without modding or cheating, you can't autotravel from anywhere. So, travel is more on foot most of the time. (this will likely cause you to invest in Mysticism to some extent for mark/recall spells. You can levitate in Morrowind and the game world is infinite in every direction (which allows for some amazing mods on landscape). Also, mobs have a static level, so if you go into a cave and its difficult, you can come back later and it will be easy.

Oblivion lets you auto-travel to major towns right away and to places you have visited later. It combines some gear options, and the world is bordered off by mountains. They have removed levitation, and the mobs level up with you, so if you enter a cave and come back later, it will likely be the same challenge. However, Oblivions visuals are very superior and I find the quests/factions to be more immersive overall. It boasts a better physics engine and NPC schedules/routines/actions are extremely diverse.

For various reasons, I like one over the other, but love them both.

Both games can be modded to tweak most of your personal preferences.


And yet multiple mods removed the level-scaling.

That wasn't my point, the game was design around that scaling, so removing it would break the game is other ways.

That is very opinionated though. Have you tried it? I didn't find the mods to break anything. They made the game play more like Morrowind.

I gotta go with hucklebarry on this one. I installed Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul when I played the game, and it was much more fun. I also installed a mod that changed the way that character leveIed, so the character leveled more slowly and intelligently (really lowered the micro-management of that aspect of the game); I can't remember the name of that mod, because it has been around half a decade since I played the game. I am not going to say Oblivion is the best game ever, or even the best TES game, but, with mods, I still finished exploring 90% of the map before I got bored of it.

I think you have a basic misunderstanding here. Saying "Well why don't you mod it?" is short for "Oh god yes the vanilla game is so absolutely horrible and broken that it is virtually unplayable for me, the only way I can even get past the first 15 minutes is by reprogramming half the game that the developers were too stupid/lazy to do." I enjoy playing Oblivion, but that is only because I have 150+ mods that change the game mechanics into what I would have wanted had I made it myself. That doesn't make me a fanboy, that makes me wonder what actually goes on in the game development meetings at Bethesda. An actual Bethesda fanboy would refuse to use any mods at all and insult those who do.

So does it make me the weirdo to say I like playing it just fine? I don't remember having a wishlist of changes while playing, nor do I remember feeling like it was a significantly different experience than Morrowind. I actually had more quibbles with Morrowind, and what I felt was wrong there was either still present, or softened. If I was going to replay one of them I would probably go for Oblivion. As a point of reference I take zero interest in the main quest and set about looting caves like a bandit.

Corrected that sentence for you. :-)

I prefer to treat Oblivion more as a foundation for modding than a stand-alone game.
The level scaling makes exploring pointless, and joining and becoming a leader in all the guilds is stupid.
How the console version can get so high scores is a mystery to me.
With the right mods it can be quite enjoyable, though.
The only improvement from Morrowind is the Radiant AI (despite its flaws) and the faction (monster factions) system. Morrowind has much better atmosphere and interesting places to explore, but the static NPCs made it a lifeless, static world where everything revolves around the player character. In Oblivion at least things happen even if the player characters is not around.
So in the end I prefer modded Oblivion to Morrowind.

I also apply that to Doom 3, Far Cry 1, Unreal Games, andd mabye Neverwinter Nights and most Source engine games.

Unreal games? Why?

That puts it perfectly, I reckon, and has been my own approach to the series as far as PC is concerned. Certainly no fanboy of the series - I don't even like it that much compared to many other RPG's, in fact - but it's exactly what I'd tell someone who shares many of the complaints that I do, the immersion of this topic being my biggest one too.

The whole series simply wouldn't be worth it to me without the tools in place for modders to tinker with. And, sure, that doesn't say much for my confidence in Bethesda or sound like hearty praise, but it's not supposed to be. As bad as it sounds to say it this way, and as bitter a condemnation of Bethesda as it also sounds, I feel like I'm, in a way, buying their beautifully crafted worlds more than anything else in the game because I know that every issue that I have, of which there is many, will be fixed, sooner or later, by some saint of a modder. It certainly makes me wonder just what the fuck Bethesda are thinking sometimes too, but there it is.

For single player purposes, mods are your friends.

Oblivion's gameplay was designed around leveled lists, which are very easy to modify without redesegning the game or having access to the source code. Well, unless you're a console player, of course.
I though the first Unreal game was good enough without having to use mods. I actually liked Unreal 2 as well.
Any particular mods you are thinking of?