Oblivion:Official Plug-ins

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Bethesda has released nine plug-ins and one expansion for Oblivion.

Contents 1 Plug-ins 2 Full Expansions 3 Future Releases 4 Installation Issues 5 Construction Set 6 Release Info

[edit] Plug-ins

Nine plug-ins are currently available. For PC players, all of these plug-ins can be purchased online from the Oblivion Downloads site; all of them except Battlehorn Castle are also included in the Knights of the Nine disc available to PC players, which can also be purchased online and downloaded at Direct2Drive. Xbox 360 players can obtain all of the plug-ins from the Xbox Live Marketplace. More details are provided in the Release Info section.

With the exception of Knights of the Nine, there are no other ways to obtain these plug-ins. In particular, they are not currently available to PS3 players and they have not been released with the GOTY edition of the game or with the Shivering Isles retail disc.

Most of the plug-ins require installation of patch 1.1.511 or higher. Only the four plug-ins with "None" in the patch column do not require the installation of any patches.

Plug-in		Cost (US$)	Cost (MS Points)	Patch Required	Quest Name
	Fighter's Stronghold	$1.89	150	1.1.511	Battlehorn Castle: Rescue Battlehorn Castle from marauders, and claim it as your own. This is the only plug-in that is not available as a retail product (the Knights of the Nine CD) in addition to via download.
	Horse Armor Pack	$1.99	200	None	Horse Armor Pack: Protect your horse from danger with this beautiful handcrafted armor.
	Knights of the Nine	$9.99	800	1.1.511	Knights of the Nine: A fallen King has been unchained from the darkness of Oblivion to seek vengeance upon the Gods who banished him. Only a champion pure of heart can vanquish the evil that has been released upon the land. You must heed the call, reclaim the lost relics of the Divine Crusader, and return the Nine to glory. New dungeons, characters, quests, and mysteries await.
	Mehrunes' Razor	$2.99	250	1.1.511	Unearthing Mehrunes Razor: Conquer one of the deepest and most challenging dungeons in all of Cyrodiil to claim this fearsome weapon.
	Orrery	$1.89	150	None	Repairing the Orrery: Harness the power of the stars. Rebuild the defiled Orrery and unlock the secrets of this Mages Guild Inner Sanctum.
	Spell Tomes	$0.99	80	1.1.511	Spell Tomes: Add "Spell Tomes" to the world's random treasure which grant you new and powerful magic spells, just by reading them.
	Thieves Den	$1.89	150	None	Dunbarrow Cove: Uncover a famous pirate's lost ship and claim it for your own.
	Vile Lair	$1.89	150	1.1.511	Deepscorn Hollow: Deepscorn Hollow is an asylum for the wicked, a refuge from the persecution of the virtuous.
	Wizard's Tower	$1.89	150	None	Frostcrag Spire: In the frozen mountains of Cyrodiil stands Frostcrag Spire, a tower of wonders for your magic-oriented character to call home.

[edit] Full Expansions

• Shivering Isles: Many mysteries await your investigations in the twisted reality that Sheogorath calls "The Shivering Isles."
  • Details on how to obtain Shivering Isles are provided on the Shivering Isles FAQs page.

[edit] Future Releases

Bethesda has confirmed that Fighter's Stronghold was the last DLC for Oblivion. There will be no more releases.

[edit] Installation Issues

Some people have reported problems installing the PC versions of the plug-ins. Note that most of the plug-ins require that the v 1.1 patch be installed. The following causes seem to be the most common:

Download problems 

• Problem: Page errors or truncated files (files that are too short when downloaded), especially on the day that a new plug-in is released.
• Cause: The download servers can get overloaded, causing downloads to be slow.
• Solution: If the downloaded file is shorter than it should be, or if you get strange error messages during installation, try the download again. You don't have to pay again.

Problems with activating 

• Problem: Unable to activate the product using your serial number.
• Cause 1: The authentication servers can also get overloaded.
• Solution 1: Try again in just a few minutes.
• Cause 2: Your firewall could be blocking the authentication.
• Solution 2: Turn off the firewall.

Hangs after activating 

• Problem: After activating, the install screen does not appear and the plug-in installer hangs. Killing the installer and/or re-booting, then re-launching the installer simply hangs without attempting to activate.
• Cause: Conflict with CTFMON.EXE.
• Solution: Do a clean boot (directions are on the Microsoft site). Advanced users can use the Task Manager to kill CTFMON.EXE (but beware, it may re-launch).

Hung install 

• Problem: The progress bar pauses and nothing appears to happen when installing the file.
• Cause: The plug-ins' installation programs are very sensitive to system settings and will often fail.
• Solutions: (Try these in order.)

1. If your account doesn't have administrator options, log in as an administrator and try again.
2. Turn off virus scanning software.
3. Reboot into safe mode with networking and attempt to install.
4. Try a clean boot
   1. Windows XP directions at Microsoft site
   • This has the highest chance of success.
   • Caution: If you have a non-Microsoft firewall, you may sometimes be unable to connect to the Internet when performing this clean boot. To avoid this problem just be sure not to deactivate the firewall on step 3 under "Manual Steps to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP" on the link above.

Xbox Live Connection 

• Should your connection cease during any download of any plug-in, you don't need to worry. Reconnecting and resuming your download from where you left off will not hamper your gameplay, save, cache, or files. Your progress bar may be pushed back a bit though.

Secure Loader or Aladdin HASP error 

(Note: This primarily affects 64-Bit Windows XP and Windows Vista, but has also been seen on 32-bit editions of Windows XP.)

• Problem: You receive one of the following two error messages with error code 0x80040702:
  • The Aladdin HASP SL Runtime protecting module "<folder name>\bethsec.dll" could not initialize properly because it is incompatible with the current platform version. Please contact your product vendor.
  • The Secure Loader used to protect this software has encountered a fatal error. Please contact your software vendor.
• Cause: The Secure Loader is incompatible with 64-bit Windows XP and Windows Vista; this seems to relate to a known problem with the InstallShield software and msvcrt.dll.
• Solution 1: Install them on another machine or partition with an earlier operating system and manually copy the files in the data directory to your main machine. (Virtual Machines are also a good choice here, since you don't actually need to play the game, just install the files.)
• Solution 2: Buy the box set for Knights of the Nine. The installers in that boxed set are compatible with Windows Vista. According to Bethesda support, there is no other work-around (see talk page for details), however the solutions below may work. Important: If you cannot get any of these solutions to work, and you've already downloaded the files, don't delete your downloads. A future patch may allow their installation on Windows Vista.
• Solution 3: (Tested only on Windows XP 32-bit.)

Reboot and hit F8 immediately as Windows boots up. When prompted with a menu, select "Safe Mode with Networking" (required for Internet activation; for phone activation, regular "Safe Mode" will do). Re-try your install. (Note: this may be a bit challenging, as there is limited screen real-estate in Safe Mode.)

• Solution 4: (Works in all configurations.)

1. Download and install Universal Extractor 1.5.
2. If you're using Vista, right-click on the shortcuts it creates and set the program to always run with Administrator privileges. (If you don't, you may not be able to extract directly to your Oblivion folder.)
3. Open each plug-in's executable file with Universal Extractor and extract the files using the "isxunpack method". This will place several files in a Disk1 folder under whatever folder you specify (the same folder as the executable, by default, so Oblivion_Horse_Armor_Pack.exe would create an Oblivion_Horse_Armor_Pack\Disk1 folder structure).
4. Use Universal Extractor again, and in each of the previous Data1 folders, open Disk1.cab. (Do not open Disk1.hdr.) This will create a Data1 folder in the specified folder.
5. Copy the Data folder in each of the above Data1 folders to your Oblivion folder.
6. Delete all the interim files you created in the above steps.

Note: With any of the above solutions, don't forget to select each file in your Data Files after you launch Oblivion.

AVG Anti-Virus

• Problem: AVG Anti-Virus detects the .exe file as a trojan during installation.
• Cause: AVG Anti-Virus is detecting a false positive in the .exe file (there is no trojan).
• Solution: Uninstall AVG, install the plug-in(s), reinstall AVG.

(Also, there is another way, involving the use of the "Resident Shield". Simply add the .exe file to the "exceptions" list, and open the file. It should work.)

[edit] Construction Set

Viewing/Editing Newer Official Plug-ins: Newer official plug-ins (any plug-in that requires installation of the 1.1.511 patch) should only be viewed/edited with the new (1.2) version of the Construction Set. Alternatively, it is possible (although not recommended) to view a newer plug-in in the original construction set if you hex edit the plug-in's .esp file: make a backup of the .esp file, open it in a hex editor, and change the second line from "0C 00 00 00 80 3F" to "0C 00 CD CC 4C 3F".

In-Game Formid: The pages on individual plug-ins often contain Object IDs for items or spells. In all cases, the first two digits of the Object ID are listed as "xx" because the first two digits are variable, depending upon the number of plug-ins you have installed and the order in which they were loaded. If the plug-in in question is the first (or only) plug-in you are loading, the first two digits will be "01", for the second plug-in "02", etc. For more info in determining these two numbers for your setup see Formid.

[edit] Release Info

Official Plug-ins for Oblivion have been released by Bethesda itself.

The Windows versions are available from Oblivion Downloads for a small price (between $0.99 and $9.99). They can also be bought through the retail box version in stores as Knights of the Nine, which is compatible with Windows Vista.

The Xbox 360 versions are available for download through Xbox Live Marketplace by purchasing Microsoft Points and transferring them to your account. In order to access the downloads, an Xbox Live account (either the free Silver account or the purchased Gold account is acceptable) and a high speed Internet connection are required. Some of the downloads have been released for free in magazines' promotional disks.