I didn’t see a thread for general issues with Oblivion that has been posted in in the last decade, so I decided to make a new one, because yesterday I ran into an issue that I think is pretty major.

I decided that I wanted to add the Wizard’s Tower DLC to Saryn’s game before she went up north to Bruma for her last recommendation. So I went to the Microsoft Store on the Xbox Series X and tried to purchase and download it. First of all, it’s weird that I needed to purchase it because I’m positive I had already done so many years ago before my Xbox360 died. Ok whatever, I thought it was probably just because it was so long ago and it was less than $2. It gave an error message saying something went wrong and to try again later. I stopped after that and forgot about it for a few days and tried again. Same error message. I looked it up to see if there were known issues with this, and sure enough, there were. I tried things people said worked for them but no dice. I tried about 20 times or so. This morning I looked at my bank account. It charged me each time I tried. I had to contact Microsoft support and now I have refunds pending, but still no Wizard Tower DLC. Frankly, I’m not sure if you can even get this DLC on Xbox anymore since they shut down the Xbox360 storefront like just last month. I don’t expect this to be resolved, but I thought I would make a post about my experience to serve as a warning for anyone else trying to get this DLC on Xbox Series X/S or XboxOne.

I've no idea for a solution; this is consoleland, so you might just be stuck. I managed to get all the DLC on my 360, but this was (hmm....) about 13 years ago.

But Damn, you got charged each time!

And also: there's a chance you might see some posts in this thread in upcoming weeks, as no doubt I'll hit a few snags as I install Oblivion, its DLC & unofficial patches, and all the mods + plugins I've used over the past 10 years. One thing I did right is I've still got all the archives. And have fallen into the habit of keeping lots of notes, explaining why I use this but stopped using that, and so on.

Yeah, it was quite alarming, lol. I talked to Microsoft and they agreed to reverse the charges. Indeed I already have pending credits on my account. It did say I could install some of the other DLC including The Shivering Isles, and Battlehorn Castle, so it’s just a few DLC that I can’t access right now.

That’s a good policy about taking notes about your install. I think I’ll do that next time I feel like messing with mods.

I think probably Microsoft messed up with this. Probably? Ha!

I still have the original Xbox360 but the servers have closed already for a couple of years here in Europe. So the result was that I got locked out of all my local accounts too. No way to access those save games, can't login. Because it appears that an Xbox360 account can be either "pure local" or "online", and of course mine were "online" because I used to buy stuff in the store. Now the closed the servers and "online" accounts won't log you into Xbox360 locally without logging you into Xbox Live first, which is impossible.

I did find information on the Microsoft website concerning this. It amounts to "Suck it up, Princess - time to by an Xbox One".

However, I can still play Xbox360 games on the console, but I had to make a new account, local only, carefully avoiding any attempts to connect to Xbox Live, because that will lock it.

I understand from Renee that you have a better experience over in the US, these things are managed regionally. But it looks like may be it is coming to you too.

Anyway, since you are on Xbox Next Gen, you should not have such issues. But yeah, I am not surprised they messed up with the DLC! They probably figured it's an old game, and everyone is buying it on Steam or GOG now...

<rant over/>

Yeah I think the problem is that they didn’t update the 360 to use the Microsoft Store so it was still running Xbox Live. Since they shut down the 360 storefront, you can’t download content that depended on that 360 storefront, even though it is listed on the newer Microsoft store. I wonder if it would be different if I was running Obliv on Gamepass…

If I understand correctly, you are talking about XBL suddenly shutting down entirely? Or was it more involved than this?

If it's just Xbox Live, I think I've already lost access to that. Which is why I had to buy the Mass Effect trilogy on discs, from eBay a couple years ago. And if it's more involved than just XBL that's scary. Thank the Gods I'm not in the habit of keeping my 360 online.

Edit: I see, you are talking about getting locked out of "all your local accounts". Yeah, that's .... stupid. That MS would be able to influence local accounts. Again, I'm not in the habit of keeping the 360 online, just in case such a policy becomes standard in North America; hopefully my console will remain untouched.

Yeah I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure I deleted the Obliv downloads and saves off of my 360 years ago, and since it red ringed, I can’t check and see what’s going on with it.

I would love to just buy a replacement 360 like the one I had, but they still want over $100 on Amazon for a refurbished unit. I’m just not willing to do that, lol

It is amazing my 360 still runs. Got it in 2012. Granted, becoming more of a PC gamer over the years has extended my 360's life, methinks. I only play Mass Effect on Xbox once in a while, and occasional Skyrim (with Kinect voice commands) once it gets cold outside.

Well, Time to get my Oblivion back & running, Khajiit. Main difference: this time I'm going to document the process, in this thread! I already got the base game installed a week or two ago (Oblivion, Shivering Isles, Knights.esm) so that's a half-hour or so out of the way.

There's gonna be a lot of text in this post, just to warn ya! I feel it's necessary, though.

The error I made when rebuilding Morrowind and Fallout 3 in July and August is I would simply install the game. Then the utilities, then the patches, and finally the mods. Load up the game, and nothing! CTD on launch or whatever. And now I'm needing to work backwards; troubleshooting when I should be playing.

So today, my plan is to have a gamesave ready; actually two saves. Snaat Rayag the skooma dealer, Saves 1 and 948. Save 1 is, of course, his Imperial Prison beginning, circa 2014. Save 948 is from this past spring, some time in May. Save 1, obviously, includes zero mods, whereas 948 includes everything. His game is lighter than some of my others though, no Better Cities in his world for instance. This is why it'll be better to start with him. Less content, less potential headaches.

As I add this and add that, I'll occasionally start up his game. And if there are any problems, it'll be easier to track them. -- One thing I did right over the years is I've gotten into the habit of saving the folder structure for all my games on an external disc. This way, I can see how my Oblivion {or any other game with mods} was structured when it worked in the past.


1). Going into Documents > My Games > Oblivion and change Oblivion.ini's [Display] > SScreenShotBaseName to reflect the character and the time (Snaaty_Summer_2024). I always do this, which makes keeping screenshots from cluttering under the same name.

2). Next come the utilities, starting with OBSE. At this point, I've got three windows open: from left to right.

First window is my Downloads folder. As mentioned, I've saved all OB archives here.
Second window is empty.
Third window is my Modded Oblivion folder, where the game lives.

So the process literally becomes like a factory conveyor belt. Start with the Downloads > Utilities folder. Right-click & extract OBSE's archive into the empty window (so I can see if the archive includes any sort of folder structure). And then cut/paste everything in this folder into Modded Oblivion, right next to Oblivion.exe. Or the Data folder or wherever the folder structure calls. This 3-step process continues with every archive I'm installing, except archives which'll become OMODs or installed through Wrye Bash.

3). I made the OBSE_Loader into a desktop icon. Then right-clicked on this icon and went into Properties so I could change the nondescript loader icon to the proper Oblivion icon.

Alright, let's start the game! I loaded Save 1. No point trying to start Save 948; chances are that save relies on all kinds of junk, and will CTD right away.

4). Game loaded fine, but I can't move my character, or do anything with the menus. Ah, forgot to load up X-padder! Exited thegame, got my 'Oblivion - Variable Movement' template loaded. There we go. (I use two templates for OB: one of them makes the movement joysticks behave similar to consoles, with variable movement; the other template focues on 2-speed movement. 2-speed is for when I want to use Autowalk, usually during longer journeys.)

5). Next comes OBSE - Elys Universal Silent Voice, which keeps text onscreen whenever mod-added dialog occurs, but there's no voice. I actually have no idea where these files are supposed to go, and there's no Readme in the archive.

....And see, THIS is why it's good I still have the old folder structure on that external drive. Turns out, the four files in Elys go into Data > OBSE. I could've gone online to NEXUS (or wherever) and figured out where they're supposed to go. But I just saved X amount of time looking up my old folder structure instead.

6). I began going alphabetically through Downloads > Utilities folder, so next comes BOSS. My Downloads folder includes three versions of BOSS (what the...?) so it's a good thing I left myself a Notepad file (dated 11/9/2016) explaining why there are three archives. Right, 2.31_Installer is what I'm supposed to use. I included the other two versions "for reference" whatever that means. Perhaps in the past I tried versions 2.30 and 2.31 to see which one worked best.

BOSS went right into the main Oblivion folder, made a shortcut to desktop, making it easy to "BOSS" around the load order in the future. 💻

7). TES Construction Set is next. Odd. Why doesn't this get installed off the disc like Morrowind's version? Anyway, the CS installs through a Wizard. Again, put it straight into the main Oblivion folder. There is also a patch I'm supposed to install, but I got an error message when trying to do so. Weird. Moving on...

8). Now the first manager: OBMM. This folder's a mess! And I didn't leave any notes. Started with OBMM Extended Setup, I guess. *shrug* Tried to install it, got an error message, yet I was able to put OBMM into the main OB folder, make a desktop icon, and everything works.

Started the game after making sure to turn on Oblivion.esm, Shivering Isles, and Knight.esm, Save 1. "Prisoner, get over by the window, NOW!" the guard says. All good.

9). TES4Edit was a simple download from the archive. Cut/paste into the main OB folder. I've got version 3.2, which is probably old.

10). Next comes a folder with five CPUUnpark files. I know what this is for (getting the best performance from the quad-core) but I've got no idea where this goes, and these files are not in the old folder path I've using for reference. However, These files are from Microsoft according to their File Description. So, double left-clicked on the main executable and after a minute or so, got a panel which had an "Unpark All" button. Clicked on that. Says it worked, I guess.

11). Ah, Wrye Bash. Only one file in this folder, version 304, which is an installer. Cool. Installed into the main OB folder. The program actually found this folder automatically.

Dang, Error message. WB will not even run, what the hell?

Well, that's enough for now. Gonna have to do some research and my temperance is waning. Roughly two hours have passed, so far.

Hope this isn't too intrusive of a post, CheshireKhajiit! I'll move it into my own thread if it is. But see, I just wanted to outline the processes we all go thru as we're trying to rebuild these games from scratch!

I mean, this is the kind of thing I made this thread for so I have no objections! I’m sure I’ll have questions after I read through it.

*Edit*: Already have a question. So you still have the save files for these characters, did you just delete all of the mods you used for the 948 file, or do you still have those stored somewhere?

*Edit*: Nevermind, you answered my question lol

Thank you.



Yes, I save all archives, even the ones I DL but choose not to use, sometimes I'll save them 'for reference'. I am an archive packrat.

I got stuck on Wrye Bash. Keeps saying it's not installed properly or something. But maybe it's 'cause I got an old version of WB, version 304. There are newer versions now. 312 is the latest one at THE Nexus, later I'll see if that works.

From what I know WB 312 requires 64-bit system and does not support Windows 7. If you have a 32-bit system you'll need WB 307.

I've got 64 and went with Windows 10 after weighing pros & cons and then deciding a month ago, thank you.

I am running Wrye Bash 309.1. I suppose it was the latest when I installed it. No issues. I think perhaps try the latest from Nexus and follow instructions, hopefully that will work. Otherwise I'll look into it in more detail.

Oh, by the way, my version says "stand-alone". Which makes me wonder if there is also some sort of a not stand-alone version? Not sure.

I think there is the stand alone and then the one that requires you to install all of the Python stuff separately. I remember trying to get all of that working for Morrowind back in the day. Talk about a headache!

I just looked into this not long ago. Seems there's three sub-versions nowadays: a Standalone installer for Steam-derived games, a Standalone installer for games bought from other sources (GoG, Epic, etc.), and the Python version, which is for the pros. "This is a copy of Wrye Bash's source code. In order to use it, you will have to install Python and the required dependencies manually." is the description. Yeah, think I'll avoid that!

312 is the latest version, released early this year. Since OS does make a difference (as macole indicated) I'm thinking the reason WB 304 didn't work for me yesterday is 'cause it's not compatible with Windows 10. I'll find out later!

They integrated the Python stuff into the main WB some time ago. This must be the "stand-alone" version, as Renee pointed out. It wasn't hard to install, from what I remember. That is, I don't remember anything - which means I didn't run into any trouble!

Yeah, back in those days you had to travel to the Amazon and wrestle a giant snake. Getting it into your computer case was a real chore. Glad to hear that it is simpler these days.

In a way. That is, Python is considered kinderspiel now and is therefore integrated with the main package. But for the pros, Python has grown into an Anaconda...

Yeah, no Python for Renee. Anyway, back in business! Wrye Bash 312.1, got it working, no problems. Gonna continue with the install until I get bored or hit another snag.

12). Next utility is the 4gp_Patch_plus_Ram_optimization. Although its readme instructions are vague, and I got a couple error messages once again, I tried chucking the patch into the main Oblivion folder and double-clicked on it. Got a Success! message, woo hoo!

Next archive down the list is Animation Fixer. I couldn't find its files in my old build of OB, but left myself a note. Says "Animation Fixer is supposed to fix the A-bomb. It seemed to work okay, but the game would crash on loadup sometimes." So... getting rid of that one.

13). Console Commands, yes. This is the utility which includes tfc2, the floating command which also freezes animations. This was a simple download > cut > paste.

14). I also installed CRS Sound Fix (into Data) it's an esp. Don't know what this does exactly, but I remember I had some prob years ago and CRS was needed.

15). FastExit, a simple DL > cut > paste into the main folder.

16). Hotkey Pro, allows extra hotkeys and more. Chucked into the Data folder. And in my old build I had a configuration file already set up, so I copy-pasted this into the new build.

17). OSR, what the heck is OSR? Oblivion Stutter Remover is my guess. Yep. Another cut & paste, this time into Data folder.

Finally, there was the ShowRaceMenu Fixer, but this seems to work outside the game. I've also got TES4Gecko 15_2 but apparently never used it.

Anyway, that's it! That's all the utilities for Oblivion.

18). BOSSed the load order, which indicated Knights.esm is dirty so cleaned with TES4Edit.

19). Started the game. "Do you hear that? The guards are coming...." All good.

20). Alternate start mods, I got two of these. One simply called Alternate Start, the other TUStartingOptions. Both of these were made into OMODs.

21). My Animals, Creatures, and Monsters folder is packed! Because it was my goal years ago to get as many peaceful critters into my gameworld; sick of getting attacked by nearly everything while gaming on consoles for 6 years. This folder Contains Betty's Animal Planet, Betty's Crocs and Birds, Birds in Oblivion, Circling Ravens, Ducks and Swans for Cyrodiil, Dude Where's my Horse (I never used that one), Maigrets House Cats, Maigrets Toc Toc the Raven, Small Creatures (makes baby versions of a lot of animals & monsters), and Will-o-the-Wisp Companion.

All of these were download > cut > paste. I also remembered I changed Betty's Crocs & Birds so the crocodiles are mellow, and I also hand-placed a bunch of extra birds. Saved a copy of this .esp years ago thank the Gods, so now this modified Betty .esp was easily pasted into my new build.

22). Added Lizardmen.esp (my own creation, as described here).

23). Added the rest of my homemade .esps including 4th Era NPCs*, Generic Cyrodiil Quests and Generic Cyrodiil Quests 2, Lady Saga's World, Renee Gade III's World, and Snaaty's World.

*4th Era NPCs.esp is something I created for Renee Gade III's game long ago. Since it's supposed to be 20 years after the OC, deep into the 4th Era, I actually went through all the human characters, all the named Bretons, Imperials, Redguards, and Nords, and aged them all one by one approximately 20 years! Gave some of them gray hair, and so on.

Well, to save space I won't continue describing the rest of those 100 or so mods. I've got their archives organized into a bunch of folders: Animations, Armor Clothing & Looks, Better Cities, Companion mods, Dwellings & Locations, and so on. I foresee it's going to take the better part of a week to get them all installed. But bottom line is I've changed the way I'm installing nowadays, and it's working.


EDIT: one last thing. I realized my Oblivion (which was installed off the Anthology disc) hasn't got most of the DLC like Battlehorn Castle, Vile Lair, etc. But at some point I did buy the GoG version of OB. So I downloaded Oblivion again, this time into a separate folder. Then I copy/pasted the DLC and all their corresponding folders, .BSAs, and .esms into my working game.

Good to hear, Renee!

One last WB question please; I use WB307 from 2020 I think I've heard that the latest versions of Wrye Bash can install FOMOD and OBMM format instructions without having to convert to BAIN format. Does anyone know if that is true?
Don't know why I'm asking; I'm not planning a reinstall anytime soon.

Yes it can. There may be cases it can not handle, but I didn't run into any.

So is it true you have to use a mod to play with a controller on PC?

Not a mod, no. You need a keyboard mapper like xpadder or JoyToKeys - a separate program that maps keyboard and mouse input to a game controller.

However, I believe that one of the UI mods also makes it possible to use a controller, but I never looked into it and don't know how it's done. The game itself doesn't support a controller natively, not properly anyway.

Oh ok. I noticed that there was some very limited functionality with a controller, but it was all messed up. I wasn’t sure if it was something I could fix without downloading something or not.

Yeah, the "joystick" option is really not useable. You would normally disable it in the INI and then use either the keyboard input converter or a UI mod. There are several ways to do it, it's been sorted out already. Renee and I can both share presets with you, if you like - Renee is using xpadder and I use JoyToKey with pretty much the same results, I'm sure. I think some presets are even posted on Nexus as "mods" although technically they are not mods because they require this other software.

Anyway, plenty of ways to solve this.

Thanks for the info. *Sigh* Looks like I’m going back to play Oblivion on PC but I don’t have a good setup for Mouse and Keyboard currently.

Would either Wolf or Renee mind writing up a simple guide for setting up Xpadder or JoyToKey, if you find the time? Even if I don’t do any mods, I definitely want to use my controller.

Sure. That's easy enough.

0. DISABLE JOYSTICK in Oblivion.ini!!! It's under [Controls], the line is:
bUse Joystick=0

Note the space in there.

1. Download JoyToKey from here. Install it.

2. Create a configuration file for Oblivion. The configuration files (profiles, if you like) are stored in Documents/JoyToKey. Below is my profile for Oblivion. You can copy that text and paste it as "Oblivion.cfg".



3. Start JoyToKey - it minimises itself into the system tray. You can open the main window by right-clicking the icon. The Oblivion profile should be shown in the right pane - click it.

4. Review the profile. I have all the basic movements and quick slots very similar to the Xbox layout, but I have also defined some keys according to the mods I use. These simply correspond to keyboard mappings, so start your Oblivion and review your keyboard profile.

There are help files and documentation for JoyToKey, and I found it really easy to use. If you have questions, let's hear it! But for me it worked straight away, and I just went fiddling with the settings.

Oh, the important bit. You need to start JoyToKey before you start Oblivion, and you need to switch to the correct profile. You can configure JoyToKey to automatically switch to the profile based on the EXE name or Window title. Works flawless for me, profiles switching automatically. Otherwise you can switch them by right-clicking the icon in the system tray.

JoyToKey must be running while Oblivion is running. Note that if you are running Oblivion as an administrator, then JoyToKey also must run as an administrator. But I run both as a regular user, even with OBSE.

Thanks LW! I’ll give it a go when I get home from work!

To your knowledge, would it work with a current gen Xbox Series controller? I have an older 360 controller I could use too.

Ok, so I got JoyToKey working. The buttons are all mapped correctly and the sticks do what they are supposed to. I do have some weirdness with the left stick in particular. If the character is moving forward it wants to strafe left or right a bit so moving forward has a sort of “wobble” effect. Also, not sure why, but the framerate seems to be lowered as well. I need to spend more time with it.

I cannot say anything about the framerate, I never tested without JoyToKey... I just hate playing with a keyboard and mouse.

Regarding the "drift" that you experience, it may be that you need to calibrate your controller. Also cleaning it helps a lot. You can calibrate the controller within JoyToKey itself, and I remember now that I did it a few times and eventually it settled down. Windows updates kept messing it up though, so I disabled Windows updates... Which version of Windows are you on? I'm on Win10.

Also there is a setting in JoyToKey whether to use DirectX or "native" (or something). You may want to experiment with that. It really depends on your controller as well.

Yeah, I’m using one of the current gen Xbox Series controllers. It has all of the same buttons as a 360 controller and it seems to be working fine for the most part. I hope to try tinkering with it when I get home from work (if we still have power with Hurricane Francine coming through ).

*Edit* Looks like the hurricane isn’t coming through our area till tomorrow.

I bought an "original copy" (hehe) Xbox 360 USB wired controller because I don't have a modern Xbox, and controllers are expensive. I have since also used an "original copy" PS3 controller - works fine. The only issue is with Windows trying to be smart about it and "upgrade" my 360 controller drivers to the latest version which doesn't work with the "original" 360 controller. But since you have a modern controller, it should all be fine, but indeed - calibrate it in JoyToKey as it might be different to mine.

Correct, I'm the X-padder lady, Lena's got Joy to Keys.

Well, you're already set up with J2K. If you ever decide to use X-padder, they've got great walkthroughs, full of pictures to make the process easier. Only prob might be that Xpadder charges a small one-time fee, whereas I believe J2K is free.

I don't know how J2K handles analog stick drift, but with Xpadder there is what is called the DeadZone. I select either analog stick as seen in this pic, and then go into the settings/options for that stick and eventually there's a setting called Deadzone. This includes a red "area" showing where the limits of analog stick influence actually begin, and the zone can be made narrower or wider.

ALSO: VERY IMPORTANT. To get variable movement, if you want this to work, especially with the left (walking/running) joystick, or whichever one you use, make sure to start the game with the controller already ON.

--If I begin the game with the controller OFF (which is what one of X-padder's walkthroughs suggests) I'll only get digital movement: walk/run. 🎮 And I do have a separate Xpadder layout which is specifically made for digital instead of analog; I use this layout when my character's going to be walking / running longer distances, this way I can toggle Autowalk on.

Only problem with variable movement is left/right movement (strafing) is a bit wonky, and it's sometimes hard to make my character run in a straight line. But I don't care. People walk at variable speeds, and run at variable speeds.

Interesting, variable walk/run isn’t something I had considered. I can’t remember if I tested if it will let my character walk by slightly tilting the stick. If not, I’m assuming that if I want my character to walk I’ll have to hit the “toggle run/walk” key. Does that sound right?

Nope, I don't need to hit a button to toggle between walk or run, just move the joystick angle a certain amount.

I do have Autowalk configured on my controller though. While using my '2-speed' X-padder template, if I press & hold B while pushing the left bumper this triggers Autowalk.

That's the cool thing about gaming on PC; there are nearly infinite ways to configure our controllers. Eventually you may want to try Hotkey Pro or some other utility which increases the number of hotkeys available. I've got 16 hotkeys for Oblivion, basically double what's available on consoles.

Hey that’s pretty neat!

In my JoyToKey configuration when you just push the stick gently, the character walks. Push it all the way, and they run. The threshold works for my controller, you might have to adjust it since you have a slightly different one.

I also have two button mappings configured - press and hold the Left Bumper to use the keys from "Joystick 2" configuration. You see it in the configuration window.

I think JoyToKey and Xpadder offer exactly the same functionality, but obviously configuration is done in different ways. You'll just need to adjust it to your tastes, and more importantly - to your controller!

Yeah I actually changed the left button to be the “z” key. That’s what I was using to grab bod… er… items with while playing on Xbox.

You have to sacrifice one button in order to be able to use two layouts. But configuration is easy to change, and to start with you only need one layout, after all, that's what Xbox has. But after a while you'll be wanting more buttons, and then you'll change your mind.

You can also have "virtual buttons" - you can define combinations of buttons to be pressed together. And then also you can define multiple functions on one and the same button depending on how you are pressing it - for example, short versus long press, or "double click", "triple click", etc. You have it all there, you'll need to try and see what works for you.

I believe this is all pretty much the same also in Xpadder.

This all sounds really nice! Once I iron out the wrinkles and get it working the way I want, I’m sure I will experiment with adding buttons and what not.

Hey Wolfie, which lines in the config notepad dictate how the variable run/walk work? Or is that controlled purely by changing settings in the JoyToKey interface?

Everything can be done in the config, but I always use the interface. It is the first four lines under [Joystick 1] - marked with ##Move. The way it is set up, is that if you push the stick lightly, it does regular movement, but if you push it harder (all the way), it activates Shift which makes them run. It is easiest to change in the interface. The threshold is set to 95%, it looks like way too much, but I determined that experimentally. That's just how my controller responds. It may be that the threshold needs to be set differently for you.

If you want to put Shift under a separate button which you toggle, you can change the stick configuration from "Keyboard (multi)" to "Keyboard" and just assign a single letter to each direction. That's in the interface, I would not know which numbers it would translate to in the config file.

Look also in the Options tab in the interface. It has a number of fancy options such as "threshold for input analogue stick". For me it is set to 0, but if you are getting noise, then may be you need to set it to 5% or something. Also if you press "Configure" on that page, it takes you to further calibration and configuration of your controller, and that of course depends on your hardware.

Ok thank you for the info. I’ll look at it more either tonight or tomorrow.

Ok, so I have the Shivering Isles esp deactivated in Wrye Bash, so how come after a day in game passes I still get the “strange door” journal entry?

The Shivering Isles ESP is a dummy ESP without any content. Its only purpose is to load the resources. All Shivering Isles content has been merged into Oblivion.esm.

Ooooh so it’s going to load no matter what?

'fraid so. Unless you have a DLC delayer mod.

I could do a delayer mod. That’s probably what I’ll do.