Modding turf war erupts as ‘notoriously controversial’ dev puts out an Unofficial Oblivion Remastered Patch one week after the game came out

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As a gamer, I’ve come to accept that just like birds take flight, the sun always rises, water remains wet, and Bethesda games inevitably receive unofficial patches. There are special mods for classics like Morrowind for purists, Yukichigai for New Vegas (though it’s an Obsidian game, but under the hood, it’s still a Bethesda engine), even a Community Patch brewing for Starfield. It’s as if this is a universal law in gaming, and no matter how advanced the Unreal Engine 5 layer wrapped around original Oblivion might be, it doesn’t change the fact that these patches are bound to emerge.

It wasn’t a shock to many when a mod titled “Unofficial Oblivion Remastered Patch – UORP” by an author named Arthmoor appeared on Nexus Mods only a week after the release of Oblivion Remastered on April 22. What might be surprising, if you’re not deeply involved in the Bethesda mod community, is the level of frustration this caused among players.

A post on the Oblivion Modding subreddit warned users, just two hours after the UORP became available on the Nexus, not to apply Arthmoor’s latest [Oblivion Remastered] patch. The author of the post described Arthmoor as a figure often surrounded by controversy and urged the entire Oblivion community to disregard the patch: “It’s crucial for as many people as possible to overlook his mods.

Instead of the original text,

Arthmoor’s history with the modding community is more dramatic than one might anticipate from a set of bugfixes for Oblivion. For years, there has been a deep and ongoing strain between Arthmoor and the wider mod scene. Notably, Arthmoor was involved in ‘Gategate’—a significant controversy that erupted when he updated his well-known Open Cities mod for Skyrim (which you might have utilized; it eliminates load screens when entering locations such as Whiterun and Solitude) by incorporating ‘lore-consistent’ fossilized Oblivion gates into Skyrim’s cities, remnants of the Oblivion Crisis in The Elder Scrolls 4.

As a gamer, I found myself growing increasingly frustrated with the constant addition of new features, leading to a heated conflict between Arthmoor and other modders who were trying to rectify the issues at the gates. After much back-and-forth, Arthmoor finally made the wise decision to make the gates adjustable to cater to different preferences.

They weren’t pleased when it seemed necessary to install the Unofficial Skyrim Patch, created by Arthmoor, which includes modifications that some players consider less about fixing bugs and more about Arthmoor’s personal preferences (for example, changing a specific mine from ebony to iron). This patch has essentially become a requirement for installing numerous other mods on Nexus, as many modders have built their work upon the fixes made by Arthmoor and his team in this patch.

Individuals found it frustrating that Arthmoor was given extensive control over Skyrim’s modding community, essentially making his personal preferences and adjustments a permanent aspect of the modified Skyrim gameplay.

A wave of history resurfaced as Arthmoor’s name appeared on the Nexus Mods page for Oblivion Remastered. The post warning on the Oblivion Modding subreddit garnered over a thousand upvotes, with the author drawing parallels between UORP and Arthmoor’s original patch from 2006’s Oblivion. Essentially, the author accused him of replicating it without thorough testing, stating that making such extensive changes to numerous records is overly risky, particularly since the integration method between UE5 and the TES engine is still not fully comprehended.

Essentially, the overall sentiment in the community is that Arthmoor and his team are being criticized for quickly releasing a patch to claim control over unofficial patches once more, which could potentially make their patch a necessity for a large portion of Oblivion Remastered’s future mods. This concern was not alleviated by the emergence of new problems with the patch, such as crashes in certain stores, Argonian tails rotating to the front and appearing rather inappropriate.

As far as I can tell, Arthmoor and his team claim to have rectified the issues in the latest update aimed at resolving crashes, and upon my own testing, I’ve yet to encounter any further complications: no more shop crashes involving bugbears, nor unusually well-equipped Argonians.

As a dedicated fan, I reached out to Arthmoor to inquire about allegations that his work on the Unofficial Oblivion Remastered Patch (UORP) was merely a hurried transfer of his previous patch to secure a monopoly. He clarified to me, “It’s important to note that assertions labeling UORP as a direct, unaltered port of the original Unofficial Oblivion Patch are inaccurate.

Over the past week since the release of the remastered version, I’ve been thoroughly examining every detail in the records. Arthmoor notes that the Ultimate Overhaul RPG Project (UORP) omits fixes from the original Unofficial Oblivion Patch which were already incorporated by Bethesda and Virtuos in the remastered edition.

As a gamer, I’ve experienced moments where I’d directly benefit from updates straight from the Unofficial Patch (UOP). That’s awesome! Now, these improvements will trickle down to everyone, even console players. However, Arthmoor has made it clear that several adjustments originally included in UOP—like modifications to object placement, script changes, and tweaks that don’t align with Oblivion Remastered or have already been addressed by the developers themselves—have been taken out of the Unofficial Oblivion Patch (UORP).

In terms of securing an initial position, that doesn’t align with our project values. This has always been the case. We engage in our activities because we share the same passion for Bethesda games as many others do, and we aim to enhance the gaming experience when interacting with them.

Based on my personal experience testing UORP, it appears acceptable but I advise waiting for further updates. Although I didn’t discover any new issues caused by the recent patch, I haven’t encountered any critical bugs in Oblivion Remastered that warrant immediate attention (though I have come across some less pressing bugs during my playtime with the original game).

In the meantime, as Bethesda continues to fine-tune Oblivion Remastered and Arthmoor works on UORP, it might be wise to bide your time until any potential conflicts or power shifts within the Oblivion Remastered modding community become clearer.

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2025-05-01 18:34