About to start modding...

[TyxLonestar]

So I have been roaming these forums for the past week or two while I waited for my computer parts to come in and now finally I have it all and will be ready to go and play Skyrim starting tomorrow. I have been reading everything I could find on other people having problems with downloading and running mods and I just want to make sure that I understand the basics of this correctly so I am not stuck all day trying to get mods to work instead of enjoying the game on the PC finally. So I guess what I am trying to say is, can anyone just go over this with me and make sure I have a proper understanding of how to download and utilize the mods in the community properly.

 

First I know I want to download the Nexus Mod Manager, then as I can tell it is easy to download and install after that, basically I just download the mod from the site and it automatically installs, updates and puts it into the correct paths for run.

I plan to download BOSS because I frequently saw posts about how important it was to make sure your mods load properly and in the correct order so that it all works.

But the final piece to it all is the biggest part I am confused about.. and that is the SKSE stuff. I found the download for it and everything I just want to make sure it is that easy. All I have to do is download it and then I should be good to go for all mods that need SKSE? or is there more to that I should know and understand first?

 

Thanks for the help everyone.

[BIgjguitar]

Ive just started modding myself and have questions too. I just posted about the same thing really. NNM is a must have, makes it way easyer to load and unload mods. Thing is some mods require othere mods to run and some mods dont even work, while some over lap and some require DAWNGUARD, watchout for this. Most of them run correctly and are awesome. IMHO, after modding my game after playing for awhile im sorry I did that. You can burn your saved games by adding and taking away and thats the down side. Currently my game crashes and I cant figure out why. So ill have to unload every singal mod I have on and load them one by one until my game works again but even then its no guarantee that I havent burned my saved games. I suggest starting a game and getting to the town Whiterun, and playing until you have lydia ( your housecarl), and SAVE A CLEAN SAVE!!!!

 

Then :dance: :dance: :dance: MOD THE s*** OUT OF YOUR GAME! :dance: :dance: :dance:

 

Keep what you like and delete antying you dont!

A great way to start getting important files is to goto the SKYRIM NEXUS and under FILES tab goto TOP FILES

and from there choose MOST ENDORSED FILES OF ALL TIME

The list that pops up is all the really good stuff. I prefer endorsed files myself, but I do try anything I might like as well.

For example " We change Lydia" only had 30 endorsements but I think she looks great and use that mod! Dont forget to endorse the mods you like!

Edited January 9, 2013 by BIgjguitar

[tyrannynexus]

For SKSE and SCRIPT DRAGON you drop the files into your main skyrim folder not your data folder. As i recall script dragon also comes with a bunch of optional plugins that you dont need to install, however the one to set the time of day is kind of cool.

[JibstaMan]

Well, first of all, I haven't modded Skyrim that much, so I'm not very experienced on the subject.

A thread told me about Mod Organizer. It looks promising on how it helps organize mods, though I haven't tested it (yet).

 

But first about SKSE. They have clear instructions about installation:

 

[ Installation ]

1. Copy the .dll and .exe files to your Skyrim directory. If you see files named TESV and SkyrimLauncher, this is the correct folder. Do not copy these files to the Data folder as with a normal mod. The "src" folder is only useful for programmers, most users can ignore it.

2. Copy the .pex files in Data\Scripts\ into the Data\Scripts\ folder of your installation. The .pex files are needed by all users of SKSE.

3. Copy the .psc files in Data\Scripts\Source\ into the Data\Scripts\Source\ folder of your installation. The .psc files are only needed if you have the CreationKit installed and intend to create or compile Papyrus scripts.

4. Launch the game via running skse_loader.exe. Steam must be running before launching Skyrim. If you use a desktop shortcut to launch Skyrim normally, just update the shortcut to point to skse_loader.exe instead of TESV.exe or SkyrimLauncher.exe.

2/3. Basically, also copy the Data folder to the Skyrim directory (same directory as in 1) and say "Yes" when asked to merge folders.

Step 4 is most important, since if you don't run Skyrim using skse_loader.exe, SKSE isn't being used.

 

For those who want the Skyrim icon on their desktop, right click the shortcut, click properties. On Shortcut tab, click "Change Icon...". Then click "Browse...". Navigate to your Skyrim directory and open "TESV.exe". The Skyrim icon will be available for selection, so select it and press "OK". Then "Apply" or "OK" and you're done :).

 

BOSS changes the loading order of mods. Loading order is indeed important. Skyrim first loads Skyrim.esm and other master plugins. Everything loaded afterwords either expends or overwrites data that has already been loaded. So if two mods modify the same thing in Skyrim, the mod loaded last will be what you see in-game, since it has overwritten the modifications of the first loaded mod.

Take a leveled list for example. One weapon mod adds items to a leveled list and is loaded first. Another mod rebalances that leveled list by changing some values. If the weapon mod is loaded first, you won't see those weapons, since the list is overwritten by the balance mod.

 

BOSS doesn't change that. I think Wyre Bash can make a "bashed patch", which will combine modifications like the example with the leveled list. Then you can enable the Bashed Patch mod so all modifications are present simultaneously. Again, I'm not sure, this is mostly knowledge I got from modding Oblivion.

 

it automatically installs, updates and puts it into the correct paths for run.

About NMM, it does help you in a few things, but also leaves much for the user to do. Your statement is a bit confusing, cause it doesn't do all that automatically. For every mod you download, you have to install it. If an update of a mod is available, you will have to tell NMM to download it and then install it. When you install mods, the data gets extracted to the Skyrim data folder. But it's up to you to choose whether a mod can override data from another, already installed mod.

In short: it simplifies the download, install and uninstall process and provides information on whether a mod is out-dated.

 

I agree with BIgjguitar. I would advice to play Skyrim without mods and then look at what aspects of the game you would like to see changed. Then look for mods to change those aspects.

 

Hope this was helpful!

[TyxLonestar]

Thanks for the input everyone, Very helpful stuff! Hopefully everything runs smoothly my first go through, I don't want to be troubleshooting the mods the entire weekend of free time instead of playing haha. I only plan to use maybe 10 to 15mods, primarily visuals to the game and character remodels, possibly some weapon packs and armor packs for sure. So hopefully that isn't to complicated to accomplish haha.

[gamefever]

@ TyxLonestar

 

I remember being in your shoes back when I decided to make the more to Fallout 3 on computer from PS3.

I'm a heavy mod user, I've got hundreds of mods(about 33 GIGS worth of stuff in my data folder) working stable on my game, and even make my own personel mods for about everything. Plus I've released mods so ya I know the in's and out's.

 

 

Pro Tips

 

-Make a Backup Folder containing all of the .BSA files form your Skyrim Data folder

steam\steamapps\skyrim\data HERE

Put that data folder in a safe place! This makes fresh installs take minutes instead of hours.

 

-Find your games INI Files

My Documents\My Games\Skyrim

Skyrim.ini

SkyrimPrefs.ini

You will want to tweak these so make backups and place them in a safe place, all kinds of random steam stuff can make these revert back to normal INI and that wastes time.

 

Google Skyrim Ini tweaks or visit Nvidea tweak page for awesome tweaks to improve graphics or performance rating

 

-Always Fully read the file Description Page

-Read comments page

--->Look for comments from people that have been members for a long time and have lots of postings/Kodos points...Also ppl that actually have mods posted on Nexus

--->These comments by these people mean way more than guy with 6 posts that says your mod broke my game

--->comments from long time members that are active are good indicators as to what pproblems you might encounter with a mod, how good it is, and what the work around/fix is

--->Disscusion Page button...This is ussually where you go to find answers for mods that are troublesome to install when Description page doesn't cover it...Or when you have a mod in your load order that doesn't always play nice with the mod you just DL'd

 

-When your looking at a Mod check

->Mod Compatiability

-->double check your activated mods make sure they are going to play together

-->Mod requirements...A lot of mods require other mods to even use them.

-->Last Updated...A lot of Overhual mods become outdated over time with Officail Patches rendering them unusable and Author moveing on to something else

-->Comment page is great indicator of what to expect in this case, you'll see lots of comments reflecting the state of the mod and the author hasn't replied....some mods have no comments since 2011...Only texture mods and armor mods generally are safe in these cases. Absolutely steer clear of Overhaul mods that are outdated (We are on patch 1.8 there are tons of overhual mods that no longer work and can be like stepping on a bear trap for new modders)

 

-NMM is good but in my opinion it's always better to get to know exactly what your downloading open it up and have a look inside even if you read fully the Description Page it's always nice to see what's in the zip file

-Using a program like Tes5Edit really lets you get into the programming that these files do which is nice becuase it lets you see under the hood and find potentail problems.

 

-Wyre Bash!!!!!

You will need this, NMM won't do it all and you need to make Bash Patches with this program.

A patch is basically meant to make sure that your various mods play nicely.

For the most part it's like this

-If I download and install Immersive Weapons

Then I download and install Tera Weapons

Now lets say that both of these add 100 weapons into the game and places them on Bandits.

Without a Bash Patch only the mod that loads last works.

 

Edit

 

Google FRAPS

Get that it's a really handy file that tells you your Frames Per Second in game...

this is very important when it comes to modding your games graphics.

-45 FPS is gold standard under STRESS

-->Under Stress means

Fighting a battle against 3 dragons next to a river with water falls, while bears are trying to maul you. Basically imagine the worst possible time your game could posibly slow down and thats your computers stress marker. When do these occur for your current system, it's the best indicator for what kinds of mods you can handle.

You can alter when your computer hits this Stress point by reducing graphics, tweaking INI files, Tweaking Graphics Program, OverClocking, replacing Hardware (sometimes your actually better off with a new fast HardDrive over an awesome graphics card here.

 

Edit 2

Get a Texture Optimizer...Search box Optimized

Edited January 10, 2013 by gamefever

[TyxLonestar]

Thanks gamefever very helpful stuff. I was actually debating not using NMM and just installing each mod manually myself as I don't plan on having an excess amount of mods other than as I said before, visual textures for the game and model re textures for characters body styles and such. I'm going to start on this tonight when I get home from work and college so can't wait to do it and hopefully I don't run into any crazy problems.

[gamefever]

NMM

 

Is really a nice program don't get me wrong it's just that new modders tend to get lazy with not looking into the box and just accepting whatever it puts into their game.

 

NMM is good for removing mods and thats a huge reason for using this program. It remembers what files and folders to remove from the game. Now this can be problematic when you've done a manuel overwrite becuase NMM won't know you did that.

-Great for helping you to remember to endorse good programs

-Great for checking updates

 

Warning about updates

-these can break your game, your saves, do not assume you can update to latest version of a mod always read carefully when updating or ruin your current game and start a new one.

-A few can be updated without thinking about it, but the author tells you this in description page

 

Protip

-other than Textures and nonscripted armor and weapons you should always always just install one mod at a time

-Be wary of High Definition textures, especailly world space wide HD Textures

Res 512=consul

1024=Average Computer (Textures have been made by Beth for PC User's)

2048=Desent Computer

4096=I've got a 2 GIG VRAM video card ANNND I've got a Solid State drive meant for gaming.

 

PS

I find that for World Space you should generally stick with 512 when you consider all of the really nice overhual mods you can get for your game and like I said 45 FPS is gold standard for gaming in Skyrim. In my case I use 512 World Space becuase I put a lot of npc's into my world space with a lot of heavy scipted mods puts tons of stress on my game.

 

Don't forget to Defrag your drive. You'll find you'll actually have to do this when you mod your game for best performance.

[TyxLonestar]

Gamefever -

 

Okay so would you be able to tell me if this would be to difficult to do easily with no complications right at the start?

 

Roughly, I don't have my mods list on me, its on my computer at home. So I don't have the exact mod names but it was about 10 or so at the moment. I want to add 2k textures, water textures, better females mod, hair mod, cbbe texture, cbbe armor retextures, and maybe a few custom armors, and I found two weapon packs I wanted as well. and SkyUI which was the primary one I saw that made me look into getting SKSE. Anything I need to know ahead of time to make this easier? or is it pretty straight forward to get these quick and easy without any crashes. I am going to do as I was told to and go through the first part of the game with no mods, then save and start doing mods one by one and see how the textures effect the frame rate first, then go on to character textures and weapons and armor.

 

Thanks for all the help on this.

[gamefever]

@ TyxLonestar

 

That was some solid advice.

It's good that you've taken time to really think about which mods you want.

 

I think you should start with

 

-Getting your character out of the Helgen Keep 1st and make a save.

 

 

Personelly I'd start with a Body Replacer

1) CBBE Body- http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2666

-Don't try to get fancy just the 1st download for now.

 

2) Armor and Clothes

-caliente Version http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12273

-very easy just install the 2 files from main

Or

-CBBE ver 3 here http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13004

A little more chalanging I'll let you figure that out but should be easy

 

3)Hair Type in Apachi

Only download the top main file, only have one hair mod running at any given time

With even just 2 hair mods your VRAM could overload in character creation and CTD

 

4)Get Hothtroopers "Immersive Armor" and his Immersive Weapons packs you'll be glad you did.

 

5)install SKSE directions are in the zip

 

6) SkyUI

 

Don't bother with

-Better Females

I'm pretty sure that's kinda old news compared too what you can get now.

-CBBE Textures

play with the base textures 1st and get some experience modding

 

Stuff that might crash your game

-2k textures

-water textures

-2048 textures can run fine on my Rig if I stop using Overhaul mods actually

-Water can be a real pain in the buns...It's all over the place man and it moves and guess what your GPU has to render that stuff moving while your moving along at a fair clip fighting bandits, dragons, who knows what else

 

Honestly the 6 things I'm telling you to install would make the game really amazing for a 1st playthrough. Pretty easy to install. Main quest line would take mybe 20 hours. I'd play it like that and then try something new.

 

Protip

-Only you can decide for yourself what kind of game you are going to play. The mods I mentioned above have a Light Footprint on your game, and can be considered your base install.

 

What kind of game do you want.

 

-Action Heavy Game

This type of game ramps up the amount of danger you face, strategy, tactics, wits, and pure power are things that carry you through this kind of game

-Check out Warzones (Very Heavy FootPrint easy install huge world space changes), ASIS(way challenging install to new modders/Heavy FootPrint), ACE (Easy install HEAVY FOOTPRINT)

-I wouldn't use all 3 together especailly not with world space texture mods.

-Warzones by itself is enough Overhaul more than most systems cant handle it with other mods you've been warned. LOts of modders just use only that for a playthrough. DO not use it with ASIS or ACE

-I use ACE with ASIS and thats an intense game as it is.

 

Immersion Game

This type of game is all about survival of the fittest in the harsh bleak and deadly wilderness that is Skyrim. These mods are not about a pretty game or brutal combat they are about how harsh it is to survive the cold climates of Skyrim and it's beasts. You'll have to eat, drink, sleep, and wear warm gear to just survive day to day in game!

-Get Frostfall

-Get a Needs mod

-Get Wet and Cold

-Climates of Tamerial-Project Reality

-WiS Cloaks

-Get Snowey

-Pumping Iron

-Realistic animals and Preditors

 

EYE CANDY GAME

-Use only the best textures you can muster

-Never use scipted mods and expect no CTDs

-I advise no Overhaul mods Combat or otherwise

-Only think does this make my game look prettier

-Avoid scripting like the bubonic plague

-Use an ENB

-Do not expect the game to run above 20ish FPS in fact you might only top out at 35 and go as low as 2 or 3 FPS when there's action on screen

--->Expect your GPU to work overtime and get very hot no long hours playing the game here.

--->Mostly about taking nice screen shots that make ppl say wow

--->Skyrim can be very dreamy a place you never want to leave and Eye Candy game is about that.

-typically you need 2 G VRAM and Solid State gaming drive to play at acceptable frame rates ie 45 under stress

 

Sexrim

-well I shouldn't have to explain this one

-be aware that these kinds of mods are

-hard to install

-have poor documentation

-are crash prone

-often out of date

-never ever install one and expect to get anywhere or keep that save even

-You play this when you don't care if your current install implodes on itself

 

I'm sure your reading this thinking

Wow I want all 4 in the same install

But that's just not possible for most people and more than likely as a 1st timer you'll be banging your head against the wall in agony over where all your time went and how this wont run at all.

Just pick 1 and play it through remember most people play games becuase they are supposed to be fun. That kinda gets twisted up when you go hardcore mod abusser then the fun is in seeing just how much strain you can put on your game before it breaks and then figure out why it broke and then solve it and after hours, days, weeks we say man that was fun now Ima play my game finally.

 

So don't go using ASIS with say your EYECANDY or Immersion playthrough

wait until you have some experience installing mods just tackle the short list I gave you in 1 of the 4 options above. don't bother trying to use them all at the same time or even mix match. They go better for new people in just the catagories I put them in.

When your thinking about a playthrough think about the game in the big picture terms as outlined above before putting mods into your game.

 

Change your thinking to

-Sure this mod is nice but does it meet the current playthrough theme...If no then you just track the file and use it next time.

 

By the way when people give advice or mods to the public they don't get paid. They're sharing the love of modding with you be sure to endorse mods you use and give out Kodo's it's one of the few ways people have to go on when they're trying to determine if a person has a good mod or gives decent advice. It also liets them feel apprecaited by their peer's. You also have a lot of other tools you can use in your personel profile and the profiles of other people you can click on someones name and leave good comments or send PM's.

Edited January 10, 2013 by gamefever