Need help I'm new here

[Hellfire3698]

Hi. Let me introduce myself:

I'm Hellfire3698. I'm pretty new to PC gaming. If you play on xbox often (most notably Halo or Battlefield) there's a chance we've crossed paths.

I'm brand new to Nexus, and everything involving it: PC gaming, modding, all that. I was introduced to pc gaming by a few new friends and was curious and interested in specifically modding. Within this year of this post I have explored steam and have already bought a couple games from there. One of them is Fallout 4. I have played a lot of hours on Fallout 4, and have even came across a few youtube videos involving pc mods for Fallout. I want to change things up in Fallout 4 now that I have it on PC. I've played Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Skyrim, but I had no clue how to install mods to those games on Xbox 360. But now that I've explored Fallout 4 on PC and knowing there are mods available on PC, I wanted to give it a try, since I've seen some that I really want to have, and some I wanna try out. Especially gun and environment mods. You can thank MxR mods for that on Youtube.

 

Help with mods

As stated before, I'm brand new to all things modding. I have friends I play with online through PC who don't know modding however or have used mods. I've been told Nexusmods is a place to find/upload mods for games, most notably Bethesda games, and it's also a hub for modders to chat or share mods. I want to ask questions and ask for advice on modding. I'm specifically asking for help in modding Fallout 4 currently. I want to do this before I actually use any mods in case I mess something up with my PC or games if I do it on my own.

 

In case anyone needs to know what I'm running on, check the attached image. I also have an NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 ti. No clue what it means.

 

QUESTIONS

That said, Here are some questions I need answers for:

 

How do you mod games? Just nexusmods do most of the work? If not, what do I need to do to properly mod games?

 

How do I separate my normal Fallout 4 with my Modded Fallout 4? How to I manage save files between modded and unmodded?

 

Can mods affect my games negatively if I play them in a laptop(I have a gaming laptop right now)?

 

How can I tell if any mods will put stress on my PC?

 

Is there a maximum limit on how many mods I can run, or do I have to manage that myself through remembering how many and which ones are running?

 

Are certain mods illegal that I should know about? I know modding on multiplayer games are cheating but I mean mods like skyrim or fallout mods?

 

Do I need to learn coding or know apps like notepad++ or visual studio very thoroughly to install mods? I'm currently not planning on learning how to make mods on my own. I took computer science before, still can't wrap my head around the coding or how I even passed the class in the first place.

 

How does Steam and Bethesda feel about modding? I'm sure there might be some rule they've made regarding modding for games like Fallout. Do I have to pay them extra for every mod still, or do they need like a log of all the mods I've installed/used?

 

What issues might I come across in using mods?

 

What exactly does my NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 TI do? All I know is that when I unknowingly activated it for my games, it lowered all the game volumes by about 30-40% so I turned it off.

 

 

That's all I can think of right now. Sorry if this post was VERY long. I do want to try out mods and see what cool stuff modders have made. Maybe if I get the hang of the essentials, I can try my hand on making my own mods. We'll see.

 

Every bit helps. Thanks

Edited September 30, 2018 by Hellfire3698

[WakahisaSensei]

Ok. Lot of questions. I'll give you advice I've been given. Hope it helps. If I'm wrong about anything someone can correct me.

 

1. Modding games can be as simple as downloading and installing manually (directly into the games files) or you can use a mod manager. I recommend nexus mod mannger to start and then switch to Mod Organizer when you become more experienced. But NMM will certainly simplify and streamline things. Its how I got started.

 

2. Nexus does not do most of the work. There are other tools that are very important. Now, my experience is with Skyrim not fallout. But I suspect similar rules apply. For example, the order in which mods load can be very important. There are tools that sort the load order for you. There are also script expanding tools (in Skyrims case SKSE), tools that find mod conflicts and clean files (TES5edit for skyrim). And more. There are several tutorials on this site as well as youtube tutorials.

 

3. I'm not sure you can separate your normal fallout from your modded fallout. It would have to be two separate installs of the same game (which would be taxing on system memory for obvious reasons).

 

4. managing save files between modded and unmodded? Simply keep a backup of your unmodded save files seperated from the game. Maybe a folder on your desktop. Once you play a save file with a mod it leaves a permanent mark on that save file. Some trouble can be saved if you clean said file with a tool, but it isn't a perfect solution.

 

5. I play a heavily modded Skyrim on my laptop. No trouble. In fact it runs better than my vanilla xbox version ever did. (and yes, the laptop itself is fine.) You would have to seriously mess up the process (practically intentionally) to cause serious harm to your laptop.

 

6. Mods can negatively effect your game in some sense. Just as a mod leaves a permanent mark on a save file, it also leaves a permanent mark on the game itself. It is not recommended to delete mods and even if you do, there is always some remnant that it was there. If such remnants build up, you may need to reinstall the game (and possibly remod from scratch).

 

7. Mods will stress your PC if they are graphic intensive, or they can stress the game if they heavily alter the games scripts. This is especially true if mods conflict with each other significantly. To my knowledge though, modding a game cannot cause any physical damage to your PC. At most it should only be able to harm the game you are modding, in which case a reinstall is the simple solution.

 

8. It may or may not depend on the game, what the number is, but there is a maximum to how many mods you can do. I believe the recommended maximum for Skyrim was 250 mods or so. It should be noted that, generally speaking, the more mods you have the less stable the game will be. I try to keep my set below 100 but I've seen people run successful setups with the maximum number. So its about know how and initial setup. You may have to go through several installs of the game before you really get the hang of things. (I'm currently on my 6th install for Skyrim).

 

9. Beyond multiplayer cheating, modding is not considered illegal. Even multiplayer cheating is not technically punishable by law, just ban worthy (to my knowledge). I am heavily in favor of modders rights. If you paid for the game it is/should be your right to mod your copy. I say go for it. I will add an exception to this. While I don't know if such mods exist, I suspect it would be illegal to have mods that feature certain illegal content such as child pornography etc. But everything on Nexus is legal. I've never been but I'm pretty sure everything on lovers lab is legal too (at least as far as digital content is concerned).

 

ALSO, if you make a mod, NEVER use the content of another modder without first obtaining their permission. Basic copyright laws and all that.

 

10. I know almost nothing about coding. It might help if you wanted to make your own mods, but if your just getting mods you don't need it. Knowing the bare basics might help you understand the more advanced advice you'll get. Installing a mod can be as easy as copy and paste. Most mod pages will have instructions, and if your lucky load order recommendations and conflict lists.

 

11. Steam offers modding resources such as creation kit, so they are in favor. Bethesda itself releases a few mods (though theirs cost money). They're in favor of it and quite supportive.

 

12. Some common issues in modding. CTD (crash to desktop), conflicting mods (which may freeze or CTD the game), and memory leaks. Some games, such as skyrim, have files with something called dirty edits. I can't explain what they are but they are present. Fallout probably has them too. With the vanilla game they don't make much of a difference but once mods are introduced they could become a problem. You may need to clean the game files, dlc files, and even some mods. The process is fairly simple and tutorials exist on youtube. Memory leaks happen when the game only has so much ability to load new things as you move through the game. With mods there is obviously more to load than intended. The ENB series can help with that. ENB is sadly my weak point and I'm only just learning about it myself. As much as I'd like to advise on it, it might be to your benefit to find someone with greater knowledge. You will also encounter new glitches in game, graphical, broken scripts, etc. You can either deal with them or try to figure out the cause and fix them. If its truly gamebreaking for you, ask on the forum (and pictures/screenshots might help)

 

13. Can't answer about the Nividia. I have no idea. For all I know that's the graphics card.

 

14. A last important note I'll add. Sometimes firewalls, antivirus software, and files think the mods are a dangerous infection. This is usually not the case (especially if mods are obtained from nexus). My point is, to use mods you may have to give the mods and mod tools special permissions/exceptions within your firewall/antivirus software. I can't tell you how to do this because I'm essentially using a burner computer. It wouldn't matter if my computer got infected, it has nothing of importance on it, just games.

 

 

PM me if you have any further questions. I'll try to help. I'm relatively new to modding (in the modern sense. Did it years ago but never kept up with it. A lot has changed since then). So a lot of my troubles are fresh in my memory as are the solutions. That said, I've never done fallout, just Skyrim. But they are from the same company so I suspect similar requirements and such. Good luck, happy modding.

[gromulos]

my guide - https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3886575-fallout-4-beginners-guide/

 

 

 

and probably the absolute best tutorial available to teach a beginner - ty Gopher

 

[Jeffs0418]

 

What exactly does my NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 TI do?

It is your discrete graphics subsysten.

The GTX1050ti should be adequate for med/hi details up to Full HD(1080x1920p) resolution with its 4gb frame buffer memory. My previous generation GTX 950ssc with only 2gb is mostly saturated at Standard HD(720x1280) and stuttering sometimes happens.

Just download NVIDIA GeForce experience from their website. It has an interface much like Steam and can automatically set appropriate visuals for all your games. It tends to be conservative though so you could still bump up a few choice eye-candy sliders thereafter.