Overwhelmed by all the body/skeleton/animation mods. Compatibility issues. What to choose?

[JesterTracker]

Hey guys,

 

So I've recently finished fallout 4 and wanted to do another run with some nice mods. I was interested in the female body adjustment mods (cbbe and such), but I've become a bit overwhelmed by all the options. There are so many different types of skeletons/animations/bodies etc. I started out with the ZaZ Extended Skeleton + CBBE + Lazman female outfit replacer. But then I encountered the Atomic Lust mod and mods for breast physics. But with all the different dependencies, this one is compatible with that one, but not with that one, but you need this one...etc. Al these letters and abbreviations, CBBE, CBP, AAF, BT, OCBPC. It's just a bit too much xD.

 

Is there anyone that can recommend me a group of mods that can satisfy my needs (he-he)? I would like a mod for female body adjustment (like cbbe) + a mod for physics/collisions/breast bounce whilst walking. I would also like the vanilla outfits to be a little bit more spicy (like lazmans outfit replacer), but that might not work with the physics/breast bounce? Also something like atomic lust is cool to play around with. I just can't wrap my head around all the dependencies and load order stuff. I'm using vortex and I do know how to actually install everything. It's just mostly about compatibility.

 

Also, maybe there is already a guide for this or something? Sorry if this is a newb question :geek:

 

Tnx in advance!

[aurreth]

For bodies plus physics the simplest is Caliente's Beautiful Body Enhancer (CBBE) with CBP physics. CBBE has no prerequisites, although you need Bodyslide to really make use of it. CBP only requires F4SE, which you almost have to install anyway.

 

You don't need the ZaZ-Extended-Skeleton (Zex) unless it is required by another mod, for example the Fallout 4 High Heels System (HHS). Unfortunately for you Lazman requires HHS. CBBE Skimpy Armor and Clothing Replacer v2 only requires CBBE so take a look at that one.

 

Beyond that you are going to run into mods with prerequisites, each of which has their own prereqs, etc. It would be great if Vortex would automatically fetch and install all of those for you, but that would require that the mod author accurately list and link to everything, which doesn't happen.

 

As for load order, let Vortex manage it for you. Pretty much every mod will tell you "this must be last", which is of course impossible since only one can ever be last. Vortex does a pretty good job of ordering. The vast majority of load order discussions are directed at people using either no mod manager, or older ones that allow/require more user interaction. With Vortex usually the only thing you need to do is deal with mod conflicts, and even then the "Use suggested" button is almost always the right choice.

 

And yeah, the acronyms get annoying, mostly because everyone assumes that everyone else knows what they mean. One thing you learn in professional writing is to never use an abbreviation unless you've spelled it out first. For example in any thread AAF should not be used unless "Advanced Animation Framework (AAF)" has already been written in full someplace in the same thread. But people want to seem cool and part of the in-crowd so they go straight to the acronym, which means the same questions get asked over and over because new users can't find and/or understand the previous cool kid answers.