New to Skyrim & Modding? Basic Introduction guide here.

[LargeStyle]

It seems that recently there are lots of new Skyrim players on this forum, presumably due to the Steam Summer Sale. I've also recently seen lots of threads created by these players / new Nexus members asking for anything from basic modding advice to specific requests to mod Skyrim for particular preferences. I therefore thought it beneficial to make this thread to help the new members along with some basic advice and raise awareness of the guides and information that will answer most / some of your questions...

 

First of all, you are probably not going to get Skyrim modded in the exact way you would like it to be in a quick manner. There are a vast amount of mods available for Skyrim here on Nexus and getting the game modded to your preferences will no doubt require a process of trial and error of sorts. Therefore, asking other members for a quick list of mods to install isn't an approach that's likely to work well. I'm currently on my 5th play-through of Skyrim and I'm still changing the mods I use to get the game as near to how I like it as I can.

 

Secondly, strictly speaking there is no such thing as a "best mod" - it doesn't exist as the use of certain mods is purely a personal matter which generally makes it impossible for a member to state that one mod is better than another.

 

Thirdly, without wanting to sound patronizing, I advise members to actually use a good level of thought and consideration to your approach for modding Skyrim. People often think more is better, i.e the more mods, the better the game, or the highest resolution texture mods use results in a better game - this is not the case. The approach of "I want to max Skyrim out..." is not only vague (what is "maxing" a game?) and generally is focused more on throwing mods at Skyrim for the sake of it, rather than only installing the mods that you think will improve your enjoyment of the game.

 

Fourthly, if you want to download and try a mod - read the mod description page thoroughly. Many users don't do this and then get problems that can even go so far as making Skyrim unplayable. Mod makers / authors go to a lot of time not only making their mods but also making detailed mod description pages so it is perfectly reasonable that you are expected to be obliged if not required to read all of the provided information.

 

I almost apologise to anyone who reads this and think I've stated the obvious, but it is evidently not obvious to everyone. I am by no means trying to insult or discourage anyone in any way, in fact it's the complete opposite.

 

 

As for more specific advice...

 

Use Skyrim Nexus as it is intended to be used. The search engine for the website has been continually improved so members can browse mods easily and quickly. If you want to generally browse through the available mods then I advise to use Nexus' search by category option - this will break things down nicely into managable sections and make Skyrim modding a lot easier to understand and work with. Also please note that although you can refine your search results to "most downloaded" or "most endorsed" and find what some people may describe as "the best" mods, it is also highly recommended to simply look though as many mods as you can regardless of their popularity, or lack of as you can easily find great mods that have just been released and haven't had the time to "get further up the list".

 

There are also other websites / groups that are dedicated to enhancing the Skyrim experience. One such team is the S.T.E.P. project who have made a collective list and guide relating to getting Skyrim modded the way they think it should be modded. The team cover a variety of mods but mainly focus on improving Skyrims visuals. S.T.E.P. is an ideal place for newcomers to Skyrim so it's definitely worth a look...

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11/? (once on the Nexus page, click the S.T.E.P. logo to go to their website).

 

Another team that has made a guide for improving Skyrim, this time focused on making the game play more realistically, is G.E.M.S. and is also highly recommended to newcomers...

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23826/? (link to their own website is on the mod page).

 

Yet another team have made another service called "BOSS" which scans and arranges your downloaded and installed mods and ensures that they are loaded into Skyrim in the correct order. It's an easy and great tool to ensure that mods are loaded in a compatible-friendly manner...

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/6/?

 

Also worth a look is "SKSE" which is an unofficial add-on to Skyrim that greatly improves the functionality of certain mods. In simple terms, mods that are written for use with SKSE can be more complex and have more features. SKSE can be found here...

 

http://skse.silverlock.org/

 

There is also a "major" Skyrim visual-based mod that is not entirely found on Nexus called ENBseries. This mod has to be downloaded from the official ENB website...

 

http://www.enbdev.com/index_en.htm

 

ENBseries is a mod, or more appropriately a tool that enables customisable pre- and post-processing visual effects and lighting controls into Skyrim - and is probably the "mod" that affects / improves Skyrims visuals the most, but it comes at the cost of a significant performance loss (less frames per second). Nexus members have taken the original ENB tool and made their own presets and released these settings as mods, and due to the highly customisable design of ENB the results of both visuals and performance vary from one preset to another. Just search for "ENB" on Skyrim Nexus and you'll find a lot of ENB presets. You will need a relatively modern pc to run Skyrim with ENBseries but it can be customised to reduce the graphical effects to gain performance.

 

The last main addition for modding tools is the mod "SkyUI" which not only changes / improves the user interface of the game, but also has a built-in Mod Configuration Menu (MCM). Other mods which use SKSE can use MCM to use the games interface to setup and control mods and their features while playing the game. SkyUI also happens to be the most downloaded mod on Skyrim Nexus, which can be found here...

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3863/?

 

 

Also deserved of a mention are several other people that run their own YouTube channels and series' covering Skyrim mods that are also highly recommended...

 

GophersVids for "Skyrim Mod Sanctuary", "Lets Play..." and tutorial videos: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1CSCMwaDubQ4rcYCpX40Eg

MMOxReview for "Skyrim Mods Weekly": http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4MGZcDG5hnzpi3hDpORkXw

Insane0hflex for "Skyrim Mod Spotlights": http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaKxx5UhMZ0REI8E2FGfGag

Brodual for "Skyrim Mods Daily": http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMQkYC9HUcPTertReHILVOA

 

There'll obviously be other similar channels to these, but the above are my regular viewing channel subscriptions on YouTube.

 

Gopher makes various videos covering pretty much every type of information and presentations possible. The "Skyrim Mod Sanctuary" covers mod reviews, and he also has a "Skyrim Tutorials for mod users" section to his channel. Below is Gophers NMM (Nexus Mod Manager) video - this will teach you the very start of Skyrim modding...

 

 

I recommend that you watch all of Gophers tutorial videos so that you understand the basics of Skyrim modding. The Mod Sanctuary videos are also very informative, each with detailed mod reviews and mod installation instructions.

 

I hope this guide (and supporting videos) will help you understand Skyrim modding, and enhance your Skyrim experience.

Edited July 19, 2013 by LargeStyle

[Pevey]

Nice job.

[prod80]

Goody... info :wink:

 

You might wanna point to this sticky as well:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/753253-only-you-can-prevent-forest-fires/

 

And this post about Skyrim memory and why a beast system will crash when overhauled by High - Ultra high texture packs:

http://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=1929

 

Which I think are very important for anyone new to modding and thinking they know.

 

 

And this is also important when you start modding Skyrim:
Do not start kicking off your modding journey by editing Skyrim.ini's uGridsToLoad value!!!!!! -- I'd say; stay away from editing that specific setting altogether if you care about stability. Online tweak guides generally say 7 is stable. 7 might be stable, on an unmodded game. You start modding = you changing the game.

 

And more here;

If you want to play the game, my advise; stay away from Ultra high resolution textures like 4K or 8K even. Firstly figure out what gameplay overhauls you wanna play with... things that change game mechanics, perk systems, etc... like Skyrim Redone... install all those things first and make sure they are stable and working properly by playing the game. You do this because it's generally easy to install texture packs, but it's much more tricky to troubleshoot game changers when you also run on the limits of the game engine due to texture packs.

 

When you have the mods you wanna play with for the game itself, only then are you ready to start changing textures. And each time you add a texture replacers you have to go in the game and check if it works, check if it's stable (use Skyrim Performance Monitor to see resource usage) before you start adding more textures.

 

When you have both Gameplay and texture mods installed, only then you should start thinking about ENB and/or SweetFX or more advanced skyrim ini tweaks (please do never increase uGridsToLoad values when you are modding...). But as said those cost a lot of performance.... a heavy tweaked SweetFX eats away 10-15% FPS, ENB may eat away up to 60% FPS, you can combine them both to look even better but you may guess the performance hit :P

 

2K is more than enough to get a mega good looking Skyrim experience.

 

Expand spoiler at the bottom for some 2K textures :P These are with both ENB + SweetFX enabled and full out. It took me about 4-5 months to get here. There's no list of mods to pick which are going to be stable together on 100% of the systems (though there are some lists)... so you're going to hit a few walls on your journey. Always read the full mod description and scroll through the comments on the mod page to scan for problems. Don't install outdated/unsupported/troublesome mods unless you know what you are doing (which will be much further down the road). Do not uninstall/reinstall mods on an active save game unless you follow the exact right procedure as on the mod page - but even then - uninstalling mods on an active save is asking for trouble. The best way to uninstall is to return to a save game which does not know that uninstalled mod. You can do this easiest by making a named save before you install a mod using the console command: save "before installing <mod name here>" But of course you will lose game time by doing that. You can also risk it and continue but that might only cause you to eventually waste more time because you have to go further back in your progress when the game eventually breaks.

 

Skyrim Engine limits based on 64bit OS and some info's which might be useful, from my experience or from general knowledge;

• Max memory allowed by application/Windows: 4GB, but;
• Max memory the Skyrim engine can handle: 3.1GB - you will CTD when you reach that limit, even if just for a split second.
• DirectX 9 which is used by Skyrim copies VRAM into RAM (excluding things that are done in the hardware and take up space, like Anti-Aliasing), this is counted towards the limit - so installing texture packs which are too heavy will crash your game, no doubt. First signs are generally a load screen that hangs in an eternal loop (given you followed up on what I said above to start adding textures only when your game is stable with everything else)
• There's no way to guarantee that even 2K textures will be stable on your system... It depends on a lot of things (besides your system resources)... example; You have a mod that replaces various city objects by 2K textures which works fine, now you install a city mod that adds 5000 additional objects into a city (they exist, don't worry :P). You can see the problem here.
• A single 4K texture will take up to ~40MB VRAM (and RAM as a result) when it comes with a normal map (~20MB without). Adding a lot of 4K textures will be very heavy. First start with 2K and when you're satisfied you may start looking how much room you have left in your resources and what you'd like to add (I had room left and made my Pine and Aspen trees 4K for example).
• 4K is not 2x bigger than 2K, it's 4x bigger. (many mod pages say it's "2x bigger" while it's not - 2048x2048 fits 4 times in 4096x4096)
• Skyrim's vanilla textures are 256x256 or 512x512, with the Skyrim Hi-Res DLC they are 1K and your textures alone will already eat away 1GB of VRAM in general gaming like this.
• Optimizing textures may help, but only when it adds mipmaps or compresses them. Resizing is generally a bad idea because of the loss of quality and its lack to control what to resize and what not unless you pick the textures manually to resize (eg. you don't want your dragon textures reduced and end up with a dragon from super Mario counting 5 pixels). You're better off just downloading a lower res replacer unless there is really no option.

 

My system;

Core i5 2500K @ 4.7Ghz

Asus GTX680/4GB @ 1.3Ghz Core (volt tweaked) / 6.8Ghz Mem

8GB @ 1600Mhz

Normal HDD, no SSD.

Win7 64bit

FPS inside: 60

FPS outside: 40-45, sometimes dipping into the mid 30-s

So you get an idea about just how heavy it is to run with all visual candy turned on... of course this is an extreme example.

 

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/6440158-1373915967.jpg

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/6440158-1368998157.jpg

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/6440158-1373671498.jpg

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/6440158-1373320238.jpg

 

[LargeStyle]

Thanks for the comments and valuable links guys.

 

To elaborate more regarding textures, there are two main factors to concern yourself with:

 

1) Texture sizes - as prod80s post mentioned, it's normally a good idea to stay away from 4k (4096 x 4096 resolution) and 8k (8192 x 8192) textures - they're are normally way higher than you will need and visually notice while adding a huge stress onto most computers. Bethesda has a free and optional Hi-Res DLC pack available on Steam which increases texture size and clarity quite significantly, however even though the textures within this DLC don't normally go above 2k (2048 x 2048) they can still impact some peoples computers too much and lose too much performance. There is a mod that covers this situation by providing a texture pack which reduces the official Hi-Res Texture Pack files to a size that is obviously lower than the official DLC but higher than the official standard textures - this mod is called "Bethesda Hi-Res DLC Optimized" by Vano89 and can be found here...

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9080/?

 

Although you may wonder why I would mention a mod that reduces texture size from a DLC pack that "only" uses 2k textures, I've made a picture that will prove that even 2k resolution textures are perhaps not as amazing and essential and you may initially think. The image was taken while running my own texture resizing experiments (only on the characters clothes) a while back before I found the DLC Optimized mod, so the left section is the standard (no DLC) game, the middle section is effectively what it looks like with DLC Optimized mod, and the right section is the official Hi-Res DLC...(click image to enlarge)

 

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6090/resdiffwithtext.jpg

 

As you can see by the image the Optimized DLC mod can make texutres 4 times more detailed than the non-DLC standard textures while running at only 25% resolution of the official Hi-Res DLC. I'm not saying you shouldn't use the official Hi-Res DLC, I'm simply raising awareness that the DLC Optimized mod is a great mod for people who want to improve Skyrims original textures while not putting a significant amount of stress onto your computer.

 

2) The other texture related issue to perhaps concern yourself with is texture optimisation. This process is not neccessarily about reducing texture sizes, but ensuring that textures have been made in a performance-friendly manner. This may sound strange, but if not aware - textures can be multiple layered (or properly refered to a multiple channeled) images that contain not only visual images but also data for the game to use such as alpha (transparency) channels. Some textures require multiple channel images, some don't - it depends on each individual texture used in the game. One problem that can arise with texture mods is that the mod authors may have mistakenly saved their textures in the wrong format and may contain information that the game won't actually use, so they ideally need optimizing by having any unrequired data removed. For this process I personally use a mod "Optimizer Textures" by AdPipino which can be found here...

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12801/?

 

It's a relative simple and straight forward tool - simply install it, tell it where your Skyrim texture folder is located (normally C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data\textures for 64bit Windows or remove the (x86) for 32bit Windows) and just tell it to run through the files and it'll automatically scan and fix any found errors.

 

 

Another area of Skyrim modding which again prod80 mentioned is adjusting / tweaking Skyrim via changing settings within two .ini files. If unaware, .ini files are initiation files which instruct a game / application to load using the settings within the files. Skyrim has multiple .ini files but generally speaking only two of these files control the main settings for the game...

 

C:\Users\**your pc name here**\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\SkyrimPrefs.ini

C:\Users\**your pc name here**\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Skyrim.ini

 

These files can be opened using any text editor such as Notepad++ or GetDiz, adjusted, then saved to make the adjustments apply to the game. As prod80 also stated, adjusting either .ini file in a major way is definitely not a good idea for new users and even more experienced users should be very mindful of any adjustments as you can very easily make a mess of things and ruin Skyrims performance, functionality, and even stabilty. The two .ini files can be reset back to standard settings by simply deleting them and running Skyrim again (it will then generate new .ini files). The only "standard" adjustments that are normally made (generally speaking) are all within the SkyrimPrefs.ini file...

 

Under the [Display] section the settings:

 

bTreesReceiveShadows=0 (0 means disabled) changed to: bTreesReceiveShadows=1 (1 means enabled)

bDrawLandShadows=0 changed to: bDrawLandShadows=1

 

...and under the [Launcher] section:

 

bEnableFileSelection=0 needs to be set to 1 ("FileSelection" effectively means mod files so if you want to mod Skyrim then this needs to be enabled / set to 1)

 

If any of the settings happen to be missing from your .ini files, you can simply add them in yourself.

 

The most significant and impactful setting change that can be made via .ini tweaks is altering the uGridsToLoad= value. uGrids are blocks or area zones that Skyrim uses to contain the general detail of the land of Skyrim, and the default value for this setting is "5" - however when running with this setting the game won't display many items and scenery in general in the near distance. The uGrids setting can be increased so more of the land is loaded at all times which although makes the landscape views much better also reduces game performance and can massively damage game stability too. People as always are often divided as to which uGrid setting adjustments to make, if any at all, but staying with the default value of "5" is really the most advised approach purely as it'll be irresponsible to recommend a setting change that runs a high risk of damaging your game. That said, I run uGrids at "7" but I've had to experiment with which mods I can and can't run while using this higher setting, and generally find a balanced yet compromised setup.

 

For a much more detailed explanation to uGrids, including how they work and how to change them, the I advise reading the following...

 

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1274926-ugridstoload-skyrimini-comparisons-and-explanation-default-57911/

 

For more information regarding general Skyrim tweaks, here is a worthwhile if not essential guide (although it's sourced from a nVidia based website it's also worth ATI / AMD users to have a read-through too)...

 

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide?sf2686171=1#1

Edited July 19, 2013 by LargeStyle

[Kurhein]

I'm pretty new to modding and still can't get SKSE to work properly for some reason? I only mention this to point out that I'm modding illiterate but I have some ambitious ides for mods and would like to know an easy way to network?

I would like to more than just request a mod but contribute in whatever way possible for someone who knows nothing about coding.

I know an extensive amount of the TES lore and am quite imaginative at weaving ideas to fit in with it. I'm great at character building and can even come up with good dialogue.

 

(It might have been better if I started my own topic with this but wasn't sure what thread it belonged in? Since this was dedicated to newbies thought "might as well post here".)

[LargeStyle]

Essential & "Should've been in the original game" Mods:

 

I'd normally be the first person to not recommend one mod over another as most of the time the choice is purely a matter of personal preference, however there are some mods which could be deemed essential for any and all Skyrim players. These mods are normally bug fixes and simply correct errors that are in the original game which when installed will simply make Skyrim more polished, functional, and complete.

 

First of all, an absolutely essential collection of mods are the "Unofficial Skyrim Patch" series. Although it is highly recommended to have Skyrim set to be automatically updated to the latest game version (which will happen by default Steam settings) the official patches still don't fix many bugs that remain. The Unofficial Skyrim patch series is provided in separate sections, and the first / main file is recommended to anyone playing Skyrim - the other sections of the mods are only required if you have the relevant DLC package installed...

 

Unofficial Skyrim Patch: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19/?

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23491/?

Unofficial Hearthfile Patch: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25127/?

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/31083/?

Unofficial High Resolution Patch (for Bethesdas Hi-Res DLC pack): http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/31255/?

 

 

This next one technically isn't a bug fix, but it greatly improves a very poor facial quality issue from the standard game. There are lots of different face changing mods out there, but this particular mod concentrates purely on fixing the quality issue of blocky looking noses and chins...

 

No More Blocky Faces, by Xenius: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30/?#

 

 

There's also a mod that fixes shadow "bronzing" where shadows causes visual errors on characters' skin...

 

No More Ugly Bronze Shine, by COTS: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/29791/?

 

 

For some reason arrow quivers as standard aren't placed properly and don't actually attach to your back, so this mod moves quivers into their correct place...

 

Closer Quivers and Longer Arrows, by EvilDealAsh34: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5711/?

 

 

There are some objects within Skyrim that have textures improperly stretched / distorted across them, including some noticably bad rock texture stretching which is fixed with this mod...

 

No Stretching, by langley: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/26126/?

 

 

Skyrim has the collision of dead people / animals / creatures disabled as standard - so you can walk straight through corpses. This isn't so much of a bug but a seeming choice made by Bethesda. IF, and I do mean if, you want to make corpses solid so you can't walk through them then use this...

 

Dead Body Collision Fix, by me! : http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30947/?

 

 

Skyrim uses two types of snow, the main visual texture and a computer generated snow effect which looks rather poor compared to the visual texture. The following mods reduces the amount of computer generated snow as much as possible and replaces it with the better quality visual snow texture...

 

Better Dynamic Snow, by SparrowPrince and Brumbek: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10383/?

 

 

Ever noticed that you don't leave footprints while walking through the snow, well although this mod isn't neccessarily essential it "fixes" the missing footprints...

 

Footprints, by jonwd7: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22745/?

 

 

Also ever noticed that you can also stand on open fires and not get hurt, this mod fixes that...

 

Fires Hurt, by abot: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/28202/?

 

 

There are numerious lighting-related issues with certain objects, and the following mod is essential for ENBseries users, but I believe it provides a noticable improvement / fix for non-ENB users too...

 

Skyrim Particle Patch for ENB users, by Mindflux: http://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1499

 

 

Whiteruns exterior fire lights are too bright until you get nearer to them, which this mod fixes the obvious lighting error...

 

Whiterun Lighting Fix, by Daemonjax: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12357/?

 

 

Another snow related mod allows snow to settle / accumilate onto your character and NPCs (Non Playable Characters) which although again isn't a bug fix it's recommended...

 

Get Snowy, by Trebtreb: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19660/?

 

...and to have better water and temperature related effects...

 

Wet and Cold, by isoku: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27563/?

 

 

To improve rather low quality spell impact textures from frost, fire, and lightning based spells use this...

 

Deadly Spell Impacts, by isoku: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2947/?

 

 

...and to have people / animals / creatures visually affected by these spells in a more natural way then use this too...

 

Burn Freeze Shock Effects, by pauderek: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14692/?

 

 

This next mod can be deemed to be a bit of a spoiler, so I advise to not look at it until you think it's the appropriate time to do so, but this mod IMHO is essential as Bethesda quite frankly made a really bad scenario for you to deal with, and this mod can be very helpful...

 

The Paarthurnax Dilemma, by Arthmoor: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/18465/?

 

 

Lastly, the changing of the water is normal modding practice as the original water looks a bit...er...rubbish (I know Skyrim's a fictional place but come on...) Anyway, I won't recommend a particular water mod as each to their own, but use Nexus' search engine for "water" and you'll find a small few but very popular mods.

 

There are obviously other mods available that fix bugs and provide general improvement, but these are a good start to making Skyrim the place it should be. Please note that none of the above mods provide a significantly game changing experience (perhaps apart from the Unofficial Skyrim Patches) - they're all subtle but significant improvements. There are also mods that provide more of an overhaul of Skyrim, such as...

 

Skyrim Redone, by T3nd0: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9286/?

 

... but it is arguebly not ideal to use such overhauls on your first play-through. If you are only intent on playing Skyrim through just once then obviously give overhauls such as this serious consideration, but if you predict that you'll be playing through the game more than once you may want to leave major game changing mods out the first time around, just so you know what the original game is actually like! One great thing about Skyrim is that it's a game that can genuinely be played through more than once and have a varied experience each time if you chose a different approach to the game (character creation and levelling up etc.). This fact along with adding and changing mods throughout your time in Skyrim will result in getting the game setup more and more to your liking, enhancing your enjoyment throughout.

Edited July 19, 2013 by LargeStyle

[LargeStyle]

@ Kurhein: This video should tell you what you need to know about SKSE...

 

[SpectralDragon]

Kurhein If you want to get into modding a game yourself you need to look into something called the creation kit. The creation kit is a level and game design SKE that Bethesda has kindly released for modders of skyrim specifically. You can download it by finding the tools section in steam and clicking on the creation kit.

 

If you want to get started in the wide world of Skyrim modding with the creation kit my first suggestion is to take a gander at the official tutorial series on the creation kit wiki. Start from the first tutorial and move your way through.

 

Another great resource are the tutorial series on TESAlliance.

 

As well as those resources there are many resources here on nexus as well, in fact if you look into the category of mods called "Modders resources and tutorials," you will find tutorials and resources you can use for your own mod. If you use assets in your mod you need to make sure you give credit to the creator and uploader of the resource. (This is more often than not a term of use for resources and not optional.)

[Kurhein]

SpectralDragon: Thanks for the reply unfortunately like I said I'm pretty inept when it comes to such detail oriented craftsmanship. My attempts at modding through the use of GECK for Fallout 3 proved disastrous.

I am more geared toward story crafting and dialogue writing or general idea springboard.

[prod80]

@LargeStyle..

Those listed mods above are fine, but they come with more instructions... simply clicking -> download -> install & forget is not going to work for the majority of those mods and some of those can cause major issues when installed on an already modded game because they are very basic and should be installed before anything else, require patches to be compatible with other mods (eg. No stretching together with SMIM), and some are mods that should be installed at the end of installing mods or they'll crash your game (deadly spell impacts for instance is not tolerant at all with other texture replacers... even uninstalling the mod while any spell impact is in your screen ruins your save game).

 

It's better to stick with lists of tested installations and orders of install as provided on STEP, or this thread might turn into a chaos since it's meant for people with no to little experience with modding... they might just click and install things randomly simply because they are listed here :wink:

 

IMO these are the only really required mods and should be used for main game and each DLC that someone has.

 

Unofficial Skyrim Patch: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19/?

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch: http://skyrim.nexusm...om/mods/23491/?

Unofficial Hearthfile Patch: http://skyrim.nexusm...om/mods/25127/?

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch: http://skyrim.nexusm...om/mods/31083/?

Unofficial High Resolution Patch (for Bethesdas Hi-Res DLC pack): http://skyrim.nexusm...om/mods/31255/?

 

The rest is simply optional to taste/to already installed mods or going to be installed mods (eg. No more ugly bronze shine is not needed when you use a high quality skin texture replacer... whiterun lighting fix might conflict with other lighting mods and is not needed when using one of those...)