Afraid of installing new mods

[DarkVale1]

Anyone experiencing this phase? I've started playing Skyrim again after a 20 year hiatus (didn't have time to play that often then). After several months yet again trying to figuring out which mod is screwing up my game, I think I've just about had it.

And now just when I'm happy with the selection of mods that don't give me error messages, faced with yet again another quest bug.
Every. Single. Time. Oh, well.
Dang it, Sweetroll fox, why can't I click on you? -_-

What I little I have learned so far:
- If Skyrim crashes at start, it's because of a mod;
- If Skyrim crashes when you're running outside of Whiterun or anywhere else, it's a because of a mod;
- If it's a quest bug, then it's still Bethesda  It's been 20 years, dang it;
- If the loading screen takes way too long, it may be because your'e missing a master mod another mod needs;
- Try to avoid any mod that requires more than 2-3 masters, it'll screw up your game sooner or later (i.e. you install a new mod);
- Be suspicious of mods that haven't been updated for years;
- Be suspicious of mods that just have been updated  ;
- Be aware that using one mod may screw up another mod, and sometimes the order won't fix it;
- If your save game becomes corrupt, it's because you disabled too many mods at once;
- If NPCs get brownface, it's because of a mod;
- Unofficial Skyrim mod screwed up the steal tag on items (er, I think);
- Relying on quicksaves will make you hate Skyrim;
- Took me forever to learn how Bodyslide works, because Vortex used the wrong installation directory;
- Learning LOOT and fixing all those LOOT messages doesn't help fix Skyrim issues when you already have a mod manager;
- Neither does Smashed. Doesn't come with an uninstall feature either;
- Common sense rarely works when trying to identify a troublesome mod, once had crashes due to an underwear mod  ;
- The only reliable way to find what what's making Skyrim crash/whichever error is disabling one mod at a time. Yes, all 200+ of them. -_-

And boobies still won't bounce.  /end rant 

Edited January 3 by DarkVale1

[7531Leonidas]

Which body mod are you using?  I got around most of the body physics problems by making my own slider settings in BS, and saving it as "My CBBE Curvy Physics", or some such, using the CBBE 3BBB Body Amazing preset.  Just make your adjustments, and save your work.  I made a very slender body at 0 weight, and a borderline obese (but still curvy, not blobby) at 100.  Then, look for NPC mods that allow you to use default bodies at install, or be prepared to replace folders full of body meshes and textures to make sure that they work with CBBE 3BA.  Make sure to 'Build Morphs' when you use the 'Batch Build' button.

A word of advice - if you use Vortex, don't be like me and try to use a standalone LOOT as well.  Just causes problems.  Use the functions in Vortex and SSEEdit to correct things that LOOT messages indicate.

[anjenthedog]

Advised rule of thumb going forward.

Add one and only mod at a time, and check for valid game operation afterward, prior to installing any other mods. If it works, great, if not, then uninstall the mod and move to the next installation candidate, and fall back to a save made just prior to installing the offending mod (to avoid any potential leftovers in the save from the offending mod). Youi can then go back and find out the why for the mod(s) that broke the game "at your leisure" without damaging your game, resolve said issue (setting, patch, version, conflict).

Makes life much easier than installing a few or more mods, then coming back to discover that one or more of them (although who knows which!) a newly created 'unfathomable' problem (ie, which can't be solved easily).

[DarkVale1]

To Leonidus (eh, shouldn't there be a reply button here somewhere? o_O )

I'm using the same CBBE mods. Managed to change all the bodies of NPCS in Skyrim to the type I want (yeah, no athletic/oversized bods) and overwrote all the default bodytypes. So I've got that part covered. Just that nothing is jiggling. Though other idle animations seem to work.

I've heared about that sliding bodyweight to 100 thing in the forums. I don't think I've tried it yet for whatever reason.

Oh, I have LOOT installed separately. Not sure why I'm keeping it (since it's useless to me). Did fix all those annoying LOOT messages outside of Vortex. I think I'm lucky since I haven't encountered any issues doing that. Still no idea what SSEEdit is for. Clicking on it via Vortex just shows a DLL not loading correctly error message.

Up next: Trying to figure out why two NPCs in Whiterun aren't moving 24/7. Just when you think you've solved all the bugs. *sigh*