When you spend days designing a load order that you aren't going to play...

[InDarkestNight]

For probably years now I've been trying to 100% complete Legacy of the Dragonborn. I've been having issues with it, so I decided to test out mods in isolation before attempting the full run yet again. I just got sick of resetting over and over either due to a stability issue, or because I missed an item.

A couple of days ago, I broke down and designed a load order themed around Halloween. Yes, I know its July, but f*#@ YOU ITS THE BEST HOLIDAY EVER CONCEIVED.

So, I spent the past 3 or 4 days tweaking this load order over and over. I designed it to be a core mod list I would use in multiple playthroughs. I haven't actually played it, though I have run around in it a lot to see what creatures would spawn (decided to go with the Monster Mod), and admiring the graphics I've made.

Now though, I'm plotting to begin my warrior run. This one is meant to test out Legacy of the Dragonborn in isolation. Also decided to put a couple of mods for a dragonborn character in there too. Hopefully this will break up the repetition a bit, and besides they made no sense for the mage character I have planned later where I will test out all the 'good' questlines (I'll use an assassin to test out the 'evil' ones).

So all that work, and for what? So I can run with 3 content mods (of course I have about a dozen stability and bugfix mods too, but only 3 actually add content), and without a single graphics mod installed! I'll get to that load order later, but for now I have testing to do. Guess I just got sick of trying to play LotD all the time and got carried away designing a complex load order for the first time in probably a year or two. I actually had to make a bash patch for the first time since I can remember.

Really though, one way or another I need to get back to actually playing the game instead of modding it. Though I did decide to make 'template' load orders. Nothing complicated; one just has all my stability and bugfix mods, the second is that plus all the graphics mods I normally run. Since I use them in every game, may as well make a template profile with them I can copy rather than re-enabling all of them every single damned time. I need to make an 'immersion' (aka, realism+survival) template later too, but that's for another day. Besides, I'll probably do at least 5 playthroughs before I get to that anyway. Three for testing LotD, one for the full Lotd with all its mods, then a fifth for the Halloween load order I've just spent so much time on. I really need to get all these quest mods tested, so I can finally know how to add more true content to my game other than just playing with frostfall, skytest r&d, and the same graphics mods every single playthrough.

[AaronOfMpls]

Honestly, I don't see a problem if you enjoyed putting that Halloween load order together.  If it was a welcome break from other things, then it might well have been worth it, regardless of whether or not you actually play the game with it.