Rabbit Hole of Mod Requirements

[jjb54]

I am not sure there is an answer to this:
Lately I've been looking at some mods to up my game play.

I find a mod I like - and read: It needs X-Mod ( Required ).

... Okay, so I follow the link to that Requirement and find that mod can have 1 - 4 requirements.

... Then some  of those have 1 - 4 requirements.

>> 1 mod, following the Requirements, by the time I gave up, had over 15+ additional  other mod Requirements and I just said: NO!

 

Hey, MOD creators ... maybe do some homework and see where your Requirement Rabbit Hole takes your users?

Find a way to simplify them if at all possible??

[melvinius]

There are certain categories of mods that require the same base prerequisites.  For example, SKSE (Skyrim Script Extender) mods are great because they can majorly change game elements without using a plugin slot.  But they will require SKSE, certain SKSE bug fix mods, and probably the SKSE Address Library.  Once you have these mods installed correctly and working, however, you can install hundreds of SKSE mods quickly and easily.

It comes down to what you're looking to so.  If you only want to change a few things here and there, just stick with the (tens of thousands) of mods that have no requirements.

If you're going to transform your Skyrim with some kind of thousands of mods mega install, you will need to get used to installing mods because the prerequisites (bug fix mods, crash fix mods, performance mods, stability mods, scripting mods, etc.) will be necessary for everything to run smoothly because the game engine itself is really janky.

[melvinius]

Another element of this is the modder's skills.  Anyone can learn to use the Creation Kit or SSEEdit fairly easily to make basic mods.  Coding an SKSE mod or learning how to compile scripts is much harder.  Not everyone can do all that stuff for themselves.  And there's some functionality that simply cannot be achieved without SKSE or other DLL loaders.

Skyrim is probably the most moddable and most modded game ever.  What you can do with it is staggering.  But it's a steep learning curve compared to learning to mod other games.

At this point I've got an equivalent of a bachelor's degree in Skyrim modding.  There are others around here who have their master's or doctorate.

If you're starting out... it's like you took a couple of online classes. 

[7531Leonidas]

FYI - some/a LOT of the 'required' files are not universally required for a simple installation of the mod, they are situational in nature, and depend on what other mods you wish to use in your LO.  Some mod authors place a note by each 'required' file, to tell you if it is mandatory, or just needed to be/support a patch to another mod.  The ones that don't do this can cause a lot of confusion.

[scorrp10]

This rabbit hole you speak of - can you provide an EXACT example?   And exactly how many times you encountered it?   I mean yes, it CAN be a bit daunting the first time you encounter it.   Say, you just started dabbling with mods, and you added some better textures, a follower or two, maybe a player home and some fancy weapons, all of which were nice, simple single-mod installs.    

And then you come across this fancy outfit with a flowing skirt, high heels, bouncy breasts, and say "Oooh, I want that!"    Suddenly, boom, you need 3BA, and that needs CBBE, and FSMP, and that one needs Racemenu and XP32, and that one needs FNIS....     Well, yeah.  welcome to advanced mods section.   And no, this "rabbit hole" is not there for the purpose of tormenting novice mod users, but each of these mods in the hierarchy typically represents a massive amount of work by one or more skilled programmers with VERY specialized knowledge.   So yes, they build upon each other's work.    The guy who made the fancy outfit might be a great 3D artist, but knows very little about mesh collisions and bone inertia.    And the one who wrote 3BA is good at physics modeling, but hardly any knowledge of 3D rendering.   And the 3D rendering guru would get nowhere without the folks who figured out how to hook new code into Skyrim's executables.    And so you got various talented folks using other's work as stepping stones to add their own.

The good news is, most of the time, the requirements for a lot of advanced things are the same.    Once you have succeeded in installing one 3BA SMP outfit, you now have in place the prerequisites for the rest of them.    Once you installed one poser or animation framework, you are set for the rest of them.   Once you got one ENB setup working, you can switch between them to your heart's content. 

[jjb54]

I understand - SKSE - Skyui and MCM ...

But  someone asked:

Here - then follow all the requirements:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/107344

Then follow the Required - Required .... now I could supply more .. but this was just easy to find.

[wfandrews]

Are you referring to the Nexus requirements or Mods Requiring this file?

I went to your mod link and found that the only Nexus requirement that I did not already have installed was B 612, I went to that mods requirements and found I already had all the Nexus mod requirements installed.

In my experience there are four or five mods which I consider essential like "Address Library For SKSE Plugins", "SSE Engine Fixes", "USSEP" and a few more that will satisfy the Nexus requirements for the majority of mods.

On 1/16/2025 at 3:54 PM, 7531Leonidas said:

FYI - some/a LOT of the 'required' files are not universally required for a simple installation of the mod, they are situational in nature, and depend on what other mods you wish to use in your LO.  Some mod authors place a note by each 'required' file, to tell you if it is mandatory, or just needed to be/support a patch to another mod.  The ones that don't do this can cause a lot of confusion.

The mod authors that are referred  to by 7531Leonidas who do list "essential" and situational mods are my favorite mod authors, unfortunately there are too few of them.