How bad is it REALLY to install mods midgame?

[RedHeadAngel]

This is a fierce debate I've seen among not only the Skyrim modding community but the modding community overall. I've heard some people say it's fine to install certain mods midgame, but I've also heard that it's the ultimate taboo and that you should never do it, even if an author of a mod says it's OK to do it with theirs. Now, I'll admit that I've installed mods midgame, but they were small and didn't seem to have any consequences. However, I am wondering if this had something to do with my last modding setup breaking.

So, this brings me back to my original question: How bad is it to install mods midgame? I would really love to hear what people have to say about it.

[scorrp10]

Always 'read the manual'.    Generally, mods that ADD stuff (NPCs, armors, weapons, animations, player homes, quests, etc etc) without touching the main game, should be safe.   Mods that update stuff visually are typically very safe.   Mods that alter vanilla content...    that is where you need to be extra careful.   For example, mods that overhaul vanilla player homes are fine before you purchased/visited said home.   But are an absolute taboo after that.    Mods that mess with vanilla quests should be installed before you get started with quests they mess with.   There are many quests which are start game enabled, and put things in motion which are hard to alter afterwards.   Mods that alter those have to be installed before a new game.    I.e. Skyrim Extended Cut - Saints and Seducers will refuse to initialize if you install it mid-game.  

IMHO, if the mod author claims it is safe to install their mod mid-game, I would believe them.    

[SirCadsimar]

Ditto to what @scorrp10said.
Big mods with Master Files are in many cases pretty bad to install to an ongoing playthrough.  Problems can range from assets/textures/entire places getting messed up, to game crashes and freezes.  Some Master File mods and ESP mods won't even work properly or not work at all when installed to an ongoing playthrough (ditto what scorpp10 said, again).
And mods with ESP regular plugins, it's generally not good to mess around with the load order to an ongoing playthrough like that.. 
ESLs are usually almost always safer to install almost any time, depending on what they are, probably ESPFEs too (someone please correct me on that if I'm incorrect).
Usually much worse to remove them midplay than to add them midplay (<--this also applies to all plugin types).
And of course things will either not work well or game won't even load if you're over the 254* regular mod limit, this should go without saying.

Sometimes it's not good to update big mods during an ongoing playthrough, sometimes it is okay it depends, should probably always check the mod's page before you update the mod, check the Description for info, and maybe some Marked comments by the Mod Author in the Posts.

Edited March 18 by SirCadsimar
Sometimes Mod Authors will mention in the download if it's safe to update midgame or not

[scorrp10]

It really has very little to do with the type of a mod plugin.     I.e. when Dawnguard came out in June 2012, and Dragonborn in Nov 2012, most folks installed them right in the middle of their current playthroughs.    But a tiny ESP-FE with  2-3 records  can completely wreck your main questline if installed too late in game.  Load order also should not be affected much by adding a new mod.   Sure, your mod manager would have to stick it somewhere, but relative order of your existing mods should not change because of that.

[Karna5]

3 hours ago, SirCadsimar said:

Big mods with Master Files are in many cases pretty bad to install to an ongoing playthrough.

I agree with this. Big mods, like Babo Dialogue, Vigilaqnt, Death Consumes All and the like have a ton of scripts, quests, items, locations, spells and much more. While I don't disagree with scorrp10 that the plugin type isn't what makes them dangerous mid game, the fact that they're big (massively game changing) makes them dangerous.

[RedHeadAngel]

@SirCadsimar @scorrp10 @Karna5
I’ve installed some outfit mods midgame without any issues. I imagine it was because they didn’t alter anything besides adding the outfits to the world.

[Karna5]

1 hour ago, RedHeadAngel said:

@SirCadsimar @scorrp10 @Karna5
I’ve installed some outfit mods midgame without any issues. I imagine it was because they didn’t alter anything besides adding the outfits to the world.

Nearly all outfit mods are safe to install and uninstall mid game. Exceptions are those with scripts and the like.

However, there is a trick to safely uninstalling any outfit mod mid game.

1. Make sure you are not wearing one of the outfits.

2. Make sure none of the outfits are in your inventory. At the very least if any of the outfits exist in game, do one of the following before you uninstall the mod:

a) if you have NFF (a follower mod), have a follower sell off any outfits you have which you want to uninstall, or

b) put the soon-to-be-bad outfits into a chest or box.

If you mess up and uninstall the mod before you getting rid of the existing outfits, you can usually use the resaver fix program to get ridd of the orphan records. However, this won't help if the outfit had a spell or perk cast on you which you forgot to remove before uninstalling. You may actually find that a spell or perk or script will be stuck on you for the rest of the play through.

 Thus I try to be very careful before uninstalling any outfit mods mid-game, but I don't worry about installing them mid game. 

Even complex and script-heavy outfit mods like Devious Devices can be installed and uninstalled mid-game if you're careful (as in making damned sure you have no scripts running before uninstalling). A lot of the more complex mods have uninstall scripts in MCM. If a mod has that, be sure to use it before uninstalling. While the bigger mods are more dangerous mid-game, they often usually have mod authors who understand the risks and try to give you ways to uninstall or upgrade the mods mid game.

[anjenthedog]

For all the dire warnings made by experts over the past ~6 years I've been playing, I've had incredibly few problems with it to be perfectly honest

[Karna5]

On 3/18/2025 at 10:40 AM, anjenthedog said:

For all the dire warnings made by experts over the past ~6 years I've been playing, I've had incredibly few problems with it to be perfectly honest

Hi, anjenthedog. I've been thinking about this, and I'd say I agree but with caveat. I'm currently at 769 active mods with 553 plugins, and I do add, upgrade and remove mods several times a week (with great care, of course).

This said, no matter how careful I am, I do from time to time finally hit a stage where I can't fix something in my game and have to either find a save location from weeks previous or start a new game. For instance, I play with super high difficulty where I have it set so that NPCs and monsters can one-shot kill me regardless of hit points if they're lucky. But lately I was noticing that instead of dying, I kept getting back up. At one point a couple of days ago, evil guards in Riften tried to behead me, and instead of my head coming off, I just got up.

I went back and found that I had to restore to several weeks ago if I wanted to fix the issue (it wasn't a setting I could fix in MCM). So yesterday I restarted a new game (without redoing any mods) and am happily dying periodically once again.

I estimate that every 150 to 200ish levels something eventually goes wrong which I can't fix through configurations. In this case I suspect (but could not confirm) that something put me into protected mode and did not remove it. As there is no console command to remove protected mode, and as this seems to have been done via a script, I simply couldn't fix it.

This isn't a complaint from me as in truth I very much enjoy the process of beginning with no skills or strength at all and gradually building up into a super soldier/assassin/mage.

This said, do you not run into the same issue from time to time where you're forced to start a new game because the old one hit an unfixable condition?

[wfandrews]

This might just relate to me as I use NMM Special Edition as my mod manager and like any mod manager it has it's own little idiosyncrasies.

For me the problem with adding a mod, even a simple esp with no scripts or skse changes is that it changes the load order. This could have no consequences or very significant consequences depending on where in the load order the mod is placed. If I add a mod mid-game I rerun LOOT, redo the load order to my own specifications, I look on LOOT's load order more as suggestion than directives although I usually do not change all that much,  and then rerun Wrye Bash.

NMM places almost any new mod at the bottom of the current load order under the Bash Patch which is why it is necessary to run LOOT and Wrye Bash again. The only esm I ever load mid game is USSEP and then I must move it to the original spot in the load order it originally occupied.

I am one of those people who is constantly starting a new game, especially if I get a mod update that requires starting a new game such as LOTD so when I add a mod it does not bother me to redo the load order and start from scratch. I have been playing TESV since 2011 and have completed the main quest and all the DLCs before so I play the game mainly just for enjoyment although one of these days I am determined to get all the LOTD books.