Beginners guide to modding

[gromulos]

 

1) yes you want to merge everything in both sides of the window, the left and right panes, in the right pane you have to go category by category and tick everything, EXCEPT the tweak category, only apply things in there that you want and use sparingly

 

2) I have NEVER seen that error before, you may want to run your viruscan because I have absolutely no clue or explanation for that

 

3) ONE bashed patch, PERIOD, the one Wrye makes. Doing what you did, all you are doing is patching your load order twice lol :tongue:

 

4) Yes, you need to verify, you NEVER clean vanilla masters unless you want some REALLY WEIRD things to happen in game IE: invisible Drauger lol

 

NOTE - If you edited your INI's you need to back them up BEFORE verifying your files

 

1- Perfect, that's exactly what I did.

 

2- Probably some network oddness as it seemed like it came from a web server as an html page. In the next rebuild patch, I got the page with yellowish background and bullet points summarizing the patch. This seems good now.

 

3- Oh s*** haha I'm over-patching it? I'm not even sure anymore, I only have one bashed patch in MO, and that was created from the overwrite after finishing work on wrye bash. Does it sound right so far? Sorry to keep bugging you on this but I really need to build some confidence. Then, what should be the final state of things? All merged mods disabled on MO plugins?

 

4- Wow really? That video is not the first one I see people recommending to clean Bethesda Update & DLC master files on TESEdit. Is it because it was needed in the past, and it's no longer the case nowadays? BTW thanks for the heads up on backing up the ini's.

 

5- New question, do I still want Data/SKSE/skse.ini nowadays with memory tweaks (768 - 256 = 512 MB initial heap)? I just replaced the Safety Load mod with these SKSE tweaks.

 

Thanks a lot for all your help again!

 

 

3) you should be using the patch from Wrye as it will give you more options on what to patch and include

 

4) most of those videos are outdated - too many times in the past in the chat room I've seen people clean the masters and every single time they've had problems, yet people who don't clean the masters, do not have those problems, so there ya go

 

5) yes keep it in as you have it

[vwmc]

Ok so I verified with Steam and got the original master files, and I'm also keeping the SKSE memory tweak.

 

I'm not sure what's wrong though. Now the game is crashing inconsistently when creating a new character. First try it crashed changing hair styles. Second try I was able to change hair styles, but then it crashed when hitting finish on racemenu. BTW I'm always testing with a new character.

 

I suspect I'm doing something wrong with wrye bash. When you say to use the patch from wrye bash, does it mean creating a new mod "Bashed Patch" from the overwrite in MO?

[gromulos]

Forget MO, the bashed patch that WRYE made is the 1 you should be using and the ONLY one

[vwmc]

Forget MO, the bashed patch that WRYE made is the 1 you should be using and the ONLY one

 

 

So I'll discard the overwrite in MO created by wrye bash?

 

Then how do I "use" the patch from wrye?

 

EDIT: took screenshots of step-by-step how I'm doing it, with descriptions for each step. Uploaded here: http://imgur.com/a/a74bl

Edited February 6, 2017 by vwmc

[gromulos]

 

Forget MO, the bashed patch that WRYE made is the 1 you should be using and the ONLY one

 

 

So I'll discard the overwrite in MO created by wrye bash?

 

Then how do I "use" the patch from wrye?

 

EDIT: took screenshots of step-by-step how I'm doing it, with descriptions for each step. Uploaded here: http://imgur.com/a/a74bl

 

 

The bashed patch that WRYE makes is essentially a mod, it just always has to be last with a few exceptions, so you just enable it in MO like any other mod

 

Okay I took the time to watch a video which I think you should also watch. It will Explain EXACTLY what you need to do in MO with the bashed patch

 

please watch this video from time stamp 5:55 - 7:30, after this NOTHING else should be done with the bashed patch unless you add more mods

 

Edited February 6, 2017 by gromulos

[vwmc]

 

 

Forget MO, the bashed patch that WRYE made is the 1 you should be using and the ONLY one

 

 

So I'll discard the overwrite in MO created by wrye bash?

 

Then how do I "use" the patch from wrye?

 

EDIT: took screenshots of step-by-step how I'm doing it, with descriptions for each step. Uploaded here: http://imgur.com/a/a74bl

 

 

The bashed patch that WRYE makes is essentially a mod, it just always has to be last with a few exceptions, so you just enable it in MO like any other mod

 

Okay I took the time to watch a video which I think you should also watch. It will Explain EXACTLY what you need to do in MO with the bashed patch

 

please watch this video from time stamp 5:55 - 7:30, after this NOTHING else should be done with the bashed patch unless you add more mods

 

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to keep looking into this. I watched that video while also learning from this thread, so that's why I was confused when you said to forget MO and only use the patch from wrye bash. In fact, I've been doing exactly like the video, but for some reason I'm having more CTD's after I started using wrye bash.

 

What do you think about SE? I read it's a lot more stable and doesn't require as much patching, though still not SKSE-ready which I wouldn't mind waiting. Do you think SE would still *require* all the same tools, including wrye bash?

Edited February 7, 2017 by vwmc

[gromulos]

yes, there are a LOT of mods still not converted because they HAVE to use SKSE. One reason you may be crashing is if at any time you were using a mod and deleted or removed it then your saves are broken which will cause even more crashing the higher level you get. The more mods you removed or deleted, the worse the crashes will be.

 

I always recommend that you figure out what mods you want to use, then install them, but don't turn them on untill you leave the cave under Helgen. That gives your game the entire time from the cave exit til you get to riverwood for your mods to set everything in place. Basically, as soon as you exit the cave with either Hadvar or Raloff, save the game, turn on all your mods and make sure everything is in place, then load your game back up. It's always been the safest way for me at least.

[vwmc]

I really appreciate you trying to help me out gromulos. I guess what's most confusing about learning how to mod Skyrim today is that it's hard to tell which guides and videos are up to date, and sometimes they'll even contradict each other, e.g. I found another guide suggesting to clean Bethesda master files, while this one recommends NOT to do it.

[gromulos]

I'll simply say this, clean the master files at your own risk because every person who I know who has done so, has had problems because of it, usually at the higher levels, 40+

[vwmc]

Yeah I hear you, that's crazy. From the same video series you suggested about wrye bash (GamerPoets) it's recommended to clean those master files as well, and browsing other threads I have only seen the same opinion so far. Can you point me out to other threads where people have came to a consensus on NOT cleaning those files because doing so have made they crash?

 

That's the one bit I'm still confused about, but I'm still learning a lot from here and I really appreciate you remaining available to your thread since it was posted years ago. That's very nice!