How Do I Mod Skyrim Properly?

[JigglyWharf]

Well, I installed Skyrim, then subscribed to over 160 mods on the workshop...... Didn't work so well as I found out about load order and dependencies.... Before that experience I always wondered why anyone used Nexus when there was the workshop. So on to my question: What advice can you guys give me on how to install mods when I want hundreds of them, any tools, warnings, what's the best way to go about adding a metric ton of mods to Skyrim and making it work?

 

I already have one thing out of the way; My computer. I have a GTX 970 and an i5 4690k and 16 GB of RAM so before you start asking if my system is even capable, YES IT IS. Thanks in advance! :laugh:

[Spanksh]

The best advice I can give you is this: Use Mod Organizer. It is admittedly complicated if you have no experience with mod managers but it will INCREDIBLY help with testing out mods and solving compatibility/loading order issues.

 

Very simplified description of the difference of Nexus Mod Manager and Mod Organizer:

 

- NMM installs the mods in the order you tell it to and simply overwrites older files with newer files, when you install conflicting mods. This is fine when you know your working order of mods and simply install it exactly in that order. However it gets complicated and messy once you start deleting mods that you installed somewhere in between and when you want to try different orders of installations and many many other situations. The advantage of NMM is it's very easy to understand and control and pretty straight forward.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/modmanager/?

 

- MO does not install mods in the Data folder of Skyrim. It creates separate folders for every single mod you install. Once the game is launched MO tells the game where too look for the mod files and in which order it should load those. This prevents overwriting files in the process of installing mods and enables trying different load orders without ANY issues whatsoever. Also loose files of mods and esp-files of mods can be handled separately when it comes to load order. The disadvantage is that it might be hard to understand what's even going on when you are completely new to modding and it's not exactly self-explanatory.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1334/?

 

 

When you plan on getting into modding the hell out of Skyrim you should also watch these two playlists:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-DdhDG41roBVJfNCqvO5MmKP

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-DcLS9LyjEqOJwFUQIIQewcK

They explain pretty much everything you need to know.

And honestly, MO might look scary at the start, but in my opinion it is absolutely undoubtedly crucial if you want to use hundreds of mods which you haven't already thoroughly tested together. Also it will make your life SO MUCH easier in the long run. Every single minute you spend on understanding it will save you hours of trying to clean up a messy Data folder.