I suck at using mods please help

[Gilibran]

Just download the mod manager from here and stick with the mods that have the option "download with manager" Just make sure that you follow the install procedure for the mod manager and you have the path to your Skyrim folder set up correctly. It should tell you all options for your possible original Skyrim game location folder in the install guide.

 

Though that does limit you to the mods that are compatible woth the mod manager, it will make your life very easy as far as installing mods is concerned.

 

If you dont want to use the mod manager or you want to install mods that dont use it beside the mod manager, start by downloading Winzip or a similar "archive" unpack program (i have been using Winzip for years so te be honoust i dont know what else is out there), that should unpack almost any archive you download. Before you start downloading mods however and after you install Winzip, make a new folder on your pc called "Downloaded Skyrim Mods" that's where you download every mod to in it's "virgin" unpacked uninstalled state.

 

Secondly you make a new folder "Unpacked Skyrim mods".

 

Then you set up Winzip to extract files to the folder "Unpacked Skyrim mods"

 

First thing you open in that folder after Winzip extracted it, is the "readme" file included with the mod. That tells you exactly where to "copy" every folder & file to in your original Skyrim installation folder.

 

Then you go to your original Skyrim folder and check if the folders mentioned in the Readme are there. 9 out of 10 times they will be there. Then you will have to compare paths and just copy the files from the folder "Unpacked Skyrims mods" to your original Skyrim folder as described in the readme. Confirm when it asks to overwrite and/or asks to make a new folder.

 

Start your game and check if what you downloaded is in the game and that there are no weird things with the new mod that were not there before.

 

If there are not, and it works fine, delete every file in the "Unpacked Skyrim mods" folder. It wil be empty and ready to extract the next mod to.

 

Be aware though that with the method of copying files yourself straight into the folder, without the mod manager, you will have to know exactly what files are already in whatever folder, and that what is overwritten is not a file from another mod that happens to have a file in the same folder with the same name. It could be the original bethesda file you want to overwrite because the mod improves it, or it could be the already improved file from another mod which just happens to have the same name.

 

You could end up with big yellow exclamation marks in your game. That means either you have copied the files to the wrong folder or there were files with the same name. The latest mod you installed overwrites a certain part of an old one, and the old mod tries to find the original file or use the "new" file that has the same name. But since it is not really the same, only in name, the game does not know what to do with it and bassically screws things up for you. You could end up with the exclamation marks or Your full set of armor A suddenly has the helmet of armor B. You cant blame the game or the modmaker for that and you will have to choose wich one you like better.

 

Without the mod manager you will have to bassically manually find out what file from another mod was overwritten by your new mod. That means reinstalling all your previous mods one by one and restarting your game after each reinstall of the mod to find out what mod overwrites another and conflicts. That can be fun if you cannot stand not knowing what went wrong and just want to know. And depending on the number of mods installed spend a few evenings not playing the game but playing around with files. It is also helpfull as long as you report back to the modmaker that his/her mods conflicts with a certain mod.

 

If they adress the problem is up to them, if they dont, you will just have to decide which mod you want more then the other.

 

The Mod manager keeps track of all the files associated with a certain mod and tells you wich file you are about to replace and if it is associated with another mod. Say yes to the changes and you see weird things in game, via the manager you just deactivate the mod, and have no hassle with manually removing folders and files. The modmanager will delete all the files from that mod and replace it with the previous files.

 

I dont know how far off i am with this description. I have not been playing Oblivion for a while and installing mods, but i can tell you that the OBMM was a blessing for installing mods, compared to installing them for Morrowind and Pre OBMM oblivion, though you still had to make a choice if mods were incompattible, it made installing/activating/de-activating mods a walk in the park, compared to a complete reinstall and one by one manual installation and replacing files to figure out what mods conflicted.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Gilibran