Tajmo Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 Hi guys! I want to ask a few questions that will definately frustrate most of you but if anyone would be so kind to assist me that would be fantastic! I spent the last four days on nexusmods' website educating myself on how mods work and which would be safe and which wouldn't. Earlier today I installed a few mods (most on the top 25 page (HD Textures / SkyUI / MonstersMod / Alternative Beginning / Occupy Skyrim / Reduced Force & Ragdoll / and a few other). I launched the game, chose my beginning and entered the game world near Riverwood. After a few seconds I crashed to desktop. I uninstalled the mods one by one, launching Skyrim after each one and testing it. Eventually I was left with only the HD Textures mod enabled. I then entered the nexusmods website and downloaded a couple of mods that shows 1.5 as the latest version (some shows 1.7 or so, so I'm not entirely sure how that works :D ). Same thing happened, and this time after removing all the mods the game continued to crash. So my question to you is, how do you know which mods are safe to use or how does mods work in general (I am using the mod manager)? Apologies if there's a guide somewhere on this forum, I couldn't find one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staind716 Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 Ok, first of all I would recommend that you verify the integrity of your game through Steam before doing anything else with the mods. If you're not sure how to do this it's really simple. Just start Steam and go to your Library page and highlight The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, right-click then go to Properties, go to Local Files and click verify integrity of game cache. Since you are having crashes with all the mods except HD Textures this may help with that. As far as using mods before you download a mod always read the complete read-me and the comments so you can see if there are any potential conflicts listed by the mod author or if other people who are using it are having any problems and if so what they are. Texture mods are usually the safest to use since they generally overwrite each other so there shouldn't be any reason for them to conflict. Mods that make big changes to the gameplay are usually the culprit since they will conflict with one another if they are making changes to the same thing or using the same cell. You can get a lot of information about conflict with other mods in the read-me's and comments which makes always reading them thoroughly a good habit to get into. We are only on version 1.5.26 on Skyrim right now so I think what you are seeing are the version numbers of the mods themselves. As the authors upgrade and improve the mods the versions numbers change to an updated number. If they are downloaded with NMM then when there is a newer version of the mod there will be a little triangle icon with an exclamation point inside to let you know it has been updated. You are on the right track by taking the time to research mods before jumping into it. I also recommend to stick with Nexus for your mods and only use Steam Workshop if there is a mod that is exclusive to them that you just gotta have. I have 200+ mods running right now and only 2 are from Workshop which is a big reason my game isn't an unplayable mess. The "just press click and subscribe" method can be tempting and sounds much easier at first but you will save a lot of headaches in the long run by avoiding that and will be in a much more helpful atmosphere with Nexus. There is also a helpful guide to get you a little more familiar with mods and also shows you some helpful tweaks called STEP. Skyrim Total Enhancement Project. All of the mods that they have listed have been tested and there are no conflicts with any other mods in the guide. Here's a link if you want to check that out.http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11 It's always a good idea when adding mods to download and try them one at a time and test them thoroughly before adding another one. It makes it much easier to find the cause of a problem if you suddenly start having issues or crashes. Have fun modding your game and if you have any more questions or need any help feel free to send me a pm and I will be happy to help. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tajmo Posted April 14, 2012 Author Share Posted April 14, 2012 Thank you very much for the thorough reply, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond! :D I reinstalled and updated my Skyrim since my original post, and downloaded only six mods to start off with namely:*Mesh Improvement Mod*W.A.T.E.R*A Quality World Map*Sky UI*Skyrim Monster Mod*Crimson Tide Dark Blood I really enjoyed the concept of being able to change the game's beginning, as well as the Occupy Skyrim mod adding new encounters and random events. I guess since changing textures is the safest I will do the HD Textures next, and then go from there. Lastly, is there any fun mod you would recommend for a player planning on starting a new bow and stealth focused character? Or perhaps something that spices up events in the game or just great in general? If there is please do tell. Again, thank you very much for the reply! I really do appreciate the effort. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staind716 Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 I consider Deadly Dragons a must have mod. For a game that supposedly has a lot to do with the evil, powerful dragons they are a bunch of wimps. This adds a lot more dragon types to the game and makes them more difficult and adds a lot to the game. It plays nice with Skyrim Monster Mod too so no worries there. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3829 Just for fun, if you have the willpower to resist the tons of cheats available in this mod I have a real blast with it. It has an incredible house with art gallery, tons of storage, and most importantly a working arena that is insane. Just remember that I warned you about all the temptation with this one. :smile: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=14152 I haven't played my stealthy bow character yet since my first playthrough was a warrior and this one is a mage so I'm not sure about the best ones for that. I'm sure there are some good ones but I just haven't checked them out yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brasher Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 It is never safe to install more than one or two mods at a time. The best practices approach is to install one mod, and then play-test your game for a couple of hours. If everything works well, then you install the second mod and play-test for a couple of hours. Then you continue on in this fashion. If your game goes bad, you can confidently blame it on the last mod you installed and remove it, change its position in the load order, or patch it. It may take you weeks to get all of your mods installed, and may involve a lot of playing, but in truth, the object is to play Skyrim. The object is not to see how big and complicated of a load order you can build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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