starting from scratch

[lylesloudmouth]

so lets imagine, that someone... or eh, me, had all of his gaming needs met via console. while i was playing morrowind for origional xbox, i had no idea that modding communities existed. then oblivion, fallout3 and new vegas happened. still on xbox, except 360. but... found myself wishing i could fix the things i didnt like. still not enough motivation to take the plunge. then skyrim happens. played the crap out of vanilla version. pulled hair out over non-drops, broken quests and overall need for more content. then i caved. bought a gaming computer. almost strictly for tesV. so here i am.

 

i dont know where to start. looking for help. heres what i got:

pc far above reccomended specs; check.

nmm + account; check.

steam; check.

absolute lack of knowledge regarding anything else;...check

 

heres what ive done on my own:

d/led tons of mods and gotten most of them to work on their own + with several others, even ones i needed to install myself w/o manager.

crashed game from launcher, mid game and upon exit to main menu (one of many current delimmas).

and lastly realized that im in over my head.

 

so here it is, im not stupid, i have just not been dealing with pc gaming for very long. three weeks to be specific. i have an idea of where to start. i just lose it in the details. i know all the information i need is on the forums somewhere but digging blindly w/o knowing exactly what im looking for is daunting. hoping beyond hope someone will take pity.

 

sooooo, i believe, that if im starting from a fresh install, SKSE and STEP are foundation building blocks. correct? im interested in getting the basics in line first. and im scared because the more i read about things like loading order and BOSS and ugggh... ya kno. i just dont know. so i guess thats where im looking for help. any suggestions to get me going would be appreciated but what im actually trying to drag out out of one of you is a long term plan. start at A, continue to B, follow through to C,D,E etc, untill im ready to insert the variables. i want to avoid conflicts within mods as much as possible but also dont expect someone to hand me a well polished, playable modded skyrim. i dont mind the work, i just cant put one foot in front of the other yet.

 

someone hold my hand? youd make my day.

 

please please please

[David Brasher]

I am a bit of a contrarian and don't operate the way most people do, but my advice may be useful.

 

GO SLOW!

 

Install one mod. Play Skyrim for an evening. If your mod did not break the game, and you like the mod well enough to keep it, then you can install another mod tomorrow.

 

Install your second mod. Play Skyrim for an evening. If your mod did not break the game, and you like the mod well enough to keep it, then you can install another mod tomorrow.

 

Etc. etc. until you have enough mods installed and desire no more.

[ChampionOfHircine]

I was is the same position. Long time console player and just built my first PC 2 weeks ago. I have 30+ mods now and making my own with relatively few problems.

 

My advice is to first make sure the game works without mods. I remember reading about load order and BOSS and NMM and all that before I got my computer and it seemed overwhelming. Don't worry about it too much. NMM is really easy to use, so avoid manual installation if possible. I believe it will install BOSS and auto update. Load order is mostly common sense as far as I can tell. You only need SKSE for a few mods. Don't bother with it until you need it.

 

It's not a bad idea to install one mod at a time and check it out in-game to make sure it doesn't cause any problems. I don't know what STEP is, so I'm guessing it's not terribly important.

[Valikus]

Before you start downloading the internet and loading it into your mods, relax and take a few breaths. Think of the mods you REALLY want, not something that "meh I don't mind this", get legit mods you really want to use. Starting off a clean new game, get a few mods to begin with. Play with them for a few hours or so, then download more, if game starts to crash - then you most likely got a conflicting mod (it may conflict due to numerous reasons).

I like to arrange my mods in categories - Very big critical mod, mod I really want, mod I could use.

Very big and critical mod would be OOO or MMM, mod I really want is "Natural weather" or "Living Economy", mods I could use are "custom weapons, companions, new lands".

Download and install mods in order of their importance, the whole process can be tedious and lengthy, often perfected by trial and error.

Remember your load orders, use a mod manager and arrange mods in order amount of content they offer. Keep in mind that mods loaded last will overwrite the older. If mod #1 increases amount of monsters, and #2 makes them stronger, then if #2loades before #1 --- the new number of monsters added to the game may not be affected by #2. Think of the load order as an order of details, first you have big mods that add content, later mods tweak it to your preference. However if you tweaking mods are loaded first, they will be overwritten by the "default" configurations of the big mod.

Also be mindful of what mods do, don't have 10 mods changing armor, have only 1 or 2. When a number of mods change same aspects (such as items) you will receive insane conflicts.

And lastly, follow the instructions when installing mods, specially big mods like OOO or MMM and even more carefully when you want have them both at the same time.

 

Not the best explanation but I can tell you how I get my Oblivion going:

 

1. Install the game, get latest patch (game of the year I think is fully patched)

 

2. Browse TES NEXUS, look at the first few pages of most downloaded mods for almost every category.

 

3. Decide on mods I want to grab, usually every aspect of the game needs to be change by a mod or two for each aspect. ----------- mod or two per aspect, such as dungeons, monsters, items, weather, graphics. Often a single mod covers a wide range such as OOO.

 

4. Get Oblivion mod manager and script extender. Install them.

 

5. Install BIG mods first (such as OOO). Most legit mods come with a Omod scrip thing, lets you install the mods like a boss through your Oblivion mod manager.

 

6. By now I have usually 10-15 mods running, rearrange them by their importance and critical content, (some mods come with multiple ESPs so you don't always select all often, some ESPs are made to work with other mods only --- MMM for OOO.esp or you have 2 ESPs "Natural weather with more wildlife" and "Natural weather with less wild life" -------- don't select both of them.

 

7. Start the game and get to the point where you exit the first dungeon, often if your mods are conflicting bad --- the game will crash. At this point you you start deactivating mods and exiting the dungeon until you find out which mod was causing the crash. (to speed up the process, use SKIP TUTORIAL MOD).

 

8. Upon successful exit from the sewers save the game a few times and load it a few times as well, if crash --- start deactivating mods and reactivating them until you find out what mod is causing trouble.

 

9. If no crashes continue, play the game for an hour or so. Exit the game, gather up a few new mods, install and play, if crashes appear -- you know its one of the new mods.

 

This is roughly my road to Oblivion, minus some frustration and time spent.

 

Two things I want to mention -----

Don't get two mods that completely change an aspect of a game (dungeons for example), get just one, you MIGHT use two if they are compatible.

Start off with as few mods as you can, build up from there.

 

Here is my mod list... take a look at the load order, Oblivion ESM is not loaded after OOO. Main mods such as Shivering Isles and Kinghts of the Nine area loaded Before OOO ESPs. *NOTE: ESM are core files and are loaded before any ESP, just follow the load order of importance be it ESM or ESP.

 

Oblivion.esm

Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esm

Mart's Monster Mod.esm

Mart's Monster Mod for OOO.esm

DLCShiveringIsles.esp

Knights.esp

Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esp

Mart's Monster Mod for OOO.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - Knights.esp

Mart's Monster Mod for OOO - Knights .esp

Living Economy.esp

Living Economy - Items.esp

Natural_Weather_HDR_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Vegetation_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp

PJs Lightning Strikes - Natural Weather - No Shock Changes.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - Shivering Isles.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - Spawn Rates - Increased.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - City Defences.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - Dungeons of MMM.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - More Wilderness Life.esp

DMRA BBB Complete Clothing and Armor Replacer.esp

DMRA BBB Knights of the Nine Replacer.esp

OOO-WaterFish.esp

OOO-DLT_Remover.esp

OOO-Water_Weeds.esp

OOO-Map_Markers_Stock.esp

Harvest [Flora].esp

Harvest [Flora] - Shivering Isles.esp

Cutthroat Merchants.esp

Skip Tutorial.esp

All+5AttributeModifiers.esp

slayersword.esp

Apachii_Wigs_MaleFemale.esp

SW01.esp

Colourwheels Sexy Imperial Legion.esp

Carry_all_you_want-5118.esp

BetterPowerAttack_1.0.esp

Blindeye's Resilient Creatures.esp

AdrenalineOblivion-SpawnElement.esp

Improved Lava.esp

GG_Valeria.esp

Younger Hotter NPC's v1.0.esp

Sonia.esp

TML_TrainingUncap.esp

Insane Melee Sneakilling.esp

CompanionshipRing.esp

SoulGoddness.esp

 

I have been tweaking and experimenting with mods ever since Morrowind times, LESS IS BETTER. You can try playing with mods I have up there, Im playing with those for over 100 hours and very rarely do I get a crash (once per few hours of gameplay, no save game corruption, just load the game back again and continue). Some of the mods came as part of big mods such as OOO. This mod list gives you a fun and challenging game experience, however a special notice must be given to Resilient mod and Adrenaline. Adrenaline will increases monster count by up to 5 (so if there was 1 daedra in that room, there will now be up to 5 there instead) , if there were 5 skeletons in that dungeon -- you will now have up to 25. This leads to dangerous levels of FUN and enemies. Also note Resilient mod, increases most creature's HP by 3, so those daedra now have instead of 100 HP ---> 300 hp times that by how many more will be in the room and you better be packing some heat. I got 3 Companions, going up the Sigil tower ---> Lord of the Rings style.

 

You can google for many mod install tutorials, specific mod installations are always included with the mod so look for read me or their website.

Remember not to get frustrated and give up, take it slow, a mod or a few mods at a time.

Its hard to go over the entire process, but if you have specific questions, ask away.

[lylesloudmouth]

ive been away from my home for a few days and havent been able to check back. thanks for the input all three of you.

 

so while believing that the advice ive received will be of great assistance, i have one big overwhelming problem (maybe) at this point. i uninstalled the game and i thought all the files associated with it, ie all the mods and plugins

that ive messed up with, but upon reinstalling earlier this afternoon, i loaded it up and all my stuff was still in the data files launcher option. i have since unchecked and deleted all of them, and the same within the nmm plugins tab. does this equal a totally clean start? or does everything need to be completely wiped. id rather not have to go searching for all the things ive attempted to add to the game, but if thats what i need to do to actually re-start from scratch, id wouldnt mind. and if so where do i look to get rid of all of it?

 

seriously thanks again. hope it didnt seem rude to not respond right away

[lylesloudmouth]

and btw valikus, while i def appreciated the other two responses, i really liked the depth of yours. thank you for going into such great detail about which ones youre using. problem is, and i may not have been too clear, im not playing oblivion. i may want to revisit someday but currently im one province north. when i head back ill definately check out all that.

[scrivener07]

The skyrim uninstaller will only remove files it put there. If you added files and folders an uninstall wont touch them. Remember, a Skyrim uninstall will clean up after itself not you.

 

D:\Users\*Your User Name\AppData\Local\Skyrim

This little hidden folder contains your plugins.txt. This is the file Skyrim reads so it knows what plugins to load and in what order. Nexus Mod Manger makes load ordering easy by editing this file for you. Also, if some ever asks you to post your load order, copy the contents of this file. Dont forget this is a HIDDEN folder/ Go to Tools > Folder Options > View > and choose "Show Hidden files, folders, and drives".

 

 

D:\Users\*Your User Name\Documents\Nexus Mod Manager

This is where NMM will store its own error logs if any and the most recent BOSS masterlist.txt.

 

 

D:\Users\*Your User Name\Documents\my games\skyrim

Here is where your Skyrim saves live along with there .ini file roommates. The .ini files are advanced preference files.

 

 

And of course the data folder. This is where you add mods to your game that either add content or override content.

For 64bit systems this is normally: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data\..
For the more common 32bit system, this will be: C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data\..

 

Just a heads up on common file locations. :ninja:

[lylesloudmouth]

awsome thank you