Seriously Contemplating Uninstalling Game :(

[Kyrenjai]

I've got mod-conflict issues now and it is of my own doing. I knew the risks and was so told to watch out. (Check my others posts). I may need to do a complete uninstall/reinstall of the game. I have 2 toons (male and a female) and part of some of the mods went to 1 toon and parts to the other. Seems to me if all the mods r installed on the same computer, how do pieces go their separate ways? I mean, I understand female/male differences. That makes sense cuz most were female appearance upgrades...but the other mods..I'm at a loss. Question now is...if I do an uninstall, is it gonna say "product code has alrdy been used"? Any suggestions that might have me avoiding an uninstall? I'd rather keep just the Male Toon if possible but have no clue as to how to delete the female and might still have overlapping of mods I installed. Uggghhh...headache--headache. lol :)

[lnsentience]

Learn how to add mods to your game properly next time.

[kevkiev]

That sucks, sorry to hear that. What's happening in your game that makes you think you need to reinstall?

 

...if all the mods r installed on the same computer, how do pieces go their separate ways?

 

...if I do an uninstall, is it gonna say "product code has alrdy been used"?

 

I've never run 2 char's at once, but I'm surprised that created conflicts. I woulda thought that your female char would use the female-specific mods you have installed, and ignored the male ones (except for opposite sex companions and NPCs, if the mods were replacers) and vice-versa for the male char. Certainly for mesh/texture mods anyways. Though I guess maybe female specific scripts (like animations) might cause problems, but that's literally a guess - I'm not sure about the details on how scripts work.

 

For your second question, you don't have anything to worry about. You can uninstall/reinstall throughas often as you like. (I'm not sure I'd buy a bethesda game if that weren't the case :tongue: ) If you go that route I'd just make sure that, in addition to deleting the files through steam, you manually delete everything it leaves behind - i.e. go into steamapps/common and delete the "skyrim" folder. Go into "my documents/my games" and do the same thing. I always run a registry cleaner (I use "CC Cleaner") after doing that. I'm pretty sure you can work it somehow so that you can just keep all your mods in NMM like nothing happened, but I'm not sure how to do that - on my (fairly) recent reinstall of skyrim I did a fresh DL/installation of my mods. Probably just save the "mods" folder somewhere and install it into your new download. (Though I think you might have to do that for the "overwrites" folder too.... again, I just don't know how to do that for sure.)

 

Good luck.

Edited May 21, 2012 by kevkiev

[tnguye3]

First make a backup of your saves just so you still have your characters. Saves are located in "Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Saves"

 

When you reinstall, no matter what you won't get a notice telling you that the serial code is in use because Serial Codes are registered to your Steam account, so you can go ahead and install/uninstall as much as you want as long as you're on your account.

 

When installing mods, and you're not familiar with manual installation, in the future avoid messing around with the folders and use the Nexus Manager or download the mods from Steam Workshop.

As for the solution check the mods you applied to your characters, and take a look at their root folders. Usually they have something like Data\meshes or textures and then some sub folders below. Follow that, track the files and delete them from your game folder.

 

After doing that for (probably) all character enhancement mods, reinstall them one by one. Each time you install a mod, launch the game and check if there's a conflict/crash. Keep doing that until the game goes bonkers, that way you'll know which mod is at fault.

 

Good luck!

[thompsonar]

I'm confused as to what you mean by overlapping mods? Are you loading different mods depending upon which character you're playing, but have some that you use for both? If not then both of your saves have the same active mods and if you use a utility like wrye bash it's going to tell you that all of your mods are active in both saves (at least that's how I understand it).

 

If you're trying to do a fresh install keeping just the mods that are absolutely necessary for your game to still work then it really depends on what mods you have installed. A lot of weapon / armor mods can be removed with no problems. You will get a message that says content that the save depends on is not present but once you make a clean save that will go away and the game will be fine. If you have mods that require some sort process to uninstalling them then you're going to have to do that or your save will be broken.

 

Can you play the game at all to be able to deactivate mods if necessary? Generally getting rid of followers and all your equipment and making a clean save in an unmodded area of the game will let you uninstall most things. But like I said some mods have a different process.

 

How many mods are we talking about? There are some conflicts that will "embed" themselves into your save that will pretty much just make that character unplayable. Again depending on what mods your working with and what the actual problem is. It may just be you have to reinstall and start over again, this time picking and choosing mods carefully and reading the description fully along with the comments section.

[fraquar]

I'm a little confused by what he's saying, so I'll just say this: IF you do a complete wipe and re-install do yourself a huge favor and archive the new install before you do anything to it. This way, if you ever have to start from scratch again you just un-zip the archive and download the latest update instead of having to download the whole slam all over again.

[Dubnoman]

Wouldn't another way to avoid this problem in the future be to back up his Skyrim folder when he has everything in working order, so that if things ever get really screwy again, he can just revert to the saved Skyrim folder? I'm not sure about this. I was told that that is a good idea, but I've never had to result to that.

[Kyrenjai]

I'm confused as to what you mean by overlapping mods? Are you loading different mods depending upon which character you're playing, but have some that you use for both? If not then both of your saves have the same active mods and if you use a utility like wrye bash it's going to tell you that all of your mods are active in both saves (at least that's how I understand it).

 

If you're trying to do a fresh install keeping just the mods that are absolutely necessary for your game to still work then it really depends on what mods you have installed. A lot of weapon / armor mods can be removed with no problems. You will get a message that says content that the save depends on is not present but once you make a clean save that will go away and the game will be fine. If you have mods that require some sort process to uninstalling them then you're going to have to do that or your save will be broken.

 

Can you play the game at all to be able to deactivate mods if necessary? Generally getting rid of followers and all your equipment and making a clean save in an unmodded area of the game will let you uninstall most things. But like I said some mods have a different process.

 

How many mods are we talking about? There are some conflicts that will "embed" themselves into your save that will pretty much just make that character unplayable. Again depending on what mods your working with and what the actual problem is. It may just be you have to reinstall and start over again, this time picking and choosing mods carefully and reading the description fully along with the comments section.

Nope---not loading separate mods for the different toons----same mods for both characters. Not placing blame or pointing fingers, I take responsibility for messing it all up. It was all working well but I went for UFO for more Follower control and that's when it started (I'm guessing). My female toon got the Branding Irons and not the Male---haven't been able to check if Horse Inventory works--"Wait" works for the Male but not the Female--gave toons Fire Tomes---both Cast Shock but that's ok---Quest with J'Zaro doesn't give me chat options at all even with white icon over his head---can undress the Male's Follower but not the Female's Follower. Actually less problems with the Male Toon (which I'd rlly rather keep). Is there way to "Delete" the Female toon? I rlly don't want to start over. Most of the mods r appearance changes to the Female. UFO is a masterful piece of Work. It's not the Mod (I don't think). Just the way I was installing. Only 2 Mods I had to do manually. Think there r 10...........Eight I used Nexus with no problems. Love the potential of UFO--if I do a re-install, I'll download UFO first and gradually add the other mods I had which r mostly cosmetic. Should b fine then. Clean restart. Just don't want to "start over" :) Advise truly appreciated. Thnx

[thompsonar]

I've never used UFO but it's one that has an uninstall process that you go through in game right? Read the uninstall instructions on the mod description page (or readme). I've looked at installing that one a few times and think that's the one you have to uninstall a certain way. Then see if your game works again and try reinstalling it.

 

I'm still confused though, are these characters you've added to the game? I thought you were talking about two different saves.... are these followers you've added to the game? I was thinking you meant you had a save game with a male and a save game with a female character... If these are followers then I have no idea if you can delete them or not, nor how you would go about it. If they are different saves then you just delete the save file..... I don't think I'm following you very well.

[Kyrenjai]

I've never used UFO but it's one that has an uninstall process that you go through in game right? Read the uninstall instructions on the mod description page (or readme). I've looked at installing that one a few times and think that's the one you have to uninstall a certain way. Then see if your game works again and try reinstalling it.

 

I'm still confused though, are these characters you've added to the game? I thought you were talking about two different saves.... are these followers you've added to the game? I was thinking you meant you had a save game with a male and a save game with a female character... If these are followers then I have no idea if you can delete them or not, nor how you would go about it. If they are different saves then you just delete the save file..... I don't think I'm following you very well.

lol--I completely understand...just more than a slight bent-out-of-shape over this 1. Ur last thought is the correct 1. Two different saves. And I was thinking likewise..just delete all her saved files. Just wasn't sure if that'd b enough. Thnx and ty to all who r trying to help out. Again, wasn't my intention to offend UFO team. Hope u guys didn't take it that way. My apologies if u did.