Help Me Figure out Mod Order, Load Order, Mod Conflicts and Resolution

[Gavinfoxx]

Hello all! I just managed to buy Skyrim for PC, and I am really interested in playing this game. Naturally, having experienced LOTS of mod conflicts and such in Fallout 3 and New Vegas and such in my attempts to mod them in the past, I decided that this time I would use, 100%, a mod manager. So I downloaded the Nexus Mod Manager, and then went hunting for interesting mods to get.

 

I decided that for my first game, I would play a Khajiit stealth and mage character, who used spells from stealth, especially sniping spells and either daggers or, ideally, claws for close-in work, as well as light armor. So I went on the hunt for mods that were NMM-installable and configurable, and get things that supported that play style, as well as which seemed to be popular improvements in general.

 

So, according to NMM, here is my list of mods which I have installed:

 

Better Magic - BetterMagic204

Better Sorting

Categorized Favorites Menu - CategorizedFavoritesMenu v0_1_14

Complete Crafting Overhaul

Conjuration and Summoning fixes - Conjuration and summoning fixes v1_02

Cooking Expanded - Cooking Expanded 1_1

Deadly Combat - Deadly Combat 3_51

Deadly Dragons

Deadly Traps and Sickly Diseases - Deadly Traps and Sickly Diseases

Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival - Frostfall 1_6b

Glowing Ore Veins 300 - Glowing Ore Veins 300 2_00

Imps More Complex Needs - Imps More Complex Needs v0_25b

JaySuS Swords - JaySuS Swords V13C (this one appears unchecked no matter what I do)

JaySuS Swords - JaySuS Swords V13C to V13D Update

Khajiit Marriage Mod - Khajiit Marriage Mod

Midas Magic - Spells in Skyrim - MidasSkyrim_008a

PerkUp! ~Ultimate Perk Mod~

QD Inventory - QD Inventory 0_235

Realistic Lighting with Customization

Realistic Wildlife Loot And Recipes - Realistic Wildlife Loot 1_3_2

Shadow Play - Sneak and Stealth rebalance mod - Shadow Play

SkyUI

Smithing Perks Overhaul

Sounds of Skyrim - The Dungeons - Sounds of Skyrim - The Dungeons Full 1_11

UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul - UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul

Weapons and Armor Fixes

 

Here's my loadorder from loadorder.txt, apparently in alphabetical order. In NMM, I only have realistic wildlife medium checked.

 

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Imp's More Complex Needs.esm

JSwords.esm

Realistic Wildlife Loot.esm

Chesko_Frostfall.esp

Complete Crafting Overhaul - BS version.esp

Conjuration & Summoning fixes.esp

CookingExpanded.esp

Deadly Traps.esp

DeadlyCombat.esp

DeadlyCombat_GiantsAIFix.esp

DeadlyCombat_PISE_Patch.esp

DeadlyDragons.esp

IMCN - Overrides.esp

JSwordsDistributionBalancePlugin.esp

MidasSkyrim.esp

PerkUP-Alchemy.esp

PerkUP-Archery.esp

PerkUP-Block.esp

PerkUP-HeavyArmor.esp

PerkUP-LightArmor.esp

PerkUP-Lockpicking.esp

PerkUP-OneHanded.esp

PerkUP-Pickpocket.esp

PerkUP-Smithing.esp

PerkUP-Speech.esp

PerkUP-TwoHanded.esp

PerkUP-zOptional_LightArmor_NoHelmsReq.esp

Realistic Wildlife Loot V1.3 HIGH Drops.esp

Realistic Wildlife Loot V1.3 LOW Drops.esp

Realistic Wildlife Loot V1.3 MEDIUM Drops.esp

BetterMagic_FULL.esp

ShadowPlay.esp

Sickly Diseases.esp

Smithing Perks Overhaul - Balanced.esp

SoS - The Dungeons.esp

UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul.esp

Weapons and Armor fixes - Hacks.esp

Weapons and Armor fixes.esp

Realistic Lighting.esp

Better Dynamic Snow.esp

Natural Skyrim Rain.esp

khajiitmarriage.esp

Headbomb's Better Sorting - Ammo.esp

Headbomb's Better Sorting - Books.esp

Headbomb's Better Sorting - Food (Normal Weight).esp

Headbomb's Better Sorting - Ingredients.esp

Headbomb's Better Sorting - Miscellaneous.esp

Headbomb's Better Sorting - Potions (Normal Weight).esp

Headbomb's Better Sorting - Soul Gems (Ranked).esp

Headbomb's Better Sorting - Spells.esp

 

 

So, the question is... what conflicts with what? How do I mitigate this? What do I need to completely remove? What should I pay attention to customization for in order for it to not conflict with another, possibly superior or more thorough, mod on the list? How should I do said customization? Is there anything else I can do to achieve my goals of having a conflict-free, complete, superior gaming experience? Thank you!

[smedennils]

I strongly recommend you to use BOSS, if you are not familiar with it its a very simple program that automaticly places your mods in a recommended load order.

You can find it here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=6

 

Also i really think you should have a look at this mod:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9286

This mod is imho the most balanced overhaul out there today, because its covers areas from magic, to combat, perks, smithing well it touches almost every aspect in the game as a package, the gameplay experience gets very balanced and also conflict free and dosent clutter up your mod list so much. Personally i only run this mod together with some eyecandy and ui mods and it has proven to be the f-ing awsome :)

 

Well anyways, as i stated earlier use BOSS for sorting out the mods and you should be good to go :thumbsup:

[Gavinfoxx]

Well, I used BOSS, but that doesn't really help me understand conflicts too well... it also said some things I couldn't quite interpret:

 

"Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}"

 

Does that mean anything for starting a new character?

[Gavinfoxx]

Well, I loaded the mods in the Creation Kit... and I got a whole lot of errors about forms not matching and such... Should I be worried about that?

[Panbot3000]

I got greeted by the same message even when it was unmodded and it was the same with Oblivion CK and I cant recall for certain but I think the same with Morrowind but it shouldnt as far as I know be an issue.

[uk33]

If you have all those mods on the list installed and the game runs without crashing / doing weird crap I wouldn't worry about conflicts. You will know when you get one.

Unfortunately there is no guide as to what conflicts with what other than what the mod author has tested and posted on the page. And no-one can look at a list of mods and tell you which ones will conflict (unless they have experienced the same thing with the same mods) After that its just trial and error.

 

It's useful to only install a few mods at a time too, then if you do get a conflict you can narrow the cause down to the last few you installed.

 

If you have a conflict and have no idea which 2 mods are conflicting, you are only left with the option of disabling them all and then going through the list one at a time enabling one, going ingame to check, enabling the next, going ingame to check etc until you find the culprit.

[gasti89]

The messages you get from BOSS are related to Wrye Bash patches.

 

You should d/l Wrye Bash and learn how to create a bash patch.

 

Then you will notice that in the down-right grey corner if you right-click a "tag window" pops up. Here you can tag a mod as "delev/relev" and then create a bash patch.

 

That tag means that you should merge the skyrim leveled list with the mod's one.

[Gavinfoxx]

Well, I removed a few of those patches, they were making gameplay quite uncomfortable and lowering my fun... Frostfall, More Complex Needs, PerkUp, Realistic Lighting, and Shadow play.