Fresh install

[ginnyfizz]

Morning all!

 

Well, Steam ate my previous install of Skyrim and after a bit of battering, I have persuaded it to let me redownload the game, hehe.

 

I then tried copying over my previous Skyrim mods folder and, not surprisingly, the game would not launch. So now that I know that doesn't work and that I can redownload again, I deleted the lot and started again (my own mod that IS going back in is clean, that I know).

 

First of all, would you advise that I launch the game for the first time with no mods apart from the male and female body replacers of my choice?

Secondly, I'd like to see what mods some of you guys are recommending! I have Dawnguard

 

What I see as essential are the following;-

SKSE

SkyUI

ScriptDragon

FNIS

Body Replacers

Apachii Sky Hair

Hothtroopers Immersive Armors

That marvellous Weapons of The Third Era (can someone give me the correct name?)

A magic mod (which do you people think is the best?)

Exeter's UNP armor and clothing mesh replacer (I use e55 for vanilla females but mostly UNP for custom races)

Lunari Race mod

My own race mods (I will have to move across some of my old mesh and texture folders for that.)

Custom Races by drail

Race Compatibility esm

Better Vampires

Anything that makes vampires look less fugly and sunken

Elaborate Clothing - the one that makes the textures look a bit more fancy

Asharas clothing mods

A few other clothing and jewellery mods.

 

Over to you for suggestions and advice!

[Moraevik]

Absolutely launch the game with no mods the first time. It's actually a good idea to disable mods when starting a new character, too, since some mods can play badly with the opening scenario. That said, I don't do it and haven't had any problems with new games.

 

I can't speak for anything Dawnguard, because I don't have it, and will not be getting it until Bethesda get the worst of the bugs ironed out in post 1.5 patches and Dawnguard, itself.

 

SKSE -- yes

SkyUI -- yes

 

I can't imagine running Skyrim without those.

 

ScriptDragon -- I'm a little leery of this one. It doesn't get updated as promptly as SKSE and this can cause problems, as it did for me. I'm currently not running any mods that require it, to my knowledge, although I have an older version of it.

 

Body Replacers -- of course, except I can't really find one that suits my taste -- normal proportions on both male and female characters, not slighting the beast races, textures without bad neck seams, proper nipple placement on females (one of my pet peeves with current mods, since they make female characters look ... deformed). Where is Robert? Your body mods for Oblivion were so awesome!

 

Apachii Sky Hair -- most certainly.

 

Re-meshes and re-textures are going to be OK of course. I can't really recommend any because I'm not currently using any. I'm still looking for a magic overhaul that doesn't go overboard and unbalance the game in favor of mages. Anything that gives you craftable arrows, if you're going to be an archer (like I usually am).

 

I'm currently playing with Way of the Monk, and I'm having a blast with it -- unarmed and unarmored and carving my way through Skyrim. You can't do that in the vanilla game -- at least not for long.

 

At this point just about anything else could conflict with Dawnguard, especially any sweeping remakes like the magic overhauls. I'd be very cautious, make sure the mod has been tested for awhile with Dawnguard, and even then only install one mod at a time and thoroughly test it with your setup.

[ginnyfizz]

All very sound advice, I will possibly knock Script Dragon on the head then. And leave out the magic overhauls.

Mesh and texture replacers, and clothing mods should be OK methinks?

[Moraevik]

Well, Dawnguard uses the same game engine as the main game, so I doubt that mesh and texture replacers are going to cause any problems unless Dawnguard writes information to the Mesh and Texture folders that overwrites or is overwritten by any mods you use. That would be a stupid way to install a DLC, but ... OK, I won't say it. Same with clothing mods. In fact, any mod that works all by itself with vanilla Skyrim should be OK. I really don't know how much of the vanilla game that Dawnguard impacts. Perhaps none of it, but if it changes even a little tiny thing this is going to conflict with mods that use that thing -- or change it, themselves.

[ginnyfizz]

Am working very nicely now, yay!