Can these mods coexist?

[Spinfx]

Hi all, not having any problems yet but I wanted to ask about compatibility and the troubleshooting forum seemed appropriate. I'm looking to see if the following mods can coexist, because their descriptions - while mostly clear - still raise a few questions. I have the latest version of Skyrim and also bought the Dawnguard DLC.

 

I've already installed the following 6 mods and the game works just fine:

 

1. USP ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19 )

2. UDP ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23491 )

3. SkyUI ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3863 )

4. Project Reality: Climates of Tamriel ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17802 )

5. Guard Dialogue Overhaul ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23390 )

6. Coloured Map Markers - Updated ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19023/ )

 

As you can see it was mostly fixes, with the climate thing thrown in because it looked too good to resist. So far so good. Now I want to add the following:

 

7. Weapons and Armor Fixes ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4719 )

8. Smithing Perks Overhaul ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/6047 )

9. Complete Crafting Overhaul ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8003 )

 

All 3 by the same guy (Headbomb) and the description in WaF says it should be compatible with the USP, so I'm guessing these 3 mods should be no problem, right? Next:

 

10. Unread Books Glow ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10012 ) - Because, seriously, I'm sick of clicking every single book yet don't want to miss new titles.

11. The Dance of Death ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10906 ) - More killmoves, what's not to like

 

Okay, I'm actually not worried about those two either since they only touch specific things (books, killmoves). Now I'm worried about the next few:

 

12. Skyrim Monster Mod ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9694 )

13. Monster Wars V5 ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/18997 ) - red flag here, it says it adds new items, crafting recipes, etc

14. Skyrim Monster Mod Additions - Conjuration V5 ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15011 ) - red flag possibly, since it adds spell tomes and they're buyable (which means edited shop lists right?)

15. Skyrim Monster Mod Additions - New Items V6 ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14767 ) - red flag, new items, new recipes

 

My worries about these 4 are the new items, recipes, etc they add - do they work fine in tandem with the changes done in Headbomb's 3 mods (7,8,9)?

 

Thanks!

[Triaxx2]

Since the last two are both under the monster mod monikers, they should be compatible with the monster mod, and probably with each other if the authors are the same. Monster wars may conflict, but you should probably wait to install that after ensuring the others work together. My experience is that Skyrim is pretty good with the leveled and crafting lists, so it should be okay.

[Spinfx]

Thanks for the response!

 

I'd been reading the mod descriptions and checking their discussions this past hour; I think I can get number 12 (Monster Mod) in if I use it with the lore-friendly version available here: ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16411 ). This still leaves me without the last 3, which are additions to the Monster Mod. Making Monster Mod lore-friendly means I lose Monster Wars, and after some thought I guess I can ditch the other two as well (Conjuration, New Items): I've seen some spell mods that might do the job of the former, as for the latter I confess I'm not much of a crafter type player anyway so I can do without.

 

Will update later with progress.

[AnkhAscendant]

If you're especially worried about lists conflicting with each other, I believe that the main purpose of Wrye Bash at the moment with Skyrim is to merge leveled lists so that you can use the changes from multiple mods. However, I only recently got it myself and I'm, like, an Apprentice-level mod-user, so someone may come along and say something very obvious that I overlooked. But at any rate, I believe that if you make yourself a bashed patch you won't have item/object list conflicts.

[Spinfx]

Yeah, I've seen Wrye Bash and BOSS. There's heaps of info on their description pages and their doc links though, kind of a bit much to take in. I think I'll give them a pass for now, see what happens. Have decided to toss in Warzones ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9494 ), now trying to figure out which decorative clothing mod to try.

[Triaxx2]

I was just about to suggest Warzones. It's a fantastic mod, but be warned, the fights are enormous so you're going to have a bit of a hard time if you get into the middle of them. Unless you're late in the game and can simply blow through them.

[Spinfx]

That's okay, a challenge is what I'm looking for; I don't mind retreating to save my hide when necessary :) Being forced to detour around a tough battle is fine, it wouldn't be realistic to expect to win every skirmish, not to mention it might be a good idea not to stir up trouble with either faction early in the game.

 

Now that I've looked through more of the mods listed, I was thinking of throwing these in as well:

 

- Conjure Rideable Ethereal Horse Spell ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9534 )

- (a series of spells from the same author, dunno why he didn't just package them...): Earth Prison (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14629 ), Summon Meteor ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12441 ), Summon Ice Wall ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13130 ), Summon Ball Lightning ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13971 )

 

Looked at the various spell packs, but their comment threads have me concerned about stability, so perhaps I'll settle for a mod that merely fixes the existing spells rather than swap new ones in. Ended up looking at 2 mutually-incompatible mods so I'll have to pick one of the two, not sure which to get. Both have well-written descriptions and don't seem to have any outstanding better/worse points so the choice could go either way.

- Empowered Magic ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11139 ) -or- Better Magic ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4374 )

 

While I'm not interested in new areas just yet (I doubt I've covered even a fifth of the original areas), the following house mod sounds interesting, especially the imprison feature:

- Dawnspire ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20751 )

 

Looks like I've got a lot already covered: monsters, spells, a new house... hmm, nothing AI-wise yet. ASIS sounds quite comprehensive:

- ASIS ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/18436 )

I'm worried whether it will affect the Warzone NPCs and new monsters in the Monster Mod though. Anyone tried ASIS with those two mods?

 

- Automatic Variants ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21377 )

Great concept, no more picking which texture pack to use, just throw them all in. I like the sound of that. But again, I wonder if it'll play nice with Monster Mod.

 

Not getting any companion mods; I'm more of a lone wolf kind of guy. They'd only get in the way of sneaking and combat (kinda careless with my spell aiming), plus I'd end up wasting time micromanaging my followers instead of enjoying the game :/

 

 

I'd say that covers everything plus the kitchen sink, but then again I've seen sample mod load lists that import like >100 mods so I'm really just a dabbler. I'm going to do a clean reinstall of Skyrim first though, so if anything goes wrong I can not blame it on a broken save. One last thing... I hear we should create a "clean" save game with no mods immediately after installing Skyrim, before activating any downloaded mods and playing?

[AnkhAscendant]

As long as ASIS and AV are loaded after SkyMoMod they shouldn't cause any particular problems. Particularly AV, as if there aren't any new textures packed for the monster than you'll just see the default ones, no biggee. Nothing to break there. Since the ASIS page itself recommends SkyMoMod with no mentions of compatibility problems or special instructions, I would assume that they are quite agreeable with one another. (I don't think ASIS does a whole lot to creatures/animals, mostly just to NPCs, and SkyMoMod doesn't add a whole lot of new 'people'.) It does mention Warzones (most of the way down the page, in passing) when it mentions "exclusions", which I infer to mean that they may no be wholly compatible, presumably because it might change the way they act or because of the sheer number of combatants you might have spawned, but it also implies that if you follow the directions it won't be a problem, the Warzones NPCs just won't have the ASIS enhancements.

 

If you have to choose between ASIS and Warzones, I would personally go with ASIS - quality of NPCs versus quantity.

 

A clean save will give you a good place to go to test individual mods and run down any bugs or issues, and if all else fails give you a place to revert to if something goes terribly awry - but I honestly see no reason why you would ever have to use that. You're looking at pretty much all big-name, stable, well-played and -tested mods. If something were very wrong with them they either wouldn't be so big or you'd see it pretty easily from the mods' comments sections. (There have been a couple big famous mods that I haven't downloaded because of the bug reports in their comment sections, so I make sure to always check now.)

 

I have to say, you're being very thorough and careful with your modding. I have a much more optimistic approach - I have around 80 activated and a list of 15 or so more that I intend to download when I'm next on that computer, mostly installed on a whim with none of this newfangled research and caution. :P So far so good... only one irritating problem I need to run down. (So, so far so mostly good. ^^; )

 

 

I looked back at your original post and I considered some of the questions you had there again. Recipes, as long as they're only adding new ones and not editing default ones, won't conflict, they just keep adding more. Mods that edit vendor lists may conflict, but there are many different type of vendor lists. For instance, a buyable spell tome and a buyable set of armor probably wouldn't really conflict, since they wouldn't be on (all of) the same lists. I'm not one hundred percent certain that two mods adding spell tomes to the same list would conflict, but I'm pretty sure that's how it works, which is when you have to merge them with Wrye Bash (or just put whichever one you want to actually take effect last in your load order).

[Triaxx2]

The big difference is that Empowered seems to have been updated for Dawnguard, while Better Magic hasn't. I'm still using Balanced Magic, which does similar things, but stopped getting updated. It works for me though. I guess it depends on whether you've got Dawnguard or not.

 

I will indulge in a bit of self-promotion. I have a house mod with a challenging fight at the bottom. I wasn't able to win without a level 30 character, nor were any of my testers. It's called Whiterun Thane's Castle. Even if you don't keep it, I'd like an opinion.

[Spinfx]

Thanks for the replies!

 

I have to say, you're being very thorough and careful with your modding.

Hehe, having actually written mods for other games (mostly stat balancing and scripting stuff like quests/dialog/AI, I leave modelling & texturing to the creative guys) I've seen first hand how easy it is to fubar and kill weeks of hard work :laugh: Would also rather "get things over with" in one shot, so to speak, rather than add new mods later only to find out I have to restart a new character each time.

 

About Warzones though, I want those extra fights - vanilla Skyrim is so underpopulated. If I just go ahead and have ASIS load last (as it says to), what am I looking at, potentially? Warzone NPCs standing around confused due to script conflicts?

 

The big difference is that Empowered seems to have been updated for Dawnguard, while Better Magic hasn't. I'm still using Balanced Magic, which does similar things, but stopped getting updated. It works for me though. I guess it depends on whether you've got Dawnguard or not.

Yeah, as mentioned in my first post I bought both Skyrim and Dawnguard. Was gonna wait even longer (for a nice all-in-one GOTY package, perhaps), but I had nothing else on my plate >__> Hmm, Better Magic hasn't been updated for Dawnguard? Empowered it is then. There's an issue with permanent familiars in the discussions though. Hmm. I suppose I could just avoid using them or make sure they get killed so they won't be a problem.

 

I have a house mod with a challenging fight at the bottom. I wasn't able to win without a level 30 character, nor were any of my testers. It's called Whiterun Thane's Castle. Even if you don't keep it, I'd like an opinion.

Sure, why not? New area mods are fine in my book since they get along with pretty much everything else right? Let's see... Whiterun Thane's Castle by Triaxx2, here we go ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21895 ). Oh dear, I don't know these acronyms yet (UFO, EFF-AFT). Only one version 1.5 download though so I assume NMM can take care of it.

 

I hear you about the fighting, will probably wait until my new character is up to speed. I tend to play a stealth hit-and-run bow mage, with summons as bait and indiscriminate aoe spell use (which explains why I prefer soloing because friendly fire makes people angry, and angry NPCs usually means having to reload a lot). Cramped close quarters fights are really not my cup of tea, heh.

 

Read your article too, didn't realise making caves was such a pain - no wonder it took them so long to make the game considering how many caves there are in it :P

 

Alright, I think that about covers everything. If there's no explicit advice to the contrary, I'll go ahead and plug in ASIS with Warzones and see what happens. With my luck it'll probably mean a weekend spent troubleshooting error messages and reinstalling stuff >__>