Skyrim mods are a foreign language, help a newb translate!

[LunaFoxpaws]

"Toto, we're not in Stardew Valley anymore."

 

Hi!

I've just picked up Skyrim SE for the pc and discovered the wonderful world that is skyrim mods.
There's just oooooone teensy problem, I don't understand any of it.

I played skyrim back when it was on the xbox360 and loved it, but much has changed in the SE version and the possibilities are endless on PC in comparison to the no mod ultra vanilla oldrim of my youth.

I started using mods with a much simpler game of a different genre, Stardew Valley.

I found that using mods with stardew was fairly simple and straightforward once you did a little research and trial and error, even more so if you used a mod program like Vortex.

I thought modding on skyrim might be similar and oh was I so wrong.

In perusing the mods available and researching the best mods to use for my interests, I discovered that skyrim modding is a language that I am not acquainted with at all.

there are mods that require other mods which require even more mods, it's like jumping down a rabbit hole and realizing you are trapped in an ever-changing warren.

Then there are people mentioning things like SSE and CBB.. something or other... and how they do and do not interact and other strange file names I don't understand.

some mods include instructions about deleting certain files in folders and changing others, and vortex and I are over here looking at each other like 'ummm....what?'

Needless to say I was, and still am, very overwhelmed with information.

 

My request is fairly simple, i think. I just want mods that make skyrim look and feel better, provide better immersion, and allows me to make characters that don't look like bridge trolls no matter what I do.

 

So far I have downloaded:

*Caliente's beautiful bodies enhancer v1.5.7

Calientes beautiful bodies enhancer-CBBE- Normal Map options-v1.4

*bodyslide and outfit studio

*enhanced character edit

*skyrim script extender 64 (SKSE64)

*apachiihair

*better horses

*point the way

*rich merchants of skyrim

*unofficial skyrim special edition patch

*weightless dragon bones and scales

 

I just have no idea what other mods to use with these, which of these I need to get the results i want and how to load them through vortex in the right order.

 

If anyone wants to give me a 'Skyrim SE mods for beginners 101' that'd be great, or even throw some blogs or other instructionals at me that will point me in the right direction that would also be awesome.
I read the full description for each mod I download, I'm just unfamiliar with a lot of the lingo used and that unfortunately leaves me confused about how to go about things.

 

I'd also love recommendations for mods that are great for mod newbies like myself due to their ease of installation and use.

 

any and all help is appreciated and welcome <3

 

[anjenthedog]

Too big a question for me to answer thoroughly, so I'll just add a couple points:

 

1) avoid installing anything advertised as LE, Oldrim, "regular skyrim", or 32-bit Skyrim. It's not "cast in stone" but most Skyrim LE mods (and the others I noted) often include references or scripts that are incompatible with Skyrim SE and will in most cases cause you noting but trouble.

 

2) Some mods can be installed and require nothing more than the game itself. Many require additional resources or other underpinnings to work. The mods they require are called "dependencies".

 

You can (in some ways) picture it like making a collage. You make the background...the big picture, so to speak, (imagine you've drawn a nature scene) and then you start pasting other things on top of it. (imagine pasting cutouts of squirrels and birds, and deer)

 

Where those items are on top of and effective erase the content they sit on top of, they have "overwritten" the thing they're on top of. In the context of this game, the simple illustration I just made is more complicated and is extended not only to visual info, but code scripts and other resources that installing a mod may "overwrite". <<<<< This is an example of "load order", another term you're going to see a lot of.

 

or imagine this. You install some mod that allows your character to ride a bicycle, but the model of the bicycle is created by some other mod. Well, you need the other mod to provide the bicycle that your character can ride using the new mod. <<< totally fictitious, afaik no ride a bicycle mod exists. this was purely for illustrative purposes.

 

When it comes to load order, you'll also see things like before, after, below, and above.

 

before and below refer to a mod being loaded prior to another, so that if anything *is* overwritten, the second mod will do the overwriting If the load order was reversed, then the first one would overwrite the second...

 

after and above refer to the opposite. Load them before the other mod.

 

 

3) As for mods....Review the new mods page, the most endorsed mods , and mod categories

 

a) I try to review the new mods regularly, and when I first started playing, I reviewed weeks and weeks at a time instead of playing.

 

b) most endorsed is a good flag that the mods in question are popular and generally speaking, reliable enough that people will use them . As with new mods, reviewing the thumbnail advert, and dig deeper if they interest you.

 

c) Mod categories is good for isolating your searching to ....given categories (clothes, armor, weapons, followers, scenery, magicka spells, etc)

 

4). When you encounter a term or abbreviation you don't understand, try a google search like this

 

"skyrim (the term you're looking to understand)" (ex: "skyrim CBBE" or "Skyrim define CBBE")

 

5) when reviewing a mod, make sure to read the entire description, check its requirements tab for any necessary dependency mods, and if one shows up, its bugs section.

[LunaFoxpaws]

thank you so much! that is super helpful. I figured out what CBBE and SSE were after sifting through mods a bit more and instantly felt dumb because I had already downloaded the mods those abbreviations are for lmao!

I've also been diving into mod descriptions and posts deeper and I think I have a decent grasp of how using mods with skyrim works. I just need to test things out and fiddle with it until I find the right combo.

The only thing that i'm confused about now is how to determine load order within vortex.

Does vortex determine load order by when the mod is installed or when the mod is enabled?

I know vortex will sometimes prompt you to determine dependencies/load order for certain mods, like FNIS for example, but I'm not sure if it will do that with all mods that need to be in a specific load order.

Is the best way to go about defining the dependencies/load order in vortex to manually drag and drop them on each other in the dependencies column to get the prompt to come up? or does vortex automatically detect the correct load order and I don't need to do anything beyond installing and enabling the mods I want active?

[Gunslinger808]

Look into downloading a manager like LOOT, it’s not an end all to assisting with load orders, but it does take a lot of the guesswork and manual shuffling out of the equation.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1918

 

ETA...

One thing is to not download too many mods at one time, that way if you start having issues you can track the offending mod down quickly.

I suggest no more than two or three at a time, then play them a few real world hours, that’ll usually give them time to show any problem.

 

And as for easy to install mods, pretty much anything that Vortex does the work will be a easy mod to download, once you get a little more used to it get 7zip (if you haven’t already) for manual mods, get on YouTube, and research.

 

Theres a modder named Gopher that used to post up a lot of tutorials on YT that was pretty much the Gold standard for passing on how to info.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Gunslinger808

[anjenthedog]

thank you so much! that is super helpful. I figured out what CBBE and SSE were after sifting through mods a bit more and instantly felt dumb because I had already downloaded the mods those abbreviations are for lmao!

I've also been diving into mod descriptions and posts deeper and I think I have a decent grasp of how using mods with skyrim works. I just need to test things out and fiddle with it until I find the right combo.

The only thing that i'm confused about now is how to determine load order within vortex.

Does vortex determine load order by when the mod is installed or when the mod is enabled?

I know vortex will sometimes prompt you to determine dependencies/load order for certain mods, like FNIS for example, but I'm not sure if it will do that with all mods that need to be in a specific load order.

Is the best way to go about defining the dependencies/load order in vortex to manually drag and drop them on each other in the dependencies column to get the prompt to come up? or does vortex automatically detect the correct load order and I don't need to do anything beyond installing and enabling the mods I want active?

Vortex produces an accurate suggestion for load order in most cases.

 

Sometimes it doesn't offer one. When that happens, you'll need to refer to the mods pages for the mods in load order contention. At first, this is a bit daunting, but as time goes by and you need to do it "more often" it'll usually be a matter of reviewing what you already know... from reading about the mods you're installing *prior* to installing them :wink:

 

In rare exceptions, you just have to guess, (at first) or maybe educated guess would be better (again with time and experience and doing your "homework")

 

Again, in most cases, Vortex will offer a suggestion and at least in my experience, "99 times out of 100" it suggests the right order

 

PS> sometimes you'll resolve a load order issue, only to have the warning banner pop up again. That's because it checks and finds another contention. Resolve the second (or even third on rare occasion as your load list grows longer) in the same manner as the first... and so on.

[Moksha8088]

Once you have a mod manager, taking a look at the SSE front page on the Nexus, the top 100 mods, and mods by category can give you a good idea of what is available.

 

My favorites are those mods that help make the game enjoyable even on repeated playthroughs: quest mods and advanced companion mods. The top companion mod is Inigo. The top quest mod is Interesting NPCs. There are about a dozen advanced companions and around 30 good quest mods.

 

For cosmetics, Noble Skyrim 2K is popular, as is the Bijin series of women. Much has been written about Obsidian Weathers, and Realistic Waters Two. There are even a couple of mods that improve the look of the guys in Skyrim. Best to always add one mod at a time to make sure nothing goes wrong. Don't forget to run LOOT.

 

Enjoy your mods!