How many mods should I use?

[BaronDanglars]

This question has been bugging me ever since I began experimenting with mods (less than two weeks ago), so I was wondering if I could get some answers from the more experienced users in this forum. My tracking centre is chock-full of mods, many of which I'm eager to use, but if I don't choose them carefully, they could be more trouble than they're worth.

 

Another thing that concerns me is my inability to identify potential conflicts. For example, I suspect that some of the mods in my tracking centre alter the skeleton.nif file, but there's no mention of that in the description, and I don't know how to tell if they do. I am using Realistic Ragdolls and Force, and I want to avoid any mods that could cause conflicts with it.

 

Are there any methods I could use to identify conflicts? And what is a reasonable number of mods to use concurrently?

[unuroboros]

Just as you say, learning how to identify and resolve conflicts is the best means of enabling you to run as many mods as you want - or decide which you have to pick over others.

 

It can be a real exercise in tedium, so if you aren't the patient, meticulous sort, you may have to try your luck with mod roulette. :)

 

At a minimum, install the NMM (Nexus Mod Manager) and use it exclusively for installing mods. NMM will tell you when a file is being overwritten, and which mod that file currently belongs to. So if two mods both want to modify skeleton.nif, at least you'll know which they are, and you can pick one over the other or follow up with the mod comments to see if there are compatibility workarounds.

 

After that, try learning BOSS. It can intelligently sort your mods into a correct order and warn you about conflicts that are happening inside the mods - not with files, but with parts of the game that the ESP files are changing.

 

However, even BOSS can't resolve sophisticated conflicts for you. At the far end of the spectrum are tools like Wrye Bash and Tes5Edit. These tools let you build "patches" that resolve conflicts by merging some things together, or letting you pick out which parts of which mod you want, when a merge is not possible.

 

There are tutorials and forum topics on each of these tools, and lots of people here are happy to help with specific questions on each of them, too. :)

[BaronDanglars]

Thanks for the advice. I have been using BOSS, NMM and TES5Edit since the beginning, but I'm still not familiar with all of their functionality. I learned how to remove dirty edits with a tutorial video by Gopher, and I can manage my load order with BOSS and NMM, but that's about it. Are there any other features I should know about?

 

Also, I spent the last day or two going through my tracking centre and making a list of mods I hope to use for my first playthrough (technically not my first, since I bought Skyrim the day it came out, but it will be the first time I finish the main quest). Here it is:

 

No Bethesda Logo in Menu

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8023

Same Walk and Run Speeds

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9553

Torches for Realistic Lighting

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8741

Higher Bounties for Crimes

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11862

No Spinning Death Animation

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17214

Skyrim -Elys- MemInfo

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2006

SKREEE - Less Frequent Dragons

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16724

Request Bard To Take A Break

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21194

Craftable and Placeable Havok-enabled Bedrolls

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19943

Wood Chopping To Max Carry Weight

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21132

Dangerous Wolves

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21332

Better Dialogue Controls

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27371

Better MessageBox Controls

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/28170

Categorized Favorites Menu

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4862

Rainbows

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25666

Better Skill and Quest Books Names

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10125

Deadly Dragons

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3829

IHSS - Improved Horse Step Sounds

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/31039

Realistic Ragdolls and Force

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/601

Morning Fogs

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24810

Supreme and Volumetric Fog

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24460

The Dance of Death - A Killmove Mod

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10906

More Saddles

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19936

Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11163

Realistic Lighting Overhaul

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30450

Footprints

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22745

 

This isn't a complete list, since I still have a couple of pages to go through. I don't plan on installing all of these mods though. Once I finish the list, I'll go through it and remove the ones I don't need. Also, mods like Realistic Ragdolls and Force and Deadly Dragons seem to be having issues with Dragonborn, so I may have to skip them as well.

 

Here's another question: I found two mods that make random dragons spawn less often, SKREEE (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16724) and ERSO 06 (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/26217). I don't really know how either of these mods function (SKREEE's description is somewhat confusing), and whether or not they're compatible with Deadly Dragons. Which one should I use?

Edited March 14, 2013 by BaronDanglars