New to Skyrim and have a few questions.

[arotished]

Hi all!

 

First off all, I'm sorry for asking this newbe question but I just started to think about playing Skyrim so I bought it along with the three expansion packs. Then I started to think is there was any mods for this game and boy, I should never have done that! A quick look at the top 100 mods on nexus gave me alot of "Wow, that seems awesome and I most have it"

 

Then I downloaded all the top 100 mods and then the next question, mods comparability. I guess I could only use a few of these mods so I then started to reasurce on how to check this and then BOSS was installed. I just did a quick test with just the vanilla expansion packs (or plugins) and for some reason, I got these errors/dirty files.

 

 

 

 

• Update.esm Active
  • Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
  • Contains dirty edits: 92 ITM, 3 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.
• Dawnguard.esm Active
  • Contains dirty edits: 607 ITM, 82 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.
  • Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
• HearthFires.esm Active
  • Contains dirty edits: 171 ITM, 11 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.
• Dragonborn.esm Active
  • Contains dirty edits: 57 ITM, 8 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here

 

 

 

 

I guess there shouldn't be any errors here when I have just installed the normal add-ons? It tells me that I need to download TES5Edit and I have done that but here the big reading begins and yeah, wasn't planing on spending several hours on reafing up and down before acually playing the game so I will ask here first.

 

PS: Ohh, I also installed SKSE and make a new lancher file if that tells you anything.

[Jeir]

Cleaning mods is simple.

1. Open TES5Edit.

2. A window will pop up with all your mods listed. Right-click it and select 'Select None'. This will de-select all the mods. You can then go through and check only the mod you want to clean. Master files should automatically be selected.

3. Hit Ok and wait for everything to load.

4. Once loaded, right-click the mod name, and select 'Apply Filter for Cleaning'. Wait again.

5. Once done, right-click mod again, and select 'Remove Identicle to Master Records'. Wait.

6. Same as above, but select 'Undelete and Disable References'. Wait.

7. Close TES5Edit. A window should pop up asking if you want to save. Select 'yes'.

8. Rinse and repeat for each plugin you want to clean.

[arotished]

Thanks! So its really that simple? So if I select around 50 mods which I wanna use where I try and not use files which over wright each other after reading recommendation from different people, then I run BOSS and use TES5Edit on the mods which gets dirty edit error?

 

What cause a mod to get a dirty error?

 

[Jeir]

Yup, very simple. =)

 

It is a very good idea to only install a few mods at a time though, in case there are errors or conflicts that could ruin your game - installing a small number makes finding the cause of issues easier.

 

As for the rest, yep, BOSS to sort load order, and TES5EDIT after to clean.

Be aware that BOSS not perfect, and it may place files incorrectly (I have a couple of NPC cosmetic mods it places way to high on the list when they should go near the bottom), and it may not even be able to sort/give warnings about certain files. With these you'd have to move the files manually, and check them in TES5Edit yourself. For sorting load order manually, Wrye Bash (Smash) is probably the best - I haven't even glanced at the 'Data Files' bit in launcher since I installed enough mods to warrant its use.

 

As for why dirty mods occur...if I'm correct, then 'identical to master' means exactly that. The mod maker, say, moved a fence post, then changed their mind and undid the change, but the CK still picks it up as edited data and includes it in the .esp. It's also an issue with the CK, because 'yay bugs!'.

'Undelete and disable references' is, erm..."if one mod tries to modify a reference that another mod has deleted, then the first mod cannot find the reference, and this then leads to a crash when the game is exited." That. =D

[arotished]

Master is the main skyrim/dragonheart, dawnguad and heartfire file?

[Jeir]

Yup. But, in their case, Skyrim.esm is the 'master' of the three DLC and update.esm.

[arotished]

I see....Skyrim the the foundation and all the DLC tweaks from this main master file along with mods? So there is really only one master file (which is Skyrim.esm?)

[Jeir]

Skyrim.esm is the main 'master file', but mods can have Dragonborn.esm, Dawnguard.esm or Hearthfire.esm as masters as well. Many even have Update.esm as a master. X.esm files always require Skyrim.esm. Mods (.esp and .esm) always require Skyrim.esm, but not always the DLC master files.

 

ESM = Elder Scrolls Master.

ESP = Elder Scrolls Plugin.

Or something like that. =3

[bben46]

Just because a mod is in the top 100 does not mean that it will automatically be compatible with every other mod in that same top 100 list. For example there may be more than one mod that changes the same thing, and if both try to change the same thing there will be a conflict. Most of the time, the game solves that conflict by load order - the game uses the last one of the conflicting mods loaded and overwrites the other one. However, when the first mod makes changes that the second one doesn't - then those parts from the first that are not overwritten will still be there to cause problems. Sometimes, just changing the load order between a few mods can fix these, but sometimes you will just have to make a choice.

 

BOSS can help, but it is not perfect. And the last I heard, the boss team was several months behind in incorporating newer mods into their database.(because there are so many new mods for Skyrim they are having trouble keeping up) So it will work better with older mods and may not recognize a newer one.

 

My own take on cleaning mods is it is usually not really necessary. Most of The 'dirty edits' are actually just duplicated vanilla records that don't really cause problems. And there are some where the dirty edits are actually needed for some reason. (the author will usually warn about cleaning in the read me) Very occasionally a dirty mod will need cleaning but not often.

Most of the time a crash is not caused by the mod needing cleaning but by something else - such as an incompatibility between mods.

[arotished]

I know that not all of the Top 100 are compatible with each other.

 

Anyway, I guess I have a good start in order to select which mods to use. Thanks for your help guys.