Another person who cannot make mod's effects appear

[KMallinson]

Hi all, I'm sorry if questions similar to this are frequently answered here. A cursory examination hasn't found an answer that brought me through this.

 

I've now, finally installed Skyrim: Special Edition. I installed one mod on their in-house platform (Capes), though I haven't been able to confirm it's there.

 

Not finding it in-house, I downloaded "Ethereal Elven Overhaul" for Special Edition on NexusMods, after installing Vortex for the first time.

 

After a bit of fumbling, I figured out how to install the mod, enable it, and confirm that it's deployed. It still didn't manifest any change in the Character Creation menu. Frustrated, I even tried a manual install, pasting the mod's contents into the Data folder and overwriting as necessary.

 

(I understand that last bit was drastic and may complicate future steps, but I'm willing to reinstall as necessary if needed to fix the problem.)

 

Is there some gaping problem I'm too naïve to have checked? Thanks everyone.

 

Mod Staging Folder:

C:\Users\Kyle\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\skyrimse\Downloads

Game Path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\

[Helmsmasher]

Couple things:

1:Ethereal elven overhaul is closed for a reason, it is very old and there are better options out there now. You probably downloaded the LE version which doesn't work properly with SE.

2: you should not install skyrim in your program files folder, install it elsewhere.

3: are you launching the game through vortex or are you using the regular game launcher?

[KMallinson]

Hi there, thanks for following up! Here's a couple of clarifications:

 

1. I confirmed I was downloading the version meant for Special Edition, to match my game.

2. I launch the game through Steam, but I can make another choice if that will help.

3. Thanks for the advice about where to install it. I can make it follow another path. Is there a particular reason that location is a problem?

4. I had chosen Ethereal Elves after considering some of the others, as I didn't necessarily want to change all the NPCs, nor make everyone look... how to put this... a problematic definition of attractive involving sexualizing and infantalizing all women? But I'm not married to this option, I'm basically looking for an option to make a character (Altmer this time) that looks great. I'm open to other options.

 

I'm in touch, and thanks again.

[Helmsmasher]

1.The reason you don't place it in program files is the writing restrictions that windows places on that directory. A lot of mods (particularly animation mods and some scripts) fail to load properly, it is better to just get it out of the way and place it in a different folder.

 

2.You should definitely consider using mod organizer 2 to install and manage your mods, it's considered the best modding tool by most experienced modders.

 

3.You will want to use SKSE64 added to mod organizer 2 to launch your game, a lot of mods require skse to launch at all.

 

4.mod organizer 2 will tell you of any issues with your mods, like requiring updates etc

 

5. can you share me the link of where you found the download for ethereal elves? It is not available anymore on special edition nexus, that way I can take a look at the files for you and spot any issues.

[anjenthedog]

Choose the manager you think will work best for you. The MO2 centric proselytizing some people use to promote it as "best" is little more than fiction. But each to his/her own. Whatever works best for you. For instance, I chose another, but it doesn't mean it's "the best", it means it's the best one for me.

 

And... on a modern computer, with a moderately large (~500G or more) primary drive (that isn't already clogged 3/4 full with junk), and with admin privileges, is perfectly suitable for default path use. That is, there is not a valid reason on most modern computers (if set with admin priviledge) to have to rely on old-fashioned, 1990s era, partition style non-contiguous resource storage allocation.'

 

And for the record, I have not even once had to set admin permission on any skyrim se related installation. It works without any shortcut editing to set privilege or any other "special" path or permission considerations.

 

I *do have multiple drives, so it's not as if I don't use multiple drives. My primary is a 500G SSD. the others are traditional platter drives. I use the latter for file archiving, the former for windows and active programs, skryim and ALL its tools and mods for instance. [Program Files x86] is where it's located. all mods are installed to their default locations. I have problems occasionally, like many skyrim players, but all of them are associated with "normal" mod issues, not permissions issues. And ftr, I'm running with over 360 active mods (I think it's approaching 370 now), and I'm not even particularly careful about storage management or how many savefiles I have (I've deleted a literal few along the way, but there are hundreds and hundreds, if not a thousand, idk... of them on my primary drive collecting from my first day of skyrim ~2-1/2 years ago, including tons I can't even open any more). And the game keeping ticking along merrily.

 

Re: Ethereal elven overhaul, from my own ventures (via some fairy elf follower mod I installed...dependencies, y'know?...)

 

base for Ethereal Elven Overhaul (LE mod) (yes, in SE)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24273

 

there are also several patches

 

Ethereal Elven Overhaul patches for SSE

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7351

 

I use the Special Edition and Cutting Room Floor patches.

 

 

[KMallinson]

Thanks for your thoughts, all. I notice there's a bit of controversy among the very experienced about what's a necessary or feasible step.

 

I just attempted a similar download, enabling, and deploying of "Actually Attractive Elves", with similarly missing effects. I get the instinct that there's something about modding Skyrim that I'm just not getting, or that otherwise the Special Edition somehow resists mods that aren't from its internal mod system. I absolutely believe this isn't necessary, as you all successfully mod all the time.

 

If I don't hear another solution after dinner, I may try Mod Organizer 2.

Thanks again for your support.

[anjenthedog]

Unless it's titled differently for SE (I didn't see it in the Se mods search I did) , unfortunately I don't think Actually Attractive Elves is an SE mod (even if it's only a bunch of tri files), so you *might need to do some conversion work on it. (not sure if there's an "LE tri file spec" and a separate "SE tri file spec" or if they're the same)

 

Are you at least able to find them when you open racemenu presets tab? Or do they simply not look right once applied? (Two different problems afaik)

[KMallinson]

Thanks for that tip! That may have been a clumsy mistake on my part.

 

As for Ethereal, or anything else, I haven't seen anything diferent in the character creation interface (if that's what you meant be racemenu presets tab): I've been replaying the opening scene each time, making some tea while I wait for the camera to turn to my face, going to "High Elf", and confirming whether I can only make orange/black-eyed triangle heads.

 

I'm happy to try another mod, it will at least confirm whether the problem is with the mods chosen.

 

What's your favourite face mod?

[IsharaMeradin]

RaceMenu will change the actual character creation interface. It requires SKSE64 to work correctly. Mods that change assets used in character creation typically do not require RaceMenu unless they add overlays designed specifically for use in RaceMenu.

 

This is what I have and in this priority order:

Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version <-- provides all male stuff

Freckle Mania 2 (self ported LE mod) <-- provides freckle overlays for RaceMenu

UNP Female Body Renewal <-- provides meshes and some textures mostly eyebrows

Fair Skin Complexion <-- provides most textures

Real Girls - UNP <-- provides detail textures

The Eyes of Beauty SSE <-- provides eyes

The Eyes of Beauty SE - Elves Edition <-- provides eyes specific to elves, part of previous mod

KS Hairdos SSE <-- provides hair

SkFO SE - Skin Feature Overlays - 2k <-- provides additional overlays for RaceMenu

 

Appearance may differ based on choices selected when you install the various mods.

Here is my current Wood Elf utilizing the above mods:

 

 

 

 

 

A faster way to check character creation changes:

At the main menu bring up the console (default keybind: ~)

Enter: coc qasmoke

This will load up one of the testing cells with the male nord used in promotional videos complete with the "grey face" bug

Open console again

Enter: showracemenu

Change character appearance and look to see if intended changes are present

[KMallinson]

Hi all, I just wanted to provide an update.

 

When I downloaded the character appearance mod "Diversity", it was the first time I noticed any change. It changes everyone, which may be a bit much (it's strange to see some Stormcloaks with Chad haircuts), but it works this time! I've disabled the others I'd installed, and I found a Vortex message offering to revert data files, and I assumed that referred to the file dump I did with that manual install of the bad mod.

 

I'll let you know if I have further problems, but I'm relieved that this working mod at least proves that I'm not simply fundamentally failing to install mods at all.

 

Have a great day everyone.