[WIP] Vixens Guide to Stable Skyrim modding - v1.1.2 2013-11-13 (Latest addition: Skyrim RAM explained)

DigitalVixen · November 1, 2013

Vixens Guide to modding Skyrim

Table of contents

1. Information
2. First things first
3. Second thing to do

4. Third thing to do
5. INI Tweaks & [Papyrus] section
6. Mod Managers
7. Adding/Removing mods

8. Is this mod compatible with that mod?

9. Using Papyrus logs

10. Papyrus Scripting engine

11. Adding Custom Bodies

12. Skyrim Sound System

13. Hardsave/Quicksave/Quickload

14. Bashed Patch - what's that?

15. Skyrim RAM explained
16. Future Updates to this Guide

17. What is stable?
18. My current STABLE load order
19. My game machine, as a reference

20. Changelog

1. Information

I have modded Skyrim extensively both in the past and the present and in this guide I will post my findings regarding this. The guide will be rather extensive but does not cover everything. I will try to keep it up to date and I more than welcome feedback. The reason I wanted to write this guide is because I see so many recommendations, and so many questions asked over and over again that would be solved quite easily by having one simple guide tell-all. Unfortunately I also do believe that the people who usually have problems of the same sort are not prone to reading guides, however, I felt I should at least try to shine some light into things.

I will add things to this guide as I find time to write about them, if you have any question at all that you feel would be beneficial to not only you but for others to know as well - please post in this thread and I will reply and add to the guide as soon as I am able to do so.

PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS - I will add things as I have time.

Versioning System: 1.X.0 - if X is updated then it means a new section (major), 1.1.X - if X is updated then it means a change in a previous section (minor).

2. First things first

Modifying Skyrim DOES TAKE EFFORT. This is not to be forgotten.

When you find a mod you want to use - READ ALL THERE IS TO READ. That includes mod description, comments, bug reports & replies and so on. Find out all that you can about the mod and what it does. What it works with but most importantly what it does NOT work with in terms of other mods. This is crucial to be able to build a working, stable mod list.

3. Second thing to do

What you need to do now is locate where you have your game installed. Once that is done you need to learn the folder structure and what the different files and folders are for. This may seem tedious but will save you a lot of headaches later on when searching for problems, removing or adding mods and just generally have an understanding of what is going on.

So lets have a look, shall we?

On a normal Steam based game installation your Skyrim folder will install itself underneath the Steam directory. On a standard installation this should be:

c:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim

In this folder you will find the following subdirectories:

Data
DirectX10
DotNetFX
Skyrim
VCRedist

The only one of these standard folders that need your attention is the one called Data. Within that folder you will find the .bsa files and the .esm and .esp files.

So what are these, exactly?

The .bsa files are archives which hold the game resources in terms of textures, scripts, meshes and so on. When you first start your game it will extract the necessary files and load them into memory.

The .esp and .esm files are the files containing information on how and what the game should load and what settings should be used.

When you first install your game you will want to follow this guide in order to clean the game and create the most stable environment as you can for your modded game. Keep in mind however if you DO NOT intend to mod your game this step should be OMITED!

Guide:

Now that that is done, lets understand how Skyrim loads files and what the folder structure means to you when you mod a game. This is important because some mods come with .bsa files and some come with loose files - and this difference WILL have an impact on your game and what you see when you play.

Within the .bsa files that come with your original game there are several folders, the most modded and important ones being: meshes, textures, scripts & sound. Within those folders you find subdirectories called armors, character, fx and so on.

When the game is loading data it will first check if there are files in those directories - if there is not then it will load the files in a .bsa file. Which .bsa file it will check depend on the .esp or .esm file you have activated. This means that if you have a standard game with no mods and download a mesh or texture and place them in their appropriate folder they will be loaded and the file found in the .bsa will NOT be loaded.

However - if you have a mod that comes with a .bsa file and a .esp/.esm which tells the game to look in a different folder for a mesh or a texture (or any other game resource) then it will again check if there are any such files, if there is not it will try to open a .bsa file with the SAME NAME as the .esp or .esm that it is currently reading data from.

So what does this mean in reality, what impact does this have on me?

An example: you download a texture replacer for the Ebony armor and you unpack it and install it in Data\Textures\Armor\Ebony. You load up your game and you equip the Ebony armor and see your new, nice texture. Next, you find a replacer which not only changes the textures but actually change the structure of the armor: it's mesh. It comes with a .bsa file and a .esp and you install and activate the .esp and load into the game. Now your armor does change the mesh but it does not change the texture which causes it to look weird and distorted.

In this example the new replacer with mesh that you downloaded does not change the texture path, so the previously downloaded texture you installed trumphs the new one being that it is loose files in the correct directory.

Important thing to remember: if any two .esp or .esm files wishes to edit the same thing the one which is loaded last will have precedence.

4. Third thing to do

If you are going to seriously mod your Skyrim, if you don't have a very powerful PC or if you just want to be a little safer during your playthrough then these are the mods you must have. They all require SKSE, so lets get that first.

1) SKSE - http://skse.silverlock.org/

This mod extends the script language of Papyrus. It is entirely safe to use and really, anyone who are serious about modding Skyrim need it.

2) ShowRaceMenu pre-cache killer - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33526/?

When you bring up the character creation menu all the hairstyles etcetera will get cached into memory, if you have a modded Skyrim with heavier textures, few more hairstyles etcetra then opening this menu usually means instant CTD. This little mod removes the caching and as a result you can bring up the menu anywhere you want in the game - voila!

3) SafetyLoad - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/46465//?

One really common thing you can run into when modding Skyrim is ILS - Infitine Loading Screen - which means that the game couldn't handle loading all that it was supposed to load and the game will simply stop loading when going between areas that require a loadscreen. This nifty little tool solves this issue by changing the memory management of the game. Do get the test version which turns this tool off when not in a load screen.

4) NitPick - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19556//?

At first inspection this doesn't seem to do much, it removes some limitations to the game but one thing that this leads to is less HDD trashing. This means less usage of your HDD during gameplay & loading which can decrease stutter and in some cases increase stability.

5) The Unofficial Patches by Arthmoor - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/users/684492/?tb=mods&pUp=1

Go through this users files and pick the Unofficial Patches which suits your installation (that is, get the standard one and any of the DLC patches you need). They fix a LOT of errors in the regular game and is an absolute must-have.

5. INI tweaks & [Papyrus] section

There exists a lot of different ini tweaks out there today. A lot of them are very undocumentet as to what impact they actually have on the game. The Papyrus settings are one such, and there exist a lot of missconceptions regarding these.

Lets have a look at them: http://www.creationkit.com/INI_Settings_%28Papyrus%29

One thing that is NOT clearly stated in this guide is what they mean when you tweak them. For instance the setting fUpdateBudgedMS is largely believed to actually define the budget for all scripts. However, this is not true. This setting determines how much update time EACH SINGLE SCRIPT have. Shortly put, if a script needs more than the standard settings something is so off that it should be removed at once. The same goes for fExtraTaskletBudgedMS. The ONLY exception to this is if you have a CPU that is constantly running at its max (100% CPU usage).

Generally speaking, whatever a mod tells you, these two settings should NOT be touched.

iMinMemoryPageSize & iMaxMemoryPageSize is also largely believed to make a big impact on your game, and this is true, but in derogatory way. Increasing these increases the amount of memory allocated to each stack, which means that for each increased stack there will be less total memory available for other things.

The ONLY settings that can be changed, safely, is iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes & fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS. The values below is based on FREE RAM when the game is started. If your computer has 4GB of RAM then it will have less than this free when you start the game as the system takes up some of this RAM.

For iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes the following guide can be used:

if you have 3GB of ram free set iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=1500000000
if you have 4GB of ram free set iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=2000000000
if you have MORE than 4GB of ram free set iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=2147483647
if you have less than 3GB of ram you may not want to touch this at all but instead limit the amount of scripted mods but you can try to round the figure down appropriately as shown above.

The fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS dictates the amount of extra time allocated at loadscreen for scripts to finish their runs and can safely be tweaked up or down in accordance to what your installation needs to run stable.

The rest of the settings are towards logging. Generally speaking they should all ALWAYS be turned off - this is because taking time to write to the log file actually increases your overall script lag. ONLY turn these on when you need to pinpoint any sort of crash or error.

Then we have a big amount of different ini settings which doesn't directly relate to the Papyrus settings. Generally speaking those can be tweaked but the actual impact varies greatly between computers. Even though tedious, I would recommend adding one tweak at a time until you find what works for your computer and your mod setup. I would also stay away from others ini settings that may be downloaded which adds/removes a lot, because in the end it is very individual to your hardware and mod setup with what works. Sorry, but trial and error really is the way to go here. That and researching. However - to mod Skyrim successfully most of the settings are not necessary, they simply just might help you. Or they will make matters worse.

6. Mod Managers

There are some mod managers out there that are very popular and does a good job. However, personally, I feel that all install/uninstall management of mods should be done by hand. It does make the process a lot more involved - the obvious downside is that it takes a lot of time for you, the player, to do it by hand when the managers mostly can do it themselves.

So why would I not use a Mod Manager to handle installs/removals of mods? The answer is that I, personally, like to install smaller mods that changes a small range of things but the problem with this is that there are a lot of great mods out there that, even though small, touches things that other mods I wish to use also touches.

As with the example above with the BSA files, using a Mod Manager (in some cases) can cause them to overwrite previously installed mod data but without you knowing about it. When doing things by hand you will be prompted far more often when such a thing is about to happen and allows you to micromanage what files from what mods you wish to install. It also allows you to better understand what the mods actually add, something that WILL be important as shown later in this guide.

However, to order a mod list, for ease of turning on/off mods and to make them function together well I use:

Wrye Bash ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1840//? )
BOSS ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/6//? )
TES5Edit ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25859//? )

Wrye Bash I use for: turning plugins on/off, create bashed patches.
BOSS I use (via Wrye) to sort the plugins in the best way that the community have been able to determine.
TES5Edit I use to clean mods and to change data in them, something that I will show later in this guide.

7. Adding/Removing mods

First thing to keep in mind is (unless otherwise stated by the mod - Civil War Overhaul is an exception for instance) to have as few a number of mods active as you can during the intro Helgen tutorial when starting a new game. This is because this is a tutorial different things apply than they would normally do. Therefor I recommend to turn off mods unless you KNOW they have no impact on the tutorial until you are out of Helgen. This does, however, not apply to mods that does not require a .esp or .esm (such as texture mods).

The second thing to keep in mind are scripted mods and their impact on your savegame. When you install a scripted mod and the scripts starts running their data will be saved in your saves when you save the game. If you then later on discover that a particual mod with scripts have an impact on your game which you do not want, you MUST revert to a save you made BEFORE installing this mod to be able to keep playing.

The reason is that the game will continue to try to look for the scripts and run them, as they are referenced in your savegame. When unable to run them a number of things can happy, non being good. The most common thing is that your game will keep on running as if nothing had happened - however eventually this will have an impact on your game and you will start to experience crashes to desktop, infinite loading screens or odd behavior by actors in your game. So even if things do look fine after first having removed a scripted mod in your current save game eventually it will break. Keep this in mind.

Adding and removing mods which change only textures or meshes is however not a problem as they are both loaded with each cell load and not kept in your savegame files.

8. Is this mod compatible with that mod?

This is not easy to answer because there are so many different ways that mods can affect both the game and other mods but I will try to give a thorough explanation.

First, we have mods which changes only textures. These mods are generally speaking compatible with any mods that do not change the same textures or change the mesh to which the texture apply. All textures need a mesh to be displayed in-game. This can be anything from a rock to a set of armour to a tree. If you have no mod which changes the mesh of the item you wish to change the texture on, then yes it is compatible. The reverse is true for mesh edits.

A mod which changes static game settings: a game setting can be the respawn time for a cell (ihourstorespawncell, ihourstorespawnclearedcell) or the time scale to a host of other settings such as the aggressiveness of NPCs that you encounter. The only way to find out whether or not these are compatible, or to find out which mod has precedence is by loading up your current load-order in TES5Edit and inspect the specific game setting (this will be covered later in the TES5Edit guide).

Scripted mods are the toughest to determine conflicts beforehand. It all depends on when and how and why they apply their scripts. Most mods have in their description a list of what is incompatible with itself but can often times lack specifics. The matter of fact is that you yourself can often make mods compatible with one another by editing settings through the MCM menu (this is true for Defeat & Your Money or Your Life for instance). However sometimes things are just not compatible at all, one such example would be Better Vampires and Belua Sanguinare since they aim to change the same things on a big scale.

Generally speaking, what is said in the first section (READ READ READ READ) is true here as well. Read the comments, read the descriptions thoroughly, inspect the mods in TES5Edit, make bashed patches and inspect those too.

However, there are exceptions when the information you find is not accurate. One such information would be Defeat being incompatible with Ultimate Combat which is actually not true, you just need to set them up correctly. However, Ultimate Combat has a number of flaws that MAY lead one to think the problem is Defeat + UC. In these cases, you need to apply your common sense or post for help if unsure.

Trust me when I say that posting for help and waiting for a reply you feel you can trust is worth the time. You may have to toast your hard-earned save-game if you do not.

Modifying Skyrim DOES TAKE EFFORT. This is not to be forgotten.

9. Using Papyrus logs

First: one thing that is absolutely needed to understand is that the Papyrus logs will NOT include all the data you need, ever. Using them require you to be a detective of sorts. It will never tell you the whole story and it takes time to see what is and what isn't. Be patient, learn as you go along and ask for help when needed.

When you have issues with your game you may want to turn on Papyrus logging to see if you can spot the error. This is done by turning the following settings on in your Skyrim.ini file.

bEnableLogging=1bEnableTrace=1bLoadDebugInformation=1

You should start by only turning on the first option, run the game until you find your issue and then inspect. Apply the other settings one by one if you cannot at first try find the problem. Why would you one do it this way?

Well, Skyrim is Skyrim... That is my way of saying that the more settings, mods etcetera that you add the more stranger things may happen. You may, by turning on logging alone, find issues you did not find before. This is because when you turn on logging you actually add to the Papyrus systems workload. This is why the logging settings should always be turned off during normal, promblem-free game play. Only use these settings when you have issues.

Okay, so I found errors in my log file, what do I do now? That depends on the error. A few example below.

11/01/2013 - 06:20:06PM] Error: Unable to bind script TIF__0221B253 to topic info A121B253 on <NULL quest> because their base types do not match

Okay, this means that the script could not do what it was ordered to do becase the base types do not match. This is, generally, not a problem because the script may be one that runs periodically to check for something and if that something is not currently available or activated it will throw an error. You can generally disregard from such errors completely.

stack:
   <unknown self>.Game.GetFormFromFile() - "<native>" Line ?
   [alias _DE_CompatibilityPlayer on quest _DE_Compatibility (1A0286F3)]._de_compatibility.RunStartupCheck() - "_DE_Compatibility.psc" Line 438
   [alias _DE_CompatibilityPlayer on quest _DE_Compatibility (1A0286F3)]._de_compatibility.OnPlayerLoadGame() - "_DE_Compatibility.psc" Line 323
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM] Error: File "SkyRe_Survivalism.esp" does not exist or is not currently loaded.

This is an error you will get if you turn on only logging, running Frostfall and not having any SkyRE modules loaded. What it does mean is that there is a script looking for another script and it could not find it. Depending on what it is you can disregard from it. If you find these errors but no further information in your log file, put these in your Skyrim ini under the Papyrus section:

bEnableTrace=1bLoadDebugInformation=1

What you then will see is:

[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM] ============================================[Frostfall: Warning Start]============================================
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM]
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM]                Frostfall is now performing compatibility checks. Papyrus warnings about missing or
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM]                         unloaded files may follow. This is NORMAL and can be ignored.
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM]
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM] ============================================[Frostfall: Warning Start]============================================
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM] Error: File "Wyrmstooth.esp" does not exist or is not currently loaded.
stack:
   <unknown self>.Game.GetFormFromFile() - "<native>" Line ?
   [alias _DE_CompatibilityPlayer on quest _DE_Compatibility (1A0286F3)]._de_compatibility.RunStartupCheck() - "_DE_Compatibility.psc" Line 438
   [alias _DE_CompatibilityPlayer on quest _DE_Compatibility (1A0286F3)]._de_compatibility.OnPlayerLoadGame() - "_DE_Compatibility.psc" Line 323
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:33PM] Error: File "SkyRe_Survivalism.esp" does not exist or is not currently loaded.

Which changes how you interpret the error entirely, especially since Frostfall is such a nice mod that it will add:

[11/01/2013 - 06:20:35PM] ============================================[ Frostfall: Warning End ]============================================
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:35PM]
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:35PM]                                        Frostfall compatibility check complete.
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:35PM]
[11/01/2013 - 06:20:35PM] ============================================[ Frostfall: Warning End ]============================================

.. when it is done. Such a nicely behaving mod, that.

The fact of the matter is, however, that most errors thrown in Papyrus can be safely ignored unless they are excessive in number. How to determine this is not easy, unfortunately. What you will have to do is try to find the script mentioned to throw the error, then find the mod that it belongs to by looking in the .bsa files of the files you suspect to be using this script or the loose files that came with the mod.

Finding script errors is about the most painful things to do, but once you find what mod is throwing the error you can take that error and, again, read comments on mods to find out if someone else has the same error/somewhat the same error and find out what they did to remedy this problem.

For further in-depth reading, see http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2844636

10. Papyrus Scripting engine

The Papyrus scripting engine is what makes this game alive. It keeps track of everything from what the time is (in-game) to what quests are being ran, the variables for the quests etcetera. I often read that people bash the Papyrus script engine for it's shortcomings and while I in some cases can agree to the criticism it is often that people forget how much stuff is actually being ran constantly through this and then they get angry when adding a bunch of mods which uses a lot of scripts finally break it.

One thing that anyone who uses mods extensively will want to do is get a script-lag tester, one such is available in the Convenient Horses mod. As a rule of thumb, when running these script lag-tests you shouldn't see higher average times than around 50ms unless you open a menu. Directly after having open and closed a menu the response from the lag test is going to be very high and can be ignored.

The engine has it's limitations and there are a couple of things that can happen if you add too many script based mods:

1. the game response is slow, hits from weapons or interactions with items takes a noticeable time to register,

2. the game randomly starts to crash to desktop,

3. other oddities happens such as people being flung up in the air, NPCs stand and look at you and do nothing.

These are just a few examples. So why does this happen, how does it actually work?

There are a number of different types of scripts but the big difference that should be noted is that you have scripts which run constantly and then you have scripts that runs on triggers. Having too many of the former will cause script lag since the engine will have to run more scripts at the same time, always. A triggered script will only run when it is asked to do so by another script or quest.

One behaviour that you may see is that the game runs smoothly until you start combat at which point you start to experience script lag, CTDs or other odd behaviour.

For an example, we have a game installed with three mods. These mods are Frostfall, Wet & Cold & Deadly Combat. When running around in the game casually the game runs fine. In the background Frostfall will constantly update where you are, what the cold is and how your character reacts to this. At the same time Wet & Cold will check and update every single NPC that you come close enough to, and if it rains it will try to add a raincoat to their inventory and tell the NPC to use it. Obviously running these two mods will require some time from the script engine, but those two alone is not so bad so you don't really notice it.

Next you enter combat and instantly the game CTDs or starts to run slow/choppy or register what keys you press in a very slow manner. What happened now is that because you entered combat the Deadly Combat mods scripts will be activated and start to run alongside the Frostfall and Wet & Cold scripts, leading to the Papyrus engine to become overloaded. And remember how I mentioned that the Papyrus engine controls everything that happens in your game? That's right, it does, and this is why you start getting odd behaviours because the engine does not get enough time to run through everything it needs to do - some scripts may even fail to trigger completely.

In this example I used Frostfall, Wet & Cold and Deadly Combat - normally these mods behave very well but especially Wet & Cold performance will largely depend on other mods. For instance, the Inconsequential NPCs and Interesting NPCs mods both add a lot of actor NPCs to various locations and this means that when you get to one such location Wet & Cold will have even more actors to keep track of.

This is why mods which independently are very nicely written and run very well can cause very big issues when ran alongside other script based mods - they ALL impact one another.

Now, both Inconsequential NPCs and Interesting NPCs contain scripts - but what about one that doesn't, such as Immersive Patrols? The thing to remember, yet again, is that even though Immersive Patrols does not add scripts by it's own it will still utilize the scripts that come with the game engine, such as AI packages, combat scripts and so on. And again, in this example, Wet & Cold would get more actors to keep track of and update.

So it is important to remember that even though a mod does not add scripts by itself it may have a big impact on the game and it's performance any way. When trying to judge whether this is the case or not one must read and learn what the mod you wish to add does. Does it add characters to the game? Then it will inevitably impact your stability. The question is just how much? A mod such as Immersive Patrols have a very, very small impact on the game by itself, but together with other mods the impact will be bigger. Interesting NPCs have a bigger impact but still not too much if it doesn't have too many other concurrent scripts running.

What it comes down to is that you will have to test and see what happens in the cases that you can't judge beforehand what may happen. Remember to save often so that you can revert to a saved game which were before you added the script mod.

As a rule of thumb: be restrictive when you choose scripted mods to use. Take only what is essentially necessary for you to enjoy the game.

11. Adding custom bodies

On this forum and many other the one thing that people wish to change the most is the body files of humans. There are often times questions regarding if this will go along with that and I thought I'd try to clear up a few things.

First of all, the original body files are saved in Data\meshes\actors\character\character assets\ for the meshes.

Please note that male and female uses the same directory for meshes but not for textures.

Textures - female: Data\textures\actors\character\female & male: Data\textures\actors\character\male

If you wish to add a new body to either sex you will have to first decide whether or not you wish this body to apply to all persons of the gender in the game, PC and NPC alike, or if you would like to have a distinction between the two. If you do decide to use the same body for all then by downloading and installing your preferred mod for either sex should be pretty straightforward - just follow the instructions on the mod page.

However - if you would like to distinguish your PC from NPCs then you have two options - first is to use a custom race with a custom body included to achieve this or you can use a skin changing mod.

If you go by the first option and use a Custom Race then when you download it it will tell you what bodies it includes and what your options are. But - you are NOT limited by these choices. You CAN choose ANY BODY YOU LIKE and I will now show you how.

Each Custom Race that you install that comes with a custom body will have at least two directories: one for meshes and one for textures. For example the Lunari race comes with both UNP and CBBE to choose from. Install whichever you prefer. In the next step, we need to investigate which files went where and how do modify those.

If you install Lunari race with "Full CBBE" and then want to change that to, say http://www.loverslab.com/topic/16118-zaselims-gaya-gei-body-released-version-2-unpb-tex-compatible-wip-and-zaselims-gaya-gei-body-release-version-mod-tbbpzggb-r2-u-zggb-r/ body then open the 7z file that you downloaded for Lunari.

Inside you will find the folder named "20 CBBE Full Res". Go into that folder and you will find two folders: Meshes and Textures. If you keep going down the directories for either you will find out where the mod installed the meshes and textures and you can take your custom body you wish to use and transfer the meshes and textures over to the corresponding directories. Now you have the Lunari race using the body you wish to use.

The second option would be to use http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/44938/? which allows you to use a custom body for the PC without having to use a custom race or modify the NPCs. However the limitation is that you have to use the same face mesh as the NPCs do. This means that if you wish your NPCs to use one body and your PC to use another they have to use body & face textures which match up, otherwise you will find neck-seams which are not pretty. A guide to change the body included in the mod is available on the mod page.

Keep in mind that both of these tweaks will continue to use the vanilla armours and meshes installed unless you replace those too. They are static and cannot be changed. However there are mods that allow you to swap armour you loot for one that fits the custom body you use, but that is another section (soon to be added ).

12. Skyrim Sound System

The Skyrim sound system definitely requires it own section. While there aren't too much information to gather out there regarding how it works there are a few things about it that can make your game rather unstable, regardless of mods you put in.

One thing that can make the sound system unstable and crashing your game is the default sound format which is set by your soundcard driver. A lot of people, myself included, has found that using one of the two below settings have helped increasing the stability of the game. If you, for instance, crash rather often when coming to Riverwood then try this tweak out.

Settings:

1. 16-bit, 44100hz (CD quality)

2. 24-bit, 44100hz (Studio Quality)

You find the setting by right-clicking the sound icon in the taskbar, then select Playback Devices. In the list, select your active sound system and click Properties. In the new window click on Advanced and you will find the drop-down list for your choices there. Do remember that if you change sound system (for example plugging in headphones) you may want to revisit this to set it again.

One other thing that can actually improve or decrease your game stability is mods that alter the sounds. There are two common big sound overhauls which changes the sound quite a lot. One of them is Sounds of Skyrim which comes in several different parts depending on what it is you wish to change - dungeons, cities, wildlife etcetera. Do keep in mind that Sounds of Skyrim does utilize scripts to some extent so removing it again means that you will have use a savegame which was made prior to installing it.

The other one is AOS - Audio Overhaul Skyrim - this one does not utilize scripts but changes the sound settings for each cell in the game (currently there is no dungeon part of the mod) and also changes the sounds themselves slightly. The changes are quite noticeable and may not be in everyone's taste. However it has been reported that the changes in the sounds and cells can increase your game stability quite a bit - again everything is relative and your mileage may vary. If you do choose to use AOS you also need to get the patches for various other mods if you use those mods. If you do not use patches then the cell sound edits made by AOS will be lost, hindering it to function properly.

You can find the mods here:

Sounds of Skyrim: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10886//? , http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8601//? , http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20193//? ,

Patches for SoS: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/37955//?

Audo Overhaul Skyrim: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/43773/?

Patches for AOS: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/44541/?

The sound settings in the game can be set to options that your sounds system can't play. If you are using a 2-channel stereo system but set your driver to play 5.1 sound then Skyrim will play 5.1 sounds and you will only hear stereo sound. This does not mean that the sound will be downmixed to stereo - you will actually miss sounds played in channels you do not have speakers for.

And, lastly, if you like me play the game without sound doing these tweaks will still have an impact on your game stability, so they are worth doing regardless of you playing with or without sound.

13. Hardsave/Quicksave/Quickload

There are a lot of reading to be found on this topic should one become interested, and a lot of them are contradictory in what they say so here I try to clarify some things.

First, what are the different types of saves we can do? Essentially there are three:

1. Regular save, also called Hardsave - done by going into main menu and click Save or by typing Savegame <name> in the console.

2. Quicksave - press F4 to make a quicksave without the hassle of going into the menu.

3. Autosaves - will trigger automatically by the game when certain conditions are true.

Lets start with the regular saves, the Hardsaves.

When you make one such save the game will create a new file which will be named # - Area, # being the number of previously made saves +1 and the area being the cell you are currently in. If you save via console, however, you can specify a name such as 'savegame goodsave'. It is important to remember that if you name your save the same as a previous save it will DELETE the previous save before creating the new one, likewise you can also select in the menu to DELETE a particular save and make a new save with the same name. The deletion happens automatically when you tell it to overwrite a previous save.

A save of this type will store all the information currently available to the game that it needs to restart it in the same state.

Quicksaves

These saves are made on-demand when you press the hotkey for it. The main difference here is that there is only one of these saved, plus one backup. They work the same way, however, with that they delete the previous quicksave file and creates a new one.

Autosaves

Whenever these are triggered according to the settings you've made in your game it will delete one of three previous autosaves and replace it with a new one plus one backup. So there are always three autosaves (plus backups) available if you use this feature.

Now to the discussion regarding if autosaves and quicksaves should even be used.

Essentially, there is absolutely no difference between autosaves, quicksaves and hardsaves - bar one thing - the game doesn't pause for more time than it needs to write the file to disk, something that can be noticeable depending on your setup and the size of the save file. Because of this difference the quicksaves and autosaves can miss data, become corrupted or any other funky thing. This is not to say that they are unsafe to use. They are safe to use but one shouldn't depend entirely on them. The heavier the game is on your computer, due to mods or hardware, the more likely it is that these files may become corrupted. It's impossible to gauge ones mileage with this - you will quite simply have to check if you notice a considerable difference in the filesizes for these sorts of saves compared to regular saves - and if you are involved in a heavily scripted event the likeliness of corruption/missing data goes up. When you do regular saves the game is paused and so does not have to do anything other than write down the information to disk, so the risk of these saves becoming corrupt is much smaller.

Quickloads

When using this feature the game will load the latest save available. It will, if possible, also use data already stored in memory as opposed to loading from the Load menu which means the game will drop some data (but not all!). This can cause issues with some mods, so again your mileage with this feature will depend on your setup. Generally speaking, it should be safe to use it.

Changing between characters

If you are playing one character and wish to change to another, previously saved character, then you should quit the game all the way to desktop and start it up again. This is because sometimes data will be carried over from the previous character. This is also why you can use this to your advantage if you have problems with loading up a saved game.

If you have problems loading a save

This should really only be true for modded games; sometimes when trying to load a game you will get stuck on the loading screen and you will have to use the taskmanager to quit the game and try again. This happens because the game engine is trying to load more data and start more scripts than it can handle. Once you start pushing the system the stability goes down, fast - and this is true when loading a game as well. There is however one quick fix for this, it doesn't always work but should be helpful. Here are the steps:

1. Start up the game and when you have the main menu, bring up the console.

2. Type 'coc qasmoke' in the console and press enter.

3. You will now find yourself a level 1 barbarian in a test-cell.

4. If you have scripted mods installed, let them finish initializing - this can take a few minutes. Check that you have all the MCM menus you should have, otherwise wait till they are all there.

5. Bring up the console and type 'savegame LoadFix'.

6. Press ESC to bring up the main menu, go to load and find the load which you cannot normally load - try to load it in.

If all went well, you should have a much higher chance of getting into your game. Remember that if you at any time change your mods you will have to to repeat the process and create a new "LoadFix" save. Essentially, this method utilize the odd Skyrim behaviour of carrying over data between characters. Whenever you have a save that just refuses to load, then instead load the "LoadFix" save and when that is loaded, try to load the save game which you are having problems with. Again, your mileage may vary. This is a relatively safe way to force-load saves you can't load but do not use this with two saves which are advanced past Helgen.

There has just been a mod released on the Nexus which, judging from early reports, can alleviate these problems as well. It requires SKSE and might be a quicker resolve to the problem described above, you will find the mod here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/46465

I hope this clarified some things regarding how saves work in Skyrim and how you can try to get around loading screen issues.

14. Bashed Patch - what's that?

A lot of time people have issues with mods and post their mod lists people comment that there are no bashed patch and that the person posting the mod list is probably missing out on content or is having odd behaviour because of this - but there aren't all that many places which explain what exactly a bashed patch is and why it is important. Here is my attempt in doing so.

To understand fully how a bashed patch work and why you need it we need to start at the very basic level of how the Skyrim Papyrus engine read data.

So lets have a look at the content of Skyrim.esm:

In this screen shot, on the left hand side we see different types of categories. In each of these categories are the data-points for various things. This can be anything from an apple to a quest to a sword. Lets have a look at a sword, we scroll down the list to Weapons and click on the small plus sign and the weapons list will come out. We scroll down the list until we find "Steelsword":

When we click it then on the right hand side the information for this specific entry will come up. It contains a lot of data, everything from the 3D model it should use, to the texture, the amount of damage it does and what its value is. One thing that this does not contain is how and where in the world this sword shows up.

To get a weapon into the world there are a couple of ways to do so: when creating a NPC you can assign them specific gear, a weapon for instance. You can hand-place it in the world by doing a cell-edit and put the sword in a coffin in a dungeon or you can add it to a levelled list.

Levelled list, what is that?

Whenever a NPC is spawned in the game, or whenever a cell is loaded which have a coffin in it that is set to respawn - it will have data attached to it which dictates what items it should carry/contain. When the creator of the NPC/coffin decide on what they should carry/contain they can also choose to use a list of items instead of picking a specific one. These lists are then divided into the quality of the item. Lets have a look at a list of levelled-lists:

In this screen shot I've also already selected a list - "LItemSoldierSonsArmor". On the right hand side we see that it contains 16 items and then there is a list of item references. These item references is not the items themselves and their data but merely pointers to where the game find the information on the data for that item.

So the NPC in question may tell the game, when spawned, that it needs 1 item from LItemSoldierSonsArmor, 1 item from LItemWeaponDagger and finally 2 items from LItemOreIron. The game will then randomly choose 1 item from each of the first two lists and two from the last one, because this particular NPC doesn't care about food or coin, all he wants is some armour, a dagger and a bunch of iron to hug.

Now if we add a mod to the game and load it after Skyrim.esm (which would be required) and the mod add an armour to the LItemSoldierSonsArmor without including the original content from Skyrim.esm then what will happen is that when the game is next time looking into the LItemSoldierSonsArmor list to select an armour it will only find this one single armour to choose from.

This is because the new mod we added, in the LItemSoldierSonsArmor it only contains the new armour and none of the original ones listed in Skyrim.esm. The end result would be that all NPCs that are supposed to wear different armours from this list ends up only wearing this single armour.

Now when you, for instance, add an armour such as this they will almost never be this poorly made that they scrap out all the old ones that are there but include those as well. However, if you have two armour mods that make changes to the same list and both include all the original armour sets you will still only get the additions from one of these armour sets because the last levelled list loaded wipes the data from the previous one.

What a bashed patch does is that it looks into all the mods you have, finds the levelled lists that are identical to name and then merges them to one, including the changes from (in this case) all three references.

If you have two weapon mods which adds weapons to the game by using levelled lists then to get the full content of both, you must add a bashed patch. This is true for ALL mods which utilize the original levelled lists to get their items out into the world, there is no work around for this. No matter how you place your mods in your load order, if they use the same levelled lists then the one loaded last in your order will always have its content victorious.

15. Skyrim RAM explained

So one of the biggest topics that people tend to discuss back and forth is the Skyrim RAM usage and it's memory handling. When Skyrim first came to PC it was unable to use more than ~2GB of RAM memory. Later it was patched to be able to use ~3.1GB of RAM. If you were to pass this number the game would simply crash. So why is this, why does it work this way?

The Skyrim game is compiled as a 32-bit program. That's the short answer, but what does it mean?

In simplicity 32/64-bit explains how much memory a program can address (point to). The 32-bit program has a max limit of 4 GB of memory that it can address, a 64-bit system can address 4 billion times that.

So, this LAA flag that people talk about, what is that? It stands for Large Address Aware.
In the Windows world a regularly compiled 32-bit program cannot use the full 4GB of RAM that it should, but need a flag added to it that lets it see more memory. A basic 32-bit compiled program cannot use more than 2GB, but if you turn on the LAA flag on one such program then it can address more memory, in Skyrims case the limit is then pushed to ~3.1GB.

But I want to add so many textures! What can I do?

There are a couple of things that one can do to utilize all those nice high-resolution textures that are out there, I will list a few options here:

1) Use ENB with ENBoost. This program will make Skyrim use its own DirectX files to take away the memory management for textures from the executable and move it to it's own program, which is capable of handle a full 64-bit amount of memory addresses. This means that you can far exceed the regular 3.1GB RAM limitation usage for textures. One other extra feature this does is that since the Skyrim executable no longer need to use its own RAM allocation for textures is that you can run many more mods, since there are more available!

2) Optimize textures. Most texture packs out there have the same size of the normal-maps and the regular textures, something that is (in most conditions) quite unnecessary. You can use programs like DDSopt or DDSOptimizer to lower the resolution and/or the compression of normal-map textures to bring the total RAM usage down. You can also optimize most 4k textures down to 2k and still get a very, very pretty picture.

3) To some extent telling Skyrim to purge cell buffers more regularly can help with RAM usage. Bring down the console and type "pcb" to do so manually. Typically this would be a good idea to do before going between open-world and interior cells. To do it automatically one can set bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1 in the Skyrim.ini under [General]. It may help somewhat.

4) Cut down on pretty-picture textures and meshes.

Okay, so lets move on to regular memory management, or should I say why you occasionally get the Infinite-Loading-Screen behaviour.

Typically speaking Skyrim is a pretty bad program. The way it handles memory isn't exactly fantastic and one of the ways one may notice this is that you can get the ILS problem. The more you mod Skyrim the more you will get it, and it all comes down to improper memory management. To put it short it can't properly handle allocating memory to everything that it tries to load. There are however now some ways to come around this problem but I tire of typing and suggest you take a look underneath "Third Thing To Do" section.

16. Future updates of this guide will include (in no specific order)

Expanding on already written topics.
How to add bodies and textures, the dos and don't s.
How to create bashed patches, what to think of.
How to use TES5Edit to edit mods, bashed patches and how to create merged patches.
Whatever else pops up in mind at the time I sit down to write.
Any requests.

17. What is stable?

So what does actually mean stable with Skyrim? One would argue that a stable game would mean that you can play the game for countless hours without ever experiencing a glitch, a CTD or any other dysfunction of the game. For almost any other game this would be true but for Skyrim? Not so.

Even a completely unmodded Skyrim installation may be unstable. There are so many factors that may go wrong, unfortunately. The part on the Sound System I covered previously is evident of this fact. So, what do we mean with stable?

In my mind, if you can play a heavily modded Skyrim for one hour without crashing then it is stable. Can you play it for more than that with a heavy mod list and lots of scripted mods? Well then I congratulate you on a job well done!

The fact of the matter is that as soon as you have done all the tweaks to vanilla Skyrim that you can do to get it as stable as possible it may still crash on your ass every now and then. This may be due to the game itself, this may be due to your hardware or any other million of factors. This is the downside of playing on a PC and not on a console - there are too many variations available for a game to be infinitely stable - even more so when you play a game which is ported from console to PC, which Skyrim is. Sure, there are games that do achieve this but most of those does not allow you to mod one bit of it.

The fact that we can mod our hearts out with Skyrim is both it's strength and its weakness and it's just something we will have to accept.

With this part I hope to put to rest a few of the "My game crashes all the time!!!111one" or the like comments which are all too common with beginners to Skyrim modding.

18. My current STABLE load order

In this section I will show you my current load order with which I can successfully play the game with on my machine without instabilities. Do keep in mind that it does not point out mods I have edited for stability.

This also does NOT show the fact that I use an ENB with ENBoost. I will add a section about how ENBoost works later on. Also included in my modded Skyrim but not in the load order is all the texture/mesh mods I use which are ~130.

Update.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp
Dawnguard.esm
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp
HearthFires.esm
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp
Dragonborn.esm
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp
ApachiiHair.esm
ApachiiHairFemales.esm
ApachiiHairMales.esm
ClimatesOfTamriel.esm
TERAArmors.esm
hdtHighHeel.esm
Ket_ARMONIZER_v2.esm
SPERG.esm
SPIKE.esm
Xvision Children.esm
Xvision Children - Complete.esp
Brawl Bugs CE.esp
Bethesda_Hi-Res_Optimized.esp
Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp
Chesko_Frostfall.esp
Better Dynamic Snow.esp
SplashofRain.esp
AOS.esp
BWS.esp
Elewin Combat Voice.esp
mintylightningmod.esp
MintyLightningMod_COT_Patch.esp
FantasySoundtrackProject.esp
Cutting Room Floor.esp
StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp
StaticMeshImprovementMod-FurnitureChestSnowFix.esp
Economics of Skyrim.esp
Economics of Skyrim - Dawnguard.esp
Chesko_WearableLantern.esp
SkyrimToyStory.esp
Dead Body Collision.esp
DynamicTorches.esp
EpisodeParallax.esp
PilgrimsDelight.esp
Radiant and Unique Potions Poisons and Booze.esp
RunStaminaDrain.esp
Skyrim Immersive Creatures.esp
Skyrim Immersive Creatures - DLC2.esp
Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp
SPTDiverseGuardsSkyrim.esp
TorchesForSkyrim.esp
WetandCold.esp
WetandCold - Ashes.esp
Footprints.esp
Footprints - Ash.esp
RaceMenu.esp
RaceMenuPlugin.esp
SkyUI.esp
iHUD.esp
BAMM.esp
Cloaks - No Imperial.esp
Cloaks - No Imperial - Dawnguard.esp
1nivWICCloaksNoGuards.esp
1nivWICSkyCloaksPatch-No ImpGuards.esp
DF_T19.esp
Ket_ARMONIZER_LListsNPC.esp
DonMichHeels.esp
Elewin Pumps 2.esp
FS_UltimateAssortment.esp
HN66mage4vanilla.esp
hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
Immersive Weapons.esp
imp_helm.esp
Insanity's Shields.esp
isilNarsil.esp
LadyKdCirclets.esp
LOTR Shield Pack.esp
Medusa and Drakul Armors.esp
Roman armor and weapons replacer.esp
SexyKunoichi2ndByNausicaa.esp
StormcloakCuirassEnhanced.esp
StormLord.esp
Svs Collection Jewelry.esp
TERAArmors.esp
TERA Boots n Greaves - for HDT.esp
Unique Uniques.esp
UNP Jewelry Variants V3.esp
LC_immersiveLoot.esp
Height Adjusted Races with True Giants.esp
DigitigradeKhajiit+ArgonianRaptor.esp
ERSO 01 - VRR HighElflore.esp
DeadlyDragons.esp
ERSO 04 - Mighty Odahviing.esp
ERSO 04.2 - Mighty Durnehviir.esp
ERSO 08 - RUS-00 Main plus Dawnguard Dragonborn.esp
ERSO 08.1 - ERSO MIRAAKB.esp
ERSO 08.2 - ERSO HARKON.esp
ERSO 08.99 - Lord of the Dead for ERSO 09.esp
ERSO 09 - RUS-Npcs overhaul USKP compatible plus LOTD.esp
ERSO 10.05 - Immersive Patrols.esp
ERSO 16 - Realistic Crime Alert Distances - MEDIUM.esp
ERSO 18 - LAWE Hardcore.esp
ERSO 30 - Better Enemy AI Dawnguard&Dragonborn.esp
ACProudSpireManor.esp
AdalMatar.esp
BetterDarkBrotherhood.esp
Breezehome_Fully_Upgradable.esp
CollegeOfWinterholdImmersive.esp
CWIApachiiSkyHairPatch.esp
CWIDawnguardPatch.esp
CWIDragonbornPatch.esp
Destroy the Thieves Guild.esp
DragonmournInn.esp
Here There Be Monsters.esp
Immersive Darkwater crossing.esp
Immersive Dawnstar.esp
Immersive Dragon Bridge.esp
Immersive Falkreath.esp
Immersive Ivarstead.esp
Immersive Karthwasten.esp
Immersive Kynesgrove.esp
Immersive Morthal.esp
Immersive Orc Strongholds.esp
Immersive Rorikstead.esp
Immersive Shors stone.esp
Inconsequential NPCs.esp
PP_OgmundsTomb.esp
PP_WindcallerPass.esp
When Vampires Attack.esp
SkyHavenTempleEnhanced.esp
TheDomain.esp
TheFrontier.esp
Undeath.esp
Morrowloot.esp
Better_Standing_Stones.esp
Book Covers Skyrim.esp
Book Covers Dawnguard.esp
Book Covers Hearthfire.esp
Book Covers Dragonborn.esp
Civil War Repairs.esp
Civil War Overhaul.esp
AOS_CWO Patch.esp
College of Winterhold Entry Requirements.esp
Distant DetailHF.esp
ESFCompanions.esp
Grass_On_Steroids_SFO-SHORT.esp
Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp
Headtracking.esp
OpenFaceGuardHelmets.esp
SkaalKidAetaCoat.esp
SkyFalls Plus SkyMills - All DLC.esp
SFO - Expanded Diversity.esp
SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp
SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators-Dawnguard.esp
SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators-Dragonborn.esp
Convenient Horses.esp
dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp
dD-Dragonborn-Dawnguard-EBT Patch.esp
AOS_EBT Patch.esp
TimingIsEverything.esp
Helgen Reborn.esp
WhiterunAlivePiano.esp
DawnofWindhelm.esp
3DNPC.esp
EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
ELFX - Exteriors.esp
ELFX - NoBreezehome.esp
ELFX - Dawnguard.esp
ELFX - Dragonborn.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-Dawnguard-Patch.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-Dragonborn-Patch.esp
AOS_COT-DG Patch.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-Nights-Level-5.esp
CoT_SnowPatch.esp
prod80_CoT_patch_FogEdition.esp
ELFXEnhancer.esp
CWIELnFXPatch.esp
HitStop.esp
DeadlySpellImpacts.esp
AOS_DSI Patch.esp
ImprovedSneakDetection.esp
DeadlyCombat.esp
Dual Wield Parrying_SKSE.esp
DragonCombatOverhaulDragonborn.esp
AOS_DCOd Patch.esp
TKRecoil.esp
ABT - Faster Bolts Improved +50%.esp
ABT - Faster Arrows Improved +75%.esp
SPERG.esp
SPERG-DG.esp
SPERG-DB.esp
dD-No Spinning Death Animation.esp
Beards.esp
Brows.esp
RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp
RND_Dawnguard-Patch.esp
RND_HearthFires-Patch.esp
RND_Dragonborn-Patch.esp
RND_USKP-Patch.esp
RND_UniqueBoozeBottles-Patch.esp
HothFollower.esp
Thorald GreyMane.esp
Inigo.esp
No NPC Greetings.esp
Kitiara.esp
SlavePackRiekling.esp
AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp
dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp
CharGen ECE Morphs.esp
SPTConsistentOlderPeople.esp
ethereal_elven_overhaul.esp
Isharas_CustomPlayerBody.esp
TTYM - Think to Yourself Messages.esp
AOS_ELFX Patch.esp
getSnowy.esp
RealisticWaterTwo.esp
RealisticWaterTwo - Legendary.esp
AOS_RWT Patch.esp
Xvision Children - USKP.esp
Xvision Children - 3DNPC.esp
Xvision Children - IncNPCs.esp
AOS_WetandCold Patch.esp
Bashed Patch, 0.esp
Bashed Patch, 0 Copy.esp
Bashed Patch, 0 Copy Copy.esp
ERSO 02.1 - Realistic Animal Loots.esp
NPC_Overhaul_v1.esp
Guard Overhaul GoT.esp
malukahmm-ageofoppression.esp
Xvision Children - OverridePatch.esp

19. My game machine, as a reference

As a reference for the load order, this is my machine - my overall memory usage and FPS.

Intel i7 2770k overclocked to 4,4 GHZ
16 GB DDR3 PC-12800 1600MHz CL9
ASUS Sabertooth Z77
2x Intel 120 SSD 128GB (in raid0 configuration)
2x Gigabyte Windforce3 GTX 670 OC 4GB

Overall memory usage for Skyrim.exe: 785 MB.
Overall VRAM usage: 3.4 GB.
Overall CPU usage: 25-35%.
Overall GPU usage: 60-80% per card.

20. Changelog

2013-11-01, v 0.1

Initial typeup and post, missing a lot of information and topics.

2013-11-01, v 0.2

Added "Is this mod compatible with that mod?"

2013-11-01, v 0.3

Added "Using Papyrus logs"

2013-11-01, v 0.4

Added "Using custom bodies"

2013-11-02, v 0.5

Added "Papyrus Scripting Engine"

2013-11-02, v 0.6

Added "Skyrim Sound System"

2013-11-03, v 0.7

Added "What is stable?"

2013-11-05, v 0.8

Added "Hardsave/Quicksave/Quickload"

2013-11-08, v 0.9

Added "Bashed Patch - what's that?"

2013-11-08, v 1.0

Added "Third Thing To Do"

2013-11-08, v 1.0.1

Updated "INI Tweaks"

2013-11-13, v 1.1.1

Added "Skyrim RAM explained"

2013-11-13, v 1.1.2

Expanded slightly on the "INI Tweaks" section.

pringles89 · November 1, 2013

thanks, learned some new things

Lodakai · November 2, 2013

Much needed guide here. Well done!

LaEspada · November 2, 2013

I would suggest adding Mod Organizer. Much better tool than NMM (that piece of trash that CTD's every 10 minutes and takes forever to start up) and much more controlling of what you want installed and overwritten. Best of all, nothing gets installed directly into the Skyrim data folder so your installation always stays clean!

Any person serious about modding their game should get this.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1334//?

Nshell · November 2, 2013

Outstanding Good Job!

I would suggest adding Mod Organizer. Much better tool than NMM (that piece of trash that CTD's every 10 minutes and takes forever to start up) and much more controlling of what you want installed and overwritten. Best of all, nothing gets installed directly into the Skyrim data folder so your installation always stays clean!

Any person serious about modding their game should get this.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1334//?

yes ofc but no bashed patch and lots of problems with leveled lists.

this here is the main feature of wryebash!

Leveled Lists

Delevelers/Relevelers

• Update.esm [ADR]

• Dawnguard.esm [ADR]

• Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp [ADR]

• Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp [ADR]

• Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp [AD]

• AMB Glass Variants Lore.esp [ADR]

• DeadlyDragons.esp [ADR]

• ERSO 03.5 - New Dragon Loots.esp [ADR]

Merged Actor Lists

• LCharDragonAny

• DeadlyDragons.esp [ADR]

• ERSO 03 - Mighty Dragons DD.esp

• LCharSoldierImperial

• Civil War Overhaul.esp

• LCharSoldierSons

• Civil War Overhaul.esp

Merged Item Lists

• ArmorStormcloakSet

• Cloaks - Player Only.esp

• ArmorStormcloakSetNoHelmet

• Cloaks - Player Only.esp

• DLC2LItemBook3Combined

• Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp [AD]

• DeathItemDraugr

• SkyrimCoinReplacer.esp

• DeathItemDraugrGold

• SkyrimCoinReplacer.esp

• DeathItemDraugrMage

• SkyrimCoinReplacer.esp

• DeathItemHagraven

• Ars Metallica.esp

• SexLab_DibellaCult.esp

• LItemSpellTomes00AllSpells

• Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp [ADR]

• Facelight.esp

• LootDraugrGold

• SkyrimCoinReplacer.esp

• LootDraugrGoldBoss01

• SkyrimCoinReplacer.esp

• LootUrnGoldChange

• SkyrimCoinReplacer.esp

• vel_ChastityDist