https://docs.google.com/document/d/18q6k7WxFb91hRIv6HmKMlMG-YCbHKhi5Z9XatIThXJ0/pub

 

Last updated

 

About

 

I never planned on getting into Skyrim modding. I wanted the vanilla experience the devs intended us to have and worked my way around what I felt were certain unforgivable design flaws with a few basic mods.

 

Then I got bored one day and downloaded Sexlab.

 

Then I realized I really didn’t enjoy having sex with ugly NPCs and they needed improving.

 

Then I realized I really enjoyed taking screenshots to share with people.

 

Then I realized the world was pretty damn ugly and that needed improving in order to take those screenshots.

 

Then I fell down the rabbit hole of modding Skyrim like everyone else. Honestly I think the real game of Skyrim isn’t even playing it anymore – it’s just constantly poking and prodding at it.

 

So this is my current mod setup, as of [see whatever the last updated date is up there]. It is mostly meant to be a helpful reminder to me of the load order, installation, and setup of my many mods, but I’m sharing it in case anyone is interested in some helpful advice and recommendations. I’ll be updating this regularly with whatever I have currently decided on keeping.

 

Where possible, I have tried to link to the Steam sites for mods rather than Nexus. My personal experience with Steam has been far better than Nexus and I choose to support the Steam workshop and mod makers when I can.

 

One more thing: a lot of these mods have optional submods that are personal preference. This is not meant to be a universal guide for everyone.

 

Philosophy

 

I like the vanilla game experience. As an aspiring game developer, I like paying attention to the original content and story the devs intended to tell. Also I am a canon junkie. Because of this, I’m really not into adding more content to Skyrim. I highly respect modders who take the time to create additional lore-friendly content, but I’m not into playing it unless it’s actually canon. In any creative situation, I like working with limitations because they force you to be more creative, and roleplaying is a creative medium.

 

That said, I find nothing wrong with enhancing or improving what already exists in the game. If a texture can be made better or a mesh smoother, why not?

 

I prefer a minimalist approach to modding my game. The mods I download generally tend to improve my game experience, but don’t add any additional content. I’ve tried to avoid any mods that add additional content to Skyrim, like quests or locations. Hell, I try not to even use mods that add additional trees or stars.

 

Table of Contents

1. Utilities
2. Patches and bugfixes
3. Mods I will never live without
4. Mass Effect mods
5. A prettier me
6. A prettier you
7. Environment
8. DON’T FORGET!

Utilities

 

Not mods so much as meta-tools you will need to manage your Skyrim modding experience.

• Wrye Bash – An incredibly useful mod manager for Skyrim (also various other Bethesda games if you’re interested), it helps you install and organize your mods. It looks intimidating to use at first but it’s really not that bad.
• NMM – If Wrye Bash were an honest-to-god actual tool, then Nexus Mod Manager would be the Fisher-Price hammer of getting shit done, i.e. a toy. This thing as given me far more trouble than it’s worth, yet I find too many mods demand it for proper installation (for example, unless you are 100% certain of what options you want in some mods and have installed them before, install menus don’t properly show up in Wrye Bash but are supported in NMM. Another reason Wrye Bash seems scary to newbies but is actually more configurable). If this is what you first started using, you’ll probably need to keep it around on your computer to install something once in a while. Sigh.
• LOOT – The load order of your mods matters. When you start up your game, you need some to load before or after others so that everything can function properly. You could do it by hand, but it’s usually just easier to have LOOT take a whack at it. LOOT’s master list receives regular updates with information on almost every Skyrim mod up there so it’s much easier to use this app than do it manually.
• TES5Edit – Aaaaaaand…once you’ve run LOOT, you’ll get some error messages saying your mods are dirty. Yes, especially the actual game files themselves. Basically, they are riddled with errors that make your game more likely to crash. You should clean your files whenever possible and a tutorial on how to use TES5edit to do that is here.

Patches and bugfixes

 

Note that I DO NOT have Bethesda's official HD Texture Pack DLC on this list. This is because I recommend the far superior and higher res player-created Skyrim HD if your computer can handle it. For more info see the “Environment” section below. Also if you use Skyrim HD instead you don’t need to download the Unofficial HD texture patch as well.

• Unofficial Skyrim patch
• Unofficial Dawnguard patch
• Unofficial Hearthfire patch
• Unofficial Dragonborn patch

Mods I will never live without

 

Whether or not I decide I can live with plainer characters or environments, I will never get rid of these mods. In many cases they were the first mods I downloaded.

• Auto Harvest 2: My light. My joy. Savior of my previously shitty Skyrim experience. Will literally autoloot things for you as you walk past it. I currently have it set to loot everything within 1000 feet of me every 0.1 seconds, just because I can.
  • Don’t forget to: Install first in this order: SKSE, SkyUI

  [*]Auto Lock Picking: Because I can’t be arsed to sit around all day fiddling with metal sticks in order to satisfy my kleptomania. [*]Customizable Camera: Skyrim’s default camera angle is pretty crappy, so this makes taking screenshots a lot easier. I’d still rather have Oblivion LAPF’s collision-free camera but it’s better than nothing.

  • Don’t forget to: Install first in this order: SKSE, SkyUI

  [*]Dual Sheath Redux: World of Warcraft spoiled me. Damnit when I have 2 daggers, I want to see them on both hips! Why would I sheathe 2 daggers on one side?!

  • Don’t forget to: Install first in this order: Groovtama’s XPMS Extended, Realistic Ragdolls and Force. Run Skyrim/Data/SkyProc Patchers/Dual Sheath Redux Patch/Dual Sheath Redux Patch.jar and click “Patch”. Use LOOT to ensure that the now newly created Dual Sheath Redux Patch.esp is loaded after every other mod.

  [*]Faster Skyrim Menu Music: I have no idea why Bethesda delays the main menu music as long as they do, you barely get a chance to listen to it. I chose the “No Fade” version to make it even more prompt. [*]SkyJubs Invisible Helmets: Because I didn’t work that hard on character creation to have her face hidden by helmets. [*]Hide Circlet: Or metallic sweatbands. [*]Infinite Gold For Merchants: In my perfect Skyrim RP world, every merchant would follow the vanilla rules of regular restocking and occasional running low on funds. Except for one guy, who is a genius businessman and junk dealer and buys all my stuff and is never out of gold. But that mod hasn’t happened yet, so I just install this and ~immerse~ myself by only trading with one merchant. [*]Isharas Key Ring: I managed to get rid of everything else in my inventory and foist off my book hoard on my Breezehome cabinet. But I still had a billion keys in my inventory and even though every other category was basically empty, clicking on “All” in my bags was starting to make the blood pound in my ears. Install this mod. Go to your nearest forge with an iron ingot and craft this keyring. Double-click on your new keyring and start double-clicking on every key in your inventory to store them on your ring. You can store multiples of the same key and you’ll always have your keys on you, allowing you to open any door you are able to. Buggy at the moment

  • Don’t forget to: Install SKSE.

  [*]No Poison Dialogues: Getting a “Your weapon is already poisoned” message every time you click your way through a stack of poisons is a pain in the ass.

  • Don’t forget to: Install SKSE.

  [*]OneTweak: Runs your game in a borderless window. LOVE this mod. [*]Pick Up Books Without Reading Them: Relief for the kleptomaniac bibliophile. [*]Unlimited Amulets and Rings [*]Pickpocket always succeeds: Like I’m not going to steal the clothes off someone given half the chance.

Mass Effect mods

 

If you think I’m not going to bring Mass Effect with me into every moddable game I play, you don’t know me very well.

• Garrus Vakarian follower: I don’t even use him, I just find it comforting to have him in the world.
  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame

  [*]ME3 N7 armor (and Kaidan's): I had to have the N7 armor on me. The only problem is that only the male meshes have been ported so far so if you’re playing a lady, well, you’re going to have Commander John Shepard’s ripped physique. Which I’m cool with, my Shep Dragonborn’s just got that sexless flattened-boob badass Samus Aran look.

  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame
  • Don’t forget to: Install the John Shepard/Kaidan Alenko followers mod to get the armor off Shepard.
  • Other options: N7 armor: Great detail work, especially on the cuirass and shoulders, but I honestly wasn’t a big fan of the skirt look. I’ve always liked looking at run animations so I stopped using it.

   

A prettier me

 

Except for hair, any mods you apply to change your player character also extend to nonplayer characters. Now a pretty person can have sex with other pretty people!

• CBBE: CBBE's a retexture/remesh for female characters that's good enough for me. I don’t need my character to look beautiful, I just need her to look acceptable, so I find CBBE’s non-vanilla texture option to be more than adequate for my needs.
  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame
  • Don't forget to: INSTALL WITH NMM.
  • Other options: NPCs Cleaned Up: Before I started messing with looks, the only thing I really wanted was to get the dirt off everyone’s faces. This does the job just fine. Get the BSA versions for cleaner install/uninstalls.

  [*]HDT Breast and Butt Physics, standard with collision: Jiggle physics.

  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame
  • Don't forget to: Install first in this order: SKSE, HDT Physics Extensions, HDT Just for fun (optional), Groovtama's XPMS Extended, CBBE

  [*]No More Blocky Faces: The ONLY other appearance mod I have other than CBBE is this one, rounding and smoothing out facial maps.

  • Recommended by: Everyone

  [*]Apachii Sky Hair Full & Apachii Sky Hair Female: I'd rather have hair physics but eventually I started experimenting with static, more feathery hair.

  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame

  [*]KS Hairdos: A previously banned hairpack ported from the Sims, now mirrored by Girlplaysgame.

  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame

  [*]BB’s Hair Physics Project, Female Hairstyles with Physics, Skyrim Hair Physics Project: Watching my hair remain static while running and bouncing around Skyrim really bothered me. These help, but are still first steps in better hair and hair physics in Skyrim [*]ShowRaceMenu Precache Killer

  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame

  [*]Face Light: Turns your face into a softly glowing light, enabling you to take better screenshots in dark places.

  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame

  [*]

A prettier you

 

A combination of mods to make NPCs more attractive, and how to have sex with them.

• Apachii Sky Hair NPC Overhaul & Color mismatch fix for Elven races: So you’re not staring at your partner’s raggedy hair.
• Apachii Sky Hair Male
  • Recommended by: Girlsplaygame

  [*]Better males, Younger faces merged with men by geonox & Nudes favoredsoul meshes erect version: I don’t plan on ever making a male character which is why this mod is in this category. Honestly, I’d rather that the NPCS were even younger. I don’t like looking at faces that look like a weathered crag. But this is better than nothing.

  • Recommended by: Girlplaysgame

  [*]Beards – High Resolution: Really does make a difference. [*]Sexlab Matchmaker: The most basic way to enact the Sexlab framework. It’s what allows you to start having sex with basically anyone.

  • Don't forget to: Install first in this order: SKSE, SkyUI, Unofficial Skyrim patch, Unofficial Dawnguard patch, Unofficial Hearthfire patch, Unofficial Dragonborn patch, FNIS behavior, FNIS spells, Sexlab

  [*]Sexlab Position Selector: Sexlab generates random positions by default but this allows you to more consciously select your choice.

  • Don't forget to: Install Sexlab

  [*]Sexlab Aroused Redux: A framework that adds an Arousal statistic to PCs & NPCs, allowing other mods to use it

  • Don't forget to: Install Sexlab

  [*]Sexlab Arousal Monitor Widget: Displays Arousal stat for you and nearby NPCs

  • Don't forget to: Install Sexlab, Sexlab Aroused Redux

  [*]Spectator Crowds Ultra: Makes NPCs notice when you are having sex, allows them to cheer or disapprove.

  • Don't forget to: Install Sexlab, Sexlab Aroused Redux

  [*]sexlab aroused creatures - testing these and the rest [*]sexlab squirt reborn [*]sexlab scoclb, texture [*]sexlab sperm replacer heavy [*]apropos, jcontainer [*]sexlab release

Environment

 

I am not a graphics junkie at all. I mean, I’m a D&D player, I use my imagination. I’ve never needed 3D to make my day. The graphics race just seems like a marketing distraction from the real issues of whether or not a game is actually good. That said, if your character’s going to look beautiful in your shared screenshots, she’s going to stand out against a muddy background lol.

 

If I could I would download every mod listed here at RealVision ENB, the only site that thoroughly documents not only a recommended list, but its install order. Unfortunately my computer's aging and I can't do that as of yet. For now I run the bare minimum:

• Skyrim HD: As I said before, you’ll want this over the official Skyrim HD DLC. The resolutions on this player-made mod are much higher. My computer's crap but I'm thankful I can still run the full texture versions.
  • Recommended by: Everyone whose computer can handle it

  [*]RealVision ENB: ENB itself is a software tweak that modifies your game settings, giving you the opportunity to have better graphics. RealVision ENB is one of many presets that players have released, actually using that tweak to produce a number of predefined visual effects. ENB and a preset will make the single biggest difference in how your game looks. The most popular preset for now seems to be RealVision ENB and it’s adequate enough for my needs.

  • Recommended by: Nearly everyone.
  • Don’t forget to: USE NMM TO INSTALL EVERYTHING. Install first in this order before RealVision ENB: the latest version of ENB for Skyrim, Project Reality – Climates of Tamriel, Climates of Tamriel – Dawnguard Patch, Climates of Tamriel – Dragonborn Patch, Climates of Tamriel – Weather Patch, Enhanced Lights and FX, Enhanced Lights and FX Dawnguard, Enhanced Lights and FX Dragonborn.

  [*]

DON’T FORGET!

• Run LOOT
• Run TES5Edit
• Run \Skyrim\Data\tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users\GenerateFNISforUsers.exe

Previous updates [ignore this]:
5-6-2015

 

(need to fix typos)

 

note to self, in case my hard drive burps or i take a hiatus from skyrim:

 

utilities

 

tes5
loot
nmm

 

frameworks

 

netmmerse override
skse
skyui
skse
realistic ragdolls and force - prereq dualsheath/xp32
fnis
jcontainers
sexlab
all dlcs
xp32 - prereq dualsheath

 

utilities

 

customizable camera
dual sheath redux
faster skyrim menu music
fast travel from inside
hide circlet
infinite gold for merchants
isharas key ring
no poison dialogues
onetweak
ring of ultra vision
skyjubs invisible helmets
autoharvest 2
jps noreadbooks
unlimited amulets and rings
autolockpicking
pickpocket 100% of the time

 

mass effect

 

me3 armor collection
garrus follower
john shepard follower
kaidan alenko follower

 

patches

 

unofficial dawnguard, dragonborn, hearthfire, skyrim, high resolution
official high res textures dlc

 

my apperance

 

apachii sky hair
bb's hair physics project
cbbe
face light
female hairstyles with physics
hdt breast and butt physics
hdt physics extensions
hdt physics extension - jff
no more blocky faces
sg hair pack
showracemenu precache killer
skyrim hair physics project

 

npc appearance/sexlab

 

apachii sky hair npc overhaul
apropos - link readded: http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/818-apropos/
beards - high res
better males - younger faces w geonox
better males - favoredsoul erect
cbbev3 vanilla clothing replacer bodyslide compatible
feminine argonian textures for cbbe-unp
no more old women
no more old men
remodeled armor cbbev3m
revealing armors and clothes for fs meshes males (all)

 

(readded links):
sexlab cumshot - http://www.loverslab.com/topic/22598-sexlab-cumshot-172/
sexlab dangerously nude - http://www.loverslab.com/topic/19055-sexlab-dangerously-nude/
sexlab aroused - http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1421-sexlab-aroused-redux-december-05-2016/
sexlab matchmaker - http://www.loverslab.com/topic/17343-sexlab-matchmaker-updated-09172014/
sexlab squirt - http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1893-sexlab-squirt-reborn/
sexlab aroused monitor widget - http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1535-sexlab-aroused-monitor-widget/
spectatorcrowdsultra - http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1310-spectator-crowds-ultra-edition/
sexlab position selector - http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1670-sexlab-position-selector-by-nen-control-yourself/

 

environmental

 

dynavision

 

fun

 

deathbell princess

 

mcm - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30250/?

 

sg hair - https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/41dy1p/does_anyone_have_sg_hair_pack_350/

 

 

 

tim
tgm
player.additem f 1000000
player.forceav carryweight 1000000
set timescale to 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

skyrim creation kit

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1010475-running-multiple-master-files-in-creation-kit/

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/949066-bad-errors-in-ck/?p=7657547

 

 

 

 

don't ever legendary

 

pickpocketing - need the 100 pickpocket off equipped clothes perk
speech
smithing

 

might be helpful

 

sneak - assassin's blade @ 50, 15x normal damage
one-handed - extra damage on weapons i use
heavy armor - 50 perk, 50% less stagger
archery - zoom in, 2x more ammo retrieved from corpses, draw a bow 30% faster

 

might be helpful, probably not

 

lockpicking - treasure hunter @ 50, 50% chance of finding greater treasure
alchemy - 70 perk gathers harvests 2x more
illusion - 50 quiet casting
restoration - 40 respite, all healing spells now restore stamina

 

useless

 

light armor - 60 perk of 50% stamina regen
block - just bashing, knocking down, and timeslows when blocking
2-handed - extra damage on weapons i never use
conjuration - who cares about half magicka
destruction - ''
alteration - ''
enchanting - who gives a single fuck