After seven sessions of step by step work, we've achieved a stable, beautified vanilla Skyrim experience. With that accomplishment under our belt, now its time to start moving beyond the vanilla experience and genuinely enhancing the game. We'll begin that process with needs mods. Skyrim AE contains some rudimentary handling of this gameplay in the form of the Survival Mode DLC, but in my experience the Survival Mode gameplay is uneven, never quite sure if its trying to enhance immersion or just increase difficulty, and it comes preloaded with some features that are just frustrating and un-fun, like limitations on when you can save. So, while trying to follow our general approach of keeping things relatively lightweight, we're going to replace and enhance that experience.

 

As an aside, it struck me last night that since the only remaining high poly head NPCs in my Easy NPC build have standalone head parts, I don't need to have the High Poly Head mod itself running. So I disabled it. 

 

1. Shelter

For technical reasons, before we can address the bulk of the survival experience, we need to install Campfire. While the Camping DLC replicates many functions of this mod, Campfire has some critical features, including a survival skills framework, that we need installed to get the full feature set of the other mods we're going to install today. Since Campfire is an older mod, we'll need to pay attention to the patches that are available for it to make sure we get any relevant fixes.

 

 

This should cover our needs. We'll also grab RASS (a weather shader mod) and the Cloaks of Skyrim family of mods. Like Campfire, these mods will support the broad-based survival content that's still to come. Now let's hop into xEdit and make sure everything is playing nice behind the scenes. This'll also be a good time to update our "trusted winners" registry. So far the impacts of these edits were pretty light weight, but the number of options being presented is starting to clutter the screen without adding value, so getting new trusted winners in place will get us to a place where less data is being shoved in my face when I go to resolve conflicts.

 

As a side note, while integrating Cloaks of Skyrim I officially made my first custom outfit for this build. Idolaf Battle-Born uses a generic outfit and then has his unique cloak placed in his normal inventory. To ensure he wears the intended cloak, I made a custom outfit for him instead.

 

 

Now that we've integrated these assets, let's do a quick test to make sure they're all working. I want to observe two things: first, that cloaks are properly deforming based on wind conditions, and second, that campfire setup is working right. We should be able to observe the cloak behavior in Helgen, and then we'll walk to Riverwood and buy a tent from the general store, which we'll pitch outside town.

 

 

Wind is influencing cloaks, so that's good. Now I should break the narrative here to say there's been another issue lurking in the background. I've had a total of three crashes since I started this build, and they all reference ARIS (A Rose In Snow) hair meshes. Some of them seem to implicate the HDT-SMP DLL also. I've been doing some research and read that versions of FSMP after 1.46 have had stability issues for some users. We're going to be experimenting a little with 1.46 and see if this solves the SMP related crashes on its own. If not, we may have to drill deeper into ARIS and determine if it needs to go.

 

 

Backpack injection appears to be working correctly as well. 

 

 

Hmmm... that's not functioning as intended. Gonna have to investigate her (I probably accidentally overrode her NPC_ record). Or... the high poly head wasn't as un-installable as I thought and I need to reinstall it for it assets. Also a possibility.

 

 

Riverwood Trader sold us a tent and it deployed with no problems. As for Sigrid's blackface, the problem appears below: for some reason, her new ARIS based facegen didn't get properly copied by the facegen patcher, leaving her with the old, bad texture patch version in place instead.

 

 

 

The corrected file IS in my EasyNPC output folder, so I'm going to go through and repatch her. There may be others out there, but for now we'll treat this like it was an isolated incident. In the meanwhile, the author of the Facegen patcher has provided me with beta code that should overcome the whole WNAM issue, so this is a great opportunity to try it out! Just kidding, Sigrid has a custom body skin so she doesn't need patching. So I must have forgotten to remove her old facegen and since it has a custom skin it never got overwritten by the new EasyNPC build. This one's a PEBKAC  but at least easy to fix!

 

While I was repairing this one, I noticed that her facegen had a different timestamp on the file than most, and that got me looking... I quickly found the other 'carried over' facegen files and removed them.

 

 

The reason the dates are different is because the original facegen got copied over successfully but then never got edited because the path detection failed. 

 

2. Sustenance

There are a lot of good options for food and drink in SSE, and most of them also roll in and cover the disease system. Realistic Needs & Diseases is a classic, of course, with lots of customizability and many mod integrations. iNeed has recently had a new version released that may fix its critical leveled list overflow bug and it has some great features like follower needs. But for this build we are going to use Sunhelm, a relatively new but widely acclaimed needs mod that hooks into the vanilla code that supports the Survival Mode DLC and repurposes it. Sunhelm also includes code for hypothermia gameplay and incorporates native support for Season of Skyrim. 

 

At this point I also needed to get Dynamic Animation Replacer installed, because the animations mods for drunkenness, drugged status, and shivering all depend on it. Finally, we need to install Survival Control Panel. I'm not sure if I'm going to use other Survival Mode options, but if so I'll need this mod to manage them. Here's our mod stack so far:

 

 

Now the other side of the coin for sustenance is excretion. So... am I going to install Pee and Fart or a similar mod? The short version is... no. Mods like this have novelty for a while, and I'd argue that even in a more or less SFW build they can have a place in a super hardcore survival playthrough. However, this build is not a super-hardcore survival playthrough, and it's also not a "kitchen sink of fetishes" NSFW build where I throw in almost everything. Indeed, I still have serious questions about whether this build will contain creature sex animations or if it'll have Devious Devices. I'll discuss both topics in more detail later, but if the 1900 build was focused on seeing how much SSE could do at once, this build will be more about seeing how much Skyrim can do well. Adding a mod that A) consumes resources with monitoring activities and, B) interrupts the flow of normal gameplay, and C) only "sort of" works just doesn't seem like a good fit for this iteration.

 

The other thing you might be noticing the absence of are mods that add more food types. Some of these will come eventually, but not at this early stage. The goal is to get to a playable condition fairly quickly, not to spend the next six months painstakingly modding in a billion tiny variations on themes that are already present. There's plenty of time for work like that later, and indeed some mods will naturally jump out as ideal choices, such as the CheeseMod with its LOTD integration.

 

3. Procreation

You surely knew this was coming. After all, I'm posting this on Loverslab! However, I am going to take a different approach to sex and romance content than I did last time. The first consideration is which sex mod to use. I rejected the O- family of mods pretty much right away, same for Flower Girls, albeit for different reasons. The way I see it, O-mods are too gamey for what I want (more on that later) and Flower Girls is too lightweight. That more or less narrowed the field to Sexlab or to Toys and Love. This was a tough choice. In the end, however, I had to go with Sexlab for now. Here's why:

 

• There are a number of different mods that either only have Sexlab integration or, at least, don't have T&L integration. Amorous Adventures, for example, doesn't support T&L. This not only narrows my options in the future, but it will immediately impact my options when we get deeper into this article.
• Toys & Love doesn't have HIMBO bodyslides, which is a significant technical blocker to using any of its content.
• I really like T&L's exclusive quest mods, like Shout Like a Virgin, but I've already experienced a lot of their content, which makes them a lower priority for this build, and
• I know from past experience that T&L plays nice side-by-side with Sexlab, so I can incorporate it in the future if I really need to

 

Now before we start installing Sexlab, let me expound for a moment on my approach to Sexlab in this build. Basically, Sexlab is there to support the build, not to anchor it. This means a few things:

 

1. Unless it's necessary for a quest mod that I really want, I'm not going to install creature sex, devious devices, or an arousal mod. The first one is a feature that I seldom actually use and More Nasty Critters, its essential support mod, contains some problematic technical elements, the second is a very topheavy mod and it doesn't contain native HIMBO support. The last mod has never worked right in any of its numerous variations when used on a large load order. Its balance seems to be rather fragile and its quite susceptible to runaway arousal accumulation.
2. I really like the immersive but simple mini-game that underpins Sexlab Separate Orgasm, but I won't be using it in this build. For this build, I want the sex to basically be a cutscene activity, not a mini-game. Again, it gets back to the philosophy that the game can lead to sex, not that the sex leads to the game. 
3. Sexlab mods will not get a "free pass" on the criteria I'm going to judge quest/story mods by, which means many of them will have a high bar to pass for getting into the game. 

 

Let's start by installing Sexlab itself. We're going to use AE version 1.65 and we'll be immediately patching it with the SOS Papyrus/Sexlab patch. Concurrent with this, we need to install the Sexlab Animation Loader so we can register additional animations to the framework.

 

Before we go any further, let's check everything in xEdit and hop into the game to make sure we don't have any installation issues. And we did have an issue: it reported PapyrusUtil was out of date. Can you guess why?

 

 

Yup. Seriously, folks, never redistribute the PapyrusUtil.DLL with your mod, no matter how good an idea it seems like. FFS. After hiding the rogue DLL from Campfire, I went back into the game to resume testing.

 

 

Looks good. Some key features from SLUP don't seem to have made it into 1.65 such as filtering fetish tags (magic, vampire, etc.) and so we'll also grab the 1.65 version of SLUP. 

 

With that in place, I mentioned that this 'need' was for procreation, so its time to get a pregnancy mod. This mod isn't version sensitive and I already have it installed and set up for my previous build (though the fixes file needs an update). Activating those was pretty easy. 

 

Before we dive into xEdit to check for conflicts, if we're going to have pregnancy we need the materials to get people pregnant, right? So let's grab Sexlab Cum Overlays and Cumshot. Lastly, let's install Fertility Adventures so that these features are properly integrated into the game.

 

Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions was another mod I needed to grab to support this stack, and it needs a bunch of patching for consistence with the USSEP and with the AE version of Hearthfire. It's an old mod, so poor AE compatibility isn't a big surprise and fortunately the patching required is pretty straightforward. Beyond that, the only work I had to do was some top level cell data management.

 

4. Companionship

While it isn't as critical as in my high-difficulty 1900 build, companions are still important. And the vanilla companion system is... just OK. Let's grab Nether's Follower Framework, which has served me well in the past and for which I don't see any really compelling alternatives. We'll also update and activate ConsoleUtil, since this mod uses it. While we're at it, I wanted to grab Joyful Followers from here on the Lab to inject a little bit of extra content into companion relationships, but that one requires Sexlab Aroused, so we'll hold off on it for now. We might add it later if I have to add SLA for some more important purpose.

 

That was pretty straightforward, nothing exciting to see here. Hmm, though in order to appreciate our followers' pretty faces, let's grab IACC too. I really enjoyed its predecessor mod, Alternate Conversation Camera, and this one seems even more refined.

 

5. Romance

One important mod that I'm not planning to use in this build is Sexlab Eager NPCs. This means that, at least by default, I won't have an organic way to trigger Sexlab activity, which kind of defeat the purpose of having the framework installed at this stage. So we're going to grab three mods to wrap up our "needs" pass.

 

1. Sexlab Solutions and its voice pack
2. Sexlab Confabulation and its voice pack
3. Amorous Adventures and its follow-on mod

 

The first two mods add seduction type paths for resolving a number of quests in the game, while the third adds a large number of romance plots. Collectively, these should give a good number of entry points for Sexlab content.

 

Now that we've got all this stuff installed, let's go into the game and work through some content to make sure Sexlab is working right and to ensure the camera and follower recruiting functions are operating properly.

 

 

Incidentally, before we get rolling, one thing that I'm observing is the gradual accumulation of utility effects and/or utility books. We need to keep ahead of this accumulation and keep these under control. More on that later, however.

 

 

Sunhelm started up pretty easily. Note the the temperature UI marker at the top of the screen indicating we're in a cold zone. I did encounter another hair related CTD while walking to Riverwood, so it looks like the SMP version wasn't the problem. Too bad, an easy fix would have been nice, but that means we'll need to keep investigating that and possibly purge ARIS if I can't resolve the problem. 

 

 

I came across this hunter plying her trade on the way down to Riverwood. Neck seams, antlers, weapon retex, backpack injection - all looks good! Note how Immersive Equipment Display is showing her dagger even though her bow is equipped.

 

 

Getting right to work on seducing Camilla. Camera mod is working correctly.

 

 

Sigrid's blackface is gone.

 

 

The existence of this dialogue option alone is reason enough to always install Sexlab Solutions ? 

 

 

Getting to work with the old Dragonbone. Sexlab running well so far.

 

 

Aela's unimpressed that I didn't help with the giant, but it was dead before I even got there. I have a mod in my archive that fixes this, so eventually that'll work its way into the game. I glanced to my right as we were talking and I think Ria was checking me out.

 

 

The helmets from Guard Armor Replacer are already open faced, so no need for an open face helmet patch (since Guards are the biggest driver for needing something like that).

 

 

Idolaf's custom cloak is visible here. The giant-killing party came in right behind me and while Aela's giving me the cold shoulder, Ria came up and gave me a greeting line. She definitely seems interested in the Dragonborn.

 

 

We chatted a bit while this dude walked by showing off his nipple piercings. No romance options for Ria yet though, looks like she wants me to join the Companions first.

 

 

Jenassa has a bad case of blackface. Let's see what's broken. 

 

 

This is old facegen. Jenassa has a custom body so she doesn't need patching, we just need to remove the old facegen... and next time remember to purge the old facegen after re-running Easy NPC!!!! Unfortunately, there are probably more lingering facegens like this, so I may have to do a clean sweep sooner rather than later if I keep running into these problems  

 

 

Much better. Now, let's see if she recruits properly into NFF.

 

 

As you can see in the top left, NFF recruiting of vanilla companions seems to be working just fine. BTW note how Jenassa's dagger and sword are both visible. All in all, and notwithstanding some occasional hiccups, this was a very successful session. I have a couple last-minute changes left to make. First, I'm disabling Better Facelight, because it's proving to be unneccssary on Patrician's relatively bright ENB settings. Second, we're going to update and install PSDI for its essential immersive features. I really noticed this mod's absence during my test run.

 

With that done, let's take care of those unnecessary starting items. First, the erection spells. I'm guessing those are part of SOS. 

 

 

Yup, there they are. A quick run through their references traces them back to the SOS Setup Quest. However, it's not immediately obvious which property specifically controls the spell injection, so let's see if the script source is available. 

 

 

OK, let's comment out the 'give spells' function to disable that feature. 

 

 

The other item is the shooting stars flyer. Instead of spawning on the player character, I'd like for this to show up in the lockbox in the AP startup room. However, after a quick glance through the file it appears that the item is tied to the operation of certain scripts, so we'll grudgingly leave it be.

 

Last but not least, let's look at the Papyrus log. 

 

 

These appear to be compatibility checks. Benign, if spammy.

 

 

These two RASS errors are simple excess property issues that are readily fixed by removing them in xEdit. 

 

 

The FMA quest script bindings need a little more detailed looking. The issue here seems to be that the vanilla 'infrastructure' quest is designed with the idea that the player will pick up an item and so it looks for an object reference (REFR). However, this quest directly injects a BOOK record into the player's inventory.

 

 

It appears to be getting invoked here:

 

 

I don't really have the scripting chops yet to write an alternate script for this, but I'm going to reach out to the author and cross my fingers for a fix. 

 

[05/04/2023 - 05:37:11PM] error: Native static function DetachMesh could find no matching static function on linked type NiOverride. Function will not be bound.
[05/04/2023 - 05:37:11PM] error: Native static function AttachMesh could find no matching static function on linked type NiOverride. Function will not be bound.
[05/04/2023 - 05:37:11PM] error: Native static function GetNodeTransformScaleMode does not match existing signature on linked type NiOverride. Function will not be bound.
[05/04/2023 - 05:37:11PM] error: Native static function GetCachedMorphNames could find no matching static function on linked type NiOverride. Function will not be bound.

 

These appear to be legacy references to the LE-era NiO functions and I had assumed they were from SOS, but a perusal of the SOS script source didn't reveal them. I'll need to do some further sleuthing to find these references. Fortunately, they are probably benign.

 

Campfire threw a bunch of legacy GetFormFromFunction related errors from its compatibility check. There's nothing we can really do about those. Drilling a little further back, I looked at a log from a previous session that was a bit larger than I'm used to. Most of the size was due to legitimate function calls such as very verbose Sexlab logging. However, I did notice that Flinching was throwing a bunch of errors in conjunction with Sexlab (specifically, when Sexlab applies cum textures, the actor tries to flinch as if they're being damaged by a magic spell!). I feel like this is the sort of unplanned interaction that could add verisimilitude, but it isn't executing correctly based on the error messages and it explains some odd behavior from the Camilla love scene, where her post-coital dialogue cut off unexpectedly. I went ahead and removed Flinching for the time being.

 

Speaking in cum-related problems, the cum handler function itself is spitting out a few intermittent errors. At some point I'll want to give that some more scrutiny, though SCO seemed to work correctly when tested, so it's not a game breaking issue. I'll keep gathering data to try and localize & understand the issue.

 

That bigger file also contained an orphaned script prop which I pruned out. It looks like this was a property with a typo that was never cleaned out of the plugin (the actual prop is called SSv3FollowerQuest with no "s" and appears in the VMAD sub-entry just above the one pictured below). 

 

 

All this cum-related talk made me remember the final missing piece of the puzzle - the seventh need, if you will: hygiene. I need to install Dirt & Blood, as well as its NSFW add-on, Dirt, Blood, & Cum. Otherwise, it's going to be really hard for characters to wash up after "party time." Those mods, along with Xtudo's two HD texture replacers for UNP skins, finally completes my entry level needs stack. Here's the final list:

 

 

Whew, that was a productive session! See you all next time!