As I mentioned in my first post I came to LoversLab (LL) for a specific mod. In this post I'm going to walk you through what you would need to do to download and use that mod yourself. This process can be used with any mod here on LL for any game. That means it is as applicable for users of Fallout or Sims or anything else as it is for Skyrim. Also, this is not the only way to do this (as I also previously mentioned). It is the manner which I have found to be most efficient. With that said let's grab Paradise Halls.

 

A. Finding the Mod

 

In the top right hand corner of any page on LL is the Search engine. That is the place to start looking:

 

I have highlighted it in red on this screenshot. Type in the name of the mod that you want to find. One piece of advice here: if you are unsure of the EXACT name of the mod it is better to put in a fraction of the name and have more mods from which to choose than it is to put in a full name that is incorrect and not get anything.

 

Once you have done this you should get the following:

This dropdown menu will save you a lot of grief so pay attention to it.  If you find that you do not see it try clicking in the space next to your search term(s), it should then appear. If you try to do this from a screen other than "Home" you may find that the choices look different. If so, you may have to click on the more options choice (2 below "Everywhere." That should give you a result that looks like this:

The expanded dropdown box is again highlighted in red. I have taken the liberty in this screenshot to also show which choices you want for this search. When you look for a mod you want "files". If your search contains more than one word you want "all of my search term words". If it only contains a single word then "any of my search word terms" (which is the default) is fine. Finally, when looking for a mod, you want to click "Content titles only" in order to reduce the size of your search. If you fail to do that with this particular mod I expect that you would get hundreds of responses to your query. At this point you are ready to hit the little magnifying glass just to the right of where you've typed in your search words. After a few seconds you should get something that looks like this:

You can see that I got seven results. If I were actually on that page I could scroll down and look at the descriptions of all the mods that the search engine found and decide which one was the one I wanted. In this case, because I had used it before on Nexus, I knew the one I wanted was here:

I think a careful reading of the descriptions would also have allowed me to choose the right one.

 

As an aside, when you reach this point, even if you quickly find the mod you want, it will likely pay you to read the basic information on all the mods that the search engine provided. This is because mods that have a similar name are often designed to be used by the mod for which you were looking. So, you might find something looking at that list that will be interesting enough to come back to add later.

 

Now, when you click on the name it should take you to the page where you can download the mod.

 

B. The Modpage

 

If you have followed me thus far you should be here:

This page, which I will hereinafter call the modpage, contains the Green "Download" button. But before we move on to downloading I want to talk about some other things (so don't hit the green button yet).

 

First, a word on terminology. The word modder is used interchangeably in most places to mean mod author and mod user. Since that is likely to breed confusion I have determined that, for the purpose of this blog I will try to avoid using the term at all. However, being only human I might slip. If that happens in all cases where it is used on this blog it will refer to a mod author. I will use the term mod users to refer to us who add the mods to our base game in order to enjoy more options.

 

Back to the modpage. I want to point out (without using a picture) that there is a LOT of text on this page. All of that text was placed there by the mod author in order to make your use of the mod easier. It will tell you what the mod can and can't do. It will tell you what mods are known to interact with it badly. It will, in short, answer most of the questions that you have about the mod. Please take the time to read it (not just this mod, ANY mod). You might be surprised at the number of questions I've answered regarding a mod by simply copying some text from the modpage and pasting it into a post.

 

One of the things that is in that text will be what other mods are required in order for this mod to work. This is critical since, if you don't load the other mods, your game will crash. Here it is with this mod:

I have highlighted the information in a pink box (pink wasn't otherwise used by the mod author so I though it would make it stand out).

 

Another important feature of the modpage can be seen in this next view. Directly below the desired green "Download" button is the important, but understated, gray "Get Support" button:

Again, highlighted in pink to make it stand out. I will be discussing this button in a future post but I want to make you aware of it now.

 

Next, for my purposes is the box that appears below the two buttons, seen here:

Once again the box is highlighted in pink. I only mention this box since it is often misleading. When a mod is new this information is, generally, highly accurate. However, as a mod goes through updates the mod author (not necessarily this one but in general) may fail to keep it up-to-date. As a result, counting on this information may place your game at risk. I would once again reiterate, read the entire text that comes with the mod to learn what you need to know.

 

One last thing that I'll point out on the modpage that I will discuss later (highlighted in green below). Before that a pop quiz: what can always be found on the very bottom left corner of any page on LL?

What you see highlighted in green is the like button and counter. I expect to talk more about that in the next post.

 

The answer to the pop quiz is highlighted in red.

 

C. Downloading

 

You've just been waiting to hit that green button. Well, go ahead.

I hope you're not too disappointed. About half the time you download on LL there will be only a single file and it will automatically download when you hit the download button. This mod, instead, gives you the option of multiple files to choose from. As with most computer files, the higher the number the more recent the file. On LL this also translates into the LOWER the file is on your screen (and you may have to scroll down to see the bottom) the more recent the file is. That fact eliminates most of the upper files from consideration. Another possible reason for multiple files is to give the mod user choices about what "things" he wants with this mod. In this case you will want to hit the download button on one of the last two files depending on whether you want all the addons or not (don't ask me what you want go back and read the modpage). A third reason that a mod may have multiple files is that, to use the mod, you need more than one file. A mod like SexLab Sex Slaves comes to mind. A mod author may use several files in order to keep the amount of downloading (in MB) at one time to a reasonable level. Along the same line, a mod author may simply give you a link and a password as your download (look for this if the download seems unreasonably small). This last is true for the popular Zaz Animation Pack. All of these possibilities will be explained on the modpage.

 

IV. Using the mod

 

If you are used to Nexus you may not know what to do with a LL download. The mod does not go directly to your mod manager. You will find it in 7-zip (.7z) format in your download folder. Many mod authors would argue that your best approach is to use a utility to unzip the file and place it manually in your Skyrim/Data folder. If you have previously downloaded files manually you will understand this process. Otherwise, all mod managers have a method of adding mods from files. Discussing the use of mod managers is beyond what I intend to do with this blog. However, once you've done it a couple of times you will see that there really isn't much to it.

 

So, good luck  and ... oh, wait, I almost forgot.

 

Remember how I pointed out when I was talking about the modpage that the mod will tell you what other mods are required to run it. If you intend to run Paradise Halls you need to go back and do these same steps with the mods that it requires. And, having done that, you may have to go back and do the mods that they, in turn, require. Then and only then will you be ready to enjoy your new mod (technical advice on issues and other recommendations can be found on my other blog).

 

So, good luck and happy hunting!