Is this an accurate procedural guide for MO modding?

[Exploited Kiri]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XNCJVF99Vk

 

 

This is the first thing I noted in this video guide; the user unzips and drops mods first into his SE folder, than sets them up in MO. Rather than me just selecting and installing the Zfile right inside MO.

 

First thing I noticed right off; MO won't load SKSE64 right off- it will only appear if I load it in via Vortex.

 

 

I'm trying to load a few mods here from LL. Some of the required files on Nexus are getting spat on by MO, like they're invalid or inoperable.

 

 

 

 

My biggest issue right now; I'm trying to get Lucia's DLS running. I can get the mod working, but everything I need to run it kills character animations, and so I'm stuck in a motionless, paper doll stance...which, based on what I'm viewing in this video guide, tells me I at least have some files that are out of 'batting order'.

 

Appreciate any useful advice on this- and noting that while I have modded other games on PC, I am very new to Skyrim modding- only having picked up a Steam copy at the beginning of the month.

[Just Don't]

1 hour ago, Exploited Kiri said:

This is the first thing I noted in this video guide; the user unzips and drops mods first into his SE folder, than sets them up in MO. Rather than me just selecting and installing the Zfile right inside MO.

Timestamps so we don't need to see the full 15 min?

If you mean the SKSE install around 4:40, yes that's a way to install SKSE with MO. By default MO2 manages only things inside \Data. And the SKSE exe and dll files must be placed in the root folder of the game, not \Data. SKSE and ENB/Reshade are one of the few files you need to place in the actual game folder. Anything else can and should be installed via MO. Alternatively you can install the exe and dlls manually and add the scripts from SKSE as a mod to MO to keep a pristine \Data folder, a totally optional but maybe recommended step.

 

1 hour ago, Exploited Kiri said:

First thing I noticed right off; MO won't load SKSE64 right off- it will only appear if I load it in via Vortex.

After installing SKSE and launching MO you should see a new SKSE in the executable list (to the left of the "Run" button), select it and press Run. That should do it. If not you installed SKSE wrong or something else is going on with your setup. Hard to say without details.

 

1 hour ago, Exploited Kiri said:

My biggest issue right now; I'm trying to get Lucia's DLS running. I can get the mod working, but everything I need to run it kills character animations, and so I'm stuck in a motionless, paper doll stance...which, based on what I'm viewing in this video guide, tells me I at least have some files that are out of 'batting order'.

I see you're persistent, but you really need to nail the basics. Like, get SKSE properly running before attempting to use other mods. After getting a functional SKSE you move on to install any requirement for the mod you mention, and verify it's compatible with your version of the game.

And what's that thing about "batting order"?

 

A quick glance at that video and I see most of the basics covered, it doesn't say or do anything wrong. Most likely you're missing a very minor but key step and with the info you gave there is little to add. Maybe share a screenshot of your own MO, the folders you're using to install things, a loadorder, or any errors you're getting, etc.

 

Also don't mix other mods managers. And if you have mods installed with other mod managers you shouldn't be using MO. MO works best with a clean installation + SKSE/ENB/Reshade and MO to manage anything else.

[Exploited Kiri]

2 hours ago, Just Don't said:

 Most likely you're missing a very minor but key step

 

 

This is actually what I've been suspecting...other than the animation freeze, I'm very close to a functional and modded game.

 

The mod requires UNP HDT or CBBE HDT (plus their requirements), and it's in here that I know I ran into trouble; I proved that by what I shut on or off in MO. I need everything in these to run to make the mod show, but something within is also freezing animations, no matter which path I take on these installs.

 

After watching this guide through, I'm suspecting that loading the zipped mods straight into MO, and not extracting into the SE folder first is where I may be running into issue

[Exploited Kiri]

2 hours ago, Just Don't said:

Timestamps so we don't need to see the full 15 min?

If you mean the SKSE install around 4:40, yes that's a way to install SKSE with MO. By default MO2 manages only things inside \Data.

 

Sorry about that, but yes MO seemed to not want to load the SKSE right in, and this is probably that step that's messing my efforts afterward to load mod files.

 

 

Also; the community seems to be in disagreement on what SKSE version to use. I'm trying to mod an SE game, and I've been told by some there's actually issues there, and I really need to install the AE version.

 

Being as the video has clearly explained how SKSE is so crucial to most mods, I'm going to obviously need a very precise answer on that, before moving on to loading anything else, or I'm probably sinking my own ship from the beginning.

 

 

_

[Exploited Kiri]

2 hours ago, Just Don't said:

 

I see you're persistent, but you really need to nail the basics. Like, get SKSE properly running before attempting to use other mods. After getting a functional SKSE you move on to install any requirement for the mod you mention, and verify it's compatible with your version of the game.

And what's that thing about "batting order"?

 

 

 

I mulled over getting a copy of Skyrim for a long time, and this summer I finally got around to it. You can say yes...I'm hell-bent persistent on getting it running with some of the mods I like best.

 

As I said, I'm not new to modding games, but Skyrim is definitely a few levels above other games I've tried, in terms of difficulty loading things into it.

 

 

And sorry about 'batting order'...just me being colorful about the needed process for the program to load certain mod files or plugins in a proper order.

[chaimhewast]

1 hour ago, Exploited Kiri said:

Also; the community seems to be in disagreement on what SKSE version to use. I'm trying to mod an SE game, and I've been told by some there's actually issues there, and I really need to install the AE version.

To put it simply: Open your Skyrim game folder, right-click on SkyrimSE.exe, click "Properties", go to the "Details" tab, and check the "Product version" line. Open skse.silverlock.org and download the SKSE version with a matching "game version".

 

Generally speaking: if a mod has separate versions for SE and AE, the "SE" version will be for 1.5.97 or earlier and the "AE" version will be for 1.6 and later. It doesn't matter whether you bought the Creation Club DLC pack, 1.6 is considered "AE".

[Just Don't]

Yes. The only issue you'd have is if you mix mods for different versions of the game or SKSE. On their own both game versions 1.6+ and 1.5.97 and SKSE 2.1.5 and 2.0.20 should work as intended. All you need to do is match these things, game + SKSE + mod versions (only mods that matter here are the ones containing a dll plugin, anything else should work no matter your game version).