guide Skyrim AE for Beginners - V 3.1.0

[Player80]

I'm finally done updating from v2.9.16 to v3.0.7 to v3.1.0 🎉🎉🎉

YOT - Your Own Thoughts needs to be looked at:

Spoiler

Some mods would also ask to install Parallax or regular versions, or they offered both a regular and a parallax version as the main files. I've made the educated guess to always go "non parallax" since we seem to be heading away from it, was that correct? I can't recall which ones and there were only a few of them.

 

There were also some mods that received an updated since v3.1.0 and for which the Installation options didn't match anymore, I'll take a look tomorrow to find which ones were impacted.

 

Thanks for the guide! I will be running the different tools soon and I will report back how everything goes.

[Aylis]

For your info:

 

I'm moving today to a new apartment. Its not quite clear when I have Internet again (although I already made all preparations for that). Hopefully it is only a day or two.

[Ihiku]

For those of you more knowledgeable than me:

Wrye Bash is displaying absolutely none of my mods, it displays the original stock game folder, but not the copy I made for modding. Is there possibly ANY help for me?

 

Google has been shit in this instance

[PubliusNV]

5 minutes ago, Ihiku said:

Is there possibly ANY help for me?

 

Did you install the mods with MO2, as this guide suggests? If so, are you invoking Wrye Bash from within MO2? If not, it will not see the mods in your virtual folder.

[Ihiku]

Yes, and yes. Mods installed with MO2, and wrye bash launched via MO2

[belegost]

12 hours ago, Aylis said:

Ah, got it...

 

It had 57268 and should have been 57208. Different mods doing the same with an almost identical number. Fixed

 

And the big picture still belongs in a spoiler!

Did you change something within the guide?

 

EDIT:

Assuming those are mod IDs, I presume then you're going to exchange Water in Wells - mesh-only animated wells for WiZkiD Wells with real water

Is that assumption correct?

 

================

Also another redundancy:

Cathedral 3D Mountain Flowers for Hearthfire

and

Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers Hearthfire Patch

 

Both do the same thing and contain the same files.

 

Overwriting either one makes it redundant, however Cathedral 3D Mountain Flowers for Hearthfire also overwrites all other Cathedral Mountain Flowers textures with a duller, less vibrant ones, including textures from Cathedral 3D Mountain Flowers - Snowy Yellow Snowy Red-White.

Therefore I am going to remove it from my load order.

Edited November 3, 2025 by belegost

[Tops34]

7 hours ago, Ihiku said:

For those of you more knowledgeable than me:

Wrye Bash is displaying absolutely none of my mods, it displays the original stock game folder, but not the copy I made for modding. Is there possibly ANY help for me?

 

Google has been shit in this instance

You need to edit the bash.ini and tell Wyre Bash where your Skyrim root game folder is located. Look for this block inside:

 

;--OblivionPath is the game directory (containing Oblivion.exe, TESV.exe, etc).
;    A "normal" install of Bash will place the Mopy directory in your game
;    directory.  Use this argument only if you placed Bash outside of the game
;    directory and the automatic detection and -g command line parameter fail to
;    find the game.  *If using a relative path, it will be relative to the Mopy
;    directory.*
sOblivionPath=F:\Skyrim 2025\Game Root
;sOblivionPath=G:\Oblivion
;sOblivionPath=G:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim

 

The bold line is the one I have changed for my installation. Don't  forget to remove the semicolon at the beginning.

Edited November 3, 2025 by Tops34

[_Warhawk_]

10 hours ago, Tops34 said:

You need to edit the bash.ini and tell Wyre Bash where your Skyrim root game folder is located. Look for this block inside:

 

;--OblivionPath is the game directory (containing Oblivion.exe, TESV.exe, etc).
;    A "normal" install of Bash will place the Mopy directory in your game
;    directory.  Use this argument only if you placed Bash outside of the game
;    directory and the automatic detection and -g command line parameter fail to
;    find the game.  *If using a relative path, it will be relative to the Mopy
;    directory.*
sOblivionPath=F:\Skyrim 2025\Game Root
;sOblivionPath=G:\Oblivion
;sOblivionPath=G:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim

 

The bold line is the one I have changed for my installation. Don't  forget to remove the semicolon at the beginning.

You can also do that as a MO2 launch argument for Wrye Bash. Its how I have done it instead of editing the config file. Type -o "" and put the path in the quotes. You just have to make sure to use double back slashes instead of one like traditional directory paths.

[Player80]

I ran into this issue when building DynDOLOD:

Here's the fix (as explained by dizietemblesssma here: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/78822?tab=posts)

Spoiler

Open up xEdit, choose Disco - 3DNPC-AMM Greenwood Shack Patch.esp.

Wait for plugins to finish loading.

Bring up atlas map markers, right click Prospector's Shack (in Worldspace > Tamriel > Persistent) and click Copy as override (with overwriting) into... .

Choose Disco - 3DNPC-AMM Greenwood Shack Patch.esp

Now right click the original record in that esp and click Remove

Save the edited ESP, rerun DynDOLOD

 

Here's the modified esp file (according to "Permissions and credits" on the mod page):

 

Disco - 3DNPC-AMM Greenwood Shack Patch.esp

Disclaimer: There's a good chance that the "fix" breaks something else entirely, but I guess I'll see once I reach that shack in game.

Edited November 3, 2025 by Player80
typo, added more detail

[YuFeng]

I already made a patch for that. It is called 3DNPC - AtlasMM - New Beginnings - Map Marker Patch (see 'Files') in the guide. Did you use that? 

Also that disco stuff should be removed obviously.

Edited November 4, 2025 by YuFeng

[Aylis]

Halfway back.

 

Got a temporary setup atm. Half of the furniture (incl. my computer desk) is still missing.

 

 

@belegost

1. Correct.

2. Doublette is fixed. Only the one in 'Hearthfire' remained.

3. The overlap gets later fixed with 'PGPatcher'.

 

@Player80

1. O shi... Thats the one I try to avoid like the plague. Have to see if I can somehow make it easier.

2. No Parallax is correct. Mods with dual installation were mostly 'Landscapes', 'World Textures' and all the 'Fyxes'.

3. If you could give me names that would help a lot (my MO2 is a bit borked and doesn't notice about updates).

4. I think @YuFeng already fixed that. See last post. 😉

Edited November 4, 2025 by Aylis

[YuFeng]

@Aylis

Well look at you. Just moved and already have internet. Guess you aren't getting our famous german internet waiting package...

[Novosin]

Funny thing.

Entered Dragonsreach, and just as it rendered on screen I saw Dagny shoot of, like a missile, up diagonally through the roof. Still addressing me though, and I could hear her voice become more and more faint. 
She must be in orbit by now. 

[YuFeng]

1 hour ago, Novosin said:

Funny thing.

Entered Dragonsreach, and just as it rendered on screen I saw Dagny shoot of, like a missile, up diagonally through the roof. Still addressing me though, and I could hear her voice become more and more faint. 
She must be in orbit by now. 

 

 Sounds like fun. Can you reproduce that?

[belegost]

Immersive World Encounters can no longer be downloaded, even with direct link. The button is inactive. I guess Nexus "fixed" that.

My personal pick and what I have been running with on my old PC is Extended Encounters. With no execution patch. I edit it manually and leave the thief, because that's funny.

 

With IMMORTAN's  Complementary Addons for mods DO NOT tick Cracked Dusk Keep. Will result in your game hanging infinitely on the main menu right after start-up for some reason. No, not when loading the save, but right after booting up. You will not even be able to exit except by killing the process in Task Manager.

 

Thought I got rid of whole IMMORTAN anyway, because I didn't like it. Will probably go for Pride of Skyrim, as per usual. Maybe I'll toss Sons of Nirn on top of it.

Edited November 4, 2025 by belegost

[YuFeng]

1 hour ago, belegost said:

With IMMORTAN's  Complementary Addons for mods DO NOT tick Cracked Dusk Keep. Will result in your game hanging infinitely on the main menu right after start-up for some reason. No, not when loading the save, but right after booting up. You will not even be able to exit except by killing the process in Task Manager.

 

That's because of the big update Cracked Dusk Keep has. Lots of NPC changes were in there and some new NPCs were added. Naturally, the old patch won't cover all that and give out that problem. Not crashing and getting into that loop is already a win I'd say. The IMMORTAN author got a bug report about that from me, so he might update it soon.

[belegost]

17 minutes ago, YuFeng said:

That's because of the big update Cracked Dusk Keep has. Lots of NPC changes were in there and some new NPCs were added.

Yes I am aware of it.

 

Still it doesn't explain why an straightforward NPC replacer would lock up an entire game even before it's fully loaded. It doesn't make any sense.

Botox works just fine for example.

Edited November 4, 2025 by belegost

[belegost]

I'm almost finished with your guide, I skipped ahead and already installed CS and all the bells and whistles that come with it, I have environmentals set up, probably tomorrow I'll start on patching stuff and then test run DynDOLOD, since I have a lot of artifact when walking around.

 

But I can't seem to find any mod that deals with water surfaces. I still have vanilla water and if anything, CS only exposes how ugly it is, not to mention I have seams here and there. Fortified Morthal with the overhauled swamp around it is especially bad in this regard. Swimming underwater is like flying through clear air, there is no shader of any kind under water surface at all. Water Effects CS requires a compatible water surface mod, but I don't see anything related to it., except for one Skyland Watercolor plugin (I selected Slow Green-vanilla). Am I missing something?

Edited November 5, 2025 by belegost

[PubliusNV]

I'm down to the Patches section. Does the "Gods and Worship - Daedric Shrines" entry refer to the "Patch - Daedric Shrines All-in-One" download on the Gods and Worship mod download page? Because when I install that it has a requirement for the man_DaerdricShrines.esp, which I don't have. 

[PubliusNV]

While continuing through Patches, The instructions for the FOMOD for YOT - Your Own Thoughts say to select Skyrim Wayshrines on page 3, and Quaint Raven Rock on page 4. I don't believe either of those mods are included in this list.

 

Also, the instructions don't mention that on page 5 Project AHO, Interesting NPCs, and Carved Brink will be autoselected. As is Growl on page 6.

 

Also, selecting Moonlight Tales on page 3 generates an ESP that requires Moonlight Tales Special Edition.esp, where following the guide we have Moonlight Tales Mini.esp instead.

Edited November 5, 2025 by PubliusNV
Add mention of Moonlight Tales

[PubliusNV]

The link for Redbag's Falkreath - Half-Moon Mill Patches goes to Redbag's Falkreath - Half-Moon Mill Addon, which we already installed earlier in the list. There's only that one file there for download. Is the link incorrect? 

[trgdolors]

5 hours ago, belegost said:

But I can't seem to find any mod that deals with water surfaces. 

This guide uses Natural Waterfalls. In that FOMOD there is a "Water Overhaul". It is a little obscure, but I believe that is still the water mod being used. I am still using Simplicity of Sea from long ago, but I am only partially using the current guide, ATM.

[Aylis]

@belegost

Check 'Natural Waterfalls' the parts for water are in there.

 

@PubliusNV

1. They changed the patch. Before it was a replacement, now it looks like we need the original again...

 

(Re)Checking...

Spoiler

Daedric Shrines AIO

Daedric Shrines AIO - FIXES

Daedric Shrines AIO - JK's College of Winterhold patch

Daedric Shrines AIO - CC Gallows Hall

Daedric Shrines AIO - Hearthfire Shrines

Daedric Shrines AIO - HSPH - Honeyside

 

2. Already mentioned. WIll update that when my screen isn't sitting on a bunch of moving carton anymore.

 

3. Both links are fine and lead to the patch page. 

Edited November 5, 2025 by Aylis

[YuFeng]

2 hours ago, Aylis said:

3. Both links are fine and lead to the patch page.

 

They do, but the patch file has been integrated into the main file and isn't a separate download anymore.

[Aylis]

5 hours ago, YuFeng said:

 

They do, but the patch file has been integrated into the main file and isn't a separate download anymore.

Ok

 

Guess there will be a hotfix in the next two days. I need my desk! Atm everything is wobbling...

__________________________________________________

 

And the transport guys managed to wreck my desk. <insert curse of your choice here> Now I have to order a new one.

 

To be tested

Spoiler

SOFTBODY - More perfect physical collision of the body

XP32 True Ragdoll Physics

Bigger XPMSSE Skeleton Collision Bounds

Better Dragon Breath

Better and Realistic Dragon Melee

Bookcases (BOS)

Common Cupboards Dressers and End Tables (BOS)

Noble Chests (BOS)

Noble Chests (BOS) - JS Patch

Noble Cupboards (BOS)

 

Edited November 5, 2025 by Aylis