guide Skyrim AE for Beginners - V 3.1.0

[Aylis]

@markvarley

Try using the texture from 'Parthurnax replacer' or '4k plus for Parthurnax and Alduin and All Dragons'.

 

I havn't gotten to him yet, so i can't test the textures atm.

[markvarley]

17 minutes ago, Aylis said:

@markvarley

Try using the texture from 'Parthurnax replacer' or '4k plus for Parthurnax and Alduin and All Dragons'.

 

I havn't gotten to him yet, so i can't test the textures atm.

Thanks @Aylis, I've noticed a couple of other wonky dragons but Paarthurnax is the first I've looked at for long enough for it to bother me ?

[skyskin216]

Happy Little Shrubs

There are 2 options, one just says Happy Little Shrubs, the other says Happy Little Shrubs - Base Object Swapper Version.

I am assuming the BOS version since we are using BOS, is that correct?

[Aylis]

11 minutes ago, skyskin216 said:

I am assuming the BOS version since we are using BOS, is that correct?

Both will work. But i guess the BOS version (which i also used) gives a better coverage.

 

@All

Again, if you have questions ask in this thread and not in a PM. 

1. I'm constantly juggling with mods. So it can be hours or even days before i even see the question.

2. Timezones are nasty. The furthest users i had so far were from Hawaii, Japan, and Australia (aka quite a few hours difference) 

3. English is not my native language. So there will be cases where i simply can't answer a question 'cause i hit the language-barrier. Ask here and someone will surely help. 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Aylis

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone that has helped me on my journey.  I'm about to test the game at length without running lod to save time for now. 

 

Quick question about bodyslide files.  I ran all of my own bodyslide files. I suppose I am asking what the predone files are for if I run my own.  2nd, if I want to use them, I don't know what to do with them.  Where do I load them?  

 

Most important question - I cannot get the muscle maps to show in game.  I even loaded an older file I used in vortex and it doesn't add the muscle map.  May have loaded the BnP RBT version incorrectly.  Not sure.  Thanks, T.

[Guest]

Some suggestions for mods I enjoy.  Makes combat and encounters more frequent and challenging.

 

Arena - An Encounter Zone Overhaul at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

 

Locational Encounter Zones at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

 

Hand placed enemies - Light (Populated spawns and dungeons) at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

 

Enemy (R)evolution - Expanded at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

 

Enemy (R)Evolution of Skyrim - EEOS - Spell Perk Item Distributor Addon at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

[Kurahkjo]

Hello guys,

 

Im stuck at the Final part.

When i trying to install "FNIS" i get an error code with "The content of <data> does not look valid." (Screen 1)

After i ignore it it looks like (Screen2).

When i installed the FNIS creature pack und started the FNIS tool "Generate FNIS for Users" it cant find the installed creature pack.

What can i do?

[misterpipes]

46 minutes ago, Kurahkjo said:

"The content of <data> does not look valid."

Remove the existing FNIS Behavior, and reinstall. When you see the message box you posted, expand "FNIS Behavior SE 7.6", it will reveal another data directory. Right click the new Data directory, select "Set as <data> directory". The red outline wil change to green, and you can hit OK to install it properly

[BlueInkAlchemist]

Planning to rebuild my mod list and start a new game after a long break.

Has anyone tested Bards Reborn or Skyrim's Got Talent in the list? I'd love to do a proper-feeling bard playthrough.

[Jessica_Degurechaff]

6 hours ago, Aylis said:

@Jessica_Degurechaff

How the heck did you manage to do that?

 

Even with all my testmods installed i got at least fifty free slots for mods with ESM/ESP and more than a thousand for ESL available.

_________________________________________________

 

Not sure if this was intended by the OA of 'Unique Border Gates'. We're not in Skyrim anymore...

  Reveal hidden contents

But it is interesting to see how far beyond the gaming area Bethesda placed vegetation. It is almost as if they wanted to add more but ran out of time.

A good amount of the mods that i want to install have multiple esp/esms as they add quite a lot of stuff.

 

Its mostly mods from here LL because (as i mentioned) i rely on your guide for the visuals/quality of life/sound.

 

For example just for installing tera elin race remastered i need at the very least 10 slots, 3 for the race, 7 for the requirements and if i can 1-2 extras for makeup and stuff for that race.

[Jessica_Degurechaff]

6 hours ago, misterpipes said:

Spoilered due to me making a wall of text. Maybe this will help you.
 

  Hide contents

I feeling reasonably confident today, so I'll try and explain how I go about this (I'll try to keep any mods I list here ESPs that can't be ESLified). I'm currently at 246 ESM/ESP. Going to presume you are making a personal custom modlist. Some of this isn't suitable for a modlist for others. I do use the optional Legacy of the Dragonborn mod (because it basically does what I do every playthough anyway).

 

1. I'm way more aggressive on ESLifying stuff than Aylis is, and run this script againist the modlist quite regularly. There might be things broken, but I haven't noticed them yet.

 

2. xEdit has an option to "Renumber FormIDs". This should only be used sparingly and with care. You won't be able to update mods you do this to mid playthrough. I mostly use it on weapon and armour mods I add to my personal modlist that tools claim can't be ESLified, because they start thier form numbers to high (techical: an ESP can't be ESL if it has more than 4096 FormIDs, or if its FormIDs are higher than 4096). Do not do this to any mod that has anything depending on it, the things depending on it will break. I also don't run it on anything with scripts more complex than dialogs.

 

3. I've managed to avoid this so far, but you can also merge plugins.

 

4. Sections

SKSE: same as Aylis' list (except for the extras I throw in). There probably aren't any slots to save here.

Foundation: same as Aylis' list (this is the bit that makes Skyrim beautiful)

UI: is usually the same (I sometimes disable ACMOS for a paper map instead)
World Expansion: Currently the same as Aylis. Although if I was to drop anything it would be those places I don't visit often/for long that can't be ESLified (Better Tel Mithryn, Skaal Fishing Camp, Skaal Village Overhaul, and Capital Windhelm Expansion (because I still get disappearing textures around the palace entrance))

Housing: I basically considor this entire section optional (well, except Breezehome). While I am currently using most of them (to see if I like them) I could save 6 ESPs here. And I considor any player housing not close to vendors as a bit of a waste (yes, Tel Jerdain and Tale, I'm talking about you, also (from CC) Hendraheim, Myrwatch, Bloodchill Manor, Dead Man's Dread, Nchuanthumz)
PC: same as Aylis' (I have a few extras in there, that are required from others mods I use), but this is mostly about making the game look better. Also alot of stuff below this kinda depends on this section.
Physics and Animation: same as Aylis', except I'm a sucker for animation packs so have even more stuff for OAR (16 more mods, but generally these are meshes only.)

Armour and Weapons: current playthrough I'm pretty close to Aylis' list, however if you don't mind vanilla armours, you can save a decent number of ESPs here. I have an additional, um, 50 mods here, but most of those extras have been run though steps 2 and 1, so with the exception of Bikini armours, they are all ESLed.
Gameplay: I just drop stuff that either breaks/clashes with with my mods, or I just don't like (Book of Shadows, CACO, Evolution, in my case. I'm giving serious thought to dropping Andromeda (just kinda don't care about standing stones effect).
NPC: I can't remember how many non-ESL ESPs where in this section originally, but after running ESLify script againist it, its only 5.

Companions: I have none. Mostly because I never use companions (because I like big AoE damage, so they tend to die. Makes a change from FO4, where I don't use them because they are trying get me killed...)

Creatures: same as NPCs. I have dropped Storm Golems (because I'm not sure if the mod author realises that dropping a level ~36-48 spellcaster into a level 8 encounter zone is a bit annoying) and Mimics (I know that chest there is a mimic, but apparently its immune to all damage until I trigger it? Just no, dude.)

Weather and Lighting: Mostly unchanged. (Changes I made are either additional patches for the various Lux components or dropping stuff that annoys the heck out of me)

Sound: Unchanged

Body: Theres only one ESP and its already ESL, so no need to change anything. It's also the mod that distributes more than one body shape

Sex Mods: I have some deviation from Alyis' list here. Sexlab PPlus replaced with Sexlab Anim Searcher (I had some issues with PPlus and another mod I added, but I'm hopeful that will get resolved in future PPlus releases because I really like it). I am probably going to drop fertility mode, because I barely interact with it.

Sex Mods Extras: this is where I've put everything else I run that isn't in Aylis' list. Brief sampling of ~54 (thats not counting voice packs and NPC overhauls) additional mods here: Devious Deivces, The Ancient Profession, Laura's Bondage Shop, Amorous Adventures, SL Confabulation, SL Solutions, FHU Baka, Paradise Halls, Devious Lore, more animation packs (I'm currently at around 900 human, 600 creature, sexlab animations). This section makes up the bulk of added mods that can't be ESLed.

World and Quests: alot of these don't have ESPs anyway, I've not really changed anything here, except where something isn't required because I removed something further up (MO2s missing masters warning will help with that)

Patches: Same as World and Quests.

Extras: I have an entire new section, which is where I put mostly non-sex mod additions or stuff I'm testing. Currently 87 additional mods here. They all have part 1. (and 2., where applicable) run on them.

Final: Unchanged. These are pretty much required.

Currently this leaves me with:

 

YES! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!

thank you so much, its weird that the we reached the same conclusion and copied 1-1 up to Physics and animations and started to add changes (besides extras) from there on

[Guest]

2 hours ago, BlueInkAlchemist said:

Planning to rebuild my mod list and start a new game after a long break.

Has anyone tested Bards Reborn or Skyrim's Got Talent in the list? I'd love to do a proper-feeling bard playthrough.

I've used Skyrim's Got Talent for a while.  Very enjoyable.  This was on my Vortex build though.  Worked without issue for me.  

 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, markvarley said:

Well, this is what happened after running DynDOLOD:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

Managed to fix that:

 

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Next problem, whats up with you Paarthurnax?!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

When you have time, I am very interested to learn how you resolved your Dyndolod issue.  My maps have been turning out the sane way on my other computer.  I had only read Bash was an issue with its latest release. Thank you.  

[trgdolors]

11 hours ago, misterpipes said:

I'm way more aggressive on ESLifying stuff than Aylis is, and run this script againist the modlist quite regularly. There might be things broken, but I haven't noticed them yet.

So I am curious why you use the Ruddy88 ESLify mod instead of ESPFE Follower - Eslify facegen and voices? Does it work better for you? I used to use Ruddy88, but now I use ESPFE Follower and have had a lot of success on my current large, experimental load order.

 

It does some checks before it lets you compact and ESL a mod. It is certainly not perfect. I have had a few issues with mods that have audio. But mostly it has been pretty good.

 

@Miss Tee In that short list you posted, I use Arena and Enemy (R)Evolution of Skyrim - EEOS. They are excellent.

Edited July 24, 2023 by trgdolors

[wollboi]

Today I learned it is possible to make a potion so powerful it crashes the game.

[misterpipes]

5 hours ago, trgdolors said:

So I am curious why you use the Ruddy88 ESLify mod instead of ESPFE Follower - Eslify facegen and voices? Does it work better for you?

1. The most important reason: I hadn't come across ESPFE Follower before now.

2. Ruddy88 works for both Skyrim SE and Fallout 4.
3. Having looked, I'm not sure that ESPFE Follower is just an ESLifier. Given the manual steps involved (needing to unpack the BSA for some mods) it looks more like a an ESLifier and formID compactor (further reading, yes its a formID compactor as well). That makes it a different tool to Ruddy88s. It also makes it a tool you can't use at any time, only on first install of a mod or before starting a new game.

 

I'll give this a test run next time I'm starting a new game, since I already do some formID compacting (mostly based on intuition), to see how many ESPs I can get ESLified. But its not going to replace Ruddy88 ESLify because ESLify can a) handle the easy to ESLify mods and b) is going to be hanging around for FO4 anyway, so might as well use if for Skyrim SE anyway.

[misterpipes]

4 hours ago, wollboi said:

Today I learned it is possible to make a potion so powerful it crashes the game.

Wait until you come across enchanted armour so powerful it makes you invulnerable, right up until you take it off, which makes you die instantly. Opps.

[markvarley]

10 hours ago, Miss Tee said:

When you have time, I am very interested to learn how you resolved your Dyndolod issue.  My maps have been turning out the sane way on my other computer.  I had only read Bash was an issue with its latest release. Thank you.  

@Miss Tee I only needed to re-run Step 4 from @Aylis instructions, in a bid to understand what was happening I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, mostly on dyndolod.info, the only thing I did differently is some settings here:

(Bottom row, Quality 2>3, Quality 10>8)

To be clear on the process, after each step I zip the results and install it as a mod before moving on to the next step, (one of the DynDOLOD files from @Aylis mod list needs to be removed for step 4 "SSE Terrain Tamriel Extend").

I presume I messed-up somewhere initially as I've followed @Aylis guide several times before and not had a problem so I don't think these different settings were the fix, I'm usually doing other work when doing DynDOLOD as it takes so long I try to do it on a work-day not a play-day, and I probably made a mistake somewhere initially, but if you're still having problems I'm happy to go really granular and in-detail as far as I can with you ?

 

[Aylis]

19 hours ago, Miss Tee said:

Quick question about bodyslide files.  I ran all of my own bodyslide files. I suppose I am asking what the predone files are for if I run my own.  2nd, if I want to use them, I don't know what to do with them.  Where do I load them?  

 

Most important question - I cannot get the muscle maps to show in game.  I even loaded an older file I used in vortex and it doesn't add the muscle map.  May have loaded the BnP RBT version incorrectly.  Not sure.  Thanks, T.

They are there so you don't have to run them.

Where they are listed in the guide...

Download - Activate - Done.

 

You have to select those in the FOMOD of RBT.

__________________________________________________

 

And some screenshots...

Spoiler

 

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Aylis

[Guest]

4 hours ago, markvarley said:

@Miss Tee I only needed to re-run Step 4 from @Aylis instructions, in a bid to understand what was happening I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, mostly on dyndolod.info, the only thing I did differently is some settings here:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

(Bottom row, Quality 2>3, Quality 10>8)

To be clear on the process, after each step I zip the results and install it as a mod before moving on to the next step, (one of the DynDOLOD files from @Aylis mod list needs to be removed for step 4 "SSE Terrain Tamriel Extend").

I presume I messed-up somewhere initially as I've followed @Aylis guide several times before and not had a problem so I don't think these different settings were the fix, I'm usually doing other work when doing DynDOLOD as it takes so long I try to do it on a work-day not a play-day, and I probably made a mistake somewhere initially, but if you're still having problems I'm happy to go really granular and in-detail as far as I can with you ?

 

Thank you so much.  I do feel very silly when I can't follow directions but I try my best with Dyndolod.  Let you know how it comes out.  

[Guest]

56 minutes ago, Aylis said:

They are there so you don't have to run them.

Where they are listed in the guide...

Download - Activate - Done.

 

You have to select those in the FOMOD of RBT.

__________________________________________________

 

And some screenshots...

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Thank you.  Your world is simply beautiful.  Gives me strength to keep working on my build.  T

[trgdolors]

5 hours ago, misterpipes said:

Given the manual steps involved (needing to unpack the BSA for some mods) it looks more like a an ESLifier and formID compactor

Yes. And here is a new-ish mod tool to improve the un-compressing over what MO2 provides. Been using for a while and can recommend in general. Worth a look.

 

BSA Extractor 2 for Mod Organizer 2

 

You definitely need to uncompress any BSAs in a mod before you compact and ESL it.

[markvarley]

3 hours ago, Miss Tee said:

Thank you so much.  I do feel very silly when I can't follow directions but I try my best with Dyndolod.  Let you know how it comes out.  

I'm happy to help further if you need it ?(I'm far from an expert here but help where I can)

I had to rerun it again actually as I noticed one of my dyndolod files was missing ?

Good luck ?

[Aylis]

Just found something incredible.

 

Someone actually managed to pull it off and reworked the rocks and mountains. I've been going from Lakeview down to the bridges near Whiterun. Not a single rock or cliff seemed out of place and had the unnaturally sharp angles/corners we're so used to see in Skyrim.

 

Some screenshots

Spoiler

Remember the shots are without DynDOLOD and Beth.ini atm (easier to spot errors this way).

 

And it works nicely in the snowy areas too...

Spoiler

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Aylis

[Saruh007]

The game looks very nice so far, and I only did the foundation and UI so far, by the way, is that the Holycow.esp? LOL

 

Spoiler