Help! Reinstall killed Skyrim!

[ShadowKraz42]

I haven't played Skyrim in months. My mods began to take up too much room on my laptop's memory so I bought an SSD. Reinstalled Skyrim from Steam, tried to roll it back from AE to SE, made sure I had the right SKSE, etc. and nada! It won't progress beyond a weird shot of the cart, no sound, no movement, nothing. I've tried various things suggested and nothing is working.

So... I want to replace everything with my back up of my pre-re-installation SE. I need a good guide that does NOT assume I have any knowledge of what I'm doing and doesn't gloss over or skip any steps (I've tried a bunch of video guides and they suck for this reason). If it can tell me how to get rid of the CC crap I had downloaded (in ignorance when I first started modding) in SE that would be greatly appreciated. Documentation is preferred over videos, please.

[traison]

12 minutes ago, ShadowKraz42 said:

It won't progress beyond a weird shot of the cart

 

What does this mean? CTD? Get a crash logger if so.

 

12 minutes ago, ShadowKraz42 said:

I want to replace everything with my back up

 

What does this backup contain? If its the entire Skyrim directory then simply delete the existing directory and slap in your backup in its place. Everything will go on working as it did in the backup; until Bethesda pushes another update and Steam bricks your setup again (there's lots of guides for this on Google).

[Lyreal]

Why do you roll it back from AE to SE? Where is the problem with AE (with or without the DLCs)?

 

Engine Fixes, BugFixes, etc, are installed?

 

Which mods are you using? Some can break the cart scene.

 

The DLCs are created for the most recent SKyrim version, any older version will create only troubles.

To remove the DLCs just delete the DLC files in your Data folder. Better don't deleting the free DLCs, that can break your game too.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Lyreal

[Just Don't]

A bit of self-promotion, but it's also in one of the pinned threads.

 

I wouldn't downgrade nowadays. Especially if you're going for a clean install. Regardless of the version you have you a) can add or remove as many CC things as you like (well, the 4 free ones are often used by other mods so it's best to keep these, you can ignore these entirely or use mods to overhaul/cut content instead) and b) you will need to keep an eye on certain mods for compatibility. The thing is if you downgrade now you'll be using a version that was released years ago and since then new mods have been made and released, some of them not compatible. And for future releases this trend will only increase. The best approach to game updates has always been to avoid automatic updates, but also to move on to the latest version after a few weeks/months to stay in a version that is relevant for the whole modding scene.

[ttts1]

2 hours ago, Just Don't said:

I wouldn't downgrade nowadays. Especially if you're going for a clean install.

I agree with this.  I stayed on SE for a long time, but a few weeks ago I need to do a clean install and switched to AE.  I have had no issues with the update. 

 

If you do move to AE, I would recommend using the compatibility thread for links to updated mods.  Some mods aren't clear on the version and the compatibility thread links will take you to the correct version.  

 

2 hours ago, Just Don't said:

A bit of self-promotion, but it's also in one of the pinned threads.

 

Just Don't guide is amazing.  Easily of the the best guides I've seen for anything, not just Skyrim modding. 

 

Even though I have build large mod lists starting from a clean install 5 or 6 times in the past 2 years or so, I still use that guide every time as a reminder to get started.  Otherwise I will usually forget some base mod like JContainers or something. 

[ShadowKraz42]

22 hours ago, traison said:

 

What does this mean? CTD? Get a crash logger if so.

 

 

What does this backup contain? If its the entire Skyrim directory then simply delete the existing directory and slap in your backup in its place. Everything will go on working as it did in the backup; until Bethesda pushes another update and Steam bricks your setup again (there's lots of guides for this on Google).

Not a CTD but a freeze. I even waited ten minutes thinking things were 'sorting out' in the background so to speak because my SSD's light was blinking but it stopped about a minute in and the game remained on that frozen view.
My backup is exactly what I had before the re-install; all the files, manifests, etc. even have the backups of all the files not from Nexus. I'd like to get rid of the CCcrap it has, one in particular as it conflicts with a player home mod I really like.

[ShadowKraz42]

So... what I'm taking from all of these comments is that I'll have to find a way to get AE working at the cost of mods I like and having a bunch of crap from CC that I don't want like fishing. Fishing, BFD... like my Khajiit needs to use a pole to catch fish.

[ShadowKraz42]

21 hours ago, Just Don't said:

A bit of self-promotion, but it's also in one of the pinned threads.

 

I wouldn't downgrade nowadays. Especially if you're going for a clean install. Regardless of the version you have you a) can add or remove as many CC things as you like (well, the 4 free ones are often used by other mods so it's best to keep these, you can ignore these entirely or use mods to overhaul/cut content instead) and b) you will need to keep an eye on certain mods for compatibility. The thing is if you downgrade now you'll be using a version that was released years ago and since then new mods have been made and released, some of them not compatible. And for future releases this trend will only increase. The best approach to game updates has always been to avoid automatic updates, but also to move on to the latest version after a few weeks/months to stay in a version that is relevant for the whole modding scene.

Thank you. I'll check out your self-promotion (lol, I like brazen honesty).

This whole thing pisses me off as I had a very stable, 300+ mod load order go up in smoke. Well... I guess I have to do that work all over again...

Addendum: I just started reading your guide... one problem, I use Vortex and hate trying to use video guides. Most of them, even the ones touted as being 'the best', tend to skip or gloss over steps or knowledge. I'll see what I can do though. Again, thank you.

Edited July 23, 2023 by ShadowKraz42
New information

[Just Don't]

8 hours ago, ShadowKraz42 said:

Addendum: I just started reading your guide... one problem, I use Vortex and hate trying to use video guides. Most of them, even the ones touted as being 'the best', tend to skip or gloss over steps or knowledge. I'll see what I can do though. Again, thank you.

Oh that's too bad. I have no idea nor interest in Vortex so that's unknown territory to me. You could still benefit from the recommended modlist and check the comments about game/skse/mods version in that step as well as the first step about the game install. Anything else is just learning to use your mod manager so that's a task for you and the Vortex tutorials.

 

8 hours ago, ShadowKraz42 said:

So... what I'm taking from all of these comments is that I'll have to find a way to get AE working at the cost of mods I like and having a bunch of crap from CC that I don't want like fishing. Fishing, BFD... like my Khajiit needs to use a pole to catch fish.

Not really. The 4 free CC add fishing and some quests but also a bunch of assets other mods may want to use that have nothing to do with fishing or the CC quests directly. You can simply ignore fishing or use a mod to cut that content without actually removing the CC files (which would create issues if other mods rely on these plugins).

Also 300 mods isn't that much. I doubt 1/3 of these contain a dll to worry about versions too much. That's the only thing that requires the special care for executable/SKSE versions really. So recreating that +300 modlist on the latest version should be easy. And maintaining it should be way easier than staying on 1.5.97 for the reasons I mentioned before. That's it if you learn about when to look for version specific compatibility and to get the proper mods for your game.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Just Don't

[ttts1]

21 hours ago, ShadowKraz42 said:

So... what I'm taking from all of these comments is that I'll have to find a way to get AE working at the cost of mods I like and having a bunch of crap from CC that I don't want like fishing.

 

I don't think you will lose many mods by switching.  I didn't have a single mod I lost in the transition to AE.  There may be some older mods that are no longer supported that are incompatible, but I find at lot of those older mods had issues on SE as well since they hadn't been updated as SE progressed. 

 

Regarding the CC stuff that comes with the update:  I really haven't noticed anything other than the fishing stuff.  It's just some new fish in various locations, a few spots near water with fishing gear laying around, and an optional quest in the Riften Fishery (?).  My thoughts on that:

 

- new fish:  good.  Some of them give more alchemy options.  Others can be cooked for new foods, but I don't bother with cooking. 

- fishing gear:  I don't fish.  But the fishing gear laying in various locations is fine.  It's in places that make sense and actually adds some immersion.  They don't have grocery stores in Skyrim, of course people are going to fish for food.  The game already has hunters and farmers. 

- quest:  you can ignore if, but it's just collecting some fish.  There's a Steam guide for locations if you want to try.

[Aylis]

Quote

I can only recommend to put each DLC into its own mod folder. This way you can decide for yourself if you want to use it or not.

 

For this we need the mod 'Curation Club'. I linked to its instructions and once it is installed and you've run it all CC are stored separately from each other and the game in their own folder.

CCC - Fishing - Reduced Cut

[ShadowKraz42]

Well. the whole thing became a moot point. After I re-placed AE with my backup SE, it somehow got borked up with zero mods aside from SKSE. I suspect I missed a folder somewhere.
So, after considering advice from here and a couple other folks , I re-installed to AE.

Had a couple of issues with Nemesis and XPMSE and for some reason that seems to have cleared up, I could save, but loading a save at any point caused a CTD. Like I say, that seems to have cleared up, but I'm keeping an eye on it.

So, slowly adding mods back in, checking for issues. I probably won't hit the same number of mods for quite awhile as I'm dumping some that have just been taking up space. I really don't need 13 player homes, f'rinstance...

SexLab on the other hand.. LOL.
 

Thank you to everyone who responded.

[ShadowKraz42]

On 7/26/2023 at 4:29 PM, Aylis said:

CCC - Fishing - Reduced Cut

Thank you! I may use Curation Club; downloading it just in case I decide to go that route.

EDIT: a couple of minutes later... uh, I see it specifies MO2 which I don't use, does it work with Vortex?

Edited July 29, 2023 by ShadowKraz42
New info

[Just Don't]

15 minutes ago, ShadowKraz42 said:

EDIT: a couple of minutes later... uh, I see it specifies MO2 which I don't use, does it work with Vortex?

No. That's a plugin specifically made for MO2. You can achieve the same result by going to your install of the game and removing the CC files from /Data. You should add said files as a mod to be managed by Vortex (easiest way would be zip the CC files, making one zip file for each CC would be ideal, example the fishing one is composed of a ccBGSSSE001-Fish.bsa and the ccBGSSSE001-Fish.esm, other CC files are also a BSA and a ESM or ESL file with the same name). That way you'll be able to individually enable or disable each CC in Vortex.

[ttts1]

1 hour ago, ShadowKraz42 said:

Thank you! I may use Curation Club; downloading it just in case I decide to go that route.

EDIT: a couple of minutes later... uh, I see it specifies MO2 which I don't use, does it work with Vortex?

 

Since that mod just removes the quest line from the mod, here are two alternatives:

 

1) an alternative would be just using the console commands to instantly complete the quests.  Each quest ID is on UESP wiki, search "Swims-in-deep-water" which is the name of the Argonian quest giver.  The quests are all under "related quests" to get the ID. 

 

2) if you have AddItem, you can just add the fish and turn them in.  There is one quest were adding a hat won't work, so you need to console complete that one. 

 

Both methods are pretty quick if you don't want to mess with the mod files.

 

[ShadowKraz42]

On 7/29/2023 at 1:43 PM, Just Don't said:

No. That's a plugin specifically made for MO2. You can achieve the same result by going to your install of the game and removing the CC files from /Data. You should add said files as a mod to be managed by Vortex (easiest way would be zip the CC files, making one zip file for each CC would be ideal, example the fishing one is composed of a ccBGSSSE001-Fish.bsa and the ccBGSSSE001-Fish.esm, other CC files are also a BSA and a ESM or ESL file with the same name). That way you'll be able to individually enable or disable each CC in Vortex.

Thank you! I haven't tried to install Curation Club yet so thanks for the heads up. For the moment I'm just not interacting with these mods as I'm still re-building and t3esting my mod list.
BTW, you wouldn't happen to know if there is a guide to using SexLab Framework with AE and Nemesis would you? I can't seem to find one.

[Just Don't]

4 hours ago, ShadowKraz42 said:

BTW, you wouldn't happen to know if there is a guide to using SexLab Framework with AE and Nemesis would you? I can't seem to find one.

Not really. If you use Vortex just refer to any video/written tutorial about how to use Vortex+program, like how to use Vortex and Nemesis, or Vortex and Bodyslide, or Vortex and FNIS, or whatever combination of programs you want. I doubt you'll find a specific step by step on how to install and use the exact combination of mods and programs you want.

A few comments though, Nemesis works fine for humanoid animations but doesn't support creatures, so you must use FNIS for that. Guides about how to get FNIS+Nemesis working have been around for a while now (there are a couple of threads on this forum, and a guide on the Nexus). And Sexlab Framework like any mod with a SKSE plugin (dll) must match your exact game version as well as your installed SKSE version. I hope you already know how to check for these versions and what to look for in mods to confirm you're using the correct ones. If not the steps I already mentioned from my guide have the basic gist of it and that part at least applies to any mod manager since it's just you checking for some Steam files and then individual mod files. Best of lucks.

[ShadowKraz42]

On 8/2/2023 at 2:02 PM, Just Don't said:

Not really. If you use Vortex just refer to any video/written tutorial about how to use Vortex+program, like how to use Vortex and Nemesis, or Vortex and Bodyslide, or Vortex and FNIS, or whatever combination of programs you want. I doubt you'll find a specific step by step on how to install and use the exact combination of mods and programs you want.

A few comments though, Nemesis works fine for humanoid animations but doesn't support creatures, so you must use FNIS for that. Guides about how to get FNIS+Nemesis working have been around for a while now (there are a couple of threads on this forum, and a guide on the Nexus). And Sexlab Framework like any mod with a SKSE plugin (dll) must match your exact game version as well as your installed SKSE version. I hope you already know how to check for these versions and what to look for in mods to confirm you're using the correct ones. If not the steps I already mentioned from my guide have the basic gist of it and that part at least applies to any mod manager since it's just you checking for some Steam files and then individual mod files. Best of lucks.

Thank you. Before my ID:10T errors killed my SE and the re-install (fixed now, yay!), I had a NSFW profile running FNIS and had multiple issues. I finally completely wiped FNIS (including that profile and all its saves) off my computer and installed Nemesis. I had exactly zero issues running a NSFW game. And, since I'm not interested in ... uh ... 'special' creature behaviours I don't think I'll need it.
My real issue is that I've followed instructions to the letter on using Nemesis to use behaviours and animations from FNIS-'dependent' mods without FNIS by creating a FNISData.esp. It worked before (see previous paragraph) but now Nemesis is not generating the FNISData esp. This is the procedure I used:

 

Using Nemesis to run FNIS mods.

1- install Nemesis.

2- DO NOT install FNIS. If you have, un-install it fully according to the mod page rules. It’s long and annoying and painful but you gotta do it.

3- Install a mod like FNIS sexy move but not any other FNIS mods. Enable and deploy.

4- Run Nemesis. Build the database and register animations.

5- Deploy your mods again.

6- if the FNIS Data .esp has not been auto created, run Nemesis again. Sometimes it takes 2-3 tries

Edited August 4, 2023 by ShadowKraz42
hasty typing

[Just Don't]

FNISData.esp? Nemesis creates an empty FNIS.esp with every successful run so mods looking for that plugin don't complain about missing requirements. Never seen a FNISData.esp. maybe you are mixing it with "FNIS Data", the folder/mod Vortex creates from all the files FNIS outputs after you run it. The important bit is the plugin, not the mod or folder name, so check if the esp is being created.

Nemesis creates its own set of files on top of the plugin. As long as you're running Nemesis and it runs successfully you shouldn't have any problems (when Nemesis fails you'll clearly see a warning or error line in the program that shows the progress). Wherever the files end up is up to how you run Nemesis, so better refer to Vortex specific instructions.

[ShadowKraz42]

1 hour ago, Just Don't said:

FNISData.esp? Nemesis creates an empty FNIS.esp with every successful run so mods looking for that plugin don't complain about missing requirements. Never seen a FNISData.esp. maybe you are mixing it with "FNIS Data", the folder/mod Vortex creates from all the files FNIS outputs after you run it. The important bit is the plugin, not the mod or folder name, so check if the esp is being created.

Nemesis creates its own set of files on top of the plugin. As long as you're running Nemesis and it runs successfully you shouldn't have any problems (when Nemesis fails you'll clearly see a warning or error line in the program that shows the progress). Wherever the files end up is up to how you run Nemesis, so better refer to Vortex specific instructions.

My bad, sorry. The person I got the process from mistyped it in the DM they sent me and then immediately told me it should have been FNIS.esp. I just never corrected it when I transferred it to text and my brainthingy can be obstinate at times . Yes, I have been checking my plug-ins, not the data file, for FNIS.esp; heck, anything FNIS other than Sexy Moves' plug-in. Again, sorry.

I tried again a few minutes ago, but no plug-in generated.

[Just Don't]

If it's generated once it should remain in your loadorder until you remove/reinstall Nemesis and its files. You could also pack the FNIS.esp that is generated once into the main Nemesis install or a separate mod and enable it in Vortex. You don't need to wait for Nemesis to generate a new one with each run.

But if it's really not generating that plugin when it's not already present in your game files/mod manager then that could be a symptom of something else failing to work between Nemesis and Vortex.