Where to start? (There's so much!)

[Guest]

TL;DR

 

Im having trouble finding where to start with nsfw modding. What dos SLAL do and how would I use those animations? Recommended "starter vanilla" mods to serve as a bare-bones outline so I can branch out?

 

A little backstory:

 

I'm quite new to LL, and the NSFW modding scene in general. I'm not a complete noob when it comes to downloading mods... but I'm not that experienced either. 

 

I've compiled my list of sfw mods that give me an all around polished feel, for me at least, and dabbled with Osex and Flower Girls. But they left a lot to be desired. Which brings me to LL. 

 

(Also I'm doing all of this on the Steam Deck which is surprisingly good at running all of this)

 

Now onto my main issue:

 

There's so much! 

 

Apart from SexLab and its core dependencies... that's as far as I've gotten. 

 

The overwhelming amount of mods, coupled with their own dependencies, with some dependencies having OTHER dependencies, with some of these being strewn across a myriad of SE/AE/LE versions, is kind of overwhelming. 

 

Modding on the Steam Deck is difficult/different, at least for me, and AFAIK it can only be done with Vortex, which I think is less preferred than MO2?

 

I have the base requirements, including SOS, but I just don't know which mod to start with. Plus I'm scared I'm going to uber-fuck my game up with my inexperienced fingers. 

 

Is there a list of recommended starter mods that I can safely install and test around with to get a feeling for SLAL and such and help me branch out to other SexLab mods?

 

I've been browsing LL for a few hours now and with each "Mod Index" and "FAQ" I open up, I just get more confused. xD

 

Any and all help is appreciated. I apologize if I completely missed a thread that answers all my questions. 

 

(Also what is SLAL exactly? I understand that it loads animations into the game, and SexLab kinda let's it do that??? But how does the sex part happen. Lmao. Is it like GUI-esq like OSex?)

[MyNameIsnt]

SexLab is the framework that allows the animations to happen, and the other mods are what trigger the animations. For the most barebones example, Spouses Enhanced will let you/your spouse initiate sex through dialogue once you're married.

 

SLAL is a way to add animations to the SexLab animation registry easily. Much like SexLab, it does nothing on its own but once you install animation packs for it you can click "Register Animations" in the main SLAL menu and it will automatically add them to SexLab. SexLab will never have the fluidity of OSEX but the difference is that SexLab is much easier to hook into when creating quests allowing it to be used for storytelling easily.

 

As far as dependencies, a sizable portion of the more popular mods share dependencies so it's not as bad as it seems initially. Make sure that whatever dependency you're downloading is for the correct version of the game you're modding (ie: don't install regular SexLab mods if you're playing on Special Edition) and you should be good to go.

 

One final note - Vortex works fine now compared to how it was when it first released. The main advantage MO2 has over Vortex is that MO2 creates a file system independent of the game files, so your actual game directory stays clean when removing/adding new files since it doesn't modify the base game's files.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, MyNameIsnt said:

SexLab is the framework that allows the animations to happen, and the other mods are what trigger the animations. For the most barebones example, Spouses Enhanced will let you/your spouse initiate sex through dialogue once you're married.

 

SLAL is a way to add animations to the SexLab animation registry easily. Much like SexLab, it does nothing on its own but once you install animation packs for it you can click "Register Animations" in the main SLAL menu and it will automatically add them to SexLab. SexLab will never have the fluidity of OSEX but the difference is that SexLab is much easier to hook into when creating quests allowing it to be used for storytelling easily.

 

As far as dependencies, a sizable portion of the more popular mods share dependencies so it's not as bad as it seems initially. Make sure that whatever dependency you're downloading is for the correct version of the game you're modding (ie: don't install regular SexLab mods if you're playing on Special Edition) and you should be good to go.

 

One final note - Vortex works fine now compared to how it was when it first released. The main advantage MO2 has over Vortex is that MO2 creates a file system independent of the game files, so your actual game directory stays clean when removing/adding new files since it doesn't modify the base game's files.

Thanks for the reply, I have a better idea of all this now . Quick question: Does SexLab come with any animations to begin with? Or are animations only available through SLAL?

[MyNameIsnt]

SexLab comes with a few default animations if I remember correctly, but SLAL is a way to quickly add new ones to SexLab

[Guest]

1 hour ago, MyNameIsnt said:

SexLab comes with a few default animations

Ah okay  tysm for your help.

 

[heilhobo]

slal anim loader is very simple to use and i'll give you a few tips based on my modding experience

 

If you download a animation pack chances are you'll need slal. So you go to its mcm click enable all and then register. All the anims from all anim packs youve downloaded are now enabled to be selected. If you don't like some of them you can go directly into the pack in the slal mcm by its name and disable that animation. you can find its name by opening sexlabs mcm during the scene and it'll be on the animation editor page(dont need to touch this 99% of case) near the top.

 

Don't override your skeleton except for sos. usually it causes issues i've found. An easy way to tell if your skeleton got fucked and you need to reinstall is if you jump and the boobs kinda stay stationary but also stretch up. it looks super weird, youll know it when you see it

 

disable auto saves completely and disable/dont quick save ever. Those save types jank cuz bethesda code and can fuck with mods causing issues crashing and shit. Before i learned this on le a heavily modded save would last me 10 hours before it crashed too often to be worth playing. First save after that lasted 40 and it only had issues cuz I was a dingus and installed a mod mid playthrough.

 

Try to not install mods mid playthrough. It can cause crashing and issues. Some mods are safe, others will just not load and others will just brick your save entirely. Sometimes even uninstalling the mod your not able to go back to a previous save from before install.

 

Don't uninstall mid playthrough unless the mod is actively breaking your game. At this point you are usually fucked in terms of that save but in rare cases uninstalling the offending mod can fix issues. Check the mods page for uninstall directions and follow those if they have it. no install directions do this. If it has areas or items, remove all of those from inven and leave any area changed by the mod. try to disable the mod in its mcm(if thats an option) then save. load save. If it doesn't crash now that its disabled save. disable the esp/esm in your mod manager. load up the save. if it doesn't crash with esp/esm disabled save. the finally uninstall the mod and try to load the game. If it works, save. you've done it!

 

USE LOOT/A MOD LOAD ORDER SORTER. Alot of issues come from load order pretty easily. Loot auto sorts them and 99% of the time stops those issues.  Rarely you can manually go in and change the order and fix the conflict. make sure you have dependencies lower in the load order than something that uses it. example, sexlab framework below a mod that uses it for animations and such. A few exceptions like live another life that want to be as far up as possible. Usually if a mod is an exception they will tell you/loot will know somehow.

 

When installing mods I've found if i install all 200+ mods I use at once game just crashes, I'm using le so this might not be applicable to se/ae. I install all non sexlab mods and sos as thats a skeleton replacer. load a new game, let the mods load in by waiting for all messages top left corner to go away. save. Then load in sexlab plus its animation packs and devious devices itself(only the base mod) new game again. wait for everything to load. save. install rest of mods. new game and you should be set. If loading up giga number of mods splitting the last step in 2 and installing half and doing it twice might be a good idea.

 

this site has mods for everything, if you have something you like you'll probably find it. Occasionally check le mods or se mods as some are compatible with both games. So if your se you might find a mod in the le download section that is compatible with your game

[Guest]

2 hours ago, heilhobo said:

Don't override your skeleton except for sos. usually it causes issues i've found. An easy way to tell if your skeleton got fucked and you need to reinstall is if you jump and the boobs kinda stay stationary but also stretch up. it looks super weird, youll know it when you see it...

 

Thank you for the information. I didn't know about the automated save feature messing with mods, so I'll look into disabling that and only rely on manual saves from now on just to be safe. 

 

Also wished the bouncing boobs check worked for me lulz

 

I'm into men and don't have any mods modifying females in that way. 

 

AFAIK I've only ever overriden the skeleton from XP32 for SOS and this physics mod (Which I couldn't figure out how to make it work on steamdeck using Vortex anyway so I removed it).

 

While browsing the various mod categories, mods such as Nasty Critters or other skeleton-related mods warn about Skeleton Mods such as XP32 breaking them and to override those files, but then some of them say something like "Wait it is maybe fixed but idk cause I haven't tried". Kind of unhelpful IMHO. 

 

I guess for those mods I'll have to install twice, once overriding XP32 and the other without, and see which one is more broken. 

 

Thank you for taking time to reply to my post.