New to SE and need a little help.

[Nazguli Tyvek]

I've been using Skyrim LE since the beginning, I've clocked over 6k hours, went through hundreds of mods, and I really haven't had that many issues with it. I've had the occasional crash and I've worked through most of it however I was interested in giving SE a try since apparently, I already have it however, I never used it or set it up. Now, after downloading and installing the game and going through the basic mods to get started I began to notice that although I have SE apparently, it may be considered AE since I started the instillation process so late. Does that mean that specific mods unique to SE won't work? I'm asking because I was trying to set up a mod for a first-person view that could be played during a sexlab scene. I'm already using one for LE however people are saying that similar mod for SE is broken for the most recent SE version because apparently is considered AE? This may be a stupid question but, how do I know if I'm using AE or SE? The steam game directory/title says it's SE, but I needed to download versions of mods made for AE to get it working. Does anyone know of a first-person mod that works for Skyrim AE (if that's what I need)? Modding SE with its game versions and incompatible mods is proving to be a little more challenging than LE. Any help would be appreciated. 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Nazguli Tyvek

[Guest]

moved to Skyrim SE section.

[Just Don't]

Here we go again.

 

The game is still listed as Special Edition in your Steam account, install folders and such. There's a paid AE DLC which contains the full CC (Creation Club) pack. Unless you purposedly buy that on top of Special Edition you'll only have access to 4 free CC (fishing, rare curios, Saint & Seducers and survival mode) that came with the 1.6 update. Now here the thing, Skyrim SE has been receiving updates since its release (2016-2023), this "1.6" I mention is like any other update, it changes the game executable so a new SKSE must be released (and then some SKSE plugins, aka mods with a DLL file, must be updated for this new executable/SKSE version too) for compatibility reasons. What happens is people were already settled with the executable version prior to all the AE updates (around nov 2021), so newer updates broke compatibility and caused a lot of confussion among people who don't understand the full picture about mod compatibility (like I said, these newer updates had the exact same effect as any other update since 2016, or even during the 2011-2013 days for Skyrim LE).

 

Nowadays the recommendation is to downgrade your game to 1.5.97 (last version before all the AE stuff) and find mods for that version and avoid updates, or stay on the current version, find mods for that version and also avoid updates. Whicever you chose, you'll have to look for compatibility if the mod contains a DLL (all other file types are roughly the same or didn't change at all with AE). Note that some DLL mods work regardless of version, while others require very specific versions, and some authors are dropping support for anything but the current version (consider the last update was in January of this year and most if not all major mods already work in the current version).

 

So in short

1. Pick a version to stay on
   1. If you downgrade you'll have to use the Unofficial downgrade patch (on nexus) and some old Unofficial patch (USSEP) version because the latest ones also cover and require the 4 free CC. You'll also need to use DLL mods made for 1.5.97.
   2. If you stay on the current version (to know which one you have you need to check the Details tab in the Properties of your SkyrimSE.exe, wherever you have your game installed) you'll need to use the current/latest version of the USSEP and pretty much any mod. Mods with a DLL are usually released with full compatibility or for 1.6+, or for a specific 1.6 version. Whenever you go to install a game inspecit its content and see if there's any dll file/read the description or file info in search of any executable or SKSE versions.
2. Avoid Steam updates (something you should always do for any game you care enough to mod). Find Skyrim SE in your Steam library, open Properties, go to the Updates tab and set Automatic updates to "only update this game when I launch it", since you'll be using the SKSE executable and not the vanilla executables to launch the game any pending updates won't trigger. Just make sure Steam is already opened before you try to launch the game.
3. Read, check requirements, compatibility, etc. as usual. You can save a lot of time finding compatibility info by using dedicated threads to listing comaptible mods (check blue links in my description).

First person mod recommendation: Improved Camera (on nexus).

[Nazguli Tyvek]

41 minutes ago, Just Don't said:

Here we go again.

 

The game is still listed as Special Edition in your Steam account, install folders and such. There's a paid AE DLC which contains the full CC (Creation Club) pack. Unless you purposedly buy that on top of Special Edition you'll only have access to 4 free CC (fishing, rare curios, Saint & Seducers and survival mode) that came with the 1.6 update. Now here the thing, Skyrim SE has been receiving updates since its release (2016-2023), this "1.6" I mention is like any other update, it changes the game executable so a new SKSE must be released (and then some SKSE plugins, aka mods with a DLL file, must be updated for this new executable/SKSE version too) for compatibility reasons. What happens is people were already settled with the executable version prior to all the AE updates (around nov 2021), so newer updates broke compatibility and caused a lot of confussion among people who don't understand the full picture about mod compatibility (like I said, these newer updates had the exact same effect as any other update since 2016, or even during the 2011-2013 days for Skyrim LE).

 

Nowadays the recommendation is to downgrade your game to 1.5.97 (last version before all the AE stuff) and find mods for that version and avoid updates, or stay on the current version, find mods for that version and also avoid updates. Whicever you chose, you'll have to look for compatibility if the mod contains a DLL (all other file types are roughly the same or didn't change at all with AE). Note that some DLL mods work regardless of version, while others require very specific versions, and some authors are dropping support for anything but the current version (consider the last update was in January of this year and most if not all major mods already work in the current version).

 

So in short

1. Pick a version to stay on
   1. If you downgrade you'll have to use the Unofficial downgrade patch (on nexus) and some old Unofficial patch (USSEP) version because the latest ones also cover and require the 4 free CC. You'll also need to use DLL mods made for 1.5.97.
   2. If you stay on the current version (to know which one you have you need to check the Details tab in the Properties of your SkyrimSE.exe, wherever you have your game installed) you'll need to use the current/latest version of the USSEP and pretty much any mod. Mods with a DLL are usually released with full compatibility or for 1.6+, or for a specific 1.6 version. Whenever you go to install a game inspecit its content and see if there's any dll file/read the description or file info in search of any executable or SKSE versions.
2. Avoid Steam updates (something you should always do for any game you care enough to mod). Find Skyrim SE in your Steam library, open Properties, go to the Updates tab and set Automatic updates to "only update this game when I launch it", since you'll be using the SKSE executable and not the vanilla executables to launch the game any pending updates won't trigger. Just make sure Steam is already opened before you try to launch the game.
3. Read, check requirements, compatibility, etc. as usual. You can save a lot of time finding compatibility info by using dedicated threads to listing comaptible mods (check blue links in my description).

First person mod recommendation: Improved Camera (on nexus).

Judging by your "here we go again" I guess this isn't the first time you answered this question ?. Thank you for the kind response and the recommendation. The compatibility tracking will be a big help. Thank you again.