Just bought a legal version of skyrim. Reinstall?

[wayra]

Hi all! I am pretty new here, just got back into skyrim a week ago. This time, I decided to try out using console commands, creation kits and custom mods. Let me just say that the experience was INCREDIBLE. (maybe, it's because I enjoy playing god a little bit...)

 

Anyway, I just want to say my thanks to all these incredibly talented designers, artists and scripters of these custom mods. I wish steam would allow you guys to sell them. I would definitely want to support them, cuz they are amazing. 

 

So I am thinking about reinstalling the steam version, but configuring all the mods with sexlab was such a big pain and I have no idea if I did everything correctly. Can you guys/gals help me avoid some of the pitfalls?

 

I am thinking I should do these:

1. Install game and dlc, and also the free HD texture DLC
2. Get Nexus manager
3. Download SkSe
4. download Skyui
5. download FNIS
6. Now the question is which body/hair/texture/skeleton mods is most compatible for sexlab? And in which order should I install them by? Do I need to run FNIS everytime I install a mod?

Thank you very much!

 

edit: I just want to say that I have read some of the guides posted such as the "how to waifu" and I read the download instructions. But I don't even know the very basics, for example when I download 2 mods and one ask to replace the others "mesh" or something...

 

some problem i had were  invisible underwear, different hand texture from body...or the arms and buttocks are deformed during animation.

 

[RitualClarity]

 

Anyway, I just want to say my thanks to all these incredibly talented designers, artists and scripters of these custom mods. I wish steam would allow you guys to sell them. I would definitely want to support them, cuz they are amazing.

Yea, I agree with you as well, however you can give them "credit" by clicking the "Like" button on the side of the post.

 

So I am thinking about reinstalling the steam version, but configuring all the mods with sexlab was such a big pain and I have no idea if I did everything correctly. Can you guys/gals help me avoid some of the pitfalls?

For Skylab follow the tutorial by Ark of Truth to help set that up.

 

Get Nexus manager

Not necessary the best choice. Wyre Bash or MO for Skyrim might be the better choice. It would be harder to learn and have a bigger learning curve but with when you learn either of these you should be able to use them for other games such as FO3, FNV and Oblivion. Oblvion being the next obvious choice considering your current use of Skyrim (provided you like it)

 

But I don't even know the very basics, for example when I download 2 mods and one ask to replace the others "mesh" or something...

There are many aspects to modding that you will have to learn. It is a big task but if you like playing "God" nothing else will come close to it. ..

There are textures and Meshes, They can be "loose" or in a "BSA" (fancy name for a zip file the game uses) These are what you see and interact with in game. There are also Sound, ESM and ESP's. ESM and ESP are the codes or rules that the game runs on.

 

Replacing the mesh is like playing with a deck of cards. Each "replace" is overwriting the previous with a newer model. With a mod manager you can remove these "replacements' and be able to reload the previous and get them back. Without a good mod manager you cannot. That is the reason for mod managers instead of manual installs. Manual installs could require manual removal or recreating the entire game mod structure from scratch each time something got screwed up.

 

I am newer to Skyrim so I cannot give more info on the various mods to combine. Likely you will need to experiment and learn what you desire to use. It will take some time but you will then have the customized game and be able to play "God".

 

Welcome to LL. Enjoy the stay. ( and the perversions)

[AwfulArchdemon]

In case you're wondering what "MO" is, it's called Mod Organizer. Life is sweet when you learn it. You can learn all about it here.

[wayra]

 

Replacing the mesh is like playing with a deck of cards. Each "replace" is overwriting the previous with a newer model. With a mod manager you can remove these "replacements' and be able to reload the previous and get them back. Without a good mod manager you cannot. That is the reason for mod managers instead of manual installs. Manual installs could require manual removal or recreating the entire game mod structure from scratch each time something got screwed up.

 

 

 

so you are saying that the mod manager actually makes a copy of the file before you replace them. Ok that explains a lot why manually replace some of the meshes and textures did not work. I think that was where I went wrong...

 

Thank you very much I will look into Wyne Bash and Mod manager this time.

[Koko.Hekmatyar]

Most Mod Managers make a copy of the original file(s) that are being replaced so they can be put back if you uninstall the mod.

[hryh23k9823u]

For the mod managers, I wouldnt say is Wyre Bash or Mod Organizer. You're gonna want Wrye Bash either way, always comes handy, but better using it as an 'add on' in Mod Organizer, I think. Mod Organizer is so superior and awesome to any other choice (more control than manual installation, more options than Wrye Bash alone, and ofcourse better than using Nexus mod manager....)

[AwfulArchdemon]

Agreed. Have Wryebash around, for other purposes. It certainly still serves a purpose. Leave the actual mod organizing/installing/activating for MO.

[wayra]

thank you for your responses, from reading a bit, it seems like wyne bash allows you to combine different mods? Would it be possible say to install a group of really sweat/compatible mods with sexlab and just combine and make one unified mod.

 

 

[Koko.Hekmatyar]

If I remember right you can only combine mods that are not scripted like weapon/armor mods something like SSL and it's plugins would not work if you combined them.

[RitualClarity]

thank you for your responses, from reading a bit, it seems like wyne bash allows you to combine different mods? Would it be possible say to install a group of really sweat/compatible mods with sexlab and just combine and make one unified mod.

 

Do not combine mods unless someone here directs you to do so. There are many things to consider and you are new. Just don't do it until you are told to do it and only then if you understand what you are doing.

 

[AwfulArchdemon]

thank you for your responses, from reading a bit, it seems like wyne bash allows you to combine different mods? Would it be possible say to install a group of really sweat/compatible mods with sexlab and just combine and make one unified mod.

Don't go combing things yet. Play around with Wryebash a bit, use it for a while, maybe look at a YouTube tutorial about it, do a little studying, and get to know it.

 

Once you see what it does, you'll see why you shouldn't combine stuff without knowledge.

 

Go ahead, combine a few things that seem like they'd go together well. Just be sure to have 2 copies of the mods your messing with: One copy for messing with, and one to keep UNTOUCHED, for when disaster strikes. That way, you'll always have an intact mod waiting for you, and you will get to learn 1st-hand what results you'll get, and why not everything can be combined. You'll also get a pleasant surprise every once in a while.  

 

Making mistakes is a sure-fire way to learn well. Just keep a copy of each mod around, and experiment away.

[ElvinG]

Why so much hate/dislike for the nexus mod manager?

[Rayblue]

Why so much hate/dislike for the nexus mod manager?

 

In terms of flexibility, it's good for beginners but provides only basic mod management and functions primarily as a download manager. There are some who avoid it because of purported "hidden features", or that you cannot freely select the correct download site (I download manually now, having selected my favorite mirror site).

[mojodajojo]

[start Troll]

 

Dark0ne told me to tell you you're all banned for conspiring with pirates.

 

[/End Troll]

[AwfulArchdemon]

 

Why so much hate/dislike for the nexus mod manager?

 

In terms of flexibility, it's good for beginners but provides only basic mod management and functions primarily as a download manager. There are some who avoid it because of purported "hidden features", or that you cannot freely select the correct download site (I download manually now, having selected my favorite mirror site).

 

There's more to it than that. NMM can permanently overwrite meshes/textures files, whereas Mod Organizer (IN ALL IT'S GLORY!)...cannot.

 

You get to use different profiles, each with their own mod selection, meaning, if you make a profile called CotS, and activate CotS in the game for that profile, and then make another profile, and call it Rothwardone, and activate other mods instead of CotS, you now have 2 differebt profiles, that you can switch between at will, and both will have the mods you gave them active. CotS will have CotS active, but nothing else. Rothwardone will have other mods active, but not CotS.

 

Mod Organizer is the best thing to happen to Skyrim since FNIS!

[Dr Bob]

hmmmmmm, With regards to reinstalling,

If you have the space, i really recommend zipping up your data folder and storing it somewhere, so you have a clean slate to revert to, then decide if you want to move the skyrim folder itself to a faster drive, or an easier to mess around with directory, never your programs folder though.

While I don't condone piracy, (oh ghod was it handy to check out X Rebirth though, what an abortion that is), I do like to be in complete control of every little bit of data on any of my drives; thus despite having a legit steam install, my play/mod install is... otherwise.

 

There are plenty of tools available to you to unpack and repack BSA folders, (bsaopt, bsabrowser),  tesVedit can help you merge simple mods together, and allow you to look in an .esp/m file, I urge you to try doing that, after backing stuff up, though. for instance, Skyrim redone is an amazing mod, but I am not fond of some of its changes to alchemy, (including ingredients) smithing and enchanting, so, after backing up SkyreMain.esp, I let fly the dogs of tesedit, the result is a step back toward vanilla skyrim, while keeping the rest of Skyre. of course, as everyone will repeat ad nauseum; backup saves, backup any files you are thinking of working on, etc.

 

Next up : meshes and textures. Nifskope, Gimp plus its dds plugin. google them, grab them.

look in the data folder, if you have installed some mods, you may have a texture/mesh folder, have a look, rummage, .nif files are meshes, opened by nifskope, the meshes also tell the game where the textures are it uses are, see if you can locate them. again, backup, these can be opened with gimp, using the .dds plugin I mentioned,  go wild, have fun.