Is Special Edition or Original Skyrim better for adult mods?

[MadieBear99]

I already own base Skyrim with all the DLCs, but since Special Edition is on sale, I was wondering if I should just pick it up for more mods or not.
Specifically I'm looking to get bondage, restraint and submission themed mods for player submission.

Edited December 2, 2024 by MadieBear99
Added what I'm looking for.

[Pamatronic]

29 minutes ago, MadieBear99 said:

I already own base Skyrim with all the DLCs, but since Special Edition is on sale, I was wondering if I should just pick it up for more mods or not.
Specifically I'm looking to get bondage, restraint and submission themed mods for player submission.

Special Edition is better for everything.
There are some Dinosaurs on this site who will die claiming the opposite, but Oldrim is a dying breed and has been for years.

[MadieBear99]

4 minutes ago, Pamatronic said:

Special Edition is better for everything.
There are some Dinosaurs on this site who will die claiming the opposite, but Oldrim is a dying breed and has been for years.

Follow-up question, do I need to get the Anniversary Edition or is the regular Special Edition good enough?

[Pamatronic]

13 minutes ago, MadieBear99 said:

Follow-up question, do I need to get the Anniversary Edition or is the regular Special Edition good enough?

I dont think you can "buy" the regular Special Edition, i.e version 1.5.97
Steam will always try to update it to the current version of AE.
But it doesn't make any difference in terms of mod availability.
 

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, MadieBear99 said:

Special Edition

1.5.97 through GOG but be ready for issues. I manually downgrade mine from 1170 to 1.5.97

Edited December 2, 2024 by Raven 54

[Just Don't]

Special Edition = Game with 3 DLC and 4 free creations.

Anniversary Edition = paid DLC which requires Special Edition.

 

Don't mix them up. AE is not a different game, it's an optional DLC.

 

Also since people started mentioning specific game versions: you should only consider older ones if you already have a modded setup or if mods you want to use were never updated to 1.6+ versions of the game. Starting from scratch and downgrading is only doing additional work and limiting your build to using older versions of several mods for very small or no gains at all.

Regardless of version chosen you should a)avoid automatic updates and b) keep in mind the versions listed as compatible when installing skse mods (aka mods with a DLL file).

Edited December 2, 2024 by Just Don't

[MadieBear99]

40 minutes ago, Just Don't said:

Regardless of version chosen you should a)avoid automatic updates and b) keep in mind the versions listed as compatible when installing skse mods (aka mods with a DLL file).

I got the Special Edition through Steam, how would I go about turning automatic updates off?

[Gukahn]

10 minutes ago, MadieBear99 said:

I got the Special Edition through Steam, how would I go about turning automatic updates off?

Set it to only update when launching, since you'll only start it with SKSE later. Go offline before starting it just in case. Might be a bit paranoid but hey, it works

[MadieBear99]

Ahhh, that makes sense, thank you so much for answering!

[Pamatronic]

1 hour ago, Just Don't said:

Starting from scratch and downgrading is only doing additional work and limiting your build to using older versions of several mods for very small or no gains at all.

Main Benefit of sticking with 1.5.97 is that it doesn't get fucked up every time beth pushes an update to the exe.

[belegost]

2 hours ago, Pamatronic said:

Special Edition is better for everything.
There are some Dinosaurs on this site who will die claiming the opposite, but Oldrim is a dying breed and has been for years.

I am genuinely surprised and at the same time delighted you've finally changed your opinion on the matter.

 

Perhaps DD is next?...

[Pamatronic]

1 minute ago, belegost said:

I am genuinely surprised and at the same time delighted you've finally changed your opinion on the matter.

Did I ever claim the opposite anywhere? 😳
I did Develop for LE a long time, but that was just because I had a 500+ hours game running on the SE setup and was way to terrified to touch that and fuck something up.

 

3 minutes ago, belegost said:

Perhaps DD is next?...

As soon as DD items become removable by unequipAll() or UnequipItem()

[belegost]

3 minutes ago, Pamatronic said:

As soon as DD items become removable by unequipAll() or UnequipItem()

That would entirely defeat their purpose.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, MadieBear99 said:

I got the Special Edition through Steam, how would I go about turning automatic updates off?

How to Disable Steam Auto Updates & Prevent Mods Breaking! Apoqsi

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8F4dQ_QF48

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Just Don't said:

it's an optional DLC.

Not optional, forced on everyone who does not turn off updates through Steam, I wish it was optional but Bethesda wanted otherwise.

[Just Don't]

1 hour ago, Pamatronic said:

Main Benefit of sticking with 1.5.97 is that it doesn't get fucked up every time beth pushes an update to the exe.

You can stop updating your game at any point. The process and outcome is the same. You will always need to be checking for compatibility when dealing with SKSE plugins.

 

54 minutes ago, Raven 54 said:

Not optional, forced on everyone who does not turn off updates through Steam, I wish it was optional but Bethesda wanted otherwise.

It's a paid DLC. The 1.6+ updates shared a name in its marketing because they were released at the same time. If you own the game on Steam it's still called "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition" and if you look up the Anniversary Edition you'll find out it's a paid DLC. I seriously doubt Bethesda forced you to buy a totally optional DLC.

 

You can play and recommend whichever version you want. But mixing names gets you nowhere. Especially when trying to give advice to someone new to the whole SE + updates thing.

Edited December 2, 2024 by Just Don't

[Guest]

43 minutes ago, Just Don't said:

It's a paid DLC.

I was updated without paying anything even though I did not want it. Don't ask me how that happened, it just did.

[Just Don't]

18 minutes ago, Raven 54 said:

I was updated without paying anything even though I did not want it. Don't ask me how that happened, it just did.

I already told you. Updates are one thing, the DLC is something different. You're just mixing them.

[travelmedic]

FWIW, I'm in the process of setting up a game myself right now.  I was a longtime LE user, but this time went with SE/AE.  I have the latest Steam version, which is 1.6.1170 (I think that's the right version number) with the 4 CC DLC, and might spend the extra money to get the AE CC pack (maybe).

 

There are a few mods I looked at that weren't updated for 1170, but all of the mods I really wanted have been available for 1170.  Some mods have an 1170 version available as well as a 1.5.97 version.  Like others have said, take the time to make sure you only get files for the version you're running - that especially includes SKSE.

 

To repeat what others also said, go by version number (i.e. 1170 or 1.5.97) and not the easily confused SE/AE.

[woodsman30]

On 12/2/2024 at 1:00 PM, Pamatronic said:

Dinosaurs on this site

Not dinosaurs just some of us have Oldrim dialed in and do not want to start all over again with downloading mods for a 12 year old game.  I do not need to play for hours without a CTD but I can if I chose to. I just don't have hours to spend like that ....an hour or two and when time permits is good enough for me.  Besides I have seen nothing earth shattering that would make me switch I do not need 8k snowberries. If I ever did switch over it would only be to use a mod packs that I had seen.

[Geraldden]

For me using the new version like a huge leap!! I can use over 100k animation this is not a lie! 100k ANIMATION!! I'm using pandora for the animation, for ostim animation I uses animation uploaded here or nexus and if I find some sl animation that I like I also convert it for my personal uses, it's been joy ride for me

[SacredDatura]

IMO the only downside to "Anniversary Edition" (1.6.x) compared to pre-AE Special Edition (1.5.97) is the annoying amount of (often unbalanced) CC content it automatically injects into the game that you have to download another mod (called something like "Anniversary Edition Content Remover" or similar) to disable.

 

Otherwise compatibility-wise it seems easiest to just use 1.6.1170. It seems like most SE/SE-compatible mods at this point assume by default that you're on 1.6.1170, if they're not version-agnostic.

[SexyTop69]

So.. I haven't modded in a year an half and feel really lost in the loop. I have an large load order I left behind and just came back to and I see Nexus and some things got iffy, the unofficial skyrim special edition patch is archived and inaccessible! I still have the 1.5.97 special edition backed up of USSEP. Is it even safe to use their newest version or is USSEP not really needed at all?

 

The last thing I was working on was figuring out MCO with animated armory trying to get spear to work right and was fumbling really hard.

Edited January 8, 2025 by SexyTop69

[SexyTop69]

On 12/12/2024 at 11:06 PM, SacredDatura said:

IMO the only downside to "Anniversary Edition" (1.6.x) compared to pre-AE Special Edition (1.5.97) is the annoying amount of (often unbalanced) CC content it automatically injects into the game that you have to download another mod (called something like "Anniversary Edition Content Remover" or similar) to disable.

 

Otherwise compatibility-wise it seems easiest to just use 1.6.1170. It seems like most SE/SE-compatible mods at this point assume by default that you're on 1.6.1170, if they're not version-agnostic.

 

I'm thinking about trying the AE version with the extra Hard drive space just don't want to lose alot of access to mods.

On 12/12/2024 at 7:48 PM, Geraldden said:

For me using the new version like a huge leap!! I can use over 100k animation this is not a lie! 100k ANIMATION!! I'm using pandora for the animation, for ostim animation I uses animation uploaded here or nexus and if I find some sl animation that I like I also convert it for my personal uses, it's been joy ride for me

 

Is the animation count really higher than the SSE one in AE?

[belegost]

2 hours ago, SexyTop69 said:

Is it even safe to use their newest version or is USSEP not really needed at all?

All new versions of USSEP require CC crap as masters. On 1.5.97 I sick with last pre-AE version. It does not require fishing, survival crap and whatever those other two are, to be in your load order.

 

I fucking hate fishing in games.

Edited January 8, 2025 by belegost