Need help with mods and mod managers

[Callypie]

So I recently started messing around with modding Skyrim but it's more confusing than other games I modded in the past. I'm a little lost on which mod manager I should use and how modding Skyrim works overall with the whole AE and SE versions.

I got SKSE working but I'm not sure what to do next to make mods works properly without everything breaking. If anyone can help with this I'd appreciate it!

[Raven 54]

1 hour ago, Callypie said:

So I recently started messing around with modding Skyrim but it's more confusing than other games I modded in the past. I'm a little lost on which mod manager I should use and how modding Skyrim works overall with the whole AE and SE versions.

I got SKSE working but I'm not sure what to do next to make mods works properly without everything breaking. If anyone can help with this I'd appreciate it!

Asking which mod manager to use is like starting a war, pick one and learn to use it.

Which one do you use for your other games?

Are you using AE or downgrading to SE?

All mods were not made for both games, then there is the FNIS vs Pandora etc. etc.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdtf0LwWHvk     SKSE for milk drinkers.

 

 

[Raven 54]

4 hours ago, Callypie said:

I'm a little lost on which mod manager I should use and how modding Skyrim works overall with the whole AE and SE versions.

I was not trying to be rude to you, You will get flooded with competing suggestions from all who believe their way is the right & only way, confusing to the beginner.

Ask @katrina.balanchuk about it, she just started with Skyrim... Good Luck!   

[Miauzi]

Vor 2 Minuten schrieb Caveman 74:

Ich wollte nicht unhöflich zu Ihnen sein. Sie werden mit widersprüchlichen Vorschlägen von allen überhäuft, die glauben, ihr Weg sei der richtige und einzige, was für den Anfänger verwirrend ist.

Frag doch mal @katrina.balanchuk danach, sie hat gerade erst mit Skyrim angefangen... Viel Glück!

 

Perhaps one shouldn't ask a beginner for recommendations... because they're still too deeply immersed in the learning process and hardly able to reflect on it.

For complete newcomers, this guide would be more suitable in my opinion, as it focuses on a basic installation.

 

 

[Raven 54]

Just now, Miauzi said:

Perhaps one shouldn't ask a beginner for recommendations...

You have a good point, I did not want to bother you again by tagging you, but I think a woman should help a woman as we males think differently, speak differently, come across in a different manner, you get my point.

Thanks for your input!     

[Tenner]

I've always come back to ModOrganizer myself, once it's set up to work with the game itself, Creation Kit and all that, it works like a charm for me.

[katrina.balanchuk]

3 hours ago, Caveman 74 said:

You have a good point, I did not want to bother you again by tagging you, but I think a woman should help a woman as we males think differently, speak differently, come across in a different manner, you get my point.

Thanks for your input!     

I have so  far only gotten Ostim standalone and the various looks improvers to work.

But i must confess some other important mechanics I am still working on.

But at least that little bit of success was nice 

 

One thing that has helped me was to clone my vortex game profile after every major workign step, and then go to the next one and just name it a number higher.

So when my game broke (which it did often) I knew exactly what files were the likely cuplrits.

And where I had to go look to fix something, often I saw I downloaded the wrong version file or a file that was named closely to what I thought I had installed and wasnt the same thing. Or a recommended file was intended for another animation engine than the one I was trying to get to work.

Rarely , but sometimes, did I encounter cases of the correct file causing problems. For the ther eis one exception (faste HDT-SMP CTDs my game always, either on boot-up, or more often on putting my cursor on racemenu at game start, but thats ok. game works w/o it)

 

I have 11  profiles on Vortex right now for Skyrim, numbered default to default10, ranging from 7 to 81 mods.

 

As for me, I dont care nearly as much about the graphical views of the sex, as perhaps the gentleman do,  but more about the stories , SexLab is likely better for the stories the other animation faciliatators .

 

As for me I would be almost, (almost mind you) be ok with just the blackscreen fade on sex.

Not because such scene offends me, they do not, but the scene itself does not give me the satisfaction as the amorous (mis)adventures plot does.

 

But w/o the scenes the plot would be meaningless, and these mods wouldnt work, so the animations have to work

 

So I will switch to Sexlab shortly.

My struggles getting Ostim to work I think have equipped me a bit better to learn Sexlab now too.

 

So I guess this is the only little "wisdom" I can offer as a recent female beginner; go with Sexlab which has much more wealth of stories, than OStim, which is said to have a better "look" to it in the act. (which I have no way to compare, yet.

Edited January 2 by katrina.balanchuk

[Sandra Fabiana]

The last manager is Vortex on the nexus website, there is also a tutorial there. I personally use the old Nexus mod Manager, the community still updates it.

[katrina.balanchuk]

19 minutes ago, Sandra Fabiana said:

The last manager is Vortex on the nexus website, there is also a tutorial there. I personally use the old Nexus mod Manager, the community still updates it.

 

Yes many people who know what they are doing, swear by the NMM, but Vortex was made by the same people who made NMM and I think, was considired a development of it (?), so I cannot imagine it being inferior.

 

However Vortex is all I know, so I may be suffering "presentism bias" in favor of Vortex.

Or Dunning-Kruger for that matter (aka you dont know, what you dont know)

Edited January 2 by katrina.balanchuk

[Sandra Fabiana]

Unfortunately, I’m used only NMM and can help  some advice on it )

[BrummBear]

since ive been trough this very recently i might be able to give some advice. which mod manager doesnt really matter. i personally use vortex and it works great. but a lot of people like mod organizer 2 or whatever its called. just stay away from anything else. pick one of those two. the only issues i really had with mods where centered around sexlab and the horny build. most other mods are straight forward "install it and its requirements"

 

you really want to look for the SE or AE tag. if it has that it will most likely work. and if u dont digg up some very obscure mod there will be a SE/AE version.

1.6.1170 if you are up to date on steam but for most mods that doesnt really matter. your mod manager will tell you off and spout warnings. u can mostly ignore them as long as its some kind of SE version. gog needs something special sometimes afaik. idk about that.

if u want to delve into the whole sexlab or animations thing go and read up on pandora. dont bother with FNIS. also go for this right away. saves you some headache when u finally encounter script lag and animations take 20-60s to start. which isnt a question of "if" but "when" with the old sexlab. at least for me it was. could not fix it

 

you will find a conversion pack for most animation packs, including links to where to download them, in their discord. so no need to do manual conversions yourself. 

 

avoid installing mods that do the same thing. sexlab submit and sexlab defeat for example might not conflict directly and work together but it will become a headache to configure everything. especially if u do this multible times. deviously enslaved, sexlab approach, horrible harrasment and devious interrest will result in you not taking 10 steps without an npc stopping you. it will also drive script lag to a degree that makes the game unplayable. in general i think any sort of mod that scans your surroundings is very script heavy. stick to as little as possible. i run aroused creatures and devisouly enslaved. id like to run approach too but im afraid of too much script lag. even with papyrus tweaks installed. if you have a strong rig you can modify the papyrus tweaks further to give more frame time.

 

frameworks you want are the zaz pack. 7 for SE is floating around here. just google "zaz pack loverslab" OSL Aroused or sexlab aroused. i personally prefer OSL Aroused. Sexlab inflation framework and schlongs of skyrim. i also run sexlab attraction but i really dont know why i got this. probably was some requirement somewhere.

 

if you want the whole creature thing go and look for creature framework, more nasty critters, bad dogs immersive creatures and bakafactory ABC (animated beast cocks)

aroused creatures is the main mod if recommend here

 

for pregnancy there is also a lot you can get. hentai pregnancy is kinda simple and straight forward. there is also "beeing female" and "fertility" which both are rather straight forward. then there is "curse of life" which makes you birth eggs. and sould gem oven which makes you birth mostly gems. the later two are very feature rich and u need to spend some time configureing them to your liking. 

 

and lastly some mods no sexlab build should miss, if you ask me, are "fill her up baka edition" "sexist guards" "radiant prostitution" "sexlab eager npc`s" "immersive wenches" and "sexlab solutions" (beware you need to manually set the load order so this will load after its requirements. ull get an infinite loading screen if u dont because the author has missed setting some masters)

 

any single death alternaitve mod. there are a lot of those. i personally use "defeat" but i only stick with it because i dont want to break my game. again. it works kinda ok. make sure you dont have other mods that do something similar. shadow of skyrim for example.

 

quest mods... damsels in distress 1. 2 and 3. animal research if you are into that. animal mansion maybe. didnt play that. and the earlier mentioned immersive wenches get kinda kidnapped a lot. so you gets rescue quests there.

 

the whole devious thing is large... just check what the mod does before you install so you dont have 3 mods that add traps to chests. or make npcs approach you. that woudl result in ungodly script lag and you beeing bothered every few seconds.

devious lore if a must have for me simply because of the escape minigame it adds as a sidekick. 

 

and for the record: script lag means events dont happen. vanilla and mod events. it can even get so bad that you anger a npc and he just stands there, weapon drawn and glaring angrily at you while you pummel him for the next 60 seconds and he does nothing. aside from the glaring.

Edited January 2 by BrummBear

[Callypie]

Thank you all for your help! Now I'm facing only one more problem I think. Whenever I try to run SKSE through Mod Organizer it tells me "PapyrusUtil.dll" and "SexLabUtil.dll" are incompatible with the current version of the game even though I'm pretty sure they are correct and my game version is the same as they require.  

Did I do something wrong while installing the mods or is it being weird for no reason?

[woodsman30]

12 hours ago, Callypie said:

Did I do something wrong while installing the mods or is it being weird for no reason?

Start here go through you mod list make sure all is compatible make sure your SKSE IS THE RIGHT VERSION.

There is no magic that makes this happen but loading proper mods and utilities is key

[Count Chocula]

On 1/2/2026 at 2:58 AM, Tenner said:

I've always come back to ModOrganizer myself, once it's set up to work with the game itself, Creation Kit and all that, it works like a charm for me.

The only reason I can think of to use Vortex is if someone wants to use Nexusmods collections. And the only reason I can think of to use Nexus Mod Manager is inertia.