Just discovered Skyrim and the bewildering world of Mods.

[Mister_Monster]

First post. I'm getting Skyrim from Amazon tomorrow. I've never played it before. I want the fun mods, but are there any basic mods I should install first?

 

I'm talking basic stuff here. I am a skyrim newbie. and just a finger pointed in the right direction would be a big help.  this is all new to me, and I've only been researching this for a few days.

 

What I have:

ATI Radeon HD 4350   

Intel® Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz

 

I should have no problem running the game, but there are some with intensive graphics that may be too much for my computer.

 

 

Thanks for being patient with my total newbie questions. The ability to customize a game seems absolutely fun to me!

 

 

 

 

[gooser]

Your graphics card looks weak. 512MB of gfx mem? Try 1GB or better, 2GB.

[Advint]

SKSE because you'll need it eventually.

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

 

I don't know if you bought the dlc's but you should look up the other unofficial patches if you got them.

Rainbows 
Why? Because rainbows man, rainbows.

[shane4244]

Your GPU is bottlenecking your system even the lowend cards of the current gen are going to be a major improvement. I know that wasn't really your question but as good as skyrim looked (in 2011) unmodded it can look damn near photo realistic with some of the enb's and textures found in the modding community.

 

That being said with your current system I would probably stay away from the ENB's and texture mods and focus on mods that improve gameplay, character appearence, UI, etc. I don't know a comprehensive list to give you everyones will be a little different but here are my basics:

 

SkyUI

FNIS

Skse

CBBE or whatever body type you like the most for females

FavoredSouls (malebody)

Remodeled Armor for CBBE Bodyslide and BBP (armor mod I use just browse around for your own if you don't like it or are using another body type)

XP32 skeleton and walk animations etc, from XP

Apachii Hair

Enhancedblood

Wet and cold

climates of tamrial

Unofficial patches

auto unequip ammo

 

That's all I use besides the textures,ENB, lighting and the SexLab mods found here at LL.

 

I'm sure someone else will post a more comprehensive list but those are the basics you can find them in a nexus search.  Edit: ( I linked most of them)

 

 

 

[gvman3670]

If you're new to modding then the best advice I can give is to learn HOW to mod it first. So here you go!

 

Watch this series of videos by Gopher. Here is the first in the series.

 

 

Knowing how to manually install mods is part of the basics of modding. Read this thread here. http://www.loverslab.com/topic/26102-manual-installation-of-skyrim-mods-a-beginners-guide/

 

Of course, you can avoid manually installing mods by using a mod manager (like Nexus Mod Manager (downloadable at Nexus) or Mod Organizer (also on Nexus)). I would suggest Mod Organizer of those two for lots of reasons, but you will need to be more game and PC literate to use it to it's maximum potential. If you go that route then there's a thread here with lots of info concerning it and people willing to answer questions. http://www.loverslab.com/topic/20492-mod-organizer/

 

 

And welcome to LoversLab! This is a very nice modding community here, I'd say THE BEST, and it's full of talented, friendly and helpful people. You'll be able to learn a lot from the folks here so half the battle is already won.

[gvman3670]

Now if your rig isn't too powerful there are fixes. A LOT of fixes that will help Skyrim run better, although not look as pretty as it could. Everything from fake full screen windowed modes, to reduced textures, to texture optimiztion and even tweaks on your computer itself. I am running a lower end machine myself so I can help with some performance enhancing stuff if you need. Just ask.

[Veladarius]

Your processor is plenty powerful but the graphics card will be very limiting. I was using an overclocked 4890 w 1gb ram and it had problems but that was at 1920 x 1200 resolution. You can probably run most any mod just watch the texture resolutions on them.

[Sweatington]

Like others have said, new graphics card is highly recommended if you care about graphics. I know graphics really don't mean anything to most gamers, heck, before I tried Skyrim with ENB and 50+ texture mods I didn't think so either  

 

If you are looking for immersive gameplay. I recommend the following; Frostfall, ZF Primary Needs, Amazing Followers Tweaks.

[Guest xthejester]

I run on a rig with a 512 GPU as well.

 

Don't bother with any "High Res" anything.

 

I strongly recommend playing the game as close to Vanilla the first time through as possible. Limit your mods to the unofficial patches and some UI tweaks, like SkyUI, maybe iHud.

 

Once you've got a feel for the game, look for what you feel is missing, then start selecting mods that way.

 

My primary advice is to READ EVERYTHING on the mod page's descriptions.

 

Save yourself the maddening chaos of CTD's. Get BOSS. It will save you a lot of hassle with making sure your load order is correct.

[limbo]

 

My primary advice is to READ EVERYTHING on the mod page's descriptions.

 

 

and EVERYTHING in the support pages... that is where the glitches and bugs show up... and the mod authors concern for such things

[Uno]

If you gonna play it for the first time, play it vanilla. Just the Unofficial patches and SKSE are -kinda- mandatory.

[RitualClarity]

I run on a rig with a 512 GPU as well.

 

Don't bother with any "High Res" anything.

 

I strongly recommend playing the game as close to Vanilla the first time through as possible. Limit your mods to the unofficial patches and some UI tweaks, like SkyUI, maybe iHud.

 

Once you've got a feel for the game, look for what you feel is missing, then start selecting mods that way.

 

My primary advice is to READ EVERYTHING on the mod page's descriptions.

 

Save yourself the maddening chaos of CTD's. Get BOSS. It will save you a lot of hassle with making sure your load order is correct.

And use a mod manager and get use to the features that that manager has. Here on this site for Skyrim MO is generally used. Read the various threads on the links in my thread.

SKSE is pretty much needed for each and every mod used today. Keep it light and play the actual game first. Learn what it has to offer and as others have mentioned then add mods.

MO has a feature where you can run "profiles" You can continue the regular game you started add a few mods you think you like in another "Profile" and try them out, add a few more and try them out in another "profile" and keep testing and playing. Always having the original game profile to fall back on if one of your mods or ideas fail.

[hryh23k9823u]

1. Mod Organizer

2. BOSS

3. SKSE and SkyUI

3. Unofficial Skyrim Patch

4. SSME

5. ENB Boost (without graphics)

6. Duel Combat Realism

 

Those would be the basics in my opinion. Also Texture Optimizer, if you run texture mods. If you set all in low graphics, but textures in High, you'll barely notice diference with 'ultra' settings. Except for draw distance. Most important is people and objects, at least for gameplay. Shadows are gonna look crap in any setting so don't bother. You would need ENB to fix shadows, but you can't with your GPU (unless you don't mind 15fps...) You only miss depth of field, bloom and another couple of effects actually.

 

And that's my recommendation for a vanilla experience. After you've done a couple of quest you may want to add more stuff or just go to the porn mods. Come back then for more.

 

[Mister_Monster]

Thanks guys. I just loaded the game, and got it all updated, I started the vanilla game, and got as far as the keep with the other prisoners, but I haven't figured out what to do next-hands tied and all that.

 

I'll look for a new graphics card, but that may be a month or two off. in the mean time I'll watch the video tutorial here and figure out my fitsr mods.

 

The auto settings looked at my card, and put the game at medium settings, if thta is any help.

[RitualClarity]

 

Thanks guys. I just loaded the game, and got it all updated, I started the vanilla game, and got as far as the keep with the other prisoners, but I haven't figured out what to do next-hands tied and all that.

Enter the keep. You will be prompted when your hands will be untied.

 

The auto settings looked at my card, and put the game at medium settings, if thta is any help.

Sometimes the auto settings are wrong. Look to see if the card has been properly recognized. That is has the correct name of the card. IN my example I have a GTX670 and that shows up in the game menu. If it does don't need to mess with it at this time considering you are new. It should work well at that setting. later when you resolve some of your other issues r/t modding and get more comfortable and have a stable game play you can play with those settings.

 

 A new card is only necessary if your desires r/t to the game play cannot be fulfilled by the current card. Keep in mind pre-built computers from companies like HP/ Dell etc often have limited upgrade ability. I would say learn more about configuring and modding first before you jump into hard ware purchases. Make sure you need a upgrade, want an upgrade and find it worthwhile. You may find that you are satisfied with the current level of hardware you have. If anything you might consider saving for an actual custom built PC for gaming. That would cost more but could be upgraded piece by piece as needed in the future easier.

[Mister_Monster]

Wow. I love this place. Great advice again.

 

OK here is a question. Is there a way to take in game screenshots? City of Heroes had a folder to house all the printscreens you wanted, You just had to open the game folder and mpove them out.

 

also, is there a movie making program somewhere I could download? I really would like to make a few movies as well.

[hryh23k9823u]

Sadly, I've got a GPU similar to yours (4670), soo that's from experience what you should do in the launcher, if you want 30-40fps in exteriors and some more in interiors, but good graphics:

Set in 'low' settings to begin with. You can set anisotropic filetring to max, or at least to 8 (Enb comes with its own anisotropic filter but it's not your case atm). AA completely disabled.

 

Then in the advanced options, leave at at 'low', but textures put them in 'high, and turn on FXAA.

The water, well you can check all the options, and see yourself how it goes.

 

Then, in draw distance, at least actors should go around 8-10. That will eat some framerate in cities and such places, but it's necessary to see your enemies at more than 1 meter... after that, objects would be the second most important. And the rest, are just aesthetic. You can change the draw distance ingame, though, and see yourself how it goes.

 

Screenshots its with the default print scren button, but you need to allow it in skyrimprefs if I remember well, ballowscreenshots=1?

 

[gvman3670]

Yup, ballowscreenshots=1, but that will be found in a folder in documents/my games/Skyrim. It will be "Skyrimprefs.ini". Just change the "ballowscreets=0" to a "1" then save it.

[lidowxxx]

I will echo with some of the opinions above, play the game vanilla and finish all the quests, get unofficial skyrim patch and hearthfire, dawnguard, dragonborn patches as well if you got any of the DLCs, they will save a lot of frustrations should you run into bugs in game, which is safe to say a HELL lot of them.

 

Don't try to cram everything you have heard into your game, you will soon muddle your head up with terms like BBP/TBBP, HDT, CBBE, ENB, ENBOOST, BOSS, FNIS, COT, SSME, ELFX, SMIM, RLO....etc. Just play the game with little to no addons, read the posts here and check mods on nexus often, gradually learn what the mods do and how to install them, then add mods to your likings slowly, with the helpful community here you will wrap your head around the mods sooner than you might think!

[RitualClarity]

You can also use Steams screen shot feature as well. Steam>Settings>In-Game> select the screenshot key and even the Screenshot folder>click ok. Now you can use this for all steam game screenshots as far as I know.

[Mister_Monster]

What does SKSE do? script extender.

[hryh23k9823u]

Yes

[gvman3670]

It allows new scripts to be added to the game.

 

Regardless of what it does it is an absolute MUST HAVE for almost any mod worth having. I think the only things that don't require it are mesh and texture replacers.

[hryh23k9823u]

xD

Yeah, basically any mod that adds any scripted event or function to the game not available in the vanilla libraries.

Anyway, just one word: SkyUI. It's mandatory, and that makes SKSE mandatory even for a vanilla playthrough on PC.

[Mister_Monster]

Looking at the video...this is very complicated to install, but it does seem essential to do anything. so here goes..