Getting ready to reinstall fresh. Advice?

[chajapa]

I've beat the hell out of my Skyrim install. I have some good things and some horrible things. I'm procrastinating because I've got HDT working like I want it and I've redone a lot of armors and.....

 

I think it's time to start clean.

 

So I'm looking for advice on how to prepare to do this. I have a 64GB flash drive to save all my mods off to and I'm certain it'll have room for my edited skyrim.ini file in case I need it.

I made a Ningheim follower. If I save her .esp file will I be able to bring her into my new install? (after installing the Ningheim race of course).

 

I've played the game through a couple times and now I'm just having fun with SexLab and the mods that go with it. I don't think I have a character over level 7 right now (out of 5 or 6 characters). So a reinstall won't hurt me in terms of losing a high level character or anything.

 

I'm just dreading it

 

Was also considering using Mod Organizer. I'm hoping it might negate the need to do this again in the future.

And I have a TON of questions for THAT support thread. 

 

SO...

How do you go about uninstalling and reinstalling? I run through Steam. Supposedly there's a way to tell Steam to do a file integrity check and it will "fix" files and return you to a vanilla installation, but I'd have to wonder what it does with stuff that's added (like BodySlide, for example) rather than changed.

 

I'm assuming that if I save off all of the compressed mod files I've downloaded, that I can bring them back without having to download them all again.

 

Any tips from folks that have gone through this would be very much appreciated.

[Guest emilio]

the file integrity check will just restore your skyrim directory to a state where the game will run again. all the loose folders and files in the directory should remain untouched, save for I think the control map and maybe some other inconsequential things might get overwritten.

[RitualClarity]

The file integrity check will not touch the other files you have in the Skyrim folder. If you truly want to NUKE the game, you need to delete it from Steam, find the Skyrim folder and delete that. I recently had troubles (you can see it on the MO support page) and found out my Skyrim backup wasn't working properly so I downloaded it again. Perhaps you might consider to do the same. Install Skyrim. Then Download and install MO. Find SKSE version I believe it is 1.07 and install that (for MO you can zip up the "Data" part in SKSE and make a mod latter in MO just remember to do this. ) Load up your tools for modding and such that get loaded in the main folder. (not the Data folder as anything loaded in that can be loaded by MO) and then install MO.

 

Afterwards you can to to the thread here and even check my sig spoiler for other links for some reading. Generally after you install MO you can activate and de-activate mods on the fly and run multiple Profiles. (that is different game play thorough) It is a learning curve but the benefits generally outweigh the disadvantages.

[Myst42]

I did that a few weeks ago

Useful advice

KNOW your mod installation order, lots of mods install stuff over and over again over other mods so...

What's the last mod you want controlling your files?

 

Second, after you've deleted everything and removed the installation completely (I always nuke everything with Skyrim or Oblivion name on it), start installing, check regularly to see how's everything working.

 

Then mind the load order, either if you know it or if you prefer using BOSS

 

It's easier than it seems...

I thought it was gonna be a pain in the butt

But I got through OK... and fixed several things that were bugging my game

 

Oh and it's also probably because I keep my mods ordered...

By categories...

Not Nexus categories, my own...

Like "Character Creation" or "Environmental" "Gameplay"

That way I can install the more complex mods first and see them working fine, then move to the harmless stuff like clothing etc...

 

Any save works fine...

As long as it has all the required mods to work like it should

Specifically necessary are character creation mods, skeletons, hairs and clothing (the one you were wearing in the save). It's normally OK if those are checked (I could load my chars with only those and minimal errors). Also other tricky mods should go first too... perk enhancements, overhauls (I use SPERG, so the perks were screwed up without it)

[RitualClarity]

Which manager are you using for Skyrim? With MO it is still advised to load it the way you mentioned but if a file needs to take priority later you just change the priority of that file in the manager. Nothing is overwritten. Need to tweak a ini file for an EMB that you want to test and don't want to screw up your game? No problem with MO. Tweak to your hearts content. Each profile can have customized ini. Saves and even load orders. Priorities of files and the like. NO two profiles need to be the same.

[chajapa]

I'm using NMM 'cause that's all I knew when I first got started. My son bought me this game for christmas  

I played through all vanilla. Then I started adding mods. First it was just armor. Then followers (and AFT). Then a house. Then I found out about different bodies.

 

Then I got SexLab all over me so here came SKSE and FNIS and.....

 

now I think I'm a modaholic.

 

Keep in mind that at 62 years old, and as a retired university IT guy, I'm reluctant to give up control to MO and its virtual file system. My IT experience with all of these TYPES of systems has been that the "hook" they use can be a blessing and a curse. The thought of having a "clean" Skyrim install is very attractive to me though.  

[RitualClarity]

You are right on it being a hook and a curse. There are considerations expecially with FINIS and overwrite folder and configurations and such. However... when you drop files into NMM to install it overwrites the files before it. MO does the same .... except .. you can go in and change any files or bsa or scripts etc to your needs. Have some textures from one mod and some textures from another mod.. You like parts of both. With NMM you would have to manually edit and merge and fiddle with the files before you installed them and hope you got everything the way you wanted it. .. with MO you can do the same.. however after you have installed it. The only way to get that level of customization is to manually install and process each of the mods you are using to your suiting.

 

The curse .. some of the external modding tools (creations kits and other programs) might not be fully accessing the files and complex actions .. .not complex actions.. might be more difficult to process. Normal ones are fine. Also most programs expect to see the actual files there and get confused when they aren't there. minor annoyance that most people never have to worry about.

 

Users = Mo.

Developers = Wyre Bash or manual. 

NMM = very light users that don't care about their files or having to reload the game again and again.

 

[Bewe]

I would go with Mod Organizer with a fresh start. I lost all my modding progress once but realize it was better for the whole picture. Starting fresh completely, allowed me to clear out all the unneeded mods that I never use but still loaded with my old game.

[RitualClarity]

I am currently prepping the downloaded mods for use in MO now. Cleaning them up and packaging them for easier use. Some are fmods and most are simple esp/bsas and some scripts. Using MO won't mean that you will never have to reload Skyrim but it means it will be easier if you do. I had some problems with FNIS and went to check the verification of Skyirm and Steam freaked. So after trying a few times I deleted the folders content. (after copying MO off) and redownloaded the files. Verified several times for some reason still didn't want to have the correct files. Finally it worked and moved MO back. Just for fun I kept the profiles and the mods folder and refreshed / new installation of MO and dropped those back after activating Skyrim and Mo once. Everything went back to normal again.. except .. I forgot about the MOd folder in MO. lol. so I deleted the meta data and reloaded from the mods already there (showed fresh download again) and selected the mods for my profiles and went back to work. Had I changed anything in the profiles I could have checked the save and made sure I had everything that was connected to that save. Useful for Skyrim when it decides to freak out about deleting one mod.

[gvman3670]

I'm using NMM 'cause that's all I knew when I first got started. My son bought me this game for christmas

I played through all vanilla. Then I started adding mods. First it was just armor. Then followers (and AFT). Then a house. Then I found out about different bodies.

 

Then I got SexLab all over me so here came SKSE and FNIS and.....

 

now I think I'm a modaholic.

 

Keep in mind that at 62 years old, and as a retired university IT guy, I'm reluctant to give up control to MO and its virtual file system. My IT experience with all of these TYPES of systems has been that the "hook" they use can be a blessing and a curse. The thought of having a "clean" Skyrim install is very attractive to me though.  

 

Your fears are unnecessary. MO won't be a pain in the ass at all, it's pretty straight forward in it's use and it does what a mod manager should do.....only better. Run it and I'm sure that in no time you'll see the beauty of it. It's almost like magic.

[chajapa]

OK, I'm listening.

But I USE tools like CK and NifSkope and Bodyslide.

CK: I created a Ningheim follower for myself. She works great!. If I just save her esp file, will I get her back? 

NifSkope: I put an HDT body into the Ningheim race folder. Then I had to use NifSkope to point the body mesh to the Ningheim textures. Will I still be able to do that? I'd want it to use that setup for all of my profiles.

BodySlide: Downloaded armors for conversion to HDT and/or got some that already had an HDT body and redid them to fit my preset. Can I still do that?

 

Appreciate the input here. 

 

Then there's SKSE, FNIS, HDT (that one should be easy I think). If just ONE of those 3 doesn't like me, I won't even be able to play.

 

[gvman3670]

SKSE, HDT and ENBs (stuff thats goes in the Skyrim root directory) should be installed manually. Everything that goes into the /data/ folder goes into Mod Organizer. That also includes SKSE plugins (MO will make a folder for those). You can run FNIS either from inside of MO or manually installed as well, but you have to add the FNIS binary as an executable in MO (as you do with BSII and other programs as well, like BOSS or Wrye Bash).

[chajapa]

So I would install SKSE, HDT, and I'm also running HiAlgoBoost (not really an ENB, but improved my frame rate) into the game as normal. And then I can just tell MO where stuff is?

 

A "base install" for me.... would have SKSE, SkyUI, FNIS. I just want tehm to be able to see whatever is going on in MO's virtual file structure so they work

 

[RitualClarity]

Items that go into the main folder (where the Skyrim.exe is located) have to be installed manually. Anything that is installed into the Data folder can be managed by MO. All programs like SKSE and FNIS regardless of location needs to be be set up in MO so that it can find the program and activate them. Then they activate and work inside the virtual folder and all results like FNIS scripts then get dropped into the overwrite folder where you can access them and create a mod for that or leave it possible.

 

there are a few links in my sig for STEPS project where you can get lots of info on how to do things. I would suggest read and then re-read the pages to get a real strong understanding of the process and how to (at least where the info is) before you start.