Help setting up to begin modding?

[halieslade]

I've come to the point where my game is finally stable while running a modest number of mods (120).  I've been reading tutorials and advice on building one's first mod, and judging from my experience back with Morrowind mods I know this is going to be a time-consuming (maybe life consuming?) project if I'm serious.

 

What's holding me back from diving in is that I've read that you should start modding with a clean load order - that is, only the frameworks and plugins you think you'll require for your mod project.  Nothing else.  That way if you get it to where you want to share it, you know what to tell other players.

 

While I'm using MO and realize that I could just create a new profile for modding, switching profiles has proven to be problematic for me (mostly because when I do that, every plugin is deselected and I have to go through the list and remember which ones need to be deselected because Wrye Bash included them already). 

 

The ideal solution in my pointy little head would be to make a new installation of Skyrim on a second hard drive.  But my PC doesn't have enough internal bay space for another drive and the two external drives I use for backup storage are both slower USB mounts.

 

So my questions are these:

 

* Could I get Steam to install a second Skyrim on one of those USB drives just to build and test my mods?  I won't care so much about FPS since my ideas involve scripting and textures more than combat.

 

* Do those of you who mod the game use the multiple MO profiles method?  How do you manage the plugin deactivation thing when you switch?  Or do you just give up actually playing Skyrim quests and focus on your mod?

 

* Assuming a basic knowledge of creating NPCs and dialogue, exactly how hard is it to build a new mod?

 

* Do you use your game character to run around looking for open ground upon which to build your mod structures?  How do you insure that you're not encroaching on the ground another mod might use?

 

Any advice or discussion is most welcome.  I'm somewhat intimidated by all of this after watching some tutorial videos and reading about some of the

problems novice modders report on this board. 

 

I may be brave but I'm not stupid

 

(She says bravely)

 

 

[nooblet123]

You'll have to make 2 .reg files that modify the path to skyrim in the registry if you want 2 installs or it'll use the data folder from where you installed it first.

 

The load order is in documents and settings\******\Local Settings\Application Data\Skyrim\plugins.txt

****-user name

so you just copy(backup) that file and mess with it

[TheDude2014]

I havent created mods and emm still in process of getting 245 mods to work together in skyrim before i even try mess with creating mods, so cant hep with any questions on that one but mod orgainzer i can help with a little.

 

If i understand correct u tried using a profile and noticed that all your mods are still there and u got always got renable them, if so then try this before even thinking of getting steam to download skyrim on a flash drive. Just pull up mod organizer installer again install it but instead of reinstaling it just make a duplicate by putting it in new folder. Now u should have 2 fully fonctional, seperate mod organizers. 1 with mods for playing and 1 with mods for creating your own orginal mod. Only prob is u can not open both mod organizers simultaneously, that is for sure. I see why not in theory this could not work but have not tested it fully, hope this helps GL HF!!

[halieslade]

I havent created mods and emm still in process of getting 245 mods to work together in skyrim before i even try mess with creating mods, so cant hep with any questions on that one but mod orgainzer i can help with a little.

 

If i understand correct u tried using a profile and noticed that all your mods are still there and u got always got renable them, if so then try this before even thinking of getting steam to download skyrim on a flash drive. Just pull up mod organizer installer again install it but instead of reinstaling it just make a duplicate by putting it in new folder. Now u should have 2 fully fonctional, seperate mod organizers. 1 with mods for playing and 1 with mods for creating your own orginal mod. Only prob is u can not open both mod organizers simultaneously, that is for sure. I see why not in theory this could not work but have not tested it fully, hope this helps GL HF!!

 

Thanks, that actually sounds like a brilliant solution.  While I have over 150GB free on C:, your method would save a lot of space for me!

[halieslade]

Adding a second MO installation works really well --- up to a point.  But for some reason it seems to have resurrected an old Creature Frameworks bug that I had already solved in my first installation.

 

It's the one that prevents GenerateFNISForUsers from finishing because it cannot generate benthiclurkercharacter.hkx.  I solved that issue before (though I don't remember how), and I'm using Nasty Critters 8.23 (which includes the benthic lurkers).  Manually copying the files from Install #1 over to MO folders #2 does not work.

 

It's pretty much stymied me