Hi all,

I'm very excited to let you know that I'm finally getting my gaming PC (this Saturday) and transitioning from the Xbox to the world of modded Skyrim. I know this is really old hat for so many of you but I just couldn't take the plunge until recently.

The vanilla game and DLCs were definitely getting stale and I have been lurking on the fringes of the modded game forever so I'm very excited to make the move.

It's great to see all your discussions and the ongoing love for the game. I look forward to contributing again.

Happy Gaming!

Congrats and enjoy! Mods can be very addicting.

Super, I'm very happy for you!!

Just make sure you learn to mod the game the right way!! (not like I did...)

Good point! I understand there are some very useful tutorials on YouTube by 'gopher'? I think I bookmarked them ages ago. I'll take it slowly - set up the PC, get a Steam account, view the tutorials, download the mod manager etc.

Grats on the computer.

My suggestion is to take it slow first with mods eitherwise we may have to have an intervention for you. Friends to not let friends overdose on mods.

I find it best not to use more than a handful of mods on any given playthrough, that way the game is still quite stable less chance for mods interfering with other mods. The fun part is looking for the mods and then only limiting it a couple on each playthrough. I usually have an idea what type of character I will be playing and look for mods that fit in with that playthrough. Everyone will have different ways for using mods and some will almost download and install 200+ mods and some I believe even used 500 mods and have to merge and batch mods. I do not understand this mind set since if you are changing that much of the game then why play the game. Mods to me are just like adding some salt and mustard to my Fries when I eat burger and fries. Yes I like Mustard on my fries, since it is like vinegar but with a kick. I prefer the European Mustard from the tube for the fries.

Good news Kami......I am envious as sin

Welcome to the master race.

gopher is awesome! I learned a lot from his videos!

You'll get tons of recommendations I'm sure, but I will say 3 things: LOOT, TESVEdit, and The Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch (USLEEP for short).

Grats, Kami! Welcome to the addiction to end them all....

Line 'em up! Conga-rats!

I had to stop playing Skyrim for a while since my cards finally aged out, but I'm getting a much better one tomorrow, so I'll be doing the happy dance with you this weekend.

Oh LORDY. That prompted "Head 'em up move 'em out" in my mind, and now I'll NEVER get rid of it!

Oooh Congratz! That's wonderful news

You're going to love playing the game with mods, so get the mini-fridge and bedpan ready.. you might not be leaving that seat very often lol.

And as for playing the game on a really good PC.. you will be amazed by how good it looks. You might even faintly hear James Earl Jones saying "Yoo doan know the powah of the dock side"

Congrat's Kami!!!! I know that happy dance... I did it last April

I'd add Wyre Bash... ( and NMM...but that's a personal preference)

... Rawhide..... thank's...I hadn't even thought about it til I read that...

Well, the last time I thought about it (and couldn't get it out of my head....) was when my dad died. He was a HUGE "western schlock" fan. He loved anything that presupposed a life in the old west of the US.... His "god" was John Wayne, and all those movies. He also enjoyed the spaghetti westerns of the 70s. He was never happier than "living in those moments".

Congrats Kami and there's so many good mods out there you may just spend a month or 2 just browsing them all! I do recommend Deadly Dragons mainly because I really like to set it up for my game play to have both my character and me duck when I hear the sound of wings and panic a little because they are truly dangerous as they always should have been!

@Serethil - I lol'd and then because I'm currently playin' a Khajiit laughed some more thinking of a group of them "high tailing it" outta there! (I lived in western cattle ranch area my whole life, so yeah!)

Unlike this guy I have precisely 168 separate mods running at once - I actually counted them

And I still haven't installed an entire suite of mods designed yet designed for Lakeside Manor, because I've not yet built a home on this latest character. And that's not counting all the things I have installed to make the game look pretty, that are not actually mods....

Modding is as addictive as hell, and there's always that temptation to install just ... one more... because heck... the default fur on vanilla bears is so dull and, there's no way I could ever play without the ability to hold a fish in my left hand and, there's so many new mods coming out all the time and ....... ooH shiny!

Now, on a more serious note. If there is one single mod that I absolutely could not live without - that would literally break my game if if were ever removed, it's this one:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/18021/?

Blacksmith's Storage Chests

It's a simple thing, but it makes so much difference. Basically, you purchase the chest in a Hold, such as Whiterun, and with a single mouse click you are able to safely store all your blacksmithing materials - ore, ingots, hides, leather, dragon parts etc. The chest automatically sorts through your inventory, finds all the above and instantly stores them for you. Opening the chest gives you the option to retrieve all or some of your items. This makes life in Skyrim so much better that it's hard to quantify. What's more the chest can be toggled so that your materials can be accessed from any chest in the world you have purchased, including the one in your Hearthfire home(s).

If you never use Blacksmithing it's likely not much use, but if you do, you are seriously going to need this.

Congrats on getting the pc! I recommend learning Mod Organizer. It's more complicated than NMM but it's a very powerful tool. Gopher has some excellent vids on using both tools. I would recommend GmaerPoets as well for anything Gopher misses or if you still just don't understand something. Anyway, I would recommend watching Gopher's vids about MO and NMM and getting an idea of which you'd like to use. It took me a week and three re-installs of Skyrim to finally figure out Mod Organizer but I wouldn't trade it for anything now. I'm sure you'll find others who will say the same for Nexus Mod Manager, we all have our preferences.

Gopher won't just teach you the basics of modding, he's a mod author as well and he has a mod I'd recommend getting after you've figured out installing SKSE. It's very small, very simple, but makes a huge difference in my enjoyment of the game. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3222/?. Your HUD is there when you need it, gone when you don't, it's great. It's also an easy mod to install and test.

Starting small and simple is the way to go. Read the mod description and readme before installing, many of the more complicated mods may require other mods or special steps. Some will recommend other mods as "companion" mods and etc. Eventually you will want to use all the major tools however: SKSE, LOOT, Wyre Bash, TESVEdit, and if you're going to do any sort of custom animations FNIS.

It can all be very intimidating at first but it's really just a matter of experience. Try stuff, break it, and try again. http://i.imgur.com/igbThce.jpg http://i.imgur.com/11Ks6hH.jpg http://i.imgur.com/lxJTvk7.jpg http://i.imgur.com/2Hdsboz.jpg http://i.imgur.com/GdaL3bh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/PZwqFim.jpg http://i.imgur.com/1V6by2i.jpg http://i.imgur.com/XF0bd6u.jpg.

Have a testing character. Save before adding each mod or two, test them out with your PC. If you like them make another save and add one or two more, if not remove the mods and roll back to the before save. Name the save for the mods you are adding so you know what to remove.

Another aspect of going computer instead of console, try making a simple mod yourself. There are some great tutorials on creationkit.com that will get you started on the basics. It's almost more fun than playing and we always need more people getting into modding and everyone has to start out as a beginner.

GRATZ, Kami! And here's to 5+ more years of your life lost to Tamriel!

Hi everybody - thanks for the good wishes. I'm really looking forward to this new evolution of the game after reading about it and watching MxR's videos all these years!

I just realized I can now post pictures from my game to the forums! weeeeeee....

Right! I know about the patches with the bug fixes - I'll probably install those first. Thanks for the pointer.

Awesome! Have fun - it sounds like you're in for an eye-opening revival as well. Enjoy

Noted, Areial - I'll study these options and see what's what.

That one's on my list for sure (though I might work up to it). I also plan to install the mod where NPCs run and hide during dragon attacks and vampire raids. I can't WAIT for that change - so many PCs lost in the vanilla game to dragons/raids etc...

I'll probably end up with more than a handful of mods but fewer than your 168, Lord Snot! There are many that I want which simply alter the environment and the interface. Then I'll start with new content, NPCs etc. Ohhhhhh - this is gonna be good.

Sage advice, Krymzon74. I especially appreciate the GamerPoets reference. It's great to have different explanations for the same thing because there are always little ambiguities and oversights with a given source. iHUD sounds good, as well as the list of major tools. I'll definitely take my time, there's no rush here.

Right crossi - I've been thinking and reading about how to manage a modded game on the PC. It sounds like people often have test characters and games alongside 'stable' or 'serious' games which focus on gameplay instead of trying out mods. I'll try different combos and reach out for community advice when I get stuck.

Good times - better make sure I don't miss work and get fired!

I was looking forward to it. Now that I've got it, I find that I'm spending more time in the games' file folders than actully playing the games, lol

Yup - I totally expect this as well. Once you have the modding capability, there's going to be some overhead managing the game. I started a thread about this very issue a long time ago. The consensus was that you do spend a bunch of time considering which mods to add, testing the safety of the change, and troubleshooting but I don't remember anybody seriously talking about going back to the console version. I expect a relatively low learning curve followed by tons of time sampling and experimenting.

Lol, no! A few people play on both PC and console, but I can't imagine abandoning the PC version. Congrats on your new PC! Yeah, it's easy to spend more time tinkering in an elusive effort for the "perfect" mod setup. Lately, I have taken to creating my own mods or tweaking/patching mods created by others. But just playing the game is fun too and there is no need to spend endless time tinkering, its just something some people find fun. Hope you enjoy your new PC.

Modding is a fascinating mini-game in itself. I would go even farther and say that, for me, using and making mods is an integral part of the total game experience. I pretty much stopped making a hard and fast distinction between modding and playing a long time ago.

I don't own a console so I can't go back to the console version of any game. But I have gone back to the vanilla version of Bethesda's games on PC. I find it very instructive to experience a game in its original state, from time to time. Refreshing my perception of a game in this way often dramatically affects my choice of mods later, when I do mod a game again.

Well there's testing mods on a different profile than your "main" to verify they work and play nice with your other mods. That part is kinda fun. Then there's the "I'm sixty hours into this play through and I've decided I just don't like this mod" type testing. This realization makes me want to start new characters with a new mod list. Not so fun. (My mod list is currently at 211 mods) Yet in a way it is fun because the whole cycle now repeats itself. I check the "latest files" section of the Nexus every day... it's just a thing now.