After a lot finagling and swearing, I managed to get my computer to run Skyrim with reasonable performance. So naturally I want to begin downloading mods but I'm not entirely sure where to start. Anyone have any good tutorials on that? I've looked on various websites and there's a lot of contradictory opinions; some people swear by Nexus Mod Manager, others say LOOT is the best, some say both or neither and that's not even counting all the stuff I've read on load orders, mod clashes, downloading with NMM vs manual downloads, how SKSE works and so on. Bottom line is I end up getting more confused the more I read. So I decided to ask here since I figured you all were smarter than the average bear when it comes to modding.

While I do not agree with the entirety of their vision, the Skyrim S.T.E.P. Project is a good place to get started with the how's and why's of modding


http://wiki.step-project.com/Main_Page

I was in the same boat about three years ago when I first started modding. There is always more to learn, even the experts are still making new discoveries. Bethesda gave us a nice CK but they didn't include an instruction manual, so modders have needed to figure out how the CK works by themselves.

The STEP guides Nephenee linked are awesome. I don't follow their step by step instructions for what mods to install because I prefer to build my own load orders, but I have read several of their guides and they are very informative, well written adn they keep them updated pretty well. Plus the STEP folks seem like really nice people.

Okay, let me stop you right there and clarify something. Nexus Mod Manager and LOOT do entirely different things. NMM is a mod manager, where as LOOT is a load order sorter that also includes helpful information about individual mods in your load order.

Your choice of mod manager is important because if you want to switch, you will have to reinstall all your mods and probably want to reinstall the game just to make sure you start with a clean install. So, picking the right one in the beginning is important. The choices are Nexus Mod Manager, Mod Organizer and Wrye Bash.

Nexus Mod Manager seems to be the easiest to learn, ans seems to have been improved from three years ago when I first started. If you just want to install a few mods, it's perfectly fine to use NMM. But if you are planning on becoming a modding "enthusiast" who makes modding a dedicated hobby, you might want to pick Mod Organizer or Wrye Bash.

Mod Organizer is used by STEP and there are many tutorials for how to install individual mods with it. I have always used Wrye Bash, but when SSE comes out, I plan on using Mod Organizer. It has a great profiles feature that lets you easily switch between different mods for different characters. I'd probably recommend it for a beginner because of that and because it is so easy to get help with an installation issue because there are so many active modders using it and so many tutorial videos available on line for Mod Organizer.

I have always used Wrye Bash. Some of Wrye Bash's functions like the bashed patch can be used in conjunction with other mod managers, so you can open Wrye Bash through Mod Organizer, for instance to make a bashed patch. But Wrye Bash is so much more than just a bashed patch maker. It has numerous features for managing installation of mods as well as load order. To many functions to list here. However, its profile feature is more limited than Mod Organizer because Wrye Bash lets you switch between individual load orders, but not individual installation orders, when you switch profiles.

LOOT is a tool you will need. LOOT tells you the optimal order to load your mods. I have gotten to the point where I just sort load order manually by looking at the individual mods in xEDit, but for now you should definitely use LOOT (in conjunction with your mod manager). There are three good choices for a mod manager, but only one LOOT. The old BOSS is outdated for Skyrim (though its still being updated for Oblivion and can be used for that game).

You also need to learn the difference between install order and load order. Load order is the order the game loads the mods when the game is run. Install order is the order you install your mods. Install order does not matter for mods that come with a bsa file (bsa is a proprietary archive file type created by Bethesda that works much like a zip file). But install order is important for mods that come with loose files, since some of those files may "replace" files that come from other mods. (If two files have the same name, only the one that is installed last will have any effect since it will "replace" the earlier installed file).

Load order is important because of the "rule of one". The rule of one is that a single record can only be changed by one mod, and if two or more mods try to change the same record, only the last loaded mod will have any effect in the game on that record. There are some exceptions to the types of records that this rule applies to. Changes to a landscape record for instance will be merged when the game runs. But most records are subject to this rule, which is why load order becomes so important. (Load order is also important for mods that come with a bsa file, since load order will determine which files from those bsa files are used when two bsa files contain individual files with the same name and file path).

You can see the rule of one in action by looking at your load order in xEdit. xEdit is a very powerful tool. Here is a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQi7vnqXyScto an excellent tutorial on some of xEdits more advanced features. It can do a lot more than just automated cleaning.

Good luck and happy modding!

Just dive right in.

Try to do 1 thing at a time and come here for answers to questions.

As you solve those problems you will learn.

I would start with SKSE Nexus Mod Manager LOOT and the official patches.

There's too many guides and too much information out there, take little steps, don't get overwhelmed.

I just want to add what Turjia said about Wrye Bash.

I suggest that you start to learn how Wrye Bash works and know what features Wrye Bash has, but also learn what steps you need to take in order to get a modded game stable with a few essential tools.

http://www.theassimilationlab.com/forums/topic/15368-relz-boss/ - works best for Oblivion, and seems to work for Skyrim too

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1605728-rel-loot-thread-25/ - works best for Skyrim, but not so good for Oblivion

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7b5ily482re0khs/AAD3vAWMVJNIpuS30tsdVte5a?dl=0 - learn everything about the BAIN feature and the bashed patch in http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/35230

TESxEdit - works both http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/11536 and http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25859

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/15781 - only works for Oblivion and are essential for a modded game

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1529894-relz-tes5edit/ can you read more about http://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/3750-wipz-tes5edit/ (WIP) and http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1425445-relz-tes5edit-plugin-cleaning-emporium/ is a thread about mod cleaning.

Watch the Youtube videos by Gopher. He has a whole series of modding tutorials.


As you look for mods you may come across suggestions for tweaks to your .ini files, especially your Papayrus settings. Ignore them. You might eventually wish to tweak the graphics settings, once you learn what they actually do, but do nothing to Papyrus, ever.

It turns out modding is a lot simpler than I thought it would be. I've downloaded about 40 mods already and haven't hit any problems yet. Thanks!