I’ve used the Nexus over the last three days to install 140+ mods, no problems. Manually DL them to a folder and then install them with Mod Organizer (which really is all that and a bag of chips.)
I will say this for the insane STEP installation I’m doing…cleaning and optimizing mods seems to actually be worthwhile. Maybe not for individual mods, but have to believe the cumulative effects add up to make a much less crashy game.
…because I’ve played the DC Comics Deck Building Game. TRUE STORY.
Keep the Skyrim mod talk coming! This is one game I love experiencing vicariously, especially with mods.
-Tom
Having to clean mods annoys me. Sure, it only takes a minute, but it would have only taken the author a minute as well and it would have been done for everyone.
Plus, if there are any ambiguous issues in the clean they are the most capable of resolving them.
I general I find the approach of some mod authors odd, in that they’ll spend tens or hundreds of hours on their mods, but not that extra hour (at most) to get things polished up for distribution.
is there a step torrent? it would make things so much easier…
A couple quick thoughts on some mods I’m using for the fist time:
Locational Damage: In addition to being not that impressive, the scripts for this thing seem to be a disaster. Papyrus was cluttered with crap from this mod. I ended up turning it off via MCM (I do salute the author for having very robust MCM integration, and the mods seems to have shut itself down correctly)
Audio Overhaul: The sound in certainly better than vanilla. The environmental sound is about on par with Climates of Tamriel - Sound. The new archery sounds are so good. SO GOOD. It still clearly has some little bugs with sound propagation. It may also be a factor in my stability problems based on the feedback on the forums, but there isn’t a lot of concrete evidence.
Populated Cities Towns Villages: This mod is fantastic paired with inconsequential NPCs The cities are so alive now, and it feels like people live there. I’m running the 50% version, and can’t see going to the full version as any more would seem congested. I’m also running the more populated lands roads paths, which may be making the roads a little TOO active. Skyrim should feel a little bit lonelier.
Immersive Creatues: Hells yes.
Cutting Room Floor: There is a lot of great restored content in here. I’ve hit three or four bits of restored content, and the locations and encounters in question make SO much more sense now. If you’ve run into certain Skyrim encounters and though “OK, that’s cool, but WHY is this here? How is this adding to the experience?” seeing the fully restored encounter is an excellent lightbulb moment. For example, I now know WHY those two dudes are in the Ratway entrance, and why they’re hostile.
There isn’t, given the constant updating of mods that takes place.
What’s great about that document that godhugh linked before was that it teaches you how to use tools like the Mod Organizer to install everything and set up push-button profiles if you like. It also teaches you how to use stuff like DDSopt to optimize graphics, and how to clean mods with the TES5Edit tool.
Yeah, it’s just that I’ve been through the whole STEP process (at least) twice, (not counting aborted ones) and I’m having difficulty rallying to do it a third time…
I never have the will to go the full STEP route. There’s just SO much in there, and a lot of it probably isn’t worth the time to deal with. I approach it more as a list of mods to start my search.
Well, I just got a 30" 2560x1600 Monoprice monitor, and a 4GB GTX 770, so I’m going to do it eventually…
JMR
1891
I’ve never played Morrowind but for my first play through of Skyrim I felt that there was an overabundance of l33t weaponry and armor that, after a short while, didn’t seem very special. I remember my disappointment after doing a quest in which I was rewarded with a sword imbued with magic that turned out to be inferior to my present sword which was found in a cave. And once I learned the right skills I could craft powerful items on my own which lead to me just not giving a crap about exploring and finding goodies. I’ll have to give this a go once I get my new system up and running.
Daagar
1892
Which is the right way to go about it. STEP is more of a battle-tested guideline of “these graphical mods are known to work together without mucking up your whole game” rather than a must-follow. And then something like Skyrim Revisited can guide you to more gameplay options - also well tested to work together.
Sounds like I need to carve out some time this winter break to do a fresh install so I can give Mod Organizer a try.
Wow, you guys were right about Mod Organizer. I did a clean install today, and manually installed all the mods from Nexus using MO, and it worked great, love that it makes its own shortcut too.
“just got a 4gb 770 fistbump”
I’m loving this card in Skyrim. Basically, it’s powerful enough that if it can’t maintain a sufficient framerate the engine itself was about to die anyway.
All I have to say is that Automatic Variants and the gajillion related mods to that had better stinkin’ be worth it! That was an install I began last night around 10:30 pm and concluded around 12:45 am. (The installation is easy…the optimization with DDSopt is a pain. Or should say, started as a pain. By the fourth mod I figured out how to do it fairly quickly and painlessly and got into a routine and flew through the rest.)
I think I might eventually be in favor of this, but I also remember the way the crowded roads mod in Oblivion broke the balance of that game, too. What happened in the latter case was that it people the roads with plenty of lowbies…but also with folks carrying expensive stuff, which attracted bandits with glass and daedric weapons, which attracted Imperial guards to restore the peace…and as a lowbie character you could just watch them all fight it out and then like a crow pick over the dead bodies for amazing but game-breaking gear. So…yeah, I think I’ll keep Skyrim lonely for now.
Immersive Creatues: Hells yes.
Just installed this via STEP, can’t wait to see it in action, alongside the Automatic Variants and SkyTEST to see a better variety of creatures and creature behavior.
Cutting Room Floor: There is a lot of great restored content in here. I’ve hit three or four bits of restored content, and the locations and encounters in question make SO much more sense now. If you’ve run into certain Skyrim encounters and though “OK, that’s cool, but WHY is this here? How is this adding to the experience?” seeing the fully restored encounter is an excellent lightbulb moment. For example, I now know WHY those two dudes are in the Ratway entrance, and why they’re hostile.
Noticed this on the Nexus a few days ago, and was curious about it, and now MORE curious about it! Think this is going to be one I install, although I’m intrigued as to why some of the stuff got left out and hope there’s nothing game-breaking by putting it in.
You haven’t modded Skyrim until you’ve installed–and then optimized–a mod that gives lizardmen working pensises.
Getting punchy now…
I haven’t found too much trouble with it in that regard, although it does get a little goofy with all sorts of uber npcs stomping on what are supposed to be your encounters. The bigger issue is that the combo of Populated Lands Roads Paths and Immersive Patrols is pretty much a crash factory, since it adds so many dudes at times. With those two mods, AND skytest AND immersive creatures AND interesting npcs with some Frostfall and Wet and Cold icing, the engine can get completely overwhelmed. I think Immersive Patrols is supposed to get an MCM menu in its next major release, so it may be possible to dial it down, and Immersive Creatures already has one.
I actually think Immersive Patrols is pretty solid, but shouldn’t be installed with all the crazy optional ESMs it contains (the battles for example are just too much for the engine). The first time I ran into one of the new Stormguard patrols, they were beating the crap out of some monsters that had wandered too close, rather than just getting destroyed. I actually remarked out loud “Wow, they just patrolled the hell out of that road!”
I’ll probably try to pull some of the optional Immersive Patrols stuff out, which PROBABLY won’t break my game (no scripts). For Populated, I may try digging into the mod with tesedit and see if I can dial down how much its spawning.
Hey triggercut, are you preparing to release a mod compilation like you did for Oblivion?
