So, I had never played Skyrim even though I bought the game on Steam sometime after it was launched. Like I said elsewhere (check https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/243219/starting-skyrim-for-real-this-time-i-hope-some-questions/), I like to invest in games that could show the potential of a given system to have such AAA games, so I double dipped and bought a copy for my Switch back in 2017. Started playing 2 months ago and now my Archer character is already at level 79 with many many hours spent on family and house care (loved the Hearthfire part of the game – married Aela, she is beautiful and a blast follower but kind of a bitch when it comes to the houses; I spent so much effort on the lake manor and she still complains…).

So, I already started thinking of a second playthrough, this time focusing on a mage path.

But I wanted to play it on my old Steam copy.

Already found and got the 3 DLCs and I really wanted to mod the game. Went down and started my research for mods that I would want. This is a list of what seemed essential (please let me know if there is anything else I should consider using):

• Smart Souls
• Run for your lives
• SMIM
• SkyUI (but I don’t know if it is reeeaaaally necessary since I’ll be playing on a controller – many other mods demand that you have it, though)
• Unread Books Glow

After this research, I got the game installed last Monday. Since it is my first time modding a game, I felt like a child in a candy store and started downloading many things, from both Workshop and Nexus. Here is a list of things that I wanted to try out (and installed, most of them):

• Skyrim HD – 2K textures
• A Quality World Map
• Climates Of Tamriel - Weather - Lighting - Audio
• Purity - Brighter Nights
• Interesting NPCs
• Balanced Magic
• Skyrim Flora Overhaul
• Pure Waters
• True Skyrim
• Detailed Cities
• Hearthfire multiple adoptions• moonpath to elsweyr
• The Rabbit Hole
• Immersive Saturation Boost
• Marriage Mod - To Have And To Hold
• Luscious faces

For every new install I went on to a fresh start. But the game started to act weird, which I realized in one of those playthroughs. NPCs mainly started to lag down and not do their scripts properly. The better example of this is Camilla right in the beginning, when she is supposed to tell you where the bandits can be located. She would just stand there or walk very slowly. On the road to Whiterun, the imperials with a prisoner would also just be stuck there and not walk. I tried uninstalling the latest mods (the ones I did not have when the game was working properly) to see if it would solve my problem. Nothing changed. Then I went on to uninstall the game and all mods, started another file (yes, wasted this much time and effort) and got the same problem!

I have now uninstalled it again, deleted the file folder and everything that accompanied it, along with the Workshop mods and the vortex files (I uninstalled them all) but at this point I have to recognize I’m probably a sore noob that needs help instead of keeping trying to no avail. Can someone help me find how to solve this and carry on with my modding adventure? Thank you so much for helping me recover my claw, oops, game!

Thanks for the prompt reply. Yeah, it really is a lot of work. I thought it would be easier...

It seems so, but I'm leaning to think that it was a workshop file that messed the game. The nexus ones seemed to work fine, but I can be wrong.

hell yes thats a mod issue the problem is i havent touched those mods in years BUT looking at the addons you listed im going with * Interesting NPCs* causing the issue

What method are you using to install your mods? I strongly advise you use Mod Organizer as your mod manager. It makes things much easier.

Also make sure you are using the LOOT tool to sort your mods in the correct order otherwise things are guaranteed to go wrong in your game.

I would think that too, but the issue occurred before I installed that one. Bummer. Maybe the marriage one? And I don't know what to do for the game to return to normal in a future reinstall.

Been recently trying to get into mods more aggressively and I gotta say that it's almost not worth the troubles. If you go for the simplest mods that don't rely on other mods like graphical enhancements and you're content then you're golden...but the thing is why would you only want to stop at those mods when you could get better features and include characters from other games in there? Then there's OS updates that could come along and screw up your mods if you had to do some crazy back end stuff on your registry, program start ups; then there's installing specific things just for those mods to work only for other OS updates to screw those up. A lot of times you can get viruses from some things you need installed too for mods to work so you gotta be careful.

Modding is not that hard, not really. What you want to use are mods that have a lot of endorsements and downloads, they're usually more compatible. And there are also mod packs that combine various mods, ensuring they don't collide or cause issues. The most buggy mods are usually various player homes or major settlement changes since they mess with terrain, AI threads, and various aspects of the physics engine.

I had my last playthrough with about 160 mods and plugins installed, it worked just fine.

Examples of mods I use:

ENB improvement - trust me, a good ENB will transform the game, and most of the bigger ones cover the DLC as well. I recently used SkyrimSE Re-Engaged ENB, and Verdant Grass plugin, Skyrim Flora Overhaul, and Realistic Water Two (note that Verant has not been updated for some time, I also used Dolomite Weathers, but it might be outdated, there are plenty others to choose from for weather effects).

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1089

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2182

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2154

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2296

Some other must haves for me are;

Open Cities - this mod removes loading between entering and exiting cities, it's compatible with more or less everything and it works wonders for immersion!

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/281

Unofficial Skyrim SE patch - goes without saying, it's considered essential.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/266

SKY UI - just get it, it fixes the atrocious console adapted UI of the game!

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/12604

Alternate Start - Live Another Life; this mod sends you to a small chamber where you can choose how you wish to start, it's excellent for second, third, fourth etc. characters when you're getting real tired of that prologue level. The variations are good and I consider this an essential mod.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/272

Combat mods I use as base are Wildcat, Combat Evolved, Mortal Enemies, Realistic Melee Range, No BS AI Projectile Dodge and Realistic AI Detection. Some things all these mods together fixes are the general weight of fighting, movements and moves of the AI, impact and shock, critical hit systems and general balancing of damage output for all, including the AI. You'll deal more damage, but also receive more, so your skill level becomes more important, you need to time attacks and blocks properly and really watch out for archers! You can whack most beginner mobs with one decent hit of a two-handed weapon, but they can possibly do the same. Range, timing and overall weight become factors and combat is transformed completely!

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1368?tab=description

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1525?tab=description

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4881

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3378

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1763

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2345

Run For Your Lives - this mod solves a massive issue in the original game revolving around NPC's bumbling about outside when dragons or vampires attack, leading to many of them dying, uncluding merchants and semi-essential NPC's that might have sidequests. Handy and removes a huge annoyance.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2272?tab=description

Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim, this mod reworks the rather weak skill and perk system in the vanilla game, adding perks and skill modifiers to make more sense and ultimiately have more impact on gameplay.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1137?tab=description

Skyrim Recycling, this mod allows you to melt down various items that would otherwise be meaningless junk, so many items you can pick up are worth nothing. this is an excellent mod if and when you want to level up smithing, and it can provide you with materials that ensure you never need to buy ammo again. It can also help in crafting some nifty gear if you'd like.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3252?tab=description

Immersive Patrols, one of those mods that lends more life to the world, it places various patrols of different factions around the map. This leads to some fights and encounters and they often engage each other in combat as well. Fantastic, yet simple mod.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/718?tab=description

Favorite companion mods of mine are; INIGO and Sofia, they're both fully voice-acted, really well made in every aspect. These two companions can even interact with one another if you use a mod that allows more than one companion. Screw the boring vanilla followers, there are many better ones available as mods!

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2180

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1461

MorrowLoot - a large mod that reworks the entire loot system, removing silliness such as bandits wearing Daedric gear and generally turning down the inflated rate with which rare items will show up in random chests. It also delevels quest rewards and other items, avoiding you being stuck with a shit version of an item if you complete a quest early on.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3058

RaceMenu, the comprehensive character creation overhaul. It adds immense depth to the character creation and is compatible with a slew of mods, inlcuding packs of hairstyles, beards, tattoos, new races and various presets. You need this regardless of playstyle and other mods!

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/19080?tab=description


Anyway, that's some of the mods I use, I also have tons of weapon and armor mods installed, dragon enchancers, multiple companions and various immersion mods such as lantern fixes, spell lighting effect and even spell trajectory effects, stealth modifying mods etc. Read about how it all works, it usually works fine with the Vortex Manager (previosuly Nexus Mod Manager) and, as mentioned, most major mods have very few conflicts. Some of the listed mods also have menus with a wide selection of options, allowing a whole lot of custimization within the mods themselves. Happy gaming!

Thanks! This is awesome! Do you know what I could do make the game work correctly for the next install? Like, what should I install/uninstall from the folders for no register to be brought and ruin yet another try.

Do people still use this? The video below is pretty old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw3g_N1jcZQ

There is an update link to it in nexus though.