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About this mod
Forever Thankful is not only a statement from mod users to the mod creators, but it is a resource for a mod user to go to learn how to mod Skyrim better (I hope!), learn new aspects of Skyrim modding, and to foster a relationship with mod authors that is beneficial to everyone. Complete with tutorial links to help you mod Skyrim to its limits.
- Permissions and credits
I love modding and playing Skyrim. I don't make mods, I just play and test them. I thought that I would post up a tutorial showing all of the great resources that I've come across in last few years. Hopefully, you find something you didn't know about, and it can help everyone enjoy this Great game and all of the great mods available for it! I also wanted to use this post to say thanks to all of the Skyrim modders, mod users, Nexus employees, and everyone else in the Modding community! Thanks to "Forever Free" for allowing people to edit the logo you had up, I hope the use of here is OK.
The first part enjoying all of the great mods we get for Skryim, is to become more informed on the correct use of mods, and how to properly mod Skyrim....i.e. Best Practices of Modding. When you understand how to properly mod Skyrim, you will find a much more stable experience. The experience will not only be stable, but enriching, when you can finally run mods together such as OBIS, Skyrim Immersive Creatures, and the High Level Enemies together and have them all show up in game, not just whatever mod overwrites the others. You will finally be able to install mods that look complex like Real Shelter, and see that its actually just a few simple steps. If you haven't tried an overhaul like Skyrim Redone (SkyRe), or Perkus Maximus (PerMa), or Requiem (Req?) because it was too hard, you are missing out big time!!!! How about a vampire overhaul like Better Vampires, or Moonlight Tales, if you prefer Werewolves. Not only do you get all of the bonuses of having more mods, more complex mods, overhauls, more textures, more houses (Elianora's got enough awesome houses to start a real estate business here!), Skimpy armors, Immersive Armors, Tera Armors, or no armor at all to show off the latest CBBEUNP7BaseHDTXYZ@#$% body. Just look at amazing mods like Sands of Time, The Dragonborn Gallery, or the PerMa patches, these guys are updating their works of art so often, that they must be robots! I know not everyone using tons of mods, but using things like LOOT and Wrye Bash can apply when only using 2 or more mods in some cases.
The second part of the equation is to provide useful feedback in the Nexus Forums. I don't mean this by telling people to behave differently in the Forums.....not at all, I just thought that if more people posted helpful comments, such as when they find out mod X works well with mod Y or if they don't work together, modding Skyrim gets much easier and more enjoyable! This is great information for other mod users and the mod author! It's awesome when mod users add to the forums and help the mod authors answer questions! I love it when I have an issue with a mod and right away in the comments someone has the answer....thank you!
It can benefit the community so much if you can add your experience with the mod, issues, likes, and anything you found out while using the mod that can help the next person out. We don't need your whole load order with the mod for most cases, but if similar mods work together, that is great to know. Example meaning "Deadly Dragons works great with Dragon Combat Overhaul". That is great info. to have. If you are already doing this, I offer you my thanks for helping to make mine, and everyone else's Skyrim experience better.
Suggestions of ways to provide helpful feedback to mods:
"This mod is broken......yadayadayada" many times followed by other users stating comments like "great mod", or "worked awesome, fun mod!". Suggestion: read the other comments, if others are enjoying the mod, maybe its you......many times, it could be a mod you are using in conjunction with said mod, causing the issues. Take a look at your load order and bash patch if applicable. Tons of things can go wrong when adding mods to Skyrim, it may not be the mod in question. Try loading the mod with no other mods to see how the mod works with just Skyrim. If the mod works, add mods a few or one at a time until you find what mod is causing a conflict. Now try changing the load order of those mods and see if the issue is resolved. If you still have issues then, the mod may actually have an issue.
"Does this mod work with Requiem?" "Does this mod work with PerMa?" Suggestion: The mod author would either have to download and install the mod which in some builds can take hours, just to test a mod they would never use, and there are thousands of mods out there. Many mod authors already do an awesome job making patches and alternate versions to accommodate other mods. There is no problem with asking about mod compatibility, but check the description and the comments first. Or try a quick google search including both mods and you may find the answer there. If all that fails, you can test the mod. Make a game save before adding the mod, then load the mod and test it. If you have issues, remove the mod and load the save from before the mod. Some mod authors will state that you shouldn't remove their mod during a playthough, even when using the above methods, so always read the description pages. Then when you find out if it was compatible, post that to the forums, that's good information for the community!
"Can you just redo most of this mod for me real quick, I don't like heavy armor", or "Can you make the breasts on this follower and bigger than 67 DDDD.....I can still see her feet when using the enhanced camera mod?" Suggestion: No No No...Ok...some times a request is good, it really depends on the mod author, they are people you know! Some people welcome requests, some don't.
"This is not immersive, I'm from Tamriel....My Father was a Companion.....I know what a Breton would wear on Tuesdays on rainy days!!!!!!" Suggestion: Immersive is perspective, your immersive is not my immersive.....and your lore friendly is not someone else's lore friendly! Oh and this comment wasn't Immersive....Tuesdays aren't Tuesdays, its Tirdas dummy!!!!@@@#### Gosh!
There are some simple rules to Skyrim modding that I hope can help you in your Skyrim builds:
Never remove a mod once your playthrough has started. If you remove a mod, other than some texture mods and some other mods apply, it is best practice, to restart your game when ever you remove a mod.
Learn load order, use LOOT
Learn to open TES5Edit to look for conflicts and for master and mod cleaning
Learn to use Nexus Mod Manager or Mod Organizer
Learn which mods instinctively will not work with each other, google both mods together and you may find info. on if the mods work together, or check in the fourms.
Learn to use Wrye Bash for bash patches
Read description pages and readmes
Use essential mods such as unofficial patches, ENBoost, etc.
Even if you have a simple mod set up, you at least need to learn LOOT for proper load order.
Try to ask the mod author as a last resort, and be patient, they have a life, if they don't get back to
you......well free support isn't the best....try calling Hp when your computer bluescreens, paid support sucks too.
The MOST important part of all................helpful comments, endorsements, and donations when possible. These things are soooo important from a user perspective. It's how we say thank you for the countless hours of enjoyment we get from modding Skyrim, playing Skyrim, and creating mods for Skyrim.
I took a look at SkyUI for a little perspective. That mod has over 4,500,000 downloads! Unfortunately, it only has 247,000 endorsements. (Update: Now up to 279,800+ and climbing!!) So....only 1 in 17 people who have downloaded this mod have even taken the one second that it takes to click a mouse button to endorse a mod. 1 in 17 for the most popular and most used mod for Skyrim. Imagine what the ratio is for other lesser known mods. We all appreciate the Nexus as well, even if not everyone loves every decision they make, we wouldn't be here without the Nexus, so thanks to the Nexus Staff for all you do! Anyone who doesn't have a premium membership, should think about it, its great for support for the site, and the download speeds are much better, great for those 200 plus mod builds or for big texture packs.
We can't all donate to every mod, its just reality. We can however let these modders know that we appreciate their work. Think about that, a simple click of the mouse to let them know that their hours of work, hours of answering question after question that is answered in the mod description, is appreciated. Your positive comment may be the one that set that modder on a quest to make the next big mod.....all from a positive comment. How many games give you dozens of completely varied, completely original, mods daily......think about that......daily, dozens of mods!!!! How many games can you change to suit your needs, what ever they be? I wanted to add that if you are an ENB fan or if you are thankful for ENBoost for its amazing Skyrim Stability, head on over to his website, you can donate there. He created ENB, and the awesome modders here modify it for different looks and performance. Thanks Boris and thanks modders for the presets! ENB = No More Greyrim!!!
Here are some links to YouTube videos, and other resources to give you one place to link to all of the best information out there. I realize that there may be things I'm missing, or things you think I should change, please let me know in the comment section so I can adjust this to suit the needs of everyone.
Below are video links to some of the best tutorials, let me know of any others and I'll add them. As far as websites for these items below, try the S.T.E.P. , lots of good information there, otherwise, Google will show you tons of sites with good information.
Installing Skyrim:
Gamer Poets
Gopher
Installing and using Nexus Mod Manager or Mod Organizer:
Dirty Weasel
Gopher
Gamer Poets
Cleaning Master Files with TES5Edit
Gamer Poets
Dirty Weasel
Downloading and Installing Mods
Gamer Poets Mod Organizer
Gopher Nexus Mod Manager
New Wave Gaming Nexus Mod Manager
Must have or fix it Mods.
SKSE:
Gopher
Dirty Weasel
Gamer Poets
Unofficial patches:
Skyrim
Dawnguard
Dragonborn
Hearthfire
High Resolution Patch
Gamer Poets
Gopher
Installing and using Nexus Mod Manager or Mod Organizer:
Dirty Weasel
Gopher
Gamer Poets
Cleaning Master Files with TES5Edit
Gamer Poets
Dirty Weasel
Downloading and Installing Mods
Gamer Poets Mod Organizer
Gopher Nexus Mod Manager
New Wave Gaming Nexus Mod Manager
Must have or fix it Mods.
SKSE:
Gopher
Dirty Weasel
Gamer Poets
Unofficial patches:
Skyrim
Dawnguard
Dragonborn
Hearthfire
High Resolution Patch
Cleaning mods with TES5Edit when applicable
You clean mods the same way you clean master files, but in this case some "bad" edits that show up in loot may be intended.....meaning, don't clean them if you want the mod and your game to run right. Check the mod author page and forum for notes on cleaning the mod and if its needed.
Sorting mods with LOOT
Gamer Poets
Gopher
Dirty Weasel
Special mod sorting post loot per modders information
No links needed here.....just read the description page and the comment section. sometimes loot may have a mod not where the mod author intended it to be to get the full use of the mod.
Merged Patches and Bashed Patches Merged Patch with TES5Edit.
This is where I could use some feedback from the community! I use large load orders, so a merged patch can be tough because there really is no documentation out there for merged patches. They are not "merged" patches like most users think, meaning merging mods into one mod to save load order space. That is advanced modding that I don't cover here. Its not a bashed patch either, although it does cover some of bash patch items such as leveled lists and items. A merged patch with a small load order usually has no issues, on a larger order, some mods may need to be deactivated prior to patching to work correctly....whew...too much to say there....but don't worry, On my large build, I use all of the other methods listed here, only omitting the merged patch, and my games are awesome. Bashed patches with Wrye Bash however are easy and needed to make mods play well together
Wrye Bash Mod Organizer
Gamer Poets
Gamer Poets
Wrye Bash Nexus Mod Manager
Just install Wrye Bash like any other program and point it to your Skyrim folder, creating patch is the same as in the above videos.
SkyProc and other advanced Patches
Gamer Poets and Dirty weasel have great videos for Skyre, PerMa, Dual Sheath Redux, and many others.
ENB install and optimization
See mod description or search Youtube by ENB although most ENB presets install the same way.
Best practices when playing for a more stable game:
Disable in game autosave, use manual saves or a save mod.
Turn down in game graphics settings when stutters arise and other issues have been addressed, a main cause of stuttering is too many high end textures pushing your video cards vram and clock speeds.
Save often, no one likes reselling all that garbage that our 5 followers were carrying only to have a CTD or a freeze (hopefully not if you follow these steps), or Talos forbid some bandit kills you!
Turn off all other programs on your computer that aren't needed when playing Skyrim. That means close Skype, shut off Spotify, turn off your antivirus, make that computer work on Skyrim and only Skyrim. Take care not to turn off any needed processes, you can google each one to see if it needs to be running while you are gaming. Things like messengers, backup software, office apps, anything not needed while gaming. If you disable any security software, take care to re enable it as soon as you are done playing.
Save indoors, not outdoors when possible. It is easier to save in a small closed off space, less to load up.
When a quest is bugged and you've tried reloading a save.....google it, there are many game bugs that the Skyrim wiki pages will have a console code that can fix that bugged quest.
That said, don't abuse the console, the console giveth.......and the console taketh away.
Watch for mods that conflict. Mods like SkyRe cant run along side with requiem, but don't believe the noob hype that you cant have mods with overhauls, you just have to be more cautious. I usually play with SkyRe, and now PerMa on all of my builds with over 200 mods.
Don't have 3 rain mods......or 2 weather mods on the same part of weather. Don't stress the Skyrim!!! Too many scripted mods or too many sexy textures will load your system down depending on your specs.
Try not to use old mods, things change, stay current. That said, there are good old safe mods, but read the forums for the mod, see what the community is saying about it.
Never take mods out unless you intend to start a new character. There are exceptions, but if you aren't sure, start over. There are always exceptions to the rule, but its a good idea to leave your load order and mods alone for a stable playthrough.
Be wary to update mods as well in a playthrough, that mod make fix something with the update, but it could break something too. If it ain't broke......don't fix it. Even though the temptation always gets me, its best not to add or remove any mods on a given character playthrough.
Leave you ini files alone. There are valid reasons to be in there such as grass mods like Verdant or Flora mods like Skyrim Flora Overhaul that need edits to show all the added goodies. Verdant is great on low end and high end setups depending on the ini adjustment, Skryim Flora Overhaul will tax you computer, but its worth it, when I got my 780gtx, it was one of the first mods I quickly installed!
Limit your fps to 60fps, above that Skyrim goes nutty! That being said, try to keep as close to 60fps as you can for smooth play.....otherwise.....take it easy on the textures and watch out for ENB high end presets unless you have a better computer.
For textures, try to stay at 1K, most computers will have issues with 2K or larger.
ENB is amazing and if you can run the higher end presets, by all means, try them out! Just note that many ENB presets can kill your fps. With most newer ENB presets, you can hit shift+enter and modify the settings of the ENB preset. This way you can take enhancements out, thus giving performance, or go the other way, hurting performance, but adding graphical goodness. If you cant run ENB, try the sweetfx presets available like I can't believe its not ENB.
Keep shadows on medium if your system is having lag issues, not that all lag is due to shadows, but that Skyrim is terrible at rendering shadows, they can be quite taxing on the FPS. ENB will fix shadow striping and many other shadow issues, so maybe a performance ENB is a good option to clean up those shadows. Lower view distances if having stuttering issues or fps issues.
Ambient Occlusion looks great, but it kills your FPS. You can even watch the heat build up on your video card in many cases when turning it on. Its a great effect, but it comes at a price. Anti-Aliasing will clean up those jagged edges, but at a price as well. Many ENB's will have you disable both the AO and AA in the Skyrim launcher, I would suggest doing this for all lower to medium systems to gain FPS even if you are not using ENB. You can always enable them later, but expect a drop in performance. Here is a great link to NVIDIA where the explain all of the Skyrim launcher settings.
I wanted to add some awesome YouTube peeps doing Let's Plays, Mod reviews and more
Gophers Vids Amazing mod tutorials, Immersive Let's Play, and Mod Reviews
Gamer Poets Crazy real immersive Let's Play, like a movie Let's Play and tutorials and reviews
Dirty Weasel Media Immersive Let's Play, tutorials and reviews
MMOxReview The #1 subscribed Skyrim Mod review channel on YouTube, very funny guy!
Brodual Amazing mod review videos, short and to the point, great vids!
Hodilton Great mod reviews, lots of ENB reviews, amazing quality, high textures!
insaneOhflex Great reviews, nice variety of mods covered
ShoddyCast Amazing lore videos, learn all the lore from the Elder Scrolls series, even Fallout lore, amazing stuff! Watch these, seriously, you won't believe the lore these guys uncover!!!
Shinji72 Funny mod reviews, great videos, especially if you like the sexy sexy....lol.
Slothability Great tutorials and Let's Plays
LiveStyleGaming Great mod reviews and a Skyrim Lets Play