Lexy's: Legacy of The Dragonborn Special Edition

[ginginho]

Well you have to activate Falskaar mod on the left side also.

Seems like you didnt activate this mod.

What a fool; I don't know how I failed to spot the mod earlier  Thanks for the reply!

[StackingWhales]

What a fool; I don't know how I failed to spot the mod earlier  Thanks for the reply!

You are not a fool!!! That is an easy mistake to make when you first start modding with so much to keep track of. 

[DarkladyLexy]

@StackingWhales

 

I have done a qucik bit of testing I turn off All AA apart from SMAA that comes with EN to to be honest I see not difference.

[berndaroy]

What a fool; I don't know how I failed to spot the mod earlier  Thanks for the reply!

Ginginho hi! It is wonderful to see that you have an interest in a heavy modding experience, and i would like to encourage you to continue to do so!. However if you are still a little unfamiliar with the whole modding experience....may i suggest perhaps you start with this guide first..https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/10694. Firstly it will help you get used to working with the mod manager and the tools required to enhance the Skyrim experience. Secondly, this guide is brilliant, but it is aimed at people more experienced and familiar with the ins and outs of the whole guide/modding experience. Try the other guide first and then come to this one....this guide is also consistently evolving and being updated and will require you to know how to adjust and when to STOP modding in order to play the game....however it is your chose...best regards

[Shadriss]

Thank you! One more question if you don't mind. Do you have any tips for modifying an existing load order? I was thinking of making a new copy of the profile so as to not break what isn't broken, and adding mods one at a time to see if they work properly then rebuild smashed and bashed patches, rerun relinker, etc etc. 

Ask this question to five different people, you'll get five slightly different answers. I'll give you my thoughts on the process, but it's really up to you to 'make it work' so to speak. Also, I'll be answering with the assumption that we're working from Lexy's Base Guide, as that's how you framed the question.

 

1) Adding new mods to the guide is not only OK, it's almost expected. Aside from Lexy and her Devs, I'm not sure that anyone runs a pure Guide Build (and even they don't... they just keep one install that is nothing but the Guide for testing purposes). That said, there is one thing I would NOT add to this guide - any major 'new lands' mods. The guide is already very heavy, and adding in another new area will make it much more difficult to keep balanced, especially if new items (weapons and armor in particular) are added. You'll note that the guide has a large number of 'consistancy patches' - the whole purpose of those additions is to make the items and crafting more even across the board, with only a few major OP weapons/armors remaining.

 

2) When adding in mods, there are two trains of thought. One says that you match like with like - that is, place mods that modify (for example) armor textures with the guide mods that do the same. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but I prefer to place all non-guide mods that I use at the end of the load order, AFTER all the main mods of the guide, but BEFORE the Finishing Line mods. There are a few that may need to be placed in the middle of the guide mods, and mixing the two methods certainly works as well, but that's how I handle it as a general rule. It makes it very easy then to find those mods if I need to alter or remove them later for compatibility (or just plain didn't-like-it) reasons.

 

3) I wouldn't drop in a HUGE number of mods all at once - I'd say no more than three or four, depending on the type of mod. For example, I have issue dropping in all of Rogueshot's skeleton replacers in one go (totalling maybe 13 or 14 mods there, I think), as the effect they have overall is a minor one on the file system. Something more akin to Frostfall or Dynamic Equipment Manager (both guide mods, but I use them as an example anyways) are more like to be mods you want to handle one at a time, since you have to compare how things worked before to how they work after installation, and you don't want other mods that may have an impact on those systems confusing things.

 

4) When you HAVE figured out which mods you want it, installed them, and are ready for a final build, there are a few guidelines about which portions of the Finishing Line you want to run.

 

     a) If you changed anything, LOOT runs should be done.

     b) If you changed anything that relates to Player Animations, rerrun FNIS.

     c) If it changed the world's terrain, LODGen.

     d) If it adds in buildings or changes them, TexGen and DynDOLOD.

 

Regardless, after a LOOT run and having added in new mods, run Bashed Patch and Smashed Patch to get them as fully integrated as possible.

 

Hope that helps you out.

[Shadriss]

Since this is my first attempt at heavy modding, this is very likely a noob error so apologies in advance. I'm creating my first merge (Animals Merged) and adding the missing masters prior to sorting with LOOT. I'm struggling to find 'Falskaar.esm' which is required by the consistency patch. Please see the screenshot attached. Any pointers to the error of my ways would be appreciated!

2019-04-22 10_28_29.png

With apologies for a double post (as the two didn't merge for whatever reason...)

 

I want to second Bern's advice - I have nothing but love for this Guide, but if this is your first major modding experience, this is likely not the place to try it. There are a lot of more advanced practices that are needed to get it right, and there are many who HAVE done major modding before that have issues. Give the list that Bern linked to a shot first, get familiar with the tools and the best practices, and when those have become comfortable (or, at least, less mystical) then come back here and give it a go.

 

Of course, if you want to give this a try anyways, we'll help out where we can. The discord server is a great place to get help, but keep in mind that while people will help, they get irritated really quickly over 'hand-holding' - this guide is an advanced one, and it's assumed that you have basic knowledge of how to use the tools. If you don't, it's going to be a rough go of it.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Shadriss

[Geo92]

-- snip --

Hope that helps you out.

To break in on this subject, what is generally the fastest and best way to test-run a modding setup ingame? To be sure that it is relatively stable. My most infamous CTD hells after a not functional modguide was usually instant CTD'ing around or near Riverwood. I am myself still getting the optimal (but personal) build with this as main setup. But at some point I have gotten too ambitious (happens all the time) so I am dialing back again.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Geo92

[Shadriss]

To break in on this subject, what is generally the fastest and best way to test-run a modding setup ingame? To be sure that it is relatively stable. My most infamous CTD hells after a not functional modguide was usually instant CTD'ing around or near Riverwood. I am myself still getting the optimal (but personal) build with this as main setup. But at some point I have gotten too ambitious (happens all the time) so I am dialing back again.

Honestly, this is very mod dependent. Since you are testing it in coordination with the guide, it needs to be run WITH the guide (which kinda goes without saying, but just to be sure...). If it's a simple mod you're testing, then just throw it in and watch for its effects in the game. The more complex ones are the ones you need to pay more attention to.

 

First thing is to bring it up with the full guide in xEdit and look for conflicts. I'm no expert there - I just look for things that revert changes made by guide mods and change them back if it's appropriate. Once that's done, there's really nothing to be done except play it and see if it works out. As you've mentioned, Riverwood tends to be a good test site, but the guide also has a small list of places you may to CoC to as well - they were listed to help identify problems with the statues, but those areas also tend to have enough going on that other issues may surface there as well, so those would be good places to test as well.

 

If you're looking for a full-on test sequence, then perhaps do a vanilla-start Helgen run until arriving at Riverwood, and see how the list holds up. It's not 'fast' per se, but if it plays well with Helgen and all the scripting going on there then it's likely doing at least okay-ish. It's a place to start anyhow.

[StackingWhales]

@StackingWhales

 

I have done a qucik bit of testing I turn off All AA apart from SMAA that comes with EN to to be honest I see not difference.

Hmmm interesting. I made a short screen recording of the issue I was having. I can make a separate recording of the fixed version and screenshot my changes if you'd like. Although I wouldn't know the best way to get those to you. I actually have the game's built in TAA setting turned on, and all hardware AA turned off along with dynamic super resolution set to 1.5x supersampling. 

Edited April 22, 2019 by StackingWhales

[StackingWhales]

Ask this question to five different people, you'll get five slightly different answers. I'll give you my thoughts on the process, but it's really up to you to 'make it work' so to speak. Also, I'll be answering with the assumption that we're working from Lexy's Base Guide, as that's how you framed the question.

 

1) Adding new mods to the guide is not only OK, it's almost expected. Aside from Lexy and her Devs, I'm not sure that anyone runs a pure Guide Build (and even they don't... they just keep one install that is nothing but the Guide for testing purposes). That said, there is one thing I would NOT add to this guide - any major 'new lands' mods. The guide is already very heavy, and adding in another new area will make it much more difficult to keep balanced, especially if new items (weapons and armor in particular) are added. You'll note that the guide has a large number of 'consistancy patches' - the whole purpose of those additions is to make the items and crafting more even across the board, with only a few major OP weapons/armors remaining.

 

2) When adding in mods, there are two trains of thought. One says that you match like with like - that is, place mods that modify (for example) armor textures with the guide mods that do the same. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but I prefer to place all non-guide mods that I use at the end of the load order, AFTER all the main mods of the guide, but BEFORE the Finishing Line mods. There are a few that may need to be placed in the middle of the guide mods, and mixing the two methods certainly works as well, but that's how I handle it as a general rule. It makes it very easy then to find those mods if I need to alter or remove them later for compatibility (or just plain didn't-like-it) reasons.

 

3) I wouldn't drop in a HUGE number of mods all at once - I'd say no more than three or four, depending on the type of mod. For example, I have issue dropping in all of Rogueshot's skeleton replacers in one go (totalling maybe 13 or 14 mods there, I think), as the effect they have overall is a minor one on the file system. Something more akin to Frostfall or Dynamic Equipment Manager (both guide mods, but I use them as an example anyways) are more like to be mods you want to handle one at a time, since you have to compare how things worked before to how they work after installation, and you don't want other mods that may have an impact on those systems confusing things.

 

4) When you HAVE figured out which mods you want it, installed them, and are ready for a final build, there are a few guidelines about which portions of the Finishing Line you want to run.

 

     a) If you changed anything, LOOT runs should be done.

     b) If you changed anything that relates to Player Animations, rerrun FNIS.

     c) If it changed the world's terrain, LODGen.

     d) If it adds in buildings or changes them, TexGen and DynDOLOD.

 

Regardless, after a LOOT run and having added in new mods, run Bashed Patch and Smashed Patch to get them as fully integrated as possible.

 

Hope that helps you out.

Shadriss, this is perfect thank you so much! You confirmed for me a lot of what I was thinking, particularly when it comes to finishing line tools. Would you suggest trying to merge mods that I've added to the build if they are similar in content or affect similar aspects of the game?

[berndaroy]

Shadriss, this is perfect thank you so much! You confirmed for me a lot of what I was thinking, particularly when it comes to finishing line tools. Would you suggest trying to merge mods that I've added to the build if they are similar in content or affect similar aspects of the game?

StackingWhales hi! Shadriss has laid this out so nicely and I agree with what he has said. I too load my added mods at the bottom, before finish line. Yes in answer to your question....i have some of my mods added into the miscellaneous merge or my own merge. Just be aware of what they do/change and remember to fix any conflicts prior to running the finish line i.e make your own mini CR patch, and check your bash and smash patches that the fixes have been carried forward to them (If any)

 

PS Shadriss good to hear from you, been a while

Edited April 22, 2019 by berndaroy

[StackingWhales]

StackingWhales hi! Shadriss has laid this out so nicely and I agree with what he has said. I too load my added mods at the bottom, before finish line. Yes in answer to your question....i have some of my mods added into the miscellaneous merge or my own merge. Just be aware of what they do/change and remember to fix any conflicts prior to running the finish line i.e make your own mini CR patch, and check your bash and smash patches that the fixes have been carried forward to them (If any)

 

Yes he has! Thanks for the tip. I found a tutorial on reddit on making your own CR patches (which I guess has the added affect of making WB and smash not have to work as hard). I was surprised by how much easier it was than I thought! 

Edited April 22, 2019 by StackingWhales

[Shadriss]

Shadriss good to hear from you, been a while

 

Finals week, and all the fun that leads up to it. What can you do? :)

 

Shadriss, this is perfect thank you so much! You confirmed for me a lot of what I was thinking, particularly when it comes to finishing line tools. Would you suggest trying to merge mods that I've added to the build if they are similar in content or affect similar aspects of the game?

I wouldn't mix mods into the merges that Lexy presents, just to keep those clean. For merging (which I make ZERO claim to fully understand), it's another question of like with like, much in the way Lexy has done hers... that's more a question for the discord honestly. That said, in general, patches for a given mod can all be merged together (but not with the mod being patched) as I understand it. Further info on these kind of merges can be gotten from the mod paged and their comments.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Shadriss

[Deivix]

Bent Pines (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/8306) got an update to version II some days ago, the guide will update with the new version? I'm following the guide and I don't know if install the 1.01 like guide says, or wait for updates

[DarkladyLexy]

Bent Pines (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/8306) got an update to version II some days ago, the guide will update with the new version? I'm following the guide and I don't know if install the 1.01 like guide says, or wait for updates

you can use Version II i will be updating that next update