User:DrPharmDawg/SkyRem Guide

Skyrim Roleplay Enhancement Mod Guide for Special Edition

Guide Home

Current Version: 1.01

Created and maintained by DrPharmDawg

Last Update: 18:30:30 3 May 2024 (GMT)

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Guide Pages
SkyRem Home: Information about the SkyRem Guide.
First Steps: Start here to ensure proper installation, settings, and Tools are setup.
How Tos: Reference guides for utilizing tools.
Core Guide: This section focuses on Stability, Performance, Mechanics, and Content mods.
Extended Guide: This section contains optional mods that build on the core of SkyRem.
Visual Guide: This section focuses on Aesthetic mods.
Final Steps: The final steps to complete, including in-game MCM Setup prior to starting your journey.
Changelog: Check here for updates.

Guide Support
Discord: Discord Channel for all things SkyRem (Guide and Mods).
Patreon: Support SkyRem development via Patreon.
PayPal: Support with a one-time donation via PayPal.
Trello: See guide development progress on Trello.

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INTRODUCTION

Skyrim Roleplay Enhancement Mod Guide
What is SkyRem? Yes - SkyRem is an acronym (if you have happened to delve in to any of my mods, this is probably very apparent). This began with the desire to tweak character creation and development; just a little. And has grown into two (so far) series of mods and now a guide as I work to put it all together. My goal is the ultimate roleplay experience with Skyrim. Alone, it is a great game. With the involvement of the modding community, it has become a phenomenal game. This, along with the few mods I have authored, is my attempt to give back to that community (or at least contribute in some way).

There are great guides available already, with different focuses, different objectives, etc. After countless hours of using other guides, adding, subtracting, altering... this guide is my "finished product" based on my priorities listed below. While I say "finished product", I mean finished to the point that it will result in a good play-through. Of course, it will then be time to update the guide as new and improved mods and more content becomes available.

As the name suggests, this guide is designed for roleplay. This is not a difficulty or beautification focused mod guide by design. One could argue that difficulty is incorporated simply by the nature of the roleplay focus and modifications. Beautification - I will include in its own Guide section. I do use quite a few of these, though they do not add to the spirit of the guide itself.

SkyRem Mod Guide Priorities:

• Stability
• Performance
• Mechanics
• Content
• Aesthetics

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SYSTEM INFO

DrPharmDawg's Rig	Spec
Motherboard	ASUS® G751JY
CPU	Intel® Core i7 4710HQ @2.50GHz
GPU	Nvidia® GeForce GTX 980M 4GB GDDR5
System RAM	24 GBs
Operating System	Windows 10 64-bit
Monitor Resolution	1920x1080

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GUIDE INFO

The guide is divided in to several parts:

• First Steps: You must spend some time on the front-end preparing your setup.
• How To: There are a number of tools and techniques needed to properly mod. This page will help you navigate those processes.
• Core Guide: This is the bulk of the guide in terms of playing.
• Extended Guide: Additional mods that focus on the mechanics and content, but are not necessary to achieve roleplay as I intend.
• Visual Guide: This section is more a Mod List (vs a Mod Guide - there is a difference) containing the Aesthetic mods I use.
• Final Steps: Final steps needed to "make it all work" together. This is primarily patching and MCM setup.

Guide Features

This guide:

• Stable and performance friendly setup with Core and even Extended. The Visual guide is a little more FPS heavy.
• Installation and utilization instructions for the various modding tools.
• Streamlined and easy to read approach to modding incorporated in to the design of the guide itself.
• Patches to make the various setups work together (available on Nexus).
• Support via Discord and regular updates.

This guide does not:

• Include ENB or Reshade: I do not use them nor do I care for them. The trade-off for performance is (IMO) not worth it.
• Include Dead Mods: Mods that have not been updated in over a year or mods with unanswered (or excessive) bug reports/comments.
• Include CBBE: What little I do in this regard is UNP.
• Include 4k+: Whenever possible, I use 2k at the most.

This is not to say that any of the above will not work with the guide, but I cannot provide support for things I do not use or problems I cannot replicate.

Mod Legend

When using the Core or Extended Guide, I use the following template:

Mod Name & Link

• Author of Mod
• Version used by SkyRem Guide
• Tags (See below)

FILES: File(s) to Download and Install

About: Information about the Mod. This is taken directly from the Nexus description.

Install: Any additional installation instructions or steps to take following installation.

Mod Tags

Following the Author and Version, there is a bullet with Tags. The different Tags I use are described below. Each mod will have at least either a Core tag or an Opt tag at the very minimum. Many will have additional tags to highlight steps needed either during the download or install process, or signify post-install instructions. Dark colored Tags with White lettering indicate download and/or installation needs (required, optional, and/or BSA extraction).
Light colored Tags with Black lettering indicate post-installation needs (optimizing meshes, ESLifying, merging, and/or porting).

• TOOL
   : Tool utilized during the modding process. Not actually a Mod. Required for proper guide installation.
  
• CORE
   : Mods that are Core to the concept of the guide, and/or required for use of patches provided for guide.
  
• : Mods that are Optional. Recommended, but the guide will still work without them (including the patches).
  
• BSA
   : During installation, select YES to extracting the BSA.
  
• : Run the Asset Optimizer to properly convert the meshes for use with SSE.
  
• ESL
   : Plugin (ESP) can safely be tagged as an ESL using SSEEdit.
  
• : Plugin will be included in Merging via zEdit.
  
• PORT
   : Mod needs to be completely converted from LE to SSE.
  

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FIRST STEPS

You must start here. Under no circumstances should you skip this section. You may already have everything set-up, but look through the First Steps section anyway just to be sure.

Go to First Steps.

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HOW TO

Information regarding the processes required by the SkyRem Guide can be found here. This includes Sorting, Merging, Patching, Optimizing, Extracting (BSAs), etc. If you are new to any of these, after a couple of goes at it you will likely no longer need a reference.

Go to How Tos.

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CORE GUIDE

The Core of the guide itself. This section includes the mods that handle the Stability, Performance, Mechanics, and Content (top four of the five priorities). Once you have completed the Preparation, move on to the Core Guide. Mods marked Core in the Core guide... that's two markings of Core... must be installed in order to get the full effect of the SkyRem Guide (not to mention, I cannot offer much support otherwise). Optional (Opt) mods on the other hand can be skipped if you so desire. The other big difference between Core and Opt here - patches provided via the Nexus Skyrim Guide page will assume 100% on the Core Mods, and 0% on the Optional Mods. If you skip a Core Mod(s), the patches provided may not work.

Go to Core Guide.

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EXTENDED GUIDE

The Extended Guide contains only simple Beautification mods. Textures and Meshes, which for the most part can be added and removed simply mid-game with no consequences. My rig is able to handle the Core Guide with no issue. I recommend trying the game out with just Core, then use the Extended Guide per your system abilities. The Extended Guide is not an all-or-nothing, and can easily be tailored to what you want. Maybe you just cannot play without a mod to make that mushroom look more appealing, but never even noticed just how horrible that gourd texture looks. No problem - use/skip the mods in the section at your leisure.

Go to Extended Guide.

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VISUAL GUIDE

This is simply a list of the texture / mesh mods that I use. Installing/uninstalling will have no impact on how you play the game. These are strictly aesthetic. These can also be FPS heavy which can therefore have a negative effect to Performance (and Stability) - See priorities #1 and #2 above.

Go to Visuals Guide.

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FINAL STEPS

Following installation of the Core Guide (and Extended Guide if you choose to do so), you will need to take a few final steps to ensure everything plays well together. This includes creating patches and setting up MCMs in-game.

Go to Final Steps.

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