User:DrPharmDawg/SkyRem Guide Section1

Skyrim Roleplay Enhancement Mod Guide for Special Edition (SkyRem Guide)

Changelog   |   Release Date: October 1, 2019

Current Version: 2.0.0

Created and maintained by DrPharmDawg

Last Update: 15:10:20 7 May 2024 (GMT)

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Section 1: Home

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Template:TOC right
SkyRem Guide Pages

Section 1: Home: Information about the SkyRem Guide. [YOU ARE HERE]
Section 2: 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.

SkyRem 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

What is SkyRem? Yes - SkyRem is an acronym (if you have delved into any of my mods, this is probably very apparent) for Skyrim Roleplay Enhancment Modding.
The SkyRem concept began with the desire to tweak character creation and development and has since developed into two (currently) series of mods and now a guide as I work to put it all together. The goal: the ultimate roleplay experience in Skyrim. Alone, it is a great game. With the involvement of the modding community, it has become a phenomenal game. This guide, 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, varying degrees of difficulty, etc. After countless hours of using other guides, adding, subtracting, altering... this guide is my "finished product" based on the priorities listed below.

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, but the intent of the guide goes far beyond just making Skyrim more difficult. As for beautification - I include sections specifically for this, but have done so in a way that you can add/subtract however much of those sections you want, but is also not necessary to achieve the goal of the SkyRem Guide.

Guide Priorities:

(1) Stability
(2) Performance
(3) Mechanics
(4) Content
(5) 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 into several Sections:

Section 1: Home Introduction and general information about the guide.
Section 2: Preparation You must spend some time on the front-end preparing your setup with a clean start and a host of modding tools.
Section 3: How To Reference for tools and techniques needed to properly mod. This page will help you navigate those processes used by the guide (and more).
Section 4: First Steps The bulk of the guide begins here, with a focus on the first 4 priorities (aesthetics come later).
Section 5: Next Steps Continuation of Section 4. Highly recommended to test your game after finishing Section 4 before moving on to this Section.
Section 6: Optional Steps Aesthetics only mods. This Section can be included in its entirety, not at all, or any combination you desire.
Section 7: Final Steps Patching and in-game setup such as MCM settings.

This guide provides:

- A Stable and Performance Friendly setup.}}
- Installation and instructions for the using various modding tools and techniques.}}
- Patches to make the various setups work together (available on Nexus).}}
- Support via Discord and regular updates (but hopefully not so many that you spend more time modding than playing).}}

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 need updating or mods with excessive (or unanswered) bug reports/comments) without simple solutions.
- Include CBBE: What little I do in this regard is UNP.
- Include 4k+: Whenever possible, I use 2k at the most. There are a few exceptions in which 2k is not available however.

Guide Organization

The guide is organized as follows: Sections >> Steps >> Parts

Upon completion of each Section, you will want to test your game to make sure everything is working as intended. Steps consist of groups of similar mods (Fixes, Quests, Equipment, Magic, etc). These Steps are subdivided into Parts which serve two purposes: Further divide the Steps mods into groups, but also to identify mods that are required (Core) or optional (Extended).

Core Parts contain mods necessary to achieve the primary goal of the SkyRem Guide (Roleplay Enhancement) and/or needed as a Master for patches provided. If you choose not to include any of these, you may or may not be able to utilize the patches provided.

Extended Parts contain mods that are optional. However, be mindful that changing up your choices in Extended Parts may change how you need to install other mods (such as patches included in FOMODs). To help guide you, check for mods / information highlighted YELLOW for this purpose.

Mod Legend

Each mod utilizes this template:

Mod Name & Link

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

FILES: File(s) to Download and Install

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

Mod Tags

Tags are described below. Read through the mods "card" prior to starting installation of that mod to prevent having to back track. Dark Tags with Light lettering indicate new or updated mods and download and/or installation needs, such as Newly added or BSA extraction.
Light Tags with Dark lettering indicate post-installation needs such as optimizing meshes, ESLifying, merging, porting, or cleaning).

• TOOL
   : Tool utilized during the modding process. Not actually a Mod, but required for proper guide installation.
  
• NEW
   : Newly added Mod since previous version.
  
• UPDATE
   : Mod has been updated since previous version.
  
• BSA
   : During installation, select YES to extracting the BSA.
  
• CAO
   : Run the Cathedral Asset Optimizer (CAO) to properly convert the files for use with SSE.
  
• ESL
   : Plugin (ESP) can safely be tagged as an ESL using SSEEdit.
  
• : Plugin will be included in a Merge using zEdit.
  
• PORT
   : Mod needs to be completely converted from LE to SSE.
  
• CLEAN
   : Mod needs to be cleaned using SSEEdit.
  
• PATCH
   : Mod contains patches (either separate files or in a FOMOD) that need to be installed as an individual Mod.
  

Guide Notes

• Each Step is divided in to Parts. The last Part in several steps is for mods that can be Merged. All the Mods in this part will be Merged with zEdit at the end of that Step.
• Following completion of each Step, sort (Loot) and test your setup. This is much easier than troubleshooting after completing the guide if something goes wrong.
• In the Core guide, anything highlighted YELLOW indicates a selection to be made if using the associated mod from the Extended Guide.

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