If you want to do anything really extensive, such as replacing armour models, bringing in new mesh and textures, or altering the game files in the equivalent of open surgery, than such automated systems are going to be useless to you. Beyond that, and a few other more esoteric examples, it’s the simplest approach to modding that I’ve yet come across.īut it’s not the only port of call that you’re going to make. This means that you can’t start the game from the launcher, leaving the whole downloading-and-checking-for-updates aspect more trouble than ideal. SkyUI, by snakster, is arguably one of the most essential mods, requires you to start the game using the Skyrim Extension Loader, an exe that launches straight into the game. There are provisos, as there always are, and with some of the more technically extensive mods there’s a bit of a spanner in the works. It means you don’t have to faff around with installing and uninstalling, which is always nice. It will do them in the order that you subscribed, but if you want to mess around with that, you can click on ‘Data Files’ and both change the sequence that the mods load in, and disable the ones that you don’t want to use, or are causing conflicts. When you next start up the game, the launcher will start pulling the files from the Steam Cloud and modding the game for you.
From within the Steam browser, you can find the mod you like the look of and just hit ‘Subscribe’. With that in mind, actually getting the mods working really isn’t all that hard, so long as you stick to Steam Workshop. They’re not affecting the same systems, so it all works.
However, that doesn’t mean that having a lighting mod like Kurtcop’s Realistic Lighting is going to fall apart if you install DMP’s Alternate Sun Glare. They both make extensive changes to the way cities in the game work, so it’s not surprising that they clash, and either one won’t work, or the game just won’t run.
If you install Shenk’s (excellent) Thievery Overhaul, which extensively reworks the cities, don’t be surprised if Arthmoor’s Open Cities doesn’t play nice with it. The general rule of thumb you always need to follow in Skyrim is not to have to mods installed that both do the same thing. Wherever your tastes lie, you need to be able to manage, install, and run the mods without having everything collapse around you in a heap of contradictions and upsetting texture clashes. It’s where people can make all sorts of utterly crazy changes to the game, inserting Crystal Palaces, entirely rejigging the game’s cities to make them a thief’s paradise, or just putting boobs everywhere. It doesn’t matter how much you love or hate the meaty banquet of adventuring that the Skyrim Bethesda released offered, the longevity and real excitement, the culinary delights of the Michelin chefs, if you will, is to be found in the mod scene.