[Nevieth]

This thread is still open for discussion and help requests and will be receiving new updates soon. Skyrim + Fallout modding assistance coming soon!

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[img]http://www.videojuegosadiario.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/skyrim-banner.png[/img]

Greetings everyone, my name is Nevieth and I've decided to write up a modding guide for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Throughout this guide I will teach you how to search for mods, find what you want, download mods through the nexus mod manager and even manually depending on what's required.

Keep in mind I'm not a mod maker, so my experience is limited in that regard. I wont be teaching you how to create your own mods, nor will I teach you some new magical way of checking for crashes to desktop.

Directory:

Resources
Installation
Examples
Troubleshooting

Resources

Alright, you've decided you want to download some modifications for Skyrim, awesome! But where do you get these mods? Well there are a few popular sites to get mods from, I'll explain them as we go along.

The Nexus: The Nexus is probably the largest PC modding community site on the web, it covers mods for almost every mod-able game on the market. Unlike first glance, you don't have to pay any money to use the Nexus, however when you download using the Nexus Mod Manager, it'll limit your download speed to about 1MB/s.

URL: www.nexusmods.com

LoversLab: Alright, LoversLab is another modification directory site, however this ones more of NSFW/ 18+ site. Most mods on this site will provide you with a bit of sexualization/ immersion. For example the massive (no pun intended) SOS mod is based off LoversLab. (SOS is short for Schlongs of Skyrim, and is pretty much a really in depth male genitalia mod.)

URL: www.loverslab.com

Steam Workshop: Yes, that's right! The Steam Workshop is also a great place to easily download and access Skyrim mods, using the Workshop you're able to completely skip the Nexus Mod Manager and have it downloaded through Steam's convenient Workshop downloader. Keep in mind mods on the Workshop have a size limit, so the bigger mods usually aren't on it.

URL: http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/workshop/

I'm sure there're other community modding sites for Skyrim, however these three are what we'll be looking at today.

Installation

Alright, now that you've taken a look through the three main modding sites, lets pick a mod and download it. We're going to be using the Nexus Mod Manager for this newly installed mod, so make sure to grab the latest version at the top right/ middle of the www.nexusmods.com screen.

So for this demonstration we're going to be downloading a small and rather compatible mod, called Pure Waters, which will enhance all water in Skyrim by making it high definition, reflective, while allowing it to smoothly flow.

What we're going to do first it read through the description to ensure it doesn't require any of the DLC and if it does, we'll make sure to have it installed. Now that the requirements are all checked, we're going to click on the file icon located next the the "desc".

Once you've clicked it you'll be lead to a page with different options, such as Main Files, Optional Files, and Old Files. The only thing we're going to look for is the Main Files category, and download the one right for us. For Pure Waters there's two versions, Legendary and Vanilla.
Legendary states it needs certain DLC to use, while the Vanilla option doesn't require any DLC. For the example we're going for, we'll be download the Vanilla version.

Make sure to have Nexus Mod Manager up and running with the Skyrim profile loaded, this should be rather easy merely point the launcher to where your Skyrim.exe file is, which should be in your Steam folder. Once it's up and running you can click the green "Download with Manager" option and accept whatever window your browser may popup with. Once this is down the manager should automatically start downloading the mod. If it doesn't then you're probably not signed in through the manager, to sign in all you have to do is click on the red icon of a person which is labeled "You are not logged in".

You'll be expected to sign in using the same registration information you used on www.nexusmods.com so don't forget your password!

Once you've downloaded the mod it should appear somewhere on your manager's viewing area. If you're manager is set to show categories, you can always click the green arrows icon towards the far left middle of the manager to change to a more comfortable view. Once you've done that I recommend you sort your mods by Install Date (this is merely how I do it, this isn't required.)
To sort your mods a certain way just click the top of the page like any other folder, if you want to sort by the name then you click on the top tab labeled Name.

Alright, you're almost done! To install the mod after downloading it, you need to select the mod using your mouse, and either double click it or highlight it and on the side bar click the Activate Mod option. The mod will automatically add itself to your loading order and will complete any further installations required. Some mods have popup menus which appear during installation with different patches and options, just follow their instructions and it'll be easy to do.

Now you've download and installed your first mod, congratulations! The modding world of Skyrim is nearly limitless, so have fun and add whatever you wish. (If you have any further questions regarding installation please ask in the posts below.)

Examples

Alright, now that you know where to find your mods, and how to download them... what we're going to look at now are some essential mods which are so good they should've been put into the vanilla game.

I'll provide you with ten or so Skyrim mods, while also keeping an eye on compatibility and DLC requirements.

For starters, probably the most important mod you could download would be SKSE (Skyrim Script Extender) from here. What SKSE allows your game to do is tap into it's hidden potential, it'll allow more complex mods to run, it'll allow you to remember items you wore and different movements you've made. It's basically the most popular and used mod of them all.

Once you've followed the instructions and downloaded SKSE you should now be able to get going on downloading some awesome new mods!

The first big mod we're going to look at is called SkyUI, which will change your UI/ menus to be far more mouse & keyboard friendly. SkyUI is also needed for some other mods to run, so keep that in mind.

If you want to extend your SkyUI even further, you can also get Extended UI which basically enhances SkyUI to fit towards other things, including the Skills tree.

Once you've gotten those mods downloaded you're good to go to download basically any mod you want. Keep in mind if you don't have certain DLC some mods wont work (they'll be labeled with "DLC required" in the description/ file page.)

Here's a list of some mods that I recommend, and what they do to better your experience.

Patches

Unofficial Skyrim Patch - It's an unofficial patch for the base Skyrim game, it fixes countless bugs which Bethesda has yet to do.
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch - It's an unofficial patch for the Dawnguard DLC, it fixes countless bugs which Bethesda has yet to do.
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch - It's an unofficial patch for the Dragonborn DLC, it fixes countless bugs which Bethesda has yet to do.
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch - It's an unofficial patch for the Hearthfire DLC, it fixes countless bugs which Bethesda has yet to do.
Unofficial High Resolution Patch - It's an unofficial patch for the High Resolution DLC, it fixes countless bugs which Bethesda has yet to do.

Animations

Fores New Idles in Skyrim - Creates new idling animations for NPC, so they don't appear so static. Also improves almost all animations in the game.
XP32 Maximum Skeleton - Enhances the skeletons for both NPCs and player so they can move more freely, and seem dynamic/ smooth.
The Dance of Death - A killmove enhancer, it provides new killmoves and is a must for all you psychopaths out there.
Animated Prostitution - What it sounds like, it creates sexual animations for male-female, male-male, female-female. Make sure to use a nude skin mod for this, I'll provide two versions for male and female later on.
Immersive Animations - Improves your animations while sneaking, running, jumping, and wielding weapons.

Still being worked on, but figured I should update it.

[llc0br4ll]

Just skimmed through it there and looks good so far. I have only ever used steam for mods never got round to downloading nexus.

[Nevieth]

Thanks, I'm still in the middle of working on it but decided to post it half way through.

Check back often and you'll see some updates.

[Graybyte]

Very nice thread!

I'm glad to see people keeping the community alive!

[Nevieth]

Very nice thread!

I'm glad to see people keeping the community alive!

Thanks Tenzo! I would finish up this guide but I've been so preoccupied with other things... I'm barely on HF anymore.

[Graybyte]

Thanks Tenzo! I would finish up this guide but I've been so preoccupied with other things... I'm barely on HF anymore.

If you need anything, I used to make mods and I know a lot about the community and how to do things, I could write up some of it if you would like.

[Nevieth]

If you need anything, I used to make mods and I know a lot about the community and how to do things, I could write up some of it if you would like.

I would love if you wrote something to add to the OP, just link your sources when mentioning certain mods. 🤝

[Johny9020]

Thanks, im sure this can come in handy for people that are new to skyrim modding

[Nevieth]

Not sure if anyone found this useful, but I'm tempted to continue working on it just for the sake of completion.

Would anyone like to find some mods to showcase? (Like a must have list.)

[Nevieth]

I know this is an extremely old thread, but I'm bringing it back up to the top because I plan on completing this step by step guide soon. I also plan on extending it to Fallout 4 modding too, which works rather similarly but also differently than Skyrim.