Just bought Skyrim SE. Are mods easier to use?

[Mai72]

So, I just purchased Skyrim SE. My question is how are the mods? Are they easier to use or do I need to be constantly worried about crashes and freezing? I had the vanilla version and this was an issue for me. I spent more time trying to fix the crashes than actually playing the game. I know the SE version is 64 bit so I should have more success with the mods I download. Or, so I've read. What about load order? Do the mods still need to be in the correct order or not? Is there more flexibility?

Thanks.

 

[shortylickens]

In my opinion, no.

I prefer a 3rd party mod manager because they tend to be easier for installing and updating and also making sure the damn mods actually work properly. They also have functions like load order optimization. I didnt like the so-called special edition because the graphics improvements were very unimpressive compared to a lot of home-brew stuff I had been using and because a lot of modders didnt care enough about the new version to update all their mods.

BUT, they finally made a SkyUI for it so I ended up switching, because thats by far the most important plugin of all.

 

[nurturedhate]

Short answer, yes mods are easier. Long answer, no. If you are trying to to install a bunch of mods in a very specific order to get them to work then you may run into trouble. If you simply want to throw on some mods and not worry about the getting this/that/order/etc the new system is easier and simpler.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

So, I just purchased Skyrim SE. My question is how are the mods? Are they easier to use or do I need to be constantly worried about crashes and freezing? I had the vanilla version and this was an issue for me. I spent more time trying to fix the crashes than actually playing the game. I know the SE version is 64 bit so I should have more success with the mods I download. Or, so I've read. What about load order? Do the mods still need to be in the correct order or not? Is there more flexibility?

Thanks.

x64 is far easier than x86, and you'll generally be fine if you use a mod management system rather than trying to manual-mode everything. Hit up the nexus (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/?), get nexus mod manager, start there. Find some random texture mods or something, as you can pretty much pile those up without any game-crashing conflicts (they just overwrite each other) to figure out how the mod system/ordering works. If you want to go beyond that, go nuts, it only gets hard when you start digging in really deep with landscaping overhauls, new buildings, 'add stuff to a town' mods, 'add a bajillion weapons/enchants/skills' mods, etc.

I've got some 80-odd mods? or so on my Skyim SE install with very little real effort involved in conflict resolution.

 

[Elfear]

I found SE to be much more stable with lots of mods (60+). Things had to be more perfect (load order, cleaning files, etc.) with the x86 version to avoid lots of random crashes.

 

[Malogeek]

No SKSE64 means far less highly functional mods though. If you are only doing content and visual mods then it's much better. It's so much more stable when overloading Skyrim with enhancements.

 

[Mai72]

No SKSE64 means far less highly functional mods though. If you are only doing content and visual mods then it's much better. It's so much more stable when overloading Skyrim with enhancements.

I forgot about SKSE64.

It just came out but it's in beta. That means no frostfall, wearable laterns, wet and cold, SKY UI plus many more mods that I used when I played Vanilla Skyrim. Hopefully it's going to be released in the next few months. For now, I'll have to disable those mods. BTW, I DL the beta and it's not even worth it. I'll wait till the bugs are worked out.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I forgot about SKSE64.

It just came out but it's in beta. That means no frostfall, wearable laterns, wet and cold, SKY UI plus many more mods that I used when I played Vanilla Skyrim. Hopefully it's going to be released in the next few months. For now, I'll have to disable those mods. BTW, I DL the beta and it's not even worth it. I'll wait till the bugs are worked out.

SkyUI 2.2 is usable in Skyrim x64, you don't get all the fun integration with other mods, but at least it fixes the horrendous vanilla UI.

 

[Malogeek]

It just came out but it's in beta.

Yeah I was reading up about it yesterday to catch up and there was a surprisingly amount of stuff that works now, though still quite far to go. At least it's progress where several months ago it aws looking like they had dumped it.

 

[Mai72]

SkyUI 2.2 is usable in Skyrim x64, you don't get all the fun integration with other mods, but at least it fixes the horrendous vanilla UI.

That's exactly what I did. I DL Skyrim 2.2 It's definitely older, but it helps when using my favorite mods like frost fall, campfire, wet and cold, etc it's a bit annoying that I have to go back and forth within the menu when I need to activate these mods.

I still can't get Convenient Horses to work. When I purchased the horse I wasn't offered the horn. And, none of my followers have horses.

 

[Mai72]

I have been playing for hours and I only had 1-2 crashes. That's with 60 plus mods and using TESSRedit to clean the game, and Loot for sorting.

So far so good. The downside is I have to use SKY 2.2 UI so it's old school UI. I've used this UI in the past. It's not a big deal.