Ok, that's my fault, getting my versions of Skyrim mixed up (with a special middle finger for Bethesda's 'marketing' scheme of releasing slightly tweaked versions of the same game over and over as 'editions' with non-standard names, and fracturing the community every time.)
Here is what there is:
~Skyrim (rel. 2011, plus multiple DLC sold separately) (Many mods were made, broken with every patch, and had to be updated over and over.)
~Skyrim Legendary Edition (rel 2013, all DLC included, basically the GOTY/Gold) (Many mods were broken, and had to be fixed)
~Skyrim Special Edition (rel 2016, marketed as a 'remaster', although it was really just an engine upgrade to allow them to rerelease it on newer consoles, and given to Steam owners of the original as a free upgrade.) (As the engine had been changed, essentially every mod was destroyed and had to be rebuilt from the ground up. It took a long time, but most eventually made the switch or were replaced, and this became the 'gold standard' edition.)
~Skyrim Anniversary Edition (released six months ago, this is basically them giving away all of the 'Creation Club' DLC for free. Creation Club was Bethesda's second attempt at paid mods, after the original attempt to charge for free mods backfired spectacularly. It was never popular, which is probably why they're tossing them in for yet another attempt to sell copies of Skyrim. Part of the problem is that they're extremely limited as to what they can do, as the goal was to add microtransactions to the consoles, which prohibit use of things like script extenders (SKSE), the core utility that runs at the heart of 90% of the best free mods. Mostly they're just cosmetics.) (Needless to say, it broke essentially every mod again, and it's been 11 years - most of the community has either moved on, or they've said, "Screw it, we're sticking with the SE."
So, in the end, most mods for 'Skyrim' (the original release) are horribly out of date. Most modern, up-to-date mods are designed around the Special Edition, and that is unlikely to change. If you want to have a modded Skyrim, you want
Skyrim: Special Edition. Anniversary is good for playing vanilla plus Creation Club. It's worth checking your Steam library to see if you have the Special Edition, as it was given away for free for a while. Luckily, there is a
downgrade patch that is supposed to turn the Anniversary Edition into the Special Edition, but I haven't tried it myself. (NOTE - I see that some Wabbajack lists have AE support.)
Fardaza wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 8:56 am
After briefly looking at the Step guide you linked, I have a few questions. What is the difference between Step and Wabbajack? Do people prefer one over the other? Use both?
Ok, keeping in mind that I linked the wrong version - I was crossing my Legendary with my Anniversary (thanks, Bethesda.)
STEP Project (correct link for SE) is, in their own words:
Created by TheCompiler (Daniele Ferraro), Step is a collaborative project with input from the modding community, technical volunteers, and project administrators. The goal is to provide tested and validated methods for establishing and maintaining an enhanced SkyrimSE mod build. Our guides provide detailed, well-tested build instructions for a very stable game with an enhanced, vanilla experience.
The Step team collects information from the modding community through extensive mod testing, detailed reviews, feedback, and suggestions exchanged on the Forums. Posting rules apply, so be sure to read and follow them.
In other words, it is instructions for how to mod, combined with a list of carefully chosen mods that will take you from a fresh install to heavily modded in a detailed, step-by-step structure. It is a daunting task - I usually set aside two days to install and tweak it before I start playing. But that's not why I linked it - it is a very heavily curated list of mods that have been extensively tested and are up to date. In other words, it's a safe list to choose from, whereas pulling what's popular from the Nexus and lead to all sorts of problems if what's popular wasn't designed correctly (leading to things like huge imbalances, orphaned scripts, bugs locked into your saves forever, and - eventually - corrupted saves.) So if you're wanting to just pick and choose a few, pick from their recommendations.
Wabbajack (and here is the link for
Skyrim Special Edition - Wabbajack handles multiple games) is a modding engine.
What it is is pre-designed modlists planned by experienced Skyrim modders, heavily tested and put through Wabbajack's on QA (you don't just get random community stuff - it's been vetted.) Each list has a goal. Some
give a simple, basic setup intended to maintain the Vanilla feel and act as a baseline for 'custom' modding. Some add many hundreds of 'extra content' mods (one lists 700 mods.) Others change it into a brutal Soulslike, or a hardcore survival sim, and others are all about incredible visuals (if you have the machine to run it.)
The downside is that some of them are designed to work with a very, very specific set of mods, and adding others (or removing some) can cause real problems (except that those that say they're intended as a baseline install for other mods.) The reason is that in order to make them work together, the author often has custom mods and patches included to combine some of the mods, which means that removing some can break all of them. If you get one of the more elaborate lists, plan on playing it with everything as installed. Again, not all. Some are designed specifically to allow you to add your own mods. Just read the ones that appeal - they all have extensive documentation.
The thing about Wabbajack is that you're not just getting the mods to install. You're getting the whole package. You're getting the mods, the tools, the ini tweaks, the files, everything, all installed. It's like you had a full-time Skyrim modder come into your house and install their custom mod list for you, configure it, tweak it, and provide you with a manual before they left.
And that's not all: You're getting an incredibly easy install. You will probably spend 30 minutes to an hour reading the instructions and setting up the base game and folders. You then click 'go', run some errands*, and when you come back, the whole thing - mods, tools, configs, etc - will all be downloaded and installed for you, hands-off. You may need to adjust a couple of things (the documentation will tell you what), but that's basically it. It's minimal hassle, and minimal clicking. It is an hour of actual work to fully mod the game (not counting download time.)
*How long it takes to install obviously depends on various factors. A mod list with 700 visual mods will take far longer than a mod list with a few dozen mechanical mods. Internet speed is a big factor. And if you're going to do a Wabbajack install, I'd consider getting a one-month premium Nexus membership (about six bucks), as that will give you considerably faster download speeds from the Nexus. If you've got slow internet, you may need to let if run overnight.
What doesn't kill me makes me stranger.
They do level up the skill pretty fast though.
I didn't think anyone had seen me!
