Why Wont Skyrim Modders Let Mxr Review the Mods
Auto-installing over 600 mods makes Skyrim beautiful and disruptive
Last calendar month I reinstalled Skyrim—for piece of work, y'all understand. Almost despite myself, I soon felt the urge to replay information technology; to once again get lost in the comforting expanse of snowswept fantasy. That naturally led to another realisation: I should mod this. Obviously I'd already installed SkyUI, because Skyrim is basically unplayable without it. Merely no, I should really modern this. And, crucially this fourth dimension, actually play it one time I have.
There's a kind of separate game that exists to a higher place Skyrim that doesn't really involve interacting with Skyrim at all. I have played it many times. Here are the rules:
- You research the best Skyrim mods.
- You ignore well-nigh of that enquiry, sort Nexus Mods past virtually downloaded, and pick whatever isn't some creepy, inexplicably popular Lydia mod.
- You lot download them, after a cursory cheque into whether there'll be any conflicts.
- You run Loot in lieu of taking the time to learn how load order works, and hope that it proves an effective substitute for knowing what you're doing.
- You create a character. This is it! Y'all're playing modded Skyrim!
- A couple of hours later you're distracted by something else—perhaps some other RPG y'all left half-finished before you started this project.
- Information technology is months—maybe years—later. You're between games, and, browsing through your Steam listing, you remember all the hours you spent modding Skyrim all that fourth dimension ago. Perchance now's the time to finally play it, you remember. Merely, you lot realise, you're a unlike person now. Older, wiser. Your tastes take changed. If you're going to practise this, you should start from the beginning—come across what the community has made since the last fourth dimension you looked.
- Return to pace one.
This time, though, I was going to do it properly. A while ago, I discovered a couple of mod guides—exhaustive projects, often containing hundreds of mods, painstakingly chosen to tweak Skyrim in very specific ways. I'm a big fan of letting other people do the hard work for me, and so this seemed similar the perfect way to make Skyrim feel fresh.
Or at least, it did until I started reading one. Fifty-fifty with a step-past-step guide, the sheer effort of installing and configuring it all seemed awe-inspiring. Luckily, i of the guides referenced a tool called Wabbajack. Suddenly, an absurdly modded Skyrim was in reach.
Wabbajack is a plan that automates the installation of these mega-guides. You run information technology. Yous tell it where all your directories are. You choice one of its supported lists. And and then you go to slumber. That'south it.
When you wake up, you lot have hundreds of Skyrim mods fix to go. Well, almost ready. There are still some steps y'all need to manually perform, especially if the guide you've picked recommends an ENB wrapper. Even if it doesn't, you've got to manually configure the mods in-game. Yet, it's a lot easier to configure a scattering of mods than to install hundreds.
The outset list I picked was based on Lexy's Legacy of the Dragonborn—a guide built around the Legacy of the Dragonborn modernistic. The mod itself sounds similar an impressive piece of work, billing itself as an expansion-sized add-on that adds new items, new quests and, nearly importantly, a display hall for showing off artifacts and a new explorer'southward guild. And to that, Lexy's listing adds even more stuff, all curated to support what Legacy of the Dragonborn does. New quests! New systems! New locations! New armour! Werebears! It sounded like a definitive round-up of the modding community's well-nigh adventurous creations, which instantly piqued my interest.
Within minutes of playing, though, I realised I'd made a mistake—one that, to be articulate, was entirely of my ain making. Information technology's not merely that the thought of installing hundreds of mods made me tired, I also didn't really fancy reading and remembering which mods were beingness installed. "It'll exist an adventure!" I declared as I decided to jump in completely bullheaded. Suddenly, I was freezing to death in Windhelm, penniless and without the resource to craft warmer armour. Things kept happening, and I rarely understood why. And, thanks to an extensive series of combat and difficulty tweaks, every fight was a brutal battle for survival.
Things kept happening, and I rarely understood why.
And sure, I could have fought through the confusion. Simply already I knew I was out of my depth. This is a modern list designed for those bored of Skyrim, who want to break it into something weird and deadly. But it's been many years since I final played, and I was quite looking forward to the comforting blanket of nostalgia. I needed a list that was however substantially Skyrim. Just improve.
I returned to a fresh install, and tried once more, this time with something a fiddling more familiar. The Phoenix Flavour is an expertly written guide—clear, easy to follow, and with a careful aim to mostly preserve the vanilla experience. Rather than picking mods that outright replace existing systems, it focuses instead on improving and overhauling. Obviously there'south a swathe of graphical enhancements, just information technology also features mods that touch nearly every aspect of the game'south systems.
I still wasn't going to do the work myself. Once again I turned to the unofficial list on Wabbajack, and allow it accept intendance of downloading, configuring and installing the 606 mods the guide uses. The effect is exactly what I wanted—familiar, but just different enough to keep me on my toes. In the witch'south business firm outside of Bleak Falls Barrow, I discover a notation that I don't think ever seeing before. It feels like a new mod quest, merely I tin't be sure. Information technology'southward been a while since I terminal played Skyrim—maybe I just missed information technology before? Crucially, these moments are rare, and intriguing when they do occur.
Manifestly the whole affair looks great, merely there'south also a reassurance in playing something so meticulously crafted. There's a lot about vanilla Skyrim—fifty-fifty the Special Edition version that I'm playing for the first time—that feels crude; similar everything is liable to break at whatsoever moment. Logically I know that'south even more true of such a heavily modded version, but it feels similar I'm in safe hands. There are over 600 mods hither, and I know what mayhap a scattering of them actually practise. The outcome is I get to assume that one of them has already fixed a quest stride that was bugged, or addressed a arrangement that never quite worked as intended—at least until I come up across some inexplicably dancing honey nut treats.
Information technology's as well still recognisably a product of many different, disparate mods, leading to a few tonal inconsistencies. The female NPCs all await like Instagram models—this is pretty much standard for Skyrim mods—and, in one recent loading screen tooltip, the game informed me that "Your children are safe with me... MUWAHAHAHA".
Sure, information technology would exist better if I'd taken the time to figure it out myself—specifically tailoring the experience to my preference. Just also I know myself. I'd accept spent more fourth dimension looking out for conflicts and errors and things I'd done wrong than actually playing the game. Instead, I'thousand just enjoying Skyrim, being delighted by the many pocket-sized changes and the incredible tree textures, but also being thankful for all the ways it's still the same.
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Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/auto-installing-over-600-mods-makes-skyrim-beautiful-and-confusing/