As for the point in that quoted statement, that rolling back to prior versions would enable the DRM version Creation Club menu on GOG: well then, couldn't they just patch the game so as to leave that menu as appearing in the GOG version, but yet make the menu not be functional in the GOG version? I.e. make it so that the GOG version does not actually connect to the in-game Creation Club store, even though the menu for that store is still in the game.

That way, the GOG version still would be DRM-free, and it would also have vital rollback capability that ensures full mod compatibility as well too. So that would be a win/win all around, would it not? What's to stop GOG and Bethesda from doing that and thus making all their GOG customers happy?

Saying the GOG version must be treated as the 1.0 version...that means GOG customers are paying a very heavy price in terms of massively sacrificing mod capability. So much so that it makes me wonder if having the game DRM-free is even worth it when it comes at that very high cost in terms of losing colossal amounts of mod functionality.

As for the point of "not expecting full mod capability for the GOG version on day one"...sure, I can accept that as a valid point.

However, what is much less-easy to accept is the very real possibility that there is no guarantee that any day will ever come when most of the mods, and the massive mod collections featuring several hundreds of mods each, will become compatible with the GOG version. It's quite possible that some or all of them never will, and that is a very dire prospect for the GOG version if that's how things are going to be.

Any/all of the GOG versions are terrible for modding Skyrim as many/most mods are incompatible with all GOG versions, so none of the GOG versions are the way to go in my "now very experienced at failing and being incapable to mod GOG's version of Skyrim" opinion.

But both versions available on GOG use the "Special Edition" as the base, which should mean that both versions available on GOG are equally good/bad at being moddable (as opposed to earlier versions of Skyrim from before the Special Edition, which are very bad at being compatible with modern mods...but GOG doesn't offer those earlier versions, so that's not a factor in the GOG versions).

That may be true in some situations for some games, but it does not seem to be true for the particular case of GOG's Skyrim release.

For example, last week a GOG customer posted a link to this video to try and help GOG customers mod their game to make it great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsgTI7iTE1E

...except GOG users cannot actually do that, because that amazing mod collection doesn't work with the GOG version.

Note the Sticky comment from that video maker, which says: So, point being, Steam customers of Skyrim have two very desirable options available to them, where they can:

a) not update their game in such a way that breaks those mods

b) if they have already updated their game, they can roll it back to a different version that does work with those mods.

Yet GOG customers have neither of those two options, and instead, GOG customers' only option is to not have access to that mod collection.

Thus my question is: how do these points I've just described reconcile with that quoted assertion that the GOG version is "more desirable" and/or less prone to "forced updates"?

IMO the points I've just made seem to disprove those assertions rather than to support them, and indicate that the GOG version is highly undesirable due to its massive lack of mod compatibility.

that's probably not a real solution since the game with a disabled creation club could not work at all or mods could still not work.
and even if it was possible it would require a lot of effort that I think expecially Bethesda will not do anyway for the really small niche that want a sort of drm-free release (so don't want to buy it on steam) but also want a 100% compatibility with mods (that's not possible anyway)...
Let's not forget this rollback thing is a gog galaxy feature... many user here like me don't even want to use any client so that's a feature locked under galaxy that go to a version that's not even 100% drm-free, and I don't think it's a good idea.
Why even release a bad drm sort of free version locked under galaxy only to get the "same" compatibility with current mods for the steam release (not even 100% true since there are still a lot of mods that will not be compatible, some because they are from past version, some for the original 32-bit version, some because they will still be broken outside of steam, some are just bad mod and some will be updated for the gog release so it's better to use the gog release anyway).
Also there is always a niche of a niche... there are people that think Bethesda should release the 32-bit version of the game here as a bonus (that would be cool, I think I prefer that to the galaxy rollback drm sort of free version that you want... but even before that the Creation Kit is more important). There are even people that want the original release without any patch or some strange things like that...
I don't think a rollback of a version that was not on gog will ever be a thing.

I actually paid a fair price for the vanilla game that's already good as it is, that's what I usually do on gog, I pay for a game, I download the drm-free offline installer, I install the game and play offline. That's what I like about gog. Mods are just a bonus (I usually avoid most mods, I only use them for basic things like fanmade translations or fps stability), there are already some, there will be more in the future
this mod that I was talking about the other day and that is the only one I really want to use:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/34705?tab=posts
already got an update for the gog release.

If you don't see DRM free as a plus I don't think it's a good idea to buy the GOG version. Gog will always be a niche for people like me that value DRM free more than anything else.
I think you better just ask for a refund.


PS. Steam usually force update on games that you want to play and if you update there is usually no way to rollback. That's the reason why gog advise skyrim gog edition as better for mods in the long run...
That does not concern me anyway... I already downloaded my version of Skyrim gog and I will not update it ever again... I don't use galaxy but I don't even need to... rollback is not necessary when you don't use a client to autoupdate games.

I use Anniversary Edition for unmodded games.

I use the old LE Skyrim for modded games.

As an update to this post I made:

Tried to test Vortex but noticed it's almost fully dependant on an Online connection for resolving problems and troubleshoting it seemed to me. If Im wrong, please correct me. With all due respect to Vortex developers and their work, I can't use this. I only play my games in a Win10 Offline boot.

So I decided to switch to Mod Organizer 2 and got awesome results using the workahound suggested by Trixx.

Skyrim is running here fine with those mods working well apparently:

Better Dialogue Controls
Carriage And Ferry Travel Overhaul
Cloaks of Skyrim SSE
Enhanced Blood Textures
Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul
Immersive Weapons
No Spinning Death Animation
Point the Way
SKSE64 v2.2.2 - GOG
SkyUI v5.2 SE
Sounds of Skyrim Complete SE
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
3PCO - 3rd Person Camera Overhaul
Amazing Follower Tweaks
Better Message Box Controls
Diverse Dragons Collection SE
Immersive Armors 8.1 SSE
Immersive Patrols Lite (Patrols Only)
Relationship Dialogue Overhaul
Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - Amazing Follower Tweaks Patch
Run for your Lives
Skyrim Weapons Expansion
Weapons of the Third Era

These were tested using Skyrim Special Edition (Without the Anniversary Edition installed.)

I'm still going to test more mods throughout and troubleshoot when I have the time. I'm specially interested in the Dragon mods - as they add and change many things in Skyrim, therefore, high risk mods.

-- Talking about SKSE - GOG Mods: ---

What I did here and fixed all problems for me was literally copy the plugin.txt from:

Mod Organizer 2/profiles/Default/plugins.txt

to

%username%\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\

And mods started working fine.

Remember though that if you use SKSE64 - GOG, you need to open the game through "skse64_loader.exe" for your mods to be loaded.
Also remember that this is a workhound, that means that everytime you install a new mod through MO2, you will need to copy Mod Organizer 2/profiles/Default/plugins.txt and update your %username%\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\plugins.txt mod list.

Until MO2 devs update it to be compatible with GOG paths, manual update of the file is necessary.

Alternatively, you could just write a simple script (in Windows, this can be a simple .bat file, or you could use powershell; in Linux (if you're using WINE, for instance), you could use a shell script) to copy the file in question.

At least in Linux, it might also work to put a symbolic link so that one path points to the other, to avoid the manual copying. (I hear symbolic links exist in some form in Windows; would one work here?)

Yes, that's a nice idea, thanks for it. :)
Created and tested. Worked fine, as it is really simple. Here it is:

File name: copy_plugins_script.bat

Content:

@echo
copy /Y "X:\YourMOFolderPath\Mod_Organizer_2\profiles\Default\plugins.txt" "X:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\plugins.txt"

In the topic of symbolic links / shortcuts in Win10, they didn't work well for me, but I have no idea why.
Maybe something with how the game reads files?

I understand the frustration with lack of parity but that's caused by Bethesda's long delay more than anything (no reason they couldn't have released SE here back in 2016). The problem with "Mod packs" in general (ie, collections of dozens / hundreds of other mods) are that they are often extremely unreliable anyway:-

- I've seen mod packs for Steam that link to mods that were taken down on Nexus. I've tried various large mod packs for Morrowind / Oblivion in the past and even following instructions to the letter, there was always something that seemed to break as time went by. Even Mod Packs for Morrowind can have issues depending on whether you're running native vs OpenMW, and Oblivion / Original Skyrim Mod Packs fail if someone doesn't have the DLC installed.

- The larger the mod pack, the increasingly less likely it is to get a 100% overlap in personal taste of mods ie, more often than not I've found 60-80% of the mods inside mod packs were desirable but many others weren't / they change too much / overdo the "overhaul" when I may prefer fewer QoL focussed mods, so you then spend the time you saved trying to weed out and remove the undesirable ones without breaking anything else in the pack vs installing only the wanted ones manually anyway.

- Similarly I've seen giant mod packs that go extreme with the eye candy cause problems (eg, severe texture pop-in / HD textures don't load) that became impossible to troubleshoot precisely because you are installing +300 mods all at once whereas doing it one at a time makes it far easier to troubleshoot the culprit.

So I don't see Mod Packs as any "Gold Standard" of modding either, and personally I treat them more as a "showcase" guide to what mods I might like, then install those manually. Is it more work? Yes. Is it more reliable in the long run? A lot more.

It's more desirable for me due to lack of DRM. I can 100% guarantee I can play the same "modded just right for me" Skyrim in 20 years time as today. Steam users cannot. As for you, as LiefLayer said, for someone who wants to use a load of 'designed for Steam' mod packs more than you care about DRM, perhaps it's simply better to be honest with themselves and just buy the DRM'd Steam version (instead of wanting the GOG version to be exactly like the Steam version for 'roll-backs' which is simply impossible anyway because of DRM on every previous pre-GOG build available anywhere).

got it, thanks Gog!

I think that in stead of mod packs (that I agree are flimsy most times), it's better to make a listing of mods that DO work with the GOG version of Skyrim SE. Maybe it's a idea to make a sticky thread with a actively maintained list of mods that do work, and mods that need some work-around.

As you said - The GOG version of Skyrim SE is not particularly about mods. This version is said to be compatible with most mods, but it's not advertised as compatible with ALL mods. I think demanding that last one is unreasonable. For some a mod can be critical and essential, while for someone else that same mod can be completely uninteresting. You cannot please everyone.

I am personally happy with even the base game. Every mod that works adds as a bonus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqXbefG1L1k

And here some really want to play the vanilla version... Even the DRM-free version is useless without mods. Only mods kept the game alive.

+1. Absolutely 100%!!!

I'm having fun with vanilla SE. (I actually bought the AE, but have chosen to just run SE for now.)

I'm speaking from ignorance (I own the SE, not the AE) but, from looking at the add-ons that come with the AE, there's almost nothing in the list that can't be duplicated through mods. The armor sets look to have equilivants on Nexus Mods, the fishing and survival mode come with the SE package and the homesteads can also be brought in with mods. I'm unsure about the new quests that come with AE; can anyone recommend those quest lines?

Since I'm comfortable with using mods I think I made the right call with purchasing the SE edition. I would like to know from players who are less willing to mod; is the AE a good buy?

Hi.
See the attached pictures. The two menu items "Installed Content" and "Mods" are only visible when I don't have SkyUI installed. When I click on the menu "Mods" the game wants to log in (but loads itself to death). Is this a leftover from Creation Club or the true mod manager?