Hey there, just got a hold of Skyrim, though I've played it before on console.

Are there any generally accepted "best" basic mods to get?

I don't mean things like aesthetic changes, reshades, adding items or quests, but rather things like mod managers, unoffical bug fixes, frameworks or general compatibility patches for other mods to work, etc.

Thanks for any wisdom you feel like sharing!

For Mod Manager there are two choices depending on your preference: Use Vortex if you want a simple click and play style or use MO2 if you want mroe freedom and control. Vortex has the lower learning curve, but MO2 has much better utility. Both are fine to use however.

As for Mods defintely USSEP to fix all the bugs Bethesda never bothered to. Adding from this Engine fixes. There is a potential downside to this one however. It requires SKSE & Address Library and as a result every time Bethesda updates the game it will break your game until these respective mods themselves update to match the latest version. If you protect your game from automatic updates this won't be a problem however. That aside Engine fixes is well worth it if you plan to mod the game.

After this its generally flavour and preference. There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of quality mods available on the Nexus.

If you want expansions: Beyond Skyrim, Beyond Reach, Wyrmstooth, Falskaar, New Vorminheim, Darkend

Dungeons: Sirenroot, Curse Of The Hound Amulet

Weapons & Armour: Anything that picks your fancy:

Creatures: A number of options, but Mihail and Fourth Unknown are probably best as they are modular.

Followers: There are so many of these it's not even funny. But for a unique experience, the custom voiced ones are the way to go. Keep in mind not all of these are lore friendly. But Inigo is great.

Magic: Mysticism, Any of the Darenni spell packs.

Perks: Ordinator

Patches: If you use Nexus you will find links to the relevent patches on the mods page

Just don't get greedy. Stick to the rule of one so conflicts are more manageable and start small. You can always add more mods at a later date when you intend to start a new playthrough.

Thanks so much for typing all that out. Things like Vortex/MM and USSEP are exactly what I was looking for to start with. Regarding the automatic updates, are you talking about GOG Galaxy updating the game, or is Skyrim itself going to auto-update everytime it's launched? Because I'd like to stop that if possible as it seems companies love to push out mostly pointless updates that inevitably break the hard work of modders.

If it's the game itself which will try to auto-update upon starting, how can I stop it?


As for the other recommendations, I'll definitely take a look and thanks for the advice.

There's some significant controversy with this particular mod. For example:
* The mod "fixes" things that arguably aren't bugs. For example, one mine had the material you get from that mine changed, a change that many disagree with.
* There's some areas the mod adds. For example, there's at least one building that has an extra room because the mod developer decided that there needs to be a place for an NPC to sleep. Or, because of that change to that mine, the developer actually added another mine.
* I know that the value of one item was at one point decreased because it looked like a bug, until a developer mentioned it was intentional.
* The mod developer did decide to fix one major exploit, and probably some minor ones, and some players don't like that.
* There's been at least one report of the game actually being less stable with this mod, I believe.
* You can't choose to just install some fixes and not others.
* The mod author has had other mods that try to replace it, with a less drastic set of fixes, taken down. It's bad enough that there are some mods out there that specifically revert some of the "fixes" that this mod does.

In particular, I would say that "definitely" isn't a good term here, and I personally would not use it (which unfortunately would mean not using any of the mods that depend on it, often unnecessarily).