User:Shadriss/Lexys LOTD SE Startpage

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Lexy's Legacy of The Dragonborn: Special Edition
Based on Neovalen's Skyrim Revisited: Legendary Edition
Created and Maintained by Darth_mathias and DarkladyLexy
Last Update: 12:36:27 29 March 2024 (GMT)


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Notice
This guide is designed for experienced modders. If you are new to the Skyrim Modding Experience, it is highly suggested you watch videos, read forums posts, and other such activities to ensure you are familiarized with all of the tools used in this mod build. It is also advised that you attempt a less technical mod guide, such as TUCOS, to become comfortable with the use of these tools.
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Notice
First time installers of this guide are advised to install everything listed in the guide in their initial installation, and deviating from it ONLY after verifying a working build.

Please consider supporting Darkladylexy: Patreon-Icon Coral.jpg Patreon Paypal-icon.png Donate via Paypal


General Quick Links
SUPPORT FORUM: Lexy's Legacy of the Dragonborn Special Edition This will connect you with support for the guide via the STEP Forums.
SUPPORT DISCORD: 1.
Testing Trello: Suggested mods, current testing status, and other information on guide development can be found Here.
CHANGELOG: You can review the version changes to the guide by clicking Here
Troubleshooting: Some Troubleshoot tip can be found Here


Guide Specific Quick Links
Mod List Page: The guide's list of mods can be found Here.
Merge Page:The guide's Merge Page is Here
Finishing Line: The guide's Finishing Line page is Here
Mod Configuration Menu Setup: The guide's suggested Mod Configuration Menu settings are all Here

Introduction and Summary

Welcome to Lexy's Legacy of the Dragonborn: Special Edition, the Skyrim SE version of my previous and popular SRLE Extended: Legacy of the Dragonborn guide. This is designed to be a full installation guide, taking you from a fresh Skyrim SE installation to a fully modified game.

The guide is actively maintained, and is a constant state of flux. As of this writing, it is updated once a week (when circumstances allow). The STEP Hosted guide is updated on Monday, and the NEXUS hosted guide follows on Wednesday. With this in mind, ensure that as you are installing you are using the same version of the guide that you were previously using, as installation can take anywhere from a day or two to a full week or more, depending on how much time you dedicate to it.

As noted in the warning above, this guide is designed for experienced modders, and the instructions, though they are written for clarity, do assume a certain level of comfort and familiarity with the tools. If you are looking for an easier guide, one better suited to learning the basics of Mod Organizer 2 and the other tools, I recommend looking at TUCOGUIDE by ponurymazepa.

There is a video series (special thanks to PheonixSunstar001) that shows the entireity of this guide's installation. It can be found here.

A Little Chat

This guide will take a substantial amount of time and a large amount of hard drive space (approximately 100 Gb of data, not including your base Skryim install). It also involves the use of more advanced modding concepts. Prior to beginning the installation, I suggest giving the entire guide a read-through to be fully aware of everything you will need to do to complete the instllation. Remember that the end goal of the guide is to actually PLAY the game and enjoy it. This will take several sessions to install from scratch.

This is not your father's Skyrim, kids. Be warned: it is a much more difficult game, especially from start to level 30. The quests you used to do at level 1 aren't going to be doable until much later on unless you are a very experienced solo player or have a number of followers trailing behind you. Even dedicated solo players have adopted follower usage trying to play this guide. You'll likely want a follower or two anyhow to carry all the glorious LOTD Museum loot around anyhow.

To have a fully working install of this guide, you MUST pay attention and follow the posted instructions TO THE LETTER. Experiences on both the Support Forums and the Discord have shown that 98% of reported problems are the results of user error, with the remaining portion mistakes on Lexy's part (and are quickly corrected). It is imperative that you have at least some knowledge and familiarity with Mod Organizer 2, LOOT, FNIS, the Creation Kit, xEdit, zMerge, Wrye Bash, Mator Smash, zEdit, xLODGen, and DynDOLOD prior to starting the guide. The mod list can be used as a base to build or remove from, but it is strongly advised that you install and play-test the entire guide (with nothing omitted or added) to ensure it is stable before doing so. The guide itself is very stable, and rivals Requiem in scope since the inclusion of the OMEGA and Experience mods. Again, if you complete the installation and the game isn't working, it is far more likely that you made an error in installation than that Lexy made a mistake in her instructions.

There is a Discord Community that has an unwritten rule of tolerance towards those new to modding (within reason), but self-help is preferred and appreciated. The Discord is friendly, helpful, and has a knowledgeable staff. Link: Discord

As the guide is frequently updated, you will, at some point, have to stop modding it and just play or you will be caught up in a never-ending loop of restarting new characters. Most users create two separate installations of MO2, one for playing and one for updating. Those who are OCD about maintaining things up to date will find this helps sooth the itch.

The guide is very demanding on hardware. You can use it, though, if you know your computer system, are smart about what texture resolutions you use, how many of them you use, and scale back some of the settings of (or simply just don't use) xLodGen, DynDOLOD, and/or ENB/ReShade. The guide has been bench-marked, and currently uses an approximate max 4.7 Gb of VRAM on Darth's and Lexy's system during the Cart Ride to Helgen. The system specs of these computers is found below.

With that said: It's time to get into the wonderful world of Skyrim Modding. We hope you'll find it pleasant, and good luck.

Lexy's System Specs

The specs listed below are those of Lexy's computer. They are NOT a minimum specs listing, just a point of reference for what is being used by Lexy to test this guide.

  • Processor: i5 4670K @ 4.2 GHz
  • Motherboard: ASUS z97-K
  • Ram: Corsair Vengeance Pro 32GB (4x8GB) @2133MHz
  • GPU: Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080Ti 11GB
  • OS: (WIN 7) WD Green 2TB
  • Game Drive: Samsung 850 EVO 256GB (Steam)
  • Game Drive: WD Blue M.2 SATA 1TB (GOG and Origins)
  • Game Backup: WD Blue 2TB


The Journey Begins...

Before you can get to the fun stuff, you have to go through the not-so-fun stuff. We have a small laundry list of things to finish first - from installing the game, to cleaning the mess that is the original Bethesda files, to installing all of the tools. So the first step of our journey is to lay the foundations of the guide.

Tag Explanations

Most mods in the guide will usually have at least one (if not more) of the following tags. These are placed for easier management of the guide. Explanations of these tags follow:

  • Core
    : A Core mod is considered essential to the full guide build, and should always be included.
  • Tool
    : Tools are, as their name implies, tools used in the modding process. Instructions for their use can be found either on the Prerequisites Page or elsewhere on the internet. Special Use instructions will be presented as they are needed.
  • Optional
    : These mods are considered optional to the overall build. However, because of the nature of this guide, it will likely affect the rest of the guide's install process in some way. Removal of these mods can be done, but may require more work to either remove dependencies (IE, cleaning masters from Conflict Resolution patches later on) or to simply not install related files (iNeed patches wouldn't be needed if not installing iNeed, for example). No alternate instructions are provided for cases where you choose not to install these mods. If this is your first install of the guide, again, it is strongly advised to install these first and only remove them later after you have verified a working and stable install.
  • HQ
    : These mods are a 'high-quality' visual modification aimed at users with a higher-end system. It can be used by those with lower-end systems, but the visual improvement may not be worth the performance hit.
  • BSA
    : Mods with this flag need to have their BSA assets extracted via the Mod Organizer 2 BSA extracter. This is often because these mods are involved in a merge later on, which requires the assets to be loose files instead. Instructions for this process can be found in the "BSA Extraction" section later on this page.
  • Classic
    : These mods were designed and intended for use with Skyrim: Legacy Edition (AKA, LE or sometimes Oldrim). They still work with the Special Edition, but may require some file manipulation to make it work as intended with the guide.
  • Convert
    : As a follow on to the
    Classic
    tag, some ESP files need to be converted in the Creation Kit to the newer record forms of the Special Edition. This tag denotes those mods. The instructions for doing so are located later on this page.
  • CAO
    : These mods have textures and meshes that need optimization, and will be run through the Cathedral Assets Optimizer. Instructions for this process will be found in the "Cathedral Assets Optimizer" section later on this page.
  • Merge
    : These mods are part of a merged mod that will be created late in the guide. It is informational only, and does not require any additional actions until instructed to do so on the Merge Page.
  • ESL
    : Some mod's ESP files can be flagged as ESL files instead, effectively saving one of the 254 available ESP slots in the load order. This tag notes a mod who's ESP can be so flagged. Instructions for this process can be found on the Prerequisites Page.