Would a clean master save work for testing mods?

[professor_red]

Hi. I have quite a few quest mods that I’d like to play that may conflict, each is recommended for about level 40-50+. I’m wondering if I can reasonably just play the game clean to 50 ish, and make a clean master save. Then use showspecialmenu to create a “new character”, play a mod, remove it, then repeat as needed without messing up my game. Or do I actually need to play all those levels again?

[hawkeye]

I use MO2 to test mods. It allows multiple games to be set up, using a common mod library but with each game having its own selection of mods.

Testing ideally should include vanilla and, at least 1, modded games. If you have a vanilla game copy it to a profile called "Baseline" and leave it alone as your clean test data. Then copy it again to other profiles named according to the mod configs that they use. I also keep a copy of the exe.

[Flippy]

Originally posted by professor_red:

Hi. I have quite a few quest mods that I’d like to play that may conflict, each is recommended for about level 40-50+. I’m wondering if I can reasonably just play the game clean to 50 ish, and make a clean master save. Then use showspecialmenu to create a “new character”, play a mod, remove it, then repeat as needed without messing up my game. Or do I actually need to play all those levels again?

Yep you can add and remove mods at any time. Unless maybe a third party program is needed, then i dont know. Can also add and remove the big DLC and CC items at any time. Just dont be in an area the mod or DLC adds, not sure what would happen then.



So you can exit, remove the mod and add another mod and enter and done. Again unless a third party program is needed and then i dont know.

Unistalling CC items is as simple as dragging them out of data folder and into a storage folder, maybe called CC items or something in the data folder, nothing else needed. Then putting them back if wanted.

Dont need a mod manager for regular mods, just drop the mod in the data folder and add it to the plugins text which couldnt be easier but got to take a moment to learn how to do that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZpIQ6P38xE

[Zotliatlicor]

Vortex does thae same, let you set up different Profiles and you can have none, some or all mods you like in different amounts. Just make a Plain vanilla one as a safe backup play.

[professor_red]

I’m fairly new to modding. I’ll check out vortex profiles first.

Is MO2 better? Will it show both esp and esl?

From what I’ve read, mods shouldn’t be removed mid play through or it has the potential to break something.