SV, SVE: Mods and cutscene events questions

[Elaisren2020]

So I've been playing SV / SVE for a bit (I'm still fairly new to it, learning as quickly as I can so apologies if this is/seems a stupid list of questions to the more experienced gamers) and it's fun, but when playing the Vanilla SV, I get stressed/frustrated easily especially with certain aspects of the game (fishing, the "complete the CC bundles" quest/or similar so you can access the full story content/get the most out of the game during your first year syndrome, some NPC's arcs being iffy or flat after marriage/ x heart events/ being in the right place/time for the heart events to kick in, missing out on events like "the Flower dance" either because it randomly won't kick in or because i've not been able to get a NPC to the right heart level in time. and so on). *Note latest 1.5+ update fixed most of this in the vanilla game - still have slight issues with mods see below*

Which leads me onto playing with mods, SVE solved a lot of my previous gripes - yes fishing was still an issue, but it was better. However, every time I've played using the SVE, events like the flower dance, luao, egg hunt don't work - I keep getting red error msg codes in game (not on the boot up (Launch) mod screen) when I try go to the area they are held, then the screen changes and I'm back at my farm and the day is gone. Which I'm told will affect heart events later on, leaving me in a pickle. Obviously, I've updated SV/SVE (and yeah I've got Content patcher and all other mods nexus says are needed/updated) but I still have the same issue.

1) Does this mean I'm going to have to delete all old saves, downloads and re-download each mod before I start a new save?

2) If this is the case will I have to do this every time there is an update? (Some mods seem to update automatically and work without issue - it's trying to find which ones need fixing and the best way to go about doing so.)

3) As much as I love Nexus mods, it can be confusing regarding the actual requirements of each mod. For example, some work with just smapi, Content patcher & two of the other "core" mods (I forget their names), but others require numerous mods to work, which can have files "identical" (at least in name) to the files in the "Core" mods, and the instructions will say something like "warning do not overwrite/replace the old files, delete and use the new" but it doesn't actually specify which files it means/are affected. This leaves me with the choice of do I skip the "identical/duplicate" files when downloading to my pc or extracting to the mods folder or do i need to find and delete the "old" files from the mods folder first then download and extract the "new" files as normal?

4) As a time/sanity saver does anyone know or can suggest a good mod combo from Nexus which works without the above issues? (ideally I'd like SVE, Item spawner, artisan valley, the alt outfit designs, tractor mod, a fishing made easier mod and if possible a datable/marry other NPCs like Jodi, Pam or Robin/Veronica for example. Any other mods are a bonus - like the aquarium).

5) On a separate note, I encountered a rather strange bug - (I was playing SVE with other mods a few of which are listed above) and on my first new save all was good at first, then I noticed some NPC's were constantly invisible (Robin, Gunther, Sebby, Penny, Marnie, Jas, Vincent, Sophia, Max, Harvey, Linus & Maru) , after talking to any of those my farmer ended up losing his clothing (boots first, then jacket) so just pants & shirt now walking around. Next i crafted a crate and that turned invisible the second it was crafted and my farmer lost his pants, but kept his shirt. Went to sleep, next morning fully clothed in bed, yet when he exits out of the house to the farm, Marnie is outside (the pet cutscene) and my farmer is completely nude. He stays like that as no clothing I put on him is visible until the first town event (egg hunt i think) which as i mentioned above didn't happen (red error msg day over) then he's back to being fully clothed before bed, goes to bed the next day clothing is fine I can see my storage chest and the invisible characters are visible again. However, I still cannot participate in things like the flower dance/luao, dance of midnight jellies - i'll get the reminder/invite go to the right place at the right time but it auto kicks me back to the farm with the day gone without the event/cutscenes happening. Rest of the game plays fine though.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

Did you make sure you extracted everything to your SDV mods folder? You will need to extract all of the mods you want and make sure to place them in the SDV mods folder. Do not change or remove any of the files, keep them each in the folders they come in.

It's always good to make sure smapi is updated, and make sure all mods are updated. Sometimes you do have to start a new save it's just a part of modding.

When you update the mods make sure to remove all of the older versions, you only want to keep the latest versions of each mod you want.

Lastly, you need to make sure that none of your mods conflict with each other because some mods conflict with other mods.

[Elaisren2020]

Thanks for the assist.
smapi, content patcher, jsonasset and the other "core" mods are up to date all files extracted to the mods folder. After investigating, it might be an issue with one of the PPJA mods - I don't think it downloaded or extracted fully for some reason, so I'll probably check that. If that doesn't work I'll delete my current saves and restart a new save after I've removed all the affected mods and re-downloaded/extracted the ones I want.

As for making sure none of the mods conflict with each other is easier said than done in some cases. However, the community wiki has useful info to make it somewhat easier.
I'll include a link to mod compatibility for anyone else who wants a quick look up:

https://stardewcommunitywiki.com/Modding:Mod_compatibility

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

Hopefully you get it all under control, modding can be pretty frustrating.

[Elaisren2020]

Yeah, I finally got it sorted thanks.

In the end I had to remove the dating/marrying NPC mods to fix the issues with in game events like the flower dance & heart events.

As for the other issues - Most were compatibility issues and easily fixed (using the community wiki mod compatibility guide as a reference) . The PPJA issue was fixed by deleting the old files/folders and re-downloading/Extracting the latest versions to my mod folder.

NGL, bit gutted I had to remove the dating/marrying NPC mods as some were rather good and made imo a better story arc for certain characters adding content for how your choices affected everyone not just you or your spouse. The best of them felt like they could/should be cannon in the main SDV/E. The only dating/marrying NPC mods I disliked were the Robin, Caroline & Wizard/Rasmodius ones, because none of them felt true to the characters regardless of the paths you send them down, just really bad/glorified fan service. In short quality meme fodder for Streamers & You Tubers.