You ever get DEEP into a save and just want to start over?

[InfiniteWeird]

The past several weeks have been rather, frustrating. I initially set out to finally get around to playing my vanilla version of Skyrim because at the time it was gifted to me over a decade ago the computer I had at the time just didn't run the game well at all.

I got about 50 hours into that save before giving up because I had just made too many seemingly irreversible mistakes and the game was buggy and ran poorly even on modern hardware. Then I saw that the anniversary edition was on sale so I figured why not!

I found myself pleased with how well the game run and how much better it did look by comparison. Sadly it seems 99.7% of the bugs are still present which at times can really break immersion, but whatever! I have an itch to play! So I press on!

However, now I'm about 150 hours into my current save and I find myself wanting to start over AGAIN. There have been issues ranging from lots of mistakes I've made with my build, or simply not fully understanding how some things worked until what felt like too far in. Also I've done stuff like vendor items I should have been saving (Dragon priest masks, ect.), to a myriad of other things like not realizing I had to download various creation club stuff I wanted to partake in because I assumed it was just all there with the new version. These problems as well as others not listed have resulted in me having to sometimes rely on heavy use of console commands to fix them or exploits I'd rather not be using which has just left my progression feeling, tainted.

Am I totally neurotic for just wanting a "clean" no mess play through? Has anyone else ever found themselves in this position before?

[Senor Cinco]

I've restarted 1000 characters over the years. I'll restart in a heartbeat for numerous reasons.
Bugged Game
Don't like the character
Get inspired to make another character (#1 reason, actually)
If they have finished telling me their story
And some others...

TBH, I find the early... 1-10 levels to be the most fun. Lots of times, I will focus a character around a certain weapon or armor set. Oddly enough, when they finally get it... I'll restart.

[Senor Cinco]

DL the Unofficial Patch from Bethnet, in the game menu. You will have a much better experience, and hopefully a lot longer one.

[FauxFurry]

Only if something makes that save unstable. I found that there was a game breaking bug on one of the scripts related to the advancement of the main quest recently so I had to restart while paring back mods to see what caused it or just using an alternate start to skip portions of it to see if it is tied to the entry into Whiterun alone.

[InfiniteWeird]

Originally posted by Señor Cinco:

DL the Unofficial Patch from Bethnet, in the game menu. You will have a much better experience, and hopefully a lot longer one.

Will that disable steam achievements?

[Senor Cinco]

Originally posted by InfiniteWeird:

Originally posted by Señor Cinco:

DL the Unofficial Patch from Bethnet, in the game menu. You will have a much better experience, and hopefully a lot longer one.

Will that disable steam achievements?

Installing any mod will. However, if achievements are important, then there's a mod that can change that. I'm unsure if that mod in particular is available on Bethnet.

EDIT:
I would just DL the achievement mod and install it manually, into the data folder. Then , DL the patch from Bethnet. It's only 2 mods so LO won't be an issue.

Just go to the Load Order tab in the game's mod menu and both mods will be listed. The manually installed mod should show up as a black screen thumbnail in the LO. Then, make sure the Unofficial Patch is at the top.

[InfiniteWeird]

Originally posted by Señor Cinco:

Originally posted by InfiniteWeird:

Will that disable steam achievements?

Installing any mod will. However, if achievements are important, then there's a mod that can change that. I'm unsure if that mod in particular is available on Bethnet.

EDIT:
I would just DL the achievement mod and install it manually, into the data folder. Then , DL the patch from Bethnet. It's only 2 mods so LO won't be an issue.

Just go to the Load Order tab in the game's mod menu and both mods will be listed. The manually installed mod should show up as a black screen thumbnail in the LO. Then, make sure the Unofficial Patch is at the top.

Looks like in addition to all of this there is an extra unofficial patch for the creation club stuff I need to grab. I appreciate the advice.

[th]

One of the important reasons I started my current playthrough was my tiredness from all the bugs I've experienced during my previous playthrough. Especially that duplication on mannequins bug. Hated it really much. I am really glad that USSEP fixes it.

In addition to USSEP and Garthand's bug fixing mods for CC content I also could advise you flora respawn fix. It's also really annoying bug when all the grass and mushrooms you've harvested will never respawn.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/13186
There are a lot of similar mods but this one is one of the most simple yet fundamental. And it just fixes the problem. Adds nothing more.

I think those three mods are a good start into the Skyrim modding for anyone. But I am exactly a total newbie with modding. So don't listen to me too much.

[Fear2288]

Oh yes, Skyrim is one of those games where it’s hard NOT to find yourself abandoning one character to go start another.

Since I got back into the game a couple months ago after a few years away from it, I think I’ve made about 7 different characters who ranged from 20 - 100+ hours of playtime.

I’m doing my best to stick with the current one though, I’ve taken them through the main quest, the Silver Hand side of the Companions quest (mod: Conflict Under the Crescent), and the Civil War quest (Stormcloak) and am aiming to get this one character through Wyrmstooth (mod), Dawnguard (Dawnguard side), Beyond Reach (mod), Dragonborn, and Beyond Skyrim: Bruma (mod) with breaks in between to clear each hold of side quests.

Beyond Skyrim: Valenwood’s prerelease too if it stays on track and goes live in the next week or two here.

My reasons for consistently starting new characters though doesn’t really have much to do with bugs or regretting quest choices - it’s usually because I’ll start to get bored with my current character’s playstyle/class and want to try another.

Like I’ll be a dual axe-wielding Barbarian Nord who murders everything and then one day I’ll think “oh man, I wanna try a sneaky Bosmer hunter/ranger who murders everything - FROM AFAR” and then switch to that…then 40 hours later I’ll think “oh man, I wanna try a Breton knight who murders everything - CHIVALROUSLY with a sword and shield” and switch to that…then 20 hours later I’ll think “oh man, I wanna try a deliciously evil Dunmer Necromancer who murders everything - AND THEN BRINGS IT BACK TO LIFE TO MURDER MOAR THINGS”…

You get the idea.

What sucks though is that I usually can’t go back to previous characters because I tend to remove/add mods between them, so going back is almost a guarantee for a buggy broken mess…I should probably try and figure out Vortex mod profiles…

[SpeedFreak1972]

Lots of times I have often mods that look cool, but over time don't work for me. Or I just get bored about certain choices.

[jancawa55]

Originally posted by Señor Cinco:

I've restarted 1000 characters over the years. I'll restart in a heartbeat for numerous reasons.
Bugged Game
Don't like the character
Get inspired to make another character (#1 reason, actually)
If they have finished telling me their story
And some others...

TBH, I find the early... 1-10 levels to be the most fun. Lots of times, I will focus a character around a certain weapon or armor set. Oddly enough, when they finally get it... I'll restart.

Me too in Spades, I seldom get past level 60 without a restart for new mods or just cuz early game is more fun.

[Senor Cinco]

Originally posted by jancawa55:

Originally posted by Señor Cinco:

I've restarted 1000 characters over the years. I'll restart in a heartbeat for numerous reasons.
Bugged Game
Don't like the character
Get inspired to make another character (#1 reason, actually)
If they have finished telling me their story
And some others...

TBH, I find the early... 1-10 levels to be the most fun. Lots of times, I will focus a character around a certain weapon or armor set. Oddly enough, when they finally get it... I'll restart.

Me too in Spades, I seldom get past level 60 without a restart for new mods or just cuz early game is more fun.

The only characters I have ever gotten to L60, were Assassins. That's only because I develop them with a lot of different skills for unique kills on each target.

[alexander_dougherty]

If I want to restart, then I restart.....
It's not like one of those games you can only play once (Who actually buys a game knowing it won't let you play it more than once)

[dtt.scanner]

My main reason for restarting is to test a new mod, or to test some feature that I may have already passed or don't want to do with my current character (like vampire or werewolf, or even something as simple as playing a different sex). I have dozens of different saved games, but the bottom line: if I like the new mod I often just keep playing the new build and pretty much abandon the old one. Another reason of course is that you "finish" with one character and just want to try something different with a new one. I used to play only sniper-thief type assassins, but recently got into Alchemy and have started playing around with straight magic-user (not battlemage with armor... just your normal robe-wearing mage) to see how survivable it is. I have also started a new survival mode game on Special Edition, and so I'm playing around with new content there as well.

You do not have to get any mods from Creation Club: they are all optional.

You do want the DLC and the Unofficial Skyrim Patch for LE (USLEP or USLEEP) if you are playing Legendary Edition (I think Anniversary edition is LE version). The main difference with LE from vanilla is that it lets you restart your skill trees when you get to 100, so that there is no longer a level cap at 81. Someone had done the math and said that to "max out" your character with all of the perks would be something around level 250, and would require restarting all of the skills about 8-9 times each (I don't think I will play any character that long.)

Many of the vanilla mods work fine with LE. Creation Club is mainly for Special Edition. Special Edition has some new content, and so yes, you would probably want the CC mods rather than the vanilla mods, since vanilla mods may conflict with new content. Other useful mods would be SKSE but I don't know if there is a separate LE or SE version. I use the same vanilla SKSE with LE and it seems to work fine. Last one commonly used by players would be Skyrim UI, which makes the menus a little more compact and manageable. These are all utility mods that enable other mods, or are used by a large part of the mods that you might download.

For physics and animations you will possibly want the HDT Physics Extension and FNIS, in order to use physics mods (bouncy hair and clothes that swish, among other things) and special animations (like different magic casting animations, or drawing arrows from a waist quiver).

I try to be minimal with mods, since too many can break the game, but there are people who claim to have stable builds with over 1000 mods. Many mods conflict with each other, like Armored Horses and Immersive Horses (with craftable horse barding). Other conflicts may not be so obvious, but might use the same reference ID for different things.

Be careful when modding. Always use a new game to test new mods, or use a "test game" that you use specifically for that. Just name your Character "Test Game" so you can find it easily in your saved games. You do not want to enable and then disable a mod on your current play-through. That is a good way to make your game buggy. Once you know you like a mod, you can load your old game (the new mod will load with it) and make a new save with the new mod added. Don't go back to your old game until you are sure about playing with the new mod, and disable it before launching an old save if you decide that it isn't what you want, so that you don't bug your good game.

Someone mentioned using profiles in Vortex. I haven't done that yet either, but it is a really good idea if you like a particular game/character, to save that mod list as a profile. Then it is really easy to go back to a previous save and not hose it with the wrong set of mods.

[th]

Originally posted by dtt.scanner:

Someone had done the math and said that to "max out" your character with all of the perks would be something around level 250, and would require restarting all of the skills about 8-9 times each (I don't think I will play any character that long.)

That's just an appetizer.

The main dish is something like that:

1) Health is regenerated at 0.70% of maximum health each second when not engaged in combat and at 0.49% during combat.
2) Magicka is regenerated at 3.00% of maximum magicka each second when not engaged in combat and at 0.99% during combat.
3) Stamina regenerates 5.00% of maximum stamina each second when not engaged in combat and at 1.75% during combat.

What does it mean for us?

It means for example that with 100000 points of magicka you will regenerate even during combat 990 points of magicka every second.

So you can spam the most expensive spells even with zero enchantments in any school of magic endlessly no matter what.

Same applies to health and stamina. With some levels you can become unkillable. Well, I don't know - something about 30000 levels would be enough to reach that goal. Can't even imagine how many times you need to retrain skills for that.

My point is - it is always a good idea to increase your level.

[lizrdfishr]

I run a mod called "Alternate Start, Live Another Life". I have never played any of the main quests all the way through.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/272/

This allows me to develop my character any way I want. Now I don't see 'quest mistakes' as mistakes, just character development.

If my character was never "Dragonborn", he or she is defined by his/her actions instead of by the title imposed by the game.

To me this makes the game. Each character is unique since none are shoehorned into a specific role. Now the 'mistakes' make the story and my character can learn and grow.

This makes leveling slow by level 50 so I tend to retire <> level 60. I restart if I have to remove a mod. I restart if I did something stupid that is causing crashes in the later game (console commands can do this).

Obviously it is your game so play your way. But I would like to encourage you to try a game with the Alternate Start mod and play your character out, win or lose, to level 25+ and see if that doesn't work for you.