Skyrim refuses to die, and Bethesda has capitalized on its immortality by releasing the 10-year Anniversary Edition, which includes a collection of new content added to the base game. Players who have spent years modding Skyrim have been wondering what that means for their community, and there’s a need to separate fact from fiction.
Those who wish to mod Anniversary Edition won’t face an uphill battle, but there are still a few things they should be aware of before taking the plunge. For those who haven’t already bought the upgraded version of Skyrim, it pays to know a few things before deciding to move on from the Special Edition.
It’s Basically An Enhanced Special Edition
Many Skyrim gamers might think the Anniversary Edition is a major upgrade from the previous Special Edition release, but that’s just not the case. At its heart, it’s still that particular game, with a host of extra Creation Club content and unique extra Skyrim quests tacked on. That’s all fine, but it doesn’t reinvent or enhance the game in any major way.
In fact, most of the mods already available for the Special Edition will work with AE. Only scripted mods create a potential issue given how large chunks of the game’s code were rewritten, causing some incompatibilities and bugs to pop up. These should be ironed out in time.
The “Modpocalypse” Is Overblown
The announcement of the Anniversary Edition release of the game caused many to panic and claim that a “modpocalypse” was incoming. This was based on the fact that a lot of Skyrim’s code was rewritten, which might break compatibility for thousands of existing mods.
That’s not quite the case, as AE’s plugin management support and third-party extensions are already relatively up to par. There will be a few hiccups, bumps, and hurdles for gamers to overcome when modding Skyrim, but it’s far from the Y2k-style doomsday scenario that many were predicting.
Using SKSE With Anniversary Edition
The popular SKSE, or “Skyrim Script Extender” is a must-have mod, and there’s no getting around it. Large swathes of mods depend on its architecture to run properly, which presented a huge problem when the Special Edition version was released a few years back.
It took quite a while for the SKSE team to draft a version compatible with the Special Edition, and news of the AE release quickly brought back a lot of bad memories for many Skyrim gamers. Thankfully, Bethesda granted the SKSE team early access in order to write a version specifically for Anniversary Edition, which helped avoid a launch day catastrophe.
Start With Non-Scripted Mods
At this point in time, scripted mods that add new questlines, change NPC pathing, or otherwise alter how the actual game functions may not work with AE. Trial and error is the key here, but for those who aren’t willing to go through the hassle, it’s best to stick to simpler mods.
Texture and mesh mods are a great way to start out, and this is what most Skyrim gamers are interested in. These mods upgrade the visuals of Skyrim from within, and they rarely rely on scripts. It’s safe to say that the vast majority of texture and mesh mods are fully compatible with AE out of the box.
Lock The Version Number
Veteran players know how important it is to prevent Skyrim from automatically updating through Steam, as this can cause certain mods to break. Yes, the game version can be rolled back, but it’s quite a lengthy and complex process for those who aren’t familiar with it.
The safest bet is to right-click Skyrim Anniversary Edition in the Steam library menu, then click Properties, navigate to the Updates tab, and change “Always keep this game updated” to “Only update this game when I launch it.” Contrary to how it may sound, this will prevent Skyrim from bumping up to the next version number. This isn’t a permanent or foolproof solution, however.
The USSEP Patch
Popular Skyrim modder Arthmoor has updated his quintessential USSEP, or “Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch” to work with the Anniversary Edition, but there’s a major caveat attached. It seems that Arthmoor has decided to purge all previous versions of the mod in favor of this one. Since the mod fixes thousands of bugs within Skyrim, this was alarming news.
This means that Skyrim gamers unwilling to purchase the Anniversary Edition or update their version of SE are out of luck unless they’re able to find an archived copy of a previous version on the web. This has angered a lot of Skyrim gamers, but Arthmoor has released a statement on afkmods.com explaining his reasons for doing so.
Creation Club Content Is A Mixed Bag
Many gamers mod Skyrim so that they can customize the play experience down to their exact specifications. Therefore, the announcement of a ton of Creation Club content tacked onto AE isn’t exactly a stellar notion. For casual gamers, this is a fantastic package that will breathe new life into the same old vanilla game.
For modders, however, it’s a mixed bag. Some of the CC content is great, but others simply get in the way. Thankfully, these mods can be deactivated or manually removed, so there’s always room to tinker. It’s best to experiment to find out which mods make the cut, and which should be tossed.
Use Mod Organizer
Mod Organizer continues to be the de facto standard for veteran Skyrim gamers who want the most versatility and least amount of headaches when modding the game. In contrast to popular mod managers like Vortex, Mod Organizer 2 doesn’t actually touch Skyrim’s data files at all.
The Anniversary Edition benefits from Mod Organizer just as well as the Special Edition, primarily because of this fact. Players can easily install, uninstall, and change the load order of mods without wreaking havoc on the base game’s files. Mod Organizer does have a steeper learning curve, however, but it’s well worth going through, even for first-time modders.
Wait A While Before Modding
Ambitious modders will probably ignore this warning and dive straight in, but casual gamers and first-time Skyrim players should probably wait a while before deciding to tinker with the game. The Anniversary Edition has already undergone some hotfixes which have broken things like SKSE, forcing an update.
Expect this to continue for a little while as the game’s code is sorted out and subsequent bugs are squashed. Once the Anniversary Edition gets to a relatively stable point, it will be much easier to play through a modded game without suffering an issue down the road.