alividlife

Holy crap.. This is invaluable. Thank you Khettienna!!!!

I wish I would have known this 3-5 years ago... And in fact I wish I would have known about this site sooner... Soo much good info. Fumbling around with just the TES wiki's was not easy. Baby steps me thinks.

Wow. You guys are awesome. Let me just say Thank you, thank you, thank you.. and... Thank you. Let me digest this The Vyper, I feel like such an utter noob... they ... have this?!.... What magical program do you speak of?! ...and Khettienna, do write up the tutorial!

Hello good people of TES Alliance.... I searched a couple different places, and searched this forum. I could not find a dedicated thread to my inquiry, so here goes nothing! I am wondering/asking two different questions: 1. What is the best way to test a mod? How does one go about testing a mod? What are some general techniques and guidelines? Are there any tips or tricks you know of? Any wise advice? 2. When dealing with Skyrim's (Oblivion or Fallout for that matter) /data folder..... Is it ok to make a backup, and then just simply cut and paste the old /data folder, with a heavily modified /data folder (back and forth)? e.g; I have a modified test data folder, and then a unmodified "vanilla" data folder that can be switched/alternated? In general are Bethesda's patches ONLY dedicated to the TESV.exe? Or does it edit the .bsa's as well.. where can I find the FULL patch notes for a Bethesda patch? How does this complicate testing (if it is even a possible method), do I need to worry about .ini files unless specified by the modification?... Any words of wisdom? Anyway.. I feel that this is a very important aspect of modding that isn't really addressed, and I would love to learn proper testing techniques before getting into the guts of Skyrim. I have had 10 different mods in the past just be utter failures only because I was too embarrassed to ask questions, and I hope you guys are going to go easy on me lol... Thanks for reading!