Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Configuring a Fresh Creation Kit Install

It's been a while but I have a few mod ideas so I got the CK installed. There were a number of things to configure in the .ini files so I watched a Gamerpoets video for reminders. It only mentioned the Multiple Master Loads. Searching lead me to an aged, huge post so I summarized findings here:

  1. Edit CreationKit.ini in the Game folder
  2. Under [General] add/set 'bAllowMultipleMasterLoads=1'
  3. All add/set 'bAllowMultipleMasterFiles=1'
  4. Under [Archive] set the following three lines
  5. SArchiveList=Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Update.bsa, Dawnguard.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa
  6. SResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa, update.bsa, Dawnguard.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa
  7. SResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Update.bsa, Dawnguard.bsa, HearthFires.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa
  8. Edit Skyrim.ini in the Documents folder
  9. Under [General] add 'sLanguage=ENGLISH'

There was definitely a lot of confusion about setting these config lines from 2013 onward. Even had someone post an educational mod about it. Pretty intense!

Ultimately I only did steps 1-3. The various archive settings were a bit different. I attribute this to Oldrim vs. Skyrim SE files since there are now files like 'Skyrim - Textures0.bsa' and 'Skyrim - Voices_en0.bsa' in the Data folder. In case I need these specified I will attempt to use the Oldrim pattern.

I also remember having extra steps once the DLCs came out. Someone listed the support process as:
You need a BSA-Extractor and then you have to extract following files from the DLC.bsa files:
[DLCName]_[your language].dlstrings
[DLCName]_[your language].ilstrings
[DLCName]_[your language].strings.
you have to do this for every DLC you want to load and then you have to place the extracted files into 
Skyrim\Data\Strings\
That seems about right. Yet I'm hoping that was an Oldrim issue that's handled better by SE. If not, at least I have a first step.

I fully intend to stick with SE for tinkering but some mods never got migrated. Eventually I'll get around to making sure my Oldrim is ready by using a fantastic guide I found over at STEP.