What year is it?

Checking in after a few months of insanity…

Oh hi! 

It’s been a while; how have you been? 

Things have been slightly…bonkers…for the past few months…I am honestly rarely sure what day it is, much less what month…Is it still January? No, but seriously…just tell me that 2020 is over…

After spending much of the summer (and by “much” I mean usually 6, 7, 8 hours a day…and often double that on weekends…) working on it, this site went live on August 31st. And I promptly fell off the face of the earth. I apologize that things died down, as I had intended on doing more upkeep, adding new mods and posts, and ideally growing the site and community. To be honest, it was a perfect storm of being burned out on modding, some minor health problems, and getting a new (and significantly harder and more time-consuming) position at work. I didn’t have the energy for much, especially not working on a modlist or the website. I ended up getting really into Elder Scrolls Online (because I couldn’t abandon Tamriel altogether), mostly because I could actual PLAY instead of spending more time in xEdit or the Creation Kit. (Side note: it did not take me long to start using add-ons, which as my husband pointed out, is essentially just mods for ESO. And he is not entirely wrong, but they are WAY less work.)

I kept planning on working on the website at the very least, even if I wasn’t tinkering around with Mod Organizer, and I did have quite a few ideas percolating for posts and some other fun stuff. I tried to keep up a bit with what was new on the Nexus and on the subreddit, but I was no longer browsing both multiple times a day. It did not help that the few times I did start to read a comment thread or two, there just seemed to be quite a lot of negativity from many sides: mod authors, mod users, modlist creators, and the sitcom audience. Maybe it was just that I wasn’t in the middle of my modding/Skyrim obsession. Maybe it was because I had started to get into the ESO community, which I have found to be overwhelmingly positive (for the most part), especially for an MMO (so I hear; I had never played one before picking it up). Maybe it was the culmination of a pretty sucky year and everyone was just not really on their best behavior. No matter the reason, I took a much-needed break from all things Modding Skyrim.

But I am back! I got hit with a big ol’ wave of nostalgia a few weeks ago (which isn’t coincidental since that was nearly the exact date I started playing Skyrim for the first time ever a year ago). It was time to return and I have been quite motivated since to rework some of the website’s existing pages, add some new content, publish weekly posts, and more!

It is truly astonishing how much has happened in the modding community since I went AFK in September/October. We are talking about a span of a few months and for a video game that came out a decade ago (!!!). There is a brand-new tool called Synthesis that I am just starting to look into. There were over 3600 mods (for LE and SE) released on the Nexus in November – January. That is not including all the updates to already existing mods that came out in the same time period, or mods uploaded to other sites! More work is being done regularly on the Beyond Skyrim project, not to mention the other big scope projects like Skyblivion and Odyssey of the Dragonborn. Wabbajack is more popular than ever with new lists added regularly. Anyone that says that Skyrim modding is dead has no idea what they are talking about. So, if I had more to add before my break, you can imagine all that I want to cover after diving back in.

To help with the motivation, I should be done moving into my new home office by this time next week, with a brand-new, much larger desk that can fit all my computers and monitors. With moving into a less cramped space, I am also going to dust off my old computer (*cough* potato laptop *cough*) that I started modding Skyrim LE on back in early 2020. My plan is to use it as a comparison so that I can have a deeper understanding of what will and will not work on a broader range of computers, all the better to help the community with their questions.

Here are a few of the changes I have already made and the upcoming game plan (I hope you are all excited and as always, I really really really want input from you guys, so please join the Discord and send me any and all suggestions!):

Finished Updates:

• A new page has been added to the site where you can see all posts, new and old. It can be found via the menu at the top of every page/post, or by clicking the link on the front page, in the Post Section. (The posts really needed a home beyond the front page of the website.)
• I fixed some typos and made a few other grammar changes throughout the site.
• I have added a search function to help users navigate the website.
• Social media has been linked!
  • Discord
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Twitch
  • Twitter
  • You can also view a gallery of Instagram photos directly on the homepage (screenshots from Skyrim and ESO)
  • And all content can now be shared to a variety of your own social media outlets!
• I have updated the menu bar on all pages/posts to reflect the addition of the search function and the social media links.

In Progress Updates:

• Weekly posts – To get this started, and to hopefully prevent burnout (again), I plan on doing a pretty small post at least once a week (hopefully more often), mostly with random musings on new or updated mods, state of the modlist (whatever one I happen to be working on), Wabbajack lists, etc. These weekly posts will be more like this one with a bit less structure and definitely more of my own ramblings. In addition, I plan on doing larger posts as I have time on some of the bigger topics I want to cover, such as in-depth mod reviews, mod suggestions for specific playthroughs, photo/video comparisons of mods, and much more. These posts will be much more detailed and as such will take more time to create.
• Updates to existing pages - Since there have been so many mods published to the Nexus in the time I’ve been away, and countless more updated (and some removed), I am going through every page and updating my suggestions/links. This goes for tools and Wabbajack/Non-Wabbajack modlists as well. This will be a fairly lengthy process because so much has happened. My plan is to do maintenance on the site like this at least once a month, if not more often. If you do find a link that no longer works, please let me know, via Discord preferably, and I will correct it as soon as possible.
• Help topics - I have a number of things I bookmarked or saved on Reddit during my time away that I want to add/discuss in various places throughout the site, in particular the HELP! Section, and it will take me some time to address them all.
• I want to add some more info to the “Modlist Guides” section, with specifics on why I suggest certain modlists. I also need to update this with some new/updated info as some of the lists have changed and there are some new ones out there.
• Vortex – I know I promised to do more with the how-tos specific to Vortex and I failed you on that. I plan on following through on that promise in the coming months.
• Dark Mode – I am still trying to find a better solution to the dark mode settings also changing the background image.
• Overabundance of parentheses and ellipses – I will endeavor to attempt to possibly try and use fewer parentheses and ellipses in my writing…(not gonna lie, this might be an impossible task)…

Game Plan for Future Additions:

• I want to flesh out the site with some more pages, potentially including:
  • Requiem – what/why/how
  • A full page on Wabbajack lists: what/why/how/reviews/etc
  • DynDOLOD – what/why/how
  • Comparison page for things like ENBs, weather systems, lighting, grass/trees, NPC overhauls, other graphics (not sure if this will be individual posts or pages)
  • Patches page – commonly used patches and patch installers, and a more in-depth how-to create your own
• Adding a spec list for my computer setup(s)
• ESO Addon page - If there is interest, I may devote a new page on how to setup Addons for ESO and a list of all the ones I use (or have used) with descriptions and reviews.
• Trello – I already use Trello for organizing and tracking work progress on the site, but I’ll consider integration for users if the need arises (i.e. the community grows significantly more)
• Twitch - You may have noticed that I now have a Twitch page. While I am not currently streaming, there is a strong possibility that I may do so in the future, but in the meantime, I try and host some really great streamers (they focus mainly on ESO and Skyrim). If/when I start streaming, I would most likely do a combination of ESO and Skyrim myself, with the Skyrim content being split between a “real” playthrough and testing out mods (or wabbajack lists) suggested by the community (and potentially even showing some how-to basics if requested, in regard to modding).

“…but the true joy of exploration is in the discovery, and so I leave the rest to you…”

~An Explorer’s Guide to Skyrim