Can we talk about how I spent 6 months modding Skyrim with the wrong tools?

I was using the Creation Kit for like 6 months to tweak NPC stats and add items, thinking that was the only way. Every time I wanted to change something simple like a weapon damage value, I had to load up the whole editor and wait 5 minutes. My buddy Joe came over last Tuesday and saw me doing it. He laughed and showed me SSEEdit on his own screen. Turns out I could have been editing those same values in 30 seconds with that tool the whole time. Now I feel like an idiot for all those hours I spent clicking through menus. Has anyone else found out way too late that they were using 10 times more effort than needed?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy85811d ago

My buddy Dave modded Fallout 4 for a whole year using Notepad to edit .ini files. He thought that was just how you did it. Legit spent hours typing values in the dark, no syntax highlighting or anything. His brother finally walked in one day and asked why he wasn't using xEdit. The look on Dave's face was like he'd been told Santa wasn't real. We still bring it up at parties to make him mad.

nancys9011d ago

Oh come on, you're saying the Creation Kit is the wrong tool? I spent 2 years using it for everything from NPC placement to quest scripting and it worked fine. Sure it takes forever to load but you get way more control over things. SSEEdit is basically just a spreadsheet, you miss half the context of what you're actually editing. I can't count how many times I broke some random leveled list using SSEEdit and had to start over. The Creation Kit forces you to actually understand what the game expects before you mess with it.