u/Haunture

for a few months now, i have been making some posts looking into some obvious and easily corrected mistakes in paid mods. This is what I said about why paid mods quality is not guaranteed:

> For those who are aware, Bethesda's "verified creations" paid mods program doesn't have the best reputation for quality despite the lengthy qa process. This is for several reasons:

> * there is no obligation for paid modders to set up any forums, discord servers, or mechanism for feedback or support. bethesda.net and the creations menu have no official ratings, comments, or bug reporting system like on nexus mods, so while you can release a mod on nexus, get immediate feedback from users, and push out updates all within a few hours, you don't need to hear from users at all on creations. > * there are simply fewer paying users to look at your mod to check for mistakes and make patches because they'd need to pay for the mods first. > * bethesda qa doesn't look over the actual mod files or use useful tools such as xedit. They only run through the mod by itself on the new game. This means that paid mods might not be compatible with other mods, even other paid mods, and might not even be compatible with existing saved games. > * the lengthy qa process itself prevents mod authors from iterating quickly. Updates to vc paid mods have to submit their update through same qa process that new releases go through, so the time between when users report issues and when the fix goes out can be as long as several weeks. > * most modders in the verified creations program are new to modding the game and also aren't familiar with best practices or use community tools like xedit.

Previous reviews:

• "Life of Crime", "Legacy of Orsinium", and "Atmora His Home".
• "Cavern of the Stormcaller" and "Dark Tides Blood and Fortune".
• "Coven of Crones", "Aberrations of the Dwemer", and "Shadetree Lodge".
• "Bards College Expansion", "Ancient Civilization Armory Collection", "Forgotten Armory Collection", and "The Starmade Blade"
• "Legacy of Orsinium" (update), An Undead Companion", "The Lost Sea of Apocrypha", "Memories of the Akaviri", "Beyond the Edge of Atmora"
• "Katja the Thief"
• "Defenders of Hla'ruhn", "A Backdoor to the Past - Ruins of the Ayleids", "Fire and Mead - An Innkeeper's Quest"
• "Lock Dissolver - An Alchemist Way to Unlock", "Vikings", "IMPERIAL DRAGON SHIELD • SWORD • SET • VX • 4K HD"
• "Albion Armor • Outpost Edition", "Ancient Coldharbour Armor", "Dark Brotherhood · VOIDSTALKER · Armors · Weapons", "Dark Brotherhood · VOIDFARER · Armor · Weapons", "DAEDRIC CONQUEROR ARMOR • WEAPON • HORSE • WAR FORGE"
• "Raidho - Along The Roads", "Choir of the Null", "Witches Festival", "Cadwallon Estate", "Relics of the Snow Prince", "The Retribution of Larceny", "Pinecrag Hall"
• "Abyss - The Lost Levels", "The Yondo Witch", "Yolengrund", "Archer’s Armaments", "A Secret Beneath the Ice"
• "A Ballad of Wealth: Coinmaster", "Bounties of the North", "Drelas’ Backpacks", "Aetherforged Gigamaul", "Pillage and Plunder"

Ancient Treasures: Unveiling the Abstruse (v1.0) - $8

• openGL format textures - skyrim is a directx game, and uses the directx coordinate system for textures. opengl uses a different coordinate system from directx, where the y-axis is the opposite to directx. bsroscrea\armor\eec\eec-armor_normal_directx.dds, and bsroscrea\armor\eec\eec-o_normal_directx.dds appear to use opengl textures for their normal maps (despite the names). this means the shading that comes from the normal map is opposite in the y-axis. This usually happens when the modder purchases opengl assets from an asset store but didn't convert them into directx format for skyrim. they also appear to have been generated by using the diffuse texture as a height map.
• dirty edits
  • adds a SOGTreeFloraHangingIceMoss01, a new custom flora, to Japhet's Folly Towers for some reason.
  • changes the blizzard magic effect used for spell and scroll to be no longer affected by frost resistance. is this intentional?
  • the blizzard spell is also made to ignore all resistances. is this intentional?
  • it makes a PickaxeMiningFloorMarker (0010DCFA) be owned by the player
  • it removes a bunch of AutoGen flags from a bunch of navmeshes, 00108849, 00108849, 001088B6, 00108848, without making any changes. this flag is only used by the creation kit, so these are useless edits.
• the cave statics added by the mod are vanilla ice caves with textures changed to be rock, but they retain the ice and snow collision from those ice caves

Dragon Cult Relics (v1.03) - $2

• broken cubemap - ruby_e.dds is not a real cubemap. cubemaps or environment maps are 6 images showing 6 directions stacked into 1 file used for reflections. ruby_e.dds included in this mod is just 1 image and will show up as black instead of a proper reflection. ruby_e.dds is also used in the civil war champions creation club, so this mod breaks that
• 124 .lip files and 11 .wav files included the mod despite .fuz files already existing. these are used for dialog. .wav is the sound, .lip is the lip animation, and .fuz is both. if you have .fuz, you don't need the .lip and .wav files anymore.
• 37 topic info fragment scripts with default names - these files are named like tif__0300f1fe, where 03 the index of the mod with only official masters loaded and f1fe is the internal form id of the topic info. If another mod decides to keep their topic info scripts with default names such as this, all they'll need to conflict with this mod is to load their plugin with the same official masters, and create a topic info that happens to have the same f1fe sequential form id. If there is a file name conflict with another mod, one of these scripts will be broken. Best practice here is to name these scripts with a unique name. People usually use a unique prefix for these. creation kit allows you to specify a common prefix name for all fragment scripts in your mod. creation kit also allows you to rename existing fragments after they have been created
• dwarvenspidercenturion_n.dds and dwarvenspidercenturion_m.dds are exact copies of vanilla textures. They probably don't need to be included, but maybe the author is avoiding texture replacers affecting their mod?
• not a bug, but the rest of the items being sold are also just retextures of miraak and miraak cultist outfits
• not ESL flagged - this mod only has 194 new records and introduce no new interior cells, but this mod is not ESL flagged. This means it adds to the 254 non esl flagged plugin limit instead of the 4096 limit of esl flagged plugins.

Fallen Heroes: Death Knight Pack (v1.00) - $5

• openGL format textures - skyrim is a directx game, and uses the directx coordinate system for textures. opengl uses a different coordinate system from directx, where the y-axis is the opposite to directx. deathknightsword_n.dds, deaktorso_n.dds, deakskulls_n.dds, deakskulls_n.dds, deaklegs_n.dds, deaklarm_n.dds, and deakhead_n.dds appear to use opengl textures for their normal maps. this means the shading that comes from the normal map is opposite in the y-axis. This usually happens when the modder purchases opengl assets from an asset store but didn't convert them into directx format for skyrim. they also appear to have been generated by using the diffuse texture as a height map.
• missing specular maps - none of the textures include specular maps. this is the alpha channel on the normal maps, and determines how shiny the object is. this means the bones in this mod are as shiny as the metals.
• ingotebony01_n.dds is an exact copy of the vanilla texture. It probably doesn't need to be included, but maybe the author is avoiding texture replacers affecting their mod?
• 5 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• dirty edits
  • rotates the vanilla invisible trigger MQ103SetStage15 -86 for some reason.
  • moves 2 FXSmokeWispsLgVol01 in ShadowgreenCavernWorld for some reason. one of them was only moved by 2 units, which is about 3 centimeters
• other than that there isn't much to this mod. there are no quests or scripts

Silent Moons Weapons (v1.07) - $6

• this mod adds new cells with 1907 new temporary references. it would probably be a good idea to convert this to an esm file. plugins without the esm flag will load all of its references, temporary or not, as persistent references, and contribute to the reference handle limit. if you exceed the reference handle limit, the game no longer functions
• 1 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 6 deleted references - this is applying a deleted flag on an existing reference that's in the mod's master files. this doesn't actually delete the references, and is the cause of random objects showing up in the sky above whiterun.

Anise’s Cabin - Claim a New Home (v1.01) - $4

• 2 topic info fragment scripts with default names - these files are named like tif__03000137, where 03 the index of the mod with only official masters loaded and 137 is the internal form id of the topic info. If another mod decides to keep their topic info scripts with default names such as this, all they'll need to conflict with this mod is to load their plugin with the same official masters, and create a topic info that happens to have the same 137 sequential form id. If there is a file name conflict with another mod, one of these scripts will be broken. Best practice here is to name these scripts with a unique name. People usually use a unique prefix for these. creation kit allows you to specify a common prefix name for all fragment scripts in your mod. creation kit also allows you to rename existing fragments after they have been created
• 4 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 1 identical to previous override record - these records are like ITMs, but are just the same as a previous override. in this case, the previous overrides come from this mod's own masters, so they are just as pointless as ITMs.
• 1 deleted references - this is applying a deleted flag on an existing reference that's in the mod's master files. this doesn't actually delete the references, and is the cause of random objects showing up in the sky above whiterun.
• this mod makes major changes to the areas of anise's cabin, and will be incompatible with another paid mod: coven of crones

RZ Armaments Pack 1 (v1.00) - $3

• openGL format textures - skyrim is a directx game, and uses the directx coordinate system for textures. opengl uses a different coordinate system from directx, where the y-axis is the opposite to directx. crushing morning star_n.dds and shield of frostfall_n.dds appear to use opengl textures for their normal maps. this means the shading that comes from the normal map is opposite in the y-axis. This usually happens when the modder purchases opengl assets from an asset store but didn't convert them into directx format for skyrim. they also appear to have been generated by using the diffuse texture as a height map.
• missing specular maps - none of the textures include specular maps. this is the alpha channel on the normal maps, and determines how shiny the object is. this means the leather and wood in this mod is as shiny or dull as metal.
• not ESL flagged - this mod only has 13 new records and introduce no new interior cells, but this mod is not ESL flagged. This means it adds to the 254 non esl flagged plugin limit instead of the 4096 limit of esl flagged plugins.
• 1 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• this mod names its items with an "RZ" prefix, so the 2 items it adds are "RZ Shield of Frostfall" and "RZ Crushing Morningstar"
• RZezekial NPC added by this mod and put in the labyrinthian has bandit faction, which makes it start fighting the vanilla frost trolls in the area.
• due to alpha channel on the environment masks shield of frostfall_m.dds and crushing morning star_m.dds, which are not used by the vanilla game, these weapons are incompatible enb or cs's complex material shaders.

Dark and Light Paladin Pack (v1.00) - $5

• openGL format textures - skyrim is a directx game, and uses the directx coordinate system for textures. opengl uses a different coordinate system from directx, where the y-axis is the opposite to directx. poleaxe_n.dds and lsword_n.dds appear to use opengl textures for their normal maps. this means the shading that comes from the normal map is opposite in the y-axis. This usually happens when the modder purchases opengl assets from an asset store but didn't convert them into directx format for skyrim. they also appear to have been generated by using the diffuse texture as a height map.
• 39 textures don't have mipmaps - all textures included in the mod don't have mipmaps. mipmaps are lower resolutions of textures used when the object is farther away or don't take up much space on the screen. this is done to avoid the objects looking grainy due to aliasing. No indication this is done for some specific reason.
• missing specular maps - 15 of the textures are missing specular maps. this is the alpha channel on the normal maps, and determines how shiny the object is. this means metal parts are as shiny as non metal parts
• some armor meshes that were already double sided have the double-sided flag applied, causing the backside, which has opposite lighting, to clip through to the front side
• 21 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• removes Max Height Data on tamriel worldspace. this is used by dragons to determine how high or low they can fly

for a few weeks now, i have been making some posts looking into some obvious and easily corrected mistakes in paid mods. This is what I said about why paid mods quality is not guaranteed:

> For those who are aware, Bethesda's "verified creations" paid mods program doesn't have the best reputation for quality despite the lengthy qa process. This is for several reasons:

> * there is no obligation for paid modders to set up any forums, discord servers, or mechanism for feedback or support. bethesda.net and the creations menu have no official ratings, comments, or bug reporting system like on nexus mods, so while you can release a mod on nexus, get immediate feedback from users, and push out updates all within a few hours, you don't need to hear from users at all on creations. > * there are simply fewer paying users to look at your mod to check for mistakes and make patches because they'd need to pay for the mods first. > * bethesda qa doesn't look over the actual mod files or use useful tools such as xedit. They only run through the mod by itself on the new game. This means that paid mods might not be compatible with other mods, even other paid mods, and might not even be compatible with existing saved games. > * the lengthy qa process itself prevents mod authors from iterating quickly. Updates to vc paid mods have to submit their update through same qa process that new releases go through, so the time between when users report issues and when the fix goes out can be as long as several weeks. > * most modders in the verified creations program are new to modding the game and also aren't familiar with best practices or use community tools like xedit.

Previous reviews:

• "Life of Crime", "Legacy of Orsinium", and "Atmora His Home".
• "Cavern of the Stormcaller" and "Dark Tides Blood and Fortune".
• "Coven of Crones", "Aberrations of the Dwemer", and "Shadetree Lodge".
• "Bards College Expansion", "Ancient Civilization Armory Collection", "Forgotten Armory Collection", and "The Starmade Blade"
• "Legacy of Orsinium" (update), An Undead Companion", "The Lost Sea of Apocrypha", "Memories of the Akaviri", "Beyond the Edge of Atmora"
• "Katja the Thief"
• "Defenders of Hla'ruhn", "A Backdoor to the Past - Ruins of the Ayleids", "Fire and Mead - An Innkeeper's Quest"
• "Lock Dissolver - An Alchemist Way to Unlock", "Vikings", "IMPERIAL DRAGON SHIELD • SWORD • SET • VX • 4K HD"
• "Albion Armor • Outpost Edition", "Ancient Coldharbour Armor", "Dark Brotherhood · VOIDSTALKER · Armors · Weapons", "Dark Brotherhood · VOIDFARER · Armor · Weapons", "DAEDRIC CONQUEROR ARMOR • WEAPON • HORSE • WAR FORGE"
• "Raidho - Along The Roads", "Choir of the Null", "Witches Festival", "Cadwallon Estate", "Relics of the Snow Prince", "The Retribution of Larceny", "Pinecrag Hall"
• "Abyss - The Lost Levels", "The Yondo Witch", "Yolengrund", "Archer’s Armaments", "A Secret Beneath the Ice"

A Ballad of Wealth: Coinmaster (v2.2) - $5

• 61 topic info fragment scripts with default names - these files are named like tif__08000d6a, where 08 the index of the mod with only official masters loaded and d6a is the internal form id of the topic info. If another mod decides to keep their topic info scripts with default names such as this, all they'll need to conflict with "A Ballad of Wealth: Coinmaster" is to load their plugin with the same official masters, and create a topic info that happens to have the same d6a sequential form id. If there is a file name conflict with another mod, one of these scripts will be broken. Best practice here is to name these scripts with a unique name. People usually use a unique prefix for these. creation kit allows you to specify a common prefix name for all fragment scripts in your mod. creation kit also allows you to rename existing fragments after they have been created
• includes the vanilla script defaultsetstageonplayeracquire. as far as I can tell, this script has no meaningful difference with the vanilla versions. This does, however, revert a fix made by the unofficial patch that check to make sure quests are running before advancing to the next stage.
• Not ESL flagged - this mod only has 1423 new records and only introduces inaccessible utility cells, but this mod is not ESL flagged. This means it adds to the 254 non esl flagged plugin limit instead of the 4096 limit of esl flagged plugins.
• this mod adds new cells with 563 new temporary references. it would probably be a good idea to convert this to an esm file. plugins without the esm flag will load all of its references, temporary or not, as persistent references, and contribute to the reference handle limit. if you exceed the reference handle limit, the game no longer functions
• 2 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 1 identical to previous override record - these records are like ITMs, but are just the same as a previous override. in this case, the previous overrides come from this mod's own masters, so they are just as pointless as ITMs.
• 1 plugin error - BlockTopicSpell property on script TIF__080C7BA9 of topic info xx000C22 points to an invalid form. possibly not a big issue since this property appears unused in the script.
• dirty edits
  • moves LvlBanditWizard (00015A58) from FourSkullLookoutExterior01 to __ECONOMY_HoldingCell for some reason
  • moves invisible marker IvarsteadFellstarFarmingMarker about 74 units. This is only about 1 meter.
  • moves guards GuardIvarsteadImperialCentralPatrol01, GuardIvarsteadImperialCentralPatrol02, GuardIvarsteadImperialFarmPatrol01, GuardIvarsteadSonsCentralPatrol01, GuardIvarsteadSonsCentralPatrol02, GuardIvarsteadSonsFarmPatrol01, GuardIvarsteadImperialMillPatrol01, GuardIvarsteadSonsMillPatrol01 slightly, about 45 units, or 0.6 meters. Don't know if this is intentional, but NPCs snap to the nearest navmesh, so probably not even necessary.

Bounties of the North (v1.00) - $7

• 29 textures don't have mipmaps - all textures included in the mod don't have mipmaps. mipmaps are lower resolutions of textures used when the object is farther away or don't take up much space on the screen. this is done to avoid the objects looking grainy due to aliasing. I don't think this is done for some specific reason, because these are textures are simple recolors of vanilla outfits, which do have mipmaps.
• 9 normal maps that are identical to vanilla files, except they don't have mipmaps. They probably don't need to be included, but maybe the author is avoiding texture replacers affecting their mod?
• wenchoutfit - copy.dds included. Doesn't appear to be used. This is a small nitpick.
• 2 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 18 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 34 identical to previous override record - these records are like ITMs, but are just the same as a previous override. in this case, the previous overrides come from this mod's own masters, so they are just as pointless as ITMs.
• 8 deleted references - this is applying a deleted flag on an existing reference that's in the mod's master files. this doesn't actually delete the references, and is the cause of random objects showing up in the sky above whiterun.
• this mod adds new cells with 1647 new temporary references. it would probably be a good idea to convert this to an esm file. plugins without the esm flag will load all of its references, temporary or not, as persistent references, and contribute to the reference handle limit. if you exceed the reference handle limit, the game no longer functions
• 1 plugin error - BOTNBardQHousecarl03 dialog branch doesn't have a starting topic.

Drelas’ Backpacks (v1.1) - $1

• openGL format textures - skyrim is a directx game, and uses the directx coordinate system for textures. opengl uses a different coordinate system from directx, where the y-axis is the opposite to directx. knapsack01_n.dds, smallbackpackbase01_n.dds, and smallsack01_n appear to use opengl textures for their normal maps. this means the shading that comes from the normal map is opposite in the y-axis. This usually happens when the modder purchases opengl assets from an asset store but didn't convert them into directx format for skyrim. they also appear to have been generated by using the diffuse texture as a height map.

Aetherforged Gigamaul (v1.00) - $1

• 20 textures don't have mipmaps - all textures included in the mod don't have mipmaps. mipmaps are lower resolutions of textures used when the object is farther away or don't take up much space on the screen. this is done to avoid the objects looking grainy due to aliasing. I don't think this is done for some specific reason, because these are textures are simple recolors of vanilla outfits, which do have mipmaps.
• 3 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 1 identical to previous override record - these records are like ITMs, but are just the same as a previous override. in this case, the previous overrides come from this mod's own masters, so they are just as pointless as ITMs.
• 2 plugin errors - aaaMgnt_ADON_55555_SHOCK and aaaMgnt_ADON_55559_Lava missing flags

Pillage and Plunder (v1.0.1) - $2

• 6 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 14 deleted references - this is applying a deleted flag on an existing reference that's in the mod's master files. this doesn't actually delete the references, and is the cause of random objects showing up in the sky above whiterun.
• this mod adds new cells with 7310 new temporary references. it would probably be a good idea to convert this to an esm file. plugins without the esm flag will load all of its references, temporary or not, as persistent references, and contribute to the reference handle limit. if you exceed the reference handle limit, the game no longer functions
• 1 plugin error - Invalid form in property for HarraPAPDungeonMASTERScript on HarraPAPSkillCheckActivatorMASTER001. Appears to be due to editing script properties without updating the properties list. There is another (unused) property in the script that was never filled. Probably harmless.
• dirty edits
  • moves WeaponRackPlaque (000D8C20) from WarehousePrefabs cell to HarraPAPPlayerHome cell and changes the base form to WeaponRackPlaquePlayerHouse
  • moves WeaponRackPlaqueACTIVATOR (000D8C21) from WarehousePrefabs cell to HarraPAPPlayerHome cell and changes the base form to WeaponRackPlaqueACTIVATORPlayerHouse
  • moves SteelSword (000D8C22) from WarehousePrefabs cell to HarraPAPPlayerHome cell.