I posted this question on the Quick Questions/Quick Answers thread a couple of days ago, but it seems to have fallen through the cracks. So I'm going to ask it on its own thread.


A total CK noob question here - forgive me if I'm asking in the wrong place.

I've got about 40 or so mods installed on my Skyrim game. I'd like to at least try to create a mod and see if I have any kind of talent or liking for it. Nothing fancy to start - maybe just a basic dungeon. From my poking around on some of these threads and the tutorials, I've got the impression that it's best to use a completely vanilla installation of Skyrim for development and testing of mods, both to make troubleshooting easier and to avoid completely botching an existing installation. Is this correct? And if it is correct, what is the best way to go about setting up that vanilla modding platform without wrecking my play installation?

I've Googled this and gotten several suggested methods, but I thought I'd get the consensus here as to which one is the best. Thanks!

I saw it in that thread but I didnt think my answer/opinion was valid. But here it is - all that I find to be overly cautious and unnecessary(generally speaking). What I do is load up 2 CKs. 1 for checking out cells and whatnot and as a way to keep from making accidental dirty edits in my "WIP" CK. And I test my mods with a new character in my own created cell, with no other mods activated other than the one I'm working on.