So, I'm in a bit of an odd spot here. I don't have the Special Edition. Nor do I have any of the DLC. I have just the original base game, which I have picked up again for the first time since the DLC came out. Checking Steam, the Special Edition costs just as much as the DLC for the base game, which you'd think would make it superior. However, shiny graphics are no match for a shiny UI, and I understand that Sky UI is not available for the Special Edition, am I correct?


I know very little about the Skyrim modding community, and I'm not currently all that interested in it. Right now, all I'm using is Sky UI and Acquisitive Soul Gems (otherwise, my Bound Bow would be shoving petty souls into Grand Soul gems, without careful management). I just want my nicer menus.

Is it really the case that there is no nicer menu mod for the Special Edition? Am I really going to have to make a choice between better graphics and better UI? At this point, I'm somewhat tempted to not get the DLC at all, and maybe only enjoy it only on the Nintendo Switch (because hey, it's portable at that point, I can deal with limited UI). I'm particularly bothered, because right now, the Special Edition is 25% off on Steam, and it's actually cheaper than just buying the base game DLC.

SkyUI will eventually be available for the special edition. The first beta may be available in about a month (although no one can be sure about that). Steam also regularly runs special deals so you can either get the special edition now or wait for the next sale which probably won't be long after SKSE64 and SkyUI are ready.

Ah, okay. The mods Nexus Mods and Steam Workshop didn't mention anything about a new version, so I feared the worst.

Not sure whether or not I'll wait for the next sale though. If I bought the SE now, I wouldn't actually play it (unless I discovered some early-mid game really cool DLC only stuff) until Sky UI was ready. But if I wait for that, then who knows how much longer it'd take to go on sale again. And I have enough need for portable games that I might just enjoy it on the Switch alone. Ah well, that's all financial issues for me to worry about, not you.

Is there a place with status updates on progress for the SE version? I vaguely recalled hearing about it being ready for SE in March, but I wasn't able to find that source just now, when I was contemplating picking up the SE version while it was still on sale.

There's a WIPz thread in this section that's official. The SKSE team doesn't post many updates so I wouldn't expect to see any new info until mid march at the earliest. The fact that they haven't posted anything lately is a good sign because they generally do a good job of reporting problems and delays. But when things are going well they usually get so engrossed in the work they forget to tell us what's happening.