First launch

1. Run ModOrganizer.exe from the install folder.
2. Pick the Njordlinger profile in the profile box at the top. TODO: the exact profile name players get.
3. Choose the SKSE entry in the executable list on the right and press Run. Always start the game through Mod Organizer 2.

The list ships its own generated output: the Pandora behaviour output (animations) and the PGPatcher output (parallax and PBR patching). You do not need to run Pandora, Nemesis or PGPatcher yourself after installing. TODO confirm once the Wabbajack file is compiled.

The first time the game starts, Community Shaders compiles its shaders for your graphics card. This happens before the main menu and can take a long time; the screen may sit still while it works. Let it finish. Later starts reuse the compiled shaders and are much quicker. If you update your graphics driver, the next start compiles again.

• On the author's machine the first boot to the main menu took TODO minutes, and later boots TODO.
• On the main menu, give it a moment before pressing anything: the mods are still loading their settings.

Once you are in the world, wait. A new game starts many mods' scripts at once, and several show messages in the corner of the screen as they set up. Stay where you start, don't open menus or pick a start yet, and wait until the messages have stopped for a while. TODO: how long that takes on the author's machine, and which message is the last one.

• Start a new game. Do not load a save made without the list.
• Njordlinger uses Alternate Perspective as its alternate start: you begin in an inn and choose who your character is and where the story starts, instead of the cart ride to Helgen. The list adds Civil War starts to its choices.
• If a box titled Hotkey Conflict Detected naming Tab, Tales of Skyrim - Berserkyr and the Tween Menu appears on a new save, close it. It is a false alarm and does nothing.

Skyrim's saves can be damaged when the game is busy at the moment it writes them. These habits keep that rare:

• Save when things are quiet: not in combat, not while a spell or shout is going off, and not in the first few seconds after a loading screen. Walk a few steps first.
• Make your own saves from the pause menu's Save row. The keyboard's quick save and quick load keys are unbound on purpose (see Controls).
• Leave a little time between saves, rather than saving several times in a row.
• Keep several saves and rotate them, so one bad file does not cost you the character.
• After a death or a crash, restart the game before loading, rather than loading again in the same session. A fresh start loads cleanly; a second load in one session carries leftovers from the first.
• Don't delete saves with the game running, and don't move them out of the profile's saves folder while Mod Organizer 2 is open.

Saves belong to the profile: they live in the profile's own saves folder inside the install, not in your Documents folder.