Vapourware Daggerfall Unity isnt Vaporware

[rusty_shackleford]

3. Wondering aloud why anyone would choose to imitate the disgusting original pixelated graphics with their mod in the year of our lord 2022 when DREAM exists, instead of making their mod high-res and DREAM-compatible to begin with

good post

 

[SharkClub]

I wish it was a strawman I made up and not real.

 

[unseeingeye]

*Edited to account for information learned in another thread cautioning against using certain mods that I included each from the same mod author; I personally haven't encountered save corruption or bugs but I trust the other mod author giving the advice and noted my post accordingly.

Someone earlier was asking for suggested mods; I'm just recovering from another bout of COVID so please excuse my post if I make any errors, I'm still only partially coherent. These are all recommended mods that I currently use, taken from my nexus download history. I have a few more but I am only sharing those with which I am familiar enough to form an opinion. Bear in mind these are not in "load order" but rather broken down by approximate category. I've not yet finished the main quest with these mods but I have not encountered any significant incompatibilities; the single exception I mention as an aside. Daggerfall Unity's frontend alone gives you many options to further fine tune your game experience; for the time being I am using the "Smaller Dungeons" option which reduces the prefabs to I think 3 or 4 total.

For visuals I should make it clear that I thoroughly enjoy the vanilla graphics and only use mods that enhance them or are made in that style, so I don't use lightning mods or anything that alters the graphics. I run it in retro rendering mode without any of the additional shaders or postprocessing effects (cool as they are) and I stopped using all skybox mods, both because of the inconsistent aesthetics and because I actually love the different terrain landscape backdrops, even with Distant Terrain I think they look great and to me the game looses so much of its charm when these are dropped in favor of a more modern looking sky.

That being said I try not to change the vanilla mechanics too much, but I have played the game in its original form many, many times and at this point I am no longer so adamant in maintaining them in their pure form. I do not use the "click to attack" option because in fact what is considered "the best" attack changes depending on your weapon type, your class and your level. For instance, a forward thrust with one weapon may do less damage than a downward or sideways chop attack, however the hit chance significantly changes depending on which attack type you use, with the thrust granting a bonus higher than the others, meaning that when you are a brand new character who has low agility and low to-hit chances, your best attack is to use the attack that has a more restricted damage numbers range but will reliably connect, versus one that has a broader and higher damage output but will constantly miss. And unless I intend to run through the opening dungeon without stopping for anything (I never skip it, though the option is there with Unity) I always take the Ebony Dagger as the gift from the emperor, because it is your only reliable means by which you can kill the magical imps unless you are a magicka user. Anyway here is my recommended mod list; the one mod I include but was hesitant to is Daggerfall Enemy Expansion, because of the potential for aesthetic clashes, but the mod author is so talented and so devoted to maintaining the original style that I cannot help but to recommend it. It reintroduces monsters and enemies from Arena and Battlespire and even makes vanilla NPCs and creatures who have in-game assets but were never made to be potential combat encounters (the necromancers, for instance) giving the game much needed variety, but he even made the new enemies in a style very similar to that of the original game, or at least the few non-2D flat sprite models. It is absolutely exceptional in every regard and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Visual Mods:

Daggerfall Expanded Textures
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/307

Distant Terrain
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/128

Mountains and Hills
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/27

Real Grass
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/20

Pixelated Grass (requires the former, and makes it match vanilla style)
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/252

Transparent Windows
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/302

Aquatic Sprites
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/276

Nero's Classic Crosshairs
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/208

Better Dungeon Exits
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/287

NPCs and Creatures:

Famous Faces of the Iliac Bay
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/229

Nine's Cathay
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/251

Daggerfall Enemy Expansion
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/372

*Travelling Alchemists
(Cliffworms suggests not using this due to potential for bugs and save file corruption; leaving this here as a warning and will be removing from my own game)
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/159

SIGIL - Wilderness Encounters
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/224

Lively Cities
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/239

Warm Ashes - Dangerous Dungeon Encounters
*When the game starts I do not activate the Wilderness Encounters option, as I use SIGIL for this instead.
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/6

Villager Immersion Classic
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/361

Quests and Factions:

Actions Framework
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/284

Daggerfall Unity Quest Pack 1
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/2

Finding My Religion
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/344

Skyrim's Adventures
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/223

Arena's Adventures
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/185

Jay_H's Mundane Jobs
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/356

*Pilgrimages
(Cliffworms suggests not using this due to potential for bugs and save file corruption; leaving this here as a warning and will be removing from my own game)
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/148

Whispers From the East
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/370

World and Locations:

World of Daggerfall Project
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/249

Fixed Dungeon Exteriors
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/225

Fixed Desert Architecture
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/333

Soldier's Luxury - Guild Renovation Project
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/234

Wilderness Overhaul
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/390

Armor, Weapons, and Miscellaneous Items:

Bestiary
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/222

Diverse Weapons
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/242

Unique Armor
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/352

Jewelry Additions
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/269

Survival and Immersion:

Climates and Calories
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/49

Roleplay and Realism
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/16

Roleplay and Realism - Items
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/61

*Starting Equipment
(Cliffworms suggests not using this due to potential for bugs and save file corruption; leaving this here as a warning and will be removing from my own game, alternative below)
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/400

*Useable Starting Equipment
(Alternative to the Starting Equipment mod commented on above, I will be switching the former out for this and will update further if necessary)
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/232

Weather Items
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/133

Travel Options
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/122

Basic Roads
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/134

Arena Style Flavor Text Recoded
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/345

Ambient Text
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/303

Gameplay Changes:

Kab's Unlevelled Spells
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/220

Hotkey Bar
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/202

Sneak and Crouch Combined
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/140

No Equip Delay
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/192

Mighty Foot
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/162

NPC Health Indicator
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/63

Harvestable Crops
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/41

Readied Spellcasting Hands
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/91

Quest Offer Locations
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/201

Repair Tools
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/106

Viewable Skill Progress
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/298

Vampiric Options
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/67

World Tooltips
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/158

Convenient Quest Log
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/189

 

[mastroego]

So uhm, is Mountains and Hills compatible with Basic Roads?

EDIT: I guess so as they're both on the list

 

[Deadyawn]

The last playthrough I did was with a thief character. I was being chased by a lich through a hallway which ended in a sort of chasm. So I jumped, grabbed the wall on the opposite side, and climbed to safety.

It dawned on me that I'd never played anything comparable that fulfilled that rogish fantasy so well, certainly not any other Elder Scrolls. Seriously, this game with a few mods to revamp how sneaking works, more quest variety and tools like a grappling hook made it the most enjoyable game to be a sneaky character that I have played in a very long while.

 

[luj1]

Daggerfall Unity is free on GOG as "Daggerfall Unity GOG Cut" and comes prepackaged with mods

Anyone tried?

 

[luj1]

The last playthrough I did was with a thief character. I was being chased by a lich through a hallway which ended in a sort of chasm. So I jumped, grabbed the wall on the opposite side, and climbed to safety.

It dawned on me that I'd never played anything comparable that fulfilled that rogish fantasy so well, certainly not any other Elder Scrolls. Seriously, this game with a few mods to revamp how sneaking works, more quest variety and tools like a grappling hook made it the most enjoyable game to be a sneaky character that I have played in a very long while.

What sneakish mods do you use

 

[SharkClub]

Daggerfall Unity is free on GOG as "Daggerfall Unity GOG Cut" and comes prepackaged with mods

Anyone tried?

The GOG Cut is dogshit, even if it wasn't for it being prepackaged with an ugly graphics mod, apparently it's broken as hell and on an older version of DFUnity.

 

[Deadyawn]

What sneakish mods do you use

This one:
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/217
It's a substantial change to how stealth works in the game. And while it may have made it easier in the long run, it makes the early game much more engaging for this playstyle. The revamps to how breaking and entering work are also great.

And this one:
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/300
Mostly for the usable grappling hook. Aim at a ledge in Grab Mode and you shoot a hook that you can climb. Very nice alternative for getting to those places otherwise accessible by levitating.

I've also installed one or two questpacks for more variety.

 

[Cliffworms]

Daggerfall Unity is free on GOG as "Daggerfall Unity GOG Cut" and comes prepackaged with mods

Anyone tried?

The GOG Cut is dogshit, even if it wasn't for it being prepackaged with an ugly graphics mod, apparently it's broken as hell and on an older version of DFUnity.

To add to this, it changes several settings, both graphical and game settings, that are not enabled/disabled by default. With the bundled mods, the side effect is that several people believe that's the Daggerfall Unity experience (or that the gameplay mods/quests are part of vanilla Daggerfall). There have been, and still are, several issues raised by users running the GOG Cut.

I contacted the GOG representative, who had previously asked for my permission to get my mods in it (I didn't mind), if they would ever update DFU and the mods contained. I never got a reply.

Thankfully, installing and managing mods for DFU is less crash-prone and much easier than other Bethesda titles.

 

[Narushima]

The madmen at GOG think that this atrocity

Spoiler

looks better than this

Spoiler

 

[octavius]

The second image looks like the character has been the victim of Japanese "mosaic" censorship.

 

[d1r]

To be honest, both kinda look ass. You can get much better results by modding it yourself.

 

[xuerebx]

The contrast between the pixelated character models and the high res background is too jarring in the second pic. Not so better in the first though with the smudgy faces.

 

[unseeingeye]

So uhm, is Mountains and Hills compatible with Basic Roads?

EDIT: I guess so as they're both on the list

Yep! Sorry I didn't respond sooner, but they are compatible, I load Mountains and Hills higher in the load order though to make sure, but yes the roads added by that mod (as well as the rivers and streams in the recent version) will conform to the terrain and you can follow them up and down mountains and valleys. It is amazing to set the travel acceleration speed to x10 or so and just watch the scenery going past, flowing rivers that come down the sides of mountains and bifurcate into streams, thick clustered forests in the north filling a river valley, it is truly amazing with all these mods how much more "alive" the wilderness feels. With the Dungeon Exteriors Fixed mod you will see massive castle ruins and vast graveyards with huge networks of mausoleums, and on top of that World of Daggerfall Project is specifically designed as a project to bring the wilderness to life by adding all kinds of landmarks and interesting hand-placed locales and terrain features to make exploring the overworld more engaging. This game is today on a whole other level with these mods coming together.

One thing I should mention is that with Distant Terrain, I think it has an option in the mod configuration menu (accessible from within Daggerfall Unity's Launcher frontend) for "improved terrain" or something like that; make sure you do not have that option selected because otherwise Mountains and Hills will conflict with it. I've tried the other terrain mods like Interesting Eroded Terrain and Enhanced and Eroded Terrain, and I think there is (or was) another one even, but Mountains and Hills despite being an older mod remains my favorite by far and the most compatible with the mods I use it with. The mods page recommends to use Enhanced Sky with it, which apparently is no longer on the Nexus; you could use Dynamic Skies, but as I mentioned before I like the vanilla skybox graphics that have the giant trees and mountains and dunes at the horizon.

It might look odd to some people if you are using very high draw distances but I personally don't think so. Also I don't use the max draw distance; when you look to the "Advanced" tab on the launcher and go to the "Video" tab, to the right there is a slider for distant terrain which I keep on 2; I think it defaults to 4 but I could be wrong. Keep in mind if you don't have a fairly powerful computer even at this setting with the Distant Terrain mod maxed out you will encounter stuttering every time you advance to a new cell, and the more mods you add to enhance the wilderness the greater the stutters become, unfortunately. For reference my gaming laptop has a GTX1660ti and AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with 16GB RAM using an SSD and I get micro-stutters with the distant terrain set at 2 when I'm moving about in the wilderness. Oddly this only happens when I'm walking freely; when I use the Travel Options with the Basic Roads mod, even if I set the walking speed at x100 it doesn't stutter at all and just zooms past everything, but I don't know enough about how everything works to figure that one out.

And to clarify, everything on that list is part of my current load order and is as far as I've been able to determine (the game is massive, though) compatible, using this version of Daggerfall Unity: 0.14.5-beta, bearing in mind a decent load order. If anybody has any questions or encounters a problem I would be more than happy to help resolve them. I haven't had any major issues, and the few that have come up were load order related; for instance I had a conflict that was causing Fixed Dungeon Exteriors to not work properly. Basically that mod, which I cannot play Daggerfall without anymore, turns the exterior zones of dungeons, graveyards, ruined keeps &c from a little tiny bump mound with a door into actually appropriate instances of each type, so that approaching a ruined keep no longer amounts to finding a tiny hill but instead has huge castle walls that you can climb up on top of, with rooms and guard towers and everything, and even multiple entrances so you can come out of a dungeon at a different exit that you came in.

When I first tried this mod I approached a keep and it was beautiful, but the door tooltips were blank and clicking on them did nothing. I rearranged it in my load order (I apologize but I forget what was causing the conflict, I can find out later though) and reloaded the save, and suddenly there were knights and shit all over patrolling the keep, and the doors now had correct tooltips and functioned properly. I can't remember if it was the SIGIL mod or the options I activated of Warm Ashes that added the knights to the exterior, and yet another mod caused the knights to not be hostile because I was aligned to their kingdom so where before I would have just assumed them to be random enemies added by Warm Ashes, I could instead interact with them and they didn't mind my going into their keep!

I used to use the Convenient Clock mod but got rid of it because when using retro rendering mode at my resolution the HUD elements don't match up. And one of the most impressive mods that has come out since my last Daggerfall modding adventure is Diverse Weapons; it actually makes the weapons distinct and unique by type, so no longer will every iteration of a katana or a warhammer look the same, each material type has a unique style for each weapon, and they are both beautiful and made to conform to the vanilla graphics style. The Unique Armors mod is similar but so far only Dwarven armor has been finished, but even so just having that one armor set remade (again in vanilla style) makes it so worth it, the new Dwarven set is gorgeous to behold. Anyway I'm rambling here as usual for me, I just get so excited to share experiences with modding this game because we are in the middle of something relatively new and extraordinary with newer modders discovering the game and bringing their talents, and it is fascinating to watch unfold.

 

[unseeingeye]

To add to this, it changes several settings, both graphical and game settings, that are not enabled/disabled by default. With the bundled mods, the side effect is that several people believe that's the Daggerfall Unity experience (or that the gameplay mods/quests are part of vanilla Daggerfall). There have been, and still are, several issues raised by users running the GOG Cut.

I contacted the GOG representative, who had previously asked for my permission to get my mods in it (I didn't mind), if they would ever update DFU and the mods contained. I never got a reply.

Thankfully, installing and managing mods for DFU is less crash-prone and much easier than other Bethesda titles.

First I just want to thank you Cliffworms, I use so many of your mods and those I don't use are mainly for compatibility reasons; the aforementioned Fixed Dungeon Exteriors is absolutely marvelous and radically improves the incentive to engage with the wilderness instead of just treating it as imaginary space to cross while hopping in and out of the map. Finding My Religion is also a masterpiece; what can I say I'm a huge fan of your work and it is so cool to be able to thank you here beyond the Nexus.

But I also wanted to point out something to make sure people are aware of it, that when Daggerfall Unity updates to a newer version, not all mods will remain compatible, so I would advise you to always maintain the version with which all of your mods work. If you want to try the latest update, just install it on its own (I have a Daggerfall Unity folder on my desktop, and within it are multiple instances of different versions) then copy and paste your mods, quests, textures &c folders to the new version and check things out, and only delete the previous version once you're satisfied that everything still works. I believe the version I am using for which I confirm my recommended mods list will work is still currently the latest versions, (0.14.5 Beta) and to reiterate in case anyone is not aware of it, the game is fully feature complete and can be played from beginning to end, so don't let the "Beta" dissuade you from trying it. The updates are focused on modding capabilities, translation issues, etc as far as I understand, but the game is in every essential way fully complete and playable, and has been for some time.

 

[unseeingeye]

And this one:
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/300
Mostly for the usable grappling hook. Aim at a ledge in Grab Mode and you shoot a hook that you can climb. Very nice alternative for getting to those places otherwise accessible by levitating.

I've wanted to try the Penwick Papers mod so badly for the grappling hook! I wish you could use the Skulduggery mod on its own because I really like the idea of a general thieves tools mod but I believe it requires Penwick Papers for the grappling hook? But yes that mod looks absolutely amazing and at some point I do intend to try it. There is some compatibility issue or something I can't recall at the moment that had me hold off on trying those mods, which really sucks because that shit is so awesome.

 

[SharkClub]

The second image looks like the character has been the victim of Japanese "mosaic" censorship.

And the first image looks like the character has been built out of playdough by an alien that doesn't understand what the shapes are supposed to represent. Just because something is LE SMOOTH EDGES doesn't make it better.

 

[Deadyawn]

but I believe it requires Penwick Papers for the grappling hook?

Skulduggery adds the grappling hook but it's just a passive to your climbing skill. Penwick Papers makes that grappling hook actually usable.

 

[unseeingeye]

but I believe it requires Penwick Papers for the grappling hook?

Skulduggery adds the grappling hook but it's just a passive to your climbing skill. Penwick Papers makes that grappling hook actually usable.

Got it, thanks for clearing that up. I know in vanilla Daggerfall you can actually grapple, which it seems to not be common knowledge among players? All you have to do is approach an edge from above backwards and you will "grapple" downwards using your climbing skill. But to be able to actually see and employ a grappling hook is just so cool. I enjoy relying on imagination for much of the games interactions, and loved it even in the vanilla game, but certain things being realized visually during gameplay certainly make the game more enjoyable and this is one of them.

 

[luj1]

Daggerfall Unity is free on GOG as "Daggerfall Unity GOG Cut" and comes prepackaged with mods

Anyone tried?

The GOG Cut is dogshit, even if it wasn't for it being prepackaged with an ugly graphics mod, apparently it's broken as hell and on an older version of DFUnity.

To add to this, it changes several settings, both graphical and game settings, that are not enabled/disabled by default. With the bundled mods, the side effect is that several people believe that's the Daggerfall Unity experience (or that the gameplay mods/quests are part of vanilla Daggerfall). There have been, and still are, several issues raised by users running the GOG Cut.

I contacted the GOG representative, who had previously asked for my permission to get my mods in it (I didn't mind), if they would ever update DFU and the mods contained. I never got a reply.

Thankfully, installing and managing mods for DFU is less crash-prone and much easier than other Bethesda titles.

I love your Morrowind mods. They carry a ton of atmosphere. Especially "Something's not right..."

 

[mastroego]

So uhm, is Mountains and Hills compatible with Basic Roads?

EDIT: I guess so as they're both on the list

Yep! Sorry I didn't respond sooner, but they are compatible, I load Mountains and Hills higher in the load order though to make sure, but yes the roads added by that mod (as well as the rivers and streams in the recent version) will conform to the terrain and you can follow them up and down mountains and valleys. It is amazing to set the travel acceleration speed to x10 or so and just watch the scenery going past, flowing rivers that come down the sides of mountains and bifurcate into streams, thick clustered forests in the north filling a river valley, it is truly amazing with all these mods how much more "alive" the wilderness feels. With the Dungeon Exteriors Fixed mod you will see massive castle ruins and vast graveyards with huge networks of mausoleums, and on top of that World of Daggerfall Project is specifically designed as a project to bring the wilderness to life by adding all kinds of landmarks and interesting hand-placed locales and terrain features to make exploring the overworld more engaging. This game is today on a whole other level with these mods coming together.

One thing I should mention is that with Distant Terrain, I think it has an option in the mod configuration menu (accessible from within Daggerfall Unity's Launcher frontend) for "improved terrain" or something like that; make sure you do not have that option selected because otherwise Mountains and Hills will conflict with it. I've tried the other terrain mods like Interesting Eroded Terrain and Enhanced and Eroded Terrain, and I think there is (or was) another one even, but Mountains and Hills despite being an older mod remains my favorite by far and the most compatible with the mods I use it with. The mods page recommends to use Enhanced Sky with it, which apparently is no longer on the Nexus; you could use Dynamic Skies, but as I mentioned before I like the vanilla skybox graphics that have the giant trees and mountains and dunes at the horizon.

It might look odd to some people if you are using very high draw distances but I personally don't think so. Also I don't use the max draw distance; when you look to the "Advanced" tab on the launcher and go to the "Video" tab, to the right there is a slider for distant terrain which I keep on 2; I think it defaults to 4 but I could be wrong. Keep in mind if you don't have a fairly powerful computer even at this setting with the Distant Terrain mod maxed out you will encounter stuttering every time you advance to a new cell, and the more mods you add to enhance the wilderness the greater the stutters become, unfortunately. For reference my gaming laptop has a GTX1660ti and AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with 16GB RAM using an SSD and I get micro-stutters with the distant terrain set at 2 when I'm moving about in the wilderness. Oddly this only happens when I'm walking freely; when I use the Travel Options with the Basic Roads mod, even if I set the walking speed at x100 it doesn't stutter at all and just zooms past everything, but I don't know enough about how everything works to figure that one out.

And to clarify, everything on that list is part of my current load order and is as far as I've been able to determine (the game is massive, though) compatible, using this version of Daggerfall Unity: 0.14.5-beta, bearing in mind a decent load order. If anybody has any questions or encounters a problem I would be more than happy to help resolve them. I haven't had any major issues, and the few that have come up were load order related; for instance I had a conflict that was causing Fixed Dungeon Exteriors to not work properly. Basically that mod, which I cannot play Daggerfall without anymore, turns the exterior zones of dungeons, graveyards, ruined keeps &c from a little tiny bump mound with a door into actually appropriate instances of each type, so that approaching a ruined keep no longer amounts to finding a tiny hill but instead has huge castle walls that you can climb up on top of, with rooms and guard towers and everything, and even multiple entrances so you can come out of a dungeon at a different exit that you came in.

When I first tried this mod I approached a keep and it was beautiful, but the door tooltips were blank and clicking on them did nothing. I rearranged it in my load order (I apologize but I forget what was causing the conflict, I can find out later though) and reloaded the save, and suddenly there were knights and shit all over patrolling the keep, and the doors now had correct tooltips and functioned properly. I can't remember if it was the SIGIL mod or the options I activated of Warm Ashes that added the knights to the exterior, and yet another mod caused the knights to not be hostile because I was aligned to their kingdom so where before I would have just assumed them to be random enemies added by Warm Ashes, I could instead interact with them and they didn't mind my going into their keep!

I used to use the Convenient Clock mod but got rid of it because when using retro rendering mode at my resolution the HUD elements don't match up. And one of the most impressive mods that has come out since my last Daggerfall modding adventure is Diverse Weapons; it actually makes the weapons distinct and unique by type, so no longer will every iteration of a katana or a warhammer look the same, each material type has a unique style for each weapon, and they are both beautiful and made to conform to the vanilla graphics style. The Unique Armors mod is similar but so far only Dwarven armor has been finished, but even so just having that one armor set remade (again in vanilla style) makes it so worth it, the new Dwarven set is gorgeous to behold. Anyway I'm rambling here as usual for me, I just get so excited to share experiences with modding this game because we are in the middle of something relatively new and extraordinary with newer modders discovering the game and bringing their talents, and it is fascinating to watch unfold.

Thanks a lot for the various tips.
I'm keeping updates on my modlist here.
It's almost ready I guess.
Your input would be appreciated!

So far I've avoided both Sigil and Warm Ashes.
By reading through the comments sections I had the impression that there are still issues/conflicts which I'd prefer to avoid, but perhaps I'm wrong.


EDIT:
I'm also considering Unleveled Mobs and Quests but it's incompatbile with Daggerfall Enemy Expansion.
You suggest the latter, which isn't probably balanced with Physical Combat and Armor Overhaul (an user reports that it's fine together with Meaner Monsters)
This is a bit difficult to sort out....

 

[unseeingeye]

So far I've avoided both Sigil and Warm Ashes.
By reading through the comments sections I had the impression that there are still issues/conflicts which I'd prefer to avoid, but perhaps I'm wrong.


EDIT:
I'm also considering Unleveled Mobs and Quests but it's incompatbile with Daggerfall Enemy Expansion.
You suggest the latter, which isn't probably balanced with Physical Combat and Armor Overhaul (an user reports that it's fine together with Meaner Monsters)
This is a bit difficult to sort out....

So I do use both SIGIL and Warm Ashes, but like I mentioned when I start the game and Warm Ashes throws up all the questions of what you want to have activate, I just don't activate the general wilderness encounters, but enable it for all the others. But you could honestly just use SIGIL and have nearly as good an experience; the only reason I don't recommend using Warm Ashes alone is because I felt it got too overwhelming, to where you are just constantly having to stop travelling to fight sometimes ridiculously powerful enemies right out of the gate. Some people like that, and I was one of them for a bit, but it just got sort of exhausting. SIGIL handles it in a far better manner, in those circumstances, but I still like to have the dungeons and stuff be intimidating and dangerous places, so that's why I use both.

As for the other mods, I mean I LOVE Daggerfall Enemy Expansion because it radically improves the enemy variety and does so in a seamless way that blends right in with the vanilla ememies. However I don't use Physical Combat and Armor Overhaul, but if you are determined to use that, you could still use Daggerfall Enemy Expansion; the newer enemies likely aren't effected by the changes introduced by Physical Combat or Meaner Monsters but they are balanced around the base game so it won't be that dramatic a difference.. at least I don't suppose so. But if you have your heart set on Unleveled Mobs and it is purported to be incompatible with Enemy Expansion, then maybe your better off just sticking to that and the Combat and Armor Overhaul. I prefer to just use Enemy Expansion but because it is just SO GOOD at what it does. I guess its a matter of vastly increased and vanilla-friendly enemy varitey, versus overhauling the combat and encounter mechanics to be more to your liking?

 

[Cliffworms]

Daggerfall Unity is free on GOG as "Daggerfall Unity GOG Cut" and comes prepackaged with mods

Anyone tried?

The GOG Cut is dogshit, even if it wasn't for it being prepackaged with an ugly graphics mod, apparently it's broken as hell and on an older version of DFUnity.

To add to this, it changes several settings, both graphical and game settings, that are not enabled/disabled by default. With the bundled mods, the side effect is that several people believe that's the Daggerfall Unity experience (or that the gameplay mods/quests are part of vanilla Daggerfall). There have been, and still are, several issues raised by users running the GOG Cut.

I contacted the GOG representative, who had previously asked for my permission to get my mods in it (I didn't mind), if they would ever update DFU and the mods contained. I never got a reply.

Thankfully, installing and managing mods for DFU is less crash-prone and much easier than other Bethesda titles.

I love your Morrowind mods. They carry a ton of atmosphere. Especially "Something's not right..."

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy them.

So uhm, is Mountains and Hills compatible with Basic Roads?

EDIT: I guess so as they're both on the list

Basically that mod, which I cannot play Daggerfall without anymore, turns the exterior zones of dungeons, graveyards, ruined keeps &c from a little tiny bump mound with a door into actually appropriate instances of each type, so that approaching a ruined keep no longer amounts to finding a tiny hill but instead has huge castle walls that you can climb up on top of, with rooms and guard towers and everything, and even multiple entrances so you can come out of a dungeon at a different exit that you came in.

Sorry to burst your bubble a bit. I did not create new exteriors with Fixed Dungeon Exteriors. Instead, I made sure all dungeons had one of the vanilla exteriors fitting their names so that castles would always have castle exteriors, mausoleums would have graveyards, etc. The castles and towers with multiple doors always lead to the same entry point inside the dungeon. That is some Daggerfall logic right here. Enter what seems to be a 8x8 tower and be welcomed in a 24x24, three-stories high hall.
It is possible with the current dungeon editor to make an interior that fits the exterior, but considering the number of possible variants that's a lot of work.

Thanks for the feedback about this and Finding My Religion! Much appreciated. There's more being worked on at the moment.

It's indeed a good idea to make a copy of each DFU update when you plan to upgrade. I believe that when 1.0 will be released, mods will no longer break from updates so that won't be necessary.

 

[mastroego]

So I do use both SIGIL and Warm Ashes, but like I mentioned when I start the game and Warm Ashes throws up all the questions of what you want to have activate, I just don't activate the general wilderness encounters, but enable it for all the others. But you could honestly just use SIGIL and have nearly as good an experience; the only reason I don't recommend using Warm Ashes alone is because I felt it got too overwhelming, to where you are just constantly having to stop travelling to fight sometimes ridiculously powerful enemies right out of the gate. Some people like that, and I was one of them for a bit, but it just got sort of exhausting. SIGIL handles it in a far better manner, in those circumstances, but I still like to have the dungeons and stuff be intimidating and dangerous places, so that's why I use both.

As for the other mods, I mean I LOVE Daggerfall Enemy Expansion because it radically improves the enemy variety and does so in a seamless way that blends right in with the vanilla ememies. However I don't use Physical Combat and Armor Overhaul, but if you are determined to use that, you could still use Daggerfall Enemy Expansion; the newer enemies likely aren't effected by the changes introduced by Physical Combat or Meaner Monsters but they are balanced around the base game so it won't be that dramatic a difference.. at least I don't suppose so. But if you have your heart set on Unleveled Mobs and it is purported to be incompatible with Enemy Expansion, then maybe your better off just sticking to that and the Combat and Armor Overhaul. I prefer to just use Enemy Expansion but because it is just SO GOOD at what it does. I guess its a matter of vastly increased and vanilla-friendly enemy varitey, versus overhauling the combat and encounter mechanics to be more to your liking?

Well from what you said I'd prefer Enemy Expansion for sure... It's just that I was interested in adding the "unleveled" element. But perhaps it isn't as noticeable in Daggerfall...
I think I'll also add SIGIL and Warm Ashes after all.
Do you happen to know Unleveled Loot, Unleveled Spells and Better Archery?