Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[NotAGolfer]

Everything by ThirteenOranges looks neat.
(...)
I guess I'm making a huge mistake here but I can't resist to try out that Civil War Overhaul mod by that dumbfuck apollodown anymore. I bet it's broken as fuck but whatever.

Both are relevant to my interests but too scared to try with Requiem.

I don't have that problem anymore.
Finally free!

Also, I think "insane" is more descriptive than "dumbfuck" - guy just doesn't seem norm.

I nearly installed his Dragon Combat Overhaul mod, but then I saw that its new assault mechanic sometimes can spawn 3 dragons at once. And this guy thinks this is fun? Am I supposed to make every single NPC essential or what?
... I guess you're right, insane describes it better.
I also read that he didn't care to balance out the civil war and that it's easier for Stormcloaks because he likes them more. Will see for myself but Whiterun at least is completely unbalanced, that much I know already. Nearly guaranteed win for the Stormcloaks because giants.
Also he's a meme-spewing faggit that doesn't give useful error report feedback.

Nevertheless I'll probably dick around a bit more in the next days and was wondering whether ENBs are worth it.

They definitely are. Even more so than any sort of texture pack. The difference in atmosphere is like night and day.
And I say that even though I only use some resource-efficient economy class ENB (I think it's RealLike ENB for ENBSeries v0.113).

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Apollo once said he makes those descriptions because no one reads the serious ones.

Deadly Dragons does the multiple dragons thing as well, and it's popular so I guess it's doable (I prefer having less dragons around).

Yeah, first time I mastered pickpocketing in any skyrim character.
Underrated as hell. I found a lot of good magic rings and jewelries from town NPC. And near infinite supply of Bolts and Arrows from Guards.
Not even making it up.

I never bothered with pickpocketing since I assumed friendlies are either carrying banal shit, equipping the good stuff themselves or will willingly give me the good stuff later on.

 

[DraQ]

Mighty dragons user here.
Although on Max difficulty they are... disheartening, even solo (basically there is good chance they'll regen faster than you'll be able to damage them while also inflicting all sorts of rape on you and everyone fighting them).

OTOH on almost max difficulty they are a bit too easy, at least with Requiem.

 

[Emily]

[
I also read that he didn't care to balance out the civil war and that it's easier for Stormcloaks because he likes them more. Will see for myself but Whiterun at least is completely unbalanced, that much I know already.

that actually sounds very interesting and a great idea. To have one faction harder then other.. It seems guy has a character and balls to make something great.

 

[Emily]

I read somewhere(cant remember where sadly) that requiem changes factions in a way that you must do more radiant quest to progress is that true?

 

[NotAGolfer]

Huh, that would be news to me. I don't think Requiem touches guild quests in any form besides maybe adding some books or notes here and there.

 

[DraQ]

TBH I don't remember original ones well enough.
In any case they still feel short.

OTOH Requiem affects - systemically - entry quests.
For example try to get into college, roll fire atronach spell as the one to prove your magic ability - looks like it might take some time before you can enroll.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I've read horror stories of people being asked to kill a master vampire as an entry test for the Companions.

 

[Drax]

God damn my skyrim install that won't play with requiem installed...

 

[Perkel]

God damn my skyrim install that won't play with requiem installed...

Lately Requiem changed a bit in how it is installed. Due to its size it had to use tricks to get it working. Look in instalation manual. It is not easily installed as earlier versions.

 

[Gord]

If one wants to cheat around Requiems entry-quest requirements, Alternate Start offers the possibility to directly start out a new game as a new member of a guild.

I've noticed a few minor glitches lately in my Skyrim, wonder if it's related to Requiem (it's the only big mod I'm using, the rest are a few graphical overhauls (SIMM, CoT, Water) and some cosmetics to hide some of the popamole (better quest descriptions, delayed dlc, a fast travel mod, "the choice is yours").
First, combat music is not playing correctly anymore, dunno if that is intended by (newest) Requiem to remove the warning you get from it, but it seems a bit erratic now.
Second, Effect durations are completely off. They don't correspond the slightest between displayed time and in-game duration (e.g. "Drunk: 8 min" lasts hours when waiting).

 

[DraQ]

Second, Effect durations are completely off. They don't correspond the slightest between displayed time and in-game duration (e.g. "Drunk: 8 min" lasts hours when waiting).

Last time I checked durations are in RL seconds, so there will be such discrepancies as the game is downscaled and time scaled.

 

[Gord]

Second, Effect durations are completely off. They don't correspond the slightest between displayed time and in-game duration (e.g. "Drunk: 8 min" lasts hours when waiting).

Last time I checked durations are in RL seconds, so there will be such discrepancies as the game is downscaled and time scaled.

I suspected something like that, but weren't durations usually tied to the ingame time in a way that waiting/sleeping would make them go down faster? It seems as if they are completely decoupled, which is a bit strange, imho.

 

[DraQ]

I've read horror stories of people being asked to kill a master vampire as an entry test for the Companions.

Got that on my latest game. I managed to cheese the fuck out of the vampires, hounds and thralls outside and inside the cave but the fucker one-shots me no matter what so I applied the time honored strategy of running the fuck away tactically retreating. Companions will have to wait until I reach demigod level so I can turn the bastard into pin cushion.

Brotip: higher level fortify health enchantments immunize you against most health drain (not all, Malkoran in Meridia's quest, for example, will still rape you, but should work against vampires and is pretty much essential protection when fighting them - they are still fucking powerful NPCs with nasty ice based spells, vampiric resistances and shit, mind you).

Regarding Malkoran, I remember how I beat him using desperate as fuck smart tactics:

Spoiler

So the set up is: battlemage character (HA, 2h, plus array of spells) somewhere over lvl20. The temple itself was easy - huge crowds of shades but they got 1shot with sunfire rarely even getting close enough to force me to get physical and I had heavy armour so I could shrug off their ranged attacks - once I had to summon skeletal wizard (with firecloak) to fish them out from cover and set up a lot of fire runes preemptively to blow up shades by the dozens. Overall a piece of cake.

Suddenly Malkoran. He had massive entourage of shades with him but that wasn't the problem (although they proved slightly harder than usual without good chokepoint). The problem was Malkoran's ranged health sucking spell that could off me in about a second (despite protective armor enchantment) and would top him off the moment I tried to send a summon against him (sucking that summon dry).

Ok, so plan the first:
Leave the followers outside. Pop all that could assist my stealth and ranged damage (not a sneak or an archer, mind you), get an ebony arrow (I had a small bunch saved for time of need like this) dip it in a powerful, slow acting poison, sneak close enough to get line of sight, shoot the fucker, run away if he survives initial hit, stay behind cover (anything else would feel unpleasantly like being drunk) and try to survive till he drops.

What went wrong:
Sneaking into range worked - barely. The guy got badly wounded, but survived, the poison started doing its nasty work and retreat was (barely) successful. However they guy had a healing spell, allowing him to outlast the poison by periodically healing himself. Also he topped off himself while I was running away like a sissy (nearly killing me), negating even the initial wound I inflicted. Still, the poison should prove some advantage.

Plan the second:
Summon storm atronach from scroll - surely it'll fry the fucker and zap his magicka away?

What went wrong:
Nope.

Plan the third:
Try to splash the guy with AoE spells while popamoling cheesily and trying to exploit pauses caused by him having to heal himself from poison's effects.

What went wrong:
Just nope.

Plan the fourth:
Panic.

What went wrong:
Still nope.

Plan the fifth:
Hide just by the doorway, summon something, then hope it will distract him for long enough for me to run at him like a retard (also letting him top his health off in the second or so it takes him to finish my summon).

What went wrong:
Surprisingly nothing. Massive armor-clad lizard guy turns to be able to knock a scrawny bathrobed fella over if he just runs into him at full speed, and that's what happened the moment he just about focused his health sucking efforts on me. Then it was just hacking desperately at the guy as he tried to get up.
...Then the guy came back as a shade and started firing powerful non-AOE fire staff and all hope was lost, but surprisingly I prevailed, despite spending most fight hiding behind pillar and screaming in terror as blazing projectiles roared by.

Net gain:
Neat staff, 2x Dawnbreaker (due to vanilla bug involving splash damage, also proof that scripting quests is evil) some misc loot, massive fuck yeah, a lot of FFFFUUU-n, can now use my balls as +5 flail.

I'm also more infuriated than ever by inability to disrupt stoneskinned casters by grappling or something in most games.

 

[DraQ]

The whole vampire fiasco was largely because I got cocky and tried to see if I could do him at level 4 with an archer in a small cave .

For the fortify health effect I will have to boost my Restoration skill since I plan to avoid enchanting+alchemy on this playthrough

Not just effect, hi-level enchant (it needs to say explicitly that it protects against draining), you'll probably have to rely on finding the right trinket.

The lulzy thing about Requiem is that it shows you just how dumbfuck the A.I. is, a thing not really noticeable in vanilla due to how you largely curbstomp everything real fast. The funniest moment yet has been when I killed a Forsworn Briarheart by jumping on a table, strafing left to right along its width and filling him with arrows since the fucker simply moved around the table because he couldn't hit me across the bloody thing and Skyrim A.I. cannot into jumping.

Actually, the AI isn't that bad - it can navigate reasonably well across large distances, uses cover when confronted with ranged attacks, goes to expected attacker location when shot at stealthily, etc.
The only problems are that it can get stuck on geometry sometimes and that it can't jump (but the only AI I've seen that could was in Unreal).

Ok, there is also lack of hysteresis meaning you can get AI to oscillate back and forth if you can quickly switch places that can be reached by different optimal paths (exploitable because of lack of jumping).

But overall it works surprisingly well once a mod uncripples it by removing retardedly short alert durations and such.

 

[DraQ]

Actually, the AI isn't that bad - it can navigate reasonably well across large distances, uses cover when confronted with ranged attacks, goes to expected attacker location when shot at stealthily, etc.
The only problems are that it can get stuck on geometry sometimes and that it can't jump (but the only AI I've seen that could was in Unreal).

Ok, there is also lack of hysteresis meaning you can get AI to oscillate back and forth if you can quickly switch places that can be reached by different optimal paths (exploitable because of lack of jumping).

But overall it works surprisingly well once a mod uncripples it by removing retardedly short alert durations and such.

Yeah, my post probably came around looking like I'm bitching more than I actually am about the issue since, in general, the A.I. does try to run/take cover if he is getting sprayed from an unreachable position. Generally I'm not above using cheesy behavior but in this case it is simply too easy and unfunny to exploit the no jump thing.

Still, it's got a long way since:

 

[Balor]

I know I sound like a dumb n00b, but can Skyrim be playable with a mage character in an interesting way, and without major CTDs?
I've read that we have a genuine AI improvements now? Given that it is winter is coming and not much to do, I'd give it an other try.

Do not expect anything groundbreaking, just running around, admiring scenery (I have a somewhat decent rig - i7 3 Ghz, 24gb ram, SSD, GTX 580) and clearing a dungeon or two.
My last try was, like, a year ago, maybe two, and I had much more fun setting up mods than actually playing, heh. CTDs got too annoying.
Or should I finally try a fighter type? Are there any mods that spice up combat, make it more tactical, add animations, etc?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

/\ http://skyrimgems.com

-

I once used an AI-improving mod that made wolves and jaguars take cover when I pulled out my bow. They do say that beastfolk come in many shapes...

 

[hell bovine]

I know I sound like a dumb n00b, but can Skyrim be playable with a mage character in an interesting way, and without major CTDs?
I've read that we have a genuine AI improvements now? Given that it is winter is coming and not much to do, I'd give it an other try.

Do not expect anything groundbreaking, just running around, admiring scenery (I have a somewhat decent rig - i7 3 Ghz, 24gb ram, SSD, GTX 580) and clearing a dungeon or two.
My last try was, like, a year ago, maybe two, and I had much more fun setting up mods than actually playing, heh. CTDs got too annoying.
Or should I finally try a fighter type? Are there any mods that spice up combat, make it more tactical, add animations, etc?

Yes, if you get some mods. Requiem magics is very overpowered at the end, but the static world and challenging enemies means you can have a lot of fun on your way to the top of the food chain. Spell schools are not well balanced, though: conjuration is by far the easiest, destruction levels up very, very slowly and alteration starts getting fun only around the 75 mark, in my opinion. I'm not sure how illusion is doing with the new update, since I've had no time to play with it.
Other mod that I've tried was SPERG, which, when used together with a deleveling mod (used YASH unleveled enemies and ASIS to give enemies the overpowered perks) can provide some interesting challenges. High level mages can be nasty with this. I think, but I'm not sure, that the deleveling is random, meaning you get different critters on replays.

 

[Emily]

Conjuration was the easiest spell school in all TES games. I honestly always avoided it due to how it feels cheesy

 

[DraQ]

I know I sound like a dumb n00b, but can Skyrim be playable with a mage character in an interesting way, and without major CTDs?
I've read that we have a genuine AI improvements now? Given that it is winter is coming and not much to do, I'd give it an other try.

Do not expect anything groundbreaking, just running around, admiring scenery (I have a somewhat decent rig - i7 3 Ghz, 24gb ram, SSD, GTX 580) and clearing a dungeon or two.
My last try was, like, a year ago, maybe two, and I had much more fun setting up mods than actually playing, heh. CTDs got too annoying.
Or should I finally try a fighter type? Are there any mods that spice up combat, make it more tactical, add animations, etc?

Requiem spices up both combat and magic. It's also fairly hardcore so tactics is important.
Finally it unfucks the AI and delevels the world.

 

[Emily]

Started Requiem, got killed by a mudcrab after i dropped my weapon
Anyways which one is harder to play mage or warrior? Not really interested in thief right now

 

[Eyeball]

In the early Requiem game, playing a warrior sucks ass, but playing a mage sucks ass, cock AND balls at the same time. Warrior is definitely the easiest type of character to get to be somewhat survivable against random bandit scum, but you'll still get clowned by anything magical and nasty coming at you. Once you get some plate armour and perhaps a shield, this becomes far easier, and you will actually be able to tank a bit as well.

Early Requiem magery is really underpowered if you're playing for damage as your spells will do shit damage and cost way too much mana to kill anything but a giant rat. The exception to this rule is conjuration magic, since summoning even the basic skeleton warrior can tank pretty well for you while you knife the baddies in the back, and it also sucks up magic damage quite well. Upon reaching skill level 50 in destruction magic, however, you learn the "lightning ray" spell and will then be able to kill giants from 70 feet away in 3 seconds flat. The game will then become way easier than the other two character archetypes and it is extremely enjoyable to ultrazap an attacking dragon in 30 seconds after spending hours having to run from every mildly pissed-off mudcrab you encounter. Magic is also extremely useful for requiem endgame, as you will learn the Sunburst spell, which is basically a massive 1 shotting nuke for anything undead. I used 2 of those to kill the dual guardian dragon priests in Labyrinthian and it makes mincemeat of Draugr.

Playing a mage in Requiem was the most satisfying playthrough of the game I've had and I recommend it heartily. Just be aware of the added difficulty of Requiem, because Labyrinthian is nigh-on fucking impossible. I did it at like level 30 and still ONLY beat it because the end boss bugged out and froze.

 

[Emily]

Thanks man for the quick answer!
I will go with destruction mage then , with minor in alteration and restoration.

 

[Eyeball]

If you want to do Dragonborn, you're pretty much going to need conjuration too. Hell, you're probably going to need conjuration, period. Both because it summons excellent tanks to kill those faggot 1shotting wizards half the dungeons are crawling with but also because the Conjure Arrow spell from conjuration does ridiculous physical damage and is as such essential for beating the Lovecraftian monstrosities in Dragonborn who give zero fucks about your elemental damage spells.

The anti-undead spells are in restoration. Get them if you want to do Labyrinthian or collect Dawnbreaker.