Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Glaurung]

Skyrim is proving to be a pretty efficient cure for my post-DAI gaming depression disorder. It feels like an unholy mix of Morrowind with Oblivion, but closer to Morrowind in most respects that I actually care about. It even has a minor faction you can join - Bard's College.

Fun fact: as soon as I walked into the Bard's College, my follower Sven immediately took out a flute and started playing a Nordic tune while I talked to the proprietor. D'awwww that little dope. What is this strange feeling... immershun? Fun? Heartwarming little touches... is there life beyond the Bioware?

A brief glance at SKyri8m wiki revealed about a dozen joinable factions and a shitload of non-joinable ones. Seems like Mages Guild and Fighters Guild got axed... thank God, but Thieves Guild remains... why not change it to something less generic?

 

[Echo Mirage]

The Mages Guild and Fighters Guild still exist, only under different names. The companions and the mages of Winterhold.

The Thieves guild starts out quite generic. But has quite possibly the best quest chain out of all the guilds.

 

[RK47]

Thieves Guild are pr. dum overall.
Let's just say the quest chains are pr. weak for thievery.
Pickpocket to prove yourself!
Failed? That's okay, we got bad luck but I STILL THINK YOU CAN DO THE JOB NIGGA!
Alright, he failed the test but I still let him in, what do you think, boss?
GIVE HIM THE TASK THAT EVEN OUR BEST STEALTH ARTIST FAILED!
WHAT ? OKAY.
Failed stealth, failed lockpicking, murdered everyone in the Hunny Estate to loot everythang.
Doesn't matter. Torched every hunny-hive? Doesn't matter.
You still get promoted. Lmao.
A few tasks like that later...HUZZAH YOU ARE NIGHTINGALE!
Then off to a bunch of falmer ruins around 30-40 minutes dungeon romp culminating in a 1 v 1 duel with big bad guy.
You won! Now , to be officially the leader of thieves guild you must pickpocket every town at least 10 times.

Get the fuck out of here. Oh, I'm also keeping the Skeleton key, thanks.

 

[Akratus]

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28880/?

 

[NotAGolfer]

Every guild quest chain is pretty dumb in this game. It's all about ego-stroking for retards that can't handle choices&consequences(TM).
I'm not sure if locking specialized char builds out of every guild except the one fitting their class choice is such a good idea though. Maybe give the player 2 possible quest chains for every guild depending on his skill set? So the warrior visiting the college won't feel that underwhelmed and still has stuff to do and reputation to earn there but never will be allowed to the inner circle. Given the lazy-ass and inane design in the few guilds they implemented this time this would be far too much to ask from Bethesda of course. Modders gotta fix it. Which will never happen because voice-over and why redo the entire game instead of making a total conversion.
Too bad since if you watch out for the little details you'll see the shitload of effort in giving followers unique and situational lines or making NPC-NPC conversations believable this time, the love put into dungeon design and lots of other stuff.
They did a lot of stuff right this time, and much of it even in the right departments for an open world hiking sim.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Hm, a decent admittance test and banning from the guild if you go full retard during a quest is enough, I think. The college can't force you to use spells to kill enemies instead of your magic battleaxe if you're really set on cleaving your way through, but you should prove you're at least able to cast bigger stuff than a firebolt, you just choose not to because that's how you roll.

 

[Gord]

Even Morrowinds arbitrary skill requirements would be some improvement, imho. You can't proceed unless you know what you are doing.
Although a higher degree of flexibility should be possible compared to Morrowind. Just not the "even a pure melee build can become Archmage" stuff.
Why does it have to be possible to become guildmaster everytime, every guild, anyway? An archmage should have dedicated decades to the research of magic, for example, not just found some strange artifact and killed an evul dude.

 

[Perkel]

Or actually harder quests that require you to do well in them.
I mean for example stealing from heavily guarded mansion document and placing it after a forgery which needs to be stealthy or whole thing would fail.

I always wanted to play RPG in which magic is kind of science to be discovered. So instead of choosing spell from list of spells you would need to "find" it. So for example to get necromancy you would need to find actual necromancers that could teach you or try to manipulate yourself with dead bodies, failing mostly because for example you don't know that to breath life into body you need equivalent amount of power as life itself or not knowing formulas upon which certain school is build.
For example create fireball you would need first learn to materialize object that can be set in fire and magic that would let you create barriers of air to confine it and release it upon reaching target.

 

[Grathanich]

I recently posted the following in Reddit with regard to the requirement issue:

As we would all agree since we are Requiem players, being able to lead the Winterhold College while being barely able to cast a low level spell, becoming the Harbinger of the Companions as a spellcasting thief and such is deeply immersion breaking and feels hollow. I know there are several mods that address this, but do they work correctly with Requiem?

I currently have the Thieves Guild Requirements installed and I am planning to install the "College of Winterhold Entry Requirements" (version 1.0 that doesn't check perks, but skill levels) and ESF Companions Requirements (the requirements only version for compatibility with Requiem).

Did anyone use these mods and had success?

 

[Gord]

Well, when I tried entering the college with my mage (with Requiem 1.7, I think), I needed to summon a flame atronach, which is something you certainly can't do right away in Requiem.

In case of the College, entering isn't even the big issue, since you are supposed to learn magic there, the issue is how quickly you go from zero to hero.
But assuming there has to be an entry requirement and if I would get to choose how to do it, it would be something like that:
1) Show exceptional skill by casting a spell, either one that is difficult or rare.
2) Bring some recommendation, e.g. from one of the court mages.
3) Do some quest for them (e.g. retrieve some item or spell) to prove your worth
4) Pay some tuition fee (read: bribe them with money)
Then the player could choose between those options, depending on what he did before and/or his skills.
Obviously that only gets him in, it says nothing about his chances and options for a career within the guild.

 

[Grathanich]

The mod I mentioned at least claims that it will require 30 points in all magic skills. Considering the low skill level you start out with Requiem, it will take you several levels casting spells to enter the College. Assuming it works with Requiem.

 

[DraQ]

I was getting my dragon mod recommendations from you. Deadly dragons caused crashes in my game, even before any dragons were encountered. Haven't gotten far with mighty dragons, but DCO worked fine. I liked how it would make them stay in the air longer; no more lizard stomping by giants and mammoths. I used it in combination with the Dragon Stalking fix, though.

EMD makes dragons diverse and tanky (unlevelled, nightmare), but they do much less damage than basic Requiem ones and some of them don't use breath weapons.
DCO is awesome but since I found it reliably breaking my MQ it had to go, given that it turned out to be the only thing allowing EMD dragons to be an actual menace or at least not a boring wall of HPs, it took EMD with it.

And yeah, Dragon Stalking Fix is a good idea.

 

[NotAGolfer]

The mod I mentioned at least claims that it will require 30 points in all magic skills. Considering the low skill level you start out with Requiem, it will take you several levels casting spells to enter the College. Assuming it works with Requiem.

As Gord already pointed out, that doesn't change the slightest how much the college quest chain sucks. This isn't just about pandering to casuals, this is extremely disappointing even on a popamole level and you can't fix it with entry requirements or by making it harder.

Or actually harder quests that require you to do well in them.
I mean for example stealing from heavily guarded mansion document and placing it after a forgery which needs to be stealthy or whole thing would fail.

I always wanted to play RPG in which magic is kind of science to be discovered. So instead of choosing spell from list of spells you would need to "find" it. So for example to get necromancy you would need to find actual necromancers that could teach you or try to manipulate yourself with dead bodies, failing mostly because for example you don't know that to breath life into body you need equivalent amount of power as life itself or not knowing formulas upon which certain school is build.
For example create fireball you would need first learn to materialize object that can be set in fire and magic that would let you create barriers of air to confine it and release it upon reaching target.

I have a dream that one day game designers will rise up and live out the true meaning of their creed.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all games are created unique."
I have a dream that one day game designers will pull their heads out of their asses and start thinking again about what the fuck they are doing.

 

[Perkel]

hahah

 

[Perkel]

hahahahahaha



:russia:

 

[Gozma]

I didn't play Oblivion, got this on Steam sale.

I can't believe combat is this bad. It feels like some precocious college kid's weekend project where he wrote a collision engine from scratch. Or, it feels like one of those hacked-in combat mods for Morrowind. I don't know what I was expecting, but something better than a few touch-ups on Morrowind's combat. How in the Christ do they sell so much of this?

 

[yes plz]

I didn't play Oblivion, got this on Steam sale.

I can't believe combat is this bad. It feels like some precocious college kid's weekend project where he wrote a collision engine from scratch. Or, it feels like one of those hacked-in combat mods for Morrowind. I don't know what I was expecting, but something better than a few touch-ups on Morrowind's combat. How in the Christ do they sell so much of this?

cuz u get to explore FROSTY MOUNTAINS and fight DRAGONS bro

what more do u want? good combat and quests? lol faggit

 

[Glaurung]

I didn't play Oblivion, got this on Steam sale.

I can't believe combat is this bad. It feels like some precocious college kid's weekend project where he wrote a collision engine from scratch. Or, it feels like one of those hacked-in combat mods for Morrowind. I don't know what I was expecting, but something better than a few touch-ups on Morrowind's combat. How in the Christ do they sell so much of this?

If you played Morrowind, there's no way you could ever be disappointed by any other game's combat system. It's like getting sick with chicken pox - gives you lifetime immunity.

 

[Gozma]

Also could horses be any more of an embarrassment? Mount and Blade was made in 1989 or something for chrissakes

 

[Somberlain]

If you played Morrowind, there's no way you could ever be disappointed by any other game's combat system.

I played Morrowind before Arcanum

 

[DraQ]

If you played Morrowind, there's no way you could ever be disappointed by any other game's combat system. It's like getting sick with chicken pox - gives you lifetime immunity.

Oblivion.

 

[Nomad_Blizz]

Skyrim in source filmmaker.

 

[Xathrodox86]

hahahahahaha



:russia:

 

[Echo Mirage]

Can anyone recommend a good De-Leveled items mod for Skyrim outside of the mods like Requiem?

All the ones I goggle have been hidden on the nexus for some reason.

 

[DraQ]

outside of the mods like Requiem

Why.