Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[GarfunkeL]

You can tone down DoF, I did. I also turned radial blur completely off, fuck that bullshit. It doesn't prevent poison or spell effects from fucking up my vision but at least half of my screen won't be a blurry mess at all times now. Made the game so much more enjoyable.

Jasede, are you interested in "survival" mods? Do you want to have to wear fur clothes in blizzard and to sleep and eat? There's a whole load of mods dedicated for that stuff.

You also have to make the difficult decision between CBBE and UNP(B) bodies. And don't forget Schlongs of Skyrim, essential element of any Skyrim modding session :D

 

[markec]

Well ok, but I can accomplish just as much plus sharpening of Skyrim's noticeable blurriness by setting my LCD to "Game" mode.

I dont have that option so I need to find a alternative and thats ENB for me.

And DoF in the screenshots shown IS downright nauseating - good to hear you can turn it off, but won't it, in turn, break underwater visuals? Vanilla uses DoF a lot for those.

Underwater doesnt look very good, but I hate DoF and ENB makes the rest of the world look great. I just installed it few days ago and am in the process of finding perfect setting in ini files that will make a good middle ground.

ENB is easy to install and uninstall so he can try and choose for himself.

 

[Jasede]

I already have all the LL mods active, including SOS, so I think the better bodies are included with those.

No, I don't care for faux survival RP mods that make me eat and shit. Maybe when I was 13.

For now I am planning this mode of operation:

Get Skyrim Legend for EUR 13 at a French site
Install the DLCs + Better Textures

Then all the mods markec mentioned, for better visuals.
All the LL stuff because I can.

Now the only question is: to Requiem or not? Have you played it with and without? I am NOT interested in a "hurr durr I made it hardcore difficult because I played Skyrim for 5000 hours" mod.

 

[racofer]

Okay, there is now way I am reading through 172 pages, and search has been broken ever since we switched to XenForo.

It's the summer time and I am on vacation and feel like playing a hiking sim. Concisely recommend the mods I should use on my first time through Skyrim. Keep in mind I am not interested in a hardcore difficult experience, just an enjoyable hike. Question two: what do the DLCs add / are they worth getting? They seem a little expensive. (Before you ask - no, I didn't buy Skyrim; it was a gift from years ago.)

 

[GarfunkeL]

Requiem certainly makes the game far more difficult and you cannot follow the main quest line off the bat. But it also solves the issue with level scaling by removing it. In vanilla Skyrim, it's best to stay on level 1 (or maybe 2) because the scaling doesn't care about your skills. So if you level up through smithing and alchemy, you can get fucked at some point.

You could just make a Breton as they start with 20 Conjuring and then summon Ghostly Wolf all the time in Helgen, which should get you to 25 Conjuring soon enough, at which point you can take Raise Dead II and call it a day - your undead minion will take care of most enemies after that.

 

[markec]

Get Skyrim Legend for EUR 13 at a French site

http://www.g2play.net/category/1231/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-legendary-edition-steam-key/

Now the only question is: to Requiem or not? Have you played it with and without? I am NOT interested in a "hurr durr I made it hardcore difficult because I played Skyrim for 5000 hours" mod.

Its a must have dont even think about it just install it. It has options to edit every part of it so you can edit the difficulty and features at your liking. Its not only about being more challenging but making the gameplay and progression actually rewarding. As I said removal of level scaling is just one small part of it yet it makes the game so much better. Now you can encounter some of the most dangerous enemies right from the start and that fear of the unknown is what makes a good sandbox game.

I also, just few days aga, started modding Skyrim again, its still work in process but its shaping nicely with some mods I never used again.

I would recommend OBIS to give large variety to bandits, Immersive Creatures and Monster Mod for more type of enemies. Immersive weapons and Morrowloot for more weapons and loot. All of them will need patches to work with Requiem that are available at Nexus. Expanded Town and Cities is also a good choice for immersion. There are lots of good mods on Nexus best if you check them yourself.

 

[Jasede]

Honestly, for my first time through the game, and on my old computer, that sounds like too much hassle. I'll go with Requiem + the others you recommended in your other post, but not bother about immershun and having to fiddle with more mod setup.

Someone should just make a all in one pack for popamole lazy people like me.

I'm having compile Arch Linux from source flashbacks.

 

[markec]

Honestly, for my first time through the game, and on my old computer, that sounds like too much hassle. I'll go with Requiem + the others you recommended in your other post, but not bother about immershun and having to fiddle with more mod setup.

Probably for the best. See if you like the game later you can build upon it on things you find lacking, there are mods for everything.

Someone should just make a all in one pack for popamole lazy people like me.

https://kat.cr/skyrim-modded-v2-0-6-t10830452.html

 

[Jasede]

Eh, too many mods! I'll just do those I decided on manually. I'm going in, guys, wish me luck. Just getting all the LL mods to work the other day took like 2 hours (since I insisted on not using a modmanager)

 

[DraQ]

All the LL stuff because I can.

Not sure if you want to go down *that* road.

Now the only question is: to Requiem or not? Have you played it with and without? I am NOT interested in a "hurr durr I made it hardcore difficult because I played Skyrim for 5000 hours" mod.

You can say Requiem is tough but fair. It's incredibly easy to die, you can get in over your head even more easily as there is no level scaling anymore, and some enemies are incredibly difficult to handle without fairly specific means (those means and difficulty can vary with your build and race, though). OTOH killing is just as easy in most cases, lack of level scaling means more consistency in what can kill you instead of getting randomly shot by level scaled draugr murderboss deathking archer in the knee and spending the last few pre-reload seconds watching your character's flailing ragdoll trying to turn inside out after breaking out of level geometry - in Requiem if something kills you it does so consistently, and there is a lot of incentive trying to make do with what you have found to turn around a seemingly hopeless situation.

Also, you can tweak Requiem's difficulty with sliders nowadays (Skyrim's built-in difficulty slider doesn't work in Requiem) and Requiem does allow far more noticeable build diversity than vanilla and powers up magic a lot.

 

[DraQ]

Tell me about your excellent tank without armor build.

 

[Jasede]

So I am working on ENB now and tried out markc's preset, but that just brings my computer down to its knees. Is there a preset that'll just make the game run faster?

 

[DraQ]

One more thing:
I imagine Requiem being a lot easier on someone who doesn't have to unlearn downright suicidal ways of vanilla.
I played vanilla, early Duel (very good, but very limited by design being strictly combat overhaul), early SkyRe (cornucopia of diverse and fun perks, weapon types, etc. but horrible scrubbery half of the time and modders gonna mod the remaining half) and then settled for Requiem.

So I am working on ENB now and tried out markc's preset, but that just brings my computer down to its knees. Is there a preset that'll just make the game run faster?

Do you *need* ENB?

 

[Jasede]

I dunno, I figured it might make it run faster. If it doesn't I don't want it. Looking good is great and all but this is a notebook from 2010.

 

[Jasede]

Not sure how to install Requiem. I followed the guide but it seems to have issues with my latest version of Unofficial Skyrim Patch? Everything else works fine so I am not willing to start from scratch just for this.

 

[GarfunkeL]

You need to get the hotfix from the Requiem state to fix the patcher.

 

[Jasede]

Okay, got it. Can I just install it manually? The manual install guide says I need to -only- have the required files in my Data folder but that seems a little ridiculous. Anyone have a list of those files?

 

[DraQ]

Okay, got it. Can I just install it manually? The manual install guide says I need to -only- have the required files in my Data folder but that seems a little ridiculous. Anyone have a list of those files?

I wouldn't fret about this, especially when running on freshly installed, unmodded game.

 

[Jasede]

The game is already modded; I am not going to start again from scratch.

 

[Drax]

Are you using any mod managers or installing everything manually?
Unless you keep a huge-ass txt with all the files each mod adds it'll be a pita the moment you want to change something.
And, no matter your intentions, modding beth games is like meth, you will want to mess around with your modlist, believe me.

 

[DraQ]

The game is already modded; I am not going to start again from scratch.

I'd try without cleaning out the directory.
It seems like a paranoid kind of step to ensure that absolutely no required resource is overwritten, not something you should worry about in a typical situation.

 

[Jasede]

Are you using any mod managers or installing everything manually?
Unless you keep a huge-ass txt with all the files each mod adds it'll be a pita the moment you want to change something.
And, no matter your intentions, modding beth games is like meth, you will want to mess around with your modlist, believe me.

I did everything manually to make sure nothing goes wrong.

If I, in theory, redid everything from scratch, which MM should I use?

 

[markec]

I did everything manually to make sure nothing goes wrong.

If I, in theory, redid everything from scratch, which MM should I use?

Nexus Mod Manager http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/modmanager/? is very user friendly and if you are doing light modding a better choice then Mod Organizer. Also some mods are packed to be used with managers and doing manually will only increase the chance of messing things up.

 

[Jasede]

Well, I don't plan on modding a lot so far. I think I got it all set up now, including fooling Requiem's patcher into believing only the required files were installed. Let's see if it works.

 

[Jasede]

All systems go! Time to hike.