Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Jasede]

Man, what the fuck...

Years and years of building computers, studying IT stuff, programming, fiddling with hardware and custom drivers... and computers still baffle me, like women.

I played around with my settings (couldn't sleep) and this is gonna make you laugh: after -forcing- Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering on in my driver and disabling it in-game (at like 16x) my FPS went from 18-30 on minimum settings to 60+. They went up so much, in fact, that when I tried the game on Ulta settings, my FPS were still 30. I don't understand computers.

 

[Mexi]

I finally got Uthgard as a companion. I was having issues with AFT; therefore, I installed something called Simple Follower Mod. It's a way better mod as it doesn't add useless shit. The first thing I did was make her essential. The follower AI is dumb as hell no matter what overhaul you use.

Anyways, the game is still pretty damn hard even with a companion. You can still get one-shotted, easily. That leads me to what happened at Halted Stream Camp. I killed a lot of the bandits from the distance with my crossbow, but there was this one bandit who was trouble. After I carefully killed all but one, the last bandit was a crossbow wielding Argonian. Literally, the man was a master archer. I could barely peak out from cover and he'd one-shot me. He got me while I was strafing towards him too. It was fucking ridiculous. I finally get close to him by hiding behind the huge wall and praying he misses when he bum-rushes me.

I thought this fucker was carrying some crazy good crossbow that I could take for myself. Nope, he was literally one-shotting me with a fucking wooden crossbow. I was like "what the fuck is this?" Guy must've had his archery maxed out or something. He was that fucking good with it. Fast as all hell like that Khajit I fought. Uthgard was no fucking help. Bitch was lying on the floor gasping for life as soon as that Argonian dude saw her.

The only issue I'm having with her is that it's hard NOT to load her up with all the loot and cheat the system. I'm only giving her food/water (she eats and drinks due to the mod) and about half my gold to carry. Other than that, I don't give her anything else to carry. It's difficult to gauge her carrying capacity (if she has one); therefore, I'm trying not to take out the fun of having such strict carrying weight.

 

[RK47]

I can't hear you over the raise overloaded zombie mule trick.

 

[Jasede]

Load her up with the goods. She'll still get knocked out by strong enemies and you'll still die plenty. (My experience.)

Going solo in Requiem must be for the truly hardcore.

If you are using 3NPCs, make sure you use the Requiem Patch AND that /other/ Requiem patch that gives 3DNPCs perks. I can find it for you if you don't know what I am talking about.

Also, Requiem gives you "search" as a power. Use that on your horse to store your shit in its bags, until you get a house. A horse is 6K but well worth it IMO.

Also, don't forget to tweak the settings to your liking. For example, I turned Fast Travel back on because I got tired of riding everywhere, and I also set coin weight and ammo weight to 0 because, TBH, I can't be assed carrying around 50 units of coins and 50 units of bolts.

 

[RK47]

Going solo in Requiem must be for the truly hardcore Conjurers

 

[GarfunkeL]

I could not live without my horse. If the horse dies, it's load game time, no matter how far back.

Did not know that ENB is useful for other than eye-candy purposes. Just installed it as per STEP. Let's see if stability increases.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Horses are great for giant slaying since the 1.9 patch introduced mounted combat. Grab a bow and go medieval mongol on their asses.

The only issue I'm having with her is that it's hard NOT to load her up with all the loot and cheat the system. I'm only giving her food/water (she eats and drinks due to the mod) and about half my gold to carry. Other than that, I don't give her anything else to carry. It's difficult to gauge her carrying capacity (if she has one); therefore, I'm trying not to take out the fun of having such strict carrying weight.

NPCs have a carry weight limit, but it's pretty generous since unlike the player character they aren't being weighted down by a bunch of potions, ingredients and ingots.

If you feel like using her as a packmule spoils the difficulty, consider giving her stuff that would be realistically her share of the loot, since she joins you out of friendship and isn't a mercenary like Jenassa. So, instead of cashing in that heavy armor that is of no use for your mage, let her keep it. It's what I do, at least.

I played around with my settings (couldn't sleep) and this is gonna make you laugh: after -forcing- Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering on in my driver and disabling it in-game (at like 16x) my FPS went from 18-30 on minimum settings to 60+. They went up so much, in fact, that when I tried the game on Ulta settings, my FPS were still 30. I don't understand computers Bethesda.

Fixed.

 

[RK47]

Man these thieving side missions are infinite gold for me. Kinda felt cheap repeating the fishing and sweep mission for easy gold at almost no risk.

I might reroll and not do this whole pickpocketing shit, but damn that Nightingale set is so good.
I'm staring at 93 Pickpocketing now and just 17 Lockpicking and I still can pick Adept locks with Nightingale set on.

Overall assessment:
Even without the stealing gold off trainer exploit, having near 100% chance of pickpocketing targets with Improved Thieves Guild boots made having near infinite supply of arrows, bolts and healing potions possible off town guards. If you want serious loot, go deeper into the skill tree and grab the 100% guaranteed vs sleeping targets. I lifted an Extreme Stamina Necklace (+60 ST) off a Riften noble and combine that with Dark Brotherhood boots meant 120 ST just off two piece of gear that needed 24 levels to attain. Insane.

Here's why I enjoyed Requiem though, doing this in Vanilla Skyrim would screw you over since the enemy scales to my level 24 character based simply on her 'CharLevel'. Right now, I cleared Nord ruins undead with Silver Bolts and took down Humanoids with poisoned bolts and summons.

Except...I still can't recruit a companion. Uthgerd's fists destroyed my 120 HP Breton QQ
I'll go to Mages guild instead n pick up that Dark Elf chick instead, at least she can summon an atronach.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I thought you needed that second perk to be able to pick Adept/Expert locks?

I updated SkyUI to 5.1 - big mistake. Crafting menus stopped working, everything is empty - cooking, blacksmithing and so on. I'm trying to roll it back to the version I had before. Not sure what's the problem but apparently they "improved" on the menu code.

 

[Mexi]

Except...I still can't recruit a companion. Uthgerd's fists destroyed my 120 HP Breton QQ
I'll go to Mages guild instead n pick up that Dark Elf chick instead, at least she can summon an atronach.

Yeah, Uthgard was a bitch to beat. I reloaded several times because she would roflstomp my character. I had to wait until level 3 or 4 (I just forgot), and I had to keep my distance. One power attack drains like 80% of my stamina and has me huffing and puffing stationary for her to easily knock me out. Easily, you have to avoid trying to exchange with her and hit her one at a time and back away. 1 hit from her power attack is all but game over.

I'm playing as an Imperial, though.

 

[Mexi]

NPCs have a carry weight limit, but it's pretty generous since unlike the player character they aren't being weighted down by a bunch of potions, ingredients and ingots.

If you feel like using her as a packmule spoils the difficulty, consider giving her stuff that would be realistically her share of the loot, since she joins you out of friendship and isn't a mercenary like Jenassa. So, instead of cashing in that heavy armor that is of no use for your mage, let her keep it. It's what I do, at least.

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do, but as I said, it's tempting to make her carry all your shit. I mainly have her carrying her things and half our loot. I did load her up with my left-over iron bolts, but I quickly stopped that as I never really used them anyways. Since I've been using a lot of our gold to suit her up, I don't think she'd mind if I used the bulk of it later to buy Breezehome.

I haven't been able to get a horse, but damn, I just found out how easy conjurers have it. I actually beat everyone at Valheim Towers (not sure how you spell it). I had like 2 summon common scrolls that summoned one of those wolves. The archers that are stationed all across the tower immediately target the wolf allowing me and Uthgard to bumrush everyone. It was still a bitch, and I had to do multiple reloads as there is a high-level mage and a crazy enchanted axe-wielding bandit leader that kills you easily once you get past all the crossbow-wielding bandits. Took me literally all afternoon yesterday, and the reward was ass. Least they could do is give me a home for clearing it out, cheap asshole Jarl.

 

[RK47]

I thought you needed that second perk to be able to pick Adept/Expert locks?

Last time it didn't seem to be the case. Maybe this time it would be different.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I tried to pick this one Adept chest with just the first perk and I'm 99% sure that, in 1.9 Requiem, it's impossible.

If you hate the crafting window in SkyUI, get SkyUI-Away but don't install it - just unzip the crafting.swf and put it in Data\Interface, then disable version check in the MCM menu for SkyUI and you're back in business.

 

[RK47]

I tried to pick this one Adept chest with just the first perk and I'm 99% sure that, in 1.9 Requiem, it's impossible.

I meant when wearing Nightingale gloves you can pick locks

• Nightingale Gloves (Light Gloves) - +75% Lockpicking, can open up to Adept locks (I assume without perks), +20% One-handed damage, +25% Pickpocketing chance

Apologies for the confusion.
Mission accomplished

Bought house in Riften, made Thane of Riften and picked up a companion for tanking.

Time to clear the Dark Brotherhood quest path.

Edit: Oh boy, sweet loot !

 

[Mexi]

Okay, I'm around level 8, and I've been clearing out dungeons full of bandits. At this point, I'm not sure what easy dungeons are left. I'm very close to clearing out all of Whiterun's caves, mines, etc. from bandits and rogue mages. Hell, I'm starting to find orcs and spriggans; although, I've been able to handle them with a torch and bashing at them with my mace. Still, it takes a lot of reloads. I've ran into a dungeon with Falmer, which I thought was a high-elf wearing elven armor (can't see well due to the enhanced lighting), but once I shot at it, no health was taken from it. I quickly saw it was a Falmer, and I did no damage to the fuck. I'm starting to think only high-level dungeons are left at this point.

Well, I want to start the Companion questline, but with Requiem, I feel like it'll be too difficult because you get shoe-horned into fast as hell progression.

I want to install the Enhanced Skyrim Factions to alleviate this issue, but it seems like the patch is only for Requiem 1.8 or so. I've read that some of those patches work for Requiem 1.9. I'm just wondering if anyone has this mod installed with Requiem 1.9 and if it runs well.

 

[GarfunkeL]

You know there are caves and forts all over the place? With easy(ish) enemies in them. Just be prepared to evacuate if you see that it's vampires instead of bandits or trolls instead of wolves.

 

[RK47]

Travel to Dawnstar. Horkers are happy to help you train.

 

[Mexi]

You know there are caves and forts all over the place? With easy(ish) enemies in them. Just be prepared to evacuate if you see that it's vampires instead of bandits or trolls instead of wolves.

At this point, I feel like I've been evacuating more than fighting. Makes me feel nervous that I'm running out of low-level dungeons. Maybe I'll have to travel outside of Whiterun, maybe towards Falkreath, which I hear has a lot of spriggans. I can take on 1 spriggan at a time, but when there are more than 1, I'm automatically dead. I cleared out Mother Moss Cavern (or however it's spelt), but the wounded hunter helps a ton by being a great meat-shield.

 

[RK47]

Do Thieves Guild quest line. They're all manageable for Fighters. The chest piece is excellent for extra carry weight, while the gloves enable lockpicking, the helmet gives better prices when buying/selling.

 

[Jasede]

You know, I was about to uninstall all the Sex Mods that let me orally pleasure werewolves but then I come across this:

"The holy one returned at last, Vehk, golden with wisdom. His head found its body had been tenderly used. He mentioned this to Molag Bal, who told him that he should thank the Barons of Move Like This, 'For I have yet to learn how to refine my rapture. My love is accidentally shaped like a spear.'

So Vivec, who had a grain of Ayem's mercy, set about to teach Molag Bal in the ways of belly-magic. They took their spears out and compared them. Vivec bit new words onto the King of Rape's so that it might give more than ruin to the uninitiated. This has since become a forbidden ritual, though people still practice it in secret.

Here is why: The Velothi and demons and monsters that were watching all took out their own spears. There was much biting and the earth became wet. "

That's from the 14th Sermon of Vivec. Basically Vivec, who had married Molag Bal and then had sex with him for 88 days while the wedding guests watched, taught Molag Bal about oral sex. The guests were so enraptured they began blowing each other and the 'earth became wet.' Who knew Lover's Lab was the most lore-friendly suite of mods?

 

[ED-209]

You know, I was about to uninstall all the Sex Mods that let me orally pleasure werewolves

Knot recommended.

 

[Drax]

 

[GarfunkeL]

At this point, I feel like I've been evacuating more than fighting. Makes me feel nervous that I'm running out of low-level dungeons. Maybe I'll have to travel outside of Whiterun, maybe towards Falkreath, which I hear has a lot of spriggans. I can take on 1 spriggan at a time, but when there are more than 1, I'm automatically dead. I cleared out Mother Moss Cavern (or however it's spelt), but the wounded hunter helps a ton by being a great meat-shield.

Funny - I'm not able to clear Mother Moss Cavern yet because there is no room to dodge the spriggan and the hunter bugged out for me, just repeating "hello" when I talk to him.

Also, do NOT travel at night! I was hunting the ghost stag and two gargoyle-vampires attacked me. Luckily I was mounted - since stag hunt - but they still killed me twice before I managed to escape.

Tip for fighting werewolves: go balls to the walls offensive on them as they regenerate. I guess it's the same with trolls. Killing that werewolf dude for Hircine was impossible as long as I just summoned pets to fight him and burned him here and there. Finally I decided to go all brawn and zero brains about it and burned my 300 mana away with firesparks on him while hacking him with Nettlebane. Dude fell over and died. Imagine my surprise. So kiting is not a viable strategy against anything that regenerates - which probably means trolls, werewolves and vampires at least.

 

[RK47]

Got to Level 40, I might start Dawnguard soon.

Pickpocket - Overpowered due to gear boosts and ridiculous access to good stuff by early-mid game. It also provides me with near infinite supply of arrows and potions when I empty guards pockets. At rank 75 I can disarm weapons off sleeping targets at 100% chance.
Lockpicking - goes up so quick, the only trouble is hitting minimum perk to start unlocking, this issue is solved by having Thieves Guild glove and eventually Adept locks will yield with no perk when Nightingale Glove is equipped. It becomes a free level-up as you pick every lock you see. Once I gained the Skeleton Key, the game only allows Expert lock despite the in-game lore supporting that this is the key that Mercer abused to open any door. Skytweaked it to allow Master lock and I'm done.
Stealth - Aside from getting better at sneaking, getting to 50 is a personal preference, I kinda like not triggering traps anymore hence it's not a bad investment.
Alchemy - with pickpocket, allows stealth kills in cities. Plant a poison and watch the guy drop dead. Dragons? Decay poison tipped bolt. Stamina potion is invaluable for free runs and occasional sprint.
Speechcraft - mostly useless aside from first point to get 20% sell rate. Add thieves hood for 30% and you're done. I got it to rank 60 after selling more than 50k worth of loot I think.
Conjuration at rank 75 is ridiculously good. Two summon limit, and Teleport Vital is instant kill on most humanoids, literally rip the heart out of the guy and add it to my inventory. LOL.
Marksmanship - too good to miss. People argue that Destruction can do just fine, but I like having non-magicka attack options while Stamina is covered nicely with gear and potions.
Restoration - Mostly useless. I regret taking it. But there's a decent rank 25 perk to maintain Magicka regen even while running, thereby freeing the equipment slot off Adept Hoods, Magicka ring etc. I went with Necromancer Amulet for 200 Magicka and a generic Ring of Restoration that grants 200% Magicka Regeneration rate.
Evasion - seems useless for defensive purposes, the only reason to take this is to counteract casting cost if you are a mage. I took it to 50 just for that perk.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Only trouble at the moment is that the generic robes are so good that I can't with good conscience not use them. I have all these pretty custom kit from Nexus that I could use but since my enchanting is still poor, there's no way in hell it could match up with 250% magica regen and 15% cheaper destruction spells robe that I'm currently wearing. Oh well.

RK47 smithing works wonders as well. Once you get the first perk in, you can smelt weapons and armour and even clutter like tankards and spigots and kettles and pots. Haul everything from a cave/tower to smelter, then smith a bunch of stuff, then smelt it again and keep going until you run out of mats, then do it again.