Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Stormcrowfleet]

Thanks guys. I'll go with that.

Is there some kind of mod manager for Skyrim so that it all mods go smooth without committing mass suicide in between themselves ?

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Is there some kind of mod manager for Skyrim so that it all mods go smooth without committing mass suicide in between themselves ?

Definitely Mod Organizer. It may look daunting at first, but once you learn, it's piss easy. Have some tutorials.
Also, avoid LOOT and BOSS. Use your brain and sort your load order manually. It's not that difficult and will save you a lot of headache.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Is it me or the mod seems only to be on nexus ? And therefore I have to pay for it ?

 

[GarfunkeL]

What? No. Nexus is free. The Premium service - which you have to pay for - is to get access to faster servers but you don't need it.

And if you do get Requiem and have not played it before, do not get any other mod that makes dragons harder. They are already a pain in the ass if you're under lvl 30. I had Deadly Dragons combined with Dragon Combat Overhaul and it took me six tries to kill that first wounded dragon with Irileth at the tower - then as soon as I returned to Whiterun, FOUR dragons attacked and just wrecked absolutely everything. Running away isn't always possible either because they will follow you for a while and can easily one-shot the player.

I would also recommend getting the latest XP32 skeleton extender and then Dual Wield Parrying + Dual Wield Redux, and of course Fores New Idles and any animation mods that you like on Nexus as the vanilla animations aren't that hot (and improving them doesn't hurt your frame rate) plus miss some actions.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Yeah I'm dumb as fuck. Forget that. Thanks everyone for helping me trying to enjoy this game.

 

[GarfunkeL]

In case you missed my edit on my last post:

And if you do get Requiem and have not played it before, do not get any other mod that makes dragons harder. They are already a pain in the ass if you're under lvl 30. I had Deadly Dragons combined with Dragon Combat Overhaul and it took me six tries to kill that first wounded dragon with Irileth at the tower - then as soon as I returned to Whiterun, FOUR dragons attacked and just wrecked absolutely everything. Running away isn't always possible either because they will follow you for a while and can easily one-shot the player.

I would also recommend getting the latest XP32 skeleton extender and then Dual Wield Parrying + Dual Wield Redux, and of course Fores New Idles and any animation mods that you like on Nexus as the vanilla animations aren't that hot (and improving them doesn't hurt your frame rate) plus miss some actions.

 

[hell bovine]

Since there is 185pages of Skyrim mod, is it possible to have a small list of the best ones ? I don't care about the graphics since my computer sucks.

Last time I played the game I didn't really enjoyed it even if I finished it, but I'm willing to try again with a new playthrough, including mods, not doing the actual mainquest, etc.

Have a look at the purity series of mods, they really improve Skyrim's looks and I have noticed no performance drops with them. I have used pure waters and pure weathers (both part of one package: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/65242/? ), but you can still find them separately on the nexus:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1111/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52423/?
Edit: if you go with pure weathers, use the brighter nights edition. The realistic version is too annoying to play in my opinion,because while I agree that a blizzard in the night means darkness, experiencing it outside is not the same as straining your eyes to see something on a computer screen.

 

[Akratus]

Did you guys know I've made a mod?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28897

Spoiler

 

[Drax]

Type-R

 

[markec]

Did you guys know I've made a mod?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28897

Spoiler

So you made a mod to make a LESS revealing armor.

44,014 TOTAL VIEWS

590 UNIQUE D/LS

Im shocked.

 

[Akratus]

I don't really care so much about the showing of skin, but it's a warriors armor and it doesn't even cover the chest properly. That won't do, no sir.

 

[DraQ]

Given lack of full compatibility between Requiem and EMD, existence of Requiem patch for DCO and no good way to make Requiem, DCO and EMD play together I recommend DCO in place of EMD.

Just turn off "Assault 2.0" option in the MCM if you know what's good for you.

Stormcrowfleet
The only bad things about Requiem are any elements involving writing (basically spell names and new notes and such, Requiem isn't in itself a quest mod) and the fact that it can clash hard with expected vanilla pacing that assumes level scaling (more Daggerfall bad than Oblivion bad, but scaling nevertheless).

The latter can be helped a bit with a mod like Interesting NPCs which is worth recommending on its own as it adds quests and NPCs (some quite well writtern, pretty much all lore friendly) that liven Skyrim up a lot and with Requiem it also gives a lot of interesting and interconnected lower level quests to do while you're too wimpy to take on the MQ or College of Winterhold questline.

OTOH if you use Requiem for your first playthrough you will likely find it much easier and smoother than someone who has played vanilla first and now needs to unlearn the dumb (no, charging a wall of archers while wearing only a fur skirt is a great way to get dead).

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

I don't care much about the writings since when I did my first playthrough, I found it absolutely atrocious. My goal was to redo a more openworld playthrough, because I thought that since the game is supposed to be good on that point, maybe I didn't play the game as it should have been (gamerguilt). But I'll install Interesting NPCs none the same.

EDIT : What is MCM and EDM ?

 

[DraQ]

EMD = Enhanced Mighty Dragons
DCO = Dragon Combat Overhaul
MCM = Mod Configuration Menu

 

[hell bovine]

Given lack of full compatibility between Requiem and EMD, existence of Requiem patch for DCO and no good way to make Requiem, DCO and EMD play together I recommend DCO in place of EMD.

Just turn off "Assault 2.0" option in the MCM if you know what's good for you.

Good to know, thanks. I prefer DCO out of those two anyway. But what does Assault 2.0 do?

 

[DraQ]

Good to know, thanks. I prefer DCO out of those two anyway.

Normally they work perfectly well together, however DCO needs to go after EMD if using those two together and you need a patch to make DCO work with Requiem (otherwise an MQ breakage and some minor issues will occur), which will override any changes made by EMD with those made by Requiem.

But what does Assault 2.0 do?

Rapes you.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Given lack of full compatibility between Requiem and EMD

What kind of compatibility are you looking for? It works perfectly well with Requiem, and the fact is Requiem's gameplay is better with it than without it. Makes dragon priests better balanced as well.
What it lacks is compatibility with DCO, but you wouldn't want to use them together anyway - DCO already makes dragons hard, anything else would be either redundant or overkill.
The biggest "either or" between them is whether or not you want to add a shit ton of scripts to your game (DCO) or not (EMD).

 

[hell bovine]

Normally they work perfectly well together, however DCO needs to go after EMD if using those two together and you need a patch to make DCO work with Requiem (otherwise an MQ breakage and some minor issues will occur), which will override any changes made by EMD with those made by Requiem.

Okay, now I'm curious. I'll use DCO with the option on, but will create an elf character. I dislike elves, so I won't mind if he gets disemboweled by a lizard.

 

[DraQ]

What kind of compatibility are you looking for? It works perfectly well with Requiem, and the fact is Requiem's gameplay is better with it than without it. Makes dragon priests better balanced as well.
What it lacks is compatibility with DCO, but you wouldn't want to use them together anyway - DCO already makes dragons hard, anything else would be either redundant or overkill.
The biggest "either or" between them is whether or not you want to add a shit ton of scripts to your game (DCO) or not (EMD).

Overrides melee damage proportional to dragon's physique with rather pitiful one.

And I would say that, as much as I love individually named dragons with unique skills, since DCO primarily makes dragon fights much less rote and adds actual physical consequences to having a jet-sized lizard land nearly on top of you or fly just over your head it wins by default.

 

[Reapa]

I've reinstalled Skyrim after a few years (finished the base game + Dragonborn, didn't like it really but used no mods outside of SkyUI).

My goal is to play Requiem + Frostfall. Requiem is giving me problems however, specifically their Reqtificator patcher. I spent the better part of last night trying to install 1.9.2 but after trying everything I just could not make it work at all (fucking Java complaining about permissions but all folder permissions are set correctly); managed to install 1.8.2 after some wrangling - how much worse is this version compared to the latest one, is it worth playing still?

Every other mod works perfectly - I'm not using that many (Climates of Tamriel, Ambient Lights, redone basic meshes, the 4 unofficial patches, etc.). Using LOOT for the load order. The Requiem thing is really bugging me, though. Any thoughts?

move the game folder to something like c:/games/ then run that java shit than move game folder back to where it was

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Overrides melee damage proportional to dragon's physique with rather pitiful one.

Varies with dragon types. Melee specialists bite harder than Requiem's, mage types - less.

DCO primarily makes dragon fights much less rote

That's pretty vague. I can say the same for EMD.

physical consequences to having a jet-sized lizard land nearly on top of you or fly just over your head

The ground isn't a trampoline and dragons don't actually have jet engines. Those ragdolling shenanigans are as retarded as 5 meter "giants" sending you flying by stomping the ground.

 

[DraQ]

Varies with dragon types. Melee specialists bite harder than Requiem's, mage types - less.

I'm pretty certain even melee specialist dragons deal quite a bit less damage in EMD than dragons in general do in Requiem.
In fact I've just checked the exact values to be sure:
Requiem dragons have 350 unarmed damage racial.
EMD dragons have vanilla's 25 + individual bonuses that may be as high as 250 and as low as, I think, 80.
275 is nice output but still much less than 350, while 115 is something even an unproficient character can achieve with a daedric mace - a dragon bite or tree trunk sized tail to the face should hurt more than that by default.

That's pretty vague. I can say the same for EMD.

EMD goes a long way making fights more interesting but giving dragons unique abilities and combat styles, true, but in the end an individual dragon will have the same predictable combat pattern as in vanilla, will become predictably grounded at fixed HP percentage and so on.
OTOH DCO keeps you on your toes by randomizing those patterns, randomizing injury effects, adding end of battle scenarios to try and tip the scales in dragon's favor should you be winning and generally making dragons more of assholes in battle.

I'm not dissing EMD, having played a lot with it and really loving most of its features and patch allowing both to be used with Requiem would be one of the best things ever, but if I do have to choose my pick is DCO.

The ground isn't a trampoline and dragons don't actually have jet engines. Those ragdolling shenanigans are as retarded as 5 meter "giants" sending you flying by stomping the ground.

Dragons may not have jet engines, but they send sufficient masses of air hurtling at sufficient speed by flapping their wings to hurl *their own* bodies up into the air - guess what will happen when such a mass of air hits you in the face which is guaranteed when a dragon takes off or lands right next to you?

This means DCO rectifies one of the main ways dragon fights felt very wrong on a very fundamental level in vanilla. That's a big plus.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

I'm pretty certain even melee specialist dragons deal quite a bit less damage in EMD than dragons in general do in Requiem.
In fact I've just checked the exact values to be sure:
Requiem dragons have 350 unarmed damage racial.
EMD dragons have vanilla's 25 + individual bonuses that may be as high as 250 and as low as, I think, 80.
275 is nice output but still much less than 350, while 115 is something even an unproficient character can achieve with a daedric mace - a dragon bite or tree trunk sized tail to the face should hurt more than that by default.

Could've sworn my melee hireling keeled over faster with EMD, but I'll trust your numbers on this one.

EMD goes a long way making fights more interesting but giving dragons unique abilities and combat styles, true, but in the end an individual dragon will have the same predictable combat pattern as in vanilla, will become predictably grounded at fixed HP percentage and so on.
OTOH DCO keeps you on your toes by randomizing those patterns, randomizing injury effects, adding end of battle scenarios to try and tip the scales in dragon's favor should you be winning and generally making dragons more of assholes in battle.

If that happens on regular basis, then fair enough.
When I tried DCO with a couple of dragons, I haven't experienced anything noticeably different except several custom spells (fireballs from the sky homing on my ass felt kinda out of place, tbh). Then a dragon froze mid landing and I remembered why I don't like scripted mods.

Dragons may not have jet engines, but they send sufficient masses of air hurtling at sufficient speed by flapping their wings to hurl *their own* bodies up into the air - guess what will happen when such a mass of air hits you in the face which is guaranteed when a dragon takes off or lands right next to you?

Nothing much? I stood close to Mi-26's taking off a few times - it's just stiff wind. But then they didn't breathe fire, either. Everyone has their own limit of fantasy, I'll give you that.

 

[DraQ]

Then a dragon froze mid landing and I remembered why I don't like scripted mods.

True, Skyrim's scripting engine is absolute ass, but you can't really avoid scripted mods if you are to improve gameplay, so it's better to picks ones that hit the spot the best.

Don't get me wrong, I always appreciate mods that do their thing without scripting but dragon battles were always awfully predictable in vanilla with dragons being almost on rails and overall sequence always playing out the same and EMD doesn't fix that because it can't fix that. DCO does, despite glitches and everything.

Of course DCO+EMD+Requiem would be the best thing ever but we can't have that (yet?).

Nothing much? I stood close to Mi-26's taking off a few times - it's just stiff wind. But then they didn't breathe fire, either. Everyone has their own limit of fantasy, I'll give you that.

Well, if we're going this way an attack helicopter doesn't land or take off nearly as abruptly and produces constant thrust with its rotor rather than discrete gusts. I'd also wager flapping motion focuses the blasts more.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Of course DCO+EMD+Requiem would be the best thing ever but we can't have that (yet?).

I had a look in tes5edit, and it should be pretty easy to make a patch - it's only 3 race records and a bunch of NPCs (dragons) that need patching. The biggest problem I see is doing it for each EMD version, which I CBA, since I won't be using DCO myself.

In other news, Requiem v1.9.3 is out.