Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Drax]

Morrowloot has become an essential mod for me, I recommend it.

 

[Loostreaks]

Any good alternatives to Requiem? Enemies are still lackluster to fight and it throws high damage barriers instead of enemies that really fight differently. Lot of times this turns the game into cheesing AI with movement/environment or exploiting loopholes. Dragons are also mostly the same. Perk trees could also be more interesting.
There are a couple of mods I'm using ( that get overlooked):
- EK_Limited Items: this simulates "grid" system with inventory, you can no longer carry 10 suits of armor or 999 arrows. Fully customizable, no script issues, does a lot to fix economy.
- Burdens of Skyrim+Honed Metal. First applies penalties on what you wear( weapons/armor) based on "strength", which increases slowly over time. Second lets player avoid grinding with crafting skills and let you order gear from smiths/enchanters ( for a hefty price). Work great together
- Pumping Iron+Sleep to gain experience. You gain weight based on skill use, and you gain experience from since last time you slept. Gives a more satisfying, stronger sense of progression ( than incremental).

What I'm looking for:

Races mod (Requiem is pretty lackluster here, SkyRe is better and logical, Imperious is too much "out there")
Deleveling world mod
Enemy Mod ( similar to Revenge of Enemies, but without idiotic, cheap enemy abilities) ( OBIS is great for bandits though)

 

[roll-a-die]

Any good alternatives to Requiem? Enemies are still lackluster to fight and it throws high damage barriers instead of enemies that really fight differently. Lot of times this turns the game into cheesing AI with movement/environment or exploiting loopholes. Dragons are also mostly the same. Perk trees could also be more interesting.
There are a couple of mods I'm using ( that get overlooked):
- EK_Limited Items: this simulates "grid" system with inventory, you can no longer carry 10 suits of armor or 999 arrows. Fully customizable, no script issues, does a lot to fix economy.
- Burdens of Skyrim+Honed Metal. First applies penalties on what you wear( weapons/armor) based on "strength", which increases slowly over time. Second lets player avoid grinding with crafting skills and let you order gear from smiths/enchanters ( for a hefty price). Work great together
- Pumping Iron+Sleep to gain experience. You gain weight based on skill use, and you gain experience from since last time you slept. Gives a more satisfying, stronger sense of progression ( than incremental).

What I'm looking for:

Races mod (Requiem is pretty lackluster here, SkyRe is better and logical, Imperious is too much "out there")
Deleveling world mod
Enemy Mod ( similar to Revenge of Enemies, but without idiotic, cheap enemy abilities) ( OBIS is great for bandits though)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63354/
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/66105/
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/88243/

Three relatively overlooked mods. Except morrowloot. I've tried for a long time to match Requiems quality in a modular pack though it doesn't work.

 

[DraQ]

Can someone summarize Requiem for me, what does it do exactly? Description on the mod page is kinda vague.

Also, does it (or any other big overhaul) play well with the hiker-hobo playstyle? (survival mods to the max).

Haven't played in a while and got an itch for a bit of suffering (both, from the mod fiddling and terrible gameplay).

Requiem is an overhaul mod touching pretty much everything.

It's not perfect, there are some "modders gonna mod" aspects to it and it's script heavy and quite intrusive - not playing nice with a lot of stuff - (some sort of Requiem Lite would be perfect, I guess) but there doesn't seem to be any reasonable alternative to it that would approach its quality.

It is:

• A mechanics mod - combat works differently and is much more lethal, armour and poisons have been completely overhauled, with heavy armour severely degrading mobility but offering excellent protection, especially against arrows (and arrows will fuck you up), blocking is much more realistic, stamina is critical, there is a lot of additional mechanics like rushing and trampling, etc.
• Enemy variety mod - the enemies are mostly the same apart from a few additions (some questionable), but most have distinct mechanical flavour - draugr pretty much ignore normal arrows, spider poison is scary if you don't have resistances, large animals can smack you around like a ragdoll, dwemer constructs are pretty much robotic metal tanks, trolls may easily out-regenerate your damage early in game etc. Different builds may find different enemies trivial or nigh-unbeatable, and a lot of gameplay is based around getting the right tool for the job or finding the right tactics - this might make up for around 10-20 levels of difference.
  
• Character development mod - perks are everything, without them abilities are at best situationally useful on rare occasions. Skill level pretty much serves to regulate availability of perks and you get three perk points on chargen to specify your starting class and you will need them. The entry exam in College of Winterhold will no longer be a mere formality. Leveling is also much slower. Crafting perks need finding special skill books to learn techniques needed to work with different materials.
  
• De-leveling mod and a brutal one at that.
  
• Magic mod buffing wizards substantially and adding quite a handful of cool new spells including teleportation (effectively mark and recall, plus line of sight teleportation, plus ability to teleport hearts out of people and into your inventory), nuke grade offensive spells, combat telekinesis, and so on.
  
• Encumberance and travel mod - carry weight is drastically reduced, and there is no fast travel other than boats and carriages (and teleportation). OTOH horses are fast, less suicidal, have saddle bags - and are fucking expensive. Oh, gold is heavy now, so are arrows and bolts.
  
• A content mod - some new stuff is placed around the world including texts, challenges and unique items.
  
• Trap mod - traps are likely to instakill and many pressure plates are hidden.
  
• AI mod - enemies are smarter, more perceptive and persistent.
  
• Economy mod - a bit crap in this aspect as it creates stupid inflation, but it does make it difficult to accumulate significant wealth - especially given that it makes gold have weight and there are more portable but less liquid ways to store wealth.
• Anti-popamole mod - health doesn't regenerate, not even when resting and not on level ups either, and food doesn't restore health (it does restore stamina, though, and many foods confer long-term bonuses). You need proper healing to cure your wounds.
  
• Insert anything I missed here.

I would forego the 2.0+ for now, as it's quite experimental and disables the expansion until someone patches it for it, but previous version is already pretty great and there are compatibility patches for most worthwhile stuff that doesn't work properly as-is and a lot of remaining stuff will handle reqtification somewhat gracefully even if unpatched.

Dragons are also mostly the same.

DCO.

 

[roll-a-die]

My fondest memory of requiem is getting a horse after 15 hours of gameplay. Traveling out the road to from whiterun up towards a bandit camp, leaving the horse well away from the camp. Horse doesn't stay still, and fucks off towards a giant base... As I enter the bandit cave and do the dungeon... Finally I come back not realizing this has occurred and go, "Where's my horse with the seven hundred or so in bandit loot in it..." And hear in the distance a giant getting fucking pissed. Turning I see my horse charging away from the giant, and the giant swing it's club. Horsy dead.

 

[Luzur]

Welp looks like I'll be adding convenient horses I guess. Was trying to avoid any other mods that weren't requiem related. As in the past that's fucked me over.

since you're adding mods you might as well grab a big titty one while you're at it

I dunno I think I've got titties covered moderating an 18+ NSFW discord.

PFFFFT thats like saying you got churches covered just because you read the bible, if you havent visited Lover's Lab, you know nothing about big titties, or HD horse anus textures

 

[roll-a-die]

Welp looks like I'll be adding convenient horses I guess. Was trying to avoid any other mods that weren't requiem related. As in the past that's fucked me over.

since you're adding mods you might as well grab a big titty one while you're at it

I dunno I think I've got titties covered moderating an 18+ NSFW discord.

PFFFFT thats like saying you got churches covered just because you read the bible, if you havent visited Lover's Lab, you know nothing about big titties, or HD horse anus textures

I'm not gonna say I haven't posted there. Nor say I haven't submitted content.

Because to say either of those, would be an outright lie.

And a honesty is the best policy.

But no the discord I moderate is tied to a site older than LL and has been in the smut business for a fair bit longer.

 

[Yosharian]

Requiem changes the enchanting endgame significantly. In vanilla, enchanting is the endgame method of getting ultra-powerful gear. In Req, the gear you can obtain from quests, loot, etc can be as powerful, or better than, the stuff you can enchant yourself.

For example the mage's guild questline gives you an insanely powerful set of robes. It's quite difficult to complete, though.

 

[Zanzoken]

All right gents -- the discussion about Requiem has me inspired to do some hiking. Here's what I'm thinking in terms of mods:

Spoiler

Gameplay
- Requiem
- Frostfall
- Campfire
- iNeed
- Hunterborn
- Convenient Horses
- Carriage and Ferry Travel Overhaul
- Run for your Lives

Content
- Immersive Weapons
- Immersive Armors
- Wearable Lanterns
- Bandolier
- Immersive Patrols
- Guard Dialogue Overhaul

Presentation
- Realistic Lighting Overhaul
- Immersive HUD
- Enhanced Night Skyrim
- Dual Sheath Redux
- Belt-Fastened Quivers

Usability
- SkyUI
- Quality World Map

Technical
- SKSE
- Unofficial Legendary Edition Patch
- Unofficial High Resolution Patch

As you can see I'm not too interested in aesthetic improvements or adding tons of content. The goal is essentially to play the game as normal but with the added challenges of Requiem and survival systems.

Also I will not be using fast travel unless via in-world transportation (albeit I am incorporating expanded routes).

So anything you guys would add or remove? Any glaring compatibility issues? I am not expecting anything life-changing but wondering if enough mods can turn Skyrim into a decent action-adventure.

 

[Yosharian]

Zanzoken: have you thought about waiting for the next release of Ultimate Skyrim?

 

[roll-a-die]

I've run a simple setup like that for a bit before. I'd offer advice that Hunterborn is busywork and replicates a lot of what Requiem has already done to game. In making the loot more interesting.

If you do like hunterborns systems I will say that you'll need to tweak some things, because by default it takes way too long with iNeed and frostfall to process a corpse. And I actually have died of exposure at one point skinning a rabbit using iNeed and frostfall with Hunterborn.

Bandolier disrupts some of requiem's careful inventory requirements, and you should try it without the mod, or else edit out the carry weight additions.

Dual Sheath Redux is a pointless overhaul and doesn't affect gameplay. I generally give it a miss on smaller setups. But then I'm not bothered by invisiswords.

Other than that, everything else can be solved with the Uninstall.exe...

 

[Yosharian]

There is a mod for Bandolier which reduces the carry weight bonuses. It makes it so that they are still useful but not OP.

 

[Zanzoken]

I've run a simple setup like that for a bit before. I'd offer advice that Hunterborn is busywork and replicates a lot of what Requiem has already done to game. In making the loot more interesting.

If you do like hunterborns systems I will say that you'll need to tweak some things, because by default it takes way too long with iNeed and frostfall to process a corpse. And I actually have died of exposure at one point skinning a rabbit using iNeed and frostfall with Hunterborn.

Bandolier disrupts some of requiem's careful inventory requirements, and you should try it without the mod, or else edit out the carry weight additions.

Dual Sheath Redux is a pointless overhaul and doesn't affect gameplay. I generally give it a miss on smaller setups. But then I'm not bothered by invisiswords.

Other than that, everything else can be solved with the Uninstall.exe...

Thanks for the advice! I have never played with Hunterborn before and thought it looked interesting for this type of playthrough. But if it just adds tedium then happy to go without.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I was planning on using the console to slow down the timescale. I believe default is 20:1 but that's pretty fast with survival elements incorporated. I was thinking 8:1 or even 12:1 would be a little more realistic and easy to manage.

I want the survival stuff to pose a threat but not to the point where it becomes overbearing or silly (like in your example).

 

[DraQ]

As you can see I'm not too interested in aesthetic improvements or adding tons of content.

I'd still add some proper content mods. Vanilla Skyrim is pretty much just a bare framework in regards to content.

3DNPCs are a must for me - not only does this mod add its own content - often very deeply intertwined with existing lore, but the followers it adds also go a great length to enhance vanilla content, observing and commenting on vanilla quests and locations you visit.
It does have downsides - some PC dialogue options are overspecific and plain weird (as in why the fuck would you even think of that), some scripting can have problems handling altered mechanics smoothly, new locations are mostly DA2 style prefab recycling (it's clear that author is not a mapper) some content is too quirky for its own good and starting conditions for quests form byzantine network (dependencies on previous quests and who you have - or don't have with you) mostly based on NPC arcs or voice acting considerations rather than any comprehensible in-world logic - but it's still awesome and head and shoulders over anything Bethesda ever did. It's like you glued a bigger and better game (at least in terms of quests and characters) on top of Skyrim and have them fit together seamlessly.

Inigo is quirky and sometimes not too concerned with lore (albeit without any actual violations as far as I can tell), and also doesn't add much in terms of quests, but it pretty much sets new standards for follower reactivity by himself, reacting not only to vanilla quests and reactions but basing his dialogue and reactions on what you two have previously done and visited and reacting dynamically to current combat situation - for example he may taunt a bandit in situational manner if this bandit is swimming and he is firing at him from the shore. He even bases some of his dialogue on previous occurences of his dynamic dialogue. Oh, he does talk with some of the vanilla followers as well. Again, a must have.

Apocalypse magic is a spell package that adds tons of interesting spells, while also distributing them among NPCs. It might allow some broken shit, but it's not like Requiem's own stuff like teleporting someone's heart out of their chest is exactly concerned with balance (you cast spell, heart appears in your inventory, guy falls over) - at the point you can do it you are become death, destroyer of worlds and have earned it.

Questorium is somewhat unconcerned with lore correctness (generally aiming for avoiding outright violations, but mostly just using existing worldbuilding as foundation and then building its own stuff), but you might still want it when you'll desire high level stuff. In contrast with 3DNPCs the author seems to be a capable mapper.

Bandolier disrupts some of requiem's careful inventory requirements, and you should try it without the mod, or else edit out the carry weight additions.

IIRC there exists a compatibility patch reducing carry weight bonuses.

Dual Sheath Redux is a pointless overhaul and doesn't affect gameplay. I generally give it a miss on smaller setups. But then I'm not bothered by invisiswords.

IMHO pure cosmetics + lot of scripting with potential of breaking badly = wide berth.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I was planning on using the console to slow down the timescale. I believe default is 20:1 but that's pretty fast with survival elements incorporated. I was thinking 8:1 or even 12:1 would be a little more realistic and easy to manage.

Do mind that altered timescale will impact things like effective travel times and feel of this travel.
I'd keep Requiem's default.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yeah, just reinstalled requiem with a patch to enable Dragonborn stuff. And a mod to hide helmets. Trying vanilla was a mistake and a snoozefest.

 

[Zanzoken]

Zanzoken: have you thought about waiting for the next release of Ultimate Skyrim?

I just saw this post. Wasn't sure what you were referring to but apparently Ultimate Skyrim is a huge mod pack based on Requiem -- appears to have already been released?

It looks interesting but I am a little hesitant whenever a modder incorporates this many alterations. Typically the changes end up a mixed bag -- some that are good but many that are not.

Only way to know for sure is to give it a try -- but I think I will start with something more lightweight to begin with and see how that goes. Appreciate the recommendation though.

 

[Yosharian]

Zanzoken: have you thought about waiting for the next release of Ultimate Skyrim?

I just saw this post. Wasn't sure what you were referring to but apparently Ultimate Skyrim is a huge mod pack based on Requiem -- appears to have already been released?

It looks interesting but I am a little hesitant whenever a modder incorporates this many alterations. Typically the changes end up a mixed bag -- some that are good but many that are not.

Only way to know for sure is to give it a try -- but I think I will start with something more lightweight to begin with and see how that goes. Appreciate the recommendation though.

Yeah but the new release is a month or two away and it's going to blow the current version away.

 

[Zanzoken]

It looks cool and I will check it out at some point. I am working on installing Requiem and a few other mods now so I will be ready to play a bunch this weekend.

 

[Mexi]

OMFG how many mods are in Ultimate Skyrim!?

 

[Yosharian]

OMFG how many mods are in Ultimate Skyrim!?

As many as it takes to fix Beth's shit game design?

 

[roll-a-die]

OMFG how many mods are in Ultimate Skyrim!?

Having done and ultimate skyrim setup, about 300. Lemme go confirm really quick. About 350, not gonna bother to eliminate the tweaks I've made could be more could be less.

 

[RNGsus]

OMFG how many mods are in Ultimate Skyrim!?

 

[Mech]

Downloading Skyrim again as we speak, and then will install Requiem tonight and giver a whirl tomorrow.

 

[Delterius]

OMFG how many mods are in Ultimate Skyrim!?

As many as it takes to fix Beth's shit game design?

there are no limits to infinity

 

[Zanzoken]

Here's where I ended up with my mod stack:

Spoiler

Gameplay
- Requiem
- Frostfall
- Campfire
- iNeed

Content
- Immersive Patrols
- Better Fast Travel (Carriages and Ships)
- Wearable Lanterns

Presentation
- SkyUI
- A Quality World Map
- Immersive HUD
- Less Intrusive HUD II
- Best Fastened Quivers
- Enhanced Night Skyrim

Not many bells and whistles but the core gameplay is there and everything seems to be running fine.

And Requiem really is a totally different experience. I have already been mauled to death by a wolf and one-shotted by a bandit archer, which never would've happened in vanilla.