Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Inconceivable]

Fact check: True

Of course it is. Thou shouldst never doubt me.
Don't know who this Fluent is, but he sounds like a pretty swell guy!

 

[DJOGamer PT]

But they are still great games that provide something unique - allowing open roleplay in fantastic worlds.

If the roleplay is inconsequential - which it is in Skyrim - than that charaterisitc is completely meaningless.
Better to have 1/2 playstyles with great depth than have 50 with none.

 

[taxalot]

 

[Archwizard Hank]

>Implying that people who play Skyrim will ever need a pregnancy test

 

[rusty_shackleford]

the author of this morrowind mod was able to commission jeff baker (the og male dunmer voice actor) for unique voice lines, which makes me wonder if there are any actual union regulations regarding professional vos and game modding - i distinctly remember stephen russell saying that he physically wasn't allowed to work on any thief fan stuff years ago, but i'm struggling to name any other instances of this

SAG limits the amount of non-union work you're allowed to do, even if it's free. They also limit the amount of work you're allowed to do in jobs that are open to non-union workers.
e.g., Star Trek Online had a lot of amateur VAs at first then they got VAs from the actual series and ended up being unable to voice their original characters anymore and it upset a lot of fans.

 

[ArisatoSeldom]

>Implying that people who play Skyrim will ever need a pregnancy test

Why? My ex-girlfriend did only played Skyrim on her lapto- ...Khm. Right.


But to be fair to this framework of the game, Requiem transform it into brutal and immersive dungeon crawler. The only problem that if you don't get killed by enemies, CTD will get you for sure and break your saves.

I'm actually waiting for SE Requiem to have some guilty pleasure of modding game for a few hundreds of hours and playing it only for five.

 

[cretin]

I saw a topic title on another forum on Skyrim mods called "My slow descent into Madness (or how I destroyed my game)" (there were many participants in this support group) and I didn't even have to open it to know what it about though I did have a good laugh at the amusing self-reflective nature of its author with that title. Children, there is an important cautionary story to be told here. In fact, many.

I'm thinking of trying out YASH instead of waiting for Requiem SSE. I prefer the idea of lightweight but pithy modifications and the idea of something like Skyrim Ultimate kind of makes my balls want to curl into a fetal ball.

IDK about the hate some posters have on YASH, but it's lightweight and keeps the vanilla experience without completely changing the basegame like Requiem does. I like both YASH and Requiem, but I guess it depends on what kind of build you are wanting to play. YASH was a perfectly good substitute while I was playing SE ages ago it feels like now. YASH is also modular. Try it with other hardcore overhauls for a completely different experience. Was just about impossibly difficult when I stacked a bunch of combat overhauls over YASH. IDK if anyone here has ever attempted to master the best overhauls mixed with YASH. Would be fucking great if someone took that endeavor. Seems like you can get quite a hardcore setup, but I stopped getting addicted to modding the game so much. It bores me now.

what i found is adding shit to YASH breaks the balance very easily. And you know, it doesn't need it. I'm speaking from recent experience spending much of my free time trying out different combinations and in the end i came back to YASH by itself with just a few miscellaneous world building mods (missives, jk's skyrim shit like that). Theres really not any reason to bother with combat mods - YASH already has one of the best on the scene and I'm not even joking. YASH combat ai/styles are really good. Moreover, its already really fucking difficult. Its way more difficult than Requiem (bandits in embershard on req 4.0 for example, are complete pushovers even for a lvl 1 char. In YASH embershard is like a level 10 minimum clear and you will still die a lot.).

 

[Mexi]

I saw a topic title on another forum on Skyrim mods called "My slow descent into Madness (or how I destroyed my game)" (there were many participants in this support group) and I didn't even have to open it to know what it about though I did have a good laugh at the amusing self-reflective nature of its author with that title. Children, there is an important cautionary story to be told here. In fact, many.

I'm thinking of trying out YASH instead of waiting for Requiem SSE. I prefer the idea of lightweight but pithy modifications and the idea of something like Skyrim Ultimate kind of makes my balls want to curl into a fetal ball.

IDK about the hate some posters have on YASH, but it's lightweight and keeps the vanilla experience without completely changing the basegame like Requiem does. I like both YASH and Requiem, but I guess it depends on what kind of build you are wanting to play. YASH was a perfectly good substitute while I was playing SE ages ago it feels like now. YASH is also modular. Try it with other hardcore overhauls for a completely different experience. Was just about impossibly difficult when I stacked a bunch of combat overhauls over YASH. IDK if anyone here has ever attempted to master the best overhauls mixed with YASH. Would be fucking great if someone took that endeavor. Seems like you can get quite a hardcore setup, but I stopped getting addicted to modding the game so much. It bores me now.

what i found is adding shit to YASH breaks the balance very easily. And you know, it doesn't need it. I'm speaking from recent experience spending much of my free time trying out different combinations and in the end i came back to YASH by itself with just a few miscellaneous world building mods (missives, jk's skyrim shit like that). Theres really not any reason to bother with combat mods - YASH already has one of the best on the scene and I'm not even joking. YASH combat ai/styles are really good. Moreover, its already really fucking difficult. Its way more difficult than Requiem (bandits in embershard on req 4.0 for example, are complete pushovers even for a lvl 1 char. In YASH embershard is like a level 10 minimum clear and you will still die a lot.).

I've not played in forever, but I'm pretty sure it was harder because you need to train because you are a gimp from level 1. I know you can fuck up bandits at a low level in Requiem if you get that ebony dagger. You can't do that in YASH in comparison. IIRC, training was the backbone of YASH. You have to train on dummies, etc. before you start doing the real thing. At least, I remember hitting up sparring dummies at the Companions.

The only thing I missed when playing YASH was the subtle overhauls you get with Requiem like having arrows bounce off your heavy armor.

Anyways, I'm on the fence about both YASH and Requiem. I like them both a lot. I'm not at all sure which I prefer. It's just based on what I'm trying to build. If I want to add a fuckton of mods, I typically go with YASH. If I'm trying to play more conservative, I go with Requiem. At least, prior to SE, that's how I was doing my modlist builds.

 

[DraQ]

Modding Oblivion atm (which circle of Hell am I in?)

58 Down there we came upon a lacquered people

Ok, that's eerily prophetic.

 

[cretin]

ok so 3tweaks for Requiem 3.4, on SSE, is massive incline.

3tweaks, despite what the name sounds like, is actually more of an overhaul for the overhaul. I'm not going to exhaustively go through the changes (site here: https://sites.google.com/site/3tweaksrequiem/ ) but most of it is logical and designed to shore up requiem's weak spots. The centerpiece of the mod however, really changes the game, and that is the Potions of Insight system. All this is, is now instead of traditional skyrim levelling, you now have to find these potions in the world to improve your skills. Not only does this eliminate grinding (and by extension, makes exploiting things like alchemy literally pointless) but other than training books, and trainers, the only way to actually improve now is to go forth into the world and explore and do quests and clear dungeons, and thus you have an incentive to do just that instead of LARPing as a hobo in riverwood for the first 10 hours.

 

[Inconceivable]

ok so 3tweaks for Requiem 3.4, on SSE, is massive incline.

3tweaks, despite what the name sounds like, is actually more of an overhaul for the overhaul. I'm not going to exhaustively go through the changes (site here: https://sites.google.com/site/3tweaksrequiem/ ) but most of it is logical and designed to shore up requiem's weak spots. The centerpiece of the mod however, really changes the game, and that is the Potions of Insight system. All this is, is now instead of traditional skyrim levelling, you now have to find these potions in the world to improve your skills. Not only does this eliminate grinding (and by extension, makes exploiting things like alchemy literally pointless) but other than training books, and trainers, the only way to actually improve now is to go forth into the world and explore and do quests and clear dungeons, and thus you have an incentive to do just that instead of LARPing as a hobo in riverwood for the first 10 hours.

I like alot of the changes. But chugging potions to improve skills seems very gamey and contrary to the idea of a higher degree of "realism" and immersion. I really prefer the natural leveling, even if that means slow progression in the early game. I think that part when you're building your early skills and feel like a tiny, meek mouse in the huge and menacing Skyrim world is one of the most enjoyable aspects and part of the Requiem experience.

 

[cretin]

ok so 3tweaks for Requiem 3.4, on SSE, is massive incline.

3tweaks, despite what the name sounds like, is actually more of an overhaul for the overhaul. I'm not going to exhaustively go through the changes (site here: https://sites.google.com/site/3tweaksrequiem/ ) but most of it is logical and designed to shore up requiem's weak spots. The centerpiece of the mod however, really changes the game, and that is the Potions of Insight system. All this is, is now instead of traditional skyrim levelling, you now have to find these potions in the world to improve your skills. Not only does this eliminate grinding (and by extension, makes exploiting things like alchemy literally pointless) but other than training books, and trainers, the only way to actually improve now is to go forth into the world and explore and do quests and clear dungeons, and thus you have an incentive to do just that instead of LARPing as a hobo in riverwood for the first 10 hours.

I like alot of the changes. But chugging potions to improve skills seems very gamey and contrary to the idea of a higher degree of "realism" and immersion. I really prefer the natural leveling, even if that means slow progression in the early game. I think that part when you're building your early skills and feel like a tiny, meek mouse in the huge and menacing Skyrim world is one of the most enjoyable aspects and part of the Requiem experience.

i dont think theres anything natural or immersive about doing things like shooting fireballs at deers or letting mudcrabs beat on you to level armor. Secondly, the PoI system actually facilitates better RP. Not clearing a dungeon of all the enemies is a waste of XP in the vanilla levelling system. With the PoI system if you are RPing a thief for example, you very well could just sneak in, pickpocket a key or pick the lock on the dungeon chest and get out with the potions. Furthermore, having potions as rewards for quests actually encourages playing the game's content, as opposed to doing actually gamey shit just to get level ups especially in the late game when things really slow down.

 

[Inconceivable]

i dont think theres anything natural or immersive about doing things like shooting fireballs at deers or letting mudcrabs beat on you to level armor. Secondly, the PoI system actually facilitates better RP. Not clearing a dungeon of all the enemies is a waste of XP in the vanilla levelling system. With the PoI system if you are RPing a thief for example, you very well could just sneak in, pickpocket a key or pick the lock on the dungeon chest and get out with the potions. Furthermore, having potions as rewards for quests actually encourages playing the game's content, as opposed to doing actually gamey shit just to get level ups especially in the late game when things really slow down.

Maybe you're right. It's certainly an interesting idea - but I think the execution could be better. Instead of potions, the game could award you the skillpoints directly at certain events andn milestones: +1SP for reaching the center of a dungeon, +1SP for reaching the end of a dungeon, +1SP for defeating the boss, +X SP when completing certain quests, or even exploring certain areas of the wilderness, etc. Basically the same system in effect, just more natural, without the potions. But I suspect this would be harder to implement.

The icing on the cake would be if the SP were grouped into certain types - Magic, Combat, Exploration, Stealth, and you can only spend the SP in the corresponding tree. Also including general SP that can be spent anywhere.

 

[Yosharian]

The issue isn't the method of delivery, that's irrelevant. The issue is that a character that hasn't cast a spell in their entire career can be a master spellcaster.

That's touted as a benefit of this system but it's a huge immersion breaker. Of course there are positives to this system but it's effectively replacing one flawed system with an even more flawed one.

Better to improve the system Skyrim starts with than to attempt to reinvent the wheel and end up with something worse.

There are some quite clever mods that allow players to turn the 'i need to grind X levels of Alteration now' problem into actually interesting game mechanics. Training on practice dummies or sparring, spell research, etc. And there are other ways of balancing alchemy.

 

[Perkel]

Are there any good overhauls since Requiem ? I didn't play game since like 2013 or something like that and even then i used mostly requiem. I see ton of recomendations for Apocalipse and other of that guy reworks but i don't see it much different from what requiem did withot all extra stuff it also brings.

So, after 10 years, did anyone finally succeed at using mods to make skyrim worth playing? The game always seems to crash before it becomes decent.

OSEX overhaul. Bang your way through game.

The main attraction of Requiem is that it strives to make stuff make sense and feel more real, mostly successfully.

• Enemies have logical strengths and weaknesses and might need specific preparation and planning. For example draugr that are dried dead meat wrapped around dead bones just don't really care about arrows, sabercat WILL knock you down and eat your face unmolested if it pounces, troll will outregen your damage output, then your stamina, then kill you, giant spider will paralyze you and skewer you with giant, armor-piercing chelicerae, bandit archer in a high place will simply shoot your dumb, lightly armoured ass dead given opportunity.

This is the feature that hooked me in and is best feature of this mod. Skyrim has many faults but the biggest fault of them all is actually making out of everything weaksause. Not only every enemy is just walking hp pool you hit with stick but also isn't spice so there is no difference to playing melee or bow builds. This problem extends through core of whole game. And that is not the same as saying game is too easy/hard. It is choices that vanilla game lacks and what games demands from you as player.

For example in game Draugrs were supposed to be fucking scary and killing dragons is supposed to be something amazing. In vanilla game you clear out Draugr lair as one of starting quest and kill dragon 5 minutes later. Naturally then all conversations with npcs their actions and so on are fucking dumb.

Now let us see that with Requiem. Both clearing out Draugrs lairs and killing dragons is fucking hard. While clearing out Draugr barrows might be possible early it feels like you were just smart and used your little abilities you had rather than smashing everything to bits. You ain't gonna kill dragons early game that is for sure.

So by the time you hear about "dragonborn" the story aspect and character aspect of the game makes fuckign sense and it feels like accomplishment and main quest line in Requiem really does fucking require you to be in top shape to finish game. Same goes for sidequests which all feel like your life is at stake rather than just walking in boom boom collect reward.

Requiem changes on gameplay have huge impact on actual stories themlselves in a game too because it provides context they needed in order to feel right. Yes some of those stories are shit but there are plenty which are good in R framerawork simply because what R requires for you to do in order to accomplish them.

The other thing i love about this feature is that it forces you to think outside of box due to your build not being ok with content your are about to handle. To many games see "builds" as the measuring stick for "depth" but they forgot the point of builds. Builds are supposed to not be end of all things. They were supposed to have cons and pros. Being fire mage is supposed to feel super OP when you fight undead but complete weaksauce when you fight firedragon. This is why Gandalf still used sword, because even OP wizard needs something in time when his OP power can't be used. It is those ups and downs that are fun not being constantly OP. Reqiem really checks that box very well because there is always some way to deal with problem. It might not be the best way but it will get you through while you will have times when you build will show its claw to give you fun.

 

[Perkel]

ok so 3tweaks for Requiem 3.4, on SSE, is massive incline.

3tweaks, despite what the name sounds like, is actually more of an overhaul for the overhaul. I'm not going to exhaustively go through the changes (site here: https://sites.google.com/site/3tweaksrequiem/ ) but most of it is logical and designed to shore up requiem's weak spots. The centerpiece of the mod however, really changes the game, and that is the Potions of Insight system. All this is, is now instead of traditional skyrim levelling, you now have to find these potions in the world to improve your skills. Not only does this eliminate grinding (and by extension, makes exploiting things like alchemy literally pointless) but other than training books, and trainers, the only way to actually improve now is to go forth into the world and explore and do quests and clear dungeons, and thus you have an incentive to do just that instead of LARPing as a hobo in riverwood for the first 10 hours.

I don't see how it makes anything better. The first 10 hours of hobbo is literally you training in order to be good at something and then going into world to explore. It makes sense. And yes deers are good target so is being hit by some weak shit. The idea here is that you learn how to better distribute weight, position etc when you get his so your armor works better.

The point is that it makes sense and it is not exactly needed. But imho better way of handling it would be to give player character customization as in Oblivion where you decide archetype and you have some starting build skills alas Skyrim has shit char gen. I played only earlier versions of Re so i don't know if now it has that.

 

[Perkel]

i found cool mod. Basically you can make out of your other builds followers and share them crosssave.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[ERYFKRAD]

you cant do anything without perk invested in

Untrue, you can die. Repeatedly.

 

[Kazuki]

It's overhauling the entire main quest, giving them c&c, companion storylines integration, improved faction etc.

Don't expect much though, it seems in vein of Bioware style.

 

[deuxhero]

ok so 3tweaks for Requiem 3.4, on SSE, is massive incline.

3tweaks, despite what the name sounds like, is actually more of an overhaul for the overhaul. I'm not going to exhaustively go through the changes (site here: https://sites.google.com/site/3tweaksrequiem/ ) but most of it is logical and designed to shore up requiem's weak spots. The centerpiece of the mod however, really changes the game, and that is the Potions of Insight system. All this is, is now instead of traditional skyrim levelling, you now have to find these potions in the world to improve your skills. Not only does this eliminate grinding (and by extension, makes exploiting things like alchemy literally pointless) but other than training books, and trainers, the only way to actually improve now is to go forth into the world and explore and do quests and clear dungeons, and thus you have an incentive to do just that instead of LARPing as a hobo in riverwood for the first 10 hours.

This seems like it's utterly incompatible with modded locations.

 

[Puukko]

So I decided to give Wabbajack a try for the first time. I installed a couple modlists taking up a total of 250gb on my SSD, and having 500 and 1000 mods, respectively. Installing the first list was a bit of a hassle, as it failed to download the very last MEGA archive on its own and I had to manually pop it in there. I had bought a month of Nexus premium for this purpose, which was a very reasonable investment considering how much time I saved thanks to it. After that, it required extensive MCM fiddling that allowed for no saving inbetween due to the extensive scripting having a high chance of leading to corrupt saves.

The second modlist was smoother sailing, only requiring me to restart it a couple times since it required a decent bit more space than the actual install size of 150gb, and I really had to go clearing out my SSD to make enough space for it. After that though, it was way less of a hassle once I was ingame, though the game either really didn't either like my remaining overlays (which didn't even show up ingame) or it just needed some reboot magic, since I got quite a lot of crashes that seem to be resolved now.

On top of all that, the folks at the Wabbajack discord have been very helpful, so this has overall been about the easiest modding experience I've had so far, despite the hiccups.

I'll focus on the second modlist, Elder Souls:

https://github.com/jdsmith2816/eldersouls

Elder Souls is an attempt to bring some Soulsborne flavor to Skyrim.

You should expect challenging but fair combat, an awesome dark fantasy vibe and a plethora of new content.

Among this new content you will find a variety of new hand placed monster types, atleast four player houses per hold and many new dungeons and quests.

Leveling and death are modelled after the Dark Souls system but utilizing gold rather than souls. Sleep to raise skills and level up.

And I have to say, I really like it so far. I am about 8 hours in and have spent most of the early game doing my best to gather equipment and followers. I find it a bit odd however that the modlist does nothing about fast travel - I think disabling the world map and compass by default and forcing the player to travel via carriage would go a long way in enhancing the challenge the list aims for.

I went with the vampire start and it definitely makes me replan how I moved around and approach enemies. Vampirism comes with both strong buffs and big weaknesses. You have good physical resistances, abilities like vampire charm and bat form blink, but also weaknesses to silver and fire, on top of being heavily burned by the sun and being unable to heal outside resting and ingesting blood, as well as leech effects, I believe. Going outside in cities during the day is very difficult - I have to wait for it to be overcast before talking to Brynjolf on the market since I'll just die otherwise.

Graphics and atmosphere are also on point. The game relies heavily on the ENB to provide the mood. It does not add new vegetation quite as much as my other modlist, but the weather effects are really really nice (those thunderstorms really put me on my toes), which in addition to all the new enemies, events and changed urban environments really makes me interested to keep exploring, since all this stuff I know like the back of my hand has been enhanced and made deadlier. The save system adds to this since you can't just save scum - you only save by resting, which gives you one portable save scroll, as well as receiving a new one roughly every 15 minutes.

I'll write more of my thoughts once I've played more.

Spoiler

 

[Twiglard]

Best unknown Skyrim mod ever:

Dead Body Collision Fix

Spoiler

 

[DraQ]

Best unknown Skyrim mod ever:

Dead Body Collision Fix

Spoiler

It's a fun little mod. I've had it installed since 2014.

 

[Mud']

So I decided to give Wabbajack a try for the first time. I installed a couple modlists taking up a total of 250gb on my SSD, and having 500 and 1000 mods, respectively. Installing the first list was a bit of a hassle, as it failed to download the very last MEGA archive on its own and I had to manually pop it in there. I had bought a month of Nexus premium for this purpose, which was a very reasonable investment considering how much time I saved thanks to it. After that, it required extensive MCM fiddling that allowed for no saving inbetween due to the extensive scripting having a high chance of leading to corrupt saves.

The second modlist was smoother sailing, only requiring me to restart it a couple times since it required a decent bit more space than the actual install size of 150gb, and I really had to go clearing out my SSD to make enough space for it. After that though, it was way less of a hassle once I was ingame, though the game either really didn't either like my remaining overlays (which didn't even show up ingame) or it just needed some reboot magic, since I got quite a lot of crashes that seem to be resolved now.

On top of all that, the folks at the Wabbajack discord have been very helpful, so this has overall been about the easiest modding experience I've had so far, despite the hiccups.

I'll focus on the second modlist, Elder Souls:

https://github.com/jdsmith2816/eldersouls



And I have to say, I really like it so far. I am about 8 hours in and have spent most of the early game doing my best to gather equipment and followers. I find it a bit odd however that the modlist does nothing about fast travel - I think disabling the world map and compass by default and forcing the player to travel via carriage would go a long way in enhancing the challenge the list aims for.

I went with the vampire start and it definitely makes me replan how I moved around and approach enemies. Vampirism comes with both strong buffs and big weaknesses. You have good physical resistances, abilities like vampire charm and bat form blink, but also weaknesses to silver and fire, on top of being heavily burned by the sun and being unable to heal outside resting and ingesting blood, as well as leech effects, I believe. Going outside in cities during the day is very difficult - I have to wait for it to be overcast before talking to Brynjolf on the market since I'll just die otherwise.

Graphics and atmosphere are also on point. The game relies heavily on the ENB to provide the mood. It does not add new vegetation quite as much as my other modlist, but the weather effects are really really nice (those thunderstorms really put me on my toes), which in addition to all the new enemies, events and changed urban environments really makes me interested to keep exploring, since all this stuff I know like the back of my hand has been enhanced and made deadlier. The save system adds to this since you can't just save scum - you only save by resting, which gives you one portable save scroll, as well as receiving a new one roughly every 15 minutes.

I'll write more of my thoughts once I've played more.

Spoiler

Seems very damn tempting, however i dont want to pay for a premium Nexus account and i would probably would like to add Witcher 3 soundtrack instead of DS3 soundtrack to be honest.

But i wont lie this kinda makes me want to try it out.