Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Anyway, do you remember Oblivion lockpicking? At least the Skyrim version isn't tedious so if a mod makes it not override the skill it's no longer something that would detract from my enjoyment.

Very true. Again, I don't hate the mod, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Maybe in the future though, after I get bored of how easy SkyRe is. Actually, SkyRe seems to make lock picking much more difficult if you don't have the skill leveled - without having a lockpicking skill tree. They added a lore skill called Wayfarer in its place and that seems like a p cool idea...

I finally got the characters (female mostly) look nice without turning the game into another Final Fantasy.

I'm looking at all the overhauls and combat tweaks. Once again I don't know which ones to use. Skyre? Requiem? Duel? Deadly Combat? Vanilla with sexmods? FYI back in Oblivion I preferred Francesco's mod to OOO.

Duel was my favorite before trying Skyre. It's close to vanilla in that I don't think it messes with leveling at all, just AI, but the change in combat gameplay is pretty dramatic - in a good way. Doesn't fix magic at all though. You'd need either Skytweak or another mod to tweak magic.

SkyRe is pretty balanced. It offers more challenge than vanilla by far, but again level scaling is still a factor and dragons aren't too challenging and are quite defeatable even at level 10, but there are mods that are specifically for that...

Requiem is uber-challenging. I found it very difficult - as in constant one-hit-kills sending me back to the loading screen. Still, it's usually a challenge that makes sense (apart from the dragon priests that I felt were too tough). You'll find the designer took some liberties in making battles more challenging - like adding literally 20 dragur to the final room. But if you are up for a real challenge go right ahead. The entire magic system has been overhauled as has the economy (I really liked that part).

If you use Mod Organizer rather than Mod Manager or Steam, you'll be able to try each of the combat mods without messing up your data directory...

 

[Lhynn]

SkyRe doesnt touch dragons, leaves them alone for you to use a dragon overhaul mod to make them better.

 

[Heresiarch]

I've been reading through the readmes of them. Requiem is apparently the most hardcore one, but probably doesn't fit a sandbox game such as Skyrim the best. I would probably try SkyRe, but the way it says it's very difficult to get rid of it if you don't like it, along with the way it overhauls a ton of things, makes me a bit hesitated. I would need to look a bit more into them. I'm not worried about dragons not being touched though, there are Deadly Dragons and Dragon Combat Overhaul for that.

I would probably go with a combination of Duel (or deadly combat?) + some magic mod + some balance mod + some perk mod. And then I'll probably grow bored within a few days and want to try SkyRe/Requiem/other combinations. And the cycle repeats. Bleh.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

SkyRe doesnt touch dragons, leaves them alone for you to use a dragon overhaul mod to make them better.

Ah, thanks, I'll definitely download one then.

I would probably try SkyRe, but the way it says it's very difficult to get rid of it if you don't like it, along with the way it overhauls a ton of things, makes me a bit hesitated.

Again, Mod Organizer. I used to use Mod Manager and it was a pain in the ass breaking my install all the time and having to figure out what's wrong. Mod Organizer keeps all the mods' files out of your Skyrim directory. When I went from Requiem to SkyRe, all I did was uncheck Requiem and check SkyRe (though I had to run a reproccer to patch my modded in weapons to SkyRe - you need to do the same to make requiem work right.). Done.

 

[Heresiarch]

I'll have a look. I hope it's not a hassle to switch from Nexus Mod Manager to that. Like manually switching off all the mods, locate all the mods manually, and then use Mod Organizer to active them all....

 

[Heresiarch]

OMG WHICH LIGHTING EFFECT SHOULD I USE DECISIONS DECISIONS

http://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=3320

 

[felipepepe]

RLO seems to be the best, but honestly, they all suck. Either there's too much saturation, too much contrast/BLOOM or they just plain kill any shadows.

Project ENB + Climates of Tamriel does a much better job, IMHO.

 

[Crispy]

I've tried a few lighting mods and Enhanced Lights and FX is the one I settled on. It does what it does more subtly than the others, making indoors darker but not ridiculously so. Outdoors at night is also pleasingly more realistic but not requiring a torch everywhere you go.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I'll have a look. I hope it's not a hassle to switch from Nexus Mod Manager to that. Like manually switching off all the mods, locate all the mods manually, and then use Mod Organizer to active them all....

You might even be able to use both, sort of. Just use it to try out requiem et al and leave everything in your install directory as is. Also, when you use mods with the Mod Organizer, you have to run it through that or a shortcut so it can tell the game to look for the mods.

 

[Heresiarch]

So I've wasted half and hour setting up RealVision ENB, yet even on the max performance setup it destroyed my FPS. Not only it hurt my ego but I must now revert everything back to normal. I guess ENB is not for people who don't use a Titan or similar GPUs?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

My i7's built in graphics handle the performance ENB just fine. Looks kind of crappy tbh though so maybe it's not running it right...(?)

edit: I'll update it to the latest version and check just to be sure.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I use "RCRN -- HDR Lighting and Weather Enhancement". Pretty painless, comes with some presets.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1875

Shame I couldn't find a way to make dungeons pitch black like in Morrowind and Oblivion - even a bland cavern becomes interesting if you *need* a source of light to see what is around you. It also makes the pyres and walltorches useful during a fight or to scout ahead, instead of pretty scenary. That skeleton you used to snipe from the other room can now jump at you in a moment's notice. The "PURE" preset is said to be like that, but it's still a little too bright for me. Might be my monitor, though.

PRESETS:
> RCRN Legacy : balanced colors, lesser contrast than RCRN Classic, slightly brighter nights than RCRN Classic and realistic dynamic lighting, enhanced weather conditions, torches not needed. (recommended for newcomers)
> RCRN Classic : balanced colors, dark nights and realistic dynamic lighting, enanched weather conditions, balanced preset, torches suggested.
> RCRN Pure : the ultimate Skyrim experience, pitch black nights, scary dungeons, ultra-realistic weather conditions, torches required.

Heresiarch: RCRN's page mentionts this performance enhancing mod, give it a try! It's free~

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15123/?

 

[Lhynn]

ENB is not to play the game, its just to take screenshots.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

It's a performance ENB and actually runs as well if not better than Vanilla - been a while since I've tried vanilla though, so I could be wrong. Screenies aren't as pretty for the performance as the real deal, but whatever.

Anyway, yeah, the latest version runs fine on my i7 laptop with a messily 4gb of ram and built-in intel HD 4000 graphics. May want to update your graphics drivers etc...

edit: shit, I misread your post and thought you said you had a Titan. My bad. Late nights make me dyslexic...

 

[Heresiarch]

It's a performance ENB and actually runs as well if not better than Vanilla - been a while since I've tried vanilla though, so I could be wrong. Screenies aren't as pretty for the performance as the real deal, but whatever.

Anyway, yeah, the latest version runs fine on my i7 laptop with a messily 4gb of ram and built-in intel HD 4000 graphics. May want to update your graphics drivers etc...

edit: shit, I misread your post and thought you said you had a Titan. My bad. Late nights make me dyslexic...

Are you kidding me?? I'm running on i5 with 8gb ram and a 680MX which is way more powerful than your HD 4000. Perhaps I should try it again, as I've just discovered that I've installed Climate of Tamriel with the darker dungeons and shit prior to that and actually messed up the lighting effects. But now must get some sleep...

Also

ENB is not to play the game, its just to take screenshots.

Probably right, just like Skyrim is not to play the game, its just to mess with mods

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

It's a performance ENB and actually runs as well if not better than Vanilla - been a while since I've tried vanilla though, so I could be wrong. Screenies aren't as pretty for the performance as the real deal, but whatever.

Anyway, yeah, the latest version runs fine on my i7 laptop with a messily 4gb of ram and built-in intel HD 4000 graphics. May want to update your graphics drivers etc...

edit: shit, I misread your post and thought you said you had a Titan. My bad. Late nights make me dyslexic...

Are you kidding me?? I'm running on i5 with 8gb ram and a 680MX which is way more powerful than your HD 4000. Perhaps I should try it again, as I've just discovered that I've installed Climate of Tamriel with the darker dungeons and shit prior to that and actually messed up the lighting effects. But now must get some sleep...

Also

ENB is not to play the game, its just to take screenshots.

Probably right, just like Skyrim is not to play the game, its just to mess with mods

You should be killing my performance by miles with a rig that beefy. I have climates installed too. I think Real ENB is designed to work with it. You sure you're using the "performance" version? Oh, I never use anti aliasing or anisotropic filtering though. I never cared about it since I usually run at a high resolution to accommodate my wide screen laptop...plus I'm no popamole gfx whore. (I'm cheap and don't like spending $$$ on computers anymore...)



edit: actually, I think my settings got a little messed up. I usually have decals turned on and high texture quality...

edit2: Turning up the texture quailty to max and the decals to high makes zero difference in performance for me. Also, if I had a real graphics card installed, I should be able to turn on antialiasing and anisotropic filtering without too much performance loss. IIRC, cheap built-in graphics cannot into the complicated stuff like the genuine article...

edit3: Yeah, antisotropic filtering gives me a bit of a hit, but serious lag doesn't start till I crank the antialiasing...

 

[Commissar Draco]

Latest version of Reproc forces the use of Boss which in turn messes up the load list and moded weapons are still shit; but it is OK when you want to play more Vanilla approach; at least shrines work as in Morrowind with Better Shrines installed and game runs faster and crashes lot less. Shame Skyrim engine can't really be fixed into proper RPG game like Oblivion's one was into Nehrim; which reminds Commissar we should play Wasteland 2 and new Divinity game now instead of .

P.S. ENB can be tweaked in ini to have elements of both better graphics and more stable and faster performance and as added bonus you get rid of this washed out gray loook Bethpizda ''thinks'' Scandinavia has; well it is not Scotland it is more Cold than Wet.

 

[Lancehead]

Another loophole with Requiem and master-locked merchant chests: you can steal expensive items from various merchants and sell them to a fence to power level Speech. Since Speech levels based on the value of the item being sold, it doesn't matter if the fence doesn't have enough gold to buy all the items, you can simply sell them for 0 gold. A simple fix would be to tie the Speech levelling to the amount of gold being received in transaction.

 

[RK47]

I'm looking forward to revisiting Requiem with Dragonborn installed this week.
Probably have to start from a fresh save.
Gonna try playing a mage this time.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Silence Heretic; Gods Sacrificed themselves to create the Mundus and protect the Humanity from Chaos and Sithis; What Demons have brought? Deceit, Murder, and Debauchery; Besides how Gods can be dead if they answer the prayers and their avatars walk on this plane? Remember Pelinal, Talos and Wulf! The Law is Sacred, The Empire is Law.

Fly up a Daedric tower like a boss. That's the Legion standard. and (NSFW):

Spoiler

Dock after the Service with Locals to bolster the Nedic Unity and to uphold the Ancient Customs of our Atmoran Ancestors!

P.S Don't check Ingredients on in Skyrpoc it causes the Java Null Pointer Exception.

 

[RK47]

I see no evil.

Spoiler

 

[Akratus]

Guys, turn shadows to low. Bethtardation can't into programming, it's an fps bottleneck. I used to have everything else on medium as well as shadows, and now I can max everything out just by putting shadows on low.

 

[Gord]

Shameless self-quote:

Use this settings for better looking and less demanding shadows:

SkyrimPrefs.ini:

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=8

fInteriorShadowDistance=2000.0000

fShadowDistance=3000.0000 (or even a bit lower, like 2750)

iShadowMapResolution=2048

iShadowMode=3
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
fShadowBiasScale=0.15

And, from the display section in Skyrim.ini:

fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.0000
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.5

Works pretty well for me - shadows look reasonably smooth (indoor sometimes not so much, they are treated differently for some reason) and don't eat your ressources. Only downside is a slight pop-up (not so bad though, imho).
You can of course increase shadowdistance, but by doing so, you will decrease the quality, too.
The settings that go into Skyrim.ini have only one effect, to make shadows update to sun position instantaneously. This reduces flickering from moving shadows. Of course, if you don't mind, you can leave that at default values. Alternatively you could make them move in realtime, I guess.

 

[cort]

DraQ , I've been playing around with requiem with the apocalypse spell package mod installed. I'm not sure why it happens but my undead minions sometime disappear inside dungeons even though the spell used to raise them shouldn't have expired yet. The minion, a vampire in steel plate, isn't just stuck somewhere in the dungeon either (i don't want to lose him since I had a hard time killing him)

Loading to an earlier save brings them back but it's such a hassle (and I feel like a save scummer). Any idea why it happens?

 

[Gord]

I noticed that bug(?) or a similar one as well - when entering a new area, my undead minion is reduced to an ashpile, although the spell is still running.
Funny enough I can still hear my minion (footsteps, etc.).

No additional spell mod installed, btw.