Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Heresiarch]

Do not install Requiem...

...if you don't want to have fun...

...being instagibbed over and over again while being gloated by the teh gid gud elites.

 

[Excidium]

Requiem is fucking retarded. I installed it expecting awesome fast and lethal gladiator combat but instead found myself on top of a half meter high rock plinking 50 arrows on an iron armor guy while his Radiant AI circles around hopelessly after I instagibbed all his fur armored friends.

Fun

There are some more promising mods that add locational damage and rebalance parrying and blocking, add dodge, etc. Try those instead. Requiem's ideal of combat is rock paper scissors.

 

[subotaiy]

Or you can install Dark Souls. Yeah, I know I sound like a broken record.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Requiem is fucking retarded.

git gud





Sorry, I wanted to try it...

 

[Invictus]

I really don't understand what's the big deal with the combat at the highest difficulty with a properly moded game.
I have played with a nightblade kind of character (who only uses robes and summoned weapons) and he is perfectly challenging; he can be killed by a single dragon bite or by a couple of warhammer swings from an angry orc warrior. He can kill in a couple of hits and be also killed the same way and he is usally toast when taking on more than 3 enemies at a time. I use poison and buffs before fighting higher grade enemies and as long as I am sneaking I can kill enemies in one or two bowshots.
I also love Dark Souls but it is by no means a "relaxing" game while Skyrim is usually something I can do while petting my cat or talking over the phone.
In all honestly that's is maybe what I like best about it, the "let's see what is over than cave" exploration, the beautiful vistas and all the imaginative mods...I can get my challenges from my Souls & Wizardries but for pure entertainment Skyrim is the best

 

[Heresiarch]

Requiem is fucking retarded. I installed it expecting awesome fast and lethal gladiator combat but instead found myself on top of a half meter high rock plinking 50 arrows on an iron armor guy while his Radiant AI circles around hopelessly after I instagibbed all his fur armored friends.

Fun

There are some more promising mods that add locational damage and rebalance parrying and blocking, add dodge, etc. Try those instead. Requiem's ideal of combat is rock paper scissors.

To be fair, reading the Requiem manual alone makes me feel intensively interested in trying it because it does make the game very different and potentially fun. However I do NOT recommend people randomly try it just for the sake of "it's hardcoar oldskool!!1", or even worse being pushed to use the mod because "you suxxors at gaeming if you wine about requiem". I recommend only two kinds of people to play a serious game with Requiem:
- Those who played the normal Skyrim for 7 times and grow bored and want to try something VERY new
- Those who never liked normal Skyrim in the first place but are welcome to try a drastically different one

Otherwise it'll just turn into another troll warz because people will be disappointed "itz so different!!!!" and then flaming with those hardcorez requiem fans. Think about complaining that DOTA is shit because you can't do base building and micro a large number of troops and therefore is too different from WC3.

For me, using Deadly Combat and refraining from exploiting smithing+enchanting+alchemy (for example I improve equipment only to the basic Legendary level at max) is enough to make the game lethal, challenging, fun, without being too cheap. Even in full ebony armor, bandits chiefs supported by a couple of archers can still kill me in a few seconds, and I need to attack much more carefully as the AI is improved a lot (blocking & bashing with deadly accuracy). I don't use magic much in the current playthrough but the new spells which are brought by Apocalypse Spell Package show shitlot of potential to make playing as a mage lots of fun. And I haven't even touched any of the DLC quests yet, and I haven't played any of the DB/TG quests, and I still have tons of dungeons and places that I've never been yet. There are still hundreds of hours for me to mess with the game before I must resort to using Requiem/SkyRe to spice up the game. But hey, by that time Dark Souls 2 will be out and it's time to say kthxbye to Skyrim...

 

[Newfag-er]

Otherwise it'll just turn into another troll warz because people will be disappointed "itz so different!!!!" and then flaming with those hardcorez requiem fans. Think about complaining that DOTA is shit because you can't do base building and micro a large number of troops and therefore is too different from WC3.

:kwanzania:

I recommend only two kinds of people to play a serious game with Requiem:
- Those who played the normal Skyrim for 7 times and grow bored and want to try something VERY new
- Those who never liked normal Skyrim in the first place but are welcome to try a drastically different one

Requiem is not intended as a modification that makes the game an absolute hardcore experience (which seems to be a common misconception), though increasing the difficulty to a much higher degree (in comparison to the original game) is part of it's goal to make the world feel more believable and immersive. Likewise, the project is not intended to be a modification that's suited for the average player - it's a personal project that's mainly meant to be shared with like-minded individuals who enjoy an immersive roleplaying experience. We are trying to create something unique - something we do not do for the sake of popularity, fame or whatever, but for the joy that we find in working and altering an existing piece of art and constantly improving what we made (so far) with the help of the great community that has formed around the project and helped us in so many ways to make progresses we did not even consider possible (kudos to all of you for your constant feedback, criticism, suggestions, bugreports, resources and comments! We really appreciate the effort!

We are trying to create something unique - something we do not do for the sake of popularity, fame or whatever, but for the joy that we find in working and altering an existing piece of art and constantly improving what we made (so far) with the help of the

Last but not least, you might want to check this! If you fall into the latter category, this modification is likely for you!

All those comment they posted in the front page of the mod should said more then plenty..

(I gotta say rpgcodex has the best emoticon out of any forum I've ever experienced)

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

believable and immersive

Because the bow and arrow becoming the ultimate weapon in the game (against everything but undead) is believable and immersive...

 

[Clockwork Knight]

But you just brofisted a post that says you have to shoot 50 arrows into some guy with iron armor.

I think your confused mental state is caused by lack of gudness.

 

[Somberlain]

Just uninstalled Dragon Combat Overhaul. While I like challenge, this mod just goes full retard. For example, it gives every single (even the weakest) dragon ability to do that previously-Alduin-only meteor shower thing and call reinforcements (other dragons), so pretty much every single dragon fight ends up with insane amount of lightning bolts, meteors, ice blocks and other shit raining down upon you. Also, the dragons now barely ever land, and they might even retreat, which just adds to the overall annoyiance.

And to top it all off, pretty much every single thing dragons do knocks you down, so 95% of the time spent in dragon fights you wait for the dragon to land (or even hover still so you can fire arrows) or watch your character ragdoll around, which might take suprisingly long, considering how glorious Skyrim's physics engine is.

Oh, and not to forget the incredibly retarded description on the modpage.

 

[Tigranes]

Argh. After first time in Markarth the exterior cell always crashes.

So... Requiem level 22 sneaky mage dude, and those special draugr remain freakishly strong. Finally managed to do a dwarven ruins. Haven't even tried a dragon yet. I like it still, sometimes there are stupidly difficult situations but (a) some of it is from immersive creatures, and (b) potions of invisibility.

 

[Commissar Draco]

at level 22 you're just begin to git gutt and barely qualify for Legion or Hold Watch. Got Skyrim on hold since FNV has guns* and didn't made my KOTOR2 restoration project run.

*And Someone should make the Project Brazil LP... Huehuehue!!!

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

But you just brofisted a post that says you have to shoot 50 arrows into some guy with iron armor.

I think your confused mental state is caused by lack of gudness.

M'kay, everything except undead and heavy armor dudes? (The armor didn't make that much of a difference in my game, but maybe it was because I was fighting some kind of bandits? I just remember downing them in a few hits, from a distance...)

Doesn't matter though: 50 arrows is believable and immersive? Ok.

Also, I will consider playing requiem again if "level up" is changed to "git gudder".

 

[DraQ]

Just uninstalled Dragon Combat Overhaul. While I like challenge, this mod just goes full retard. For example, it gives every single (even the weakest) dragon ability to do that previously-Alduin-only meteor shower thing and call reinforcements (other dragons), so pretty much every single dragon fight ends up with insane amount of lightning bolts, meteors, ice blocks and other shit raining down upon you. Also, the dragons now barely ever land, and they might even retreat, which just adds to the overall annoyiance.

And to top it all off, pretty much every single thing dragons do knocks you down, so 95% of the time spent in dragon fights you wait for the dragon to land (or even hover still so you can fire arrows) or watch your character ragdoll around, which might take suprisingly long, considering how glorious Skyrim's physics engine is.

Oh, and not to forget the incredibly retarded description on the modpage.

Using it on top of Mighty Dragons which is on top of Requiem and there are no problems. I had one case of dragon physics bork during fight in somewhat cramped area, bout overall the mod makes Dragons much less predictable and combat much less rote, which is a plus.

 

[Heresiarch]

After almost a hundreds of hours playing with it it seems that Frostfall is more of an annoyance than actual gameplay improvement. The biggest issue for me is that only the PC suffers from exposure problems. Every other NPC, from semi naked Argonians working by the docks of Windhelm to children running playing outside in snows all the time to mages and priests standing alone in a blizzard...they are all not affected. Frostfall is supposed to make the game more immersive yet ironically it's absolutely immersion breaking as in the whole world only I am scared of cold and must always wear thick clothing. It's especially a bad sight to look at when I'm following NPC around or taling to one in the outside, those guys absolutely don't give a fuck about the weather while I'm freezing to death.

Another problem is it's apparently super script intense. It must constantly run updates to check for weather, temperature in different areas, heat sources, accumulation of exposure, special animations and visual effects, etc.To fix the NPC clothing in cold immersion problem I could install extra mods but that will further stress papyrus and only make the game furtherly instable.

Hey hardcorez guis, do you use Frostfall at all?

 

[sea]

I always felt "life simulation" type mods were boring and stupid, especially when shoehorned into games where the rest was clearly never designed with it in mind (unlike, say, STALKER, whose survival elements are a vital part of the experience). I tend to lump Frostfall into that category of "tedious LARPer crap".

 

[DraQ]

After almost a hundreds of hours playing with it it seems that Frostfall is more of an annoyance than actual gameplay improvement. The biggest issue for me is that only the PC suffers from exposure problems. Every other NPC, from semi naked Argonians working by the docks of Windhelm to children running playing outside in snows all the time to mages and priests standing alone in a blizzard...they are all not affected. Frostfall is supposed to make the game more immersive yet ironically it's absolutely immersion breaking as in the whole world only I am scared of cold and must always wear thick clothing. It's especially a bad sight to look at when I'm following NPC around or taling to one in the outside, those guys absolutely don't give a fuck about the weather while I'm freezing to death.

Another problem is it's apparently super script intense. It must constantly run updates to check for weather, temperature in different areas, heat sources, accumulation of exposure, special animations and visual effects, etc.To fix the NPC clothing in cold immersion problem I could install extra mods but that will further stress papyrus and only make the game furtherly instable.

Well, duh?

Hey hardcorez guis, do you use Frostfall at all?

Nope.

I would if the game wasn't about bare chested barbarians running around in the snow with hueg swords.
As it is I prefer to amplify the gameplay that's already there.

 

[Commissar Draco]

It's far better made than FNV hardcore mode to be sure and it does drives the point Skyrim is deadly place rather well but its resource heavy so don't expect Skyrim a poorly coded game to begin with to be stable after installing it. Personally It was first needs mods Commissar liked despite it flaws; just install Winter is comming and wet and cold so PC won't standout as sisy milkdrinker among the the bare chasted Nords. It does limit the free exploration especially with Requiem and its non level scaled enemies until you git gutt though.

 

[t]

Is the OP being updated or am I supposed to go through 100 pages of those lulz to find out what the hivemind approves of?

 

[AW8]

Is the OP being updated or am I supposed to go through 100 pages of those lulz to find out what the hivemind approves of?

The last 50 pages will do fine.

 

[Lancehead]

Finished Dragonborn. Some impressions:

- Firstly, the Morrowind-like landscape and architecture was nice to see and traverse. (I wouldn't mind Morrowind transported into this engine just for the visuals facelift.)

- I noticed that npcs are a bit more verbose than in the oc. E.g., asking Raven Rock npcs how they got to settle in Raven Rock nets relatively long stories from them.

- Another similarity to Morrowind are the instances when you have to find out something. E.g., at the start you can ask pretty much every npc about Miraak and they'll point you to either the Earth Shrine or his Temple. Similarly, when you try to recruit someone from Raven Rock as Neloth's steward, you can ask many npcs if they're interested. Some npcs turn out to be helpful and point you in the right direction.

- Speaking of Neloth, he's a proper Telvanni wizard. The best character in oc+dlc by a country mile; in fact, he's really the only npc worth talking about as a 'character'. Some of his dialogue is good; I especially liked the bit when I mentioned being the archmage of College of Winterhold and he replied "maybe someday I'll teach you a trick or two" (to paraphrase).

- Some of the quests were good. The quests to find Deathbrand armour set and the Kagrumez resonance gems didn't have any quest markers. I can't recall any search quests from oc that didn't have quest markers apart from the Stones of Barenziah quest. I also liked the quest where the moneylender in Raven Rock asks you to pay Neloth's new steward's (that you recruit) debt. It was good because it had a meaningful unresolved state (he sends thugs after you) to it if you choose not to pay him or deal with him any other way.

- The main quest itself was decent, especially Apocrypha, though it'd have been better if it was made a lot more difficult to navigate what with constantly altering pathways.

- On an unrelated note, I'm interested in what Bethesda does with Morrowind now after the Red Year. Points to note are, Neloth brings many of the Vvardenfell plant species to Solstheim, he's researching into the heartstones--rock from inside the Red Mountain, and there's an npc outside Tel Mithryn who saved a silt rider.

As for Requiem-Dragonborn mod (made by a different author from the original mod authors), he really overdid many things.

- Original Requiem added Invisible Entities, so this mod also adds them (to Apocrypha) but doesn't stop there and adds another invisible creature called Benthic Daggers and an Enchanted Benthic Daggers variant.

- Daedric shrines (of Azura, Mephala and Boethiah) don't work for criminals, though I guess original Requiem is at fault here because of the way divines shrines are designed.

- An 'easter egg' of a giant in the middle of an open landscape that can't be missed unless you're blind.

Spoiler

(Xarrian, by the way, is one of the authors of the original Requiem.)

- But the biggest stupidity is the scourge items (of Malacath).

Firstly, introducing new weapons in order to make certain enemies strong is a stupid design concept. Secondly, the process of crafting these scourge weapons is overly complicated:

- First, you have to read a book called 'the scourgestones', which is written in a most heavy-handed manner (modders, stay away from writing if you can help it), to start the related quest. The book describes a process to make the items, but if you follow that, you get nothing. You have to read a second book that mentions that there are atronach forge recipes.
- (These recipes are written in daedric font. I don't know if the author thinks he's being clever or whatever by making most of the players to go on the internet to translate the bloody thing.)
- Each weapon requires certain items, one of which comes in seven variants; one of each variant is required to craft any weapon.
- Once you craft a weapon at the atronach forge, it's not usable. You have to take it a normal forge, add some more material, and provided you have a specific hammer in your inventory, you can then craft the final usable version of the weapon.​

Thirdly, you find this on Miraak's body, alongside Malacath's Scourge mace:

Spoiler

Overall, while I think the mod does a decent job transporting much of the Requiem feel, stupidity like the above makes me not recommend it but rather avoid it.

 

[GarfunkeL]

It's far better made than FNV hardcore mode to be sure and it does drives the point Skyrim is deadly place rather well but its resource heavy so don't expect Skyrim a poorly coded game to begin with to be stable after installing it. Personally It was first needs mods Commissar liked despite it flaws; just install Winter is comming and wet and cold so PC won't standout as sisy milkdrinker among the the bare chasted Nords. It does limit the free exploration especially with Requiem and its non level scaled enemies until you git gutt though.

Exactly. Those three together increase the IMMERSHUN-factor by a hundredfold. It's not THAT unstable, either - I could play well enough, though the game did CTD fairly regularly.

 

[DraQ]

As for Requiem-Dragonborn mod (made by a different author from the original mod authors), he really overdid many things.

How do you uninstall it in the cleanest manner possible, BTW?

 

[Lancehead]

As for Requiem-Dragonborn mod (made by a different author from the original mod authors), he really overdid many things.

How do you uninstall it in the cleanest manner possible, BTW?

The things the mod adds to the main game are, scourgestones in the loot tables of oblivion creatures, atronach forge recipes found on mages, plus buffed Miraak cultists. So, I guess you can just delete the relevant files without much trouble.

 

[cherry blossom]

So is there a mod that makes clothing matter eg. you run around naked and you get sick and die, you walk under rain for too long and you get sick and die, you swim in freezing waters and then go around like nothing happened and you get sick and die which also applies to NPCs;

and a mod that makes melee combat less retarded and more tactical;

and a mod that revises damage-HP system to a more deadly one without bloating;

and a mod that revises and or tones down skills and crafting so you no longer get to one-shot dragons?

Accepting a Bethesda game for what it is and excusing the general apathy and bland writing, those last three above are the biggest problems I have with the game. Combat, leveling up and crafting are no longer fun once you hit level 5.