Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Delterius]

Well, hitpoints sure aren't bloated in Requiem.

Spoiler

Yours, anyway.

You may want to look at the Frostfall mod. It deals with making sure you are warm in Skyrim's cold.

 

[DraQ]

You may want to look at the Frostfall mod. It deals with making sure you are warm in Skyrim's cold.

But you will still have bandits and all sorts of wilderness people running around in nothing but fur skirts or a bunch of leather straps, so why bother?

 

[Delterius]

Pretty sure there are plugins for that.

 

[GarfunkeL]

You may want to look at the Frostfall mod. It deals with making sure you are warm in Skyrim's cold.

But you will still have bandits and all sorts of wilderness people running around in nothing but fur skirts or a bunch of leather straps, so why bother?

DraQ, you autistic fuck, both Commissar Draco and I just posted that when you combine Frostfall with Wet'n'Cold and Winter Is Coming, EVERYONE dresses properly against rain and snow. Including bandits and all sorts of wilderness people. Except Nord against cold during daytime and Argonians against water. Unless you go to settings and tweak it. Which you can do easily enough, thanks to the MCM in SkyUI.

For your other requirements, Delterius, I would recommend SkyRe and Deadly Dragons with hardcore settings. Neither revolutionizes anything but Dragons (and if you want so, all sorts of creatures) have new skills, better AI and buffed stats (which you can tweak), the feats/perks are much more sensible - including crafting tree - and so on and so forth.

Then there's the locational damage mod (or two) but I haven't tried them personally.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I like Frostfall. Makes blizzards more than just vaguely interesting particle effects and becoming a vampire actually feel different from a normal game.

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;

For that, either SkyRe or Duel. Duel is very light and just messes with AI I think, but it makes a noticeable difference. SkyRe is an overhaul, but it does make the game more challenging. Also, pick a dragon mod because neither touches them.

Then there's Requiem. Massive overhaul that messes with everything and adds new invisible enemies, spells, and a whole lot of other stuff - some of which I liked and some of which made me uninstall it. It's very hard in the beginning and certain enemies feel extremely bloaty imho. It also has a group of die-hard fans here that masturbate to it furiously and cry when I say bad things about it.

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

Either Requiem or Deadly dragons on top of SkyRe.

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.

Then you probably want Requiem or SkyRe as both mod the perk system to be more interesting.

 

[Lancehead]

You may want to look at the Frostfall mod. It deals with making sure you are warm in Skyrim's cold.

But you will still have bandits and all sorts of wilderness people running around in nothing but fur skirts or a bunch of leather straps, so why bother?

DraQ, you autistic fuck, both Commissar Draco and I just posted that when you combine Frostfall with Wet'n'Cold and Winter Is Coming, EVERYONE dresses properly against rain and snow. Including bandits and all sorts of wilderness people. Except Nord against cold during daytime and Argonians against water. Unless you go to settings and tweak it. Which you can do easily enough, thanks to the MCM in SkyUI.

But does that combination actually make the npcs suffer from cold exposure and related effects like the pc does?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

That would make the game unplayable.

 

[Lancehead]

Yes, of course, my point was that wouldn't just Wet and Cold then be enough to make npcs wear weather-appropriate gear and react to changing weathers? Whereas DraQ's point was, I think, that Frostfall's features only apply to the pc, and the suggested mod combination doesn't address that.

 

[DraQ]

But won't bandits, forsworn and the like use whatever gear they actually have, meaning stripperific "armor" as well?

WIC is actually a good addition, as fur cloaks and hoods do a good job complementing NPC appearance.

 

[GarfunkeL]

They still have stripperific gear but at least they have thick fur cloaks and hoods. Plus, I think there's less stripperific gear around - or it didn't really bother me. Maybe SkyRE changes the humanoid gear choices? I don't remember meeting that many fur skirts and leather belt "shirts".

NPC's do not suffer from the cold/wet effects, just like the hunger/thirst/disease mods don't affect them either.

It's a good compromise between immersion and jarring. You don't really meet humanoid NPC's up in the frozen wastes as they mostly stick to the roads. Camps have fireplaces and tents for cover. That sort of stuff.

 

[Heresiarch]

I've uninstalled Frostfall and the game runs much more stable and with less annoyance as well. It's quite immershun breaking when every other NPC don't give a fuck to the weather while I'm freezing within a couple of game hours if I'm outside. I think RL Nordic and Russian people are much better than this (prove if I'm wrong).

A combination of Wet and Cold + Frostfall could fix the immersion thing, but still it'll make the game much less stable (scripts screwing up, events not triggering, etc, all I've experienced myself) and still don't apply the exposure effects to NPC. It's particularly sad that when I was busy setting up camp and building a fire as my vision got blurred due to high exposure, my follower just stand there, not caring about the cold, staring at me, like "what's the hurry?", it really makes me feel detached from the game world. Last but not the least I felt myself hurry sprinting anywhere outside, it's almost like I'm living in a fallout polluted wasteland. Not exactly a good thing to support good roleplaying (BTW you guys should read "the Elder Strolls" series, it's an amazing antiadventure roleplaying blog).

"Realism" mods like Realistic Needs and Disease is much better because the vanilla NPCs do eat, drink and sleep (even though it's just animations), so the mechanism blends very well with the game.

To GrafunkeL: Deadly Dragons actually doesn't improve the dragons' AI, you need Dragon Combat Overhaul for that (which I don't use because of its ridiculous limit breaks and retarded mod readme). DD only gives a few special attacks (which are actually weak like hell) and the capability to tweak dragon stats. It's still worth it though, as the main problem with vanilla dragons is their stats are really really low (vanilla dragon breath is weaker than the slash from a bandit marauder).

To Lancehead: Do Dragonborn DLC play well after the MQ or before? I've read everywhere that "it doesn't matter". Mind you I'm level 43 now and have just accepted the first quest of Dawnguard, so either way DB is still quite far away from me. BTW my jaw dropped when I received my first crossbow, tempered it and compared its damage to my Daedric bow...

 

[Delterius]

Heresiarch, your issue most likely isn't to blame on Frostfall itself but rather on an excess of script intense mods. Gamebryo tends to commit suicide over those. My computer isn't very good and, yet, it runs Frostfall just fine.

 

[Lancehead]

To Lancehead: Do Dragonborn DLC play well after the MQ or before? I've read everywhere that "it doesn't matter". Mind you I'm level 43 now and have just accepted the first quest of Dawnguard, so either way DB is still quite far away from me. BTW my jaw dropped when I received my first crossbow, tempered it and compared its damage to my Daedric bow...

Dragonborn after MQ has a slightly better flow to the story (because the pc is the last dragonborn and Miraak is the first, it's sort of fitting for the meeting between the two as a finale to the whole saga) than the other way, but it doesn't change anything. Miraak mentions you killing Alduin, but that about it. So the only thing to maybe consider are the shouts the dlc adds.

 

[GarfunkeL]

The DB cultists can be dangerous and annoying if you're a low-level but other than, doesn't matter.

The Frostfall guy has stated that he would like to extend the mod to cover companions, but hasn't found a viable way yet. Fingers crossed.

 

[Heresiarch]

Heresiarch, your issue most likely isn't to blame on Frostfall itself but rather on an excess of script intense mods. Gamebryo tends to commit suicide over those. My computer isn't very good and, yet, it runs Frostfall just fine.

I'm not blaming Frostfall and its author, he did an amazing job actually. Exposure rate can actually be tweaked to reduce its annoyance. It's just the game (and especially its engine) can't wholly support such mods too well - without using a lot of mods to create the synergy, it'll break the immersion, but using even a few extra mods, it'll stress the engine out and CTD. Now combined with the fact that Skyrim's savegames are very very hard to get rid of mods very cleanly, I find it not worth the risk of playing with too many scripted mods.

 

[Heresiarch]

To Lancehead: Do Dragonborn DLC play well after the MQ or before? I've read everywhere that "it doesn't matter". Mind you I'm level 43 now and have just accepted the first quest of Dawnguard, so either way DB is still quite far away from me. BTW my jaw dropped when I received my first crossbow, tempered it and compared its damage to my Daedric bow...

Dragonborn after MQ has a slightly better flow to the story (because the pc is the last dragonborn and Miraak is the first, it's sort of fitting for the meeting between the two as a finale to the whole saga) than the other way, but it doesn't change anything. Miraak mentions you killing Alduin, but that about it. So the only thing to maybe consider are the shouts the dlc adds.

Thanks dude. I guess it's similar to Shivering Isles plays better after the MQ because Oblivion's protagonist's final fate is

Spoiler

Turned into Sheogorath

therefore makes a better "conclusion"

 

[flabbyjack]

All you need is Zombie Apocalypse. It can bug out a little (Make sure you loot the entrance key from the guard at Whiterun, without fail!) but it totally changes the experience of the game.

 

[DraQ]

Heresiarch, your issue most likely isn't to blame on Frostfall itself but rather on an excess of script intense mods.

The thing is that if you have to choose which script intensive mods you run, you should pick those with best gameplay impact.

 

[Delterius]

That's kind of what I meant. Maybe the guy has a script intense mod that spawns snow cones on top of children's heads under certain conditions. I don't know.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Warzones, for example, is a script-heavy mod that's very unstable and not that "awesome", either.

 

[Heresiarch]

Warzones, for example, is a script-heavy mod that's very unstable and not that "awesome", either.

Warzone is an mod abandoned by its author which is created with salvaged files and codes. I think there is a good reason why Bethsoft abandoned the development of the radiant civil war. Time constraints is one thing, but also possibly that the game engine simply can't handle it. This is the price we pay for buckets which can obscure AI sight and cheeses with awesome physics.

 

[DraQ]

I think there is a good reason why Bethsoft abandoned the development of the radiant civil war.

Actually, I think the reason, as usual, is that beth consistently goes wizard's apprentice with pretty much anything even slightly ambitious it touches.

 

[Trash]

So, did Bethesda ever implement the stuff they showed off with that Gamejam vid? Apparantly they let the devs run wild for a bit and came up with all sorts of neat stuff like spears, footprints, changing seasonal foliage, water arrows to make shit more thief-like and even mounted combat. Almost gave me hope for Bethesda. Don't recall any of the stuff actually made it into the game though.

EDIT: Found the old vid.

 

[Commissar Draco]

So, did Bethesda ever implement the stuff they showed off with that Gamejam vid? Apparantly they let the devs run wild for a bit and came up with all sorts of neat stuff like spears, footprints, changing seasonal foliage, water arrows to make shit more thief-like and even mounted combat. Almost gave me hope for Bethesda. Don't recall any of the stuff actually made it into the game though.

EDIT: Found the old vid.

Mounted Combat is in Skyrim since version 1.6, Crossbows were added by Dawnguard DLC and spears, footprints, changing seasonal foliage were all added by mods listed on this thread.

 

[AW8]

So, did Bethesda ever implement the stuff they showed off with that Gamejam vid? Apparantly they let the devs run wild for a bit and came up with all sorts of neat stuff like spears, footprints, changing seasonal foliage, water arrows to make shit more thief-like and even mounted combat. Almost gave me hope for Bethesda. Don't recall any of the stuff actually made it into the game though.

EDIT: Found the old vid.

00:54 - Killcams for magic and bows were implemented in one of the patches (and so fucking awfully buggy that I had to remove both with mods to be able to use magic or bows without getting non-fatal killcams every third shot).

01:24 - Darkfall Cave added in Dawnguard had a water current in it.

01:46 - Adoption was added in Hearthfire, as was building your own home.

02:00 - "Goblins" were implemented as Rieklings in Dragonborn.

02:04 - The fast-travel waygates were implemented in a specific region added by Dawnguard.

02:08 - The EPIC new mount was added in Dawnguard.

02:11 - Mounted combat was added in patch 1.6.

02:15 - Dragon-riding was implemented in Dragonborn.

02:25 - Kinect shouts was implemented in a patch.

02:44 - The new water visuals was implemented in a patch, and for the first time ever removed that shitty Gamebryo-transition from above the surface to below the surface, where you could see right through the water all the way to the bottom.

02:54 - Crossbow bolts (although not arrows) with magical effects where introduced in Dawnguard.

02:58 - Werebears (only NPC's, not playable) were introduced in Dragonborn.

03:02 - Lycantropy perk tree was implemented in Dawnguard.

03:05 - Vampire melee feeding attack was implemented in Dawnguard.

03:09 - Vampire Lord form was implemented in Dawnguard.

There's also a list on UESP that adds a couple of things I missed, but that list lies about the spears. The kind of spear seen in the video has never been implemented by Bethesda.