Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[DraQ]

Yeah I could not fucking believe how he designed that area

I still cannot believe that he did.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Can't you just use one of those wabbajack lists?

I only learned of this tool recently. And just checking, there even seems to be a VR compilation.
However, my problem is not the technical installation of mods. I feel pretty confident with that. It's more the "optimal selection/combination of mods" that is the eternal curse of the Skyrim modder. While Wabbajack can provide some orientation, it doesn't really address the underlying obsession.

Just play the vanilla game once and you'll know what mods you'll want for the next file. If you find out you don't actually like the game enough to want to play it again with mods, then they weren't really going to change things much to begin with.

edit: wait, I read it wrong, I thought you never played the game.

 

[oldmanpaco]

What are some good quest mods for Skyrim? I heard a lot of good stuff about the Forgotten City, but people were overselling it.

Just do it Fagott!

Spoiler

Not actually sure you're a faggot. Probably not but who knows.

No homo.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/189

 

[The Jester]

Falskaar is fucking garbage

How about Wyrmstooth? I remember hearing good things about it in the old days.

 

[Grunker]

Can't you just use one of those wabbajack lists?

I only learned of this tool recently. And just checking, there even seems to be a VR compilation.
However, my problem is not the technical installation of mods. I feel pretty confident with that. It's more the "optimal selection/combination of mods" that is the eternal curse of the Skyrim modder. While Wabbajack can provide some orientation, it doesn't really address the underlying obsession.

If you find out you don't actually like the game enough to want to play it again with mods, then they weren't really going to change things much to begin with.

I hated vanilla Skyrim and think I've played like 15 hours of it total, maybe, but I've poured an embarassing amount of hours into Requiem-variants, so that's definetely not true. I basically dropped the vanilla game and was like "ok never playing that again", and then *years* later heard of Requiem from the Codex, installed that + Frostfall + iNeed + a lot of other gameplay shit and had a blast.

It's still Skyrim whenever someone opens their mouth of course, but luckily, you can just skip past dialogue. There's no helping the linear dungeons and stuff like that though.

 

[Funposter]

Falskaar is fucking garbage

Never played it, but this looks hilariously bad.



Author supposedly got a job at Bungie for this.

Obviously it sucks but it represents the ability to work at something for a long time and use a toolkit. It's the sort of job a trained monkey can do as long as you have a director/project lead/whatever who actually knows what they're doing and can direct the monkey on how to make fun levels, even if the monkey doesn't understand why they are fun.

 

[Yosharian]

Falskaar is fucking garbage

How about Wyrmstooth? I remember hearing good things about it in the old days.

I've heard good things too but I haven't played that one. I wouldn't hold your breath

 

[Inconceivable]

Falskaar is fucking garbage

Never played it, but this looks hilariously bad.
Author supposedly got a job at Bungie for this.

Obviously it sucks but it represents the ability to work at something for a long time and use a toolkit. It's the sort of job a trained monkey can do as long as you have a director/project lead/whatever who actually knows what they're doing and can direct the monkey on how to make fun levels, even if the monkey doesn't understand why they are fun.

Falskaar is an impressive personal achievement, considering all of it is the job of this one guy. And it has a few interesting/impressive bits sprinkled about. But from a gameplay point of view, it's mostly a huge, generic landmass with generic NPC's, generic dialogue and generic quests. It doesn't deserve the recognition it received on many a "10 greatest Skyrim mods" lists. It's one of the lamest quest-mods I ever played, because the world is so large, but it's mostly just filler.
Also, I absolutely abhor that unnatural looking landscape.

 

[Gamezor]

I can't read this whole dang thread--is there a wabbajack compilation I should install?

 

[oldmanpaco]

I can't read this whole dang thread--is there a wabbajack compilation I should install?

https://www.wabbajack.org/#/modlists/info?machineURL=dungeons_and_deviousness

Give us a report.

 

[ironmask]

I remember when the "This mod is better then what Beth can make" crowd all started bitching on the internet because Bethesda wouldn't hire the Falskaar guy for creating a mediocre mod.

 

[Puukko]

I can't read this whole dang thread--is there a wabbajack compilation I should install?

https://www.wabbajack.org/#/modlists/info?machineURL=dungeons_and_deviousness

Give us a report.

The idea here is very solid and unique but appeals to a very specific niche of people. 99% of people looking into NSFW modding just want a porn sandbox and will likely want to keep the schlongs and the actual gameplay mods separate. Now what this list offers is the whole suite of fetishes you might be looking for, but with hefty amounts of jank and lag. I'm talking it being a complete coin toss whether animations align properly, assuming they don't break after loading for half a minute. My CPU is a modest 3770k which is below the recommended spec, so your mileage may vary, but I found the lag to be too much. The latest update introduced a problem where performance would randomly start deteoriating at some point until I restarted the game, too. I won't say the list is bad by any means since I never really played it the intended way, but the intended audience is definitely small.

Instead, for a booty sandbox modlist, I'd recommend Cupid. Runs far better and you can add mods on top to suit your tastes. It doesn't seem to be listed in the application anymore, but you can download the installation file from Github. Most of these lists warn against adding mods (or at least removing them) stating they won't offer support, but if you're half decent at it, you should easily be able to add the finishing touch with any mods you think would complement the list.

Which is what leads me to Elder Souls. I ended up adding some survival mods since I think Frostfall makes a natural addition to what is presented as a difficult experience. Also disabled fast travel, since the list already had waypoint travel but for some odd reason didn't restrict free fast travel. And last but not least, having figured out how to work with Bodyslides recently, I installed a bunch of stuff pertaining to female beauty. Nothing terribly explicit, but if I'm going to play a survivalist archer, she'd better have the muscles for it.

I am still on 1.4.1 when 1.6 should be coming out this week. The authors seem to still be a bit unsure about the exact direction they want to take, as major versions come out roughly once a month now and each version adds and removes a number of mods. I wasn't a fan of the direction they took recently so I may opt to stick with this older version now and tweak it more to my liking.

 

[Yosharian]

I can't read this whole dang thread--is there a wabbajack compilation I should install?

I'm playing Enderal My Way on SE and it's great, it's only just been released though so it's being actively updated for bugs, tweaking etc so bear that in mind

 

[Gamezor]

Cool, thanks guys. Right now all I play is 13 Sentinels so it might be a while.

 

[Puukko]

Elder Souls actually has me looking forward to dungeon delving since there are many new enemies and setpieces associated with them. Monster mods are probably my #1 favorite category of mods and the upside of using a modlist is that you won't really know what's in store unless you go and spoil yourself. What I've seen so far are various Witcher monsters, ice elementals that pop out of the snow to ambush you, giant ruins golems (as in, actually huge), goblins and variations of existing enemies (would a 'vampire' bandit really hang out with other bandits?) as well as flesh atrocities. I think keeping the follower count low (I settled on two for the time being) was the right call since the game gets too easy if you have three strong followers right at the start, on top of them getting in the way. Having to strategize to clear a low level dungeon is refreshing. Also, it turns out 'healer' type followers can apparently heal you even if you have a vampire mod installed that's supposed to make restoration ineffective. Not sure if I like that, but I have plenty of follower mods to try out different setups.

One unfortunate thing is that adding FNIS broke my dodge mod which I wasn't anticipating and I couldn't get an alternative mod to work. I actually would have preferred that one since double tapping movement keys to dodge is more intuitive.

 

[Hirato]

If your dodge mod is Combat Overhaul, it only works with Nemesis,
And nemesis is no good, because it just explodes every run, and has a 33% change to say something akin to "path C:\Mod Organizer 2\mods\ contains invalid characters" before doing so.

If it's TK Dodge, you have to make sure to tick the option in FNIS when you build the behaviours.

 

[Puukko]

If your dodge mod is Combat Overhaul, it only works with Nemesis,
And nemesis is no good, because it just explodes every run, and has a 33% change to say something akin to "path C:\Mod Organizer 2\mods\ contains invalid characters" before doing so.

If it's TK Dodge, you have to make sure to tick the option in FNIS when you build the behaviours.

It was TK and I added the patch in FNIS, but to no avail. Now I don't think I had my previous mod (ultimate dodge mod) disabled when I did that, just had none of the actions bound to anything (with FNIS, dodging results in T-posing with that mod now).

 

[HighCalibreWizard]

People are still playing skyrim. Is it just for the boobs mayhaps.

Although Im somewhat looking forward to Atmora https://beyondskyrim.org/atmora
They want a survival experience (akin to Frostfall). Could be fun just wandering about, trying to brave the harsh weather, if nothing else.

Never played Requiem tho, it ran badly on my computer sadly.

 

[ferratilis]

Sorry if it was posted already, but the guy who made the popular Viva New Vegas modlist has recently made a similar one for Skyrim: A Dragonborn's Fate. Like all of his modlists, this is vanilla plus, meaning that it only focuses on making the game as stable as possible and improving the gameplay while staying true to vanilla feel. Visuals are not the focus here (except for fixing visual bugs). It's especially great for beginners as everything is explained in detail. It serves as a great tutorial for Mod Organizer 2.

I tried it, and the gameplay changes brought by Smilodon (combat mod) are welcomed: better combat AI, attacks now cost stamina, combat is generally more deadly, timed blocking, attacks of opportunity etc. Magic is overhauled by Odin mod, racial bonuses and standing stones by Evenstar and perks by Vokrii.
https://dragonbornsfate.github.io/gameplay.html

Tbh, it's still the same old shitty Skyrim combat, but it's more bearable now. For those who don't care about visuals or modding noobs, it should be good enough.

 

[mastroego]

Never played Requiem tho, it ran badly on my computer sadly.

That's the one reason to play Skyrim, anyway

 

[Yosharian]

Sorry if it was posted already, but the guy who made the popular Viva New Vegas modlist has recently made a similar one for Skyrim: A Dragonborn's Fate. Like all of his modlists, this is vanilla plus, meaning that it only focuses on making the game as stable as possible and improving the gameplay while staying true to vanilla feel. Visuals are not the focus here (except for fixing visual bugs). It's especially great for beginners as everything is explained in detail. It serves as a great tutorial for Mod Organizer 2.

I tried it, and the gameplay changes brought by Smilodon (combat mod) are welcomed: better combat AI, attacks now cost stamina, combat is generally more deadly, timed blocking, attacks of opportunity etc. Magic is overhauled by Odin mod, racial bonuses and standing stones by Evenstar and perks by Vokrii.
https://dragonbornsfate.github.io/gameplay.html

Tbh, it's still the same old shitty Skyrim combat, but it's more bearable now. For those who don't care about visuals or modding noobs, it should be good enough.

That is interesting actually. I wonder how it compares with Requiem?

 

[ferratilis]

Sorry if it was posted already, but the guy who made the popular Viva New Vegas modlist has recently made a similar one for Skyrim: A Dragonborn's Fate. Like all of his modlists, this is vanilla plus, meaning that it only focuses on making the game as stable as possible and improving the gameplay while staying true to vanilla feel. Visuals are not the focus here (except for fixing visual bugs). It's especially great for beginners as everything is explained in detail. It serves as a great tutorial for Mod Organizer 2.

I tried it, and the gameplay changes brought by Smilodon (combat mod) are welcomed: better combat AI, attacks now cost stamina, combat is generally more deadly, timed blocking, attacks of opportunity etc. Magic is overhauled by Odin mod, racial bonuses and standing stones by Evenstar and perks by Vokrii.
https://dragonbornsfate.github.io/gameplay.html

Tbh, it's still the same old shitty Skyrim combat, but it's more bearable now. For those who don't care about visuals or modding noobs, it should be good enough.

That is interesting actually. I wonder how it compares with Requiem?

Sorry, never played Requiem so can't really compare them. I tried to install it around 5 years ago and I remember running into issues, at least the modlist I posted can be installed in an hour if you follow the guide. Just read the descriptions on Nexus for Smilodon, Vokrii and Odin and you'll understand how it differs from Requiem.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Skyrim's combat is shit, installing mods to make it harder just makes it hard shit -- the worst kind of shit.

 

[Funposter]

my friend and I played that Skyrim co-op mod for a couple of hours (as a funny joke, I swear) and now it has made me want to mod Skyrim again. Wish me luck. We'll see how many more shitty mods have been released in the past two years.

 

[Yosharian]

Sorry, never played Requiem so can't really compare them. I tried to install it around 5 years ago and I remember running into issues, at least the modlist I posted can be installed in an hour if you follow the guide. Just read the descriptions on Nexus for Smilodon, Vokrii and Odin and you'll understand how it differs from Requiem.

Heh, I'm kinda done spending hours installing mods manually tbh. Wabbajack has ruined me.

Also every minute I have spare I'm playing Vintage Story atm