Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[IDtenT]

Requiem is pointless because Skyrim's melee is garbage. I went back to Skyrim for a bit after trying out KoA, and although one doesn't except whimsical unrealistic action combat like in KoA, Skyrim is by comparison clunky LARP combat with teens who have never held a weapon before. There is no dodge or roll or other kind of evasion, unless you train a bit of sneak - and well who starts sneaking in the midst of combat just to do a roll. There's slash, some badly developed power versions of that, block and shield bash and armor rating and a random chance of negating damage with higher level armor skills. And you can't combo them in a fluid manner either. Skyrim's combat is fun for the finishers, amateurish stealth [kills] and archery (which is pretty well done).

But hey. Enjoy your padded HP difficulty Requiem.

I couldn't agree more.

Seriously if you're going to patch combat improvements into a TES game then you went seriously wrong somewhere, because it's retarded.

The fact that people talk about TES combat at all and that they've highlighted it in recent editions only makes me go:

 

[Broseph]

 

[IDtenT]

 

[Seerix]

Meh, I just play with a mod that triples the global damage and most combat shortcomings of Skyrim that I care about cease to exist. Everybody dies faster, everybody kills faster. Sometimes I even find fresh corpses of guards, bandits and various creatures when exploring which normally almost never happens unless it was designed. Fun.

 

[IDtenT]

Let me explain better from a sober state of mind.

Combat encounters should only exist as obstacles - not their own events. Being low level you should fear going into a cave. Being high level you should roflstomp everything. I honestly wouldn't care if the games just created numbered creatures and your level has to outnumber theirs and you get a free pass.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Being low level you should fear going into a cave. Being high level you should roflstomp everything.

That's the problem with Elder Scrolls games, they get boring after the best part, low level, is done. Being low level you should kill rats and generally be doing safer things. Being high level you should only then attempt to tackle the most difficult challenges the game has to offer as the cream of the crop. Instead it's the other way around; there's no gratification from being more powerful.

 

[roll-a-die]

I AM A MORON AND DONT KNOW WAT IM TALKING ABOUT

Yes, that's pretty much evident.

Also:

padded HP (...) Requiem.

Protip:
When criticizing something you haven't played, seen nor have intention to ever play at least do your fucking research to the point where it's not glaringly fucking obvious that you have absolutely no fucking clue regarding what you're talking about.
What you said is about as accurate as ranting about Wizardry 8's twitchy FPS popamole combat because you've seen the screens.

Protip: He's so right it's not even funny. Let's take the standard Skyrim playthrough, no alternate start mod.

You go through Helgen, go to Riverwood, do the bleakfalls barrow dungeon because you need it for the main quest/it's the first quest you stumble upon. You go through a decently paced dungeon, and eventually end up at the final boss, as you are probably level 3 at this time, it's a Draugr of level 5.

So you then go into requiem, this mod is actually pretty awesome in what it changes, I actually prefer my homebrew mod list with a few custom mods however, I used requiem for about 4 months. So anyway, you do the above and then get to bleakfalls barrow. Easy easy, easy, then you get to the draugr sections, welcome to your new hell, this is supposed to be a beginners dungeon, it's now Doom on Ultraviolence, one mistake and the enemies rape you. You are probably about level 3, when you get to this point. The normal level 4 mobs that used to spawn and were slightly stronger than the normal draugr are now level 12 hell beasts while there's still the level 3 mooks. You fight your way through enemies that should take 3 hits, but instead you ram your head at for 40 seconds or more of constant clicking through their massive HP bloat, or else use the traps to kill them. You arrive at the chamber before the final boss, depending on how you did the previous section of the dungeon, you could be level 6 or level 4 by now. You run into a level 20, so discovering a glitch in his path finding that lets you plug him with arrows till he dies. 100 arrows later, +30 or so misses, you kill that Draugr, and end up in the boss chamber, look in the wordwall and get attacked by a level 30, so you spend the next 30 minutes exploiting the spot at the back of the coffin that the draugr can't path to pluging the draugr with arrows and catching your bow after the enemy starts using it's disarming shout. Quick saving in hopes that he doesn't make you lose too much progress, as he will one shot you.

That doesn't sound like correct balance to me. This dungeon is supposed to be a newbie dungeon, literally required to get into the main quest. By the way the dragon fight was easy compared to that Draugr. I know about the tiered enemy structure in requiem, but the average newbie doesn't, it's a fantastic mod once you realize that you are supposed to do certain things completely different than the original skyrim. But to a person, just trying out the mod, it's a hellscape that they don't know how to get through. Pretty much every other dungeon will be like that as well. You literally have to go around killing overworld bandits and random spawns until you are level 15. Otherwise you take too long to kill any of the stronger enemies.[/quote]

 

[DraQ]

Anyway, I wanted to be walking around as a Dunmer Telvanni mage in DB's Bonemold Gah-Julan Armor, but it's impossible. Playing as a battlemage would only make sense with fully perked - which, considering the small pool of resources, and given skill's complete reliance on perks to function, is a total waste. Even if I invested those perks it would still be a waste because it's Steel/Dwemer tier.

Actually, an important part of heavy armor functionality is that it's pretty effective at stoping arrows, and that's pretty much given for all heavy armors.

Battlemage can still be cool if you want to go with 1h weapon + spell, or be a sumonner, but yeah, you will need to sink a lot of perks into heavy armor.

I didn't play long enough to state much more above that, but I'm going to I'm curious - what kind of character do you play that you have such a blast with? I think about making a Ra'Gada melee guy to fully experience that tactical combat thing, as it seems to be the apex of Requiem's gameplay.

I fiddled with a number of builds and they played very differently. Yes, pretty much all involve caution as the game just lolmurders you otherwise, but they work very differently mechanically. Heavy armor weapon + shield can withstand ranged attacks and is pretty much the closest you can get to tank with Requiem, OTOH heavy armor precludes you from sneaking and using bows effectively, while crossbows are pretty rare and slow, it also forces you to take battlemage perks if you want to cast while armored.

It's completely different than, say, trying to sneak around and snipe, or speeding around with light armour and fast 1 or 2h sword(s).

If you can't sneak or tank arrows, you can use summons to take the heat off you. If you use ranged weapons, you will need to either buy (fffffuuuu-) or make silver arrows for draugr and so on.

Whatever you make will play differently and require different ways of avoiding rape.

padded HP difficulty Requiem.

I couldn't agree more.

I thought physicists were expected to do some research to not get suckered into agreeing with obvious bullshit.

Let me explain better from a sober state of mind.

Combat encounters should only exist as obstacles - not their own events. Being low level you should fear going into a cave. Being high level you should roflstomp everything. I honestly wouldn't care if the games just created numbered creatures and your level has to outnumber theirs and you get a free pass.

Given that combat is one of the mechanical systems that can be expected to be well fleshed out in a cRPG, it should definitely be interesting in its own right, even if it's just an option (and Skyrim is definitely more slashy than Morrowind).
And cRPG should definitely not revolve around outgrinding and outlevelling challenges because that's excruciatingly boring gameplay.

Go home IDtenT, you are drunk.

 

[IDtenT]

padded HP difficulty Requiem.

I couldn't agree more.

I thought physicists were expected to do some research to not get suckered into agreeing with obvious bullshit.

Right. I wasn't referring to the claimed HP bloat. I'm talking about fixing the combat of a TES game. Which is clear if you read the rest of my post.

Given that combat is one of the mechanical systems that can be expected to be well fleshed out in a cRPG, it should definitely be interesting in its own right, even if it's just an option (and Skyrim is definitely more slashy than Morrowind).

I disagree. Encounters only need to be an obstacles to more content. How these obstacles are handled can be interesting or trivial - I don't actually care.

And cRPG should definitely not revolve around outgrinding and outlevelling challenges because that's excruciatingly boring gameplay.

cRPGs certainly shouldn't be keyboard skill based. I never said you'd need to grind, only that you make use of other content when you cannot overcome an obstacle - the entire point of an open world.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I was using a similar difficulty-enhancing overhaul, and couldn't immediately go through Bleakfall Barrows as well, the bandits at the entrance required me to enrage the strongest one against the others, then raise his comrades to take him on, all the while I was flinging arrows from a safe distance at whoever wasn't on my side at the time. Then I took one look at the draugr up ahead, and decided there was no way I was completing this if even shitty bandits gave me a hard time. So I just...turned back and acquired more power by doing easier quests around Whiterun, then came back later and got through them zombies. The boss battle was an endgame-worthy 5 minute romp through the whole room. I fucking deserved that word wall.

Is it that bad that you can't get into the MQ right away? One of the criticisms I heard most about Skyrim here is that you take on a dragon 20 minutes into the MQ.

 

[DraQ]

Meh, I just play with a mod that triples the global damage

You mean Requiem?

You fight your way through enemies that should take 3 hits, but instead you ram your head at for 40 seconds or more of constant clicking through their massive HP bloat, or else use the traps to kill them.

You're doing it wrong.

Yeah, I guess that if you bang against enemy shield for several minutes or so, they will finally keel over and die, but that's just fucking retarded. Draugr are a bit tankish (presumably due to being dead), but you generally do about 4x the vanilla damage in Requiem. If you have put any points into the weapon skill you're using you should also have bonuses. It generally takes much less hits to kill shit with requiem than in vanilla, unless you're doing something monumentally stupid, like...

100 arrows later, +30 or so misses, you kill that Draugr

...this.

How the fuck do you even kill draugr with arrows in Requiem?
I'm assuming normal arrows, because silver ones are too expensive/rare to get at this point in such quantity and they kill draugr much easier (though still not as easily as normal ones kill bandits and other lightly armored scum), so you shouldn't need nearly as many.
You run around, dodge, bash and should be able to kill the boss, let alone other draugr in maybe 6 swings tops. Less if you manage to get enchanted or silver weapon. Of course, it's not all peachy, because he will just chop you through if he gets a swing in and then there are shouts, but it's doable, if tense.

The true difficulty and rape of BFB is:
1. Draugr don't care about getting pincushioned with arrows and some have bows.
2. There are many draugr in the barrow who will attack all at once.
3. You can get one-shotted and enemies don't queue up but gangbang you instead.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

How the fuck do you even kill draugr with arrows in Requiem?

100 arrows to the face will kill anything.

The thing is, if enemies in a dungeon are taking minutes to kill (with cheesing tactics, at that) with your low-level, iron shortsword-wielding guy, maybe it's a hint you should...go somewhere else? If you were hellbent on clearing Bleakfalls because it's supposed to be the "First dungeon", even though it's clearly not supposed to be doable at a low level anymore, even with an extra dose of gorgonzola, is it really the fault of the mod?

 

[DraQ]

The fun part is that depending on your build you may just breeze through BFB even at low level, but hit concrete wall somewhere else, because, for example, your burly, heavily armoured fellow with shield can handle the arrows and melee, but when getting into a fight with some wizards they'll just roast you inside your tincan.

 

[Brinko]

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/37216//?

This looks promising.

 

[Ovg]

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/37216//?

This looks promising.

The description alone improved my skyrim expirience quite substantially

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Is it playable with existing characters? Anyone tried?

 

[Dreaad]

Is it playable with existing characters? Anyone tried?

The author clearly claims its likely your game will die...

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Is it playable with existing characters? Anyone tried?

The author clearly claims its likely your game will die...

He states that he doesn't know. The only problems he predicts are the usual mid-game mod complications.

 

[Dreaad]

He states that he doesn't know. The only problems he predicts are the usual mid-game mod complications.

Well okay, have you done the civil war quest line? Any quests at all in the civil war quest line? If not you are probably fine, back up your saves and try.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Of course not . I'll join the Imperials as always, and I didn't even talk with Tullius yet. Therefore I wonder what kind of terrible conflict may happen when nothing is even started yet.

I wonder how those bigger, harder battles would play like with Requiem

 

[DraQ]

Of course not . I'll join the Imperials as always, and I didn't even talk with Tullius yet. Therefore I wonder what kind of terrible conflict may happen when nothing is even started yet.

I wonder how those bigger, harder battles would play like with Requiem

Think D-day, only worse.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Of course not . I'll join the Imperials as always, and I didn't even talk with Tullius yet. Therefore I wonder what kind of terrible conflict may happen when nothing is even started yet.

I wonder how those bigger, harder battles would play like with Requiem

Think D-day, only worse.

I feel the irresistible urge to play it right now, cast AoE Fury and throw Dremora Lords, Odahviing, Durnehviir and Karstaag in the middle of it.

 

[KidBoogie]

anyone tried this?
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25869/?
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25869/?

 

[escom]

Illusion and Mysticism Spells

Good old spells, sounds good. I'm too lazy to try it out though.

Illusion
- Anticaster
( Pandemonium ) Target is unable to cast some of their spells.
( Silence ) Target is unable to cast any spells.

- Command
( Possess Creature ) Command creature.
( Subjugate ) Command humanoid.

- Combat and Stealth
( Sanctuary ) Caster gains a chance to dodge physical attacks.
( Chameleon ) Caster is harder to detect at distance.
( Hide, Ghostwalk, Spectral Form ) Invisibility.
( Muffle ) Reduces movement noise at the cost of some movement speed.
( Apparition ) Muffle, without swiftness penalty.

- Light
( Beacon, Bright Flare, Balefire ) Creates a gravity-bound sphere of light. Balefire sticks to surfaces.
( Third, Sixth Visions ) Night-Eye on self.

- Mind Influence
( Charm ) Improve barter and persuasion.


Mysticism

( Absorb Speed ) Slows a target, grants the caster half of that speed.
( Mark ) Marks a place.
( Recall ) Teleports caster to previously placed mark.
( Divine Intervention ) Teleports caster to a close by or far away divine alter.
( Detect Enchantment ) Sense items imbued with magic.
( Mirror - Sotha's, Shalidor's, Llivam's) Reflects single-projectile spells.
( Spelldrinker ) Spell absorption.

 

[sea]

To those espousing the benefits of Duel:

https://sites.google.com/site/grimyskyrim/mod-critiques/duel

anyone tried this?

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25869/?

I like it a bit more than Requiem but I think specific smaller mods do a better job than this big package.