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TheMatsjo

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Hello there everyone,

 

*MAJOR REVISION*

 

I started this thread about a week ago, and have gotten some incredible tips and suggestions since then. Many thanks for the replies so far. I'm getting to the point that I feel that I'm very close to completing my setup and getting started on getting mods working for the fun times to commence. The development has prompted the need to rework this thread quite a bit, not only to change the mod list, but mainly to delve into a few lingering doubts and questions, and to ask for specific types of content rather than a general appeal.

 

Before I start with that however, a little expansion of what I'm going to be playing the game as for the first-ever time, to provide some more context.

 

Background

My character is going to be a male Orsimer by the name of Bragg. He's a former bodyguard of a minor chieftain down on his luck when said chieftain expired at the hands of a cranky Cave Bear. Bragg had lost his way after that, taken to drink and lived a vagabond's life for quite some time. Now however, he's trying to make a change, and he's made his way to the Companion's Guild to join up as a new recruit, in the hopes of getting some semblance of life going again. His fighting style is that of the Bulwark Paladin, clad in the heaviest of armors augmented by Restoration magic and his natural combat prowess, Bragg is very difficult to bring down, while in return he is capable of wearing enemies down with deliberate strikes of either shortsword or axe. He will have to find his way in the world, while at the same time surviving its hazardous weathers, ailments and feral fiends lurking in the undergrowth.

 

Unresolved

- Can I risk using Wet and Cold, or will it cause save game bloat?

- Do SkyRe combat and Locational Damage (rather than ACE Combat) work well together?

- Do I have mods that do not work with Mod Organizer?

- If I load Banks of Skyrim after Economics of Skyrim, will they clash?

- Does Dance of Death work find with SkyRe?

- Is there a hair mod you recommend other than SkyHair (not especially looking for glamour) that still adds hairstyles/

- For better textures, is Static Mesh Improvement Mod + Skyrim HD Lite enough? What about for weapons, items and armors, enemies, NPCs and the player? Isn't there a total visual conversion overview around that I can reference (which includes Climates of Tamriel)?

- Do you recommend any other quest mods that are suitable for Bragg?

- Do you notice any clear (currently unpatchable) conflicts?

 

Mod List

DLC

Dawnguard

Dragonborn

Hearthfire

 

Patches

Official Patches

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch

Skyrim Universal 4GB Memory Patch

Skyrim Project Optimization

 

Mod Tools

SKSE

Skyrim -Community- Uncapper

Mod Organizer

Wrye Bash

BOSS

TES5Edit

SkyTweak

ReProccer & Balbor's Project

 

Interface

Simple Borderless Window

SkyUI

iHUD

A Thinner Compass

Atlas Map Markers

Better Dialogue Controls

Better Message Box Controls

Even Better Quest Objectives

Blessings – Altar Descriptions

The Choice is Yours

Quest Eraser

Think to Yourself Messages

Non-Automatic Skill Books

Auto Unequip Ammo

Console Command: set timescale to 5

 

Player Overhaul

Alternate Start – Live Another Life

Skyrim Redone (Full) [LC]

LoreCraft ← LC

Frostfall & WEAR [LC]

Wet and Cold

Hunterborn

Cooking Expanded [LC]

Harvest Overhaul

Realistic Needs and Diseases

Lockpicking Overhaul

Fires Hurt

 

World Overhaul

Civil War Overhaul

Immersive Patrols

Economics of Skyrim

Trade and Barter

Bank of Skyrim

Realistic Coin Weight

Immersive Creatures

Helgen Reborn

Enhanced Skyrim Factions – The Companions Guild

Destroy the Thieves Guild

The Paarthurnax Dilemma

Run for Your Lives

Killable Children

Move it Damnit

 

Travel

Lanterns of Skyrim – All in One

Point the Way

Roadsigns Redone

Better Fast Travel

Convenient Horses

 

Items

Wearable Lanterns

Bandoliers, Bags and Pouches [LC]

Cloaks of Skyrim [LC]

Immersive Armours [LC]

Immersive Weapons [LC]

Lightweight Scrolls

 

Combat

Locational Damage

Enhanced Enemy AI

Deadly Dragons

Dual Wield Parrying

No Combat Music

 

Visuals

Immersive Settlements

Dual Sheath Redux

Glowing Ore Veins

Enhanced Lights and FX

Climates of Tamriel w/ Night Darkness

Skyrim Flora Overhaul

Grass on Steroids

Water and Terrain Enhancement Redux

Dance of Death

Get Snowy

 

Texures

Skyrim HD Lite (Full)

Enhanced Blood Textures

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

Unique uniques

aMidianBorn Book of Silence

Unique Dragon Priest Masks

 

Body

Fitness Body

RaceMenu XCE

Apachii SkyHair

360 Walk and Run

 

Sounds

Sounds of Skyrim – Civilization

Sounds of Skyrim – The Wilds

Sounds of Skyrim – The Dungeons

Interesting NPCs

Improved Reverb

 

You all have been majorly awesome thusfar, thank you,

Matthias

Edited by TheMatsjo
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A bit of challenge?
Add this as last combat AI mod in your list (works fine with SkyRe Combat and AI and so on)
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/36478/

For your UNSURE!!!! part - I'd suggest this;

 

Visual (UNSURE!!!)

- Skyrim HD Lite //perfect

- Realistic Lighting Overhaul //works fantastic with Climates of Tamriel

- Skyrim Flora Overhaul // must have

- Dynavision // not really a need unless you want DoF effects without using an ENB

- Dance of Death // Hell yea :smile:

- Grass on Steroids Regular // Yup, FPS boost = always good

- Skyrim Grassification Project // nah I dont like

(- Climates of Tamriel w/ Lightning) // as said above, combined with RLO it's great - just dont install the lighting modules because RLO will do those (but do install night darkness :wink:)

- Water and Terrain Enhancement Redux // I like Pure Water more, a bit less blue and a bit more natural

- Enhanced Blood Textures // absolutely

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A bit of challenge?

Add this as last combat AI mod in your list (works fine with SkyRe Combat and AI and so on)

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/36478/

 

For your UNSURE!!!! part - I'd suggest this;

 

Visual (UNSURE!!!)

- Skyrim HD Lite //perfect

- Realistic Lighting Overhaul //works fantastic with Climates of Tamriel

- Skyrim Flora Overhaul // must have

- Dynavision // not really a need unless you want DoF effects without using an ENB

- Dance of Death // Hell yea :smile:

- Grass on Steroids Regular // Yup, FPS boost = always good

- Skyrim Grassification Project // nah I dont like

(- Climates of Tamriel w/ Lightning) // as said above, combined with RLO it's great - just dont install the lighting modules because RLO will do those (but do install night darkness :wink:)

- Water and Terrain Enhancement Redux // I like Pure Water more, a bit less blue and a bit more natural

- Enhanced Blood Textures // absolutely

 

I'll get the Enhanced Enemy AI, I do like me a bit of nerve-wracking combat; I'll be sidling down corridors like a wimp, dreading the possible sideswipe. As for the visuals; if I have those, have I covered all the important bases? Do I need static mesh things, or rock textures or anything else like that, in your opinion?

 

 

Lanterns of Skyrim - All In One is, in my opinion, a must-have mod for both visuals, immersion, and playability.

 

Would you recommend it instead of Claralux, or instead of it?

 

PS: is there an active mod that lets me change the names of items; Dynamic Naming seems to be inactive currently.

 

Cheers, and thanks to you both :D,

Matthias

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I'll get the Enhanced Enemy AI, I do like me a bit of nerve-wracking combat; I'll be sidling down corridors like a wimp, dreading the possible sideswipe. As for the visuals; if I have those, have I covered all the important bases? Do I need static mesh things, or rock textures or anything else like that, in your opinion?

 

You can get textures until your system or the application cannot handle it anymore :smile:

Static Mesh Improvement Mod is a good thing to install first, before anything else... and when another mod asks to overwrite it, it's generally best to do so. In combination with Skyrim HD it will come with overwrites, in that case overwrite SMIM with whatever Skyrim HD wants except for the farmhouse ones (ropes around poles)... I like SMIM's way of handling that a lot more.

 

If you have a good system (i5/i7 + GTX660 or better) you can look into ENB for even better graphics... but they have a huge impact on performance. If you don't mind to play on lower FPS (~30) you can use them with lesser systems, or go for a performance based ENB instead of all the eye candy turned on.

 

Also a tool called SkyTweak lets you modify everything about the game from the menu... very handy stuff. I was not happy with the sneak skills, made it WAY too easy to just relax and kill stuff. So I made Sneaking really hard to do. In combination with SkyRe and Enhanced AI opponents can be very hard... and dealing with 2-3 at the same time generally means I gotta run and rethink how to kill them.

 

 

I could advise you texture mods, but then really, should know the system you run (OS, RAM, VID, CPU, 32 or 64 bit, etc)... anyway I goto bed now, 2 AM here :P

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Static Mesh Improvement Mod is a good thing to install first, before anything else... and when another mod asks to overwrite it, it's generally best to do so. In combination with Skyrim HD it will come with overwrites, in that case overwrite SMIM with whatever Skyrim HD wants except for the farmhouse ones (ropes around poles)... I like SMIM's way of handling that a lot more.

 

If you have a good system (i5/i7 + GTX660 or better) you can look into ENB for even better graphics... but they have a huge impact on performance. If you don't mind to play on lower FPS (~30) you can use them with lesser systems, or go for a performance based ENB instead of all the eye candy turned on.

 

Also a tool called SkyTweak lets you modify everything about the game from the menu... very handy stuff. I was not happy with the sneak skills, made it WAY too easy to just relax and kill stuff. So I made Sneaking really hard to do. In combination with SkyRe and Enhanced AI opponents can be very hard... and dealing with 2-3 at the same time generally means I gotta run and rethink how to kill them.

 

I'm gonna go for Static Mesh then, I'm going to leave out ENB's and other fanciness for now, I think there's going to be plenty to discover and I'm not looking for beautiful screenshots primarily. The system shouldn't be a problem. I'll try SkyTweak, but if I find a tool that let's me change the names of in-game items organically I'll pick it up. I'll update the list, these are what I addes sofar:

 

- Static Mesh Improvement Mod

- Helgen Reborn

- Enhanced Enemy AI

- Dual Wield Parrying

 

and removed Skyrim Grassification Project.

 

I think I'm gonna stick with Claralux instead of Lanterns All in One for now, I'm more interested in the additional lightposts along paths in the wild than additional lighting in settlements.

 

Thanks so far; got any more I should consider or specifics I need to be aware of?

 

Cheers,

Matthias

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I could be completely wrong here and maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong Claralux is supposedly not the best of mods since it may (will) break saves according to http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/32363//?. Now having pointed that out I have zero experience with ever using Claralux and I don't want to say it's a bad mod or anything, I just wanted to point out what i've come across lately.

 

I am relatively new to Skyrim modding, got into playing and downloading mods in the last month or so. I've tried most of the mods listed and they are all very good. I don't think I have any mods that i've come across that you don't already have listed other than SPERG for redoing all the perk trees but you are planning on going with SkyRe anyways, not sure if the two are compatible or not. I like the look of SkyRe but shied away from it for now since it's not recommended to drop it in on a current game. WIll probably try it out if and when I decide to do a whole new game, for now I use ERSO.

 

I think i've tried out most of the lighting mods along with ENBs and in the end I have settled on Climates of Tamriel with Enhanced Lights and Effects along side Dynavision and Imaginator. This combo gave me a really good look without the system hogging of ENB. RLO is good but in the end I found ELFX more my taste, RLO just seemed too dark for my liking.

 

Having said all that take it all with a grain of salt since I am still a relative newb with mods and how they all interact with each other. What I have working now is mostly from trial and error combined with lots of reading.

 

Oh yeah, I noticed you didn't list any spell caster type mods and the one I use is Apocalypse spells. So many new spells that just look like so much fun for when I do decide to play a caster, for now I play a stealth thief / ranger so there's very little spell casting.

Edited by lordmonkus
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Having said all that take it all with a grain of salt since I am still a relative newb with mods and how they all interact with each other. What I have working now is mostly from trial and error combined with lots of reading.

 

Claralux

I read the comments about Claralux, so I'm gonna take your advice about Lanterns of Skyrim, thanks a lot.

 

Stability Project

But if I heed that warning, I'm gonna do the same for the other mods the Stability Project warns about and remove Wet and Cold and Footprints and replace them with Get Snowy, just in case. Wouldn't you agree?

 

Enhanced Lighting

I read up on this and agree, I like performance as well. Speaking of, are there any useful performance mods or tweaks I should check out? I think I read something about stopping Skyrim from loading things that you can't actually see?

 

Apocalypse

SkyRe makes changes to spells, so until there's a compatibility patch out I'm gonna steer clear, but they look very good :smile:.

 

Mod Changes:

+ Simple Borderless Window

+ Trade and Barter

- Claralux

+ Lanterns of Skyrim - All in One

+ Fires Hurt

- Realistic Lighting Overhal

+ Enhanced Lights and FX

- Wet and Cold

- Footprints

+ Get Snowy

+ Interesting NPCs

 

Thanks!

 

PS: funny how mod lists tend to grow way more than they shrink :biggrin:

Edited by TheMatsjo
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Enhanced Lighting

I read up on this and agree, I like performance as well. Speaking of, are there any useful performance mods or tweaks I should check out? I think I read something about stopping Skyrim from loading things that you can't actually see?

 

Skyrim project optmalization

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/32505/

 

Works by setting occlusions. Does not work with mods that change area's

 

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As far as going by what Stability Project says I have been following the advice but I do use one mod they don't recommend and that's Imaginator. I asked about this mod in another thread and was told that it really shouldn't be a problem as long as it's not messed with too much, ie: get your settings and leave it alone. This is a great "appearance" mod that lets you fine tune saturation and coloring with zero performance hit. I was hoping there was an alternative and as far as I know there is none in terms of a standalone mod to do it. However ENBs and something like FXAA injector does change those types of settings as well. I have tried several ENBs out and they are just a little too harsh on performance for my computer so I dropped them again. I have also tried FXAA injector and it does a good job as well but in the end I preferred the fine tuning of Imaginator. I guess technically you could fine tune FXAA and ENB though the .ini files but I really didn't want to bother with that.

 

Since you are going with Lanterns of Skyrim you will need a preset for it as well which are available on the LoS page or you will get awful red lights. I use the 2.1 CoT preset since I don't use the darkest nights setting in CoT. The CoT 3 preset will be extremely bright with a dark night setting of 2 or 3 which I use.

 

As far as Apocalypse Spells goes yeah it's not exactly optimal along with SkyRe. Another reason I went with ERSO overhaul and used his compatibility list as a loose guide. I think I used all of the ERSO modules besides the race module, need to find a good race overhaul that I can drop in on a current game without worrying about issues.

 

Yeah mod lists tend to creep up there in numbers, wasn't long ago I was sitting at around 40 or so and now it's 140+ lol. ERSO added to that number quite heavily. Most of my stuff is texture related.

 

For performance I don't really use much for it other than stay away from the ENBs and I don't use the ultra high quality texture packs, I try and stick to the 1024 or 2048 res ones. I also stay away from the mods that add all sorts of new stuff to the cities. My system I would say is more inline with a mid level pc, 3.3 ghz AMD cpu, AMD 7850 1gig video card and 8 gigs ram. I run the game on most settings on very high and get really good frame rates, anything less than 40 I get annoyed. In cities im around the 40 fps mark but out in the dungeons im running 60 constantly at 1650x1080 resolution.

Edited by lordmonkus
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