Jump to content

Criminally Overlooked Mods


kthompsen

Recommended Posts

What mods do you think don't get enough attention? For me, it's Dynamic Immersive Seriously Dark Dungeons. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7535/?

 

After much testing, I personally found appreciation again for vanilla lighting.. but dungeons were another story. They didn't need to be so lit. This mod fixes that (although it works with lighting mods as well). This way, Falmer and Draugr can truly live in darkness by not lighting fires... or maybe you would want them to light only a few? This mod allows that. Totally configurable through the MCM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice mod, but I would say its low exposure is partly to the advertisement. You see, it looks like "just another lighting overhaul mod" like Relighting, ELFX (which I use), RLO, Darker Nights, etc... All these mods directly modifying Vanilla records. And due to their sear numbers, the authors cannot list all the modified features and locations. So we just have to "trust" them and "try for ourselves".

But "Totally configurable through the MCM" really caught my attention, and frankly, did a whole lot more advertisement than reading this forest of text called description on mod page. For example, I have been searching up and down for an outfit manager mod for Skyrim SE. I was even led to download Legacy of Dragonborn just because someone said there may be a feature to manage gear (but their description said nothing of). One day, low and behold, while struggling with the primitive Favorite menu (Vanilla feature, managed by SkyUI), I found out that SkyUI has a quite decent outfit management. 8 whole outfits. Try google it, you will never find it. It may point you to a barrage of follower outfit managers as well as 1-2 Oldrim's ones. But not once mentioned SkyUI. Talk about lack of documentation.

Back to this mod, I feel the description can do a lot better to highlight their best features. They can have an area to document all features (like a glossary, a white paper spec sheet). Now, I still struggle to figure out what exactly this mod does. A better advertisement is to highlight all the good things, with promises. It allows readers to entertain some possibilities and read on. Then the spec sheet can iron out if a reader's perception is right or wrong about the mod. Hence, that "configurable through the MCM" sells me a lot more than their lengthy descriptions.

And the nature of marketing is ... not studying what consumers may want, but trying to tell consumers what they want even they don't know it yet. Apple's iphone was what everyone wanted before they knew they wanted an anti-style rectangular black device without buttons. And same is especially true for at least 60-70% of the mods on Nexus. I bet most players just wanted some nude mods, some new weapons and outfits. But no, Nexus tells us we want Unofficial Patch, combat animations, playerhomes, HD snow texture, Wet and Cold, HD LOD, Camping mod, etc.... Nexus just told me I wanted retexture for banners, and this follower called Toccata yesterday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I probably wouldn't have even paid attention if not for SE. For some reason, SE has made me appreciate default lighting and colorspaces again. I'm especially tired of the oversaturated look of mods... on top of a new SE that's saturated on it's own. There isn't much I want to mess around with anymore..... except dungeons!

 

BTW, this has options for most type of mobs. Dwemer automatons won't light fires, but they will light up their Dwemer light machinery. Hagravens and bandits can be configured as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I probably wouldn't have even paid attention if not for SE. For some reason, SE has made me appreciate default lighting and colorspaces again. I'm especially tired of the oversaturated look of mods... on top of a new SE that's saturated on it's own. There isn't much I want to mess around with anymore..... except dungeons!

 

BTW, this has options for most type of mobs. Dwemer automatons won't light fires, but they will light up their Dwemer light machinery. Hagravens and bandits can be configured as well.

Skyrim is still Skyrim for me. Everything looks so desaturated and flat. I use ENB so I have a lot of control about color and lighting. However, I dislike how Skyrim considers all interiors the same, dungeon or taverns. I use ELFX + ELE (do not use ELFX Enhancer, too many problems). I am personally not into pitch black night and dungeons because Skyrim was not designed with this feature in mind. Bethesda wants to tell you "it is dark" with lower lighting, but they intend to let you see everything. Candle Light is a huge pain to cast (unless you use mod to extend its duration). Torch is taking up and entire hand so 2h weapon, shields, and bow users are literately locked out of using torches. But my biggest problem: NPC AI can see me in the dark, but I can't. So pitch black dungeon is entirely my sole disadvantage. I have a work-around if I choose to play pitch black dungeon. I modify mage light with much longer duration and very cheap mana cost. It feels like a new game where I can shoot a mage light like flare in real life to temporarily illuminate the area where it flies by, then try to shoot enemy down with bows or magic. But sad thing, they will all be coming for me after that first shot. Exactly same problem with FO4: my eyes can see the location dark and immersive, enemy can see the location clear as daylight, and they have a heat sensor or biometric lock on me that they will find me no matter where I hide. This makes dark location 100% aesthetic and mood cultivator.

 

But I am going to give this mod a try. Maybe it can sell something to me that I didn't know I need before.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...