zyg0tic

I wanted to make a mod that revealed all the ingredient effects from the start of the game. However, it does not seem possible to do. The next best solution was to make a mod that attached the 4 effect revealing perk (Experimenter rank 3) to another perk in the Alchemy tree. So I did that, adding it to the very first Alchemy perk (Alchemist rank 1). Some of you will likely appreciate this, so thought I should let you know! I know the Experimenter perk can be added via the console, but for those of you who prefer not to use the console for whatever reason this is a better alternative. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27623

I'm wanting to minimise or eliminate on-screen messages (like over encumbered, or level up reminder) and tooltips from the very start of a new game. Does anyone know how to do this? There is only one mod I have found that removes the over encumbered messages, but nothing else. They are immersion-breaking and do not fit well with storytelling or roleplaying video recording.

Yeah man, Im thinking the same about the AbBlind or something similar being applied to them that would render them totally blind. I did check the RaceFalmer and one of the actor entries for Falmer too, hoping to find something pertaining to it. I'm just checking it again as I write this post. To test it I'd need a savegame in Markarth undercity (lots of Falmer there) or some place similar. ... Okay, I just found the AbFalmer entry (its under Spell) and changed the magnitude to 100.00. Hopefully this should be the solution. Increasing it more (to say 500) might be necessary, but for now I'll roll with 100. I dont have a savegame near Falmer so testing it will be a matter of console commands. Anyway, thanks man! Edit: I've updated my sneaking mod with the changes - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27113

You mean crashes?

Hi I have recently been working on a sneaking difficulty mod, and also looking at similar mods made by others. I'd like to request help from you modders out there... There is an issue with one of the variables, that pertains to detection in lit areas. In the Gameplay Settings of the CK, its fSneakLightMult. When it is increased significantly it makes it as though Falmers are not blind - this is obviously not lore friendly and doesn't make much sense. So I've been trying to find a solution to this issue. Normal actors should be able to see you in lit areas, whereas Falmers should not. A possible hint at the solution to this was found in this article on the CreationKit wiki: http://www.creationkit.com/Category:Detection It mentions there is a factor in detection called blindness. If we could figure out how to edit that blindness value in a way that is applied exclusively to Falmers, it could be the solution. Eager for any help. Thanks!

I just made and released a suite of mods that increase difficulty or address some of the OP things in vanilla. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27113 The old link I posted above doesnt work anymore.

I've just made my own sneaking difficulty increase mod. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27056

Thanks for mentioning the mod that changes sneaking. I was just trying to sneak through Bleak Falls Barrow and forgot how absurdly easy it was to sneak around in the game - only level 3 and I almost made it into BFB entrance in daylight. I did get detected but only after bumping into someone. So I just made my own mod/tweak also - just halved the fSneakBaseValue from 15 to 7.5, and also the fSneakSkillMult from .5 to .2. I dont like the idea of an overhaul. Just want to modify whatever values need to be changed so that sneaking is more risky. As far s I know currently fSneakBaseValue and fSneakSkillMult are the most significant values.

You might be interested in the mod I just made. It tweaks a few things that are OP in vanilla. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27044 Also, other mods I recommend for increasing difficulty would be ASIS and Deadly Dragons.

I have just released my first mod. The aim of the mod is to increase the difficulty of the game by reducing the values of some of the notoriously OP things. It "nerfs" Magicka Cost Reduction, Fortify Alchemy, Fortify Enchanting and Fortify Smithing. It also adds a duration to heal potions, making them heal X amount each second for 5 seconds. For non-crafted potions, the total amount of hit points healed are the same as the vanilla game, except for the Ultimate which is now 250 total. I didn't want to eliminate crafting altogether - I really enjoy enchanting, smithing and alchemy. But some things were just too much, just too OP. So rather than complain about how game-breaking they were, I figured reducing how OP they were would be a better idea. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27044

What bores me is the utter silliness of how they haven't made it so NPCs actually know whats going in the world apart from guards saying "oh you saved us thanks". Like Ive just finished the main quest again, so I go to the Stormcloak recruitment guy and he tells me to go kill an ice wraith? Im supposed to be the Dragonborn whos just defeated Alduin and he is telling me to go kill my 10 millionth ice wraith? That sort of thing after beating the main quest is so terrible and has broken the game for me. Skyrim does a lot of things well, but its NPC reputation/awareness system is really flawed and an immersion killer.

I agree Skyrim should be GOTY. Rage was the biggest flop! I gave it a fair go and beat a lot of it but just got so bored of it, felt it really didnt innovate in regards to story and depth, it was linear in an enfuriating way, and so I felt no incentive to keep playing. I HATED the Witcher 2 and couldn't be bothered finishing it - not open world, story I could care less about, linear, guy who needs a haircut, not being able to kill that corrupt annoying guy in that town even after he sends people to kill you. Being killed by crossbowmen because you upset some stupid towns folk and corrupt guards even when you have deflect arrows and on the easiest difficulty etc. etc. RUBBISH. Skyrim has unkillable characters, but it doesnt present this in a way that seems designed to enfuriate and annoy the player. Skyrim has annoying npcs that all say the same thing, but it can be modded/reworked to remove that or change it. Skyrim has unique locations throughout, hundreds of quests, open world (with minor exceptions). It definitely needs patches that can fix the CTDs. Im not sure if mine are only because I overclocked my CPU a little bit to improve performance of the game, because it was also crashing sometimes before I overclocked. Also I think the magic part of the game isnt very innovative apart from the casting with separately controlled hands. I dont play a mage simply because the available spells dont seme to allow the player to do super amazing things like they do in some RPGs. I usually play as a mage because they have world-bending spells that give abilities other classes cant access - in Skyrim I feel like mages are just "fireball spammers" rather than world-benders.

The armor of the enemy seems to effect how often the finishing moves occur. Its why I switched to heavy armor - wearing cloth I could get insta-killed and wearing light armor pretty much the same thing. Only heavy armor seems to prevent BS one-shot finishing move kills from happening against the character. Also if not wearing a heavy helmet decapitation seems to be more frequent. Finishing moves seem to be more than just a stylised form of a regular attack. It seems to me that they do extra damage and even insta-kill in certain circumstances and are mainly based on the armor or type of enemy.

I have somewhat good news... I was ALMOST able to do this in my latest attempt! I only died twice! No uber enchants or game-breaking stuff either - although I did get some equipment to tip the scales in my favor, I did constantly feel challenged. First death was because I was stupidly wearing cloth armor and a Thalmor warrior one-shotted me with a BS outta-nowhere unblockable instakill move when I had full HP. I declared that death to be BS (which it was) and decided to keep playing. The second was fighting Ohdaving, which was stupid thing to do given you dont really need to fight him up close. He snapped me with his jaws while I had just under half hp and wiped me out. I wasnt expecting it at all given that dragons hadnt been much of a problem previously. Id gotten so far at that point that I decided to play on. You dont HAVE to fight Ohdaving so I figured it wasnt worthy of being counted as a death. Agree or disagree? Although technically I cant say I had no deaths whatsoever, I think it was a good effort and the deaths I did have were not significant enough to warrant a restart. How I managed to stay alive? A huge reason for my success was alchemy, both for trading and making useful potions. I didnt use enchanting until much later on, when I started to feel like my equipment wasnt enough to handle the challenge ahead of me. I eventually made a set of ebony weapons - paralysis sword, soul capture sword (my main weapon), absorb health sword and fire bow. I used Blades armor and only improved it so it was a little better than standard dragonbone. Basic rules I followed: No/limited fast travel - only using fast travel very rarely, like the game crashed so I reloaded and fast-travelled to the point of progress, or I forgot to do something in the place I just left, etc. It got pretty boring running/riding everywhere. No game-breaking uber-enchanting/smithing - I did use smithing improve gear, but I bought/found it all. The only expection is that before the final mission I used a +50% improve potion and upgraded all my gear. It wasnt daedric or dragon armor tho, just ebony and Blades gear. I found the final mission still very difficult and tense, especially when I began to run out of potions. Avoid relying on companions - I took companions when it was appropriate and story-related, but mostly travelled alone. I did most of the most challenging portions alone, such as Blackreach. Any questions about tactics, strategy, skills etc are welcome. I recorded the whole thing and hope to produce a good series of videos with the boring bits chopped out. I really enjoyed it for the most part. It was great seeing my character go from humble, insecure and fearful beginnings to amassing wealth and power and becoming known across Skyrim... and it all coming to a head at the final showdown with Alduin, in which I came really close to death... the triumph and sense of relief was breathtaking.

I used to go outside sometimes like you... Then I took a Skyrim in the knee.

Seems to be fine... resists seem to be fixed. I dont get much crashes with any patch because I play in windowed mode. For some reason windowed mode more stable for me.

I cant play anything other than a Nord. It makes no sense whatsoever that someone other than a Nord would be the Dragonborn.

I think you may be right. But I think a mod that introduces a "fix" for how easy it is to "game the system" would be well received and widely used. That is the best we could hope for.

I like the ideas about smithing gains. If I had such a mod Id probably end up just making iron daggers, steel daggers, dwarven daggers, etc etc :) Also, perhaps we can determine it ourselves using the skill system as it is now - all the perks has skill requirements, you can use the skill req as a guideline to what you ought to be making in the period until the next perk becomes available.

and neither is making a set of rules hurting anybody, so why comment on this thread? Whats the point?

@Goblin Girl - In order to make good rules I need to draw from the experience/knowledge of others. The question is: at what point does enchant/smithy/alchemy become abusive? We should be able to come to an agreement about that through discussion. Restarting the game and following the rules we decided would make the game more enjoyable for me.

I know there are many people on this forum who hate the idea of abusing the enchanting and smithing - that is, making weapons and armor so insanely OP that you might as well set the games difficulty to Super Easy because youre doing the same thing by using that gear. Anyway, Im thinking that perhaps the people here who hate enchant/smithing abuse can form an agreement as to what constitutes non-abusive use of these craft skills. Here are some suggestions for rules I have: 1. Limit the strength of enchants by "transferring" enchants - say for example you buy a pair of elven gloves with +20% one-hand damage. You can disenchant them and enchant a different pair of gloves up to +20% maximum, not any higher. The original enchanted item you found/bought sets the limit. 2. Self-capping smithing improvement total bonus - I propose a +50% total cap on smithing improvement, and the +improve items must be store bought or found only. In my current game Im using +20% gloves and +12% necklace, both of which I bought from a store. Even with the improved items I made while wearing those two things, the game is still challenging and I definitly havent 'broken the game' by doing it. Perhaps the cap can be scaled higher/lower depending on level? 3. Dont use enchanting to craft +alchemy +improve +enchanting items. 4. Dont put two enchants on items. Any other sensible rules you have to share? PS. There are probably rules other people might have that I dont agree with. Like I think its ok to wear more than one enchanted item with the same bonus on it (for example wearing both gloves and shoes with +one-hand bonus) and would only reconsider that if the game were to become very easy because of it.

I used this method and added 4 levels. Just as the OP said, it doesnt give you a perk point or anything - it just jacks up your level while leaving your hp and everything the same. The results are nice and it is indeed more challenging now.

Ive been using the shout Become Ethereal while I wait for them to drain their mana on me while Im invuln. Also you can use it to get close and do a power attack against them. Bring paralysis potions :D

No fast travel is a cool idea until you are doing the first steps of the main quest for the tenth time. I use fast travel but I dont use it all the time. I only use it when I know the trip will be boring, have no challenge and I dont need to collect anything. The game consumes enough time as it is.