Briton

Thanks for that.

I'm already loving it, as I did Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion. I enjoy modding almost as much as playing. I think stability is another advantage of coming to a game like this late. Many of the bugs have been ironed out of the game and the mods. I've only had one CTD and I think that may have been caused by me doing a lot of alt-tabbing. I'm sure Fallout is a great game but there's only so much time to invest and, whilst I'm sure I could have a good time playing it, I prefer the traditional fantasy setting for my RPG's to Fallout's world.

I have installed revenge of the enemies. :-) I use Purity but I see that Vividian is compatible with that. I have a 960 4gb card but to be honest I'm quite happy with the graphics. I'll probably give it a go eventually though. I have installed ELFX for the interiors though. I have those three survival mods plus Wet and Cold.

If you had said house mods are cheats (IYO) I wouldn't have had an issue. I've never used one in any Elder Scrolls game, so I don't know. They are not 'most mods' though and none of the mods I am using are exploits; most make the game more challenging and none could be construed as a cheat. Actually I think the vanilla game that holds your hand with it's leveled world and fast travel feels like one big cheat. I understand you can choose not to exploit fast travel and I don't think of carriages/sand striders/teleportation spells as fast travel cheats. I intend to get a horse but I can't afford it yet. I never play pure fighters in any CRPG. I keep meaning to have a play through as a fighter but never seem to get around to it. I usually play a marksman/backstabbing thief, a mage, or a combination of the two. Actually when I say alchemist, that is my goal. I spent one of my perks there but I'm strongest early on as a conjurer; which helps. Good advice on tactics but I am quite experienced at these kind of games. Amazing how often you can find a way when at first it seems impossible. Sometimes though I just have to leave it for another time. I prefer that though. Knowing that everything has been set to match my level would spoils the experience for me. But that's the great thing about these games; you can mould them to better suit your preferences.

I have no interest in playing in a totally leveled world that revolves around my character and it's pointless me playing an unmodded Skyrim. I understand others might be happy to play vanilla whatever but I don't understand why some think others should play it that way. Actually you'd have to be nuts* as a PC player not to mod the game in some way; if only to change the UI. (*Or completely phobic about messing with your install, I get that). As for insinuating all mods are cheats, that's just daft. I'm playing in an unleveled world where my puny alchemist is killed by a single hit. I'm running a survival/essential needs mod, and, as you know, there's no fast travel in Requiem. In what way are those cheats?

Thanks for the tips, good advice. Although I am new to Skyrim I have been researching mods for some time. I've watched all the Youtube videos and read a lot on what Requiem does. I only install mods listed on the Requiem patch page or research each one for compatibility with Requiem; if I'm in doubt about a mod, I don't use it. I've put the high res textures on and some other graphics improvements but I haven't tried an ENB as yet. Edit: I modded Oblivion a lot; inclding installing the OOO/Francescos/MMM thing. That was a nightmare. I see someone has automated it now.

Talk about being late to the party! Loving it so far. I love Bethedsa but I'm not going to bother with their vanilla release other than to check out why I wouldn't play it. ;) I've gone for Requiem and a lot of other mods that enhance the experience for me; including Frostfall and iNeeds. It's tough but I like the feeling of achievement when you make some progress. The great thing about about a game like this that has been out for ages is that there is so much material available and the game was really cheap. :) Actually I did the same with Morrowind and Oblivion but I was nowhere near as late as this. Any other Skyrim noobs about?

Hi all. I haven't played Skyrim yet as I haven't had a gaming PC for a few years but I'm going to build one within the next few months. I always come to The Elder Scrolls games late anyway as I wouldn't play the vanilla games and it suits me to go in when there's loads of modding been done. Anyway...is there anything I should avoid hardware wise that Skyrim has issues with, and is there any preference for ATI or Nvidia? I was thinking of getting a separate SSD just for Skyrim; would that benefit performance? cheers.