Essential Mods for Skyrim for better Gameplay?

[enteng]

Since the title is a bit weird let's get to the point.

 

WHAT are the mods required for you to have the best gameplay in Skyrim in terms of overhauls, patches and bug fixes, Better immersion with the world of Skyrim. Aside from the UNSKP, UNDWP, UNHFP, and UNDBP there are other mods out there that greatly enhances the gameplay for you??

 

Are there any specific mods that generaly improve the gameplay for each type of character you create?

[DarShonDo]

I shuffle thru a lot of different mods while playing. I don't know if you know about GEMS but here is the link http://www.skyrimgems.com/ It has a list of lots of mods to make gameplay better. Hope this helps.

[Halendia]

Balanced Magic

Edited August 24, 2013 by Halendia

[Jermungand]

I'm in the same boat, leaning heavily toward SkyRe (which I'm surprised you didn't mention). It expands the possibilities in the gameplay quite a lot, including changes to perk trees, combat, and lots of other things (all modular, so you can leave out elements that you don't like). Skill trees branch in a way that make your character more unique. Despite all the changes it makes, it seems to have been designed with a lot of intelligent consideration, unlike some other gameplay mods that strike me as a bit rash or short-sighted with regard to their effect on the game as a whole. It's probably the most popular overhaul. Gopher (the Skyrim Mod Sanctuary guy) uses it and featured it in one of his episodes, and he seems like a pretty good judge.

 

Link: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9286/?

Edited August 24, 2013 by Jermungand

[ArtMurder]

The Unofficial patches for the game itself and every DLC you have (separate mods)

 

Skyrim Redone

 

Frostfall

 

Realistic Needs and Diseases

 

Duel - Combat Realism

 

Locational Damage

 

ASIS

 

Amazing Follower Tweaks

 

Better Vampires

 

Tales of Lycanthropy

 

Nature of the Beast II

 

Dragon Soul Relinquishment

 

Immersive Creatures / Immersive Armor / Immersive Weapons

[Hyacathusarullistad]

I've got quite an extensive list of mods that I consider essential - mostly bug fixes and immersion tweaks more than actual additions.

 

The Unofficial Patches are a must. And I mean a must. You shouldn't play without them. All the official DLCs have a companion patch on the Nexus, including the official High-Resolution Pack. They fix a ton of things across the board. Anyone hoping to use mods should also have SKSE installed, because a lot of the best mods out there require it to function properly. You can find it here: http://skse.silverlock.org, with an excellent installation walkthrough here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTGnQIiNVqA.

SkyUI (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3863/?) is an important thing to have, if only for the mod configuration menu that many mods these days use to allow players to adjust settings and such. It also makes the inventory, barter, etc. menus a little more mouse+keyboard friendly, as well as a host of other convenient tweaks to the UI. If you prefer the vanilla interface though, you can also install SkyUI-Away (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/29440/?) to keep the vanilla menus but also have access to the mod configuration menu.

 

I can't start a playthrough without the Quality World Map (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4929/?). It adds all the main and/or side roads to the player map, and has an option to remove cloudcover as well. Definitely makes navigating across Skyrim easier in many cases.

 

If roleplaying and immersion are at all important to you, then you might like this one: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13298/?. It automatically removes your helmet when your weapon is sheathed, and puts it back on when you draw it again. There's a similar plugin from the same author for shields, too.

 

Better Dialogue Controls (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27371/?) is another great one that makes navigating conversatoins with NPCs a hell of a lot easier with the whole mouse/keyboard setup. and Better Messagebox Controls (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/28170/?) is similarly helpful with popup message boxes, letting you flip between options with the keyboard instead of just the mouse. Tiny tweaks, but oh-so-necessary.

 

Another good mod for roleplaying/immersion junkies is Timing is Everything (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/38151/?). It lets you choose when certain quest lines start based on your level. I use it primarily to delay the start of the Dragonborn questline, but there are a ton of other choices too. Fantastic mod.

 

Categorized Favorites Menu (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4862/?) is another must have. Does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, but you can customise it to your heart's content with some relatively simple tweaks to the favoritesmenu.cfg file. There are a good number of presets on the Nexus, too, if you're not comfortable setting up your own. It's dead easy though. Best part is that if you use SkyRe (I normally do, my current playthrough being an exception) there's a version of the config file designed to work with it available on the SkyRe downloads page.

 

The Static Mesh Improvement Mod (SMIM: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8655/?) replaces a lot of the vanilla world meshes with higher-poly versions and textures to match. It's pretty customisable too, though, so it's pretty compatible with most other mods.

 

Climates of Tamriel (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17802/?) is a great weather overhaul mod that makes the game look and feel a lot more realistic. There's an extension for it by another mod author that improves "bad" weathers (rain, fog, etc.) that's really well done as well (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/39799//?). These along with Pure Waters (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1111/?) and some of SparrowPrince's LOD improvements (available in a combo pack here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/40505//?) make Skyrim look absolutely amazing with little to no performance hit even on mid range rigs. Just be sure not to install WATER, which is included in Sparrow's combo pack, if you're using Pure Waters. One or the other are great (I give PW a very slight edge), but the two of them obviously conflict with each other. SkyFalls (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/40564//?) actually animates distance waterfalls, something which was thought impossible until SjoertJansen just up and did it.

Gopher's Dynavision (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12525/?), combined with the visual mods above, give the look and feel of a simple, vanilla-style ENB preset without the system demands of actually using ENB. There are a number of settings you can tweak, but the standard presets work pretty well IMO. You'll need SkyUI's Mod Configuration Menu to change any of the settings.

 

The Choice is Yours (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/26359/?) is a great mod that keeps your quest log clear of extraneous quests (like Join the Imperial Legion or Join the Stormcloaks) unless you specifically agree, through the in-game dialogue, to do something. Makes for a much more immersive experience as well as a cleaner quest log. There's a separate Dawnguard version in the downloads page there, but I don't think there's anything for Dragonborn yet.

 

Acqusitive Soul Gems (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5312/?) is definitely handy. It souls from entering soul gems that are too good for them. For example, you'll never have a petty soul fill a grand soul gem again.

 

Minor spoiler alert: If you have Dawnguard, this little gem ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21809/?) adds quest markers to the pages of Jiub's Opus in the Soul Cairn. If you've ever done this quest in vanilla Skyrim, you will LOVE this mod. I promise.

 

Better Shaped Weapons (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/39870/?) is a great little WIP mod that reshapes the vanilla weapons to make them a little more realistic (in the eyes of both the mod author and myself, at least). Like I said it's a WIP, but there's no reason to not use it IMO. He's already tackled the most obnoxious vanilla models (namely the ebony swords).

 

 

That's all the mods that I personally consider "essential" for a playthrough. The others I typically use will vary depending on my playstyle and planned allegiances for the character at the time. Seems like a lot, I know, but about half of them are minor tweaks that really should have been part of the game in the first place.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Hyacathusarullistad

[bben46]

No mods are essential. Because not everyone likes the same stuff - however, most people will use a few particular mods and these will all be in the top lists. That's part of the fun of using mods , no two games will be the same and your game will be distinctly yours and not just like every one elses.

 

Check out the top lists for the most downloaded and most endorsed - By default these are the mods that most people are going to recommend. Because that's what the top lists are. Start there. Then if these is something you would kike to see - try searching and asking on the forums.