"Fresh" Skyrim install (mod baseline)

[mBrinX]

Hi everyone ! first i would like to thank all modders for their effort keeping this game alive and kicking still, and even more awesome.

 

That said,

 

everyone that mods skyrim has had to start over with a fresh install at some point (some more then others :smile: and having done this a few times myself i found that i have a number of mods i install every single time so i consider them essential and include them in my vanilla game folder zip.

 

lacking technical expertise , experience and general mod knowledge other than the authors notes i was wondering if you guys could help me compile a baseline sykrim backup zip , something we could all benefit from i think.

 

i know there is STEP but i think it's an awfully big list, and it's not that up to date i think ?

 

 

with my narrow mod knowledge and experience i made a list ,any input is greatly appreciated

so far i came up with the following mods:

(full dlc Required)

in no particular order: (again just looking for mods you believe are essential for playing)

 

The unofficial patches.

 

mandatory texture packs, change to taste:

Skyrim HD2k-

Skyrim Realistic Overhaul

Smim

Water Mod(again personnal pref)

Climates Of Tamriel -up to you, i can't play without

Acquisitve Soulgems

a Sound overhaul

No spinning death animations -must have

Realistic ragdolls and force -to keep it real

Weapons & armor fixes

SkyUI -duh

IHUD -..duh

Player size adjuster and first person camera fix -i dont like looking up to wood elves as an orc in 1st person view

The Dance of Death ultimate -for teh lulz

Convenient Horses -if you're into that sort of thing

Ultimate Follower Overhaul(or similar) -it takes 2 to tango, it takes this to party

that's it so far

 

please let me know what you think

[Shadeybladey]

I am not sure what you mean by a "baseline backup zip".

I think I get that when you had a pristine Vanilla install, you zipped it up so you can restore it to Vanilla easily at any time?

But if you do the same thing with mods installed, some of them will become out of date at some point and need to be changed anyway. The Unofficial patches and anything that relies on them, particularly.

I just download the compressed mods and keep them in their own folders in my Skyrim Mods folder, and unzip them there and install manually by copying over.


Out of your list, I always use:

The Unofficial Patches.
The Official High Res Textures
Realistic Ragdolls and Force
Weapons & Armor fixes
SkyUI
IHUD
The Dance of Death
Ultimate Follower Overhaul (in the process of being updated by a third party)

Essential "Bug fix" mods would be Arthmoor's
Run For Your Lives.esp
When Vampires Attack.esp
The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp

I'd include these with USKP etc as they do what Vanilla always should have done.


I also consider essential:
World_Map_Height_Pitch_Tweak_250.esp
Atlas Map Markers (disable map.swf warning from SkyUI)
Categorized Favorites Menu (better than SkyUI favourites - disable favoritesmenu.swf warning in SkyUI)
Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp
Weapons & Armor Fixes_Dawnguard.esp
Chesko_Frostfall.esp

Non-esp mods
A Quality World Map v8.0 – All Roads, Clear Skies
Hold Borders - New - All Roads v8_1-5739-8-1
HQ3DMap - Meshes Hi-Res-4817-2-0
Legwon's Coloured Map and HUD Markers with my colours
Frostfall Belt-Fastened Quivers 1.1
MDX_NoPoisonDialogs
No Boring Sleep Wait
Skyrim Glowing Ore Veins
Smart Souls.dll
Subliminal Traps
XPMS 1-5-1 (for dual sword shethes)

There are others, but more to taste rather than essential.

Also pretty essential to me:

AMatterOfTime.esp
Bag of Holding.esp
dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp
dD-No Screen Blood.esp
UnreadBooksGlow.esp
DungeonQuestAwareness.esp

SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp
Birds.esp
Birdsofskyrim.esp
skyBirds - Airborne Perching Birds.esp

DragonCombatOverhaul.esp

Chesko_Frostfall.esp
WetandCold.esp
Footprints.esp
RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp
Drinking Fountains of Skyrim.esp
RND_DrinkingFountains-Patch.esp
RealShelter.esp
realrainextended.esp
Cloaks.esp
1nivWICCloaks.esp
1nivWICSkyCloaksPatch.esp

Better Stealth AI for Followers.esp
Traps Make Noise.esp
KillingTraps.esp
DartTrap harder.esp
Life In Prison.esp
LocalizedGuildJobs.esp
Realistic crime report radius.esp
Realistic poison.esp
vinis_crime_gold.esp
HunterTraps.esp

Complete Crafting Overhaul.esp
Smithing Perks Overhaul_Remade.esp
Dual Sheath Redux.esp
Headtracking.esp
justified knockbacks.esp
BurntCorpse.esp

Magelight Multi Cast.esp
MystraTransmuteOreNoCooldown.esp
ConjurationMadnessModv1.esp
RunesMax4.esp

Prometheus_BeastSkeletons.esp
Skeleton Resurrection.esp
83Willows_101BUGS_V4_HighRes.esp

SoS - The Dungeons.esp
SoS - The Wilds.esp

TwoRings.esp

[mBrinX]

thank you so much for this !

[Shadeybladey]

I forgot Immediate Dragons. I use it as an immersion/realism mod for when you don't want to go to Whiterun, or if using Alternate Start (which I started using recently).

 

With immediate Dragons, you don't wonder WTF every one is talking about since you've never seen a dragon since Helgen.

 

In Vanilla, the dragon spawns don't activate until you do the Whiterun quest to kill the dragon that attacks the guard tower. So if you want to wander off and be a Ranger or Hunter, you will have a chance of dragons spawning whenever you pass through a Vanilla spawn point without ever meeting Jarl Balgruff, much less being rail-roaded into saving his guard tower.

 

 

I also use Immersive Patrols and all it's sub-mods, but they are not actually "essential". In fact, sometimes there can be too much "immersion"!

 

~.~

[mBrinX]

yea i know what u mean, im still on my first playthrough (didn't have a pc capable of games since '09) and i'm using imm patrol, deadly dragons, skyre, civil war overhaul and a few others, not using realistic needs or frostfall cuz it's just to much hassle for my 1st run ( i managed to stay spoiler free yet keep up with mods), alternate start will be used after i finish this playthrough

[Shadeybladey]

Oh, I'm sorry, I hope I didn't spoil anything for you! I assumed you'd been playing for a while and restarted several times from your OP. But I think everyone goes to Whiterun to report the dragon attack on their first run-though.

 

Yes, I think the Realism/Survivalist mods are something you try when you've played quite a while. My first character lasted about 450 hours and one time she was stuck on an ice flow with 3500 lbs of gear and had to crawl back to civilisation. It was just daft that she could be in a blizzard for days on end without ever having to eat, sleep, drink or keep warm. Those mods are especially good for playing a Hunter or Ranger, which really fits the Skyrim land and Nord mind set.

 

You could try Wet and Cold and Footprints. They complement Frostfall and RND realy well, but just add immersive visual effects like breath mist and icing up the character, water drips after swimming etc. And Footrpints in the snow, of course. They do not have any actual survival elements in them, they just make the game look better.

 

It's a funny thing, but with all the other TES games from Daggerfall I had "Restartitis". Skyrim was the first one where I felt really invested in the character and didn't want to start again and try something different; just see where the game took her.

 

~.~

[ArtMurder]

Mod I use in every install of skyrim;

ALL 2k Textures Lite

ALL aMidianborn Born (AMB) armor textures

Lanterns Of Skyrim

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch

Isharas Hearthfire Log Update Patch

Chesko Frostfall

Minty Lightning

Static Mesh Improvement

Economics of Skyrim

A Matter Of Time

Dead Body Collision

Radiant and Unique Potions and Poisons

Skyrim Immersive Creatures

Skyrim Flora Overhaul

Wet and Cold

Dragon Soul Relinquishment

Footprints

Race Menu

SkyUI

iHUD

Immersive Weapons

Immersive Armors

Enhanced Lights and FX

Climates Of Tamriel

Supreme Storms

Denser Grass

Sky Falls - Distant Waterfall Overhaul

Better Vampires

Brevi MoonlightTales

The Dance of Death

No Spinning Death Animation

Interesting NPCs (3DNPC)

Realistic Needs and Diseases

Amazing Follower Tweaks

Alternate Start - Live Another Life

Skyrim Redone

Realistic Water Two

Edited November 16, 2013 by ArtMurder

[mBrinX]

thanks for sharing ! if anything it's nice to reference to this to what works together