Few questions about mods, propositions for better balanced game etc

[SoM3]

So, after playing 220 hours of Skyrim and leaving the game for quite a while, I decided to get myself the addons and play again. Thing is, I want kinda a frasher and better balanced experience, since im a little fed up with vanillia Skyrim. Also got a lil bit better PC in midtime. What are your propositions on mods that would enchance gameplay and the way game looks, enb presents with lowest perfomance drop?

[ArtMurder]

Well, there are two main Overhaul mods that you can get to change how Skyrim plays on this site Skyrim Redon and Requiem (there was a third, ESRO, but as I never liked it much and it's not available anymore anyways I won't talk about it here)

 

These two are VERY different from one another.

 

Requiem is made by and for fans of older, more hardcore RPGs, including Morrowind, and one of it's main features is a totally uneleveled world, where enemies levels are based on their strength, and not your level, so, all dragons may be level 50, all wolves may be level 5, and all trolls may be level 15. Basically, it removes you from the center of the world, you have to adapt to it and fight every enemy differently. Some enemies may seem impossible, but on close inspection are easy to kill if you have the right kind of weapon, for example trolls are very nasty at early levels, but get a weapon enchanted with fire damage and learn how to side step their sluggish attacks and you can clear a dungeon full of them. That same weapon will serve as little good as a lone angry sabre cat, and send you running for the hills. Another main feature of Requiem is that it forces you to work harder for everything, if it is cheap and abusable it has been nerfed to hell and back. I personally call it "the great equalizer" as almost all human vs human battles are over in seconds. While you may die in two hits from an enemy, you can 1 hit kill them with your hammer, and if you have good enough reflexes, you can destroy an entire bandit clan without taking a single hit. I love this myself, because of the adrenaline rush of really fearing one single weapon hit forces you to use all your skills and reflexes and knowledge of how the game works to defeat every single enemy.

 

Skyrim Redon(SkyRe) is very different. Instead, it focus more on powering up the world greatly, but is still based on vanilla leveling system, and then giving the player a MASSIVE toolbox of choices to survive the world. It is very balanced, in that each tree is very powerful, and with enough effort can build a strong character, so it's hard to make bad decisions, but it is also a little bit "cheap" in that things feel less like a reward for your hard work and more like Christmas morning every time you level up, and if you focus to much on one skill tree, this can lead to you becoming insanely overpowered by the time you reach level 25. By the time I reached 25 (about 8 hours in) my Necromancer was untouchable, literally, I had more minions around me at any given time then the emperor himself did, nothing ever survived them to even get to me. This resulted in my conjuration tree going nuts, and all by other skills not being used at all, so I just kept focusing on it. lol By the time I hit 30 the game turned into a leisurely walk in the park surrounded by a huge mass of skeletons and draugr killing everything around me, and I lost all interest in the character. BUT that's more my fault for playing that way then Skyrim Redone's fault.

 

I am actually working on a project to merge these two together, but I wouldn't wait on that, it could be weeks/months. lol

 

Some other mods that effect gameplay a lot are...

 

Frostfall - This mod makes it so that you can get cold and dye, it also lets you build campfires, tents, and lots of other stuff all out in the field through a survival menu. It also goes GREAT with the two mods I just listed.

 

Realistic Needs and Diseases - Makes it so that you need to eat, drink, and sleep to stay in tip top shape! Goes great with all the mods I mentioned.

 

Locational Damage - Makes it so that hitting certain body parts has added damage and effects based on the area it hits. hitting an enemy in the head with an arrow will likely kill him, while hitting him in the leg with one won't, but it will however slow him down.

 

as for graphics, I'll just copy/paste this from my post in another thread.

First I can say don't try to go "all out" even if the computer is a total beast, trying push skyrim to it's limits will introduce CTDs and FPS hangs. My computer is pretty high end as well, with an i5 processor and a GTX 660, but I still find myself using the more balanced options.

 

A lot of people swear by ENBs, because they do make the game look fantastic... when they work right. I personally don't like them very much, so I will let someone else suggest ENBs,. and aI'll suggest alternatives.

 

I suggest Ultimate Lighting Overhaul as your SweetFX mod it is very realistic in it's design.

 

To get a very ENB like look with a SweetFX mod is possible, bet hard.

 

Download Climates of Tamriel and Enhanced Lights and FX - These two together alter the lighting of the world to be super realistic and breath takingly well designed.

 

Finally, Dynavision gives the DoF of ENB, I suggest setting it to "static" as this serves to blur our just very distant things, and doesn't have the nasty "snap" visuals of most DoF you find in ENBs.

 

Also, I have a preset for ULO, that makes nights a bit darker, that is designed around these mods. I am actually mostly just linking you this for the screenshots, as it shows all these mentioned mods in action.

ULO - Dramatic Cinematic

 

For textures I use 2k Textures lite and Book of Silence. In addition to several other random single off texture replacers that those things miss. Avoid anything over 1k~2k, I still sometimes get CTDs from memory issues, but it's always after my game has been running 3+ hours, the lower res your textures are the longer you can play without CTDs. That being said the official HD DLC are very high res, yet not actually THAT great looking, so I suggest avoiding it. ^_^ In addition if you don't download the unoffical patch for it off the nexus you will find some bright purple missing textures in the HD DLC.

Edited December 14, 2013 by ArtMurder

[SoM3]

I tried the visual mods u recommended, but i have only one complain - the shadows looks pixalted and blurry as hell, and it was the main reason why i started using ENB. Anyway to change it?

[ArtMurder]

I tried the visual mods u recommended, but i have only one complain - the shadows looks pixalted and blurry as hell, and it was the main reason why i started using ENB. Anyway to change it?

yes, use ini tweaks! ENBs don't really fix this, they just hide it, you can get crisp detailed looking shadows. Read through this mod here, you don't even need to download it, just follows it's directions. ^_^

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/283/?

[SoM3]

Thank you very much! Althought, the fact that i cant see absolutely nothing in caves with enchanded lights is climatic, its also frustrating at the same time. Will spend some more time with those mods.

And I dont know enb exacly works , but in some cases it really like, "smoothed" the curves of the shadows, making them looks absolutely gorgeous. Before making this post, I was using the climates of tamrial mod + cot enb settings, stopped using them because sometimes the game was getting just way too white and shiney, I dont know if its intentional (winter is coming) or bug cuz it only occurs sometimes and it realy hurted my eyes

Edited December 14, 2013 by SoM3

[ArtMurder]

That white and shiny thing you described is an ENB bug, and exactly why I suggest not using them, all of them do SOMETHING weird like that XD Also, if you have a good graphics card, you can turn on Anti-Aliasing(SP?) directly through it, and get similar "smoothed" effect without the need to mod your game at all. ^_^

 

and it is very easy to tweak the light level yourself.

 

Go to your skyrim folder, and open "sweetfc_settings.ini"

 

Look for the Lift Gamma Gain section that looks something like this,

 

  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                      Lift Gamma Gain settings               /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define RGB_Lift  float3(0.995, 0.995, 0.995)  //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust shadows for Red, Green and Blue
#define RGB_Gamma float3(0.975, 0.975, 0.980)  //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust midtones for Red, Green and Blue
#define RGB_Gain  float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000)  //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust highlights for Red, Green and Blue

Edit the Lift(top row) up or down to make shadows darker/brighter and the Gain(bottom row) up or down to make lights brighter/darker, and Gamma(middle row) to make midtones darker/brighter. Make sure all the numbers on the same row or about the same, or one color will start to bled into the others. Edit it in intervals of about 0.010, it's very sensitive, but with a little tweaking you can get your "exact" balance. ^_^ Edited December 14, 2013 by ArtMurder

[SoM3]

I have been out for a long time, is there is a way I can appreciate your effort and help, some kind of kudos system?

Edited December 15, 2013 by SoM3

[ArtMurder]

Thanks, and I hope I was of some help!

 

I believe you can give someone kudos through their nexus profile page. ^_^

Here's mine; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/3524452/?