Creating the Best Requiem Experience

[osmosys]

I'm getting back into Skyrim, and created this lost of mods for my next play through. This list of mods is compatible with one another except when noted.

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[Core Game Files]

 

Skyrim
Skyrim Heathfire
Skyrim Dawnguard
Skyrim Dragonborn
High Resolution DLC

 

[Patches for Core Game Files]

(These will work with Requiem but you need to use the optional esp from Requiem Hard Times)

 

Unofficial Skyrim Patch
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch
Unofficial High Resolution Patch

 

[script Support for Requiem]

Skyrim Script Extender

 

 

[Character/Quest/Interface/Other]

Alternate Start - Live Another Life (this seems to work ok, but the game starts off a bit stilted. I also think some of the starting options are a bit... well see for yourself.)
Even Better Quest Objectives - (A must have if you turn quest markers off. I really hope it's extensive enough because otherwise you can't progress at all. This is probably my number one concern. If it doesn't work I have to turn quest markers back on. I hate quest markers. I hope this works with all the expansion content!)

Better Fast Travel - Carriages and Ships (Very useful since Requiem turns fast travel off, but I don't know if this conflicts)

SkyUI - (pretty sure you need this to use Requiem)

 

[Requiem Files]

Requiem - (comes with Dawnguard Support. This is all you need to play Requiem but it won't support the other expansions)

Requiem - Dragonborn
Requiem - Hearthfires

Requiem - Immersive Creatures
Requiem - Immersive Patrols
Requiem - Immersive Weapons (I don't know if Requiem already has most of these weapons)
Requiem - Immersive Armors (I don't know if Requiem already has most of these armors)

Requiem - Skytest Realist Animals and Predators
Requiem - Dragon Combat Overhaul (be wary I've read of bugs)
Requiem - Civil War Overhaul (again I've read of bugs)

Requiem - Moonpath to Elswyer Patch
Requiem - Wyrmstooth

Requiem - Falskaar

 

Requiem - Hard Times (You need this for Requiem to work properly with the unofficial patches. Requiem wasn't designed with the unofficial patches in mind. You can read more about the requiem forums here. Look for the post by Joelph.

Update: I think Requiem Hard Times has a standalone esp if you want compatibility without running Hard Times itself...

Update2: I talked to the mod author and he said that most of the fixes for the unofficial patches should work fine since Requiem doesn't touch quests, and a lot of the other fixes are more cosmetic anyway.

 

[Other Requiem Compatible Mods]

 

Update: Check out the Requiem Extended Mod Here: http://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=4306

 

Frostfall, Wet and Cold, Cloaks of Skyrim (for Frostfall) (None of these have many issues, but Cloaks may need a bash file)

Winter is Coming - (Right now I use the craft only option to avoid leveled lists problems)

Moonpath to Elswyer (with requiem patch)

Wyrmstooth (with requiem patch)

Falskaar (with requiem patch)

Immersive Patrols (with requiem patch)

Immersive Weapons (with requiem patch)

Skyrim Immersive Creatures (with requiem patch)

Skytest Realist Animals and Predators (with requiem patch)

Dragon Combat Overhaul (with requiem patch)

Cival War Overhaul (with requiem patch)

Hunterborn - This comes with a requiem patch! Hurray!

Vilja in Skyrim - Apparently this is compatible with Requiem now.

 

Note: Be tentative about running these mods:

 

1. Falskaar

2. Moonpath to Elswyer

3. Wyrmstooth

 

These are fan made expansions. They may be great, but fan made content is often very lacking and unbalanced. Maybe the requiem mod patches fix these, but I'm not certain. Also, do these support or need Even Better Quest Objectives? If you go to these regions with your compass marker turned off it may not work right... I have no idea...

 

 

[Personal Favorites: Graphics/Interface]

A Quality World Map with Roads
Climates of Tamriel - Weather - Lightning - Audio (If you get rain while under canopies it's Skyrim not this mod. Blame Bethesda.)

Real Vision ENB - (performance gets really crappy unless you have a great video card)

Racemenu - (May go well with XCE Xenius Character Enhancement)

Static Mesh Improvement Mod - (This has a conflict with W.A.T.E.R. so install W.A.T.E.R. last and overwrite)

Gems of Skyrim

Better Shaped Swords - (This mod is great since there is no esp. Just some graphical changes. It's not complete however...)

Glowing Ore Veins - (Haven't seen any problems. Pretty discrete.)

Enhanced Night Skyrim

Skyrim Flora Overhaul

W.A.T.E.R.

Footprints

Hires Legible Road Signs

 

[Personal Favorites: Other]

Unread Books Glow - (I don't see how this would create problems, but I could be wrong :/)

Skyrim Book Covers - (Seems to work with Unread books glow....)

Birds of Skyrim - (These are all new inconsequential additions.)

Wearable Lanterns - (I haven't run into any problems with this one. It's pretty discrete.)

Bandoliers

Auto Unequip Ammo - (I don't see how this could conflict.)

Realistic Ragdolls and Force - (It shouldn't conflict? Haven't tried it yet.)

Lanterns of Skyrim - (I've been running this without problems. It's a fairly discrete mod.)

Sounds of Skyrim - (This may conflict with Climates of Tamriel)

 

[Additional Likely Incompatible Mods]

 

Magic

Midas Magick - I doubt it's been setup with the hardcore world of Requiem involved. Probably OP and conflicting.

Dwemerverse - This seems cool, but I have no idea what it would do to requiem, or if the spells are overpowered.

Apocolypse Spell Package - Again I have no idea what this would do to Requiem's spells, or if they are OP.

 

NPC/Monster

Organized Bandits - not sure if the leveled list work well.

Trade Routes - The changes to the economcy probably conflict, but I'm not sure.

Interesting NPCS - (This has potential for conflicts. Do any of them have overpowered items? Do they conflict with Requiem's leveled lists?)

Populated Caves and Dungeons - (The author claims this is compatible with overhauls, but it's possible Requiem already does what this mod does on it's own.)

Ultimate Follower Overhaul - (A mod like this seems inherently dangerous for many many reasons.)

Guard Dialogue Overhaul - Again this makes me paranoid about leveled list changes.

Cloaks of Skyrim (I assume this needs a bashed patch)

 

Other

4. Pumping Iron - Not sure if this works well with other mods.

 

Loot Options

Requiem's loot is good, but if you want that extra something you'll have to look elsewhere. Other mods address this, but it's highly doubtful they will work without a patch.

 

Morrowloot - I really really want this to work with Requiem, but I doubt it's compatible. It seems worthy of making a patch though... Seems like it does so many things right too... sigh...

Immersive Loot and Cells - Another good loot mod, but I doubt it works with Requiem.

Dynamic Loot - Another Good option, and I doubt it works.

 

 

Why I chose Requiem

 

I'm a Morrowind fan, and I really really really hated Oblivion. So bad that I never beat it, and even OOO wasn't enough to make me want to play the game. If you wonder why just read this page:

 

https://sites.google.com/site/damicat/

 

Damicat pretty much nailed it. So when Skyrim came out I was skeptical, and I gave it a whirl, but quickly lost interest. It seemed better that Oblivion in some ways, but at it's core it was still too "softcore" for my tastes. So I waited and waited, and even forgot about Skyrim, and then came back and found two mods that seemed interesting. Skyre, and Requiem.

 

Skyre seems like an awesome mod, but I wanted something a bit more comprehensive. Something where the author kept the bigger picture in mind, balancing how their tweaks affect every point in the game. Modular mods are like a double edged sword. Sure they may be more discrete, and allow the player to customize their experience, but they also have one dramatic failing.

 

For example, if you mix a magic mod with a monster difficulty mod will it make the game better or worse? Think about it carefully. The answer is maybe. It may be that the monster difficulty mod has monsters with hit point increases/decreases that mesh well with a magic enhancement mod's damage increases/decreases. But it depends on how those increases/decreases line up, and this can be chaotic.

 

The creators of mods tend to use Vanilla Skyrim as their baseline for how their mod should work. They can't possibly think about the baseline of another mod maker (let alone fifty other mod makers). It's not possible. This is why I think Requiem will be a better experience for me. To drive it home even further think about it this way:

 

Magic Mod A - Spells 2x damage in most catagories. (essentially making the game easier at the aggregate)

Magic Mod B - Spells do less damage (Seen as a realism mod in some ways. Toned down hardcore magic.)

Magic Mod C - A mix of more or less damage (random based upon the mod makers sensibilities. May even break vanilla.)

 

Creature Mod A - Creatures are deleveled (static levels that tend to be harder at first)

Creature Mod B - Creatures are leveled but beefed up.

 

That's five variables. Three times two is six, so there are six possible combinations:

 

Magic Mod A - Creature Mod A (harder creatures may be overcome by additional damage nullifying the creature change)

Magic Mod A - Creature Mod B (semi-harder creatures may or may not be overcome by additional damage. It's a coin toss.)

Magic Mod B - Creature Mod A (harder creatures are now ridiculously hard)

Magic Mod B - Creature Mod B (semi-harder creatures are now a lot harder)

Magic Mod C - Creature Mod A (Mixed results. Maybe frustrating maybe not)

Magic Mod C - Creature Mod B (Again mixed results)

 

Now before you go off and say, "Dude Midas Magic works great with my deleveled monsters" think about this. I won't know you're right until I'm already 20 hours into the game. By then I've got a good enough sample to know if you're right or wrong. But you know what? By then it's too late. I wont uninstall and start over, and I will already have spoiled the game for myself.

 

Instead I'm banking that the people that made Requiem know enough about the "bigger picture" to complete a coherent, and balanced (within the increased difficulty) experience. Because they considered how changing one thing would change another within the baseline of Requiem (not the baseline of Vanilla Skyrim).

 

There is one important caveat though. It's possible that Requiem is too hard, but I LOVED Dark Souls, so bring on the pain!

 

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Any help or comments is appreciated.

Edited January 11, 2014 by osmosys

[boo]

Working on the same thing right now. Just hoping to get a few more Mods compatible. Specifically, I'd like to see the following made compatible:

Interesting NPCs

INIGO (don't know what actually needs to be done, if anything must be done at all)

Vilja in Skyrim (same as INIGO, don't know what needs to be patched)

Sneak Tools (would LOVE to see this one)

The Shadow of Meresis

Faction: Pit Fighter (Steam Workshop, by thirteenoranges)

 

Personally, my one worry with Requiem is that at high levels it may become too easy due to the unleveled world.

Edited January 4, 2014 by boo

[osmosys]

Yeah any kind of NPC mod will instantly create problems.

 

I'm going to focus on the core requiem experience plus the must have mods, and then progress from there. Let me know how you fare! :-)

[boo]

I'm also curious if anyone has any experience with Requiem and how well the Populated Series works. The mod author says that there shouldn't be any issues.

Edited January 4, 2014 by boo

[boo]

Also, Hunterborn is another great mod which is fully compatible. I also believe that the Sands of Time Sleeping Encounters module SHOULD be compatible, but I'm not sure.

Edited January 4, 2014 by boo

[osmosys]

Also, Hunterborn is another great mod which is fully compatible. I also believe that the Sands of Time Sleeping Encounters module SHOULD be compatible, but I'm not sure.

 

Did you need a bashed patch, or does it fit with requiem with no issues? Requiem changes leveled creature lists a lot, and I want to avoid any changes other mods make.

[calfurius]

Hunterborn is mostly compatible, but has a few problems with balancing when it comes to things like frostbite poison (in Requiem you need a certain alchemy level to obtain the poison, with Hunterborn you can just harvest it outright). Not to mention the fact that Requiem adds different sized animals that may conflict with Hunterborn (you can fix this with Taxerdemy power though).

 

 

Also i'm telling you right now, if a mod doens't specifically say that it supports expansion packs or if you don't see it has an optional patch, it most likely won't support the DLC. Some mods have dynamic scripts that support DLC (such as Frostfall) but you have to check the mod page yourself and see.

[osmosys]

Hunterborn is mostly compatible, but has a few problems with balancing when it comes to things like frostbite poison (in Requiem you need a certain alchemy level to obtain the poison, with Hunterborn you can just harvest it outright). Not to mention the fact that Requiem adds different sized animals that may conflict with Hunterborn (you can fix this with Taxerdemy power though).

 

 

Also i'm telling you right now, if a mod doens't specifically say that it supports expansion packs or if you don't see it has an optional patch, it most likely won't support the DLC. Some mods have dynamic scripts that support DLC (such as Frostfall) but you have to check the mod page yourself and see.

 

Thanks for the info. Requiem seems like it's fairly solid, and luckily it makes most of the big changes on it's own.

 

I'm not gonna bother with Hunterborn. Too much hassle. Any kind of creature/npc mod seems off limits also. That just leaves me with very discrete mods, and graphics tweaks.

 

Not so bad. I'm sure I'll have an enjoyable playthrough.

[CapNKirkland]

i wish i had the attention span to read that wall of text.. there might be some useful things in there to help me out...

 

oh well.. ADHD wins again.

[PlatinumEagle]

IIRC Hunterdon comes with a requiem patch.