Having trouble finding good mods, suggestions?

[kevineugenius]

Prelude: this got much longer than I thought. You don't need to read the whole thing. If you're a subject expert at something, just read that part.

 

I'm pretty new to this, been fiddling around with Skyrim mods and Dragon Age Origin mods for about a week and it's been fairly disheartening. I use NMM and BOSS with really only one CTD problem so far. The problem is just finding stuff that makes enough of a difference to be worth the hassle. Here's what I've done so far and what I'm hoping someone can help me find.

 

Graphic enhancements:

I have metered internet so I didn't just download every texture pack known to man. I think the Skyrim graphics are pretty acceptable in the first place, but I did want to see what was available to help it out a bit.

I've tried Wet and Cold - it's alright. Pure Waters - I couldn't tell a difference so either it didn't work or I don't pay that much attention to water. Uninstalled.

What I'd like is something that's not going to be 1GB to download and maybe helps out the plant textures or the shiny effect vanilla Skyrim has (I never liked that look, thought it was a bit overdone). I do play in 3600x1920 so maybe a larger texture mod is what I need but... if it's huge, I'll have to wait until the end of the month. I haven't tried any of the sky/weather/lighting mods either, they just don't look that amazing to me. Let me know if I'm wrong.

 

Character enhancements:

This being my third playthrough, I found Quick Start to be awesome. I know there's one that people say is better but it was a huge download as it has an alternate start, rather than just skipping Helgen. Secondly, I wanted to try getting more magey this time so I grabbed Apocalypse. This seems to be kind of cool but I haven't found any spells yet so far that really help me out a lot. It almost needs a numbering system like MMORPGs use for casting because there's so many spells you could use in a single fight, plus some need very fast reactions, that having just M1 and M2 doesn't cut it. I'm using Experience Choice at 4x which is also very nice for someone who has already played the game a lot. Cloaks of Skyrim is my favorite so far (plus the backpacks), making the characters feel much more finished and wintery.

If there are any other must-have mage mods, I haven't found them. At level 20 (with 4x experience) I'm already getting bored of being a caster so I need something.

 

NPC enhancements:

I don't like nudie mods or uber unrealistic armor for the sake of showing a little leg. That said, I do like NPCs to be attractive. Skyrim's people are.... homely... for the most part. I installed CBBE and ended up getting rid of it as it makes everything just too dang smooth and unrealistic. I also tried the top-rated armor addon set for CBBE where you can add neck pieces and thigh guards and whatnot. Every. Single. Chest. Item. Comes. With. No. Pants. Seriously? Uninstalled them both and am now trying UNP because it seems to have more stuff available for it. Also have Ethereal Elven Overhaul and ApachiiSkyHair, both of which are very nice. But, I'm still lacking something. The people aren't very attractive, they're still too smooth and fake looking. My guess is I need different textures and maybe some armor packs. Which ones? A quick search gave me lots of options but no real guidance.

 

Followers:

I tried Advanced Follower Tactics and soon learned that I don't really give a crap about what my follower does. They need to just look cool and carry my extra stuff. If they happen to tank a couple Thalmor while I destruct them with lightning bolts, cool. If there are any followers that are really quite interesting, I'd be game to try them. Also, if there's a way to get some better dialog with followers, I think that would be more realistic.

 

Content:

I've done the destroy the Thieves Guild thing, was somewhat fun (had to put the difficulty waaay down as a level 13 caster) and am currently in Helgen Reborn. Will probably try Wyrmstooth and Falskaar. What else adds new experiences to the game? Can I open shops? Start a college? Become a Jarl (going to try the Ivarstead one)? Ride a dragon? Be a ship-faring pirate (that's a damn good idea, a quick search suggests Pirates of the Pacific may be worthwhile)? Have five wives and try to keep their existences secret from the others? Become a priest/priestess? Destroy a major city?

 

What's left:

I thought it would be easy to find a new and fun race to play, but I didn't find anything. I tried the Sandmer but they look waaay different on my machine than they do in the screenies and I didn't feel like playing a green character so I uninst'd. Most races on here are just designed to add sex to the game, it seems. I was interested to try the Lunari but as a caster it seemed silly. Same with Ningheim.

 

Additional armor and weapon packs. I thought these would be everywhere. I see several replacement packs but not many originals. I have immersive armors (causes my CTD issues if I equip barbarian armor) but will wait until the end of the month for immersive weapons. Even so, you never see the armor on NPCs, rarely find the armor on them (and why did they even have it when they didn't equip it?), so it hasn't altered my gameplay hardly at all. Plus, I don't want my mage to spend all his time at the forge. I would like to get some additional items scattered around the island, especially mage gear, without having to craft it all.

 

Removal of Soul Gems. Entirely. I shouldn't need to capture someone's essence to make an enchanted item, I'm a badass mage. I shouldn't have to recharge enchanted items after I smack someone a whole 4 times. It's super inconvenient and I'd be okay ruining the lore to see them go away. At the very least there must be a cheat that lets me reuse a soul gem or something. I haven't found anything good.

 

Other stuff that I think would make life more immersive; maybe these exist and maybe they don't:

Ability to hire a maid/cook/whatever. If you have a house in every single hold and you only go there for 18 minutes per week, someone needs to keep that fire lit and fed.

Prices need fixed. A sword would take a blacksmith probably half a day to make (total guess) and sells for like 15 gold. Then I walk in and sell 20,000 gold worth of random crap that I looted to that same guy. I'm not saying I want merchants to have less money, I'm saying the sell/buy prices of everything in the game need to be brought really low. Who is going to count out 20,000 gold pieces? Correct, no one. Force bartering on expensive objects and make it so most everything can be bought and sold for under 250g.

Disguises. If I waltz into Windhelm wearing Imperial Armor, they probably should kill me. However, if I'm an Imperial and wearing Stormcloak gear, they shouldn't know me by face unless I've got some kind of rep in that city.

 

 

[kevineugenius]

Just had a little moment where I realized Skyrim might not actually be an island. I assumed it was many years ago and never bothered to check. Looking at the map, it's probably not.

[DoctorKaizeld]

Skyrim is not an island. Tamriel is a continent and Skyrim is one of the several countries in it, here's a link to the wiki with a good map: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Tamriel

 

 

Removal of Soul Gems. Entirely. I shouldn't need to capture someone's essence to make an enchanted item, I'm a badass mage. I shouldn't have to recharge enchanted items after I smack someone a whole 4 times. It's super inconvenient and I'd be okay ruining the lore to see them go away. At the very least there must be a cheat that lets me reuse a soul gem or something. I haven't found anything good.

the soul gem system has some good lore behind it. anyways the best way i find for enchanting is to simply buy all the gems people have on them. with how easy gold is to acquire in the game it really isnt all that hard to get a bunch of them. i recommend saving the two highest tier gems for when you reach level 50 in enchanting. and always keep petty gems for enchantments that dont require a charge and dont grant a percentage bonus.

 

 

Graphic enhancements:

I have metered internet so I didn't just download every texture pack known to man. I think the Skyrim graphics are pretty acceptable in the first place, but I did want to see what was available to help it out a bit.

I've tried Wet and Cold - it's alright. Pure Waters - I couldn't tell a difference so either it didn't work or I don't pay that much attention to water. Uninstalled.

What I'd like is something that's not going to be 1GB to download and maybe helps out the plant textures or the shiny effect vanilla Skyrim has (I never liked that look, thought it was a bit overdone). I do play in 3600x1920 so maybe a larger texture mod is what I need but... if it's huge, I'll have to wait until the end of the month. I haven't tried any of the sky/weather/lighting mods either, they just don't look that amazing to me. Let me know if I'm wrong.

most of the texture overhauls are big mods, there are a few small ones but there changes are subtle and usually only affect a certain type of texture. if you want to go for something with a small package i recommend looking at lighting overhauls. they generally arent too big and dont impact the game all that much (FPS wise). aside from that you may want an ENB, again big but they make the game look great. though they do hit the FPS on the head with hammer.

 

 

I'm pretty new to this, been fiddling around with Skyrim mods and Dragon Age Origin mods for about a week and it's been fairly disheartening. I use NMM and BOSS with really only one CTD problem so far. The problem is just finding stuff that makes enough of a difference to be worth the hassle. Here's what I've done so far and what I'm hoping someone can help me find.

STOP USING BOSS! seriously, that thing is so outdated. use LOOT it's predecessor, i have a link to it in my signature.

 

 

NPC enhancements:

I don't like nudie mods or uber unrealistic armor for the sake of showing a little leg. That said, I do like NPCs to be attractive. Skyrim's people are.... homely... for the most part. I installed CBBE and ended up getting rid of it as it makes everything just too dang smooth and unrealistic. I also tried the top-rated armor addon set for CBBE where you can add neck pieces and thigh guards and whatnot. Every. Single. Chest. Item. Comes. With. No. Pants. Seriously? Uninstalled them both and am now trying UNP because it seems to have more stuff available for it. Also have Ethereal Elven Overhaul and ApachiiSkyHair, both of which are very nice. But, I'm still lacking something. The people aren't very attractive, they're still too smooth and fake looking. My guess is I need different textures and maybe some armor packs. Which ones? A quick search gave me lots of options but no real guidance.

CBBE has a lot more content made for it then UNP. the issue is a large number of them are skimpy, UNP tends to have less skimpy stuff made for it.

 

what you need are mods that adjust the skin texture though. the default skin for CBBE and UNP isnt all that great.

 

 

Followers:

I tried Advanced Follower Tactics and soon learned that I don't really give a crap about what my follower does. They need to just look cool and carry my extra stuff. If they happen to tank a couple Thalmor while I destruct them with lightning bolts, cool. If there are any followers that are really quite interesting, I'd be game to try them. Also, if there's a way to get some better dialog with followers, I think that would be more realistic.

check out intresting NPCs... not a follower mod though... dont think it does much with them, but it does add a lot of... well intresting NPCs.

 

also look at these mods:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/14037/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54527/?

 

there's supposed to be a khajiit follower as well... dont remember his name off the top of my head sadly.

 

 

 

What's left:

I thought it would be easy to find a new and fun race to play, but I didn't find anything. I tried the Sandmer but they look waaay different on my machine than they do in the screenies and I didn't feel like playing a green character so I uninst'd. Most races on here are just designed to add sex to the game, it seems. I was interested to try the Lunari but as a caster it seemed silly. Same with Ningheim.

i know the race mods are a bit of a pain to go through... never bothered. i'm fine with what the game has already.

 

 

Additional armor and weapon packs. I thought these would be everywhere. I see several replacement packs but not many originals. I have immersive armors (causes my CTD issues if I equip barbarian armor) but will wait until the end of the month for immersive weapons. Even so, you never see the armor on NPCs, rarely find the armor on them (and why did they even have it when they didn't equip it?), so it hasn't altered my gameplay hardly at all. Plus, I don't want my mage to spend all his time at the forge. I would like to get some additional items scattered around the island, especially mage gear, without having to craft it all.

i think there have been issues with the games leveled lists. i dont remember why people dont alter them. i recommend looking for replacers instead.

 

 

Ability to hire a maid/cook/whatever. If you have a house in every single hold and you only go there for 18 minutes per week, someone needs to keep that fire lit and fed.

a few housing overhauls add features like this

 

 

Prices need fixed. A sword would take a blacksmith probably half a day to make (total guess) and sells for like 15 gold. Then I walk in and sell 20,000 gold worth of random crap that I looted to that same guy. I'm not saying I want merchants to have less money, I'm saying the sell/buy prices of everything in the game need to be brought really low. Who is going to count out 20,000 gold pieces? Correct, no one. Force bartering on expensive objects and make it so most everything can be bought and sold for under 250g.

HA HA HA HA HA! good one! no i can make six steel swords a day and still have time for another small project. (im a blacksmith by trade)

 

though the gold thing is off... iron swords definitely arent cheap. there are a few barter overhauls... havent used them yet so i cant recommend any.

 

 

Disguises. If I waltz into Windhelm wearing Imperial Armor, they probably should kill me. However, if I'm an Imperial and wearing Stormcloak gear, they shouldn't know me by face unless I've got some kind of rep in that city.

this is a lore thing actually, Nord law prohibits the slaying of someone who shows no hostility in towns and cities. in other words an imperial nord wont attack a Stormcloak for walking into a hold. the reason they fight out in the wild is because... you know... war and stuff. i dont like it either seems like a lazy excuse to not add a reputation system like Fallout NV. i think Requim changes that? i could be wrong though.

[kevineugenius]

Thanks very much for a well detailed reply. What precisely is an ENB? Secondly, when looking at body textures am I right in saying there's two layers to a body? So I need to find a good base layer (maybe the one with UNP is fine) then add a ... I dunno... detail layer on top (maybe this is where UNP is weak)?

 

I've still got CBBE downloaded so if someone can clue me in on a good armor pack it won't hurt my stupid data cap.

Edited March 2, 2015 by kevineugenius

[DoctorKaizeld]

there's a skin texture and a body build

here's an example of a skin texture i have used before: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/2812/?

and here's another that i found while looking for the above one: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/36425/?

probably not what you're looking for, but it is just an example there are many more mods of the same type.

 

for ENBs, these are two great ones:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30936/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/20781/?

 

i believe ENBs manipulate the lighting of the world and make it look far better, but i could be wrong.

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

Prelude: this got much longer than I thought. You don't need to read the whole thing. If you're a subject expert at something, just read that part.

 

I'm pretty new to this, been fiddling around with Skyrim mods and Dragon Age Origin mods for about a week and it's been fairly disheartening. I use NMM and BOSS with really only one CTD problem so far. The problem is just finding stuff that makes enough of a difference to be worth the hassle. Here's what I've done so far and what I'm hoping someone can help me find.

 

Graphic enhancements:

I have metered internet so I didn't just download every texture pack known to man. I think the Skyrim graphics are pretty acceptable in the first place, but I did want to see what was available to help it out a bit.

I've tried Wet and Cold - it's alright. Pure Waters - I couldn't tell a difference so either it didn't work or I don't pay that much attention to water. Uninstalled.

What I'd like is something that's not going to be 1GB to download and maybe helps out the plant textures or the shiny effect vanilla Skyrim has (I never liked that look, thought it was a bit overdone). I do play in 3600x1920 so maybe a larger texture mod is what I need but... if it's huge, I'll have to wait until the end of the month. I haven't tried any of the sky/weather/lighting mods either, they just don't look that amazing to me. Let me know if I'm wrong.

 

You should lower your resolution and get an ENB plus parallax textures. Look under Enb Preset category on nexus. Enb is an graphical enhancement process that applies visual effects you can find in more modern games and you can find over 200 different presets for skyrim. It might be a bit tricky learning how to install it at first, but it gets easier as you get some experience. It takes me about 2 minutes to reinstall enb.

 

http://www.abload.de/img/comparison029nqeh.jpg

 

http://static-4.nexusmods.com/15/images/110/4398460-1350209611.jpg

 

Performance ENB:

 

Clarity Enb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdP9w3RFsHY

 

 

High Quality:

 

Poupouri Enb Extended - First Seed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhzXnZoFXvM&list=PLbjrT3LrSq0LZWarH6llxUB3wrn0c9pr5&index=17

 

K ENB - Pure Light (also check Nothern and Sounthern Light)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyr6xLsTYUE&list=PLbjrT3LrSq0LZWarH6llxUB3wrn0c9pr5&index=2

 

Tranquility Enb - Extended FX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFNz2bN2yL8

 

Vanilla Ice Cream Enb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2eFRWt_XSI

 

TK Enb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6S5jGdXzc4

 

Somber Enb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VnIdukbCo4

 

Elder Blood Enb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJyRLV-wF6o

 

M Enb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrTf5nP38so

 

Tamriel Reloaded Enb + Tamriel Reloaded Textures and Parallax (newer version of this texture pack is called Tamriel Reloaded HD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVIsAfseAB0 )

 

 

Example of parallax texture (you will need enb series 0.265 / 0.266 and some textures from Tamriel Reloaded HD / 2015 Parallax -snow, grass etc)

 

Skyrim 2015 Parallax Terrain PST (works only with enb 0.265 or higher)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYezJo72R4s

 

Parallax for any recent enb (you just need meshes for it - Vivid Landscapes include them) ->

Vivid Landscapes - Tundra parallax textures

http://static-8.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/62801-1-1424363089.jpg

 

4K Parallax Skyrim by Pfuscher aka Zerwas1

http://s1.directupload.net/images/140710/sohqfihs.jpg

 

4k Parallax Treebark (meshes included)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm6NbRebFxg

 

http://static-6.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/61875-1-1422285236.jpg

 

 

Tamriel Reloaded Mountains (Included in Tamriel Reloaded HD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voKirCHqg1s

 

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/58960-1-1413051201.jpg

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/58960-1-1413051805.jpg

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/58960-1-1413967187.jpg

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

Feel free to experiment with mods on this list:

 

 

Infinite loading screens and crashes are often caused by dirty edits, bad load order, missing master files, running out of memory. First get MO, SKSE, SkyUI and install enb preset (set enblocal.ini memory parameters). Check if the game runs ok (Skyrim Performance Monitor). Then clean your masterfiles with TES5Edit and plug LOOT into MO. Don't forget to install USKP.

 

The lightning/weather mod you choose needs to be compatible with your enb preset or you get some strange colors.

 

A good place to start with visual Overhaul is Tamriel Reloaded HD. You can later add other mods to replace meshes or textures, like Vivid Landscapes. Don't forget to try it out with enbseries 0.265+ and FixParallaxTerrain=true in enblocal.ini under [Fix].

http://static-5.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/61995-1-1422212143.jpg

 

Check this thread:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/2517349-basic-mods/

 

You should just start with couple basic mods and then as you progress upgrade your mod list.

 

Required:

SKSE - Most gameplay mods depend on skse and won't run without it. http://skse.silverlock.org/

Mod Organizer - Alternative for Nexus Mod Manager. Recommended for all players.

LOOT - Tool for sorting mod load order.

TES5Edit - Tool for cleaning dirty edits/etc.

SkyUI - Ingame menu that supports mods.

Youtube guides - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-DdhDG41roBVJfNCqvO5MmKP

FNIS - Required when installing mods introducing new animations.

XP32 Maximum Skeleton - Required for body mesh replacer mods and some character animation mods.

 

Good to have:

iHud

Alternate Start - Live Another Life

Amazing Follower Tweaks or Extensible Follower Framework

Convenient Horses

Perkus Maximus

Immersive Detection of NPC

Combat Evolved (+combat mod of your choice: Ultimate Combat, Duel-Combat Realism, etc)

 

 

HOT:

Combat Drama Overhaul

RND or iNeed

Frostfall

Death Alternative - Your Money or Your Life

Death Alternative - Captured

Jaxonz Positioner

Wearable Laterns

OBIS

Skyrim Immersive Creatures

 

 

My suggestions from other thread:

 

Character / NPC:

 

XCE - Xenius Character Enhancement (you can install other body mods on top of it)

Northborn Scars by Northborn

or Gizmodians Scars by Gizmodian and Xenius

Better Males

or SoS (if you don't mind the extra features that come with it)

RaceMenu v3.0

 

UNP / UNPB

+SG Female Texture Reneval for UNP

or Real Girls Realistic Body Texture for UNP UNPB and SeveNBase - WIP

+ Armours by FastestDog - for SEVENBASE 7B and UNPB by FastestDogInTheDistrict (lore friendly vanilla armor conversion for 7B / UNPB body replacer - works with UNPBO (O)PPAI BBP)

http://static-3.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/37946-1-1389685326.jpg

 

Superior Lore Friendly Hair

KS Hairdos: 400 (google it, has some nice manly hairstyles and tons of natural looking styles for females)

Lovely Hairstyles by sn00p

Coverkhajiits by mrLenski

The Eyes Of Beauty by Gabriel Mailhot

Eyes of Aber by Aberin (standalone)

 

 

Inhabitants of Skyrim (skyrim npc looks redone)

or Ultimate NPC Overhaul (if you care to get 2 huge hair packs that are not on nexus anymore / I did)

Common Clothes by Franklin Zunge (new outfits randomly assigned to npc's wearing farmer/miner/commoner clothes)

 

 

 

Items / Environment / Towns:

 

Unique Uniques by InsanitySorrow

Lore Weapon Expansion by InsanitySorrow and Elvarheim

 

Immersive Armors by Hothtrooper44

 

aMidianBorn Book of Silence (huge retexture pack - weapons, armors, enemies)

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/24909-1-1379956346.jpg

 

JK's Skyrim by Jkrojmal and Teabag86 (and all new files)

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/61035-1-1422064254.jpg

 

The Useless Shop and Interior Overhaul by iWilliBlecha

http://static-2.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/61237-1-1420124358.jpg

 

 

Silly Level of Detail - Potions and Poisons -- SLOD PnP by Narmix

Silly Level of Detail - Wine Cellar -- SLOD WC by Narmix

White Phial Replacer by Saerileth

High Quality Food and Ingredients by Iraito

Jen's 2K Food and Ingredients by Jen

Jen's HD Inkwell and Quill by Jen

HD Noble Furniture by Arcanesix 4k

HD Furniture and barrels final __ hi-res texture replacer by quazaque

RUSTIC SILVERWARE by Gamwich

RUSTIC POTTERY by Gamwich

RUSTIC WINDOWS - 2K and 1K Textures by Gamwich

Lockpicking interface retex by Quazaque

Trifle from Hiro the Gate Solityyud by Hiro

Box boxes from Hiro

Trade tents from Hiro Solitude by Hiro

Ruins Clutter Improved by raiserfx

Book Covers Skyrim by DanielCoffey and doccdr

Book Covers Skyrim - Lost Library by DanielCoffey

 

 

Skyrim Landscape Overhaul by C0331 AKA privata (redesigned landscape, adds new stone formations, trees, etc)

SkyFalls and SkyMills - Animated Distant Waterfalls and WindMills by SjoertJansen

Skyrim High Definition LODs (replaces blurred textures of distant land)

Skyrim High Definition LODs - Dark LOD Textures (grassy)

No Dragon LODs by ShenziSixaxis

Skyrim Realistic Texture Overhaul dragons 4K-8K by Frozunswaidon

EWIs vivid Bridges 2k by ewi65

EWIs Whiterun by ewi65 (stone textures, use together with parallax meshes)

 

Immersive Fallen Trees

Convenient Bridges ALPHA

 

Realistic Water Two

Watercolor for ENB and Realistic Water Two

 

Splash of Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtYup26Faxg

 

SkySight - Simply Bigger Trees

Tree LOD for Skysight Simply Bigger Trees by zilav

 

CM Bark (under optional files of enb - Natural Lighting and Atmospherics for ENB by Confidence-Man)

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/images/110/6094374-1422010919.jpg

 

4K Parallax Treebark by FKPX3118

http://static-2.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/61875-1-1422013999.jpg

 

Vivid Landscapes - Dungeons and Ruins / Imperial Forts / Orc and Farmhouses (independent orc set) / Birthsigns / Volcanic Area / Cliffs and Creaks / Castle Volkihar

 

Osmodius Windhelm Texture Pack by osmodius

Dawnguard Parallax by HXP

Windhelm Bridge Overhaul by Bjs_336

SKY CITY - Markarth Rising by reindeer51

 

Skyrim Realistic Texture Overhaul Farmhouses

Skyrim Realistic Texture Overhaul Clouds

Skyrim Realistic Texture Overhaul Caves

 

aMidianBorn Landscape by CaBaL

or Tamriel Reloaded textures

(authors made sure all the textures mesh well together and you won't see lines where the ground textures are suppose to blend)

 

 

Tamriel Reloaded - Mountains

 

 

 

Verdant - A Skyrim Grass Plugin (get 512x512 resolution version and set your grass density to 70+ with your gpu)

 

 

or Tamriel Reloaded - Grasses

 

Immersive Roads (if you don't mind low resolution)

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5474/11411980575_c3f76ea53b_m.jpg

 

 

 

Enb:

 

The Grim and Somber Enb - Vaermina (nice dark enb with good performance)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgrimdark/sets/72157646379002070/

 

K enb Pure Light (Only performance or quality preset. Extreme is mostly only for screenarchery. Best bright enb out there.)

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/58338-4-1418467203.jpg

 

Clarity ENB (performance friendly)

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/61738-2-1421382126.jpg

 

 

Dahaka's ENB by FKPX3118 (only by pm/post request on FKPX3118 mod page)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dahakas_enb/sets/72157647373890583/

 

 

Gameplay:

 

Live Another Life

More Bandit Camps

OBIS

Skyrim Immersive Creatures by lifestorock

INIGO (voiced follower)

MORE Additional Player Voices for Skyrim

Badass Voice Pack for Additional Player Voices

Grumpy UI FX by 5poiler

Equipping Overhaul by DragonDude1029

Pseudo parry animation by topeira and Krish698

Realistic Ragdolls and Force

D13 Faster GET UP STAND UP

Dead Body Collision Fix by LargeStyle

Dovahkriid - The Dragon Lords by AurianaValoria1

Dragons Shout with Voice by pauderek

Bellyaches New Dragon Species and Ohdaviing Replacer by Bellyache

Brawl Bugs Patch - Plugins - Modder Resource by jonwd7

YY Anim Replacer - Mystic Knight by yukl

VioLens - A Killmove Mod by Reko

Combat Evolved by CrushBoss -raulfin -GhostAgent + Ultimate Combat

Dual Wield Parrying by Borgut1337

Dodge Mod by Borgut1337

Forceful Bash by Borjoyzee + Kick Bash by evanoblivion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV_E3vK4w-Y

Fishing In Skyrim by Arodicus Snaux

Convenient Horses by Alek (horse follow command by wistle and waving hand, real inventory to stash your loot, naming horses with Convenient Horse Herding addon, incorporated unique saddles from More Saddles by Laup26)

Jaxonz Positioner by Jaxonz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMx22zQ2e6M

 

 

 

PS: I would scrap SFO and Lush Trees and Grass for performance reasons. You would be better of with above flora mods.

 

 

 

 

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

 

I got Skyrim almost a year ago and spent 277 hours in it. But now I am uninspired. My last attempt was 3 months ago.. I did reasonably well, got my mage to level 100 Conjuration and all that jazz. But afterwards I couldn't find the spark to get back into it and with Company of Heroes 2 being the last game I have before being burnt out on all the games I own let me ask. How can I recapture the magic that Skyrim first had when I began last year?

 

277 hours is not a lot for Skyrim, I have played the game for longer than that on my console without mods.

 

You should cater your mod list to individual character set up. There is lots of concepts to play with. Some things I have tried before:

 

1. Full time bard or undercover assasin.

 

 

Become a Bard (steam)

 

 

2. Professional hunter.

 

Training Dummies and Targets

Hunting in Skyrim - A Hunting Guild

Animallica - Skyrim Wildlife Overhaul - Lore Version (does not give pelts, but it's nice to see some diversity)

+any mod that allows you to camp (Frostfall, RND, AFT, Camping Kit of the Nordic Ranger, etc)

 

 

3. Bounty Hunter.

 

Increased Bounty Rewards

Hoth follower (generates bounty quests)

Plus combination of combat mods. My recommendation:

-Ultimate Combat

-Ultimate Dragons

-Combat Evolved

-Action Combat

-Immersive Detection of NPC

 

 

4. Treasure Hunter.

 

Grumpy Lockpicking

Skyrim Unique Treasures

Underwater Treasures

Kynesguard and Deadra Hunter

Northern Encounters

 

 

5. Bandit / Bully

 

Intimidating Dragornborn Bully

Sarcastic Player Dialogue WIP

Become A Highwayman

Get Out Of My Way

Master of Disguise

 

 

6. Skooma Dealer (Breaking Bad - Skyrim edition)

 

Become a Skooma Dealer

+Riverside Shack Skooma Dealers Den

Dragonkiller Cart Reloaded (Get this together with Organized Bandits In Skyrim and Death Alternative - Your Money or Your Life. Have fun!)

Drinking Contest

Toxicity - A Witcher-like Toxicity system

 

 

7. Interesting idea:

 

Hold and Defend (take over fort or other location)

Spouses Can Live Everywhere / MHiYH 2plus (move in with followers)

Jaxonz Positioner (redecorate)

Jaxonz Furnishings

(profit? :tongue: )

 

 

Mods for more diverse enemies:

Bandits Glory (Superb!)

OBIS

SIC

 

Worth getting:

Death Alternative - Your Money or Your Life

Death Alternative - Captured

Death Alternative - Alternate Start Addon (for LAL)

RND or iNeed

Convenient Horses (Incorporates immersive ways to manage your horse - wave/whistle. Comes with saddle bag and new armors/saddles.)

http://static-3.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/14950-5-1387027925.jpg

http://static-3.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/14950-2-1387027923.jpg

http://static-3.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/14950-3-1387027923.jpg

 

 

Get some interesting voiced followers.

 

 

 

Interesting NPCs

 

Herman The Mad

 

Anna NPCs

 

with Fast Sit 'n Relax with Follower Support (just don't use Steed buff or disable buffs on rest)

 

Or BFF Animal Companions

The Chicken Returns

 

 

 

New fresh look for landscape:

-Get Enb preset compatible with Enb series 0.265 and enable terrain parallax.

-Get ground textures for new parallax. Tamriel Reloaded HD covers all textures and can be used as base. /// pick what you like >> Vivid Landscapes (check out new tundra textures) / Tamu75 Parallax Terrain Textures / Skyrim 2015 Terrain Parallax.

-Skysight - Simply Bigger Trees

-Simply Bigger Trees LOD

-Verdant or Tamriel Reloaded HD grass .esp (better than SFO)

-Skyrim Lanscape Overhaul

-Realistic Water Two

-Watercolor for RW2

-JK's Skyrim

-Immersive Fallen Trees*

-Convenient Bridges*

-Skyrim Bridges

 

*Useful with Frostfall

 

 

DLC size content:

Moonpath to Elsweyr

Falskaar

Wyrmstooth

 

 

Starting area dungeons:

Ogmunds Tomb

Engelmanns Rest

Windcallers Pass

 

 

Horror content:

Undeath

Conan Hyborian Age

Into the Depths

 

 

If you want total region overhaul be sure to check:

Tropical Skyrim

Skyrim Winter Overhaul

 

Music:

Fantasy Soundtrack Overhaul

 

 

Sound:

More Additional Player Voices

BadassVoice Pack for Additional Player Voices

 

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

How to install ENB:

 

 

What you need to do in most cases:

 

-Download Enbseries .zip from Enb site (not nexus). You need to choose series number recommended by Enb Preset author. The newest is 0.266, however I'm sticking to 0.265 (offers terain parallax without changing colors too much).

 

-Extract enbseries.zip with 7zip or other program somewhere on you hard drive. Open Wrapper folder and find 2 files: d3d9.dll, enbhost.exe. Copy them to your Skyrim folder (NOT Data!).

 

-Download and extract enb preset from nexus. Check the folder, there might be optional folder with files inside (Quality Preset / Performamce / SwertFX / Lenses / Etc). Open the one you want to install. There should be files and folders like: enbseries, esnblocal.ini, enbseries.ini, shaders.fx, d3d9.fx, dxgi.dll, effect.txt, etc. Copy them all to Skyrim folder (NOT Data!)

 

-If there is folder named Data you can just merge it with your Skyrim/Data folder. Usually there are sun/cloud/sky textures. You don't have to use them, just the final result will look different than in enb authors screenshots.

 

-Edit manually the following lines in User/my docs/my games/skyrim/ SkyrimPrefs.ini (or Mod Organizer / Profiles / SkyrimPrefs.ini, if you use MO) :

bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bShadowsOnGrass=1

 

-Open enblocal.ini.

In enblocal.ini (inside Skyrim folder) set your memory settings:

 

[MEMORY]

ReservedMemorySizeMb=128

(in case of stutter increase by another 128)

VideoMemorySizeMb=

( ^ count it yourself with formula VRAM + RAM - 2048 = )

( ^ 1gb = 1024)

AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false

 

Save and exit.

 

-Check if there are any required/incompatible lightning or weather mods listed on particular enb preset page.

 

 

PS: Turn off AA, AF and FXAA in your Skyrim Launcher (Enb will apply it's own Anti-Aliasing / Anistropic Filtering). Set AA and AF in you graphic card profile for Skyrim (make one if you don't have it) to Aplication Controlled.

 

 

With 0.265 enbseries you can enable ground texture parallax without a need to install parallax meshes. You can find compatible textures in Tamriel Reloaded HD, Vivid Landscapes, Tamu75 Parallax Terrain, 2015 Parallax Terain SPT.

 

Tamriel Reloaded HD with FixParallaxTerrain=true in enblocal.ini for 0.265 series.

http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/61995-1-1423443261.jpg

 

You can fine tune colors ingame in enb gui (Shift+Enter or Shift+Ctrl to open).

 

 

[DoctorKaizeld]

hey man go put spoilers on those things. dont just leave a wall of text.