vram1974 Posted May 22, 2015 Posted May 22, 2015 I thought I would share my Skyrim setup for anybody who wants a good no-patch, consistently difficult Skyrim experience. The absolute most fun and most difficult experience can be found by downloading Requiem Overhaul. But as your character reaches level 25 and above it begins to get fairly easy. I have tested this setup to level 60 and I continue to die very frequently. Enjoy. Best overhaul for synergy SPERG by seorin (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24445/?) The best thing about SPERG is you don't need to run a compatibility patch like SkyRe or Perkus Maximus. It merely updates your perks as you use them. So if you you 2-handed weapons you can really get proficient quickly, or if you sneak a lot you can benefit from that. It also allows you to pursue perks that prevent being manhandled by the difficulty in this setup (like Draugr shout fix). Dragons Dragon Combat Overhaul by Apollodown (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/32597/?) combined with Deadly Dragons by 3jiou (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3829/?) with Assault tuned off in MCM If you truly want to suffer during dragon attacks, this combo will make you scream. The new AI of the dragons plus their relentless attacks in groups of 3, 4, 5 or more is really difficult to handle. Several times I have had to bail off a mountain to escape their combined attacks, run to the nearest town, or simply hide under some cover. Warning: You will be absolutely donkey spanked on this mode. Recommend not starting the main quest right away unless you truly want to hurt. When installing Deadly Dragons you can also activate the Deadly Monsters esp file to spice up all encounters in a similar fashion. Harder encounters Draugr Shout Fix by Ixb3rs3rkxI (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8807/?) This isn't going to be popular with everybody. It basically gives Unrelenting Force shout to draugr, making encounters in dungeons far more deadly. It also means you need strategy to assault a crypt since being caught between three draugr means certain death. The SPERG mod can allow you to pursue a perk that will remove the powers of this mod. Revenge of the Enemies by MyEvergreenHometown (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40491/?) This is really a must-have mod. It makes vampires, draugr, falmer and all other manner of creatures a real handful. Bosses are NOT to be trifled now. It offers the difficulty of deleveled Requiem without making the monsters easy once you surpass level 25. Fighting a Master Vampire will now be a real challenge. High Level Enemies by Dalquist (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/27866/?) This is another mod that keeps encounters consistently difficult, no matter how badass you think you're getting. The variants allow for the player to continue enjoying fights with Bandits, Forsworn, Draugr, Falmer, Warlocks and Dragon Priests, whereas those enemies tend to get easy fairly early on in Vanilla. PermaZONES by TenderHooligan (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63349/?) Although meant for Perkus Maximus, this mod works without the overhaul by making "zones" in Skyrim consistently more difficult and appropriate to your level. This way you find enemies that are both much easier and much harder than you can handle, offering variety in game play and enemies that won't all die in a specific number of hits. There are actually four settings: Easy, Medium, Hard and Very Hard. Every enemy you will encounter falls into one of these four categories. Animal Tweaks by CrushBoss (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/60222/?) Vanilla animals can be pretty annoying but also pretty easy to kill. This mod makes animal encounters more deadly but also makes them more reluctant to attack unless provoked. OBIS or Organized Bandits in Skyrim by Indigoblade (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/31264/?) One of the best parts of Requiem is that bandits, the most common enemy in Skyrim, are aggressive and difficult. This mod brings that back and makes their presence a real challenge when travelling from quest to quest. I particularly enjoyed how this mod had a roving bandit patrol that wiped out most of Whiterun's villagers near the stables. I even found Urthgerd the Unbroken's corpse among the fallen. Deadly Wenches by lordkoz (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/60625/?) You might dismiss this outright as a silly mod because it's overtly sexual in nature. But I assure you it's worth the download (just don't choose the sexual tera armor option) for the harder encounters. Like the description says, it adds to female/unisex leveled lists more available female NPCs for variety in different factions and will deal more damage based on the settings of your choice. I find in particular bandit chiefs are a very difficult fight with this mod enabled (although the sounds continue to be male, which is kind of a glitch you have to live with). Even if you just like having more female warriors in your game, this is a good mod. Plus it requires Immersive Wenches, which is nice if you have Realistic Needs and Diseases because you can buy food and water from them anywhere. Extended Encounters by jonx0r (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50376/?) This is a great static mod that adds encounters to Skyrim. I say static because it's not dynamic like the previous mods, adding encounters randomly. What happens here is the author has added a bunch of encounters throughout Skyrim to spice things up a bit. You can even read spoilers where these encounters will take place if you want to know what's going to happen. Extra Encounters Reborn by SayHelloToMrBullet (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/58613/?) Pretty much just more random encounters Better Combat AI by Joop (Steam Workshop) This might be overkill but it adds a number of unique behaviours by monsters and enemies in a number of logical ways. For instance, archers prefer shooting, pack animals will flank, groups will be more aggressive, etc. It seems to work for me. Combat Overhaul Combat Evolved by CrushBoss (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/56147/?) A mod best paired with the three other major combat overhauls (Duel - Combat Realism, Deadly Combat, and Ultimate Combat) this changes aggression and intelligence for enemies by making you stagger when you get hit, fall down if you're hit hard enough and alert enemies to your presence more easily. You can't simply run in and attack everything without a plan. You will get annihilated. Best paired in my opinion with: Deadly Combat by Borgut1337 (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/5485/?) This mod makes armor more useful by reducing its effectiveness overall, forcing the player to use blocking, outputting higher damage numbers so combat is quicker and you don't have fake long battles, draining more stamina and locational damage (removing the need for that mod). Recommended additions If you can find a mod that prevents automatic healing it would make the game harder. I tried the mod SkyDie and that does work but it also causes a bug with weapons damage so I don't recommend it. I would recommend Movement and Stamina Overhaul by ApolloDown (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/60077/?) if you want a more realistic Requiem-type stamina depleter. Frostfall and Realistic Needs/Diseases will force you to pace yourself. Immersive Travel - No Fast Travel by DrNegative. Fast travelling is cheating. Immersive detection of NPC by kkil001 Not recommended It's temping to install the Sands of Time to make things even more insane but I recommend against it for a few reasons. The authors are well-meaning but the number of scripts added to the game are fairly high, the encounters are immersion-breaking unless you majorly tweak them in the MCM menu and even then it's kind of overkill considering all the mods I've listed above that add encounters already. I'd also shy away from Civil War Overhaul or Warzones. Although I think Warzones is stable and a decent mod, it just adds way too much VRAM-intensive battles that aren't really necessary for your enjoyment. Plus the corpses all over the place just basically adds more bloat for your save file. It's not the mod authors fault but Bethesda also kind of blew it when it comes to immersion on these types of third party encounters, too, since after a Warzones type of battle, the victors don't seem to care whether you rifle through the belongings of their fallen comrades, nor seem to care about their dead friends at all.
0Abraxis0 Posted June 15, 2015 Posted June 15, 2015 (edited) Thanks for this! I think there is an all to common misconception that finds the natural progression of an RPG go from hard to easy as the player becomes more powerful. While this may sometimes happen it should -never- be intentional, it's a pretty poor design philosophy based on shallow observations of the genre. What should happen is the complexity increases as the arms race between the player and their environment unfolds. When things become too easy, complexity drops as advanced techniques are no longer required to succeed, resulting in less meaningful game-play than you had at the start. This is what happens with Requiem unfortunately. I love the idea of the world having a finite quality to it, it adds to the integrity, but it's not worth out-leveling it all so quickly. I've been pretty much exclusively using Requiem because I'm too lazy to compile a list of mods which create an experience in line with what I'm looking for, and Requiem's philosophy is 'close-enough'. I think I might take a shot at it though, these mods look like a solid foundation with which to try to create something I'd like. I'm curious why you use SPERG instead of Perkus Maximus though... it only touches on perks doesn't it? Why would you need any compatibility patches unless you were for some reason using it along with another perk modifying mod (why would you?) Edited June 15, 2015 by 0Abraxis0
Relinquish3d Posted June 16, 2015 Posted June 16, 2015 (edited) I will definitely give your setup a go in my next playthrough. Also what would you change if you were to use SkyRe? It will be very hard for me to move away from it since I love all the variety it provides. Not just with the perks but the standing stones and race overhauls as well.If you can find a mod that prevents automatic healing it would make the game harder. I tried the mod SkyDie and that does work but it also causes a bug with weapons damage so I don't recommend it.I *might* have a solution for this but I'll have to do some testing first to make sure. Edit:After short testing: You can change Health/Stamina/Magicka regeneration values with SkyTweak under 'Attributes' tab in the MCM Menu. If set to 0 you won't regenerate at all. Edited June 16, 2015 by Relinquish3d
vram1974 Posted June 16, 2015 Author Posted June 16, 2015 If I were to use SkyRe I suppose I'd have to go and find a zillion compatibility patches lol. I did try SkyRe once but because I change my load order so often and I hate repatching I just can't be bothered with it. I do think SPERG does very nicely for me. Thanks for the SkyTweak mod, one of the few I haven't tried!
vram1974 Posted June 16, 2015 Author Posted June 16, 2015 yeah, I feel bad by kind of "unendorsing" it publicly but I don't really think it adds much to the game. Basically it's like this all the time: 1. Your computer starts lagging2. You notice a bunch of people fighting3. One side wins and stands still4. You loot the corpses5. You leave Doesn't really add to the game IMO. At least with OBIS you get people attacking you.
Boombro Posted June 17, 2015 Posted June 17, 2015 If you were in one of the sides and joined the fight, it really thrilling.
yudhi108 Posted June 27, 2015 Posted June 27, 2015 Bookmarked this thread! Glad I found it and thanks a lot!
yudhi108 Posted October 25, 2015 Posted October 25, 2015 I've got the best Skyrim setup I've ever had with this suggested combination of difficulty mods. Thanks a lot VRam for doing this. I have tried a lot of combinations but this is my favorite. Very difficult the way I set it up but I like that. If it's too hard for someone, it's configurable in the MCM to make things more tolerable/easier. I prefer just to make up for the extra difficulty by getting enough followers to have my back or creating strong enough weapons/leveling up skills rather than toning down the difficulty in the MCM myself, but to each his/her own. This combination works well! VRam did something that needs to be done more often by making this thread. I still think different graphics as well as gameplay combinations should be made but this is great. Got some great footage of me in my first epic dragon fight with this setup. I may be able to upload it sometime to share but I'm on freekin Hughesnet where I live, sucky internet D:. Anyways thanks again. I may bump this thread with a 200+ mod loadorder or with a video in the future :smile: EDIT 2: Ok, now I'll post my load order. I'm going to post my load order that is working well for me and my basic PC specs. 228 Mods there and it's working like a charm! My game doesn't crash at all! Well, not more than vanilla Skyrim anyways. I can play for 8 hours straight no crash. In the literal hundreds of hours I've played Skyrim with this Skyrim Setup, it's maybe crashed once or twice. I can play for weeks with out it crashing!!!! PC specs: Hero Maximus 7 moboGTX titan black (6gb) GPU i7-4790k CPU16gb Ram500gb SSD + 1tb SSD + 5tb HDD for backup Water cooled CPU, but nothing is overclocked yet since I don't really know how to do that and haven't taken the time to figure it out yet. My system is fast enough at stock speeds :wink: Active Mod Files: 00 Skyrim.esm 01 Update.esm 02 Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp [Version 2.1.3b] 03 Dawnguard.esm 04 Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp [Version 2.1.3b] 05 HearthFires.esm 06 Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp [Version 2.1.3b] 07 Dragonborn.esm 08 Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp [Version 2.1.3b] 09 Falskaar.esm 0A Wyrmstooth.esp [Version 1.15] 0B ApachiiHair.esm 0C ClimatesOfTamriel.esm 0D ApachiiHairFemales.esm 0E ApachiiHairMales.esm 0F RaceCompatibility.esm [Version 1.60a] 10 Evil Lair of Hydra.esm 11 SPERG.esm 12 Extra Encounters Reborn - Basic.esm 13 Schlongs of Skyrim - Core.esm 14 SummerWear.esm 15 hdtHighHeel.esm 16 JSwords.esm [Version 14.0] 17 HighResTexturePack01.esp 18 HighResTexturePack02.esp 19 HighResTexturePack03.esp 1A Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp [Version 1.1.9] 1B SkyUI.esp 1C SPERG.esp 1D SPERG-DB.esp 1E SPERG-DG.esp 1F VioLens.esp [Version 2.1] 20 Dragon Combat Overhaul.esp 21 DeadlyMonsters.esp 22 DraugrShoutFix.esp 23 Rebirth Monster.esp 24 High Level Enemies.esp 25 High Level Enemies - Falskaar.esp 26 PermaZONESLegendaryHardcore.esp 27 Combat Evolved.esp 28 EnhancedLightsandFX.esp 29 ELFX - Exteriors.esp 2A ELFX - Dragonborn.esp 2B ELFX - Dawnguard.esp 2C SDO Full-LOD - Waterfall Effects.esp 2D RealisticWaterTwo.esp 2E RealisticWaterTwo - Wyrmstooth.esp 2F ELFXEnhancer.esp 30 OBIS.esp 31 OBISDB.esp 32 High Level Enemies - Dragonborn.esp 33 Animal Tweaks.esp 34 High Level Enemies - Dawnguard.esp 35 RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp 36 Duel - Combat Realism.esp 37 DeadlyCombat.esp 38 DeadlyCombat_GiantsAIFix.esp 39 UltimateCombat.esp 3A RND_USKP-Patch.esp 3B RealisticWaterTwo - Waves - Falskaar.esp 3C RealisticWaterTwo - Falskaar.esp 3D Skyrim Particle Patch for ENB - Flame Atronach Fix.esp 3E ClimatesOfTamriel-Dawnguard-Patch.esp 3F ClimatesOfTamriel-Dragonborn-Patch.esp 40 ClimatesOfTamriel-Sound.esp 41 TrueStorms.esp 42 mintylightningmod.esp 43 MintyLightningMod_COT_Patch.esp 44 AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp 45 CoT-WeatherPatch.esp 46 TrueStorms-CoT-WeatherPatch.esp 47 Supreme Storms - Cot Version.esp 48 ClimatesOfTamriel-Nights-Level-5.esp 49 CoT-WeatherPatch_DB.esp 4A CoT-WeatherPatch_Snow-40.esp 4B CoT-WeatherPatch_SupStorms.esp 4C TrueStorms-SupremeStorms-CoT.esp 4D CoT-WeatherPatch_NL1.esp 4E CoT-WeatherPatch_NL2.esp 4F CoT-WeatherPatch_NL4.esp 50 CoT-WeatherPatch_NL3.esp 51 dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Reduced.esp 52 RaceMenu.esp 53 RaceMenuPlugin.esp 54 HDT Havok Object.esp 55 RaceMenuMorphsCBBE.esp 56 DemonHunter_Scarf.esp 57 DemonHunterV2armor.esp 58 SeraphineHuntedArmor.esp 59 Ehildils Mithril Armors.esp 5A EdhildilsWitchDoctor.esp 5B AlynShirArmor.esp 5C Ballet Boots.esp 5D Gatti12Jewelry.esp 5E DarkStandalone.esp 5F TGLNordArmor.esp 60 Athletics Training.esp 61 Strap.esp 62 Bucklers-Complete.esp 63 CannabisUpdate.esp 64 Realistic crime report radius.esp 65 Ghosu - Weapon Pack 1.esp 66 CharacterMakingExtender.esp 67 USKP Patcher for RaceCompatibility.esp 68 DragonPlateBrazen.esp 69 ElementalArrows.esp 6A Henrys Ring of Light.esp 6B Latex Armor.esp 6C MasterEnchanter.esp 6D Magicka Sabers.esp 6E MegaShields.esp 6F ps_circlet.esp 70 SacredRingofJeebus.esp 71 When Vampires Attack.esp [Version 2.0.5] 72 WetandCold.esp 73 ABT - Faster Arrows Improved +100%.esp 74 ABT - Faster Bolts Improved +100%.esp 75 ABT - Increased Progressive Damage (with Nord Hero Arrow) +150%.esp 76 Chesko_WearableLantern.esp 77 TriRings of Powers v1.0.esp 78 TGBowsDrawFasterv2-0.esp 79 TERAArmors_CBBE.esp 7A Clean Invisibility Effects plus Eyes Fix.esp 7B Roto.esp 7C Schlongs of Skyrim.esp 7D SOS - VectorPlexus Muscular Addon.esp 7E SMEssentialPlayer.esp 7F SMEssentialPlayerDawnGuard.esp 80 skyforgedWeapons.esp 81 Headtracking.esp 82 Zipsuit.esp 83 AnnaNPCs.esp 84 RealisticWaterTwo - Legendary.esp 85 Purewaters.esp 86 CinematicFireFX.esp 87 Run For Your Lives.esp [Version 2.0.5] 88 Cloaks.esp 89 fallentreebridges.esp 8A SMIM-Merged-All.esp 8B RealisticWaterTwo - Waves.esp 8C Extra Encounters Reborn - CSP.esp ++ Extra Encounters Reborn - HSR.esp 8D EnhancedCharacterEdit.esp 8E JSwordsDistributionBalancePlugin.esp [Version 14.0] 8F SDO Full-LOD - Whiterun Trundra Creeks.esp 90 CerwidenCompanion.esp 91 DeadlyDragons.esp 92 Chesko_Frostfall.esp 93 RND_HearthFires-Patch.esp 94 The Asteria - Dwemer Airship.esp 95 RealisticWaterTwo - Waves - Wyrmstooth.esp 96 CommunityCollege.esp 97 SofiaFollower.esp 98 Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp 99 RealisticWaterTwo - Dragonborn.esp 9A SummerWearSA.esp 9B Extended Encounters.esp 9C Sweet&Sexy Lingerie.esp 9D Reaper's The Dark Tower.esp 9E Sneak Tools.esp 9F Hunterborn.esp A0 Nicoroshi Creations.esp [Version 1.2] A1 Gifts of Akatosh.esp A2 RealisticWaterTwo - Waves - Dawnguard.esp A3 RealisticWaterTwo - Dawnguard.esp A4 SDO Full-LOD - Giant Campfires.esp A5 Cannabis.esp A6 Instant Merchant.esp A7 SkyDreamMerMaids.esp A8 Shiny Catsuits.esp A9 Extra Encounters Reborn - Dawnguard.esp AA elementalshield.esp AB Ish's Souls to Perks.esp AC thu'um infinium.esp AD Apocalypse - The Spell Package.esp AE GrassOnSteroids_NaturalEdition_SFO.esp AF RND_Dawnguard-Patch.esp B0 RND_Dragonborn-Patch.esp B1 RND_AnimalLoot.esp B2 Watercolor_for_ENB_RWT.esp B3 Spriggan Armor 2.esp B4 NordicCooking_RND.esp B5 Armored_Rings1.esp B6 sextoys-calyps-2.esp B7 Darklilith.esp B8 Elewin Sunglasses.esp B9 FNISspells.esp BA R18Pn - Leere Armor.esp BB R18Pn - Diano Armor.esp BC JaxonzEnhGrab.esp BD TERA Weapons.esp BE KCEAssaultRifles.esp BF ScopedBows.esp C0 TheEyesOfBeauty.esp [Version 9] C1 Monli.esp C2 Sneak Tools Vanilla Masks.esp C3 Sneak Tools Vanilla Hoods.esp C4 WWW.esp C5 Celestine.esp C6 Millepon_Follower.esp C7 TKcombat.esp C8 Northborn Fur Hoods.esp C9 Remodeled Armor - Vanilla Replacer.esp CA Remodeled Armor - Vanilla Replacer - Dawnguard.esp CB Remodeled Armor - Vanilla Replacer - Dragonborn.esp CC ShadowCatArmor.esp CD CalienteVanillaArmorTweaks.esp CE Daedric Extra Armor.esp CF Dovahkiin Mercenary Armor and Weapons CBBE.esp D0 Sovngarde Steel Armor and Weapons.esp D1 Dual Sheath Redux.esp D2 JSwords_Load_Screens.esp [Version 14.0] D3 iHUD.esp D4 Loadout.esp D5 EnchantedItemsCheat.esp D6 Hunterborn_Frostfall-Patch.esp D7 Hunterborn_RND-Patch.esp D8 Extreme amount of enchantments.esp D9 Golden Rings Of Craft.esp DA BlitzConsoleCommandsMCM.esp DB Skyrim Unlimited Rings And Amulets.esp DC SOSRaceMenu.esp DD XPMSE.esp DE Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp [Version 3.0.5] DF Bashed Patch, 0.esp E0 ASIS-Dependency.esp E1 ASIS.esp E2 Dual Sheath Redux Patch.esp E3 DeadlyCombat_ASIS_Patch.esp EDIT 3: As my post below says, something is actually broken in my game now.
yudhi108 Posted May 13, 2016 Posted May 13, 2016 I still endorse this combination of mods that is suggested but after some more testing I noticed that the DLC's are broken. Both DB and DG.
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