LE Multiple Follower Friendly/Load Friendly Homes/Castles

[aozgolo]

I like to take multiple follower mods and take all my followers to my home and use them to liven the place up, I have LOTS and LOTS of follower mods so I could have anywhere from 20 up to 60 followers I want to relocate somewhere. The problem is finding a suitable home for this. I'm not so much concerned about beds, it's more an issue of space and most importantly "load friendly". After about 10 - 15 followers wandering around one cell it can get a little unstable at times and give me CTDs when I try to load into that cell. So what I'm looking for is a very large player residence, town, or castle (that preferably doesn't already have tons of NPCs) that I can move my followers into that is preferably divided into multiple unique cells.

 

Right now I'm using Shadowstar Castle which is nice but always open to trying others out.

I've tried Sjel Blad Castle and Halls of Dovahndor as well, which are great mods but perhaps a little too "busy" with their own content which makes them already a little load heavy.

 

So requirements:

 

-Home must be in multiple cells (preferably at least 4 different cells)

-Must be large

-Not story locked (I want to try Vjarkell Castle but I'm not ready to start Dawnguard to access Forgotten Vale, having a quest or cost is fine though.)

-Lots of Storage, with Mannequins and Weapon Racks.

-All basic crafting (Alchemy, Enchanting, Smithing)

-Doesn't contain a huge number of NPCs already, or at least leaves them optional

-Lore Friendly

-Navmeshed (This is for followers after all)

 

 

Some other things that would be nice but are NOT required:

 

-Named Storage for specific items (Soulgems, Ingredients, Smithing Supplies, Weapons, Armor, Books, Etc.)

-Stables/Pasture for horses/animal companions

-Displays for dragon masks, DG/DB items (Black Books, Paragons, etc.), Daedra quest rewards, Dragon Claws, etc.

-Auto-sorting feature

-Hearthfire Adoption compatible

-Recall Spell/Item

-Customizable Features/Maintennance Room

-Non-Confusing simple layout.

 

So if anyone has some suggestions please let me know :)

[OpenWorldAddict]

The author of Shadowstar Castle, skyrimlazz, has done a ton of other castle mods. You should check his profile and go through them to see if there is anything else you would like.

[ScottC12]

I use UFO, so may characters have up to 15 followers. I do not use Hearthfire DLC, so I am not sure about that compatability. I prefer the map central Whiterun/ Riverwood location, so the home and castle mods I use are in that area:

• Riverwood Castle: Medium sized Solitude architecture and castle with many towers on the edge of town next to the bridge over the White River. Main interior is 1 cell, but has 3 floors. Also includes a cavern smithy in it’s own cell and a walled courtyard - lots of room to spread out followers. Depending on your lighting mods, the castle may be a bit dark and gloomy inside. Comes with a 3 servants and 3 guards. Guards and followers left out in the courtyard may be attacked by random baddies.
• Orlong's Hearth: Medium sized Whiterun (complete with a run-down look) architecture fort on the western outskirts of Riverwood. No guards or servants. Main lodge has 1 floor with a master sleeping loft and a 4-bed follower bedroom. There is basement with it’s own cell, a walled courtyard, and a separate outbuilding (enchanting and alchemy stations) with it’s own cell, allowing plenty of room to spread out followers. Bright, cheery, fire-lit interior, but the navmesh is a bit buggy and the mod is no longer supported. Followers left out in the courtyard may be attacked by random baddies.
• The Legend of Eagles Nest: Smallish but picturesque mountaintop castle with towers overlooking Riverwood and Whiterun. Has a little quest to get 1 guard and 1 servant to clean up/furnish the place. The main area is one cell, but it also has 2 towers with their own cells, and outdoor walkway and work areas, as well as a small servant's quarters/barn. A little room to spread out followers, but if you have too many followers, you may need to split them between this and another location. Serene and quiet crime-free neighborhood, but followers left outside may see an occasional passing dragon.
• Elysium Estate: Medium sized Nord architecture mansion/estate across the road from Whiterun stables. No guards or servants. 2 floor main area with large followers’ bedroom (about 8 extra beds). Has a huge basement in it's own cell with smithing facilities and museum-like display area. Also has a fenced outside yard with a stable, a back yard hot tub. This place has plenty of room to spread out followers, but followers left outside may be occasionally attacked by random baddies.

Hope this list helps. Happy real estate hunting!

Edited August 3, 2015 by ScottC12

[Talonflight]

My personal favorite is Skystone Castle

[ScottC12]

Skystone Castle looks great with Dawnguard architecture and is in a great location, and that author has several amazing looking castles, but they all require all DLCs. Will that be enough to make some of us break down and get the Heathfire DLC?

[ToppDog]

If I remember right, the DLCs can all be had together for really cheap now. If you're looking for the better house mods, you'll almost always need all the DLCs because they all have great architectural pieces & furniture that almost every modder making house mods wants to include in their mods.

[aozgolo]

The author of Shadowstar Castle, skyrimlazz, has done a ton of other castle mods. You should check his profile and go through them to see if there is anything else you would like.

 

I actually do have all of his castle mods and I like them a lot, great layout and very nice work, but they tend to be no more than 3 - 4 cells each, which kinda makes moving an army in turn into a buggy mess.

 

I use UFO, so may characters have up to 15 followers. I do not use Hearthfire DLC, so I am not sure about that compatability. I prefer the map central Whiterun/ Riverwood location, so the home and castle mods I use are in that area:

• Riverwood Castle: Medium sized Solitude architecture and castle with many towers on the edge of town next to the bridge over the White River. Main interior is 1 cell, but has 3 floors. Also includes a cavern smithy in it’s own cell and a walled courtyard - lots of room to spread out followers. Depending on your lighting mods, the castle may be a bit dark and gloomy inside. Comes with a 3 servants and 3 guards. Guards and followers left out in the courtyard may be attacked by random baddies.
• Orlong's Hearth: Medium sized Whiterun (complete with a run-down look) architecture fort on the western outskirts of Riverwood. No guards or servants. Main lodge has 1 floor with a master sleeping loft and a 4-bed follower bedroom. There is basement with it’s own cell, a walled courtyard, and a separate outbuilding (enchanting and alchemy stations) with it’s own cell, allowing plenty of room to spread out followers. Bright, cheery, fire-lit interior, but the navmesh is a bit buggy and the mod is no longer supported. Followers left out in the courtyard may be attacked by random baddies.
• The Legend of Eagles Nest: Smallish but picturesque mountaintop castle with towers overlooking Riverwood and Whiterun. Has a little quest to get 1 guard and 1 servant to clean up/furnish the place. The main area is one cell, but it also has 2 towers with their own cells, and outdoor walkway and work areas, as well as a small servant's quarters/barn. A little room to spread out followers, but if you have too many followers, you may need to split them between this and another location. Serene and quiet crime-free neighborhood, but followers left outside may see an occasional passing dragon.
• Elysium Estate: Medium sized Nord architecture mansion/estate across the road from Whiterun stables. No guards or servants. 2 floor main area with large followers’ bedroom (about 8 extra beds). Has a huge basement in it's own cell with smithing facilities and museum-like display area. Also has a fenced outside yard with a stable, a back yard hot tub. This place has plenty of room to spread out followers, but followers left outside may be occasionally attacked by random baddies.

Hope this list helps. Happy real estate hunting!

 

I've tried Elysium Estate before and I like it (though for some reason Skyrim CTDs a lot near there) but I will take a look at the other 3 and see if they are to my liking.

Skystone Castle looks great with Dawnguard architecture and is in a great location, and that author has several amazing looking castles, but they all require all DLCs. Will that be enough to make some of us break down and get the Heathfire DLC?

 

I love Hearthfire DLC, I actually bought it before the other two and have enjoyed it the most, I guess I'm a sucker for the domestic life.

 

 

 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I decided to rethink the massive companion army idea and while I keep a lot of companions in my game now I am being far more discerning in which ones I recruit. My other idea is to use multiple homes instead of one, this way I can pick my ultimate base based off features useful to gameplay, and then own multiple homes with different followers living in them I can go visit. As for huge castle mods, I'm still partial to Sjel Blad Castle but it has some drawbacks, lots of cheater-y stuff, it's incomplete, and while split into multiple cells it's easy to lag out.

 

Right now the houses/castles I am keeping in my game are:

 

Ayleid Palace

Ayleid Sanctuary

Underground Dwelling (Ayleid version)

Clearsky Hideout

Dragon Tree Temple

Elisdriel

Fyr Manor

Haafinheim

Shadowstar Castle

Solstice Castle

Thornrock

Vjarkell Castle (I will eventually get to see what this one looks like)

Dragonborn Gallery (Legacy of the Dragonborn)

 

Yes that's a lot but I like having variety when I play, I never know what I might get up to ;-)

[Fenryr3001]

Well,you could try it yourself.Then it would be exactly what you want,and building stuff with the CK is fairly easy.

[DigiFu]

I know the topic is a month old but wanted to share my experiences.

 

Have you looked at the home mods from Ld50365? I'm also in a similar boat where I wanted a large estate for almost all, if not all of the vanilla followers I've come across in my campaign and his work, from what I've seen so far, has been the only one that could accommodate that. I've used Silverstead (enough beds for almost 50+ followers) and Blackthorn (an actual town, fewer beds, but could handle 30+ followers).