Suggested Mods to Overhaul Gameplay Experience

[Telyn]

What you want makes perfect sense to me. I wasn't sure if you might have wanted a darker feel if you went with vampire.

There are several versions of QTP3. The original is what I am using, but there are optimized versions, so you may wish to search here and compare the quality level so you can weigh fps vs. the original. Since you have SI, you will also want to grab Bomret's Texture Pack for Shivering Isles to go with QTP3. If you do decide on QTP3, also I highly recommend you also install these mods, in order afterwards:

Improved Doors and Flora, then

Improved Trees and Flora, then

Improved Trees and Flora 2

That is the order that will ensure you have all the meshes and the most recent textures for this collection.

 

There is another option besides QTP3...not the usual. It's quite new, but if you want the landscape to truly look like a beautiful painting or dream world, you might look at Lush and Gaudy Landscape and Grass and Tree Mod. It looks like the Shire to me and has converted quite a few people in the brief time it has been here. If you choose this option I think you would need to install her textures after the Improved Trees and Flora set to get the more colorful trees. Brittainy is very active and always responds to questions. It will not overwrite the alchemy plants and mushrooms. Lush and Gaudy would give you better fps than full Qarl unless you use an optimized version. If you love the Painted World, these colors are similar.

 

I am a texture pig. Most people would leave it at that in terms of textures, but I went through the entire textures section.

 

Many texture replacers don't need an .esp so you probably don't need to count those toward your mod limit. More texture replacers I recommend and use:

Real Lava, because liquid lava should look glow.

Better Thatched Roofs because not every farmer has time to freshen the roof weekly. If you choose the Lush and Gaudy textures, the original roof would match better.

Cooked Steaks I know, this isn't an evironment mod, but the fact that all civilized people seem to eat raw meat, but all goblins roast theirs on spits just never made sense.

Mythic Animals keeps the animal texture quality in line with the rest of the environment.

Mythic Creatures for the same reason.

There are so many more, but that's a modest start.

 

For weather All Natural is definitely the way to go because it can use all the weathers from the other popular weather mods, is less buggy than Natural Weather, and if you want the Natural Habitat part of Natural Environments, you can install just that portion of Natural Environments first, and have both. Have a look at the mods the All Natural team mention in their description, too.

RAEVWD makes the distance look almost as gorgeous as the landscape near you. I installed all options despite warnings, and the meshes are so well optimized I actually got better fps than before. If you have an older computer, though, go with the basic install.

If you can spare the room...you can also get AWLS Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys working with the above weather mods if you install it last and allow it to overwrite. It needs to replace the window meshes with ones that can provide the glow effect. The chimneys are just amazing. I sat there and just watched chimneys for awhile when I first saw them in game.

 

If you install FCOM it probably includes some of the above textures or has its own versions.

 

Sound: More Immersive Sound. I think you might like this one because it has wolves howling included. Maybe they are werewolves? There are huge numbers of music files here, but it's kind of hard to advise someone else since musical tastes are so unique to individuals.

 

Hope some of these help. :)

[Elite Spartan]

Wow Telyn, that helped a lot! I already have most everything installed, and now I just had a last few things to do. Now, thanks to your list, I can make everything look real nice! I'll be going through all the links you put up, and from the sound of them, I will likely use most. I'll have to weigh it with what my machine can handle. It should take everything relatively fine, worse case I can lower my screen resolution in game (that allows me to keep everything else the same).