Skyrim SSE Mod Help for a Newbie

[Ayahuasca1]

Hello,

 

I was hoping someone might have some advice for me. I created this account months ago, and I planned on modding the hell out of Skyrim SSE on my new PC (at the time). However, after reading through pages upon pages of mods, opinions about the 'right way to mod,' plus all the Youtube videos.....well, I sort of got burned out before I started. I ended up going right back to my PS4 version and never looked back, until now.

 

I would really like to see how beautiful and cool I can make this game with mods. I have a pretty great PC, so I was wondering if anyone out there might be able to give me some advice. I'm not the most technical person, I admit. Some of the lingo is over my head, which is part of the reason I threw in the towel the first time. :confused:

 

Here are my specs:

 

Alienware Aurora R5 i5-6400K

Corsair Force LE 480 SSD (with 223 GB left to work with)

1TB 7200 RPM SATA HDD (barely used)

4x4 GB DDR4 RAM

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB GDDR5

LG 27" 1080p IPS LED Monitor (not the best, but it works for me)

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. :smile:

[WastelandAssassin]

well , the starting point should be you asking yourself what is it you want in your game

which aspects do you enjoy about Skyrim , and which ones you'd like to change

at that point , it's all about finding the right mods for you , and get them to play nice together

so If you wish to specify what it is you are actually looking for , maybe we could help you

 

as a side note , maybe people have uploaded their mod lists online , so you can take these as tested templates , and mod your game according to one you like

or maybe you can find some basic modding guides , which should also give you some basic mods to build on

[Ayahuasca1]

well , the starting point should be you asking yourself what is it you want in your game

which aspects do you enjoy about Skyrim , and which ones you'd like to change

at that point , it's all about finding the right mods for you , and get them to play nice together

so If you wish to specify what it is you are actually looking for , maybe we could help you

 

as a side note , maybe people have uploaded their mod lists online , so you can take these as tested templates , and mod your game according to one you like

or maybe you can find some basic modding guides , which should also give you some basic mods to build on

 

Well, I suppose one of my favorite aspects of this game is the large open world. I'd really like to "use" my graphics card and see how much more beautiful I can make it look (vegetation, buildings, all of it) and sound. There are so many interesting mods out there. It's like you said, figuring out which ones play nice together. If I had to choose the top three things I'd like to improve, it would be these:

• Higher resolution terrain (if possible), better graphics
• Better, more immersive, sound (birds, water, wind, rain, footsteps, etc.)
• improved towns (such as Riverwood, Ivarstead, etc.), so I'll enjoy visiting them more often
• Improved player homes, so I can enjoy staring at all the stuff I've collected in my travels :laugh:
• Improved dialogue (or more dialogue) and something that fixes NPC's talking over one another
• My first PC character will be a mage, so lots of magic related mods (maybe new spells w/ cool graphics)

Ok, that was more than three, and I have more in head. Haha! I will definitely take your advice and look for lists online. That sounds like a good start. Thanks a ton for the response.

Edited November 5, 2017 by Ayahuasca1

[WastelandAssassin]

well , if you are looking forward to playing a mage , and are looking for a player house , I think you should try this mod https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4269/?

to be 100% honest , I don't think I've ever played with this mod installed , but I remember seeing it on Oldrim and how it was praised for being so amazing , and it's built specifically for mage characters in mind , so a bonus for you

 

now , in regards to magic spells , the main thing to keep in mind is if you are going to use a game overhaul , or are you going with the vanilla system

if you plan to use an overhaul mod (could be a combat overhaul , a perk overhaul or something more comprehensive) , you need to make sure that whatever spell pack you use is compatible with it

but the two biggest ones out there are https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1090/? and https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/172/?

 

for sounds , the two biggest are https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/523/? and https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/8286/?

make sure to read the descriptions , and listed to the samples (or look at reviews for these mods) to find whichever one feels best for you

or just look at that category , and see if another mod fits you better

 

for a better looking world , instead of giving you specific mods , I'll just link the two mod categories to look at

this is because there are so many mods to choose from , and in some cases you'll need to choose one of several mods for a specific purpose (like a water mod or lighting overhaul)

and in such a case , it's up to you to decide which mod fits your game best

so you can find these here https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/searchresults/?src_cat=74 and here https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/searchresults/?src_cat=29

 

to give you a bit of an easier time , and perhaps a bit of hope (looking at the wall of text I just wrote , you might feel like it's quite a bit of work to do) , I would recommend that you look at videos for Oldrim , covering many of these mods

the thing is , many of the mods you'll end up using are old mods for Oldrim , converted to SE

this means you may not find new reviews of these mods , but you should be able to rely on old reviews , if you keep in mind the updates to these mods over time

you could even find entire mod lists for Oldrim , and build your modded game around this (especially in regards to bugs , as many of the bugs weren't fixed when the game was remastered)

I would personally recommend to you Gopher's videos on YouTube , he's approach is rather slow and methodical , which is great for a first timer in modding , and his content is top notch , plus he has a brilliant series about modding Oldrim , covering most of the essentials you'll need . so go watch his videos , then start building around this , with the skills you'll aquire

and most of all , enjoy yourself :) part of the fun in modding is just getting lost in the candy shop that is the Nexus , with so many wonderful mods to choose from