Skyrim SE mods you can't play without? (Must haves)

[fftfan]

What are some Skyrim Special Edition mods you consider 100% completely essential? That after you've installed and tried it out, you can't imagine playing without the mod anymore? Alternatively, are there any modlists that you consider the definitive A to Z mod guide for SSE? For a Fallout 4 comparison(Since that's what I'm more familiar with), I consider BiRaitBec Modlist to basically be a definitive A to Z Fallout 4 player's modding guide as like 90% of my Fallout 4 install matches up with it and I've followed the texture optimizations. I basically just skipped out on anything to do with Survival mode stuff and Scrapping.

Yes, I am currently right now searching through Top Files. But I always have the nagging feeling "what if I somehow miss some of the key mods"? Like what if in Fallout 4 I'd somehow missed Sim Settlements? That is an omission where my game experience would definitely be worse for not having Sim Settlements. I can say for sure that if Sim Settlements stopped working for me for whatever reason(Thankfully this has never actually happened) I would completely stop playing Fallout 4 until I am able to solve it. I'd first rollback recently installed mods, or game update version if that might be a culprit, basically whatever was necessary.

I think this topic could be potentially useful for Skyrim SE newcomers if people post easily missed gems especially stuff that might not show up in Top Files which can happen a lot for stuff like 2018 mods which can be amazing but not ranking in Top Files due to being new, in some categories like Armor it's really difficult for brand new file to be a top file as many are well into the thousands for total endorsements. I do recall when playing Old Skyrim back when it launched, there being the S.T.E.P. guide around like right from the start when the game launched. Is it still considered the definitive resource or has it been superseded? I had a very weak system(Roughly 50% of min spec in terms of GPU & CPU power) so I never got into Skyrim at all, I only beat main quests, guild quests, DLC quests and never went back till buying SSE yesterday. One missable I've found already is the Noble Skyrim texture pack where even for SSE you have to go through the page on old Skyrim Nexus.

As a secondary matter, can any major mod plugins be recommended for easy conversion to ESL format? In Fallout 4 my experience is that some work great when converted to ESL while others will break. Usually stuff like really simple tweaks or perhaps some outfits that don't really have customization are okay, while script heavy mods can break if made ESL or anything that depends on other existing ESPs since as an ESL it will load before the ESPs. From what I've heard about SSE, people often tend to run huge numbers of plugins compared to Fallout 4 so I am thinking that ESL conversions might be a bigger factor for Skyrim. On Fallout 4 I'm sitting right at 200 plugins and things seem pretty good, but I did hear there's some people on SSE who run over 1000 active plugins. Decided to make this topic since I figure a "Quick Start Guide" might be really helpful for Skyrim, as one thing I noticed right away is there was a lot "Derp" things in the game that modders had to fix so I think QoL mods are a bigger deal compared to Fallout 4 where it's already "sort of" alright out of the box(I guess Skyrim being older also accounts for this).

-I've gotten some really fantastic info in this topic. So I will edit into the opening post a Quick list of finds brought up so far, that may not be found in Top Files so that this can be helpful to anyone who checks the topic:

-For those who want to retexture basically everything possible in the game the first stop is of course going through Top Files, for probably about the top 120 or so. Then the listed mods in this post for newer/possibly flying under the radar stuff. For even more, this

Nordic Ruins textures
Rustic Daedra
Death Hound & Gargoyles
Rustic Mountains
Draugr
Fanmade and NORDIC Exploration and Combat Music
RimStats
Acquisitive Soulgems Multithreaded
Windhelm HD Retexture. 4K option
Profiles containing many good mods, 55 textures mods at time of writing. With textures for instance, everybody upgrades their hardware as time goes by so better textures will tend to get made in later years. Some of the popular texture mods for SSE may get redone at a later time in 4K when the existing popular version may be 2K.
Gamwich's profile, containing 19 SSE texture mods
Kajuan's profile, containing 11 texture mods
mahty's profile, containing 10 dwarven tech mods
Luxor's profile, containing 25 texture mods

 

In regards to other of my favourite graphics mods try the following authors:
T4gtr34um3r
Luxor8071
LupusHegemonia

I used stuff made by these modders quite extensively when retexturing skyrim. I really love T4GTR34UM3R's work and his mods are all designed to be used together along with Fluffy Snow.

Some solid gold information, thanks so much! I think this is fantastic info for players like me who are used to tricked out Fallout 4. It'll help us be better able to get into the game, which is great since Skyrim seems to remain quite active to this day so it alongside Fallout 4 can be reliable go-to games or mainstays for years to come.

(Note: Edited quote contents to correct T4GTR34UM3R's username in order to give it correct spelling for general ease of searching. And hyperlinks for easiest access)
Really good guide suggestion:
Tech's Skyrim Special Edition Guide^v2

The others I didn't list yet:
- Overhaul suggestions by QuagaarWarrior:

 

What you're asking is which mods do people like that may have flown under the radar somewhat.
I recommend checking out the mods Omega and T'Skyrim True Skyrim (and other mods by this author-Mnikjom). Not saying they are the best mods of all time just that many may have missed them and they're great

I finally gave these a look & they do look pretty excellent. At a glance Omega looks a bit like an Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul style of mod but for Skyrim, always am interested in this since the combined OOO & Monsters Overhaul was like the definitive one for Oblivion. T'Skyrim True Skyrim looks amazing, fixing tons of derp decisions in base skyrim.

-Suggestions by Mercury71:

 

These mods are my favorites that i dont see in many lists on Nexus:
Better Vanilla Perks,
The Hunting Game,
Improved Vanilla Enchanting,
Enhanced Vanilla Magic,
Scarcity - Less Loot Mod
Acuisitive Soulgems Multithreaded (Love this!)
Lock Overhaul
Fanmade and NORDIC Exploration and Combat Music
Simply Smaller Wolfes
RimStats
iActivate

Edited contents to hyperlink

 

Edited August 22, 2018 by fftfan

[QuagaarWarrior]

http://wiki.step-project.com/User:TechAngel85/SSE_Guide/v2

 

This guide has a lot of useful info. Kinda like step for LE in that it puts an emphasis on keeping things relatively vanilla and fixing bugs and inconsistencies. You dont need to use all the mods if you dont like the sound of some.

 

I guess you could go to mod categories on nexus and order by endorsements for the most popular and then by release date for the newer mods.

 

What youre asking is which mods do people like that may have flown under the radar somewhat.

I recommend checking out the mods Omega and T'Skyrim True Skyrim (and other mods by this author). Not saying they are the best mods of all time just that many may have missed them and theyre great

Edited August 10, 2018 by QuagaarWarrior

[fftfan]

What you're asking is which mods do people like that may have flown under the radar somewhat.

You're exactly right! I've been around quite a while and while Top Files will cover a big share of what's there for must haves, there are always newer files or maybe stuff with a difficult installation that aren't going to get as much endorsements and will fly well under the radar. Only the people who have been visting daily on SSE Nexus will know about them. Also another topic I've heard a little about is Oldrim stuff that potentially can work on SSE but that may be a bit advanced given I am inexperienced with Skyrim modding.

 

http://wiki.step-project.com/User:TechAngel85/SSE_Guide/v2

 

This guide has a lot of useful info. Kinda like step for LE in that it puts an emphasis on keeping things relatively vanilla and fixing bugs and inconsistencies. You dont need to use all the mods if you dont like the sound of some.

 

I guess you could go to mod categories on nexus and order by endorsements for the most popular and then by release date for the newer mods.

 

I recommend checking out the mods Omega and T'Skyrim True Skyrim (and other mods by this author). Not saying they are the best mods of all time just that many may have missed them and theyre great

Good to see it still recommended, I heard of it but given how much time has passed I felt unsure to just follow it in case it became outdated. I will check out Omega and T'Skyrim True Skyrim! Edited August 16, 2018 by fftfan

[Evangela]

SkyUI, Live Another Life.

[fftfan]

Some great examples I've just found, from checking Luxor's profile after downloading his Fallout 4 stuff is he's got some seriously awesome SSE texture replacers. They're all pretty new like June 2018 or so, so likely to be missed if people only look in Top Files. Seems to be a good strategy to check profile page for top Fallout 4 texture artists. These definitely classify as "can't play without" IMO as one thing I really remembered was some really bad vanilla textures.

 

I think I've found replacer sets for a lot of the cities. Only really need one for Windhelm I think, Windhelm stood out negatively for me in unmodded Oldrim and IIRC I betrayed Stormcloaks to side with Imperial Legion as a result. Textures made the Stormcloaks lose a supporter! Maybe Blackreach since that was my favorite location back when I played. EDIT: Another modder to the rescue! Windhelm HD Retexture! 4K option! Maybe I will side Stormcloak sometime.

 

Somehow this got missed too, when I'd searched through Models & Textures Top Files(Second set I looked at, after Bug Fixes of course). Skyrim 2017 Textures. Absolutely essential IMO.

 

SkyUI, Live Another Life.

Already got both mods. But yeah they're pretty great.

 

It's exciting that there is so much on SSE nexus. I had a lot of gripes with Skyrim, when I played 99% vanilla. Skyrim probably gets the most mods because the base game was possibly the most in need of sweeping changes and huge content additions. Fallout 4 was only very lacking in the settlement building area, vanilla building is extremely poor compared to what a modded Fallout 4 with Sim Settlements, Snappy can do. And from trying out the CK more nowadays, there is a lot of stuff for static pieces that are only usable in the CK and not the in game building interface.

Edited August 17, 2018 by fftfan

[QuagaarWarrior]

Most of my Skyrim is retextured so let me know if you have anything specific in mind and I may be able to suggest some mods

[fftfan]

Most of my Skyrim is retextured so let me know if you have anything specific in mind and I may be able to suggest some mods

That'd be great thanks! Well the first thing would be enhancing Blackreach. As a newcomer I'm not familiar with which exact textures need to be replaced. I didn't find higher res textures by searching for "blackreach" on SSE nexus. I did find one on Oldrim nexus but it is pretty hard to tell, I think it may be outdated like similar to stock SSE's textures(Could be using 512 sized textures for all I know). I also don't know if Oldrim textures actually still apply for SSE or if details "under the hood" have been changed, game to game there usually are some changes to how the games handle texture files.

 

Aside from that, probably dungeons/maybe creatures? I remember some being pretty cool in design but hamstrung by really bad vanilla textures on oldrim. I've downloaded top files stuff so some of this may already be covered without me knowing about it. Maybe I'll have to go on a hunt ingame for vanilla "I can't believe that got greenlit" texturing doozies?

 

I also made a topic asking about BSAs in regards to optimization. Since you've got most of your Skyrim retextured, I wonder if you used similar measures to my mostly retextured Fallout 4 like packing everything up into customized Skyrim - Textures.BSAs. My PC(GTX 1080) should be fine but I do wonder if engine limitations could possibly strike(Though I assume SSE with the move to 64bit is meant to combat that)

[QuagaarWarrior]

Hmmm not sure about Blackreach. Do you know where the texture files are normally kept for Blackreach (e.g. textures/dungeons etc.) that would make it easier for me to check. It may be that Blackreach uses the same textures as other dungeons and doesn't have its own dedicated files. I've not actually visited Blackreach yet so it's hard to tell. I do use Better Falmer Ceiling Glow which retextures the lighted ceiling in Blackreach and other Falmer dungeons.

 

For creatures you may want to narrow it down a little - do you have any creatures in mind? A mod maker that covers multiple animal retextures is Kajuan. I'm using several of his mods.

Also worth checking mod author Gamwich who just brought out Rustic Daedra and also Spriggans and Death Hounds. All his retextures are great.

Edited August 19, 2018 by QuagaarWarrior

[Mercury71]

These mods are my favorites that i dont see in many lists on Nexus:

Better Vanilla Perks,

The Hunting Game,

Improved Vanilla Enchanting,

Enhanced Vanilla Magic,

Scarcity - Less Loot Mod

Acuisitive Soulgems Multithreaded

Lock Overhaul

Fanmade and NORDIC Exploration and Combat Music

Simply Smaller Wolfes

RimStats

iActivate

[fftfan]

Some nice Nordic Ruins textures showed up today on Hot Files, I noticed that the author also has a pretty nice ENB. I think I likely will use PhotoRealistic Tamriel should my PC's performance allow for it but Rudy ENB SE is a serious candidate for general play if PRT turns out to be too heavy for normal gameplay, both ENBs also are excellent IMO for if you prefer Oblivion's general look in terms of lighting/mood/colors over Skyrim's. Perfect for me because I have never liked the default lighting/mood for original Skyrim. Stumbled on mahty's stuff when searching for "dwarven" trying to find HD dwarven ruins textures. Really cool Dwarven Beam Blades, it's gotten 300 endorsements so likely won't be found in Top Files. I instantly love it though and definitely going to use it. The looks of his stuff will also get a big boost by installing HD textures for Dwarven Armor/Weapons and maybe Dwarven Ruins if he utilized parts from them. I notice underappreciated files from time to time and one thing I will do when I got Skyrim SE set up in a good way like my Fallout 4 will be to go submit some screenshots for them, featuring ideally every texture having been replaced or at least every one that matters with 4K maxed & PRT ENB paired with ReShade. Mahty's screenshots for instance look like they may be taken in Oldrim & with stock textures.

Some great info already. This helps make the game feel more exciting. It's a big help for me and I bet also if others also had played The Witcher 3 on the PC. Honestly TW3 spoiled me in terms of graphics quality.

 

Hmmm not sure about Blackreach. Do you know where the texture files are normally kept for Blackreach (e.g. textures/dungeons etc.) that would make it easier for me to check. It may be that Blackreach uses the same textures as other dungeons and doesn't have its own dedicated files. I've not actually visited Blackreach yet so it's hard to tell.

I'll post a few I've more easily tracked down already, but one thing I don't yet know about in the CK is how to check textures for heightmap, though I think I may have identified them from searching the texture archives. From memory I recall that Markarth/Dwarven Ruins/Mountains are major in Blackreach, luckily Luxor has just uploaded a big 1.2GB Markarth HD. Some others I've found from checking CK & the texture archives are these texture folders:

]CK:
meshes\Clutter\Blackreach\BlackreachGiantMushAnim01.nif
Landscape\Mountains\MountainTrimSlab.nif
https://i.imgtc.com/u4FdUMF.png

The textures shown for Skyrim - Textures3.BSA & Skyrim - Textures5.BSA are probably the main ones. I think that most of the rest of it reused textures from other parts of the game.
Skyrim - Textures5.BSA (-Are these the ground textures for the heightmap?-)
textures\terrain\blackreach\(About 50 textures named things like blackreach/16-7.7.dds)
textures\terrain\blackreach\objects\blackreach.objects.dds & "(Same)"_n.dds

Skyrim - Textures3.BSA

textures\clutter\blackreachcrystal_n.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachmushroom01.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachmushroom01_g.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachmushroom01_n.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachmushroom02.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachmushroom02_n.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachmushroom02_g.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachroad.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachroad_n.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachsun.dds
textures\clutter\blackreachsun_n.dds

Skyrim - Textures0.BSA (Admittedly minor in this regard, 2 creatures)

textures\actors\dlc01\elk\blackreachdeer.DDS
textures\actors\dlc01\elk\blackreachdeer_g.DDS
textures\actors\dlc01\elk\blackreachdeer_g2.DDS
textures\actors\dlc01\elk\blackreachdeer_n.DDS
textures\actors\dlc01\sabrecat\blackreachcat.DDS
textures\actors\dlc01\sabrecat\blackreachcat_g.DDS
textures\actors\dlc01\sabrecat\blackreachcat_g2.DDS
textures\actors\dlc01\sabrecat\blackreachcat_n.DDS

 

Reason why Blackreach comes to mind is when I played the game(For only 80 hours due to terrible performance due to being below the stated Minimum Specs) in 2012 the first mod idea that came to mind for me is making dungeons in Blackreach/or based on Blackreach. I am very nostalgic for some classic endgame dungeons from Final Fantasy Tactics & Tactics Ogre, made by the same director. FFT has Midlight's Deep & TO has Palace of the Dead. I would like to attempt these in the CK as my first try at a Skyrim mod sometime(Though things on the go with Fallout 4 modding). My bad I thought I replied yesterday to this post. Am doing bunch of Fallout 4 stuff, probably forgot to hit Add Reply before restarting PC. Although just as well, I was having issues with it stubbornly opening Oldrim CK now I've gotten it solved today.

 

I do use Better Falmer Ceiling Glow which retextures the lighted ceiling in Blackreach and other Falmer dungeons.

It looks epic going by the screenshots. Author did a very good job!

For creatures you may want to narrow it down a little - do you have any creatures in mind? A mod maker that covers multiple animal retextures is Kajuan. I'm using several of his mods.
Also worth checking mod author Gamwich who just brought out Rustic Daedra and also Spriggans and Death Hounds. All his retextures are great.

Excellent! I just found Rustic Daedra, that looks spectacular. Gamwich has covered a ton of stuff, Death Hound & Gargoyles are really excellent as those were ones that very noticeably looked bad in the base Oldrim! He also has Rustic Mountains, which might cover some more of Blackreach's textures. Kajuan sounds awesome, I'll go check him out too! Draugr looks very impressive

These mods are my favorites that i dont see in many lists on Nexus:
Better Vanilla Perks, The Hunting Game, Improved Vanilla Enchanting, Enhanced Vanilla Magic,
Scarcity - Less Loot Mod, Acuisitive Soulgems Multithreaded, Lock Overhaul, Fanmade and NORDIC Exploration and Combat Music, Simply Smaller Wolfes, RimStats, iActivate

Fanmade and NORDIC Exploration and Combat Music:Cool, music is always a welcome additions! And I've been surprised many times by modders making some pretty good music. There are some I've found over the years where they possibly could have since gone pro IMO.
RimStats is fantastic. Always nice to have convenience!
Acquisitive Soulgems Multithreaded: This seems like an awesome addition. IMO it's like how it should have worked in the first place. Always great when modders have fixed "Derp!" moments.

The others seem pretty interesting, I'll give them a look in some more detail one by one.

Edited August 20, 2018 by fftfan