Modding skyrim from nothing guide: help

[Fieel]

So guys, i played the game when it was just released and now i want to replay it. The problem is that i want to play it perfectly with all the graphical tweaks and MUST-HAVE mods. Can someone help me? aren't around guides about my problem? Edited August 4, 2012 by Fieel

[Ironman5000]

There's a handy list of mods here all available through the nexus :thumbsup:

[Barehand]

I just finished posting my own mod list on another forum, so I'll just copy-paste here:

 

Here's what I have now. It should serve me well, though I may look into graphics enhancements like SMIM and the HD textures. Just not sure I have the rig for it.

 

I did not get any new quests or alter existing ones the first playthrough. I'll save those for second (and third, if there's going to be one). Also, Belua Sanguinaire Revisited looks like THE vampire mod to pick up when I make my Argonian vampire illusionist. My Nord warmaiden Yrsa will keep me busy for a while, so it should have caught up with Dawnguard by then. Did some pruning, removed mods I felt cluttered it up or were redundant. I still like the Invested Magicka concept a lot, but I suspect it will unbalance the game with other magic mods. My current character is not a mage anyway, so I'll probably look more into magic improvements later.

 

Mind that while I've managed to play the game without encountering any issues, I haven't actually tested this set-up extensively yet. If I come across any problems, I'll let you know.

 

Skyrim Script Extender: prerequisite for many mods, such as the following three.

SkyUI: way better inventory and magic menu.

Categorized Favorites Menu: so you have five shouts, eight spells and three weapons you alternate between? Good luck with the vanilla favorites slot. Also adds quickslots for equipment sets.

Community Uncapper: level up your skills up to 1000 (or whatever lower cap you set), so you don't need to drop out of character to grind smithing on your mage.

 

FXAA Post Process Injector: a huge impact on game appaerance with a minimal performance hit.

A Quality World Map - With Roads

W.A.T.E.R.: makes water prettier and better.

Sounds of Skyrim - The Dungeons, The Wilds, Civilization: self-explanatory. Plenty of sounds to make the world feel alive.

Realistic Ragdolls and Force: no longer flying into space from an arrow hit. Bodies crumple realistically and act according to their weight. Doesn't nerf Unrelenting Force, though!

The Dance of Death – A Killmoves Mod: cool killmoves, unlock them with perks and configure likelyhood.

 

UNP female body: this is the more realistic and tasteful body mod out there.

UNP Female Armors: vanilla armors fitted to the body, no change in style.

Better Males: just the nude part, not the ugly faces and hair. Because why would a Nord be shy?

Better Females by Bella: face textures.

 

ACE: enhancement of most aspects of the game, including the BYOG panel to balance the game on the fly. Very modular, so pick what you like. Seems like the leanest, most compatible and one of the most professional of these large overhauls. Light bows and long bows, flanking and flat-footed, casting forms compatible with basically every other magic mod, and more.

SkyRe: a less compatible, more robust alternative to ACE. However, I simply installed the racial ability and standing stone components to get those tweaks. If you don't want to get all the seperate gameplay-tweaking mods I did, this is probably the best choice.

ASIS: improves enemy AI, spell and perk selection etc. and increases difficulty.

Duel - Combat Realism: also improves enemy AI, incorporates changes to blocking, stamina, staggering and so on. I believe there's some redundancy with ASIS (AI) and ACE (combat mechanics), but they've been reported to work fine together and I've had no issues.

Path of Shadows: complete stealth overhaul, also modifies the alchemy tree.

 

Complete Crafting Overhaul: better, more balanced smithing with missing recipes. Normally requires Smithing Perks Overhaul, but the ACE Smithing component replaces it as a prerequisite. As ACE is modular, you can use whichever you prefer.

Weapons And Armor Fixes: fixes some inconsistencies with in weapon and armor properties.

Economics of Skyrim: local products, regional prices, smiths who make armor on request, merchants don't have levelled, carbon-copy inventories. Claims to not conflict with mods that add stuff to merchants.

Imp's More Complex Needs: hunger, thirst, fatigue. Rate of decay and other factors can be easily configured in game.

Frostfall: exposure to cold weather, freezing to death in frigid water, warming up by the fire. An immersion mod that goes hand in hand with IMCN. (Disable Get Wet plugin from W.A.T.E.R., as this includes it.)

 

SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators: adds some pretty cool life to the wilderness. Affects animal behaviour.

Birds and Flocks: adds a variety of birds to the world.

Deadly Dragons: more oomph for dragons, in-game configuration.

Warzones - Civil Unrest: adds huge battles between factions (Imperials, Stormcloaks, Bandits etc.) around Skyrim. Participate or watch. You can configure the numbers to suit your rig.

Here There Be Monsters: a WIP that adds sea monster bosses into the Sea of Ghosts. In the future, I understand we can expect quests.

 

Extended Follower Framework: there are three competing follower overhauls: EFF, AFT (Amazing Follower Tweaks) and UFO (Ultimate Follower Overhaul). I didn't see much difference in functionality, but this one adds commands to a neat menu rather than dialogue (which is still an option if you like) and is overall very lean and professional. Up to a 100 followers, set their residence, change combat styles, equip them, etc. One of the other two mods had the option to retrain followers in a new class, but that's a bit immersion-breaking and besides, I use...

Better Followers: tweaks most of the vanilla followers in game to make them use appropriate equipment and so forth. And even better, this incorporates SushiSquid's awesome Specialized Followers as an optional component, to give many vanilla followers unique abilities that reflect their character. This makes every follower actually different and gives you a reason to pick someone who complements you. (BF also includes an optional beauty pack to give some followers a facelift, but I found it broke the vanilla aesthetic too much so I reinstalled just the Better-Specialized-version.)

CM New Companions: just a bunch of different companions across Skyrim. They blend in well, but they don't really have any flesh to them. I will probably disable this next playthrough, but it's harmless enough.

Convenient Horses: makes horses a lot better to work with. Mounted charges, follower horses compatible with EFF/AFT/UFO, and more.

 

Weapons of the Third Era: some low key, lore-friendly weapons. I don't personally care much for the Akaviri style, but it adds more than that. Remember to get the compatibility patch for ACE to bring the bows in line.

Dragonbone Weapons by AeonVita: ditto, also about the ACE patch. There's also another great dragonbone mod out there by theycallmecheese. Will have to see how Dawnguard dragonbone weapons pan out.

JaySuS Swords: more beautiful swords.

Bandolier - Bags and Pouches: craftable satchels, bandoliers and such with weight reduction. They look great and are very practical without feeling like cheating.

Immersive Armors: a compilation of hothtrooper44's armors, they are beautiful, balanced and perfectly in line with the feel of the game. Best armor mod out there.

Cloaks of Skyrim: craftable, and distributed to some NPCs through levelled lists. Works with Frostfall to actually keep you warm.

 

Apocalypse Spell Package: a bunch of useful spells to make magic more strategic and fun.

Midas Magic: continuation of the best magic mod for Oblivion. Create awesome unique spells.

 

Build Your Own Home: as the title suggests, there's a place out in the wilderness which you can expand (a lot) with iron, wood, and other supplies. I have yet to see what it looks like fully built, but it's nice for a mod to make you work for your house.

 

Auto Unequip Arrows: makes quiver go away when you equip a melee weapon. Comes back with bow. It's that simple, but a huge improvement on overall aesthetic.

Lightweight Potions and Poisons: reduced their weight to 0.1. Takes care of an annoyance.

Better Quest Objectives: Modifies journal entries for many vanilla quests to include information about where you're supposed to go, so you don't need to rely on lazy quest markers.

Possessive Corpses: a tweak to remove NPC-dropped weapons from the world when the corpses disappear, and a few other such clean-up tweaks. Recommended to use with Warzones, where a lot of people get killed.