First playthrough

[flashman63]

Hey all! So I just got skyrom yesterday so I want to ask what mods are reccomended for a first time playthroughR. Thanks in advance!

[Deleted3507349User]

I'd keep it simple until you get familiar with the game. Here is my short list of must-haves:

 

Unofficial Patch

SkyUI

Character Helper

A Quality World Map

 

 

Everything else I use is either for fun or added content.

[flashman63]

THanks a lot! I'll try those all out.

 

And to those of you Fallout migrants, are there any mods akin to Project Nevada out there? Or FOMM for that matter?

Edited August 15, 2012 by flashman63

[DanTR]

I would recomend that you play the game without mods, and after discovering points of the game that you would like to improve, you could start to download some mods.

 

There are a lot of mods, but for a beginner, some aesthetical/minimal changes would do.

 

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

SkyUI

A Quality World Map

Skyrim HD - 2K Textures (If you can run it)

ApachiiSkyHair (Yes, this mod has a lot of beautiful but lore-friendly hair for males and females)

UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul (This mod is an exception for the rule of "minimal changes". It improves the follower system a LOT and it is a MUST HAVE)

WATER - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux

Static Mesh Improvement

Skyrim Flora Overhaul

Realistic Lighting With Customization (This one has two options: a hardcore lighting experience [Very dark at night, blizzards destroy your visibility, etc] and a more friendly experience, that only improves the appearance of the lights, without making the game harder or easier)

XCE - Xenius Character Enhancement (This improves the look of your character and the look of the NPCs while staying faithful to the vanilla look. It includes: Better facial textures, better eyes, etc)

And if you don't like the Realistic Lighting with Customization, there is the:

Project Reality - Climates Of Tamriel (Project Nevada is the "rival" of Project Reality [There's a Project Reality for Falllout])

 

Most of these only improves the graphics, because, for a beginner, mods that alter more fundamental aspects of the game aren't recommended.

Edited August 15, 2012 by DanTR

[Psiberzerker]

None. Experience the game in Vanilla, then decide what it could use to spice things up. It's a pretty good game, as it shipped, and what you're going to want to make it Better will depend as much on what you like about it as dislike.

[Satorinu]

This is my own personal opinion, but god I wish I could erase my memory and start a totally new game with the following, as I've played around 100+ hours at this point with the following load order minus mods I've noted as new and would have loved it better this way. o.o Note, to even come close to installing all of these you'd have to allocate a couple hours to reading each and every page of each and every mod to ensure your also downloading all the other required files - using Nexus Mod Manager to install all of them (aside from EMB anyway that I remember.). so point being.. don't actually try for all of it at once, perhaps even do a simple play through getting a good feel of Skyrim without actually delving to deep and then just peek inside a few mods that sound interesting and add them as you go to start a new game if it really seems to be your cup of tea.

 

No real spoilers, but about 40 mods so it's a long post if I hadn't hidden it ;)

 

One important thing incase you don't read anything else..

 

Esbern with voice fix

Get it, period. Don't ask, just install it and move on. x.x When the hell .. are they going to ever fix that. Ungh.. just ngahhhh' .. Anyhow..

 

 

Current Load Order:

 

ESM Files / Actual Mod Name

Skyrim

Update

Dawnguard = NO for FIRST playthrough

Climates of Tamriel / "Project Reality - Climates of Tamriel" = Must .. have.. if your computer can handle it, even better with ENB + Project ENB

Magic Duel = Maybe, haven't tested it enough yet.. so no, may break this particular mod list <.<

SkyMoMod / "Skyrim Monster Mod" = 50/50, if your computer can handle it, worth getting for the added variants of enemies.

ApachiiHair = Must have, just is. =P

3rdEraWeaponsMoS / "Weapons of the Third Era MoS"

 

ESP Files / Actual Mod Name

iHUD

Climates of Tamriel-Dungeons&Interiors

DeadlySpellImpacts

StaticMeshImprovements (if computer can handle it, not a major FPS hit but again; it can be if your already lacking resources.)

Presets / Face-Presets mod called "Inhabitants of Skyrim"

Extended Slider Colors (Use Recommended version imo!)

Alternate Start - Live Another Life = NO, not for first playthrough, but after first/second playthrough.. MUST FREAKING HAVE o.o

MasterTheTimeAndSpace / "Spell Master The Time and Space Continuum" = NO .. overpowered, but fun later!

Reapers Tower = Eh, only if you don't read where to start the quest for it; and don't end up finding out for a long time.

hothtrooper44_armorcompliation / "Immersive Armors"

3rdEraWeapMoS-lvllist

3rdEraWeapMoS-rare

1nivWICCloaks / "Winter Is Coming - Cloaks"

Apocalypse Spell Package

Realistic Ragdolls and Force = Must have!

Dance of Death = Must have!

DovahkiinRelax / "Dovahkiin Relaxes Too" = RPer must have

BuildableHouse / "Build Your Own Home"

BirdsofSkyrim = Must have!

SkyMoMod_lists (Lore Friendly edition) / "Skyrim Monster Mod Lore Friendly ESP"

UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul = Must have!

Interesting NPC's (Voiced only version) = Must have! (imo)

Convenient Horses = Must have!

Belua Sanguinare Revisited - Dynamic Vampires *Minus Loot Tables & Stamina Sprint Drain* (or- Better Vampires by Brehanin, BV is confirmed with this load order, Belua Sanguinare I just added today and haven't tested yet, so BV imo to be safe if your doing all this!)

Chesko_Frostfall / "Frostfall" = Must have .. cause it's realistic, if you like freezing to death for jumping in ice water, or climbing a mountain in short sleeve clothing..)

(temp) Vampire Eyes Fix (Allows Extended Sliders / or cosmetic mods to be used without bugging up the eyes in Dawnguard.)

(temp) Vampire Invisable Shield Fix (Fixes a bug caused by Dawnguard)

(temp) Breezehome Alchemy Lab fix (Fixes a bug caused by Dawnguard)

Duel - Combat Realism = Challanging Must Have! If you enjoy the enemies flanking you, blocking your blows a lot, and one mistake costs you your life, but same for theirs really; not for those afraid to lose - a lot. Finding a companion will certainly help. Dragon encounters, well, they are deadly as hell.. not .. NOT for the faint of heart. Thus not recommended for your first go through, but a must have regardless.

ACE / "Athyra's Comprehensive Enhancements" = Must Have! Just plain, must have.

(Ace Load Order : Archery - Armor - BYOG - Enchanting - Magic - Melee - Realistic Fighting - Smithing - Speech - Synergy)

 

 

Non-ESP Mods:

Project ENB ---- IF YOUR COMPUTER CAN HANDLE IT! Instruction heavy.

CBBE / preference

Better Males (by Chris57 and FavoredSoul) Aka Geonox Faces / FavoredSoulMeshes / preference

Closer Quivers and Longer Arrows / preference

Casual Bow Animations B / preference

All in One Face CBBE + Dawnguard Ready/vampire AIOF / MUST HAVE

Skyrim Flora Overhaul / MUST HAVE (if computer can handle it, not a major FPS hit but again; it can be if your already lacking resources.)

Victoria's High Heel Walk plus BBP - VHH Walk / preference

Feminine Running and New Dash Animation / preference

Castanistic or Highelf style idle for females / preference

83Willows Whiter Teeth 4all (Yay, orc's MIGHT actually not look TO ugly!) / preference

 

(?TEMP? When will they.. I .. Ugh..) Esbern with voice fix ** MUST FREAKING HAVE DONT YOU FORGET IT or the main quest will be.. really weird.. without esbern's voice actually.. working

Dirty Face Fix (forvampires; hides the ugly burnt/dirtyness bug after becoming one) / preference

 

 

Edited August 16, 2012 by Satorinu

[dragonslayer2k12]

My first playthrough was completely vanilla and it was also chock full of bugs. I hated pulling out the console to fix things on a regular basis just enough to progress through the story. The unofficial skyrim patch is supposed to fix a lot of stuff maybe even that voice fix? There are some things that simply can't be fixed though like radiant quests conflicting with story quests so you have to find some guy in a cave somewhere and when you get there you discover only an empty chair with a quest marker over it. I am fairly certain that beth just doesn't care to fix anything they only want to keep adding DLC and let the unofficial skyrim patch crew sort it out for them. I bet the bugs in the greedbox version of the game are next to none? My only major complaints are too many dragons, those annoying fish that can barely hurt you but your follower will get all OCD on you trying to kill any fish in the entire country while a dragon lighting a fire under your arse and don't ever try to get anywhere near a stream or cross a stream with a follower and don't ever try to go billygoat with the mountains your follower can't keep up they will get lost and never come back without console intervention. Why there had to be so many high mountains and OCD fish is beyond me.

 

The game took a long long time to play all the way through and go completionist with it but if you forget all the side stuff it can be done in a short time. I think a lot of people eventually do the side quests though just to have something to do in the game when they are bored of main quest or doing their own thing. Once you get all the way through you kinda don't want to do it again for a while and that is where the modding bug bites you! I plan on playing all the way through again but this time with mods and improvements and fixes because I don't want to go through that whole experience again looking and working exactly the same that would be boring.

[gsmanners]

You'll definitely want all the bug fixes you can find. Bugs really ruin the experience, especially the first one. I remember my first playthrough was severely hampered by all the bugs. Half the puzzles I faced, I wasn't sure whether they really were puzzles or yet another annoying bug. Do yourself a huge favor and install the Unofficial Patch at least.

[Relativelybest]

I'm with Psiberzerker - try a clean vanilla run and figure out what you want to change before you start adding mods you're not even sure you want. I played most of the game without mods and even now only use a few, because while the game has plenty of shortcomings there not a lot that's genuinely wrong with it.

 

I mean, some people say SkyUI is essential, and they probably have a point, but I still use the vanilla UI and have no plans to change it - it was annoying at first but I got used to it and right now it's pretty much the last thing I'm concerned about.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Relativelybest

[Moraevik]

As a refugee from Oblivon (still love the game, but it crashed big-time on me and requires a re-install with all my mods), I went hog-wild with mods during my second play-through, after playing the game vanilla once. That was a mistake and I've since pared things down to just a few that fix things that are broken.

 

My suggestion is to avoid any mods that alter game-play. The vanilla game is still great and you really need to fully experience it before you decide what mods you want. There are a couple that I think are must-haves, though.

 

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

SkyUI

 

Together, these two will solve a lot of the problems with the vanilla (fully-patched) game, and SkyUI is heads and shoulders above the clunky interface for the PC that Bethesda gave us. I can't imagine ever going back to that. Also, make sure you have Skyrim patched to the latest update. That's not a mod, but it really does fix a lot of issue that people have written mods to fix.