Instead of mod variety, what we have is a list of mods to get

[EnaiSiaion]

It appears that Skyrim modding has taken an unexpected turn. With the wide variety of mods available, you'd think people would pick and choose mods as they please and create their own customised Skyrim.

 

Instead, it seems the community has decided on a set of standard mods, one for each aspect of the game. There is a standard overhaul mod, a standard combat mod, a standard dragon mod, vampire mod, sneak mod, UI mod, housing mod etc etc etc. It is becoming more obvious with the popularity of SkyRe which has a huge convenience advantage over the same content as separate mods, while at the same time domains that once contained several major mods now have a clear winner (vampire mods, followers etc).

 

I believe it won't take long before we have "enough" mods and there are no niches left unfilled. After that point, new mods would only clog up the mod lists while serving no real purpose. The last frontier seems to be the quest/worldspace mod (and of course armors and ENBs because these are strictly personal, and mods that fix/change small aspects of the game that fly under the radar of bigger mods).

 

And at that point, I believe we'll be able to compile a list of 30-50 mods and say "these are the mods that matter" and pretty much ignore everything else in their categories.

 

I miss the days when there was no default answer to "which is the best [...]?". :(

Edited April 7, 2013 by EnaiSiaion

[GrimyBunyip]

I'd say there's still a reasonable amount of content that hasn't been released yet,

outside of quest/worldspace kind of stuff.

 

It's just a matter of the modding community figuring out how to jerry rig things,

and SKSE releasing new scripts and stuff.

And that's always expanding.

[chromechris]

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Edited April 8, 2013 by chromechris

[Ahvaren]

Well... that's a really negative outlook.

There's always mods that stand out from the crowd. There's always been a 'best'. Don't tell me that Better Cities wasn't the most popular, what most people would consider the 'best' city-mod out there for Oblivion. Yet smaller, independent mods still found ways to enter the modding community. Midas Magic is one of the first things that pops up for Oblivion magic... but I could scroll down and find lots and lots of other magic mods. This is exactly how it is with Skyrim.

SkyRe is one of these (using your example), but I don't believe for the reasons you're stating. I like what the author of SkyRe did with the game. Yes, I could pick out mods that cover the exact same areas and mash them together into something resembling the scope that SkyRe covers... but I don't like them as much. It's not convenience... it's someone who put in time and effort into their mod and constantly updates and supports it, and it stands out for that reason.

You're saying...If someone were to come along with a mod that brought something new to the table, you don't believe that the modding community would recognize that mod, just because there's 'already one popular overhaul, we don't need another'? I think quite the opposite would occur. The only way that new mods would just 'clutter up the mod list' is if we had a list of mods that covered EVERY aspect of the game and were modular/had enough options to appeal to everyone's tastes at once. Never, ever going to happen.

I mean, it doesn't seem like I can talk you out of your position, but I think your fears are unfounded.

Edit: Dragon Combat Overhaul, exhibit one. We already had a 'standard dragon mod', then DCO came around, offered something unique that looked like it had a lot of time and effort put into it, that a lot of people enjoyed, and gained a LOT of support within days of its release. I also believe there was a new body mod released recently that hit Hot Files, even with our already popular other body mods.

 

Edit2: My edit killed my post. Fixed.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Ahvaren

[ArtMurder]

I have to disagree. There are several overhauls, SkyRe, Requim, ESRO, you can use one, combine them through mix-n-matching the module installs, you can pick one magic mod or several, we have a total of around 5 combat overhauls, excluding SkyRe's combat overhaul, not to mention mods like tropical skyrim.

 

For almost every type of mod, there are several good mods. Some people may SAY one is 'the best' but that doesn't make the others not exist. And just because they exist and aren't the absolute best doesn't make it pointless that they exist, and they are definitely not just 'wasting space'. Some of my favorite mods are the 'second rate' ones, a lot of the 'best' ones sacrifice stability for cool features I'll never use.

 

Also, your post is very confusing. You start out talking like you don't have enough choices, and then turn to basically say that any mod that does the same thing as another 'wasting space'.... do you want options or not?

 

Also I have a list of about 300 mods that 'matter', all of them are VERY good mods, some of them may do similar things to others, but all of them work differently and build the game totally different. One install I have is based around tropical skyrim and a certian ENB, I use little else in the install to keep FPS up, but I use a lot of really crazy flashy combat and magic mods, to make the game very visually stunning. Overall the combat is easy, but I am always bad outnumbered, yet using crazy powers to even things out. That's about 100 or so mods all together, and it makes skyrim feel like a very stunning, over the top, visual masterpiece with flashy, fun, amazing visual combat

 

Another install has closer to 200 mods, and is based around SkyRe, ASIS, WTF, SkyTEST, and ESRO the combat is very very hard, but I added in AFT, and a mod that adds in lots of NPCs. Rather then 'flashy and fun' the combat is very hard and gritty, I have to expertly set up my team, protect each member more by rank of importance, strategically plot out how to handle combat based on what I'm fighting and prepare for things to go horribly wrong or for enemies to be way stronger then expected. It makes skyrim a really gritty, hardcore RPG, where you have to scratch out every tiny bit of progress you make and no matter how strong you feel you will ALWAYS come across something eventually that will make you run screaming like a little girl.

 

Skyim has some amazing mods, and a huge wide variety, MUCH better then what oblivion had, if you disagree, then you just haven't looked hard enough. The "top downloads" section is not the only place to find good mods you know? ^_^

[Yogo]

There is a mod variety. You just have to look for them outside of "most popular" group.

 

Although I have to admit it is harder to tell if the mod is good enough if it doesn't have hundreds of endorsements. Probably that is why players continue to download popular ones and modders continue to make more similar mods.