Skyrim as a Sandbox - Must Have Mod

[BlackCompany]

Greetings everyone. It has come to my attention, of late, that I enjoy Skyrim immensely. But I only enjoy it, when no one is telling me where to go, or what to do. I mean, let's face it: if we wanted to run errands for rude people only to hear them talk about their exploits when they were in their heyday....we would just go to work. Skyrim was a quest and loot driven RPG just isn't fun, for me personally.

 

But rather than get mired in the Good/Bad Game/RPG debate, let me say this:

 

Skyrim as an open world Sandbox...now that's the stuff. That's why I play this game.

 

So I am reaching out to you, the community, for your thoughts on an Immersion-oriented, open world Sandbox playthrough, and the "must have" mods to accompany such a playthrough. Here are my "parameters" so to speak:

 

-I am playing as an Adventurer. No strings; no ties that bind. No PERMANENT affiliations with any guild/alliance/faction whatsoever.

-Companions are fine, IF they are immersive. I know the "Big Four" of Vilja, Cerwiden(sp, sorry), Atvir and Odvar already. Forgive my the spellings, please. Others of this ilk are welcome.

-On magic mods: I have Apoclypse and a perk overhaul. Unless mods make magic more LoTR (subtle) and less WoW (video game magic) in nature, Thanks Sincerely, but No Thanks.

-On Combat mods: I use Deadly Combat and a perk overhaul. Good to go, but thanks.

-On Stealth: I have Sneak Tools (best recommendation EVER) but am open to a good Sneak/Perk overhaul that balances Sneak, instead of making it more god-like. Might make my own there too.

-On Race mods: Made my own. Thanks, but its taken care of, and with Immersion and Differentiation foremost in mind.

-Quest mods are fine as well. I have Moonpaths and the new one related to the Vigilant of Stendarr (faction related, but without permanent ties). Others are welcome additions.

 

Basically what I am looking for are mods that would enhance game play for a lightly armored Nord aor Dark Elf adventurer. Low magic, heavy combat and stealth. He makes his living traveling about Skyrim, doing odd jobs. He will kill, but he isn't looking to. He will steal, but he won't bind himself to a Guild just to do it. He will use Magic, but rarely, and he is not - nor will he ever be - an Expert/Master at it. He trusts steel and the feel of his feet falling silently on the cold floor of dungeons as he sneaks up on foes, and not much else. This is the character I have in mind.

 

So, fire away, dear community, with your ideas of the perfect mods for a Sandbox playthrough. I am eager to cast off the ties and bindings of the Main Quest, Dragonborn destiny, Alduin and the Greybeards and seek my fortune in a land that is, hopefully, colder, darker, more deadly and more dangerous than vanilla Skyrim by far. To get things started, below are some mods I am using already:

 

-Morrowloot

-Immersive Armors

-Jaysus Swords (or Immersive Weapons, one of the two, as they do not play well together. Thoughts?)

-Sneak Tools

-Dynanic Torches (must have with Sneak Tools)

-Deadly Combat, the best combat mod ever made for Skyrim. (Duel is good, but Deadly is more my speed, personally)

-SkyUI

-TkDodge, Hitstop

-Dynamic Time

-Darker Nights

-Wearable Lanterns

-Expanded Towns and Cities

-Vilja and Atvir

-Guard Dialogue Overhaul

-Realistic Wildlife

 

 

There are others on the list as well, but these are the primary ones for Immersion. Any thoughts/suggestions for a Sandbox playthrough welcome.

 

TL;DR: Looking for must have mods for a Sandbox playthrough, warrior/rogue hybrid, no magic. Immediately above are immersion mods I have already. Suggestions welcome!

[jackowonderful]

for stealth you need stealth skills rebalanced. for quests wyrmtooth is a must. there's a ton of dungeon mods, it's pretty hard to add a dungeon that's not as good as the games, they're nearly all good additions. also, immersive creatures, because it's mega. skytweak is good too.

Edited April 24, 2013 by jackowonderful

[Honorgirl]

Use the interesting NPCs mod. It has super followers that have over 500+ (some even 700 to 1000) lines of dialogue that are custom voiced. It's main feature of course are it's well "interesting NPCs". The NPCs have their own back-stories, desire, and quite a few of them are involved in quests. The NPCs are very well done and are surpass even Bethesda's official characters in story-line, characterization, and originality.

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8429

[MightyZ0G]

I prefer Jaysus swords to any other weapon mod

I also use Grimm's weapon replacer and Unique Uniques

 

RLO is also a must. especially as interior lighting is dynamic and changes with the time of day (no more bright sunlight shining through the windows at night) and the lighting at night can be very dark or not too bad depending on weather, etc.

 

Realistic Needs and Diseases is unobtrusive but does mean you need to sleep, eat and drink to stay in shape as well as avoiding getting sick (before RND I never bothered about diseases and would just pray at the next shrine I came to when I came to one)

 

Hoth is a great companion who can also give bounty quests and he has his own unique armour and weapons.

 

the Aesir Armour lets you have your own unique look but is difficult to get as it is in a pretty difficult dungeon.

 

Economics of Skyrim is great as it has dynamic pricing of goods (expensive where they are rare and cheap where they are plentiful as well as the type of trader youare selling to. a smith doesn't pay much for iron daggers but a general store might pay more)

it also adds options to smiths so you can pay them to upgrade your armour or weapons or order the type you want (vanilla only at this time) and it adds an option to mages so that you can pay them to enchant items for you.

 

cooking expanded adds loads of recipes which work well with RND

 

Wet and Cold is just fantastic. NPCs wear cloaks and hoods when the weather is bad and if it snows they get snow dusting on their clothing. NPCs will also seek shelter from the rain.

 

footprints leaves footprints in snow (animals also leave tracks)

 

Run For Your Lives and When Vampires Attack make non combatant NPCs run away from dangerous situations like random dragon or vampire attacks.

 

Brigandage adds loads of light armour to the levelled lists that makes bandits more varied.

 

Lightning During Thunderstorms adds to the atmosphere of storms

 

Skyrim Flora Overhaul Overgrown makes the landscape even better

[BlackCompany]

Ahh yes, Interesting NPC's. I did nab that one a while back. Completely forgot that it adds companions. I just talked to people and though I liked them, I then moved on. Will have to revisit many of those folk next time round.

 

Great suggestions all round. I will look into a good number of these mods. A Needs mod would make playing a Sandbox/Independent adventurer challenging in a whole new way. Sounds promising.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Hopefully we will see some more folks chime in as well.

[ClockworkBard]

If "needs" mods are a category, then Frostfall obviously needs to be mentioned at some point in this thread.

[urboyfriend]

i play immersive weapons, i started giving up on other weapon mods as they have stupid power curves attached in them. My only complain in this is is the Draugr Mace. it was not thought out well as it gives 20 damage as a 1 handed weapon and you could loot it early in bleakfalls barrow.


In my Opinion you should try out Duel + Asis as an alternative on Deadly combat. Combat and Stealth feels harder already with only those two. Just make sure when you do the quest on Kematu, only meet him on Rorikstead as the extra spawns tend to murder his crew on Swindler's list.

if you are on to mod stacking but you want some overhaul on the perks, i suggest ACE as it boasts compatibility as it's main feature.

i would want you to check out Joy of Perspective. it is still on beta phase but it is more immersive than vanilla and has a bit wider (realistic) point of view

you would also want to look at better cities. the extra buildings are not superficial.


Immersive Patrol. much better than Warzones and not exploitable.

 

you really don't need darker nights as Climates of Tamriel has really dark nights. like rage inducing dark. you would want to use your light ball spell or a torch.

 

Claralux give more light sources to compensate with CoT dark nights.

 

i see you mainly focus more in immersion rather than gameplay, Harvest Overhaul gives immersion, but at the same time it breaks the game.

Edited April 25, 2013 by urboyfriend