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R.I.P. neildarkstar. Haven will miss you dearly.
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My Favorite...can't play without mods; Recommended/Essential Mods
Topic Started: Aug 28 2016, 01:55 PM (1,676 Views)
Areial
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Et'Ada
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<snicker>...... :lmao:
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Kane
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Serethil
Sep 15 2016, 10:30 PM
See, here's the thing. Riften is a really nice town. Except.... the idiot devs decided to make the entire place dependent on this.... Icky.... stupid.... TG quest line....

Seriously. The Rift is the MOST BEAUTIFUL area in the entire game. And yet.... it's the place NO ONE wants to go.....
Exactly! It's a beautiful hold, so that mod combined with a Clearspring Cottage will likely be a setting in one of my first modded RP's.
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Kane
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Oh lawd. Just checked out Elysium. Wow.
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neildarkstar
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I dunno, personally I enjoy going to Riften. It's often my first stop after leaving Riverwood... well, sorta. I go to Ivarstead by road, then swim downriver to Riften catching Orange Dartwings and River Bettys all the way.

That leaves me in Riften usually by level 4 to 8, depending. So, Ghastley's unarmed mod makes it unnecessary to go into the Ratway after Gian, but... I often also enjoy that. Gian is one of the true hazards in the game for a low level player, and can be quite a challenge. He's ended a few of my Did chars.

The area is beautiful, I love living in Honeyside because I can get up in the morning, run out the door to the deck and dive the two-story drop into the lake for a morning swim. There's no better way in the world to wake up.

What I don't like is beating on the shopkeepers (or the alternatives either) and that thing with Brynjolf saying "All eyes are on you, don't disappoint" every time you walk past him.
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Kane
Sep 16 2016, 08:20 AM
Oh lawd. Just checked out Elysium. Wow.
Elysium Estate is one of the houses I always have in load order. It, Cliffside Cottage, and Revak Rift - I use them for my "dedicated collector" girls, because they literally have a place for everything. Cliffside's not quite as "activator oriented" as the other two, but it's SUCH a gorgeous place....
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Kane
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Oh! Those are excellent, too! *tracked*
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Turija
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Great topic! Well, as you all may know I am a particular fan of Requiem. That is a mod that is not for everyone though. Most people either love it or hate it.

There are several Requiem specific mods and patches that I consider essential but I won't list them unless someone is particularly interested in Requiem.

Several people listed Climates of Tamriel, and I use it too. Its great for outdoor areas, but I am not a fan of it's interior modules, so I only use the outdoor modules. I use RLO for dungeons. That's the only module I use from that mod. It makes dungeons dark but beautiful, so places like Eldergleam Sanctuary and Broken Oar Grotto that have sunlight streaming in are spectacular. RLO's dungeon module does not contain cell edits so it is very compatible. For other interior spaces like inns and homes and shops, I just use vanilla lighting.

Other mods I consider necessary for my current enjoyment of the game are as follows in no particular order:

ETaC The author, Missjennabee has got to be the nicest person on the web and a very talented mod author. I currently use a slightly older version 13.9.6, which is available in the mirrors tab because I adore the colorful textures for the buildings in the smaller settlements. Missjennabee removed those in the latest version for compatibility reasons.

JK Lite Much more performance friendly than JK SKyrim. I use the Cities only version for compatibility with ETaC and I made a personal addon to add a few things from the full JK SKyrim mod back in that I couldn't live without along with a couple of minor changes from Dawn of Skyrim (Dunmer lamps and goods for Brandshei).

Convenient Horses Makes horses much more convenient and is compatible with Requiem without a patch. :)

I use iHUD and Less Intrusive HUD to get my HUD just the way I want it. They do different things and are designed to work together.

For my map, I am a big fan of old paper maps, so I use Warburg's Paper Map.

Bosmeric Drunken Huntsman I don't use a lot of interior remodels, but this one is so good I have to use it. It has a minor bug with the AI for Janessa but it was easy to fix it in xEdit and there are instructions for doing so in teh Nexus thread.

Stash Sacks Like the author says, its just sacks, but very useful to have storage sacks at your disposal.

SMIM The improved meshes makes so many things look so much better.

DynDoLOD I just use the static LOD meshes generated by DynDoLOD, rather than the scripted dynamic LOD. Fewer compatibility issues and no issues with changing my load order since I don't have a DynDoLOD esp. You can get 90% of what DynDoLOD provides without the dynamic LOD, but you loose out on LOD for Hearthfire houses after they are built and flickering Giantfires in the distance. I use the scriptfree Skyfalls and Skymills for animated distant waterfalls and windmills. If there is a mod that can do basically the same thing without relying on scripts, I will choose that over a scripted mod and make small visual sacrifices so I don't need to worry about performance impacts from additional scripts or having them baked into my save if I decide to make a change.

Complete Fast Travel Overhaul I used to use Touring Carriages, but recently switched to CFTO. While I like Touring Carriages quite a bit, it is a bit of a performance hog, it has some minor compatibility issues with some mods, and the carriage rides are a bit quirky. They make me motion sick since I cannot zoom out far enough from the carriage, and when you encounter wildlife/enemies, it is kind of strange looking when a troll or a bear gets ragdolled by a carriage plunking along. CFTO is a nice alternative with less of a compatibility issue and no performance issues.

Trade and Barter There are other trade mods out there that do more (Trade Routes, for instance) , but Trade and Barter is very lightweight (no performance impact) and is highly compatible and configurable in the MCM.

Immersive College of Winterhold I use version 2.5.3 because I don't like the spiral staircases added by later mods, but any version is compatible with ETaC and they make the college a very interesting place.

Parthurnax Bypass Simple and effective way to add a choice about what to do with Parthy. More compatible and reportedly less buggy than that other mod. I have never used the other mod so I have no firsthand knowledge of it but I have looked at Parthurnax Bypass in xEdit and it appears pretty lightweight and delicate in its changes.

Timing is Everything I really like to have control over my game and this allows me to control a number of things, but most importantly whether random vampire or cultist attacks occur. For the most part I like to shut these down completely. TIE allows control over a lot of other cool stuff as well.

Skyrim Unbound In the spirit of control, I recently switched from LAL to Skyrim Unbound and am enjoying the change. Skyrim Unbound allows so many options for being dragonborn or not being dragonborn and lets you switch mid game if you change your mind for the direction of your character. LAL does not have that flexibility and requires another mod if you want to not be the dragonborn. For that reason, (and because I did not like some of the cell edits from LAL, like the new farm near Rorikstead or Shady Sam), I have switched to Skyrim Unbound and am happy with the change (although I will miss the shipwreck start).

I have probably forgotten a few that I consider essential. My current load order is 116 plugins long, and I pretty much consider them all essential. I recently made some changes, removing Touring Carriages and LAL and replacing them with CFTO and Skyrim Unbound and added a few other mods, like Trade and Barter, Stash Sacks, and Parthurnax Bypass and my FPS in problem areas went from 35-40 to 55-60. So, I now have a stable game that runs 55-60 FPS everywhere, which is awesome. I suspect that removing Touring Carriages was what boosted the FPS, since it has constantly running scripts and I am running several other mods that have constantly running scripts (including Frostfall 2.6, Wet and Cold, Requiem), but whatever the cause, I am happy that my game is now running near flawlessly with so many mods, many of which are performance intensive.





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Raging Ghost
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Noble
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The Witchhunter Spells and Prayers pack essentially gives you spells mapped to the Power button. While it does let you use magic with your favorite weapon, it's best used if your weapon isn't enchanted.
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Raging Ghost
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Sorry for the double post, but I want to give a shout-out to a mod: Armor Rating Enchantment.

It's obvious about what it does (adds an enchantment that adds armor rating to clothing) and it works with flesh spells. Sure, it replaces the enchantment of the Blue Mage Robes, but I think it's a little price to pay.
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Kane
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Reminds me of the Ballistic Weave in Fallout 4. Tommy likey. :thumb:

Dammit, that's Oldrim.
Edited by Kane, Jan 18 2017, 03:53 PM.
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Rick
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Jarl
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OMG OMG OMG!

Someone just stole my Skyrim and left behind something that looks like an ENB managed scenery on high settings.

My jaw just hasn't lifted yet....just walking through the forests near Falkreath and South of Dawnstar.....so clear, so sharp...all those dense towering trees....and the SKY is..is..is...."THUD"

Dolomite weathers
True Storms
TreesLod23
Bigger Trees
Lush Overhaul

The combination is astonishing!

Its just a different game........

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Kane
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ENB looks better. B-)
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Rick
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Jarl
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Kane
Jan 20 2017, 04:12 PM
ENB looks better. B-)


Well of course it does! But I am coming from an Xbox 360 that looked like this...

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To modded XB1....like THIS :)
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And THIS...
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And so many more....its just....wow! My screen is 65" and seeing them on that from five feet back just blows me away.
Edited by Rick, Jan 20 2017, 08:38 PM.
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Actually, Rick - I like your combo better than ANY ENB I've looked at. Thanks for posting the list - probably going to give that combo a try myself.
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Areial
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Et'Ada
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Beautiful Rick... Much nicer than 360 settings!

yer 360 setting's were too "bright" with not enough contrast though.. it's all "washed out".. and yeah I know, darker dungeon's are the result... but...
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Rick
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Jarl
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Thanks ladies :)
Yeah...I know with the X360 shot...the sky is white'd out....over exposed, but taking down the brightness then dulled the saturation of the colours...can't win.

But the modded XB1 is by comparison fabulous......I know the distant trees still lack detail...but that's the draw distance running out not the mod's faults.

The forests now have very tall, stout trees with dense foliage and there are many more of them....in short...forests now really do feel like they are packed with trees and you just can't see far ahead. Its like Colerado (to which I have never been!). Even Riverwood gets a few extra really big trees. Sumptuous!

Last two for here....cos this ain't the screenies thread, of course....
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Posted Image

The sharpness and clarity have me near speechless.....it is still a bit too "yellow" for my idea of a cold gritty northern clime....but still very good.
True storms still sends it down in buckets at times...and Todd's vaunted 'god rays' (Crepuscular rays actually Todd) strafe diwn through the forest mists...magical, truely :) :) :)
Edited by Rick, Jan 21 2017, 12:13 AM.
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Eh, yeah. I want my "bleak" Skyrim personally. But I can start with that list, and then tweak with Imaginator.... I have issues with that deep cyan sky. Then again, I do see that sort of sky here in the winter....
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Rick
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The sky is not perfect but pretty close to reality. Its deepest looking away from the sun and much lighter blue as you look toward the light.....except late in the day of course. It is probably all still a tad too bright also.

But considering the limited tweakability of the console mods....I am not going to complain :)
I will try the "less yellow" filter mod....that should help!
Edited by Rick, Jan 21 2017, 12:20 AM.
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Ugh.... y'all are going to hit me.... Sure the sky is pretty close to reality.

That's why I will have to tweak it.
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Areial
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Et'Ada
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Rick... add Imaginator and tweak out the "yellow" til you get the look you want..
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