Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Hold my beer, I'm going in.

The boss mage took all the corner-hugging skill I could muster to put down, but the others were pretty doable. I did spend my shekels on the starter lightning spell beforehand, and once I drained all their mana, they happily ran into my runes.
So now I'm broke, out of potions and gained no loot to speak of out of it. I'm calling it a resounding success.

 

[RK47]

Radiant Prostitution will let you sell your ass.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Is there a mod that allows to exchange stuff with traders without using money (aka barter)? Similar to, say, FNV, where only excess cost is covered by extra shekels.

 

[Mexi]

After I got to 25 in block, heavy armor, and one-handed, it seems like the game just got easy. Not sure what happened, but I first noticed when I took a charged blow from a bandit with an iron mace. I completely shrugged off the blow, and it didn't even take half or 3/4 of my health away like normal.

It would've killed me just 2 seconds ago before I reached level 25. That was a bit weird. I'll still probably get stomped into a mud pit by a vampire, but I haven't even tried them yet.

Seems like my character from this restart is doing a lot better. Before, I was saving up all my gold. Now, I'm using it to train in skills and keep them all even. Seems I'm getting better progress. My other character was wearing full dwarven armor, and I'd still get killed by an iron-mace wielding bandit. This character uses steel-plate, and I can shrug off mace attacks easy. Seems like skill matters a lot more than armor.

 

[Jasede]

Hmm, well, at level 44 for me everything human and draugr, if they're not in a huge group, is easy enough, but I can't take dragons without a serious poison stockpile, Vampires can be dangerous if I am not careful, and even the bandits, which die like flies to a swing of the mace, can kill me easily if they get the drop on me or hit me with an arrow. Falmer die in one hit, but their arrows do the same to me so it's kind of fun having to dodge. But all those weak enemies still kill me fast if I don't pay attention, but that's with light armor (and not very good light armor - the best I have is some elven pieces)

I can slaughter humans all day though, killing everyone in Whiterun or Markarth with ease and speed.

 

[RK47]

Beat Alduin. Man that was bullshit. This mod breaks a few rules with invulnerability and excessive mob placements.

Spoiler

Arrived at the finale area. Greeted by 20 Draugr Archers and a Dragon. Whoopee.

'There's the dragonborn, shoot to kill!'

No problem. I can grind through that, except there's Dragon Priests that obliterates everything in its path, I left Dawnbreaker at home. Fuck.
Solution: Invisibility Potion, sneak to Crypt to bypass all combat.

Cleared the easy crypt, arrive at the Portal to Sovngard...only to be cockblocked by another Dragon Priest, two Dragons and Four Draugr Champs capable of shouting.
I noticed the portal is opened, but the Priest will seal it therefore forcing me to kill it to progress. Or does it? Invisibility potion, sneak past, got in the portal before it's sealed.

Arrived at Alduin battle, spent 20 minutes determining that this faggot has invulnerable stages requiring me to Plot Shout to power him down and enable me to burn him down...
6-10 seconds and he'll fly away again, periodically blacking out the screen to spawn a dozen trash mobs. Two Storm Atronachs can handle them.
Since Alduin regenerates, I'm screwed if I can't get Plot shout to recharge fast enough. I quickly refunded all pickpocket Legendary Perk in order to grab the Shout Cooldown bonus from Speech tree.
Fully charged Plot Shout to ground Alduin, drink 45 magicka/sec potion, spam Lightning Bolt with 675 Magicka Reserve over and over. 15% Damage per stage.
Attempting to use crossbow and poisoned bolt didn't result in anything meaningful, the bolt is too slow even with the reload perk, I only managed to score 3 hits before Alduin flies to the sky and regenerates every damage caused... 80 Marksmanship Skill Points down the drain. Very butthurt about this.

At the end of the battle, the memory leak starts to get worse and worse as Alduin rains meteor shower from the sky and spams his Xth trash mob.
But whatever, I won. Dawnguard is next.

 

[DraQ]

Restoration - Mostly useless. I regret taking it. But there's a decent rank 25 perk to maintain Magicka regen even while running, thereby freeing the equipment slot off Adept Hoods, Magicka ring etc. I went with Necromancer Amulet for 200 Magicka and a generic Ring of Restoration that grants 200% Magicka Regeneration rate.

Healing up yourself, followers, protection against shit like poison and potent anti-undead spells. I'm not that experienced with wards but the above alone makes it worthwhile.

Evasion - seems useless for defensive purposes

It's not for defensive purposes. Faster movement, faster&stronger attacks, stamina regen bonuses, partial falling damage negation, etc.

I encountered a big problem. I did the Mace of Molag Bal quest and now my 40 One-Handed cat man werewolf is an unstoppable killing machine. Oh, sure, he still dies in 1 hit to anything dangerous - a dragon attack, a falmer arrow - but it still feels weird going from barely scratching people in armor to knocking dudes out in one overhead swing.

Daedric artifacts and generic daedric weapons have significant inherent armor negation advantage tahat stacks with any other armor negation bonuses.

This plus large damage = splat.

 

[RK47]

Just beat Dawnguard. Man, I like their idea of creating a huge area to battle through but Requiem amped the area with lots and lots encounters that wears me out.

Requiem: Soul Cairn is brutal with lots of crap tossed in to make life hell. I think the fact I used four invisibility potion just to skip most of the content says it all. It's just way too much combat and most of them are lethal, just did what I have to and bailed out asap.

That graphical glitch does not help. Mistman freezing attacks left behind those ice effects making stuff more chaotic. Invisible entities can be taken down with Teleport Vital but the problem is spotting them.

Then came the Forgotten Vale. I like the idea of larger place to traverse, but fuck that cramped space midway, peppered with dozens of Falmer. It was so boring blasting through those trash. Tried the invisibility potion but they were just too good at detecting noise.

The Vampire faction didn't pose a huge problem fortunately due to two factors: Teleport Vital affecting Vampires and Mehrune Razor Daedric property slicing through Gargoyle's thick skin. Without those two I'd be in hell.

At least the boss fight felt more 'fair' than Alduin's. I actually enjoyed fighting him.
And now, on to Solstheim

 

[Eyeball]

Teleport vitals is a fairly loltastic spell in that it also works on any humanoid boss - killing the superwizard final boss in the Mage's Guild questline in less than a second by ripping his heart out was beyond hilarious.

 

[DraQ]

There should be some protections against teleport vitals. Also, it should work on anything in game that has identifiable heart - predators, humanoids, briarhearts, dremora, mammoths. Undead should only suffer limited damage/permanent health debuff and it should happen only once. Maybe put a permanent status on such undead to indicate that it's already heartless and make it affect undead with their hearts removed before raising them. Of course an undead character ceasing to be undead (vampirism cure) should be immediately killed if under effect of this status. Maybe have difficult and costly way to mend yourself if you had your heart ripped out as vampire.

Also, the spell should spawn the affected organ just in front of the caster instead of adding it to their inventory. Cosmetic, but much more badass.

 

[RK47]

I like the 'Return to Morrowind' vibes, but man Requiem isn't that kind of mod where you can sight see. Every time I try to look at the Dwemer ruins, some automatons would snipe me off with a Crossbow Bolt. Eventually I got tired of 'dying due to sightseeing' and just went in there with full combat mentality. Similar to Soul Cairn where a sense of wonderment gave way to 'Oh fuck, it's those Mist faggots again!'

Sometimes I really miss not having a sense of danger. Or the absence of dragon popping out of nowhere.

Edit: Just beat Mages Guild quest line. Ridiculous. Three Dragon Priest room is fucking bullshit. Only with Dragonskin I managed to kill the first one. Ran out of the room immediately and cheesed them again with massive Sunfire spam while drinking Magicka potion. In contrast, the Named Dragon Priest itself was a pushover.

450% Magicka Regeneration Mask and Archmage Robes.
Think I'm done with my final gear.

How the fuck do you clear those burning/electrocuted ground the Priests have created? Since dungeon corridors are so narrow, they literally made it impassable.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

How do I not suck at Sneak in Requiem?
Skill level 81 with all perks up to that point, at night (can't see shit myself), no clothes, sneaking slowly = spotted immediately by low-level bandits within 20 meters of them. And sneaking is simply useless in daytime.
Or are thief characters a waste of time with this mod?

 

[Jasede]

I don't seem to have a problem with it, but I will say it seems more meant for ranged combat (crossbows) because the sneaks will drop humans in 1 hit, no questions asked. Not sure why it's that hard for you, really - it seems to work fairly well for me. Maybe it didn't install right? I only have 40 Sneak but it does what I want it to - it lets me steal and headshot people from a distance without being seen.

It's not viable for knifing people in the back for me though, at least not yet. Sometimes I can pull that off but it's quite difficult.


No clothes? You know, with the mods I have installed that would lead to guards and monsters randomly raping me. Put some clothes on.

 

[RK47]

Dunmer racial is the perfect warrior imo.
I might reroll warrior afterwards and ditch spells.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

How do I not suck at Sneak in Requiem?
Skill level 81 with all perks up to that point, at night (can't see shit myself), no clothes, sneaking slowly = spotted immediately by low-level bandits within 20 meters of them. And sneaking is simply useless in daytime.
Or are thief characters a waste of time with this mod?

>can't see shit

Try another lighting mod, if it's an option. Places that look dark to you could be well-lit as far as the sneak mechanics are concerned. Though I could sneak in daylight as long as they weren't looking in my general direction.

 

[Drax]

Or, be a man and whore your soul to rapejesus.

 

[RK47]

Or, be a man and whore your soul to rapejesus.

or just go invisible with nirnroot & chaurus egg extract

 

[Drax]

I meant for the "cantseeshitinthisgodawfuldarkness" symptoms.

 

[RK47]

I meant for the "cantseeshitinthisgodawfuldarkness" symptoms.

become khajitt

 

[Drax]

Yeah, and become muslim too ya?

 

[RK47]

The issue is the absurdity of the gameplay challenges presented to the player in terms of visual issues is not fairly represented to the enemies.
I don't trust those lighting mods at all. Same issue with Frostfall, I fail to see the fun in seeing my avatar clad in heavy fur clothes just to stay warm while half naked barbarians continue to charge at me unimpeded.
If you want to play sneaking Requiem game, enhance it with illusive magic, use muffle, distraction noise to turn them around, higher lvl illusion (30) enable running while invisible.
I know magicka cost is restrictive, but drink magicka pot and you're fine. What you need is hard hitting killing power, that's what the perks are for. Gears augment stealth and damage as well. If you think investing on just sneaking will help you prevail, think again.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

If you use Wet & Cold alongside Frostfall, NPCs will wear warm clothes during cold weather. They won't eventually fall dead like you, but that would be an unimaginable clusterfuck so it's probably better this way. Randomly generated bears already depopulate areas enough.

 

[Drax]

I know there's an AI mod that makes NPCs perception react to actual light levels, can't remember the name.
I always wanted to try an Illusion/Sneak build, never got around to.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

The issue is the absurdity of the gameplay challenges presented to the player in terms of visual issues is not fairly represented to the enemies.
I don't trust those lighting mods at all. Same issue with Frostfall, I fail to see the fun in seeing my avatar clad in heavy fur clothes just to stay warm while half naked barbarians continue to charge at me unimpeded.
If you want to play sneaking Requiem game, enhance it with illusive magic, use muffle, distraction noise to turn them around, higher lvl illusion (30) enable running while invisible.
I know magicka cost is restrictive, but drink magicka pot and you're fine. What you need is hard hitting killing power, that's what the perks are for. Gears augment stealth and damage as well. If you think investing on just sneaking will help you prevail, think again.

Then what's the point in investing in Sneak at all? Illusion and/or Enchantment and/or Alchemy replace it completely and do a lot more. You'd think, by the time a character hits ungodly levels of Sneak, he'd figure out the concept of camouflage, but no, that'd make the skill actually useful.
Might as well install SkyTweak and adjust sneak values to sort this retarded shit out.

 

[DraQ]

I like the 'Return to Morrowind' vibes, but man Requiem isn't that kind of mod where you can sight see. Every time I try to look at the Dwemer ruins, some automatons would snipe me off with a Crossbow Bolt.

Sightseeing perk has See-It-Coming as prerequisite.

Then what's the point in investing in Sneak at all? Illusion and/or Enchantment and/or Alchemy replace it completely and do a lot more.

You'll obviously be a better sneak when investing in sneak and illusion than when investing in sneak and something else.

For all the flak jacks of all trades get for being antithetical to roleplaying few seem to understand that one trick ponies are even worse - roleplaying or not they are antithetical to any sort of depth because whatever challenge the game throws at you you are going to have to tackle it by using your particular awesome button, whether it is "hit it with sword", "cast destruction magic", "sneak" or "talk your way through" - JoATs at least force you think about picking the right tool for the job, but if all you have is a hammer...
What is both interesting in terms of gameplay depth and also compatible with roleplaying and replayability, however, is having to invest in a number of skills, with different synergies in between them and, yes, Requiem gives you far more perks than needed to fill up one particular skill tree,
so true stealth specialst isn't just someone who maxed out sneak, it's someone who maxed out sneak, has at least significant investments in illusion and may branch out into different skills like enchant (to creat own +sneak gear), alchemy (poisons for effective guerilla tactics) maybe sneak compatible offensive skills like archery or 1h, or pickpocket (to sneakily poison and later disarm people), or speechcraft (disguise).

A guy with just maxed out sneak might just as well be a wizard or warrior who's good at sneaking - an important asset but hardly build-defining.

Similarly, it's better to have +sneak enchants that still serve a purpose even if you specialize in sneak than to have ones that become useless because of ability to say undetected capping out.

You'd think, by the time a character hits ungodly levels of Sneak, he'd figure out the concept of camouflage

No visual assets nor perks for that.

The issue is the absurdity of the gameplay challenges presented to the player in terms of visual issues is not fairly represented to the enemies.
I don't trust those lighting mods at all. Same issue with Frostfall, I fail to see the fun in seeing my avatar clad in heavy fur clothes just to stay warm while half naked barbarians continue to charge at me unimpeded.