Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Clockwork Knight]

Why install 5 mods when you can install one that does more than all five combined? Such an alien way of thinking, it's kind of repulsive.

 

[Perkel]

wrong people. i thought i was asking people who knew skyrim inside out and could name 5 essential mods off the top of their heads that had nothing to do with graphics or extra-content. i was wrong.

And you faggot choose not listen his masters and you want 5 essential mods that will fix the game. Because 1 is < 5 therefore it is worse.

You can't fucking fix Skyrim with 5 mods because everything in game is more or less shit. Also Requiem fixes biggest Skyrim problem level scaling. AND IT IS THE ONLY MOD THAT DOES THAT.

So be a good fag and install Requiem. There is even MCM option menu in game for fags like you so you can tune gameplay to your liking. Don't like one hit KO on lower levels ? Then change 4x combat damage to 1x combat damage. Don't like that poison blurs your vision ? Switch it off. Want to have more skills at start because you feel like you can't kill one bandit ? set it instead of 3 to for example 7.

All nice and easy ready to rape your butt with good ol' RPG mechanics. Because you are in for a solid gangrape with Requiem.

What you need to install Requiem ? :

- nexus download
- nexus mod menager
- install menager
- instal mod
- run patcher in Skyrim/data/patchproc
- run the fucking game

 

[Eyeball]

and please, individual mods only.

none of that "lol just install SkyRe or Req" bullshit that changes the entire game into weeabo fantasy shit.

Can't speak for SkyRe as it blows, but Requiem doesn't turn it into weeabo fantasy shit. Unless you count Dark Souls as being weeabo. Your points 2-4 are covered by Requiem anyway - potions weigh more, non-useless arrows become rarer and money becomes actually VALUABLE. My Requiem playthroughs are mainly concerned with avoiding anything more threatening than an angry gopher while trying to scrounge together enough cash to invest in training my skills, which has suddenly become incredibly expensive, with items also selling for way less, making barter a lot more useful as a skill.

Playing Skyrim without Requiem is boring as fuck by comparison. Play Requiem now.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I've been messing around with SkyRe, maybe I messed up with the Reproccer but everything is lethal and it's kind of fun so far. I ran early on into a level 30 wizard added by a quest mod and he killed me twenty times before I gave up.

Also Requiem fixes biggest Skyrim problem level scaling. AND IT IS THE ONLY MOD THAT DOES THAT.

Well, there are a few choices.

WTF - Random Encounter Zones (by T3nd0, author of SkyRe) Lets player assign the range of encounter levels (min and max) for each encounter zone. Highly configurable/customizable.

Skyrim Scaling Stopper A leveled list overhaul - Most enemies are not leveled (20% lvl 1-15 | 77% Lvl 15-20 | 3% lvl 21+). Weapons & armor of higher quality than steel are rare. Ttreasure is not leveled.

ASIS
L ASIS-Encounter Zones
(A standalone plugin based on PISE in the ASIS downloads section). Creates semi-static encounter zones ranging 20 levels wide (ie, 35-55, 10-30, etc). Dungeons near cities are the easiest. Dungeons in the far wilderness are set to levels 40, 50, even 60 as a minimum level. Read more...

Still, 1 > 5 and that is mathemagical truthz.

 

[Eyeball]

Anyhoo, some ADDITIONAL mods which I feel add a great deal to Skyrim:

1. Daggerfall music mod. Adds some cool dungeon crawling tracks that are far better than vanilla Skyrim's.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8865

2. Live Anothe Life - tired of having to start in Helgen as the Fabled Hero Of The Land? No problem, this mod gives you more than a dozen alternate starting locations and backgrounds, none of which have anything to do with the Dragonborn nonsense. You can still start the MQ if you like, but this mod allows you to LARP anything from a shipwrecked sailor to a newly initiated Khajit thief to an evil necromancer starting the game in his dungeon stronghold.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9557/?

3. Immersive armours and weapons - adds a shitload of variety in the clothes people wear and lootable weapons. May have balance issues depending on what other mods you run.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19733/? and http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/27644/?

4. Unlimited Weapon Charges - because having to reload your battle axe is fucking retarded and tedious.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17623/?

5. Requiem, you fucking faggot.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19281/?

 

[Eyeball]

6. Interesting NPCs. Sure, this is addtional content, but it's actually well-written and integrated into the main gameworld, has quite good voice acting in general and adds some actual STORYTELLING to Skyrim. Probably the most impressive Skyrim project I've seen.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8429/?

 

[Perkel]

I've been messing around with SkyRe, maybe I messed up with the Reproccer but everything is lethal and it's kind of fun so far. I ran early on into a level 30 wizard added by a quest mod and he killed me twenty times before I gave up.

Also Requiem fixes biggest Skyrim problem level scaling. AND IT IS THE ONLY MOD THAT DOES THAT.

Well, there are a few choices.

WTF - Random Encounter Zones (by T3nd0, author of SkyRe) Lets player assign the range of encounter levels (min and max) for each encounter zone. Highly configurable/customizable.

Skyrim Scaling Stopper A leveled list overhaul - Most enemies are not leveled (20% lvl 1-15 | 77% Lvl 15-20 | 3% lvl 21+). Weapons & armor of higher quality than steel are rare. Ttreasure is not leveled.

ASIS
L ASIS-Encounter Zones
(A standalone plugin based on PISE in the ASIS downloads section). Creates semi-static encounter zones ranging 20 levels wide (ie, 35-55, 10-30, etc). Dungeons near cities are the easiest. Dungeons in the far wilderness are set to levels 40, 50, even 60 as a minimum level. Read more...

Still, 1 > 5 and that is mathemagical truthz.

Problem with those are that they are not integrated and you don't fucking know what will be when you mean someone with hammer. In requiem at least you know that if someone is rolling in steel armor you should probably avoid him in those mods you either see dude who can wipe floor with you or some weak as fuck dude.

Because lack of integration you can't for example deal with stronger enemy with for example traps or specialized tactics.


==============

What i install beside Req.

- Live another life (because no one wants to fallow shitty main quest)
- killamove control (to switch off cinematic kills)
- better quests objectives - because game was designed around markers. This fixes it
- interesting NPCs
- and the choice is yours - option to say no for most of quests reducing quests spam in your log.

 

[Perkel]

One thing though i would change in Requiem would be alchemy.
It is waaay too overpowered at current state and with just one perk in that you won't need to buy potions.
I think to be good it would need :

- redo entire ingredient abilities table and make every ingredient to have only 1 or 2 abilities instead of 4.
- redo how alchemy works. Introduction of % base chance to make potion. So with Alchemy skill 0 you have 0 % chance to create potion. You will need to pay alchemy trainer first to teach you to at least 20 so you would have at least 20% chance to make potion. Skill also would be fallowing exponential line with end of it being diminishing returns line . So at 0-40 you would have terrible potions, 41-60 ok ones, 61-81 great ones, 81+ just little better than great.
- redo perk system. First make it like blacksmithing so base it around books you would need to buy or find. Each type of potion would have it's own books levels. Like introduction to healing potions giving you ability to make small regeneration potion, small health potion. Book of healing giving you ability to make stronger verions of earlier potions + for example Troll blood potion giving you very good regeneration bugg at cost of fire resistance by using trolls hearth and one more valuable ingredient. Then expert book of healing which gives you awesome potions to make like insta heal and stuff like that. Naturaly each type of potion would have their own book levels.
Other perks would give you for example bonus chance to create potion or better potency of some type of potions or stuff like that.
- Make it alchemy table less. Instead give player an item like chemistry set which you could buy and different sets would have impact on potion creation. Like healers set would give better heal potions where poison set would do the same for potions.

 

[aweigh]

i knew insulting the audience would rile up some answers.

thank you eyeball for actually explaining what Requiem does.

your description sounds EXACTLY like what I wanted.

does it also lower backwards speed? you did write that my points 1 through 4 were covered, but I just want to make double sure before installing.

tougher economy: check?
shit weights more so you have to think about what you're carrying: check?
valuable items are harshly reduced in spawn rate: check?
enemies are smarter and fight harder without being HP sponges: check?
mobility and weapon/fighting mechanics overhauled: check?

if it's a yes to all of those then yes, Requiem sounds exactly like what i want for my very first-ever virgin Skyrim playthrough. i've played through the beginning on a friend's pc but he had a gazillion shit-mods installed and it was a terrible experience.

thank you all for the replies and the recommendations.

 

[aweigh]

perkel's recommendations also sound spot on. thanks.

the stuff about extra VO and extra larp-clothes on NPC's is a no-go and unnecessary however. why would anyone care about that?

in return please, PLEASE feel free to ask me ANYTHING about FNV. I'm at your service.

 

[Perkel]

Much more than that.

Just read manual. Frankly you shouldn't start Requiem without reading general changes.

If you won't read it you won't know shit ton of things about it. Like for example that now each character has mass that is calculated into combat. Or that undead are actually very strong now and you need either silver weapons or fire magic to deal with them effectively

 

[Eyeball]

i knew insulting the audience would rile up some answers.

thank you eyeball for actually explaining what Requiem does.

your description sounds EXACTLY like what I wanted.

does it also lower backwards speed? you did write that my points 1 through 4 were covered, but I just want to make double sure before installing.

tougher economy: check?
shit weights more so you have to think about what you're carrying: check?
valuable items are harshly reduced in spawn rate: check?
enemies are smarter and fight harder without being HP sponges: check?
mobility and weapon/fighting mechanics overhauled: check?

if it's a yes to all of those then yes, Requiem sounds exactly like what i want for my very first-ever virgin Skyrim playthrough. i've played through the beginning on a friend's pc but he had a gazillion shit-mods installed and it was a terrible experience.

thank you all for the replies and the recommendations.

I THINK it does, but I frankly can't recall. You can't backpedal at the speed of light and fire AK47s at onrushing mutants in Skyrim anyway, so why would this even be an issue?

 

[aweigh]

you should never backpedal at full speed in any game.

Much more than that.

Just read manual. Frankly you shouldn't start Requiem without reading general changes.

If you won't read it you won't know shit ton of things about it. Like for example that now each character has mass that is calculated into combat. Or that undead are actually very strong now and you need either silver weapons or fire magic to deal with them effectively

that sounds fun as fuck having to discover that shit on the fly. why would i want to spoil it? reminds me of morrowind actually.

 

[aweigh]

is there any mod that adds VATS or slow-mo?

 

[DraQ]

wrong people. i thought i was asking people who knew skyrim inside out and could name 5 essential mods off the top of their heads that had nothing to do with graphics or extra-content. i was wrong.

Requiem has nothing to do with graphics and extra content it adds is limited and kind of relevant mechanically.

It encompasses some unique gear (note: not Cloud's swords nor masterchief's helmet), spells (which Skyrim is in dire need of), a monster or two and a bit of unleveled content (which counts as mechanical improvement unless you like level scaling) and relevant "breadcrumbs" involving mostly (admittedly not very well written, but then again, Skyrim) notes and shit.

If you have any ideas how to get rid of level scaling without introducing de-leveled content (or making everything lolrandom), you can share them.

Anyway, the most important changes Requiem makes are wholly mechanical - it includes reduced backpedal speed (if it wasn't present in vanilla), heavy stamina reliance, lack of health regen, hefty damage and AC increase (so that dying is fast and armor is crucial) and heavy reliance on build and perk distribution.

 

[aweigh]

if could bro my fist deeper draq i would x 3

 

[Perkel]

that sounds fun as fuck having to discover that shit on the fly. why would i want to spoil it? reminds me of morrowind actually.

Because you may be too fucked up to notice this is old school (tm) mod. Which means there are things like for example arrows being completely useless for undead. Or things you won't know unless you read about it (like mass).

 

[DraQ]

i knew insulting the audience would rile up some answers.

thank you eyeball for actually explaining what Requiem does.

your description sounds EXACTLY like what I wanted.

does it also lower backwards speed? you did write that my points 1 through 4 were covered, but I just want to make double sure before installing.

tougher economy: check?
shit weights more so you have to think about what you're carrying: check?
valuable items are harshly reduced in spawn rate: check?
enemies are smarter and fight harder without being HP sponges: check?
mobility and weapon/fighting mechanics overhauled: check?

if it's a yes to all of those then yes, Requiem sounds exactly like what i want for my very first-ever virgin Skyrim playthrough.

Just remember - Requiem makes virgins bleed.

 

[DraQ]

that sounds fun as fuck having to discover that shit on the fly. why would i want to spoil it? reminds me of morrowind actually.

Because you may be too fucked up to notice this is old school (tm) mod. Which means there are things like for example arrows being completely useless for undead. Or things you won't know unless you read about it (like mass).

Ah, yes.
There are a lot of cool and mostly logical mechanical quirks in Requiem.
Draugr just don't care about normal arrows (as you'd expect of a hunk of dead meat with no blood circulation or functioning organs) - you can make pincushions out of them and they won't be even mildly inconvenienced (worse, draugr archers will make use of your arrows), armorured enemies and giant arthropods will be resistant to bladed weapons, trolls regen at mental pace meaning you might actually be unable to kill them with some characters unless you secure proper means to do so, and so on (and there is a lot of "so on").

Mass is cool, too, not only does it tweak your movement speed, but as a burly fella encased in a heavy metal tincan you can just knock people off their feet by bullrushing them.

 

[Eyeball]

Indeed. In Requiem, magic, stealth or archery aren't the best options for dealing with enemy one-shotting archers.

Rugby is. Simply sprint into an enemy while wearing heavy armour and then gleefully chop that lightly armoured archer to pieces while he's lying on the ground dazed.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Didn't they nerf archers a bit in the latest Requiem version?
Still have to see it myself, tested another deleveling mod recently (YASH - it's shit, boss level chests with op items placed in the middle of some weak ass dungeon, far from any boss, and the worst part: Vanilla perks).

The only real problem with Requiem is that it isn't that friendly towards other mods and since it alters pretty much everything in the game, for most gameplay-related mods you either need compatibility patches (and sadly azirok is long overdue with updating his patches to Requiem 1.8) or you know much more than me about TESEdit or some other shit program or you have to live with stuff not working properly or balancing problems.

For changing the perk tree into something fun you don't need it though. I bet there are much better mods out there in this regard. I only stick to Requiem because I'm lazy and want everything fixed with one mod.
Otherwise I would use a modular approach and fix many things Requiem does (like delevel the gameworld, make dragons more rare etc) and then some.

Anyway, my current load order:

Spoiler

Skyrim.esm=1
Update.esm=1
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp=1
Dawnguard.esm=1
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp=1
HearthFires.esm=1
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp=1
Dragonborn.esm=1
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp=1
HighResTexturePack01.esp=1
HighResTexturePack02.esp=1
HighResTexturePack03.esp=1
Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp=1
dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Reduced.esp=1
SkyUI.esp=1
BFT Ships and Carriages.esp=1
Requiem.esp=1
Bashed Patch, 0.esp=1
Requiem for the Indifferent.esp=1

SkyUI, some other UI enhancements with no esps, Requiem and Carriages and Ships, that's all.
I don't really like Interesting NPCs, since at least last time I played it they babbled on and on and on til I knew their entire live story, but most of them didn't even give me quests. Felt out of touch with Vanilla NPCs and I didn't like how chatty they were.
But maybe that changed, dunno. Still, will never try that mod again.

I won't start playing 1.8 as long as noone makes a Requiem-Dragonborn patch though.
Or could I play it as long as I stay clear of the Dragonborn content? Is that even possible?

 

[aweigh]

i tried. i really did. i gave it a solid chance. i played for three hours without requiem, and a solid marathon-like 4 and a half hours of a new game alternate life (decided to escape the prison) with requiem. yes, it's hard as fuck. yes, the game is fucking beautiful.

i'm back to playing to FNV in between wasteland 2 and shadowrun returns dragonfall sessions. i just wanted a pretty hiking simulator, but skyrim is beyond repair.

it truly is one of the shittiest games ever made.

thank you all for your help though; i truly, TRULY appreciate it. :brofist

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Didn't they nerf archers a bit in the latest Requiem version?

A bit. The "more damage at short distance" has been reduced (okay, even though it made sense) and you do more damage to heavily armored targets and less damage to lighly armored targets ( )

The only real problem with Requiem is that it isn't that friendly towards other mods and since it alters pretty much everything in the game

Well, it's not really a problem since that's the main feature. If you buy a tool with seventeen functions, it's because you don't want to bother with carrying around seventeen different tools, even if they're more specialized.

I don't really like Interesting NPCs, since at least last time I played it they babbled on and on and on til I knew their entire live story, but most of them didn't even give me quests. Felt out of touch with Vanilla NPCs and I didn't like how chatty they were.
But maybe that changed, dunno. Still, will never try that mod again.

I find it fun to listen to their stories when I'm bored. They have huge conversation trees but you don't have to go through it all at once.

I won't start playing 1.8 as long as noone makes a Requiem-Dragonborn patch though.
Or could I play it as long as I stay clear of the Dragonborn content? Is that even possible?

Just don't go to Solstheim. If you want to be extra sure, download something like "Timing is Everything" to keep the cultists random encounter from happening. (it's basically like the DB assassin in Tribunal). TBH if your only issue is combat difficulty you can just pump up enemy damage with SkyTweak for Solstheim or increase the level of spawns with Fine-Tuned Challenge, two lightweight mods that are p. convenient

 

[NotAGolfer]

A bit. The "more damage at short distance" has been reduced (okay, even though it made sense) and you do more damage to heavily armored targets and less damage to lighly armored targets ( )

Whatever.
Will try that Timing is Everything mod, thx.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

People wouldn't stop whining about how bows were OP, so author made them less OP. Problem, citizen?



(in case it wasnt' clear, "more damage" and "less damage" are meant to be in comparison to what you did in 1.7, not that he reversed the mechanics)