Essential Skyrim Mods?

[DownTheSky]

Upgraded my PC recently so I've decided to give Skyrim another go. 2days and 100+ mods later I still haven't played more than 5min, and this to test that the game still works. I'm about 3/4 in S.T.E.P. and then G.E.M.S, think I'll start playing with my new awesome beard. D:

Atleast the game still works.


A few questions:
For 200+ mods: Wyre Bash or Mod Organizer?
SkyRe or no SkyRe?
Is a GTX460 (850/2200) enough for ENBs? What's the best ENB to use with STEP/GEMS mods? If possible I'd like to keep the game atmosphere intact.
nVidia SSAO or ENB SSAO?

Edit: nvm, Wrye Bash rocks.

 

[thm1223]

I'm still playtesting my current build (432 mods, 253 active mods, and which looks a good deal purtier than what I had before), but here was the base STEP package with some modifications from my last play through about four months ago:

Is there any reasonable way that you could post a list of the mods you use and the order in which they are loaded? Your game looks absolutely breathtaking.

 

[Staples]

I used to watch a youtube series called Skyrim mods weekly. It was pretty good and done by some high school kid who is in college now. Not sure if he still does them/has time for them.

I never used any mods but he did mention like two or three out of a hundred that I might find useful. One was to manage your inventory better.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Also you're most likely limited to about 255 mods (including DLCs and ESM files). Bash can merge some of the smaller mods, depending on what they do. Tes4Gecko/Tes5Gecko? can merge more files, but can cause dependency issues.


Edit: This only includes mods that have ESP/ESM files. If it's simply replacing textures/sounds then there's no problem.

 

[Truthslayer]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Skyrim Perk Enhancements and Rebalanced Gameplay. It changes the perk system to be very useful and allow for more varied builds with automatic perks and synergy between trees. It also scales the damage across melee/ranged/destruction magic to do 2x base damage at 100 skill. It requires SKSE, Community Uncapper, and supports SkyUI MCM for tweaking. It's also a lot more compatible than SkyRe.

4.0 should be coming out soon, with more manual perks to put points into, as well as a hardcore mode. I'm currently using beta 4, and I can't see myself not using it at all anymore.

 

[shortylickens]

I would argue that a gameplay change isnt an ESSENTIAL mod.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Upgraded my PC recently so I've decided to give Skyrim another go. 2days and 100+ mods later I still haven't played more than 5min, and this to test that the game still works. I'm about 3/4 in S.T.E.P. and then G.E.M.S, think I'll start playing with my new awesome beard. D:

Atleast the game still works.


A few questions:
For 200+ mods: Wyre Bash or Mod Organizer?
SkyRe or no SkyRe?
Is a GTX460 (850/2200) enough for ENBs? What's the best ENB to use with STEP/GEMS mods? If possible I'd like to keep the game atmosphere intact.
nVidia SSAO or ENB SSAO?

Edit: nvm, Wrye Bash rocks.

Definitely Mod Organizer. I was a HUGE Wrye Bash user, especially for Oblivion but also for Skyrim. Mod Organizer is cleaner, and can install both BAIN ready and FOMOD scripted installs. And you can run multiple mod profiles (say, a SkyRe install and an ACE/EM setup) with a simple drop-down menu. I <3 MO

Is there any reasonable way that you could post a list of the mods you use and the order in which they are loaded? Your game looks absolutely breathtaking.

I used STEP as my base install for those pics. The STEP guides literally hand-hold you through the installation process. Also STEP keeps things graphically oriented and close to the vanilla style, so you can choose your own gameplay mods.

That being said, if you're an experienced mod user, I highly suggest checking out Skyrim Legendary Edition, which is managed by STEP contributor Neovalen, which is a more recent and vastly upgraded (and similarly, more demanding) STEP setup with some gameplay changes. It's what I'm currently setting up, and it should be noted that mod setup is more complicated than STEP.

Also you're most likely limited to about 255 mods (including DLCs and ESM files). Bash can merge some of the smaller mods, depending on what they do. Tes4Gecko/Tes5Gecko? can merge more files, but can cause dependency issues.


Edit: This only includes mods that have ESP/ESM files. If it's simply replacing textures/sounds then there's no problem.

TES5Edit not only keeps things clean, but with the addition of a Script Plugin, it can merge mods that Bash can't (Bash is actually quite limited for Skyrim in terms of what it can do and merge, unlike Oblivion).

 

[spacelord]

I installed the SkyUI mod last week. What a great mod!

I also went with the 10x Your Carry Weight Mod. (there is a 25x and 100x as well)
now I can carry all kinds of stuff ... I spend so much less time trying to figure out what to keep etc.. so worth it for me..

I think I'll be checking out one of the attached lantern mods once I run into a dark dungeon.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Skyrim Perk Enhancements and Rebalanced Gameplay.

Is this loaded before enhancement mods, or does it matter?
Does it "play nice" with RCRN? And which gets downloaded first, RCRN and then Perk Enhancements?
Also, here is a link to RCRN site which gives some interesting info on ini tweaks and graphic card game tweaks.
http://www.rcrncommunity.com/

The Wife

 

[Scooby Doo]

I installed the SkyUI mod last week. What a great mod!

I also went with the 10x Your Carry Weight Mod. (there is a 25x and 100x as well)
now I can carry all kinds of stuff ... I spend so much less time trying to figure out what to keep etc.. so worth it for me..

I think I'll be checking out one of the attached lantern mods once I run into a dark dungeon.

Check for a "bag of holding" mod. There was one for oblivion, fallout 3 and new vegas. I wouldn't be suprised if there wasn't one for skyrim.

Definitely Mod Organizer. I was a HUGE Wrye Bash user, especially for Oblivion but also for Skyrim. Mod Organizer is cleaner, and can install both BAIN ready and FOMOD scripted installs. And you can run multiple mod profiles (say, a SkyRe install and an ACE/EM setup) with a simple drop-down menu. I <3 MO



I used STEP as my base install for those pics. The STEP guides literally hand-hold you through the installation process. Also STEP keeps things graphically oriented and close to the vanilla style, so you can choose your own gameplay mods.

That being said, if you're an experienced mod user, I highly suggest checking out Skyrim Legendary Edition, which is managed by STEP contributor Neovalen, which is a more recent and vastly upgraded (and similarly, more demanding) STEP setup with some gameplay changes. It's what I'm currently setting up, and it should be noted that mod setup is more complicated than STEP.



TES5Edit not only keeps things clean, but with the addition of a Script Plugin, it can merge mods that Bash can't (Bash is actually quite limited for Skyrim in terms of what it can do and merge, unlike Oblivion).

Can MO create bash patches? You'll need that to create merged level lists. I'm waiting hopefully the winter steam sale will have skyrim LE for sale better than the summer sale was.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Also note that STEP (http://wiki.step-project.com/Main_Pa..._T_E_P__Guides) is EXTREMELY well documented and will hold your hand step by step (puns...) through the modding process. Fool proof starting point to modding. __________________

I found STEP quite complicated. For new modders, I highly recommend Gophers videos on Youtube; includes basics on BOSS, NMM, Tes5edit. Very clear and covers the basics. http://www.youtube.com/user/GophersVids

The Wife

 

[Truthslayer]

Is this loaded before enhancement mods, or does it matter?
Does it "play nice" with RCRN? And which gets downloaded first, RCRN and then Perk Enhancements?

I just let BOSS handle the placement (about halfway down for my modlist). Can't say as I don't use RCRN, but I don't see why it would interfere. SPERG's focus is mainly the perk menu, with slight touches in smithing, being the melting of items in the forge for ingots. (Enchantments and artifact crafting to be added in 4.0) 4.0 will also include an ESM for easier handling and creating of mini-patches, as well as expand compatibility.

 

[spacelord]

yeah, there were some bag of holding mods. It was much simpler to use the 10x mod, and no chance of dropping it on accident..

 

[techietechnics]

Is there any reasonable way that you could post a list of the mods you use and the order in which they are loaded? Your game looks absolutely breathtaking.

definitely breathtaking. i haven't picked out some mods yet, but i'm planning to, any suggestions for a newbie? I'm running skyrim on a 7770 vapor-x.:|

 

[NickelPlate]

I do all my mods either through the Steam workshop or just manually install/uninstall them from the ones I get from Nexus. Most of them are just stuff that goes in the meshes and textures folder with the occasional .esp file. And backup your textures/meshes folder before installing a new mod in case you don't like it and want to go back to your previous configuration. Stuff that alters color saturation and or lighting usually goes last in the load order.

 

[mmntech]

I don't have a lot of mods. The official high res texture pack is probably my one must have. There's a few I like though.

-Realistic Wolf Behaviour: Wolves run away from you instead of attacking, unless you attack them. Which as the titles says is more realistic. They were always the most annoying overworld enemy in the game.

-The Astria: A flying Dwarf ship that acts as a home. Not too far from River Run.

-That's Ice: Makes ice look more realistic

-Town Portal Spells: Allows you to fast travel instantly to any town from anywhere. Sold as spell books from each town's respective court mage. Compared to regular fast travel, time is unaffected.

-Essential Horses: Makes your horse an essential NPC.

-Zelda: Gives you Link's green tunic, hat, Hylian Shield, and the Master Sword. The armour and shield are pretty average but the sword is a formidable weapon.

-Silversmith: Lets you craft and enhance the silver weapons. This is very handy early in the game as the silver sword is the single best dungeon crawling weapon at lower levels.

 

[Bateluer]

I don't have a lot of mods. The official high res texture pack is probably my one must have. There's a few I like though.

-Realistic Wolf Behaviour: Wolves run away from you instead of attacking, unless you attack them. Which as the titles says is more realistic. They were always the most annoying overworld enemy in the game.

-The Astria: A flying Dwarf ship that acts as a home. Not too far from River Run.

-That's Ice: Makes ice look more realistic

-Town Portal Spells: Allows you to fast travel instantly to any town from anywhere. Sold as spell books from each town's respective court mage. Compared to regular fast travel, time is unaffected.

-Essential Horses: Makes your horse an essential NPC.

-Zelda: Gives you Link's green tunic, hat, Hylian Shield, and the Master Sword. The armour and shield are pretty average but the sword is a formidable weapon.

-Silversmith: Lets you craft and enhance the silver weapons. This is very handy early in the game as the silver sword is the single best dungeon crawling weapon at lower levels.

Riverwood*

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Check for a "bag of holding" mod. There was one for oblivion, fallout 3 and new vegas. I wouldn't be suprised if there wasn't one for skyrim.




Can MO create bash patches? You'll need that to create merged level lists. I'm waiting hopefully the winter steam sale will have skyrim LE for sale better than the summer sale was.

With MO you can use Bash to create bashed patches, yes. MO is just superior in its file management system.

I don't have a lot of mods. The official high res texture pack is probably my one must have. There's a few I like though.

-Realistic Wolf Behaviour: Wolves run away from you instead of attacking, unless you attack them. Which as the titles says is more realistic. They were always the most annoying overworld enemy in the game.
You *really* need to check out SkyTEST instead. Features a fully functional ecosystem and animals will behave realistically to you, including wolves

-The Astria: A flying Dwarf ship that acts as a home. Not too far from River RunRiverwood .

-That's Ice: Makes ice look more realistic

-Town Portal Spells: Allows you to fast travel instantly to any town from anywhere. Sold as spell books from each town's respective court mage. Compared to regular fast travel, time is unaffected.

-Essential Horses: Makes your horse an essential NPC.
Replace this with Convenient Horses, which can make horses essential, allows for companions to ride, features better textures and horse armor (user selectable) and much, much more.

-Zelda: Gives you Link's green tunic, hat, Hylian Shield, and the Master Sword. The armour and shield are pretty average but the sword is a formidable weapon.

-Silversmith: Lets you craft and enhance the silver weapons. This is very handy early in the game as the silver sword is the single best dungeon crawling weapon at lower levels.

^^Some suggestions.

 

[shortylickens]

I just set the game time ratio to 1:1. Fast travel doesnt suck up the whole day. No need for spells.

I love zelda equipment though. And I saw FF weapons too, (Clouds sword and such).

 

[NoSoup4You]

I just reinstalled Skyrim for the first time in 18 months, using Gophers vids and some Nexus searching I put together a very quick but still impressive list of mods together. And when I say quick, I mean it took me next to half of an entire day but that's actually not terrible considering all the files I had to download due to having a fresh install of Windows as well.

I won't list all the mods since Gopher does a great job of that but I will say the one I'm most excited about is SkyRe, or Skyrim Redone. It rebalances so much of stuff that I didn't like in Vanilla Skyrim that I'm really pumped to see how it all plays out - racial bonuses, perks, combat, ai... there's so much there.

I also grabbed an interesting mod called Automatic Variants which allows you to install multiple texture packs for creatures and the game randomly generates the creatures accordingly. So many creatures won't all look the same, there will be different fur/hair patterns for wolves and mammoths...etc. Small but fun stuff

Also, a lot has changed in the last year and a half since I played Skryim. The new in-game Mod Configuration utility is absolutely wonderful and drastically improves the user friendliness of modding Skyrim. Now that's progress.

 

[Agent11]

Top list at the skyrim nexus is a good start, some mods are only available on steam workshop though, such as this one. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=125029519&searchtext=orange

 

[J30_Uwe]

I have been tweaking my game for about a week now. I just looked at the Skyrim Revisted page listed in this thread (never knew about it) and it looks pretty thorough. However, I'm concerned my system doesn't have the horsepower to run ENB. If I had to chose I would probably run CoT + ENB.

My system:
MSI P55A-G55
i5 @4.2Ghz
XFX 6870 2GB
16GB Ripjaw X

Not really into the adult skin mods. I just don't care to be taking the armor off some NPC I just killed only to have my 9, 7 or 4 year old immediately walk in on me. I'm currently using XCE body mods with FO3 hair. Apachiihair seems like people just walked out of a salon (queue "PHINEAS AND FERB-I 'm FABULOUS"). I just wish there was something like CBBE with underwear

 

[Stringjam]

I just wish there was something like CBBE with underwear

There is.....Dimonized UNP with the underwear file.


I agree....I'm not into the Skyrim glamour / pr0n mods. At least the Dimonized guy gives you an underwear file so they aren't nude if you pull the clothes off.

I just couldn't stand the super-crappy vanilla skin textures on NPC's. I also use MacKoms Real Skin for Men.

 

[J30_Uwe]

There is.....Dimonized UNP with the underwear file.

Ahh... thank you. I came across this mod in the past but I just saw the first pictures pop up on the screen and kept going while wondering how they got electric razors :\ in Skyrim. I'll have to check it out again.

Now I'll just need to go find some ugly and plump people in Skyrim? I can't believe everyone was gifted with supermodel bodies.

Thanks again!

 

[Stringjam]

Now I'll just need to go find some ugly and plump people in Skyrim? I can't believe everyone was gifted with supermodel bodies.

Thanks again!

Maybe the fats ones all got picked off by the dragons......they were always the slowest to get inside.