i haven’t played in years so i don’t know the essentials anymore, i’m sure i can pick up the barebones from a guide but what are y’all’s preferred:
Combat mods—i’ve seen videos of stuff that looks darksouls-y idk if i actually want that but i def want to change up the combat
Magic—skyrim magic boring :soviet-huff:
& idk beyond that, survival? immersion? town mods that don’t just add a bunch of trees? quests that aren’t made by weirdos with dwemer ruins fetishes? gimme your best while im installing all the frameworks and script extenders and such
i usually go with the “Enairim” setup as a baseline:
Apocalypse - magic of skyrim
Odin - Skyrim Magic Overhaul
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim
Imperious - Races of Skyrim
Andromeda - Unique Standing Stones of Skyrim
Wildcat - Combat of Skyrim
Summermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim
Thunderchild - Epic Shouts and Immersion
Growl - Werebeasts of Skyrim
Sacrosanct - Vampires of Skyrim
Wintersun - Faiths of Skyrim
Triumvirate - Mage Archetypes
disclaimer: some of these didn’t exist last time i played, but the mod author has a good rep for quality
then things like Immersive Armors and Immersive Weapons for more equipment variety
i also like Campfire and Frostfall for survival stuff
other than that, usually flavour related things for the kind of playthrough i’m doing plus graphics mods and unofficial patches
Have you ever played with the Requiem Overhaul? It does a lot for immersion and turns the damage up for players and NPCs by multiples, like getting hit by an unblocked 2h will almost definitely kill you and 2-3 arrows will take you down. Also gives monsters unique attributes to fall more in line with prior games like Morrowind, ghosts only take damage from magic or enchanted weapons, trolls have huge regeneration unless exposed to fire, I usually don’t do Bleak Falls barrow until like level 15-20 as draugr only take damage from fire and silver weapons. You also can’t lock pick or craft items until you’ve put requisite points into their skills, and master lockpicks require an advanced lock picking skill point. It can be frustrating sometimes though but it’s hard for me to play Skyrim without it. Also touches almost everything in the base game so most other mods need a compatibility patch.
+1 to Requiem
I remember downloading Requiem, that one mod that makes it so you freeze to death all the fuckin time, and another mod that removed the dragonborn stuff from the game and started you in a random location with random equipment
I started with like two daggers right next to a dragon priest and basically did some scooby doo shit running all the way out of the fuckin barrow or whatever I spawned in, and proceeded to spend the next like ten hours of gameplay doing crimes and getting hilariously ragdolled by everything (at one point I was trying to get to Windhelm to have a gay argonian wedding but I kept freezing to death trying to travel there so I had to find and steal some cold weather gear) until my game crashed due to me being bad at managing all of my mods and basically that was the last time I played skyrim
I liked how much weight it gave to everything. Even though I was getting brutally murdered all the time, the existence of quicksaves stopped it from being too frustrating
Yeah Frostfall can be brutal. I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually killed any dragon priests with Requiem because they become such late game encounters. I usually do a bunch of bandit camp quests for the first part of the game until I actually feel confident about leaving the proximity of Whiterun.
most other mods need a compatibility patch
this is what dissuaded me back in the day, i’ll keep it in the back of my head because im all about dragging the die-every-other-encounter part of the game out
It’s largely anything that introduces new creatures/equipment/zones. Most major mods do have patches because Requiem has been around for like 12-13 years. I’ll see if I can pull up my mod list later if you’re interested.
equipment
im extremely pro-dress up this is the iceberg to the requiem titanic :sicko-wistful:
Depending on how much space you have, I’d try using the Wabbajack tool and find a modlist that sounds good to you/ you’re capable of running. They’re pre-made lists with lots of mods, patched and formatted to be ready to go after a (possibly lengthy without SSD) installation, so minimal input on your part. I did my own mods before trying this out, and I prefer the lists now because they tackle a lot more aspects and are less likely to crash since they’ve been tested.
I’m using Redoran atm, kind of a vanilla+
if you want to make this easy just get a collection from nexus, i personally use this one it’s requiem based and has pretty much everything you’d want in it’s 1268 mods.
i also put 200 mods on top of that because i’m a crazy person
Agreed with @WoofWoof91 on Enai stuff. Every playthrough I’ve loved having Legacy of The Dragonborn because it makes collecting uniques worth it. It’s got a big ol compatibility patch installer, too. I remember Wheels of Lull and Grey Cowl of Nocturnal being cool, though it’s been years since I did both. I did go through the effort of installing them when I played a little bit last year, so they should still have good versions somewhere.
