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[Falcs]

Thanks
I posted a list of the mods a few weeks ago here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=150779003&highlight=#post150779003

They're almost the same nowadays, updated a few, installed maybe 5-10 additionally, but basically, that's it. The main mod that was added was JKs cities overhaul...

Here are some screens, same config, different ENB (Grim & Somber):
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=153539765&highlight=#post153539765

I *LOVE* the look&feel of those ENBs...

Faaaaar out that looks good...
Your screenshots make me want to upgrade my PC just so I can experience such beauty!

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

I'm going through the stages of grief for Skyrim modding and I've hit acceptance. Acceptance that I'll never get it completely perfect the way I first imagined I might have.

Currently Wet and Cold doesn't seem to be completely working - I don't get breaths on my character or NPCs. Though apparently there's going to be a 2.0 update coming out for it within a week or two that might fix my problem with it.

And I kind of wanted Real Shelter, but you gotta do this crazy stuff with a custom version of TES5Edit specifically to fix certain things and it just seemed like too much work for too little gain.

I might try to perfect it whenever I'm able to build a new PC with a much better graphics card though, especially after I have some more modding experience under my belt.

Otherwise, still have some stuff to do before I'm "done" for the moment.

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

So I'm "done" for now I think. Got RealVisionENB installed which drops my performance 5-10 FPS (with dips) to ~25-30 FPS average for an intense outdoor scene. Had to disable grass shadows as it was causing a weird flickering issue with grass textures.

Think I'll go with this for now, then maybe disable RealVision if the FPS feels too low to be playable. Looks pretty decent though. I'll post some screenshots later.

Dunno if disabling fullscreen windowed to go to basic fullscreen would be an improvement in FPS or not. Have a 3 monitor setup (Skyrim only plays on one), but I typically go with fullscreen windowed when possible for other games since my card can handle most anything else I play like that. This may be a different case though.

 

[MattyG]

Can Mod Organizer cause problems with draw distance and the .ini file and stuff? I used it on Fallout 3 and the draw distance on objects like grass and stuff was worse than I remember on consoles even (though it may just be me not remembering). I was going to use it on Skyrim, but I'm hesitant if it's going to cause issues.

 

[Pancakes]

Didn't realize we had a thread for this. I've spent about 240 hours in Skyrim and probably have 100+ mods atm. I've gotten kinda burned because my save file has become buggy and bloated even after running the script cleaner so I will probably start a new playthrough to tide me over until Witcher 3 arrives.

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

I think it might be safe to say that I MAY have overdone it for returning to the game for the first time since about release. Game is huge enough as is that dealing with fuckloads of mods doesn't necessarily make it better. I came to this conclusion after getting sub-20 FPS when riding a horse out in the world. I think I need the game to be at least at 30 FPS minimum stable.

I'm not exactly sure what I want to do now. Complete nuke feels like a waste of effort. Especially since a bunch of the stuff I do have installed is essential and doesn't need to be fixed. Will probably just start selectively disabling mods (Skyrim Flora Overhaul I think is the biggest culprit here) until it becomes playable.

But I think I might wait a bit before doing all that since The Witcher 3 is coming up and the hype train has swept me along. I'm interested in playing The Witcher 2 now (just gonna watch a summary of 1 - have played it some but it's janky), and that's a significant time commitment as well. I simply can't focus enough to play 2 large RPGs like Skyrim at TW2 at once, let alone with the other games I'm currently devoted to.

 

[NormalFish]

I think it might be safe to say that I MAY have overdone it for returning to the game for the first time since about release. Game is huge enough as is that dealing with fuckloads of mods doesn't necessarily make it better. I came to this conclusion after getting sub-20 FPS when riding a horse out in the world. I think I need the game to be at least at 30 FPS minimum stable.

I'm not exactly sure what I want to do now. Complete nuke feels like a waste of effort. Especially since a bunch of the stuff I do have installed is essential and doesn't need to be fixed. Will probably just start selectively disabling mods (Skyrim Flora Overhaul I think is the biggest culprit here) until it becomes playable.

But I think I might wait a bit before doing all that since The Witcher 3 is coming up and the hype train has swept me along. I'm interested in playing The Witcher 2 now (just gonna watch a summary of 1 - have played it some but it's janky), and that's a significant time commitment as well. I simply can't focus enough to play 2 large RPGs like Skyrim at TW2 at once, let alone with the other games I'm currently devoted to.

Choose between your script-heavy mods and your visual mods. Remove the other ones. Might be the best way to get a new experience of some kind without nuking your installation.

 

[Eirulan]

I think it might be safe to say that I MAY have overdone it for returning to the game for the first time since about release. Game is huge enough as is that dealing with fuckloads of mods doesn't necessarily make it better. I came to this conclusion after getting sub-20 FPS when riding a horse out in the world. I think I need the game to be at least at 30 FPS minimum stable.

I'm not exactly sure what I want to do now. Complete nuke feels like a waste of effort. Especially since a bunch of the stuff I do have installed is essential and doesn't need to be fixed. Will probably just start selectively disabling mods (Skyrim Flora Overhaul I think is the biggest culprit here) until it becomes playable.

But I think I might wait a bit before doing all that since The Witcher 3 is coming up and the hype train has swept me along. I'm interested in playing The Witcher 2 now (just gonna watch a summary of 1 - have played it some but it's janky), and that's a significant time commitment as well. I simply can't focus enough to play 2 large RPGs like Skyrim at TW2 at once, let alone with the other games I'm currently devoted to.

Did you DDSopt your texture mods?
Might be worth a try and give you back ~10 fps.

 

[lazygecko]

So if I'm getting this right: isoku, the author of Wet & Cold, has suddenly uploaded a significantly updated 2.0 version of Wet & Cold as a paid mod on the Steam Workshop, while the original Nexus page only has the old legacy version, suggesting that isoku knew in advance that paid mods would be supported and deliberately held off the new version to sell it? And this is causing a great deal of fan backlash.

 

[Grexeno]

So if I'm getting this right: isoku, the author of Wet & Cold, has suddenly uploaded a significantly updated 2.0 version of Wet & Cold as a paid mod on the Steam Workshop, while the original Nexus page only has the old legacy version, suggesting that isoku knew in advance that paid mods would be supported and deliberately held off the new version to sell it? And this is causing a great deal of fan backlash.

"How to Destroy Your Modding Career 101"

 

[NormalFish]

So if I'm getting this right: isoku, the author of Wet & Cold, has suddenly uploaded a significantly updated 2.0 version of Wet & Cold as a paid mod on the Steam Workshop, while the original Nexus page only has the old legacy version, suggesting that isoku knew in advance that paid mods would be supported and deliberately held off the new version to sell it? And this is causing a great deal of fan backlash.

Honestly don't see much of a problem. Think the paid mod system will be good. Even better if modders release old versions on the nexus or wherever else free.

 

[Pancakes]

So if I'm getting this right: isoku, the author of Wet & Cold, has suddenly uploaded a significantly updated 2.0 version of Wet & Cold as a paid mod on the Steam Workshop, while the original Nexus page only has the old legacy version, suggesting that isoku knew in advance that paid mods would be supported and deliberately held off the new version to sell it? And this is causing a great deal of fan backlash.

Well that's pretty lame.

 

[Mesoian]

Honestly don't see much of a problem. Think the paid mod system will be good. Even better if modders release old versions on the nexus or wherever else free.

It depends on how well it's curated. It's speculation, but when people start realizing that their efforts in making smaller mods, for example single simple armor mods, are only worth 5 or 10 cents on the market, I could see how people could become discouraged.

I'm hoping that it'll cultivate quality in the long run...but a big part of me doesn't see that happening. Gary's Mod and Counterstrike becoming runaway successes didn't create a new wellspring of HL2 mods that came after were as interesting or sought after.

That being said, maybe this means we'll get more stuff like Moon and Star, Faalskar and The Cowl of Nocturne.

I had bugs like this a few times with skyrim. Mods all installed, play for a while, suddenly things start vanishing. uninstall mods, make new save files, whatever, but whatever disappeared doesn't come back until I fresh install. Weird as hell.

You know what's crazy? Yesterday I had Saadia fence all of her non essential gear and her head came back.

SKYRIM MODDING!

 

[lazygecko]

Here are some further potential issues that worry me:

The curation, or lack thereof, on the workshop. The level of moderation I've seen on the workshop in the past has already been pretty sloppy and lax compared to Nexus IMO (and even they aren't that great from my own experience. Reported mods that stole my own assets and provided proof but nothing was done about it). I see the potential for a lot of shady shit going on here, with mods being sold that use unauthorized assets whether they are stolen from other mod authors, or Creative Commons noncommercial assets (I've used plenty of these in my own mods which disqualifies them from being sold. I sincerely doubt most others have that amount of foresight though), or just flat out ripped from other games etc... How are they going to effectively police that stuff?

Secondly I foresee a lot of drama and temper tantrums with regards to stability/crashes/problems and the ability to refund your mod purchase. Skyrim's stability even without any mods is just barely hanging in there, and even a moderately modded install is going to tip that balance. It's well known that people have a tendency to jump to conclusions and believe that some specific mod is breaking their install, when it in reality is an insanely complex issue with a ton of different related or unrelated factors that are causing the issue. I think this stuff is going to be greatly exasperated with the introduction of paid mods.

In relation to this I honestly think Bethesda has more of a responsibility now to keep supporting Skyrim and update the game (and the editor) with bug and stability fixes.

 

[Mesoian]

Here are some further potential issues that worry me:

The curation, or lack thereof, on the workshop. The level of moderation I've seen on the workshop in the past has already been pretty sloppy and lax compared to Nexus IMO (and even they aren't that great from my own experience. Reported mods that stole my own assets and provided proof but nothing was done about it). I see the potential for a lot of shady shit going on here, with mods being sold that use unauthorized assets whether they are stolen from other mod authors, or Creative Commons noncommercial assets (I've used plenty of these in my own mods which disqualifies them from being sold. I sincerely doubt most others have that amount of foresight though), or just flat out ripped from other games etc... How are they going to effectively police that stuff?

Secondly I foresee a lot of drama and temper tantrums with regards to stability/crashes/problems and the ability to refund your mod purchase. Skyrim's stability even without any mods is just barely hanging in there, and even a moderately modded install is going to tip that balance. It's well known that people have a tendency to jump to conclusions and believe that some specific mod is breaking their install, when it in reality is an insanely complex issue with a ton of different related or unrelated factors that are causing the issue. I think this stuff is going to be greatly exasperated with the introduction of paid mods.

In relation to this I honestly think Bethesda has more of a responsibility now to keep supporting Skyrim and update the game (and the editor) with bug and stability fixes.

Totally agree. 100%

 

[Pancakes]

I have to make sure to also suggest MO. Its fantastic. As someone who has worked on mods it also helps as many times those wanting to play your mods can reset and check problems easier. The program is simply fantastic even if it has 1-2 caveats

I've been using NMM for a while now and have been thinking about moving over to MO. NMM is 50/50 on crashing when installing new mods. But the thought of debugging 100+ mods to work on a new organizer is a scary one. I'm probably going to start a new save anyway since my current character has gotten pretty boring to play because of how straight overpowered and unkillable he is.

Is there any mode that just increases %enemy damage across the board? The obvious solution would be for me to switch to weaker and lighter armor but I'm stubborn and Daedric just looks too good.

 

[ChronotriggerJM]

So I recently tried to have a go at a complete skyrim overhaul (while being a newbie mind you), and followed a guide that ended up getting me a constant crash cycle :/ In a furious bout of rage I deleted everything and uninstalled skyrim. Quickly regretting it shortly after lol.

It's very obvious I just bit off more than I could chew at my current modding skill level.

Is there a comprehensive list of a few easy mods I can install to make the most impact? Preferably something modern that isn't riddled with compatibility problems? Definitely going to need to go with an EMB from what I'm told, and that's the most complicated to enable, but is there a frustration free package out there anywhere?

I've heard that Mod Organizer is definitely the way to go, perhaps I'll start there?

 

[Mesoian]

So I recently tried to have a go at a complete skyrim overhaul (while being a newbie mind you), and followed a guide that ended up getting me a constant crash cycle :/ In a furious bout of rage I deleted everything and uninstalled skyrim. Quickly regretting it shortly after lol.

It's very obvious I just bit off more than I could chew at my current modding skill level.

Is there a comprehensive list of a few easy mods I can install to make the most impact? Preferably something modern that isn't riddled with compatibility problems? Definitely going to need to go with an EMB from what I'm told, and that's the most complicated to enable, but is there a frustration free package out there anywhere?

I've heard that Mod Organizer is definitely the way to go, perhaps I'll start there?

Start with MO. That will at least lessen your frustation by being able to go back steps.

Follow the STEM guide for installing things, though you can choose what you install.

Take it slow. I know you want to install like 10 mods at once but there are going to be times where you need to ease back and figure out what's causing certain problems. Go slow.

Get LOOT
Get WyreBash
Learn how to clean your mods
Learn how to make bashed patches

 

[Karak]

I've been using NMM for a while now and have been thinking about moving over to MO. NMM is 50/50 on crashing when installing new mods. But the thought of debugging 100+ mods to work on a new organizer is a scary one. I'm probably going to start a new save anyway since my current character has gotten pretty boring to play because of how straight overpowered and unkillable he is.

Is there any mode that just increases %enemy damage across the board? The obvious solution would be for me to switch to weaker and lighter armor but I'm stubborn and Daedric just looks too good.

Like moving I love to sometimes just restart everything. For example many times mods keep updating and so forth, or as someone posted above some mods merge and so forth. Just getting rid of all the little updates and stuff sometimes is awesome. I don't know why but I love it sometimes.

MO just makes everything so much easier its insane.

My advice for anyone installing mods:
Just pick one if 3-4 mods change things that aren't super important.
Understand the long term ramifications of mods. Some make the early game fun but ruin later game content. You have to keep an eye on what your installing.

 

[ChronotriggerJM]

Like moving I love to sometimes just restart everything. For example many times mods keep updating and so forth, or as someone posted above some mods merge and so forth. Just getting rid of all the little updates and stuff sometimes is awesome. I don't know why but I love it sometimes.

MO just makes everything so much easier its insane.

My advice for anyone installing mods:
Just pick one if 3-4 mods change things that aren't super important.
Understand the long term ramifications of mods. Some make the early game fun but ruin later game content. You have to keep an eye on what your installing.

Yeah I have no idea why I went about it so stupidly lol. Skryim loads within seconds, I don't know why I wouldn't check in on it more often when installing major changes :/

Start with MO. That will at least lessen your frustation by being able to go back steps.

Follow the STEM guide for installing things, though you can choose what you install.

Take it slow. I know you want to install like 10 mods at once but there are going to be times where you need to ease back and figure out what's causing certain problems. Go slow.

Get LOOT
Get WyreBash
Learn how to clean your mods
Learn how to make bashed patches

Yeah I used loot and WyreBash, but I think they were the least of my problems lol, I'm pretty sure I just installed too much crap that didn't jive well. I've heard the STEM guide is very useful, but extremely time consuming. I'll definitely have to give it a look. Thanks for the help!

 

[Pancakes]

Gonna nuke my install and just start from scratch. Luckily NMM had a backup of all the zip files for my mods so it isn't a huge issue getting them back.

 

[Valkrai]

Anyone know some good lighting mods for Skyrim? All I have is the Increased Contrast Boost mod for it but it's not that great.

 

[Mesoian]

Anyone know some good lighting mods for Skyrim? All I have is the Increased Contrast Boost mod for it but it's not that great.

Enhanced Lights and FX is pretty much the go to.

 

[OtisInf]

So if I'm getting this right: isoku, the author of Wet & Cold, has suddenly uploaded a significantly updated 2.0 version of Wet & Cold as a paid mod on the Steam Workshop, while the original Nexus page only has the old legacy version, suggesting that isoku knew in advance that paid mods would be supported and deliberately held off the new version to sell it? And this is causing a great deal of fan backlash.

He was under NDA from Valve, so he couldn't tell anyone. What he changed in v2 is mostly assets he used from others and has replaced them with his own assets, which are of considerably worse quality.

So don't be sad about this, the one on Nexus works fine.

 

[Valkrai]

Enhanced Lights and FX is pretty much the go to.

Thanks, how well does it look outdoors? I've seen a bit of it used inside buildings.

 

[Mesoian]

Thanks, how well does it look outdoors? I've seen a bit of it used inside buildings.

I like it. Sun has a tendency to be a little huge, but other than that it looks good. Starry skies and auroras look pretty incredible.

Took this last night, for an example.

Of course that's compressed to high hell, but you get the idea.

 

[McBryBry]

So, I think I've got the visuals about where I want them. However, need some recommendations on other things. What do you guys use for characters/faces/animations? Also, what combat things do you recommend? And are there any full overhauls you use?

 

[Mesoian]

So, I think I've got the visuals about where I want them. However, need some recommendations on other things. What do you guys use for characters/faces/animations? Also, what combat things do you recommend? And are there any full overhauls you use?

I use a cocktail of CBBE, immersive armors and weapons, Cloaks of skyrim, SG hair/skin for overall stuff.

I also use JK's Skyrim. It's intensive but it makes everything look super good.

Outside of that, its just sort of what ails you.

Didn't realize SG stopped modding earlier in the month. That's too bad.

 

[Mental Atrophy]

Any good difficulty/combat/skill system combinations? All the recent mod talk charmed me into reinstalling (yet again). I've tried ones like Duel and SkyRe and a few others. Also, is UFO still the best follower mod? Last I played it was starting to show compatibility problems.

 

[timetokill]

Any good difficulty/combat/skill system combinations? All the recent mod talk charmed me into reinstalling (yet again). I've tried ones like Duel and SkyRe and a few others. Also, is UFO still the best follower mod? Last I played it was starting to show compatibility problems.

I use AFT (Amazing Follower Tweaks) which has worked well for me so far. I used to use UFO and I prefer AFT.

 

[Pancakes]

Might be a dumb question but here goes. I've been importing .JSLOT files for RaceMenu since some people make some amazing looking characters but occasionally the import is very janky. The biggest issue I'm running into is that the body texture remains the bright purple color despite me having the skin texture packs the original author listed. The texture is showing as being overwritten by CBBE even if I move it to a higher priority and this point I'm out of ideas. I can't even properly change the color of the purple texture to anything else but bright white.

Anyone deal with something like this before?

 

[Mithos]

Any good difficulty/combat/skill system combinations? All the recent mod talk charmed me into reinstalling (yet again). I've tried ones like Duel and SkyRe and a few others. Also, is UFO still the best follower mod? Last I played it was starting to show compatibility problems.

I prefer UFO over AFT, even though I recognize that AFT (Amazing Follower Tweaks) is more advanced, it just was to many menus for me, I prefer MCM settings over popup menusettings, and AFT have plenty of popup, and/or menus while talking to your Followers.

 

[timetokill]

I prefer UFO over AFT, even though I recognize that AFT (Amazing Follower Tweaks) is more advanced, it just was to many menus for me, I prefer MCM settings over popup menusettings, and AFT have plenty of popup, and/or menus while talking to your Followers.

I prefer MCM settings as well, and I don't even use most of the AFT features. The main reason I switched was because I kept running into compatibility issues with UFO and other mods.

 

[Mesoian]

For what it's worth, I love AFT. I think it's the best, once you can finally get it working with stuff like Interesting NPC's.

But it's also been abandoned, so if you have a problem, figuring it out can be quite the trial.

 

[Pancakes]

I ended up fixing the issue in case anyone cares. Basically, the skin texture mod was originally for ECE and not RaceMenu so after digging in the discussions on NexusMods I found that you need to manually take femalehead.nif from the ECE mod and dump it directly into the data folder in Skyrim. Such a simple solution that bugged me for hours lol.

 

[lazygecko]

Updated Immersive Sounds Compendium to 1.2

-One-handed Blade Flesh/Draugr Impacts overhauled again.

-Toned down the blood spurt on arrow impacts.

-Unrelenting Force, Fire and Frost shouts volume increased.

-Candlelight volume increased.

-Added an option to mute wind noise in the world map.

-Added Perkus Maximus compatibility patch.

 

[RedSwirl]

Okay, I think I'm finally ready to dip into Skyrim modding. I just completed a total vanilla main quest run just so I could see how much mods change the game.

Main Points:

--As of right now my install is a 100% vanilla Steam install with all official patches but no mods of any kind.

--System Specs:
i5 4670k stock 3.4GHz
GTX 760 2GB
8GB RAM

--With those specs I'd like to maintain 1080p/60fps if possible.

--When it comes to ENB, on the one hand I don't like straying too far from a game's original color palette, but on the other hand I would like to see a more "natural" or "realistic" look. Think Ground Zeroes or ArmA 3 lighting. The profiles linked here and here are pretty good approximations of what I'm looking for so long as they don't tank performance.

--Do these ENB mods make darkness look like actual darkness?

--I really don't like the excessive bloom I see in a lot of ENB shots.

--I also don't like the unusually clean grass I see in a lot of ENB. I've seen too many screenshots that make Skyrim look like some dude's front lawn.

--I don't have any of the DLCs and don't plan to get them.

--My internet isn't that fast and I have a data cap, so downloading 50GB of mods is probably out of the question. I'd probably like to stay under 10 or 15GB of mods here if it comes to that.

--I'm creating a new character with which I will completely ignore the main quest. I'm going to try to pretend my character isn't the Dragonborn at all. I already know about the alternate start mod so I'll probably be using that.

--I will however at least try to do the thieve's guild and dark brotherhood quest lines.

--I'd rather not mess with the actual balance of the game too much.

--I'm going to play entirely in first person with a mouse and keyboard.

--I found this one mod once that made the world map screen look like the paper map, but the last time I checked it still had some glitches, like far-off mountains in-game using the paper map texture. How far have world map screen mods come?

 

[A More Normal Bird]

Okay, I think I'm finally ready to dip into Skyrim modding. I just completed a total vanilla main quest run just so I could see how much mods change the game.

Some answers, mostly about performance/graphics.

--System Specs:
i5 4670k stock 3.4GHz
GTX 760 2GB
8GB RAM

--With those specs I'd like to maintain 1080p/60fps if possible.

Pretty much impossible with an ENB I'm afraid. Skyrim is a game that doesn't benefit as much from 60fps as others; I generally aim for above 30 in dense outdoor areas, which pretty much guarantees 60 in buildings/dungeons. Over 60 and the game logic/physics start to have issues.

--When it comes to ENB, on the one hand I don't like straying too far from a game's original color palette, but on the other hand I would like to see a more "natural" or "realistic" look. Think Ground Zeroes or ArmA 3 lighting. The profiles linked here and here are pretty good approximations of what I'm looking for so long as they don't tank performance.

Confidence Man's is the best looking preset imo (and those derived from it like the other you linked) but it is a tad performance heavy. You can turn off ENB's effects/adjust their quality to improve performance.

--Do these ENB mods make darkness look like actual darkness?

Depends on the preset. Look for nightitme shots on the mod page.

--I really don't like the excessive bloom I see in a lot of ENB shots.

You can turn bloom off/down, although neither of the presets you linked are particularly heavy on the bloom to me.

--I also don't like the unusually clean grass I see in a lot of ENB. I've seen too many screenshots that make Skyrim look like some dude's front lawn.

ENB is shading/postprocessing, what you're referring to are separate grass/vegetation mods.

--I don't have any of the DLCs and don't plan to get them.

This may limit some of your options modding wise.

--My internet isn't that fast and I have a data cap, so downloading 50GB of mods is probably out of the question. I'd probably like to stay under 10 or 15GB of mods here if it comes to that.

The biggest mods are those that use a lot of new assets (textures, sounds etc...). I'm in a similar situation and haven't played any of the big new world/quest mods as a result. With a 2GB GPU I'd stick to the medium res texture mods; heaps of 4k and 8k textures will tank both your data limit and your framerate.

 

[Mesoian]

Okay, I think I'm finally ready to dip into Skyrim modding. I just completed a total vanilla main quest run just so I could see how much mods change the game.

Main Points:

--As of right now my install is a 100% vanilla Steam install with all official patches but no mods of any kind.

--System Specs:
i5 4670k stock 3.4GHz
GTX 760 2GB
8GB RAM

--With those specs I'd like to maintain 1080p/60fps if possible.

--When it comes to ENB, on the one hand I don't like straying too far from a game's original color palette, but on the other hand I would like to see a more "natural" or "realistic" look. Think Ground Zeroes or ArmA 3 lighting. The profiles linked here and here are pretty good approximations of what I'm looking for so long as they don't tank performance.

--Do these ENB mods make darkness look like actual darkness?

--I really don't like the excessive bloom I see in a lot of ENB shots.

--I also don't like the unusually clean grass I see in a lot of ENB. I've seen too many screenshots that make Skyrim look like some dude's front lawn.

--I don't have any of the DLCs and don't plan to get them.

--My internet isn't that fast and I have a data cap, so downloading 50GB of mods is probably out of the question. I'd probably like to stay under 10 or 15GB of mods here if it comes to that.

--I'm creating a new character with which I will completely ignore the main quest. I'm going to try to pretend my character isn't the Dragonborn at all. I already know about the alternate start mod so I'll probably be using that.

--I will however at least try to do the thieve's guild and dark brotherhood quest lines.

--I'd rather not mess with the actual balance of the game too much.

--I'm going to play entirely in first person with a mouse and keyboard.

--I found this one mod once that made the world map screen look like the paper map, but the last time I checked it still had some glitches, like far-off mountains in-game using the paper map texture. How far have world map screen mods come?

You should get the DLC. It's good.

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

Yeah many, many mods at this point require all the DLC for the fixes and expanded systems they provide. You're starting off on the wrong foot by trying to get very far without them.

 

[Grexeno]

You need the DLC's. A ton of stuff just doesn't work without them.

 

[RedSwirl]

Jesus Christ. The DLC put together costs $44 and I'm about to buy The Witcher.

 

[Grexeno]

Jesus Christ. The DLC put together costs $44 and I'm about to buy The Witcher.

That's why you should have got the Legendary Edition.

 

[RedSwirl]

That's why you should have got the Legendary Edition.

I bought the game back in 2011. DLC didn't exist then.

Anyway, most retailers have the physical PC Legendary Edition for $20 so I might go for that.

 

[Mesoian]

Jesus Christ. The DLC put together costs $44 and I'm about to buy The Witcher.

What?

Also, the legendary edition was like, 4 bucks on steam last week.

 

[Pancakes]

There is no better feeling than isolating a troublesome mod causing your CTDs, cleaning the save file and having a stable game after some frustrating hours. ~140 mods finally running smoothly.

For those starting modding, make sure you get Shenson's memory patch. It's included in SKSE you just need to enable it.

Modding Beginner's Guide

And for the love of god don't make the same mistake I did and use NexusModManager. Learn Mod Organizer and save yourself hours upon hours of headaches.

 

[RedSwirl]

Well shit. I look through all the important mods I intended to get and the only one that requires the DLC is Alternate Start.

Edit: Checked the modding guide, and what if I already have the game itself installed outside of Program Files in a secondary Steam library?

 

[Mithos]

Edit: Checked the modding guide, and what if I already have the game itself installed outside of Program Files in a secondary Steam library?

If you set Mod Organizer up correctly it should not matter AFAIK, I think Gopher s running his steam library or at least Skyrim of a secondary HDD.

 

[Mesoian]

Well shit. I look through all the important mods I intended to get and the only one that requires the DLC is Alternate Start.

Edit: Checked the modding guide, and what if I already have the game itself installed outside of Program Files in a secondary Steam library?

You can point whichever mod manager you're using to that library, you should be okay.

 

[RedSwirl]

Legendary Edition was $15 at GameStop. Paper map and everything.

Though I just realized the disc is literally Skyrim by itself. You still download the DLC separately. Do all gold edition games do this? I thought the reason a lot of people bought them was so they didn't have to download the game piecemeal.

Anyway, GameStop actually has some surprising prices for physical PC games, at least the ones they can fit on that tiny-ass rack. They had Dishonored for $3. Pretty handy for if you aren't willing to wait for a Steam sale.