Yeeeaaaah boooi
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loginSo i got myself a new gaming pc and did what i wanted to do for a couple of months now - mod my Skyrim to the max and start playing it again (i actually never finished any major questlines in my previous playthroughs, except for companions). Turns out the wait was worth it ! One evening of browsing through mods on SkyrimNexus , less than an hour of installations and there we go- a brand new, pimped out Skyrim !
Now don't get me wrong , this is not a bragging or an e-peen thread , i just really want to share my joy of this new playthrough and i'd also like to encourage people to try and give Skyrim another go. Some games start to truly shine with mods (hello M&B) and i believe this is the case here.
Vanilla skyrim may lack in balance (op enchanting,stealth,smithing etc), enemy variety (even the dragons get annoying and repetetive at some point) and in depth of it's skill system, but it surely always deliveres when it comes to creating an atmosphere of adventure and exploration, not to mention the great scenery. Now imagine most of Skyrim's flaws fixed and it's successes multiplied and you'll get an idea of what Pimped Skyrim is all about .
Now , let us get started.
I don't know whether this topic will interest anyone or not, if people will start showin signs of interest i'll try to go into more details, but for now i'll just make a brief presentation of some mods.
First and foremost , you will of course need the
up-to-date version of Skyrim, preferably with Dawnguard. Although afaik, mounted combat and crossbows are available through patches without Dawnguard, some mods are updated for Dawnguard capatibility. But most of the time there are several downloadable versions of mods , so Dawnguard is reccomended, but optional.
1. Tendos Skyrim Redone.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9286 You can read all the info about the mod here as well as d/l it
Where graphical and atmospheric mods are the icing on the cake, THIS mod is the cake. It fixes 90 % of Skyrim's flaws as an RPG.
Here's just a small list of what it does and changes :
- Combat system redone. Enemies attack more often, block more often. Stamina determines the power of strikes. Counter blocking (clicking, not holding) ,depending on your perks, is way more efficient.Enemies also carry more different weapons and perks/spells. In general the combat is MUCH harder but also MUCH more exciting and rewarding.
- Scaling of enemies is there for the most part, however some places have enemies with a more static lvl, so you will have to come back there after you've done your Rocky training session, otherwise you'll get your ass kicked alot.
- Magic scales as you invest into it. Crapton of new spells for all schools of magic.
- 99 % of racial abilities are either tweaked or completely changed to be made unique. For example Khajit move faster and take half of the falling damage,while orcs have a bonus to smithing .
- implemented armors and weapons , with an option to d/l other armory mods that have compatibility plugins for this mod. Bazillion of new weapons types (spears,sabers,glaives,battlestaves) with new perk trees for specific weapon classes.
Last but not least , all the perk trees are completely redone. I can't stress enough how brilliantly done most of them are now, the amount of options is staggering. You have an ability to smelt random useless stuff (like silver plates etc) to get materials from it for Smithing. You have an ability to insta-kill anyone in their sleep as a stealth perk. You have Wayfayer perk tree which is sort of a ranger/survivor tree which allows you to move faster in wilderness, heal and buff yourself with different kinds of food (USEFUL NOW!) and study different sorts of creatures to a point where some of them won't even attack you. Oh and speechcraft, apart from being useful for trading and persuasion , now affects shouts (power, recharge and so on) .
All in all , this mod is amazing and turns the game into a real rpg with great in-depth mechanics. It's a must have.
Some random screenshots of perk trees
2. WARZONES - Civil Unrest http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9494A fantastic mod that creates numerous battlegrounds across Skyrim's map where certain groups of npcs fight each other, while you of course can join in and either kill everyone or help one side and gain reputation. The mod is actually lore friendly , so you'll see imperials fighting stormcloaks or whiterun guards battling it out with bandits , for example. Mod comes with in-game tools for reducing/increasing numbers of warzones, npc spawns etc. By the way mounted combat + Warzones = epic.
Like i said earlier , the mod is fantastic and together with Skyrim Redone can create endless numbers of exciting and tough battles. There is one really annoying flaw, unfortunately - it crashes to desktop quite often, for many people judging from the forum discussions. It may be either some people's pcs not handling it (reducing the npc numbers can help then), or some coding problems. I can say that my pc can handle the big fights, however i still crash from time to time when i engage in certain warzones.
I'd be annoyed if not for the mod still being so damn fun, so i personally will keep it for now and hope for the CTD fixes in the nearest future.
Update : the WZ that frequently crashes for me is the one west of Whiterun, i've managed to fight in numerous others so far though.
3. Dragons Diversified http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13930A mod which brings variety when it comes to dragon fights. Adds a great number of different types of dragons to fight against, all of them with unique skills and abilities. Makes dragon fights fun again and , well, diversified.
So far (i'm not doing the main storyline any further than Whiterun atm) i've encountered a Wild Dragon which uses all kinds of natural magic attacks (fire,ice,shock), a spectral dragon (g-g-g-ghost) and my personal favourite so far- illusion dragon , which creates 2-3 illusions of himself that can also attack you until you "shatter" them. Even the script dragon at whiterun tower summoned atronachs and did some other tricks.
Superb mod, doesn't make dragons OP , but together with SkyRe makes for some really intense and fun dragon encounters.
4. Become King of Riverhelm http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16374A mod that let's you claim the throne of a custom made castle town. This is not just a huge player house with everything you need in it, it's full of voiceacted (in a funny way imo) npcs, buildings (even a tavern), courtyard , etc. There's progression (you can buy different ranks from Knight to King), there's a tax system, an arena and even some sewers with new enemies dwelling inside.
One minor problem that wouldn't affect much though - i think due to SkyRE the armors that come with this mod have 0 stats, so you'll be able to wear them , but only for cosmetic reasons, although i'm sure there's some other mods or just cheats that let you customize item stats anyway.
5. Bandolier - Bags and Pouches http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16438A small mod that turns out to be so useful that it's nearly a must have. Let's you craft fully visible and lore-friendly pouches and bandoliers that allow you to carry more weight. Simply awesome, looks especially great on rogue-like armors.
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To be continued , if people will actually be interested in this . I realise this is a wild (and probably stupid) gamble on my part and might be a waste of time, but i'm just that excited , lol. =)
