A mod ruined Skyrim for me.

[oversoon]

I certainly do understand the frustration modding brings, particularly in how much overhead you have to go through to get them to work. While I understand the frustration, I think "making it more easy and streamlined" is kind of missing the point of the whole thing. Modding in Bethesda games is NOT done poorly, and while yet often many third party utilities are needed to get multiple mods to play nice, this in my mind is actually a GREAT thing!

Why?

Well because they didn't water down the modding experience, this isn't Neverwinter Nights where they give you a fairly basic toolset to make custom adventures. No in Bethesda games you can literally change everything, and I do mean every little thing in the game because the developers gave mod creators the same tool they used to build the game proper. This means that mod creators can make vast sweeping grandiose mods that drastically alter or improve the game, and yes at times break it horribly, and the fact that Bethesda gives us these powerful tools capable of BREAKING their own game is a big thumbs up in my opinion because that level of freedom and power also is what allows mods to be so robust and game changing.

While other critics I hear also bash the "offerings" of these mods as being low quality or appealing to a more demure "teenage boy" crowd with it's nude skins and warcraft swords, I would simply counter by saying these people have never actually LOOKED into modding properly. You go to the Nexus, the best hub for mods out there, and if you have an idea of what you want, you will find an amazing amount of VERY high quality mods that fit into your game perfectly.

Yes it's a bit stressful and time consuming to get some mods to work right, but once they do, the amount it changes the game is simply amazing. With just 2 mods, Dragon Combat Overhaul and Deadly Dragons you can take the feared wyrms of Skyrim from petty annoyances that guards can dispatch without your help, to terrifying behemoths you can't survive a single full breath attack against, which in my opinion makes the fights with them so much more intense. Hiding under bridges or behind stone columns to avoid being roasted alive while guzzling nearly every potion in your inventory just to stay alive is how a dragon fight SHOULD feel.

Agreed, very much. I couldn't play without Dragon Combat Overhaul. Deadly monsters (included with Deadly Dragons) also has slider bars for every broad enemy type (undead, humanoid, creatures, etc) which provides a way to do away with that wierd RPG health balance. Now in my game Dragons are world ending disasters to run into, and humans die when they take ONE arrow in the face, like they should.

 

[Strazdas]

This is why i play vanilla all the way trough thye first time i play a game and only mod it afterwards if its worth the second try. You just loose the regualr game with all the mods. Especially where in games like X3:Reunion the mods literary triples the game.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

I don't get all the praise for mods. I really don't. 9 times out of 10 they've been left half-finished for 2+ years. Most of the time they never get fully finished. They are unprofessional, and can hardly be called QA tested. They increase CTD occurrences. Even the big 'fan made' 'unofficial' big patches actually break things even if they fix others. Also, when looking around at mods, there aren't really any significant ones, only naked-women mods and eye candy ones (more plants! but your computer might melt...).

I can list off some things that would be awesome, but don't exist as mods.

Skyrim:

New skills.
More things to do in the world (collectibles, gatherables, treasures, etc.)
New races.
Random encounter bosses, and/or some static bosses that are incredibly difficult.
New gameplay mechanics.
A paper map, like in Oblivion.




What do you see though, when you look at major modding websites? UI improvement mod, naked big boob mods, Sex animation mods, and armor mods that never get finished and are glitchy.

STOP PRAISING MODS, WHEN THEY'VE DONE NOTHING WORTHWHILE FOR A DECADE OR MORE!

When modders have actually fixed botched PC ports like Dark Souls so it actually works properly, I'd say modders deserve their praise, even more so when you consider that they're doing this for free, and the Dark Souls mod that saved that shoddy piece of port was released within 24 hours of the game's release!

 

[VodkaKnight]

Obviously, I can't play Garry's Mod without all my usual addons.
I tried to play it at a friends house and had to install all of the addons I use until I could play it.
Other than that, after installing ANY mods I find it difficult to play the game vanilla.

Something that I flatout CAN'T play without mods or addons is probably Skyrim though.
The vanilla is pretty good, it's just the mods make it SO much better.

 

[Charli]

I don't get all the praise for mods. I really don't. 9 times out of 10 they've been left half-finished for 2+ years. Most of the time they never get fully finished. They are unprofessional, and can hardly be called QA tested. They increase CTD occurrences. Even the big 'fan made' 'unofficial' big patches actually break things even if they fix others. Also, when looking around at mods, there aren't really any significant ones, only naked-women mods and eye candy ones (more plants! but your computer might melt...).

I can list off some things that would be awesome, but don't exist as mods.

Skyrim:

New skills.
More things to do in the world (collectibles, gatherables, treasures, etc.)
New races.
Random encounter bosses, and/or some static bosses that are incredibly difficult.
New gameplay mechanics.
A paper map, like in Oblivion.




What do you see though, when you look at major modding websites? UI improvement mod, naked big boob mods, Sex animation mods, and armor mods that never get finished and are glitchy.

STOP PRAISING MODS, WHEN THEY'VE DONE NOTHING WORTHWHILE FOR A DECADE OR MORE!

Either you're looking in the wrong place for mods or this kind of game just isn't appealing to you on some deeper level and you're in denial.

I've modded the fuck out of skyrim and I couldn't go back to it as it was, but at the same time I'm glad the community is so creative and around to consistently make my 1 person MMO experience all the more enjoyable. (Seriously it's like a single player MMO where we get to choose our patches)

I hang around a few people who modded skyrim for stupid sex mods and I honestly don't see the appeal of that.
But that definitely isn't the cream of the crop. It's popular because the demographic is still largely teenaged boys with too much bedroom time. And it's like a roundabout legal way of having porn 'hidden' on your computer.

And sorry but Falskaar? That mod deserves praise. Don't care what kind of disgruntled hobbit birth defect you are.

 

[Zenn3k]

So I installed the Interesting NPCs mod which is pretty awesome. Too awesome as I found out. When interacting with the characters the mod added they put dialogue choices for you with actual personality. You can be a smarmy asshole, no-nonsense, violent, etc. So I go back to normal quests and I started losing interest. The Bethesda three choice system (inquire further, agree to the quest, smart off, but get yelled at by the NPC and put back on the railroad ) was not doing it for me anymore. I hadn't even realized it was there until the mod pointed it out by doing it better. Interesting NPCs made me feel free and now I felt like I was back in a cage I had never known existed. I'll try playing some more, but it isn't promising.

Discussion: Has anyone ever pointed something out, or a sequel/mod done something that just ruined a game for you?

This is what I mean when I say to people: Skyrim is actually really bad and really really shallow RPG. To which people down vote me to hell (Reddit).

 

[thefascistpig]

I cannot play Vanilla Skyrim anymore and I have not been able to play Fallout 3 since playing Fallout New Vegas. I just like Fallout New Vegas so much that going back to play Fallout 3 just bugs me because I miss playing FNV, unoimsayin?

Definitely. The Three-Dog conversation perfectly encapsulates the problem with Bethesda games. New Vegas just kicked 3's ass.

What was the conversation about three dog about again because last time I play fo3 I either killed three dog or skipped over his quest entirely and yeah fnv killed fo3 in writing

"I'm won't help you till you help me. Yeah, those dialogue choices that don't agree with me just lead to me yelling at you and putting you back on the railroad."
Not only that, you as a player are railroaded into the choices where you have to say you actually care about your dad and you have to suck up to the jackass.

I feel like you actually could have persuaded him to give you the info but either way that's worse than I remember lol

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I cannot play Vanilla Skyrim anymore and I have not been able to play Fallout 3 since playing Fallout New Vegas. I just like Fallout New Vegas so much that going back to play Fallout 3 just bugs me because I miss playing FNV, unoimsayin?

Definitely. The Three-Dog conversation perfectly encapsulates the problem with Bethesda games. New Vegas just kicked 3's ass.

What was the conversation about three dog about again because last time I play fo3 I either killed three dog or skipped over his quest entirely and yeah fnv killed fo3 in writing

"I'm won't help you till you help me. Yeah, those dialogue choices that don't agree with me just lead to me yelling at you and putting you back on the railroad."
Not only that, you as a player are railroaded into the choices where you have to say you actually care about your dad and you have to suck up to the jackass.

I feel like you actually could have persuaded him to give you the info but either way that's worse than I remember lol

There is, but that involves reloading until you get it (percent chance). So even skipping his stuff involves tedium.

 

[Artaneius]

I don't get all the praise for mods. I really don't. 9 times out of 10 they've been left half-finished for 2+ years.

STOP PRAISING MODS, WHEN THEY'VE DONE NOTHING WORTHWHILE FOR A DECADE OR MORE!

Unreal Tournament 3 mods pretty much saved the game. Map Mixer and Foxmod with its changes to the UI and bot AI did wonders. Brutal Doom made Doom into a much better experience for younger generations. Mods have done a lot of things worthwhile within the past couple years.

 

[Sanunes]

I have a love-hate relationship with Bethesda, I like the fact they have mods for their games, but to me they rely upon them too much to fix the issues in their games and at times it feels like they plan on that customer support being there. It feels like I am paying Bethesda for a game the community made and developed.

 

[thefascistpig]

I cannot play Vanilla Skyrim anymore and I have not been able to play Fallout 3 since playing Fallout New Vegas. I just like Fallout New Vegas so much that going back to play Fallout 3 just bugs me because I miss playing FNV, unoimsayin?

Definitely. The Three-Dog conversation perfectly encapsulates the problem with Bethesda games. New Vegas just kicked 3's ass.

What was the conversation about three dog about again because last time I play fo3 I either killed three dog or skipped over his quest entirely and yeah fnv killed fo3 in writing

"I'm won't help you till you help me. Yeah, those dialogue choices that don't agree with me just lead to me yelling at you and putting you back on the railroad."
Not only that, you as a player are railroaded into the choices where you have to say you actually care about your dad and you have to suck up to the jackass.

I feel like you actually could have persuaded him to give you the info but either way that's worse than I remember lol

There is, but that involves reloading until you get it (percent chance). So even skipping his stuff involves tedium.

Ah ok thanms for clarifying

 

[Mech__Warrior]

OT: The complete mods make vanilla STALKER unplayable by comparison. As for sequels ruining past games I can't play the first Dead Space anymore because it just feels so clunky compared to DS2.

I never tried the mods for STALKER, playing it completely vanilla for SoC and CoP. I tried playing Clear Sky and that was such a buggy mess even I couldn't tackle it.

OT, I play games vanilla at first and then if something interesting pops up as a mod, I go and get it. For example, the Misery mod for STALKER; Call of Prypait. I never managed to find a mod that cranked the difficulty level to as high as that one, but I suppose I should update it again since I beat the 1.2 version of it. I did not find the dragons that it promised.

The mods that I used to play were separate games entirely, like Sven Coop, Natural Selection, Cry of Fear, Afraid of Monsters, etc. Though, I do have Brutal Doom and that completely changed Doom for me. I can never go back to it.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I have a realism mod on Skyrim. Nutritional requirements, outdoor camping, sleep deprevation, seasons (winter's a *****), a companions loyalty system, and it shows how much an NPC likes you (which is usually invisible, and hard to guess). I also installed a character physics mod, which adds physics to hair, skirts, loose boots, ect.

I simply can't play vanilla anymore. It's, like... I suddenly realised: Underneath the modding, not only are Bestheda lazy bastard, but Skyrim...

Spoiler: warning all fanboys

is a lazy, horribly written, boring, unmechanical, simplistic, smug, messy, unfun, money grabbing, horrible, cocky posterboy of how not to make a game after a suprisingly good prequel, which suffered from many of the same problems, and not adressing them, but instead trying to narrow them down by dumbing it down to ridiculous extremes.

 

[Poppy JR.]

I don't get all the praise for mods. I really don't. 9 times out of 10 they've been left half-finished for 2+ years. Most of the time they never get fully finished. They are unprofessional, and can hardly be called QA tested. They increase CTD occurrences. Even the big 'fan made' 'unofficial' big patches actually break things even if they fix others. Also, when looking around at mods, there aren't really any significant ones, only naked-women mods and eye candy ones (more plants! but your computer might melt...).

I can list off some things that would be awesome, but don't exist as mods.

Skyrim:

New skills.
More things to do in the world (collectibles, gatherables, treasures, etc.)
New races.
Random encounter bosses, and/or some static bosses that are incredibly difficult.
New gameplay mechanics.
A paper map, like in Oblivion.




What do you see though, when you look at major modding websites? UI improvement mod, naked big boob mods, Sex animation mods, and armor mods that never get finished and are glitchy.

STOP PRAISING MODS, WHEN THEY'VE DONE NOTHING WORTHWHILE FOR A DECADE OR MORE!

100% disagree. I'm currently playing a modded Skyrim that has all of those things added into it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ff9zaXB12Q

Check out his list of mods. I use most of them myself.

I have the Civil War Overhaul installed as well. It totally takes care of "Random encounter bosses, and/or some static bosses that are incredibly difficult."

Dogpile of disagree! I heavily modded Morrowing, Oblivion, and Skyrim, and all three contained the elements mentioned by michael87cn. While the nudity mods and such are the most notorious mods, there are an absolutely staggering amount of free content on the intertubes. New sidequests, houses, dungeons, items, clothes, merchants, spells and even entire towns. If you've only seen nudity mods, you have only just scratched the surface. Check out this list[footnote]http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/28/the-25-best-skyrim-mods-2/[/footnote] for some fine examples.

 

[Yeager942]

That was my big problem with Skyrim. For a game so large, it felt hollow, airless even. I just didn't care about anything I was doing, and for an rpg, that's a problem. There was a lot of stuff to do, but none of it felt like it was worth doing.

 

[sumanoskae]

A common problem in games like Skyrim is the issue of depth versus freedom. In order for Skyrim to have so much content and allow so much freedom, a lot of the content has to be simple enough to fit into it's archetype. But I think the most prevalent issue in Skyrim, and the one that could have been avoided without damaging the overall package is the lack of consequences; the game is simply too safe and unwilling to let you make a mistake.

Yes, interesting NPC's has made the rest of Skyrim feel vacant and lonely.

The Old Republic's story segments have made me even less tolerant of the soulless text box grind of other MMO's, and it also makes it painfully obvious when ToR itself becomes a grind.

 

[Flutterguy]

I played World of Warcraft off and on for about 6 years. I started modding the game a few months in and they never diminished my appreciation. Over 5 years in I finally took my friends advice and changed the actionbars with a mod. I don't know why but playing the game for a month with the new UI killed all enjoyment I had for it. It was meaningless small aesthetic detail, but enough to end my WoW career (Not a bad thing).

 

[Sansha]

Some people just need to teach Bethesda how to add some soul to the body they've put together, rather than leave it to mods to complete the package.

Any of the game enhancement mods for Skyrim, such as SkyRe or Requiem, brought out more of the potential the perk system had in that game, and how much more awesome it would be if stats were implemented again. I can never play the game without any mod like that again. There were also user made quests, some long, some short, that made for more interesting experiences than many quests in vanilla Skyrim.

I love these types of games, but it seems Bethesda doesn't know how to take the construction far enough to reach the closest thing to perfection they can get. It is just slightly irritating.

It's become their policy - they make the game how they want to play it, and leave it up to modders to adjust it as they see fit. I read that right from the source once, I cannot remember where.

Anyway. I have a mod for Skyrim that makes it perfect for me: you start at Helgen as normal, but Ulfric isn't there; it's just a bunch of Stormcloaks. Then, a freak weather occurance that characters later compare to that of Winterhold's destruction happens which mimics Alduin's attack.

Basically, what the mod does is simple but makes the game leaps and bounds better at storytelling and pacing: someone ELSE is the Dragonborn, and the world behaves as the main story quest chains - Dragons and Civil War - have already been done, completely releasing me from the inane bullshit that are those two failed fanfictions.