Skyrim and mods

[Dandark]

I just recently bought Skyrim and it's DLC dawnguard for my PC and was hoping to get some recommendations for good mods to try out.

I mainly just want some things to enhance the game such as new weapons or spells rather than anything that changes it greatly. Also please nothing like turning dragons into ponies.......

 

[jehk]

Make sure to get Sky UI, Customized Favorites Menu, and the Unoffical Skyrim patch. I consider these a must.

There's also tons of visual enhancement mods like "WATER" and "Realistic Lighting with Customization" that can do a lot to improve the game.

Also, check out some of the follower mods like "Ultimate Follower Overhaul" if you want o use followers a lot.

 

[Dandark]

Ok thanks, the Unoffical patch was one I was looking for already but I didn't know about Sky UI, it looks really useful.

Anybody know of some good gameplay ones?

 

[Hero in a half shell]

The two big ones that I would recommend would be Warzones: Civil unrest which adds battles between Nords and Imperials into the game, and Expanded towns and villages, which adds more houses and NPC's to the rather small settlements around Skyrim.
They are both excellent, but very PC intensive, so try them, but they will come with a performance drop (although if you have a good PC you won't notice it.)

You could also give "Duel - Combat realism" a bash, it makes the combat a bit harder; enemies block a lot more with their shields, use power attacks more often, their attacks stagger you a lot more, and mages run away when their health is low to use restoration spells. It slows down combat pace to be a lot more blocking and movement orientated rather than the run in and spam attack

I use a tonne of other mods, but they are mainly cosmetic or personal taste mods, but I'd recommend playing the game on vanilla settings for a while until you get a feel for what you personally like/dislike, then search Steam and Skyrim Nexus for mods to fix it.

 

[E-Dogg]

Recently did the same thing as TS, and wondered (might be a stupid question) if it is still possible to apply the mods after you start a game? Or do you have to apply the mods before you start a campaign?

 

[jdogtwodolla]

Greg Tito has made articles about good Skyrim mods. I'd say just look those up on this site.

 

[daklean]

most mods you can apply after you've started the game, and they will work just fine.

It's the reverse that can be a problem, for example if you d/l a mod that adds weapons/armor. then decide that you dont like some of the content of that mod and decide to remove it. when you load you game you'll get a warning message that states "your save game relies on content that is no longer available."

if you happened to be wearing any of the armor/weapons, those items will be gone.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Recently did the same thing as TS, and wondered (might be a stupid question) if it is still possible to apply the mods after you start a game? Or do you have to apply the mods before you start a campaign?

Mods can be added and removed at any point, unless the mod specifically states otherwise.
I don't know any mod that states otherwise, however.

 

[keegars]

Being a big Skyrim fanatic....I quite like messing around with mods alot. So I mainly got for immersion mods and some that just make it look and play nice to my taste anyway.

I've had mods that changed the 2-handed animations to something that looked better asthetically, YY anim replacer.

You can use the mod WATER and also Pure water together to make the rivers and ocean in skyrim to look alot better than vanilla for little performance loss.

Even vibrant auroras adds alot to the night skys, along with project reality that has overtaken the realistic lighting mod. Lets you customise the light settings and adds alot of new weather affects to the game.

Immersive HUD is also a nice addon if you dont like all the clunkiness of the hud showing all the time or the crosshair being on all the time, so you can get it to show only on arrows, weapons/spells.

If you dont like the quiver being equipped all the time whilst having a sword out and being equip when you have a bow then Auto unequip ammo is another good mod.

The dance of death allows you to modify the killcam so you can have alot of varient going on there.

I would recommend also enchanced distant terrain, enchanced blood textures, lush grass/trees, realistic smoke and embers, real ice and snow. Just all them visually with no performance loss either really do add to a game.

You could go even as far as new body types/armor, but thats a whole different post....

 

[AjHedgehog]

Personally I use Haven Bag as a must. It allows you to have a portable house essentially. I know this upsets the whole "only taking what you can carry" from dungeons but I still think it is a great mod.
Also if you plan to be in 3rd person a lot (or just generally like pretty hair) then Apachii Sky hair is a good mod, it is mainly geared at female characters but there are some hairs that work solidly with men, not especially lore friendly as I don't think they could really maintain pretty feathered hair in Skyrim but hey ho.
For a gameplay mod I second the opinion of Warzones, there is something awesome about wandering into a massive skirmish (which at the lower levels you really need to be careful of) busting out a Fus Ro Dah and running like a little girl from the hail of arrows and swords flying at you afterwards.

 

[Asita]

SkyUI is a must. The inventory system without it is just that horrible.

Dragons Diversified does wonders towards making dragons feel more unique (as implied by the name) and definitely makes them feel more like the flying death machines they were touted as. Fair warning though, the can and will tear you a new one at lower levels if you don't bring your A-game. You might want to save this one for a later playthrough though.