After looking at the top 50 most poplular forum posts under Skyrim (so not all of them but...) I've noticed something that's odd? How come I don't see any dedicated conversations about mods from Steam or Nexus?
Given everyone's obsession with RP on this site and slicing and dicing Skyrim to extract new kinds of fun, I'd think we could all suggest possible mods to consider... or does that kind of conversation just spiral out of control here or taboo or something?
I'll start off with 2
A conservative magic overhaul mod: Better Magic by Kevin Kidder
The essential thing I look for in perk and skill overhaul mods is must affect all characters (not just PC), honoring developers intent, no overpowering/makes the game more challenging, and balance - in that order
This one gets close. The essential change is that main tree (novice to master) gets a slight change making magic users a bit more viable. Each perk adds a 15% increase in magic potency and this is multiplicative. The final result is that at master level, your damage output is almost exactly 2x of normal. You can apply changes to all magic trees or each individual tree too.
Most importantly, this affects all characters.
The second one is a mod called: High Quality LOD's by Ethatron.
Looking down at rivers and lakes from on top of hills, you see a lot of odd and ugly angles because of the low polygon meshes used for distant terrain. This ups the polygon count considerably making distant terrain look a lot better. The best part? Added tesselation barely affects your framerate as modern video cards chew this stuff up rather easily - at least per the author and my own experience.
I consider this alot more stable and (easily undoable) versus changing the uGrid settings.
PS: I'm still looking for a decent crafting overhaul mod that NERFS enchanting and smithing and probably alchemy. Anyone got any suggestions?
il answer the discussion directly as i dont use either of those mods,
Talking about Mods in general on this site is'nt always that successfull as the majority of the blog play on console and cant use mods anyway, that said im a pc player and use many mods and make some myself,
On topic for roleplay i think these mods are a MUST and all of these are available on the skyrim nexus,
sounds of skyrim, and amazing mod that adds thousands of sounds to the wilderness and dungeons of skyrim,this mod is my favourite of all it gives so much more depth too the game,
imaginator, Imaginator adds a familiar that you talk too and he enables you too edit the contrast and colour/brightness/saturation of skyrim, this mod gets your best results if used lightly too make your greens greener and your blues cooler very nice mod and a must for anyone who appreciates having a bit more colour in your life,
Armored horses, adds 5 different armor types for horse all lore friendly and beautiful ascetically,
Mounted followers, enables your followers too ride their own horse really nice addition better thatn lydia tagging along a 1/4 mile behind you
Too Name But a Few
This has been discussed, but it's been a while.
Personally I rarely use mods that alter actual game play (eg mods that alter spellcasting, or change armor/weapon stats, etc.). I use mods that enhance lighting and sound, or vanity mods - such as the one that provide more options of armor/weapons/clothes but keep the same basic stats. I slso use a house mod, an 'arrow crafting' mod, and a horse mod.
I 'nerf' the crafting skills own my own. I never 'use the crafting loop' to improve my equipment. Also, I try only to master one (if any) of the crafting skills.
Sounds of Skyrim mods really enhance the immersion factor, I endorse this one as well. Imaginator sounds interesting, I think I'll give that one a go. I was going to get mounted followers, but didn't bother because I don't use followers any more (too big of a pain) - and when I did use them, I basically only used them as mules anyways.
Lol i actually never used followers before but when i got the mounted followers
Try out imaginator its really effective,go gently with your changes but dont worry if you go too far as you can reset at any time too start again,once you get the perfect look it is so effective for bringing this game too life this pic was taken with my lightin and colour settings
As others have said, EvilTrain, something like about 30% of the site members play on PC , which means that about 70% aren't really interested in mods!
But there's certainly no problem with people starting threads on mods, and I hope that the PC users among us will make sure that mods get discussed here.
That said, I've been a bit surprised at how slow the mod scene has been to properly mature for Skyrim. Most of the mods out there seem to be adding armour - often skimpy - or houses. We haven't really had as many groundbreaking gameplay mods, especially quest mods, as I would ave expected by this point.
Hopefully they'll start to appear soon, because - as of the present time - I've added only a small handful of mods to my game (whereas in Oblivion I ended up with close to 200)
oh i dont know about that if anything the skimpy armor mods are actually far less popular but rather the mods dealing with ui, graphical enhancements , mounts , are the ones the community cares for,
And the lore-breaking mods are actually frowned upon (on the nexus at least)
check the top 100 on nexus too see the mature mods,(by mature i dont mean x-rated lol)
yes.... lots of interesting mods out there.
Someone else mentioned somewhere installing nudity mods for male and females because the disappearing underwear trick every character has when wearing various clothes was rather odd and a bit jarring. Though I'm 53.4% certain the mod authors didn't have such altruistic intentions in creating them
And I agree with your assessment ToT. and Paul have you tried Moonpath to Elsewyr yet? Seems like the kind of mod that would answer your prayers.