I am getting a new laptop for Christmas this year. A very awesome laptop that, though isn't as powerful as my computer, is still very good. So as soon as I get it I will get Skyrim; probably Nexus Mod Manager too and will mod it to perfection.
The only problem is; I have no idea what mods to get! I would really appreciated it if you could recommend some mods for me. Its a huge area and I don't know which ones are the best or ones that go together.
I love roleplaying randomly so anything to make it more realistic and more detailed gameplay would be great. So things like houses, companions, gameplay changes, spells etc. I am not too fussed about visual mods as I think it looks stunning anyway. But extras like clothing, armour, faces, weapons, hair, jewlery, items etc would be great.
Also I think if there is a mod out there that adds more "bard songs" then please tell me about it! I think I will go bonkers if I hear Ragnar the Red one more time! If there isn't; why not?!
Cheers!
Imeera
Good for you, and you're lucky since a couple of days ago someone else asked the same question so I can give you the same list as I gave him. It's basically graphical improvements that still fit in with Skyrim, and some new content that fits with Skyrim and TES-lore, and ofcourse a whole bunch of fixes.
Here we go.
First of all I would like to make clear I use Skyrimnexus for all my mods mainly because of the high quality leadership on that site, but also because it's by far the largest mods platform (it hugely overshadows Steam Workshop) and the Nexus Mod Manager which is a very good tool for having multiple mods installed. On top of that I use BOSS to make sure I have all my mods loaded in the right order and to see if there are conflicting mods.
- NMM
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/modmanager/
and a guide for it
http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Category:NMM
-BOSS
http://code.google.com/p/better-oblivion-sorting-software/downloads/list Pick the latest installer version
- SKSE, works with the latest patch for Skyrim, when Skyrim gets patched, this mod will be patched a few days later so the mods depending on this will work again.
http://skse.silverlock.org/ (unpack in your Skyrim folder where the .exe file and data map are located)
(All mods below must be installed with NMM whenever the possibility is there, if not, place mods in a Data map in your main Skyrim Folder and merge, or if the mod author placed it in a Textures, Meshes, Sounds, SKSE map or whatever inside of the Data Folder in your Skyrim directory)
- The big texture mods that I use.
These should be installed first since they can basically be overwritten by all the other mods. They are a baselayer on which we add improvements, they cover most things and are absolutely necesairy. Other mods that overwrite these usually do that because they have an even higher quality but are also optional.
- Next are the other major texture and mesh replacement mods that need to overwrite the 2 big ones listed above. You can best install them in roughly the order I place them in here so you get the best visual result.
- Content mods, I only add content if it's according to the lore or doesn't break immersion.
From here on everything I wrote down dissapeared since the message system apparently has a limit to how much you can send in one message, basically it had some more fixes, the ENB I use and a link to a guide where I found most of the fixes that I use.
ENB, needed for all the ENB dependant mods I listed, it immedeatly takes away a lot of FPS but it's the biggest graphical ehancement there is. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12180
and the guide which I partially used myself for mainly fixes. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11
I hope this is helpfull to you as well and if the laptop is that good it shouldn't have too much trouble with this, otherwise you can try without the ENB and it's mods.
Like Dieter, I also use Skyrim Nexus.
I have a lot of mods I use, so I'll try to weed out the popular and handy ones. Unlike Dieter, I use a lot of mods that add things. (Though some of what I list will invariably overlap with what Dieter has posted). Here we go:
83Willows 101 Bugs - Adds more types of butterflies, moths, and fireflies as well as increasing spawn sizes.
A Quality World Map - With Roads - Adds roads to the world map.
ACE - Combat Skills - Does a great job of re-balancing a lot of skills. Do check out the readme as it details every change.
Bandolier - Bags and Pouches - Adds craftable bags and pouches that increase your carry weight while looking cool.
Beautiful Riften - Adds trees and clutter to Riften.
Beautiful Whiterun - Adds trees and clutter to Whiterun.
Bellyaches Animal and Creature Pack - Animal and creature texture replacer with customization.
Better Followers - Improves follower behavior drastically while adding some new features.
Birds of Skyrim - Adds birds to the game. They do not fly, but they will perch!
Categorized Favorites Menu - Revamps the favorites menu to work better with the PC.
Convenient Horses - Reworks horse behavior and makes them more useful and less annoying. Also adds horses for followers.
Deadly Dragons - Adds new types of dragons and increases dragon difficulty. There's also an optional armor and spells pack.
Detailed Faces - Better, more detailed normal maps for face textures.
Dovahkiin Relaxes Too - Adds a spell that will activate different idles depending on the situation.
Economics of Skyrim - Revamps the economic system to imitate supply and demand.
Enhanced Blood Textures - More detailed blood. Includes new decals for things like "bleeding out".
Enhanced Night - Improves the night sky.
Expanded Towns and Cities - Improves many of the smaller towns to make them more interesting.
Expanded Winterhold Destruction Ruins - Actually adds ruins to Winterhold to reflect the Great Collapse
Fishing In Skyrim - Adds net and pole fishing.
Fully Equipped Blacksmith - Adds smelters where there ought to be smelters.
Get Snowy - Adds a snowy effect to all NPCs when snow falls on them.
High Resolution Scars - Makes scars look like scars and not strange growths.
HiRes Legible Road Signs - Makes road signs readable.
Immersive HUD - iHUD - Adds the ability to have different parts of the HUD stay hidden or display.
Improved NPC Clothing - Hi Res - Makes NPC clothing look better, newer, and less blurry.
Isilmeriel LOTR Weapons Collection - Adds craftable LOTR weapons to the game.
Lightning During Thunderstorms - Adds lighting during storms. Lighting can be configured to harm NPCs if it strikes near them.
Lost Art of the Blacksmith - Makes more things improvable.
Cities and Towns Enchanced - Markarth Plus - Adds ruins the Markarth's hillsides as well as a few trees.
More Craftables - Most item are craftable.
Natural Eyes - Hi Res eye replacer.
Nature Summoning - Makes Conjuration less about zombies and Daedra.
No Boring Sleep Wait Menu - Revamps the sleep/wait menu. Adds the ability to wait for up to 31 days at a time.
No More Blocky Faces - Gets rid of the weird chiseled chin and nose problem.
Nordic Hunter Light Armor - Adds a nice rangery light armor.
Nordic Ranger Outfit - Adds another nice rangery light armor.
Omegared99 - Armor Compilation - Adds sets of lore-friendly armors.
Ornate Saddles - Saddle texture replacer.
Player Headtracking - Causes the player to actually look at people as they pass.
Populated Cities - Adds more people to cities.
Possessive Corpses - Helps cut down on savegame bloating.
Project Reality - Climates of Tamriel - Lighting mod that uses causes less of a performance hit than ENB.
Real Rain - Improves rain behavior and textures.
Realistic Ragdolls and Force - NPCs no longer go flying.
Realistic Running Speed - Improves movement for NPCs, player, and horses.
Sabre Gear Backpack - Adds craftable backpacks to the game.
Sexy Cities - Texture replacer for many cities in Skyrim.
Skyrim Flora Overhaul - Texture replacer for all plants, trees, and grasses.
SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators - Improves animal behavior and introduces spawn variation.
SkyUI - Revamps the interface to work better for a PC.
Terrain Bump Texture Pack - Improves the bumpiness of the terrain.
The Dance of Death - A Killmove Mod - Unlocks all killmoves available for most weapons.
Towns and Villages Enhanced - Solitude - Adds flora and clutter to Solitude.
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch - Fixes a lot of bugs if you have Dawnguard.
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch - Fixes a lot of bugs in you have Hearthfire.
Unofficial Skyrim Patch - Fixes a lot of bugs in vanilla Skyrim.
Vals Crafting Meltdown - Allows for weapons and armor to be recycled into ingots.
Varied Guards and Stormcloaks - Adds different helmets to guards and Stormcloaks.
WATER - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux - Vastly improves water textures and behavior.
Wearable Lanterns - Adds carryable lanterns to the game.
Winter Is Coming - Cloaks - Adds craftable fur cloaks as well as cloaks to some NPCs.
Mods that I think are great but I don't use:
Realistic Needs and Diseases - Diseases are deadlier. Adds hunger, thirst, and sleep "requirements".
Footprints - Adds footprints in the snow to most creatures. WIP.
Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival - Cold can now kill/debilitate you. Adds portable camping gear.
Probably the (or similar) mod's I use are already mentioned above. I use the following now:
- The default HD texture one you get from Steam.
- The Open Face Helmet Compilation from Teh Husky (also via Steam).
Just 2 for now. Stil looking for other nice and/or usefull ones.
HI Imeera
Well, although there are lots of awesome mods suggested, I recall from your comments on the recent Roundtable that you felt that Skyrim lacked content. By this I assume you mean quests, new locations etc, rather than simply graphic fluff which simply adds eye candy?
I haven't played this one yet, but it comes highly recommended
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=16345
It's only on Steam Workshop at present (like others, I recommend Nexus generally, but this is an exception and its perfectly possible to use both)
Most of the planned major quest and content mods are currently WIP, but 'Moonpath to Elsweyr' is a great mod, especially if you like Khajiit