• Welcome to Skyrim Forums! Register now to participate using the 'Sign Up' button on the right. You may now register with your Facebook or Steam account!

cheloveg

New Member
Hi!
I'v been playing Skyrim on my Xbox 360 in the past. I have finished the main quest, DLC main quests, Companions, Mage guild and got very far with Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild.

Now that I have a good gaming PC I'd like to replay Skyrim with graphical mods and other great mods.

But as I said, I almost finished all the questlines. So the question would be, how should I play Skyrim this time ? Maybe you can suggest some mods that could add another Skyrim experience. I would not like to replay thoses quests that I have finished 10 times. Maybe there is something else to do beside the big questlines ? Because I think i didn't explore everything that Skyrim has to offer.

Anyway, I hope you got my point and could suggest me some mods or some gameplay tips in order to avoid repeated gameplay and add something new.

Thanks!
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
You have lots of options. One great thing about Skyrim is that making different choices makes for a different game. Try avoiding the main quest line for a while, go right into the civil war, or take an entirely different route. Hang close to a "home" hold, and just play the 'get through life' style, where you have to hunt and cook to eat, chop wood every day, etc. Make yourself a hold guard and spend your days wandering within your hold, clearing out banditos and monsters. You could make yourself a Vigilant of Stendarr, or go Dawnguard only if you wanted. Take over a fort and be a necromancer. The sky is the limit, and between Steam workshop and skyrim nexus, there are thousands of mods to help you on your way.

These two wikis will help you with virtually every morsel of Skyrim knowledge out there. They're often a little different, but both very good sources of information. In this case, I'm attaching the links to their pages on console commands, which can be very helpful, for everything from adding yourself to a faction to getting yourself out of a glitched or bugged quest.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Console_Commands_(Skyrim)

No matter what you do, console commands, adding mods, whatever, I'd strongly recommend making a save first. Then, go to Documents > my games > Skyrim > saves, copy your save, and paste the copy into a totally separate folder somewhere else. This way, if you run into mod troubles or conflicts, you have a backup save that won't be corrupted.

Some tools you may want to look into using (google their tutorials first) are TES5edit and Loot. TES5edit is generally a modmakers tool, to clean their mods to avoid unnecessary conflicts, but it's always good for a mod user to be able to verify a mod before they start using it. LOOT picks up where BOSS left off, helping you arrange and keep your mods in a workable load order. In the roughest terms, the last mod loaded is the priority mod, so if you have a mod (or DLC, vanilla game, etc.) that has the Western Watchtower intact, but the most recent mod has replaced it with a farmhouse, you may see some interesting things.

Generally speaking, Skyrim nexus seems to be the favored site for serious mod users, as it has more and bigger mods than steam allows. That requires enough knowledge of your data folder to be able to manually install, or downloading their own mod manager. As I tend to shy away from yet another manager, I usually stick to steam, where using a mod is as simple as finding it and clicking "subscribe." You'll hear pros and cons on both, I'm sure, but if you look at endorsements/ratings and gravitate toward the higher-rated mods, as well as keeping an eye on the comments for potential problems, you'll be ok.

One other tip I can offer is this: If you find something you like that is part of a big mod, such as one particular armor within the vast "Immersive Armors" mod, do a search of the mod author's user name before you download. Some of the big ones release certain individual items as stand alone mods, you don't need to download 300 new pieces of armor because one of them is nice.

Good luck. Enjoy.
 

Hellknight Anna

Empress of the Inferno
I think Joe pretty much summed it up... I just wanted to throw out some suggestions for good roleplaying in Skyrim:

Alternate Start - Live Another Life (Gives great alternate start points or 'lives' and you start in a cell (typical TES fashion) to skip that long dreadful cutscene in a cart
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9557/?

Realistic Needs & Diseases (some say iNeeds is better, I'll link both, but really it's all about personal preference) - makes you need food, drink, sleep, don't drink river water or eat raw meat without chance of getting sick (can adjust settings as you like)
RND - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/26228/?
iNeeds - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51473/?

Frostfall (hypothermia and survivability mod):
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11163/?


And of course there's graphic overhauls that make skyrim look even more beautiful (for lower end systems Realistic Lighting Overhaul is pretty dang nice)
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30450/?

Anywho that's about all I can think of at the moment although there are (like Joe said, thousands) of mods on the nexus and workshop.
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
There is another thing you may enjoy. The "tfc 1" command will allow you some very nice screenshots. Open your console with ~ and type

tfc 1

then ~ to close console again.

Your controller will move the camera around, instead of you. If you're in 3rd person at the time, you'll be able to zoom around and take pics of yourself in action. In 1st person, you won't appear in the pictures. I always enjoyed hitting ~ the instant I cast that glorious thunderbolt, then using tfc 1 to get an in-the-face pic of the spell. When you quit your game, the system will bring up a box of screen shots. Click "show on disk" will take you to the folder, where you can move them around as you wish. Use the steam settings to control which folder it sends them to.

The command works with tfc or tfc 1. With the 1, the action freezes. Without the 1, action continues, but be careful doing that one. Either way, when you're done, typing tfc in console will return you to normal.

2014-01-17_00022 (2).jpg
 

cheloveg

New Member
Wow! Thanx for the replies guys! Can you suggest some of the best graphical mods since my pc ir pretty powerful, I'd like to use it to its full potential.
Also, I'v read that there are some mods that add additional hours of gameplay with new quests etc. Some of the NPCs are even voiced by fans. Is this worth to take a look at ?
 

Toxius

Frost Wolf
Wow! Thanx for the replies guys! Can you suggest some of the best graphical mods since my pc ir pretty powerful, I'd like to use it to its full potential.
Also, I'v read that there are some mods that add additional hours of gameplay with new quests etc. Some of the NPCs are even voiced by fans. Is this worth to take a look at ?

Well if you really one Graphical mods, there are things like

Skyrim HD 2k textures. Which basically re-texture a lot of Skyrim, like misc items, clutter, flooring.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/607/?

There is a lush grass and trees mod(which adds fields of grass, think there are 3 sets you can pick from).
There is W.A.T.E.R, which is a water retexture and fix.
There are numerous ENB's which you can use. Try find the best that suits you, Some of them are, SOS, real vision, bleak enb (there are a lot more).

For some quests, try Moonpath to Elsweyr.
There's also Deadlier Dragons and Dragon combat overhaul (For epic dragon fights)
There's Amazing follower tweaks or Ultimate follower overhaul, use only one though.
Hothtrooper44 makes pretty amazing Armours.
You can try Jasus swords, or bobs's armory for weapons.
Also to be sure to get all the unofficial patches for skyim, dragonborn, Dawnguard (Just wondering if you do have the dlc's as most mods do require them).

The max amount of mods are at about 255ish, unless you're willing to combine some. Also the more mods you have, you are bound to have CTD's(crashes) and glitches and other problems. So it is best to get a small amount of mods that do a lot of changes, rather then a lot of mods that do small changes.
Just get to the Nexus and explore it, maybe one day you will pick up the Creation kit and start modding for yourself one day.
Have fun.
 

Gigapact

Lollygagging Milk Drinker (according to guards)
Hi!
I'v been playing Skyrim on my Xbox 360 in the past. I have finished the main quest, DLC main quests, Companions, Mage guild and got very far with Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild.

Now that I have a good gaming PC I'd like to replay Skyrim with graphical mods and other great mods.

But as I said, I almost finished all the questlines. So the question would be, how should I play Skyrim this time ? Maybe you can suggest some mods that could add another Skyrim experience. I would not like to replay thoses quests that I have finished 10 times. Maybe there is something else to do beside the big questlines ? Because I think i didn't explore everything that Skyrim has to offer.

Anyway, I hope you got my point and could suggest me some mods or some gameplay tips in order to avoid repeated gameplay and add something new.

Thanks!

Great mods that will change the way you play:

Frostfall
Realistic Needs and Diseases
Winter is coming cloaks

Now, you have to eat, drink, watch out for the cold, etc. You'll be able to actually get drunk and have the effects, you can die from hypothermia, etc. Your character will warm themselves up by the fire and be able to camp out, etc.

Adding quests:

Falskaar is one I've heard of that is very good. Sorry on the spelling.

Changing vamp and werewolves:

For the werewolves, mods like Moonlight Tales and Werewolf Mastery are very fun. There's a couple more. But this will change the dynamic of the werewolf form, from the way you look to the way you sound.

Vampires: I recommend Better Vampires. Also changes whole dynamic and gives you more control.

Another useful mod: Amazing Follower Tweaks. This changes the whole follower dynamic. A fun thing to do with this is make a whole pack of werewolves with you being the alpha. Ever follower werewolf can look like you or different, and they can change when you do as well.

Climates of Tamriel is a good mod. Also look into Predator Vision for vamps and werewolves, night vision and heat vision just got a whole lot cooler.

As far as graphics mods, I got ones like Wet and Cold, there's one for footsteps, and random ones like lush grass and water. They all fix different parts of the graphics.

One thing I will suggest is getting SKSE and getting SkyUI. SkyUI will change the interface of Skyrim, like the menus. But an amazing thing it adds is a mod configuration menu (MCM). You can get to the menu while playing Skyrim and going to options. For most of your mods, you will be able to see all their options in the MCM. So for example, if you get Realistic Needs and Diseases, you can change the options and put what you like within one minute. So simple. Many mods provide this, so it's very useful to have.
 

W'rkncacnter

Mister Freeze
I was in a hurry yesterday and only posted the single most important mod to myself.
Make sure you download and use the unofficial patches for Skyrim and any DLC you have. They fix the majority of the bugs and exploits that Bethesda didn't bother to fix. But the good news is that you will still see the occasional flying (falling?) mammoth!

I have somewhat limited knowledge on graphics mods since my video card is a 1gb weakling however here are a couple:
Already mentioned - 2k textures, w.a.t.e.r
Lush grash and trees - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3288/?
aMidianBorn Book of Silence (HD textures) - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24909/? (this is the only mod I'm mentioning which I have not personally used)
Better Dynamic Snow - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10383/?
Enhanced Distant Terrain - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1598/?
HD Fire - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28642/?

I'd recommend an ENB but my graphics card couldn't handle the one I tried installing. It made the game unplayable. I also found the Depth of Field settings to be annoying (great for screenshots but terrible for playing).

I highly recommend Climates of Tamriel. It adds 506 weather systems to Skyrim. It is just beautiful. I also use it to darken my nights and dungeons a bit (not the darkest setting) to force a bit more reliance on either light spells or torches.

I also love this mod:
Real Shelter - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52612/?
It makes a huge visual difference. I've stood and watched the rainfall at the blacksmith's in Riverwood because it felt like I didn't want to go out and get wet. Before the mod I was already getting wet since rain clips through overhangs. . .

I've tried both SkyRe and Requiem. Both are well made and have lots of compatibility with other mods. SkyRe was slightly more suited to my playstyle since I am an alt-oholic. Requiem slowed down leveling too much for me to get very far. I did like the fact that you didn't naturally regenerate health in Requiem. I'm currently playing without either and using another mod to alter the mage perks. The author of SkyRe is currently in beta with a new perk replacer (PerMa) which I plan to try once it is released.

If you are more inclined to enjoy the Oblivion style of character progression you could try this mod:
Character Creation Overhaul - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/21587/?
It sets racial carry weights and initial skill settings. It also presents you with class selection (including custom class). You can choose a primary attribute, birthsign (rather than stone), and 6 primary skills. Skills not selected level much slower than primary skills. It has the option to remove the standing stones as well (which makes the Aetherial crown a shiny trinket...), if you so desire.

Hunterborn - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33201/?
An absolute must for hunter characters. It makes hunting more satisfying and realistic. It works well in conjunction with Frostfall and Realistic Needs and Diseases. It requires skinning to obtain an animal skin. Collecting ingredients must be done through a separate process. Each process takes time but the more you perform a task the quicker you get. It means you can't go kill 5 deer and collect their pelts in 5 minutes. It could take most of the morning to collect everything from one deer. And the amount of meat you obtain from a deer could feed you for quite some time.

And finally, why take our word for it? Go to this site to see the most popular mods available:
http://www.skyrimgems.com/

Or you can view the top rated mods on the nexus site:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/topalltime/?adult=2



EDIT - I forgot these two:
Run for your Lives - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23906/?
Villagers (non-combatants) run indoors when dragons attack.

When Vampires Attack - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28235/?
Villagers (non-combatants) run indoors when vampires attack.

Both help to keep your shopkeepers from charging to their doom wielding an iron dagger.
 
Last edited:

W'rkncacnter

Mister Freeze
I need to amend my previous recommendations after installing a handful of different graphics mods last night. After installing them I actually had a "WHOA!" moment when walking around Riverwood. Of course, my poor aging video card was putting out a mere 15 FPS so I had to adjust a single INI setting to get it back up to around 30. Now it isn't quite as WHOA but is more of Whoa. Still impressive and noticeable but my 1GB card just can't push enough pixels to make Skyrim all that it could be.

First, I uninstalled Lush Trees and Grass. The mod made my trees look weird and clumpy and I didn't notice much difference with grass.

I installed the following:

Static Mesh Improvement Mod (SMIM)- http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8655/?
Really you just have to watch the video to get a really good idea of what this does. But, essentially it takes many items such as the drawbridge chains in Whiterun and makes them actual chains instead of 2d textures. Ropes, chains, tables, chairs, and everything else. I think the total number of meshes improved is something over 800. . .

Flora Overhaul - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/141/?
This adds many different types of trees and grasses. It really adds to the general feel.

Realistic Aspen Trees - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51069/?
This works with Flora overhaul and adds color variation to the tress around the Rift. Not sure why I overlooked the fact that they were all the same color before, but the effect of the mod is noticeable.

Unique Grasses and Groundcover - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/42370/?
This is the one that tried to destroy my video card (I'm fairly positive). It requires a handful of simple INI changes. It says to put "iMinGrassSize=20" but I have to set it to 40 (less dense grass) to maintain playability. This ini tweak has a large difference on my fps.

Natural Grass Texture Floor - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30164/?
New texture for underneath the grass.

Moss Rocks - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/31856/?
This is similar to Better Dynamic Snow. It adds moss to appropriate rocks. No more large slabs of grey the rocks have beautiful moss added.

Vivid Landscapes - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49344/?
I think this may have tried to work hand in hand to bring my video card to it's knees. It adds textures to all sorts of items (rocks, forts, etc.) which are noticeably better.

If you have a newer 2GB video card you probably have no problem with these mods or the indicated ini tweak. You could probably run an awesome ENB as well (I cannot - although vanilla isn't anything to scoff at).

I also installed a bunch of other gameplay mods (pushing 100 total mods):
Epic Overhaul
Inigo Follower
Unique uniques
Lore Weapon Expansion
Immersive Weapons
Immersive Armor
Live Another Life
Immersive Classes
SPERG
Resplendent Races of Skyrim
Forgotten Magic Redone
Immersive College of Winterhold
Undeath
Inconsequential NPCs
Interesting NPCs
Better Shaped Weapons

and many more. . .

I also highly recommend checking out this to fix a large majority of CTD issues: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.p...patch-fixing-ils-ugrids-ctd-freezes-for-real/
 

Daelon DuLac

How do you backstab a Dragon?
While all the mods sound primo, it still just sounds like so much work. On my PS3 I just pop in the disk and go.

Maybe I have a mental block since I use a computer all day at work that I just can't get motivated to set up the computer I had built and track down all those mods.

In any case, what is the best site to pick up mods. I'm particularly interested in color, graphics, weapon, armor and appearance mods as opposed to difficulty. I have a free weekend finally so it can't hurt to check them out.
 

Toxius

Frost Wolf
While all the mods sound primo, it still just sounds like so much work. On my PS3 I just pop in the disk and go.

Maybe I have a mental block since I use a computer all day at work that I just can't get motivated to set up the computer I had built and track down all those mods.

In any case, what is the best site to pick up mods. I'm particularly interested in color, graphics, weapon, armor and appearance mods as opposed to difficulty. I have a free weekend finally so it can't hurt to check them out.

Read my other post for some of the other mods, Also these here are pretty good quest mods and fixes

Falskaar http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37994/?
Wyrmstooth http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25704/?
Helgen Reborn http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35841/?
Undeath http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40607/?
Interesting NPCs http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8429/?

Also i've mentioned this before, but hothtrooper44 makes the best armour mods i've seen. Realistic and pretty.
Check out Gems for realism, lore friendly mods.
Skyrimnexus is the main mod site.
You can use steam if you wanted to.



Yeah my F$cken browser just deleted this, and the forums seems to be messing around with me...
 

W'rkncacnter

Mister Freeze
I use the Nexus (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/) along with their mod manager. You can use Steam (if you bought Skyrim through them) but they have a limit on the size of mods so you probably wouldn't have as big of a selection.

If you use the nexus and their mod manager (NMM) most mod installs are a simple click to download with NMM and then another click to activate. You do need to be aware of conflicts as various mods do not play well together or require compatibility patches.

You also want either BOSS or LOOT to automate the process of ordering your mods (as mod load order is important in avoiding various conflicts).

I just started using Wyre Bash which allows any mods that edit the leveled lists (i.e. npc equipped/carried items) to work with each other. If you don't the last mod to edit the leveled list is the only one that gets to make the changes.

Yes, it's a bit of work to get it all purring smoothly but once you have the mods you like and aren't looking for anything else you don't have to worry about them and just go about playing the game as normal. The only time you have do extra work is when adding or deleting mods.

Oh, and many mods don't like to be activated/deactivated mid-character. So it is always advised to begin a new character after adjusting your mods (not a problem for my alt-ism).
 

Daelon DuLac

How do you backstab a Dragon?
I use the Nexus (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/) along with their mod manager. You can use Steam (if you bought Skyrim through them) but they have a limit on the size of mods so you probably wouldn't have as big of a selection.

If you use the nexus and their mod manager (NMM) most mod installs are a simple click to download with NMM and then another click to activate. You do need to be aware of conflicts as various mods do not play well together or require compatibility patches.

You also want either BOSS or LOOT to automate the process of ordering your mods (as mod load order is important in avoiding various conflicts).

I just started using Wyre Bash which allows any mods that edit the leveled lists (i.e. npc equipped/carried items) to work with each other. If you don't the last mod to edit the leveled list is the only one that gets to make the changes.

Yes, it's a bit of work to get it all purring smoothly but once you have the mods you like and aren't looking for anything else you don't have to worry about them and just go about playing the game as normal. The only time you have do extra work is when adding or deleting mods.

Oh, and many mods don't like to be activated/deactivated mid-character. So it is always advised to begin a new character after adjusting your mods (not a problem for my alt-ism).
Thank you. I shall check out nexus. No, I did not buy Skyrim through Steam. They have a horrible rep (at least according to y'all) so I didn't bother.

Thanks for the help. :)
 

W'rkncacnter

Mister Freeze
Funny, I use Steam all the time without problem. My copy of Skyrim is through Steam as are most of my games. I'm sure some people have issues, as would occur with any company with as many customers as they have but my experience has been nothing but pleasant.
 

Daelon DuLac

How do you backstab a Dragon?
Funny, I use Steam all the time without problem. My copy of Skyrim is through Steam as are most of my games. I'm sure some people have issues, as would occur with any company with as many customers as they have but my experience has been nothing but pleasant.
I'm not a big one on digital download (I know I'm old fashioned that way). But I will look at steam. I already have a PC disk copy of the legendary version that I got through Gamestop from the UK though.
 

Recent chat visitors

Latest posts

Top