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I can't think of many good reasons to avoid mods and play it straight at first now that the mods have had some time to 'mature' and stabilize a bit. Maybe avoid adding a lot of mods right away, but a couple basic overhauls to fill in the weaknesses of the vanilla game are pretty straightforward improvements. If I had to make a list of just 3 for such a goal it would be SkyRe, Deadly Dragons, and either UFO (if you want to use followers and they are important to you) or one of Wars in Skyrim or Occupy Skyrim (depending on your machine, WIS is the rough one). I won't comment on characters and armors because preferences will differ widely, but general texture changes are greatly overhyped. The first party high res textures that they released are fine.
I didn't want to buy Dawnguard at $20 because that is ridiculous for one of Bethesda's simple little expansion packs that more or less just adds a faction sized quest line with a couple zones and few new items/abilities to accompany it but I've realized it's a good way to put my money where my mouth was when I called Skyrim worth a lot more than $60. The number of mods that probably add more to the game than Dawnguard does, other than the somewhat exceptional nature of adding a serious quest line, and are of course free is probably staggering if anyone was to do a census of them.
SkyRe seems promising as all-in-one gameplay overhauls go and I'm thinking it is what I will run when I get around to doing another play now that Dawnguard is out. Last time I played I ran a combination of ACE (all modules except the magic ones), Balanced Magic and Duel Combat Realism to achieve what felt like a good gameplay overhaul.
Skyrim Monster Mod and either Wars in Skyrim (heavy option) or Occupy Skyrim (light option) repopulate the world more diversely and with more stuff going on. Deadly Dragons demands a shout out as well because it makes dragons actually cool and tough fights rather than a bit over hyped, and dragons are supposed to be the main focus right?
Realistic lighting with customization was the best lighting fix I know of. Keep in mind lighting mods are very delicate in terms of conflicts though. Other than quest mods they are the main thing you actually have to be careful around and can't more or less assume the two or three click installation will make it work for you with minimal risk. Not only can they conflict with little things that might not seem like they would effect lighting, such as a remarkable number of spell or quest related mods, but when they do it is often a game crashing/failing to load type conflict rather than a simple matter of one of the mods in question not doing it's thing.
I was running 80something mods last I played, and only maybe 20 of them were those simple almost incapable of conflict item modification/addition/texture replacement type things. Pay attention to compatibility notes, watch for compatibility patches among the optional files for mods, maybe have a bit of a mind for keeping track of "well, these both involve modifying a race so despite what BOSS says I have to choose which will work with regard to that doomed to conflict element of the mod and put it later in the load order" and otherwise run everything through BOSS and you can get away with a lot. NMM and BOSS do almost everything for you; it is nothing like old pre-obmm oblivion modding or morrowind modding.
If you plan to use more than a couple simple mods then don't even scout the steam workshop with a worker you want to lose to free up supply. It is a mess. Use Nexus to find, NMM to install and BOSS to organize load orders.
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What I'm thinking of adding right now :
-SkyRe
-Immersive Armors
-SkyUI
-High Quality World Map
-Bellyaches' New Dragon Species
-Skyrim Monster Mod
And then finding 1-2 mods with new quests... think that would could me issues?
SkyRe definately works with SkyUI, high qual world maps and skyrim monster mod. Never tried immersive armors or that dragon species mod. It works fine with Deadly Dragons too if you want to spice dem flying lobsters up.
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Just tried it out and they all work together (as well as the uncapper mod which is needed for SkyRE + UFO follower mod and JaySuS swords.
Well, I just got to Riverwood on a character so maybe I'll encounter bugs later but so far so good.
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I would recommend Convenient Horses as well. It allows for customization of speed/stam/health of horses, a horse whistle, some cool vanilla looking armors, and most importantly lets you talk, loot and pick herbs while mounted. It works great with UFO as well as you can customize which horses your followers use.
Better Fast Travel is a nice immersive mod that adds a carriage to each town and hold, if you want to restrict yourself of fast travelling anywhere/anytime.
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I'm on the fence on whether SkyRe is that great or a must-have. I tried it out and it changes a lot, but I'm not sure if it's for better, or worse. It doesn't seem to mesh well with any added weapon/armor mods, unless a compatability patch was created for it, as SkyRe changes the weapon damage and armor value of vanilla equipment, so I found modded weapons and armor to be weaker.
Combat seemed interesting and dumb at the same time. While fights did seem to be more like fights sometimes, often times it was just a bandit holding up block 90% of the time and having to slowly whittle down his hp.
It makes mining pretty pointless, as ores have a reduced 1:3 ratio for bars.
The perk trees all redone. While I like speechcraft coinciding with shouts, I don't know if the other trees are better than their vanilla counterparts. I guess it uses a 300 max skill lvl as opposed to 100, so increased damage % are 10 perks instead of 5, which makes getting the perks not seem worth it in the early-mid stages of the game. Not sure how the different weapon specialties work, especially with weapon mods. What gets categorized as a tanto/katana or short/longbow? The unarmed perks seemed good, if I were to make a monk, but I'm pretty sure there's other mods that improve unarmed combat as well.
So anyways, if someone could give me some more insight as to what makes this mod popular and good to have, I'll try reinstalling it.
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I looked at the SkyRe changes and a lot of them sounded like things I didn't want so I'm not using it. I installed a combination of Modular Magic, Minimalist Magic Overhaul, and ACE instead, which did what I really wanted without (maybe? I'm not sure how modular SkyRe is or works) including a bunch of stuff I didn't want. ACE did have the unfortunate effect of somehow messing up alchemy healing potions but I fixed that myself in the creation kit (I guess this is a side-effect of how it modified the default healing potions and it did it in a bad way ... my fix was kind of clunky but it does what it needs to).
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So, I've just purchased Dawnguard and started a new character.
How does the Dawnguard quest chain begin? I can't seem to find the orc or talk to the guards that give the quest, even though I'm well above level 10.
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How is Dawnguard? I want it, but since I've not even played 25% of vanilla I'm going to hold off.
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On August 05 2012 17:40 MrBitter wrote:
How is Dawnguard? I want it, but since I've not even played 25% of vanilla I'm going to hold off.
I like it but im a sucker for anything from the Elder Scrolls series. Some of my friends had complaints.
- A few glitches while playing as the vampire lord, like not being able to walk through small hallways
- Falling through the ground infinitely in a few random spots
- Some dialogue glitches just like in regular Skyrim
Other than that its a great game!
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On August 05 2012 17:49 EpidemicSC wrote:Show nested quote +On August 05 2012 17:40 MrBitter wrote:
How is Dawnguard? I want it, but since I've not even played 25% of vanilla I'm going to hold off. I like it but im a sucker for anything from the Elder Scrolls series. Some of my friends had complaints. - A few glitches while playing as the vampire lord, like not being able to walk through small hallways - Falling through the ground infinitely in a few random spots - Some dialogue glitches just like in regular Skyrim Other than that its a great game!
It's good, and it's probably $10 territory. As it is it's pretty overpriced. HOWEVER as someone said earlier on this page, the base cost of Skyrim was a damn good price for what the game offered, so it's not all bad.
EDIT: Compared to most other releases these days
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SkyRe is fantastic if you want a single all-round mod that "just works" and improves on pretty much every aspect of the game, so I would definitely recommend it on that basis alone for people who really aren't looking to spend hours browsing through mod databases and threads to find the "ideal" combination.
Anyway, I wandered into this thread to ask if anyone knows of a decent walking/running speed mod that I couldn't find on the Nexus. What I want is basically faster walking and/or slower running (normal running, not sprint). What I get in vanilla Skyrim is either my character moving far too slow (walking) or racing around like a madman on fire (running), and both speeds are way off from what I feel is ideal.
If there's a console command or something where I can tweak the values myself until I find what works the best for me, that would be even better. 
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been trying to get a game of skyre + other mods going.
anyone know which mods i should add onto skyre?
im looking to play a archer and for the mods to make the game better and much harder
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On August 05 2012 18:28 soullogik wrote:
been trying to get a game of skyre + other mods going.
anyone know which mods i should add onto skyre?
im looking to play a archer and for the mods to make the game better and much harder
Try the following
Alternative Start (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9557)
Immersive Armors (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19733)
Ultimate Follower Overhaul (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14037)
Convenient Horses (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14950)
Xenius Character Enhancement (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2356)
This is what im running at the moment. All of these mods are really popular and make the game much more enjoyable.
Top 10 material in there.
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Super Noob when it comes to modding but I got a couple to add some extra Armor and Weapons, Does adding the Realism and Texture mods stress the game a whole bunch? Couldn't find adjusted System requirements for adding mods like that.
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On August 06 2012 13:44 SigmaoctanusIV wrote:
Super Noob when it comes to modding but I got a couple to add some extra Armor and Weapons, Does adding the Realism and Texture mods stress the game a whole bunch? Couldn't find adjusted System requirements for adding mods like that.
Best you can do it try it out and if you suffer performance issues just disable it.
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On August 05 2012 18:47 Scheefe wrote:Show nested quote +On August 05 2012 18:28 soullogik wrote:
been trying to get a game of skyre + other mods going.
anyone know which mods i should add onto skyre?
im looking to play a archer and for the mods to make the game better and much harder Try the following Alternative Start (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9557) Immersive Armors (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19733) Ultimate Follower Overhaul (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14037) Convenient Horses (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14950) Xenius Character Enhancement (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2356) This is what im running at the moment. All of these mods are really popular and make the game much more enjoyable. Top 10 material in there.
I bought the game at launch but mostly jerked around for 90 hours. This past weekend I finished the main quest and the civil war quests and I can't wait to try these mods!
How much does the alternative start mod actually change the game (depending on your choice)? The mod author says it has a big impact but seems hard to believe.
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Does Dawnguard give more areas to explore?
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Having beat most of Dawnguard, I would say it was well worth the money (well, I'm a poor college student, so I would've preferred $10 or $15, but whatever). The only gripes I have were some minor glitches, like not fitting through doors as a Vampire Lord and Serana's shitty AI pathing (I had an easier time microing Dragoons and Vultures).
And then there was the Soul Cairn. I believe this was the first time a video game level pissed me off so much since OoT's Water Temple. Which returns me to my opening statement of 'having beat most of Dawnguard'. I gave up on Saint Jiub's quest, because it was kind of like Barenziah's Stones in that there were no quest markers.
Edit:
At Torte:
Yes. Dawnguard adds like 24 new areas.
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damn, I might have to reisntall and play this game again ): I reformatted and lost all my mods and characters
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your savegames should be stored on steam cloud.
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On August 07 2012 01:48 Sitinte wrote:
Having beat most of Dawnguard, I would say it was well worth the money (well, I'm a poor college student, so I would've preferred $10 or $15, but whatever). The only gripes I have were some minor glitches, like not fitting through doors as a Vampire Lord and Serana's shitty AI pathing (I had an easier time microing Dragoons and Vultures).
And then there was the Soul Cairn. I believe this was the first time a video game level pissed me off so much since OoT's Water Temple. Which returns me to my opening statement of 'having beat most of Dawnguard'. I gave up on Saint Jiub's quest, because it was kind of like Barenziah's Stones in that there were no quest markers.
Edit:
At Torte:
Yes. Dawnguard adds like 24 new areas.
Well, the Soul Cairn was pretty fun, running around as a vampire lord smiting everything and all. The Durnheviir battle was also rather nice.
I'm almost done with Dawnguard, crossbows as a vampire are pretty fun.
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EPT
