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[Rex_Nex]

The Elder Scrolls Official Website

Mods

Here are my personal essentials, all can be found on Nexus, all are compatible with each other. Make sure you install SKSE beforehand, which can be found here. I am assuming you are using the latest Skyrim patch and Dawnguard. Many also need SkyUI's MCM Menu. Please check compatibility if you're using something else.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A Quality World Map - A better map.

Better Dialogue Controls - Sensible controls when using dialogue boxes.

Better Distant LOD Waterfalls - They look like ice sheets in vanilla.

Better Messagebox Controls - Similar to Dialogue Controls, but for message boxes. Or something.

Enhanced Distant Terrain - Small improvement to distant textures.

Footprints - Adds footprints in snow for both you and other creatures.

High Quality LODs - Distant terrain is shaped more accurately.

HiRes Legible Roadsigns - So you can read them.

Imaginator - Gives you the ability to tweak lighting effects and settings mid-game.

Immersive Hud - iHud - Turns off HUD elements when they aren't useful (No cross-hair with a melee weapon...) as well as gives you a button to disable the compass/quest markers.

Main Font Replacer - New fonts. I personally like Magic Cards.

Player Headtracking - I guess this isn't essential, but it adds so much to immersion. Your character will look at things of interest.

Predator Vision - Gives Vampires and Werewolves the Predator Vision ability, which is a much nicer looking Night Eye and Detect Life combination.

Project Reality - Climates of Tamriel - Adds hundreds of new weather types, changes the lighting everywhere, etc. Really great mod.

Skyrim Distant Detail - Increases the render distance of a few common objects (boulders, really). It fills out all that barren distant terrain without requiring you to kick up your uGrids and murder your FPS.

SkyUI - Almost required. The UI is now redesigned for mouse and key along with adding actual menus to configure mods.

Unique Region Names - "Fixes" the entirety of Skyrim just being labled "Skyrim". They now have real names depending on which hold owns that land.

Unofficial Skyrim Patch - Fixes a metric ton of bugs. Additional: Unofficial Dawnguard and/or Unofficial Hearthfire patches if you own those DLCs.

Lastly, there's also T3nd0's Skyrim Redone (SkyRE). I don't really suggest using it until you've played more of the base game, but it changes nearly every one of the gameplay systems. I enjoy it, most do. Others don't. Make sure you also install and run ReProccer if you're using mods that add armor or weapons.

Less essential stuff that I love:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Better Torches - Increased brightness for torches, very handy if you've installed Climates of Tamriel or a similar darkness-increasing mod.

Bowlegged Jump Animation Fix - Changes the ugly "spread my legs" animation while jumping.

Clanking Armor - All armor no longer sounds like leather. Heavier armor now clanks when moving/running.

Cloaks of Skyrim - Cloaks! They look great, but they do tend to clip into other things (like your feet, sometimes weapons on your back, bolt quivers...).

Detailed Cities - Adds more objects to cities. Don't use if you're FPS starved.

Detailed Rugs - High-res rugs.

Dynavision - Dynamic Depth of Field without the use of an ENB. Highly customizable via MCM menu.

Enhanced Blood Textures - Better blood!

Enhanced Lights and FX - Creates a more dramatic mood by changing the lighting in certain areas. Install the optional SMIM meshes if you're using SMIM.

Enhanced Night Skyrim - Better nights! Changes the skybox at night to be clearer, shows galaxies and stars.

Expanded Winterhold Destruction Ruins - Winterhold sure doesn't look much like it was destroyed in a cataclysmic event. Now it does.

Follower Trap Safety - Because you can't really stop followers from triggering traps.

Frostfall - Hypothermia and freezing effects. Keep warm via fires, warmer climates, etc. I suggest using the Lite option for minimal tedium.

Get Snowy - Snow accumulates on your character if it's snowing.

Hectrol Caves Deluxe Highres Retex - Retexture of underground terrain. Adds a lot of missing detail to the vanilla caves.

Immediate Dragons - Dragons no longer require you to advance in the main quest to spawn. Best used if you're also downloading an alternate start mod.

Immersive Armors - More lore-friendly armors! Make sure to download the SkyRE compatibility patch if you're also downloading SkyRE.

Improved Combat Sounds - Better combat sounds!

Lanterns of Skyrim - All in One - Adds lanterns to cities, villages, roads, etc. Great if you're also using Climates of Tamriel, as the nights will be darker.

Lore-Based Loading Screens - Adds a few hundred loading screens with snippets from ES lore.

Main Menu Spinning Emblem - The Skyrim icon now spins!

Mercy - If someone begs for mercy, they actually stop fighting you. You can still kill them, of course.

No Skill Limit - Removes limits.

Populated Cities - Adds some generic townsfolk to the cities. They feel slightly out of place with names like Child or Veteran, but they sure help make cities more lively.

Random Alternate Start OR Alternate Start - Live Another Life - Random Alternate Start spits you out randomly at one of a few hundred locations. Alternate Start - Live Another Life only gives you the option of spawning in a dozen or so locations (including the vanilla start), but you get to choose where.

Realistic Needs and Diseases - Gives a purpose to food. Player must eat, drink, and rest at regular intervals to stay healthy. I recommend turning down the rate at which you get tired, thirsty, and hungry by about half to minimize tedium.

Realistic Running Speed - Slows down running speeds by ~20% as well as matches NPCs running speeds to yours.

Ruins Clutter Improvement HD - Improves a lot of things you'll commonly see in dungeons and ruins. Also, 3d chain links!

SkyTEST - Enhances the AI for wildlife as well as adds predator/prey systems.

Static Mesh Improvement Mod - Similar to Ruins Clutter Improvement, but for everywhere else! Better models for all the little things in skyrim.

The Dance of Death - Adds more killmove animations. Also lets you tweak how often or not they trigger!

Thundering Shouts - Louder, deeper dragon shouts. RAWR I IZ DUVAKEN!

TK HitStop - Adds camera effects when striking an enemy. Customizable via MCM Menu.

Varied Guards and Stormcloaks - Changes up the gear that guards and stormcloaks wear. No longer are they all carbon copies of each other!

W.A.T.E.R - Improves water and everything to do with it. Better animations, better textures, etc.

Wet and Cold - Adds some dynamic effects for being wet/cold. Water will drip off you, you will breathe out warm, foggy air, etc.

[CoughDrop]

Thanks Rex.

... Unfortunately I don't think I have anything useful to say until the game actually comes out, but am commenting to follow on future developments.

[Yodamaster]

Yo, Oblivion was such a better game than Morrowind, hands down no questions asked.

 

Was excited for Skyrim before I heard it would be dumbed down.

[Jehdin]

The most Detailed and Up to Date Skyrim Info Thread

Might add that to the OP, shitloads of information.

[Dsarker]

Replying to watch.


On that note, I've only ever played Oblivion in the series, and it was good enough. Why do people keep hating on it?

[Rex_Nex]

The most Detailed and Up to Date Skyrim Info Thread

Might add that to the OP, shitloads of information.

Added

[penguinofhonor]

I hope the only "X game is better than Y game" stuff being said is "Skyrim is better than Oblivion" because that's what it looks like right now. Like better in every way.

Holy crap they simulate economics? I'm going to have to play Bob the Mine Destroyer. One day, I stroll through every town and buy out all the metal stuff. Then I destroy every mine and sell my newly expensive items. It's perfect! What could go wrong?

Also if they got rid of telepathic guards, I'm probably going to just buy the game at launch and then dance around with the game strapped to my chest, singing about how wonderful their removal is.

[Grakelin]

this skyrim stuff is awful we need 2 go bck 2 old style like arena.


Hey, has anybody trolled with the obvious crude sex pun on the name yet? I won't share what it is, but man, that one is so obvious that it makes me wonder what Bethesda was thinking. When the game comes out, everybody who militantly hates it and lacks articulation abilities are going to be bringing it up every five minutes. Just you wait.

Seriously, only reason I'm not looking forward to this game.

[Johuotar]

Woah that skyrim thread there was amazing, so much info there.

[Capntastic]

I wanna be a cool sneaky Dunmer or a buff as heck Nord based on Mick Foley

[Siquo]

Dual Wielding Yay! 
Nehrim (a must-play oblivion conversion mod) had swords and daggers that acted as shields ("blocking sword"), and even that looked just so much cooler.

I just hope there's going to be more to explore. If you compare Nehrim's handcrafted stuff to Oblivions generated junk, there's so much more. Every dungeon has a little "story" of what happened, who lives there, where do they sleep, how is the ecosystem with the other beasts living on the lower levels, etc.

[Zangi]

Radiant Story: Many quests are still completely governed by Bethesda, but the Radiant Story system helps randomize and relate the side quests to players to make the experience as dynamic and reactive as possible. Rather than inundate you with a string of unrelated and mundane tasks, it tailors missions based on who your character is, where you're at, what you've done in the past, and what you're currently doing. Radiant Story is also smart enough to know which caves and dungeons you've already visited and thus conditionalize where, for instance, a kidnapped person is being held to direct you toward a specific place you haven't been to before, populated with a specific level of enemy. Skyrim also tracks your friendships and grudges to generate missions. Do a small favor for a farmer and it may eventually lead to a larger quest. Some NPCs will even agree to be your companion to help you out in specific situations.

This seems... epic.

But... by jah... the bugs we will have... the bugs!

[Grakelin]

Radiant Story sounds to me like a feature covered in 1990 by Covert Action.

[burningpet]

Radiant story reminds me of oblivion's Radiant AI. not a good reminder.

i do hope for some of the morrowind weirdness in skyrim. the out of this world feel is much stronger in morrowind than oblivion, regardless of gameplay mechanics.

[Virtz]

I hope the only "X game is better than Y game" stuff being said is "Skyrim is better than Oblivion" because that's what it looks like right now. Like better in every way.

Agreed. Even if I don't consider it much of an achievement.

Holy crap they simulate economics? I'm going to have to play Bob the Mine Destroyer. One day, I stroll through every town and buy out all the metal stuff. Then I destroy every mine and sell my newly expensive items. It's perfect! What could go wrong?

Also if they got rid of telepathic guards, I'm probably going to just buy the game at launch and then dance around with the game strapped to my chest, singing about how wonderful their removal is.

Well, you don't really know how well they'll cover their promises until you've actually played it, so...

Hey, has anybody trolled with the obvious crude sex pun on the name yet? I won't share what it is, but man, that one is so obvious that it makes me wonder what Bethesda was thinking. When the game comes out, everybody who militantly hates it and lacks articulation abilities are going to be bringing it up every five minutes. Just you wait.

Seriously, only reason I'm not looking forward to this game.

The Codex already has, obviously. Odd reason not to look forward to a game, though. They tend to do that with nearly every new Action RPG title (particularly Mass Effect).