So...369 total mods (including ESMs)
244 actual mods downloaded
Merged mods: (I'll add this later, since its still a work in progress)
I did a bit of cleaning of mods I didn't use and I never activated or even installed (just in the skyrim folder in zip files taking up space). I did have 500+ total mods at one point, coming down to probably 350 actual unique mods or so (many have multiple esps/esms)...but, I went in and cleansed them. Mostly since my PC was not happy and I was having trouble merging all of them. Which means reinstall Skyrim, put in all the mods I actually was going to use for the overhaul and do it that way. Nothing was broken before or anything, and I needed to do it anyway...luckily I keep a lot of backups
Anyway as far as mods go...
New Lands:
Elsweyr: Time to go Elsweyr! (lame I know
)
Falskaar: Epic new land mod
Wyrmstooth: Big-Huge new land
Blackland: Medium-Big sized new land
Shadows of Morrowind: Giant new land (mod is still developing, but it is enough for me to add it)
Hammerfell: Small part of it
Probably missed one...thought I had another one I included...oh well...surprise if I did or not!
New Towns/Cities/Exploration:
Vastly expanded cities and villages to a more realistic size. Overhaul of many Skyrim cities, and all villages have been greatly expanded.
There are also new villages to find throughout Skyrim.
On top of that, there are many camps to spend time at or to get away from the cold. Many may already be occupied though...
There are also LOTS of new hidden treasure to find...some buried...and some in secret areas. Look all over and you may be awarded.
Lifeforms of Skyrim:
Realistic animals that behave like they should...and a lot more kinds have been added. Lots of animals for the nature lovers and hunters.
Over 1000 new types of monsters (not re-skinned, but actual new types)...some may not be lore friendly, but you can turn most of them off. They add a lot.
And while this should go into the combat part...they are lifeforms.
I highly recommend not turning on dragons at an early level unless you want to lose your character and have to start over.
I always thought it was stupid at level 5 I could already kill them. And I always brushed them off as kind of a lame fight that got really boring after fighting them the first 10 times. Now you can be a max level...and still have a hard time killing them! GOOD LUCK! HA...and it is vastly more strategic and fun...and rage inducing
Class Enhancing Mods -
Hunter/Wilderness Man/Woman: Live in the wilderness and never enter a major city. Or for a hardcore experience, shy away from even villages...are you afraid of people?
You can hunt many kinds of animals, for food and to make leather equipment. Caught in a blizzard? Turn those animals into tents and a fresh stew! There are many...hundreds and hundreds...of different foods to make.
To hunt is a challenge, and if you turn off the UI...you will become a TRUE HUNTER of Skyrim
Bandit:
Or do you prey upon those that come by your territory? Do you want to enslave the poorfolk of Skyrim? Rob them of their wordly possessions? Want to yell at rocks that roll down the road, STOP THIS HERE IS A TOLL ROAD SEE? PAY UP OR ELSE!
As a bandit, you will (assuming you start as a bandit in alternate start) have a disgustingly stupid and weak band of crew among you. But it is something, right? Just watch that back of yours...and maybe one day, you will be the leader of a bandit crew...or a pirate crew...
Stealth (assassin/thief)
You stalk the night, and act as one of them in the day. You know all the secret entrances to each city...you know the weak points...you know what to do. There are plenty of goods to steal...and plenty of gals to kill. Are you a robin hood? Or a thief that wants only what he wants? An Assassin that wants to create chaos upon Skyrim? Or one that kills for the good of all.
There are many tools at your disposal...pick the right one...and you shall be rewarded.
Druid:
In many ways, Druids can be similar to Wilderness Men/Women.There are slight differences...you do not harm animals, but befriend them. You know all the plants of Skyrim and elsweyr...you have many animal companions that you call to mother nature to bring forth from the spirit world...and many ways to tame those of the animals still alive upon Skyrim. Mostly a pacifist, but you will protect animals and life at all costs.
Do you protect animals?...or are you more sinister?
An offshoot of a Druid, is a Dark Druid...one who loves animals...but uses them for evil deeds of causing chaos upon the races of Skyrim. Your teachings have taken a dark turn, and basic necromancy is not surprising...
Necromancer:
Many changes have come to the Necromancer in Skyrim. Necromancers have grown desperate...killing those already living and dragging their carcasses to their evil lairs. To then reanimate into undead themselves! I must not speak more of them...for the very thought of that they do to those dead cause me great fear...
Bard:
Become the one everyone hates! Sing with that horrible voice of yours! PLAY THAT HORRIBLE MUSIC! AND...MAKE MONEY MONEY MONEY! Just don't get killed from an angry mob...
Economist/Trader/Strategist:
Become an economist...and possibly control the flow of goods upon Skyrim. Own property and make a constant living.
There are thousands of properties for sale, from houses, inns and even mines. It is a hard start, as of course, property is expensive...but one where, one day, you may be flowing in gold!
That isn't the only things you can spend money on...
Hire military troops, take over economic buildings and get both gold and goods in a Skyrim wide economic take over in a Risk style gameplay (sadly you can't actually see the effect in game, its almost like a minigame...but it is pretty sophisticated)
Other things you can do? Rich beyond believe?
Build a house! You can even build more house(s) through Hearthfire! But, in this case...you can make a vastly more sophisticated (and vastly more expensive) house than anything Hearthfire provides.
And you can build your own city...that can bring in over 1,000 (yes over 1,000) NPCs to your massive city. And, on top of that...you can build your own fort, and control a massive army to defend or terrorize Skyrim.
Thalmor JusticiarAre you an Altmer or Khajiit? Join the Justiciars!...bloody Elves and Elf lovers...
Or be any class you want...these are just "fake" classes I came up with that I based a bunch of mods around. Races:
New races are added...most don't fit lore exactly. They are added just for fun, can freely not use them.
Crafting:
As mentioned, tons of new food...
Other things include an overhaul of smithing, enchanting and alchemy. All three to be made more realistic, more options and better overall.
Factions/War changes:
Predator from alien vs predator (I think there are aliens too, but they might still be being developed)...not lore friendly...but...OH WAIT...Predators are from space, so they flew on their ship and crashed in Skyrim from being attacked by aliens onboard. Makes total sense
Anything is realistic and lore friendly if its from space or time travels
Thalmor: You can join the Thalmor (if a Khajiit/Altmer)...or...more likely...you will be being attacked by hordes and hordes of Thalmor invading Skyrim. Now there is a 3rd faction in the war! No lame warcraft 2 way stuff...its a threeway
...you can even do naval warfare against the Thalmor.
Civil War: On top of Skyrim being in a Civil War, they have to deal with the Thalmor. But, Imperials and Stormcloaks still hate each other. Do you not want to join the civil war? Well, it will go on without you...no lame gamey stuff where the player MUST NEED to be involved. The game will continue on without you, and eventually one side (or the Thalmor) will win the war.
Other features added (
that I can think of...hey lots of mods!) :
Controllable boats (that work in the naval warfare) and they work pretty good.
Become a dragon (with options to be friendly to dragons, allied, or neutral/hated)...dragon flight is actually really well done in this mod and adds a huge change in gameplay. Personally, I love it...and I stay either neutral/friendly to dragons, only cause it seems easy if they were all friendly. Up to you.
Set up camp anywhere if you have the suppliesThousands of NPCs added, many with quests...other NPCs are there to fill in the atmosphere. Adds a lot of life throughout Skyrim
Over 1,000 new bandits added, with better AI and are far smarter/stronger
Alternate Start, Frostfall and Wet and Cold...should know what those do
If not...SURPRISE!
Many new dungeons addedFishing is added...dunno why that wasn't in to begin with. Should be up with the hunter part, but I'll just add it here cause anyone can fish.
Requiem used as a base...it makes the start way way too hard in my opinion. However it is my favorite overhaul (which is probably funny seeing I try to counteract it). It does more things that I personally like than the others (didn't like ASIS or Skyre that much, and always loved Requiem). I based a lot of other mods around it...so to balance it out...and keeping Requiem in mind...a lot of things added counter-act the overly hard start of Requiem. Whether it is overpowered or not later on I have not found out quite yet...in any case...dragons will always be freakin hard as hell
Combat has been overhauled. You can get injuries...fallout 3 style. More realistic melee combat (think Mount and Blade, but way more realistic)...and many changes in this area. Stealth/Archery/Melee are all part of this area, and all are a lot better. The melee does come in toward the hardcore area, and is difficult to learn...but, it is really realistic. Stealth definitely gets a boost here, and a lot more stealthy Thief like options. Archery is about the same, but more tools to use.
AGAIN NO DRAGONS EARLY LEVEL! Yeah they are part of the main quest...so maybe some will find that as a negative. Personally, I've already done the main quest...I think 7 times now...so I can wait and find plenty of other content
Though one can just make all dragons allied/friendly to you...which "should" work...dunno about custom dragons. But its a workaround...can still attack dragons and all anyway, whether they are allied or not.
Tech details:
All mods need cleaning
have been cleaned (only those that LOOT says it needs cleaning, since some mods are bad to clean).
Many mods merged (that can be merged)..doing this allows a vastly more compatible and stable game. This is probably the most effective way of creating stability I have found...in a large mod list that is. This is probably the most complicated part of the process, since it is easy to ruin things.
Merged patch (even more compatibility/stability)
Bashed patch (even MORE compatibility/stability)
SKSE memory patch (even more stability and 2nd to merging mods)
And I'm sure I missed some big ones and what not...but hey, it can be a surprise
Once the mod is officially uploaded, I will put up a guide on how to set it up. It will be really simple. There will be some extra things needed to do to get the game working (running LOOT, slight change in load order afterwards) and some other stuff that shouldn't take long. And optional mods you can remove if they aren't your cup of tea.
Keeping in mind, part of this is just a backup for myself...some mods I don't even actually use in this load list (though I removed a lot when I did a clean install and put them in a different folder that won't be included)...which probably sounds funny. I can think of a few off the top of my head being loliworld esps...since it is kind of weird and...yeah.... I turn them off right away. I personally only keep them because they are "rare" and hard to find. I know, lame uh
Or because one day I can actually use them (like Skyrim bigger trees is personally too taxing on my PC, so I leave it off)...just some examples.
Of course, I do back up in more than one place and my backup hard drive
That isn't really a problem at all, I just like to share as well.
As for system requirements go.
I have
Geforce 660GTX 2GB
i5 3.3 Ghz CPU
No SSD
Windows 7 64bit (if you have 32bit, this won't work for you)
8gig DDR3 ram
I get 30 on average with ENB active...drops to 20...without ENB active I get 40-50 FPS average (exteriors)
However, the huge dynamic battles drops the ENB to 20-25 on average, and average non-ENB to 30-35 FPS on average...so it is quite a drop. Don't expect 60 FPS on a mid-end system. And the dynamic battles are a major part of this compilation/overhaul...they add more than anything else in this overhaul (in my opinion). But, they are pretty taxing.