Next thing: DLCs. Some input from you guys would be nice, preferably before the 27th or so when the sale for the DLCs end. From the sounds of it Dragonborn is the "best" and Hearthstone is (currently) only 2.50 dollars. Vampires never really interested me so I dunno about Dawnguard unless it adds something other than vampires.
Dawnguard adds quite a lot more than Vampires, although you may not realize that it is coming from the DLC. It adds a seperate multi location quest for The Aetherium Forge. It also adds creature variants(mostly at the top end of the level spectrum) for Chaurus, Falmer, Dragons and Spriggans, and these are excluding the variants that are only encountered as part of the main DLC quest. Werewolves are added as potential encounters in the wild, rather than just caged in Silver Hand bases. It also adds a specialized perk tree for yourself if you are a Werewolf.
I'd honestly suggest picking up all three, particularly as when you get to trying out various mods a lot of them will require all the DLC or at least the mod author won't help with support if you don't have them as it just makes it more complex for them to track down problems.
Hm, where is the mod to balance dawnguard vampire attacks?
Here are the two you need, both by Arthmoor who is also the one who posts the Unofficial Patches and Live Another Life as well as many other small improvement mods if you check his workshop page. They are all also available on the Nexus as well as over on
AFK mods.
When Vampires Attack - Civilians flee indoors when a Vampire attack occurs.
Run For Your Lives - Civilians flee indoors when a Dragon attack occurs.
I dunno, I feel there's been a lot of knee-jerk reactions. Then again it probably would've been better to announce something like this well in advance so there weren't any surprises. Maybe sometime in the future we'll see something better implemented than what we had here. Donations aren't a surefire thing, after all. This would probably be better for larger mods akin to the Napoleonic Wars "mod" for Mount & Blade, but individual weapons or a costume... not so much.
An announcement a few months in advanced and then an approval process similar to greenlight would have been so much better than the mess they've created.
It likely would have had a somewhat better reception if they had held off until the next ES/FO game was released rather than adding it to a mature modding scene.
Edit: Also a quote I spotted in the comments of one of the paid mods that's a little amusing
"Let me show you the power of modding, born of the internet, where my breath is long replay-ability! I breathe now, in royalty, and reshape this game which is mine. I do this for you, gamers, for i love you! Aye, love, LOVE! Even as beta versions, great mods cherished us. For they saw in us, in each of us, the future of Skyrim! The future of GAMING!" And there it is, friends! The ugly truth! We are the children of mods! Mods are the true gods of man! Ascended from code, to rule the realm of PC gaming! The very idea is inconceivable to our Valve overlords. Share the heavens with us? With gamers? HA! They can barely tolerate our presence on Nexusmods! Today, they take away your free mods. But what of tomorrow? What then? Does Steam take your player homes? Your NPC merchants? YOUR VERY HORSE ARMOR MODS? And what do the game developers do? NOTHING! Nay, worse than nothing! Their marketing machine enforces the will of the GabeN! Against it's own people! So rise up!"