OK, so basically Vortex replaces NMM, and incorporates LOOT. I’m in the process of installing a short-ish list of mods including SKSE, SkyUI, better message box & dialogue controls, and a few others. Thanks for the info, Carto.
Now the question is, do I have the discipline to NOT install Skyrim Skill Uncapper (now that I have opened the floodgates via installing SKSE?).
One of my great weaknesses is wanting to tweak core gameplay/progression. I have done ungodly and horribad exploitation of games like original Skyrim and XCOM over the years (did I ever upload my custom .config for XCOM Long War with the Uber-versions of the soldier classes - it was a true classic of powergaming munchkinosity, a glory to behold and also a reason to cry over crushing game balance like a tiny beetle.)
Thus far, I have not clicked download…
@Sharpe There is a new modlist that just went up this week called Keizaal that includes a much smaller list of core mods, and tries to stay near the Vanilla experience. That may be more your speed?
Here is their modlist: https://modpicker.com/skyrimse/mod-lists/5547/mods
Sadly, that’s exactly the modlist that got me excited and was IMO too many mods / too much game-changing stuff. Basically, I just finished installing with Vortex and I have 21 mods, which seems good so far.
The biggest change I added in my list was OBIS, primarily b/c one of my board gaming buddies keeps referring to Skyrim bandits as “sad hobos”. Let’s see if OBIS makes that better.
Sigh, as always I need one… more… mod.
Tried making a new char and I just handle the dirt and sickly complexions of the standard faces. SE looks better than vanilla but I cannot be properly heroic with an Avatar that looks like it eats rats in the garbage dump.
I don’t want a great big whole body mod or super-glam face mod. Is there a mod that simply cleans up the vanilla faces and makes them clean and healthy looking? I generally play male avatars but am considering a female avatar this time for variety.
The Humans Mer and Beastfolk in the above modlist looks reasonable.
Probably want to pickup racemenu as well for a better character creation options
So I managed to find a vanilla preset face that was OK, and started up, using Alternate Start to start at the inn in Riverwood (basically skipping the normal tutorial business but otherwise a vanilla start). I’m heading out of Riverwood towards Helgen picking flowers and killing wolves when I have my first OBIS encounter: 5 bandits, with at least one of them level 16 (I know this because of the iHUD mod) - meanwhile I’m level 1, no armor, a crappy iron weapon, literally picking F’ing flowers. Yeah. Can you say “One Shot”?
I’m going to see about disabling OBIS for the first 10 levels or so. In theory, that level of bandit excitement sounds great but uh, not at level 1. It has MCM configurability so I can probably just toggle it off before leaving Riverwood and then turn it back on later.
TSO updated again, this time it’s even more sadistic. When you die you respawn and suffer 6x1 random skill losses + plus leave all your gear behind on a corpse unless you have an amulet of arkay or dragon soul which is used up after a death.
I just disabled that and respawn back home. That’s enough of a penalty considering how over the top the difficulty is. I do like it being super hard, because it gives a reason to explore and gather everything you can, except for stealing. You can steal in this game, and it will make the start much easier, but it locks you out of a bunch of new blessings from the daedra and shrines that can be quite powerful.
So great pack if you don’t want to fiddle with busy work survival mods like Frostfall and can tolerate an absolutely insane level of difficulty.
Oh, he also added a bunch more werewolves, bandits (which can now use illusion magic), and vampires. I just walked into a cave listed as 2+ and watched a pack of werewolves eat the local fauna that had been in the cave previously. I tried to nope out, but thanks to requiem zoning out is even more dangerous since they zone out with you, and load faster than you do so they always get free hits in.
I tried this out, but it was way too hard, plus, there didn’t seem to be a way to adjust graphics at all, all of that stuff was stripped out of the game. I have an ultrawide monitor and couldn’t change anything including the resolution.
You have to edit the ini files to change the resolution, plus if you have ultrawide you have to add some other, supported, mods to the game. The docs on it are kinda crappy so if you want to get it working, I would be happy to help.
But that isn’t going to address the difficulty, which is only getting harder every release. The modlist author’s only response for mercy or strategy help is ‘gitgud,’ he seems to be allergic to spoilers.
I am still having good luck with Lexy’s LOTD. It was kind of hard at the start, but now that I am about level 20, its mellowing out. At first I was thinking I wouldn’t stick with it, but now I am enjoying it a lot. One thing I noticed and maybe this is in TSO as well, but you need to really understand “Know Your Enemy” if it is in there. It makes bad guys really tough if you aren’t aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
I am also fiddling with Vortex to build my own mod set, as I think there is a ton of bloat in this pack that I don’t need (remakes for every village in game? meh) And it works fairly well, but I do get occasional crashes when doing my own set. With the Lexys it is solid as a rock.
EDIT: Forgot the reason I was posting this: Lexy’s includes an optional list of mods to install to fix widescreen which works 100%. Maybe check her guide and see if the same mods would work for TSO?
TSO has been extremely stable, SE + mod author experience and best practices has greatly improved things from when I was last modded Skyrim.
I looked for the ultrawide mod they suggested in the docs, but it doesn’t seem to exist. After trying to manually change the size in the .ini, I gave up and uninstalled in favor of Lexy’s. I mean, it’s all good, I had fun testing out TSO, but I like Lexy a lot, and I really freaking love the VR hybrid mod.
You find the mods specified under files. I think Lexy & TSO have the same requirements to get Ultrawide going, but I may be incorrectly remembering.
I tried those and it made the game unplayable. In the notes he says to use: Experience - Widescreen Fix, which is the one I could not find. I’m on an Alienware 34". I see TSO is down for maintenance again. You really have to get on these mod lists the minute they are up and hope the install goes off without a problem.
I am also running TSO, and I like it a lot. Installing that mod simply crashed the game, instantly, last time I tried it. Total’s instructions are garbage (he’s a good modder, but a terrible technical writer).
I still run at 3440x1440. With the ini changes, 95% of the UI is fine.
Here is a screenshot of all the mods I am using and more importantly the order. On the latest 2.7 series he stuck in an ultrawide version of Dear Diary that you enable (while disabling the original, non 21:9 ratio). Works great for me.
Thanks, Gendal. I’ll give that a try.
Probably :) Once I have a set of mods stable and working, I tremble at the idea of any change. Gonna have a look at the changelist for TSO now and decide whether I want to update it, too.
I ended up ripping all the requiem shit out of the mod pack and added ordinator in for the perks. Its a shame, because there are things I like from requiem, but a lot of bullshit I do not. It seems to be a giant fuck-you to the player sometimes. IE: I had to kill an npc for a quest, now none of the shrines cure me, and infact may but a 2 day debuff on me that drains all my stamina and manna.
I also bought lakeshore manner, and guess what? No stone or clay mines. That is just stupid. Then I goggle this, and they say, just buy that stuff through a steward. Good idea. So I take some companions and none of them want to be a steward. So I go back to riverwood and do sven’s quest, but hey he can’t become an companion anymore. I know he can become a steward in the normal game. Its just like requiem wants to kick you in the balls over and over for no good reason. I am fine with harder monsters, because skyrim even on master difficulty is way to easy, but all the other bullshit is over the top.
Yep, whole lotta bull shit in TSO. I still love it, but I am suprised anybody else does.
Just a heads up ripping out requiem and adding in ordinator should be… err crazy. It’s actually working for you with a TSO install? Because he did a ton of custom work to port and mod requiem and az tweaks so building off it should be more headache than it’s worth.
But my hats off to you if you got it to work!