Skyrim Special Edition

milspec · January 20, 2017, 5:52am

This is my list of mods. I have played about 12 hours with these loaded and I am happy with the results. I recommend them for anyone looking for a realistic, immersive, survival-focused play-through. As a hint of what they do, here is a summary of my Top Ten mods in alphabetical order:

Alternate Start: skip the main quest, pick from 10 different starts such as being a bandit
Campfire: make fires, add wood, cook over them, set up tents, sleep in them
Darker Nights, Realistic Lighting Overhaul, Vivid Weathers: turns off the default blue glow of Skyrim, makes darkness dark and storms really intense
Frostfall, Wet and Cold: track your temperature and wetness, being too cold gives penalties, don’t try to swim across an icy lake!
iNeed - Food Water and Sleep: track hunger, thirst and weariness, eat food three times per day and drink water a bit more, find a bed when you are tired
MorrowLoot Ultimate: turns off leveled loot and encounters, sets NPCs in dungeons etc to their highest levels, manually places sensible loot (no more glass from bandits)
Open Cities: allows you to travel from the open world right into the major cities without a loading screen
Ordinator: re-haul of the perk system to allow for a more varied and sensible progression
Populated Cities Towns Villages and Lands Roads Paths: more people everywhere, where it makes sense
SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators: solo wolves run, packs of wolves hunt, all animals are smarter
Wildcat - Combat: staggers you or opponents when you take a lot of damage, small chance for temporary wounds in combat, increased multiplier (I use Adept 1.5x/1.5x)

Interested? Here is what to do:

These are for Skyrim Special Edition, released Oct 2016. These are not for the original version of Skyrim. Skyrim SE runs mods much better, I had one crash in 12 hours.

You need to use the Nexus Mod Manager available here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/modmanager/

You will also need a free login to the Nexus site, make one if you don’t have one already and use it for NMM.

To install the mods click the links below (***) to open each page in a browser. Click the green “Download NMM” button for each mod, which will download it via from the site to NMM. Switch to NMM and click the green “Install / Enable” for each mod. Most of these will install quietly. A few will ask configuration questions. Go slow, think about it, and remember you can always change the options later via NMM.
There are four things you have to do manually:

a) SkyUI needs a manual download and install of version 2.2, link below. Install it via NMM Plus icon for “add mod from file”. It will want SKSE which does not exist for SE, don’t worry it will still run. You will see an error in the inventory screen, ignore it.

b) Achievements Mods Enabler needs a separate DLL downloaded and dropped in the Skyrim game folder (where SkyrimSE.exe lives). Follow the instructions on the mod page.

c) MorrowLoot Ultimate needs a few patches installed, which will automatically load into NMM. They are here:

Grab “MLU - Ars Metallica Patch” and “MLU - Immersive Armors”. I also prefer “Morrowloot Ultimate - No Artifacts Version” at the bottom of that page, which means you do not need the normal Morrowloot Ultimate mod below.

d) I only use the interior files for Realistic Lighting Overhaul, because I prefer Vivid Weathers for the exterior lighting. You cannot use both exterior files. Go into the NMM Plugins tab and uncheck these to turn them off:

RLO Minor Cities and Towns
RLO Major City Exteriors
RLO Weathers
RLO Dawnguard

Once the mods are installed and configured close NMM and open up LOOT, which does a better of sorting the load order. Its easy to use, just sort and apply. Get it here:

https://loot.github.io/

After you run LOOT you can click Options (three stacked dots) and “Copy Load Order”. That will generate a list of 84 lines that you can use to compare to my list below (===). If you install everything via NMM and then run LOOT, your list should match mine.

Start the game! A number of the mods have in-game options available via the "P"owers menu, notably Frostfall which needs to be manually started. I picked the most hardcore options from Frostfall, Camping and Wet and Cold. (I may come back and update this section with more info.)
I suggest mentally preparing yourself for some tinkering for the first hour or so. Make sure you understand and enjoy all of the systems at work. Then re-start a new life and play for real!
There are no good economic mods ported for Skyrim SE yet. My character has too much gold and there is too much loot. Contact me if you know how to convert these mods from Vanilla:

DO NOT INSTALL THESE TWO INTO SE :-)
Scarcity: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49496/?
Reduced Gold for Quests: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16231/?

*** Here are the links for the Skyrim SE mods for NMM:

Summary

=== LOOT load order:

Summary

0 0 Skyrim.esm
1 1 Update.esm
2 2 Dawnguard.esm
3 3 HearthFires.esm
4 4 Dragonborn.esm
5 5 Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - Main.esm
6 6 Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp
7 7 Campfire.esm
8 8 Cutting Room Floor.esp
9 9 SMIM-SE-Merged-All.esp
10 a Bring Out Your Dead.esp
11 b iNeed.esp
12 c iNeed - Extended.esp
13 d InnCredible.esp
14 e Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Interiors.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Minor Cities and Town Interiors.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Exteriors.esp
15 f Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dawnguard Interiors.esp
16 10 Book Covers Skyrim.esp
17 11 Skyrim Alchemy Fixed.esp
18 12 Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp
19 13 skyBirds_SSE.esp
20 14 Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dungeons.esp
21 15 SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp
22 16 Better Horses 3.0.esp
23 17 Wildcat - Combat of Skyrim.esp
24 18 Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp
25 19 dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp
26 1a BetterQuestObjectives.esp
27 1b FNIS.esp
28 1c Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
29 1d Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
30 1e Populated Lands Roads Paths Legendary.esp
31 1f Point The Way.esp
32 20 Skyrim Better Roads and Bridges - All In One - Merged.esp
33 21 Run For Your Lives.esp
34 22 Chesko_LoreBasedLoadingScreens.esp
35 23 Populated Cities Towns Villages Legendary.esp
36 24 UnreadBooksGlow.esp
37 25 SkyHUD.esp
38 26 SkyrimIsWindy.esp
39 27 FoodOverhaulless.esp
40 28 Shor’s Stone.esp
41 29 Frostfall.esp
42 2a Ivarstead.esp
43 2b Helarchen Creek.esp
44 2c Kynesgrove.esp
45 2d Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp
46 2e Soljund’s Sinkhole.esp
47 2f Karthwasten.esp
48 30 ExpandedCarriageService.esp
49 31 1nivWICCloaks.esp
50 32 ExtendedStay.esp
51 33 Vivid WeathersSE.esp
52 34 IcePenguinWorldMap.esp
53 35 AcquisitiveSoulGemMultithreaded.esp
54 36 Backshields.esp
55 37 dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp
56 38 Footprints.esp
57 39 Player_Shadows.esp
58 3a Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim.esp
59 3b Ars Metallica.esp
60 3c True Eyes SE.esp
61 3d WetandCold.esp
62 3e LFGCustom.esp
63 3f Visible Favorited Gear.esp
64 40 DarkerNights.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Weathers.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dawnguard Weathers.esp
65 41 Vivid Weathers - Extended Rain.esp
66 42 Chesko_WearableLantern.esp
67 43 MLU.esp
68 44 MLU - Ars Metallica Patch.esp
69 45 MLU - Immersive Armors.esp
70 46 Open Cities Skyrim.esp
71 47 Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul.esp
72 48 Immersive Citizens - OCS patch.esp
73 49 Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
74 4a Relationship Dialogue Overhaul.esp
75 4b more idle markers.esp
76 4c Darkwater Crossing.esp
77 4d Whistling Mine.esp
78 4e RealisticWaterTwo.esp
79 4f RealisticWaterTwo - iNeed.esp