Skyrim Special Edition

BrianRubin · January 9, 2017, 8:28pm

Sure, but I’m using 'em on Vanilla.

jpinard · January 9, 2017, 9:04pm

That’s fine!

BrianRubin · January 9, 2017, 9:55pm

Here’s mine:

A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map - With Roads - Amazing map, so useful.
ASIS - NPCs can access potions and spells.
Balanced Magic - As primarily a battlemage, I could use more powerful magic.
Balanced_Magic_Dawnguard - Same as above.
Better Dialogue Controls - More PC centric controls
Better MessageBox Controls - More PC centric controls
Cutting Room Floor - Adds some content back in.
Daedric Dawnbreaker - This is the only sword I use, so it makes it more damages and make it an actual light source.
Dovahbit of Caerbannog - A small rabbit with a bag of holding.
Duel - Combat Realism - Makes combat more visceral and damaging
Falskaar - A massive island added to the game
Immersive Horses - Lets you dismiss horses, only reason I have it.
Immersive Patrols - Adds more patrols to the roads.
Immersive Patrols - Great White North Edition - Adds more patrols to the roads.
Insects Begone - Modularly Removing Spiders and Chaurus - Changes spiders to bears because spiders freaks me out.
IslandFastTravel - v1-2 - Lets one fast travel to Falskaar ans Wrymstooth
Mastered Magicka - Further magicka balancing.
OBIS - Organized Bandits In Skyrim - More bandits around the game, lots of them. LOTS of them.
Populated Cities Towns Villages Reborn - More folks walking around in cities.
Populated Dungeons Caves Ruins Reborn - More crap in dungeons.
Populated Forts Towers Places - More forts and such.
Populated Lands Roads Paths - More people walking around on the road.
Populated Skyrim Civil War - Adds some civil war stuff to the game, makes it even more populated.
Populated Skyrim Prisons Cells Reborn - Make prison cells actually have prisoners.
Run For Your Lives - Civvies actually run inside when dragons attack.
SkyUI - Makes the UI more PC-centric.
SPERG - Skyrim Perk Enhancements and Rebalanced Gameplay - Retools the skills quite a bit.
Unofficial High Resolution Patch - Self-explanatory.
Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch - Self-explanatory.
Unread Books Glow - Unread books have a glow making them easy to spot.
When Vampires Attack - Makes civvies run inside when vampires attack.
wyrmstooth - Another content addition, haven’t visited yet.

milspec · January 9, 2017, 11:42pm

My mod list is similar to @krayzkrok 's above. The best combo is Frostfall + Climates + Campfire + True Storms + Wet and Cold. The level of immersion that this mod combo gives is impressive, it fits perfectly into a game set in a partially snowy world.

I didn’t see Footprints in that list and will plug it since its fun to track creatures through the snow. Its been re-released for SE.

jpinard · January 9, 2017, 11:46pm

YES! Thank you! It is insanely overwhelming when one walks (err surfs) into mod nexus and see 20 billion, errr 20,000 mods for the game. It’s like… I can’t even imagine counting to 20,000 manually let alone somehow meander through so many options.

Krazykrok - you can add mods with bethesda.net as you play the game and it won’t mess things up too bad? Or do you keep restarting?

LeeAbe · January 10, 2017, 1:08am

Reading this thread trying to catch up, am I right to think there is no reason to play the Special Edition? The original with mods is the way to go?

Dan_Theman · January 10, 2017, 2:25pm

A million times this. Play the SE unless there’s some mod you absolutely cannot do without that has yet to be ported and isn’t a quick fix to port yourself (many aren’t very hard to switch, fwiw).

Telefrog · January 10, 2017, 2:58pm

Well, there is another reason to stick with the regular edition of Skyrim on PC. Simple mods are much easier to download and install through the Steam Workshop than through the external NMM system. For example, the only two mods I ran in Skyrim was the Stones of Barenziah map locator, and one that gave more money to shopkeepers. It was literally two clicks to download and install them through Steam and there was never an issue with conflicts or updates.

With SE it was a bit of a chore to register with Nexus, download the NMM client, then set it up, then find and download the mods. Alternatively, you can deal with Bethesda.net, but no one wants to do that on PC because the interface is awful and it’s down all the time.

BrianRubin · January 10, 2017, 5:01pm

I stil with Vanilla Skyrim because not every mod I rely on is on the Special Edition yet, plus I really like Mod Organizer, which also likely won’t be available for the SE.

inactive_user · January 10, 2017, 11:29pm

So there’s a SkyUI version that works with SE now? The vanilla interface is offensive in its badness for m/k control.

milspec · January 10, 2017, 11:44pm

You need to manually install SkyUI version 2.2, but it works:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/ajax/downloadfile?id=39229

I also use these for UI improvements:

Better Message Box Controls:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1428/?

Better Dialogue Controls:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1429/?

SkyHUD:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/463/?

inactive_user · January 11, 2017, 1:07am

Oh fantastic, thanks!

Anton_Gully · January 11, 2017, 9:01pm

I use Mod Organizer with SSE. Works fine.

BrianRubin · January 11, 2017, 9:40pm

Whoa, really? I’ll have to try that. Thanks!

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

Anton_Gully · January 20, 2017, 9:20am

Depends on how complicated the mod is, ie if it requires SKSE or something not currently supported in SSE (old nif formats?), but GENERALLY I think you can just download the standard Skyrim archive and open it with Mod Organizer or (I assume) NMM in SSE mode.

DeepT · January 20, 2017, 11:39am

You know something that bothers me about all “realistic/ better night mods” is that the extra darkness only affects the player. Everyone else in the world can see just fine. That means those bandits you can’t see for than 5 feet away will start attacking you 100 feet away. Id be for these kinds of mods if they were balanced.

milspec · January 20, 2017, 12:11pm

Darker Nights author says “Darker Nights affects ambient light and environment colors and this affects both your vision and that of the enemies”.

inactive_user · January 20, 2017, 4:01pm

Thank you very much for sharing this! Particularly the step by step for loading things into SE.

Bookmarked for next time I get the Skyrim itch.

Rock8man · January 20, 2017, 4:04pm

Does the mod also model the moon?

Actually scratch that. I have no idea if the planet Tamriel is on even has a moon. But here on Earth, I’ve always been amazed when I’m out in the country late at night what a huge difference the moon makes at night. It can add a lot of visibility.