I finally got to the SE edition in my game queue. I’m all in, and my mod list is at about 44 I think, similar to others posted. I really like Campfire/Frostfall/Wet and Cold, thanks to those of you who mentioned it.
@milspec how are you liking iNeed? Is it annoying at all or fairly easy to work with?
And @DeepT, I feel you on the darkness mods. I have a tough time seeing contrast even normally, and those just tend to frustrate me.
@Rock8man No, I don’t think Skyrim itself models the moon phases. The only times the nights get darker is when it is overcast. The only time the nights get brighter is when there is an aurora. Minecraft had a great mod that modeled night brightness on the phases of the moon called “Hardcore Darkness” which was cool.
@Skipper I like iNeed. I used to use Realistic Needs and Diseases, also available for SE, which is more complicated. iNeed uses the in-game clock, so you will get hungry a set amount of times per day no matter what time scale you use. The normal setting is hunger three times per day and thirst more, and tired obviously once per day. Its very customizable via the in-game setting Power. I have it set for hardcore, which means lack of food and water will eventually kill my character (after 3 days?), and I also used the “food removal” option which turns most of the random food loot in barrels into salt piles.
I also like it in combo with InnCredible (enhances the interiors of many Inns, for example to include cooking stoves in all) and the well named I’m a Customer Dammit (which allows you to “buy meal” when clicking on the food on an Inn table). This makes it convenient and somewhat immersive to satisfy those hunger pangs. :-)
I usually like food / water / sleep mechanics, people who dislike them in general will hate iNeed.
Those don’t bother me that much, notably because as you mentioned, food is EVERYWHERE in Bethesda games. I played last with a mod like that for Fallout: New Vegas. It didn’t seem over the top either, and I enjoyed the extra immersion. Along with Campfire especially, it seems like it will be a good fit. I’ll try it.
My favorite mod so far though is one you mentioned, Ordinator. I love the new spec trees! Talk about changing the game, it takes away that rut of a planned progression the Nth time you replay Skyrim. So many new viable builds with it too.
Soooooo I spent some time with @milspec’s mod list this weekend. Goddamn do I love me some Skyrim.
I ultimately decided to ditch the survival stuff - iNeed, Frostfall, Wet & Cold - because I’m already prone to falling down the inventory hole in Skyrim and those give the pathogen another vector into my brain. That and they feel more tedious than immersive to me. I would probably be more into it if it were better supported in the UI, though.
Ordinator is super cool, though, agreed. And the new spells, and MorrowLoot, and the crafting adjustments. I may ditch the Populated Cities business, just because that many Citizens and Labourers and whatnot get in the damn way.
Does iNeed count food that you eat from the inventory or only food that you eat instead of pick up? I like having some need to eat, drink, and sleep but it seems that every time I turn around I’m hungry and thirsty.
INeed definitely counts the food you eat from the inventory. Keep eating and it will say “you are sated” and if you use the iNeed power it will show you hunger, thirst and sleep levels. If you eat to sated you should not be hungry for many game hours.
I also change the timescale to 10, which means 10 game minutes pass for each real minute. That makes the length of the Skyrim day 2.5 hours, which is twice as long as the default timescale of 20. I think I change it via Frostfall?
Timescale 10 means it is 30+ minutes until I see the hunger message again.
If you see it very frequently either something is wrong or you just need to eat more.
One of the mods allows you to eat food from the tavern tables. I don’t recall if that works property with iNeed. It wouldn’t be too hard to test - eat a lot of it when hungry and see if you change to sated.
I’ve played around some more and it does seem to be working. I think some of the food values are just less then I expect so I figure eating a meal of soup should be enough to hold me over for a while.
I did load up iNeed. @Madmarcus there is an auto-eat, auto-drink option you can set in iNeed which makes those two somewhat trivial beyond just keeping food and drink as an inventory item. I might just adjust the timescale similar to @milspec though.
Also, @inactive_user, you should look into one of the follower mods, Sofia or Inigo. I belive they both have a much better system of storage for a follower. Sofia has two inventories, one as normal per follower where she uses the best items you give her. The other is similar to having a barrel with you to store things in. I have yet to find the limit to it. So, paired with iNeed, it may seem cheaty, but she handles the food/drink and wood storage with me. Hey, I carry the tent/axe/pick, so we each have our burdens.
That’s not a bad idea, but honestly followers annoy the hell out of me. Faendal is getting ditched as soon as I can hold my own in tougher combats (MLU means I can’t just blithely walk into whatever the hell boss fight I want, imagine that).
I’m still in search of a few mods to tweak even further.
Anyone have recommendations for decent tradeskill mods (smithing/alchemy/enchanting)?
Man I so feel your pain. It’s normally the first thing I ditch in Bethesda games. “We should part ways.” That plus they tend to force storylines on you per follower, or force you bending to their likes/dislikes, which is a pain in the ass.
That being said, I think the mod followers are MUCH better in every respect. They are very configurable to stay the hell out of the way if that is what you need.
Smithy and Alchemy are covered above:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/321/ Ars Metallica - Smithing Enhancement
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2262/ Skyrim Alchemy Fixed
Ordinator also has an impact on trade skills due to its re-working of all perks.
There is technically no limit, however I’ve found my interface with it slows to a crawl (RAM issue for my PC that only has 8GB, I’m sure) when it gets pretty filled up.
I’ll check both those out. I’m also considering Useful Scrapping mod. Thanks for the recommendations!
Whoa … didn’t know that. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that when playing.
I’m planning on just changing the timescale…
I like having one more or less permanent follower when I can find one who isn’t annoying. Combo of pack mule and and the ability to to at least pretend I’m doing something useful with some of the gear that I’m not going to use. In my just started game I installed both Sofia and Inigo to see if either one of them makes the cut. Hopefully one of them is more entertaining than dragging around Lydia because it looks like I might need someone after barely making it through Bleak Falls Barrow.
Checked out Inigo on your guys’ rec. He is indeed better! And wow, so massively overpowered with his starting equipment. Those got mounted on the wall in Riften right quick. He’s pretty crazy strong even without them, at least with where I’m at.
Also, man, I’d forgotten the crazy inflection point when playing a thiefy type where you go seemingly overnight from squishy dingus to undetectable god of death. Ah well, undetectable god of death is pretty fun anyway heh.
Oh! Also!
/my games/Skyrim Special Edition/Skyrim.ini
Under [Display] add the following lines:
fDefaultFOV=75
fDefault1stPersonFOV=75
fDefaultWorldFOV=100
Thank goodness. Stupid console defaults.
Great tip for this, thanks Adam!
I just hit level 17. With Ordinator installed that means I’m really only focused on archery/stealth so far. But I’m loving the extra skills. On a whim I’ve loaded up a shitload of extra content mods.
The highest of those recommended:
Falskaar
The Forgotten City
Also:
Clockwork
The Notice Board
Beyond Reach
Moonpath to Elsweyr
Helgen Reborn
I’ve played about 3/4 of Falskaar in classic version. So I’ll try to rush through that content. I know its good parts and bad parts, but I enjoy the fun so why not do it again with the SE version. But The Forgotten City is highly recommended and I cannot wait to play it.
I have had a hard drive failure of my c drive. The only thing I had on it was Windows 10 and nexus mod manager and the mods. My Skyrim game is untouched on my other hard drive that survived.
So the question is am I knackered re my current game. Will it run or do I have to reinstall Nexus and the mods exactly to make it work.
You should be okay. If you’re like me, my Steam folder was on the larger drive, as were all the added items, including most mods. About the only thing I can think of would be Nexus Mod Manager if you use it, and LOOT if you use that as well. Those would install to their own directory if I remember correctly.
Also note that if you have Steam sync enabled, you may have a saved game or two still on that.