Ok, so as mentioned in this thread, I recently built my own computer. I've been intending on doing this for a while, so I held off on playing Skyrim not only because of the new PC, but to give it time for awesome mods to come out as well.

So basically, my computer can handle a lot more than SKyrim, as such I'm looking for the best mods to get for it. This isn't limited to just graphical enhancements, I want the best possible Skyrim experience, while staying true to the game.

So nothing that conflicts with lore, but otherwise everything is on the table. I checked out skyrim nexus mods, and downloaded the program, but the amount of choice is quite large, and I'm not sure how everything works in terms of compatibility.

What are your guys recommendations? How do I know which mods work with each other, and which dont?

Cheers.

 

I'd play through it vanilla first, but here are my favourites. I'll leave the graphics mods to other people, because I don't care as much about those.

Deadly Dragons - Master difficulty and has a bunch of settings that are lore compatible or not (and the difficult goes up a fuck ton with the latter). It buffs up dragons so that they're actually a challenge and adds a few other breeds so that you've got more variety.

Occupy Skyrim - This does the opposite of DD, it buffs up everything else and adds a shit ton of random battles between NPCs in the wilderness so that you're never bored during long hikes. Extra health potions are a must in this one.

Lost Art of the Blacksmith/Smithing Perks Overhaul/Weapon and Armour Fixes - These three work together to completely overhaul the weapons/armour/crafting parts of Skyrim, and for the most part are much better than vanilla.

SkyUI/Categorized Favorites Menu/Better Sorting - Not gameplay mods, but essential nonetheless. These work to revamp the main menu and favourites menu for PC use rather than console.

Calientes' Female Body Mod - Pick your edition and set yourself away. Never again shall you look upon ugly women in the land of Skyrim. It's also used as the base for about a billion other mods, so I'd suggest getting this even if you don't care about looks.

The Realistic Lighting Custom Configuration/Sounds of Skyrim - Great for building the atmosphere of dungeons so that you're never really at ease until you've left.

Lanterns of Skyrim - If you go for Realistic Lighting you're going to need this, because nights get dark.

Well, those are my favourites for the most part. The rest of what I've got are just HD graphics mods and a couple of minor fixes/extra item mods (like Cloaks of Skyrim/Winter is Coming). Enjoy.

 

There's already a thread for this, but I guess nobody's touched it in some time, so have some links:

Jaysus Swords - hands down the best mod for introducing new weapons. Not only are they craftable, but they get distributed around the world in enemy inventories and such. A few of the most powerful are even left as prizes towards the end of some dungeons, providing a new incentive for dungeon diving after Bethesda's contribution begins to feel flat.

Immersive Armors - similar deal, but with armor. Many of these are remixes of existing armor, so it fits with lore perfectly while still increasing the game content by a huge margin. The distribution of armor varies from piece to piece, but that information is all contained on the mod page.

Alternate Start - Live Another Life - allows you to begin the game as a new member of a guild, or a patron of an inn, or a member of an NPC faction. I've begun using it recently because my chronic need to start new characters instead of playing existing ones began to make me pissed off with the tutorial level.

Psijiic Master Outfits - the most beautiful goddamn mage robes you'll ever see. Definitely worth a look.

Drachis Argonians - gives argonians dragon scales instead of frog skin. Amazing. It's an incomplete WIP that hasn't been updated in a while, but still one of my favourite mods.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8655 - SMIM, here, is an amazing upgrade to minor items in the worldspace, but it eats up a lot of compujuice.

These are some of the only mods I use - and to be honest, I suggest you don't use too many. You'll have a lot more fun playing a game without the ridiculous godmode items and porn that half the mods out there seem to be.

Mods usually overwrite one another rather than breaking anything, so if two are affecting the same thing, just put the one you want more as last in the load order, so that it emerges victorious from any conflicts.

I suggest you don't pay too much heed to the ENB or FXAA mods; they're rarely more than crazy amounts of bloom or saturation, sometimes coupled with retarded particle effects everywhere. You can get a good looking game with them, but Skyrim looks fine as it is, and you'll have way more fun playing the game than tweaking graphic sliders.

Honorary mention goes to this board: http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/group/character-building

It has dozens of great ideas for ways to play your character, if you want to take it to the next level. On that note, playing on Expert is probably the way to go. Master can be more satisfying, but gets tedious when Bandit Chiefs are crushing you in single blows at the lower levels.

 

If I do get a few of those item mods, do you think it's worth playing on master to just offset the gear?

Cheers for the list so far, can't wait to play the game now.

Are the graphics mods meh overall, or are there some worth looking at?

 

If you put in Deadly Dragons mod there are settings for it that buff things like mob health, armor and damage so you can put it on master see if that's the difficulty you're looking for and if not adjust accordingly. I played with a lot of crazy mods that buffed me so I had to combine master difficulty with drastically scaled mob stats in order to maintain an acceptable level of challenge. On master normally however CareOtters is correct the first dozen levels or so are rather annoying since you are usually one shotted by silly mobs.

SkyMoMod adds a lot of different mobs all around the map but I think that violates your conflict with lore since I'm pretty sure I've fought a triceratops before.

The graphics mods are actually great improvements and are worth looking into if you care about such things.

Mods I would recommend: The Dance of Death -Killmove mod that adds some more variety to basically all the weapon types. Lets you set percentage chances as well, it can even make enemies capable of performing killmoves on you. I found that it helps alleviate some of the monotony of melee.

WARZONES- Civil Unrest- Basically turns Skyrim into an all out civil war. It tends to be a bit buggy so there is that risk and very harsh on the system especially with higher mob population settings but its a lot of fun. Sometimes I'd just be adventuring and stumble upon a 20 v 20 free for all between the Stormcloaks and Imperials. Usually you end up killing everybody though since an accidental hit turns everyone of that faction hostile XD

Moonpath to Elsewyr - Probably the best of the additional quest mods I've played for Skyrim. Its basically a Khajit centric storyline with voice acting, some custom enemies, different zones, etc. Fun stuff includes fighting airship pirates (sort of).

Duel Combat Realism - Very melee centric mod but it basically helps improve the battle AI and changes the basic functions of melee combat. Prevents you from being able to cheese enemies with chain staggers, best results for shield are with precise timing, blocking requires stamina, etc.

I didn't take the time to find the rest but if you are going archery route there is an arrow tweak mod that lets you change settings like the flight speed of arrows, chances of picking up new arrows and a bunch of things like that. Might also be useful if you want to increase difficulty as well since its pretty easy to dodge arrows at range in vanilla. There's also PISE for difficulty enhancement, a number of companion mods as well as increasing the number of companions you can have at once, a really well done vampire mod called belua sanguinare, and that's all I can think of for now.

 

Ok, so this list was pretty much perfect for me. 2 queries however. Sounds of Skyrim apparently no longer exists on SMN, well, its been hidden by the author.

Secondly, the only version of Calliente's female body mod I can find is the nude one. I can't find anything else. Thoughts?

 

Auto Unequip Arrows

Automatically unequips arrows when you equip your bow and will equip the same arrows back when you equip your bow again.

Balanced Magic

I like this the best of upping magic in the game. You can choose how strong/weak it is too.

Deadly Spell Impacts

Makes the spell effect on the landscape alot nicer looking.

Enhanced Blood Textures

Makes the blood look alot nicer.

Glowing Ore Veins

Makes finding ore veins ALOT easier. This helped me alot, especially in Blackreach.

Improved NPC Clothing

Makes the clothing textures better for everyone.

Increased Bounty Rewards

I thought it was horseshit that killing a Dragon got so little for a reward from the Jarl. It's a goddamn DRAGON. This corrects it, along with killing Giants and Bandit Leaders. You can choose how high it goes too.

Omegared99 - Armor Compilation

Adds some awesome armors to the game, you can craft them too.

Realistic Ragdolls and Force

Fus-Ro-Daing someone off of a 50ft cliff should kill their ass. This corrects it along with other physics.

Weapons of the 3rd Era

Adds some nice weaponry to Skyrim. Some of the stuff I'll admit I don't like, but they do have some wicked looking blades.

XCE - Xenius Character Enhancment

Makes everyone in Skyrim look better.

I have more to add but some of the stuff is Dark Brotherhood related and I don't know if you want extra armors. Really awesome armors in my opinion though.

 

Calliente's mod has an option for non nude. You just have to pick it when you activate the mod.

 

It's been mentioned already and I haven't added to the thread in a long while, but here is the official thread for Skyrim mods. If you find anything new stick it in there (follow the posting format please), yeah?