Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Here there be Dragons)

[Dark Silver]

So yeah, this is more than a few months late......but I' didn't get Skyrim till the big STEAM Sale during the holidays, and since then, I've managed to get sucked in, and beeen exploring the Tamerilian Province of Skyrim (which is odd, cause I couldn't get interested in any of the previous Elder Scrolls games)

Well, While it does have it's bug, it's actually a pretty fun game ONCE you start figuring out what the hell you want to do beyond the primary quest.

Well, what brings me to making a thread about Skyrim, was I found a video of a mod for it.
A few weeks back there was the awesome "Macho Dragon" mod which turned the Dragons into Macho Man's, and now, we have this.....

[youtube][/youtube]

fucking Bronies...

[RogueIce]

Turning the dragons into pegasi is kinda lame. This is a better one:

[youtube][/youtube]

Bonus points for making the horse look like an actual pony (good ol' Dashie!) from the show, instead of a RL horse colored blue.

[Dark Silver]

100+ hours, and started a second character

First character was a Sword and Board Imperial Character, who while being inept in most other magickal things, could enchant his ass off. And smith. He loved to craft new magical shit and laugh at everyone else's armor and weapons.

Second character I made was a Brenton who I'm going to model as a Magissassin (Thief/Assassin and Mage). Not very far into him yet.

I do have complaints - for the first part, is the combat system. Now this is the first Elder Scrolls game I've played this long, and I skipped out on Oblivion entirely, but I have issues with the combat system. Mostly when it comes to melee. Half the time, I'm swinging, and I can't frigging hit what I'm swingging for because the assholes move at JUST the last second. Combat doesn't feel visceral enough (this was even on my sword and board Imperial).

Also, why the hell am I almost level forty, decked out in heavily enchanted epic Ebony armor, and STILL can fold like a wet paper towel against the odd bandit pack in furs? Yet they can resist my epic fire spewing ebony sword's pure killing awesomeness? Doesn't make sense. I disprove.

I'm waiting for the big update, which is supposed to open up Cyrodil and Morrowind with some questings, if what I hear is true....we'll see.

[Hotfoot]

Odd, I've not had any real problems with melee combat, especially when it comes to hacking someone down. Between shield bashing people to death (and using it to knock weapons from their hands) to having a random chance of decapitating fools, my character, an axe and shield Nord stalker, has ruined people in stand up fights and in sneaky backstabs. What sort of perk points did you spend as you levelled up?

[Dark Silver]

I've been focusing my PP on the Imperial in blacksmithing and One Handed Weapons (I like having heavy armor on that guy), with a few points in Heavy Armor.

I probably screwed up his point dispersal at the beggining, which explains why he has issue when it comes to melee combat.

I'm hoping the Brenton is better.


At anyrate, I still find Skyrim combat is...shallow, there's not much depth to it at all, and the worlds for all the cool bits of "Awesome!" you can see, is really just pretty static. My Brenton, for instance, does his level best to keep a low profile and conduct skull-drudgery yet EVERYONE feels the need to talk to him and acknowledge his presence ALL THE FRIGGING TIME.

It's....annoying.

[rhoenix]

My entry for the list. This is my first "real" character.

Name: Amaya
Race: Breton
Build: Sword & Shield Skirmisher (wearing light armor, using Archery as primary long-range attack)
Level: 48
Follower: Lydia
Additional: Werewolf (which actually does make use of her One-Handed skill - heh)
Notes: With Smithing & Enchanting both at 100 now, she's capable of creating some truly disquieting gear - and has done so to outfit herself and Lydia.

[rhoenix]

Also, this is because it is awesome:

[youtube][/youtube]

[Eleas]

And, on a very related note, the same song with his friend Lindsey Davis:

[youtube][/youtube]

[White Haven]

That's Stirling, not Davis, IIRC.

[Eleas]

That's Stirling, not Davis, IIRC.

Argh. You're right, of course. Brainfart.

[rhoenix]

After having come back to Skyrim after a while, I also decided to get into patching it so it looks awesome. There are many options for this both through Steam, through the Skyrim Nexus, and elsewhere. However, I have limited myself to pretty much just Steam for a few things, and Skyrim Nexus for most other patching. I thought I'd post links here to help others along as well, set into categories.

Most of the links given will have links to install the mod with the Nexus Mod Manager, which makes customizing, fixing, and updating stuff much easier.

Category The First: Awesome Environments
1. Skyrim HD Textures: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/607
There is the LITE version, and the FULL version, both of which strongly upgrade the existing Skyrim textures, even the HD ones (and, it fixes the fire ember issue with the regular HD textures as well). Despite my laptop being fairly powerful, I'm currently running the LITE version. My PC can run the FULL one, but framerate slows down too much, and in gameplay, you only notice the difference between the two up close.

2. WATER (Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux): http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13268
Fixes waterfalls and other forms of running water to look much more natural.

3. Sharpshooter's ENB: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15105
ENB files are shading & lighting enhancements to make for a much better-looking experience. There are quite a few quality choices out there, but I settled on Sharpshooters both because it works well in all environments, and because downloading it can be managed through the Nexus Mod Manager.

4. Natural Skyrim Rain: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8395
Changes how rain & storms act in Skyrim to be much more realistic, and nice-looking besides.

5. Raindrops Deluxe HR: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25484
A complement to the Natural Skyrim Rain mod, this makes all the raindrops and rain impacts use much higher-quality textures.

6. Quality Snowflakes: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/7405
A natural match for the rain mods, this makes the snowfall look that much better.

7. Project Parallax - Roads & Bridges: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/18814
A relatively small thing, but using parallax maps for certain things in Skyrim really does make it look nicer. There are other Parallax enhancements from the same author, but most of them are not NMM-capable as of yet.

8. Dragon Glyphs HD: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27095
A relatively minor thing, but this makes those places in Skyrim where you get shouts look that much nicer.

9. Alternative Smoke: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/7231
To my eyes, this makes all the smoke in the game look that much better.

10. Lush Grass: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3288
What It Says On The Tin. It really does make grass look better, but causes a minor performance hit in grassy areas.

11. Lush Trees: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3385
What It Says On The Tin. It really does make grass look better, but causes a minor performance hit in areas with lots of trees.

Category The Second: Gameplay Enhancements
12. Better Dialog Controls: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27371
This makes using the keyboard and mouse in menus work less... weirdly at times, and more as one might expect.

13. Better MessageBox Controls: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/28170
A natural complement, this makes message boxes act using Y and N, and allows using WASD and arrow keys more naturally.

14. Better Vampires: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9717
Allows fine control over vampiric conditions (and even lets you infect followers). Useful even if you don't play as a vampire much.

15. Dragons Diversified: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13930
Adds several new types of dragons from the random table used to generate them when they spawn, and all of them are very interesting ideas - and fun as hell to fight against.

16. Follower Trap Safety: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11609
LYDIA STOP SETTING OFF TRAPS FOR THE LOVE OF TALOS

17. Glowing Ore Veins: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/193
There is another mod available through Steam and through SkyrimNexus that serves the same basic purpose, that makes all untapped ore deposits glow like ice. It makes finding the ore much easier, but it's rather disruptive to the whole immersion of gameplay experience. This mod simply retextures the ore veins with much more obvious signs that you can mine, without looking ugly or like a giant crackrock embedded in the ground.

18. Ultimate Follower Overhaul: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14037
Allows more than one companion at once (up to 15 I think, but I haven't tested anywhere near that high), and allows better control over companion AI. Rather useful, all around.

Category The Third: Pure Cosmetics
To start with, there are many options out there to enhance female bodies, and they basically boil down to "pick one between UNP and CBBE." I won't get into that debate here, but basically UNP is newer and supports a "natural" female bodytype. CBBE has been around longer, and is more customizable for female figures, but it's also infamous for letting females have breasts larger than their heads.

There are many options for either, I just suggest looking into both and deciding - there are armor replacements and other enhancements for both UNP and CBBE. So, with all that said, moving on:

19. Fine Hair HQ: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/7627
Makes the greasy-looking regular hair in Skyrim at least look a bit better.

20. No More Blocky Faces: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30
Makes many minor enhancements to character faces that make them... less blocky. Surprise.

21. Apachii SkyHair: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10168
HD Hairstyle additions (for both men & women), and beard retextures (for men only, thankfully).

22. Oblivion Hairstyles HD: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22598
Adds high quality Oblivion hairstyles to Skyrim.

22. Better Males: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2488
If you upgrade the women in Skyrim and don't install something like this, there will be a hilarious disparity of graphical textures between men & women.

23. Women of Skyrim: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25588
There are many, many mods out there to improve the looks of women. This mod contains pretty much all the best ones in one package.

Category the Fourth: The Unmanaged Ones
There's pretty much just one mod I use that requires a manual install, and it's a texture map to make women's skin look much better. There are many other skin textures out there, but these two look the best out of what I've found.

24. Barbarian/Milkdrinker Skin for Females: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24318
Be mindful, this skin texture is optimized for the UNP female bodytype. There are other options out there for CBBE users of just as high quality (such as navetsea's), but I haven't looked into them for a while. What the Barbarian/Milkdrinker skin options give are a tanned & muscular, or pale & smooth options for your character's skin.

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So, what does all of this add up to, you ask? Here are some examples - judge for yourself, and keep in mind that still images do not do the results justice.

[rhoenix]

After yet more tinkering, I've made some adjustments in mods for looks, framerate, and stability.

3. Sharpshooter's ENB: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15105
ENB files are shading & lighting enhancements to make for a much better-looking experience. There are quite a few quality choices out there, but I settled on Sharpshooters both because it works well in all environments, and because downloading it can be managed through the Nexus Mod Manager.

Though very bright during daytime and dark and moody underground, it also dropped framerate quite a bit, something I thought at first had to do with the textures I was using, since they are pretty high quality.

But no - turns out that Sharpshooter's mod, while popular, isn't really that good. After testing several, I eventually settled on this one - Cinematic Lighting HD: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4142

Not only did framerate measurably improve while using this ENB, colors and shadowing were better, less glaring, and lighting effects all around were improved. Even better, it can be downloaded and managed with the Nexus Mod Manager, making installation easy.

4. Natural Skyrim Rain: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8395
Changes how rain & storms act in Skyrim to be much more realistic, and nice-looking besides.

In a word, bullshit. It did look slightly better, but it also showed rain when you went inside. Unacceptable. So, I've gone with this instead: EDWS (enhanced dynamic weather system) - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8739

18. Ultimate Follower Overhaul: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14037
Allows more than one companion at once (up to 15 I think, but I haven't tested anywhere near that high), and allows better control over companion AI. Rather useful, all around.

*sigh*

I wanted to like this mod, as it operates entirely within the speech menu of talking to followers, as well as a shout for ranged commands. However, it was also buggy as shit.

So, I tested a few more, and settled on this one, the Extensible Follower Framework, which... is very awesome, and also nicely stable. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12933



Now, with this in mind, I found a few more that really do add to the experience, making things just that much better.

Lanterns of Skyrim (all in one pack) - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/18916
Simply adds lanterns near bridges and houses at night, which really does look nice.

Static Mesh Improvement Mod - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8655
This. THIS. This is the awesome. In layman's terms, it increases complexity of each graphical model in the game, allowing for better edges and less blockyness. It's a huge amount of subtle improvements everywhere.


With these now in place, I think I'm finally satisfied. Skyrim is now a true experience to behold - I explored a Dwoemer cavern last night with all the mods in place, and it really, really was an experience.

I'll take a few new screenshots tonight after I settle in at work, but with still images, the improvements will be subtle - however, they are very noticeable in game.

[rhoenix]

Alright - now that work is now quiet, as promised, here are some screenshots. Keep in mind, the improvements you'll see in them will be subtle over the previous ones, but a careful eye can spot the differences in lighting, shadows, and so forth.

Additionally, this is of my crew of Lydia (warrior 1h+shield/bow/mage AI), Janessa (warrior 1h+shield/bow AI), and Uthgerd (2h/bow berserker AI).









I'm pretty well satisfied with this setup as of now. It runs smoothly, looks beautiful, and it's still Skyrim.

[rhoenix]

Well, this should come as a huge surprise, but someone else has apparently done all the hard work of finding useful mods, and compiled them into lists.

For all graphics and FX improvements, see the STEP (Skyrim Total Enhancement Project) and the Skyrim Tweaks & Performance Guide.

For all gameplay additions and changes, check the GEMS (Gameplay Enhancement Mods for Skyrim).

I'm personally going to try a few different FX mods of the ones listed (mainly the ones that are supposed to improve framerate), and go from there.

[rhoenix]

Shocking, I know, but having a shit-ton of leftover mods still active in Plugins might just slow a game down a bit.

So - a complete uninstall, re-install with mods (with a few different ones from my last setup) this time, the verdict is "holy fuck, this is sexy."

Framerate is smooth as silk now, even with 4k textures being used all around (instead of the 2k additional ones, or the 1k regular stock HD textures), active weather effects, fog, cloud effecs, and a highly tuned ENB setting.

For the curious, between Steam and NMM, I'm running a grand total of 38 mods (plus three installed manually, and are all either textures or an ENB setting). Could be worse, I'd say.

ENB used for the following screenshots is The Wilds (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21123), which though it has to be installed manually, is by far my new favorite - especially because it takes all those nifty weather effects of different places into account.

[rhoenix]

A small update - I changed from The Wilds ENB to using Seasons of Skyrim ENB, and I am very glad I did. The Wilds was very pretty, but gave a hazy, misty, fantasy-ish look to everything. Seasons of Skyrim is just as nice in terms of colors and shading, but much sharper, and gives me substantially better FPS, especially outdoors.

So, that was an easy decision. Also, for those of you who don't want elves who look like Sectoids from XCOM, the mod Ethereal Elven Overhaul fixes most of the facial weirdness with the elf and orc races nicely.

[rhoenix]

Just to revisit this topic, since I think we all still play Skyrim from time to time.

This video is an in-depth exploration of ENB mods for Skyrim, what they do for the graphics in Skyrim, and what the tradeoffs for using them are (usually in terms of FPS). This first video is a broad overview of ENB mods.

[youtube][/youtube]

This second video focuses specifically on Sharpshooter's ENB mod, a cinematic-style ENB mod with greater contrast between shade and lighted areas (mild FPS hit when active)

[youtube][/youtube]

The third in the series focuses on Project ENB, a more "realistic" ENB mod. (mild to medium FPS hit when active)

[youtube][/youtube]

The fourth in this series (07/01/13) covers Opethfeldt6 ENB, which give a more "natural" look, as well as a lighter hit on FPS performance than Sharpshooter's ENB or Project ENB.

[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

As an additional note, the Skyrim Tweak Guide includes tips for editing your skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini for increased performance (to take advantage of CPU multithreading in particular), and improving the visuals as well.

[rhoenix]

So Hotfoot just gave me this link, and I see he didn't post it here. I certainly will, since it involves Best Practices for tinkering with your installation of Skyrim to look more awesome than the default.

Just FYI, most of the changes and tweaks I've done with Skyrim come down to Steam addons, the Nexus Mod Manager (for the Skyrim Nexus), and tinkering with Skyrim's .ini files on my computer.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01 ... m-in-2014/