The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

[Vern1961]

I think there is still a separate thread for mods, but long since fell off the front page.

Doing a bit better after the restart, using the H4 S2 M1 formula for main character building. This does put the emphasis on Health but that's what's needed at the start. There's no point in strength until the later levels when you hit the Dwenmer ruins and start lugging out Dwarven metal. Nor having copious magicka other than needed for quick regen or basic spells. Focusing my skill points into the essentials for survival and mission specific requirements (e.g stealth and lockpicking for Thieves Guild). And while iron daggers may have been nerfed as a means of levelling up, transmutation works just as nicely! Hit up the shops and forges for iron and silver ore and get XP for turning into gold. Lots of XP for forging gold necklaces or silver jewellery if you have some gems. Finally the speech XP selling to Belethor (when his shop is open). Use the profits to buy Dwarven Ingots and fashion items which also produce reasonable XP and profit.

What is a tad disconcerting though having played FO4 repeatedly since it came out, is hearing Nick Valentine from just about every other male character. Also some of the sound bites seem to have been lifted almost directly from Skyrim into FO4!

 

[EddScott]

So fashionably late to the party, I've only just started Skyrim.

I'm much more of a sci fi game fan but as I enjoy the FO games and am a bit stuck as to what to play next I've decided to give this a go.

Can I get any hints and tips on where to start please?

 

[wunkley]

So fashionably late to the party, I've only just started Skyrim.

I'm much more of a sci fi game fan but as I enjoy the FO games and am a bit stuck as to what to play next I've decided to give this a go.

Can I get any hints and tips on where to start please?

A) Start the game
B) Get into modding it, particularly the visuals via ENB and a million other things via NEXUS
C) Lose literally weeks/ months of your life

One of my favourite games ever but I never finished it as I got obsessed with modding it and making it look amaaaazing. For a Dx9 title it's still one of the best looking games ever when fully modded up.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

So fashionably late to the party, I've only just started Skyrim.

I'm much more of a sci fi game fan but as I enjoy the FO games and am a bit stuck as to what to play next I've decided to give this a go.

Can I get any hints and tips on where to start please?

Late, that's an understatement! That said, I envy anyone starting this for the first time.

 

[Rroff]

One of my favourite games ever but I never finished it as I got obsessed with modding it and making it look amaaaazing. For a Dx9 title it's still one of the best looking games ever when fully modded up.

Looking pretty nice there - sadly I lost my settings when changing graphics cards and forgot it resets a lot of ini settings - how ******* daft and my last backup was missing a couple of critical tweaks I can't remember. I really liked the look I got in the end.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

I got lost down the modding bottomless hole too. Well worth it though.

 

[Rifte]

Skyrim modding.......220 mods in and I am at the stage where I am happy with the quality and performance balance.

I still cannot get a really attractive EnB on the go though without performance tanking into the mid 40s, and this is unacceptable for me unfortunately.

 

[willhub]

Is it easy to get the game looking like that? Or would it take about 5 months of slaving away getting loads of mods downloaded then installing them?

This is why I bought a console (then got rid of it of course), you stick the game in and play it, looks cool, odd one runs like crap though.

On the PC, you stick the game in (or download), wait an eternity, play the game, think, hmmm this could look better, start tinkering with the settings, 5 weeks later, wow this looks amazing, wowwwww!, take some pictures, then delete the game.

 

[Rroff]

You can get the game looking reasonably good with around 10-12 mods and almost no tinkering - though a few ini tweaks significantly increased it again for me. Bit annoyed I've lost some of the ini settings as I'd managed to get rid of the distant LOD issues, etc. good detail trees right to the horizon properly blending with the distance and none of the terrain z-fighting plus almost seamless streaming of foliage, etc. combined with being stable with higher ugrids so the world is more dynamic and detailed to a further view distance - unfortunately it needed some pretty exact dialled in settings and I don't have them any more

Not the best examples but they've all I've got to hand - some decently expansive landscapes:

Spoiler

EDIT: second image failing to upload will try again later

 

[wunkley]

I never went overboard with all the ini tweaks, shadows and tree pop ups were the biggest annoyance I tried to solve and I have varying degrees of success with mine.

The vast majority of my visual modding was done via ENB. I spent more time than I care to admit to perfecting my own and got it to a a state I'm really really happy with.

Main other mods I used for visuals weren't that many really - off top of my head - the 2k textures one, Skyrim flora overhaul, climates of Tamriel (and various add-ons for that), an obscure dymanic clouds one which is amazing though a tad buggy, Realistic Lighting Overhaul for interiors (miles better than ELFX), Realistic Water Two, Better Dynamic snow, SMIM, Skyrim distance overhaul, skyfalls and skymills etc etc.

A few more of my screenies

 

[MrRockliffe]

So fashionably late to the party, I've only just started Skyrim.

I'm much more of a sci fi game fan but as I enjoy the FO games and am a bit stuck as to what to play next I've decided to give this a go.

Can I get any hints and tips on where to start please?

Only use texture mods to begin with to improve lighting etc, otherwise you'll ruin the game for yourself.

 

[Rroff]

Only use texture mods to begin with to improve lighting etc, otherwise you'll ruin the game for yourself.

I highly recommend SKSE + Sky UI even for a first run through - especially with the ability to use quick slots it transforms the basic game mechanics into something much more playable.

 

[wunkley]

Only use texture mods to begin with to improve lighting etc, otherwise you'll ruin the game for yourself.

Not to be picky, but texture mods obviously don't have any effect on the lighting in the game. Only way to really change the look of the lighting is to get deeply involved with ENB.

By all means to the guy just starting, start the game vanilla and see how you get on. The Special Edition re-release is the one he's going to be playing (I assume?) and this is already improved in terms of visuals in a number of ways. But, it's still a million miles away from a well self modded, ENB'd up version.

 

[MrRockliffe]

Not to be picky, but texture mods obviously don't have any effect on the lighting in the game. Only way to really change the look of the lighting is to get deeply involved with ENB.

By all means to the guy just starting, start the game vanilla and see how you get on. The Special Edition re-release is the one he's going to be playing (I assume?) and this is already improved in terms of visuals in a number of ways. But, it's still a million miles away from a well self modded, ENB'd up version.

Yeah I know I just couldn't think of the bloody word! I was hoping no one would notice

I highly recommend SKSE + Sky UI even for a first run through - especially with the ability to use quick slots it transforms the basic game mechanics into something much more playable.

Yep Sky UI is a must on PC, unless you're using a controller - I think the standard UI is fine in that scenario

 

[C-Roy]

So fashionably late to the party, I've only just started Skyrim.


Can I get any hints and tips on where to start please?

You're in for a treat.

 

[Rroff]

A few more of my screenies

One thing that disappointed me a bit - I could never find good textures for the roads/paths - there were some attempts at parallax mapped high res ones but most of them were glitchy and a lot of the textures just look a bit meh and flat. Everything else like walls, etc. I could find some nice high res replacements with depth/bump mapping, etc.

 

[TonyTurbo78]

 

[wunkley]

One thing that disappointed me a bit - I could never find good textures for the roads/paths - there were some attempts at parallax mapped high res ones but most of them were glitchy and a lot of the textures just look a bit meh and flat. Everything else like walls, etc. I could find some nice high res replacements with depth/bump mapping, etc.

Yeah, I tried some of those parallax mods but they were either too glitchy or tanked the performance too much (at the time).

Just had a quick look at that vid tonyturbo posted. Almost makes me want to install the special edition and get messing again to see if can top my old tweaks, though not sure I can be arsed - have got into messing with Kingdom Come Deliverance though only using Reshade for that at the mo.

 

[EddScott]

That looks great.

I've added a few mods through Nexus. Tried an ENB but it messed the game up for some reason - I'm not too clued up on how to use them. Same thing happened to me with FO4 so I stopped trying to make them work.

 

[Rifte]

The Septim guide is my starter for 10 with skyrim (minus an ENB)

Followed accurately it makes a massive improvement and I can maintain a steady 60fps on my rig with it as long as I choose grass on steroids and not Verdant.

I have added another 20 or 30 mods on top of the guide as well (mainly gameplay changes and not graphical).