Skyrim And Mods: getting started

[Myst42]

So... hypothetically

 

If I were to get Skyrim...

 

Just how much difficult would it be to have a decent modded version and how much time would I have to invest in modding it?

 

Background story:

I first gazed upon Oblivion and I was "seduced" by the wonderful pics I saw on Nexus back in the day

But I had to spent a lot of time an energy gathering mods, and tweaking things myself, until I finally realized I had become a modder because of it. I appreciate the learning and the results, but the work is just too much.

I still havent finished, but Im about to be fully satisfied with everything as soon as a finish a project

 

The thing is... Im tired... Im really really tired and I dont want to have to pass though the same thing again

But I saw some features in Skyrim, and stuff like dragons, the magic system and some spells and of course the landscapes look awesome in Skyrim pics

Temptation is getting strong, but I fear the day I realize it has the same problem as Oblivion: It sucks without mods

 

I guess the best way to help my question is if you could tell me your opinions, and recommend some indispensable mods I would HAVE to get, like a "Must Have List" or something like it...

Also Iwd appreciate comments on just how difficult is it to get everything set up...

 

For the moment, If I were to get it, I would dream of a nice game, with nice appearance and the possibility to recreate my Oblivion main character

(Thats very important, making a beautiful character is probably the center of the first thing I must have in a game)

[formel]

Well it would be helpful when you give more information in what direction you want to mod your game e.g. immersion, quests, skimpy amors etc.

 

Any way as must haves I would name the following:

SKSE

SkyUI

unoffical Patches (depending on what dlc you have)

Better Sorting

Quality world map

Edit: a categorized favorite menu

 

Here  some optical mods wich improve the look of the world (only a few):

 

Flora Overhaul

Lush tree and gras

W.A.T.E.R or pure Waters

Enhanced Lights and FX or Realistic Lightning Overhaul

iHud

 

When you want to play a pure mage i recomand some magic overhaul like

Better Magic or balanced Magic or mighty magic

 

And for real  dragon figths that deserve the name Deadly dragons

[RitualClarity]

I know some of the work you have done to get Oblivion to the point that you are satisfied with it. You won't have that with Skyrim "out of box' unfortunately you will start right back down that road again. Except this time you will be looking to how to port this, how to port that. etc as well as the body mods and animation mods (basic). Keep in mind that Oblivion is highly developed over the many years of modders working on it. Skyrim is just an infant compared to Oblivion.

 

Not to discourage you in any way. I have read some of your other post and you desire a great deal and I just don't think that you can get that level without even more work on skyrim. Perhaps play Oblivion and enjoy your new final correct game for awhile when you get some more energy you can then tackle the Skyrim and make it yours Otherwise you are destined to "madness" ... actually more "madness" ..

[Myst42]

Oh... I get it... So porting is the new modding... 

 

In any case these are ideas... I dont plan on doing this right now cause It seems like a lot of work...

But I want to make sure I know exactly what I have to do if (or when) I decide to take that path

 

Well it would be helpful when you give more information in what direction you want to mod your game e.g. immersion, quests, skimpy amors etc.

 

Thks! that looks like a good list

 

Well being that the choice Iwd have to say immersion is my thing

That, and any mod that could qualify as the "gold standard"  for having pretty characters

If I want to be able to recreate my character I sure need that... and a way of making sure a certain hairstyle can be used on Skyrim too

 

So for gaming that looks good, but still not sure about the character creation part...

You know... as you certainly need a body replacer in Oblivion be it HGEC, Roberts or BAB or whatever they are called

I figure character edition starts in a similar fashion right?

[formel]

Ok character creation (only the ones I use so It's only a selection):

Race Menu

ShowRaceMenu Precache Killer very important don't go with out it!!!

ApachiiSkyHair

Better Females by Bella

The Eyes Of Beauty

Enhanced Chrakter Edit

Ethereal Elven Overhaul

SGHair

Hair packs of TES IV Oblivion

 

For body mod there are dominating atm two mods (armorwise) UNP and CBBE whereat CBBE via the Bodyslide mod the greater variety has (but I dont't can say how many armors out there support the bodyslide mod).

 

For immersion mods let mit recomand you Gropher's

he covers there a lot of good immersion mods (I will post tommorow some it's getting late here)

[Myst42]

ChancellorKremlin said I should do some research... Of course I will do if i take this path

But this is exactly what I said when I asked for directions... Its about getting the big picture

Im sure there's a lot of reading just for the installation of all those mods

But I like them links... soo pretty they look

I even found the hairstyle my main char uses in Oblivion 

I think my faith is restored, and I might actually give Skyrim a chance in a near future

[quin666]

Oblivion and Skyrim combat mechanics stupid. Lock On system do what do best!

Lock on to target until dead or you move on to next target. Some say put game in

easy mode but breath fresh air to stupid swinging weapon, spell or arrows like chicken

with head cut off. Need add Navi voice mod be perfect.   http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33791/?

[sushi]

Enhanced Lights and FX or Realistic Lightning Overhaul

 

I've been wondering about this one.  What I'm looking for is really good lighting.  I want everything to be bright and rich like I see in so many screencaps.  Not just bright scenery but good lighting on my characters.  Can this mod do that or do I need something else to get that professional looking quality?

 

And also,  is there a good mod for camera adjustments?  I want more control over the camera position and zoom. 

 

thanks in advance.

[lordofthedread]

 

Enhanced Lights and FX or Realistic Lightning Overhaul

 

I've been wondering about this one.  What I'm looking for is really good lighting.  I want everything to be bright and rich like I see in so many screencaps.  Not just bright scenery but good lighting on my characters.  Can this mod do that or do I need something else to get that professional looking quality?

 

And also,  is there a good mod for camera adjustments?  I want more control over the camera position and zoom. 

 

thanks in advance.

 

 

I strongly suggest the use of ENB coupled with one of these mods to get the best lighting, I personally use either E ENB or Project ENB with Enhanced Lights and FX.

[formel]

 

Enhanced Lights and FX or Realistic Lightning Overhaul

 

I've been wondering about this one.  What I'm looking for is really good lighting.  I want everything to be bright and rich like I see in so many screencaps.  Not just bright scenery but good lighting on my characters.  Can this mod do that or do I need something else to get that professional looking quality?

 

And also,  is there a good mod for camera adjustments?  I want more control over the camera position and zoom. 

 

thanks in advance.

 

 

These two mods change the the behavior of light sources and make them more realistic in short: For another color in ligthning you need an end as alreday stated.

 

For camera you may look into this Enhanced 3rd Person Camera

[Myst42]

There is a pretty good list here and I think I made up my mind and Im gonna get Skyrim one of these days

Thank you all guys for your recommendations, thank you very much I really appreciate it 

Wanna know what made up my mind definitively?

Here it is:

 

 

 

Credits to VictoriaG for being a genius screenshooter

Now I really need to get that flying balloon too once I get the game...

I just hope its not too difficult to get things to that level in terms of modding

[lordofthedread]

These pictures are obviously photoshoped (not that it is a bad thing and I do love the art from VictoriaG)

 

Here is the best you can expect from Skyrim :

 

 (you can find many more ENB videos on youtube, this is just an example)

 

IMHO this is still one of the most beautiful game out there, all the locations from this video are from vanilla gameplay it does not show characters much but you can make up your mind on that just by looking pictures in this post : http://www.loverslab.com/topic/15224-show-your-skyrim-counterpart/

 

Of course you will need a pretty powerful computer to play Skyrim with this quality along with ENB with decent FPS but if you already have a gaming PC it is totally worth it.

 

 

 

[RitualClarity]

Oh... I get it... So porting is the new modding... 

Sorry, I have a hard enough time just loading the mods. I thought that was just part of the modding scene.

 

ChancellorKremlin said I should do some research... Of course I will do if i take this path

But this is exactly what I said when I asked for directions... Its about getting the big picture

Im sure there's a lot of reading just for the installation of all those mods

But I like them links... soo pretty they look

I even found the hairstyle my main char uses in Oblivion 

I think my faith is restored, and I might actually give Skyrim a chance in a near future

I truly get it and agree with you. Getting the big picture is the way I approach many problems as well. Often times you might miss some aspect or area without getting familiar with the subject. .. however I haven't posted to get the big picture... hum... maybe....

 

There is a pretty good list here and I think I made up my mind and Im gonna get Skyrim one of these days

Thank you all guys for your recommendations, thank you very much I really appreciate it 

Wanna know what made up my mind definitively?

Here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

Credits to VictoriaG for being a genius screenshooter

Now I really need to get that flying balloon too once I get the game...

I just hope its not too difficult to get things to that level in terms of modding

Yep that will do it ! As I mentioned on your other post I believe Skyrim is your new Oblivion..

[sushi]

I strongly suggest the use of ENB coupled with one of these mods to get the best lighting, I personally use either E ENB or Project ENB with Enhanced Lights and FX.

 

 

I'll go for the ENB then,  thanks.

 

These two mods change the the behavior of light sources and make them more realistic in short: For another color in ligthning you need an end as alreday stated.

 

For camera you may look into this Enhanced 3rd Person Camera

 

 

Looking at thatmod,  I'm not sure it's best for exactly what I'm wanting.  It sounds like I'd have to go into the settings,  change them,  then change them again if I want something else.  I want something a bit more weildy,  if you know what I mean.  Something where I only have to use mouse and perhaps hotkeys would be best. 

[formel]

 

Looking at thatmod,  I'm not sure it's best for exactly what I'm wanting.  It sounds like I'd have to go into the settings,  change them,  then change them again if I want something else.  I want something a bit more weildy,  if you know what I mean.  Something where I only have to use mouse and perhaps hotkeys would be best. 

 

 

Not quite sure what you want and what do you mean with weildy? For camera tweak this is the best solution atm and proberly it will be. It is already a huge improvement compared to the ini modifikation you have to do bevor.

 

[Myst42]

By the time I got Fallout I also got Skyrim, but been taking it slow... collecting and installing everything, I even got the extra DLC

Ive downloaded most of the things suggested in first page... the most annoying part is many mods have requirements, and then the required mods have requirements o their own and so on...

The DLC seem buggy as fuck from what I read

There is a patch needed for Dawnguard to allow custom races, somewhere I read Dragonborn has buggy end and them freaking vampire patches never stop... one for hollow cheeks, one for "better vampires", some of them do the same as other mods, but some mods need compatibility patches... uhhh... (sigh)

 

Im trying to understand what do I really need now to fix everything regarding vampires with DLC and custom races combined with something that gets rid of the vanilla ugly elven and vampire faces...

 

The other problem I had with some animations

I saw the gold standard for animations is FNIS but in needs some ragdoll mod and it works with other things which im not sure if it needs or are compatible or need compatibility patches...

 

Lets start with the basic

-I have to get a decent body mod that works with all the complex animations, like in Oblivion HGEC by its own is NOT the option, the real option is HGEC plus BBB

For skyrim found:

"CBBE" "Dimonized UNP" And a bunch of other nude mods... CHSBHC UNP Blessed, Various other versions of CBBE....

Frankly I havent had the time to read them all, so i just ask you guys directly, which is the one you use? I mean... the one that in Oblivion would be my favorite is HGEC, normal, Medium lowerbody, cups C and as far as E... WITH BBB and as many bones as possible in the skeleton (thats another point... many mods come with THEIR OWN skeleton... so who to trust?) What would be that option in Skyrim... including moving breast and probably the one most used for armor and sex mods?

 

And finally the part needed for creating my character.

I might want to create more characters later, but right now all I want is to reanimate my character from Oblivion Alice, she's customized moonshadow elf with rare textures, and heavy tweaking (literally hours of it) in both the CS face editor and the in game face editor

At least I have the hair from a pack in Nexus, got the Enhanced Character Editor, Xenius' "No more blocky faces" some head mesh by RAN...

But Im still missing something...

 

In Oblivion, moonshadow elves came with their own head mesh... Dunno if perhaps there is a similar race with nice mesh and textures for a beautiful race in more the sense of cuteness than hotness

Dunno if there is something to be done "outside" Skyrim, like creating face in CS

Most important... dunno if there are any "lop-ears" for Skyrim... all elf ears are classic and boring without the style lop-ears have

Is my obsessive side speaking... I dont want a preset made by someone else, though they are cool, but I want something of my own, with the right "materials" of course

 

Lets take two random images from the last pics in Skyrim:

 

 

 

The firs one has that perfect skin looks that im still missing, the second one I noticed particularly, the eyes... they are so big and I cant get any bigger eyes, even with the Enhanced Character mod... what does it take to make things like these?

 

I want to figure out during the week cause I only have time to play and Install things on weekends and I would really like to have everything clear by then

[lordofthedread]

I will try to answer all of your questions, please understand that I am no modder and English is not my native language but I will try my best

 

For bugs and compatibility, at first we all know that Bethesda is a great gaming studio but their games are always freakin bugged and ends up being fixed by the modding community, hell I even wonder sometimes if they didnt offered the modding possibilities so modders can fix the damn game for them.

 

The mods that need compatibility patches are usually the ones that alter the gameplay mechanics, Better Vampires for example is altering the way the vampires are handled by the game and their related perks, so of course other mods that play around the vampire theme will have compatibilities issues, this is even getting worse when you touch to overhauls like Skyrim Redone.

 

For animations since HAVOK is used in Skyrim and they could not afford to give you an HAVOK engine to play with in the CK the workaround found by modders is FNIS, it is working as intended most of the time and I think it is also pretty easy to use, if you tick patches that you dont need you will mostly run into an error saying the patch was not needed, in this case run FNIS again and untcik the patch that gave you the error.

 

For bodies it is really a matter of taste here but there is mostly 2 (lets hope 3 now that Sevenitty released his) body types that are really worth looking at in Skyrim (in matter of compatibility and armor / clothing choice) and these are CBBE and UNP/UNPB.  CBBE is a great body and it was (correct me if I am wrong) the first body replacer available fro Skyrim (same as HGEC?), UNP came after.  CBBE looks more dollish IMHO and maybe closer to HGEC, the body mods are always given with a skeleton, meshes and textures but you can still choose the texture that suits you and install it on top of it, CBBE and UNP both have Bodyslide which is a great tool but for my point of view there are not enough armors converted to this tool to be really worth it yet.

 

For skeletons there are not that many choices, you have Skullytrans ones and XP32 ones, XP32 comes with a very neat installer allowing to choose the options to choose from (dagger in the back for example) and it is compatible BBP and TBBP so I would suggest you use that one as it is hassle free, the only thing you need to do is to install the skeleton last (after your body mods, realistic ragdolls and force if you do want that and any BBP / TBBP animations replacers that may come with a skeleton, notice that ECE uses its own skeleton also but replacing it will only forbid you to use some of the sliders like the waits and the neck lenght if I am right).

 

As for face the thing is you have to choose the face pack that suits your taste wether you want bigger eyes, anime face, round cheeks... all these are available but maybe not all at once unless you know your way to mess up with the face mods and mix and match the assets you like from them it is better to stick with one and play with it.

 

2 things are to take in consideration when speaking about the faces : the face mod itself and the body and matching face texture you are using, the race plays also a big part on how your character will look at the end, elves getting bigger eyes than others but needing a lot more work to be pretty.

 

I already linked many face packs in other threads but just go on nexus and filter your search on hairs and face models and pick the most popular, you can try them one at a time and see which one gives you the desired result.

 

Finally ENB will make everything look different on top of that like you can see on your 2 screenshots, one is very pale and cold and the other one is very colorful and warm, the way you will like to play Skyrim will be only achieved by trial and error, feel free to try a dozen face packs, a dozen body textures with a dozen different ENB to find what suits you the most.

 

I will personally consider copying a clean install of Skyrim with no ENB and no mods (only DLC) as a backup and mod the other installation at will until you find the perfect balance between gameplay and look that will suit your tastes, then remove any unwanted mod and ENB and start again on a clean install with the mods you are sure you want to use and play with.

 

Hope that pretty much answered your questions and if you have more feel free to ask

[Myst42]

Thanks! your comments helped me know I was in the right track, Im no native to english either and still understood you perfectly

I actually did something similar for Oblivion, when I firs got it, I blasted its brains out with mods, but whe I was ready, I deleted everything and Installed a new version with all the mods I had collected and placed in order and nice packages during previous attempt. This time I knew exactly what to install and how to. Started it with Skyrim too

 

For the bodies I think I prefer CBBE, but Im getting worried that armors seem to be more compatible with UNB   (Meaning more armors made for UNP)

I installed XP32 skeleton last time.

But I have my doubts about "BBB" (BBP/TBBP in Skyrim?) (And I have a confusion and dont seem to find what exactly is the meaning and difference of BBP/TBBP)

If the system is any similar to Oblivion, BBB needed 3 things: a skeleton, an animation and a body

I can check the skeleton off the list

I can almost check the animations off the list, not sure if FNIS has BBP/TBBP, but Ive seen some animations that explicitly say to include it

But the body...

CBBE says It needs some UNP alter version (with very large wrack) previous and then install CBBE with body slide tool, which was my first choice to install but again now you say not many armors are body slide tool compatible...

So the thing is Im trying to find the best way to have a body install that's compatible with most of the cool armors, with "BBB for Skyrim" and reallistic but pretty breast size (Not a big fan of H K Z, ZZ or other monster cups)

 

About the faces...

So I take it theres no previous work needed, like using a construction set to pre-design a face before having it in game, just have to get the right mesh and texture

I kind of like a little "anime feeling"... not too much cause it looks unreal, but a fair amount of it meaning things like small pointy noses, mouths and big eyes but trying to stay within the line.

But what mod could possibly allow eyes as big as the ones from the second screen? the ones Ive seen have normal eye largeness limit, and I wanted to experiment with something between normality and those very large eyes...

 

 

[Bootaka]

There is one mod, I didn't see it mentioned, I consider it the one mod I can not play without. 

 

More Hotkeys Please http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23416/?

 

The vanilla hotkey system is horrible, and they only give you a few to begin with and the options... well, it sucks. All the menu enhancements are great and all, but who needs to look at a McDonald's menu to know they want a happy meal?

[formel]

BBP is the older one(was released short after skyrim came out)  and therefore the simpler one both in execution and handling. Essentially both do the same (making breats bounce) and it comes down to your personal taste wich one you like more. TBBP is more sophisticated, uses more bones and butt bounce is also possible. For TBBP FNIS is required.

 

CBBE only needs the other mod for the skeleton but if you use XP32 you should be ok. Additional you need of course BBP or TBBP compatible animations.

 

For custome races a little warning when you want to play as a vampire. In skyrim when you become a vampire your charcter becomes another race eg. the nord race transforms into nord vampire race. Not every custome race mod may include this vapmire version of its race beside of this it is more complicated to use a vampire overhaul with such a custome race (but normally not impossible if both mods are well executed)

[lordofthedread]

Thanks! your comments helped me know I was in the right track, Im no native to english either and still understood you perfectly

I actually did something similar for Oblivion, when I firs got it, I blasted its brains out with mods, but whe I was ready, I deleted everything and Installed a new version with all the mods I had collected and placed in order and nice packages during previous attempt. This time I knew exactly what to install and how to. Started it with Skyrim too

 

For the bodies I think I prefer CBBE, but Im getting worried that armors seem to be more compatible with UNB   (Meaning more armors made for UNP)

I installed XP32 skeleton last time.

But I have my doubts about "BBB" (BBP/TBBP in Skyrim?) (And I have a confusion and dont seem to find what exactly is the meaning and difference of BBP/TBBP)

If the system is any similar to Oblivion, BBB needed 3 things: a skeleton, an animation and a body

I can check the skeleton off the list

I can almost check the animations off the list, not sure if FNIS has BBP/TBBP, but Ive seen some animations that explicitly say to include it

But the body...

CBBE says It needs some UNP alter version (with very large wrack) previous and then install CBBE with body slide tool, which was my first choice to install but again now you say not many armors are body slide tool compatible...

So the thing is Im trying to find the best way to have a body install that's compatible with most of the cool armors, with "BBB for Skyrim" and reallistic but pretty breast size (Not a big fan of H K Z, ZZ or other monster cups)

 

About the faces...

So I take it theres no previous work needed, like using a construction set to pre-design a face before having it in game, just have to get the right mesh and texture

I kind of like a little "anime feeling"... not too much cause it looks unreal, but a fair amount of it meaning things like small pointy noses, mouths and big eyes but trying to stay within the line.

But what mod could possibly allow eyes as big as the ones from the second screen? the ones Ive seen have normal eye largeness limit, and I wanted to experiment with something between normality and those very large eyes...

 

BBP stands for Breast Bounce Physics (or the other way around), the T stands for Tender but TBBP anims have also butt physics but it is not yet widely supported, I perosnally use only BBP.

 

So here is an how to get BBP working with CBBE :

 

- Install CHSBHC or any body that support BBP natively (ADEC, UNPB etc), CHSHBC is more straightforward (dont mind the errors in the accronym I cant get this one right)

- Install CBBE with bodyslide

- Create your body with bodyslide, for maximum armor compatibility I would suggest using default CBBE body and use a BBP (or TBBP if you want bouncing butt) enabled sliderset

- Install any BBP animations like XP32 Victoria High Heels or TBBP dragonfly

- Install XPMS

- Run FNIS

On top of that you can install any body texture you like if you are using vanilla races, for any custom race that has its own meshes and textures folders that is a little bit more complicated but doable and usually explained on the mod page.

 

As for the eyes here is the biggest I could get with ECE, I doubt you would need bigger, this is not a finalized head just a test for the eyes size (it was made with Univision face http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14569//?) :

 

 

 

 

 

Do you really need bigger than that?

 

For anime looks I suggest using pretty face http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/7887//? , for an even more anime look you can use the Elin race or Monli race right here on LL.

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/15201-new-elin-race/

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/14711-update-now-with-bbp-tbbp-monli-race-v4/