Mods that make the game Requiem-like? (i.e. hardcore)

[Omnishade]

I have always played with Requiem, but I want to start a new playthrough with Demonic Creatures. Since the enemies in that mod are designed for vanilla, they will be cannon-fodder in Requiem without extensive edits. So does anyone know of mods that will make the game more like Requiem, meaning static enemies with appropriate resistances for their race (undead very resistant against cold and arrows for example), without changing the stats of all enemies?

 

If it also comes with realism mechanics that prevents you from abusive gameplay, all the better. The mods need to be well-written, as if a professional dev had made them. No amateurish mods in my load order. ?

[chaimhewast]

I don't know of any mods that go quite to the extent that Requiem does, but here's the difficulty mods I used in my previous save:

• Experience - Changes the leveling to be closer to Fallout's by giving XP for exploring, completing quests, killing, etc. Also caps your skills by level, so you can't grind out one skill tree for all the good perks.
• Survival Control Panel - Lets you enable parts of Survival Mode without having it enabled or even installed. I use it for the "sleep to level up" and arrow weight features.
• PermaZONES - Modifies most encounter zones to set minimum levels. Levels are based on enemy types (animals are easy, dragons and dragon priests are deadly) and holds (Whiterun is safe, Winterhold is not). There's a "Static PermaZONES" version of the mod that caps the maximum levels to one above the corresponding minimum, but it lowers the level of the Abandoned Prison.
• Sexlab Survival - Has a bunch of things that make life more difficult. Some are major (can't bring armor or weapons into town without a license, but you can't dump them in a container somewhere because someone would steal them), some are minor (walking barefoot slows you down and makes you stumble). Also has things that encourage believable play - for example, by having penalties to sleep for things like sleeping during the day or while wearing armor. Unfortunately it's written with the conceit that Skyrim is misogynistic, so its writing doesn't work if you want a male character.
• Mortal Weapons & Armors - One of the few "armor breaking" mods that supports armor pieces that aren't in the four slots that Bethesda uses. It also adds the idea of armor needing to fit you, so you're not putting on armor fitted for someone with a vastly different body to yours. Also has features to remove food and lockpicks for some reason.
• Realistic AI Detection 2 - Makes drastic changes to how detection works. You can't sneak up to an enemy in broad daylight, but breaking line of sight is more effective when you're not actively sneaking.
• Frostfall with the unofficial SSE update and the Seasons patch - Keeps you out of colder areas until you're geared up for it, and the Seasons patch drives you further south in winter while allowing you to push further north in summer.
• iNeed and Hunterborn - Old faithful for needs. I've been considering switching iNeed out for SunHelm, but I'd need to patch in support for it in Sexlab Survival.
• Obsidian Weathers and Seasons - Not strictly a difficulty mod, but when combined with Frostfall, makes the seasons even more extreme by adding more snowfall in winter and more sunny weather in summer.
• Bathing in Skyrim with Monoman1's tweaks - Another not-strictly-difficulty mod, but it does have penalties if you don't stay clean (a difficult challenge for an adventurer).

Since I'm in the middle of reconfiguring, here's a couple that I'm toying with the idea of:

• Seasonal Alchemy - Uses Seasons of Skyrim to control what plants can grow during various seasons. Biggest effect that I've noticed so far in testing was that my usual early-game restore potions aren't as available because you only get two weeks before all the mountain flowers die off.
• Seasonal Wildlife Distribution - Varies wildlife leveled lists based on the season. I'm hoping it'll make winter somewhat more dangerous, but vanilla animals aren't very strong to begin with. That said, it might be fine since I spent most of my last save about as effective as a level 1, due to my inability to keep my hands on weapons and armor.
• Spell Research - Makes learning spells more of a process. From what I'm reading, you'd ideally want to reduce the availability of spell books in some way for best results. They suggest removing them from loot and vendor leveled lists or increasing their price.

[yorpers]

here are a couple that I use to make combat less forgiving. They go beyond what you are looking for but you might like them nonetheless.

 

ultimate combat 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17196

 

this gives alot of enemies more combat mechanics and adds some parrying and blocking along with locational damage. This changes resistances in some enemies, but not undead as far as I know.

 

Vigor - enhanced combat

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38075

 

This adds injuries and changes how stamina works. Adds more but I'll let you read the mod page and see if its something you might like.

 

[Omnishade]

On 5/30/2022 at 4:42 PM, chaimhewast said:

I don't know of any mods that go quite to the extent that Requiem does, but here's the difficulty mods I used in my previous save:

• Experience - Changes the leveling to be closer to Fallout's by giving XP for exploring, completing quests, killing, etc. Also caps your skills by level, so you can't grind out one skill tree for all the good perks.
• Survival Control Panel - Lets you enable parts of Survival Mode without having it enabled or even installed. I use it for the "sleep to level up" and arrow weight features.
• PermaZONES - Modifies most encounter zones to set minimum levels. Levels are based on enemy types (animals are easy, dragons and dragon priests are deadly) and holds (Whiterun is safe, Winterhold is not). There's a "Static PermaZONES" version of the mod that caps the maximum levels to one above the corresponding minimum, but it lowers the level of the Abandoned Prison.
• Sexlab Survival - Has a bunch of things that make life more difficult. Some are major (can't bring armor or weapons into town without a license, but you can't dump them in a container somewhere because someone would steal them), some are minor (walking barefoot slows you down and makes you stumble). Also has things that encourage believable play - for example, by having penalties to sleep for things like sleeping during the day or while wearing armor. Unfortunately it's written with the conceit that Skyrim is misogynistic, so its writing doesn't work if you want a male character.
• Mortal Weapons & Armors - One of the few "armor breaking" mods that supports armor pieces that aren't in the four slots that Bethesda uses. It also adds the idea of armor needing to fit you, so you're not putting on armor fitted for someone with a vastly different body to yours. Also has features to remove food and lockpicks for some reason.
• Realistic AI Detection 2 - Makes drastic changes to how detection works. You can't sneak up to an enemy in broad daylight, but breaking line of sight is more effective when you're not actively sneaking.
• Frostfall with the unofficial SSE update and the Seasons patch - Keeps you out of colder areas until you're geared up for it, and the Seasons patch drives you further south in winter while allowing you to push further north in summer.
• iNeed and Hunterborn - Old faithful for needs. I've been considering switching iNeed out for SunHelm, but I'd need to patch in support for it in Sexlab Survival.
• Obsidian Weathers and Seasons - Not strictly a difficulty mod, but when combined with Frostfall, makes the seasons even more extreme by adding more snowfall in winter and more sunny weather in summer.
• Bathing in Skyrim with Monoman1's tweaks - Another not-strictly-difficulty mod, but it does have penalties if you don't stay clean (a difficult challenge for an adventurer).

Since I'm in the middle of reconfiguring, here's a couple that I'm toying with the idea of:

• Seasonal Alchemy - Uses Seasons of Skyrim to control what plants can grow during various seasons. Biggest effect that I've noticed so far in testing was that my usual early-game restore potions aren't as available because you only get two weeks before all the mountain flowers die off.
• Seasonal Wildlife Distribution - Varies wildlife leveled lists based on the season. I'm hoping it'll make winter somewhat more dangerous, but vanilla animals aren't very strong to begin with. That said, it might be fine since I spent most of my last save about as effective as a level 1, due to my inability to keep my hands on weapons and armor.
• Spell Research - Makes learning spells more of a process. From what I'm reading, you'd ideally want to reduce the availability of spell books in some way for best results. They suggest removing them from loot and vendor leveled lists or increasing their price.

 

I've been using most of those mods already, especially SL Survival which is complemented by Mortal Weapons and armor, to add some extra challenges and prevent you from getting rich quickly. I've tried encounter zone mods with lighter overhauls like Perma and Yash2, but I wasn't impressed. The problem is that there will still be lvl 1 vampires that can be one-shotted if you use a mod that increases damage. Vampires, draugrs and trolls etc should be at least semi-tough enemies that takes some effort to kill imo.

 

But with Requiem everything is taken to its extreme, with some enemies being really strong and really strong destruction spells that make bandits laugably easy to kill. I guess it's realistic in a way, that as you become stronger some enemies just aren't a threat anymore, since bandits somehow getting better at the same rate as you just isn't believable. So it's a bit of a dilemma finding the middle-ground between static enemies and the more dynamic(but also less predictable) encounter zones. To my knowledge the level of the encounter zone just sets the maximum of the dungeon and the result will be a gradually more difficult dungeon from the entrance to the deepest areas.

 

Regarding needs mods I prefer Realistic Needs, since I know how it works and it's less intrusive and detailed than iNeed. I place a lot of importance in immersion and having as little visible ui as possible. That's why I like Requiem. It's a ROLEPLAYING overhaul. ?

[chaimhewast]

1 hour ago, RoninDog said:

I've tried encounter zone mods with lighter overhauls like Perma and Yash2, but I wasn't impressed. The problem is that there will still be lvl 1 vampires that can be one-shotted if you use a mod that increases damage. Vampires, draugrs and trolls etc should be at least semi-tough enemies that takes some effort to kill imo.

That's fair. While I never saw vampires or trolls in my last game, I did encounter some weirdness where not every enemy seemed affected by the encounter zone - especially dungeons where there were enemies outside. Draugr were still a big threat in my game - their dungeons start in the mid-20s according to PermaZONES' readme, and SLS's license system kept me from having much more than a woodcutter's axe and hide armor to defend myself.

 

1 hour ago, RoninDog said:

So it's a bit of a dilemma finding the middle-ground between static enemies and the more dynamic(but also less predictable) encounter zones. To my knowledge the level of the encounter zone just sets the maximum of the dungeon and the result will be a gradually more difficult dungeon from the entrance to the deepest areas.

Not exactly - encounter zones define the minimum and maximum levels of a dungeon. They're basically unused in vanilla, since it's super quick to reach the minimums that Bethesda set (the highest I remember seeing is Dwemer ruins at level 14), and I don't think vanilla uses the maximum level setting. NPC references have level modifiers ranging from easy (33%) to very hard (125%). Enemies earlier in a dungeon are set easier than later enemies, producing that gradual increase in difficulty.

 

1 hour ago, RoninDog said:

Regarding needs mods I prefer Realistic Needs, since I know how it works and it's less intrusive and detailed than iNeed. I place a lot of importance in immersion and having as little visible ui as possible.

The exact choice of needs mod is really down to personal preference, I feel. I fully agree with you on wanting immersion and minimal UI, though.