[search] player homes with large areas optimized for many followers

Fraying9981 · July 7, 2025

Looking for player home recommendations with wide corridors and open layouts. I use multiple follower mods and most homes have narrow passages where they get stuck in single file or can't pathfind properly.

The problem: Most player homes seem designed with a single player mindset (0 followers) - they look great but are packed with furniture and have tight spaces that create constant bottlenecks when you bring multiple followers.

Interestingly, YouTube mod reviews for player homes cover many aspects, but rarely the fact that the home is walkable with followers.

Also interestingly, many mods add huge open areas such as Vigilante. It's just for player homes I haven't found many mods with homes that are not crammed with objects and super small (cute).

What I'm looking for:

Wide hallways and open room layouts
Minimal furniture blocking main pathways
Spacious enough for 3-4 followers to navigate without traffic jams
Think like most vanilla big cities' jarl houses (without the lunch tables everywhere in the hallways): there is plenty of space for guards, thanes, various NPCs to move around and a great sense of decorum when you first go inside.

Any recommendations for homes that prioritize functional space over dense, cute, decorative layouts?

Also interested if somebody knows a technical explanation for why Skyrim player homes are so crammed/are designed to be smaller than real life homes.

Harvardr is a good example - though I haven't tried it yet. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/133137?tab=images

I would love to avoid having 10 cells though. 1-2 is enough, with big open areas.

Edited July 7, 2025 by Fraying9981

Wolfen09 · July 8, 2025

depends on what you want, most houses arent gonna be blank inside, they will have tables and stuff. Heres some that sort of fit your criteria:

Silverpeak lodge (check the user images cause the author only posted 4, and i think theres a redux that makes it all one cell but iirc makes one of the upstairs loft beds inaccessible)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/37817?tab=description

Traveler's inn (theres a non npc version, not as big, has some room)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/40146

skyrimlazz has a ton of castle mods that look roomy (i dont use these so idk)

https://next.nexusmods.com/profile/skyrimlazz/mods?gameId=1704

Hjertesten hall (doesnt meet your criteria but i never wont recommend this mod, its a village and has a system to assign your followers or even vanilla npcs to roles in your village with their own homes and ai villager packages when not following you)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/48118

belegost · July 8, 2025

Deus Mons.

It meets all your criteria.

Fraying9981 · July 18, 2025

On 7/8/2025 at 10:52 AM, belegost said:

Deus Mons.

It meets all your criteria.

Thanks. This looks amazing!

On 7/8/2025 at 5:28 AM, Wolfen09 said:

skyrimlazz has a ton of castle mods that look roomy (i dont use these so idk)

Thanks. Indeed, I use them and they are awesome. I'm looking for something slightly less cluttered and complex (fewer cells), with more empty space to move. But most of his castles are def 10/10.

On 7/8/2025 at 5:28 AM, Wolfen09 said:

Silverpeak lodge (check the user images cause the author only posted 4, and i think theres a redux that makes it all one cell but iirc makes one of the upstairs loft beds inaccessible)

Thanks. This indeed looks like what I'm looking for: bigger spaces assuming multiple people hanging around, and it still looks like a normal home, just big and convenient.

On 7/8/2025 at 5:28 AM, Wolfen09 said:

Traveler's inn (theres a non npc version, not as big, has some room)

Thanks. this looks a bit dark/too countrysidey for my taste. Very cool exterior view.

On 7/8/2025 at 5:28 AM, Wolfen09 said:

Hjertesten hall (doesnt meet your criteria but i never wont recommend this mod, its a village and has a system to assign your followers or even vanilla npcs to roles in your village with their own homes and ai villager packages when not following you)

Cool concept indeed.

Speaking of which, what do you think is the main limitation to having really huge ass rooms, like 1:1 churches or cathedrals for example?

Is it a gameplay issue = too big is boring?

Or a texture issue = since you reuse the same assets, a big room looks too dull?

Or an engine issue = can't put too many assets/too high in the sky?

Or a modding issue?

belegost · July 18, 2025

24 minutes ago, Fraying9981 said:

Thanks. This looks amazing!

Do not hire guards if you're using any follower framework or something like MHiYH though. For some reason they become hostile to any followers you settle there and who are not your spouse.

Wolfen09 · July 18, 2025

46 minutes ago, Fraying9981 said:

Thanks. This looks amazing!

Thanks. Indeed, I use them and they are awesome. I'm looking for something slightly less cluttered and complex (fewer cells), with more empty space to move. But most of his castles are def 10/10.

Thanks. This indeed looks like what I'm looking for: bigger spaces assuming multiple people hanging around, and it still looks like a normal home, just big and convenient.

Thanks. this looks a bit dark/too countrysidey for my taste. Very cool exterior view.

Cool concept indeed.

Speaking of which, what do you think is the main limitation to having really huge ass rooms, like 1:1 churches or cathedrals for example?

Is it a gameplay issue = too big is boring?

Or a texture issue = since you reuse the same assets, a big room looks too dull?

Or an engine issue = can't put too many assets/too high in the sky?

Or a modding issue?

Its a combination of things.

The lighting engine is abysmal in skyrim and fallout 4, so having chandeliers and stuff high up doesn't throw a lot of light down where its needed, and even just adding ambient light without a source screws with the light limit of 7 sources (iirc).

The large open rooms thing is also an engine thing, there's a technique that modders use that makes it so a room won't load if you can't see it like a wall blocking your view (it loads when you see it), this reduces load on the engine and keeps you from dropping frames. The problem with large open rooms is that you can't use that technique.

As for boring or using same assets, thats more a matter of personal taste from the mod author.

Gameplay wise, there's something called navmesh that is basically a path created by the engine for the npcs to walk, no navmesh in a spot, the npc will avoid it. Now from my understanding its a pain in the ass to do outdoors, not so bad indoors, but large places can be tedious to navmesh even with the auto navmesh feature in creation kit

Fraying9981 · July 18, 2025

15 minutes ago, Wolfen09 said:

Its a combination of things.

The lighting engine is abysmal in skyrim and fallout 4, so having chandeliers and stuff high up doesn't throw a lot of light down where its needed, and even just adding ambient light without a source screws with the light limit of 7 sources (iirc).

The large open rooms thing is also an engine thing, there's a technique that modders use that makes it so a room won't load if you can't see it like a wall blocking your view (it loads when you see it), this reduces load on the engine and keeps you from dropping frames. The problem with large open rooms is that you can't use that technique.

As for boring or using same assets, thats more a matter of personal taste from the mod author.

Gameplay wise, there's something called navmesh that is basically a path created by the engine for the npcs to walk, no navmesh in a spot, the npc will avoid it. Now from my understanding its a pain in the ass to do outdoors, not so bad indoors, but large places can be tedious to navmesh even with the auto navmesh feature in creation kit