Recommended mods?

[XunTzu]

Starting up Skyrim again, and was wondering what everyone's recommended mods were, as far as lighting/ENBs, textures, body mods, etc.

 

All recommendations welcome, as my previous mod folder was accidentally deleted, and it's been about a year since I've played.

[Spyder Arachnid]

It is hard to recommend those specific things, as they are all going to be based off your own preferences and opinions. Everyone likes different body types depending on their taste, same with textures. And depending on your system and taste as well, it will determine what kind of ENB you can run/like.

 

But, I can give you my recommendations (my opinion of what I like and think looks the best).

 

Lighting? Relighting Skyrim definitely. People like ELFX, but I can't stand it. Relighting Skyrim looks way better. And if you use Enhanced Lighting for ENB as well, it looks even better. Make SURE you follow the instructions and read it well before installing it though. Otherwise, it will look weird.

 

ENB? Seasons of Skyrim. I use the HD6 Tribute, as it's more vibrant and fantasy like. Make sure to grab the particle patch in the optional files as well. And then get Post-Process Effects Addon for ENB as well to go with it. This allows you to fine tune your ENB even further to make it pop and wow. If you need something more performance friendly, check out RealLike ENB (the old dll version, not new). Looks great and has awesome performance.

 

Those combined together make Skyrim look gorgeous, in my opinion.

 

 

As for body mods, UNPB all the way here. It's UNP with bigger breasts. CBBE is fine, though lower quality. Bodyslide seems to be the new craze, though also lower quality, but you can make your body the shape you want. If you want the more bigger bodies, CHSBHC and Manga are for that. There is a few other new ones, like Dream Girl, Sevenbase (seems to be the popular choice as well), Touched by Dibella, etc etc. The list goes on. But most popular choices are mainly UNPB, Dream Girl, Sevenbase, and Bodyslide. Take a look at them, and see what you like. Don't worry about armor/clothing support, as those popular choices I listed have plenty of support now.

 

Texture wise? SG Female Texture Renewal is what most people use these days. It's simple and effective and looks good. I personally use a mix of different things, with some custom edits. But there is plenty of other texture replacers that are just as decent. Real Girls, Mature Skin, Barbarian/Milkdrinker, Creamy UNP, Eihei, Daughters of Skyrim, and on and on and on. Again, it is all personal preference really. It all depends on what you like.

 

 

 

But those are my recommendations. Hopefully some others can give you their opinions on things, but in the end, it's mostly going to all be personal preference. We can point you to stuff, but what matters is what you like mostly.

[RitualClarity]

Start off with some textures..

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/607/?

Nice and pretty basic. Make sure you have the HighResTexture pack insalled before.

Many enjoy Climate of Tamriel

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17802/?

Choose a nice water and light pack.. Look over the options in Nexus file of the month .. Mostly preferences

Another thing that will work your rig but really makes a difference is SIMM. Static Mesh IMprovement Mod

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8655/?

I then loaded some ( well most of ) aMidian Born textures and overwrode much of the above textures as needed. They are nice. Work well so far ( I don't use ENB mods). A simple search can show those mods. There are many and you can pick and choose which you want. ( in the end you can extract the textures/mesh folder and create a custom compilation if you are experienced enough in how the game works file wise )

Some fixes.. I know you didn't ask for those but Skyrim can be anoying.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28170/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/27371/?

And really not a fix but still feels like one to me.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/4929/?

 

If you have the time check out Gopher's video page here.

Lots of info expecially for those that haven't modded Skyrim before. 10 or so videos covering the basics to establish a nice base for you to start with.

 

Finally many here use MO. for their mod manager. NMM is fine enough however not as flexible but easier in general to use. MO gives profiles which mean that you can play different games concurrently with different mod configurations and even different mods. There is a bigger learning curve but there is an active thread here where many can give aid with setting up your mods. MO also allows you to see at a glance what mods are conflicting with others and allows you to "Move" the mod up and down the list. ( with moving down the list to take priority over those above) and fix these conflicts on the fly without having to reinstall many mods again and again. Infact once a mod is installed there is never a reason to uninstall or essentially re-install the mod again. You can also have several hundreds of mods installed ( not active on a profile) at any given time. Some say 1000 or more can be handled by MO. ( not at the same time. The game engine and esp/esm limit still applies ) .

 

Oh. and you might as well get FNIS and install at least the "FNIS Behavior". as many mods use this to add animations to the game. Eventually you will need it if you start to extensivly mod your game.

 

[Rayblue]

Bethesda Performance Textures -- great detail without eating up your framerate or resources.

 

[XunTzu]

Thanks for the replies!

I have most of the basic GEM ones downloaded (dialog, message box, time, sleep, etc) and CBBE body slide down.  Will try 7base, since heard its in the same family as UNP so the clothing should be fine?

Which skeleton should I be downloading and is the latest HDT release stable enough?

[Spyder Arachnid]

Thanks for the replies!

 

I have most of the basic GEM ones downloaded (dialog, message box, time, sleep, etc) and CBBE body slide down.  Will try 7base, since heard its in the same family as UNP so the clothing should be fine?

 

Which skeleton should I be downloading and is the latest HDT release stable enough?

 

Yes, Sevenbase is a UNP Variant, so any other UNP variant clothing/armor will work for it (Sevenbase, UNP, UNPB, UNPBO, Dream Girl, etc).

 

Skeleton wise, XP32 Maximum Skeleton Extended is the way to go. And I've never had any issues with the latest HDT release, so in my experience, it works just fine and is stable enough.

[XunTzu]

Thanks Spyder, the Nexus page one had two versions and I'm glad I got the latest.

[XunTzu]

Alright so hoping for some advice here on these forums.

Ethereal Elven Overhaul was one of the mods I had installed and for some reason causes my elves' faces to go derp.

 

The eye lashes are in the wrong spot, and sometimes the eyeballs themselves protrude from the skull, when cycling through presets, and every single face are shaped exactly the same way.

 

Installed the mod using Mod Organizer, and while did receive a warning that the mod was not packaged in a way that MO recognizes, was still able to install w/o problems.

 

Any ideas what is causing the conflict?  EEO was explicitly stated to not be fully compatible with ECE but I don't have that.

Edit: To be specific, it looks like the all male and female elf heads have Breton preset 1 head shape. I do have showracemenu but I don't think that's the problem. CBBE is installed but the heads shouldn't overwrite EEO, not with Mod Organizer installing should it?

 

Edit2:  Alright nvm, fix'd it, was dumb of me.