I've spent more time testing out mods than actually playing this game. I think I've finally gotten to the point that I'm very happy with my current config and I'm going to spend the majority of my time playing instead of modding. I thought this would be a great place to list the mods you're using and for what purpose... and it would also serve as a place to find out when mods have been superseded by newer or more capable mods. With that, I'll lead things off:
Nexus Mod Manager - First and foremost, you must get this to handle all your mods. It simplifies everything.
A Quality World Map - Much better world map that has roads drawn in
Better Females by Bella - Replaces female face textures with higher res ones
Better Skill Books and Obvious Skill Books - Makes it easier to glance at the myriad of books in the game and see which ones will skill you up.
Breezehome Bookshelves - Nice place to store books in your home
Calientes Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition -CBBE- - Um... I like curvy women
Enhanced Blood Textures - Better blood splatter
Enhanced Night Skyrim - The night sky looks better
Glowing Ore Veins 300 - Got tired of missing all that sweet ore
HiRes Legible Road Signs - Now those things are useful because I can actually read them
KenMOD - Time on loading screen - Shows the real Earth time on all loading screens
Kerplunk - Watery Rocks - Makes the rocks in the water look more wet
Lush Grass - Makes the grass not look like a bad toupee over Mother Earth
Nice Snowflakes - ditto
No More Blocky Faces - Most races will have smoother looking faces
Nocturnal Dress for Calientes Body Mod -CBBE- - Did I mention I like curvy women?
RWT: Realistic Water Textures - Much higher res water that looks almost photo-realistic
skse - Toolkit for some other mods
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures - Retextures many environments and makes them look a lot better
SkyUI - A real PC interface for Skyrim
TESV Acceleration Layer - Something I didn't think would work but incredibly improves performance quite a bit. Claims to do some code optimization for CPU bound situations.
ThuuMic - OMG Nerd alert... Now I don't have to cycle through my shouts to use all of them. I simply have to memorize how to say them and yell them into my mic. Beware, your wife will call you a retard if she catches you playing like this, but once you do it you can't go back.
Tytanis - Ultimate crafting mod
Vals Crafting Meltdown Alpha - Allows you to break down gear you loot into components for crafting... a must have, but be careful as it lets you break down your worn gear.
Here's what my game looks like these days... http://steamcommunity.com/id/lncpapa/screenshots/
You may be able to notice as you go back in time that I had fewer and fewer mods installed. I also ended up disabling Realistic Smoke and Embers because it kept giving me performance issues. I can run a smooth 60 fps with all of my other mods enabled, but I turn that one on and my fps drops into the 30-40 range. Not worth it for the small visual improvement of fire, but I don't think it's affecting most other people the way it is me.
Nexus Mod Manager - First and foremost, you must get this to handle all your mods. It simplifies everything.
A Quality World Map - Much better world map that has roads drawn in
Better Females by Bella - Replaces female face textures with higher res ones
Better Skill Books and Obvious Skill Books - Makes it easier to glance at the myriad of books in the game and see which ones will skill you up.
Breezehome Bookshelves - Nice place to store books in your home
Calientes Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition -CBBE- - Um... I like curvy women
Enhanced Blood Textures - Better blood splatter
Enhanced Night Skyrim - The night sky looks better
Glowing Ore Veins 300 - Got tired of missing all that sweet ore
HiRes Legible Road Signs - Now those things are useful because I can actually read them
KenMOD - Time on loading screen - Shows the real Earth time on all loading screens
Kerplunk - Watery Rocks - Makes the rocks in the water look more wet
Lush Grass - Makes the grass not look like a bad toupee over Mother Earth
Nice Snowflakes - ditto
No More Blocky Faces - Most races will have smoother looking faces
Nocturnal Dress for Calientes Body Mod -CBBE- - Did I mention I like curvy women?
RWT: Realistic Water Textures - Much higher res water that looks almost photo-realistic
skse - Toolkit for some other mods
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures - Retextures many environments and makes them look a lot better
SkyUI - A real PC interface for Skyrim
TESV Acceleration Layer - Something I didn't think would work but incredibly improves performance quite a bit. Claims to do some code optimization for CPU bound situations.
ThuuMic - OMG Nerd alert... Now I don't have to cycle through my shouts to use all of them. I simply have to memorize how to say them and yell them into my mic. Beware, your wife will call you a retard if she catches you playing like this, but once you do it you can't go back.
Tytanis - Ultimate crafting mod
Vals Crafting Meltdown Alpha - Allows you to break down gear you loot into components for crafting... a must have, but be careful as it lets you break down your worn gear.
Here's what my game looks like these days... http://steamcommunity.com/id/lncpapa/screenshots/
You may be able to notice as you go back in time that I had fewer and fewer mods installed. I also ended up disabling Realistic Smoke and Embers because it kept giving me performance issues. I can run a smooth 60 fps with all of my other mods enabled, but I turn that one on and my fps drops into the 30-40 range. Not worth it for the small visual improvement of fire, but I don't think it's affecting most other people the way it is me.
