Need Mod Recommendations

[mentaltyranny]

First, I am unsure if I am listing this topic in the correct place.  If not, thanks to the moderators for moving this topic to the appropriate subforum!

 

I have been following STEP since it was a downloadable .pdf in the early days of Skyrim.  Before the release of Heartfire, I stopped playing Skyrim; not because I wasn't enjoying it, but rather I was enjoying it so much that I wanted to play the earlier Elder Scrolls and Fallout titles and I was afraid Skyrim would "spoil" me.  Now I am back, and I am midway in the installation a STEP Core & Extended + Survival Pack, and I am looking for just a handful of extra mods to round out my experience.  I also noticed that some of my old favorite mods are no longer included in STEP, and I am wonder why?  Second, experience playing the earlier SE/FO titles has taught me that couple mod features are essential to my enjoyment of the ES gameplay experience.  So if any of you could please take a look at these mods, tell me why they were dropped from STEP, whether they conflict with my STEP configuration, and if there are any superior or more lore-friendly alternatives?  This information will save me from the - find a conflict, diagnose, replace mods, start a new game, repeat - cycle!  Without further ado:

 

1. First, I want to verify that iNeed from the Survival STEP pack is compatible with STEP Core and Extended.  I know that Realistic Needs and Diseases has a conflict with Radiant and Unique Potions and Poisons HD, and I want to make sure iNeed is good.
2. Better Followers - this was one of my favorite mods for Skyrim.  I really liked how it made the use of followers more interesting AND choice of followers more interesting, all while sticking to the lore (technically better than vanilla does).  However, it hasn't been upgraded since April 2012, so I don't know if there are incompatibilities with Dawnguard and Dragonborn.  If it does work with current STEP, can somebody recommend a mod that levels follower skills appropriately to work with this mod, as the suggested on its nexus page.
3. Deadly Dragons, lore-friendly version - I know the full version went a little wild with feature creep, but the lore-friendly version really made dragon fights momentous and epic feeling.  Unless the vanilla dragon battles were improved by Dragonborn, I really feel like this is a must.
4. Thuumic - who doesn't want to shout shouts!  This was a blast, and I definitely want it. It looks like Skyvoice is a more current alternative.  Please tell me one of this will work with STEP.
5. AH Hotkeys - I am physically disabled, and having the ability to have flame equipped, and by pushing one button to switch to restoration, cast fast heal, and switch back to flame, would really keep me competitive.  I hope that is what this mod means by autocast... I know other hotkey mods use different lingo.  I know this walks the line between a convenient feature and a cheat, but it really adds to my enjoyment.  Any chance this is already in SkyUI?  It is hard to tell from the intro benchmarks.
6. D13 Skyrim Leveled items can level up Unique upgrade balanced - in Oblivion, nothing annoyed me more than finding out this cool unique item I have would still be competitive if I just waited a few more levels before acquiring it.  I know the counter-arguments, it just really bothered me.  But I really don't like this Hammer of Experience thing either; I would prefer it unique items just automatically leveled up with me, if uniques - and just uniques - were unleveled in a "more power as less accessible from game start" or at least lore-friendly way.
7. Any mod that fixes the timing and randomness of radiant quests would be helpful.  I found that the whole Radiant quests at the end of a quest line to be a letdown.  They should have came first, or at least evenly mixed in the quest lines.  I was also annoyed that the best Radiant quests were also "rare" meaning you had to slog through repetitive quests to get to them.  I saw Enhanced Skyrim Factions - The Companions Guild, and it is close, but I am planning on playing a SpellSword, so I would like improvement to College of Winterhold as well.  Is Immersive College of Winterhold similar?  Any mods that improve Companions, College of Winterhold, Imperial, Dawnguard and later factions would be helpful.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[mentaltyranny]

Oh, I forgot to add:

 

    8. Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul - are there any recent instruction on using this with STEP Core + Extended?  I would consider not using the survival pack if I could use this mod.

[TechAngel85]

I think I can sum this all up with this:

 

For mod compatibility, you'll need to check for yourself in xEdit. Unless someone comes along that has the STEP setup and those mods installed, you're not likely to get good answers. This is because being comfortable patching mods is a basic skill for building a custom setup beyond STEP. We provide the STEP Patches to give you a good head start on doing this. Some mods you install beyond STEP will need to be patched. For example, if you install iNeed it will need to be patched for RWT and possibly other mods. RWT already includes a patch for iNeed, though.

 

The STEP Guide has become somewhat more advanced since the PDF days. We provide some good guides to help you learn the tools. Here's the xEdit Guide: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:XEdit

[Shadriss]

I can provide a few of the answers you are looking for... though not all. So"

1. First, I want to verify that iNeed from the Survival STEP pack is compatible with STEP Core and Extended.  I know that Realistic Needs and Diseases has a conflict with Radiant and Unique Potions and Poisons HD, and I want to make sure iNeed is good.

iNeed is perfectly functional, and probably more so than when you last saw it. Anything added by other mods in the foods category that iNeed doesn't recognize will pop a screen up to ask what it is and how it should be handled. So no issues with it's interface with STEP Core or Extended. I use this one myself extensively, and have never had any issues with it.

Any mod that fixes the timing and randomness of radiant quests would be helpful.  I found that the whole Radiant quests at the end of a quest line to be a letdown.  They should have came first, or at least evenly mixed in the quest lines.  I was also annoyed that the best Radiant quests were also "rare" meaning you had to slog through repetitive quests to get to them.  I saw Enhanced Skyrim Factions - The Companions Guild, and it is close, but I am planning on playing a SpellSword, so I would like improvement to College of Winterhold as well.  Is Immersive College of Winterhold similar?  Any mods that improve Companions, College of Winterhold, Imperial, Dawnguard and later factions would be help.

There isn't a whole lot you can do regarding the radiant quests - I find them tedious and pointless for the most part, especially once you've gotten further into the questlines and they become almost insulting to your position. That said, you've already mentioned one of my Go-To mods for this, ESF - Companions Guild. I would recommend a trio of mods to help out with the College, specifically "Better College Application" (60061 mod ID on Nexus), "College Days - Winterhold" (56699), and "College of Winterhold Entry Requirements" (38448). Between those three, it makes the college a bit more what I envision for a bunch of snotty mages, and may work for you as well. For the Thieves Guild, in addition to the STEP recommendation of "Thieves Guild Entry Requirements", I would also add "Localized Thieves Guild Jobs" (14509) which will allow you to chose what city the radiant quest will occur in, which will at least make them slightly less annoying.

Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul - are there any recent instruction on using this with STEP Core + Extended?  I would consider not using the survival pack if I could use this mod.

First, this works fine with iNeed, Campfire, and Frostfall, and all four of them can be run with minimal issues. CACO does a lot of messing about with food and alchemy items, but iNeed handles this in it's own way (as mentioned earlier), and thus there's no real problem. There MAY be a patch or two needed (been a while since I installed all this), but they are all availiable on the CACO page (or the other mod pages, as applicable), and are easily integrated.

 

Wish I could give insight into the other questions you have, but here's what I do have. Happy modding.

[mentaltyranny]

Sorry guys i cannot seem to get multi-quote to work...

 

Re: TechAngel85:

 

I understand.  I am actually a little familiar with xEdit from the other ES/FO games, so I get what you mean.  However, I was hoping that for #2, 3, and 4 I could get some insight as why they were dropped from STEP in the first place.  For #5 and 6, I was hoping to get testimony as to whether these mods work as I hope and if anybody found any mods that do it better.  Since this appears to be the largest community of Skyrim modders online, I was hoping this was the place to ask.  Is there a better subforum where I can get these answers?

 

Also, Realistic Water Two has a patch for Realistic Needs and Diseases, not iNeed.  I can't find anything else on iNeed's page either... am I missing something?

 

Re: Shadriss:

 

Thanks so much for answering #1 & 7. It is really helpful. Any opinion on Immersive College of Winterhold?

 

For #8, I found the Testing forum topic for it, but it gives very dated instruction of getting it working with STEP.  I was hoping for there are more recent instructions somewhere?  What did you think of CACO?

[Shadriss]

I still run CACO, and all I did was drop it in. No patching that I did, anyhow, and I've not seen any issues. As for Immersive, I'll have to look at the actual mod itself, as it's not in my list. It sounds familiar which means I've likely looked at it before, but I'll take another look and give you my two cents.

[Shadriss]

I must correct myself - I've never seen that one before. It's feature list is impressive, to be certain. Would replace one or possibly two of the ones I recommend. I'm not usually a mage, so I don't spend a lot of time up there, but I may have to mess with it now to see how this works. From my read of it, there are lots of patches included in the installer, so the best practice here would be to give it a whirl and see what happens. If you've setup SKSE IAW STEP instructions, you won't need to make the SKSE.ini changes the author mentions either... you'll have already done it. Anyhow, I may be putting this in myself now, so... thanks?

 

@Tech: Apologies for the double post, but the ability to edit my own posts mysteriously vanished in the last 19 minutes. Daboo?

 

EDIT: I missed a Mage guild recommendation from my own list as well. It is basically a Mage version of the mod "Not So Fast - Main Quest", called, who knew? "Not So Fast - Mage's Guild" (64633). That will address a few other issues with the guild as well, timing wise.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Shadriss

[TechAngel85]

Sorry guys i cannot seem to get multi-quote to work...

 

Re: TechAngel85:

 

I understand.  I am actually a little familiar with xEdit from the other ES/FO games, so I get what you mean.  However, I was hoping that for #2, 3, and 4 I could get some insight as why they were dropped from STEP in the first place.  For #5 and 6, I was hoping to get testimony as to whether these mods work as I hope and if anybody found any mods that do it better.  Since this appears to be the largest community of Skyrim modders online, I was hoping this was the place to ask.  Is there a better subforum where I can get these answers?

 

Also, Realistic Water Two has a patch for Realistic Needs and Diseases, not iNeed.  I can't find anything else on iNeed's page either... am I missing something?

I don't remember 2, 3, and 4 ever being in STEP and there are not Anthology threads for those mods. Of course this could have been ages ago because the Anthology forum was a thing. If you're sure they were, three's likely no record of why they were dropped. The wiki only goes back as far as v2.2.1.

 

5 and 6 I have no experience with.

 

CACO works great with STEP, though it does need some patching. I used it in one of my recent plays. It'll likely make it into the Guide.

 

@Tech: Apologies for the double post, but the ability to edit my own posts mysteriously vanished in the last 19 minutes. Daboo?

Since you're a frequent flyer around here, I bumped you up to an Elevated Member which allows post editing.

[Shadriss]

Elevated membership! Yay! *checks pipboy* Altitude, 0.5 feet. Well, that's six inches more than earlier, so...

[TechAngel85]

Oh, as for the patch for RWT, that should be in the installer with the main file. I didn't verify for classic Skyrim, but it's there in the SSE version of the mod.

[mentaltyranny]

Okay I might have figured out this whole MultiQuote thing!

I must correct myself - I've never seen that one before. It's feature list is impressive, to be certain. Would replace one or possibly two of the ones I recommend. I'm not usually a mage, so I don't spend a lot of time up there, but I may have to mess with it now to see how this works. From my read of it, there are lots of patches included in the installer, so the best practice here would be to give it a whirl and see what happens. If you've setup SKSE IAW STEP instructions, you won't need to make the SKSE.ini changes the author mentions either... you'll have already done it. Anyhow, I may be putting this in myself now, so... thanks?

 

EDIT: I missed a Mage guild recommendation from my own list as well. It is basically a Mage version of the mod "Not So Fast - Main Quest", called, who knew? "Not So Fast - Mage's Guild" (64633). That will address a few other issues with the guild as well, timing wise.

Awesome!  Thanks for the recommended mods.  Please keep me informed if anything thing drops off with the installation of Immersive College of Winterhold, please let me know. I am at the sounds section of the guide now.  Oh, and would you mind telling me what IAW means? "In accordance with" or is it acronym for another mod?

 

I don't remember 2, 3, and 4 ever being in STEP and there are not Anthology threads for those mods. Of course this could have been ages ago because the Anthology forum was a thing. If you're sure they were, three's likely no record of why they were dropped. The wiki only goes back as far as v2.2.1.

 

5 and 6 I have no experience with.

 

CACO works great with STEP, though it does need some patching. I used it in one of my recent plays. It'll likely make it into the Guide.

Yeah, it was pre-forum and website, when STEP first came out.  As for CACO, I found an installation guide here, but the instructions are pretty dated.  Are there more recent instructions somewhere?

Oh, as for the patch for RWT, that should be in the installer with the main file. I didn't verify for classic Skyrim, but it's there in the SSE version of the mod.

I am using SKLE because I assumed, without SKSE, all of the best mods would not work with SSE.  Please tell me I am not assuming wrongly.

Edited May 28, 2017 by mentaltyranny

[TechAngel85]

Those instructions are probably still fairly accurate. They're there for testing the mod, but it works. You'll still need to check to see if it needs to be patched in xEdit.

 

No, you're correct, but the two packages should be pretty much the same. I actually help maintain the SSE version.

[mentaltyranny]

No, you're correct, but the two packages should be pretty much the same. I actually help maintain the SSE version.

Unfortunately, RWT for SKLE is v1.11 and does not mention anything about iNeed in compatibility but does RND. While the same for SSE is v1.25 and does not mention RND but does mention iNeed under compatibility.  So it looks like one is being improved but not the other.  Can I just install the SSE version or is that playing with fire?

[Kelmych]

A few comments:

 

2) you will find discussions and recommendations on follower mods in some of the Skyrim Revisited and Skyrim Revisited: Legendary Edition (SR:LE) threads on the STEP site. I'm not aware of any problem-free follower mods, especially the ones that haven't been updated in a long time. Most have conflicts with some other mods, so it depends which of the conflicting mods are used.

 

3) I've used DD for a long time along with STEP mods and I haven't had many problems. It can make the game tedious if the rates of dragon attacks and dragon aggressiveness are set too high.

 

5) A good hotkey mod is important when playing a character that uses a lot of magic.  I've been using More Hotkeys Please and found it works well; I haven't tried AH Hotkeys which seems to have a similar level of capability and more recent updates. I haven't seen any compatibility problems with hotkey mods as long as care is used to avoid keys used by other mods.

 

6} I use Immersive College of Winterhold but it isn't really the same as the ESF - Companions Guild; it isn't about changing radiant quests. The college mods that Shadriss mentioned do affect progress as a mage. I generally don't use these because spells are usually not used as often as melee actions, so it takes a fairly long time anyway to raise spell skills to useful levels. I agree that some of the mage quests seem to start fairly early, but if you are also following other side quests it takes a while to get around to most of the mage quests. Spells in Skyrim are a bit nerfed, especially if you don't use some of the mods that add additional spells.

[Greg]

EDIT: I missed a Mage guild recommendation from my own list as well. It is basically a Mage version of the mod "Not So Fast - Main Quest", called, who knew? "Not So Fast - Mage's Guild" (64633). That will address a few other issues with the guild as well, timing wise.

Not So Fast - Mage Guild basically forces the player to wait 8 days before starting the Saarthal quest after the initial lesson and waits 8 days before the Psijic monk arrives after Tolfdir discusses the orb so it's pretty much along the same lines as Not So Fast - Main Quest. I would have preferred it to force the player to complete a set number of radiant quests before advancing to the next quest (like Enhanced Skyrim Factions - Companions), but I think this isn't really feasible with Mage's guild since these radiant quests are no more than "go fetch a book" from somewhere and get really tedious quickly. I still consider this a good mod and keep it in my profile on top of STEP Extended.

[Shadriss]

Let's be honest, Greg - there is no fixing the radiant quests. I can see what they were intended as - a set of infinitely repeatable quests to give you more stuff to do after you finished the main line quests - but they greatly missed the mark in implementation and scope. I am almost always in the Thieves guild, and the thought of the Guild Master being sent on what are essentially 'make-work' quests is insulting. Only the DB radiants make any real sense since you are the Listener at that point, and all the murder sprees basically have to come through you anyways.

 

In my ideal version, the current radiant quests need to be as you mentions - filler in between the bigger steps of the main quest. They should have been deliberately designed to make you use the skill sets relevant to the group you are working with (so a lot of spell development for the Mages), forcing you to actually be GOOD at thier stuffs before you somehow end up in charge. (Arch-mage can't cast anything more than flames and self healing? Sure... why not? :eyeroll:) Once at the pinnacle, there should have been much higher level and difficult quests that, while repeatable, could believably require the attention of the head-guy-what's-up-in-charge. The DB kind of does this, but the others certainly don't.

 

Anyway, rant off. It would have been great if the ESF series had continued on and done the mages guild, as that would have given us a trifecta of mods that address at least some of what I mention above.