SKYRIMLE Skyrims Unique Treasures by clintmich

[MadWizard25]

Quick Details

 

Name: Skyrims Unique Treasures

Author: clintmich

Category: Content

FPS Intensive: No

Lore Friendly: Yes

STEP Compatible: Yes

 

Review

 

Back for another review; been a bit busy lately so time to catch up ;)

 

Skyrims Unique Treasures is a content mod that adds various unique objects to the region of Skyrim. These can either be unique objects or treasure chests containing gold and unique objects. Altogether there are about 100 of these objects, items, and chests that you can collect, use, or just put on display in your homes. I have actually been using this mod for quite a while, since skyrim patch 1.3, but have had trouble finding any of the objects, although I have only explored whiterun/ riverwood area extensively.

 

This is how it should be! The treasures justify the unique moniker in two ways; rarity and custom models, textures, and meshes. After all this time I have only been able to find 1 treasure chest containing some gold and two ronin swords. Clintmitch states that these treasures may be found in exterior and interior cells. Exterior treasures are placed in treasure chests of which there are only 20. As you can imagine i was quite pleased to come across one of the treasure chests, even if by luck. And thats important; its good to know that the mod accomplishes this feeling.

 

I have had no compatibility issues, which i was a bit worried about because this mod adds new objects such as weapons, but so far it has played very nice with 5 other weapon/ armor addition mods i use, as well as the STEP collection. BOSS recommends no bash tags either.

 

Balance is an issue i am concerned about. The mod adds a few magical weapons, and the author does state they can be very powerful. The two blades i found had 5 lifesteal per hit, and did not seem OP, however i do use a combat difficulty enhancement mod. I expect some of the other unique weapons will be far more powerful, which is why i consider this to still be an issue. Even the most powerful weapons should not guarantee 1 - 3 hit kills on dragons with Deadly Dragons mod enabled. Something to still look out for.

 

In conclusion, I enjoy the mod, and its great for those who enjoy treasure hunting and loot collecting. Only issues for me so far are potentially overpowered weapons and a genie lamp that intentionally gives unlimited gold (which can be ignored as per authors recommendation). Neither of these issue would stop me from recommending the mod as they can easily be ignored, and the benefits definitely out way these issues.

 

Pros

- Mostly Unobtrusive

- Truly Rare (few and mostly hard to find)

- Truly Unique (custom everything, non-craftable)

- Compatible

- Not FPS Intensive

- Quality (good quality custom items in terms of meshes, textures)

- Lore friendly version

- Induces warm rosy feel when you finally find an unique treasure

- Magic weapons found are well balanced and do not exceed vanilla standards

- Polite, friendly and responsive author

 

Cons

- Treasure chests are not unobtrusive. They are yellow and thus can be easy to spot among foliage in exteriors.

- Some items potentially overpowered

- A magic lamp that can give unlimited gold if dropped and picked up repeatably (author states this is intentional and that responsible players can just ignore it)

 

Before and After Screenshots

 

Before

After

Content Screenshots

 

Skyrim Nexus Link

https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=12766

[MontyMM]

Great review! I like this sort of thing - reduces the homogeneity of the world, which is one of the sins of Bethsoft games, IMHO.

[torminater]

i would like it if two things are changed:

look of the chests: if there is a golden chest in the middle of the wilderness... why didn't anybody clear it out before I came along the road??? either a lot less shiny and hidden by a big bush or under some sort of rock, or a different type of chest. it shouldn't be "Dovahkiin and the quest of the shiny golden treasure chests scattered randomly around Skyrim"-like. also a diversity of the different chests would be beneficial to immersion. or a quest line that explains why all the unique treasures are hidden in equal-looking chests. maybe a remain of some sort of mysterious who-knows-who who-did-what?

implemented cheating items: probably easy to fix. just delete that part in the creation kit. problem: not everybod can do that, and only the mod author has the official rights to change his mod...

 

anyway: GREAT REVIEW!

[MadWizard25]

Thanks guys :)

 

I agree with most of your sentiments torminater. The treasure chests shouldnt be so yellow. However, since all unique items in exteriors are in chests, and there are only 20 chests in exteriors in the entirety of skyrim, it may be that the author deliberately made them yellow and obtrusive so you could actually find them :P Besides, ive only found 1 after quite a few hours exploring, so it may be that even thought they are yellow, they have actually also been hidden quite well. More diversity of chests naturally follows.

 

The quest idea is also great, i believe it was already posted on the mod thread on nexus, but the author has declined to comment on that yet. Nevertheless, i seem to remember a faction/ quest situation mod in Oblivion concerning an Archaeology guild. Maybe he could do something similar here, where you join the guild and are sent on a quest to collect all these items.

 

In fact, with your permission, i would like to post some of your suggestions on the mods thread on nexus. Or you could post them yourself :)

[torminater]

go ahead! I got my own stuff I'm fiddeling with right now :)

[Bealdwine]

Great review! I like this sort of thing - reduces the homogeneity of the world, which is one of the sins of Bethsoft games, IMHO.

 

Agreed, I think that most players who want a truly immersive and 'honest' game are more than capable of simply not using unbalanced items. They're still good for the show case and wall displays ;) I'm very much an explorer type in RPG games so this would suite me very well. Also a definite +1 on the quality of review Mad :D

[MadWizard25]

A quick addendum, clintmich replied quickly to the suggestion torminator made and I posted on the mods nexus page. So i will quickly summarize what he posted, as well as tweak the review.

 

1. He has noticed that the weapons were OP in previous versions, so in the latest version no one should worry that they are too OP. They are powerful, but no more powerful than other vanilla powerful weapons, excellent!

 

2. He did indeed make the chests yellow because they are so rare, but he will consider hiding some of them better in the next release.

 

3. He will also give consideration to quests involved with this mod.

 

Other than that, hes is clear and courteous in his replies. Another bonus for the mod!

[torminater]

good to know! :)

I'll watch the mod!

[frihyland]

A little bit of story can go a long way for a mod like this by making the items seem part of the world and increasing the depth of immersion, without it you actually can lose immersion with a wtf is a full treasure chest doing sitting out here?

[z929669]

Agree with Fri. New content mods must come packaged with a raison d'etre that fits in well with the lore of the game. Careful work in this regard and in the improvements suggested above would sway me to use this mod. As of right now, though, I will opt out :confused:

 

EDIT: Must say that I would not have a reasonable position had it not been for the high quality review... thanks for this! ... I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more MadWizard [ MOD ] posts!

[ralsar]

I could do without the magic lamp, but everything else is fun. A quick and easy way to spice up a new playthrough.

I've had it installed with STEP 2.01 and an embarrasing amount of additional mods without any compatibility problems. I'm re-installing everything based on STEP 2.1, but I can't see it conflicting with anything.