SKYRIMLE Animallica - Skyrim Wildlife Overhaul (by sliceandkill)

[dstansberry]

This looks interesting. According to the mod author:

 

"The mod contains over 100 new animal species and subspecies, added to the leveled lists.-Bears-Boars-Deer-Prehistoric Cats-Big Cats-Gazelle and Antelopes-Pheasants-Rabbits-Raccoons-Rhinos-Wolves-and much more"

 

There's a lore-friendly version available in the download section. I sounds like it needs a little fleshing out (MCM menu, custom loot for the new critters, etc) but I'm a sucker for anything that adds variety!

 

Has anybody tried it yet? 

Edited August 27, 2014 by dstansberry

[fireundubh]

I looked at this earlier. There's considerable variation in the quality of the meshes and textures.

[plaGGy]

I like the idea, but iirc some of the animals looked really good and some rather blunt.

But i always thought that wolves, bears, cats and invading bears couldn't be all the wildlife skyrim evolved over the centurys.

Its on my watch list right now.

[Aiyen]

The badger with its mixed mesh of a wolf and rat just made my day! I cant decide if I find it utterly adorable or disgusting! In either case it really made me giggle. 

 

As for the mod idea in general then it is a nice concept. I do think it will add too much complexity to my list in order to provide something that I already feel I get plenty of just using AV. 

 

And in general the models are perhaps a bit too low poly in some cases. But definitely this is a mod to watch for future updates! Hope it continues to evolve. 

[plaGGy]

Don know right now, but is it modular?

 

Or is it go big or go home?

[dstansberry]

It doesn't appear to be modular, though there are a couple of "filtered" packs available. One contains only the deer (and a couple of goats), One is considered "Lore-friendly" and removes tropical and savannah critters, and one that removes spiders, for those with arachnophobia.

 

I didn't even know that arachnophobia could extend to things like images in a video game! Kudo's to him thinking about others in that way!

[plaGGy]

Yeah, that's really annoying.

 

Its "funny" or rather strange, that it seems to be following no logic in any way, at least not in my case.

I wasn't able to play Skyrim until Insects Begone was released and purged all spiders out of the game and had a really troublesome time with Dragon Age Origins/ Dragon Age 2 and im afraid it will be similar with Witcher 3 and Dragon Age 3.

 

Its really annoying, that people producing the game didn't think of that, it literally makes games with scary spiders and close to no modding support unplayable for me.

 

I have no problems with the spiders in Diablo 2, Diablo 3, to (some extend) the ones in WoW and Elise as a character in League of Legends, but that depends highly on the graphical style. In past times I could even look upon those little green spiders from Nighelven starting area, but nowadays I find them rather cute than scary.... but Frostbite spiders... hell... what were they thinking at Bethesda HQ....

[Neovalen]

They were thinking giant spiders evoke an emotional response and we want people to be immersed/scared. :) That and giant spiders have been in high fantasy since the beginning.

[redirishlord]

They were thinking giant spiders evoke an emotional response and we want people to be immersed/scared. :) That and giant spiders have been in high fantasy since the beginning.

Ungoliant & Shelob FTW. I would think hitting frostbite spiders with a warhammer would be therapeutic.

[Shadriss]

Only if they don't pass out first. Some phobias can cause that, and I've heard plenty of arachnophobes have that reaction. Pixels or not, the image is more than they can deal with.

 

But to the actual point - is this something to really give a good look at? I'm pretty good with just AV, as someone else mentioned earlier, so I'm not sure this would really add anything for me, unless there's some hook to it somewhere I've missed.

[Whitra01]

I don't usually contribute much to these forums, so please take my advice with a grain of salt, but in answer to Shadriss' question, I'd wait and see how the mod creator will update this.I've been using the early version (pre-lore and added creatures) on a recent playthrough and enjoyed it, but I had to make some heavy modifications to his lists. There are four big problems I've found with the mod. (1) Some of the animals aren't lore friendly, like the pandas, some of the lions, amethyst grouse, etc. (2) Among the lore-friendly animals, there's a wide range of textures and models. Some of the big cats look great, others not so much. Even after I removed all the animals I didn't think were lore friendly from my game, I'd say that for every new animal that I'm excited to find in game there's another that's disappointing. (3) There are some problems with the leveled lists and death item lists. For example, I've seen beavers spawn pretty far from water, and some animals drop leather instead of furs. I'd like to see the modder introduce a generic fur plate at least. (4) Some of the animal AI seems to be too aggressive. I like that moose will turn and fight when attacked, but I also think I've seen them initiate combat, too. When fighting them, it seems like their hit box doesn't correspond to the animals size, either.

 

I like the mod, mostly for the deer/moose/elk and grouse variants it adds. I'd recommend it to people that want a little more variety, but I don't think it has the polish to fit into STEP.