User:Eberkain/Immersive Skyrim

Modern Immersive Skyrim

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS PAGE, COME BACK LATER

Introduction

This is a mod collection created for myself with the goal of transforming Skyrim’s gameplay into something a little more challenging and realistic by combining and tweaking the features from a variety of different gameplay effecting mods while also seeking a balance between immersion and practical gameplay.

Q: What will you find here? A: An absurd number of gameplay altering mods, with an even longer list of patches to make them work together. Hope you have a good CPU because this is surely going to be script heavy.

Q: What will you not find here? A: No Body Replacers or High Res Texture Packs. There are lots of guides out there that include this kind of thing. I have had a lot of fun with those in the past, with this guide I’m looking for the most interesting gameplay I can find. If you want to use graphics enhancements also, then go for it, but I chose to not use any of those for performance and stability reasons.

Q: What is it compatible with? This mod collection is compatible with STEP:Extended and REGS, that is what I use and what it has been tested on. It is likely dependant on STEP Extended, but most of REGS could be safely ignored, though I don’t know why you would want to.

Q: How do I get there? A: Do a complete STEP Extended install, test it for a day and make sure its completely stable. Then add a complete REGS install, test that for a day and make sure its also completely stable. Then follow this guide and install these mods in the order they are listed and after REGS unless specifically instructed differently in the description. Always read what mods do before you install them, yes you must read everything, if you don’t like reading, then turn back now. You have been warned.

Overview

The first section will focus on identifying the types of gameplay behaviors that I want to change. The second section is a detailed guide on how to install all the mods with links to where to find them. The third section gives instructions on how to patch and resolve conflicts. The last section provides a general overview and description of what to expect when you start the game.

Part 1 - Gameplay Redesign

The main thing I look for when playing any Elder Scrolls game is immersion, the sense of being your character and living in the fantasy world, but as a modern gamer I don’t want to sacrifice the practical elements that make for enjoyable gameplay. I feel there is a fine line where both these worlds can exist together, and that is what I am out to accomplish with this mod collection.

Accomplishing this goal will require a diverse array of mods addressing a variety of different issues, we can best move forward by categorizing the things we want to change and then determining what would be the best way to go about making those changes.

Eliminating Exploits

The following specific instances are things that I want to remove the game.

• Drinking potions mid weapon swing to save your skin.
• Looting armor from fallen enemies and putting it on in the middle of a battle.
• Crafting a ton of items and using the perks on combat skills.
• Enchanting all the items and selling them for too much money.
• Carrying an unlimited amount of items.
• Picking master locks and never putting a perk point into lockpicking
• Casting high level spells with low skill by using +magika effects on items and potions

Gameplay Concessions

I do not want to drag out the experience unnecessarily or add things that are ultimately boring or frustrating, so this is a list of things that I considered for the sake of immersion, but I will NOT be including, mainly for the sake of my sanity,

• Removing the HUD elements and compass - I see this in alot of discussions on immersion, I’m not going there, this is still a game.
• Adding animations to actions,.opening doors, picking herbs, etc - time is a precious resource, and what I get to spend playing I don’t want to be looking at my character picking herbs all day.

Rebalancing the Economy

When I play a long game of skyrim, money tends to become an afterthought. I end up with so much cash on hand that I can pretty much buy anything and never have to think about it. This is a problem. As a player I should have to plan where to use my resources, if the resource is too abundant then the element of strategy is eliminated. A number of the mods and tweaks in this collection will address this problem, expect to find less money, find less valuable items, sell your items for less profit, and in general have a harder time making ends meet. Want to buy a house? You really will have to sacrifice other things to save up the money.

Basic Needs

Since the early days of skyrim I have used mods that added eating, sleeping and drinking to the mix. These days the experiences offered by these mods are so streamlined that they really feel like part of the game. Having to expend resources on simply keeping you and your companions alive will be an integral part of the experience when combined with a 1:1 timescale and the accelerated passage of time for specific activities.

Crafting Redesign

I generally grind out building alot of stuff when I play for any extended time and end up with a powerful crafted weapon long before I should have it, making the mid game far easier than it should be. There are two problems with the way the current crafting system is designed, one is that your progression is tied to your combat skills, and the other is the number of items you have to create to increase your skill. The entire point of this guide is to streamline the experience both for logic and gameplay. Combined, the following changes redesign the fundamentals of how the crafting system works.

• Gaining skill points in Smithng, Enchanting or Alchlemy no longer contribute to increasing your character level - this removes the crafting skills from being tied to combat progression.
• Every perk in Smithing, Enchaning or Alchlemy now has a level requirement - this prevents you from making ebony weapons with stolen ingots at level 10.
• Performing Smithing, Enchanting or Alchlemy now causes time to pass - this adds to the immersion of the game and drains your food resources.
• The rate you gain skill points in Smithing, Enchanting or Alchlemy has been greatly increased - this means you will not have to make nearly as much stuff to get to the next tier of perks.

You can think of each crafting profession as a separate skill from each other and from combat related skills, as it always should have been. You will still have to gain perks through combat to invest in crafting professions, which in itself is thematic and immersive. You have to test your creations before you can figure out how to make something better.

Part 2 - Installing Mods

The following section will give explicit instructions on what to install to make all these mods compatible with each other. You should always read all documentation for all mods you download and have a good understanding of what they do.

Making Room

With a full install of STEP Extended and REGS you should have around 186 plugins, leaving us about 60 for additional mods and patches. I helped reduce that footprint by merging these groups of mods into single plugins. Rearrange your plugins so that each group is in a continuous block if you are going to merge these. Remember to disable the plugins you merged.

• RealisticWaterTwo.esp
• RealisticWaterTwo - Legendary.esp
• RealisticWaterTwo - Falskaar.esp
• RealisticWaterTwo - Waves - Falskaar.esp
• RealisticWaterTwo - Wyrmstooth.esp
• RealisticWaterTwo - Waves - Wyrmstooth.esp

New Plugin Name: RealisticWaterTwo.esp

• ETaC - Complete EWDR Patch.esp"
• ETaC - Complete LoS Patch.esp"
• ETaC - Complete NoSnow Patch.esp"
• ETaC - Complete BFT Patch.esp"
• ETaC - Complete CRF Patch.esp"
• ETaC - Whiterun Ext CRF Patch.esp"
• ETaC - Complete ORS Patch.esp"
• ETaC - Whiterun Ext LoS Patch.esp"

New Plugin Name: ETaC - Patches.esp

• FarmhouseChimneys.esp
• FarmhouseChimneysFalskaar.esp
• FarmhouseChimneysWyrmstooth.esp
• FarmhouseChimneysCRF.esp
• FarmhouseChimneysMaS.esp

New Plugin Name: FarmhouseChimneys - Merged.esp

• JK’s Windhelm
• JK’s Solitude
• NerniesCityandVillageExpansion
• JK’s Whiterun
• Understone Keep Repair
• JK’s Marcath
• Better City Entrances - No Whiterun

ADD Windhelp Lighthouse for next time

REGS - Cities & Outskirts Merged (7)

Weather & Lighting

[www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52423/ Pure Weathers]

Author: Laast

Version: 2.2

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Mod Notes: Pure Weather is a full weather and lighting replacer. It adds a lot of new weather types for every regions (DLC included), adding realism, immersion, and beauty to Skyrim with absolutely ZERO performance loss.

Housing

CURRENTLY NOT USED - IGNORE THIS SECTION This section is dedicated to improving the vanilla housing options. The houses are there, if you use them or not, this way you can live in any of the vanilla houses and be completely happy with what you get. Riverside Shack

Bookshelves SKSE

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Honeyside TNF

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Hjerim TNF

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Vindrel Hall Reborn

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Proudspire Manor Refurbished

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Breezehome Fully Upgradable

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Hearthfire Custom Basements

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Hearthfire Homes Dont Respawn

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Simple Hearthfire Attics

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Teleport Home Spells

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Merge Plugins

Sort the housing plugins into this order and then merge them into a single .esp ????????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????

Improved Characters

CURRENTLY NOT USED - IGNORE THIS SECTION Optimized Better Males Textures Merged .esp LOOT rule after Bring out your dead

Mechanics

This is the meat of the mod collection. Using these mods together will radically change how you play Skyrim and what kind of experience you have.

Dynamic Things

Author: Dominoid

Version: 1.4

Mod Notes: There you are almost frozen to death and in desperate need of firewood to light a fire when you see your salvation - a freshly chopped pile of firewood in the camp up ahead. But wait the pile is useless! You take your last breath as your blood freezes in your veins. This mod aims to change that by dynamically changing those useless firewood piles into containers of firewood ready for your plundering.

Dynamic Things Enhanced

Author: FleischHals

Version: 1.6

Mod Notes: This is a kind of patch for the great mod “Dynamic Things” of dominoid. It changes some aspects of the mod and allows the user to change a lot of things which were fixed in the original mod. It furthermore enables now the harvesting of mammoth tusks from the skulls you can find all around Skyrim.

New Spells & Equipment

This section is going to focus on giving you and your followers a larger arsenal of spells, armor, weapons and functional equipment. A few of the largest enhancement mods are coupled with a handful of smaller specific item additions.

Apocalypse Magic

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- More Spells

Thunderchild Shouts

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Shouts Redragonized

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Imperious Races of Skyrim

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Perma Weaponry Fillout

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Aetherium Armor and Weapons Compilation

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Konahrik's accoutrements

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Skyre Artifacts

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Telescope

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Skyrims Unique Treasures

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Difficulty & Balance

Dragon Combat Overhaul

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Revenge of the Enemies

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Immersive Detection of NPC

Author: kkil001

Version: 2.5

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Scarcity

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(x6 loot / x2 merchant)

Gold Adjustment

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Werewolves & Vampires

Bloodmoon Rising

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Dark Maneuvers

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Utilities

Jaxonz Positioner

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Jaxonz Renamer

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Jaxonz Real Names

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Jaxonz Named Save

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Jaxonz Map Markers

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Jaxonz Furnishings

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Jaxonz Lights Please

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Jaxonz Diagnostics

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Patches

ASIS Improved Ini Files

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Perkus Maximus

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Options: Fixed Wintermyst Stuff

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Perma Compatability and PaMa Patches

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Dual Sheath Redux for Perkus Maximus

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Compatibility Patches

You need to get all these patches because they include fixed assets or replacement plugins

3DNPC - EFF

Disable the plugin

Apocalypse - Perma

Disable both plugins

Skyrim Coin Replacer Redux - Perma

These patches are included in the Modern Immersive Skyrim merged patch found in the next section, you do not need to download any of these if using the merged patch.

Hunterborn - Patches

Disable the two patches in the hunterborn plugin

Character Creation Overhaul - Perma

DONE

Perma - Hunterborn - Frostfall Field Work Fix

Adds a perk for field enchanting Makes crafting the field enchanting lab or mortar & pestle require the field perks. DONE

Perma Crafting Perks LVL Requirements

Add Level req for all crafting perks, addjust perk descriptions NOT DONE

Living Takes Time - Time Tweaks

living takes time increased limits to x10 NOT DONE

Item Immersion Tweaks

bandioleer - crafting time Wearable lantern crafting time Adjust selling price for some items that were too high NOT DONE

UNO - CWI Patch

Keep stats from CWI Keep look from UNO NOT DONE

Custom Patch

The custom patch includes several different components.

• A customized uncapper .ini file
• A keybind file to remove select vanilla keybinds
• MIS - Compatibility Patch (includes all the above patches)

Process - Activate all the merge plugins in the specific order, load only them into TES5Edit, Merge, Apply filter to show conflict losers, look at the changes from all the patches that did not get carried over and see if anything important was lost. Takes about 30 minutes.

• MIS - Conflict Resolution Patch

Process - Load all plugins into TES5Edit, create merged patch, apply filter for cleaning, go through all records that were copied to the new plugin and fix issues, takes a couple hours.

Part 3 - Patching

ASIS 100 50 25 15 10

1 50

Post Install Instruction

Run LOOT (beta) Build Real Shelter Patch Build Merged Patch Build Bashed Patch Run FNIS Run ASIS Run PaMa Run DSR (54,45)

Setting Up Keybinds

You should feel free to tweak the choices made in this section as you see fit. If you follow the instructions provided then this will be the Keyboard Layout you end up with. (spreadsheet)

Edit enb bindings

Character Creation

Weapon positions Mod Settings (spreadsheet)

Part 4 - Review of Changes

Things to Know

Custom Uncapper .ini Skills capped at 100 Skill formulas capped to 200 Enchanting formulas capped to 150 Reduced crafting leveling speed Skills increase faster in the 20-50 range Reduced crafting contrib to character level 2 Perks per level Front Load Stats +20 per level to 20, +15 per level to 40, +10 per to 60, +5 per +10 Carry weight per level

Gameplay Tips

Save Early and Save Often. Never Adventure Alone

Use the favorites menu

1-5 Rings, Necklaces, Lesser Powers, Weapons, Potions 6-8 Armor Sets