Mod recommendation?

[Trevor Drakenor]

I had my fill of fun with vanilla, now Im thinking, I should probably play it modded. Got any mod you guys recommend? I remember in Stalker there is a mod with active faction warfare, I wonder if there is one here in Skyrim, Imperial vs Stormcloak, Dawn guard vs Vampire like we see Stendarr sometime fighting werewolf. Graphics and added content would be nice, I also notice that this game doesnt have workshop we can directly subscribe to download, how do we go about that?

[Lady Aeleanor]

Highly recommend not using the in-game mod mangler (not a mispelling) Use Nexus mods and one of the real mod managers, such as Vortex or MO2.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by Lady Aeleanor:

Highly recommend not using the in-game mod mangler (not a mispelling) Use Nexus mods and one of the real mod managers, such as Vortex or MO2.

This

[Myr]

Be sure to check the correct section of Skyrim mods since Nexus mods is split into 2 for OG Skyrim and Skyrim Special Edition. Anniversary Edition is the same game as SE so mods mentioning AE should work fine in SE unless they say otherwise. OG Skyrim mods while not designed for the new game "can" work but its advised to avoid trying to use them as they aren't designed for it so you could mess things up.

As for types of mods to use, I'd recommend checking through the different categories in the refine search section while sorting by most endorsed or downloaded to check out what types of mods are out there, you might find some high rated mods that might otherwise be hidden by more popular categories you might not have thought about.

There are some mods like Immersive Patrols that add extra wandering soldiers which you might like when you mentioned about the Civil War. There is also a mod that adds merchants to the road which used to be in the same mod.

A couple of favourite mods of mine are the bandoleer type mods for extra visible pouches and backpacks on top of armour for a believable way to increase carry weight, and the ambient sound mods to add to the overall atmosphere of the world as I find sound far more impactful than graphics for the mood.

[sdack]

If this is going to be your first modded playthrough then I recommend, of course, that you get yourself familiar with a mod manager. My personal favorite is the Vortex manager.

https://www.nexusmods.com/about/vortex/

The Unofficial Patch as well as the Engine Fixes make for a nice set of fixes. The Engine Fixes will even turn on Steam achievements for a modded game:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/266
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17230

After those I suggest "Perk Points and More Gold for Bounty Quests". This mod will give you a perk point whenever you do one of those "Go there, kill bandit boss"- or "go here, and kill giant"-quests. These are usually rather boring and you probably do not want to do any of those for your new playthrough, but because this mod rewards you with a perk point for each quest done can you farm as many perk points as you like and so explore all the skills in the game:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2743

[akmatov]

Just getting back into SSE and the Perk Point mod suggestion is great and I've just installed it, thx.
A very useful genre of mod is Player Houses and a modder named Elianora does some great ones. Sadly, more of her mods are for OldRim, but SSE has the very useful Riverwood Shack. Not only does it have everything possible, afaik, for the interior, but the porch has a full set of crafting equipment. It is my home base.

[Hustensohn]

If you wanna go the Companions werewolf route, I highly suggest you try the 'Growl - Werebeasts of Skyrim' mod.
It is completely lore-friendly and immersive and expands upon the werewolf to make it much more appealing and actually buffing the form just a bit so you don't feel like you're stronger in your human form in later stages of the game anyway anymore.
New skilltree, more perks, a lot of new abilities and even new randomly appearing elite Silver Hand werewolf hunters that can track down your location whenever you turn and eat stuff. They are no pushovers at all and will provide you with quite a juicy challenge should you be too reckless with your beastform. (there is also one perk to reduce their chance of appearing greatly) There are also perks to give you some health and stamina regen and a running speed increase in- and outside of beastform, but the mod adds by default a -50% fire resistance and a whopping 20 points of extra damage taken from silver weapons as permanent weaknesses. The mod also adds a random chance of turning into a werewolf at night with a specific chance, depending of the stage of the moon, and a perk to remove that chance completely. (like gaining control over your inner beast) There is even one racial specifric werewolf trait that you get for each race that you pick at the start of the game. Pretty cool stuff.

[Cooperal]

Vortex is a very good starting point for a mod manager. There is a lot put in place to help you avoid making mistakes.

Two essential mods are Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch and also SkyUI. The former cleaning up hundreds of vanilla bugs and the latter giving you a much more intuitive menu experience.

You can get a good feel for widely recommended mods by going to the nexusmods website and viewing different mod categories by order of most endorsements.

One that I recommend for a new playthrough would be Ordinator Perks. A complete overhaul of the perk trees. They promote more diverse playstyles for each weapon type, magic school, and even the non-combat trees. Lockpicking can be used to shut down mechanical enemies. Speech can be used to improve your shouts or make people dance for gold. You can learn to craft deployable turrets with blacksmithing.

Another one would be Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim. This one massively expands the number of types of spells available to each magic school. They seem very balanced and just like the Ordinator mod they also add far more ways to build your character. These two mods also have a patch to work together.

[Vlad 254]

Mod versions are important.

Use a Mod manager.

There is no Workshop for Skyrim SE

Stay away from the in game Mod system

This may help point you in the right direction:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2738338974

[Trevor Drakenor]

hoho, its going to take a while to download. These all look to be good mods.
It is strange indeed that the first page I see when I open the mod on the site is almost all mods for making woman even more.... that. More than just a couple in fact hahaha. Now that I think of it, some of the character texture? for vanilla starting to look like something out of PS 1, might be because of how stretched their face looks especially for the elves, I think I should upgrade that.

Speaking of, I am noticing the lack of oomph when it comes to striking someone with the hammer. I am thinking of something like Karl Franz level of hammering where a swing would either flinch or throw someones off. I dont think I see that kind of mod available, maybe its buried?

There's a couple of what seems to be good one, the AI overhaul for citizen seems promising.

[theo]

Originally posted by Lady Aeleanor:

Highly recommend not using the in-game mod mangler (not a mispelling) Use Nexus mods and one of the real mod managers, such as Vortex or MO2.

Why though? That's the most convenient and safe way to install mods.
It doesn't have all mods and doesnt' support SKSE but SKSE is broken anyway (it cannot handle official game updates so stuff depending on it break each time) and if you don't intend to use any 'Nexus exclusives' (mostly porn mods) that's a legit way to go, especially for a casual player

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by theo:

Originally posted by Lady Aeleanor:

Highly recommend not using the in-game mod mangler (not a mispelling) Use Nexus mods and one of the real mod managers, such as Vortex or MO2.

Why though? That's the most convenient and safe way to install mods.

convenient does not equate to best or even recommended.

Originally posted by theo:

It doesn't have all mods and doesnt' support SKSE but SKSE is broken anyway (it cannot handle official game updates so stuff depending on it break each time)

Not broken at all. SKSE works as intended and like many mods each version of SKSE works for each game version it's intended for.

Originally posted by theo:

and if you don't intend to use any 'Nexus exclusives' (mostly porn mods) that's a legit way to go, especially for a casual player

Nexus is mostly porn?? since when?? Nexus is mostly not porn is more accurate.

[Tao314zdin]

Originally posted by theo:

Why though? That's the most convenient and safe way to install mods.
It doesn't have all mods and doesnt' support SKSE but SKSE is broken anyway (it cannot handle official game updates so stuff depending on it break each time) and if you don't intend to use any 'Nexus exclusives' (mostly porn mods) that's a legit way to go, especially for a casual player

How do you even compare CC with Nexus?

CC-mods are just few pretty items + a couple of mini-quests aka go there-there-there-done like Saints and Seducers.

Nexus has DLC-size addons with multiple quests, tons of items, fully-voices characters and followers. Then you have visuals and animations that you will not find anything remotely comparable at CC. Not to mention things that can radically change/enhance gameplay.

SKSE as was pointed above has versions for each patch, so as much as an ability to read and remember those few digits is sufficient for not getting into trouble with it.

[Pein]

Living skyrim . A vanilla + mod compilation adding around 950 mods that adds tons of content and makes skyrim feel like a living world. Uses the wabbajack installer and is quite easy to install.

[krvnik]

Combat Gameplay Overhaul is one I would definitely recommend. The dodge roll alone is game changing. The game does not feel like Eye of the Beholder anymore.

[Tao314zdin]

Originally posted by krvnik:

Combat Gameplay Overhaul is one I would definitely recommend. The dodge roll alone is game changing. The game does not feel like Eye of the Beholder anymore.

If you go for melee combos and animations - for honor mods + TK_dodge + dodge_animation_replacer (like ER_quickstep or similar) is a good option too.

I used CGO at start but it is rather basic in comparison to alternatives out there. IMO.