Best immersive guide for Skyrim

[hypersot]

Hi,

I'm waiting for a 4GB vram graphics card to arrive soon and I'm thinking of installing skyrim to its best and most immersive version.

Do you know of any easy-to-follow guide on how to achieve this?
I'll be needing the most I can get from:
-graphics
-monsters
-items
-plus anything lore related

with my 4790k / 16GB ram , I want to play skyrim like I haven't before (without breaking the immersion though)

warm thanks to all

[hypersot]

yeah, that's actually what I found, when I searched for ace and overhaul

thing is, I didn't see anything sneak/stealth related and that's why I ignored it.

It has 10 parts (or modules). Which one is related to stealth?

thanks

[Mormacil]

The main download contains several ESP files, one of them dedicated to Stealth I recall.
My bad, different mod. No access to my modlist so can't give you the correct name.

[EbonHawk]

Diposting pertama kali oleh hypersot:

those are some interesting mods.
I don't think I can use the 'Enemy AI overhaul' though since I have already installed PerMa with 'High Level Enemies'. Wouldn't the AI overhaul be a bit too much? ... or are they all compatible?

So far, Enemy AI Overhaul has been compatible with everything I've tried it with. It's one of those mods that just seems to fit seamlessly with others. And it's one that I can't imagine playing without, ever again. It's changes are subtle, yet immersive.

Example: when traveling in the wilds, you come across a wolf or two. Without the mod, you get this: you hear a wolf howl or two and keep heading in the same direction, and a few seconds later, they rush straight at you and start attacking you. With the mod installed, they might watch you for a few moments, "sizing" you up. Then, one of a group might attack you by running straight at you, or it might circle around and come at you from around a hill via a different route. They might both attack together, or one might come at you while the other waits. If you deal a lot of damage to one, or reduce its health below a certain level, it might run off and hide to recuperate while its buddy attacks you aggressively.

It just adds subtle variety to enemies' behaviours and if you switch it off, you'll know something's missing right away.

[Uncle64]

Diposting pertama kali oleh hypersot:

That's grant.

one more question,
I'm currently sorting my list with LOOT and cleaning it up with TES5edit
do you think I should also use wrye bash or another tool as well? (it's been a long time since I last merged lists)

thanks again

yes you can do that.

[hypersot]

@EbonHawk , so that's who's responsible for the erratic behaviour (in a good sense) of the wildlife... I do like it :)

@Mormacil , no problem. I do appreciate guys you taking the time to give a hand here. It has really helped me to get in the right direction (no matter if I use the mods you propose or not)

as far as stealth is concerned,
the only solution I have found is to use the BASIC version of Stealth Skills Rebalanced ( http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28418/ )
It's the only mod that seems to work fine with PerMa. It's not 100% perfect but it will do.


What has made a great impression on me is the very low vram usage. Can it be that the SKSE entry has made such an impact?

Due to my work I use three screens at all times -even when I play Skyrim- so when I start the game I'm already using about 300-400MB of VRAM.

After running Skyrim and using a lot of textures on a 1920x1200 screen (not the 2k ones but a lot of others in highest quality) I noticed that, on my 1GB 6870, RAM never exceeds the 900MB mark *with no stuttering at all* which is very strange.
I clearly remember in the past, even with a few texture mods, my pc got on its knees.

can't wait to get the new card to start increasing the 'grids to load' and all the other stuff I was scared to use in the past ;)

[Mormacil]

Grid to load etc really does benefit from the SKSE memory tweak.

[hypersot]

Good to know.

I read somewhere that lots of different retexturing mods, working together, might cause issues with inconsistent texture glitches all over the place (I'm talking about environment textures).

What do you people think, should I:

a. install every mod I fancy, ignoring the fact that they might overlap and (according to what I read) cause inconsistent graphics

b. install only one mod per texture group. ie. one mod for snow, one for rocks, one for trees/flora, etc. (which seems like a lot of work to do)

c. intall only *one* general graphics overhaul mod. Like for example, the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ high res texture pack or the 2K retexturing mod (don't remember the name right now)

d. another idea?

thanks again for your valuable input

[Mormacil]

C2: Install the High Res DLC with the Optimized DLC mod. Then add a large overhaul on top. Not neccesarily a full overhaul but a good terrain overhaul. Then add a seperate water mod, nice snow mod too. Perhaps some of aMidian Reborn's stuff.

[hypersot]

that's exactly what I was doing until I read that, if I do that then there will be a lot of parts in the world that won't merge properly and large 'patches' of obvious different textures will be shown here and there.

well, I think I'll keep doing that until it starts bothering me (if it does at all). Unfortunately, card is not here yet to start installing the big texture packs.

again, thanks for your time Mormacil.

One of these days I'll post the list of mods I have installed. I'm currently running a gameplay test to see if everything runs as intended.
I have noticed some inconsistencies with the weapon damages (just found a sword with way lower damage than the rest) and I think the levelling is very fast for my liking.. need to see if I can change that without messing with the data files.

[Mormacil]

Not at weapon materials scale consistently. Some are better for armor where others are better for weapons. What weapon was it? As for levelling, it slows down exponentially. My biggest recommendation is either increasing difficulty as damage done to AI is linked to experience or not use any of the skill gain boosts from standing stones.
Also do you run Morrowloot 4E Edition?

[hypersot]

i found the problem (wrong ReProccer patch) and, since I just received the card, I'm going to uninstall/delete everything and do a clean install

I'll let you know how it goes

..and no, I don't run Morrowloot, I don't even know what it is :)

[Mormacil]

Morrowloot is a loot overhaul scaling the game more akin to Morrowind. This means high tier gear is much much harder to acquire. Dwemer loot is mostly restricted to Dwemer ruines and the odd wizard, Orcish is mostly found on Orcs, bandits will rarely go beyond steel etc. Gives a slower pace to the game and some character. Dwemer armor when a shop sells it is almost always in Markath. Want glass? Get closer to Morrowind, try Winterhold, Windhelm or Riften.

[EbonHawk]

I almost went with Morrowloot, but then I got Requiem working and it pretty much does the same thing, for the most part, making loot more believable in its level and in placement.

[hypersot]

wow, that's exactly what I wanted. I can't say I liked it when at level 1 I already had a dwarven axe (or I could just purchase it from the traders)

Ebonhawk, I did some digging on requiem and I realised that it will probably cause more hassle than the enjoyment it will provide, that's actually the reason I dumped PerMa in favour of SkyRe

With my new install I'll probaby start with STEP, following with REGS and then filling the gaps with mods mentioned in this thread and some that I have already tested as working.

when I have everything ready and working I'll probably post my mod list in this thread in case it helps anyone

[EbonHawk]

Diposting pertama kali oleh hypersot:

Ebonhawk, I did some digging on requiem and I realised that it will probably cause more hassle than the enjoyment it will provide, that's actually the reason I dumped PerMa in favour of SkyRe

Oh without a doubt Requiem is way more complicated than anything I ever wanted to undertake installing, but I am hoping that in the long run, it will be worth it. I am already thinking it is such a different (and more enjoyable) game that I might not ever be able to play vanilla Skyrim again. It has admittedly been a headache though.

But, only 5 levels of character development into it and I already feel like more of an adventurer than I could have ever thought possible in Skyrim. Requiem makes you feel like you're actually accomplishing something when you take down a bandit outpost with tactics. Each encounter reminds you (harshly) how much you forgot to prepare, or what you forgot to do as far as protecting yourself in a fight.