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Unified Vidya Games thread

Started by Cain, November 21, 2013, 05:10:58 PM

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Cain

Oh god, I've experimented with tons.  It depends on the kind of game I'm looking to play.  I really need, like, 7 different Skyrim installations for the different ways I enjoy playing it.

If you want a hardcore survival game, I would go with Frostfall/Hypothermia, Hunterborn, Realistic Needs and Diseases, Camping Kit of the Northern Ranger and Alternate Start.  Pick "left for dead" and see how long you can survive for.  This makes for a much slower, but more dangerous gameplay, where the environment, disease and starvation are your primary foes.

Combat is probably where I've experimented most.  I would definitely recommend Duel (version 7) and the ACE Realistic Fighting Module.  Duel makes stamina much more important, like SkyRe, and makes staggers much more likely and ACE adds bonuses and penalties based on your armor choices, readiness (weapon drawn or not), stance (crouching combat is bad), attack angle and whether you're staggered or not.   Duel also enhances enemy AI.  Combined, they make melee combat much more fraught...and if you try and rely on ranged combat, the enemy will come looking for you, and mob you as a team.  They'll flank you, bash you and try to pin you in with covering fire.

The other ACE modules are also worth considering.  I don't use them myself, but they look solid and balanced.

Overhaul wise, both SkyRe and Reqiuem have much to offer. 

I think a lot of people downplay the amount of roleplaying potential SkyRe has...you can still powergame very effectively with it, it's true, but T3nd0 actually made space for things like Speechcraft being important, a reworked spell system, disguises, traps and explosives....I like it, anyway.  I also like the deleveled Skyrim settings.

Reqiuem is definitely more hardcore though, IMO.  The roleplaying aspects are more intense too, and even I find myself disagreeing with some of their choices in this regard. I never got the impression that the Nine Divines really interacted with Tamriel too much, so I very much doubt that the gods would refuse to heal a thief, or that Talos would not impart his blessing on a member of the Imperial Army.  In particular, trafficking with daedra is considered sinful and so becoming a Daedric Champion is much more costly.  As someone who enjoys Dunmer culture and playing Dunmer characters, I fail to see why, for example, venerating Azura would be a bad thing.  Or Meridia, for that matter /rant.

That said, I like the old school feel it has.  I mean, going to Bleak Falls Barrow below level 10 is completely impossible, much like doing any of the Morrowind main plot is tough below level 5.  You need silver, and fire, and lots of it.  No fast travel cheese, no health regeneration, improved enemy AI, stamina matters a lot more, getting hurt imposes extra costs on stamina and magicka....I could go on and on, but they, like SkyRe, have a manual.  Poison is a lot more effective too...apparently a certain mixture, with a daedra heart thrown in, can cause upwards of 7000 points of damage.  It slows down the game, and makes the world much, much more dangerous.  You'd probably be smart on skipping out on the Embershard Mines until level 4 or 5.  Also has deleveled zones, like SkyRe.

For a vanilla game, I have a few "essential" mods I like to use.  Stealth Skills Rebalanced by Kryptopyr is one of the best, and I strongly recommend it.  In the normal game, Stealth is haxx.  I mean, you know what it's like.  He reworks Stealth to make it more difficult, but still viable, and dangerous at higher levels.  He also reworks lockpicking and pickpocketing to make them much harder without perks.  His lockpicking module is actually kinda hardcore...he not only makes it much harder, with and without perks, but he also removes lockpicks from most vendors and NPCs.  You'll find them on bandits and other disreputable types, and fences will still sell them....but you need level 30, and a perk to craft them yourself.  The prize, however, is at level 100, you can get a perk which literally lets you access all areas.  A fitting prize for a master locksmith, right?

His other mods are also well worth looking at.  Weapon and Armor fixes Remade, Smithing Perks Revised Remade and Complete Crafting Overhaul Remade do a lot to make crafting less...well, hacktacular.  You'll need more resources to make things, more ore to make ingots, ore and ingots weight more and smithing proceeds more slowly...but at the same time, you can smith most things in game, and CCOR in particular comes with functionality to allow you to upgrade artifacts like the Nightingale Armor when you reach the right levels, meaning you're not penalised for finishing questlines too early.  In conjunction with Trade and Barter, an improved merchandise system which allows merchant prices and funds to fluctuate, merchants to discriminate based on race, faction and friendship factors, and improvements to the Thieves Guild in terms of allowing most members become your followers, including Karliah (which seems to have been originally intended) and making Twlilight Hall a viable base of operations.

The Dance of Death is great for kill animations.  Never play a game without that installed.

Armor wise...I would recommend Immersive Armors.  They look good and add a lot of variety to the game.  That said, I have a few armor mods already installed, and IA adds a LOT more to the list, so I normally skip out on it.  The Bosmer Armor Pack, Morrowind Netch Leather Armor and Masters of Death Sicarius Armor (as a replacement for Dark Brotherhood armors) are my preferred ones.  The last one is a little bit too close to Assassins Creed armor for my liking, but if you pick the black variety, it's not so bad, and still looks better than the vanilla rubbish.  I also use Morrowind Looking Glass Retexture for glass armor.

Cloaks of Skyrim is also good, despite the regrettable clipping problems.  The unique cloaks make it really worthwhile.

I play with mods that increase bounties for crimes...but also increase bounty rewards and guild questline rewards.  Nothing insane...just a little level multiplier applied, plus taking into account the enemy type.  I am not taking 100 gold for killing a freaking dragon.  Speaking of which...

Dragon Combat Overhaul is a must.  Dragons can now think.  Well, not really, but they act in randomly enough ways to make it appear like they are thinking.  They wont auto-land when reduced to 35% health, they wont stagger, everything they do with stagger you, they recover from being grounded more quickly, they use their abilities more often and they will call for backup, sometimes, which can result in up to three extra dragons joining the fight (I had that happen with the fight at the Western Watchtower...the Whiterun guards got slaughtered, Irileth aside).  Oh, and Dovakhiin is now threat priority.  You will be targeted, unless some very threatening attack draws the dragon's attention while you're hiding somewhere...like the aforementioned Irileth. 

On the plus side, if you have a friendly dragon in the area, you can once a day call in an airstrike.  Not tried it myself, and it doesn't always work (because, you know, thinking dragons and all) but it's apparently awesome when it does.

Also have Deadly Dragons, because no matter how awesome I am, I should not be able to two-shot a dragon with an enhanced crossbow, from stealth.  DD comes with an MCM menu to allow you to toggle dragon health, magic resistance, damage bonuses and other fun things.  I fully recommend playing with the Assault Mode options too. 

The author of Dragon Combat Overhaul has also overhauled the Civil War, thus solving the two major problems with the game, that a game about civil war and dragons has shitty dragons and a shitty civil war.  Apparently, he delved deep into the code and discovered that Bethesda basically rewrote the entire Civil War at the last minute.  It was meant to be a massive campaign, with multiple quests to take each hold, and with a very real possibility of losing.  Bethesda sealed all that up deep in the code somewhere before finishing it, and gave us the shitty version because of reasons.

Now you can actually lose the Civil War.  You can lose individual battles, too.  You can no longer stroll into the Palace of Kings as an Imperial Soldier, dressed in Imperial Armor, and not get severely roughed up.  Sometimes you'll be going about your business quite peacefully, when your town will be besieged (once you activiate the Civil War questline, of course).

Ultimate Follower Overhaul and Improved Stealth AI.  No more charging bravely into the fray before I say so. Oh, and Convienient Horses.  Because as much as I love spending 1000 gold on something that dies in 5 minutes of Skyrim's mod-enhanced deadly climate, I love having an actual horse more.

Speaking of followers, Interesting NPCs and Inconsequential NPCs.  The former adds a lot of NPCs, almost all of which feel like they should have been part of the original game.  A skooma addicted Khajhit informer for the Thalmor, an ex-Thalmor Justicar, a Nord warrior imprisoned by a necromancer, an Imperial bard wandering the caves of Falkreath, an arrogant Khajhit warrior, a former adventuring Altmer mage...these are just a few I've discovered.  The latter adds less glamorous personalities...the dockworkers and labourers and farmhands, the professional drinkers and mercenaries, travelling skooma dealers and the like.   Between the two, Skyrim feels a lot more populated.

I also run with Deadlier Serana, because I pumped up the difficulty level quite a bit.  Now she doesn't use mostly ice spells in a land of ice populated by things with ice resistance, and she has abilities and skills more beftting of a Daughter of Coldharbor.

Speaking of Vampires....Better Vampires is a great little mod.  Configurable via MCM, but with mostly lore-friendly skills and abilities which improve vampire gameplay.  I also go with the Vampire Hood mod made to work with this, which reduces sunlight penalties based on which stage your vampirism is at.

Lore based loading screens are good, as is Books Books Books.  Because you never know when you may want to re-read The 36 Lessons of Vivec.

Think To Yourself Messages improves immersion.  I like Traps Are Dangerous and its counterpart Traps Make Noise.  I also like Hunter Traps, as a nomagical alternative to runes....though I wont deny, I do like running a Dunmer Nightblade who uses longbows and runes to horrific yet undeniable effectiveness.  One consequence of improved Enemy AI and debuffed Stealth is that the enemy will hear your longbow shots, and so come running in your direction (sometimes they get it wrong, but fire enough arrows and they'll figure it out).  Fire Runes in those oil patches in Nordic Ruins are just brutal.

I also used Balanced Magic, Bound Weapon Redux and Apocalypse Spells.  Balanced magic improves combat magicka regeneration and makes it so that spell damage and duration increase with skill as well as with perks, meaning basic spells don't become completely useless later on.  Bound Weapon Redux improves said weapons by adding in new variations (including Bound Woodaxes and Pickaxes), and by changing the perks so that your damage is now based on conjuration skill and, at the end of that perk tree, currently available magicka in addition to your skill with that weapon (one-handed etc).  The Oblivion Binding perk will also possibly turn undead creatures and banish daedric ones, depending on your level and their level etc etc.  Apocalypse adds lore-friendly and balanced spells which improve magic gameplay....especially Illusion, by far the most boring and overpowered school (need I mention Invisibility + Assassin's Blade + Mehrune's Razor?).

Proper Aiming is good...it means arrows go to where the cursor is while in 3rd person view mode.  Arrow and Bolt Tweaks is also worth a look...make those arrows fly a little faster, find a few more (or less), recover more (or less) and buy more (or less).  Some of these improvements already come as part of the Weapons and Armor Fixes though, so be sure to read through them properly before installing.

Run For Your Lives and When Vampires Attack are good.  Stops civilians getting slaughtered when dragons and vampires come knocking.  Instead, they'll lock themselves inside, while the guards take to the streets.  Especially useful with the souped up vampires and dragons I tend to get mods for.  It's also a good sign when something is seriously wrong...you go for a stroll in Whiterun and the streets are deserted, chances are it means vampires are at the gate.  They can be a bit slow to unlock once the threat has passed, but the best thing to do is fast travel to another town and do your vendoring.  By the time you return, things should be back to normal.

I forgot to mention Timing Is Everything.  Another Kryptopyr mod, this allows you to change when certain quests will start.  With more powerful foes, you don't necessarily want to be suffering vampire attacks at level 5 (I had this happen once....by the time the fight was over, it was 2 hours later, and I was level 7.  I did also have a sweet Steel Katana of Burning and Ring of Stealth though) or go off to complete A Daedra's Best Friend at level 10.  Configurable via MCM.

Cain

High Level Enemies is good.  As I'm sure you know, most bandits etc stop levelling around 30 in the vanilla game, which is LAME.  This means they continue to level, and there are choices to make it so that only the levelled foes in any encounter match your level, or so that every enemy does (not recommended, that latter one.  Not with Duel and ACE, at least).  I'm currently experimenting with Higher Level Gameplay, which promises to do similar things, but via a slightly different method.

Revenge of the Enemies - Enemy AI Overhaul is also worth your time.  Completely compatible with Duel's AI improvements, involves no scripts and gives certain enemies lore-friendly abilities.  So for instance, don't be surprised if lowly draugr suddenly blast you out of your boots with a shout.  There's also a nasty nasty surprise at the end of Bleak Falls Barrow, though it's at least not as bad as Reqiuem.  All I'll say is that you might want to leave some traps intact, and beat a swift retreat to win this one...or have significant frost resistance.

I'm currently experimenting with Skyrim Immersive Creatures, which has a patch for Revenge of the Enemies functionality.  Because I'm a purist, I go for the lore-friendly version of this mod (configurable under MCM).  Again, not experimented much, though I did get ambushed by a wolf pack immediately outside of Helgen.  That was fun.  There is also a "No Spiders" option, which I am eternally thankful for.

Because I hate frostbite spiders.  Really, really hate them.  Ugly fuckers with beady eyes, creeping around caves and shit.  I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS SHIT.  So use Insects Begone, which allows me to never see a spider again.  Or chaurus, if they also bother you (they don't worry me).  The mod maker does it in a clever way, it's not just a simple retexture which has a decent chance of failing under certain conditions and involves unnatural behaviour from the replaced creatures (bears for spiders, skeevers for chaurus).  Instead, it replaces the entire skeleton.  And should the mod fail, say because of load order or similar, anything with the keyword "spider" in its description gets transformed into a static fox.  So yeah, fuck you spiders.  You still get frostbite venom (I like to think the invading bears ate the spiders and so gained some venomous properties) and spider eggs are now "invading bear bees" which are found in honeypots around the bear nest.

Immersive HUD is useful, and sometimes even fun.  Ever tried shooting a bow without a crosshair to tell you where you're aiming?  You can now...and you can actually get pretty good at it, too.  If you like the idea of a less intrusive HUD, but want to keep the ranged crosshair you can...or you can download Sniper Bows.  Each bow comes with two crosshairs built in, one for crouched and one for standing shots.  They look a little goofy, but it's not so bad.

I also like lockpick graduation.  Since lockpicking is harder, I like to balance it out with version C of this mod ("Vex's gift").  In fact, a lot of my modding philosophy can be like that.  Install something that makes the game harder, install something which makes that a little bit easier for the sake of balance.

So because enemies are more dangerous, I've gone for Better Strong and More Effective - Deadly Poisons.  As far as I can see, this is the only poison mod which is not ridiculously overpowered or simply involves multiplying the damage bonus (see "ridiculously overpowered").  And since Duel makes stamina much more important, poisons which drain stamina are now not entirely worthless.  In fact, given how dangerous power attacks and bashes can be, you may consider poisons of that kind to be more useful than straight up damage.  This also improves the poison damage from enemies.

I have Morrowind Imports, so I don't have to go to Solstheim to get netch leather, chitin and netch jelly.  Now my Dunmer Nightblade can look the part of a proper Morrowind expat, and make paralysis poisons on the side.

I dont use too many graphical mods, as my graphics card is sorely outdated.  However, I do use a few.  Obviously, Climates of Tamriel is a must.  Along with that, I like Enhanced Lighting and FX.  Makes the game darker, but lit areas are much brighter and much more realistic.  This also helps with the debuffed stealth, as it affects the in-game lighting settings and so has an impact on detection rates.

I use Nightingale HD Prime for the Nightingale armor, alongside the Carbon Fiber Nightingale Weapons Retexture (with the CCOR Nightingale Arrows optional mod).  Because the Nightingale Armor is, hands down, the best looking piece of armor in that game, and comes from the best faction storyline, and so deserves a bit of love.  The weapons retextures were designed to go alongside the HD armor, and they really do make you look the part.  I have a 1k retexture of Auriel's Bow, because that thing was ugly, and use Ecthelion's Dawnguard Weapons (performance version).  I have BetrayelSeeker's Ancient Falmer Armor retexture and, if my computer could handle it, I'd install all the aMidian Book of Silence retextures as well.

In addition to that, I have the Enhanced Night Sky, which is just dazzling to look at, the Static Mesh Improvement Mod, Skyrim Sunglare and Glowing Ore Veins.

My graphics card cannot handle an ENB.  I know this.  It would melt my laptop.  However, I have successfully used I Can't Believe It's Not An ENB.  And I do endorse it.  To do so, you need Imaginator and Enhanced Lighting and FX.  Dynavision doesn't hurt, either.  It's a bit oversaturated in places, but Imaginator can resolve that with the right input values.

It also unfortunately ruins the Quality World Map - With Roads mod, by making the colours all look terrible.  However, here are a couple of examples.  Here is an Imperial in Bosmer amor, killing an Orc bandit:



And another bandit:



Weapons wise, I use the Daedric Dawnbreaker Mod, because otherwise it becomes a bit underpowered in the later game.  This also allows it to be improved by the Daedric Smithing perk.  I also go for Immersive Weapons, though Weapons of the Third Era is also a perfectly valid choice, and both are supported by CCOR.  And I also go for Crossbows Revamped, because I think there is no good reason why I shouldn't have ebony or glass crossbow bolts.  However, the damage progression seems a bit...off, I'm not sure if that's because of CCOR+WF, Duel (which also slightly increases damage) or ABT.  This mod also adds crossbows and bolts to the level distribution lists for enemies, though only unenhanced ones (that's still a Dwemer/Dawnguard secret).  There's also a badass looking Nightingale Crossbow out there...no enchantments, just a model, but it hits as hard as the Dwemer one when upgraded to Legendary, can be enhanced and can be enchanted.

Cain

I also recommend looking at http://www.skyrimgems.com/

As they put it: "Skyrim GEMS is a 1-page, quick-reference catalog of lore-friendly Gameplay Enhancement Mods for Skyrim with a focus on mods that create a more realistic, immersive and challenging experience."

Quite a few of the mods I mentioned are on there, though not all

Cain

Oh, and one more: I use Dragon Soul Relinquishment.  This allows you to use dragon souls to obtain perk points, carrying bonuses, improved shout cooldown times and other bonuses.  Because I've made dragons more deadly, I set it to three dragon souls for one perk point, which I think is more than fair. The mod sets it to five, but I reckon a perk point is worth at least one fully unlocked shout.  You can configure it in MCM, but you must be accepted by the Greybeards before you can use this (ie; complete the Jurgen Hornblower quest and be formally recognised as Dovakhiin), and you can only relinquish the souls while in High Hrothgar.

Pæs

I only have console, so all my mods are glitches. I use "turn into a werewolf while talking to a follower to equip multiple pieces of equipment from their inventory into single slots" to wear enough gauntlets to make unarmed viable later into the game, as well as equipping enough Amulets of Talos to negate shout cooldown.

Then I herd entire villages into corners with Unrelenting Force and shout at them until they're all dead.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Pæs on March 13, 2014, 06:45:14 PM
Then I herd entire villages into corners with Unrelenting Force and shout at them until they're all dead.

I need to look into this game.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Pæs

Unrelenting Force involves screaming at people so loud that they are hurled backwards. You can use this to become a street sweeper, and amass piles of villagers who didn't understand the curfew.

Cain

 :lulz:

Both at the description, and at the lengths console peasants must go to in order to exploit glitches to make the game more fun.

Also, Roger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T44Am7JoYuY

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Pæs on March 13, 2014, 06:51:50 PM
Unrelenting Force involves screaming at people so loud that they are hurled backwards. You can use this to become a street sweeper, and amass piles of villagers who didn't understand the curfew.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.   :lulz:
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Cain on March 13, 2014, 06:53:39 PM
:lulz:

Both at the description, and at the lengths console peasants must go to in order to exploit glitches to make the game more fun.

Also, Roger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T44Am7JoYuY

Why can't I do that in real life?   :argh!:
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Pæs

If you want to get fancy, you can use a shout that slows time, then use Unrelenting Force, then while they're flying through they air you chase them and punch them a bit before they hit the ground.
But just screaming people off cliffs is a classic.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Pæs on March 13, 2014, 06:59:09 PM
If you want to get fancy, you can use a shout that slows time, then use Unrelenting Force, then while they're flying through they air you chase them and punch them a bit before they hit the ground.
But just screaming people off cliffs is a classic.

I just want to do what you first said.  Scream at people until they die.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Pæs

Yeah, and if any guards come over to insist that you stop, you tell them to go away and they find themselves strangely compelled to obey. Obey all the way off a cliff.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Pæs on March 13, 2014, 07:01:43 PM
Yeah, and if any guards come over to insist that you stop, you tell them to go away and they find themselves strangely compelled to obey. Obey all the way off a cliff.

:lulz:

I'm having this weird idea of a crossover between this and TF2.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Cain

I've only had one weird bug I caught on video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RjKsWIQuwA&feature=share&list=PLorAoQOlrl_rOfGQttEDpZA36i4QpYIqH

Had plenty of actual bugs, but only managed to record that one.  The best was probably the endlessly rotating cart at the start of the game.  It just kept rolling over and over while Ralof was talking about how much he liked juniper berry mead.