Skyrim, and the Mods Therein…

One fine day, our illustrious sometime-blogger, sometime-gamer found himself buried deep in the realm of Skyrim. There were dragons to fight, bandits, vampires, werewolves, and idiots who say “What was that?” when struck in the head with an arrow. It was a wonderful land, and the blog-gamer was having a great time there, but he realized that it could be more… much more. And then he heard about Mods. With the right mods, the land could be more beautiful, the characters more realistic, everything shinier and happier.

And thus began the modding. Downloading mods, installing mods, uninstalling mods, re-installing the game, re-installing mods. There was, in there somewhere, the perfect combination. One just had to find it. After weeks or trying to find the ‘perfect combinations’ of mods, he arrived at the intersection of “Game looks great” and “Game still performs well”. Now, to share with all you in game land, here are those mods!

First, he recommends you use a Mod Manager. Most of his mods came from Steam and Nexus. The Nexus Mod Manager is a great way to easily manage all the mods we both know you’re going to install.

Mods come in different categories, so this list will be categorized.

• Animals, Creatures, Mounts & Horses
  • Convenient Horses
    • Yes, you want this. For a variety of reasons. You want this.
• Animation
  • XP32 Maximum Skeleton
    • This replaces the skeleton in all beings, making them smoother animated, and allowing you to retool how their bodies are shaped, and, more importantly, how they move.
  • No Spinning Death Animation
  • Fores New Idles in Skyrim (FNIS) – FNIS Behavior
  • Fores New Idles in Skyrim (FNIS) – FNIS Idle Spells
• Armor
  • Demon Hunter Armor – CBBEv3 and UNP – great armor for looks.
  • UNP Armor Replacer Package
  • UNP Clothing Replacer Package
  • UNP Texture Replacer Package
• Clothing
  • Leather Backpack
    • Lets you carry a bit more, like a backpack might do. 🙂
• Gameplay Effects and Changes
  • Character Creation Overhaul – Races, Birthsigns, Classes, Skills, Specializations, Attributes
    • This incorporates some of the old school Oblivion and Morrowind style character stuff, like picking a deity to follow, etc.
  • Realistic Ragdolls and Force
    • No more “hit a mob and whack it into the outfield like Babe Ruth calling his shots”, or “shoot the mob with an arrow, and send it hurling across the landscape”.
• Hair and Face Models
  • Apachii Sky Hair
    • You will want this. Makes all hair look way better.
• Immersion
  • Better Torches
  • Dead Body Collision Fix
  • Dual Sheath Redux
  • Immersive Animations
  • Lanterns of Skyrim (All in One)
• Models and Textures
  • Dimonized UNP Female Body (for those who play female characters)
    • Yes, you can make the big bazongas. But then, you can also make them super small, so your female characters are “athletic”. Or you can play a male, and he can have a huge, heroic, chest. Gutter-free minds, people.
  • Enhanced Lights and FX
  • Ruins Clutter Improved
  • Skyrim Flora Overhaul
  • Skyrim HD – 2K TExtures – Dungeons
  • Skyrim HD – 2K TExtures – Landscape
  • Skyrim HD – 2K TExtures – Misc
  • Skyrim HD – 2K TExtures – Towns
  • Skyrim HD – 2K TExtures – Riften
  • Smile in HD – HD Teeth
• New Lands
  • Falskaar
• Patches
  • ShowRaceMenu Precache Killer
• Overhauls
  • Project Reality – Climates of Tamriel
• User Interfaces
  • Font Replacement
  • Immersive HUD (iHUD)
  • RaceMenu
  • SkyUI
  • Smaller Cursor
• Utilities
  • ReProccer – Automated SkyRe Patch Generator
• Visuals and Graphics
  • Better Dynamic Snow
  • Static Mesh Improvement Mod (SMIM)
• Weapons
  • Immersive Weapons

There are hundreds, even thousands of mods out there. You’ll find lots that are all for you.

A great place for them, outside of Steam itself, is http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/.

Above all – enjoy Skyrim. It’s a giant world, with a LOT to do. Have fun!