A few Skyrim mods to fix your immersion

[PhunkyPhazon]

And yes, I know there are other people you can talk to in order to find Esbern, but the game purposely leads you to Brynjolf and doesn't drop even the vaguest hint that there are other ways to do it.

I find it funny people constantly complain about Skyrim's questlog holding your hand, and showing you every option, and to needing to actually do anything for yourself as to find out if there are other options, yet in the few instances it doesn't, people complain bout that also.

But anyways, just use the damn speech check that allows you to bypass the quest and still get the info from Brynolf. Every time I see this kind of statement i question if people have actually looked at all the dialog options before they pick one.

...Seriously?

1. You're pre-emptively assuming the player is automatically going to PASS the speech check by default, as if that's a skill everybody just naturally builds up.

2. I have never been in the crowd that complained about Skyrim's hand-holding, so, again, thanks for pre-emptively assuming that everyone who plays a game has the exact same opinion.

Okay, now does anybody have a REAL answer to my question?

 

[Luca72]

Just let me fire up the nexus and I'll give you my discoveries so far...

EDIT: Ok first there's the Skyrim Warzones Civil Unrest: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9494
It adds actual battlegrounds of Stormcloaks and Imperials.

This alone might make me start playing Skyrim again. Holy Jesus the game needs this.

This is why I love Skyrim (and the past Elder Scrolls games) more as an engine to explore mods than an actual game. I can't see myself ever going back and doing a guild quest - they were boring and silly. And I'm sick of being told I'm the chosen one. I liked that in Morrowind, if I was part of the Mages Guild, I had to work my way up. I had to have relevant skills. People at the top wouldn't even speak to me, but people at the bottom considered me a friend. Those were quests that you worked on piece by piece as you completed the rest of the game. And when you reached the highest level of a guild, your position made sense, because it's something that you earned over months of in-game time, through countless feats. In Skyrim, I would start a guild quest, and knock them all out one after another. Took me a few hours and then suddenly everyone is calling me their leader. It's not awful, it's just silly in a way it doesn't have to be.

As much as I love Skyrim, I'm of the opinion that aside from exploring the wild the game doesn't have that much cool stuff to offer on it's own. It's more like it's a nice delivery system for custom-created content (like Second Life with less penises). I've seen some excellent mods that add random events creatures, improve AI - stuff that makes playing the game feel so much more interesting. So the idea that I can now walk through the woods and accidentally stumble into a goddamn Braveheart war is amazing. You can keep your dragons, Bethesda. This is what I want.

 

[Lethos]

It's not exactly a hidden gem, but 'Climates of Tamriel' with the nights set to dark makes Skyrim absolutely beautiful. Combine the dark nights with 'Enhanced Night Skyrim' and 'Vibrant Auroras' and your night times will be a sight to behold.

I think every PC gamer should install the Unofficial Patches as well. The amount of bugs they fix is insane.

 

[GabeZhul]

-The Ability to make Tolfdir the archmage at the end of the College questline [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10746]: I mean, really, it's such a simple fix. In the vanilla version, it made absolutely no sense that your character, who might not even be a really proficient mage to begin with, gets appointed as the new archmage without any qualifications. With this little mod you can get a logical conclusion while keeping all the benefits of being the archmage yourself. In other words, its just cosmetic, but it just makes so. much. sense.

Are you unfamiliar with political offices or do you live in Hong Kong or Singapore?

You are really missing the point here. The post of the archmage is not a political office. It's a profession, like being the dean of an university, something you should have to earn by climbing the ladder and earning the respect and support of your peers, so "A mage from a completely different organization said so" is not a good enough reason to get there.

-The thieves guild won't approach you unless you give them a reason to do so [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14157]: Staying with the guilds still, this is another no-brainer. Just what kind of sense does it make when you play an upstanding character who may or may not be an Imperial Legate, Archmage, Companion and whatever else, and a guy just randomly invites you to be a thief? This mod fixes this by adding a few requirements for the conversation to trigger. Simple yet effective.

I'm pretty sure a lot of the Thieves' Guild Associates in Morrowind were actually pretty well off people.

Missing the point again. There are plenty of well-of guild associates even in Skyrim, but that has nothing to do with them being upstanding or not (protip: they are generally not). A player character, on the other hand, can be a paragon of justice and one of the most accomplished and influential people in Skyrim, and yet Brynjolf just casually comes up to you and assumes you are a thief. Sure, the same can happen in this mod, with the PC being a Legate and a Companion and whatnot, but at least now he has a REASON to think that the PC might be interested in joining.

-Artifacts that actually feel like artifacts [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8634]: Another pet-peeve of my was when I finally got my hands on some badass daedric artifacts, often after having forced to do some pretty nasty things to get them, and then it turns out that my self-enhanted sword outperforms them in every way possible, making them a little more useful than a dust-trap on a weapon rack in one of the player homes. This mod finally makes them as powerful as they should have been from the very beginning.

In Daggerfall, I spent several days in a dungeon trying to find a heretic so I can cut off his head and bring it to Mephy. The sword she gave me broke after ten hits and vanished into the ether.

It looked really cool, though.

Okay, let us be honest here: Daggerfall? Really? That game is an entirely different kind of beast. Also, I am quite happy that my weapons don't break, thank you very much.

 

[GabeZhul]

snip

On the Mages Guild thing, all I can do is repeating myself: It makes no logical sense to give the post to a character who might not even be a mage, based on non-magic related questing and "being the chosen one" alone. There is a good reason why most people remember Morrowind's guild system fondly, because there you actually had to climb the ladder and when you finally became archmage, it really felt like an accomplishment. Here though? The entire College consists of about a dozen individuals, you have to do little to no preliminary requirements and the guild's questline can be finished in one sitting. Really, there is just no real accomplishment, just another tick in your questbook. The mod I linked didn't really fix that, but at least helps to make some sense of the conclusion: This is a college, it should do much better in the hands of a seasoned teacher and powerful mage than an adventurer who might can1t even cast anything beyond some measily novice spells.

As for Skyrim REdone, you can actually install the different components separately: Skill-trees (about a hundred or more new perks, including new weapon-specializations and the new Wayfarer tree, also makes radical changes to and expands the magic system), race tweaking (making them much more diverse while staying close to the lore), signs (minor tweakings to the stones' effects, not that important), combat (increased difficulty in all regards with much more focus on stamina), AI (makes the combat AI make better use of the changes), scaling (NPC's actually scale up to LV82 with you and also allows a set level-variation, so if you are LV30, the enemies will be between LV25-35), and encounter zones (the most important part IMHO, it sets NPCs and loot in certain dungeons to a specific level, so that they won't scale with you. This means that you could easily run into a random dungeon with enemies SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than you, but you will also get a LOT better loot from them). You can mix and match any of these mods in any way you want during installation.

 

[GabeZhul]

-The thieves guild won't approach you unless you give them a reason to do so [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14157]: Staying with the guilds still, this is another no-brainer. Just what kind of sense does it make when you play an upstanding character who may or may not be an Imperial Legate, Archmage, Companion and whatever else, and a guy just randomly invites you to be a thief? This mod fixes this by adding a few requirements for the conversation to trigger. Simple yet effective.

With this one, will Brynjolf still tell you how to find Esbern if you don't do his dirty work? THAT'S what's always particularly annoyed me about this. Delphine tells you to specifically talk to Brynjolf, yet he refuses to tell you unless you do a thief-related quest. If I'm playing a warrior or a mage, then I really have no business picking locks and picking pockets.

And yes, I know there are other people you can talk to in order to find Esbern, but the game purposely leads you to Brynjolf and doesn't drop even the vaguest hint that there are other ways to do it.

Honestly, I don't know. I haven't gotten to Riften in my current playthrough yet, I have been messing around with other quests and Dawnguard. I will check it out and report back later.

Edit: According to the mod's documentation, the dialog with Brynjolf won't trigger unless you have the prerequisites, but the alternative is still open. Maybe I will write to the mod's creator and ask if he could include a hint into a previous dialog or something.

 

[spartandude]

I feel like installing mods takes away any immersion left after said problems. You know you're playing with mods and you're going to follow a path of choices to see if they're working. You know it's fake.

i remember doing so at first when i started modding Fallout, Oblivion and Morrowind. but after a while when ever i started a new character the mods were just natural to me so they just felt like part of the game

 

[Bestival]

Hm, the only 'immersion' mod I have is the one that lets you interact and loot stuff as a vampire lord. So now that's finally a proper option for playing, and not just a gimmick.

Haven't really got any other mods worth mentioning. Biggest one I got is Rabbit Hole, because I really wanted some arena style fighting area.

 

[Madman123456]

Bleh, "realism"...
I can fight Dragons with Magic. Take care that the Dragons don't fly backwards and my thirst for realism will be sated.

I do enjoy some mods that try to add "realism" to an extend. It is kinda odd that every group of enemies in fantasy games share the same swords. Makes sense from a creators standpoint because no one wants to make a million different swords that look very similar and merely have signs or wear and tear in different places.
It would be nice if the unique weapons where actually looking somewhat unique. They should still look like something from an age and a group they where coming from, for example a unique sword forged by ancient nords should still look like the "ancient nord sword" but it should be distinguishable by something other then the enchantment which might not even be unique itself.

Modify the grip, modify the edge, reshape this and that and you'll have a realistically unique weapon.

 

[GabeZhul]

Recommendations:
Unofficial patches
SKYtest (Very realistic animal mod)
Weapons of the Third Era
No Tint and Desaturation
My own mod [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/28897]
Better Magic
Dual Wield Parrying (Also allows blocking with magic in one hand)
Potions heal over time
No Quest Items
Radiance (random encounters)
Boethiah alternate ending
House of Horrors alternate ending (and all extra choice mods)
The Choice is Yours (No more automatic misc quest filling)
Deadly Dragons Lore edition
Lore based loading screens
Two Handed Rebalance
Loot Overhaul (no more gold in everything)
Immersive Patrols
Economics of Skyrim

Full list of mine: (1 is on, 0 is off)

Spoiler

Skyrim.esm=1
Update.esm=1
Dawnguard.esm=1
HearthFires.esm=1
Dragonborn.esm=0
Skyrim Project Optimization.esm=1
3rdEraWeaponsMoS.esm=1
ClimatesOfTamriel.esm=0
JSwords.esm=1
SPIKE.esm=1
NoTint.esm=1
HighResTexturePack01.esp=1
HighResTexturePack02.esp=1
HighResTexturePack03.esp=1
Brawl Bugs CE.esp=1
DaedricShieldHiResFix.esp=0
fFastTravelSpeedMult_4.esp=1
lightingfix.esp=1
NoHealthRegen.esp=1
regenfix.esp=1
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp=1
HighResTexturePackFix.esp=1
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp=1
Fixed Pureblood Vampires.esp=0
Blackout_Dawnguard.esp=0
RemoveAmbientInteriorFog.esp=0
Remove Interior Fog V2 - Skyrim.esp=1
Remove Interior Fog V2 - Dawnguard.esp=1
Remove Interior Fog V2 - Hearthfire.esp=1
Dark Dungeons for ENB.esp=0
SkyrimURWL.esp=1
Weapons and Armor Fixes.esp=1
Weapons and Armor Fixes - Hacks.esp=1
StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp=1
Economics of Skyrim.esp=1
ArmorRatingTweak80.esp=1
Prometheus_BeastSkeletons.esp=1
Bring Out Your Dead.esp=1
LFox Alchemists Have Potions and Poisons.esp=0
Lore Friendly - Dwemer Names.esp=1
Lost Art of the Blacksmith.esp=1
MissingTotemPuzzlePillars.esp=1
MoreGrass.esp=1
Oblivion Gates v3 without Markers - Skyrim + Dawnguard DLC.esp=1
Oblivion Gates v3 - Skyrim + Dawnguard DLC.esp=0
Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp=0
two_handed_rebalance.esp=1
Chesko_LoreBasedLoadingScreens.esp=1
Footprints.esp=1
IMAGINATOR - Visual Control for Skyrim.esp=0
WetandCold.esp=1
WetandCold - Ashes.esp=0
ConvenientCrossbows.esp=1
CraftableClothes.esp=1
DawnguardPaladinArmorCP.esp=1
DreamBurrowsRegalAssassin.esp=1
ExplosiveBoltsVisualized.esp=1
Heavy Stormcloak Officer Armor.esp=1
Insanity's Silver Bow.esp=1
Insanity's Iron Bow.esp=1
Insanity's Steel Bow.esp=1
Non-playable Armor.esp=1
sunnydawnbreaker.esp=1
ThalmorNoGlass.esp=1
3rdEraWeapMoS-lvlList.esp=1
Smithing Perks Overhaul - Balanced.esp=1
DeadlyDragons.esp=1
Cavern Pitfalls.esp=1
ESFCompanions.esp=1
HouseOfHorrorsAlternateEnding.esp=1
KRZ - Better Archmage Quarters.esp=1
Mages College Quests.esp=1
Quest_NoMercy.esp=1
Radiance.esp=1
Run For Your Lives.esp=1
SkyrimChimneys.esp=1
SkyrimChimneysRW.esp=1
Taverns.esp=0
Weightless Elder Scroll.esp=1
no_quest_items.esp=1
Advanced Shrines.esp=1
ArchmageTolfdir.esp=1
Better Legion.esp=1
DescaledUniques.esp=1
Dual Casting - Cost - X2.0.esp=1
Dual Casting - Effectiveness - X2.0.esp=1
Faendal-by-Axeface.esp=1
GM-CookingRebalanceFinalHearthfire.esp=1
Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp=1
knc_resilient_dragons.esp=0
Merchants Reply Only With Take A Look.esp=1
mjhReducedGoldRewards.esp=1
Nightingale Maskless.esp=1
No Perk Prereqs - No Helmets Required.esp=1
No Sun.esp=1
dD-No Twitching Dragon Death Animation.esp=0
no_essential_COs.esp=1
SFO - Expanded Diversity.esp=0
SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp=1
TheChoiceIsYours.esp=1
Waterbreathing Breathless Emerge.esp=1
icefloes.esp=1
EnhancedLightsandFX.esp=1
dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp=1
RealisticCarryWeight.esp=1
DragonbornAscendant.esp=1
DragonRealShout.esp=1
BetterDualCasting.esp=1
BetterMasterSpells.esp=1
GM-HMSPotions3sec.esp=1
Hardcore Lockpicking1-12.esp=1
Dual Wield Parrying_ScriptDragon.esp=1
kuerteeFightOrFly.esp=0
BetterSpellMastery.esp=1
dD-No Spinning Death Animation.esp=1
Brows.esp=1
Reduced Distance NPC Greetings.esp=1
Timescale5.esp=1
FortDawnguardEnhanced.esp=1
SPTDiverseMuscleTones.esp=1
Unlimiteddaedriccharges.esp=1
Guards Skill Comments.esp=0
Nirnroot.esp=1
smithingDaedricDragonSwap.esp=1
Ice Form Improved.esp=1
Dawnguard Heavy.esp=1
LoreWorthyHagraven.esp=1
AuburnAlesanHair1.esp=1
BlondSofieHair2.esp=1
BrunetteLuciaHair3.esp=1
DelphineNoApachii.esp=1
Unprotected Companions.esp=1
Better reactions.esp=1
LokiJewelry.esp=1
No Respawning Containers.esp=1
Daedric-DragonplateARSwap.esp=1
NA_Thornblade_Eng.esp=1
IC-HearthfireEmittanceEnhancement_White.esp=1
NA_Umbra_Eng.esp=1
NA_Umbra_Rus.esp=0
Better Thieves Guild Gloves.esp=1
FastKillmove.esp=0
VBElvenThalmorVariety.esp=1
LoreWorthyMovarthsBoots.esp=1
Wilderness Thieves Wear Thieves Guild Armor Redux.esp=1
HeavyElvenArmorChange.esp=1
GR123 Silver Aetherial Crown.esp=1
SmeltSkyrim.esp=1
AttackCancel.esp=1
RustyIronDraugrShield.esp=1
Hjaalmarch Redux - Ruins.esp=1
Hjaalmarch Redux - Snowless Morthal.esp=1
Backout_Skyrim.esp=0
AK- Modesty Mod.esp=1
Auriels Bow Unlimited Charge.esp=1
YsgramorNordicArmour.esp=0
mjhKhajiitRegalClothing.esp=1
RealisticHumanoidMovementSpeed.esp=1
WarmerTorchLighting.esp=1
Warburg's 3D Paper World Map.esp=0
Warburg's 3D Paper World Map - Dawnguard.esp=0
UniqueBows.esp=1
KORsHuntingGround.esp=0
Destroy the Thieves Guild.esp=1
Loot_Overhaul_Rebalanced_v.04.esp=1
PerkBooksSmithing.esp=1
MorrowindImports.esp=0
imp_helm.esp=0
SkyHavenTemple'sGlory.esp=1
TKRecoil.esp=1
First Person Messages.esp=1
Skyrim 7 Day Respawn.esp=0
race+.esp=1
Immersive Battles.esp=1
Immersive Brigands.esp=1
Immersive Dawnguard.esp=1
Immersive Patrols.esp=1
Immersive Travelers.esp=1
Immersive Werewolves.esp=1
AK- Boethiah Alternate.esp=1
NpcHavokHit.esp=1
Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp=1
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp=1
DawnguardDelayedStart20.esp=0
EnableForgottenValeMap+M.esp=1
EnableSoulCairnMap+M.esp=1
ORM-Arvak.esp=1
spellbreaker.esp=1
No health regen fix.esp=1
No health regen fix for every races.esp=1
Insanity's Dragonbane.esp=1
aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp=1
Coins.esp=1
Guards armor replacement.esp=1

Holy cow, that's almost 200 mods! I only have a measly 87.
Also, Radiance and the alternate quest endings look pretty damn great. It just shows that no matter how hard you look, you will inevitably miss some gems, so it's good to have multiple viewpoints.

 

[GabeZhul]

Missing the point again. There are plenty of well-of guild associates even in Skyrim, but that has nothing to do with them being upstanding or not (protip: they are generally not). A player character, on the other hand, can be a paragon of justice and one of the most accomplished and influential people in Skyrim, and yet Brynjolf just casually comes up to you and assumes you are a thief. Sure, the same can happen in this mod, with the PC being a Legate and a Companion and whatnot, but at least now he has a REASON to think that the PC might be interested in joining.

Maybe you have some valuable assets, and the TG want to risk it to have you on board? Maybe the recruiter is just charming? I have not played the TG questline in Skyrim, yet, so I have not seen exactly how inane it is. Do you not even have to steal anything?

That's kind of the point: In the vanilla game, there are no prerequisites at all. This gruff guy just asks you to join even if you never had bounty or if you never stolen/pickpocketed anything, and they don't ask for support, they want you to go out and do the legwork by stealing for the organization. Not to mention, unless you look around for alternatives (that you wouldn't know about, as the game directly point you at Brynjolf), the main quest pretty much forces you to go up to the guy, and it automatically triggers the recruitment whether you like it or not.

 

[NeutralDrow]

snip

On the Mages Guild thing, all I can do is repeating myself: It makes no logical sense to give the post to a character who might not even be a mage, based on non-magic related questing and "being the chosen one" alone. There is a good reason why most people remember Morrowind's guild system fondly, because there you actually had to climb the ladder and when you finally became archmage, it really felt like an accomplishment. Here though? The entire College consists of about a dozen individuals, you have to do little to no preliminary requirements and the guild's questline can be finished in one sitting. Really, there is just no real accomplishment, just another tick in your questbook. The mod I linked didn't really fix that, but at least helps to make some sense of the conclusion: This is a college, it should do much better in the hands of a seasoned teacher and powerful mage than an adventurer who might can1t even cast anything beyond some measily novice spells.

Deans aren't teachers or researchers. They're administrators, whether or not they started as professors. That's why I have no trouble accepting it, and it doesn't impact my immersion at all. It might be more symbolic if you're a good mage, but dedication to the organization itself is the more practical requirement.

Especially since you're more of a figurehead anyway. Why take Tolfdir away from his teaching and studying duties? ^_^

Maybe you have some valuable assets, and the TG want to risk it to have you on board? Maybe the recruiter is just charming? I have not played the TG questline in Skyrim, yet, so I have not seen exactly how inane it is. Do you not even have to steal anything?

You can do a bunch of stuff to advance in the Thieves' Guild: run protection rackets, plant false incriminating evidence, doctor books to hide the guild's theft, and three different variants of outright stealing (pickpocketing someone, stealing a specific item from someone's house, and just going to a city and stealing 500 gold worth of stuff). The very first thing you have to do is take advantage of a distraction, stealing something from someone's booth, and reverse-pickpocket it onto someone else. And the first parts of the main questline (before the adventuring happens) involve destruction of property and throwing people out of business.

So yeah, the Thieves' Guild (or rather, the Skyrim Mafia) are a bad example, since even if you don't get better at theft, all you need to be is a non-murdering criminal of some sort. When Brynolf approaches you for the first time, all he says is that he suspects you're a thief and asks you to listen to his proposal. After all, even if he's wrong, what are you gonna do? Report him to the authorities in the second-most corrupt hold in Skyrim? It's win-win for him (or at least, win-draw).

That's kind of the point: In the vanilla game, there are no prerequisites at all. This gruff guy just asks you to join even if you never had bounty or if you never stolen/pickpocketed anything, and they don't ask for support, they want you to go out and do the legwork by stealing for the organization. Not to mention, unless you look around for alternatives (that you wouldn't know about, as the game directly point you at Brynjolf), the main quest pretty much forces you to go up to the guy, and it automatically triggers the recruitment whether you like it or not.

That's because they're drastically undermanned. The Thieves' Guild can't really die while some of its members are reasonably successful (mainly the snake oil salesman Brynolf and the caravan-robbing Sapphire) and while they have the support of Maven Black-Briar (the only reason they can still run in Riften), but they're crippled before you come along and help expand their influence. They're not in a position to be choosy.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

-The thieves guild won't approach you unless you give them a reason to do so [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14157]: Staying with the guilds still, this is another no-brainer. Just what kind of sense does it make when you play an upstanding character who may or may not be an Imperial Legate, Archmage, Companion and whatever else, and a guy just randomly invites you to be a thief? This mod fixes this by adding a few requirements for the conversation to trigger. Simple yet effective.

With this one, will Brynjolf still tell you how to find Esbern if you don't do his dirty work? THAT'S what's always particularly annoyed me about this. Delphine tells you to specifically talk to Brynjolf, yet he refuses to tell you unless you do a thief-related quest. If I'm playing a warrior or a mage, then I really have no business picking locks and picking pockets.

And yes, I know there are other people you can talk to in order to find Esbern, but the game purposely leads you to Brynjolf and doesn't drop even the vaguest hint that there are other ways to do it.

Honestly, I don't know. I haven't gotten to Riften in my current playthrough yet, I have been messing around with other quests and Dawnguard. I will check it out and report back later.

Edit: According to the mod's documentation, the dialog with Brynjolf won't trigger unless you have the prerequisites, but the alternative is still open. Maybe I will write to the mod's creator and ask if he could include a hint into a previous dialog or something.

You don't have to go through this kind of trouble, I was just curious if anyone knew, lol. I'll try it for myself the next time I start a playthrough.

...Which admittedly may be a while since I just bought Morrowind for the first time.

 

[GabeZhul]

It's time to resurrect this thread and look at what new immersion enhancing mods came out in the meantime. Good times.

-Helgen Reborn [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/35841//?]: Practically this is just what it says on the tin: The mod not only allows you to assist in the rebuilding of Helgen, it also puts makes you its leader, gives you a bunch of new quests, new armor sets and so much content it could be called a small DLC. It is also a great mod in the sense that it makes you feel the world of Skyrim is actually alive and changes thanks to your actions compared to the lackluster presentation of the vanilla game.

-Run for your Life [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23906//?] and When Vampires Attack [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/28235//?] are two mods from the same author that do the same thing: When Dragons/Vampire Lords attack a settlement, the civilians will RUN AWAY and HIDE instead of throwing themselves at the monsters and getting in your way. Again, works great for the immersion.

-Inconsequential NPCs [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/36334//?] is a work in progress, and it is a bit of a resource hog, but it can bring a lot of color into your game if you can afford the extra processing power. Simply put, this mod integrates a bunch of NPCs into the game who don1t care about you, don't give you quests, don't want to talk to you and just want to do their business without you pestering them. You know, like real people would.

-Left Hand Rings [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21720//?] is a really simple mod that simply adds, well, left handed rings. It is arguably a little silly how you can only wear one ring at a time, and I think upping the limit to two hits the sweet spot where it gives rings much greater utility without making them overpowered by allowing a huge number of rings and amulets like some other mods.

-Dragon Combat Overhaul [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/32597//?] is, in my opinion, the definitive dragon enhancement. Instead of going the easy route by giving the lizards more health and stronger attacks, the author in this mod actually gave the dragons new abilities and tweaked their AI to make them much deadlier than before. Also, dragons now have some unique abilities and can call for reinforcements, so now meeting a dragon can easily spell doom to even a seasoned Dragonborn. Lovely mod.

-Civil War Overhaul [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/37216//?] is the one mod I am really looking forward right now, since it actually promises to spice up the civil war quest line without just dumping a bunch of new NPCs into random battlefields. Now you actually have to move with the army of your choice, besiege towns to proceed with the quest-line and, if you do not actively participate, the civil war will move on without you and your side can actually lose it. Can't wait to see the complete mod.

 

[starlitegirl]

Regarding becoming archmage, I thought it was fitting considering EVERYONE at the college stands around and does nothing while I am off doing everything. They bring that orb back to the college with zero thought of consequences. Even I saw that was a bad idea when we discovered it. It was sealed off and guarded and Tolfdir had to drain power from it so we could kill the guardian. Nobody thought there must have been a good reason why? Nobody thought to investigate it before unleashing it? Too stupid for words. Then I am left as the one to go off and pursue the whole thing. Nobody even seems to care. I have to get the books for the info. Why didn't I do that before they brought the orb back to the college? Then I have to go to mzulft to get info on the staff. Then I have to go into Labyrinthian - a nightmare place that was sealed by Savos after he went in there some time ago looking for more power and got everyone he was with killed. But now I have to go in there all alone with my follower and get it? WTH?! Damn straight I should be archmage. If you stick around after the explosion that kills savos, mirabelle is wandering around saying 'what's going to happen to the rest of skyrim if we can't fix this?' or something like that. Nobody offers to be my companion for that quest. Somebody should have in a college full of master mages. Tolfdir sends me into saarthal all alone after the warning of danger. What kind of professor does that to his student while he wants to peek into coffins? And then he can't wait to bring the thing back and study it when they know nothing about it. Honestly, I wanted to rehire Nelacar and give him ranking wizard status because he at least learned some valuable lessons and would be more cautious. But the rest of them? Wandering around clueless and showing lack of concern for things they should have taken precautions. Yep, I'm the archmage because none of them are worthy of it. The first thing Tolfdir says to me upon my return with the staff is 'you survived?!' while he's trapped outside the college. So he didn't expect me to even survive? Then what would have happened while they all stand out there helplessly? And he knows about the chaos in winterhold after the explosion and sends me down but doesn't join me? He's the LAST person who should ever be archmage. At least Mirabelle shows some concern though she does nothing but tell me not to disturb the archmage because he's so busy - staring at shrubs and statues.

Why on earth should I NOT be archmage? I just went into some very dangerous places to stop imminent destruction while not one person at the college did anything to help but maybe give me a bit of info. My first order of business should be to fire all of them. Magic based or not, I just dealt with some scary magic and survived and saved the college. I think the logic behind becoming archmage is that after dealing with all that, it is presumed you would be more cautious and when you think of the horrible image the college has due to some terrible things that transpired in the past, well, it makes sense. Perhaps people with too much magic are overzealous about using it which leads to very bad outcomes. Tolfdir is not cautious. He's reckless. Savos lead a group to their death. That's not even counting the Azura's star incident, the missing mages, etc. But of all the people who should be mage, Tolfdir is the last when you consider the series of events and how his character responded to them. Recklessly with no concern for his brand new student.

 

[starlitegirl]

oops double posted