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What QOL MODs do you recommend to make Skyrim more modern and appealing?
I got Skyrim on PC, which means that I can really MOD now. However, a lot of the MODs are about making things more difficult, complex, or realistic, appealing to very "pro" players. That is not my case. I just wanna do Skyrim the "right way", but without the cruft of a 2011 game. What are some MODs that make the game more manageable and lively?
And yes I'm playing this instead of Starfield :P
If you check out Nexus Mods, one of the delightful things they offer is Collections, which is essentially a modpack that someone developed and tweaked so that you don't have to manage the process so much yourself. There's a whole section specifically for "Essentials", where the collection polishes things up but doesn't change the game as much. "Vanilla Plus" goes a bit further, and so on.
This is totally unrelated to your question so feel free to mark as 'noise', but why are you calling them MODs in capital letters?
Afaik, 'mod' is short for 'modification' and not an acronym, so wouldn't be capitalized that way.
This is pure curiosity btw, I'm not a native speaker so please don't feel attacked or grammar nazi'd!
I honestly have no idea why I spelled MODs instead of mods :P
I'm also not a native speaker lol
If there's any mods around, feel free to corect the title according to whatever makes for correct English.
It's a thing that happens with shortened words sometimes. I've also seen "app" written the same way. I think it's people thinking they're acronyms, so they write them like acronyms, and then that becomes normal enough that other people pick up the habit, because that's how language works.
(though I, too, will be over here in the corner grumbling about it)
I got another meaningless thing for you to grumble about!
If you pronounce it as though it were a word, like NASA, SCUBA or LASER (though these last two are generally considered just words now), it's an acronym. If you pronounce the individual letters, as in FBI, NSA or ATM, it's an initialism.
Now you can join me in grumbling about yet another pointless thing when a discussion about acronyms arises!
That's why I pronounce those three "fibby", "ensa", and "atom". Consistency is great!
There are a lot of mods that enhance different areas of the game: new content, bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, gameplay overhauls. There's plenty I'd recommend, but it sounds like you want to stick to a pretty vanilla experience.
Rather than coming up with a specific modlist, I'd suggest finding an essentials or vanilla+ modpack via Wabbajack. The modpacks by Phoenix are a great place to start. Skyrim Modding Essentials is his baseline pack with just fixes. Aurora builds on that baseline with new graphical enhancements. And The Phoenix Flavour takes it further still and makes gameplay changes.
You can find more at the Wabbajack gallery, with tags and filters.
If you decide to install mods manually, some research will be needed. Elder Scrolls modding is still quite a manual process, and often involves installing patches, dependencies, and tweaking load order. It's not difficult, but it does take time. That's why prebuilt modpacks are a great place to start.
The most influential on gameplay has to be the Unlimited Behavior Engine with True Directional Movement.
Make it feel even better with TK Dodge AE, Artesian Cloaks of Skyrim and Immersive Equipment Displays.
For textures Skyrim 202X covers that pretty well.
There's also Community Shaders which isn't as heavy as ENBs. But ENBs give the biggest visual overhaul.
Definitely would second “The Phoenix Flavor” or any of the lists based on it. One note though: for wabbajack and collections if you want “one click install”, you have to buy nexus premium (one month is about $5). If you don’t have premium you can manually download all the mods and the wabbajack/collection will still install them, pick the best options, put them in order and patch them for you.
If you want to install manually/build your own list I just updated the essential mods list on r/skyrimmods, which is a good place to start and has many of the the qol/basic mods listed in this thread along with more.
There’s also a few mod authors you should check out, can definitely recommend any mods by these authors and it will get you well on your way to a great “next gen” Skyrim.
Ershin - True Directional Movement was already suggested in this thread, but also check out Precision and his other mods
Powerofthree
Everglaid (particularly EVG animated traversal and its plugin SkyClimb)
Doodlez - you mentioned your specs are lower so check out all the community shader plugins, you don’t need enb
Wskeever - for quality of life mods
JaySerpa - for immersion mods
DrJacopo - weather and cathedral landscapes
One last thing: if you have skyrim fully updated on steam, you have version 1.6.640, usually called anniversary edition update (by bethesda and modders). If you see a mod that requires “AE”, then this is what it’s referring to. It is not referring to the anniversary edition bundle of creation club content, if a mod needs any cc it will just specifically list what cc it needs. Likewise if a mod specifically says it needs 1.5 game version you won’t be able to use it (but nearly every mod has been updated to 1.6, you just may have to do a little searching to find the updated version). Tldr get AE mods, not SE mods.
A practical question: I installed Skyrim through the Microsoft Game Pass for PC. Are there any specific instructions or best methods on how to get mods on this version of the game?
I see that Bethesda has an official interface for mods. Should I use it, or it is better to get my mods in some other way?
It's going to be far more difficult to mod. SKSE does not support the Game Pass version, and that is a dependency of a large number of mods. Even SkyUI depends on SKSE. You would be much better off with the Steam or GOG version of the game.
Oh that's really bad :(
Unfortunately, Skyrim is fairly expensive at my location right now.
Supposing I would procure an alternative source, what is the version that I need for it to work with all the mods?You already said it. Sorry. GOG or Steam version. Got it.But it's okay if it's the Special Edition? Or does it have to be the previous one?
In your position I would feel comfortable pirating the Steam version without any guilt. I pay for all of my video games these days but if something like a specific store's DRM or format got in my way I'd just sail the seven seas to solve the problem.
Pretty much any other version works. It's a limitation of how Microsoft/Xbox distributes software and what restrictions are put in place. While many games can be modded now, there are still hard limitations on script extenders, and that's a very vital piece for Bethesda game modding. Every single one requires a Script Extender as a base.
Here's the list from their site:
I see. Thanks.
Would that Game Pass limitation extend to all Bethesda games, such as Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout New Vegas?
Yeah, it's a limit of the Windows Store platform. Steam is the most widely supported platform, and there are a lot of tools with in-built Steam support.
it is no longer a limit of the microsoft store platform, instead it is a limit of how some developers choose to package their games for it. once microsoft started allowing plain old win32 apps to be distributed through the store, game developers largely stopped shipping uwp versions.
Ah yes, it seems Bethesda shipped a different executable with this version that only seems to support their Bethesda mod store. But now that they're closing down some of their services, maybe they'll revisit this.
In my experience, there's not really a consistent view of what constitutes QOL changes, as different mod lists and authors draw the lines in different places. Some stay visuals only, others add or adjust menus, some change the levelling and skill system somewhat. Ultimately, you will have your own unique modlist as you fine tune your Skyrim installation to exactly how you want it.
The last major modpack I followed was The Phoenix Flavour in its 3.5-4.0 days when it was dedicated to be a "Vanilla Plus" mod list. Now it's entirely on Wabbajack so it's wholly automated but the older mod lists are still preserved on their site. If you're not familiar with modding Skyrim, this guide still has one of the better starting tutorials towards Skyrim modding. The mod list here is still an impressive and nearly comprehensive collection of necessary tools and fixes, and vanilla friendly or adjacent visual overhauls that don't change the look of the game very much (or change it to be more consistent or lore-friendly). The QoL mods are definitely well represented in this package.
I didn't go for many of its major gameplay changes or mods so I had to spend some time resolving any mod conflicts myself but those are also exactly the kinds of mods which require that kind of resolution the most, so mostly taking the tweaks, fixes, and graphic changes and only some of the other mods was a relatively simple affair.
The most complicated mods will be the body replacement ones. A lot of modding work has gone into improving the NPCs and people around Skyrim, and fixing some long-standing bugs. But they're also the trickiest to get working and there will be compatibility patches required in other mods for them. I'd say if you want to explore this, decide on the body mods first and then note them so you can look for compatibilities with other mods as you find and install them.
In terms of performance, pretty much any good modern hardware will run a heavily modded Skyrim installation easily. I'm still using top of the line parts from 2017 and I have no trouble running at ~90 fps with the most extensive Skyrim mods (though I do play it at 1080p).
If you are familiar with Skyrim modding, modifying a Wabbajack installation isn't very difficult but it does require undoing some patches and creating ones of your own.
Related question for you Skyrim gamers: Is Skyrim VR good? I recently got a Quest 2 and would love to play it if it's well done.
Skyrim VR is significantly better with mods. Even more-so than the pancake version. Specifically I recommend VRIK and HIGGS which make it feel like a proper VR game. Stagger is awkward in VR, so you probably want No Stagger Mod. Engine fixes like True 3D Sound and Engine Fixes VR can help improve stability.
There's other mods that are designed for VR, like Spellsiphon, MageVR, Spell Wheel VR, and Weapon Throw VR. Dragonborn Speaks Naturally also feels quite natural in VR, but that requires a little more setup. And if you talk to yourself like I sometimes do, you might accidentally offend a Nord.
It can be fun to build your own modlist, but as with my other comment I recommend starting with a Wabbajack modpack. FUS is a popular one in the /r/SkyrimVR community, but I'm sure any of them will serve you well.
edit: Oh, I forgot all about PLANCK! That's another worthy addition to a VR modlist.
I played a little bit of the base game - using the Vive OG and Wands - and it was a fun experience, but there were some issues. I didn't play long enough to run into any big bugs, but people have mentioned that there are many.
However, there are tons of mods for VR, including patches and the like - they make it a lot better.
The PC Gaming Wiki article recommends a number of mods under the Essential improvements and Modifications sections.
The Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch, SSE Display Tweaks, and their dependencies are absolute must-haves for any Skyrim installation in my book. The former fixes numerous bugs and oversights still present in Special/Anniversary edition. The latter makes the game run better, not break above 60 FPS, and play nice with VRR displays (make sure you turn v-sync off in game and force it on with your video driver). After that, I would add SkyUI for much more robust inventory management. From there it is mostly personal preference.
Some personal favorites of mine include:
Point The Way. Adds signs to intersections so that you can more easily follow roads and trails between towns and other points of interest.
A Quality World Map. The main goal of this mod is to make the map screen look nicer, but I specifically like it because it adds roads and trails to that map screen. In conjunction with Point The Way, this makes it much easier to navigate the game world without constantly checking the map.
I'm Walkin' Here. Disables player collision with followers and pets. A must have if you like hanging out with Lydia and Meeko in tight spaces.
QuickLoot EE. Adds a Fallout 4/Starfield-style quick loot menu that pops up automatically when looking at a container or corpse.
Unofficial High Definition Audio Project. The PC version of Special/Anniversary editions have poorer audio quality than the console versions for some reason. This mod brings all affected audio assets over from the PS4 build.
I'll admit I'm a light modder, but focus on engine-level and UI when I mod a game. I'll mention apecific mods because that's my interest.
I only have two:
SkyUI: every modpack, and even the Skyrim TC mod, Enderal, use it. This is the single best change.
Skyrim Unofficial Patch: this is controversial to me, despite my recommendation, because it changes things I feel were best left alone, but also fixes qiests, bugs, etc. The things I dislike are minor, but I don't like them.
You can also get Enderal: Forgotten Stories, an excellent total conversion mod. It's cheap, like $6 US on steam (hopefully scaled internally). To a point Bethesda's engine feel is the draw for me, so the game is familiar while being totally different.
Which mod manager should I use?
Mod Organiser 2 is generally considered the best, but Vortex is a bit simpler to use.
If you use Wabbajack to install a modpack it'll install a copy of MO2 for you.
I'd second the suggestions of The Phoenix Flavour, though just a warning it is out of date and harder to install. If you go that route and I'd recommend The Phoenix Flavour: Dragons Edition as it is more up to date. It is a larger version of the mod though and isn't as limited to Vanilla+ improvements so might not be exactly what you're looking for.
I don't think I care too much about graphics to be honest, and my machine is not that strong either. I think I'm below spec looking at the site. Could I just grab the gameplay part of Phoenix?
Unfortunately basically all the mod lists include visual upgrades. You can remove the visual mods, but it may take some trial and error and the guide doesn't help you do so.