Skyrim

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About this mod

This overhaul mod fixes many of the issues that pervade Skyrim, removes a lot of the game's fridge logic and adds a number of new features. REQUIRES Dawnguard, supports Dragonborn and Hearthfire.

Feedback welcome.

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If you've played the mod, please comment. Seriously, I rely on feedback to make adjustments. Images are also welcome. I'll add my own images later, but knowing me I probably won't get to it for another couple months. In the mean time, feel free to show us the character you are using for this mod.

The mod changes Skyrim's pace and rebuilds the game's balance so all choices are balanced and their differences are meaningful. The goal is to make the game faster, more fun, more believable and more intuitive.

Weapons:
Weapons start off doing more damage, skill affects damage more, and while perks are a little less potent for raw damage the perks that impact special effects are very effective. You get the first in each chain for free, and the last ones no longer exist. Maces and hammer initially ignore 50% of armour from the get-go and 75% after one perk, axes cause more bleed and it ignores blocking (but not armour) and the perk will double it, and lastly crits from blades and bows are much stronger and will be twice as common with just the one perk. Arrows are more significant for damage now, retrieval rates are lower as well.

Magic:
Has stronger special effects, perks do more, so on. Fire does more damage, shock does more magicka damage, conjured creatures have longer durations once you take the perks, raised undead last MUCH longer. Magic takes massive investment to be worthwhile, however, as spell costs will burn your magicka to nothing very quickly and only skill and perks will override that and make magic a suitable primary. However, the slow magicka regen means a weapon is not optional and you will run out of magicka if you try to use it as a primary for too long, and will always at least require a weapon as backup unless you use the alchemy/enchanting loop that will be removed in the next version, I promise. Even so, magic is excellent for its raw power and its ability to (mostly) ignore enemy armour, and matching the right spell to the right enemy is devastating can be devastating as weaknesses are stronger.

Armour vs weapons: 
Armour now does its friggin' job. This was my biggest complaint about Skyrim in vanilla, and now it has been addressed. The listed armour rating is the percentage resistance to most weapons now, it's a 1/1 ratio and there's no hidden value, an armour rating of 80 means you are resisting 80% of incoming damage. Not all weapons take full effect from armour, but those that do will be resisted by that full percentage and those that don't are exactly what you'd think don't. It is worth noting that partially armour-skipping weapons are NOT uncommon, however. There may not immediately seem to be much difference between armour with minimum skill and armour at maximum skill (it goes up from 0.8 to 1), but that can be a surprisingly massive difference in practice. The common multipliers are 1 (most common), 0.75 (least common), 0.5 (second most common) and 0.25 (second least common), and the maximum resistance is 90%. So then, returns diminish massively at 90 AR, slightly at 120 AR, moderately at 180 and completely stop making any difference at 360.

Armour vs magic:
Armour, initially, does not affect magic. However, instead of perks increasing your armour rating, they reduce damage from magic while wearing the correct armour type. Heavy armour perks only work when wearing heavy armour, light armour perks only work when not wearing heavy armour, but that is surprisingly loose in both cases. Basically, as long as you have even a single piece of heavy armour on your body, juggernaut works (the higher-up perks still require full sets) and no light armour perks do. However, if you don't have any heavy armour, you do not need to be wearing light armour, agile defender works (the higher-up perks require full sets or no armour). The perks this directly alters are juggernaut, agile defender, well fitted, custom fit and both versions of matching set.

Blocking:
Blocking also now does its friggin' job, whether you use a weapon or a shield. Block percentages are much higher, power attacks can still stagger a blocking enemy but do not do more damage through blocking, stamina does not drain when blocking and blocking both has a random chance to defeat arrows and provides a resistance to magic. Shield block percentages are 20+0.3*Skill+BaseShieldAR. So this ranges from a rather pitiful 35% for a hide shield and no skill to a very impressive 86% for a daedric shield and 100 skill. Weapon block percentages are 80+0.15*skill, so 80-95%. Shields also provide armour rating, of course, which gives you some degree of passive protection that weapons don't provide. Shields also have a higher chance to defeat arrows, 60% without the perk and 80% with, where weapons only have a 40% chance without the perk and 60% with, and as base block percentage does not work on arrows this and the shield's armour rating are your only defence against them. Lastly, shields also have a higher resistance to magic, 50% without the perk and 75% with, where weapons have 25% without the perk and 50% with. Shield wall, notably, now provides a 10% resistance to physical and magical damage for each rank when blocking, rather than directly impacting block percentage. So the actual final values are 93% with a shield and 97.5% with a weapon against melee attacks, 50% against arrows with an 80% chance to ignore them entirely when using a shield (60% chance with a weapon), and 87.5% against magic with a shield but only 75% with a weapon. Just remember, you move and turn slower while blocking, and if fail to block (easier than you might think) none of that matters (except a shield's armour rating, which always works). 

One handed builds:
Now viable with nothing in the off hand. Of course, I use the dual-wield parrying mod by Borgut1337, but if you don't have it you may actually consider a single sword or a single dagger with nothing in the off hand, as you have a strong block percentage against melee attacks (and nothing else) using this set, and can very rapidly counter-attack after blocking a hit due to your weapon's greater speed compared to two-handers. This allows you to be dropping your guard for less time, and works very well against a single enemy. And of course, if you do have dual-wield parrying, grab a dagger for your off-hand and get a couple dual wield perks and you'll get even faster counter-attacks to give your opponent even less of an opening.

Movement:
Your move speed is significantly faster while walking, slightly faster while jogging and much faster while sprinting. Sideways movement when running is slowed 25% and backwards movement is slowed 50%, but while walking there is no speed penalty in any direction. You turn slower while attacking or sprinting than you do otherwise. Enemies often have very unique movement quirks, but the general rule is that humanoids move like you do, quadrupeds cannot run backwards or sideways, cannot walk sideways, can only walk backwards at half speed and turn at half speed, but move really fast in a straight line. You should take a moment when playing to experiment with movement, as it is quite a bit different now and mastering it can help you perform better in combat. Additionally, enemy movement can be exploited in combat for great effect, once you know how an enemy moves. For example, if an enemy turns slowly you should consider circling around them.

Recovery:
Regeneration is still present, but massively reduced. Health and magicka usually regenerate at 0.001%/second, and stamina 0.01%/second. These regen rates are so slow that if you are in the moment, they basically just don't come back. Only days and weeks are sufficient to bring it back through regen. So let's talk other options. Food now restores stamina, not health. Some food still restores health, but only a few points. Alcohol restores magicka, but it damages your stamina in the process and by rather a lot. Potions and spells are somewhat weaker, but still work. Regen potions always last 60 seconds now, but they are massive (10,000-50,000% for health and magicka, 1,000-5,000% for stamina). This regeneration bonus sounds huge, but with how low the base is, they functionally only restore 6-30% of your total health, magicka or stamina and take an entire minute to do it, so they are a strictly an option for outside of combat. No food items currently restore health or stamina per second, they just restore a lot at once. Naturally, the need to use more time and resources means you will drain more of your consumables faster and if you combine it with the Scarcity mod by Syclocnix, especially with 10x like I do, you will get wonderful (that is, wonderfully brutal) results.

Stealth:
Ends up about as strong at the end, but is stronger early on, so you needn't dump a massive amount into it before you use it, you just need to use common sense. Still, it's important not to have a lot of armour, as you never completely eliminate equipped weight's effect on stealth. Daggers do more stealth damage from the beginning now as well, though their silence is still the main reason to use them. Stealth is totally my thing, check out my channel I'm doing a series with a stealth character, so this HAD to happen. If you like stealth, you will love this mod.

Dwarven ruins:
Enter with extreme caution, as dwarven automatons are extremely well armoured (150) and ignore part of your armour (25% for spiders, 50% for spheres and 75% for centurians). Lightning deals massive damage, but that's all that really does, and they can be extremely difficult to take down if you are inadequately prepared.

Level scaling:
Massively reduced, though not completely. You can totally end up royally fucked if you stumble into the wrong enemy at the wrong level. There's also some massive beef gates now, which you need to keep your eye out for. The first dragon will royally rock your shit at most levels, and if you can't beat it you aren't ready for the main questline and should go do something else for a while. In fact, that's just generally good advice if you ever get stuck: Go do something else for a while. The same goes for the Companians and College questlines, but less so. If you are alone, however, you should have little difficulty with the Thieve's Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines.

Barter:
You will never be rich without investing in barter. No, seriously. Speech is extremely vital to prices now, so it is now definitely worth taking if money is a thing you care about. Perks are also a valuable addition, and the order has changed to that the merchant perk is the last perk, master trader is second to last, because the merchant perk just about breaks the entire system and it makes more sense to make it the last so it isn't a requirement.

Overall:
This mod can be brutal and unforgiving, but it is a real joy for hardcore players who previously were disappointed in Skyrim. This mod is more than worthwhile once you adjust to it, it will ruin vanilla for you.

Installation and requirements:
This mod absolutely requires Dawnguard and RaceCompatibility.esm. These were adjustments made due in anticipation of extra races that were never added, but might be added in a future version. To install, just put the .esp files (all in one .7z for security's sake) into your data folder and check the .esp files. Using NMM might work, but I am NOT sure, so please let me know.

Compatibility:
Does not play nice with custom race mods, I'd need to make conversions because custom races still get full vanilla regeneration. It also doesn't make sense to install two overhaul mods. Needs mods like RND also don't work very well with it, and it wasn't built with alternate start mods in mind, but they do work. Otherwise, there are no compatibility issues I know of.

Patch notes:
Version 1.1 improved the "Recovery" perk, and replaced the "power shot" perk with "penetrating shot", a perk that bypasses half of enemy armour with bows and crossbows.

Next version goals:
Remove alchemy/enchanting loop.

Feedback:
Feedback is much appreciated, PLEASE TELL ME if you have any problems with my mod. Please leave a comment telling me what the problem is, it is the ONLY way anything will ever get fixed.

Enjoy.