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About this mod
Gameplay mechanics expanded (& recalibrated!)
Combat: parrying, dodging, aim-shake
Magic: new & legacy spells, necromancy, potion toxicity
Stealth: disguises, knockouts, lock level requirements & lock-smashing
Speechcraft: yielding, persuasion, multi-followers
Crafting: deployable traps & dwarven automata
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
SU’MMER: Skyrim Universally ‘Mursive Mechanical Expansion & Recalibration
SU’MMER is a comprehensive gameplay expansion that introduces new mechanics, restores old ones from previous Elder Scrolls games, and balances out existing ones in Skyrim. It includes:
- New combat mechanics: parrying, dodging, and aim-shake with cross/bows
- New magic mechanics: new lore-friendly spells, spells from previous Elder Scrolls games, a new necromancy system, and potion toxicity
- New stealth mechanics: disguises, knockouts, and new lockpicking mechanics & level requirements
- New speechcraft mechanics: non-lethal yielding, expanded persuasion with begging, brawling, & robbery, and a simple multi-follower system
- New crafting mechanics: craftable/deployable/poisonable traps, and craftable/controllable Dwarven Automata
My mods:
SU'MMER gameplay mechanics expansion: Legendary / Special Edition
SPIES secret city entrances: Legendary / Special Edition
TESMS Elder Scrolls soundtrack additions: Legendary / Special Edition
Dawn of Hope Redux soundtrack addition: Legendary / Special Edition
FEATURES
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Combat
In Skyrim, the best defense is usually a good offense, and timing counts for next to nothing. Heavy weapons suffer little from their slowness, blocking is boring, and dual-wielders and spellswords must resort to button-mashing and kiting to end fights before defense is needed. Marksmanship provides an irresistible advantage against the game’s bumbling AI opponents, which has sent countless diverse and promising Dragonborn down the well-worn path of stealth archery.
Parrying opens up defensive options to dual-wielders and spellswords, and helps to balance the strength and staggering power of two-handed weapons by penalizing their sluggishness and predictability. Swing a weapon or fist within an instant of your opponent’s to block their blow, mitigating the damage you receive. Attempting to parry a power attack, or an attack by a 2-handed weapon with a 1-handed weapon, will stagger you. Successful parries level Block. Parrying by default only takes place between the player and NPCs in melee range of them, but can be optionally extended to spread between NPCs using the MCM.
Timed dodging provides a high-risk, high-reward alternative to blocking, and makes combat more fluid. Tap the sprint button while moving sideways or backwards with a fist, weapon, or spell raised to dodge, prompting a brief window where you are invulnerable to damage (configurable). Dodging through an attack or projectile provides experience to Block. Dodges utilize unused animations from the vanilla game. As of v1.2, the 'Recalibration' module (see below) incorporates the mod 'Mortal Enemies' by Center05, which reduces the rate at which actors can rotate while attacking to add an element of 'commitment' to each swing, making dodging more viable without the invulnerability feature active. NPCs continue to have access to the 'sidestep dodge' they have in the vanilla game.
To make timing more urgent during archery, characters' stamina will drain and the screen (and controller) will shake while drawing bows and crossbows, making aiming more difficult and encouraging careful shot timing to conserve stamina. Having higher skill and more stamina decreases the intensity of the shaking. Shake strength, stamina drain rate, and the weight of skill and stamina are configurable.
Magic
More than previous Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim suffers from a lack of spell diversity, with old favorites and even generic staple spells having disappeared only to be replaced by boring gradations of fire/ice/shock/healing spells. While Skyrim brings a number of interesting new magic archetypes to the table, many of them are available to the player only as shouts. The mechanics of alchemy and potion consumption imbalance combat in favor of the player by allowing them to instantly heal or choose effects without consequences or magicka costs.Legacy spells bring back the best of Morrowind and Oblivion and new spells create entirely new playstyles for mages, especially those who want the powers afforded by shouts but don't want to pursue the main quest. All spells follow naming conventions from Elder Scrolls games and will appear throughout the game world as staves, tomes, and scrolls (must be activated through MCM). Necromancy has always featured prominently in Elder Scrolls lore, but been essentially indistinguishable from any other form of Conjuration in practice. Now, characters can harvest flesh and bones from the dead to use in new spells that raise skeletal and Draugr thralls that never expire and don’t count toward the summon limit, allowing you to lead an army of the dead.
New & legacy Destruction spells have been added to the game in the form of tomes, scrolls, and staves, including:
- Touch-range offensive spells for each elemental type for mages willing to get up close and personal - these cast instantly and do slightly more damage per second than comparable ranged spells to give a reason to get up close and personal
- Touch-range debuffs to opponents' resistances to the elements
- Projectile spells to inflict pure non-elemental damage to opponents
- Spells to degrade or destroy opponents' armor and weapons, below a certain threshold of quality and value
- Spell forms of the Unrelenting Force and Cyclone shouts to fling opponents through the air
- Powerful spells that instantly change the weather, decreasing nearby actors' resistances to a specific element and conjuring a storm of projectiles with that element from the sky (adapted from Alduin's firestorm shout in vanilla), which can only be cast outdoors
New & legacy Alteration spells have been added to the game in the form of tomes, scrolls, and staves, including:
- Spells to raise the caster's carrying capacity or decrease opponents' to slow their movement
- A spell version of the 'Disarm' shout
- Spells to create elemental shields that reduce damage of a certain type, and inflict it to opponents in melee range
- Spells to increase jump height and decrease fall damage
- Spells to walk on water and swim faster
- Teleportation spells that can instantly teleport the caster a short or moderate distance to a targeted area
- Mark & recall, that function as they did in Morrowind/Oblivion but with Skyrim-inspired visual portal effects
- Spells to slow time, either one-time casts like the 'Slow Time' shouts or concentration spells that slow time while being cast with one hand
- Spells to increase or decrease the game world's timescale
- Spells to grab NPCs and throw them through the air (like the Vampire Lord's 'Vampiric Grip' spell)
- Spells to lock and unlock doors and containers (see 'Un/Lock' below)
New & legacy Illusion spells have been added to the game in the form of tomes, scrolls, and staves, including:
- Runes to calm, frenzy, or demoralize opponents
- Spells to put actors and creatures below a certain skill level under the caster's command
- Spells to blind actors, decreasing their ability to detect sneaking actors
- Spells to silence actors to prevent them from casting spells
- New Night-Eye spells, including a long-lasting one and one that must be held continuously
- A spell to briefly conjure phantom forms to distract opponents
- A Sanctuary spell that renders the caster unable to deal or take damage while it's being cast
- A spell that creates a noise at its impact location that will serve as a diversion to sneak by hostile actors
New & legacy Restoration spells have been added to the game in the form of tomes, scrolls, and staves, including:
- New offensive Restoration spells with a poison archetype (these were originally Destruction spells in Morrowind, but because Skyrim's 'Poison Rune' spell falls into the Restoration school and since Restoration previously lacked offensive options, these have been moved for consistency)
- Spells to absorb health/magicka/stamina from opponents
- Spells to dispel temporary magic effects on the caster or others
- Spells to cure poison and diseases
- Spells to fortify the caster's health/magicka/stamina, or increase their regeneration rates
- Spells to increase resistance to the elements and poison
- Spells that reflect a percentage of incoming damage at attackers
- Spells to absorb magicka from incoming spells
- Spells to non-lethally knock out actors (see 'Knockout' below)
- A spell that can resurrect dead allies (not as controlled undead as the vanilla spell, but as fully functional actors - this is designed as a master-level spell with high costs to cast and may result in buggy behaviors depending on who you resurrect, so use with discretion)
New & legacy Conjuration spells have been added to the game in the form of tomes, scrolls, and staves, including:
- Conjured weapons for all the weapon types missing from the vanilla game (war axe, warhammer, etc.)
- Conjured armors that behave as their Morrowind/Oblivion equivalents - appear instantly and replace currently equipped armor, and disappear when the spell expires or they're unequipped in the menu, automatically re-equipping the previously equipped armor - their visual effects and shaders match Skyrim's bound weapons, in that they're visually Daedric but transparent and glowing purple - these use custom variations on the vanilla mesh and textures, but shouldn't look out of place with any texture or mesh replacers due to their transparency
- A spell to put undead below a certain skill level under the caster's command
- A spell version of an unused vanilla 'Conjure Ghost' effect
- An area-of-effect version of Soul Trap
Potion effects are followed after their expiration by toxic aftereffects that impair the skills or stats buffed by the original potion proportionate to its strength and duration, encouraging careful timing and strategic consumption. For example, taking a potion that instantly restores health will lead to an aftereffect that debuffs health regeneration to a level proportional to the original potion's strength a short time later, or taking a potion that boosts fire resistance will lead to slight weakness to fire several minutes after, so chugging potions in the middle of a long battle can have consequences. Tolerance towards these effects builds with Alchemy skill and receives an immediate buff from Poison Resistance, so certain potions can be used as a buffer for other more-toxic potions (just beware the crash afterward...). The intensity of these effects, the effect of Alchemy skill on mitigating them, and whether they are active at all are fully configurable. This system works with all vanilla magic effect archetypes (even those that don't have dedicated potions in the vanilla game), and is fully compatible with mods that change vanilla effect archetypes (e.g., making all potions restore over time) or rebalance potions.
Stealth
Stealth in Skyrim boils down to an exercise in abusing invisibility and detection cooldowns when you’re outgunned and gaming sneak attack multipliers when you’re not. Stealth mechanics like disguises are hinted at in quests, but only in contrived circumstances like the Thalmor Embassy. There are few non-lethal means to accomplish objectives,. Lockpicking is a skill with no bar to entry and little sense of progression, making it possible for anyone with enough lockpicks to crack ancient chests and reinforced doors with minimal patience and no training.Disguises provide an alternative to invisibility and evasion. Actors will recognize your character as a member of numerous factions when wearing enough pieces from a set of clothing or armor from those factions. Requirements are noted in the MCM and partially configurable, but most sets require at least a body and head covering as well as either gloves or feet coverings. Disguises must be donned out of sight of others (except for followers), and won't take effect until a short (configurable) time passes without being witnessed undisguised. Actors have a chance see through disguises at a configurable interval (default once per 5 seconds), with the chance of detection decreasing with the wearer's speechcraft skill advantage over witnesses, and with greater distance between the two. Crimes committed in disguise are removed if the wearer escapes unrecognized, or manages to kill all witnesses (as in vanilla Skyrim). Incidentally, clothing must be chosen more carefully in public; walking into a city in armor from an opposing war faction may cause a conflict, and guards may treat actors from factions like the Forsworn, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, and Miraak Cult with open hostility (configurable). Actors who are only hostile to the wearer because of the disguise will stop combat after seeing through the disguise, but aggressive actors will not, and fighting back while disguised will make witnesses hostile even after the disguise is broken. Disguises include:
- Imperials (Light/Heavy Legion Armor)
- Stormcloaks (Stormcloak/Officer armor)
- Thalmor (Hooded Thalmor Robes and clothing, Elven Armor)
- Guards (hold-specific helmets and cuirasses)
- Companions (Wolf Armor)
- Thieves Guild (Thieves Guild, Improved, and Guildmaster Armor)
- Dark Brotherhood (Shrouded Armor and Robes)
- Forsworn (Forsworn Armor and Armor of the Old Gods)
- Penitus Oculatus (Penitus Oculatus Armor)
- Dawnguard (Light/Heavy Dawnguard Armor)
- Dragonborn Cultists (Cultist Mask, Robes, and clothing)
- Vigilants of Stendarr (Amulet of Stendarr with hooded robes and steel gauntlets & boots; implemented, but has no practical use)
- Greybeards (Greybeard robes and clothing; implemented, but has no practical use)
- Psijic Order (Psijic robes and clothing; implemented, but has no practical use)
- Mythic Dawn (Mythic Dawn robes and clothing; implemented, but has no practical use)
Pacifists or criminals who prefer non-lethal approaches can now knock out enemies with a fist, shield, special spell, or the blunt of a weapon while undetected. Unconscious characters can be looted and dragged, and will revive after a random configurable period of several hours, or when struck by another weapon or spell. Foes wearing helmets may be invulnerable to knockouts (configurable). A new spell in the Restoration school can be used for silent knockouts from a short distance. Actors will search for the person who attacked them when they wake. Unconscious actors can be dropped from tall heights to kill them.
Lockpicking requirements prevent characters from cracking locks above a configurable skill level, so training is now essential for thieves to get loot and access new areas. Mages who invest in Alteration will have access to new lock and unlock spells that scale to their skill level, and even pure warrior types will be able to smash locks with enough force from a weapon (or fists, with the Fists of Steel perk). Spells include touch-range spells (which are silent) and ranged spells (which cause a small amount of noise on impact). Each approach to opening locks confers experience to the appropriate skill. Level requirements are fully configurable, but are balanced out of the box to encourage training & specialization: it takes more skill in One-Handed/Two-Handed to smash a lock of a given strength than it takes in Alteration to use an unlock spell, master level locks fall outside the level cap for smashing, and actual lockpicking has the lowest level requirements of any option. Actors who see a lock being magically unlocked or smashed will sound an alarm, unless the lock is owned by the caster/smasher.
Speechcraft
Beyond securing better prices and ensuring success in the few minimally-consequential persuasion opportunities sprinkled throughout the game’s quests, Speechcraft offers few advantages in the way you interact with the world. Mechanics like yielding that could allow role play as a pacifist are broken in the vanilla game and do not provide any alternative to deadly combat.
Contextual persuasion opportunities open up new gameplay options and roleplaying possibilities. Beg for money while wearing ragged clothing, rob passers-by with a weapon drawn, or instigate a brawl with raised fists. These options bear risks though: victims need to feel threatened to comply (by default, a threat ratio of 2:1 player:target - for an explanation of threat ratios, see this mod).
Downed foes now actually yield, and yielding characters can now be robbed for their equipment, recruited as followers (only non-essential non-unique actors with vanilla voice types for compatibility reasons), or told to flee, which will clear bounty/assassination quests associated with them and let you clear locations.
You can now recruit multiple followers and animals, up to 7 of each (3 by default). You can also set a maximum party limit that applies jointly to followers and animals. As the party grows, leaders will learn shouted commands that can direct all followers in a growing radius simultaneously. The follower last spoken to will be the one recognized by vanilla quests, like recruitment for the blades, following into restricted worldspaces like Japhet's Folly, etc.
Crafting
Beyond grinding for perks and resources, crafting skills are irrelevant in combat. Crafting progression is reflected only in other armor and weapon skills, and hours spent grinding crafting skills are regularly invalidated when you level up and start finding gear made from more powerful materials.
Traps can now be crafted, picked up, and deployed at will, including the bear traps, pressure mines, tripwires, and explosive urns found throughout vanilla dungeons and forts. New recipes make it possible to enhance traps with offensive properties such as frenzy, paralysis, & explosions, and Bear traps can be poisoned by dropping a poison (or potion) into their jaws. Actors who walk into a trap will become hostile to whoever laid it if they are within view. Traps can now be purchased at general merchants and found as loot. With the optional Recalibration module (see below), traps are also deadlier.
For treasure hunters and scholars, the remnants of the Dwemer civilization laying about Skyrim’s ruins can now be used to craft and control Dwarven Automata, including Spiders, Spheres, Ballistas, and Centurions. For non-enchanters, this offers an alternative sink for the otherwise-useless soul gems acquired during the game. Automata can be crafted with the Dwarven Smithing perk and specific combinations of Dwarven scrap and weapons and a filled soul gem of appropriate strength, with more powerful automata having the highest requirements. Control rods for these crafted automata cannot be crafted, and must be found in high-level chests in Dwarven ruins. These automata use a similar system to Aicantar's Spider from the Thieves' Guild questline:
- Casting the rod at a crafted automaton will take control of it - it will start following the caster and will automatically fight enemies who attack the caster (configurably: controlling automata can require the Elder Knowledge perk obtained through a vanilla questline)
- Casting the rod at a location will make the automaton path to the location before returning to the caster
- Casting the rod at an actor will make the automaton attack the actor
- Casting the rod at the ground beneath your feet will transport the automaton to you
Recalibration
An optional module with select gameplay adjustments that incentivize the use features from the core mod and offset some of their more-overpowered benefits, but that edit too many records from the vanilla game to merit inclusion in the main file. This is packaged as a separate .esp file that is entirely optional, can be safely overwritten by other mods affecting the same features, and can be safely merged with the main file or other mods if you're looking to save even more load order space.- All skills start at level 10 (down from 15), plus any racial bonuses - skills will level quickly in the early game and characters will have higher overall levels relative to the levels of skills, but gameplay will be harder in the early game
- Carry weight starts at a base of 150 for all races, 200 for vampires - to increase this, I recommend using this alongside mods like Campfire or Bandolier that add storage options, or investing in Alteration which has new spell archetypes to boost carry weight
- Characters no longer start the game with 'Flames' and 'Healing' spells
- Movement, swimming, and horse movement speeds have been decreased
- Enemies will 'commit' to attacks and cannot easily rotate to hit you while dodging - adapted from the mod 'Mortal Enemies' by Center05
- Fall damage scales more realistically - characters take enough damage from short falls to prevent them from easily jumping down mountains, and most will die falling from a height of more than a few stories
- Traps will deal their maximum damage at any level, and larger ones will now stagger or knock down actors who walk into them
- Light and noise have a greater effect on stealth and detection levels
- Enemies search longer when alerted
- The crime alarm radius has been decreased
- Animals, monsters, bandits, spouse, and housecarls won't report crimes
- Khajiit caravans now buy stolen goods
- Animals and creatures are less aggressive, and you can get closer to them without being attacked
- Travel, lodging, and companion animals cost more
- Speech checks are harder, and now tend to require a skill level matching the 'Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master' system, so you'll be noticeably more persuasive after hitting level 25, 50, etc.
- Gold has weight (0.01/piece)
- Dead bodies can now be moved around as physical objects; this can be used as an alternative to the 'Knockout' drag feature
ABOUT THE MOD
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While many of these features exist in other mods, SU’MMER was created as a comprehensive, 'vanilla-plus' gameplay expansion where features feel like they're from the base game, an older Elder Scrolls game, or at least from the same mod. Most features are extensively customizable and can be turned on/off if they're not of interest or you wish to use a different mod with an implementation you prefer. It was also made with a 'universal' player-agnostic design philosophy that allows features to be easily expanded to actors other than the player, and with a host of recent and upcoming mods that facilitate that type of expansion, I have plans to implement this concretely in upcoming versions.
Compatibility
- SU'MMER's features are additive and edit few parts of the base game. It will play nicely with most other mods, even ones that make similar changes or add similar features. If you want to use SU'MMER but want one or two conflicting features from another mod (see 'Compatibility' below), you can generally load the preferred mod after SU'MMER and deactivate the conflicting features in SU'MMER's MCM.
- SU'MMER injects its items into the game world when loading for the first time, eliminating the need for patches to find items from this mod in loot or on merchants.
- While SU’MMER is calibrated to make the game more difficult and open-ended out of the box, players who want to balance it to fit with other mods have the ability to customize almost every feature to their liking. Features can be toggled on/off, values and thresholds can be tweaked, and most commonly-requested tweaks by users have been added across updates.
- SU’MMER is a lore-friendly mod that makes nods to previous Elder Scrolls games while improving the changes that Skyrim has made to their formulas. Most of the included spells are ripped from the lore of previous games, and those that aren’t fit in through naming conventions and the use of vanilla assets. New assets for objects like bound armors, and portals are based on existing assets, and will be affected by texture replacers.
- Perhaps the least visible feature from the player’s perspective, I hope this aspect of SU’MMER will make a difference on the durability and adaptability of the mod, and will serve as a proof of concept for other other modders. Most mods that add gameplay elements of similar complexity make use of player-centric scripting methods or quest-based tracking systems that, while efficient and performance-friendly, cannot be easily extended to new contexts or characters in the game world. SU’MMER takes the opposite approach and implements its features through dynamically-implemented effects. Apart from systems that are inherently player-centric in Skyrim's engine like dialogue, experience gains, screen & controller effects, etc., most features and spells added by SU'MMER could theoretically be used by any actor in the game world. This isn't usually the simplest or most performance-friendly way to implement a feature, and SU'MMER may be more performance-intensive than other mods that add similar features, but I hope this design choice may open up new ways for SU’MMER to interact with mods like Spell Perk Item Distributor that expand existing game systems to NPCs, and online multiplayer mods like Skyrim Together and Tamriel Online that decentralize the player’s role in the world.
INSTALLATION & USE
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Requirements
- SKSE
- SkyUI (for the Mod Configuration Menu)
Installation
- It is recommended to start a new game for SU'MMER - most features will work with existing saves, but the Traps and Followers features may not implement properly if you've already interacted with these items on an existing save.
- Download through your Mod Manager or manually, ensuring that 'SU'MMER.esp,' 'SU'MMERecalibration.esp,' and 'SU'MMER.bsa' end up in your Skyrim/Data folder and are activated in the launcher or mod manager.
- Load order of SU'MMER and SU'MMERecalibration doesn't matter. The files can also be merged if you're looking to save additional load order space.
- If using a translation, download the main file first, install the translation after, and allow the ESPs from the translation to overwrite the original.
- If using any mods with competing features, load them below SU'MMER and deactivate the conflicting feature in the MCM if possible. For dodge, trap, and multi-follower mods, it should be enough to let the competing mod overwrite the humanoid animation trees, trap activators, and DialogueFollowerQuest respectively - these are the only vanilla forms touched by the main mod.
- If using a follower mod that is reported to be incompatible or doesn't work when you test it, download the SU'MMER Followers Override Patch in the 'Misc Files' section here and ensure it is loaded below SU'MMER and above whatever follower mod you are trying to use with it.
- If building a merged patch for other mods that edit leveled lists, you do not need to include SU'MMER - all edits to leveled lists are triggered at runtime and do not require patches.
- If you wish to test individual features of the mod, use the testing functions in the MCM to add items, perks, and spells directly to your character.
Updating
- Do not update on a save where any of the mod's features (disguises, knockout effects, speechcraft effects like yielding or fleeing) are currently applied to the player or active in the cell around them.
- Version 1.3 can be safely installed on a save that used v1.2. I recommend going to a cell with no actors ('COC QASmoke' in the console works for this) and waiting 72 hours to ensure any effects from the mod are not active in memory before uploading. Do not attempt to remove 1.2 from your save before updating - simply swap 1.3 in for v1.2.
- Versions 1.2 and higher cannot be used with saves made with 1.1 or lower - they require a new save
Compatibility
- The following rules should help you determine what mods will and won't be compatible:
- Follower mods that add multi-follower support or new command options to followers may be compatible out of the box by loading them lower than SU'MMER. If not, the 'SU'MMER Followers Override Patch' in the misc downloads will manually restore the follower system to its vanilla configuration, and should be loaded after SU'MMER and before the preferred follower mod.
- Trap mods that edit vanilla objects like the bear trap, pressure plate, spike traps, etc. either to change their damage values or add detection events will be partially incompatible - their changes will be partially or fully overwritten by SU'MMER, which adds script properties to these objects to make them interactive and have NPCs properly react to them. If using such mods with SU'MMER, I recommend loading SU'MMER lower - the Recalibration module includes damage changes to traps which are fully compatible and will not overwrite the behavior changes in the main mod.
- Animation mods will be incompatible with the dodge feature if they overwrite the humanoid attack and power attack animations. Any conflicting animation mods should be compatible by loading them below SU'MMER and deactivating the Dodge feature in the MCM.
- Perk mods will be compatible, unless they remove vanilla perks like the 'Dwarven Smithing' perk, which will render Automata uncraftable, or the 'Fists of Steel' perk, which will prevent players from smashing locks with gauntlets. Most perk mods simply edit and expand on these vanilla perks, and can generally be used with SU'MMER without a patch. Perk mods that add similar gameplay features (like Ordinator) will be compatible, and conflicting SU'MMER features can generally be turned off/ignored.
- Combat mods like Ultimate Combat, Vigor, Smilodon, etc. may add conflicting features like stamina drain or parrying. In those cases, simply deactivate the conflicting feature in SU'MMER's MCM and no patch should be necessary.
- Magic mods that add new systems around existing spells like Spell Research and Spell Crafting will not be compatible without a patch. Ones that simply add new spells to the world or add new perks that interact with spellcasting should be compatible without a patch, as all SU'MMER spells are integrated with vanilla perk keywords, and all changes to magic-related leveled lists are done at runtime and do not require a patch.
- Stealth mods that change values like noise multipliers, light multipliers, and AI detection settings are fine to use but will be redundant with the Recalibration module - if you want their changes to overwrite SU'MMER's, load them below SU'MMERecalibration.esp.
- Mods I know to be compatible from my own testing include: Arthmoor's mods (Unofficial Patch, Alternate Start, Cutting Room Floor, Run For Your Lives, settlement mods), Chesko's mods (Campfire, Frostfall, Simply Knock), other needs mods (iNeed, Frozen North, Survival Mode), rebalancing and leveling mods (Morrowloot, Arena Encounter Zones).
- Some mods with minor conflicts include: Enai's mods, including Wildcat/Smilodon (also add stamina drain on bow aiming) and Ordinator (add parallel systems for necromancy and Dwarven engineering), but these are soft incompatibilities that can be solved by deactivating or ignoring competing features in those mods - nothing game breaking.
- Mods that are known to require a patch include: Nether's Follower Framework (use the 'Followers Override' patch here), and probably other Follower systems like it.
- Mods included in this one: Modern Brawl Bug Patch by Enai Siaion, Mortal Enemies by center05
- Mods that I use and you should think about using too:
- Campfire or Bandoliers - if using the Recalibration module (which decreases your base carry weight from 300>150), gives you ways to increase your carry weight in a logical, gameplay-connected way if you don't invest in the new Alteration spells from SU'MMER
- Skyrim Alchemy Fixed - makes small tweaks to potions and alchemy that balance them in a totally-different but totally-complimentary way to the Toxicity feature here
- Smilodon - I find the deadlier combat meshes well with the dodge and parry features here - just turn off either mod's stamina drain feature for drawing bows since that's redundant (requires Smilodon's MCM patch if desired, but can be done through SU'MMER too)
- Cathedral Weathers and ELFX - darker nights and dungeons help make the most of new Illusion spells and placeable traps, and work well with the sneak tweaks in Recalibration
- Skyrim Belongs to the Nords - an underrated population mod I wish I had found sooner. Essentially the only population-adding mod that doesn't have visual bugs or balancing issues around NPC inventories and storage. Great if you need more people to beg from or rob beyond the vanilla Skyrim populace
- Morrowloot and Arena Encounter Zones - 2 other mods that decentralize your place in the world, making it not scale to you and giving you more reason to lean on the mechanics SU'MMER introduces
Bugs and Troubleshooting
- I have a bug or conflict not mentioned below
- If you see an obvious bug or suspected conflict, post a comment or bug report here and I'll do my best to diagnose and fix in a future version. Most functions of this mod use papyrus logging to track what's happening and alert you to any issues. If you see something that seems outright broken in your game, turn on papyrus logging, note what messages you see in the log when you're experiencing problems, and share the log in a message here or bug report.
- The Dodge animations are not playing properly
- Make sure you don't have another mod installed that is overwriting SU'MMER's edits to the animation trees or triggering other actions through the 'Sprint' button that may be interfering with dodging. Since dodging is implemented by a scripted ability on the player character, this feature may be sensitive to script lag: if you experience significant lag or cannot run Skyrim at a framerate of at least ~20-30 fps, its animations may not play properly. Users who have problems with this may want to deactivate the 'Dodge' feature and use a dll-based alternative like TKDodge.
- I used a disguise that made guards or certain groups hostile, and even after removing it they keep attacking me
- Under most circumstances, enemies will stop attacking you if they see through your disguise and wouldn't normally be hostile. E.g., if you walk into Markarth wearing Forsworn armor, guards will attack, but if you remove enough pieces or they see through your disguise due to your low skill level, they'll stop attacking. However, this only applies to NPCs within the Crime Detection Distance from you (a vanilla game setting that can be altered by mods), so actors further away may not realize and continue to pursue you. To fix this, you can leave the area and returning later. Because of the way disguises are implemented, deactivating a specific disguise or turning off guard hostility after you've been witnessed in that disguise will not stop hostility - do not change those settings while wearing one of those disguises unless you're comfortable killing or pacifying people. This doesn't have any big game-breaking effects that you wouldn't get from assaulting guards or townspeople anyway, so if you find yourself in this situation just try to get taken to jail, kill everyone/get them to yield, or reload from an earlier save.
- My undead thralls or dwarven automata are getting stuck or having trouble navigating
- Undead thralls and dwarven automata from this mod use a custom AI framework separate from the game's usual AI following packages so that other actors can theoretically use them, not just the player. They'll follow you closely and through load doors, but in tight corridors or areas with lots of objects on the ground they can be more likely than vanilla followers to get stuck on geometry. Chalk it up to the fact that they're mindless undead husks or imperfectly reconstructed machines. They follow closely enough though that you can generally guide them around obstacles by moving around them yourself - you can also kill them and reharvest many of their parts to re-raise them at a later time.
- New persuasion topics aren't appearing
- This is a bug with the engine where topics don't appear on first load. Save and reload after the first time activating the plugin and they should start appearing. Additionally, it may be that dialogue conditions or priorities are preventing them from showing up. For begging, make sure that your clothing actually has the 'ClothingPoor' keyword - vanilla clothes with this keyword include the Ragged Robes, but not the 'Roughspun' items. The Unofficial Patch adds it to several other clothes as well. Some NPCs like guards can not be begged from. If brawling and robbery options don't appear, it may be due to quest priorities or scenes that are temporarily overriding them.
- I made a bounty/assassination/intimidation quest target yield and told them to flee, but the quest doesn't update unless I actually kill them
- This feature only supports vanilla quests, and not certain ones where the target needs to be dead for story/script reasons. This does support mod-added NPCs, but only if they're the target of vanilla radiant quests.
- Traps I deploy are coming out pre-triggered, or aren't snapping to the ground properly
- This is due to scripts not properly attaching to the traps, and can happen if you're starting SU'MMER on an existing save where you've interacted with instances of these objects prior, or if you have another mod overwriting them. Use SU'MMER with a new save, and make sure it's loading after any mods affecting traps.
- Casting the bound shield spell removes characters' gauntlets
- This only occurs for certain items (just the Fur Gauntlets, as far as I know) due to the way that their slotmasks were set. It would be outside the scope of this mod to edit a vanilla item record for compatibility, so this will remain as-is, as it only occurs on a small minority of items. Weapons and Armor Fixes Remade and Weapon AF may solve some of these issues, though I haven't tested it myself.
PERMISSIONS
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Permissions are open - anyone who wishes to use part or whole of this mod in their own creations is welcome to do so