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About this mod
A very simple vanilla+ "overhaul" with a plethora of gameplay tweaks aimed at making Skyrim more of a cohesive, fun experience.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Welcome to my vanilla plus "overhaul" for Skyrim. This mod encompasses various tweaks spanning across the entire game, with the goal of improving the overarching Skyrim experience without losing the original game's spirit, while still adhering to Bethesda's vision. The game is more challenging, general balance has been improved, and the overall experience should feel more cohesive.
With all that being said, let's have a look at exactly what this mod does to your Skyrim experience:
Skills & leveling:
Player and NPC stats:
Perks:
Food and cooking:
Alchemy and Magic:
Gameplay tweaks:
Economy tweaks and and quest rewards:
Loot:
Crafting:
NPC and creature changes:
Shouts:
Quest and random encounter tweaks:
AI Tweaks:
Armor & Weapon Tweaks:
Item tweaks:
Misc. tweaks:
There are a few other things included in the mod not really worth mentioning, but the bulk of the features are listed on this page.
Combat changes have been intentionally excluded, so you can use a combat mod of your choice alongside this mod, I recommend Smilodon. (Load this mod after Smilodon if you use it.)
Compatibility with other mods should be mostly fine, although this mod does touch quite a lot of records. Aside from the changes in the ESP I've only made 1 tiny edit to a quest fragment script, so the mod is very lightweight. Appropriate Bash Tags have been applied to the plugin if you use a Bashed Patch. I've made clever use of record injecting to ensure this mod is full integrated and compatible with Misc Bugfix Compilation and Misc Cut Content Restoration, although they aren't required.
This mod should be safe to install mid-game, although a new game is recommended for the full experience. Uninstallation should also be safe since none of the changes made bake into your save, although it's not recommended.
An addon is available that affects various CC content, which carries over changes the main plugin makes to CC content, and makes the following changes:
Requires USSEP.
Note: this mod contains several intentional ITM records. Do not clean the plugin.
Credits:
PushTheWinButton for his mod Elegy, which was my inspiration to make my own overhaul for Skyrim. Many elements of this mod mirror Elegy. He has made some incredible mods for other Bethesda games too.
Bethesda for making some timeless masterpieces that have unabashedly become a part of my being. Older Bethesda titles were very influential in my design philosophy for this mod, and all of these games have provided me with second lives to experience when I've needed them the most. Skyrim in particular is more than just a game to me, and releasing this project along with my other mods was my way of trying to give back to the game and the community that has kept it alive all these years.
To close out, I just wanted to say that this mod is my love letter to Skyrim. I've spent the last 5 months meticulously tweaking and compiling various smaller plugins I had made into this mod, fine tuning everything and ensuring it's of only the highest quality. Years of experience playing and modding the game, picking it apart from the inside out and learning as much as I could about it have culminated into this mod and my other large projects. I'm quite proud of the result and I hope you enjoy it too. This mod is my unofficial update for Skyrim; it's a true labor of love and I hope it makes playing the game as fun for you as it has for me.
Thanks, and take care.
RECOMMENDED:
Misc Bugfix Compilation
Dragon Leveled List Fixes
Misc Cut Content Restoration
Simple Immersive Civil War Soldiers
DEEJMASTER's Mini-Mods Tweaks & Fixes
With all that being said, let's have a look at exactly what this mod does to your Skyrim experience:
Skills & leveling:
Spoiler:
-Overall leveling speed has been reduced by 50%, by reducing the amount of XP that skills contribute to leveling by 25%, and increasing the total XP needed to level up by 25%. This ensures leveling doesn't feel like a chore by simply making it harder to level up, while also preventing perk points from being made too scarce. Overall progression should now feel smoother and less rushed.
-Blocking with a weapon now nets the same amount of experience as using a shield, to make two handed and non-shield playstyles more viable. Shields will still give more total XP since they absorb more damage.
-Misc. smithing activities like tanning and smelting give smithing experience, making the overall experience feel less grindy and allowing you to level smithing naturally without having to spam items. Overall smithing experience gained has been adjusted to accommodate for this change.
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-Overall leveling speed has been reduced by 50%, by reducing the amount of XP that skills contribute to leveling by 25%, and increasing the total XP needed to level up by 25%. This ensures leveling doesn't feel like a chore by simply making it harder to level up, while also preventing perk points from being made too scarce. Overall progression should now feel smoother and less rushed.
-Blocking with a weapon now nets the same amount of experience as using a shield, to make two handed and non-shield playstyles more viable. Shields will still give more total XP since they absorb more damage.
-Misc. smithing activities like tanning and smelting give smithing experience, making the overall experience feel less grindy and allowing you to level smithing naturally without having to spam items. Overall smithing experience gained has been adjusted to accommodate for this change.
Player and NPC stats:
Spoiler:
-The 50 bonus offsets to health, magicka, and stamina applied to the player have been removed. This makes the difficulty curve at the beginning of the game considerably more significant, especially with Survival Mode enabled.
-Bosses have been minorly overhauled. The three main bosses of the game, Alduin, Harkon, and Miraak have all been rebalanced and are considerably more challenging than vanilla, with Alduin in Sovngarde being the highest level NPC in the game. Harkon is particular has been made more unique, as now for the last part of your fight with him he will transform back into a human to fight you with his sword, which he never used in vanilla. All major bossses and Ancano are now unleveled, always as strong as they could've been in vanilla.
-The giant outside of Whiterun now has the stats of a normal giant, giving you an actual chance to fight him. Even at low levels he would die almost immediately in vanilla.
-Negative health offsets for very weak enemies like low level bandits and vampires have been removed.
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-The 50 bonus offsets to health, magicka, and stamina applied to the player have been removed. This makes the difficulty curve at the beginning of the game considerably more significant, especially with Survival Mode enabled.
-Bosses have been minorly overhauled. The three main bosses of the game, Alduin, Harkon, and Miraak have all been rebalanced and are considerably more challenging than vanilla, with Alduin in Sovngarde being the highest level NPC in the game. Harkon is particular has been made more unique, as now for the last part of your fight with him he will transform back into a human to fight you with his sword, which he never used in vanilla. All major bossses and Ancano are now unleveled, always as strong as they could've been in vanilla.
-The giant outside of Whiterun now has the stats of a normal giant, giving you an actual chance to fight him. Even at low levels he would die almost immediately in vanilla.
-Negative health offsets for very weak enemies like low level bandits and vampires have been removed.
Perks:
Spoiler:
-A few new perks from Vanilla Tweaks - Perks have been added to the game to improve some lackluster areas of gameplay and add some variety to trees that needed it:
-The Extra Effect perk at the end of the enchanting tree has been replaced with a perk that increases the power of all enchantments by 50%. This makes player crafted gear less overpowered, and makes gear that's already enchanted and special quest rewards more viable, while staying fairly close to the vanilla balance scheme.
-Various armor perks no longer require a helmet to be worn.
-The Father's/Mother's Love perk has been reworked to behave like Lover's Comfort, by improving the rate at which skills increase.
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-A few new perks from Vanilla Tweaks - Perks have been added to the game to improve some lackluster areas of gameplay and add some variety to trees that needed it:
Spoiler:
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Alteration:
-Arcane Fists (50/70): Increases Unarmed Damage by 15/30% when under the influence of armor spells.
Destruction:
-Arcane Hands (70): Destruction spells do 30% more damage when using bare hands. (You can still use rings.)
-Augmented Flames/Frost/Shock 3 (90): Fire/Frost/Shock spells do 60% more damage. (Previous ranks were nerfed slightly.)
Restoration
-Ward Efficiency (20): Cast wards for half Magicka.
-Ward Poise (40): Wards prevent stagger and reduce damage received by 20%.
Heavy Armor
-Cushioned 2 (90): 90% less damage from falling if wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Enchanting
-Enchanted Words (40/80): Scrolls are 50/100% stronger.
-Staff Attunement (40): Increases Magicka regeneration by 50% when wielding a staff.
-Enchanter's Barrier (60): Prevents stagger and reduces damage received by 20% when wielding a staff.
-Reduced Charge (60): Enchantment charge cost is halved.
-Arcane Fists (50/70): Increases Unarmed Damage by 15/30% when under the influence of armor spells.
Destruction:
-Arcane Hands (70): Destruction spells do 30% more damage when using bare hands. (You can still use rings.)
-Augmented Flames/Frost/Shock 3 (90): Fire/Frost/Shock spells do 60% more damage. (Previous ranks were nerfed slightly.)
Restoration
-Ward Efficiency (20): Cast wards for half Magicka.
-Ward Poise (40): Wards prevent stagger and reduce damage received by 20%.
Heavy Armor
-Cushioned 2 (90): 90% less damage from falling if wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Enchanting
-Enchanted Words (40/80): Scrolls are 50/100% stronger.
-Staff Attunement (40): Increases Magicka regeneration by 50% when wielding a staff.
-Enchanter's Barrier (60): Prevents stagger and reduces damage received by 20% when wielding a staff.
-Reduced Charge (60): Enchantment charge cost is halved.
-The Extra Effect perk at the end of the enchanting tree has been replaced with a perk that increases the power of all enchantments by 50%. This makes player crafted gear less overpowered, and makes gear that's already enchanted and special quest rewards more viable, while staying fairly close to the vanilla balance scheme.
-Various armor perks no longer require a helmet to be worn.
-The Father's/Mother's Love perk has been reworked to behave like Lover's Comfort, by improving the rate at which skills increase.
Food and cooking:
Spoiler:
-Food has been completely overhauled, and now grants subtle, passive bonuses over a long period of time rather than the useless, unimmersive instant restorative effects of vanilla, similar to ESO. This reworks food to be useful in an immersive way (no more downing 30 cheese wheels in the midst of a battle!) and adds genuine incentive to eat and prepare food.
-Food is divided loosely into categories, with uncooked, simple foods being at the bottom, and soups and stews being at the top. Meats fortify health, cheeses and wines fortify magicka, etc. Stews and well-rounded soups provide the best bonuses given their hearty nature and difficulty to craft and obtain, and food is generally much more diverse and interesting than it was in vanilla.
-Survival hunger restoration effects have been tweaked on certain foods so they feel more reasonable. In particular, beverages will no longer restore as much hunger to incentivize cooking or finding cooked food.
-Recipes have been minorly overhauled. Baking recipes now grant logical amounts of food, (all those ingredients for one sweet roll?) and several recipes have been tweaked so they make more sense, or for balance's sake.
-Trying to find leeks in the vanilla game was a plain annoyance, as they were absurdly rare for no reason. They've been incorporated into leveled lists where other common vegetables can be found.
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-Food has been completely overhauled, and now grants subtle, passive bonuses over a long period of time rather than the useless, unimmersive instant restorative effects of vanilla, similar to ESO. This reworks food to be useful in an immersive way (no more downing 30 cheese wheels in the midst of a battle!) and adds genuine incentive to eat and prepare food.
-Food is divided loosely into categories, with uncooked, simple foods being at the bottom, and soups and stews being at the top. Meats fortify health, cheeses and wines fortify magicka, etc. Stews and well-rounded soups provide the best bonuses given their hearty nature and difficulty to craft and obtain, and food is generally much more diverse and interesting than it was in vanilla.
-Survival hunger restoration effects have been tweaked on certain foods so they feel more reasonable. In particular, beverages will no longer restore as much hunger to incentivize cooking or finding cooked food.
-Recipes have been minorly overhauled. Baking recipes now grant logical amounts of food, (all those ingredients for one sweet roll?) and several recipes have been tweaked so they make more sense, or for balance's sake.
-Trying to find leeks in the vanilla game was a plain annoyance, as they were absurdly rare for no reason. They've been incorporated into leveled lists where other common vegetables can be found.
Alchemy and Magic:
Spoiler:
-Player made potions now have a "brewed" prefix in your inventory, making them super easy to identify.
-Blacksmith's and enchanter's potions now last for 300 seconds rather than 30/60 seconds, so you don't have to rush through what you're doing while using them. (Doesn't affect player made versions.)
-The White Phial has been rebalanced so the different options you can choose from are all viable and more diverse. It now feels more like a genuine reward worthy of its legendary status like it's described.
-Master spells have been rebalanced and don't suck as much as vanilla. Spell costs are halved, they take a normal amount of time to cast, and you can now move around while casting them.
-The transmute ore spell now always transmutes iron first, then silver.
-Dead thralls now turn to ash when killed, like normal reanimated zombies.
-Spells to conjure high seekers and lurkers have been added to the dremora merchant from the Dragonborn DLC. Seekers now benefit from the twin souls perk as well. (Lurkers don't to maintain balance.)
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-Player made potions now have a "brewed" prefix in your inventory, making them super easy to identify.
-Blacksmith's and enchanter's potions now last for 300 seconds rather than 30/60 seconds, so you don't have to rush through what you're doing while using them. (Doesn't affect player made versions.)
-The White Phial has been rebalanced so the different options you can choose from are all viable and more diverse. It now feels more like a genuine reward worthy of its legendary status like it's described.
-Master spells have been rebalanced and don't suck as much as vanilla. Spell costs are halved, they take a normal amount of time to cast, and you can now move around while casting them.
-The transmute ore spell now always transmutes iron first, then silver.
-Dead thralls now turn to ash when killed, like normal reanimated zombies.
-Spells to conjure high seekers and lurkers have been added to the dremora merchant from the Dragonborn DLC. Seekers now benefit from the twin souls perk as well. (Lurkers don't to maintain balance.)
Gameplay tweaks:
Spoiler:
-Dead bodies now have collision, and walking over bones and corpses won't harm you anymore.
-NPCs will no longer stop using furniture when you talk to them. (Sleeping NPCs still get out of bed.)
-Sneaking has been completely rebalanced, similar to RAID. NPCs have much better detection and you can no longer abuse the sneak system like you could in vanilla.
-Damage multipliers for legendary difficulty have been adjusted to resemble Fallout 4's survival mode; you take 3x damage, but deal 2x damage. This makes legendary difficulty more deadly and realistic compared to the other difficulties, and is designed to mesh well with the game's survival mode.
-Favor values have been edited so that you can't just start looting someone's entire house because you delivered their mail for them. Most NPCs will still allow you to take very low value items if you become friends with them.
-Auto aim has been completely disabled. Where you're aiming is now where your shot will fire.
-Lockpicking is now more difficult, and difficulty based on lock type is more linear than vanilla.
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-Dead bodies now have collision, and walking over bones and corpses won't harm you anymore.
-NPCs will no longer stop using furniture when you talk to them. (Sleeping NPCs still get out of bed.)
-Sneaking has been completely rebalanced, similar to RAID. NPCs have much better detection and you can no longer abuse the sneak system like you could in vanilla.
-Damage multipliers for legendary difficulty have been adjusted to resemble Fallout 4's survival mode; you take 3x damage, but deal 2x damage. This makes legendary difficulty more deadly and realistic compared to the other difficulties, and is designed to mesh well with the game's survival mode.
-Favor values have been edited so that you can't just start looting someone's entire house because you delivered their mail for them. Most NPCs will still allow you to take very low value items if you become friends with them.
-Auto aim has been completely disabled. Where you're aiming is now where your shot will fire.
-Lockpicking is now more difficult, and difficulty based on lock type is more linear than vanilla.
Economy tweaks and and quest rewards:
Spoiler:
-All quest rewards are now unleveled. You will always get the strongest version of a leveled quest item no matter what. No more putting off quests till the latter half your playthrough just to get the best reward, or sacrificing a good item just to do a quest.
-Quest gold rewards have been completely rebalanced. In particular, favor quests yield considerably less gold than vanilla. Leveled lists for gold rewards have also been adjusted to feel more naturally paced, and now scale up to level 50 rather than level 40.
-Bounty quests now give a reasonable amount of gold and your reward depends on enemy type, so bounties on giants net more gold than bounties on bandits, etc.
-Bartering settings have been adjusted so that buying prices are higher and selling prices are lower. This makes the game's economy less broken and generally more difficult, and gives you more incentive to invest in the speech skill tree if you want better prices.
-Vendor gold is now leveled, so as you level up and find more expensive loot, vendors will be able to keep up and take it off your hands. I've made sure that they don't get too much extra gold so that investing is still useful. This also makes the speechcraft skill more useful since vendors will actually have enough gold to warrant getting better prices out of selling items.
-Khajiit caravans now buy stolen goods, giving you an option for fencing without having to join the Thieves guild.
-Garyn Lenth in Raven Rock is now a real misc. item merchant like he claims to be.
-Training costs have been rebalanced so they're less expensive and more similar to Oblivion. The multiplier added to training costs for expert and master trainers has also been removed.
-Carriage and room rental costs are more expensive than vanilla. Carriage prices in particular were far too inexpensive in the vanilla game. The cost to sail to Solstheim and back has also been increased.
-Woodcutting and mining jobs are less lucrative than vanilla and net a realistic wage.
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-All quest rewards are now unleveled. You will always get the strongest version of a leveled quest item no matter what. No more putting off quests till the latter half your playthrough just to get the best reward, or sacrificing a good item just to do a quest.
-Quest gold rewards have been completely rebalanced. In particular, favor quests yield considerably less gold than vanilla. Leveled lists for gold rewards have also been adjusted to feel more naturally paced, and now scale up to level 50 rather than level 40.
-Bounty quests now give a reasonable amount of gold and your reward depends on enemy type, so bounties on giants net more gold than bounties on bandits, etc.
-Bartering settings have been adjusted so that buying prices are higher and selling prices are lower. This makes the game's economy less broken and generally more difficult, and gives you more incentive to invest in the speech skill tree if you want better prices.
-Vendor gold is now leveled, so as you level up and find more expensive loot, vendors will be able to keep up and take it off your hands. I've made sure that they don't get too much extra gold so that investing is still useful. This also makes the speechcraft skill more useful since vendors will actually have enough gold to warrant getting better prices out of selling items.
-Khajiit caravans now buy stolen goods, giving you an option for fencing without having to join the Thieves guild.
-Garyn Lenth in Raven Rock is now a real misc. item merchant like he claims to be.
-Training costs have been rebalanced so they're less expensive and more similar to Oblivion. The multiplier added to training costs for expert and master trainers has also been removed.
-Carriage and room rental costs are more expensive than vanilla. Carriage prices in particular were far too inexpensive in the vanilla game. The cost to sail to Solstheim and back has also been increased.
-Woodcutting and mining jobs are less lucrative than vanilla and net a realistic wage.
Loot:
Spoiler:
-Daedric and dragon armor/weapons were absurdly rare in the vanilla game. Most people didn't even know you can find dragonbone and dragonscale armor in random loot at high levels because of its impossibly low spawn chance. This was likely in response to the criticisms Bethesda recieved for the highwaymen in daedric armor from Oblivion.
I've adjusted the spawn rates for daedric armor and weapons and dragon armor so that they are considerably more common, but still rare as Bethesda intended them to be, from 5% to 25%. (They still only spawn when you're high enough level.) On top of this, dragonbone weapons have been fully integrated into the base game, and can now be found in random loot like dragon armor.
-Lots of enchanted items in the vanilla game had incredibly short lived spawn chance opportunities since they were immediately replaced with better variants within a level or two. I've changed this behavior so that the lower level items aren't removed from loot pools, which increases overall loot diversity, and also makes finding better gear a bit harder.
-Black soul gems are no longer bizarrely common in random loot like vanilla, and will now be a rare commodity like they should.
-Citizens and merchants no longer carry lockpicks. Not only is this more immersive but it makes them harder to obtain without being overbearing. Khajiit caravans and Thieves Guild merchants still sell lockpicks.
-Animals and certain creatures no longer drop gold or precious gems on death. Enemies like dragon priests that dropped gold as an intended reward for beating them remain unchanged for balance.
-Forsworn now use a full newly created set their unique staves instead of generic staves.
-"Special" loot has been made more rare, to provide some scarcity for valuable loot drops.
-Dragons no longer drop as many bones or scales, making them feel more like a valuable resource, especially for endgame crafting.
-Firewood was too rare in vanilla and could almost never be found outside of chopping it yourself. It can now be purchased from general goods merchants.
-General merchants can also now sell more "junk" that was normally quite rare, for immersion's sake. They can also now sell more colored robe variants than vanilla.
-Blacksmiths now sell woodcutter's axes and blacksmithing tools like hammers, bellows, etc.
-The various useless empty pots found around Skyrim now have a chance of containing soups and stews, which is designed to mesh well with their increased usefulness with this mod. Go out and explore to find the best food!
-Butter and milk can now found where flour could be found in vanilla, so they're no longer bizarrely rare.
-Some coffins that were always empty in vanilla now have some fitting loot in them.
-Immersive loot has been added to burned and desiccated corpses, which were neglected in vanilla and usually just had some gold.
-Afflicted no longer carry obscene amounts of gold at high levels.
-The extremely limited pool of books that could spawn in knapsacks in vanilla has been diversified.
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-Daedric and dragon armor/weapons were absurdly rare in the vanilla game. Most people didn't even know you can find dragonbone and dragonscale armor in random loot at high levels because of its impossibly low spawn chance. This was likely in response to the criticisms Bethesda recieved for the highwaymen in daedric armor from Oblivion.
I've adjusted the spawn rates for daedric armor and weapons and dragon armor so that they are considerably more common, but still rare as Bethesda intended them to be, from 5% to 25%. (They still only spawn when you're high enough level.) On top of this, dragonbone weapons have been fully integrated into the base game, and can now be found in random loot like dragon armor.
-Lots of enchanted items in the vanilla game had incredibly short lived spawn chance opportunities since they were immediately replaced with better variants within a level or two. I've changed this behavior so that the lower level items aren't removed from loot pools, which increases overall loot diversity, and also makes finding better gear a bit harder.
-Black soul gems are no longer bizarrely common in random loot like vanilla, and will now be a rare commodity like they should.
-Citizens and merchants no longer carry lockpicks. Not only is this more immersive but it makes them harder to obtain without being overbearing. Khajiit caravans and Thieves Guild merchants still sell lockpicks.
-Animals and certain creatures no longer drop gold or precious gems on death. Enemies like dragon priests that dropped gold as an intended reward for beating them remain unchanged for balance.
-Forsworn now use a full newly created set their unique staves instead of generic staves.
-"Special" loot has been made more rare, to provide some scarcity for valuable loot drops.
-Dragons no longer drop as many bones or scales, making them feel more like a valuable resource, especially for endgame crafting.
-Firewood was too rare in vanilla and could almost never be found outside of chopping it yourself. It can now be purchased from general goods merchants.
-General merchants can also now sell more "junk" that was normally quite rare, for immersion's sake. They can also now sell more colored robe variants than vanilla.
-Blacksmiths now sell woodcutter's axes and blacksmithing tools like hammers, bellows, etc.
-The various useless empty pots found around Skyrim now have a chance of containing soups and stews, which is designed to mesh well with their increased usefulness with this mod. Go out and explore to find the best food!
-Butter and milk can now found where flour could be found in vanilla, so they're no longer bizarrely rare.
-Some coffins that were always empty in vanilla now have some fitting loot in them.
-Immersive loot has been added to burned and desiccated corpses, which were neglected in vanilla and usually just had some gold.
-Afflicted no longer carry obscene amounts of gold at high levels.
-The extremely limited pool of books that could spawn in knapsacks in vanilla has been diversified.
Crafting:
Spoiler:
-Useful recipes for items such as powdered mammoth tusk, bone meal, and honey have been added to grinding mills, and the dysfunctional static windmills placed at a few farms are now usable.
-Various tools can now be crafted (woodcutter's axe, tongs, saws, etc.) mostly for immersion's sake.
-Hearthfire brewing barrels have been minorly overhauled. Brewing barrels are now crafting stations that can be used to create homebrewed ale or mead, using wheat or honey respectively. Meshes well with the added grinding mill recipes, as honey can now be crafted at grinding mills with enough honeycombs.
-Soul gem fragments can now be used to make black soul gems at a staff enchanter.
-Some very small tweaks to a few smithing recipes. Leather armor now requires the steel smithing perk to craft, and arrows can now only be crafted in batches of 12 rather than 24.
-Imperial studded armor can now be crafted.
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-Useful recipes for items such as powdered mammoth tusk, bone meal, and honey have been added to grinding mills, and the dysfunctional static windmills placed at a few farms are now usable.
-Various tools can now be crafted (woodcutter's axe, tongs, saws, etc.) mostly for immersion's sake.
-Hearthfire brewing barrels have been minorly overhauled. Brewing barrels are now crafting stations that can be used to create homebrewed ale or mead, using wheat or honey respectively. Meshes well with the added grinding mill recipes, as honey can now be crafted at grinding mills with enough honeycombs.
-Soul gem fragments can now be used to make black soul gems at a staff enchanter.
-Some very small tweaks to a few smithing recipes. Leather armor now requires the steel smithing perk to craft, and arrows can now only be crafted in batches of 12 rather than 24.
-Imperial studded armor can now be crafted.
NPC and creature changes:
Spoiler:
-Animals and monsters no longer report crimes.
-Horses will now flee from combat, and player owned horses and pets are now protected.
-Wolves are now stronger (they are still some of the weakest enemies in the game) to make them feel more realistic, and pose an actual threat to a low level player if encountered in packs.
-Dwarven resistances now follow established lore (weak to frost, resistant to shock and fire.)
-The random wizard challenger now wears mage robes and actually looks like a wizard rather than a rogue bandit.
-Ralis Sedarys can now use resoration and destruction magic, since he had appropriate perks for it in vanilla but didn't know any spells.
-Bandits can now wear helmets.
-The Old Orc can now be found having defeated more types of opponents (rather than just sabre cats) and is always as strong as he could be in vanilla, rather than being leveled.
-The Thalmor found in Solstheim at the Abandoned Lodge now wear full leather with concealing hoods instead of the silly mix of leather and elven from vanilla, since they were disguising themselves as hunters to kidnap Baldor.
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-Animals and monsters no longer report crimes.
-Horses will now flee from combat, and player owned horses and pets are now protected.
-Wolves are now stronger (they are still some of the weakest enemies in the game) to make them feel more realistic, and pose an actual threat to a low level player if encountered in packs.
-Dwarven resistances now follow established lore (weak to frost, resistant to shock and fire.)
-The random wizard challenger now wears mage robes and actually looks like a wizard rather than a rogue bandit.
-Ralis Sedarys can now use resoration and destruction magic, since he had appropriate perks for it in vanilla but didn't know any spells.
-Bandits can now wear helmets.
-The Old Orc can now be found having defeated more types of opponents (rather than just sabre cats) and is always as strong as he could be in vanilla, rather than being leveled.
-The Thalmor found in Solstheim at the Abandoned Lodge now wear full leather with concealing hoods instead of the silly mix of leather and elven from vanilla, since they were disguising themselves as hunters to kidnap Baldor.
Shouts:
Spoiler:
-Shouts were unfortunately a pretty lackluster mechanic in vanilla, which sucks since they were a selling point of the game. Nearly all shouts have been reworked to feel more powerful and worthy of their legendary status, without going overboard. Extremely weak shouts have been buffed, shouts that were too strong have been toned down, with the goal of making all shouts viable for a diverse experience.
-Call of Valor has been overhauled, and now will cast one of the heroes at random when using all three words rather than each one being assigned to the different words of the shout. The heroes themselves have also been buffed so they aren't so weak, and have been give a larger palette of shouts to use.
-Marked for Death has been completely reworked, and now feels more like a shout that should actually be called "Marked for Death" and weakens enemies so they are easier to kill.
-Elemental fury now works on enchanted weapons.
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-Shouts were unfortunately a pretty lackluster mechanic in vanilla, which sucks since they were a selling point of the game. Nearly all shouts have been reworked to feel more powerful and worthy of their legendary status, without going overboard. Extremely weak shouts have been buffed, shouts that were too strong have been toned down, with the goal of making all shouts viable for a diverse experience.
-Call of Valor has been overhauled, and now will cast one of the heroes at random when using all three words rather than each one being assigned to the different words of the shout. The heroes themselves have also been buffed so they aren't so weak, and have been give a larger palette of shouts to use.
-Marked for Death has been completely reworked, and now feels more like a shout that should actually be called "Marked for Death" and weakens enemies so they are easier to kill.
-Elemental fury now works on enchanted weapons.
Quest and random encounter tweaks:
Spoiler:
-The way Dawnguard is started has been tweaked so that you must talk to Durak rather than hear the rumor from a guard. The vanilla/USSEP behavior made it almost impossible to encounter Durak.
Dawnguard also starts later than vanilla, at level 20 rather than level 10, and vampire attacks now have more time to initially play out than vanilla.
-The Dragonborn cultists will no longer accost you until you've completed the main quest. You can still travel to Solstheim and start Dragonborn yourself at any time before that if you desire.
-Hjerim can now be purchased after Blood on the Ice, rather than having to complete the Civil War, since Jorleif's dialogue implied you could buy it as soon as the murder mess was sorted out. Becoming thane is still tied to the Civil War.
-The scene that starts Missing in Action will now only play when you've completed Diplomatic Immunity, since at the party they mention the feud between the two clans and Thorald's imprisonment. This also seems like a more sensible prerequisite for a quest to storm a fort full of Thalmor soldiers, and fixes the inconsistency that the Thalmor allow you into the party in vanilla even if you've sacked their fort.
Speaking of Thalmor soldiers, new conditions have been applied to the random encounter where a Thalmor hitsquad is sent after the player. It will now only occur if you've completed Diplomatic Immunity, and attacks will cease if you're a member of the Imperial Legion.
And the cherry on top, General Tullius will now give the Imperial order to release Thorald if you're a Legate of the Imperial Legion, a feature of the quest that was cut by Bethesda.
-In my Time of Need can now be started after Before the Storm rather than Dragon Rising, which was an unnecessary stipulation.
-The thief random encounter no longer requires you be a member of the Thieves Guild to trigger.
-Dark Brotherhood assassins will no longer be sent after the player until you're at least level 20, and attacks will cease if the Dark Brotherhood has been wiped out.
-The random encounter where a farmer and his wife warn of dragon attacks will now only occur once Dragon Rising has been completed.
-Some unnecessary stipulations on conditions for certain NPCs to appear at the Thalmor Embassy during Diplomatic Immunity have been removed, so can encounter more guests during the quest.
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-The way Dawnguard is started has been tweaked so that you must talk to Durak rather than hear the rumor from a guard. The vanilla/USSEP behavior made it almost impossible to encounter Durak.
Dawnguard also starts later than vanilla, at level 20 rather than level 10, and vampire attacks now have more time to initially play out than vanilla.
-The Dragonborn cultists will no longer accost you until you've completed the main quest. You can still travel to Solstheim and start Dragonborn yourself at any time before that if you desire.
-Hjerim can now be purchased after Blood on the Ice, rather than having to complete the Civil War, since Jorleif's dialogue implied you could buy it as soon as the murder mess was sorted out. Becoming thane is still tied to the Civil War.
-The scene that starts Missing in Action will now only play when you've completed Diplomatic Immunity, since at the party they mention the feud between the two clans and Thorald's imprisonment. This also seems like a more sensible prerequisite for a quest to storm a fort full of Thalmor soldiers, and fixes the inconsistency that the Thalmor allow you into the party in vanilla even if you've sacked their fort.
Speaking of Thalmor soldiers, new conditions have been applied to the random encounter where a Thalmor hitsquad is sent after the player. It will now only occur if you've completed Diplomatic Immunity, and attacks will cease if you're a member of the Imperial Legion.
And the cherry on top, General Tullius will now give the Imperial order to release Thorald if you're a Legate of the Imperial Legion, a feature of the quest that was cut by Bethesda.
-In my Time of Need can now be started after Before the Storm rather than Dragon Rising, which was an unnecessary stipulation.
-The thief random encounter no longer requires you be a member of the Thieves Guild to trigger.
-Dark Brotherhood assassins will no longer be sent after the player until you're at least level 20, and attacks will cease if the Dark Brotherhood has been wiped out.
-The random encounter where a farmer and his wife warn of dragon attacks will now only occur once Dragon Rising has been completed.
-Some unnecessary stipulations on conditions for certain NPCs to appear at the Thalmor Embassy during Diplomatic Immunity have been removed, so can encounter more guests during the quest.
AI Tweaks:
Spoiler:
-AI settings have been edited to feel less... "Bethesda-ish" and more realistic. NPCs will not greet you nearly as often as vanilla, bumping into them will produce a reasonable, realistic reaction, NPCs are less likely to talk to someone they just had a conversation with, etc. Expect more realistic NPC behavior on a fundamental level.
-The ridiculous and buggy spinning death animation has been disabled.
-Followers can now sandbox like Serana while they're following you. (This is achieved through a dirt simple edit quest edit, so it should work with mod added followers and doesn't directly edit any NPCs.)
-Quest AI packages for certain NPCs have been altered so they move at a more appropriate pace. Erandur runs to Nightcaller Temple rather than walking, Gulum-Ei now moves with some bounce in his step while you shadow him, etc.
-You now have more time to kill Weylin when first entering Markarth. In vanilla unless you knew it was going to happen, you had no chance to stop him.
-Silver Hand no longer behave like generic bandits and will only attack you on sight if you're a member of the Companions. They will now warn you to back off if you come near their strongholds, and if you persist they'll still attack you.
-The random travelling adventurers that attack you on sight are now friendly and won't be hostile towards you. The rude ones that you could taunt into fighting you in vanilla are unchanged.
-Barmaids no longer run up to you as soon as you sit down in a tavern, and will instead walk at a reasonable pace like normal humans.
-Hert and Hern now sleep during the day and work at night, like vampires should.
-Illia now travels to Riften like she says after her related quest rather than hanging out at Darklight Tower forever.
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-AI settings have been edited to feel less... "Bethesda-ish" and more realistic. NPCs will not greet you nearly as often as vanilla, bumping into them will produce a reasonable, realistic reaction, NPCs are less likely to talk to someone they just had a conversation with, etc. Expect more realistic NPC behavior on a fundamental level.
-The ridiculous and buggy spinning death animation has been disabled.
-Followers can now sandbox like Serana while they're following you. (This is achieved through a dirt simple edit quest edit, so it should work with mod added followers and doesn't directly edit any NPCs.)
-Quest AI packages for certain NPCs have been altered so they move at a more appropriate pace. Erandur runs to Nightcaller Temple rather than walking, Gulum-Ei now moves with some bounce in his step while you shadow him, etc.
-You now have more time to kill Weylin when first entering Markarth. In vanilla unless you knew it was going to happen, you had no chance to stop him.
-Silver Hand no longer behave like generic bandits and will only attack you on sight if you're a member of the Companions. They will now warn you to back off if you come near their strongholds, and if you persist they'll still attack you.
-The random travelling adventurers that attack you on sight are now friendly and won't be hostile towards you. The rude ones that you could taunt into fighting you in vanilla are unchanged.
-Barmaids no longer run up to you as soon as you sit down in a tavern, and will instead walk at a reasonable pace like normal humans.
-Hert and Hern now sleep during the day and work at night, like vampires should.
-Illia now travels to Riften like she says after her related quest rather than hanging out at Darklight Tower forever.
Armor & Weapon Tweaks:
Spoiler:
-Any jewelry that was counted as light armor in vanilla has been converted into clothing, like the Amulet of Articulation.
-The Archmage's robes have been buffed so they're more viable compared to the various master robes, and the Archmage's boots have been given a unique unused enchantment rather than the lackluster shock resist enchantment from vanilla. A second pair of boots that matches the robes with another unused vanilla enchantment has also been added to the game.
In addition to these changes, the Archmage's robes and boots will now only spawn in the Arch-Mage's quarters when the player more or less becomes Arch-Mage.
-Morag Tong Armor now has a unique set of enchantments, similar to the shrouded set.
-A few underwhelming enchanted items like the Saarthal Amulet have been buffed slightly so they're more viable.
-Auriel's Bow's base damage has been increased to 20, which is the same as a dragonbone bow. It was pitifully weak in vanilla for being a mythical artifact.
-Nakhriin's unique dragon priest staff is pretty lame in vanilla. It's not a bad staff, but it's the exact same as Hevnoraak's staff and just sprays some lightning on the ground. Now it summons a spectral dragon priest to fight for you.
The missing ice wall dragon priest staff has also been created and given to Volsung, who is the only mainland priest in vanilla that didn't use a staff.
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-Any jewelry that was counted as light armor in vanilla has been converted into clothing, like the Amulet of Articulation.
-The Archmage's robes have been buffed so they're more viable compared to the various master robes, and the Archmage's boots have been given a unique unused enchantment rather than the lackluster shock resist enchantment from vanilla. A second pair of boots that matches the robes with another unused vanilla enchantment has also been added to the game.
In addition to these changes, the Archmage's robes and boots will now only spawn in the Arch-Mage's quarters when the player more or less becomes Arch-Mage.
-Morag Tong Armor now has a unique set of enchantments, similar to the shrouded set.
-A few underwhelming enchanted items like the Saarthal Amulet have been buffed slightly so they're more viable.
-Auriel's Bow's base damage has been increased to 20, which is the same as a dragonbone bow. It was pitifully weak in vanilla for being a mythical artifact.
-Nakhriin's unique dragon priest staff is pretty lame in vanilla. It's not a bad staff, but it's the exact same as Hevnoraak's staff and just sprays some lightning on the ground. Now it summons a spectral dragon priest to fight for you.
The missing ice wall dragon priest staff has also been created and given to Volsung, who is the only mainland priest in vanilla that didn't use a staff.
Item tweaks:
Spoiler:
-Skooma has been altered to provide positive and negative effects and feel more like an actual drug, and also provides a short drugged visual effect like Sleeping Tree Sap.
-Weights for leather and firewood have been tweaked so they aren't as unrealistically heavy.
-Guard shields are now light armor.
-Troll skulls are now worth considerably more gold.
-Harvesting Frostbite Spider Venom is now a skillbook.
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-Skooma has been altered to provide positive and negative effects and feel more like an actual drug, and also provides a short drugged visual effect like Sleeping Tree Sap.
-Weights for leather and firewood have been tweaked so they aren't as unrealistically heavy.
-Guard shields are now light armor.
-Troll skulls are now worth considerably more gold.
-Harvesting Frostbite Spider Venom is now a skillbook.
Misc. tweaks:
Spoiler:
-Some DLC content has been subtlety integrated into the base game. I made sure to keep it simple and only incorporate things that didn't detract from Bethesda's intended game balance.
-The interior of Mehrunes Dagon's shrine is no longer quest locked and can be broken into before the related quest if you so choose, sealed behind a master lock.
-Dragonbone boots now use skeleton footstep sounds.
-You can no longer pillage the contents of the caravan you're supposed to be sending back to your faction during Compelling Tribute.
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-Some DLC content has been subtlety integrated into the base game. I made sure to keep it simple and only incorporate things that didn't detract from Bethesda's intended game balance.
-The interior of Mehrunes Dagon's shrine is no longer quest locked and can be broken into before the related quest if you so choose, sealed behind a master lock.
-Dragonbone boots now use skeleton footstep sounds.
-You can no longer pillage the contents of the caravan you're supposed to be sending back to your faction during Compelling Tribute.
There are a few other things included in the mod not really worth mentioning, but the bulk of the features are listed on this page.
Combat changes have been intentionally excluded, so you can use a combat mod of your choice alongside this mod, I recommend Smilodon. (Load this mod after Smilodon if you use it.)
Compatibility with other mods should be mostly fine, although this mod does touch quite a lot of records. Aside from the changes in the ESP I've only made 1 tiny edit to a quest fragment script, so the mod is very lightweight. Appropriate Bash Tags have been applied to the plugin if you use a Bashed Patch. I've made clever use of record injecting to ensure this mod is full integrated and compatible with Misc Bugfix Compilation and Misc Cut Content Restoration, although they aren't required.
This mod should be safe to install mid-game, although a new game is recommended for the full experience. Uninstallation should also be safe since none of the changes made bake into your save, although it's not recommended.
An addon is available that affects various CC content, which carries over changes the main plugin makes to CC content, and makes the following changes:
Spoiler:
-Various CC content has been subtly integrated into the base game, similar to the way I integrated certain DLC content into the base game.
-Various CC content has been rebalanced and/or reintegrated so it's less overpowered and more in line with the balance of the rest of the game. (Designed to be used alongside Creation Club Adjustments Rebalancing and Variants, just load my mod after.)
-Immersive logical requirements have been added to start certain CC quests, like Sunder and Wraithguard and the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal.
-Disabled the cheat chest in Hob's Fall Cave from the spell tomes pack Creation.
-Adjusted some dialogue conditions so that dialogue about certain armor sets affects CC armors.
-Beldama witches now wear forsworn armor, like they do in ESO.
-Set CC wild horses to protected instead of essential.
-Other misc. tweaks.
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-Various CC content has been subtly integrated into the base game, similar to the way I integrated certain DLC content into the base game.
-Various CC content has been rebalanced and/or reintegrated so it's less overpowered and more in line with the balance of the rest of the game. (Designed to be used alongside Creation Club Adjustments Rebalancing and Variants, just load my mod after.)
-Immersive logical requirements have been added to start certain CC quests, like Sunder and Wraithguard and the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal.
-Disabled the cheat chest in Hob's Fall Cave from the spell tomes pack Creation.
-Adjusted some dialogue conditions so that dialogue about certain armor sets affects CC armors.
-Beldama witches now wear forsworn armor, like they do in ESO.
-Set CC wild horses to protected instead of essential.
-Other misc. tweaks.
Requires USSEP.
Note: this mod contains several intentional ITM records. Do not clean the plugin.
Credits:
PushTheWinButton for his mod Elegy, which was my inspiration to make my own overhaul for Skyrim. Many elements of this mod mirror Elegy. He has made some incredible mods for other Bethesda games too.
Bethesda for making some timeless masterpieces that have unabashedly become a part of my being. Older Bethesda titles were very influential in my design philosophy for this mod, and all of these games have provided me with second lives to experience when I've needed them the most. Skyrim in particular is more than just a game to me, and releasing this project along with my other mods was my way of trying to give back to the game and the community that has kept it alive all these years.
To close out, I just wanted to say that this mod is my love letter to Skyrim. I've spent the last 5 months meticulously tweaking and compiling various smaller plugins I had made into this mod, fine tuning everything and ensuring it's of only the highest quality. Years of experience playing and modding the game, picking it apart from the inside out and learning as much as I could about it have culminated into this mod and my other large projects. I'm quite proud of the result and I hope you enjoy it too. This mod is my unofficial update for Skyrim; it's a true labor of love and I hope it makes playing the game as fun for you as it has for me.
Thanks, and take care.
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