For some realizing this mod a lot harder than vanilla Skyrim, I will try to explain how to view the mod without giving anything away, but will help the players who are getting frustrated.
Think of vanilla Skyrim as a fantasy movie with some monsters. Think of this mod as a horror movie with some fantasy elements. In vanilla Skyrim you are the bad ass. In this mod, the NPCs are the bad asses. However you still can do things they can't. Consider this:
Whatever perks they have, they will never get more, no matter how much they level. Same with spells or any other items.
The player will get more spells, more perks, be able to craft to upgrade their gear. Players can also hide and sneak around. Players will also gain followers whom they can upgrade also. The player CAN be badass, even more so than in vanilla Skyrim, but you got to be patient and figure out how to win. Use the environment to your advantage. If you get one shot by some NPC, then the NPC is much stronger than you, and learn to run and avoid it till you are stronger. If you think you will just be able to destroy everything as you see and think this is just another creature mod, then you are mistaken.
Also since the NPC are no longer capped, and the leveled lists are deleveled, with custom NPCs and revamped vanilla NPCs added to vanilla lists and new custom lists created, you will have no idea how strong the NPC will be as you face them.
Read the description first. This mod will make your game WAY harder but in a good way. Also understand that this mod changes LOTS of stuff, so you should think of it as an overhaul rather than just a difficulty mod. Unless you have experience using Xedit to resolve conflicts and make changes/decisions, you should use this as a base to build a game around.
For the author: You must have spent a TON of time on this. Thanks for all your effort. Very thoughtful and unique changes. It will be a permanent part of my load order. However, I did alter/remove a number of things via my Xedit compatibility patch (it's working fine), and I had a question:
Edited out a bunch of stuff I originally posted...
Replying to my own post because the original was getting too long.
SOooooOOoooo...
After playtesting this a LOT, I have to say that it caused my game to become very unstable. It adds a HUGE number of NPCs to the game, with some being hand placed and some being via leveled lists. If you already have mods that add NPCs, this might be a problem for you. The custom enemies are super fun to fight and, in some cases, extremely powerful.
Ultimately, I had to give it up because of stability issues. Even after removing a lot of the NPCs, my FPS was garbage, and the game would freeze after running around for a while.
You might not have this issue, so don't let this post discourage you. Try the mod out, and see if you like it. In the end, it wasn't for me, but it has a lot of really cool features.
You need a fresh save. There probably was a mod conflict. Even if you play the game after you uninstalled those conflicting mods, the data is still thee causing corruptions. It is the only fix for this..
I added a bunch of npcs to avoid needing other mods.
Yo descargué este mod con la opción Manual y lo instalé en Vortex. Entro en Skyrim, cargo mi última partida y no pasa nada. No veo ningún efecto en el juego de lo que aquí se muestra, solo cambia la música. ¿Que pudo suceder?
Just wanted to say I'm playtesting this mod, and so far it's been really good. There have been some minor quest-related NPC deaths, but nothing game-breaking. It's cool that it's ruthless, and excellent to include lighting tweaks and new music, thanks for this (I hope the music doesn't trigger copyright strikes, since I'll probably make a youtube series out of this).
I'm combining this mod with Shadow of Skyrim and some Simonrim mods, besides Immersive Needs, Diseased, Frostbite, Camping Lite and Hunting in Skyrim, to add further depth to the gameplay.
I'm still level 2, basically trying to level up while consistently running away from bandit raids to stay alive :D
One thing I noticed is that the followers from this mod are knocked down when you go through a door.
How can I change the knockdown parameters so my followers won't remain lying on the ground forever? I can't talk to them while they're like this, so I can't dismiss them to try and reset them. I could try 'recycleactor', but I'm trying to avoid console commands. Their status should clear when the battle is over, but that's not happening, I go into an inn and there they are lying on the ground. This mod has so much potential, I especially like how it doesn't seem possible to predict what you'll find on your way, raiders, overpowered creatures, something completely unknown? But if there's no way to mitigate or prevent perma-knockdowns for me and my party, then it's not possible to approach it in a full playthrough.
Just wanted to say, what amazing choice of music for this mod! I'm keeping with it, NPC knockdowns fade away with either time or teleportation. So far I'm really enjoying it, super dangerous though, would be extremely hard to do it solo. But you have put followers and gear in the game that can actually mitigate the difficulty. Also, I downloaded that optional patch, it helped quite alot in making this mod playable. In terms of visuals, I'm bypassing the ENB effect for using this mod and loading NAT (not the ENB but the weather mod) before Shadow of Oblivion so the game gives me the weathers this mod intended to give. Still, with the additional weathers NAT gives, I find it to be balanced and varied, instead of almost always foggy (I like foggy but prefer things more varied). Anyway, thanks! Endorsement was already put in, otherwise I'd do it again for the music alone :)
As far as perma knockdown, that is a glitch. I have no idea why it does it. I did not add it for sure. Next update I will take away knockdown to slash attacks, and keep them on jump and blunt attacks, since I do enjoy the knockdowns, but will also make it more realistic.
The patch you have for less knockdowns works well, the game is less impossible with it :D I did have to take several mods out of the low spec modlist I made, and this one was one of the cut content unfortunately, but I'll get back to it on another list, since it covers alot in one mod only, and the music selection is top notch. I do feel it benefits alot with Shadow of Skyrim, it really makes the gameplay completely different! I did have to tak Shadow of Skyrim out as well though, too much going on for a modlist that already had a very heavy mod Maids II Deception (I hadn't played it before so it took precedence because of being a huge voice questline). Keep up the great work!
This mod has hundreds of features not mentioned in the description that were inspired by many other mods that I used and tweaked for this one. Such as hit accuracy, cooldown on attacks for NPCs, NPC vision cone and many others. You would actually have to examine the mod itsellf in CK to see tham all. It not just an overhaul, but was designed to not have to deal with me installing many different mods at once
I'm now building a modded skyrim SE around this mod. It really is too underrated to bypass. I made a mod that replaces vanilla hair, brows, eyes and headmesh, specifically to enhance your female followers' looks without having to make visual replacers. Might share on the Nexus after some more testing and adding a couple more features. I'm using NAT Standalone mod and an ENB with your mod, everything seems to be working properly, might have to experiment with turning off weathers and lighting from NAT, but it has some features that I find essential.
i'm trying out your mod and so far its very interesting and fun. In regards to the dark nights, are the "night eye" powers still supposed to work? I have tried using the vampire sight as well, but it just makes the sky more bright, I don't use any ENB or lighting mods. Don't know if its intentional or if there is any lighting/ENB you recommend to use with this mod. I also have never tried playing skyrim with darker nights or dungeons, usually stayed away from them so not familiar how to deal with it.
I just installed this mod to try it out. I love adding the horror element to Skyrim gameplay. I Deactivated all but a handful of mods to maximize compatibility.
I started near Riverwood. Every time I get close to that town, a black-red sun pops up over the mountains and everything turns red. It's as if my character put on red sunglasses. Buildings, people, chickens, the landscape, all of it. Is that intentional or did I screw up somewhere? I didn't see anything in the description about everything outside being red during the day.
I removed my ENB, just to be sure it wasn't a weird conflict there. Obviously I'm not running any lighting or ENB related mods. No change.
I've googled for any references to this mod making everything red, but didn't find anything.
Do you guys have any suggestions?
I've enclosed my load order below, since it's short.
Skyrim.esm Update.esm Dawnguard.esm HearthFires.esm Dragonborn.esm Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp Legendary Elder Scrolls Loading Screen.esl SkyUI_SE.esp SMIM-SE-Merged-All.esp The Horror Over Skyrim - Shadow of Oblivion.esp Dark_Forests.esp RaceMenu.esp RaceMenuPlugin.esp KaliliesBrows.esp SVBeardsSE.esp KS Hairdo's.esp art_StarsightEyes.esp Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp Alternate Start -- New Beginnings.esp Alternate Start - Dragonborn.esp
I like the idea behind this mod, I am a lover of difficulty and this mod really makes you afraid but everything has to be regulated. How am I supposed to get through 3 fù@k#°g level 53 vampire monsters blocking my passage in a corridor in Bleak Fellow Barrow? It's the first quest of the game, and they're in the only corridor you have to go through! In addition they are living glitches, they pass through walls and floors at 100 Km/h to the point that they can't even hit me since they are so glitchy. Then they come off the map and fall into infinity but they don't die and I keep hearing that absurd and noisy thunder they make. In addition, some enemies are invisible (not for a spell) but because they are gliching and you can only see the sword they are holding. Anyway I like the mod but level 60 vampires every 5 meters are out of the question. One was waiting for me outside helgen and bleak fellow barrow is infested with it to the point of having to postpone it at least to level 30. At level 30 !!! The first mission of the game. F"@k off! Remove this weirdo vampires. How did it come to your mind that such a thing is a good idea?
There's vampire lords everywhere near the main start, and they all do knockdown damage, which means you, not only die extremely quick on the easiest difficulty, but you also have no chance of fighting back the moment you get knocked down.
Bandits can, and will insta kill you with a single unarmed punch
There's bandits everywhere
Wolves are harder to kill than bandits for some reason
As far as I've seen there's not much "horror" in the mod besides a few new soundtracks, dungeons and nights being slightly darker, and OP enemies every where with little to no real way to level up or get stronger because everything kills you almost instantly which means you have to run from everything.
The concept of the mod itself is good, and the mod was fun to play for a short time, but this isn't what I would consider "horror"
Getting killed by a single punch from an unarmed bandit. Hmm. Sounds like either you were either low level or the bandit it was much higher than your character. Unarmed damage can be increased with armor which applies to NPC also. This mod tries to give as many of the advantages the player has in vanilla to the NPCs.
Leveling up is easy in the game, including this mod. If you are unable to adapt, that is your problem. Sounds like you want to play the game as vanilla Skyrim, even though I said in the description NOT to do that, and you did it anyway. It depends how you play.
This mod is not about things getting gradually harder being offset get more powerful causing causing no actual increase of challenge. The point of this mod is UNCERTAINTY. You cannot assume things are going to start off easy. You could face a level 100 boss that you wandered in front of being level 1. The mob lists are random and hard bosses guard the most important stuff for the dragonborn. This game is not about handing you anything which seems you want an easy run through.
Let's put it this way. Your idea of fun is not mine.
As far as this being a horror mod, everyone has their preferences. I have mine. I made it based on my tastes. If you don't like it, then oh well. Make your own mod and see if you can do better. I tried the highest endorsed horror mods. They didn't do it for me. So I made my own.
I really love this mod, leaving a huge endorsement. I enjoy playing this mod on skyrim VR. Provides a ruthless challenge that forces you to pay attention to your surroundings instead of running in headlong into battle without a second thought. Danger lurks around every corner and thats fantastic, Great job.
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Think of vanilla Skyrim as a fantasy movie with some monsters. Think of this mod as a horror movie with some fantasy elements. In vanilla Skyrim you are the bad ass. In this mod, the NPCs are the bad asses. However you still can do things they can't. Consider this:
Whatever perks they have, they will never get more, no matter how much they level. Same with spells or any other items.
The player will get more spells, more perks, be able to craft to upgrade their gear. Players can also hide and sneak around. Players will also gain followers whom they can upgrade also. The player CAN be badass, even more so than in vanilla Skyrim, but you got to be patient and figure out how to win. Use the environment to your advantage. If you get one shot by some NPC, then the NPC is much stronger than you, and learn to run and avoid it till you are stronger. If you think you will just be able to destroy everything as you see and think this is just another creature mod, then you are mistaken.
Also since the NPC are no longer capped, and the leveled lists are deleveled, with custom NPCs and revamped vanilla NPCs added to vanilla lists and new custom lists created, you will have no idea how strong the NPC will be as you face them.
If you like the mod, please endorse.
Read the description first. This mod will make your game WAY harder but in a good way. Also understand that this mod changes LOTS of stuff, so you should think of it as an overhaul rather than just a difficulty mod. Unless you have experience using Xedit to resolve conflicts and make changes/decisions, you should use this as a base to build a game around.
For the author: You must have spent a TON of time on this. Thanks for all your effort. Very thoughtful and unique changes. It will be a permanent part of my load order. However, I did alter/remove a number of things via my Xedit compatibility patch (it's working fine), and I had a question:
Edited out a bunch of stuff I originally posted...
SOooooOOoooo...
After playtesting this a LOT, I have to say that it caused my game to become very unstable. It adds a HUGE number of NPCs to the game, with some being hand placed and some being via leveled lists. If you already have mods that add NPCs, this might be a problem for you. The custom enemies are super fun to fight and, in some cases, extremely powerful.
Ultimately, I had to give it up because of stability issues. Even after removing a lot of the NPCs, my FPS was garbage, and the game would freeze after running around for a while.
You might not have this issue, so don't let this post discourage you. Try the mod out, and see if you like it. In the end, it wasn't for me, but it has a lot of really cool features.
I added a bunch of npcs to avoid needing other mods.
conflicto mod muy probablemente
I'm combining this mod with Shadow of Skyrim and some Simonrim mods, besides Immersive Needs, Diseased, Frostbite, Camping Lite and Hunting in Skyrim, to add further depth to the gameplay.
I'm still level 2, basically trying to level up while consistently running away from bandit raids to stay alive :D
One thing I noticed is that the followers from this mod are knocked down when you go through a door.
This mod has so much potential, I especially like how it doesn't seem possible to predict what you'll find on your way, raiders, overpowered creatures, something completely unknown? But if there's no way to mitigate or prevent perma-knockdowns for me and my party, then it's not possible to approach it in a full playthrough.
I'm keeping with it, NPC knockdowns fade away with either time or teleportation.
So far I'm really enjoying it, super dangerous though, would be extremely hard to do it solo. But you have put followers and gear in the game that can actually mitigate the difficulty.
Also, I downloaded that optional patch, it helped quite alot in making this mod playable.
In terms of visuals, I'm bypassing the ENB effect for using this mod and loading NAT (not the ENB but the weather mod) before Shadow of Oblivion so the game gives me the weathers this mod intended to give. Still, with the additional weathers NAT gives, I find it to be balanced and varied, instead of almost always foggy (I like foggy but prefer things more varied).
Anyway, thanks! Endorsement was already put in, otherwise I'd do it again for the music alone :)
I did have to take several mods out of the low spec modlist I made, and this one was one of the cut content unfortunately, but I'll get back to it on another list, since it covers alot in one mod only, and the music selection is top notch.
I do feel it benefits alot with Shadow of Skyrim, it really makes the gameplay completely different! I did have to tak Shadow of Skyrim out as well though, too much going on for a modlist that already had a very heavy mod Maids II Deception (I hadn't played it before so it took precedence because of being a huge voice questline).
Keep up the great work!
i'm trying out your mod and so far its very interesting and fun. In regards to the dark nights, are the "night eye" powers still supposed to work? I have tried using the vampire sight as well, but it just makes the sky more bright, I don't use any ENB
or lighting mods. Don't know if its intentional or if there is any lighting/ENB you recommend to use with this mod. I also have never tried playing skyrim with darker nights or dungeons, usually stayed away from them so not familiar how to deal with it.
Thank you.
This mod for life thanks again
I started near Riverwood. Every time I get close to that town, a black-red sun pops up over the mountains and everything turns red. It's as if my character put on red sunglasses. Buildings, people, chickens, the landscape, all of it. Is that intentional or did I screw up somewhere? I didn't see anything in the description about everything outside being red during the day.
I removed my ENB, just to be sure it wasn't a weird conflict there. Obviously I'm not running any lighting or ENB related mods. No change.
I've googled for any references to this mod making everything red, but didn't find anything.
Do you guys have any suggestions?
I've enclosed my load order below, since it's short.
Skyrim.esm
Update.esm
Dawnguard.esm
HearthFires.esm
Dragonborn.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp
Legendary Elder Scrolls Loading Screen.esl
SkyUI_SE.esp
SMIM-SE-Merged-All.esp
The Horror Over Skyrim - Shadow of Oblivion.esp
Dark_Forests.esp
RaceMenu.esp
RaceMenuPlugin.esp
KaliliesBrows.esp
SVBeardsSE.esp
KS Hairdo's.esp
art_StarsightEyes.esp
Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
Alternate Start -- New Beginnings.esp
Alternate Start - Dragonborn.esp
I will continue to venture forth :)
There's vampire lords everywhere near the main start, and they all do knockdown damage, which means you, not only die extremely quick on the easiest difficulty, but you also have no chance of fighting back the moment you get knocked down.
Bandits can, and will insta kill you with a single unarmed punch
There's bandits everywhere
Wolves are harder to kill than bandits for some reason
As far as I've seen there's not much "horror" in the mod besides a few new soundtracks, dungeons and nights being slightly darker, and OP enemies every where with little to no real way to level up or get stronger because everything kills you almost instantly which means you have to run from everything.
The concept of the mod itself is good, and the mod was fun to play for a short time, but this isn't what I would consider "horror"
Leveling up is easy in the game, including this mod. If you are unable to adapt, that is your problem. Sounds like you want to play the game as vanilla Skyrim, even though I said in the description NOT to do that, and you did it anyway. It depends how you play.
This mod is not about things getting gradually harder being offset get more powerful causing causing no actual increase of challenge. The point of this mod is UNCERTAINTY. You cannot assume things are going to start off easy. You could face a level 100 boss that you wandered in front of being level 1. The mob lists are random and hard bosses guard the most important stuff for the dragonborn. This game is not about handing you anything which seems you want an easy run through.
Let's put it this way. Your idea of fun is not mine.
As far as this being a horror mod, everyone has their preferences. I have mine. I made it based on my tastes. If you don't like it, then oh well. Make your own mod and see if you can do better. I tried the highest endorsed horror mods. They didn't do it for me. So I made my own.