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About this mod
The biggest and most comprehensive gameplay overhaul for Skyrim! This overhaul will completely transform Skyrim into a more immersive, challenging and fun experience.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Welcome to join us at discord: https://discord.gg/WSVqBrCpEC
I also have a facebook page where i post about significant progress on the mod: https://www.facebook.com/gaming/simtar123/
The Great Immersion Overhaul (TGIO) is a big gameplay overhaul that aims to make your skyrim experience more interesting, exciting, immersive, challenging, realistic and lore friendly, and balanced. I have done tons and tons of carefully thought out, really well balanced and really well tested changes to very many different ereas of the gameplay in order to create a level of depth and detail that has not been experienced before.
Note that this is meant as a all in one mod, and is not compatible with other large gameplay overhauls and other gameplay changing mods, for the simple reason that they try to do the same thing, and therefore conflict. That means that the Creation clubs "survival mode" will not work. However i have added sleep mechanics and you will very often want to have food on you anyway. Also i think Frostfall should work fine. Also note that this mod requires a new start in order for all the systems to work properly.
(Description for the new optional file) This is a rework of the old version of the mod and is still a work in progress, and so far this has been completed and added:
Thank you for playing/testing my mod and please feel free to give feedback and ask questions. I will try to answer as best i can. This mod is only one ESP that needs to be on the bottom of the load order. No addons needed. If you make a video or stream this mod, let me know! :D
Next update: 15th of may 2020! (I think/hope)
Old version (From 2018)
What is TGIO?
The Great Immersion Overhaul is a massive gameplay overhaul. This overhaul sets out to change every single part of Skyrim to be, more immersive, more realistic, more challenging and much better balanced. I have been working on this mod since April 2016 and my goal is for it to be the most comprehensive and detailed gameplay overhaul for Skyrim.
This is still a work in progress so it will continue to be improved and fleshed out as time goes on.
You can follow me on Facebook or Twitter to follow the progress of the mod.
I also have a YouTube channel where I post videos related to the making of this mod.
First, a short version of what it does, then the long version with all the interesting details and how everything works.
-The Great Immersion Overhaul
- A deadly, intense and fast paced combat system with a reworked stamina system, a reworked health system, the ability to evade attacks and an injury system. Combat will require skill and timing to master.
- A completely redone economy system with realistic prices that makes gold very important, as well as a new selling to buying ratio that makes the economy more dynamic and interesting.
- Disabled fast travel, so you will now need to spend money on a horse or a carriage to get around faster.
- A completely reworked and expanded crafting system that is more realistic. You will now need to buy a blacksmiths hammer to smith metal and you can now actually make gold off the things you craft.
- New racial stats, abilities and powers that are 100% lore friendly and makes each race stand out, and feel unique.
- Realistic carry weight, that makes actually makes sense. This will incentivize you to only carry around what you need.
- Loot has been redone and is now much more rare. This encourages you to look for the most valuable items to pick up, rather than mindlessly picking up everything.
- A new reworked stealth system, with smarter enemy AI. NPC`s will now search for you a lot longer and they will search over a much larger area making stealth challenging and fun.
- New and reworked perk trees that adds several levels of depth and enables you to properly shape and flesh out your character.
- Tons and tons of smaller changes that improves overall immersion, balance and realism.
Now that we got the short version out of the way, here is the long version that will tell you EVERYTHING this mod does and how it works:
-Difficulty
The different difficulties has been changed to create a more balanced and fair combat experience.
Note that this overhaul is designed to be played on legendary difficulty. This offers the most intense combat experience, however the other difficulties will work 100% fine and it is of course up to each player to decide what to choose, but i wanted to inform you that difficulty works very differently than in the vanilla game and determines how intense the combat experience is.
(Damage done to player x Damage done to NPCs)
Legendary: 2 x 2 (Very challenging)
Master: 1.8 x 2 (Challenging)
Expert: 1.5 x 2 (Normal)
Adept: 1 x 2 (Easy)
Apprentice: 0.5 x 2 (Very Easy)
Novice: 0.1 x 2 (Almost no challenge)
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to difficulty:
In the vanilla game the player would deal less and less damage the higher the difficulty. This is what I would call an illusion of difficulty or fake difficulty. It seems like the enemies have more health, but in reality they don’t, it is just the player that does less damage. This never made any sense to me, so I made the player always do the same amount of damage. Now, only damage done to the player by the enemy will change when you change the difficulty. The result is that the difficulty feels much more fair, balanced and more consistent.
-Combat
Combat has been completely overhauled in order to create a deadly, intense, fast-paced experience that requires skill, and timing.
Weapons
Weapons are now much more dangerous and deadly. Each weapons damage has been changed mathematically and systematically, whilst each weapons speed has been changed individually and tweaked to perfection in order for each weapon to make sense according to its size, material and overall design.
Armors
Armors now protect a lot more and are now very important to survive a fight. Every single armor´s armor rating has been changed mathematically and systematically. This results in armor that makes sense according to its size, material and design.
Light armor offers mobility and speed, over protection.
Heavy armor offers protection over mobility and speed; however, it also drains stamina slowly over time when you run in it.
Evading
Movement is now a very important part of any fight. This is mainly because you can no longer turn around mid-swing, and neither can NPCs. This completely changes how combat works. You can now actually evade incoming strikes simply by moving either backwards, sideways, or sometimes even forwards past your opponent. This creates a new layer of involvement and skill and makes combat balanced, challenging, intense and fun.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to combat:
I know that Skyrim´s vanilla combat is always criticized for being slow, boring and overall bad, but sometime in 2016, I removed all mods and tried it again and I thought this has a lot of unused potential. And so I started making this overhaul. This overhaul started out as a combat overhaul, and evolved from there, but the foundation of this mod is the combat system as it is such a huge part of Skyrim´s core gameplay. I spent a lot of time doing “research” on how much damage medieval weapons actually could inflict and how effective armors actually were back then, and then I tried to replicate this in the game. I did not care if it was 100% realistic, but I wanted to recreate the premise of real medieval combat which is that skills and technique usually wins, and that a small mistake could cost you an arm and leg (literally). This would work out great in terms of gameplay because it kept the stakes very high for every single encounter, making the world feel more dangerous. It also meant that the player’s skills would be a determining factor in every fight, making the player feel much more involved and engaged.
-Health
Health has been overhauled completely. Health will now regenerate extremely slowly. It will take about 4 days to go from 0 health to 100 health if you just wait for it to heal back up. Health potions will now heal you slowly over time and cannot be spammed. Cooked meat will also heal you slowly over time. Leveling up and sleeping will still instantly heal you to full health though. (Note that the values for the healing might look very high (example: 20000% faster) but the effect is still very slow because of the very slow base regeneration)
Injury system
I have also added a very simple injury system.
The lower your health is, the slower you move. This is to simulate injury and limping.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to health:
I always disliked how fast health regenerated in the vanilla game. You could always just wait for a short while after a fight and you would be back to full health. I felt like this removed any form of challenge and immersion. However, now it is very important to always carry healing potions or food, especially if you are heading towards a fight. Also, because you can no longer spam healing potions in the middle of combat, it means you have to use your healing items wisely. It makes combat feel much more dangerous and deadly as you have no “free get away card” to fall back on, only your skills.
-Stamina
Stamina has also been overhauled completely, and it is now a very important part of the game. If you run completely out of stamina, you will slow down to walking speed for 1-2 seconds. This simulates the effect of being completely exhausted, and having to slow down and catch your breath. Stamina regenerates slower now; however, both sprinting and power attacks will require less stamina. You will now spend a bit of stamina on normal or light attacks. For one-handed weapons, this is a relatively small amount of stamina. For two-handed weapons, this effect is more noticeable because the weapon is heavier. Holding an arrow drawn when using a bow will also drain stamina. However, leveling up certain skills, and getting certain perks will reduce the amount of stamina you will have to spend on these attacks.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to stamina:
I wanted stamina to be more of an important factor, especially in combat situations. Therefore, I added consequences to spending all of your stamina. It will now be important to keep an eye on how much stamina you have. The stamina drain for normal attacks adds a level of immersion and realism. Swinging a weapon will cause fatigue over time in real life so it makes sense that it does that in the game as well. One thing you will notice if you get very tired in real life is that it is you slow down. This is true for almost all types of fatigue but it is especially noticeable when you are in a combat situation, where moving quickly is essential both for offence and defense.
-Magicka
Magicka will now regenerate much slower. This is done to make magic more interesting and balanced. This will mean that magic is a limited weapon or aid and you have to spend your magicka wisely. This applies to NPCs as well. Starting spells (Healing and Flame) have been removed from all races, and only some magically gifted races start out with spells. Note that these are the only changes made to magic. All spells and enchantments will be overhauled and balance better in the future, but that has not been done yet.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to magicka:
Magic is much more powerful in this mod, for several reasons. For example, the increased damage multiplier applies to combat spells as well, and it makes them much more deadly. In addition, healing spells will become much more useful because of the limited healing potions that only work over time. This is why it needed to be limited in order to be balanced.
-Carrying Capacity
Carrying capacity has been reduced to 100 for every race. In order for this to be fair, I have also adjusted the weight of every single item in the game to have realistic weight, based on its material and size. It is now much more realistic and balanced. You can use a backpack mod with this, but if you go beyond 50 extra carry weight, you are sort of cheating. This makes picking out the valuable loot a much more important and keeps you from mindlessly picking up everything. You now also only gain 1.5 extra carry capacity when you level up and choose stamina.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to carrying capacity:
The end goal of these changes is to make carrying capacity more realistic and make more sense. I wanted looting to be more involved and interesting than just picking up everything mindlessly. So now, the player has to consider if an item is worth picking up and carrying around. Also it makes sense that your strength increases slowly and so the carrying capacity per level up will increase more slowly.
-Perks
Two thirds of all the perks have been reworked. Certain perk trees have been given minor changes whilst others have been completely overhauled. The goal has been to give the perk trees a lot more depth and make them more immersive and interesting. Sometimes that meant removing certain perks that didn’t make sense, sometimes it meant editing already existing perks in order to improve them, and sometimes it meant adding completely new perks that allow for new and interesting ways to play.
The perk trees have also been given a much more interesting look that actually matches the constellations in the background. All of this means that perks are more interesting, immersive, balanced and believable. Here are the perk trees that have been changed so far, you can click them to get all the details of the perks in that perk tree.
Combat perks
Smithing (Renamed to Crafting)
Heavy armor
Block
Two handed
One handed
Marksman (Renamed to Archery)
Stealth Perks
Light armor
Sneaking
Lockpicking
Pickpocket
Speech
Alchemy
Because magic has not been touched yet, the magic perks have not been touched either. Note that all races start out with the first perk in heavy and light armor already unlocked by default. This is done to make armor deflect damage properly.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to perks:
I wanted perk trees to be a natural extension of the base skill where you gradually master different abilities over time. I wanted these abilities to be immersive and make sense. This meant that they should always relate directly to the skill they represented. The depth of certain perks gives the player a sense of investment into certain perks, and allows for specialization within certain areas of the game. This helps define your character as well as create loads of meaningful options to choose from.
-Enemies
Enemies have received a lot of changes in order to make them much more interesting, immersive, challenging, lore friendly and balanced.
Improved Combat AI
All humanoid NPCs will now fight much smarter. This includes Argonians and Khajiits. I have improved the combat AI for all humanoid NPC. This means that they will be more aggressive, attacking more relentlessly, as well as use more power attacks. This also means that they will be better defensively. Essentially this means that they will be much better at blocking attacks. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly this means that they will seize opportunities in combat much better and much faster. If the player starts a power attack they will often use a bash, disrupting the players attack completely and then counter with their own attack. If the player is overly defensive, they will often use a power attack to break the block then follow up with a few strikes. This makes combat much more intense and interesting.
NPC Behavior
I have edited a few other things about enemies behavior in order to make them more fair and interesting to fight. I have disabled NPCs ability to auto dodge attacks. This often lead to NPC robotically dodging arrows they had no chance to see, breaking immersion, and causing frustration. Enemy archers will now behave more naturally. They are now less accurate and will miss a shot every now and then. Another huge improvement is that all NPC archers will now spend the arrows they have in their inventory and they can now run out of arrows. This creates a new level of realism and immersion
Animal behavior
I have also changed animals and beasts behavior to bemore natural and realistic. Small animals such as mudcrabs and skeevers will now be passive or flee from the player. (Note that the Venomfang skeevers are still
aggressive and have a nasty bite.) Midsized animals and beasts like wolves and bears will no longer attack on sight, but rather guard their territory. If you get too close, they will try to rip you apart. However, large beasts such as sabre cats will still attack on sight.
Dragons
Dragons are now the epic bosses they were always supposed to be. This means that dragons are very dangerous and very hard to kill. These changes aims to make them more true to the lore,and create much more intense, frightening and memorable fights, without making them frustrating or boring.
Stats
Both the health, damage, and level of most enemies in the game has been adjusted. The aim of these changes has been to create enemies that are lore friendly, deadly and believable and encounters that are more interesting, fun and challenging.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to enemies:
Enemies are an integral part of Skyrim. Therefore, I wanted each enemy to be more fun, dangerous and lore friendly. Almost all enemies are now challenging to fight in one way or another. This is what makes the world feel dangerous, untamed and wild. Certain enemies are best to avoid until you are properly prepared to fight them.
-Loot
Loot has been overhauled in order to be much more immersive and balanced. What you find in containers and on NPCs will now make a lot more sense. Valuable items will be much more rare to find whilst common items will be easy to find.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to loot:
The loot in Skyrim has a huge impact on how the overall challenge of the game. If you get the best gear at the start of the game, the rest of the game becomes significantly easier and far less interesting. Therefore, I wanted the loot to be portioned out better, giving the game a more natural progression.
-Economy
The entire economy has been completely redone. Gold is now a very important part of the game. Almost every single item in the game has received new prices that makes sense according to their material, size and lore. Almost all assets and services now has a more realistic cost. Vendors will now have an appropriate amount of gold according to their trade, status and location. All of these changes will make the economy more dynamic and interesting.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to economy:
I never liked the vanilla economy and wanted to improve it and give it more depth. Making gold more important has been one of the main goals of the changes. Because of the higher prices, you will earn gold faster, but this also means that things you buy are much more expensive. This is what makes the economy balanced and fair.
-Crafting
Crafting has been completely reworked. Every single craftable item in the game has been redone in order to make more sense. This means that the “recipe” for any given item is based on the vanilla game`s model as well as any lore given about that item. This means that every single craftable item will require materials that makes sense. I have also created recipes for very many vanilla items that were previously not craftable. This expands the list of craftable items significantly and makes crafting fun and interesting. Certain special items will now require certain levels or even certain quests to be done in order to craft them. It’s important to know that you will need tools to craft certain items. If the item is made of metal, you will need a blacksmiths hammer. If you are going to smelt any ores, you will need a shovel. This adds a new level of immersion to crafting. General vendors all over Skyrim will sell these tools. (Work in progress, for now they are only buyable in Whiterun and Riverwood)
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to crafting:
The main goal of these changes is to create a much more immersive and involved crafting system. I wanted the player to feel more involved in the role as a blacksmith. The new crafting system is also the base for the new economy system, as the value for almost every single item is directly tied to the cost of making that item. It’s a bit of a complicated system but it works wonderfully and it binds the crafting and the economy together. The result is firstly realistic prices, but it also means that you can make a small profit from working as a blacksmith.
-Stealth
The entire stealth system has been redone in order for it to be more fun, balanced and believable.
Sight
NPC`s sight has been improved and they can now spot you over longer distances, so staying out of sight is now really important. However they will usually need to get closer in order to fully detect you.
Sounds
NPCs hearing is now much more realistic. Your movement speed and the weight of you equipped items will determine how loud you are when moving. If you sneak slowly in light clothing you will be very quiet, whilst if you sneak quickly in heavy armor, you will be very loud. NPCs will become alerted if they hear sounds but as long as they do not see the player, they will need some time in order to locate where it comes from.
Search AI
NPC`s Search AI has been greatly improved. If they are alerted, they will search for much longer, more thoroughly, and over a much larger area. If you shoot them with an arrow or a spell, they will not stop searching until they find you.
Skill
Your sneak skill now has a much bigger impact on how easy or difficult you are to detect. This has been carefully balanced though, and NPCs are still not completely blind and deaf at level 100, they just have a harder time hearing and seeing you.
Sleep
Sleeping NPCs are deep asleep and will only wake up if you get very close. Being a stealthy character will require skill and a bit of strategic planning, and patience.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to stealth:
I wanted a realistic stealth system that made sense and put emphasis on the player’s actions. By that, I mean stuff
like finding a good spot to hide, learning the routines of NPCs to sneak past them or launch a successful sneak attack etc. Also a bit of a fun fact: Skyrim´s stealth system is one of the game’s most powerful, deep and versatile systems. It is however very poorly utilized in vanilla Skyrim.
-Alchemy
Alchemy has been completely overhauled in order to be more interesting and immersive. An ingredient´s effectiveness is now directly tied to how rare that ingredient is. This means that ingredients that are very rare or hard to find will create more effective potions and posions.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to alchemy:
Rare ingredients will now actually havean inherent value as highly effective alchemy components. This makes alchemy much more interesting and dynamic. Each ingredient has four effects and I have used a mathematical formula to make sure that every effect on every single ingredient has the exact right values and numbers.
-Lockpicking
Lockpicking has been overhauled. Locks will now present a bit more of a challenge and now it actually might be worth investing into the lockpicking perk tree.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to lockpicking:
These changes makes lockpicking a bit more of achallenge, however I have tried to reduce the frustration factor by increasing both the lockpicks health as well as the “tolerance zone” where the lockpick will turn a bit but not fully. So you will now have more room for error on easier locks. I also wanted lockpicking to have more of a progression as a skill, and this makes sure that you are rewarded for leveling up and choosing perks in the lockpicking perk tree.
-Pickpocketing
Pickpocketing has been overhauled. Essentially, I have adjusted the likelihood of failure and success in order for it to make more sense. Valuable items will be hard to steal, whilst cheap items will be easy to take.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to pickpocketing:
These changes simply ensure that pickpocketing works as intended, and makes sense. It is a very simplistic system that relies on chance so there isn’t much I can do to help make it more interesting or fun.
-Races
Every single playable race is now more unique and more lore friendly. Their stats and abilities are now mainly based on the lore that is written about them. I also changed all skills to start at level 1 instead of 15. Here are all of the races stats, powers and abilities. (Link)
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to the races:
In the vanilla game most of the races felt the same.There were no real reasons for trying to play as different races. However in the lore they are described as quite unique and different. I have tried to stick to the lore without making any one race much better than all the others. Now each race feels a bit more unique and they now play a bit differently depending on the race. This helps roleplaying and immersion, and is more fun.
-World
The world respawns if you leave the cell for 2 days (This includes cities) Vendors stock and gold respawns every 7 days. Caves and dungeons marked as “Cleared” will now only respawn of you leave the cell for 4 in game weeks, making them great places to stash your loot safely before you buy a house.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to the world:
The world respawning every 2 days makes sense. For example, if a dead bandit laying around, the body would either be eaten by wild animals or cleaned up and removed by people within those two days. Also, I feel like it makes a lot of sense for vendors to restock once every week. It seems like an appropriate time for the vendor to sell his stock, earn more money and then having to restock. Lastly, it makes sense that a cleared cave would stay cleared for quite a while. And the added incentive of clearing a cave to use it as a home base is a fun addition.
-Movement speed
Players and NPC´s movement speed is now more realistic. Walking speed has been increased a bit whilst running speed has been slowed down a bit, making it a lot more realistic. NPC`s movement speed will now match the players speed.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to movement speed:
Walking around was excessively slow in the vanilla game so I adjusted it to a more natural pace, whilst running was a tad too quick so I reduced it to a more natural jog. These changes makes movement feels more natural, smooth and fluid.
-Crime
Crime is now much more expensive to pay off if you get caught, so it’s now more important to not get caught.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to crime:
Crimes should bepunished harshly in a medieval setting, even a fantasy one. Now they will be. It’s a incentive for a criminal character to not get caught and it adds a feeling of risk to crime.
-Vampirism
Sanguine vampirism has been redone. Note that does not mean the vampire lord vampirism. This is just the base game vampirism. Vampirism is now more lore friendly. It is now both a powerful blessing and a terrible curse at the same time. Vampires now regenerate health, stamina and magic much faster than mortals during the night or if indoors. Vampires will also have more health than mortals, and they will not suffer the effect of injuries nor exhaustion. The vampire drain life ability has been made more effective and costs less magicka. If vampires are exposed to the sun, vampires suffer from severely reduced health, stamina and magica. They can no longer regenerate health nor stamina at all, and the player vampire will suffer from speed reduction due to the burning sun.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to vampirism:
In the lore, the vampires are the most powerful undead in Tamriel. I wanted to make the player feel much more powerful as a vampire. But they are also very susceptible to the sun and suffer greatly if exposed to sunlight (there are exceptions but for the most part) So I also wanted the player to feel the curse of being a vampire. Being forced to stay in the dark away
from the sun.
-Standing stones
All standing stones have been redone in order to be more balanced. They are now usually small buffs that give a small advantage.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to standing stones:
I reduced the power of the standing stones a bit for balancing reasons. They should give you a certain advantage as they are mysterious magical stones, but if you could simply choose a standing stone to make the game much easier, they would be unbalanced.
-Loading screens
I have replaced the most boring and immersive breaking vanilla loading screens with immersive, interesting and epic quotes from in game books.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to loading screens:
The old loading screens were very immersive breaking with boring game tips that you already knew 5 years ago and took you out of the experience. Now they are much more immersive and interesting.
-3 important things to know about this mod!
You will need to start a 100% new character in order for the mod to work properly.
All five ESP files named "TGIO" needs to be on the BOTTOM of the load order with the one called "The Great Immersion Overhaul" on the bottom for the mod to work as intended.
The DLCs have not been done yet. The DLCs will still work just fine, but the stats for DLC stuff will still be vanilla.
-Compatibility
Here is the my personal mod list!
Is TGIO compatible with X mod?
General guidelines:
- If it is another overhaul like requiem, SkyrimRedone, or Ordinator then NO (Because they are both huge overhauls and will conflict)
- If its a combat mod, then NO (because TGIO has its own combat overhaul built in and other combat mods will conflict)
- If it changes gameplay in any way, then NO (because TGIO changes so many things about gameplay it will conflict BUT there are some exeptions!
- If it adds new armors, weapons or items, then YES and NO (The added items will most likely not have the right stats for this mod, but it will work just fine. (Note that many weapon and armor mods will be made compatible in time, but for now that hasn’t been done)
- If it changes the stats of any item in any way, then NO (because TGIO changes the all the stats of every item in the game)
- If it changes the races or race hights or stats in any way, then NO (Because TGIO changes all of the races already and some of the core mechanics of the mod lie within those changes)
- If it changes enemies in any way, then NO (Because TGIO changes all enemies so they will conflict)
- If it only touches killmoves, the YES (Highly recommended to disable enemy killmoves)
- If it changes followers or any unique NPCS, then YES (No unique NPCs have been touched)
- If it only changes animation then YES (No animations touched)
- If it changes any landscape or cities or houses, then YES (Almost no places have been touched)
- If its a visual or graphics mod, then YES (nothing about the visual has been touched)
- If its a audio mod, then YES (nothing about the audio has been touched)
I really hope you will enjoy this mod, and if you do please remember to leave an endorsement as I have put a lot of effort into it, and more endorsements means that more people get to know about it and get to experience it!
Also feel free to leave your thoughts about the mod in the comments. I read everything, and use your feedback to improve the mod. So all feedback is very helpful and appreciated.
-Credits
Thanks to Bethesda for making an awesome game!
Thanks to 1Rich1 for permission to use his wonderful drawings!
Thanks to Mandragorasprouts for converting the SE files to form 44 =)
Thanks to the nexsus and skyrim community for being supportive helpful and awesome! =D
I also have a facebook page where i post about significant progress on the mod: https://www.facebook.com/gaming/simtar123/
The Great Immersion Overhaul (TGIO) is a big gameplay overhaul that aims to make your skyrim experience more interesting, exciting, immersive, challenging, realistic and lore friendly, and balanced. I have done tons and tons of carefully thought out, really well balanced and really well tested changes to very many different ereas of the gameplay in order to create a level of depth and detail that has not been experienced before.
Note that this is meant as a all in one mod, and is not compatible with other large gameplay overhauls and other gameplay changing mods, for the simple reason that they try to do the same thing, and therefore conflict. That means that the Creation clubs "survival mode" will not work. However i have added sleep mechanics and you will very often want to have food on you anyway. Also i think Frostfall should work fine. Also note that this mod requires a new start in order for all the systems to work properly.
(Description for the new optional file) This is a rework of the old version of the mod and is still a work in progress, and so far this has been completed and added:
Thank you for playing/testing my mod and please feel free to give feedback and ask questions. I will try to answer as best i can. This mod is only one ESP that needs to be on the bottom of the load order. No addons needed. If you make a video or stream this mod, let me know! :D
Next update: 15th of may 2020! (I think/hope)
Old version (From 2018)
What is TGIO?
The Great Immersion Overhaul is a massive gameplay overhaul. This overhaul sets out to change every single part of Skyrim to be, more immersive, more realistic, more challenging and much better balanced. I have been working on this mod since April 2016 and my goal is for it to be the most comprehensive and detailed gameplay overhaul for Skyrim.
This is still a work in progress so it will continue to be improved and fleshed out as time goes on.
You can follow me on Facebook or Twitter to follow the progress of the mod.
I also have a YouTube channel where I post videos related to the making of this mod.
First, a short version of what it does, then the long version with all the interesting details and how everything works.
-The Great Immersion Overhaul
- A deadly, intense and fast paced combat system with a reworked stamina system, a reworked health system, the ability to evade attacks and an injury system. Combat will require skill and timing to master.
- A completely redone economy system with realistic prices that makes gold very important, as well as a new selling to buying ratio that makes the economy more dynamic and interesting.
- Disabled fast travel, so you will now need to spend money on a horse or a carriage to get around faster.
- A completely reworked and expanded crafting system that is more realistic. You will now need to buy a blacksmiths hammer to smith metal and you can now actually make gold off the things you craft.
- New racial stats, abilities and powers that are 100% lore friendly and makes each race stand out, and feel unique.
- Realistic carry weight, that makes actually makes sense. This will incentivize you to only carry around what you need.
- Loot has been redone and is now much more rare. This encourages you to look for the most valuable items to pick up, rather than mindlessly picking up everything.
- A new reworked stealth system, with smarter enemy AI. NPC`s will now search for you a lot longer and they will search over a much larger area making stealth challenging and fun.
- New and reworked perk trees that adds several levels of depth and enables you to properly shape and flesh out your character.
- Tons and tons of smaller changes that improves overall immersion, balance and realism.
Now that we got the short version out of the way, here is the long version that will tell you EVERYTHING this mod does and how it works:
-Difficulty
The different difficulties has been changed to create a more balanced and fair combat experience.
Note that this overhaul is designed to be played on legendary difficulty. This offers the most intense combat experience, however the other difficulties will work 100% fine and it is of course up to each player to decide what to choose, but i wanted to inform you that difficulty works very differently than in the vanilla game and determines how intense the combat experience is.
(Damage done to player x Damage done to NPCs)
Legendary: 2 x 2 (Very challenging)
Master: 1.8 x 2 (Challenging)
Expert: 1.5 x 2 (Normal)
Adept: 1 x 2 (Easy)
Apprentice: 0.5 x 2 (Very Easy)
Novice: 0.1 x 2 (Almost no challenge)
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to difficulty:
In the vanilla game the player would deal less and less damage the higher the difficulty. This is what I would call an illusion of difficulty or fake difficulty. It seems like the enemies have more health, but in reality they don’t, it is just the player that does less damage. This never made any sense to me, so I made the player always do the same amount of damage. Now, only damage done to the player by the enemy will change when you change the difficulty. The result is that the difficulty feels much more fair, balanced and more consistent.
-Combat
Combat has been completely overhauled in order to create a deadly, intense, fast-paced experience that requires skill, and timing.
Weapons
Weapons are now much more dangerous and deadly. Each weapons damage has been changed mathematically and systematically, whilst each weapons speed has been changed individually and tweaked to perfection in order for each weapon to make sense according to its size, material and overall design.
Armors
Armors now protect a lot more and are now very important to survive a fight. Every single armor´s armor rating has been changed mathematically and systematically. This results in armor that makes sense according to its size, material and design.
Light armor offers mobility and speed, over protection.
Heavy armor offers protection over mobility and speed; however, it also drains stamina slowly over time when you run in it.
Evading
Movement is now a very important part of any fight. This is mainly because you can no longer turn around mid-swing, and neither can NPCs. This completely changes how combat works. You can now actually evade incoming strikes simply by moving either backwards, sideways, or sometimes even forwards past your opponent. This creates a new layer of involvement and skill and makes combat balanced, challenging, intense and fun.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to combat:
I know that Skyrim´s vanilla combat is always criticized for being slow, boring and overall bad, but sometime in 2016, I removed all mods and tried it again and I thought this has a lot of unused potential. And so I started making this overhaul. This overhaul started out as a combat overhaul, and evolved from there, but the foundation of this mod is the combat system as it is such a huge part of Skyrim´s core gameplay. I spent a lot of time doing “research” on how much damage medieval weapons actually could inflict and how effective armors actually were back then, and then I tried to replicate this in the game. I did not care if it was 100% realistic, but I wanted to recreate the premise of real medieval combat which is that skills and technique usually wins, and that a small mistake could cost you an arm and leg (literally). This would work out great in terms of gameplay because it kept the stakes very high for every single encounter, making the world feel more dangerous. It also meant that the player’s skills would be a determining factor in every fight, making the player feel much more involved and engaged.
-Health
Health has been overhauled completely. Health will now regenerate extremely slowly. It will take about 4 days to go from 0 health to 100 health if you just wait for it to heal back up. Health potions will now heal you slowly over time and cannot be spammed. Cooked meat will also heal you slowly over time. Leveling up and sleeping will still instantly heal you to full health though. (Note that the values for the healing might look very high (example: 20000% faster) but the effect is still very slow because of the very slow base regeneration)
Injury system
I have also added a very simple injury system.
The lower your health is, the slower you move. This is to simulate injury and limping.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to health:
I always disliked how fast health regenerated in the vanilla game. You could always just wait for a short while after a fight and you would be back to full health. I felt like this removed any form of challenge and immersion. However, now it is very important to always carry healing potions or food, especially if you are heading towards a fight. Also, because you can no longer spam healing potions in the middle of combat, it means you have to use your healing items wisely. It makes combat feel much more dangerous and deadly as you have no “free get away card” to fall back on, only your skills.
-Stamina
Stamina has also been overhauled completely, and it is now a very important part of the game. If you run completely out of stamina, you will slow down to walking speed for 1-2 seconds. This simulates the effect of being completely exhausted, and having to slow down and catch your breath. Stamina regenerates slower now; however, both sprinting and power attacks will require less stamina. You will now spend a bit of stamina on normal or light attacks. For one-handed weapons, this is a relatively small amount of stamina. For two-handed weapons, this effect is more noticeable because the weapon is heavier. Holding an arrow drawn when using a bow will also drain stamina. However, leveling up certain skills, and getting certain perks will reduce the amount of stamina you will have to spend on these attacks.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to stamina:
I wanted stamina to be more of an important factor, especially in combat situations. Therefore, I added consequences to spending all of your stamina. It will now be important to keep an eye on how much stamina you have. The stamina drain for normal attacks adds a level of immersion and realism. Swinging a weapon will cause fatigue over time in real life so it makes sense that it does that in the game as well. One thing you will notice if you get very tired in real life is that it is you slow down. This is true for almost all types of fatigue but it is especially noticeable when you are in a combat situation, where moving quickly is essential both for offence and defense.
-Magicka
Magicka will now regenerate much slower. This is done to make magic more interesting and balanced. This will mean that magic is a limited weapon or aid and you have to spend your magicka wisely. This applies to NPCs as well. Starting spells (Healing and Flame) have been removed from all races, and only some magically gifted races start out with spells. Note that these are the only changes made to magic. All spells and enchantments will be overhauled and balance better in the future, but that has not been done yet.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to magicka:
Magic is much more powerful in this mod, for several reasons. For example, the increased damage multiplier applies to combat spells as well, and it makes them much more deadly. In addition, healing spells will become much more useful because of the limited healing potions that only work over time. This is why it needed to be limited in order to be balanced.
-Carrying Capacity
Carrying capacity has been reduced to 100 for every race. In order for this to be fair, I have also adjusted the weight of every single item in the game to have realistic weight, based on its material and size. It is now much more realistic and balanced. You can use a backpack mod with this, but if you go beyond 50 extra carry weight, you are sort of cheating. This makes picking out the valuable loot a much more important and keeps you from mindlessly picking up everything. You now also only gain 1.5 extra carry capacity when you level up and choose stamina.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to carrying capacity:
The end goal of these changes is to make carrying capacity more realistic and make more sense. I wanted looting to be more involved and interesting than just picking up everything mindlessly. So now, the player has to consider if an item is worth picking up and carrying around. Also it makes sense that your strength increases slowly and so the carrying capacity per level up will increase more slowly.
-Perks
Two thirds of all the perks have been reworked. Certain perk trees have been given minor changes whilst others have been completely overhauled. The goal has been to give the perk trees a lot more depth and make them more immersive and interesting. Sometimes that meant removing certain perks that didn’t make sense, sometimes it meant editing already existing perks in order to improve them, and sometimes it meant adding completely new perks that allow for new and interesting ways to play.
The perk trees have also been given a much more interesting look that actually matches the constellations in the background. All of this means that perks are more interesting, immersive, balanced and believable. Here are the perk trees that have been changed so far, you can click them to get all the details of the perks in that perk tree.
Combat perks
Smithing (Renamed to Crafting)
Heavy armor
Block
Two handed
One handed
Marksman (Renamed to Archery)
Stealth Perks
Light armor
Sneaking
Lockpicking
Pickpocket
Speech
Alchemy
Because magic has not been touched yet, the magic perks have not been touched either. Note that all races start out with the first perk in heavy and light armor already unlocked by default. This is done to make armor deflect damage properly.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to perks:
I wanted perk trees to be a natural extension of the base skill where you gradually master different abilities over time. I wanted these abilities to be immersive and make sense. This meant that they should always relate directly to the skill they represented. The depth of certain perks gives the player a sense of investment into certain perks, and allows for specialization within certain areas of the game. This helps define your character as well as create loads of meaningful options to choose from.
-Enemies
Enemies have received a lot of changes in order to make them much more interesting, immersive, challenging, lore friendly and balanced.
Improved Combat AI
All humanoid NPCs will now fight much smarter. This includes Argonians and Khajiits. I have improved the combat AI for all humanoid NPC. This means that they will be more aggressive, attacking more relentlessly, as well as use more power attacks. This also means that they will be better defensively. Essentially this means that they will be much better at blocking attacks. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly this means that they will seize opportunities in combat much better and much faster. If the player starts a power attack they will often use a bash, disrupting the players attack completely and then counter with their own attack. If the player is overly defensive, they will often use a power attack to break the block then follow up with a few strikes. This makes combat much more intense and interesting.
NPC Behavior
I have edited a few other things about enemies behavior in order to make them more fair and interesting to fight. I have disabled NPCs ability to auto dodge attacks. This often lead to NPC robotically dodging arrows they had no chance to see, breaking immersion, and causing frustration. Enemy archers will now behave more naturally. They are now less accurate and will miss a shot every now and then. Another huge improvement is that all NPC archers will now spend the arrows they have in their inventory and they can now run out of arrows. This creates a new level of realism and immersion
Animal behavior
I have also changed animals and beasts behavior to bemore natural and realistic. Small animals such as mudcrabs and skeevers will now be passive or flee from the player. (Note that the Venomfang skeevers are still
aggressive and have a nasty bite.) Midsized animals and beasts like wolves and bears will no longer attack on sight, but rather guard their territory. If you get too close, they will try to rip you apart. However, large beasts such as sabre cats will still attack on sight.
Dragons
Dragons are now the epic bosses they were always supposed to be. This means that dragons are very dangerous and very hard to kill. These changes aims to make them more true to the lore,and create much more intense, frightening and memorable fights, without making them frustrating or boring.
Stats
Both the health, damage, and level of most enemies in the game has been adjusted. The aim of these changes has been to create enemies that are lore friendly, deadly and believable and encounters that are more interesting, fun and challenging.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to enemies:
Enemies are an integral part of Skyrim. Therefore, I wanted each enemy to be more fun, dangerous and lore friendly. Almost all enemies are now challenging to fight in one way or another. This is what makes the world feel dangerous, untamed and wild. Certain enemies are best to avoid until you are properly prepared to fight them.
-Loot
Loot has been overhauled in order to be much more immersive and balanced. What you find in containers and on NPCs will now make a lot more sense. Valuable items will be much more rare to find whilst common items will be easy to find.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to loot:
The loot in Skyrim has a huge impact on how the overall challenge of the game. If you get the best gear at the start of the game, the rest of the game becomes significantly easier and far less interesting. Therefore, I wanted the loot to be portioned out better, giving the game a more natural progression.
-Economy
The entire economy has been completely redone. Gold is now a very important part of the game. Almost every single item in the game has received new prices that makes sense according to their material, size and lore. Almost all assets and services now has a more realistic cost. Vendors will now have an appropriate amount of gold according to their trade, status and location. All of these changes will make the economy more dynamic and interesting.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to economy:
I never liked the vanilla economy and wanted to improve it and give it more depth. Making gold more important has been one of the main goals of the changes. Because of the higher prices, you will earn gold faster, but this also means that things you buy are much more expensive. This is what makes the economy balanced and fair.
-Crafting
Crafting has been completely reworked. Every single craftable item in the game has been redone in order to make more sense. This means that the “recipe” for any given item is based on the vanilla game`s model as well as any lore given about that item. This means that every single craftable item will require materials that makes sense. I have also created recipes for very many vanilla items that were previously not craftable. This expands the list of craftable items significantly and makes crafting fun and interesting. Certain special items will now require certain levels or even certain quests to be done in order to craft them. It’s important to know that you will need tools to craft certain items. If the item is made of metal, you will need a blacksmiths hammer. If you are going to smelt any ores, you will need a shovel. This adds a new level of immersion to crafting. General vendors all over Skyrim will sell these tools. (Work in progress, for now they are only buyable in Whiterun and Riverwood)
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to crafting:
The main goal of these changes is to create a much more immersive and involved crafting system. I wanted the player to feel more involved in the role as a blacksmith. The new crafting system is also the base for the new economy system, as the value for almost every single item is directly tied to the cost of making that item. It’s a bit of a complicated system but it works wonderfully and it binds the crafting and the economy together. The result is firstly realistic prices, but it also means that you can make a small profit from working as a blacksmith.
-Stealth
The entire stealth system has been redone in order for it to be more fun, balanced and believable.
Sight
NPC`s sight has been improved and they can now spot you over longer distances, so staying out of sight is now really important. However they will usually need to get closer in order to fully detect you.
Sounds
NPCs hearing is now much more realistic. Your movement speed and the weight of you equipped items will determine how loud you are when moving. If you sneak slowly in light clothing you will be very quiet, whilst if you sneak quickly in heavy armor, you will be very loud. NPCs will become alerted if they hear sounds but as long as they do not see the player, they will need some time in order to locate where it comes from.
Search AI
NPC`s Search AI has been greatly improved. If they are alerted, they will search for much longer, more thoroughly, and over a much larger area. If you shoot them with an arrow or a spell, they will not stop searching until they find you.
Skill
Your sneak skill now has a much bigger impact on how easy or difficult you are to detect. This has been carefully balanced though, and NPCs are still not completely blind and deaf at level 100, they just have a harder time hearing and seeing you.
Sleep
Sleeping NPCs are deep asleep and will only wake up if you get very close. Being a stealthy character will require skill and a bit of strategic planning, and patience.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to stealth:
I wanted a realistic stealth system that made sense and put emphasis on the player’s actions. By that, I mean stuff
like finding a good spot to hide, learning the routines of NPCs to sneak past them or launch a successful sneak attack etc. Also a bit of a fun fact: Skyrim´s stealth system is one of the game’s most powerful, deep and versatile systems. It is however very poorly utilized in vanilla Skyrim.
-Alchemy
Alchemy has been completely overhauled in order to be more interesting and immersive. An ingredient´s effectiveness is now directly tied to how rare that ingredient is. This means that ingredients that are very rare or hard to find will create more effective potions and posions.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to alchemy:
Rare ingredients will now actually havean inherent value as highly effective alchemy components. This makes alchemy much more interesting and dynamic. Each ingredient has four effects and I have used a mathematical formula to make sure that every effect on every single ingredient has the exact right values and numbers.
-Lockpicking
Lockpicking has been overhauled. Locks will now present a bit more of a challenge and now it actually might be worth investing into the lockpicking perk tree.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to lockpicking:
These changes makes lockpicking a bit more of achallenge, however I have tried to reduce the frustration factor by increasing both the lockpicks health as well as the “tolerance zone” where the lockpick will turn a bit but not fully. So you will now have more room for error on easier locks. I also wanted lockpicking to have more of a progression as a skill, and this makes sure that you are rewarded for leveling up and choosing perks in the lockpicking perk tree.
-Pickpocketing
Pickpocketing has been overhauled. Essentially, I have adjusted the likelihood of failure and success in order for it to make more sense. Valuable items will be hard to steal, whilst cheap items will be easy to take.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to pickpocketing:
These changes simply ensure that pickpocketing works as intended, and makes sense. It is a very simplistic system that relies on chance so there isn’t much I can do to help make it more interesting or fun.
-Races
Every single playable race is now more unique and more lore friendly. Their stats and abilities are now mainly based on the lore that is written about them. I also changed all skills to start at level 1 instead of 15. Here are all of the races stats, powers and abilities. (Link)
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to the races:
In the vanilla game most of the races felt the same.There were no real reasons for trying to play as different races. However in the lore they are described as quite unique and different. I have tried to stick to the lore without making any one race much better than all the others. Now each race feels a bit more unique and they now play a bit differently depending on the race. This helps roleplaying and immersion, and is more fun.
-World
The world respawns if you leave the cell for 2 days (This includes cities) Vendors stock and gold respawns every 7 days. Caves and dungeons marked as “Cleared” will now only respawn of you leave the cell for 4 in game weeks, making them great places to stash your loot safely before you buy a house.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to the world:
The world respawning every 2 days makes sense. For example, if a dead bandit laying around, the body would either be eaten by wild animals or cleaned up and removed by people within those two days. Also, I feel like it makes a lot of sense for vendors to restock once every week. It seems like an appropriate time for the vendor to sell his stock, earn more money and then having to restock. Lastly, it makes sense that a cleared cave would stay cleared for quite a while. And the added incentive of clearing a cave to use it as a home base is a fun addition.
-Movement speed
Players and NPC´s movement speed is now more realistic. Walking speed has been increased a bit whilst running speed has been slowed down a bit, making it a lot more realistic. NPC`s movement speed will now match the players speed.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to movement speed:
Walking around was excessively slow in the vanilla game so I adjusted it to a more natural pace, whilst running was a tad too quick so I reduced it to a more natural jog. These changes makes movement feels more natural, smooth and fluid.
-Crime
Crime is now much more expensive to pay off if you get caught, so it’s now more important to not get caught.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to crime:
Crimes should bepunished harshly in a medieval setting, even a fantasy one. Now they will be. It’s a incentive for a criminal character to not get caught and it adds a feeling of risk to crime.
-Vampirism
Sanguine vampirism has been redone. Note that does not mean the vampire lord vampirism. This is just the base game vampirism. Vampirism is now more lore friendly. It is now both a powerful blessing and a terrible curse at the same time. Vampires now regenerate health, stamina and magic much faster than mortals during the night or if indoors. Vampires will also have more health than mortals, and they will not suffer the effect of injuries nor exhaustion. The vampire drain life ability has been made more effective and costs less magicka. If vampires are exposed to the sun, vampires suffer from severely reduced health, stamina and magica. They can no longer regenerate health nor stamina at all, and the player vampire will suffer from speed reduction due to the burning sun.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to vampirism:
In the lore, the vampires are the most powerful undead in Tamriel. I wanted to make the player feel much more powerful as a vampire. But they are also very susceptible to the sun and suffer greatly if exposed to sunlight (there are exceptions but for the most part) So I also wanted the player to feel the curse of being a vampire. Being forced to stay in the dark away
from the sun.
-Standing stones
All standing stones have been redone in order to be more balanced. They are now usually small buffs that give a small advantage.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to standing stones:
I reduced the power of the standing stones a bit for balancing reasons. They should give you a certain advantage as they are mysterious magical stones, but if you could simply choose a standing stone to make the game much easier, they would be unbalanced.
-Loading screens
I have replaced the most boring and immersive breaking vanilla loading screens with immersive, interesting and epic quotes from in game books.
Mod authors thoughts behind the changes made to loading screens:
The old loading screens were very immersive breaking with boring game tips that you already knew 5 years ago and took you out of the experience. Now they are much more immersive and interesting.
-3 important things to know about this mod!
You will need to start a 100% new character in order for the mod to work properly.
All five ESP files named "TGIO" needs to be on the BOTTOM of the load order with the one called "The Great Immersion Overhaul" on the bottom for the mod to work as intended.
The DLCs have not been done yet. The DLCs will still work just fine, but the stats for DLC stuff will still be vanilla.
-Compatibility
Here is the my personal mod list!
Is TGIO compatible with X mod?
General guidelines:
- If it is another overhaul like requiem, SkyrimRedone, or Ordinator then NO (Because they are both huge overhauls and will conflict)
- If its a combat mod, then NO (because TGIO has its own combat overhaul built in and other combat mods will conflict)
- If it changes gameplay in any way, then NO (because TGIO changes so many things about gameplay it will conflict BUT there are some exeptions!
- If it adds new armors, weapons or items, then YES and NO (The added items will most likely not have the right stats for this mod, but it will work just fine. (Note that many weapon and armor mods will be made compatible in time, but for now that hasn’t been done)
- If it changes the stats of any item in any way, then NO (because TGIO changes the all the stats of every item in the game)
- If it changes the races or race hights or stats in any way, then NO (Because TGIO changes all of the races already and some of the core mechanics of the mod lie within those changes)
- If it changes enemies in any way, then NO (Because TGIO changes all enemies so they will conflict)
- If it only touches killmoves, the YES (Highly recommended to disable enemy killmoves)
- If it changes followers or any unique NPCS, then YES (No unique NPCs have been touched)
- If it only changes animation then YES (No animations touched)
- If it changes any landscape or cities or houses, then YES (Almost no places have been touched)
- If its a visual or graphics mod, then YES (nothing about the visual has been touched)
- If its a audio mod, then YES (nothing about the audio has been touched)
I really hope you will enjoy this mod, and if you do please remember to leave an endorsement as I have put a lot of effort into it, and more endorsements means that more people get to know about it and get to experience it!
Also feel free to leave your thoughts about the mod in the comments. I read everything, and use your feedback to improve the mod. So all feedback is very helpful and appreciated.
-Credits
Thanks to Bethesda for making an awesome game!
Thanks to 1Rich1 for permission to use his wonderful drawings!
Thanks to Mandragorasprouts for converting the SE files to form 44 =)
Thanks to the nexsus and skyrim community for being supportive helpful and awesome! =D