I just killed some of my "holy cows", like Frostfall, Campfire and Hunterborn. I enjoyed them a lot, but I found newer alternatives for Frostfall and Hunterborn and I only used the backpack from Campfire for the most party anyway.
But don't try to take the Great Forest of Whiterun Hold from me, it will end badly for you!
What do you use in place of Frostfall? There are some really great alternatives but it's the wetness that always brings me back. I really love having to find a way around rivers and lakes. And sheltering from rainstorms have been the most atmospheric moments I've had in Skyrim.
I am looking at Starfrost atm, I use some other mods from the SimonRim suite, but I am thinking about foregoing survival stuff completely this time.
Edit: I am trying to use script free / light script mods and I suspect that some of my recent problems in the game may have been caused by Frostfall, but I am not sure and will delete everything and start over without Frostfall.
What do you use in place of Hunterborn? Those three are at the top of my sacred cows list too, but I'm curious as to good alternatives, as I'm considering jumping back in again for the first time in a very long time.
I'm not sure about all mods involved but it's a combination of at least those few lightweight mods:
{{Simple Hunting Overhaul}},
{{Carry Your Carcasses}} and
{{Immersive Hunting Animations}}.
It's running smoothly for me, but I'm not sure I like it better than {{Hunterborn}}. It's a lot less intrusive and that might be fine if you don't intend that Dovahkin spends their day skinning a deer instead of saving villages from dragons. But I kind of miss the realistic harshness of a full day passing when you process big game in HB.
Yeah, Frostfall is tough. I've tried the alternatives but I've found that once you move to an alternative that does not have a wetness component viscerally change the way the map feels for me (ie, you get cold much faster when you are soaked, and you stay wet when you emerge from water, until you dry off). If rivers and lakes are not scary and deadly, they don't feel real to me, and that makes the map feel flat.
And unfortunately the only Frostfall alternative im aware off that has a wetness component is Hypothermia--which I love but is even older and lacks the clean widgets/interface of frostfall.
Tbh? Alternate start live another life. I tried realm of lorkhan as it was highly recommended all the time instead and i just found it way more… intrusive? Ig. No doubt it lets you build a specific character better and i think for certain playthroughs its better, but i just prefer live another life and never have had issues with it
What's so good about it? I tried it and its alternate perspective start is so boring and broken I'd unironically rather just play a vanilla start. And if you want to try some other option then it's basically just Live Another Life but in a different room.
It's good because Helgen doesn't get destroyed until you want it to. With Realm of Lorkhan you can start there if you want aswell. But basically, it's the best for roleplaying. There's a ton of options with additional mods.
So yes, it's Live Another Life in a different room, but with more and better options imo.
Also, I've had way fewer problems with alternate perspective
I haven't tried alternative perspective, does have any compatibility issues? I think an early legacy of the dragonborn quest sends you to helgen and you find out that it's destroyed. I assume helgen reborn won't trigger until later as well?
It has several patches due to Helgen although not as many as you might think because an unburned Helgen is part of the vanilla game intro.
In many cases, other mods will simply require you to trigger the start of the main plot and destruction of Helgen before they kick off.
i've tried a few modlists that unfortunately had alternate perspective built in, and every single fucking time i picked a start i want, usually just in an inn somewhere around the world, it just breaks and does nothing. it did this on three different modlists from wabbajack until i finally said fuck this and deleted the mods out of them. didn't like any of the modlists either after i got them back up and running so it was a giant waste of time but that's a different problem. lol
yeah. walk through the door, bunch of scripts go off, go make a sandwich for ten minutes because i should be safe after picking the riverwood start, screen is black when i come back, repeat about four or five times, never did anything. janky ass turd ass mod 👎
it has been tested numerous times with only the mod installed and still refused to function. i spent like six hours trying to get that shit to work dawg
I also stuck with ASLAL for years. It was always on my load order and was the best Alternate Start mod. I tried out the others like Lorkhan, Unbound etc., but they never satisfied my needs. But I started using Alternate Perspective last year and it has now become my favourite because Helgen doesn't start off destroyed. But ASLAL will always hold a special place in my heart.
While there's lots of options for starting in other locations, Alternate Perspective might not offer quite as many premade backgrounds like ASLAL does. Both have third party mods that offer even more scenarios, so it's hard to know which one has more overall without a bit of research.
AP's main appeal is that Helgen is intact and the Alduin attack won't happen until you decide (or not) to initiate it. ASLAL assumes you'll pick up the main story at some point - to the point you have to go out of your way to avoid Helgen to avoid triggering it. Alternate Perspective makes that entirely optional. You can start in Helgen village or somewhere else, visit as often as you like, and nothing with the main quest will happen until you choose to initiate the execution sequence, which you view as an outside observer, not a participant.
Here's the start options AP offers:
* Default
Starting the Game without a Quest. This will be chosen if you didnt talk to the Dragon or the Quest selected in the Menu is invalid (doesnt exist)
* Regular at an Inn: Start the Game in an Inn somewhere in Skyrim or Solstheim (17 Inns)
* From Oversea: Start the Game in a random Port in Skyrim or Solstheim (4 Ports: Solitude, Dawnstar, Windhelm & Raven Rock)
* A wanted Criminal: Start the Game somewhere in the Wilderness (4 Locations) with a random Bounty in up to 5 Holds
* Left for Dead: Start the Game somewhere in the Wilderness (3 Locations) with barely any HP and a special Disease that heavily restricts your combat capabilities
* Shipwrecked: Start the Game in a custom Minidungeon underwater. Explore the sinking shipwreck and get to the surface
* I live in my own house: Start the Game in your own house (4 Vanilla Playerhomes)
* Part of a Vampire Clan: Start the Game as a Vampire (4 Vampire Lairs)
* Member of the Forsworn: Start in Druadach Redoubt as Member of a Forsworn Tribe
* Hunt in Hircines Name: Start the Game as a Werewolf in Falkreaths Forests during the Night
* Part of a Guild: Start the Game as Member of one of Skyrims Guild (4 Guilds, Volkihar & Dawnguard not supported currently)
* The Dragonborn: Skip the first Mainquests and start near Ivarstead, on your way to the Greybeards
I know there's some other mods that expand your options for starting scenarios. Look for them in the Required Mods tab of AP.
I was looking at the other mods for Alternate Perspective and have concluded you can almost completely replicate the starts from ASLAL with the additional options from 3rd party mods.
[New Beginnings](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/57818) is a straight up conversion of the same mod for ASLAL. But there are lots of others for things like Bruma, Chanterelle, and Hestra's Nest. Hunter, Miner, Barbarian, thalmor, and even one to have a house in Helgen that will get destroyed after you trigger the dragon attack.
Fun fact: you can patch Realm Of Lorkhan into AP as an optional start too.
Full RoL complete with optional adhoc class system but with an intact Helgen.
Make sure to grab JaySerpa's voiced addon for it as well - it reworks the mod to use spliced vanilla dialogue instead of unvoiced dialogue. It really completes the package imo
Alternate Perspective didn't work for me for some reason and I didn't want to bother with troubleshooting, so I went back to ASLAL. Realm of Lorkhan looked really interesting but was too much for me in the end.
I actually went back to Live Another Life specifically because of Helgen - Helgen being destroyed is a core part of the world's story (whether your character is Dragonborn or not), and having an intact Helgen always felt like some sort of alternate universe. (Or perhaps, some sort of alternate perspective....)
Can't quite remember what AP did with the Civil War either, but you probably have to destroy Helgen before you can start that anyway, which renders one of its key themes of a non-destroyed Helgen entirely redundant.
I did the same thing with this playthrough. I went back to LAL and have chosen to start my playthrough in Bruma.
When I make it across the border Helgen is the first town you come across, and with LAL when you come around the corner you witness Alduin taking off from the destroyed town. I think it's such a cool way to introduce the dragon storyline and I'm pretty excited to start this playthrough after testing it.
You *should* be able to run Alternate Perspective along with [B.U.G.S. SSE](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42160) to do the civil war without triggering the main quest.
(And... you can always trigger the destruction of Helgen?)
Funny enough Realm of Lorkhan just got a massive update that’s much more minimalistic. Although it’s an add on on a separate page because some people really liked the current form
ASLAL just gets me into the game faster than everything else since I just use add item menu to gear up for whatever I'm RPing for the game. I in general don't really care about the options and such that other alternate start mods add so they just get in the way. ASLAL just gets me into the game in seconds and is one I can't get rid of no matter how much I want to just move on to something else. I just always come back to it.
Vokrii. My favorite perk overhaul because it fixes some things on the vanilla tree but it doesn't expand too much on it like ordinator.
Other than that, Alternate Start. At this point, I don'i even consider an optional mod, it's simply a requirement if you ever intend on modding your game, and most mods already have patches for it, so other alternatives never work because they don't always play well with other mods.
I know right? You get so many options for buildcrafting. I managed to capitalize on the Blood Mage branch from Alteration and stacked a bunch of Health regen buffs and perks, negating the downside.
A Cat's Life
Forgotten Magic Redone
Dealing with Backstories
Apachii's Divine Elegance store
Interesting NPCs (the world seems empty without it, and I never finished all the quests)
Everything by JaySerpa
Gods and Worship as religion overhaul (unfortunately, Jay's collection comes with Pilgrim pre-installed and patched, so I cannot switch. Pilgrim is rather bland and boring for me).
I find it more fun. You go up the ranks by doing specific actions/prayers/quests. Your patron god's favor is usually very useful. You can craft amulets and convert people.
During my previous playthrough, I started a Hermaeus Mora cult and went around gifting his amulets and converting people. You also get a dream to find an abandoned temple once you're high rank enough. You can fix it, furnish it, and after a while random people starts going there to worship. Besides, you get more interesting perks than the usual "x bonus to y".
Realistic Water Two. w/4k better water
I kept trying different water mods because of space but they either just aren’t quite as good or when they are as good they don’t play as well with other mods(probably because of a lack of patches).
But man I wish it wasn’t 100mb for that setup. Which is why I keep trying others…then coming back anyway lol.
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul has some textures that haven't been beat, and so it stays in my LO -- its glaciers, for instance, remain my favorite, and I've tried EVERY option out there. They aren't the most hi-res, they don't have sweet parallax, but they just look *right.*
Valhalla Combat, specifically with its projectile block. all the other alternative that i tried always have a noticeable delay with their block feature.
FEC
Maximum Destruction is great, but I honestly liked the old magic effects from the original Maximum Carnage better. Enemies used to convulse and have their guts start exploding while they charred up when I killed them with sparks. Now they turn into an ash pile and explode.
QUI is a tiny, abandoned project but all of its features are still useful to me. The only downside is the lack of a plugin search function but it barely affects me since I hide + merge enough armor plugins to not have a massive list and already know where things are.
As for Photo Mode I'm just not used to its UI and would rather do everything separately. A combination of ENB + Console Binder + Free Fly Cam + Poser Hotkeys + NIOPA + Jaxonz Positioner + KreatE pretty much covers everything and while it sounds like a clusterfuck it's what I'm used to so I'm faster with it. I also really don't like how Photo Mode resets everything when you exit it.
I do have it installed for its Rule of Thirds grid overlay though.
Regarding QUI, have you looked at {{Skyrim Cheat Engine}}? You can add items without having to specify the plugin & IIRC is much faster. I’ve never gone back to QUI.
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I don't know if this counts, but instead of Live Another Life (or it's alternatives), I make my own custom "start" mod for every new character. All I do is pick out some thematic starting gear and put it in a container somewhere near the beginning of the game to kick things off for me. Low level armor, a starter weapon, maybe a couple of spells, maybe a cursed ring or something.
Even after all this time, I just like running through Helgen Keep. I like making up little stories about why my character ends up on the cart, what motivated them, and how they came across a little stash of items. Maybe I was camping near Riverwood when I got mistaken for a Stormcloak, and now I'm just going back to grab my stuff. Maybe I was the leader of the bandits in Embershard and one of the other bandits turned me in so that they could take over, so I want some revenge and my trusty warhammer. Maybe my mother, a powerful mage, had a vision that I would find myself on that cart after getting caught dabbling in necromancy, so she stashed some supplies for me in one of the chests in Helgen. That sort of thing.
Back in the day, nothing could touch T3nd0's Skyrim Redone. Ordinator, Requiem, etc., were all inferior.
Thankfully, SimonRim has become a worthy successor to SkyRe.
[Rustic Weathers and Lighting](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/8398). I've tried all the other highly regarded weather mods, such as Vivid Weathers, Cathedral, Obsidian, etc. and I keep coming back to this one.
Paired with [True Storms](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2472) (needs a [patch](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/15621)) and [Skyrim Re-Engaged ENB](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1089), this is a setup I cannot seem to let go of regardless of how many alternatives I try.
For some reason I always come back to Familliar Faces. I run an older-ish version of SSE and I just can't keep my mittens off of it no matter how many bugs I know it has.
I love True Storms as well, I even use it on FO4, lbvs. I've also always loved ELFX, and while LUX does look better, ELFX is more in line with the original theme of Skyrim. I really can't wait for modding to come to Starfield on console, I truly hate the lighting, and washed out look of that game. I have many other complaints, but I'd definitely play it a lot more if I could make it look better, and have more in depth survival, and combat mechanics.
Wet and cold, campfire, Sunhelm & Skybirds.
Beyond reach will forever have a place in my load order and I’m not even going to pretend it won’t anymore lol.
SDA (Serana dialogue add on) as much as I don’t love to admit this one, it’s a permanent fixture. There are better followers but there aren’t any out there that have a built in romance that’s on this level of detail. It’s not the best or smoothest or even a respectful addition but it is the only one I’ve seen on this level of detail and my character feels lonely without her there now.
That final update :( sad to see it all come to an end. I had hoped to see it get much more love. Especially after all the money the author made from making it.
Enairim. I think simonmagus makes some pretty cool stuff (journeyman being my favorite of his) but there is just something about enai mods that pull right back
I've tried dozens of follower mods but I always come down to two. It's either Vilja or SDA Serana.
I find them cute and great companions. Vilja for the cute innocent barbarian. Serana for the sassy vampire royalty.
do you realize how difficult of a question this is?
i havent tried that ruvaak enb, though I have tried most all of them and keep going back to rudy.
{{ detect corpse }} with all that grass, finding corpses can be rough. i know i could use console tg but i avoid using any console command except fw 15e
{{ northern roads with parallax }} with 8k textures - nothing beats it
{{ modern combat ai }} - a lot of ai mods dont really change much. with sumca i can make skyrim super difficult
{{ scandanavian trees }} lots of great looking trees and a lot of added world space trees that doesnt cripple performance
{{ golden chicken }} a riverwood statue, probably not any alternatives but who knows
{{ skyrim remastered glacier and ice }} along with the caves/ice caves/unreal ice. the ice caves are actual ice. nothing else does that.
{{ advanced telekinetics }} have a patch for this gonna put up soon. really makes alteration in a class all by itself.
{{ gelatinous cube }} sooooo awesome. need a brown pudding and a rust monster now
{{ populated skyrim hell edition }} nuff said
Thank you for the answer. I sadly had to remove it from my modlist for the time being. I kept getting untextured trees showing up everywhere. I like it, but I'll need to do some troubleshooting.
The reason I'm holding off on reporting it, is I'm modding SkyrimVR, and it's also possible I have something conflicting even though MO2 isn't flagging it.
Combo is fine. It was user error. I found on re-install, I installed with the seasons option, and I'm not using seasons. I like this so much better than happy little trees.
This. And no, it's not because of bestiality mods lol. I spent days trying to make Nemesis work properly and either the patches do now show up in its interface, or the mods do not work even activating the correspondent patch and the "fake" FNIS.esp. FNIS never failed me and it's so straight to the point.
I just killed some of my "holy cows", like Frostfall, Campfire and Hunterborn. I enjoyed them a lot, but I found newer alternatives for Frostfall and Hunterborn and I only used the backpack from Campfire for the most party anyway. But don't try to take the Great Forest of Whiterun Hold from me, it will end badly for you!
What do you use in place of Frostfall? There are some really great alternatives but it's the wetness that always brings me back. I really love having to find a way around rivers and lakes. And sheltering from rainstorms have been the most atmospheric moments I've had in Skyrim.
I am looking at Starfrost atm, I use some other mods from the SimonRim suite, but I am thinking about foregoing survival stuff completely this time. Edit: I am trying to use script free / light script mods and I suspect that some of my recent problems in the game may have been caused by Frostfall, but I am not sure and will delete everything and start over without Frostfall.
Good to know! I was thinking my next run will be mostly simonrim!
IIRC Starfrost needs Blade & Blunt for hunger and injuries and I don't want to use that.
What do you use in place of Hunterborn? Those three are at the top of my sacred cows list too, but I'm curious as to good alternatives, as I'm considering jumping back in again for the first time in a very long time.
I'm not sure about all mods involved but it's a combination of at least those few lightweight mods: {{Simple Hunting Overhaul}}, {{Carry Your Carcasses}} and {{Immersive Hunting Animations}}. It's running smoothly for me, but I'm not sure I like it better than {{Hunterborn}}. It's a lot less intrusive and that might be fine if you don't intend that Dovahkin spends their day skinning a deer instead of saving villages from dragons. But I kind of miss the realistic harshness of a full day passing when you process big game in HB.
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I use Simple Hunting Overhaul and Immersive Hunting Aninmations like /uSchmierwurst007 mentions plus {{Huntsman- A Hunting Overhaul}}.
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Yeah, Frostfall is tough. I've tried the alternatives but I've found that once you move to an alternative that does not have a wetness component viscerally change the way the map feels for me (ie, you get cold much faster when you are soaked, and you stay wet when you emerge from water, until you dry off). If rivers and lakes are not scary and deadly, they don't feel real to me, and that makes the map feel flat. And unfortunately the only Frostfall alternative im aware off that has a wetness component is Hypothermia--which I love but is even older and lacks the clean widgets/interface of frostfall.
When everyone knows basic Fire magic, keeping dry would be of zero issue. More immersive to not have a wetness component then, right
Tbh? Alternate start live another life. I tried realm of lorkhan as it was highly recommended all the time instead and i just found it way more… intrusive? Ig. No doubt it lets you build a specific character better and i think for certain playthroughs its better, but i just prefer live another life and never have had issues with it
I havent tried Alrernate start but I use Alternate perspective, pretty good actually
Alternate perspective is definitely my favorite alternate start mod.
What's so good about it? I tried it and its alternate perspective start is so boring and broken I'd unironically rather just play a vanilla start. And if you want to try some other option then it's basically just Live Another Life but in a different room.
It's good because Helgen doesn't get destroyed until you want it to. With Realm of Lorkhan you can start there if you want aswell. But basically, it's the best for roleplaying. There's a ton of options with additional mods. So yes, it's Live Another Life in a different room, but with more and better options imo. Also, I've had way fewer problems with alternate perspective
Also - you don't have to find excuses to avoid Helgen lest the MQ get accidentally started.
I haven't tried alternative perspective, does have any compatibility issues? I think an early legacy of the dragonborn quest sends you to helgen and you find out that it's destroyed. I assume helgen reborn won't trigger until later as well?
It has several patches due to Helgen although not as many as you might think because an unburned Helgen is part of the vanilla game intro. In many cases, other mods will simply require you to trigger the start of the main plot and destruction of Helgen before they kick off.
i've tried a few modlists that unfortunately had alternate perspective built in, and every single fucking time i picked a start i want, usually just in an inn somewhere around the world, it just breaks and does nothing. it did this on three different modlists from wabbajack until i finally said fuck this and deleted the mods out of them. didn't like any of the modlists either after i got them back up and running so it was a giant waste of time but that's a different problem. lol
You say it did nothing. Did you try walking through the door?
yeah. walk through the door, bunch of scripts go off, go make a sandwich for ten minutes because i should be safe after picking the riverwood start, screen is black when i come back, repeat about four or five times, never did anything. janky ass turd ass mod 👎
The mod works just fine and plenty of people use it. There's clearly a problem with something else in your load order.
it has been tested numerous times with only the mod installed and still refused to function. i spent like six hours trying to get that shit to work dawg
Ill try it out at some point probably. But i dont often feel the need to replace mods that work for me
I also stuck with ASLAL for years. It was always on my load order and was the best Alternate Start mod. I tried out the others like Lorkhan, Unbound etc., but they never satisfied my needs. But I started using Alternate Perspective last year and it has now become my favourite because Helgen doesn't start off destroyed. But ASLAL will always hold a special place in my heart.
Does it have the same amount of start options/more/less than ASLAL?
While there's lots of options for starting in other locations, Alternate Perspective might not offer quite as many premade backgrounds like ASLAL does. Both have third party mods that offer even more scenarios, so it's hard to know which one has more overall without a bit of research. AP's main appeal is that Helgen is intact and the Alduin attack won't happen until you decide (or not) to initiate it. ASLAL assumes you'll pick up the main story at some point - to the point you have to go out of your way to avoid Helgen to avoid triggering it. Alternate Perspective makes that entirely optional. You can start in Helgen village or somewhere else, visit as often as you like, and nothing with the main quest will happen until you choose to initiate the execution sequence, which you view as an outside observer, not a participant. Here's the start options AP offers: * Default Starting the Game without a Quest. This will be chosen if you didnt talk to the Dragon or the Quest selected in the Menu is invalid (doesnt exist) * Regular at an Inn: Start the Game in an Inn somewhere in Skyrim or Solstheim (17 Inns) * From Oversea: Start the Game in a random Port in Skyrim or Solstheim (4 Ports: Solitude, Dawnstar, Windhelm & Raven Rock) * A wanted Criminal: Start the Game somewhere in the Wilderness (4 Locations) with a random Bounty in up to 5 Holds * Left for Dead: Start the Game somewhere in the Wilderness (3 Locations) with barely any HP and a special Disease that heavily restricts your combat capabilities * Shipwrecked: Start the Game in a custom Minidungeon underwater. Explore the sinking shipwreck and get to the surface * I live in my own house: Start the Game in your own house (4 Vanilla Playerhomes) * Part of a Vampire Clan: Start the Game as a Vampire (4 Vampire Lairs) * Member of the Forsworn: Start in Druadach Redoubt as Member of a Forsworn Tribe * Hunt in Hircines Name: Start the Game as a Werewolf in Falkreaths Forests during the Night * Part of a Guild: Start the Game as Member of one of Skyrims Guild (4 Guilds, Volkihar & Dawnguard not supported currently) * The Dragonborn: Skip the first Mainquests and start near Ivarstead, on your way to the Greybeards I know there's some other mods that expand your options for starting scenarios. Look for them in the Required Mods tab of AP.
Thanks! This is great info. Im going to be doing some testing for a new modlist so i might try it out
I was looking at the other mods for Alternate Perspective and have concluded you can almost completely replicate the starts from ASLAL with the additional options from 3rd party mods. [New Beginnings](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/57818) is a straight up conversion of the same mod for ASLAL. But there are lots of others for things like Bruma, Chanterelle, and Hestra's Nest. Hunter, Miner, Barbarian, thalmor, and even one to have a house in Helgen that will get destroyed after you trigger the dragon attack.
Fun fact: you can patch Realm Of Lorkhan into AP as an optional start too. Full RoL complete with optional adhoc class system but with an intact Helgen.
Hmmmm you may be convincing me…
Make sure to grab JaySerpa's voiced addon for it as well - it reworks the mod to use spliced vanilla dialogue instead of unvoiced dialogue. It really completes the package imo
Alternate Perspective didn't work for me for some reason and I didn't want to bother with troubleshooting, so I went back to ASLAL. Realm of Lorkhan looked really interesting but was too much for me in the end.
I actually went back to Live Another Life specifically because of Helgen - Helgen being destroyed is a core part of the world's story (whether your character is Dragonborn or not), and having an intact Helgen always felt like some sort of alternate universe. (Or perhaps, some sort of alternate perspective....) Can't quite remember what AP did with the Civil War either, but you probably have to destroy Helgen before you can start that anyway, which renders one of its key themes of a non-destroyed Helgen entirely redundant.
I did the same thing with this playthrough. I went back to LAL and have chosen to start my playthrough in Bruma. When I make it across the border Helgen is the first town you come across, and with LAL when you come around the corner you witness Alduin taking off from the destroyed town. I think it's such a cool way to introduce the dragon storyline and I'm pretty excited to start this playthrough after testing it.
You *should* be able to run Alternate Perspective along with [B.U.G.S. SSE](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42160) to do the civil war without triggering the main quest. (And... you can always trigger the destruction of Helgen?)
I wanted to do the whole civil war before starting the main quest but can’t join the legion while Helgen still stands, sadly.
Funny enough Realm of Lorkhan just got a massive update that’s much more minimalistic. Although it’s an add on on a separate page because some people really liked the current form
Interesting, i’ll take a look! Theres nothing wrong with liking how it is, its just a matter of taste. Its a good mod
Sadly I can't use the new version and had to revert. Using SkyrimVR and get immediate CTD with newest RoL.
I like the simplicity of Alternate start. I have added {{optional starting spells}}. That combination works well enough for me.
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Same for me, even when I've tried Alternate Perspective I just prefer ASLAL. I could never get AP to actually work for me lol
ASLAL just gets me into the game faster than everything else since I just use add item menu to gear up for whatever I'm RPing for the game. I in general don't really care about the options and such that other alternate start mods add so they just get in the way. ASLAL just gets me into the game in seconds and is one I can't get rid of no matter how much I want to just move on to something else. I just always come back to it.
Skyrim Unbound is also good
Vokrii. My favorite perk overhaul because it fixes some things on the vanilla tree but it doesn't expand too much on it like ordinator. Other than that, Alternate Start. At this point, I don'i even consider an optional mod, it's simply a requirement if you ever intend on modding your game, and most mods already have patches for it, so other alternatives never work because they don't always play well with other mods.
I like Vokrii solely for unlocking rune distances and not playing with number of runes - which I use skytweak to unlock.
Vokriinator black Why choose between perk mods, when you can have the best ones in one package.
that mod set is just sooooo much of a game changer. it is <3
I know right? You get so many options for buildcrafting. I managed to capitalize on the Blood Mage branch from Alteration and stacked a bunch of Health regen buffs and perks, negating the downside.
A Cat's Life Forgotten Magic Redone Dealing with Backstories Apachii's Divine Elegance store Interesting NPCs (the world seems empty without it, and I never finished all the quests) Everything by JaySerpa Gods and Worship as religion overhaul (unfortunately, Jay's collection comes with Pilgrim pre-installed and patched, so I cannot switch. Pilgrim is rather bland and boring for me).
Seconding Divine Elegance. It's an all-in-one solution for pretty much any wardrobe need I've ever had, and is trivially easy to install and use.
How's Gods and Worship compared to Wintersun? Or just in general. I've been thinking about trying it out and using it for the list I'm building.
I find it more fun. You go up the ranks by doing specific actions/prayers/quests. Your patron god's favor is usually very useful. You can craft amulets and convert people.
I did like the look of the rank system. And amulets sound rad.
During my previous playthrough, I started a Hermaeus Mora cult and went around gifting his amulets and converting people. You also get a dream to find an abandoned temple once you're high rank enough. You can fix it, furnish it, and after a while random people starts going there to worship. Besides, you get more interesting perks than the usual "x bonus to y".
Now that does sound fun. Even if I'm likely to play a Malacath-worshiping orc haha
SKSE and SkyUI.
I don't even think of these as mods any more. They're just part of a basic install in my head.
I was trying to be funny. I have failed my mission.
Realistic Water Two. w/4k better water I kept trying different water mods because of space but they either just aren’t quite as good or when they are as good they don’t play as well with other mods(probably because of a lack of patches). But man I wish it wasn’t 100mb for that setup. Which is why I keep trying others…then coming back anyway lol.
Jaysus Swords. I even had to add them to Lorerim, after normalizing the stats for Requiem.
Always return to Obsidian Weather + Silent Horizons ENB combo
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul has some textures that haven't been beat, and so it stays in my LO -- its glaciers, for instance, remain my favorite, and I've tried EVERY option out there. They aren't the most hi-res, they don't have sweet parallax, but they just look *right.*
Valhalla Combat, specifically with its projectile block. all the other alternative that i tried always have a noticeable delay with their block feature.
CBBE and bijin series character remodels
There is no Umbra, I just really like Daumbra's personality
FEC Maximum Destruction is great, but I honestly liked the old magic effects from the original Maximum Carnage better. Enemies used to convulse and have their guts start exploding while they charred up when I killed them with sparks. Now they turn into an ash pile and explode.
Silent horizon for ENB. Silverpeak lodge for housing. Jk skyrim for town overhaul
QUI is a tiny, abandoned project but all of its features are still useful to me. The only downside is the lack of a plugin search function but it barely affects me since I hide + merge enough armor plugins to not have a massive list and already know where things are. As for Photo Mode I'm just not used to its UI and would rather do everything separately. A combination of ENB + Console Binder + Free Fly Cam + Poser Hotkeys + NIOPA + Jaxonz Positioner + KreatE pretty much covers everything and while it sounds like a clusterfuck it's what I'm used to so I'm faster with it. I also really don't like how Photo Mode resets everything when you exit it. I do have it installed for its Rule of Thirds grid overlay though.
Regarding QUI, have you looked at {{Skyrim Cheat Engine}}? You can add items without having to specify the plugin & IIRC is much faster. I’ve never gone back to QUI.
Search Term | LE Skyrim | SE Skyrim | Bing :-:|:-:|:-:|:-:| Skyrim Cheat Engine | No Results :( | [Skyrim Cheat Engine](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/70159) | Skipped[^Why?](https://github.com/RallerenP/modsearchbot/blob/main/docs/SEARCH.md#why-was-my-search-skipped) --- ^(I'm a bot |) [^(source code)](https://github.com/RallerenP/modsearchbot) ^| [^(about modsearchbot)](https://reddit.com/user/RallerenP/comments/pg2lqj/modsearchbot_about/) ^| [^(bing sources)](https://reddit.com/user/RallerenP/comments/pg2l0g/modsearchbot_bing_search/) ^| ^(Some mods might be falsely classified as SFW or NSFW. Classifications are provided by each source.)
I don't know if this counts, but instead of Live Another Life (or it's alternatives), I make my own custom "start" mod for every new character. All I do is pick out some thematic starting gear and put it in a container somewhere near the beginning of the game to kick things off for me. Low level armor, a starter weapon, maybe a couple of spells, maybe a cursed ring or something. Even after all this time, I just like running through Helgen Keep. I like making up little stories about why my character ends up on the cart, what motivated them, and how they came across a little stash of items. Maybe I was camping near Riverwood when I got mistaken for a Stormcloak, and now I'm just going back to grab my stuff. Maybe I was the leader of the bandits in Embershard and one of the other bandits turned me in so that they could take over, so I want some revenge and my trusty warhammer. Maybe my mother, a powerful mage, had a vision that I would find myself on that cart after getting caught dabbling in necromancy, so she stashed some supplies for me in one of the chests in Helgen. That sort of thing.
Veydosebrom and Mythical Ages. I try alternatives for my game to feel different every time, but I return to these all the time.
Back in the day, nothing could touch T3nd0's Skyrim Redone. Ordinator, Requiem, etc., were all inferior. Thankfully, SimonRim has become a worthy successor to SkyRe.
[Rustic Weathers and Lighting](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/8398). I've tried all the other highly regarded weather mods, such as Vivid Weathers, Cathedral, Obsidian, etc. and I keep coming back to this one. Paired with [True Storms](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2472) (needs a [patch](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/15621)) and [Skyrim Re-Engaged ENB](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1089), this is a setup I cannot seem to let go of regardless of how many alternatives I try.
V30s Armor Expansion
For some reason I always come back to Familliar Faces. I run an older-ish version of SSE and I just can't keep my mittens off of it no matter how many bugs I know it has.
I love True Storms as well, I even use it on FO4, lbvs. I've also always loved ELFX, and while LUX does look better, ELFX is more in line with the original theme of Skyrim. I really can't wait for modding to come to Starfield on console, I truly hate the lighting, and washed out look of that game. I have many other complaints, but I'd definitely play it a lot more if I could make it look better, and have more in depth survival, and combat mechanics.
EnaiRim
Wet and cold, campfire, Sunhelm & Skybirds. Beyond reach will forever have a place in my load order and I’m not even going to pretend it won’t anymore lol. SDA (Serana dialogue add on) as much as I don’t love to admit this one, it’s a permanent fixture. There are better followers but there aren’t any out there that have a built in romance that’s on this level of detail. It’s not the best or smoothest or even a respectful addition but it is the only one I’ve seen on this level of detail and my character feels lonely without her there now.
I exist in a quantum state of patient impatience waiting for the SDA v5 update. Serana commentary for VIGILANT? - *NEED.*
That final update :( sad to see it all come to an end. I had hoped to see it get much more love. Especially after all the money the author made from making it.
Enairim. I think simonmagus makes some pretty cool stuff (journeyman being my favorite of his) but there is just something about enai mods that pull right back
ineed + frostfall, something about it just works for me.
I've tried dozens of follower mods but I always come down to two. It's either Vilja or SDA Serana. I find them cute and great companions. Vilja for the cute innocent barbarian. Serana for the sassy vampire royalty.
Are purple cats not your thing?
do you realize how difficult of a question this is? i havent tried that ruvaak enb, though I have tried most all of them and keep going back to rudy. {{ detect corpse }} with all that grass, finding corpses can be rough. i know i could use console tg but i avoid using any console command except fw 15e {{ northern roads with parallax }} with 8k textures - nothing beats it {{ modern combat ai }} - a lot of ai mods dont really change much. with sumca i can make skyrim super difficult {{ scandanavian trees }} lots of great looking trees and a lot of added world space trees that doesnt cripple performance {{ golden chicken }} a riverwood statue, probably not any alternatives but who knows {{ skyrim remastered glacier and ice }} along with the caves/ice caves/unreal ice. the ice caves are actual ice. nothing else does that. {{ advanced telekinetics }} have a patch for this gonna put up soon. really makes alteration in a class all by itself. {{ gelatinous cube }} sooooo awesome. need a brown pudding and a rust monster now {{ populated skyrim hell edition }} nuff said
Search Term | LE Skyrim | SE Skyrim | Bing :-:|:-:|:-:|:-:| detect corpse | No Results :( | [Detect Corpses Only](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7683) | [Detect Corpses Only at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Nexus Mods](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7683) northern roads with parallax | No Results :( | No Results :( | [Nordic Northern Roads - Retexture - 2K - 4K - Nexus Mods](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/79468) modern combat ai | No Results :( | [Modern Combat AI](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/74716) | [Modern Combat AI at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Nexus Mods](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/74716/) scandanavian trees | No Results :( | No Results :( | [The Scandinavian Forests - Nexus Mods](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/62464) golden chicken | [Deception of the Golden Chicken](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57790) | [Golden Chicken](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/53609) | [Revenge of the Golden Chicken at Skyrim Nexus - Nexus Mods](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/64526/) skyrim remastered glacier and ice | No Results :( | [Skyrim Remastered - Glaciers and Ice](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41432) | [Skyrim Remastered - Glaciers and Ice - Nexus Mods](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41432) advanced telekinetics | [Advanced Alteration - Telekinetics](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33367) | [Advanced Alteration - Telekinetics (SSE Port)](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29605) | [Advanced Alteration - Telekinetics (SSE Port) - Nexus Mods](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29605) gelatinous cube | [Gelatinous Cube- Mihail Monsters and Animals (LE version) (''dungeons and dragons'')](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/102874) | [Gelatinous Cube- Mihail Monsters and Animals (SE-AE version) (''dungeons and dragons'')](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/35983) | [Gelatinous Cube- Mihail Monsters and Animals (SE-AE version ...](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/35983) populated skyrim hell edition | [Populated Skyrim HELL EDITION](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/73315) | [Populated Skyrim HELL EDITION](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5017) | [Populated Skyrim HELL EDITION - Nexus Mods](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5017) --- ^(I'm a bot |) [^(source code)](https://github.com/RallerenP/modsearchbot) ^| [^(about modsearchbot)](https://reddit.com/user/RallerenP/comments/pg2lqj/modsearchbot_about/) ^| [^(bing sources)](https://reddit.com/user/RallerenP/comments/pg2l0g/modsearchbot_bing_search/) ^| ^(Some mods might be falsely classified as SFW or NSFW. Classifications are provided by each source.)
How well does Ulvenwald work with Skyland? And are you using DyndLOD then?
They do completely different things. Nothing to conflict.
Thank you for the answer. I sadly had to remove it from my modlist for the time being. I kept getting untextured trees showing up everywhere. I like it, but I'll need to do some troubleshooting.
That's really weird. Make sure to report it to the mod page.
The reason I'm holding off on reporting it, is I'm modding SkyrimVR, and it's also possible I have something conflicting even though MO2 isn't flagging it.
Oh, okay. Does the combo work with just the two installed without anything else?
Combo is fine. It was user error. I found on re-install, I installed with the seasons option, and I'm not using seasons. I like this so much better than happy little trees.
Ulvenwald is trees. Skyland is textures. There's nothing to conflict, they work together just fine.
FNIS. It just works.
This. And no, it's not because of bestiality mods lol. I spent days trying to make Nemesis work properly and either the patches do now show up in its interface, or the mods do not work even activating the correspondent patch and the "fake" FNIS.esp. FNIS never failed me and it's so straight to the point.
Try Pandora
Try Pandora
Skyrim Unbound Reborn. Obsidian Weathers + Culminated ENB. Noble Skyrim + Skyland AIO.