Apparently people do want to see this, so here’s part 1 of my favorite Skyrim mods. Part 2 will be tomorrow, and mention actual gameplay mods: but it’s best to mention a few things that you’ll need to optimize the game itself. In some order:
- Nexus Mod Manager. If you’re downloading stuff from the Skyrim Nexus, you’ll want this manager.
- Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE). Offsite; found here. Blah blah technical blah blah SOME OF YOUR MODS WON’T WORK WITHOUT IT.
- Fores New Idles in Skyrim (FNIS). Another blah blah technical blah blah SOME OF YOUR MODS WON’T WORK WITHOUT IT.
- Unofficial official patches. Unofficial Skyrim Patch, Unofficial Dawnguard Patch, Unofficial Hearthfire Patch, Unofficial Dragonborn Patch, Unofficial High Resolution Patch (all Skyrim Nexus links). Don’t let the ‘unofficial’ fool you; those patches clean up a lot of bugs. Tons and tons and tons of bugs.
- Item Sorting. You will be amazed at how much easier it is to figure out what you’re carting around now.
- SkyUI. Nexus here; Steam here. …and you will be equally amazed at how much more intuitive all the screens are now. Also includes the mod configuration menu (MCM), which you WILL be hearing of a lot.
- BOSS GUI. Short version: it will order your mods for you, so as to avoid conflicts between various mods. Since conflicts between mods can lead to the dreaded crash-to-desktop (CTD), which is also something that you WILL be hearing of a lot, this is a good mod to have.
- The Paarthurnax Fix. Nexus here; Steam here. If you’ve played all the way through, you know that there’s a stupid false choice imposed on you at one point by Bethesda. …[expletive deleted] that; you’re the goram Dragonborn.
- Stones of Barenziah Quest Markers and Jiub’s Opus Quest Markers. Allows you to actually find those stupid items for those stupid fetch quests but if you want to instead stare at the map until your forehead is bloody then go right ahead.
- “Better Females by Bella:” core Nexus file here, core Steam file here. Improves the look of the female characters. Presumably there’s also another set of mods that will make your male characters look better, but I wouldn’t know.
- Unread books glow. Nexus here, Steam here. It makes unread books glow, so you can figure out which books to pick up/steal. So. Totally. Worth. It.
That’s all that immediately come to mind: if I think of more tech ones I’ll add ’em.
The one disadvantage to playing Skyrim on console. You’re cut off from the mods.
“Presumably there’s also another set of mods that will make your male characters look better, but I wouldn’t know.”
.
*cough* I’m not saying anything. Just had to clear my throat.
I unapologetically usually play female characters. I take the position that if I have to look at a PC’s a*s for several dozen, hundred, or thousand hours, I want it to be one that I’m interested in seeing.
Right on!
Have you looked into the “Mod Organizer”? It’s an alternative to NMM that has the great advantage of managing all your mods in a virtual folder that is only materialized when you start the game. This means that your Skyrim data folder is never modified by your mods, making removing mods much easier. Available through Nexus, has a very active user community. A bit more complex than NMM, but gives you much greater control over your mods.
BTW, I’m using all the mods you list here, plus there’s one that, like the quest markers mods you name, maps the locations of the Crimson Nirnroots in Blackreach.