A few Skyrim/Steam related questions

[Lord Revan]

Ok I've been thinking of getting the so called "legendary edition" of Skyrim (aka the one with the DLCs included) so here's a few questions, first of should I get the PC or PS3 version(assuming that exists), second if I get the PC version is it possible to have 2 steam accounts with the same e-mail address (I used to have a steam account for DOW2 but I've not used for so long I can't even remember what e-mail I used let alone the password) and third again if I get the PC version is there any mods you would think I'd "need" to get?

[Grumman]

Ok I've been thinking of getting the so called "legendary edition" of Skyrim (aka the one with the DLCs included) so here's a few questions, first of should I get the PC or PS3 version(assuming that exists)

Get the PC version. Never get the console version of any Bethesda game. They're some of the mod-friendliest games around, and it would be a shame to not take advantage of that.

second if I get the PC version is it possible to have 2 steam accounts with the same e-mail address (I used to have a steam account for DOW2 but I've not used for so long I can't even remember what e-mail I used let alone the password)

I couldn't tell you if they require exclusive email addresses, but I've had no problems getting my passwords back.

third again if I get the PC version is there any mods you would think I'd "need" to get?

Here's a few of the ones I use, and highly recommend:

Frostfall (Makes weather more immersive - cold weather can cause hypothermia, getting drenched makes you cool down faster, adds a bunch of new equipment like tents and backpacks, lets you craft basic equipment in the wild...)

ELFX (Makes lighting more immersive - ambient lighting is decreased, so shadows are actually dark)

Illuminated Atronachs (Makes fire atronachs give off light, helps make ELFX more immersive)

Automatic Variants (Makes monsters more immersive - applies random skins to creatures so that they all look different)

Oh, and there's a series of Unofficial Patches that you'll probably want to get too.

[Napoleon the Clown]

The unofficial patches are all pretty good ones. The game is still buggy as hell, and the unofficial patches tend to fix a lot of the stuff Bethesda hasn't gotten around to fixing. The main game unofficial patch is here. The others are all linked in there, too.

Fall of the Space Core is pretty amusing, and it won't add anything that's broken. It's on the Workshop.

Get SkyUI. You'll need Skyrim Script Extender, but it's totally worth it. SkyUI isn't even optional, it's a mandatory mod. It makes the UI not suck.


I've got a pretty hefty list of mods I use. It's late, else I would share more of them. Those are just some of the ones I find to be most worth mentioning. You can also find mods that make arrows glow, which can be nice if you're an archer. The Steam Workshop has quite a lot of things to look at. Nexus has some of the stuff Valve won't host, such as especially violent content or nudity.

One that I just remembered, there's a mod that lets you adjust how often you get killmoves. It's called The Dance of Death, as I recall.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I'll second Script Extender. Many mods rely on it, so it's good to get in the habit of using it.

Beyond that, it's mostly personal taste. I would recommend playing the game mostly-vanilla at least once, otherwise it's hard to know if a mod is to your tastes or not.

[Oskuro]

I used to have a steam account for DOW2 but I've not used for so long I can't even remember what e-mail I used let alone the password.

Same thing happened to me, and I was able to recover my account by providing pics of the game case (including the cd-key). Try contacting Steam support and see if you can work something out.

[Phillip Hone]

Get the PC version. The game is bland, graphically and otherwise, without mods. Once you've installed Duel Combat Realism, Frostfall and various graphics things (Realistic Lighthing and Skyrim HD are the ones I recommend), it is worlds better.

I like the modded PC version, but I don't think I'd play Skyrim at all without a shit ton of mods.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Okay, going through my list of mods:

Improved Skill Books. On the Workshop. It allows you to pick up skill books without reading them. Nice for if you want to have that skill book but don't want the skill gain yet.

Alternate Start - Live Another Life. This can be invaluable if the opening decides to bug the fuck out on you. It skips that goddamn cart ride, instead letting you design your character and pick if you want to be in a guild, or if you want to be a refugee, or a bandit... Fair few options.

Vampiric Drain Scales with Level - Dawnguard Version. It makes the vampiric drain power not suck.

The Towns and Villages Enhanced series of mods is nice. They add a bunch of plants and stuff to the cities and villages they are for. You can't have a shitty computer, though, or things can bog down.

Mining Flames. The Flames spell you start out with can be used for mining ore. Because fuck carrying around a pick axe.

When Vampires Attack. It makes it so random villagers run the hell away when vampires attack due to Dawnguard, rather than charging up to the terrifying blood-sucking fiend and trying to punch it to death, only to get killed. Guards and other combat capable individuals will still go and fight it, though. Villagers and that sort will be essential during vampire attacks, too, to prevent them from getting killed. This is good because some quest givers are not essential, and shop keepers almost never are essential.

Run for Your Lives. Same idea as the above, except for it being dragon attacks.

Posh Mudcrabs. Because mudcrabs wearing a tophat and monocle is fucking funny.

Uncle Sheogorath's Really Helpful Hints and Tricks. It replaces the generic, bland load screen commentary with humorous comments. It will also give you a couple alchemy recipes.

Lightning During Thunderstorms. It adds lightning bolts during thunderstorms. You can set them to do no damage, or to do damage. Default is no damage.

Explosive Chickens. It's fucking hilarious. Whenever a chicken gets killed, it explodes for massive damage.

Stones of Barenziah Quest Markers. Because finding all 24 of the things without quest markers is a massive pain in the ass.

All of those can be found on the Steam Workshop.

[Lord Revan]

at least at the moment my PC is a bit meh so I'm kind of thinking mods that don't need a 2000+€ PC to run on

and btw are there any good female body mods that aren't nude mods at the same time, as the default skins textures aren't so great but I'd like to avoid "pervy mods" if I can.

[Wing Commander MAD]

There should be some non-nude versions of some of the body mods. I'd also second the idea giving the vanilla game + unofficial patches + SkyUI a go first, before you start modding. Actually, I made a couple mods that are mainly for quality of life improvement that I'd throw in a "vanilla" game because they're just making life a bit less tedious. Get them and others here, particularly "MAD Ingots and Leather" if you intend to use the Smithing skill. If you intend to do any weapon/armor crafting you'll thank me later. Other than that anything by Arthmoor, the current head of the Unofficial Patch team is pure gold.

One word of warning: DO NOT REMOVE A MOD FROM YOUR ACTIVE GAME, EVER!

If you want to remove a mod, you have to revert to a save from before the mod was added. I can not stress that enough. If you'd like to know more I can explain. I'd also highly recommend the use of BOSS and WryeBash(yes there's a bit of a learning curve with WB, but its worth it) and I'd be willing to answer any questions as best I'm able to.

[Napoleon the Clown]

It doesn't take too terribly impressive a computer to run Towns and Villages Enhanced. My computer was about $1000 when I put it together, and all the parts are dated at this point. If the computer is "meh" you'll want to avoid the HD texture pack. My GPU is decent enough, but people who have the same card that decided to get the texture pack have had massive issues with slow down. I'll try and dig up some tips and tricks for ini file edits that will make the game run better.

[Lord Revan]

To be honest I won't probably try to edit any .ini files as I wouldn't know what I was doing.

as for the body-mods I'm neither physically nor mentally 12 years so I don't need to see my female characters tits and genetilia, but if nude skins are the only to improve the rather meh vanilla textures/models (especially the female elves seem to have gone overboard) so be it, my parents won't be raging as they assume that at 31 years I'm old enough to decide myself if I want nudity in my games or not.

[Executor32]

Last I knew, all of the major body mods (both female and male) have an 'underwear' option you can use.

Also, to clarify Wing Commander MAD's warning, it only applies to ESP/ESM mods. If a mod is just models/textures/sounds/etc. and doesn't include an ESP or ESM, then it's OK to remove without reverting to an earlier save.

P.S. Macho Dragons

[Lord Revan]

Last I knew, all of the major body mods (both female and male) have an 'underwear' option you can use.

Also, to clarify Wing Commander MAD's warning, it only applies to ESP/ESM mods. If a mod is just models/textures/sounds/etc. and doesn't include an ESP or ESM, then it's OK to remove without reverting to an earlier save.

P.S. Macho Dragons

ESP? ESM? what do those terms mean?

[Grumman]

ESP? ESM? what do those terms mean?

They're the file extensions of mods that you actually have to turn on, the ones that do something new. On the other hand, a new texture does the same thing as the old texture, and all you have to do is paste it into the right folder.

[Wing Commander MAD]

I'd probably avoid .ini edits. IIRC a lot of them have been found to be placebo at best and actively harmful at worst from what I've been reading over at the Bethsoft forums.

ESP (Elder Scrolls Plugin) are the files created by the Creation Kit and basically record what was changed from the base game. ESM (Elder Scrolls Master) are the master files that hold the base game data. Most mods will probably be .ESP as we technically lack the ability to create .ESM files without third party tools, but some mods such as the Unofficial Patches have been made .ESM with third party tools for technical reasons. I also would highly recommend the use of a mod manager(preferably WyreBash as it is known to work properly) for installing all mods, even simple texture replacers, as manually installing mods with scripts can cause severe problems. It's best to not even start something that could develop into a bad, potentially game breaking habit.

Something else I'll mention, though it shouldn't be much of an issue now, is to avoid any mods created before the Creation Kit was released as they tend to be extremely buggy due to their hackish nature and will more often than not end up rendering your save game unplayable at some point.

[Lord Revan]

Another question is it practically possible to play a warrior/caster hybrid say like Warcraft pallies, or that sacrifice too much stats to be unplayable by anyone but the most masochistic players, also is it something that works only for some races or could be tried by all if it's doable to begin with.

and thanks for clearing what those acronyms meant, since before this thread only ESP I knew of was extra sensory perception which I could tell wasn't the case here.

[Wing Commander MAD]

Another question is it practically possible to play a warrior/caster hybrid say like Warcraft pallies, or that sacrifice too much stats to be unplayable by anyone but the most masochistic players, also is it something that works only for some races or could be tried by all if it's doable to begin with.

and thanks for clearing what those acronyms meant, since before this thread only ESP I knew of was extra sensory perception which I could tell wasn't the case here.

Pretty much any race can be any class. Certain racial powers may lend themselves toward certain builds and the different races have different starting skill bonuses, but that's really only prevalent in the first few levels. The Orc once a day racial power that doubles melee damage and halves incoming damage for 60 seconds obviously gives orcs an advantage in being fighters versus the High Elf one that recharges magicka 25x faster for 60 seconds, but for the other 90% of the game a High Elf warrior would play similar to an Orc one, and an Orc mage would play similar to a High Elf one.

Hybrids are perfectly viable, in fact one of my favorites is a paladin type charter focusing on Heavy Armor, Block, One Handed weapons, and using Alteration and Restoration magic for support. If you spread your perks too thinly you'd be weaker than if you concentrated them in a few skills. Then again with the last update that enabled essentially infinite leveling you could conceivably fully perk every skill if you wanted to invest the time. Really the only build that is troublesome is a mage who insists on only using Destruction magic as their sole means of damaging enemies.

[TheFeniX]

as for the body-mods I'm neither physically nor mentally 12 years so I don't need to see my female characters tits and genetilia, but if nude skins are the only to improve the rather meh vanilla textures/models (especially the female elves seem to have gone overboard) so be it, my parents won't be raging as they assume that at 31 years I'm old enough to decide myself if I want nudity in my games or not.

I went full nude thinking "fuck it, I'm a grown man and no one will ever be nude anyways." So, as I always do, I stripped all the valaubles from dead enemies and was treated to massive dong in my face.... I quicksaved, exited out, and loaded the "non-nude versions."

Another question is it practically possible to play a warrior/caster hybrid say like Warcraft pallies, or that sacrifice too much stats to be unplayable by anyone but the most masochistic players, also is it something that works only for some races or could be tried by all if it's doable to begin with.

There are no "stats" really. You level skills, so if you level heavy armor, two handed weapons, and destruction: you could cast spells and wreck guys with a sword. However, spells are expensive to cast and mana regens slowly by default, so you'd need to enchant to lower spell cost and mana regen, so you'll lose something like a "Two-handed weapon 20% damage increase" enchant.

But you can literally "do everything" in Skyrim aside from getting all the perks (skills you learn as you level). But there are mods that let you do things like trade dragon souls for perks.

and thanks for clearing what those acronyms meant, since before this thread only ESP I knew of was extra sensory perception which I could tell wasn't the case here.

Just think of an ESP as a way to run modified content without modifying the core files of the game. For instance, if you loaded an ESP that removed all the "arrow to the knee" comments from the game, that data is still in it's vanilla form when the game loads. But information from the ESP overrides it with a custom dialog tree. Opposed to assets like meshes and textures that, generally, will just be replaced. Many mod managers will back them up for replacement if you decide to uninstall.

[Grumman]

Another question is it practically possible to play a warrior/caster hybrid say like Warcraft pallies, or that sacrifice too much stats to be unplayable by anyone but the most masochistic players, also is it something that works only for some races or could be tried by all if it's doable to begin with.

No, it's perfectly viable. You have a lot of leeway in what you equip, too - you can hold a shield in one hand and a fireball spell in the other, or a sword and a summoning spell. You can't wield two shields at the same time, but that's pretty much it.

But you can literally "do everything" in Skyrim aside from getting all the perks (skills you learn as you level). But there are mods that let you do things like trade dragon souls for perks.

Actually you can do that too now: you gain perk points by gaining character levels, and you gain character levels by gaining skill levels. Originally once you had 100 skill levels in a skill you couldn't gain any more and thus could run out of skills to level to gain character levels. Now you can choose to drop a level 100 skill back to level 15 and level it again (and thus gain more character levels).

[TheFeniX]

But you can literally "do everything" in Skyrim aside from getting all the perks (skills you learn as you level). But there are mods that let you do things like trade dragon souls for perks.

Actually you can do that too now: you gain perk points by gaining character levels, and you gain character levels by gaining skill levels. Originally once you had 100 skill levels in a skill you couldn't gain any more and thus could run out of skills to level to gain character levels. Now you can choose to drop a level 100 skill back to level 15 and level it again (and thus gain more character levels).

What's the level cap now? There has to be over 200 perks and you only get one perk per level, so I assume the grind would be atrocious since I know leveling low skills even at level 40 or so pushes the meter up next to nothing. Either way, at least they did something for console players.

[Lord Revan]

Another question is it practically possible to play a warrior/caster hybrid say like Warcraft pallies, or that sacrifice too much stats to be unplayable by anyone but the most masochistic players, also is it something that works only for some races or could be tried by all if it's doable to begin with.

There are no "stats" really. You level skills, so if you level heavy armor, two handed weapons, and destruction: you could cast spells and wreck guys with a sword. However, spells are expensive to cast and mana regens slowly by default, so you'd need to enchant to lower spell cost and mana regen, so you'll lose something like a "Two-handed weapon 20% damage increase" enchant.

But you can literally "do everything" in Skyrim aside from getting all the perks (skills you learn as you level). But there are mods that let you do things like trade dragon souls for perks.

I know basically how the skill system in Skyrim works, what I meant by stats is stuff like damage you inflict or spell cost and so fort.

PS. the Warcraft Paladins are more warrior/healer with generally emphasis on the warrior(lore wise that is), so in Skyrim that translate to heavy armor, Two handed (favoring war hammers), restoration and possibly destruction, and one handed if possible.

[Executor32]

What's the level cap now? There has to be over 200 perks and you only get one perk per level, so I assume the grind would be atrocious since I know leveling low skills even at level 40 or so pushes the meter up next to nothing. Either way, at least they did something for console players.

There is no longer a hard level cap, but there are swiftly diminishing returns as you reach higher levels. Per UESPWiki, leveling a skill from 15 to 100 (AKA a mastering cycle) yields 4,930 XP; while that much XP will get you from 1 to 17 at the beginning, at level 194 it'll only get you to 195. In total, reaching character level 252 (giving you enough perk points to fully unlock all perks) requires 809,475 XP, which in turn requires 164 mastering cycles. The Legendary skill feature, which was added at the same time the level cap was removed and allows you to reset a level 100 skill back to 15 and get back its assigned perk points to redistribute, is obviously necessary for this.

After that, you can keep leveling indefinitely by continuing to make your skills Legendary, but there's really no point because your character level doesn't factor into damage calculations or anything. You'll just end up with a bigger number at the top of the ingame menu and excess perk points that you can't do a thing with.

[Grumman]

After that, you can keep leveling indefinitely by continuing to make your skills Legendary, but there's really no point because your character level doesn't factor into damage calculations or anything. You'll just end up with a bigger number at the top of the ingame menu and excess perk points that you can't do a thing with.

You'd have more health, mana, stamina and carrying capacity, but that's more easily accomplished with enchantment loops.
Spoiler

Enchant rings that make you better at mixing potions! Mix potions that make you better at enchanting rings! 20 GOTO 10.

[StarSword]

As far as mods are concerned, a couple I recommend:

• Immersive Saturation Boost. Gets rid of that "real is brown" BS and makes the whole game look a lot better.
• Convenient Horses, which lets you give personalized horses to NPC companions.

[TheFeniX]

I know basically how the skill system in Skyrim works, what I meant by stats is stuff like damage you inflict or spell cost and so fort.

Spells don't scale, which is a huge complaint many players had with the game and is the subject on a few magic overhaul mods. Your basic heal spell will always heal X amount per second (or at once) unless you enchant to increase the effects.

PS. the Warcraft Paladins are more warrior/healer with generally emphasis on the warrior(lore wise that is), so in Skyrim that translate to heavy armor, Two handed (favoring war hammers), restoration and possibly destruction, and one handed if possible.

Fuck that, Prot Pally is best Pally! And you best check the model for WC2 paladins, sword and board all the way baby.

You'll run into issues with two-hand and spell casting it will force you to sheath your weapon and run away to heal or cast your spell. I did this all the time. It is completely viable, but you're going to give up something in one area to get more in another.