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I started this topic, because I have wondered by what standards people choose the mods they use? That's because I've seen many people speaking about running Skyrim with 150+ or even 200+ mods. That intrigued me, because I only run a total of 73, and half a dozen of those are utilities like SkyUI that enable me use other mods, and another dozen are simple retextures, lighting fixes or weapon/armor additions, and some of the number, of course, are the unofficial patches.

My own "philosophy" in modding is that the less and the simpler, the better. Once I identify something that doesn't please me in the vanilla game, I ponder if I can tolerate or work around it. If the answer is no, I only then search and install a mod that fixes that thing.

Also, lore-friendliness or at the very least period appropriateness is a must. I at first even hesitated to install Roman Legion Armor retexture for Imperial armors, because I wasn't so sure a straight rip-off from real history would fit into Tamriel (but now, funnily enough, I actually couldn't play without that mod). So, no anime girls or modern-looking clothing mods for me. The mods must accomplish their goal with minimum complexity, too. That is, if there is a choice between a scripted and a non-scripted but cruder mod that do the same thing, I'll usually go with the unscripted. Lastly, mods mustn't include things that are too overpowered or effortless to obtain, to preserve challenge. All in all, the main thing is that the feel and atmosphere of the game is preserved as intact as possible. I also strive for permanent, stable mod selection that I have to alter very rarely, if ever.

So, what are your criteria for choosing mods? Do you change them often or aim for permanency? Fun or realism? Style or substance? I'd like to hear that especially from persons who use huge numbers of mods, and/or like things that alter the game drastically either visually or gameplay-wise.

(BTW, not sure if this thread belongs here or to Skyrim-General area. Moderators, please move this if in wrong place.)

I mod to: add the various "Unofficial' patches, improve textures, fix/improve meshes, add in armor/weapons/creatures/animations/sounds, overhaul some aspect of the game, improve the UI and add to the HUD.
I like a mix of style and substance, they reinforce each other.

Right now LOOT says I have 108 active plugins and Mod Organizer shows 245 mods in it's left panal (lots of texture or meshes only stuff).
I'm running the S.T.E.P. Extended mods, plus several others to flesh things out.
Shezrie's Heljarchen Kitchen lets me have both a kitchen and library in my Hearthfire home.
Shezrie's Heljarchen Greenhouse. Again, it adds flexibility to my Hearthfire home.
Immersive Armors. Style and substance. Always in my LO.
Deadly Dragons, OBIS and High Level Enemies keep things...ummm...lively.

I, generally speaking, like period appropriate mods.
When I do add a mod that isn't, it's a temporary thing just for fun. ( Like the time I used a mod that turned one moon into the Death Star. )

I never got hung up on using only lore friendly mods.
I prefer they be player friendly.
Less is better and I'll use a script free mod over an equivalent mod with scripts.
Still, sometimes script happens.

My overall philosophy is I'll try a mod if it's subject interests me or looks to be a better/more interesting way of doing something than the vanilla way.
Mod Organizer makes it a lot easier to try mods without breaking your game ( it's not foolproof ).
A mod might get played 'one and done' or get a permanent spot in my load order.
It all depends on if I enjoyed it and does it play well with other mods.



All the mods I use are listed in the Post what mods you use! thread.

This looks interesting. Quite a few mods I also use. Especially AFT is a must, also Deadly Dragons because vanilla dragons are pushovers.

Seems like making the game more challenging can be done in many ways. Namely, to me the equivalent of High Level Monsters and OBIS is using Duel and Skyrim Unleashed. The former makes enemies smarter (especially in that they search for a sneaking character far longer and use cover better), and the latter makes all enemies' scaling a lot harder. Have you tried either?

The mods I use are ones that either "should have been in the game from the start" or "make sense".

Eg: The Unofficial Patches, absolutely ANYTHING of Arthmoor's, the Space Core DLC (it's an official mod by Bethesda), Thirteen Orange's "places" stuff, Syclonix's Character Creation Overhauls, rko13's Real Companions, a few of Jokerine's stuff, Felroki's Fine Goods from Morrowind, and, of course, some of our beloved Sarthes Arai's mods.

You appear to rely on Steam Workshop for your mods.
Any special reason?

@ Nord85 I looked at the Duel and Skyrim Unleashed Nexus pages and I don't understand why I didn't try Duel sooner!
I'll pass on Skyrim Unleashed. High Level Enemies, Scaled Version, is a better fit for the way I play.

I find it easier to use than the Nexus.

I said "easier", not "better". I use it mainly out of laziness.

And, no, I do not use consoles. Get those filthy things away from me.

Space Core master race reporting in.

I forgot to mention about why I use the SC mod when I said I only use mods that either "should have been in the game from the start" or "make sense". Well, I forgot to mention I also try to own all official DLC. At least concerning TES (excluding ESO. Bloody microtransactions).

Yeah, Duel is great. I use version 5, and the enemies behave rather smartly, especially in groups, when compared to vanilla. For instance, once when I was sniping at bandits from a for NPCs inaccessible cliff, one of the enemies retreated into a tent and didn't come out until I jumped down from the cliff. Also, just yesterday a bear I was shooting from across a river parked itself behind a tree so as not to get hit. Things like these aren't constant, granted, but better than vanilla in any case.

As for Skyrim Unleashed, I wanted Skyrim to be as merciless as it looked. So, enemies across the board had to be harder and the mod does just that. Especially the early levels were nightmarish, in a good way. I really felt like a nobody in the middle of a hostile world, a feeling I really missed from Morrowind. That pitiless tooth-and-nail survival thing was a great part of the fascination of that game. But well, each has his tastes.



Oh yes, I also use some of Arthmoor's mods as part of Expanded Cities and at least those are very good. Examples of quality mods, really: Stylish but not overblown. Space Core, on the other hand, is really the kind of thing I avoid. Official or not. I strive for a sort of a fantasy world simulator (within reason; mods like Frostfall are already a bit over the top), and that robot thing would be jarring.

As for Steam, I ceased to use that for mods. It started to get on my nerves that I had to wait those mods to be detected every time I started the launcher. I use NMM instead, since this far it's been great to use. The disastrous .60 update messed my game up a bit, though, so my trust for that program is somewhat lessened. Still, I got everything running again with some 1½ hour's worth of tinkering, and the program looks to work, so for the time being I'm sticking to it. One more messy update like this, however, and I'll look for something more convenient.



Me, too. I even bought Elder Scrolls Anthology to get all those DLCs for every game, even though that effectively meant buying the base games for a second time. No regrets, though, since I got it cheaper than just Dragonborn, Dawnguard and Hearthfire combined would have cost bought singly.

I really think Dragonborn and Dawnguard are the best DLCs in the series, although only by a hair's breadth compared to Bloodmoon and Tribunal. Oblivion's DLCs unfortunately were mostly trash. Horse armor, anyone? At least they learned from that in Skyrim and made Hearthfire to have some working and actually useful content, as down-to-earth it was. I haven't played Shivering Isles yet, though, so can't really say if it compares to Skyrim's or Morrowind's DLCs.

Do yourself a favour and play Shivering Isles! It's set in a strange and bizarre world reminiscent of the best of Morrowind, and its plot unfolds some interesting Daedric lore. I'd say it easily stands up to Dragonborn, maybe not quite to Dawnguard (less emotionally involving).

Anyway, OT. According to NMM I'm running 160 mods at the moment, among which 117 plugins. Unofficial Patches are there as a matter of course, as is AFT for more pleasant follower interaction and more follower management options. Immersive Armors, Common Clothes, Immersive Weapons and Jaysus Swords for more variation in gear. Immersive HUD and Less Intrusive HUD because I don't like the game to jump into my face with reminders that I'm playing a game. For increased challenge and realism I'm using Requiem, which takes some time getting used to and isn't everyone's cup of meat, but having played with it for two years now I couldn't do without it anymore. Some practical stuff like Portable Campsite, Bandolier and Field Alchemy, and stuff that makes the game and its world feel more real, like Immersive Stables and Living Takes Time. I like mods that make the game look better without making my potato gfx card keel over, so I have a lot of texture replacers but tend to choose the lowest resolution that still looks good. Pure Weather+ELFX can make the world look jawdrop charming, and with Imaginator you have a lot of freedom to customize it.

I'm totes on board with Nord's "fantasy world simulator" and "period appropriateness", although I'd modify the latter by "character appropriateness" - meaning I can tolerate a little anachronism if it fits the character; i.e. a rifle would be ok if it's a) not overpowered and b) dwarven-made and the character is a Dwemer tech nerd/archeologist. Some mods get installed just because they fit the current character - e.g. my main character is the Night Mother's Listener, so one of my fave mods is an overhaul of the post-questline Dawnstar Sanctuary populated by a plethora of new Dark Brotherhood recruits, and the latest addition is a mod that makes the Shrouded Robes look more like mage robes than vanilla Skyrim's ridiculous pyjamas.

I guess my philosophy is something like "If it's cool, makes sense, isn't too resource heavy and is compatible with what I'm already running, let's give it a try." With tools like Skyrim Save Cleaner, Skyrim Save Tool and Savegame Script Scalpel it's much easier to experiment and revert to the status quo ante today than it was a few years ago, but a little circumspection still can't hurt. I make a point of reading the mod author's instructions, browse the comments for possible problems and try to get as good an idea of what I'm doing as I can, and if I screw up I don't blame the mod author for it.

BLASPHEMY!!! Oblivion is the most underrated game in the franchise. I'd say all the DLC, excluding the Horse Armour and Spell Tomes, both of which should have been in the game from the beginning, were pretty awesome.

If it's improving, fixing, or increasing the immersion of my game, I'll at least look into it.

I appreciate it when the mod-author focuses on being lore-friendly and maintaining/improving the spirit of the game.

I tend to stick to lorefriendly stuff, generally. There are a few exceptions along the lines of a LotR weapons mod and stuff like that, but that's about it. Even those have to roughly fit in with Skyrim for me.
I have some fixes, some [&@%!] and a whole bunch of snazzy armor sets, because I am a sucker for new armor.

I haven't gotten my gaming stuff yet, but I've been looking into mods for a long time. My whole goal with it is to add stuff that really 'should' have been there from the get-go, along with some immersive stuff (better/realistic female armors, frostfall, some texture updates, other race children, interesting npcs, the unofficial patches, etc). I want a lot of my stuff to be pretty lore-friendly.

I have been having a bit of a hard time finding some hair (and by extension, follower) mods that don't look like it was clipped from a magazine or imported from a JRPG/anime though.