first time playing skyrim, need some advice

[Osama Bin Laden]

i'm getting into PC gaming because the PS5 has no games and I refuse to pay for anything anymore unless it deserves my money. i know absolutely nothing about skyrim as a game and the lore outside of the opening meme that’s popular

i have always been interested in playing Skyrim, but I never got around to it because it either wasn't my thing or just didn't have a chance to play it. I've heard that the original game is buggy with performance issues but I've also seen there's plenty of quality of life mods that can improve the game

so these are my questions

• should I play Skyrim as is (the way God intended)
• should I install the QoL mods then play Skyrim
• if so, what mods do you recommend
• what is your favorite skyrim memory

 

[Buttigieg2020]

• should I play Skyrim as is (the way God intended)

No

• should I install the QoL mods then play Skyrim

No

• if so, what mods do you recommend

Skyblivion

• what is your favorite skyrim memory

Uninstalling it

 

[Pedophobe]

I'm a vanilla experience guy generally but for Skyrim you need SkyUI and the Community Patch at a minimum to play it. Think of them as bugfixes more than modifications.

Favorite memory is when I finished the Civil War questline and the bossman gave me a piece of random leveled loot as a reward, an elven vampiric sword of soul drinking. Made me seriously question my choices in life.

 

[Battlecruiser3000ad]

Play prologue, get into the first village, spend lot of time installing mods and solving conflict issues until it's perfect, never launch it again

 

[The Backwards Man]

• should I play Skyrim as is (the way God intended)

Yes

• should I install the QoL mods then play Skyrim

No

• if so, what mods do you recommend

Mods are all made by trannies

• what is your favorite skyrim memory

When I willingly handed Todd (The God, not the Fraud) Howard my money.

In all seriousness though, just play it vanilla with the USSEP and SMIM installed.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

SkyUI mandatory. It also requires Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE) to run.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/12604

I never installed the Community Patch or whatever but it sounds like a good idea.

 

[Modern Audience]

• should I play Skyrim as is (the way God intended)
• should I install the QoL mods then play Skyrim
• if so, what mods do you recommend

Skyrim has alot of flaws, my suggestion for gameplay mods are mortal enemies (It makes it so enemies wont hit everything in front of themselves and dodging much easier), my second suggestion is sky UI, my third suggestion is dual wield parrying(it allows you to block if you're dual wielding or have a spell in your other hand), my fourth suggestion is critical hits make sense.

what is your favorite skyrim memory

I'm not sure. I guess the end of dragonborn DLC you really get the idea that your character has kind of transcended everyone else. You really aren't some regular person.

 

[Dagoth AMOGUS]

It’s been 13 years, they pretty much squashed every bug they could by then. The introductory first two hours are as smooth as silk now. Give it a try and go in blind. You’ll see why it’s so popular.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

Will it be your first Bethesda game? I ask because there's a lot of overlap between the modern Fallout and Elder Scrolls games in terms of mechanics. There's plenty of content to enjoy in the vanilla game, but since you have the option to mod, I'd say do it

As for favorite memory, a small group of Thalmor gave me shit over Talos worship on a bridge suspended high above river. So I shouted them over the edge, watched them fall to their deaths, then watched the river current gently carry them over a waterfall.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

You should probably install a few mods, but nothing that massively changes the game. Nexus is run by a tranny cocksucker but the list of top mods of all time is a decent place to start.

SkyUI, SIMM, USSEP, SKSE, A Quality World Map, Skyrim Flora Overhaul, Realistic Water Two, Enhanced Lights and FX, Wet and Cold and Realistic Ragdolls and Force SE.

These will all enhance the visuals, fix some bugs and smooth the experience without really changing anything about the game and letting you play exactly as Todd intended. Then once you are comfortable you can mod more.

 

[Osama Bin Laden]

Will it be your first Bethesda game? I ask because there's a lot of overlap between the modern Fallout and Elder Scrolls games in terms of mechanics. There's plenty of content to enjoy in the vanilla game, but since you have the option to mod, I'd say do it

Fallout 4 was my first Bethesda game, and when I tell people that, they fell sorry for me. I didn't enjoy the game that much but I enjoy Fallout as a concept. I've been told New Vegas is a lot better where your choices actually matter in the game.

SkyUI, SIMM, USSEP, SKSE, A Quality World Map, Skyrim Flora Overhaul, Realistic Water Two, Enhanced Lights and FX, Wet and Cold and Realistic Ragdolls and Force SE.

that's my main thing as well. i want to preserve the game but also would like a nice coat of paint on it

 

[The News Crews]

The only Bethesda games where you NEED the bugfix is Daggerfall and Morrowind. Oblivion and Skyrim are perfectly playable on their own. And IIRC the unofficial patches also make unnecessary balance changes

 

[Asian tech support]

Doing you a favor and pinging the TES thread mod autists @CryptoHermit @Übertroon @Mr. Racewar1488 @Prophetic Spirit @Super Hans v2 @Chin of Campbell @scathefire probably forgetting a few, sorry. Not that much of a Skyrim modder so I don't have anything to offer beyond what's already been said.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

so these are my questions

• should I play Skyrim as is (the way God intended)
• should I install the QoL mods then play Skyrim

Skyrim gets a lot of shit for being a modding platform more than an actual game, some of it deserved, some of it not. Yeah, mods make it better (isn't that the case for every game?), but the vanilla game is perfectly playable and fun. I recommend playing vanilla for a while just to get the hang of it, and to download some mods after.

if so, what mods do you recommend

Are you playing Oldrim, SE, or AE? Mods made for one of these may not be compatible for the others. That said, most popular mods can be found on all three. Everyone's gonna recommend SkyUI, SKSE (required by a lot of mods, but doesn't add any gameplay changes by itself), and the unofficial patch. The patch has some drama surrounding it because it "patches" some things that aren't bugs, but for the average player that isn't important.

Spoiler: More mod recommendations, not strictly QoL

• Achievements Mods Enabler if you care about achievements.
• A Quality World Map to remove the fog from the map so it can actually be used as a map.
• Yes Im Sure to stop the game from asking for confirmation every time you want to craft something.
• Diverse Dragons Collection, adds many more dragons as the vanilla game only has like 6 or so.
• Run For Your Lives, stops unarmed NPCs from fistfighting dragons and vampires.
• The Dragonborn's Bestiary, a recent mod that adds a neat-looking bestiary to the game.
• Apocalypse and/or Odin, both mods add more spells to the game.
• Inigo, never downloaded this one myself but I heard it's good. It adds a purple Khajiit companion to the game with 7000 unique lines.

 

[Vapor Sauce]

Just play the game and vibe. Don't look up stuff or spoil anything. You really don't need mods the only one I would recommend is SkyUI as it's made to be a more functional ui for keyboard and mouse. But you honestly could just play the game out of the box and have a good time which is what I would do.

I didn't play Skyrim until 2016 when the special edition came out on PS4. I was also pretty in the dark about most of the game. So my first playthrough as a whole was my fondest memory. It made me feel like a teenager in high school again.

 

[Osama Bin Laden]

Are you playing Oldrim, SE, or AE?

SE

 

[Core Theorist]

You don't know what kind of mods you need until you actually start playing. If you really want my personal recommendations, for relatively simple stuff that isn't big story bullshit (my bonerjam), I would definitely suggest that new dismemberment framework, chopping up more body parts in battle is always fun.

 

[The Connected Nose]

Chiming in with the SkyUI & SKSE crowd. Even if you install nothing else, install that. The default UI is utter trash, and SkyUI makes it nice.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

SE

That's great because it's the version with the most mod support, many Skyrim players refuse to update their game to AE, so you can expect it to be the most supported version, at least in the near future. I remember reading that some AE mods will work on SE even without porting, but I never tried it myself.

 

[Osama Bin Laden]

That's great because it's the version with the most mod support, many Skyrim players refuse to update their game to AE, so you can expect it to be the most supported version, at least in the near future. I remember reading that some AE mods will work on SE even without porting, but I never tried it myself.

yeah i saw some video that there’s a way to concert SE mods to AE but im not particularly interested in AE until i beat the game or become invested enough to care about the lore