My Fav Skyrim Mods
Here is a list of my favourite Skyrim mods that have been released so far. That some of these even exist before the content creation kit has been released shows how creative some in the modding community can be.
Notice the lack of Anime/JRPG armour/weapon replacements in this list? Want to hazard a guess why? Hint: It is related to them and their source material being utter shite.
In no particular order:
1. Arrowsmith
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1178
Lets you use feathers, firewood, leather strips and metal to craft arrows. Very useful as arrows are oddly rare in Skyrim. I prefer this over some other mods because they go to far and let you craft items that pretty much ruin the game.
2. No More Blocky Faces
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30
Nice mod that smooths out the blockiness that is sometimes apparent in characters faces.
3. RWT Realistic Water Textures
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=711
Greatly improves the water textures on all types of water. Based on photos of actual real life water.
4. Vurts Skyrim Flora Overhaul
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=141
Improves much of the flora in the game by replacing with higher res textures. Makes the woods very pretty indeed.
5. Serious HD Retexture Landscape Skyrim
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2146
High res texture replacer for many of the ground textures in the game. Near photo realistic frankly.
6. Enhanced Distance Terrain
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1598
Basically adds a little noise to the distant terrain so it looks less blotchy and smooth. Also make texture/model pop in less obvious in the distance.
7. Calientes Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2666
It wouldn’t be a list of PC games mods without the obligatory nude mode. Female obviously. Install it, look at the boobies and then forget it is even installed. Comes in slim, regular and stupid big boobs sizes. There are male equivalents but you can look those up yourselves, I find them disturbing.
8. Enhanced Night Sky
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=85
Give the night sky a bit of pizzazz. Different colour options and the choice to have nice pretty nebula in the sky.
9. High Res Dragons
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1154
Make the Dragons pop a little more without having them totally redesigned by some no nothing wannabe art student. Keeps the same essential Bethesda design but increases the detail and improves the colour.
10. Skyrim HD
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=607
Project to replace ALL the textures in Skyrim. Has some overlap with the other big texture replacers I have here so I install this first as base and overwrite with the others.
11. 360 Hotkey Enabler
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=310
Allows you to use all 1-8 hotkeys on the keyboard rather than just the 2 on the 360 controller. Better than other mods that add these shortcuts to the 360 controller as it doesn’t make changing weapon’s into a mini game of Street Fighter 2.
12. Readable Road Signs
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=387
Make the signposts in Skyrim legible so that they are useful rather than just decoration.
13. Killable Children
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=774
Depraved or important change to improve realism? You decide but once you have met that snotty little brat in Edoras Whiterun you will seriously consider installing it. The Daily Mail would shit bricks over this, which frankly is just another reason to install it.
Has the weird side effect of letting you select a child during character creation. Odd.
14. Skyrim Enhanced Shaders
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=822
Improves the palette and lighting in the game. Greatly improves the look of the game but can have a significant hit to your frame rate. It has varrious different options and presets but I prefer the ‘Darker Nights and Dungeons’ version. Guess what does? Watch out for the fucking bears when you go wandering in the hills of night though. You also feel less of a tit when sneaking through the shadows when it looks like you might be actually be in the dark.
15. Nexus Mod Manager
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/content/modmanager/
Not really a mod but an application for downloading, installing and managing mods for Skyrim. Makes managing multiple mods much simpler. Was so buggy even I would have been embarrassed to lay claim to it (which is saying a lot considering some of the crap I have written over the years) but has improved in recent versions. Only halfway decent application for this purpose anyway.
