When I played Oblivion, I ran several mods that added an in-depth amount of changes to the game world economy. I had ones where you could own and run your own mines, open your own shop, have a working farm, even invest in a stock exchange.
I liked to play a relatively non-combative merchant character who was more focused on building an economic empire than becoming some great hero. It completely changed the game. Instead of fighting I would hire guards (NPC Companion Mods) that would protect me as I went town to town, and I even had economy overhaul mods that balanced out the price of things (no more 1 septim for Venison).
Well I now want to take my trading prowess up north and try this unique way of playing in Skyrim, so I'm asking for some help and suggestions for mods I can use? I'm looking for mods that do any of the following:
-Add new non-combat money-making opportunities (running a shop, a mine, a brewery, any kind of business or even side-job things similar to woodcutting)
-Add hirelings (I like companion mods but without the bribe option from Oblivion it doesn't feel like I'm "hiring" them), basically fighters to do the heavy lifting for me.
-Rebalance economy gameplay, Skyrim has a much better economy than Oblivion did but still I'm sure some overhauls could be useful.
-Expanded recipes for existing crafting, more blacksmithing recipes, more alchemy, just more everything, if it's something extra I can build then that's a plus
-Possibly an alternate start, I'm generally wary of how these can impact the game but if it's well designed... I still want dragons in the game and to have all the same events occuring but a non-combat start would allow me to jump right into my roleplay instead of suspending it.
-More things to buy: Anything from houses, shops, ships, horses, furniture, etc. I need some cool things to aim for when it comes to purchasing. This also includes more shops and/or wandering merchants.
-Immersion mods, nothing too heavy but adding a little bit more realism like having to eat and sleep and whatnot would be nice.
The biggest requirement for all of these though is they HAVE to be relatively lore-friendly, while yes I'm breaking the story by not owning up to being Dragonborn, I still like the world to feel like everything belongs in Elder Scrolls, so no lightsabers, Legend of Zelda props, or Hogwarts Schools please.
I currently own all DLC, and below is a list of some of the mods I already use:
Simple Marriage Mod
Acquisitive Soul Gems
Bathing Beauties Luxury Suite
Better Sorting
Buyable Paintings and Pictures
Categorized Favorites Menu
ClamsDropPearls
Convenient Horses
Deadly Dragons
DFB - Random Encounters
Dovahkiin Hideout
Faster Mining
Hearthfire is a part of Skyrim
Homestead - Make Anywhere a Player Home
Immersive Armors, Weapons, Content, and Patrols
Improved Container Names
More Village Animals
My Home is Your Home
Vilja in Skyrim
Peaceful Mudcrabs
Real Wildlife
Rich Merchants
SkyUI
UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul
Unnoffical patches for Skyrim & DLCs
WARZONES - Civil Unrest
Wearing Faction armour causes aggression
Wet and Cold
I run other "graphical improvement mods" and minor tweaks but the ones above are the only ones that may cause conflicts.
Please help suggest anything you can! Thank you all!