I'm looking to find "Basic Needs" mods, i.e., mods that operationalize hunger, thirst, sleepiness, tiredness, etc. and thus require/compel the player to eat, sleep, drink, and rest.

I have played many scores of hours with http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24079 activated, and I really like the functionality it adds.
(1) Running causes fatigue, moderated by Athletics at 100% Athletics you can run a lot if not constantly with no problem (makes atheletics, restore fatigue, etc. worthwhile, forces more realistic travel behavior
(2) Hunger, thirst and lack of sleep cause attribute drains, which stack with more prolonged time with needs unmet, but go away if you eat, drink or sleep.
(3) A potion called "water" which can be summoned from wells (using a "Well-key" purchased at General Stores) can be drunk to restore thirst. Obviously the common foods in Cyrodil can be eaten to slack hunger.
(4) "Sack Bedroll" item can be purchased from General Stores. Adds two spells: Open and Close Bedroll. Thus you can carry this around and sleep anywhere, as long as you have become sleepy.

The mod keeps track of how much you eat and drink, and how long since you slept. You generally need to sleep about 8 hours per day, and eat a min of two different food items about 3 times per day, and drink about 3 times per day. Alcoholic beverages also slack thirst.

This has been one of my favorite mods, and I really cannot imagine playing the game without it or something comparable.

However, having now started to add additional mods (see current load list and currently not activated mod list below) I've run into performance issues. I'm still not sure if this HungerThirst mod is causing problems. It might have been one of the other ones that was causing problems (e.g., MDsaddlebags or Alchemy Advanced).

I'm starting this thread to

A. see if anyone else uses these types of mods
B. see if anyone else has has had similar problems, or has recommendations
C. see if there are any other basic needs mods that folks recommend

Best Regards

Current Load Order (I'm having no problems with this load order)


Other OMODS I have installed, not running presently, but ideally would like to run


I'm also running
OBSE
BOSS
TES4Edit
WeOCPS
FastExit2
Music OFF & other sound minimization tweaks
Autosave, etc. disabled

Firstly, sorry, no links, my work PC won't let me link for some reason.

The two mods I use to cover these matters are-

Realistic Fatigue by Abo. This makes encumberance work a lot more intuatively and I wouldn't think of playing without it. It profoundly affects gameplay in that you need to think about the trade off between what your are carrying and how tired you get. There is increased risk of tripping up as you get fatigued. It has heavy greathing effects and screen blur as you get exhausted. Best of all it works for NPCs. Seeing a bandit charging up the hill towards you, then keeling over with exhaustion at youir fett is a great experince. It's avaialble on Tesnexus

For Eat/Drink/Sleep I use Simple Essentials by Skycaptian. It cover all three areas, has a simple intuative eat and sleep system (drinking is marginally more complicated) and works with all sorts of mod added foods drinks and sleeping places. Unfortunately it is not availalble on Tesnexus because Skycaptain has never got round to writing up a readme. There is a direct link to the download (the beta 2 version which works perfectly) in a thread on this forum.Again, unfortunately I can't link to the thread. Hopefulls someone else will provide the link. I love this mod.

Thanks S'lider. I will look those up.

Here is the thread where http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1069984-simple-essentials-question/page__hl__simple__st__20 to the Beta version of SkyCaptain's Simple Essentials mod. Gonna give it a try

Thanks a ton for the help S'lider.

Tried out Realistic Fatigue. Do I get fatigued just from Encumbrance with that mod?

ADDIT: Ah yes, amazing what you can figure out by paying attention toa Readme



Does eating and drinking have any effect on fatigue?

I played a bit walking around Bruma, stealing stuff, running a bit . . . I like the way the fatigue burns with this mod as compared to Tyler's Hungry,Thirsty mod. Burns up way too fast in Tyler's I think.

However, even after sleeping about15 hours in Olav's, drinking about 4 beers, and 4 meads, and eating plenty of food (about six different foods, including several meats), I still had the "Fatique Effects" line in my Current Effects window, and my fatigue meter was hovering about 1/20th below max level for my character.

Was that just from being somewhat encumbered?

Anyway, my configuration seems stable with that one running. Will add Simple Essentials to the mix and see how that works too.

Not directly. But put into the mix Real Sleep Extended of Real Hunger (COBL version) - and things may get ugly. Those two change attributes, you know, and therefore also influence the maximum of encumberance. And that transfers to Realistic Fatigue. And you're in trouble:-) I like it...
EDIT: So the game goes like: Kill the bandits, take all their equipment. Don't sleep in that dungeon. Going home...what? Sleepy? And fatigue burns out faster and faster, so to get home, you must drop almost all your treasure. It helps...for a moment. Because now your stomach grumbles and fatigue starts to burn out a bit faster...

Yes.. you will drained some fatigue of when encumbered using realistic fatigue .. The idea is that with more stuff you carry, you'll tired out faster

If you have cobl, you might take a look at real hunger and real thirst mod, they both have cobl version and for me, both are the best essential needs mod.

There's also EGM - Enhanced Game Mechanic - which you may try. It combines both hunger and thirst and penalized fatigue, so you get 1 mods that deals with hunger, thirst AND fatigue.

For sleep requirement, nothing beats real sleep extended. Your sleep needs is based on your stats .. so you dont really need exactly 8 hours of sleeps each day. My Breton mage needs a bit more sleep then my Nord warrior.

All should be available on TESNexus.

Tyler's Hungry,Thirsty,Sleepy,Tired packages: hunger, thirst, fatigue, sleep, a mechanism to get water, and a mechanism to sleep with a bedroll anywhere. And it doesn't require any additional mods like cobl.

I'm generally quite happy with that mod.

However,

1. It could be that my performance issues relate to this mod not playing nice with other ones, not sure about that, but exploring alternatives before I resort to going back.

2. You can only get water from wells. You buy a well-key, which enables a spell, which when cast near a well, creates a "Water" potion in your inventory. If this could be automated so you did not have to hit 'C' 40 times to get 40 units of water, it would be brilliant. Also, not being able to get water from lakes is a bit of a gap.

3. You cannot sleep UNTIL you are sleepy. Having the bedroll and being able to sleep anywhere is nice, but not being able to sleep in advance of something you don't want to get sleepy in the middle of svcks.

4. IMO, the fatigue burns out too fast while running. About 10 times faster than in the Realistic Fatigue mod.

5. Not sure if Fatigue in Tyler's mod weighs Strength, or only Agility. In any event, it does not weigh in encumbrance like the Realistic Fatigue mod does.

6. Compared to the Simple Essentials, I prefer how the hunger, thirst, and sleepiness effects are handled in Tyler's mod. You must drink about (min) 3 potions of water per day (or alcoholic beverages) and eat about three times per day. IIRC Tyler says "at least two items" implying at least two items per day. But I think in fact that you wind up having to eat about 6 or 8 individual items of at least 3 different types to stay nourished, which is fine. The preferred element is that, Hunger and Thirst are handled separately. You get a message saying "Your Hungry" and "Your Thirsty" instead of them being packaged into one message as they seem to be in Simple Essentials. Also, your hunger and thirst (and sleepiness) are handled as "diseases" that can be cured by eating, drinking, and sleeping. This to me is preferable to the somewhat more vague "bonusing" system in the Simple Essentials mod.

7. Lastly, I still have not managed to actually collect any water in Simple Essentials, but that I blame on my own poor memory. Had to go back to the thread where the link is and re-read S'lider's explanation about hovering the clicker and using the 'E' key.

I need to play a bit more before I decide if I will resort back to Tyler's or not.

Real Sleep Extended has an optional Bedroll you can purchase, or you can just sleep in any one you want. It also has a variable timescale feature so you can have time pass at different rates for different activities, including fast travel. Real Thirst does have a version that doesn't require COBL as well, though you really should look into that mod. It's worth having in your list regardless.

Thanks Belanos

I think I'm gonna keep what I have running now for a while, just to test it out thoroughly, but if I get into trouble it is awesome to know there are still more alternatives to try.

ADDIT: Wow, COBL sounds amazing. Like getting a whole second & third game in one. In the long run, I want to try many if not all of these advanced overhaul type mods (OOO, FCOM, COBL) but I think my main goal for now is just to have a fairly simple mod configuration that is stable, and fixes the fairly minor shortcomings of the vanilla game. I still have yet to visit Anvil, Cheydinal, Bravil . . . and have probably only visited 5 to 10% of the map, so I'm really just getting going. Given that I should probably hold off on major mods like COBL for now.

COBL isn't as major as you may think it is. While it does add stuff to the game, like extra alchemical ingredients etc. it doesn't change the original gameplay at all. It basically just adds a bit of flavour and provides a platform for other modders to easily add in their things, like Real Hunger and the COBL version of Real Thirst. Plus it provides a few game options that normally wouldn't be available, like a time reminder for instance.

What I use:


Real Sleep Extended for Sleep: Amazing mod, and you also get Kaffe in the game! : )

ABO′s Realistic Fatigue for fatigue: Works also on the NPCs \o/

Tejon Fatigue Effects for Hunger (all other functions disabled)

I also plan to add Duke Patrick′s Basic Hypothermia II soon

All these mods can be fine tunned through an ini file

Still looking for a thirst mod