» Sat Mar 16, 2013 1:08 am Moving on I started playing and got disinterested in the game fairly quick. Everything was too bright in doors. I walk into a cave, there are no light sources, but someone everything is magically lit up everywhere. No darkness anywhere. This and a few other issues finally got to me and I left the game alone for over a year. I went back to playing Oblivion when I wanted a TES game.
Finally a few weeks ago I decided to come back to Skyrim. The first thing I had to do with relearn how to use AutoHotKey. Then learn how to use NexusMod Manager because everything seems to be using it now. After learning how easy it is to use comapred to manually opening every archived file and manually moving everything into the data folder I felt happy about it.
Now I needed to do something about Skyrim to make it enjoyable for me. First things first get good mods. Thus I went on a day long quest to find all the mods I could that would make Skyrim the game I wanted.
SkyUI was the first on a long list of game changes that needed to take place. Changing the way the menus open and appear. Excellent. But just the beginning. Next was ImmersiveHUD. This mod is awesome. It totally removes the HUD while you are playing, but adds in elements that are good to see when you need them. This was much better than either removing the HUD entirely (which I had done previously) or keep the HUD. Also, removing map markers and the compass? Excellent, now we were getting somewhere.
The next mod that made the gameplay much more enjoyable was Frostfall. Now the cold weather actually has consequences. I couldn't stand walking around in a blizzard with shorts and a tshirt on and acting like nothing was happening. This MOD made me freeze to death if I wasn't careful. That together with Cloaks of Skyrim was a huge step in the right direction. I couldn't understand how no one in the vanilla game, aside from the leader of the Stormcloaks and a couple other players had them. Now this was more like it.
Then finally I found the MOD that changed the lighting for me: RCRN. Wow, what a beautiful mod. Now I could walk into a cave and have it so dark I couldn't see anything. Or walk in the wilderness at night and have it so dark I couldn't see but more than a few feet in front of me. That tiny shining light far off in the distance? Perhaps it's a campfire, and I'm freezing to death, I'm going to walk towards it and hopefully find some warmth.
Alternate Starts is awesome. Skip the beginning. It was nice the first time, but not afterwards. Starting in a random place with nothing but a pair of clothes, and with no questlines started already. That is more like it. Now I can really start roleplaying the way I want to.
There there were a few minor adjustments which I think add a lot, like the footprints mod to see them in the snow, and the mod that lets you see your breath when the weather is cold. Hair mods, and even a race mod, the Lunari which I really enjoy. I like the Elven/Nord race, and I also like to have good looking characters, and this mod helps me to do it.
Another MOD that I didn't start useing in my new playthrough until about 60 hours into it is Convient Horses, as I didn't use horses but as I started to use one I couldn't stand the limitations to it. Especially jumping off my horse at night (when it's already basically pitch black) fighting a stupid spider that has ambushed me, and then looking around for my horse for fifteen minutes in the dark. Surely there has to be a way to fix this? Convient Horses is an awesome mod. It let's you tell your horse to follow you around when you dismount, you can learn how to whistle and then whistle for your horse if you can find it and he'll come running to you, it makes it so when you're fighting you quick dismount with your weapon drawn, you can harvest ingredients while still mounted and riding, you can armor your horses, and so much more. What an awesome mod.
I can tell you, playing with better lighting (darker environments), better horse reactions, more immservie clothing such as the cloaks, and so and and so forth, the better UI, the better HUD, and many other things, such as more realistic walk and run speeds and others has made this once again a game I enjoy.
So now I'm 100 hours into my current gameplay with my Lunari named Yasmin and having great fun. She just finished building a house, adopting two children, found her long lost friend Vilja from Oblivion (oh and I must give props to the Vilja Mod, which is an awesome MOD for all that it does, although she can get annoying, talking so much, she is a great companion).
I'm looking at Steam and it says I have 484 hours playing Skyrim now. Oh and one other thing. In all that time I have not slayed one dragon, or used one dragonshout. I've never started the main quest yet, after more than two years. I think I might just get into it in another 50 hours or so into this gameplay, perhaps. And I still need to start Dawnguard and DragonHeart quests too.
But I'm so busy having fun finally with Skyrim that I don't care when I start on it.
I'm not your typical causal gamer, nor am I a hardcoe one either. I guess my play is unique I don't mind gaming the system where I want to, and I like role-playing the rest.
I realize that without mods I probably could have never gotten into this game again, which is fine, but I'm glad they are there, because Skyrim got so much right, these just fix where it didn't go far enough. And of course there are a lot more I haven't mentioned, and others that other players have that make their gameplay better too.
Well, that's it. I think I'm going to go back and finish taking care of my adopted children, do a little more work on my house, perhaps read a book in my library, then head on up north for a little adventuring.
