So I just started installing mods in Skyrim again (after 2 1/2 years of having none). I've read up on some of the new mods out and such and grabbed:

-Unofficial patch for both the game and all DLC

-a few small ones like Guard Dialogue overhaul and the "flee when vampire/dragon attack"

-Civil War Overhaul

But I can't think of what else I want.

I want Skyrim to feel real and immersive. So I've been looking at:

-realistic needs and diseases

-Hunterborn

-Interesting NPC's and Inconsequential NPC's

-Open Cities

-Frostfall

-and there was an animal "food chain" mod as well as an economy mod, but I forget the details.

Are there any other mods I should consider to keep in line with what I'm trying to do?

As an aside: What are some of the best house mod in terms of being well made? All the ones I've tried had problems like objects not properly aligned, non-functional doors, or just stupidly massive.

*I've heard Civil War Overhaul is VERY buggy.

Great Immersion mods are Hunterborn, Wet & Cold, Frostfall, Realistic Needs and Diseases. Immersive Weapons and Immersive Armor both add tons of great equipment.

Breezehome Fully Upgradable is a great home mod.

Id recommend Loot & Degradation:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/55677/?

It gives weapons and armor durability plus adds looting to npcs.

Looking at the Breezehome mod. It doesn't look bad, though I'm not much of a fan of Whiterun and It'll conflict with Open Cities :/

Wasn't there a house mod that like accumulated cobbwebs and dirt if you werent there for a time?

Try Hearthfire Homes....

And Build your own home : http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/18480/?

Yes but I can't remember what it was called. Good news is that there are tons of great house mods out there.

Ahh yes this one is fantastic!

Another great mod to check out is Organized Bandits in Skyrim (OBIS). Talk about fun! It's a customizeable mod allowing you to encounter all kinds of bandit gangs and types in forts, raids, and roaming the wild.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10175/? is the mod that comes to mind for that. Use and love it. You may also want to look at http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24913/? to add some new spice to the game. It adds a lot of new creatures that are and are not lore friendly, if your more into lore friendlyness like I am then in the MCM there is an option to remove the ones that are not lore friendly.

If your using RND then you may also want to use http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/38507/? that way those wells that are in towns and cities can now be useful.

THATS THE ONE, lol. Ya, I'm not too concerned with lore, as long as it's within reason (no guns, for example).

I'm actually looking at maybe just using iNeed instead. Not sure yet.

As for house, I've narrowed it to Elysium Estate, the Gypse caravan, or the pioletable airship.

Am I wrong or isn't Skytest - Realistic Animals and Preditors rather demanding? When I used it I had a rather unstable game outdoors. I'm not blaming Skytest in itself but I think it basically pushed my game over the edge when used with lots of other mods. I really liked its features but I have been wary of adding it ever since.

Yep, SkyTEST does add quite a few new spawn points to the world (note the large herd of deer on the Whiterun plains, for instance), so if your system is getting near the edge anyway it might tip things over into instability - although I used the mod for a long time without any issues. If unsure, just give it a try!

There is a "light" version of the mod available as an optional file from the SkyTEST page at the Nexus - this version doesn't add any new spawn points, but it also doesn't add any new animal variants - it just edits the existing animal AI for better behaviour.

However, I'd suggest holding off on SkyTEST for the time being - etayorius, the author, has recently announced that he's rebuilding the mod from scratch, so you may want to wait until the rebuild is ready.

Also, to note, If you use Skyrim Immersive Creatures on its default setting along with SkyTEST, you're likely to be overwhelmed by creatures like wolves, as both mods add a lot more to the game! You can fix this, however, thanks to the SIC MCM menu.

SIC has a default mcm setting called "additional spawns" which is effectively a multiplier for certain spawn types - ie. where normally one wolf would spawn, now up to 3 wolves could spawn. This means that where 3 wolves would traditionally spawn, you could get 3 x 3 = 9 wolves spawning. You can disable the "additional spawns" features of SIC in the corresponding mcm menu. It is safe to disable "additional spawns" in SIC wiithout losing any of the new creatures - all you're doing is lowering the chance of multiple instances of any particular creature spawning.

I was unaware of SkyTEST getting a face lift. Will be interesting.

Lol, nothing like running into a pack of 20 wolves

Thanks for the info. When I used it I'm pretty sure I got this "issue" of having loads of wolves etc. as I always use SIC and didn't know about the additional spawns feature.

I'll wait for the SkyTEST rebuild. I love the baby mammoths and the mooing elks etc.

I love seeing the little spiders and rats in various places.

Hopefully he is adding in a MCM to better customize the mod.