Inspired by the upcoming Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch, and the minor uproar that has resulted due to people not wanting to acquire Hearthfire in order to upgrade to USLEEP as a result. While it is a mostly cosmetic mod in the sense that it's mostly for building player homes and for enabling adoption, I don't think it deserves the cold shoulder treatment that people are giving it. I personally may mandate that a future version of one of my mods may require it in order to build the workbenches associated with it, using the Hearthfire crafting bench and associated materials.

Thoughts?

Heartfire is so maligned because it does something we PC modders already have so much of: house mods. It was basically just a bone thrown to the console players.

I don't think of Hearthfires as a "mostly cosmetic" mod at all. I think of it as a roleplaying mod. Before they came out, I was far more interested in buying Hearthfires than I was in buying Dawnguard. But then I am not the typical Bethesda consumer, apparently: I value roleplaying more than I value vampires or more combat opportunities.

Anyway, to answer your question, I completely support your decision to require Hearthfires in your future mods.

I like it well enough myself. I'm not that heavy into the RP aspects, but one thing I do have a bit of a thing for is the construction. Sure, it's way too time compressed to be realistic, but I like the fact that you build the house in stages, then build the contents in stages. A few of the village mods I did for Oblivion employed this same idea because I thought it was cool.

So I say if you're wanting to use it for its construction model, go for it.

BTW, even taken strictly as house mods, I think they fill the purpose adequately. They're a lot more elaborate than many house mods you can find on Nexus.

What I never understood is the people that actually have Hearthfire, but which are still mad for it to be required because they don't load the esm in their gameplays. I mean, maybe it is because I only played Skyrim without Hearthfire once, but what's exactly so annying to these people to want to remove it? As it can be pretty much ignored.

In my case, I avoided Hearthfire because I'd be paying money for something I have absolutely no interest in using, and it's not pennies/cents either.

I'd already bought Dragonborn because that was the only DLC I was actually interested in, but then I bought the Legendary Edition because it happened to be on sale cheaper than the Dawnguard DLC was, and I was willing to buy that as a modder's resource (I'm not terribly interested in playing it).

Hearthfire's decent. It could've been much so better though. Unfortunately, they're just three identical houses in different locations.

My Hearthfire wishlist:

• Build any extension in any wing (I want my armoury and my library in one house!).
• Choose the shape of the wing.
• Build some extensions as stand-alone buildings (e.g., having an enchanter's tower or an alchemist's tower separate from the main building).
• Different themes/appearances for each house. Alternatively, choosing the theme of the house.
• Bigger house. The main hall is fine but the three extra wings are tiny. I felt almost cheated. I thought the other wings would've been close in size to the main hall. Nope, they're just an additional room or two.
• A third floor with a large master bedroom (that doesn't have kids sleeping in it!). I always loved that about Rosethorn Hall.
• Someplace to display all the unique artifacts I've gathered. They deserve better than being chucked in some chest. I had to adapt another mod (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/67704/?) for this.

I hope someone at Bethesda chances upon this post before the next Elder Scrolls game