So, currently I am on my third playthrough. First proper one on PC after having done back-to-back playthroughs on PS3 (never done that on any Elder Scrolls game before, I have to add).

I am currently using SkyRe as my main overhaul mod. I'm having lots of fun but in the back of my mind, I can hear Requiem calling me

The reason for this is that I almost constantly have the feeling that something is "missing" from Skyrim that made me appreciate Morrowind so much. It hit me when running around on Solstheim and hearing that glorious Morrowind music (excellent choice of music for revisiting Solstheim, I love that Bethesda did that!).

The main thing is: feeling of progress. While Skyrim Redone is great and I love the added perks, mechanics changes and new weapon types, after about 40 hours of playing I have come to a few realizations:

- As stated I love the additional / revamped perks when compared to vanilla. Some seem outrageous or a little out-of-place from a TES point of view, but they're still fun. However, I find that there a bit too many and this makes things a bit convoluted as to which way to go. On the other hand, it DOES give you as the player more freedom in combination with the Uncapper.

- extra weapons. On paper, reintroducing spears, shortswords and introducing new weapons such as the maul and glaive sound great. In practice however, I find myself appreciating them primarily for variety on NPCs. I hardly ever use them myself and find some of them to be "shoe-horned" in, or at least it feels that way to me. Shortsword is a good example, as even the appearance of most of these look out of place, to me.

- Loot and enemy level scaling. The most important one for me. SkyRe does a better job of this than the vanilla game, but it still feels very "vanilla" to me in that scaling is still very much present. Which diminishes the feeling of progress, in my eyes. SkyRe does an especially good job at the earliest levels, as I was getting one-shotted and had to run from challenges more than once. However after about 10 hours or so the "flat" feeling of progress that is so present in vanilla returned.

Which has turned my attention to Requiem. I will complete this SkyRe playthrough first as it is still fun despite my 'issues' with it , and I want to experience the entire game (didn't complete the DLC in earlier playthroughs) as 'vanilla as possible' before I turn to more drastic overhauls like Requiem.

Now for the questions I have at the moment:

- Looking at the points above it seems to me that SkyRe is more like Fransesco's for Oblivion, and Requiem more like OOO. Also in my view, SkyRe gives you more options to play around with in the broadest sense, while Requiem 'forces' you to think / plan more in the constraints of existing content. I.e. maces being a 'necessity' (this is probably exaggerated a bit) to damage armored foes instead of adding new weapon types, etc. Can any SkyRe / Requiem players confirm or deny this?

- I am already planning ahead on which mods to use alongside Requiem. I saw Azirok made a bunch of patches for some really nice mods, so I will be using those. I am thinking about a bunch of others...such as suitable combat mods that do not override the mechanics tweaks that Requiem makes. Any advice on this matter? Mainly looking for gameplay mods here...Visual / Audio I will make a selection from later on, not too fussed about those. I am already using a bunch of mods with SkyRe, which I won't list here as the list is as long as my arm but I'm looking for mods that fit well with Requiem. Such as Frostfall for example.

any and all advice is appreciated!

I have researched, tried, retried, and abandoned Requiem. Doesn't mean it's a bad mod, just full disclosure.

Requiem is pretty much all-encompassing. It's a monolithic vision of the game and pretty self-consistent. So, I wouldn't add combat mods or loot mods or weapon mods or anything else that Requiem takes care of. Just let Requiem do it's thing.

Requiem is super hard... for about 15 (?) levels. Then, it gets better. But the beginning is punishing. You've got the right idea: it forces you to think and rethink.

I wouldn't take your Fran's/OOO anology very far at all. Requiem isn't really like OOO much at all.

My biggest difficulty with Requiem is that, as much as I like the hardcoe rpg gamey stuff, I find the game content itself (Skyrim's content) to be better suited for a less punishing playstyle. With Requiem, I feel like I make zero progress through the plot. If you ignore the plot and just go dungeon diving, it's better, but why would I want to do that? I guess some people do. Anyway, I find it ups the tediousness and repetitiveness of a game that already suffers from that.

Your milage may vary.

Cheers.