## Legacy of the Dragonborn
The centrepice of this playthrough, LotD adds the Dragonborn Gallery to Solitude, and tasks the player with filling it with artifacts for display. Y'know, all those things you'd collect in a regular playthrough and either sell, use a few, or stash them somewhere they'd likely never be seen again. It also adds a treasure hunters guild you can join, in order to get the quests to seek out the relics. I've never played it before, and started this playthrough a couple of days ago specifically for it. LotD has patches for a lot of the mods I'm already using (including some quest mods I added but mostly never played or didn't finish yet) so there's display space in the museum for a whole lot of stuff. Starting playing with LotD enhanced my roleplaying and inspired me to write this log in character, which I've decided to share with you.
Has a few other mods and patches baked into it, including The Gemstone Collector (which I was previously using already).
## Hunterborn
Instantly picking up pelts and parts from slain cretures is way too easy and 'non-immersive'. Hunterborn 'fixes' that. Now skinning and harvesting takes time. I've configured it to require a hunting knife, and for tanning to require animal fat. Collecting those 25 pelts for Janesssa isn't gonna be so easy now, and definitely isn't gonna be worth whatever she pays me
I largely added this cos LotD has patches for it, plus it seemed interesting. It in turn has patches for Hunting in Skyrim which adds a hunting guild, so I added that and also a related mod which adds a hunting shack player home in the Rift.
Oh and the patch that adds in the Mod Configuration Menu since that's not in by default cos some modders and players still avoid SKSE64 because "it's in alpha". Srsly everone it works fine.
## OMEGA
A very significant part of my setup. Also the source of the suggestion to try out LotD.
OMEGA is kinda modpack/framework. There's a lot involved but it's pretty easy to set up if you read carefully and follow instructions.
As I'm using it, OMEGA combines MorrowLoot Ultimate with a bunch of other mods to make Skyrim more hardcore. Skyrim Revamped: Complete Enemy Overhaul is a large part of that. Also Skyrim Immersive Creatures, Organised Bandits in Skyrim and OBIS Patrols. And KS Dragon Overhaul 2 to buff the dragons. And a bunch of other stuff...
There's now uncapped levelled encounters zones. And an automated script to add the EZ level numbers to the zones so you know what you're getting into. The reason the patch is built by script is because otherwise you need more layers of patches for lighting mods and other such things that modify those cells... it's whole thing. Anyhow there's lots of difficult and diverse enemies to fight. And less powerful gear to collect. The top tier stuff stays super rare. You don't just start getting daedric level gear from every bandit cos you're a level whatever.
I've included the OMEGA version of Heavy Armory that adds a bunch of weapon subtypes.
I'm using the Complete OMEGA patch which means I'm also using Immersive Armors (a variety of armour variants on NPCs), Weapon Armor Clothing and Clutter Fixes (including Armor and Clothing Extension)
## 'EnaiRim'
Mods by Enai Siaion, who makes a lot of mods with a lot of content that add a lot to the game! I haven't really played without them since I got back into Skyrim after a long break, so there's probably a lot of features I've forgotten are modded
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim replaces the entire perk tree, which is why you don't recognise the perks I've taken as any of the vanilla perks. I've tweaked it a little with a patch that lets mage robe perks work if I'm wearing armour with the robe, and another that adds back in more levels of enchanting perks. Might be relevant?
Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim adds a whole lot new spells to learn. Especially more powerful and interesting destruction spells. But more interesting spells in general.
More Apocalypse: more apocalypse
Imperious - Races of Skyrim increases the distinctiveness of the races. That's why my Altmer character gets a debuff to weapons and armor and a buff to enchantments, and will get a buff to skills at skill level 100. That's also how she got the ability to set up a magical contingency, unlocked by collecting 40 butterfly wings.
Thunderchild - Epic Shouts and Immersion adds new shouts which are alternate meanings of words, which are unlocked by meditating in front of the statue to Kyne in the High Hrothgar library. Also there's quests to buff your shouts by earning favour with Kyne. (... of Skyrim??)
Andromeda - Standing Stones of Skyrim changes the effects of the standing stones. That's how my character gets free novice spells and 50% random buff/nerf to spell power
Summermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim, changes/adds enchantments
Wildcat - Combat of Skyrim: changes the combat system a lot, including a wound system. I haven't mentioned it during journaling but my character sometimes breaks enemies' arms or legs, causing appropriate debuffs. And has had an arm broken a few times. And spine. Spinal fractures *halve* your remaining health. Ouch! (That's mostly lead to my character dying. I don't include deaths. Too much to write already.)
Sacrocanct - Vampires of Skyrim. Vampire tweaks, vampire abilities. So long since I played a vampire and I haven't played much as a vampire with this so I'm not actually sure which features are new
There's also Ravengate - Riften Underground. It adds a fighting tournament and a bunch of NPCs. I tried it out and kind liked it but suffered from a fatal 'all the NPCs keep aggoing when they definitely shouldn't' bug so I had to stop using it and am not playing it on this playthrough. A pity. (Also I'd love to have stolen some of the NPCs for companions but that didn't work. Sad.)
Oh and Smilodon - Combat of Skyrim overhauls the combat AI but I've never tried it.
## Moonlight Tales
Overhauls werecreatures, sorta like Sacrosanct does for vampires. I've never quite gotten around to playing as one yet so I don't really know how it plays yet.
## Live Another Live - Alternate Start
Start with your choice of occupation in a variety of locations and situations! Also added an addon that adds even more possibilities. Some are race specific like being a Thamor Agent, in an Orsimer Stronghold, or as one of those Alik'r warriors with a curved sword. Unfortunately with OMEGA a lot of them are in places I just can't survived for long enough to get away and have a chance at playing.
Also the Thalmor Agent start was trapped in the embassy because the doors were still locked, last I tried it. And the starts that require lockpicking aren't so good with a lockpicking level requirement mod. And the only way I've found to start as a werewolf dropped me in Solstheim which I don't know my way around and have no chance of surviving in at level 1. Oh well.
For this playthrough I ended up choosing the top option of arriving by ship, because it's pretty straighforward and fit being a newcomer to Skyrim. Solitude because I like it best of the port options. By chance that's also the very first Alt Start I got when I returned to playing Skyrim. (That character got 'lost' (not by a mistake on my part that time) and narrowly avoided freezing to death due to incorrect configuration causing all clothing to have 0 warmth. But would likely have been freezing anyway in those conditions
By happenstance it turned out that LotD has a trigger to start its quest immediately when you start in the Solitude dock, so when I found it I decided I'd go with it and built my character and class around that, which pulled me into the roleplay deeper and here I am spending three hours writing about my modlist while listening to the sound of rain from Skyrim which is currently paused
BTW if I hadn't been sent to Helgen (to see Alduin fly off and start the main questline), then LAL would have sent me there if I asked an innkeeper for rumours. The adventurer's journal my character found on a burnt body is basically the account of what a vanilla-start character would have experienced in the default cinematic entry. (It's generally not possible to play that with a lot of mods because the scripts break and it gets stuck. That can also happen unmodded, thanks Bethesda
)
## Campfire and Frostfall
Can build a campfire (not simple! Though not as difficult as IRL) and set up tents. Skyrim is now actually cold and that matters. There's buffs and debuffs based on your exposure level. Getting wet is bad expecially in cold weather, and doubly especially in frigid water. Clothing/armour has warmth values and coverage values. Coverage is how much it prevents you from getting wet in the rain. Temperature varies with location, time and weather. Fires warm you, ice spells chill you. Cover from tents is important in cold conditions. Also warm food warms you up. And you can warm up with magic if you know how!
I also have the Frostfall Seasons mod so seasonal temperature differences are a thing. Also Winter is Coming - Cloaks. And Tentapalooza for more camping stuff.
Campfire also has its own perk tree system that requires... a campfire to interact with. It has camping perks and Frostfall adds endurance perks.
## iNeed
I need to eat, drink, and sleep. So do my companions. I can carry water in waterskins, and need to use water in some cooking recipes. I have it set up to reduce the amount of food lying around, and food weighs more. Alcohol quenches thirst but it dehydrates. Salt is now needed in some recipes.
I stopped using this mod for a while but decided to put it back for this playthrough because I felt food had no purpose without it, which would devalue Hunterborn. Plus the setting for followers to have needs helps balance them out a bit. I wish they didn't pester me quite so often though.
## Ultimate Combat SE
Does locationl damage but I've switched all that off in favour of Wildcat. Can boost health of some enemy times but that's already taken care of so that's off too.
What I am using this for is advanced enemy AI. I've defintely noticed some enemies doing fancy flips out of reach! Devious.
## Immersive College of Winterhold
Makes the college look better and function a bit better too.
## Skill Uncapper
Lets you customise skill caps (both max reachable and max for calculation purposes) and skill gain/reward rates.
More specifically, you can set multipliers for how much skill xp you gain for each skill, based on the skill's level and based on player level, individually. And separately, how much level xp you get for gaining skill levels, again with separate multiliers for each skill's skill level and player level. Also you can set how much health, magicka, stamina, and carryweight you gain at each level up. Also the number of perk points per level. (For example, I got no perk at level 2 because I hit that almost immediately due to the next mod. Past level 80 I only get half a perk point per level, assuming I get that far.)
I've got all skills capped at 125 for the character, and 160 for calculation. (So I can't raise a skill over 135, but if it's buffed by an effect it caps out at an effective 160. You could do the reverse if you wanted.)
Skill gains are all a low 0.4 initially, reaching 1.0 multiplier at skill level 40, then increasing a little until it's 1.2 at 80, but dropping back to 0.5 from 100. (In my setup, player level doesn't affect skill gain rate.) But there's speed humps at skill levels 15, 16, 25, and 26. I can't earn any skill xp at those skill levels. Those require training or skill books to pass.
Skill gain doesn't give any level xp at all, because...
## Experience
Lets you gain xp from discovery, clearing locations, and completing quests, rather than from skill gains. Lets you limit maximum skills based on character level. (So it's the reverse of vanilla, where player level is caused by skill gains.) Optionally lets you earn xp from kills. (Well, it's all optional since you can set anything to 0. I'm using reduced rewards from the default, but I've reduced the penalty on kill xp for having followers, because otherwise I was getting 1xp max per kill, which was sad.
There's also an option to switch xp gains from skil levelling back on, but that only does vanilla gains and does not care about Uncapper settings. Though you could manually set multipliers to reduce it if you figure out how. I just left that off.
I've set the skill cap to 20 + 1.25 x level. So at level 10 the max is... 32.5? But I have a skill at 33. Not sure if it's not working, or it rounded up. We'll see if it gets to 34 before I reach level 11.
## Sleep to Gain Experience
Skill experience gains are banked until you next sleep.
Hmm, maybe that's preventing the cap from Experience from applying? I hope that's not what's happening, cos then thing thing that's slowing my skill gains in one way isn't slowing it in a different way.
## Smart Training - Tweaked
You know how you can pay trainer NPCs to get skill increases, five times per level? But while you're out earning gold and raising your level (or just trying to find/reach the appropriate trainer), you end up going up by multliple levels, wasting those training opportunities? Well now all training opportunities are banked until you want them. Guaranteed 5 trainings per level, at your convenience. (Or change that number in the config menu. Optionally earn a perk point by training enough times, but I'm not using that.)
## Spells Require Perks
The Ordinator version (cos ordinator removes the default line novice-apprentice-adept-etc perks in favour of Mastery 1 and 2) requires Mastery 1 to cast Novice spells, Mastery 2 and skill 25 (each in the appropriate school skill of the spell) for Apprentice spells, 50 for Adept, 75 for expert and 100 for master spells. You can't just cast whatever without investing perks if your magicka pool is big enough (and/or your found/bought the right robe). So where you put your first perks matters a lot!
## Spell Learning and Discovery
Gone are the days of looking at a spellbook and instantly knowing how to cast a new spell. Now reading a book gives you spell notes for the appropriate school. When you sleep (but not multiple times a day) you have a chance of learning a spell. Having more spell notes of the appropriate school of magic increases your chances of learning. So does talking with NPCs that can train in magic, about magic. Also sleeping in temples or the College helps.
You can see what spells you know about in the config screen, and choose the order you'll try learning them in. You can also see your chances for learning and your cooldown time. There's also a chance of discovering a spell (to possibly learn) without the spellbook. (That happened to my character with Thunderbolt. Or was it Thunderclap?)
## Dragon Soul Relinquishment
Pay dragon souls (at High Hrothgar, after you know all of Fus Ro Dah) to get various buffs. Number of souls required, exchange rate, and maximum increase are configurable. So I can get 1 perk point for 8 dragon souls, up to a maximum of 20. Basically in case I need a perk or two or a bit of a buff in the late game when I'm swimming in dragon souls. Also I haven't actually tried using it yet.
## AutoHarvest
Configurable automatic pickup of loot and plants and stuff. Can set minimum value to weight ratios. Can toggle it and set excludelists. Means you don't have to rummage through every body, walk up to every flower, and peer in every burial urn. Saves a lot of time.
I had to disable picking up of animal parts and pelts or else it would bypass Hunterborn and give me pelts before skinning. (And after.)
Also had to turn off harvesting of crops because I have iNeed set to make me purchase or steal crops (or ask to help harvest them) and autoharvest was bypassing that.
## Ore Falls on the Ground When Mined
Exactly what it says on the tin
## Point the Way and Road Side Travels
The former adds more road signs. Which I kinda forgot to read. Twice. Oops.
The latter lets you fast travel to places you've visited by activating a road sign pointing there. Limited immersive fast travel!
There's a patch to make the former work with the added signs of the latter.
I'm using this cos having fast travel on is too much, but having no fast travel is just too inconvenient.
I tried out a SOT mod that allows fast travel but consumes food (I was playing without iNeed at the time) and has a chance of causing disease or triggering an ambush. But the ambushes could happen 'on the way' which a) was rather wonky because Skyrim doesn't have a way to interrupt fast travel like you can with sleeping and b) 'on the way' could end up being further from your starting point than your destination, and sometimes in the opposite direction. I'm not *that* bad at reading maps and signs. Usually.
## SWIFT
Skyrim Wayshrines - Immersive Fast Travel, I think. Adds a bunch of fast travel points around Skyrim. I need to complete a quest before I can start activating them. And activating and using them will cost. Wayshrines are nearish to useful locations but out of the way enough that people aren't tripping over them. So they're not too easy to discover.
## Carriage and Ferry Travel Overhaul
Adds more carriage destinations, and can travel by boat to locations on the same waterway. Also the wagons are covered.
## Zim's Immersive Artifacts
Makes the unique artifacts you find not be so underpowered.
## Zim's Dremora Improvements
Makes dremora more varied and interesting and worthy opponents considering what they are.
## Enhanced Atronachs with Levelled Summons
Because atronachs need love too. And by love I mean staying relevant and worth using rather than being ignored as soon as you can summon dremora. I haven't played with this before so we'll see how it goes.
## Open Cities Skyrim
Moves ciies into the worldspace so now you can seamlessly walk through a city gate without loadscreens! And install patches for any mod that is effected by that change
But any significant mod does, or has an OCS version, because it's pretty important.
## SOT Sleeping Encounters
Chance for your sleep to be interrupted! Based on where you sleep. Configurable.
Once I started a vampire character and the very first time I slept (camping outside Whiterun) I got murdered in my sleep by the Dawnguard. Oops.
Now I set a combat delay of 5 seconds so I don't die before I can open my eyes. Though that wouldn't help that level 1 vampire when surrounded by the Dawnguard
## Amazing Follower Tweaks
Have multiple followrs, give them all commands, and manage their outfits and combat styles. Also have them level up automatically or manually. Or set poses. I've never looked at the poses.
## Immersive Citizens
The people of Skyrim go to appropriate places at appropriate times. Including running away when they ought.
## Equipment Durability System
Weapon and armour degradation with use, by loss of temper levels. Very configurable!
## Signature Equipment
As you kill, equipped items gradually get better. As your legend grows, so does your gear! Mainly exists so players can stick with less optimal gear that they like better.
Basically works in opposition to the durability system. Higher level enemies give a greater benefit. Smaller things will give less benefit than you lost fighting the thing. Choose your battles and fight smart!
Perhaps build up the legend of an item so you can sell it for a higher price. Can work as an alternative to smithing for magic users who are good at avoiding being hit and don't want to put perks into non-magic skills but want to improve their gear somehow.
Can be capped to prevent it from growing ridiculously.
## Reality Alchemy
You now need sterilysed flasks to do alchemy. You need glass to make those. You can make your own glass by melting down empty bottles. Potions now leave bottles when you use them. Not poisons though. Keeping poison bottles is unsafe!
Or you could buy flasks at exhorbitant prices.
The point is, now alchemy is not a ridiculously easy way to make money.
## Ars Metallic Smithing Enchancement
Another must have. Makes smithing good and useful.