Updates - End of 2020 and Early 2021
Some exciting things happening in the modding community:
This community never ceases to amaze me. I return from a brief hiatus of a few months to a bustling modding scene with new tools, new mods, updated mods, more Wabbajack lists than ever, and so much more! While I hinted at some of these things in the last post, I wanted to look more in depth at some of the new/updated things that all of these amazing people are working on. Without further ado, some of the cooler things that are happening in the world of Skyrim modding:
I think that most everyone that has been modding for even a short period of time has heard of Wyrmstooth and most have probably played it. It was taken off the Nexus by the author, Jonx0r, when he quit modding but was still hosted offsite (and therefore still on many many modlists, my own included). But as of this month, it is back on the Nexus, with an update! This mod adds a new land with one of the longest and most impressive dungeons (in my opinion), with new NPCs, new side quests, and more. I played through this for the first time last spring, with several custom followers (Inigo, Lucien, and Kaidan) and apart from a random crash at one point (that was not repeatable, and honestly could have been caused by any number of other things including a page file limitation), it was a smooth experience that felt vanilla. The bosses were tough but fun with my posse of followers (including those the mercenaries that were part of the mod) and the only real downside is that I had too much loot to carry around with me. There are already so many patches and addons for other mods (most of which “should” work with the updated version, but definitely check on specific ones and check out the changelog on the mod itself). For more info, check out these links:
Surjamte is at it again! After expanding Whiterun to be the hold we always wanted it to be, he turned his sights on Windhelm and has astounded us once again. With new landmarks, new NPCs, new quests, and more, this is now truly the City of Kings. To top it all off, Surjamte is working on his update to Riften, with videos on YouTube showcasing some of the work he is doing. For more info, check out these links:
We’ve changed so much in our modded Skyrim, but I haven’t seen a voice rework mod series like this one that came out in 2020: Satafinix and his Enigma Series. You know the goosebumps you got when Darth Vader or Smaug or Bane or Ultron or fill-in-the-blank villain spoke for the first time? You knew they were someone to fear. You know the goosebumps you got when Alduin or Miraak spoke for the first time? Not quite the same, was it? Well, this mod series updates their voices and brings a whole new level of immersion. I am not exaggerating when I say that just listening to the clips on the mod page gave me goosebumps, so I knew I had to add these to my game. For most of these, Satafinix gives an example of each vanilla voice and the remake so you can really hear the difference before even downloading. The voices that have already been reworked include:
- Dragons – Enigma Series (LE|SE) – Includes:
- Paarthurnax
- Alduin
- Odahviing
- Durnehviir
- Dragonborn DLC
- Daedric Princes – Enigma Series (LE|SE) – Includes:
- Molag Bal
- Mehrunes Dagon
- Malacath
- Clavicus Vile
- Hircine
- Sheogorath
- Sanguine
- Peryite
- Hermaeus Mora
- Azura
- Meridia
- Nocturnal
- Boethiah
- Mephala
- Vaermina
- Namira
- Miraak – Unfaithed (LE|SE)
- Sinding – Cursed (LE|SE)
- Lord Harkon – The Prophecy (LE|SE)
- Ebony Warrior – The Last Vigil (LE|SE)
- Tsun – Shor’s Gate (LE|SE)
- Nordic Shouts (male only) (LE|SE)
Vanilla Skyrim animations look…well like they are a decade old, because they are. But the good news, is that there are so many possibilities for animation mods to be created/used using the multitude of frameworks available. The most recent framework sweeping the modding scene is Dynamic Animation Replacer (DAR) by Felisky384, which was first uploaded in March 2020 and already has nearly a hundred mods built upon it. I can’t play without half a dozen of these now. Here is the list of mods that currently require (some as a hard requirement; some as optional) this framework (Note: these are just the ones on the Nexus; there may be others hosted elsewhere):
(SGC) SkySA – Combat Behavior Compulsion
Akaviri Martial Arts – Oriental Swordsmanship Redux
Animated Armoury – DAR Version – New Weapons with animations
Armor Type Specific Animations
Artifact Animation Replacer – Wabbajack
Attack Animations and Movesets
Awakened Warrior Greatsword Animations SE
Black Flame Friede Dual-Wield Animations SE
Catwalk animation (SSE dynamic and normal port)
Children won’t use sexy animations
CIWM – Custom Idle WheelMenu SE
Claw Animations for Animated Armoury – Orakin 2020 Animations
Cold Region Behavior – Beta Test
cookeh’s conditional and random animations – CCARA DAR
Couch Lance – Convenient Horse Add-on
DAR – Less Creepy Cisero Dance
DAR – Modesty – Cover Yourself
DAR – Onehand Melee Exhaustion
Dark Knight Greatsword Animations SE
Draw 2 – Dual Weapon Equip-Unequip Animations
Dynamic Animation Replacer – Crawl on all Fours Animation
Dynamic Animation Replacer – Flying and Hovering
Dynamic Animation Replacer Multiple Power Attacks Animations
Dynamic Random Female Idles V2
Eating Animations and Sounds SE
Feline Movement Animations for Khajits Only (FMAK) SSE
Female look out Idle (Normal and Dynamic conversion)
Feral – Claw Unarmed Attacks for Beast Races – Vampires – Werewolves
First Person Artifact Animation Replacer
First Person Combat Animations Overhaul (superceded)
First Person Combat Animations Overhaul 2.0 -SIZE MATTERS
Genesis AR – Player Animation Rebuild
Hand to Hand Blocking Animation
Injured Animations Dynamic Replacer SE
Jarl Sitting Animation Replacer – Vanilla – DAR – FNIS – Nemesis
Knockout and Surrender – Non-Lethal Pacifist yielding options
Male Idle Animation (dynamic port)
New Weapons Types and Animation Support
Optimized Animations for First Person Camera mods
Ostentatious Swordsmen (A SAS style animation pack)
Races Base IA – Improved Core Animation Rebuilder
Random Diverse empty Dynamic animation block behavior folder. Insert your favourite animations.
Rolling after landing (Controllable)
Rugged Blade Warrior (A SAS animation set)
Sexy Combat Animations (conversion and DAR version)
Sexy Random Idles (simple and dynamic)
Sexy Sit Animations (conversion)
Shinobi Combat – Sekiro in Skyrim
Simple Pistol Shooting Animation by Loop(With standalone pistol) – SSE
Simple Potion Drinking Animation by Loop – SSE
Skyrim Spear Mechanic and OMEGA Heavy Armory Enchanted patch
Smooth Combat – Non Combat Animation System
Smooth Magic Casting Animation
Smooth Random Blocking Animation
Spaghetti Western – Western style revolver and rifle in skyrim
Stances – Dynamic Animation Sets
The old Warrior ( God Of War Inspired Combo Aninmation set )
There Is No Umbra – A floating sword follower
Unarmed 4-Direcitonal Power Attacks
Unique NPC Overhaul – Lydia the Shieldmaiden
Unique Player Throne Animation
My folder of tools I use in Mod Organizer is growing more rapidly than I ever thought it would. I started out with LOOT and xEdit, but now have a dozen other tools ready to go for whatever specific need might pop up. A brand-new option was added to my tool bag recently: Synthesis. While I am still learning about how to use this properly, I would be remiss to not add it to this post just because I don’t understand it entirely at this point (and let’s face it, I am far from an expert on most of these tools; you wouldn’t call me to come fix something, but I can putter around in my own home without causing further damage). What is Synthesis (besides a really cool name for a modding tool)? From the ReadMe: Synthesis is “a framework and GUI to construct a single Bethesda game patch from many patcher sources.” It uses the Mutagen framework (“a C# library for analyzing, modifying, and creating Bethesda mods), which is beyond the scope of this post/website, but definitely check it out if you are so inclined (both Synthesis and Mutagen were created by Noggog). So what is Synthesis in terms that a modder like myself will actually understand and be able to use? Let’s take Know Your Enemy as an example. This mod adds a system into Skyrim that alters resistances and weaknesses of enemies/armors to various attacks. A flame spell won’t have the same effect on Ice Atronachs and Flame Atronachs. Arrows won’t have the same effect on leather armor as they will on metal armor. You get the idea. This is a really fun way to change up combat in the game in an intuitive way, which forces the player to use an arsenal of weapons or spells, rather than relying on the same things over and over. But, what happens when you add in other mods that add new enemies or new armor/weapons? Yeah, you all know the answer: you have to patch them. That is where Synthesis comes in to help: there are Know Your Enemy and Know Your Armor Patchers that will patch your load order for this mod with significantly less work than if you had to manually do so. You can do a similar thing with zEdit, but there is a 255 ESP limit. (Trawzified wrote these patchers, as well as others listed below) I look forward to diving more into both Synthesis and Mutagen, but wanted to give a brief overview as they both have a lot of potential. (Also, if anyone more knowledgeable than me sees anything incorrect here, please let me know so that I can fix it!) For more info, check out these links:
- Mutagen GitHub
- Synthesis GitHub
- Synthesis Installation
- Synthesis Typical Usage
- Synthesis Collective Patchers (these are just a small assortment)
- Trawzified‘s Patchers
- And more…
There are more Wabbajack lists than ever, with something for just about everyone. Between lighter options like the Vanilla+ Phoenix Flavour and heavily modded options like Skyrimified, or something in between like Elysium, there are so many directions you can (easily) take your Skyrim game. There are even options for NSFW modlists, or just graphic overhauls, or even the bare minimum bug fixes to start building your own personally curated modlist. There is a new page on the site that goes into more detail, with basic setup instructions and helpful tips, a chart of currently available modlists, and what I’m most excited about: I’m starting a review section as well! I will hopefully do a follow up post within the week with more details on this.
Currently available modlists for Skyrim SE (not including unofficial submissions):
“…but the true joy of exploration is in the discovery, and so I leave the rest to you…”
~An Explorer’s Guide to Skyrim