Morrowind

Oblivion

Shadowrun Returns

Skyrim

Fallout 3

Fallout New Vegas

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age 2

The Witcher

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

The Witcher 2

X: Rebirth

World of Tanks

Legend of Grimrock

Dark Souls

Fallen Enchantress

Far Cry 3

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

Dungeon Defenders

Neverwinter Nights

Neverwinter Nights 2

Mount & Blade

Mount & Blade: Warband

Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword

Left 4 Dead 2

Minecraft

Knights of the Old Republic II

Warcraft 3

Mass Effect 3

Sins of a Solar Empire

State of Decay

Saints Row 4

Savage XR

Faster Than Light

Knights of the Old Republic

Mass Effect

Starbound

Deus Ex

Torchlight II

Grand Theft Auto IV

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis

Mafia 2

Zoo Tycoon 2

Thief 2: The Metal Age

Mass Effect 2

Halo: Combat Evolved

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Kerbal Space Program

Game Dev Tycoon

Battlefield 2

DmC: Devil May Cry

Madden NFL 08

Batman: Arkham Origins

Black and White 2

X3: Terran Conflict

Just Cause 2

Disciples 3: Reincarnation

Towns

The Sims 3

RPG Maker VX Ace

Remember Me

Crysis

Team Fortress 2

Jade Empire

Euro Truck Simulator 2

3089

Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Drox Operative

Risen

Crysis Warhead

Crusader Kings 2

Half-Life 2

Borderlands

Myst Online: Uru Live

Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3

Thief 3: Deadly Shadows

Doom 3

Arx Fatalis

Batman: Arkham City

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

Command & Conquer: Generals

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

The Elder Scrolls Online

Rimworld

Men of War

Borderlands 2

Fallout 2

South Park: The Stick of Truth

ArmA 3

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Resident Evil 4

Rodina

War Thunder

Star Wars: Empire at War

Sacred

Tabletop Simulator

TUG: The Untitled Game

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

Space Engineers

Skyrim Special Edition

# Description

A modlist based on maximizing FUN and WORLDBUILDING without getting too cumbersome or difficult.&#x20;

*I've been modding Skyrim for a long time, and while I've always been ambitious with it to a fault, I've found increasingly that my actual enjoyment of playing the game itself is highest when things are kept simple on two levels*

\*- Mechanically: Too many added mechanics existing outside of the core original gameplay increases difficulty and while intriguing, just ends up being mentally exhausting to me in the long run. \*

\*-Procedurally: Dealing with the script extender and all the problems associated with it sucks. It sucked even before Bethesda started their bizarre spree of mini-updates that threw the modding scene into chaos, and now it's a bit unbearable for me. \*

This modlist avoids both of those pitfalls. The mods I have added here almost exclusive enhance the existing game and its existing mechanics. SKSE is NOT required at all for this collection. Worrying about unstable scripts crashing your game, and dreading every game update is not enjoyable for me and it is totally out-of-sight out-of-mind in this collection. :)

This does not at all mean that this collection is minimalist however, as will be expanded upon in the next section!

***

# Main features

### Expanded core gameplay mechanics

I've touched pretty much every core gameplay mechanic with known, reliable, quality overhauls. More and better perks, many more spells for magic-users, more weapons and armor, more enchantments, more alchemic options, etc. Un-intrusive combat and sneaking overhauls that tweak the mechanics to be better without being overly noticeable. Better NPC behaviour.&#x20;

### World-building

More settlements, more NPCs, a more lively overworld that your characters are living in. The world of Skyrim is an incredible canvas but doesn't quite reach its potential on its own. It's kind of dead. Settlements are just sort of small and scattered. Expanding existing settlements and adding small new ones really adds some spice to the roleplaying experience and makes it far more compelling to live and be immersed in. At least for me, it is.&#x20;

### Questing and Storytelling

Pacing is often a problem in the story, so I have mods in this list that take care of that for me with no configuration necessary. I also have mods that tweak existing side quests to give the player more options in situations where in the original a player would be locked into doing something out of character. I've also added a few mods that add more unique treasure to the game. It's nice to be rewarded with a actually cool worthwhile things when you complete a major quest.&#x20;

### Bruma

I've included Bruma and the Dawnstar merchant ship associated with it for the fun of it. I'm not even that well versed in the Bruma mod. I've been there, it works fine in my experience. It's just cool to have.&#x20;

***

# Before you start

**Requirements**

- *No offsite requirements!*

**Recommendations**

There are a couple of big recommendations that fall outside of the Nexus (technically?) that I would like to point you in the direction of.&#x20;

1\. First, Expanded towns and cities (ETaC) is near must. The expanded settlements are great and an essential piece of worldbuilding. It wasn't available on Nexus when I first started putting this modlist together, but it does appear to be public again now so I fully recommend it.&#x20;

2\. Second, I'll a reluctant shoutout to the work of Arthmoor over on the AFKmods website. Anyone familiar will probably know that he is a controversial and rather hostile figure in this community, but I cannot help but love the minimalistic settlement overhauls and additions he's made over the years. The ones I use are the following:

-Fall of Granite Hill
-Oakwood
-Dragon Bridge
-Keld-Nar
-Ivarstead
-Helarchen Creek
-Manor Roads
-Telengard
-Shor's Stone
-Whistling Mine
-Soljund's Sinkhole

These are all small settlement expansions or outright additions. I love them and personally consider them essential parts of my skyrim worlds.&#x20;

3\. Probably my most obscure recommendation will be a mod called Windhelm Expansion. It's a combination of Windhelm Exterior Altered and a Windhelm Bridge expansion that really livens up the outside of that city. However, as far as I know it's exclusively available in a comment thread through a google drive linked there. So, if this interests you, you'll have to head over to the link I provide below to get it.

The link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5824?tab=posts
(Shoutout to user Sandman53, who appears to be the author who pieced these mods together and made it available.)

Warning, I think this mod appears to be a bit performance heavy. So keep that in mind, and maybe test the Windhelm area after installing.&#x20;

4\. Another mod(s) that I highly recommend is Skyrim Realistic Conquering. This is a mod that makes it so that when you clear many of the bandit-occupied structures around Skyrim's landscape, they are cleaned up and converted into non-hostile guard, imperial, stormcloak, hunter, etc settlements. I think this is really, really cool.

I didn't include this directly, because I have a lot of them installed separately as standalone modules and the load order rule-making for them is a headache that I did not want to impose on anyone by default. However, there is a "complete edition" that includes most of them bundled together. There's a bit of an unusual patching process that I haven't done myself however, so you might need to do some digging / asking around to figure that out.

***

# Recommended specs

The added settlements in the overworld definitely do add a bit of performance overhead to the game, in some areas more than others. Generally speaking, however, it isn't bad. My circa-2020 era mid-tier gaming PC runs this modded game on ultra at 60 most of the time, with only the occasional dip. There's maybe one location in the game where the game experiences dips and that is the far exterior of Windhelm.&#x20;

# Final Notes

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.&#x20;

Shoutouts and thank you to all mod authors out there for your hard work, Skyrim is still an interesting and ever improving game over a decade later and it's all thanks to this awesome community.

***

The Most Fun I've Had Playing Skyrim

A modlist based on maximizing FUN and WORLDBUILDING without getting too cumbersome or difficult.

The Most Fun I've Had Playing Skyrim

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