Here’s a new one that I like a lot: Gamwich’s amusingly named Rustic Children. The kids still look like Skyrim kids, just better. Best of all (for me) there is no need to patch every mod that adds children to the game. It’s the kind of simple replacer that I tend to forget is even there.

That mod sounds really great - and closer to what I was looking for than most of the child overhauls where I couldn't see a visual difference in the appearance of the children.

I have a minor problem with the AFT mod. When used in Lucius' game, it works flawlessly and I can recruit any NPC as a companion. But in Aard's game when I try to make someone a companion by casting a spell on them, I get the message saying sth like "Script parameter missing - mod conflict?". However, I use exactly the same mods for both games. The only difference is that I installed AFT when Lucius has been around for some time while Aard started with AFT installed.

Any advices?

Thanks.

Same order? Try running LOOT.

Thanks, it worked. I didn't know about LOOT, I was using BOSS.

Buffy's always had a. . . relationship with Azura. But her shrine area is so barren. We've always felt sorry for poor Aranea standing up there all by herself, doubtless freezing her. . . ears off. So we found a mod called Azura Shrine Temple that looks interesting. May give it a try.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59614/?

That is an interesting mod. Though I think more could have been done. If they had made Dragonborn a requirement, they could have used some of the new meshes and textures from the Reclamations Temple in Red Rock, put the priests in Reclamations Robes, and even put a Dunmer-style tomb underneath it all.

Oh, this looks nice. It makes a lot of sense that there would be some shelter there, perhaps even an old Nordic substructure on the site that the Dunmer chose for Azura’s shrine. I’ve always thought that there needed to be a little bit more but not too much, and this mod looks just right. Excellent find!

I think you’re right, SubRosa, Dragonborn could provide more Dunmer flavor. Hmm…

On the other hand, this is appropriate for a Nord temple to her. It's not just the Dunmer that appreciate her, Clark will tell you. Yes, Aranea is a Dunmer, but that doesn't imply she built it.

On the gripping hand, I'd change the outfits of the monks in the temple to be the same as Aranea's.

IIRC, it was the Dunmer who built the shrine after coming to Skyrim, in tribute to Azura saving them from the Red Year by warning them to get the heck out of there beforehand. So I think it really ought to look more Dunish than Nordish. Besides, don't we really have enough Nordic tomb architecture in Skyrim?

Here is a very quick (about an hour and a half) and dirty test of what the Azura shrine might look like with some true Dunmer architecture. A few doors could be put into the steps somewhere for a temple inside that stone base. Some banners might be tossed in over the bare stone to add some flavor, and of course other DB assets like reclamation robes would make the staff look more unique.

Some Redoran-style buildings could be added on the ground around it, either the bug-buildings, or the more 'normal' stone block ones. Throw in some more people, horses, a stable/smithy, and it would make for a neat little place. After a few hundred hours of work, it would probably look pretty good.

Nice to see some interest in this! I noticed that mod author pitched that it requires no DLC, but several commenters mentioned how nice some of DB DLC items could be. I guess I could go either way. I think Aranea mentions that Dunmer emigrating from MW built the shrine, but Grit's point could well be the case too that they perhaps built atop an old Nordic structure of some sort.

I think I'll give it a go and report how it goes.

Edit: Oops, I was posting the same time SubRosa was.

So I installed the Azura Temple mod and it works fine. The mod is not elaborate and, as we know, only uses vanilla (w/o DLC) assets. Not fancy, but does a nice job of giving the place a permanent and livable presence. A few camping pigrims outside and a nice little temple inside with a couple acolytes. Given Buffy's affinity for Azura, it is certainly a keeper for me.

Aranea's dialog in the vanilla game says she's alone at the shrine. Did they remember to change that?

I'm not sure. Buffy asked that question of Aranea before we installed the mod. She's deep in a dungeon right now but next time she's back by the shrine, she'll try asking again. My gut tells me that Aranea's dialogue was not changed. The mod changes nothing up at the top (Aranea's area) of the shrine. None of the additional NPCs offer any dialogue exchanges with you. If you activate them, they simply make a comment, then exit the conversation. Again, a very simple and unambitious mod, but I'm still pleased with it.

Buffy's fave feature is that the inside of the temple is spacious enough to bring Superian in out of the weather. Silly horse-crazy elf.

Edit: Buffy finished the Azura quest, then talked to Aranea again. No dialogue about being there by herself. . . but I suspect that would be the vanilla situation too after the quest. Sorry I can't say for sure, but I'm still betting Aranea's dialogue has not been touched by the simple temple mod.

Edit #2: In a new game, Buffy talked to Aranea at the very beginning of the quest when you can ask her if she's there all alone. She says yes, so the mod does not change any of Aranea's dialogue. Still a good keeper mod for me!

A problem with Playeble Instruments mod which allows you to be a bard and earn tips, is that once audience's coinpurses get empty, you receive tips no longer, which makes performing for the same crowd impossible because sooner or later they run out of money. The only workaround I've found so far, is to manually reset inventories of NPCs with the console, however, NPCs get a lot of money this way so instead of earning 2 - 10 tips per one performance, you can now get even 20 or more gold which isn't what I was hoping for.

I've been having Crime Bounty Decay installed since day one though never really got around to using it because my characters almost never got a bounty. In short, if you get a bounty in some hold, it'll gradually decrease as days pass, you can customize these values by yourself.

So the other day Aard punched Nurelion because he pissed him off and got a bounty of 250 septims (I modded this value). But Nurelion didn't fight back and when Aard came out of the White Phial, guards didn't arrest him. They would arrest him if talked to, though, I tested it.

So I forgot about this mod and yesterday while playing I got a message in the upper left corner, saying sth like "Guards in Windhelm probably forgot about me by now." Aard's bounty from Eastmarch was gone and it was good to see that the mod works as intended.

Lopov - That mod makes good sense. Gives meaning to the whole 'lay low for awhile' stuff that bad guys say.

That is really cool. You really can get out of town and lie low for a while, then go back later.

That's a neat find. I've made a note for the next time I end up with a criminal. Thanks, Lopov!

Today I installed a mod that removes blood on the screen during fights. No more typing "csb" to clear the screen when taking action shots.

Lopov - I've toyed with looking for something like that. I've always hated blood on the screen because, to me, it just screams: "You are playing a video game that is occurring on the other side of your computer screen." I think the whole idea was a terrible one. I see that's an older mod, and hope you'll let us know if it works well or causes any problem.

I turned it back on in my game, and quickly found why I turned it off. The game crashes when I get hit!

I may have a bad copy, so I'll download a fresh one, and try again.

I've used the No Blood on your HUD version since I started playing on my laptop. Fixing the silly screen spatter and the lack of player headtracking were my first priorities!

Someone mentioned the below mod over on the BethSoft forums and it sure looks interesting. It made me think of Renee.

Take Notes - Journal of the Dragonborn

When I d/l-ed the No blood splatter on your HUD version, my game also crashed, apparently because of a conflict between this mod and official HD Textures. But there are instructions on how to get the mod working - to remove only blood on your HUD, download the main file (No blood) and only extract two files, namely:

Textures/Blood/

screenbloodalpha01opt.dds
screenbloodcolor01opt.dds

Then it works, I tested it.

Aha. I don’t use the official HD Textures (because my laptop is too fragile), so I’ve never encountered that. I’m glad you got it working, Lopov!

Just noticed this, and I put it on Tracking. When I reinstall Skyrim, I may give it a try:

Skyrim Wayshrines - Immersive Fast Travel?

I Installed just those two textures, and discarded the empty nifs, and it works fine.

A neat mod for all who prefer some romantic scenes from time to time - Kissing. Interesting that sex mods were out probably on the same day as CK was released but this mod which is far superior IMO, was released in December 2014. It's very simple and works - I tested it with Lucius & Lydia and Aard & Muiri.

Whoa I think I'm going to try this one. I like this phrase in the mod's description...



That made my LoL

What a sweet idea, thanks Lopov! There’s a “Give Me Some Sugar” menu option in AFT, but it looked like a vampire animation when I tried it with Mags and the orc she’s hauling around, I forget his name. It should be called “Put A Love Bite On My Neck.” The pictures in this mod look much better.

Strap-on not included, lol.

This mod looks Awesome!

Yikes, I completely forgot to come back and mention this. Thank you for jogging my memory, mALX.

I’m trying out Take Notes in Ninette’s game and so far I love it. I’ve always jotted things down on paper (or old receipts, or napkins, or sometimes on my hand) as I played so that I didn’t have to remember them later when I was writing their update, but this lets the journaling occur in-game while you’re right there with the character. It may seem like a small thing but it’s huge for imme… immer… the I word.

I haven’t tried to export her journal or do anything but write so far. The only drawback at first was it seemed as if the mod was going to hog a lot of hotkeys, but I’m using the tabs and mouse method and so I only needed to find one empty key. (Which was not easy. After years with two hotkeys on consoles I have hotkeyed just about everything that I could. )

Acadian, I thought of Renee, too. I love the unedited pure character thought in her updates, including words scratched out. Thank you for pointing out this mod!

Sign me up for Take Notes too.

Grits, thanks for the feedback that is seems like a good mod.

Heh, I figured Renee'd want this one!

Acadian, I’m always hesitant to recommend a mod after my snowflake/dandelion seed debacle!

Here are two that caught my eye: Chesko’s Campfire - Complete Camping System and Immersive Speechcraft.

Campfire is from what I can tell the camping part of Frostfall. The upcoming Frostfall 3.0 will use it as a master, as will the planned Last Seed which seems to be a needs mod. I tried it last night and it’s everything I loved about Frostfall’s camping without the hypothermia part that my laptop couldn’t gracefully handle.

Immersive Speechcraft offers conversation options with a lot of NPCs, like give them a gift, beg for gold, attempt to mug them, or taunt them into attacking you. The mod author has said they are working on a Brawl option. I haven’t tried it yet.

Gritsy: By the way, Claire did spend some time in Solitude after getting out of jail, so we got some screenshots of her spending time in the Bard's College.

Frostfall is awesome, but I had to dumb it way down to taste, especially the hypothermia part. Let's say it gets down to 10 to 15 degrees farenheit (and that's being generous, it could be in the 20s in Skyrim's worst climes, and still snowy). I walked my daughter to school several times in this weather, just a few weeks ago when it was still winter. Never was I >< that close to dying.

That was my one issue with the default setting of Frostfall ... if Claire spent an equivalent amount of time walking through cold weather, roughly a half-hour, she'd be freezing to death, and Farkas actually had to 'rescue' her one time. So thank goodness we can configure this mod to taste. I mean, I can see if Claire was standing around, not doing anything for hours in freezing, windy weather, but not if she's walking / running around / active. *shrugs*

Otherwise, that camping addition sounds pretty kewl. Imm... IMM immmmmersie Immersive Speechcraft sounds pretty nice, as well, although (in Claire's game) CSR gives us additional speech options. But CSR keeps gettng a little buggy too.

/modspeak

Renee, the first time Alise and I played through Skyrim, it was unmodded (all vanilla). She kept complaining how cold it was and flat out refused to put her toes in the water anywhere! "What, are you kidding me? I'll get hypothermia and die!" So Frostfall was a great mod for us because it gave us tents and campfires and a way to get warm out in the wild. Camping Gear of the Northern Ranger became Alise's favorite, though, because of its darkfire. Came in useful up north, where trees are scarce (think Saarthal). The second time we played through, it was really challenging, and like you, I had to damp down the hypothermia effects.

Grits, Alise and I are going to try that new Camping mod. We'll see how we like it.

Yeah, FF is a very harsh mod, even with its Lite setting I thought it was too harsh. I mean, just a month ago we were all walking around in 15 degree weather where I live, right? And we were okay. Cold, but okay. Certainly nowhere near death. Frostfall makes it seem like the pc goes from 40 degree weather (Solitude / no snow) to -30 F, or something, wherever any snow is.

We've been talking about walking around in 15 degree weather this past winter. But how many of us are wearing lightweight GoreTex parkas and polypropylene underwear and gloves/boots insulated with Thinsulate? These things have been available for only about 20 years or so. I recall as a child growing up with wool, bundling up in such thick down outerwear that we could hardly move, and yet waiting 10 minutes for the school bus in 15 degree weather put us at risk for frostbite. I've always gotten frozen toes every winter, narrowly escaping real frostbite on several occasions. And that's with two or three layers of thick wool.

So no, I don't think Frostfall is unrealistic given what is available for materials. Leather. Fur. Linen. And Frostfall does have customizable settings for custom armor (read mods) that you can set. When I used the light armors Nordic Ranger Outfit and Grace Darklings Ranger Armor I set their hypothermia ratings on FULL and roleplayed that when Alise forged them, she made them highly Frost Resistant as well. Now that would be the Skyrim equivalent of the modern technology so many of us now buy from North Face and Columbia (very popular around here).

BTW, those two armors are Alise's favorites. She will not wear anything else. Her housecarl Argis doesn't mind the view, either, when they're out in the wilds.

Awesome, I’d love to hear how the camp setup works. I loved the mechanic in FF, and it was flexible enough to set up camp inside dungeons or in some pretty tight spots. Also it seems that building a fire works a little differently, so I’d love to hear about that.

I’m trying out Immersive Speechcraft with a new character (Argonian pyromancer Chases the Fish) since I don’t want to lose anyone if it turns out to be more than I can use. I’ll post about it in one of the update threads. I probably won’t use it in every game unless the author adds a Brawl option. The biggest drawback so far is that the options only appear if the NPC has a follower voice set. EDIT: Nope, I was wrong about that. Only unique voices are excluded.

haute, I love those armor sets. Abiene wore Grace Darkling’s mail dress for a while until she got used to dealing with Skyrim’s wildlife. She was convinced that she would be eaten by a sabre cat.

Heh, thank the Eight Nine for resist frost-enchanted bling (and saddle pads)! Oh and the ability to heat nearby boulders with the flames spell that lets them generate heat for hours (learned that from watching Captain Jim Kirk do that with his phaser on old Star Trek episodes, lol). Oh, not to mention placing a fire rune on the ground before unrolling your bedroll (Craftable and Placeable Bedrolls mod) helps keep you warm in the bedroll. Buffy uses a 'barkskin' spell (oakflesh) to simulate creating a waterproof shield around her and her clothing before entering frigid water, then uses a 'dry' spell (regular healing) to simulate drying off instantly upon emerging from the water. Flames to melt snow so a thirsty mare can drink. A simple flame spell even takes care of any cooking. Buffy is physically too weak to effectively wield a woodcutter axe so chopping wood for a fire is out. She might gather dead branches and make a small campfire (Camping Lite mod) in temperate areas, but that is mostly for its cheery atmosphere. I guess a mage approaches the cold differently. . . . All roleplay/pretend of course, but that is why a 'realistic' cold mod doesn't mesh with my fantasy Skyrim.

Frostfall was never Lil’s cup of tea, either. It didn’t account for her enchantments as well as we thought it should. Also she doesn’t mind gathering deadwood for a cheery fire, but she has a low tolerance for wood cutting. A mage light stuck to a rock was our best attempt to represent her Bosmer earth magic. I love how Buffy’s spells let her enjoy the water! The fire rune bedroll warmer is genius.

Yes, it is different from FF. While the camp placement is pretty much the same as well as I can remember, the campfire is a bit more work. She needs tinder (made from mora tapinella) which of course she used up all hers making potions. As long as she is in forested areas, finding wood isn't much problem. And she has no problem cutting wood. Not that different from wielding a war axe (her second favorite one handed weapon).


I also liked Hothtrooper's armors, too. I tried Immersive Armors during our last playthrough, but there weren't all that much armor that either Alise nor Argis liked, so I looked into getting some of his single stuff. A lot of it is over the top, but the detailing and thought that went into his work is incredible. Seems to be a shame not to give Argis at least one of his armors, though Alise is liking the Warchief armor for herself. So that will be coming up.

I'm up to 59 mods now. Some things are different, but we are reusing a lot of the previous stuff that we really liked. Something new with the horses is KrittaKitty's Primitive Horse Breeds. It's been on my tracking list for quite some time, and I decided this time was perfect to take it out for a spin. IMHO, these new textures really look like they belong in Skyrim. Alise just bought her first horse, the Riften grey which is based on the Grey Fell Pony. I'm trying to recall what we named that horse, I think it was something like Elenwinn. In any case, that is this horse's name right now.

Primitive Horse Breeds looks nice. I just found a wild horse mod, I forget its name, though. It simply adds horses, and small horse herds (sort of like the wild horses in Cyrodiil just south of the Imperial City).

Renee, is it Horses Gone Wild? I think that one uses some of AlienSlof’s gorgeous horses. Sadly I have to skip these due to my laptop’s fragility.

I also love the look of the primitive horse breeds. Some day!

haute, thanks for the feedback. I like the idea of building a fire rather than just plopping one down. I think it will make me slow down and enjoy the evening more since I spent time setting the camp up.

I was wrong about the voice set limitation of Immersive Speechcraft. I was getting ignored on purpose due to low Speechcraft skill, so the options never appeared in some cases as they are meant to not appear. NPCs with unique voices do not get the mod’s options by design, which means that if Chases the Fish tried to mug Ulfric Stormcloak for example, he will just get ignored. So far so good.

Which is a good thing, because all he would hear is Fus Ro Dah! (the battle of Solitude is almost hilarious from the Imperials he sends flying around!)

Here’s a look at the large leather tent from Campfire fitted with two bedrolls and a fire going outside. I had to laugh as it looks like Darnand got as far away from the Nord as possible while still being inside the tent. I really like the building-a-fire process, and the fire looks different depending on how you build it.

I suspect that the spacing isn’t right yet, since it looks like Darnand is positioned on his bedroll so that a spouse can cuddle up with him. (Which is supposed to happen if you go camping with your spouse.)

That's really cool! Alise has not yet moved up to the large leather tent, as she doesn't have a traveling companion other than Liath Macha at this point in her game. I've also noticed that she sleeps on one side of her single bedroll, too.

I have a lot of fun building the campfire, too. Though I have to admit that in this playthrough Alise couldn't find a woodcutter's axe! Before, they were everywhere! Now she can't find a single one! It drove her nuts, until I used the console to give her one. Now that she has one, we'll probably see the darned things everywhere.

Could Darnand be all the way over there because of a certain Nord's certain tendency to cut the cheese?

I suspect that’s exactly half of the reason, the other half being a tendency to sleep-cuddle.

I found a way to craft a woodcutter’s axe without needing a woodcutter’s axe to cut the firewood first to make the axe you don’t have yet, which really bugged me before. You find a rock, gather some other kind of wood, use that to craft a single-use stone hatchet, cut firewood with the stone hatchet, and then you can craft a real axe with ingots and firewood. Whew!