Just Picked Up Skyrim for $5

"lonestranger" (lonestranger)
06/21/2014 at 18:04 • Filed to: video games, tayclassic, steam

What have I gotten myself in to. Damn you, Steam Summer Sale!

I've resisted getting this game, because I've heard what a time-sink it is, and I already waste way too much time gaming. Plus, I have a big backlog of gaming that I "need" to do, such as:

Earn three minor achievements in Infamous Second Son in order to get Platinum

get to level 10 in Battlefield Hardline Beta in order to get some dumb battlepack for the full game (that I likely won't even buy)

earn some credits in Gran Turismo 6 so I can buy some of the new, cool cars such as the historic Senna ones and the Toyota TS030

try out the Red Bull Ring in GT6

actually play Assetto Corsa for more than 3 minutes

check out the Jalopnik Hipster pack in Grand Theft Auto V

try out Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time that I got from Playstation Plus

Euro Truck Simulator 2 will be updated soon, I'll have to "discover" some of the new roads & cities

Give Battlefield 3 on PC a whirl. Maybe I'll get a hang of mouse & keyboard

That's not counting all of the games that I've gotten in the past year that I've barely played such as Mirror's Edge, Arma II/ DayZ, Crysis 3, Payday 2, and much more.

On top of all that, the weather is way too nice to be spending much time indoors.

#firstworldproblems

DISCUSSION (33)

PheeNoIVI > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 18:10

Seriously. Its killer.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 18:14

Sly cooper thieves in time is awesome. That is all

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 18:54

Should have gotten Legendary Edition. Couples in the DLC you will invariably need when you decide that you want to mod this bitch.

lonestranger > Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg
06/21/2014 at 19:07

I thought about getting that, but I felt like the base game (without any DLC expansions) would satisfy me. I've barely played at all yet, but I've already started modding. Can you elaborate on why I would need the DLC in order to mod?

General McFist > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 19:08

The sale is just getting started, Champion. Prepare thine wallet, the end-times are upon us

lonestranger > Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg
06/21/2014 at 19:17

Hmm, looking into it a little further, maybe I should've gotten the LE. I assumed each DLC was basically new areas and quests, but now I see they include the abilities to build homes, change your appearance, etc. For $13.59, maybe it's still worth it.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 19:21

Yes, it's still worth it. Considering the Base Game and all DLC runs 27 bucks on sale right now.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 19:23

All the good and popular mods out there have dependencies on the DLC as each successive DLC adds stuff into the creation kit, which in turn requires you to have teh DLC to use the mods.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 19:24

And if you're going to mod, for fucks sake, use Mod Organizer and WryeBash or else you'll be pissing in the wind.

Also, get SKSE. You'll need it.

cabarne4 > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 19:25

WHY? WHY DID YOU REMIND ME THAT STEAM SUMMER SALE WAS A THING?!

There goes the rest of 2014...

lonestranger > Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg
06/21/2014 at 19:30

Yeah, I've got SKSE, Nexus Mod Manager, and BOSS already. Not too sure what the point of BOSS is in addition to NMM, but whatever.

I just downloaded a dozen different mods via NMM, and I've only actually played a few minutes of the game. As with GTA & Euro Truck Simulator, I can see myself having more fun modding than playing.

tromoly > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 19:56

I've been playing Morrowind quite a bit, holy crap do good RPGs suck up so much time before you realize it's 3am and you have to wake up in four hours.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 20:01

Ok, stop. Uninstall all mods and then just use NMM as a downloader. Download Mod Organizer, which does not install the mods directly to the game folder but to a "ghost" folder that allows you to have active saves with different mods installed, without MO that is impossible and more often than not leads to most users just deleting all game content and downloading it over again to start clean so MO is pretty important, Wrye Bash is to make a bashed/merged patch, swhich if you have a rig that can handle 250+ mods, this is important, regardless should be downloaded and packaged into MO.

I am pretty terrible at explaining things /r/skyrimmods does a better job that I can, and pretty much taught me everything, the sidebar is a great place to start.

As to the question of BOSS, it sets your load order for you. So you don't CTD all the time. BOSS is a boss, do not question it.

As for mods to get, Interesting NPC's/3DNPC is a pretty good place to start, Live Another Life is another and allows you to not have to go through the lengthy opening cutscene and you get to choose your starting point, I always start as a member of the Dawnguard [requires DLC] and then there is SkyUI which since you have SKSE you should install for the hell of it and some mods now require it, it removes the console styled menus and replaces them with a much more PC friendly system, I don't really go for graphical mods or ENB's as I am a gameplay whore over graphics and I run over 140 mods currently all to do with gameplay, mostly from the top 200 or so mods on the Nexus.

You have just walked into the Pandora's Box of Gaming in my opinion.. I have 150 hours on PC and a good 300+ on XBox, I finished the game on Xbox, new mods prevent me from ever finishing a game on PC, I'm almost to my capacity before I suffer performance lags at High Settings though, so I might end up finishing a campaign someday.

I hope.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 20:06

And one last thing, buy a 1 month membership to the Nexus, its worth it if you're going to get into modding, allows access to their faster servers, more downloads at once, basically it gets you gaming faster, since some of the immersion mods are massive, which is mostly why I bought the month.

lonestranger > Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg
06/21/2014 at 20:28

Thank you very much for all of that! I haven't actually installed any of the mods yet, so your timing is perfect. I'll use MO.

So far, I've D/L'ed:

Interesting NPCs

Bethesda's HD DLC

Enhanced Distant Terrain

Lush Trees and Grass

W.A.T.E.R.

Wet and Cold

Skyrim HD

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Quality World Map

SkyUI

Better Dynamic Snow

Enhanced Blood Textures

Footprints

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

And I'm considering

RCRN - Realistic Colors and Realistic Nights

Immersive Weapons

Immersive Armors

Live Another Life

I'm obviously going after graphics, here. I want to use my new PC to it's potential, yet I don't want to alter the vanilla gameplay experience too much as I've never played it before.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 20:56

I actually use use two graphical mods, Enhanced Blood Textures and Climates of Tamriel, Apachii Sky Hair as well but I don't really consider that much of a graphical mod since it just adds hair, another two mods since I have my load order open at the moment is When Vampires Attack and Run For Your Lives, keeps your stupid townsfolk from getting wrecked by Vampires and Dragons, and WMV is a great indicator for when vampires are in town, as you'll usually only see just guards or people running away towards buildings.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 20:59

Oh and look up simple borderless window.. really helpful if you run a multi monitor set up or alt-tab out a lot.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 22:59

You tried the Portal games yet?

lonestranger > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
06/21/2014 at 23:09

I've finished Portal 2 on PS3. It was the first and only Valve game I've ever played.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 23:12

You got a Wii?

lonestranger > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
06/21/2014 at 23:17

Nope.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > lonestranger
06/21/2014 at 23:29

Damn. You're missing out on three of the best games I've ever played.

lonestranger > Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg
06/26/2014 at 15:48

Thanks again for the suggestion to use MO. The ghost folder ability alone is essential, IMO. I even completely ditched NMM, and am using MO for downloads and loading SKSE, LOOT, Wyre Bash, and TES5Edit.

I now have 85 active mods (and growing), including all that you have suggested. Also, thanks for pointing me to Reddit, this thread is a must-read for any Skyrim mod-installing beginner.

Now, I must be off, as I need to cure my Vampirism...

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > lonestranger
06/26/2014 at 18:26

No problem man, I see far too many people just jumping right into modding without even researching it, I made that mistake twice, third time I downloaded Legendary Edition I searched reddit, found what I needed and was slapping myself for wasting roughly 40 hours of my time, plus however long it took to download 3 times

If I can stop one person from doing what I did, then its a job well done.

Also, Steam Protip. Any game during a sale you want, chances are the whole series and all DLC/GOTY versions are on sale o.n it. Case in point, bought Arkham Origans with all the DLC for like 15 bucks the other day and grabbed the two previous games GOTY's for 5 bucks each today.

I'm pretty much good for games to buy, unless Assetto Corsa comes on sale for 50% off [or anything% off] like it should have on that community vote last week, I don't see anything I'd want.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg > tromoly
06/26/2014 at 18:29

If you have Oblivion as well, I suggest checking out Morroblivion if you haven't heard of it or tried it already, same team is working on Skywind as well, looks like its gonna be a while, but the end result should be worth it.

thebigbossyboss > lonestranger
07/08/2014 at 23:52

Lonestranger can you give me links to your euro truck mods?

lonestranger > thebigbossyboss
07/09/2014 at 11:55

Sure thing, my friend.

The popular "Essentials Mod" is a compilation of a few mods, and includes my repainted construction equipment: http://forum.scssoft.com/viewtopic.php?…

All of my ETS 2 mods are shown on SCS's forum. I can't seem to link to only my threads, but here's all of my posts there: http://forum.scssoft.com/search.php?aut…

And I have all of those, plus mods for ETS 1, UKTS & GTS on TruckPol (registration required): http://truckpol.proboards.com/user/28578/rec…

If you'd just like to browse a bunch of images, check out my ETS album on flickr. I don't have any decent descriptions there, but you can tell the ETS 1 photos apart from ETS 2 because my ETS 1 images have a huge, ugly "lonestranger" watermark: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lonestr…

thebigbossyboss > lonestranger
07/09/2014 at 22:48

Thanks. I just inserted your heavy equipment mod. I looked at the read me..there's a lambo!

I am playing it cautious with mods for now. Have you tried the going east expansion pack?

lonestranger > thebigbossyboss
07/10/2014 at 00:04

Thanks for trying one of my mods!

Pretty sure that's a Deutz-Fahr, dude.

Sorry, I've been saving that one for a while. Lamborghini Trattori are basically just rebadged Deutz-Fahr units, which worked out well for my mod. The default tractors are Deutz & Lambo look-alikes. They are identical, other than one has a green skin, and one has a grey one.

Kinja'd!!!

There's a logo on one of the Cat loaders that might look familiar to you, too (hint - it's not Toromont, but close.)

Yes, I have the "Going East! DLC. I haven't driven all of its roads yet, but it doesn't seem that much different from the existing roads & cities. If you're wanting to expand the map, there's an awesome mod called Promods that blows Going East away. It adds a bunch of roads & cities in Scandanavia and western France, with lots of new stores and such. It's insane how much unique scenery and roads it adds, while not feeling out of place. Plus, it's free, of course.

thebigbossyboss > lonestranger
07/10/2014 at 10:52

Cool I will have to check that promod out. I briefly browsed their site but their was no kind of map that showed the mod as it is.

Last night, I slowed down to drive by your heavy equipments mods, looking good. Was that a Finning logo you were talking about?

I stayed away from the rest of the essentials mods for now. There is now an option to remove the speed limiter in the game itself so you don't really need that mod anymore.

I turned it off and had my Volvo 2x4 (I drive it because it has the biggest fuel tank) up to 130 km/h while towing 18 tons of car parts. Was a little hard to drive at that point. With the realistic physics mods the brakes aren't the best either. Blew by the AI trucks like they were standing still. Seemed safe lol.

I might put in your headlight mod next, the headlights are atrocious you can't see a car in front of you until you are on top of it.

lonestranger > thebigbossyboss
07/10/2014 at 12:35

Yeah, Finning is the biggest Cat dealer in the UK, so I had the chance to throw a touch of Western Canada in there and still remain realistic.

My headlight mod is actually pretty outdated, unless you have an old non-updated version of the game. It might be too bright now. The game's default lighting was actually even worse at launch.

I also use really weak brakes. I don't want to stop on a dime, I use a manual tranny & I like to gradually go down through the gears, tapping the brakes & the Jakes as I go.

I took some shots of my actual map as it is with Going East and Promods 1.62:

Kinja'd!!!

thebigbossyboss > lonestranger
07/10/2014 at 12:39

That's neat I am from Western Canada (BC) originally. From a place called Anmore. I am going to play with the mods I got a bit more and then put pro mod in.

lonestranger > thebigbossyboss
07/10/2014 at 12:55

Cool. I knew you are in or around Ottawa. I'm in Kamloops.