Skyrim - Editorial @ GamerHeadlines

Gamer Headlines has posted a new article showing off the different ways you can can improve Skyrim. Now most of us already know how to do this, but this may help some new gamers.

Closing thoughts

I’m going to stop here, since there are so many great mods that I could talk about, that my fingers would most likely fall off sooner than I would finish. The fact is, Skyrim is a great game, and has so much fun content to play with, that it can keep players busy for months. I haven’t even mentioned some of the mods that add actual new islands to the game with hundreds of new quests. The point is, modding Skyrim is a time-consuming process, but it’s well worth the investment. You can add hundreds of hours to the game for free, while making those hours even more enjoyable.

The best place to find mods for skyrim is on skyrimnexus.com, a website that not only offers a collection of mods and info on what they do, but also offers tutorials on how to properly mod Skyrim to avoid crashes and errors. You can also download the Nexus Mod Manager from their website, a small program that makes downloading and installing mods convenient. Added to that, I recommend using WryeBash, a small program that provides management and safety protocols for Skyrim modding.

So, what are you waiting for? Re-install Skyrim, get to modding, and enjoy the ride!

Click to expand...

More information.

Nexus actually just re-invented itself so they could handle more games. The Skyrim portion is now at: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/?

When I think that Nexus started as a small little mod hosting website for Morrowind/Oblivion...

They got big.

We definitely need these sort of articles. While you get a few top 5/10 mods-type of articles shortly after a game is released and some mods are placed on the forefront, the way that Bethesda games are patched and get DLCs and GOTYs along with the speed at which the modding scene changes means that one has to pay close attention to it to know what's actually recommended or spend crazy amounts of time experimenting. A game has to get really old to get a "canon" set of mods laid out on guides that eventually get famous.

Zloth said:

Nexus actually just re-invented itself so they could handle more games. The Skyrim portion is now at: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/?

Click to expand...

They updated the site today so you can't blame the article for not being up to date. The new nexus still has a few bugs to iron out though. I do like the new look, and they even added a few more games to the mod list.

If consolidating mods in one place means more mods that are easy to find I am all for it.

Didn't realize there was a nexus site for Legend of Grimrock and Dark Souls. Bought grimrock but never played it, might be time to play it with mods. Never playe Dark Souls either..

http://www.nexusmods.com/grimrock/?

Saxon1974 said:

If consolidating mods in one place means more mods that are easy to find I am all for it.

Click to expand...

What isn't easy to find, in this day and age? These guys at Nexus are creeps who try to establish a monopoly on game modding. More anarchy is called for when it comes to creative endeavors. They need to go away. It's impossible to estimate how much damage they've done to the community already, but hopefully their days are numbered and modders will be allowed to flourish without being under the thumb of some self-appointed Big Brother, sometime soon.

CraigCWB said:

What isn't easy to find, in this day and age? These guys at Nexus are creeps who try to establish a monopoly on game modding. More anarchy is called for when it comes to creative endeavors. They need to go away. It's impossible to estimate how much damage they've done to the community already, but hopefully their days are numbered and modders will be allowed to flourish without being under the thumb of some self-appointed Big Brother, sometime soon.

Click to expand...

Lol … some people. There is nothing preventing folks from going off and creating their own little anarchist modding site. There are a variety of mod sites out there already and they get their dedicated traffic. Not as much as Nexus but then there is a reason for that - Nexus is a great site that makes modding so much more user friendly and easy to manage. Yet there is nothing preventing people from getting mods from other sites and people do if they wish to.

I do find the hate amusing though as often it comes from people who were arsehats and got banned from the site for being jerks or people who think their "rights" were abused or limited … not really understanding the concept between rights and privileges and forgetting the site is a private one; one that offers up a free resource for the millions of people who use it. Or people who bitch and moan because their free service has a lot of hiccups in service or the limited and human moderators sometimes make mistakes, do to little, or to much.

I see myself in less passionate terms, as a free site I help support as it provides a great community service where folks can go to share mods, have great discussions, share their images and work, and discuss games. Yet I also will visit other forums and mod sites to look around and have picked up a few mods from other places … and wow, to my complete astonishment big brother didn't threaten me with dire warnings because I went some where else. Also I can't be sure but based on the couple dozen modders I know, as well as my own modding, I haven't heard any tales of enforcers from Nexus holding guns to modders heads forcing them to mod there.

CraigCWB said:

What isn't easy to find, in this day and age? These guys at Nexus are creeps who try to establish a monopoly on game modding. More anarchy is called for when it comes to creative endeavors. They need to go away. It's impossible to estimate how much damage they've done to the community already, but hopefully their days are numbered and modders will be allowed to flourish without being under the thumb of some self-appointed Big Brother, sometime soon.

Click to expand...

There's no one stopping you or anyone else from starting up a site just like The Nexus, is there?

I've followed The Nexus from the start and Robin has always come off as a really nice dude (and not just some corporate dick who's just trying to make money of modders).

Nothing good would come from mods being scattered all over the internet in complete chaos. There was a time when it was just like that, and mods was something only for the "hardcore gamers". Nexus made it easy for beginners to use mods (Nexus Mod Manager) and it certainly made it a LOT easier to find the gems out there (because of the large amount of people using and it giving feedback/ratings).

Yup, I have been using Nexus since Morrowind days and I'm in total agreement with wolf and vurt.

Without Nexus, it would have been a pain in the ass to create the full list of Oblivion mods I used when playing. Without sites dedicated to creating some order out of the chaos of internet, internet would be pretty much useless.

Dudes, the mods would be out there anyway. Look at the massive number of mods for Total War series, and that's not even got a modding toolkit provided by the devs. Worst thing about Nexus is the huge number of garbage mods that get put up there. Oh, look, I went into photoshop and applied RGB(0,0,0) and then uploaded to Nexus! After multiplying its defensive value by 100 and reducing its weight to 0! At least half the mods on there are just like that. Most the rest are mods that somebody changed the gameplay and didn't even test it and doesn't really even know what all it does, but they thought it'd be a good idea to upload it for other people to use. If it wasn't a site that wanted to have all mods for all games, exclusively, there'd be at least a little community policing going on before somebody would be wanting to host stuff. And if the Nexus wasn't trying to encourage amateur hour modding, people would most likely be at least a little reluctant to upload mods they weren't proud of and that weren't things anybody could do for themselves in 5 or 10 minutes using the provided tools.

Y'all are welcome to your opinions but I'm allowed to have one too, and mine is that Nexus has harmed the modding community.

Yes Craig, you're allowed your incorrect opinion Nexus is wonderful and I keep a prime account to support them. The Steam workshop gives them a run for their money; at least for Skyrim. If you want to avoid evil Robin, you can choose the benevolent Valve

Who cares that there are a few crappy mods on the Nexus? Takes less than one second to go to the comments section to see what peoples opinion is. There's also a reason why you can endorse the mods there, or choose not to.

Getting the really bad mods from there actually requires a bit of an effort since they wont be on the "latest most endorsed files"-lists or the "top 100" list etc. So it's not very likely you will download tons of useless mods from there unless you really go in for it.

Downloading mods for TW is a fucking mess.. yay for outdated links, mods split in 5-10 parts (since most free hosting sites wont let you upload really large files) and having to browse different forums for mods, no thanks, that's a really good way to turn people off from the modding community.

Also, no one here said you can't have an opinion, and no one said mods wouldnt exist without The Nexus.

CraigCWB said:

Worst thing about Nexus is the huge number of garbage mods that get put up there. Oh, look, I went into photoshop and applied RGB(0,0,0) and then uploaded to Nexus! After multiplying its defensive value by 100 and reducing its weight to 0! At least half the mods on there are just like that.

Click to expand...

This is actually a valid criticism, but that goes for anything you look for on the net. We have access to tonnes of data, but quality control and curating suffer.

Nexus does at least provides some tools for filtering the stuff, but it can still take some time to find the good stuff.

Still I rather have one site where I can find most of the useful mods. Files are less likely to disappear from a centralised resource than from random unstructured websites. So on the whole I find Bethsoft gaming in a world with Nexus better than in one without.

As a modder with a few somewhat popular mods to my name hosted there, I'll echo the "LoL" for the Nexus rant. It's a convenient site for me to use with little fuss. I used to host some stuff myself, and I'm glad I don't need to anymore. Gives me more time to focus on the actual modding when I'm in the mood.

I just got Skyrim so I've been reading these kinds of articles and figuring out what mods to get myself. I'm already using SkyUI and I think that one's a given. Works great with a controller too if you're wondering.

I checked out Immersive Armors and Weapons and I'll probably get that. The sheer number of items added may be a bit overwhelming though and there may be some stinkers in there.

Skyrim Redone…Well, I read the description and the "FAQ" and I'm just shaking my head. Maybe he's got some good ideas, but there's funny, and then there is just acting more juvenile than your stereotypical 13 year-old Halo player. More than a few of his design decisions give me pause enough to pass it over anyway. I'd love to do my own perk revamp, but that's unlikely given how little time I have to actually play games these days.

For graphics and sounds, I've done the official HD textures and then filled in with some specific texture mods, along with Pure Waters, and a few other popular ones on the Steam Workshop. I found browsing their top mods enlightening. A lot of stellar ones have percolated to the top, and I found quite a few I didn't see browsing on the Nexus. My game looks fantastic now. Not sure if a complete package like ENB is better or not, but I'm happy with my current results.

Ultimate Follower Overhaul seems to touch more things than I'm comfortable changing at the moment. May give it a try when I've put in a lot more time. I'm pretty satisfied as is and like having less than full control.

Deadly Dragons is one I'm going to add. I already have the mods that make NPCs run from dragons and vampires because I was tired of seeing peasants attack dragons barehanded and die.

Additional magic spells I'll probably look at once I've mastered everything. As is, I've got too many spells favorited already and I'm still enjoying them.

One I recommend is Reduced Distance NPC Greetings. It's terrible how often a random NPC will barge into a quest line dialogue. This is a must have in my opinion.

I think that wolf got your number Craig. You have an ax to grind with Nexus. And yes, you are entitled to your unreasonableness but we are entitled to call it unreasonable.

Nexus has done so much good for the modding community. I like the network, because it has fast download speeds and the site is easy to use. Not to mention the great community sharing opinions and helping eachother.

But the key thing why I prefer nexus is the longevity. Hundreds of great mods for many older games have been lost for good because the sites hosting such mod files have dissapeared. When you upload a mod in nexus, it won't dissapear from their server any time soon.

Finding some really cool mod for an older game can become quite a task because such mods have been uploaded to GeoCities or some other internet service which isn't working anymore. And when you email to the said mod author, the address rarely works or the guy replies that he has lost his files in pc crash. So yes Nexus is a godsent.

Dez said:

But the key thing why I prefer nexus is the longevity. Hundreds of great mods for many older games have been lost for good because the sites hosting such mod files have dissapeared. When you upload a mod in nexus, it won't dissapear from their server any time soon.

Click to expand...

Precisely. This was BIG problem with mods, still is for some games that doesnt have a "official" mod site. It just sucks having to re-upload mods (+ edit all the forum posts, youtube etc with the new URL).

CraigCWB said:

Dudes, the mods would be out there anyway. Look at the massive number of mods for Total War series, and that's not even got a modding toolkit provided by the devs. Worst thing about Nexus is the huge number of garbage mods that get put up there. Oh, look, I went into photoshop and applied RGB(0,0,0) and then uploaded to Nexus! After multiplying its defensive value by 100 and reducing its weight to 0! At least half the mods on there are just like that. Most the rest are mods that somebody changed the gameplay and didn't even test it and doesn't really even know what all it does, but they thought it'd be a good idea to upload it for other people to use. If it wasn't a site that wanted to have all mods for all games, exclusively, there'd be at least a little community policing going on before somebody would be wanting to host stuff. And if the Nexus wasn't trying to encourage amateur hour modding, people would most likely be at least a little reluctant to upload mods they weren't proud of and that weren't things anybody could do for themselves in 5 or 10 minutes using the provided tools.

Y'all are welcome to your opinions but I'm allowed to have one too, and mine is that Nexus has harmed the modding community.

Click to expand...

This is like someone complaining the internet/web has ruined XYZ since there is lot of crap out there and you don't know how to filter stuff!