• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

SKYRIM on XSX - Mod recommendations

Matt_Fox

Member
qFf4HQE.png


With SKYRIM now available on Gamepass and with a 60fps upgrade I thought it might be nice to make a thread about mods for those that are thinking of taking another trip into Tamriel.

Mods on Xbox are simple to add, and if you've ever been daunted by modding on PC then fear not this is a rather easier proposition and you can find the mods via the game's main menu. The golden rule does apply though, if you want to avoid crashes then add mods at the start of your playthrough not once you're 20 hours in (it might mess up your save).

One other point to know from the outset is that using mods disable achievements. Mods can massively improve the game in many ways but if you're after achievements then vanilla is the only option.

So here are 30 mods that I would recommend to everyone.

Combat (adds gore and lethality)
-Enhanced Blood Textures
-BIG more kill moves and decapitations
-Wildcat combat of skyrim
-Tweaked arrows and bolts sniper edition

Population (add enemies and NPCs)
-Immersive Patrols
-Mortal Harvest
-The New Dragon Cult
-Deadly Draugur
-Populated Dungeons Caves Ruins
-Skybirds

Player (with more enemies to fight, helps balance things out and make it more fun)
-Ordinator Perks of Skyrim
-Perk points at levels 50-75-100
-Left hand rings
-Merchants have more gold
-Stones of barenziah droppable plus quest markers

Graphics (improve the visuals of the game)
-SMIM Static Mesh Improvment Mod
-Graphics Pack (all graphics packs and add ons by Skeletor2017)
-Beauties of Skyrim HD
-Bijin All In One
-KS Hairdos
-A Quality World Map
-Realistic Water Two
-Enhanced Night Skyrim

Environmental and bug fixing (adds stability, QOL, and some content)
-Unofficial Skyrim special edition patch
-Cutting room floor
-color patches remover
-open cities skyrim
-relationship dialogue overhaul
-Master the summit
-Dead body collision fix

With these 30 mods active you'll have a far superior experience than the vanilla game. There are close to 15,000 mods available for Xbox and it can be daunting so hope this modest selection might help get you started.

Love to hear what others think and any further modding recommendations.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
you didn't include Alternate Start so i'm just throwing that one out there. Pretty essential mod imo
This a is good mod for anyone who doesn't want to do the canned start everyone gets. My alternate start location was I think coming off a boat in the NW city.

Sorry, I don't remember the mod names but some more I used......

Made life easier:

- unlimited stamina so you can run forever
- unlimited carrying capacity

There's also many map mods. I tried some and I forget which one I used, but make note there was one shit one that froze your game as it wasn't compatible with some other mods.
 

Connxtion

Member
Just note if you uninstall the game you lose all the mods, wish it kept the reserved space. My HDD corrupted and I now will need to reinstall all the mods I had or my save won’t work properly 😩

So take note of the mods you install and use.

luckily I did, but it’s a pain in the arse to reinstall them all 😂 also load order is important.
 
Last edited:

EDMIX

Member
semi ot, has anyone tried it on PS5? I saw some videos with AC Unity running on PS5 and Series X and wondered how well Skyrim and Fallout 4 with more mods on will actually perform lol
 

Matt_Fox

Member
Awesome free mods will disable achievements and shitty paid mods wont.

I have to say 'Creation Club' is rather thin on the ground for content and disappointing at the moment.

I suspect its currently more a 'proof of concept' for Starfield and ES6, if they can monetise mods they will make a crazy amount of money.
 

Matt_Fox

Member
Thank you, this is amazing! So we can use all of those mods at the same time without any problems?

Those mods are all fine, and shouldn't cause any crashes. You do want to pay attention to Load Order though, again there is a menu on Xbox that allows you to easily move mods up and down the order.

Tips would be to have the Unofficial Skyrim Patch right at the top. Next have the combat mods (or any mods that change the game mechanics). Then have the player mods. Next have the graphics mods. Then the population mods. Finally the remaining environmental / bug fixing mods at the bottom. If you're using the popular Alternate Start mod then have that right at the very bottom.
 

Croatoan

They/Them A-10 Warthog
You can't install Skyrim Script Extender on Xbox can you? If so there are a lot of mods console players don't have access to :(.
 

Sp3eD

0G M3mbeR
Are these new comparisons just using the 60fps mod or is the S / X upgrade live?

going to start a new game once the upgrade happens
 
Last edited:

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Are these new comparisons just using the 60fps mod or is the S / X upgrade live?

going to start a new game once the upgrade happens
It is live since monday/thusday I believe, gotta go to game details and compatibility something and there you can turn it off, you will find it.

 

Connxtion

Member
The old Skyrim syndrome. Three hours fixing mods then 30 minutes of actually playing before getting bored and uninstalling.
Hahaha I spend an hour downloading all my mods and sorting the load order. To play for 5 mins and go yeah a CBA playing this and uninstalled it 😂
 

Sevenfold

Member
Not wanting to hijack but if anyone wants to play heavily modded Skyrim on PC without all the fuckery of waiting to bump into something game breaking I highly recommend the 'Wabbajack' installer and the 'Phoenix Follower' modpack.

It's hundreds of mods but isn't full of TTTE and backwards flying dragons. It's very respectful of vanilla while still being full of surprises for vets.

I'm currently at 144 hours with the pack and have had 7 CTDs (the standard Bethesda drop to desktop that doesn't reoccur at the same place) which is better than launch vanilla :D

It's a piece of piss to install!

Cough a couple of quid for a month's premium at Nexus. Link to Wabbajack and it does everything else. It's really well documented and there's about 10 minutes of fucking about immediately upon first start with the mod menu.
I have 300Mb down and it took about an hour and half to download and install.


...on the same subject I'm 100 hours into Fallout 4's Magnum Opus Wabbajack and loving that too!
 

Matt_Fox

Member
Not wanting to hijack but if anyone wants to play heavily modded Skyrim on PC without all the fuckery of waiting to bump into something game breaking I highly recommend the 'Wabbajack' installer and the 'Phoenix Follower' modpack.

It's hundreds of mods but isn't full of TTTE and backwards flying dragons. It's very respectful of vanilla while still being full of surprises for vets.

I'm currently at 144 hours with the pack and have had 7 CTDs (the standard Bethesda drop to desktop that doesn't reoccur at the same place) which is better than launch vanilla :D

It's a piece of piss to install!

Cough a couple of quid for a month's premium at Nexus. Link to Wabbajack and it does everything else. It's really well documented and there's about 10 minutes of fucking about immediately upon first start with the mod menu.
I have 300Mb down and it took about an hour and half to download and install.


...on the same subject I'm 100 hours into Fallout 4's Magnum Opus Wabbajack and loving that too!

Not hijacking at all, that's great info. I've always thought that carefully curated 'mod packs' were the answer for games like Skyrim where there are SO many mods.

I also like being respectful of the vanilla game with my mods, except for one. I have a 'giant chicken' mod, and have played so many hours with it that I've become accustomed to chickens being elephant-sized in Tamriel! (if there are any chickens in ESVI I'm going to be like "why are those chickens so small?")
 

Matt_Fox

Member
Guess what, Skyrim still runs the best on PS5. The game on XSX performs about the same whether using the official boost or the unofficial mod.



Actually that video looks great for the XSX, it looks like a steady 60 once you're 'in' the game world. I wouldn't worry about anything from the opening 30 minute Helgen set-piece. That whole tutorial sequence with the dragon attack on the town is heavily scripted and is quite unlike the rest of the game, it has always tanked performance.
 

Sevenfold

Member
Not hijacking at all, that's great info. I've always thought that carefully curated 'mod packs' were the answer for games like Skyrim where there are SO many mods.

I also like being respectful of the vanilla game with my mods, except for one. I have a 'giant chicken' mod, and have played so many hours with it that I've become accustomed to chickens being elephant-sized in Tamriel! (if there are any chickens in ESVI I'm going to be like "why are those chickens so small?")
I had to remove the cabbage launcher from one of my own attempts at modding the game. It just wrecked everything :D

Yeah these large modpacks seem a logical progression from what we're used to. I was caught of guard with the simplicity and stability of them though. The people who make them put so much effort in to make sure everything plays nice and having dabbled that's no small feat especially when getting into the hundreds and the potential conflicts. Some of these are 500+ !

Also just want to say that a decade later the dialogue system in Skyrim and Fallout... the way it lets you loose of the character you're facing and draws you back in when you're needed. Still unbeaten for its style of interaction. I had a big break from Skyrim and was struck when the Yarl of Whiterun stuff came about with just how fluid it felt. Weirdly fresh which is an odd one probably entirely down to the games I've exposed myself to in-between but noteworthy nonetheless.
 
Last edited:

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
qFf4HQE.png


With SKYRIM now available on Gamepass and with a 60fps upgrade I thought it might be nice to make a thread about mods for those that are thinking of taking another trip into Tamriel.

Mods on Xbox are simple to add, and if you've ever been daunted by modding on PC then fear not this is a rather easier proposition and you can find the mods via the game's main menu. The golden rule does apply though, if you want to avoid crashes then add mods at the start of your playthrough not once you're 20 hours in (it might mess up your save).

One other point to know from the outset is that using mods disable achievements. Mods can massively improve the game in many ways but if you're after achievements then vanilla is the only option.

So here are 30 mods that I would recommend to everyone.

Combat (adds gore and lethality)
-Enhanced Blood Textures
-BIG more kill moves and decapitations
-Wildcat combat of skyrim
-Tweaked arrows and bolts sniper edition

Population (add enemies and NPCs)
-Immersive Patrols
-Mortal Harvest
-The New Dragon Cult
-Deadly Draugur
-Populated Dungeons Caves Ruins
-Skybirds

Player (with more enemies to fight, helps balance things out and make it more fun)
-Ordinator Perks of Skyrim
-Perk points at levels 50-75-100
-Left hand rings
-Merchants have more gold
-Stones of barenziah droppable plus quest markers

Graphics (improve the visuals of the game)
-SMIM Static Mesh Improvment Mod
-Graphics Pack (all graphics packs and add ons by Skeletor2017)
-Beauties of Skyrim HD
-Bijin All In One
-KS Hairdos
-A Quality World Map
-Realistic Water Two
-Enhanced Night Skyrim

Environmental and bug fixing (adds stability, QOL, and some content)
-Unofficial Skyrim special edition patch
-Cutting room floor
-color patches remover
-open cities skyrim
-relationship dialogue overhaul
-Master the summit
-Dead body collision fix

With these 30 mods active you'll have a far superior experience than the vanilla game. There are close to 15,000 mods available for Xbox and it can be daunting so hope this modest selection might help get you started.

Love to hear what others think and any further modding recommendations.
Had a lot of crashes using Immersive Patrols with Open Cities. In fact, I highly recommend not using Open Cities. With the SDD load times, the gains do not outweigh the issues.
 

Matt_Fox

Member
Any chance we could expand this to ps5 as well? I just did the 60 fps mod and would love some more recommendations.

Mods on PlayStation are limited by only using existing assets, but even so you can significantly improve the visuals, the gameplay, and add a bunch more enemies and NPCs into the game to make combat more fun and intense. Here's a list of some good ones:

Skyrim Restored

Immersive Patrols

Immersive Citizens

Magical College of Winterhold

Rain and Snow FX

Dolomite Weathers

BIG: More kill moves and decapitations

Mortal Harvest

Kato's Falkreath

Kato's Whiterun

Kato's Ivarstead

Kato's Riverwood

Bridges of Skyrim

Merchants Have More Gold

Improved Hearthfire Lighting

Fix your aim no more moonwalking

Sylvan Spirits

Realistic Conversations

The New Dragon Cult

Immersive upgrade levelled items

Populated Skyrim Civil War

Invulnerable NPCs

Stones of Barenziah Quest Markers

Guards of Skyrim

Frost Giants

No helmet required

Helmets with circlets

Bee Hives

Point The Way

Fallen Trees

Thief 2.0

Challenging Giants

BIG: More blood and gore

Hearthfire no reset

Populated Dungeons

Dead Body Collision Fix

Quiet Dogs

More Bandit Camps

Lanterns of Skyrim

Move (get out the way)

Master Of Destruction

Vampires suck: No attacks in town

Water - Water and Terrain Enhancement

Lore Based Loading Screens

Dawnguard Map Markers

Forgotten Dungeons

Smilodon - Combat of Skyrim

Better Vanilla Perks for PS4

Various Dragons

Manor Roads

Realistic Conversations

Skyrim Mercenaries
 

Matt_Fox

Member
With the Anniversary Edition just launched I thought I'd share a couple of tips for Xbox players.

Firstly there are reports of low level stuttering which seems to be linked to the 120hz setting. So worth going to your console settings and switching it to 60hz for Skyrim.

FPS boost also seems to cause potential issues, and has become redundant anyway since the patch, so also worth turning that off in the Manage Games setting on your Xbox UI.

Finally it would have been nice if Bethesda had included a FOV slider, but no problems - if you want to change the default FOV (75) to something a little higher then download the 'Dynamic camera' mod and you can not only change your first-person FOV but you can fine tune third-person too.
 
Top Bottom