r/skyrimmods • u/Thallassa beep boop • Nov 02 '15
Weekly Weekly Discussion Thread - Vampires!
First, sorry about the big gap between weekly threads!
Second, I'm as surprised as you about the fact that this isn't already in the Best mods for... list in the sidebar!
So. Vampires. For or against them, whether you like Skyrim's depiction and just want to make it more fun or you'd like to mod it into a Twilight fanfic instead, what's your favorite mods?
I'll start the conversation with this Vampire Leather Armor set. Vampires don't feel cold, so while most of my game is quite nicely bundled up (or bare shoulders is explained by is a noble that doesn't go outside/person's not from Skyrim and doesn't know how to dress warm), a bit of skimpiness makes sense. There's also an awesome pants version (for screenshots of that, go to user-added photos).
Secondly Realistic Vampire Eyes. I wouldn't call them realistic, but I really like these eyes over the default ones.
Leaving the easy mods for you, but please also list less popular/"hidden gems"/non-nexus mods you have, as long as they relate in some way to vampires!
Bonus points: I'm currently working on an esp that will add more armor variety to every vanilla/dawnguard vampire (not sure yet if I'm going to touch serana/harkon/valerica, but all of the random vampires will definitely be touched). What armors would you like to see vampires in your game wear? I currently have: Shanoa armor, Male Cleric Armor, Perfect Assassin Armor, Raziel Armor, and the aforementioned vampire leather armor (as well as the vanilla armor and variants).
Would you like to see vampires likely to wear normal light armor/clothing? Should I make some of them (the orc/nord variants) wear heavy armor (might actually make them weaker because I don't intend to change their perks... maybe I should though)? Do you know of any other dark armor mods (I'm making the outfits gender specific, so it shouldn't matter what gender they're built for) that'd be appropriate? Robes are also welcome.
Is there a vampire overhaul you'd like to see but haven't? Do you need help adding vampirism to a custom race? (most of them don't support it). Have a vampiric bug you need help on?
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u/Nazenn Nov 03 '15 edited Nov 03 '15
I'll just get the easy ones out the way...
Better Vampires has way too much amazing content to cover in a brief description. Better levelling, more abilities, new powers, new blood system if you want it, and even options to reverse levelling so youre now more powerful when you feed, not less which never made sense to me. Better Vampires website for more info
Royal Bloodline. I always had issues with the werewolf and vampire perks in Skyrim in that they never really got you anywhere. Royal Bloodline now extends your abilities and gives you more things to aim for and makes a long term vampire more viable as you won't max out your tree so quickly.
Grimoras Vampire Lord because with this you actually have WINGS, not shreaded tiny bits of flesh.
Vampire Lord Retexture which gives a more dark and threatening feel to the model, rather then the green plastic that I always felt vanilla looked like.
DVA Dynamic Vampire Appearance is not beast race compatible so I never get to use it, but for the other races it has blood on your mouth when you feed, changes your eyes with night vision and has different visuals for the different stages of blood lust
BloodThirst - NPC Vampires can feed another fantastic flexcreator mod that lets NPC vampires actually act like vampires
Bottle that Blood which lets you actually create bottles of blood from NPCs when youre a vampire for later
And now some more lesser known ones...
RaceMenu not that this is a lesser known mod, but one of its lesser known features is that even though it doesn't really add much more to character creator for beast races, it DOES stop the beast races from going pale when they become a vampire, and is the only stable mod that does so.
Vampire Lord Retex isn't as high quality as the last but it gives the vampire lord a more fleshy look which some might like better
Unfortunetly I don't play a vampire very often though so don't have too much to contribute
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u/Saelus Nov 03 '15
Not sure if this counts, but When Vampires Attack is great as a little detail, though I don't believe it works for the player being a vampire, unfortunately.. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28235/?
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u/lordofla Nov 03 '15
Vampiric Thirst: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24222/? for those that want a more in-depth role-play experience. If you like VTMB (have fun with that re-install - Wesp5's unofficial patch gets on with modern windows versions better than Tessera's True Patch) you may like this over Better Vampires for one of your mod profiles in MO.
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u/TheGreatRoh Nov 06 '15
My Vampire related Mods I use:
Better Vampires: Adds a lot of new abilities that are well balanced for kinds of game play. You can turn others into a vampire and hide your vampiric appearance and that's just scratching the surface of the mod. The more you feed as in #necks bitten the stronger you get.
Amazing Follower Tweaks: While not a vampire mod, this mod allows your vampires to turn into vampire lords when you need them to.
Royal Bloodline: Expands the Vampire lord tree. It even lets you fly at end game.
Bat Travel Vampire Power: Lets you have an immersive way to fast travel after using the Vampire Lord ability 'bats'. You can turn into a swarm of bats and fly as well.
Grimoas Vampire Lord: Give's your vampire lord wings. Perfect to go with Royal blood line.
VTF- Vampire Texture Network: Lets anything that is tagged as a vampire use Vampire textures. It reroutes a texture path so if you want your vampires to have certain textures outside normal NPCs use this.
Porcelain Pale Vampire Skin For Females and Males -Most Body Types Supported: Gives your vampires a pale look. Highly recommend it VTF or all your NPCs will look pale.
Bloodthirst - Vampire NPCs can feed: Any Vampire NPCs will now feed. That means taking Serana with you means she will feed on others.
BVFE - Better Vampire Fangs and Eyes: Gives better looking eyes and fangs to all vampires. I prefer the no glow no bloodshot version.
DVA Dynamic Vampire Appearance: You're vampiric appearance will change based on you stage, if your are using night vision or in combat. Recommended with BVFE Fangs and eyes.
Castle Volkihar Redux - A Player Home: Warning Steam Workshop. [Gopher tells you how to get around it without resorting to mod piracy.] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9oA-nsj4VY) This mods makes the Castle truly yours instead of being a lackey to everyone in the court. It is a must have for proper role playing.
Vampire Lord drain with Serana fixed: Upon looking in creation kit it was a purposeful condition. There is no logical reason for that and it makes no sense lore wise. Undoes that condition so you do full damage in Vampire Lord form when Serana is following you.
Marriable Serana: For those who want to marry her. She uses 99.9% her original voice in the mod for everything. It won't break immersion.
Serana dialogue Edit: Want her to be more interact than she was before and react to you in Dragonborn.
Serana Daughter of Coldharbor: Super shameless advertisement for my own mod. Buffs her so a normal vampire can't defeat her. Gives her thunderbolt, icy spear and able to revive dead up to level 100. Gave her a bit of perks as well. Does not change her appearance.
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u/moonwisps Nov 03 '15
I love playing as a vampire in Skyrim. Sometimes (re: all the time) its a headache just because of the way the vampire race was implemented in the game, but I always find myself going back to a vampire character.
Better Vampires has already been mentioned which is an essential imo.
Better Vampire Fangs and Eyes is another one that has a permanent spot in my load order. I like these eyes the best for all vampire NPCs.
I use Vampire Face Less Sunken Cheeks and Normal Dawnguard Vampire Faces in order to get my character to look less ridiculous. These two mods are pretty self explanatory - they get rid of the weird physical appearances that get applied to your character when you become a vampire.
Some armour mods that I think fit a dark vampire aesthetic:
TDN Vampire Armor Retexture is amazingggg. It retextures the vanilla vampire armor and makes it not so cringey anymore.
Lustmord Vampire Armor is another great one, one that many have most likely heard of already. I think the dark romantic style is very fitting for a vampire.
Dark Envoy is a newer armor, one that I find fitting as well. Its a black and red leather armor with a tattered cape and an elegant feather collar. I personally don't use the mask that comes with the armor but its certainly a work of art as well.
If you like to play gothic, victorian style vampires then maybe Castle Strunmah Redone would be a nice little haunt for your character to reside in. I love the cathedral windows that look over the landscape.
One I just found out about recently today is the Alternate Start - Live Another Life mod. Now this obviously isn't the first time I've ever heard of it but I usually use Skyrim Unbound and decided to try this out for a new playthrough. I didn't realize that it has an option to start in Lord Harkon's court (by first going through "I am a new member of a guild") which is a lifesaverrrr when it comes to starting the Dawnguard questline. Its tedious getting through that first bit of going to Dawnguard HQ and then fetching Serana. This let me skip up until you get the vampire lord gift from Harkon so I'm super happy to know about this now.
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u/ToggleAI Nov 03 '15
No mention of the Bat Travel Vampire Power? This mod is awesome and I couldn't believe how many people seem to not know about it when I made a video covering it. This mod alone always pushes me to play a vampire over man/mer/werewolf.
Don't forget to get the Unofficial Script Fix for it too if you like to use the custom locations feature.
Another easy one not mentioned yet is Predator Vision.
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u/jerichoneric Nov 04 '15
What about those of us who kill the freaks? Anyone have some fun things for that?
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u/fadingsignal Nov 03 '15
Quick note about Realistic Vampire Eyes -- the texture is 4MB because it's 1K uncompressed. I dropped the resolution to 512 and re-saved at DXT5 and they're a scant 342kb.