The Skyrim Mod Forge – Episode 8 – Cats, Shouts, Hideouts and Swords from LOTR

It’s wednesday and the Skyrim Mod Forge is back, bringing you some of the best mods produced by the modding community dedicated to improving The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

It’s already the thirdweek of January, and while we’re all still waiting (and some are losing hope) to see if Bethesda will keep it’s promise of releasing the Creation Kit (that will increase the modding potential of the game exponentially) this month, the community is still using whatever it can to improve the game over the original. There already are nearly 7000 mods available for download, and that’s just counting the ones that I could personally find.

The purpose of this column is to help those that may be a little disoriented with the size and scope of what the Skyrim modding community offers. You’ll find here on DualShockers every Wednesday.

But, as every week, it’s time to let the mods do the talking, so without further ado, head past the cut for this week’s highlights.

Coverkhajiits

In the previous episodes of this column I talked about beautiful men and beautiful women, but having no personal interest in the furry races, I neglected the Khajiits. I still have no interest, to be honest, but this mod is simply too good to pass on. It's made by mrLenski and replaces the absolutely lackluster original textures of the Khajiit faces with much more realistic and detailed ones, improving their looks, and not by a little.

You can download the mod here whether you play the race yourself, or you just want the many NPC Khajiits that populate Skyrim to look a lot better.

Mystic Elven Armor - HD

Have you ever felt that the yellow (some swear it's "gold", but I can only define that "yellow") Elven Armor in Skyrim looks... well... bad? I do, and that's why this mod by Sader is a real Godsend. It fully replaces the vanilla Elven Armor with an absolutely beautiful one, that not only looks perfectly elvish, but it also doesn't make you look like a complete clown, which is a definite plus.

You can download it here, and say goodbye to the yellow.

Wars in Skyrim II

This mod by Alexandrox is a quirky but definitely very interesting. I actually debated including it or not for a while due to it's quirky nature and due to the fact that if you don't use the "Rainbow version" it can seriously interfere with the normal flow of the game. What it does is filling (or at least populating, in the case of the more mild Rainbow version, that I use) the world of Skyrim with random encounters with a wide variety of monsters and enemies, and the best thing is that they will actually meet and fight against each other.

If you love the randomness of the dragon fights, you'll love the randomness of this mod even more, as you'll encounter bloody battles and the occasional boss out of the blue. If you want to use the more radical versions (Golden Age, Normal or Easy), you may want to do so just to mess around, not to break your usual Skyrim game Keep an old save game handy and reload it after deactivating the mod. It's still great fun.

Check it out here, at your own risk.

Dovahkiin Hideout

Mods like this one by Shawk are often pointed at as cheats, many just consider them a matter of convenience. It's not very realistic for sure, as it provides a common basement to all the houses you can purchase in the game. Not only it will be reachable from every single one of your turfs, but it will also allow you to travel from one to the others faster. In the hideout you'll find a large amount of containers and every crafting tool you can think of.

While, again, many will consider this a cheat, it's influence on balance is minimal. Fast travel already exists in the game, crafting tools are available for free in every city and every container in the game provides infinite space. What you have is simply something that will save you a bit of time and the effort to remember in what home you left something, while giving you plenty space to showcase your trophies, armor and weapons.

Simple, neat, effective. That's why I like it, and you can like it to after getting it here.

No Helm or Mask

This mod by Samsingletree is one of those small mods that, despite their simplicity, will make a lot of people happy. In MMORPGs one of the first demands made by the players (if the feature isn't in the game by launch) is about the implementation of a toggle to make headgear invisible. This mod doesn't provide a toggle, unfortunately, but it does make all helms and masks in the game invisible, allowing you to still receive the benefits of a helm without actually displaying one.

It actually removes the visuals of all the helmets in the game, including those of the guards. If you wondered what they looked like behind those black slits, but didn't want to slaughter them to find out, now it's your chance. You can find the file here.

LOTR - Narsil and Anduril

Who didn't desire, at least once, to wield the most legendary blades of modern fantasy? With this mod by Isilmeriel you can. Simple as that. But, while the concept is simple, the models and textures of the swords are some of the most beautiful I've seen in a Skyrim mod. Both swords come in one handed and two handed versions, to fit everyone's tastes.

If you like swords and The Lord of the Rings, this is a must have, no doubt about it. Check them out here.

Dual Casting - Dual Wielding Simplified

Since we're talking about simple, but useful mods, this one by Qlzqqlzuup fits the description perfectly. When two have two identical spells or two weapons equipped, it will make you attack with both by just pressing the left mouse button, while the right mouse button will make you attack just with one. I'm sure many will find it lovely, since constantly pressing both mouse buttons at the same time is rather cumbersome.

You can download it here.

ThuuMic v1 - Real Life Dragon Shouts

http://www.youtube.com/embed/zYYCnqJlVBI

This mod by DeadlyAzuril and PsychoHamster is a clear case of "Last but not least". It's the real deal, and I can't even imagine how much thought and effort went into it. It takes a bit to set up correctly, but once you're done, it will simply allow you to actually vocalize your Dragon Shouts into your microphone, and the game will recognize them, prompting your character to execute the approproate Thu'um.

I always found switching between shouts and focusing on using them at the right time during combat rather cumbersome. This mod radically changed that. Now there isn't a fight in which I don't use at least one, or multiple. I'm surprised that no one thought about it before, or rather, most probably plenty people did, but no one else managed to find a good way to implement it. Download it here and give it a try. It'll improve the game considerably.

And that’s it for this episode. I hope you found something useful to improve your game. As usual remember that full and exclusive credit for the mods listed above goes to their talented authors. Do come back next week for more mods at the Skyrim Mod Forge.