Yes. What about it?

It's intended as a nicely categorized list of one man's informed opinion, use it as such.

Do you miss any mods on that list?

I find there to be a tiny bit to many mods on that list to be one person who said "These are the best ones".
Especially when several of them do the same thing and are incompatible with each other and different mods.

Take the two major killmove mods.
The Dance of Death and Advanced Killmoves, which is better?
Doesn't say, just list them both and mark them as similar / does the same thing.

Thanks for the list. It's really helped me out with choosing mods.

What's going to rub some people the wrong way is that he does not seem to be presenting this list as 'one man's opinion.' The list flatly states, "...all the best Gameplay Enhancement Mods for Skyrim." He does not say, "Here's some mods I like" or "Here's a few mods you ought to check out." He categorically asserts that this is a listing of ALL THE BEST mods. Bombastic words like "all the best" are understandably going to cause friction in the community.

Which is why I and others have asked by what standards best is arrived at.

So far no standards that I can see just what he likes. There are severely dirty mods in the list, mods that are not updated to the latest patch, and mods that don't play well with others in there. Not to mention those that lack readmes and/or are available only through steamworks.

I'm not saying it is bad taste at all - as some do look very good - just that one should take it for what it is: A list of what he recommends.

I agree that the statement taken from the Nexus page "GEMS does not recommend one mod over another but it does group mods with similar purpose or function together so that others will be able to create mod compilation guides more easily." or similar would probably better serve to explain the purpose of the list.

I don't know about these mods specifically, but often, there is no "better".
He does choose, of course, but with mods doing very similar things, it's often a "well, I found that one first" decision, so it's better to list them both as equals.

It's a hair early to be making any sort of judgments about this with tools only being available to handle the problem for a couple of weeks.

Next year? Yeah, then you've got a legit beef there.

The only patch of consequence up until last week was Patch 1.6. Patch 1.4 and 1.5 didn't break anything that needed to be updated. Patch 1.7 didn't either.

Patch 1.8 has so far only been shown to have negative impact on race and armor mods.

As much as many of us like to bash Steam, where a mod is published should not be used as a condition for determining its worth.

the list is great. there was loads of things like this for morrowind we need more

1. I was referring to getting a handle on what qualifies as best. That being one factor - listed as an example. I think having that as a qualifier for the future would be most beneficial, but I'm not holding my breath.

2. There are a few older mods listed. Not many but Simple Skyrim Spell Scaling Solution by tejon came out last December. I would not recommend that to anyone based on that alone.

3. It can matter because SW doesn't allow readmes, esm files, optional plugins, etc. Packaging can be a huge component in whether a mod is upper crust or just crust - as can level of support.

Again though point one being the biggest. The list is a subjective list of this person's likes and there is not much beyond that to say that any mod on here is best at anything - just what he likes. When standards start getting implemented like how several mod lists for Oblivion purported to list mods that were guaranteed to be compatible, or mods that are known to not be game breakers - like isn't Real Wildlife - Skyrim by Nedius known to be problematic? The comments on it are full of workarounds for mod compatibility with the mod author not even participating. Then wasn't SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators by EtaYorius made with the older snip and even the author thinks it should be remade?

Mod lists are for those who are browsing for new mods and or those new and want a leg up on what to install. Having a theme for a list is one way to hook into this. Claiming best with no qualifiers is a bit misleading. I'm not saying it is a calamity.

I think there is no shortage of lists for Skyrim mods and plenty of video reviews too. To each their own. But if you install a mod that is a problem just because it is on the list - and learn that is a problem - doesn't that make you wonder about the list?

Nice list, thank you.

Which is my point.
He could easily have stated that one was better than the other, but I can't see him doing that.
Even with things that, in my opinion, have mods that does it better than others.

umm...dont know how this is the best mods but good job putting it together

I like lists like this because they give me a nice place to start researching; I already assume some of the mods are half-baked, or someones first try. That being said, it's pretty cool when folks come out with lists of particularly outstanding mods that have been play-tested for compatibility.

am reminded of the saying.

"no good deed goes unpunished"

a community member has gone to considerable effort to produce a very nice and functional website that lists and categorized a number of mods.

and then we have people jump on questioning the right of website creator to use the word "top/best gameplay enhancing mods for skyrim" etc and how he/she should be stressing that the list is his/her opinion etc.. or suggesting that they should all be extensively vetted for compatibility or dirty edits

seriously .... IMHO discussion of how to most political correctly craft a mod list should be taken to another thread or PM.

Can't we just be grateful and not criticise... especially in the authors thread.

my only comment on this.

edit- typo

Hah, you make a good point. Personally, I think the author should not make such bold claims, as "best" is entirely open to different interpretations. No. of endorsemants/downloads is one metric you could use, gut feeling another, but unless we're told what the author of the list used, being told one mod is "better" than another doesn't actually tell us anything. That said, I like a lot of the mods mentioned, and I consider the list a valuable method of finding new mods. Generally I run with "Nexus: most endorsemants, sort descending" for the category i want, but I can easily miss a few good mods. So I guess I'm just asking for a bit of clarity on how the mods are selected.

I just changed the first post to say "list of great mods" instead of "list of best mods".
I just upated the first post with a full description of what GEMS is about using text from the About page.

I didn't mean to mislead or offend anyone by saying these were the best mods. I was simply trying to promote interest so people would take a look. If a moderator would please remove "top" from the thread title, I would appreciate it.

Making GEMS was a LOT of work and keeping it up-to-date is a lot of work, too. When I get the time to rebuild the site with Joomla, I hope to get others involved in managing/updating the site/list. A list of mods chosen by committee will almost always be better than a list chosen by one person. Until then, I'm doing the best I can do and all suggested changes/additions are welcome.

I don't have time to test every mod or to stay on top of each version change so, for now, users will need to read each mod on the Nexus or SW, including the comments section, and determine a given mod's status, requirements, and which mods are compatible or not.

If you see a mod on GEMS that's incompatible with 1.8 and/or no longer being supported, please let me know and I will remove it or annotate it (with the hopes that someone will update it).

Well done, Kaemon! I think you've done well. Not only does it give the user a quick selection of mods, it is very well and minimally designed. I work as a software developer and easy to use and effective UI is hard to achieve.

If, at the least, your site has not only provided a list of mods but also prompted discussions of how mods popularity is not the only indication of their usability.

Seconded that and for what it is worth I very much like the layout and ease of access to the mods links, videos, and basic information.

But I also would like to recommend that having qualifiers and standards for what makes the list can be a good thing. Mod users sometimes have to worry about things like compatibility, support, and packaging more so than mod makers.

I was never trying to knock the maker of the list - just bring up some areas that could use improvement.

Thanks for this link, great website and a really good list, I have already used some of these including TwoRings and SkyrimUI which are 2 mods which I am positive should have been shippped with the original release! Great to find lists like this one, I already played Skyrim on the PS3 at release but then switched to PC and my Gaming Laptop when I realized (like with Oblivion) just how great the Skyrim PC modding community is! Is it wrong that the first mod I downloaded was the Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition from Calientes? Hey I am only a Male! Awww tell me I am alone? !!

Agreed.

The one mod-aspect I'd like for modders to describe is a list of a description of EDITED BASE OBJECTS (whether they be a tweak to stats or a class that's been extended by Script - e.g. RespawnMultiplier extends Actor).
With the new engine, there is no way to recast Classes that's been made invalid by a mod uninstallation, Any dynamic, Script mods (e.g. mods that find actors on the fly like my Fight or Fly mods) that had data from the mods that's been uninstalled will break unless that mod is coded to deal with invalid data - i.e. code that dumps invalid data. Luckily my mods come with a user-reset functionality that addresses this issue.

Editing of Base Objects (e.g. objects that are from the official ESM and ESPs) is the one biggest factor to incompatibility between mods.

Current modders have been lax with their description of mods (e.g. in Oblivion days the read-mes of mods describe the records that they changed).

Oh, wow. I really must thank you, sir; this list is brilliant.

GEMS is a real gem! With modding the user is aways advised to thread lightly and read about it before jumping in, in that light the GEMS site is a real helper, as you all know we overlook so many good mods. Most of the non spot-lighted mods I used before it was created are featured in GEMS, so I check it daily for more hidden gems I might have missed. And so I came to my load order of 255 mod (eternally fighting to decrease it).