Hey guys.

I was hoping to get some recommendations on some survival / camping / needs / hunting / cooking mods? As a side note, I prefer to get my mods off the Steam workshop.

I was hoping to add the need to eat, drink, be careful in cold/bad weather, and sleep. With that I was hoping to add the ability to set up a makeshift campsite to meet those needs on the go. On top of things, maybe a mod that will add more cooking recipies. Also, a mod that expands on wildlife and/or builds on the ability to hunt... where wildlife drops realistic drops as well.

The problem I am having is things are starting to overlap. Some of the needs mods include camping, some Camping mods look better than the camping included in the needs mods, I'm not sure if the expanded cooking recipes will meet the hunger needs of Imp's, and the hunting mods add camping or more recipes too sometimes. Anyone have a good mod that does it all, or a combination that works really well together?

THANKS!

Frostfall and IMCN are excellent for this.

In case it's helpful, I made a Steam Workshop list with a number of mods that seem to work well together for survival/realism type of playthrough http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=17346

Frostfall is the best survival mod. I haven't found the "perfect" needs mod just yet, but Chesko is working on one that will go well with Frostfall.

Highly recommend Real Wildlife. There are versions of Real Wildlife (Real Wildlife - Skyrim 1_341 No Food) and some of the cooking mods and vampire mods that are designed to be compatible with IMCN. Unfortunately these are only available on the Nexus. At the end of the day, if you add some non-IMCN cooking mods, it doesn't break the game, it just results in a few extra cooking recipes that provide health or stamina benefits but don't satiate hunger.

However, there's nothing wrong with adding a few Nexus mods if you only have Steam Workshop mods so far. I've been using a mix of some Nexus mods and Steam Workshop mods with just the vanilla Skyrim launcher (haven't needed to install NMM or any mod manager / sorting utilities)

As for camping, Frostfall includes a few different types of craftable tents as well as craftable firekits that you can use to make a campfire anywhere in the world. There is also a mod called LtMattMoo's Camping that adds a few more tent options and an alchemy lab you can set up in your campsite (with reduced quality potions, of course).

My mod, hunting in skyrim, can be found on the workshop. For creatures I recommend using it with Real Wildlife Skyrim, or SkyTEST.

For survival, use Frostfall it's great.

Will Redean's Tailoring clothes meet warmth needs created by Frostfall? Will recipes added in Shrewsbury Skyrim Cookbook meet the hunger needs added by IMCN? How about the ones added by Real Wildlife? I like how Hunting in Skyrim adjusts prices of hides and such... are there any mods out there that make creature loot more realistic? So they loot everything they have just like an NPC.

EDIT: I was reading credits and "Imp Of The Perverse – For making the IMCN patch!" was listed so I guess the Real Wildlife mod is totally compatible with IMCN. Researching the cookbook now....

I can't speak for SkyTEST, But Real Wildlife has new incrediants like organs and stuff. A creature won't just have a pelt anymore.

Oh I was more talking like... random made up example.... a bear only dropping 1 paw half the time instead of dropping 4 paws all the time.

Ok mate I don't know of any, someone else might

So as far as needs go, Frostfall + Imp's is the way to go? Any experience with the mod "Camping" or "Camping Kit of the Northern Ranger"?

Redean's Tailoring and various clothes crafting mods in the list I posted above all work with Frostfall's exposure system, because they just add recipes for crafting pre-existing vanilla clothing and armor.

Shrewsbury doesn't meet hunger needs and as for Real Wildlife, I recommend installing the "no food" optional version, which makes all the creature corpses drop the vanilla meat items that you can use for cooking foods that meet hunger needs. They will still drop various new organs (more realistic body parts) that you can use to make potions, in addition to the vanilla "meat"

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=5816, http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=1409 and http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8075 are the only mods I know of that add new IMCN-friendly cooking recipes, and I think they are only available on the Nexus. I haven't tried Realistic Wildlife Loot myself and I'm not certain whether it is compatible with Real Wildlife.


I've been using Camping and as mentioned above, it adds some crafting recipes for a few additional types of tents and camping furniture, field alchemy station, etc. It also adds a new way to collect firewood (hitting trees with woodcutter's axe)

@Grunyon -
The tailoring will meet the requirements for Frostfall. If they don't meet what you think they can, Frostfall has the ability to modify what you feel the proper warmth value (Of the three options if you enable WEAR) of a piece of clothing/armor should be. As far as I'm concerned, if it's made by Chesko it's made right and you can pretty much always expect the mod to play well with others.

I like your Skyrim survival kit, btw. Everything there works happy together?

Yes, no conflicts or crashes at all, even with the Nexus mods linked at the top of the list.

However, I'm told Scenic Carriages is a better alternative to Real Carriages. Haven't tried that one yet. Also, Chesko recommended Winter is Coming and Cloaks of Skyrim, which are both compatible with Frostfall.

My hunting mod is compat with almost everything. Real Wildlife also, apart from creature mods.

Frostfall again should work with almost everything. Even works with other camping mods like Portable Campsite.


Both of these are great to, and really add the the game

Sounds like I have a sizable list. I am going to try Frostfall camping, then Frostfall + Camping specific mods to see what I like. I am going to drop the idea of more cooking recipes. While I am on topic, though, is there anything solid out there that adds more tradeskills or expands upon the existing smithing? Something solid and balanced. I saw one fishing mod but I didn't really like the sound of it....

I'm not sure exactly what kind of smithing mod you're looking for, but http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=11822 is a lot of fun - it lets you craft all the random objects and tools in the world, and you can also use them as weapons. You can even improve them (Legendary Wooden Ladle, anyone? ).

I also like http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=15294, and http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=11123 which add lots of new crafting recipes for making traps and stuff you can throw at enemies.