- Preamble
- Noteworthy Mods and What Gameplay to Expect
- Installation
- Updating
- In Game MCM Options
- How to start playing
- Last Things to Note
- FAQ
- Credits and Thanks
- Contact
- Contributing
- Changelog
Streamlined Skyrim offers modernized combat, new quests, roleplay mechanics, fully voiced followers, straightforward gameplay, overhauled locations all while staying performance friendly. Most of the gameplay changes are vanilla plus and minimalistic (except for the combat) keeping things nice and simple. Skyrim's combat has been brought up to 2021 standards making it exciting and challenging. Once you learn the basics of the list you are able to play the game without needing to micromanage. The modlist makes Skyrim, well, streamlined.
Streamlined Skyrim is a fork of the fantastic SME/FT list which I highly recommend to those who want to create their own modlist for Skyrim Special Edition.
If you want to take a look at the full modlist here is the link: https://modwat.ch/u/TerribleBrad/plugins
Please read the ReadMe in Full. The installation process is not completed once you have finished the Wabbajack installation. Do not report issues/bugs/errors to mod authors seek out help from me or the other folks on the Wabbajack Discord
Streamlined Skyrim will drastically change your game. Perk trees will have new and interesting perks that offer more build flexibility. Combat is akin to what you might see in a Witcher or Dark Souls game. All of the best quests and followers are in the list to make sure there is always something new to do. The game is rather difficult, but still fair. Roleplay mechanics have been added to further enhance Skyrim's replayablity.
General Gameplay:
Adamant - A Perk Overhaul is used to overhaul the perk tree allowing for new and unique character builds. Vanilla spells, scrolls and staffs are overhauled with Mysticism Magic of Skyrim which also adds some new spells that fit seemlessly into the game. Trade and Barter is used to make Skyrim's economy less forgiving making it more difficult to make coin. For those who love playing hero characters Lawbringer allows you to truly rid Skyrim of all of its atrocities.
Combat:
SkySA Attack Commitment and True Directional Movement are the bread and butter of Streamlined Skyrim's combat overhaul. SkySA forces you to commit to your attacks and TDM allows for movement in all directions and target lock on. You are able to dodge enemies attacks using TK Dodge completely negating damage. AMMCO prevents running during combat forcing you to pay close attention to your stamina. Streamlined Skyrim doesn't add tons of new enemies and bosses instead making combat more difficult in other ways. You are no longer allowed to save in combat and when your Stamina runs out you are unable to defend yourself and attack. With Open World Loot, you will see higher level enemies earlier and give the you a solid sense of progression as you level up. To make things more realistic, Flinching and Zxxclice Hitstop make your swings look and feel like they are actually hitting something.
Roleplay Mechanics:
Streamlined Skyrim has a number of mods that increase the roleplay options of your characters. The Realm of Lorkhan is used as the alternate start mod for its unique worldspace that offers optional attributes and boons to help flesh out your early game character. With Pilgrim - A Religion Overhaul you are able to worship a deity of your choosing. Perhaps you'll worship Talos like a true Nord or maybe Boethiah if you revere the reclaimations. The mod Experience turns Skyrim into a true roleplaying game. You gain level experience from completeing quests and discovering locations. Skyrim's Got Talent allows your character to become a bard and boasts an immersive progression system and new instrumental songs that fit right into the game.
Quests:
To make sure you never run out of things to do, Streamlined Skyrim is equipped with some incredible quests. Vigilant and Unslaad add some Soulsborne flavor. Project AHO for all you Dunmer lovers. Stendarr Rising for all the do-gooders of Skyrim. And finally Beyond Skyrim Bruma which offers a DLC sized amount of new content. Vanilla questlines are overhauled with At Your Own Pace which gives the Main Questline, Thieves Guild Questline, Bard's College Questline and The College of Winterhold Questline reasonable breaks allowing you to do other quests without feeling like there is a time crunch.
Followers:
Streamlined Skyrim comes with all of the best followers that the Skyrim modding community has to offer. From Lucien, to Inigo and from Hoth to Serena Dialogue addon you'll be sure to get your fill of unique followers. And we can't forget about the doggo companions: Gladys the Corgi, True Meeko and Vigilance Reborn.
Streamlined Skyrim is designed for low to mid tier systems and does not include an ENB (although you can add one. See Optional ENB)
TerribleBrad’s System:
GPU: Radeon RX 580 Series 8GB
CPU Ryzen 6 2600
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: 500 GB SSD
Fps: 52-60
- Over 62.7 GB for the Downloads folder
- Over 87.3 GB for the Installation folder
- ~15 GB for temporary files
So 165 GB minimum is required. I cannot stress how much a SSD is needed for at least the game and the list. You can put your downloads in an HDD so it will only slow your installation process.
These steps are only needed if you install the Modlist for the first time. If you are updating the Modlist, jump straight to Updating.
I doubt you need to do this since you likely already have this installed. This package is required for MO2 and you can download it from Microsoft. Download the x64 version under "Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019". Direct link if you can't find it.
If you have your Steam library in Program Files, read this to put it somewhere else.
I will not provide support to people with Skyrim in their Program Files folder.
Locations like Documents, Downloads, Desktop, or OneDrive are NOT fine. The best location would be C:\SteamLibrary if you have a single drive, or whichever Drive Letter you have on your main Games drive. Such a location is also called the "root of the drive."
SSE is still being updated by Bethesda (they only add Creation Club content). Whenever the game updates, the entire modding community goes silent for the next one or two weeks because some mods need to be updated to the latest game runtime version.
To ensure that Steam does not automatically update the game for you, head over to the Properties window, navigate to the Updates tab and change Automatic updates to Only update this game when I launch it. You should also disable the Steam Cloud while you're at it.
Just do it. This entire Modlist is in English and 99% of all mods you will find are also in English. I highly recommend playing the game in English and I will not give support to people with a non-English game.
Open the Steam Properties window, navigate to the Language tab and select English from the dropdown menu.
I highly recommend uninstalling the game through Steam, deleting the game folder, and reinstalling it. You should also clean up the Skyrim Special Edition folder in Documents/My Games/ by deleting the contents in it. Alternatively, use the Shredder.
If you ever used Vortex to mod Skyrim SE, using the Shredder becomes a critically important step, as Vortex will conflict heavily with any Wabbajack installation, so backup your stuff or shred it.
If the Shredder is unavailable at the time you read this, manually uninstall Vortex and manually delete the Skyrim Special Edition folder located in your SteamLibrary\steamapps\common, where your SteamLibrary is.
THIS is approximately what a clean Skyrim install should look like after shredding or cleaning it manually.
After you have done everything above and got a clean SSE installation ready, start the Launcher and open the Options menu.
- Leave the quality to what Skyrim sets it to, but you can lower it if you wish. FPS gain is minor though.
- Set the Aspect Ratio and Resolution to your monitor's native values
- Check Windowed Mode and Borderless
Start the game and exit once you're in the main menu.
Download the release to a working folder. This folder must not be in a common folder like your Desktop, Downloads or Program Files folder. It's best to create a Wabbajack folder near the root level of your drive like C:/Wabbajack.
Grab the latest release of Wabbajack from here and place the Wabbajack.exe file in the working folder.
Wabbajack will not work with Windows 7, I will not offer any kind of support for users of that operating system.
The download and installation process can take a very long time depending on your system specs. Wabbajack will calculate the amount of threads it will use at the start of the installation. To have the highest amount of threads and thus the fastest speed, it is advised to have the working folder on an SSD.
- Download the Streamlined Skyrim Wabbajack file linked above
- Create a folder for the List at the root of your drive (like the Wabbajack folder) called "Streamliend Skyrim." This will be your "Installation" folder.
- Create another folder called "Wabbajack Downloads Folder". This specific folder can be on a different drive if you wish. This will be your "Downloads" folder.
- Click on the Streamlined Skyrim Wabbajack file.
- Select your Installation and Download folders (the ones you just made)
- Click the Go/Begin button.
- Wait for Wabbajack to finish.
There are a lot of different scenarios where Wabbajack will produce an error. I recommend re-running Wabbajack before posting anything. Wabbajack will continue where it left off so you lose no progress.
Could not download x:
If a mod updated and the old files got deleted, it is impossible to download them. In this case, just wait until I update the Modlist.
Some files are known to be problematic, you can find them stickied in my Discord Channel
x is not a whitelisted download:
This can happen when I update the modlist. Check if a new update is available and wait if there is none.
Wabbajack could not find my game folder:
Wabbajack will not work with a pirated version of the game. If you own the game on Steam, go back to the Pre-Installation step.
When the installation is complete, copy the files in the Streamlied Skyrim\Game Folder Files folder and paste them into your Skyrim folder (with the SkyrimSE.exe and the data folder). HERE.
Bigger Skyrim modlists need a lot of memory, and when there is not enough available it may fail allocating more. To fix this, you'll want to have a bigger pagefile. A pagefile is a file on your disk Windows will use when there is not enough RAM available. Never disable the pagefile - this may lead to various issues on your system, such as this Skyrim crash.
If you've never touched the pagefile, perform the following steps to prevent from memory crashes:
- Press Windows + R on your keyboard and enter
sysdm.cpl ,3 - Under the Performance section, press 'Settings'
- Go to the Advanced tab at the top, and at the Virtual memory section press 'Change...'
- Disable 'Automatically manage paging file size for all drives'
- If you have more than one drive, try enabling it for at least one more drive as a backup (make sure it has a decent bit of free space, like 15GB). Set the size to 'System managed size'. Otherwise, set a custom size for the drive it's currently on and increase the maximum size to be at least 20GB.
Streamlined Skyrim doesn't come with an ENB, but you can add one. I tested out Glazed ENB: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/53316?tab=description and got around 30-40 fps outdoors. Obviously the game is going to look a lot better with an ENB, but you will sacrifice performance(unless you've got a beefy computer).
If this Modlist receives an update, please check the Changelog before doing anything. Always backup your saves or start a new game after updating.
Wabbajack will delete all files that are not part of the Modlist when updating!
This means that any additional mods you have installed on top of the Modlist will be deleted. Your saves will be kept, but please check each update changelog to see if the update is save compatible. Your downloads folder will not be touched!
Updating is like installing. You only have to make sure that you select the same path and tick the overwrite existing Modlist button.
Head over to the installation folder and locate an executable named ModOrganizer.exe and launch it. Once it's launched, there will be a dropdown box on the top right and a big run button next to it. Ensure it is set to SKSE by selecting it in the dropdown box and then hitting the run button.
Select New to start a new game. Once you have finished character creation allow all of the start of game scripts to finish loading before doing anything. Do NOT change race with showracemenu after confirming your character! It is time to configure all the mcm menus!
- Presets :
- Load User Settings
- Minimum Time Between Comments : 20
- Maximum Time Between Comments : 30
- Options
- Timed Block Options
- Choose Block Damage Modifier : 100%
- Timed Block Winder : 0.3 Seconds
- NPC Stagger Time : 1 Seconds
- Magic Parrying Options
- Reflect Magic : Disabled
- Npc Magic Stagger : Disabled
- Misc Options
- Perfect Block Message : Disabled
- Timed Block Options
- Block Key : Mouse 5 (I prefer mouse keys for this, but if that is not an option select a key near WASD like V)
- Player
- Movement Enabled:
- Cold : Disabled
- Injured : Disabled
- Idle
- Fatigued Stage 1 : Disable
- Fatigued Stage 2 : Disable
- Movement Enabled:
- NPC
- Movement Enabled:
- Cold : Disabled
- Idle
- Fatigued Stage 1 : Disable
- Movement Enabled:
- Activation
- Compass Activation
- iHUD hotkey : (your choice you'll click it once and never use it again)
- Key press toggles : Enabled
- Crosshair Activation
- Wielding ranged weapon : Disabled
- Wielding spell : Disabled
- Compass Activation
- Presets
- Save Settings with FISS
- Load User Settings? : GO
- Save Settings with FISS
- Mod Options
- Stamina Consumption : 10
- Hotkeys
- Health potion hotkey : H
- General → Item List :
- Font Size : Small
- Category Icon Theme : Curved
- Custom Values
- Max number of potions : 2
- Presets
- Load Preset : Modern Camera Preset
- Following
- Misc
- Shoulder Swap Key : (Something beside C which is used for jump) Note: Will never be used.
- Misc
- Crosshair
- Sneak Settings
- Enable Stealth Meter Offset : Disable
- Sneak Settings
- Extra Options
- Load Preset
- Barter Rates
- Settings
- Modify Barter Settings : Enable
- Presets
- Barter Presets : Difficult
- Settings
- General
- Controls
- Toggle Target Lock Key : ( It is set to Mouse 4, but if you don't have a mouse with extra buttons use a key near WASD like G)
- Controls
- Profile System
- Menu Settings
- Load : Streamlined Skyrim Violens
- Menu Settings
- The difficulty in Streamlined Skyrim is quite a bit harder than Vanilla so I suggest not using Legendary. I personally play on Expert.
You are now in the Realm of Lorkhan which allows you to select some attributes, your standing stone, and find some early game gear. Realm of Lorkhan is designed for you to explore and find your own path so take your time here you can never go back. Note that there are some higher level weapons that can be found which I recommend against using. When you are satisfied with your character gear and attributes select one of the large Soul gems and you will be transported to a starting area. You are now free to play the game like normal!
Streamlined Skyrim's combat is very different from the vanilla game so when you first start playing the list it will take some time to get used to. The goal of this combat overhaul is to make combat more skill based and to turn Skyrim's combat into something you'd find in a Dark Souls or Witcher game. The AI of enemies has been improved and they will be much more agressive. Stamina will regenerate much more quickly, but light attacks and dodges will consume it. True Directional Combat gives you the ability to lock onto targets and move in all directions. The mouse wheel allows you to switch between locked on targets. Optimal potion hotkey allows you to consume potions without having to open a menu. Pressing the space bar allows you to dodge. If you block an opponents attack within 0.3 seconds of it connecting your opponent will stagger. These changes will take some getting used to, but with time you will realize that you can never go back to vanilla Skyrim's janky combat.
You can just remove the MO2 folder and be done with it. SKSE and ENB files will still be in your game folder so I recommend using ENB and ReShade Manager if you want to remove the ENB.
I have an ultra-wide, but it's just not worth the hassle of setting Skyrim up for it, in my opinion. Skyrim isn't made for it; if you disagree, check this guide by my friend Mantis for compatibility with such screens.
I don't play Skyrim with a controller so at the moment I don't offer support for it. Although, I am working on mkaing Streamlined Controller friendly :)
Ask it in my Discord, link here or Wabbajack's Discord, link here. But make sure you're using the right support channel and not a general channel!
No, I don't like them.
CC Content isn't considered like DLCs (Dawnguard/Dragonborn/Hearthfire) and will never be treated as such.
Using them with Streamlined Skyrim would be like installing your own mods: Support is forfeited and they will NOT work without patching.
- YOU for actually reading the readme. Thanks a ton!
- Halgari and everyone in the WJ Team.
- Sovn for teaching me how to use xEdit, testing my list, letting me fork his Readme and answering all of my questions.
- Chris for also teaching me xEdit, testing my list and finding everything I needed to patch.
- To the members of my Discord, for their feedback, suggestions and bug finding.
While I'm always available on the Wabbajack Discord, feel free to check out my own Discord. DO NOT DM ME ON DISCORD. I WILL NOT PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR YOU IN DMS.
See Changelog.