Living Skyrim

Current version: 10/6/2020 2.5.0

Preface

The number one goal of Living Skyrim is to bring the world to life. This, in a nutshell, means that you will find an astounding number of new NPCs, quests, world spaces, dungeons, followers, and more. No stone has been left unturned and stepping into Living Skyrim means stepping into a world where every corner brings a new face to fight, befriend, or serve. This modlist takes a semi-lore friendly approach to adding things and uses a multitude of overhauls to breathe new life into the stagnant and unchanging systems of vanilla Skyrim. However, it is a primary tenet of Living Skyrim that the new systems added to the game don't add tedium or monotony to the game - some mods and settings are specifically avoided such that the game isn't slowed down unnecessarily. The few inclusions that do slow things down are included for balance, pacing, or roleplay purposes.

Speaking of roleplay, Living Skyrim is intended to provide replayability and roleplay potential. SkyRem, Ordinator, and other related mods allow for nearly infinite character customization to play the character you want, whether it be raving barbarian, paladin of Akatosh, archmage of Winterhold, or a hunter in the woods. The Take Notes mod allows you to chronicle your adventures and build a story that is uniquely yours. Sharing your stories with others is welcome and would be amazing to see.

All of this is on top of a high-quality graphics package intended for higher-end PCs. 4K textures and 2K normals have been given preference except in situations where there is little to no noticeable difference or a 4K option isn’t available. The ENB, weather, flora, and fauna effects have been hand-chosen to provide a consistent and absolutely gorgeous game look. See the System Specifications section to see if your computer can handle this list - weak computers will not be able to run Living Skyrim at acceptable framerates.

As for stability and conflict resolution, Living Skyrim has been entirely Method Patched to ensure consistency and compatibility across the board. In the case where patches didn't already exist or were inadequate, they have been created. This includes changes that required the use of Creation Kit to ensure that the world is working smoothly. It also includes DynDOLOD, TexGen, and SSELODGEN data pre-packaged for ease of install.

Lastly, Living Skyrim exists solely as a Wabbajack installer. A manual installation guide does not exist and likely won't ever.

Preface
Table of Contents
Before You Get Started
Pre-Installation
Wabbajack Installation
- With Nexus Premium
- Without Nexus Premium
Post-Wabbajack Install
Updating Living Skyrim
Launching Living Skyrim
- The MCM Settings
- Getting Started in Living Skyrim
Important Mods You Need to Know About
Common Issues
- Wabbajack Issues
- Gameplay Issues
Final Thoughts & Best Practices
- NeverNude?
- Adding to Living Skyrim
Other Common Questions
Credits & Thanks
- One Last Thing

Before You Get Started

Before installing Living Skyrim, here's some information you need to know.

First, if you have any trouble during installation, refer to the Common Issues section of this readme.

Warnings/Disclaimers

Wabbajack does not require that you have Nexus Premium to install the modlist, however, having Nexus Premium will cut your install time to a fraction of what it would be instead of downloading each mod individually (and save you a couple thousand clicks or so).

As of 2.5.0, the modlist requires ~252GB (80GB Downloads/172GB Mods) of hard drive space on top of the ~11GB Skyrim: Special Edition base files. Installing onto an SSD/NVMe is not required, but strongly recommended. Download and installation times vary based on your computer and internet speeds but expect the entire process to take a few of hours.

NSFW Warning: By default this modlist contains nude models for male and female NPCs. See the NeverNude section of this readme if you want to switch to NeverNude.

Support is not provided for adding to, removing from, or changing the list in any way.

System Specifications

Living Skyrim v2.0.0 is brutal on computers. Almost every texture is 4K and the ENB you choose can cause drastic impacts on your performance. The following is the computer Living Skyrim was compiled and tested on and it averaged 50-60FPS in exteriors and 60FPS in interiors with ENB enabled. Without ENB, it averaged over 60FPS everywhere.

CPU: Intel i5-8600K Overclocked to 4.2GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR4 (16299MB actual)
GPU: nVidia RTX 2080 Super 8GB (8192MB actual)
Monitor: Dell S2716DGR 2560x1440 @ 144hz
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 2TB M.2 NVMe 2280

Skyrim is very heavy on processors. Generally, anything above 3GHz should be fine but I can’t guarantee it.

Important!: 2/4GB graphics cards will severely struggle to run Living Skyrim. You will likely get 10-20FPS everywhere, possibly less. Support is not provided for improving your performance. You'll have to test things on your own to see if performance can be improved. 6GB of VRAM is the absolute, no questions asked minimum requirement to run Living Skyrim at any sort of playable framerate.

And before you ask: No, a less intense version of Living Skyrim is not planned.

Pre-Installation

Skyrim Setup

As with any modlist, it is strongly recommended that you start with a clean, unmodified installation of Skyrim: Special Edition. To get your Skyrim SE to this state, follow these steps:

In Steam, uninstall Skyrim: Special Edition (Right-click > Manage > Uninstall).
If there are any files leftover in the Skyrim Special Edition game folder (Right-click > Properties… > Local Files > Browse Local Files…), delete them.
Install Skyrim: Special Edition.

Steam Setup

Before proceeding, make sure that your Steam Library is not located within Windows' Program Files folder. Instructions on how to move your Steam Library to a different folder can be found on the internet elsewhere.

In Steam, set Skyrim: Special Edition to update only when opened. (Right-click > Properties… > Updates > Automatic updates > Only update this game when I launch it)
In Steam, disable the Steam Overlay. (Right-click > Properties... > General > Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game checkbox)

Launching Skyrim

Launch Skyrim SE to create any INI or registry entries the game needs. Immediately exit after the launcher has successfully selected a graphics preset for your hardware. The INIs will be overwritten by the ones included in the Wabbajack installer.

Wabbajack Preparations

A video version of the installation instructions from this point forward exists here: Click Me!

Download the latest version of Wabbajack. Do not run anything until instructed to do so. Make sure you are using the latest version of Wabbajack or else Wabbajack will report a corrupted modlist.
Create a new folder in the root of the drive where you want Wabbajack to be installed. (C:\ will be used as an example, but it can be placed in any drive.) Name this folder “Wabbajack”. Important!: Wabbajack must be placed in a separate folder from where the installation will occur.
Create a second folder called C:\Living Skyrim. This folder is where the modlist will be installed.
Double check that you have not placed any of these folders in your Skyrim: Special Edition installation directory.
Ensure that C:\Living Skyrim is completely empty.
Ensure that Wabbajack.exe is in C:\Wabbajack.

Wabbajack Installation

If you are updating your existing installation of Living Skyrim, skip to Updating Living Skyrim.

Run Wabbajack.exe.
At the bottom of the window click Browse Modlists and click the download/down arrow icon on the Living Skyrim card.
Once it finishes downloading, click the play/right arrow icon on the Living Skyrim card.
Set the Installation Location to C:\Living Skyrim. The download location does not need to be set manually unless you have drive space limitations. Downloading to a separate folder is fine (for example, on a HDD), but as before it is recommended that the actual install be placed on a SSD. Important!: Do not install the modlist to your Skyrim SE installation folder OR the folder that Wabbajack.exe is in.
Click the play/right arrow button to begin installation.

With Nexus Premium

Wabbajack will walk you through logging into the Nexus and authorizing an API key so it can download mods if you have not done so previously.
Let Wabbajack do its thing. This will take a little while (usually 3-4 hours at most), so go get a snack and read the Important Mods You Need to Know About section of this document and possibly check out the Modlist Spreadsheet.

Without Nexus Premium

Wabbajack will prompt you to click all the needed buttons to download the modlist. Be prepared for this to take a really long time: current reports indicate installing the list manually takes approximately 20-24 hours. Also be aware that due to the amount of time required when installing this list manually, the list may update during the time it takes to install and you may need to start over if that happens. Put on some music or a TV show and make a day of it.

Once complete, Wabbajack will say “Installation complete! You may exit the program.” If it does not, visit the Wabbajack Discord server for assistance. Don’t forget to upload your log file!

If Wabbajack fails to download a particular mod, it means that the mod has likely been updated. This also means that an update to Living Skyrim is imminent. Be patient and wait for the new release. Do not ask other people to share older files as this is a violation of the Nexus ToS.

Post-Wabbajack Install

Game Folder Files

Now you have to copy some files to their correct locations. Navigate to C:\Living Skyrim\Game Folder Files. Copy all of the files inside the Game Folder Files folder into [Steam Install Location]\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\ and Overwrite if prompted. This folder contains SKSE and Engine Fixes part 2, which are required to use Living Skyrim and must be placed into your Skyrim's installation folder for the list to function.

Mod Organizer 2

Navigate to C:\Living Skyrim and open ModOrganizer.exe. Your Mod Organizer window will have a dark theme already selected. If it doesn’t, something has gone wrong and you’ll likely need to do the Wabbajack installation again.
A dialogue will appear and ask if you want to associate Mod Organizer with nxm links. Click Yes.

Configuration-Specific

If you are using a widescreen monitor, make sure to enable Complete Widescreen Fix for SkyUI 5.2 SE in the left pane of MO2. If you are not using a widescreen monitor, make sure to disable Complete Widescreen Fix for SkyUI 5.2 SE in the left pane of MO2.

ENB

ENB is not required to run Living Skyrim, but it is intended to be used with it. You may skip these instructions if you don’t want to use ENB. Skipping ENB is strongly recommended for weaker computers.

If you have 6GB of VRAM, it is recommended that you use either the Rudy's ENB or Re-Engaged (Performance) ENB presets. If you have 8GB (or more) of VRAM, it is recommended that you use either the Amon Reborn or Silent Horizons ENB presets. However, you are welcome to use any preset you like as long as it is compatible with Obsidian Weathers.

In general, the process to install an ENB preset is:

Download the latest ENB Binary from http://enbdev.com/download_mod_tesskyrimse.htm
Open the .zip file, go into the WrapperVersion folder, and copy ONLY d3d11.dll and d3dcompiler_46e.dll into your Skyrim SE installation folder. (Usually located at C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition)
Download your selected ENB preset. Important!: Make sure it is compatible with Obsidian Weathers!
Follow any installation instructions included with your Preset. Every ENB has slight variations in their requirements, so make sure to follow the instructions included for that preset. You should not need to download any additional files other than the preset. Things like ENB Helper and Particle Patch are already included!
Ensure that ForceVsync is set to false in enblocal.ini

Updating Living Skyrim

If you are updating Living Skyrim, the process is very simple. Before you update, you should at a minimum backup your saves. Updating will delete any saves that are present. Make sure you are using the latest version of Wabbajack or else Wabbajack will report a corrupted modlist.

Run Wabbajack.exe.
At the bottom of the window click Browse Modlists and click the download/down arrow icon on the Living Skyrim card.
Once it finishes downloading, click the play/right arrow icon on the Living Skyrim card.
Set the Installation Location to wherever you already have Living Skyrim installed.
Important!: Set your downloads folder path to the same downloads folder location you used when you first installed Living Skyrim. Failure to do this will make Wabbajack download every mod again, which you want to avoid if possible.
Click Run.
When prompted if you would like to overwrite the existing installation, click "Confirm."

Launching Living Skyrim

The hard part is now over. Carry on, the end is in sight!

In Mod Organizer 2, select SKSE from the drop-down menu next to the Run button and click Run. This is how Living Skyrim should always be launched. You can create a shortcut on your desktop if you wish using the Shortcut button under the Run button.
Once Skyrim starts, create a new game. Loading an old save at this point will corrupt that save, do not do this.
Create your character and name them whatever you’d like.
As soon as you gain control of your character, do nothing. The mods are loading and this can take several minutes. You’ll see a list of mods initializing in the top left of the screen.
Once you see that no more items are appearing in the list in the top left, you can proceed to the next steps.

The MCM Settings

If you want the true Living Skyrim experience, consult the Living Skyrim MCM Configuration document and follow all listed steps. Note that some settings in this document are required for certain mods to work properly, namely Hunterborn, OBIS, Immersive HUD, XPMSE, Genesis, and GRACE.
Otherwise, configure the MCMs how you want. Feel free to experiment and turn the difficulty up/down to your preference.
Don’t forget to save your game after configuring the MCMs, I promise you don’t want to have to do this step more than once.

Getting Started in Living Skyrim

If you're coming from a previous version of Living Skyrim (1.x.x), throw out everything you thought you knew. If you're new to Living Skyrim, welcome! It's gonna be a bumpy ride - at first.

Bandits are your best bet for early levels. They usually come in small enough groups to be manageable and are almost always around your level or slightly higher.
Undead are going to be nearly impossible until you hit level 10-15. This includes skeletons, draugr, vampires, etc. Dwemer and Falmer are out of the question until higher levels as well. Dragons start at level 20 and only go up.
Most questlines should be doable from the very beginning, but keep in mind the previous two points. Bleak Falls Barrow will present a significant challenge to low-level characters and the first dragon fight will require around level 20.
The Whiterun/Riverwood area is best for starting out - northern areas will be significantly more difficult.
Overworld enemies are going to be easier and in smaller groups than dungeons, but avoid the larger overworld locations when starting out: Silent Moons Camp, Fort Greymoor, etc. Delving into caves and dungeons is a good way to get surrounded by a group of 6-10 enemies.
Followers are your friends! There's an absolute boatload of followers for you to find and pickup - whether it's Sofia, Inigo, Garm, Mirai, Hoth, or any of the 3DNPCs, there's bound to be at least one person in every city that you can ask to help you out. Nether's Follower Framework also lets you recruit many of the generic mercenaries you see wandering around if you just want a temporary companion. It's extremely easy to assemble a diverse adventuring party if you so choose. If you prefer the lone wanderer style, be prepared for things to be more difficult - having at least one follower is highly recommended.
Specialize your character. The combination of class and customization mods lets you focus your character in a way that vanilla Skyrim never did. It's extremely likely you'll start with one, maybe two skills that are any good and the rest will be total garbage. Focus on what your character is good at and it will pay dividends. When selecting how to allocate your attribute points, think about the rest of your build and put points into attributes that compliment how you want to play. Many attributes provide direct bonuses to how much damage you deal with specific types of weapons, how much health/stamina/magicka you start with, and so on. Specialized characters are much better suited to the challenges of Living Skyrim than jack-of-all-trades types. This also encourages you to pick up a follower that compliments your skills. Playing a tanky two-handed character? Find a follower that can cast healing spells on you and do magic damage from the backline. Playing a stealth archer (again)? Find a beefy sword and shield warrior to keep the enemies at bay while you snipe from the shadows.
There's a loading screen tip I'm fond of that says something along the lines of "Strong enemies care not if you're just starting out, they'll kill you all the same." Don't be afraid to run away.
For some easy XP that isn't dangerous to get right at the beginning, head to Helgen. It will complete the start of Skyrim's main questline, help you level up, and has zero enemies to fight (excepting any you find on your way there).

Important Mods You Need to Know About

This section details the most important mods included in Living Skyrim and is intended to give you a basic understanding of what to expect when you start the game.

The Population Mods

Living Skyrim includes a number of mods that increase the population of both creatures and characters in the world. The first and most important one is Genesis, which replaced Populated Skyrim in Living Skyrim 2.0.0. This mod dynamically spawns more enemies in dungeons and optionally in overworld locations as well. It is configurable by MCM to tweak how many extra enemies you come across. Genesis will also affect how quickly enemies respawn in dungeons you've cleared. Don't be surprised to return to a dungeon just a few days later to see it is chock full of enemies again.

Next is OBIS, which adds a ton of mid to high-level bandits to the world. In general this covers most of the overworld locations, which is why the surface spawns setting for Genesis is recommended to be turned off.

Organic Factions adds groups of enemies that dynamically expand, recruit, and find new leaders. They will spread to conquer new territory and if left unchecked can take over entire holds. Keep an eye on the notifications for this mod, as it will keep you up to date on who is in control of what regions. You can also stumble across battles between factions if their territories overlap.

Also for your consideration: Immersive World Encounters, Immersive Patrols, and Interesting NPCs. For creatures, you'll find SkyTEST and Animallica.

What does this mean? Well, to put it simply, there are a lot of NPCs to find and interact with now. Silent Moons Camp for example now has somewhere in the range of 30 enemies to fight. It is impossible to go more than 5 minutes without coming across an NPC of some kind be it bandits, a patrol, or an animal. Getting a follower or two (or five) is highly encouraged. You will have to revisit some dungeons once you are stronger or have more followers. The Take Notes mod is included to chronicle your adventure and also to help you remember what places you need to revisit.

The Quest Mods

Very few quests are untouched by Living Skyrim. Whether it's a location revamp like Bleak Falls Barrow Revisited, or a quest rewrite like Finding Helgi and Laelette, it's unlikely you'll play most quests the same as you would in vanilla. This isn't even to mention all of the new quests added by Living Skyrim. See below for a complete list of quest-related changes and the new quests added by this list.

Quest Changes	New Quests & Lands
Timing is Everything	Helgen Reborn
Not So Fast - Main Quest	Legacy of the Dragonborn
Not So Fast - Mage Guild	Vigilant SE
Opulent Thieves Guild	Moonpath to Elsweyr
The Brotherhood of Old	Carved Brink
All Thieves Guild Jobs Concurrently	The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal
Thieves Guild Requirements	The Falkreath Hauntings
The Paarthurnax Dilemma	The Forgotten City
The Choice is Yours	Moon and Star
Boethiah for Good Guys	Wyrmstooth
Better College Application	Clockwork
Namira for Good Guys	Darkend
The Companions - Don't be a Milk Drinker	Project AHO
House of Horrors Divine Intervention	Immersive World Encounters
Finding Helgi and Laelette	Missives
Bounties are Worthwhile	Konahrik's Accoutrements
Even Better Quest Objectives	Falskaar
Thieves Guild for Good Guys	Hammet's Dungeons & Vominheim

It would take a tome to cover every single mod here, but there are a few to be aware of in particular: Not So Fast - Main Quest, Not So Fast - Mage Guild, Timing is Everything, and Legacy of the Dragonborn. The first two introduce breaks in the main storyline of Skyrim and the Mage's Guild questline, giving you time to go do other things while waiting for those to progress. You'll need these breaks as there's a significant difficulty spike between Bleak Falls Barrow and your first dragon fight as well as between the First Lessons quest and the expedition to Saarthal. Timing is Everything delays the DLCs (Dragonborn and Dawnguard, specifically) and various other quests until you are strong enough to take them on.

Legacy of the Dragonborn of course requires no introduction, but if you're somehow unaware, it adds a museum in Solitude that allows you to proudly display the various items you'll find in Skyrim. It has a home for almost every unique item (and many non-unique items) as well as introducing its own questline, a new guild you can be the leader of, and its own player home. While Legacy of the Dragonborn is not a focus of Living Skyrim, every applicable patch has been included as well as LOTD Relic Notifications so you can easily identify items that go in the museum and you can reasonably expect to have a home for any and all items you come across. If collecting and hoarding items is your thing, Legacy of the Dragonborn is for you.

The Magic Mods

Sustained Magic is another simple mod, with much larger gameplay consequences. Certain spells, such as Oakflesh, now last forever instead of having to recast them every 60-90 seconds. This does come at the cost of reducing your maximum available Magicka, so be careful how many spells you have sustained or you'll very quickly find yourself with near zero Magicka to use for offensive spells. To dispel the effects of a Sustained Magic spell (and therefore recoup your Magicka), either cast the spell again or cast the "Dispel Magic, Personal" spell.

Immersive Spell Learning completely changes how your character learns new spells. Instead of "eating" the book and learning the spell, you now have to spend time studying notes about the spell to learn it over time. The amount of time it takes to learn new spells is completely configurable through this mod's MCM menu, so feel free to tweak it to your liking. This mod's inclusion is intended to help balance magic as the combination of magic mods included in Living Skyrim make magic significantly stronger.

Apocalypse, Forgotten Magic, Thunderchild, Summermyst, iUnlock, and Wintersun are all included to make magic as diverse as possible with a huge breadth of options. It's entirely possible to spend multiple playthroughs exploring all the magic-related playstyles. Wintersun covers the religious aspect of the game, Summermyst covers enchantments, and Thunderchild covers shouts. Apocalypse, Forgotten Magic, and iUnlock all add new spells.

One final special mention: Glory's Scaling Standing Stones. This is a custom mod hand-made by yours truly, ForgottenGlory. It is a lightweight overhaul of the standing stone effects and also makes them scale with you. If you are finding the game too difficult when starting out, I highly encourage you to seek out the standing stones. The Warrior, Thief, and Mage stones are particularly strong when starting out. Don't get used to having these bonuses though - they get weaker as you gain levels!

The Combat Mods

The core combat package of Living Skyrim is Ultimate Combat, Wildcat, TK Dodge, and VioLens. Assuming a fair fight this generally means that combat will be fast-paced and somewhat deadly. You won't get one-shot unless you're fighting an enemy that is significantly higher level than you (10+ levels above your own).

Archery Gameplay Overhaul completely revamps the archery system in Skyrim. You'll find it now has much more realistic gameplay including arm fatigue, the ability to spread poisons across multiple arrows, stamina drain while the bowstring is pulled, and so on. This mod is highly configurable via its MCM menu, so feel free to tweak it to suit your playstyle.

Also for your consideration: SkyTEST, Deadly Dragons, Skyrim Revamped, Encounter Zones Unlocked, and Enemy Releveler. Enemies in general will be smarter and stronger across the board, and will dynamically update their levels to match or surpass you as appropriate.

The SkyRem Suite

Living Skyrim contains almost the entire lineup of SkyRem, with a couple of exceptions. The entirety of SkyRem Grace is included alongside SkyRem Inez, Eve, and Mia.

Grace is focused entirely on making each character you make unique. You'll get different bonuses based on race, gender, how you assign points in attributes, and even what your character's early life was like. At higher levels, the Cori portion of Grace will allow you to select a class to specialize your character even further.

Inez changes how encounter zones in the game are calculated, increasing the variety of levels of enemies you'll find. Combined with the aforementioned Genesis and Encounter Zones Unlocked, no dungeon will ever play out the same across different playthroughs. Mia is a very simple immersion mod that modifies the text you see when you go to interact with an object. Eve is an economy mod that, when combined with the other economy mods, makes Skyrim's economy incredibly diverse. It will be almost impossible to find the same item for the same price at two vendors.

The Economy & Loot Mods

Speaking of economy, you should be aware that Living Skyrim uses a number of mods that affect the purchasing, selling, and finding of items. Trade & Barter, Supply & Demand, I'm a Customer Dammit, and Scarcity are all included.

Trade & Barter makes the act of buying and selling items depend on a number of factors including Speech skill, location, the type of merchant, your status as Thane or other faction memberships, relationship with the merchant, Race, and so on. It also affects how much gold merchants have, how long they take to restock, and takes into account perks you have. Supply & Demand makes the price of items increase or decrease depending on how in-demand an item is or how much supply there is of an item. I'm a Customer Dammit is mainly a quality of life and immersion mod that allows you to rent a bed by interacting with the bed or purchase a meal at an inn by interacting with a plate or other food item.

Scarcity makes the loot you find significantly rarer - it will be difficult to find enchanted items or high-level items in chests, on enemies, and with merchants. Don't be surprised to open a chest only to find it has a handful of coins inside. Enemies will, in almost all cases, only have the armor and weapons they're wearing plus perhaps a few coins and maybe one other item. You may also have to travel across various towns to find a merchant that has a particular item in stock. Genesis' loot module helps offset this slightly by adding potions and other items, but at the cost of having more enemies to fight. If a chest has extra enemies near it, it's likely you'll find better loot inside. Honed Metal can also be utilized if you lack the required smithing/enchanting skill and are looking to purchase a specific item - but be prepared to pay a significant cost for it!

In general, you can expect the economy of Living Skyrim to be a diverse and difficult-to-navigate machine. A simple Potion of Minor Healing might cost 100-250 gold, depending on many, many factors. A high-level piece of heavy armor might cost 20,000 or more gold. It is extremely unlikely you will ever run into the problem of having too much gold and not enough to spend it on.

The Perks & Leveling Mods

Ordinator is the perk overhaul of choice for Living Skyrim. It completely overhauls the perk trees allowing for an incredibly diverse amount of character customization and specialization. Experience is included to control the rate at which your skills and levels progress. By default, only clearing dungeons and completing quests will provide XP. The optional skills XP and kills XP modules can be turned on, but Living Skyrim isn't set up to use these by default so you may come across some oddities (enemies that don't grant XP when killed, for example). Skyrim Skill Uncapper is also included allowing you to continue leveling skills well beyond the vanilla maximum of 100.

One mod that is particularly important to take note of is Natural Character Growth and Decay (NCGD). With this mod installed, by default, the level-up bonus where you select Magicka, Health, or Stamina does not function. The window for this choice still appears due to a game limitation, but it will do nothing. Instead, as you use your various abilities, they will naturally increase over time based on how much you use them. If you're a spellcaster, using a lot of magicka will make your maximum Magicka increase. This applies to Health, Stamina, and Carry Weight maximums as well. This mod does have an MCM that allows you to turn the level-up bonuses back on if you feel like cheating or if you want to adjust the rate at which your maximums increase (a lower number is a faster increase). The MCM configuration that is recommended for this mod makes it so you gain slightly more than vanilla per level towards your maximums.

The HUD Mods

Living Skyrim includes a completely different UI and HUD experience than what you're used to, probably even if you've played modded Skyrim before. SkyHUD is 100% customizable and has a number of presets available you can choose from to relocate the health/stamina/magicka bars and also relocate any HUD element, such as the stealth indicator. EZ2C Dialogue Menu changes the dialogue menu to be easier to read and use and is also 100% configurable. See the mod description pages for EZ2C and SkyHUD to see how to configure these to your liking. Immersive HUD keeps pesky HUD elements out of the way when you don't need to see them. Lastly, Favorite Things greatly expands the SkyUI Favorites menu to make it larger, easier to use, and more customizable. iEquip is also included as a nice quality-of-life mod that makes equipping items much faster.

Nether's Follower Framework

Nether's Follower Framework has too many features to list, but what you need to know is this: You can have multiple followers, you can configure just about anything about them, and you'll have a lot more flexibility with controlling your followers. You can also import followers added by mods to be able to use NFF's features on them. Important!: Do NOT import standalone followers (Inigo, Lucien, etc.) into Nether's Follower Framework. It will 100% break them. The notable exceptions to this are Auri, Sophia, and any of the Interesting NPCs followers.

Common Issues

Wabbajack Issues

"A mod failed to download."

The short answer: wait for an update to the list. The long answer is you can try to install the missing mods manually if the files are still available on the Nexus, but again, do not ask for anyone to share old files. I work a full-time job in addition to several other personal projects, of which Living Skyrim is just one. If installs are failing, I will try to update as quickly as possible but sometimes it may be a couple of days before I can get to it.

"Wabbajack says I'm out of requests."

Nexus Premium is limited to 2500 downloads in a given 24 hour timeframe. Usually this limit resets around 8PM Eastern Time. Wait for your limit to reset and you'll be able to proceed. Usually this only occurs after attempting to download the list multiple times in a row or when attempting to download multiple lists.

"Rayek's End is reporting something weird during installation."

Click this link for a workaround: Rayek's End Workaround This is usually caused by having a language other than English installed on your system.

"Can I pause the installation?"

Yes, just close Wabbajack. When you start the installation process again it will pick up from where it left off.

"Can I delete the downloads folder after installing?"

Yes, but remember that if you need to update the list you will have to download all of the mods again.

"The LS2 DynDOLOD Output fails to download."

You'll need to download this manually and put it in your downloads folder. The mirror for this file can be found here: LS2 DynDOLOD 2.4.0

Gameplay Issues

"The Main Quest doesn't proceed after retrieving the Dragonstone."

Read this modpage: Not So Fast - Main Quest

"Tolfdir doesn't invite me to Saarthal right away."

Read this modpage: Not So Fast - Mage Guild

"Can I access RaceMenu after character creation?"

Only if you are not changing your character's gender or race. Changing gender/race will cause issues with powers and passive buffs your character has.

"Can I change my attributes after starting?"

No. The choices you make are permanent. You can increase your attributes through various methods, refer to this modpage for more details: AVA

"When I click to select a bonus after leveling up my stats don't change."

This is intended. Natural Character Growth and Decay adjusts your stats as you use them. Using a lot of health/stamina? They'll automatically increase over time. The option to pick health/stamina/magicka will still appear due to game limitations, but it won't do anything. The same is true of carry weight: it will go up automatically over time if you're carrying a lot of items. If you want to cheat, you can turn the level-up bonuses to health/magicka/stamina back on in the NCGD MCM menu.

"My screen is zoomed in or weirdly off-center."

Check the SSE Display Tweaks INI file to make sure you have the resolution for your screen set correctly. You may also need to check BethINI or the Skyrim INI files to make sure they all match your screen's resolution.

"Dead NPCs turn purple?"

This is part of Frozen Electrocuted Combustion, specifically the decay part. Modpage for more details: FEC

"Is Hunterborn broken?" or "QuickLoot breaks Hunterborn?"

The current version of QuickLoot has some weird effects when used in conjunction with mods that affect looting, primarily Hunterborn (but also a few others too). These issues are known to the author of QuickLoot and will be resolved at some point with an update to that mod. QuickLoot can be safely disabled in Mod Organizer 2 without any repurcussions if you find this behavior annoying/unsatisfying.

"MO2 cannot find SKSE."

You'll need to manually set the path for SKSE using the Edit Executables menu in MO2. Also make sure you have followed the Game Folder Files step of this readme.

"Can I use a controller?"

I strongly advise against it. With as many mods as there are in the list, you'll need a full breadth of keyboard keys to activate and use every feature. If you absolutely must play with a controller, please, for the love of all that is holy, use Gamepad++.

"My game freezes when saving."

Make sure you’ve disabled all overlays for Skyrim. The most common ones are Discord, Steam, and nVidia. Other overlays from things like MSI Afterburner and f.lux have also been known to cause issues.

"Can I play this list on a 75/100/144hz screen?"

Yes. Display Tweaks SSE is included which allows for this.

"My equipment animations are broken/weird!"

First, check to make sure you’ve followed the MCM instructions for XPMSE. This should fix any weirdness (sword on hip but being drawn from back, for example.). If you’ve just equipped a new weapon/shield, the animation to draw it may be weird for a few seconds but it will eventually fix itself. XPMSE and AllGUD need a few seconds to register the new weapon configuration and should fix themselves. This is not a bug, just be patient and the mods will figure it out eventually.

"Can I use this list on an ultrawide monitor?"

Yes, Complete Widescreen Fix is included by default. Just make sure to enable it

"Immersive Spell Learning still allows me to read the spell tome to learn spells instantly."

Yes, this is a known issue and is somewhat intended. Legacy of the Dragonborn's museum counts spell tomes towards its display count, so rather than have players find/buy two copies of a spell tome (one to learn from and the other to store in the museum), I've opted to allow spell tomes to stay in your inventory. If you don't like having the temptation of "cheating" and don't mind having to hunt down a second copy of the book, you can always enable "Destroy Spell Tomes" in the Immersive Spell Learning MCM.

"What the heck is going on with the dialogue menu?"

It's being modified by EZ2C Dialogue Menu. Check that mod's page for details of how to configure it if it's not to your liking.

Final Thoughts & Best Practices

If you are not familiar with the contents of this modlist, links are provided in the LS2 Spreadsheet to every mod so you can review their content/changes.
Autosaves are disabled. This save option is known to cause issues with heavily scripted games. Quicksaves are automatically turned into Manual Saves by SSE Engine Fixes. It is recommended to save early and often. Every 15 minutes and before interacting with quest NPCs, quest objects, and entering new zones should be sufficient. Old saves can be deleted, but forgetting to save loses progress forever!
Wabbajack supports updating/upgrading over an existing installation, but it will automatically delete any files that aren’t used for the modlist installation. This means if you have changed the modlist in any way, Wabbajack will delete those changes and delete your saves. Keep backups of any changes you do make and your saves (as ill-advised as making changes may be).
NEVER save right after a loading screen. Wait 30 seconds before saving to let scripts finish executing. It's always better to save before a loading screen than after one.
NEVER use autosaves. Autosaves are unpredictable at best, and save-corrupting at worst.

NeverNude?

Living Skyrim can be made NeverNude. This guide will guide you through what you need to do to convert Living Skyrim to NeverNude. Beyond what is written in the guide, support is not provided for changing Living Skyrim to NeverNude. If you desire to change something or someone not affected by the guide, or if you break the game, you're on your own.

Adding to Living Skyrim

The first thing you need to know is that adding to, removing from, or changing Living Skyrim is in no way, shape, or form supported by the LS dev team or Wabbajack team. That said, if you're feeling brave, here are the skills you need to be able to add to Living Skyrim:

Conflict resolution in xEdit.
Dissecting merges and building new merges using zMerge.
Using Cathedral Assets Optimizer.
Modifying Bash Tags and rebuilding Bashed Patch using Wrye Bash.
Using Creation Kit to undo or redo changes we've made.
Using zEdit to create and rebuild patches.
Using FNIS.
Using Bodyslide/Outfit Studio.
Using custom LOOT groups and metadata.

If you are missing any of these skills, you need to be willing to put in the time to learn them to even consider adding to Living Skyrim. Again, no support is provided for this, so you are completely on your own when it comes to these. If you aren't willing to put in the time to learn how to add mods properly, you will not, under any circumstances be able to add to the list. Living Skyrim 2 is at the ESP/ESM plugin limit, adding even one mod improperly will result in the entire list breaking.

Credits & Thanks

Living Skyrim created by ForgottenGlory
Living Skyrim 2 Dev Team:
- Volk
- Melisandre
- JaceVenture
- Magnus Hellfire
- Bearnard
- Volkaru
Contributors & Beta Testers:
- Patchier
- DwarfDude
- Qwerrecd
- Timboman
- NexxusDrako
- Total
- Dispo
- Dracosaber
- Sentrus
- Nechrion
- Xanza
- TwistedModding
- tjbassoon
Halgari & The Wabbajack Team
- Thank you for creating Wabbajack, you’re amazing!
- Halgari’s Patreon
Special Thanks
- The TUCO Modding Team - Their modlist is a great way to get a Vanilla+ experience with a tutorial that is extremely helpful for learning the basics of creating a modlist.
- DarkLadyLexy - Her LotD list is an invaluable resource not only for an awesome modlist, but also for learning many fundamentals of modding and compiling a modlist.
- EzioTheDeadPoet - For their SME(FT) modlist. The ability to start from scratch on a whim while building this list has been invaluable.
Mod Authors
- None of this would be possible without the people who make the quality content we’ve grown to know and love. Please endorse the authors’ works.

One Last Thing

If you read through the entire readme, congratulations! You get a cookie. If you need any further help, feel free to reach out on the Wabbajack or Living Skyrim Discord Servers. Do not direct message ForgottenGlory, any of the Living Skyrim dev team, or any Wabbajack staff members for support. I (ForgottenGlory) speak for myself, but I do reserve the right to ignore any requests for support direct messaged to me and block you.

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