How many mods were made incompatible by the recent round of patches released in the last year or so? Have most incompatibilities now been rectified (on either end)?
Fave mods? I was most intrigued by some of the Middle Earth ones. I also favor realistic animal behavior (I hated, as a fledgling druid, charming a wild wolf to not attack me, but being unable to tell him to just leave as he just stands there staring at me].
Get the CD version (if it even exists), or be compelled to use Steam? Are many mods Steam-incompatible?
Before answering your questions… which version of Skyrim are you looking to play? The original release, or the Special Edition remaster from last year?
Mods for original Skyrim don’t work with Skyrim Special Edition unless converted first, and vice versa. The Special Edition features a built in mod-browser & installer for mods uploaded to Bethesda.net. I’d still recommend https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim instead. The Nexus has sub-sites for both Skyrim and Skyrim Special Edition.
I’m a mod author so I’m biased - but I’d humbly suggest my own mod “Less Aggressive Animals”, which adjusts animal behavior. It’s available for both Skyrim and Skyrim SE. There are other mods which do similar things in different ways.
If it’s your first playthrough, I’d suggest playing light on mods. Get to know the game, and game balance first, then decide what you want to change. Also remember: data from mods gets baked into your savegame. If you decide you don’t like a mod, or find it doesn’t work properly after a while, then if you disable that mod you run the risk of issues (bugs, stability issues/CTDs) later in the game. Bethesda’s official advice is if you remove a mod, you shouldn’t continue using a save game that has seen that mod…you’ll need to revert to a save from before you first installed that mod. So don’t uninstall mods mid-game or you’ll find yourself in trouble eventually, even if it doesn’t seem apparent at first.
The CD version forces you to use Steam anyway. It may save some time by having data install from disc rather than download, but there have been so many updates you’re probably looking at a multi-gig download in any case.
Also worth pointing out that Bethesda is just about to launch “Creation Club” for Special Edition. This is new paid content - new items, etc. made either by Bethesda themselves or by modders managed by Bethesda. If you ask Bethesda, they’ll tell you it’s not paid mods, and it’s not DLC either…make up your own mind! It’s now in beta on Steam, and there’s a new Survival Mode that’s currently free, so if you’re playing SE then grab it now if you want it - it’s likely to be the equivalent of $8 in ‘Bethesda Credits’ - the minimum you can buy is $7.50, so if Survival Mods is all you want, you’d need to spend double that. It incorporates elements from free mods (warmth, cold, hunger, diseases, sleep needs, no fast travel etc.)
Other items on the Creation Club will include a dwemer mudcrab, and armor/weapons from Oblivion. All seems pretty expensive for what it is, but it’s an option.
Yes, there are still more mods for the original version of Skyrim than for Skyrim Special Edition.
The script extender and SkyUI (for the MCM - Mod Configuration Menu), which a lot of mods rely on, have only just been released in alpha for Special Edition, so are not yet in a finished or reliable state. Once the bugs have been ironed out, more mods are likely to be converted to Special Edition.
Some mod authors are no longer active in the community though, and so not all mods will be updated.
An example is Skyrim Immersive Creatures (of which I’m co-author) which adds hundreds of new creatures to the game in a lore-friendly way (everything from Goblin Tribes warring against each other, to beast skeletons and dwemer spectres), as it relies on MCM so players can enable or disable the new creatures to their own preferences. Due to the absence of my co-author, it’s not looking likely at the moment that the mod will be converted to Special Edition.
My personal preference is the original version of Skyrim anyway. It is just personal taste though - I don’t like the new lighting in Special Edition - it seems too warm for Skyrim to my taste, and the added shrubs and pebbles dotted around the floor feel a little unnecessary and out of place. Special Edition is more stable out of the box, though (being 64-bit) - although there are links to stability mods on my website in my earlier post (Sheson, ENB etc.) which make the original game just as stable. Better lighting than Special Edition can be achieved with ENB and lighting mods for the original game anyway.
Going forward, more new mods are likely to be made for Special Edition - and of course the Creation Club for new officially sanctioned content is Special Edition only.
I suppose the big questions is: do you own Skyrim already? If so, then just stick with the version you have. If you don’t have either, and if you’re comfortable modding and want the most choice, stick with Skyrim. If you want to future-proof your game, then go for Special Edition.
Addendum: If you don’t have the original version already, you may be more restricted for choice… it seems that the original version Legendary edition (with all DLC) is no longer available on the Steam store - although third parties are still selling either the disc or steam keys.
The base game isn’t coming up in searches on the steam store either, but it can still be purchased on the store at http://store.steampowered.com/app/72850/The_Elder_Scrolls_V_Skyrim/. By the time you’ve added all the DLC, it works out as more expensive than the Special Edition.
Buying a (legal) Steam key from a 3rd party store would be a better option if you want the original version of the game and don’t have it already.
Otherwise, just go with Special Edition - Bethesda obviously want you to do so - but bear in mind that’s probably just because they want to sell you the new content on the Creation Club!
Ignore the recent negative Steam reviews on both editions - that’s just community anger at the Creation Club, taking out their feelings on that rather than the game itself (either edition).
Many people dislike ‘paid mods’, and others feel that the new content is DLC and should have been included in their season pass. On top of that, the console versions of the Club (and early PC release) forced the new content to be downloaded by default (but not activated unless purchased), taking up valuable hard drive space even if you had no interest in the new content.
I like the Ordinator mod for a serious revamp of the perk tree. There’s a lot more interesting options for perks and more useful options, though some like the lockpicking tree are still worthless, and magic feels more powerful and varied than the ‘get 100% cost reduction and spam destruction spells’ that the main game seems to push you down. There’s some neat roleplay elements too, some perks will require you to go fetch items or visit locations to activate, and some enchanting and smithing perks have you set up a special work space where you get additional bonuses. You probably don’t want to use it on a first playthrough, but if you get tired or annoyed with the skill trees it’s great. It also can be added to or removed from a save without trouble beyond having to re-pick your perks.
I like A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map - With Roads, Even Better Quest Objectives - EBQO, and Item Sorting. The first makes the roads more distinct on the maps, the second provides better descriptions about quests, usually in the journal but sometimes in the quest books, and the last makes finding items in your inventory easier. Note that these are all for the base/legendary version of Skyrim. I have the new version (no choice on the download), but I like the look and feel of legendary and have stuck to it.
I’m joining this thread a bit late, but if you haven’t started yet and are planning to mod, I would strongly recommend special edition. There’s just much more performance headroom, active modders are leaning in that direction, and the alpha version of SKSE has just been released so over the next month or two I’d expect most of the (remaining) main mods from original Skyrim to be ported.
Get SSE Fixes for a performance boost if you add a lot of plugins (I’d link to it but I’m at work, and I believe the front page of Nexus is still dominated by the “butt” image of the currently featured CBBE mod).