Coffee with FG 5

It’s been a bit since I’ve done one of these. There’s a lot to talk about, especially regarding Living Skyrim, so strap in.

As you’ve probably seen, LS has been under maintenance for a while. The reason for this is pretty straightforward: Bijin AIO got rolled into another mod on Nexus. While technically I could just update the list to use the “new” version, I have some other ideas for what I want to do with LS 2.6.0.

First, I’d like to replace Realistic Water 2 with Water for ENB. Water for ENB requires near zero patching, looks just as good (if not better) than RW2, and compliments the current look of the list very nicely. It also has much better waterfalls, so there’s that.

I also want to take a closer look at the NPC overhauls being used in the list, which is why Bijin going down has caused a delay in the list being updated. I am considering removing Bijin entirely, in favor of things like Kalilies and Pandorables NPCs. I’ve always slightly preferred those anyway, so now is a good time to re-evaluate the whole set.

Last time we had coffee together, I teased LS 3.0.0. This is a project I want to start working on sometime in January. The changes above are steps towards the baseline of LS3. My ultimate endgoal of LS3 is to have the performance of LS1 (where just about any 6GB and up card could run it at 60FPS with ENB) and the gorgeous look of LS2, while retaining as much content from LS2 as possible. I cannot guarantee I will accomplish this goal, but that is what I want to work towards.

That said, some compromises will likely have to be made for LS3. I’ve begun the process of outlining what I want to do with the next major version, so if you have an Alduin save from LS1 or LS2, now’s the time to make your mod suggestions. Just bear in mind that I’m going to be trimming around the edges from LS2, so not everything currently in the list will be in LS3 and not everything suggested will be added.

MOISE is in a good spot. No updates necessary there.

D&D I updated yesterday and is also in a good spot for now. The headline features of that update were iWant Widgets, which replaces the Frostfall and RND default widgets in a clean and efficient way; and Difficulty Balance, which allows for followers to not be completely overpowered. The result is a much cleaner interface with better balance when you have a full party.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of a “Director’s Cut” of D&D, which goes even further into the “Deviousness” part of the list. Consider this D&D 2.0.0. Let me know if that’s something my fellow Deviants would like to see, or if you think the list is fine as is.

Cheers.

FG