Good morning. It's been a while, huh? Let's talk about some modlists.

Living Skyrim 4

At the moment, Living Skyrim 4 is set to receive a bug fix update here in the next week or two. Pawler has been working on fixing up a bunch of bugs and learning a ton about the list and how it works, and I'm really excited to share that with you all. Right now we've got several fixes for several things that have been lingering, such as crossbows missing textures, some object issues preventing access to Mona Alta, and some mod updates to address some smaller issues.

Basically, this is the plan for Living Skyrim 4 until further notice - bug fixes and maintenance until we're ready to release the Living Skyrim 5 beta.

Living Skyrim 5

Speaking of which, progress on Living Skyrim 5 is slow but steady. I've been working on fleshing out the list and am almost ready to start patching things. We've got an Alpha version in the hands of the staff, and I'm considering releasing a closed Alpha after I've had a chance to do some more work on it. I'll have more details about the Alpha soon. I'm optimistically looking at having a public beta for LS5 available by the end of May. Subject to change at any point and all that.

However, I do want to talk a bit about some of the big and exciting changes we're working on for LS5.

Graphics

This is perhaps the single largest part of the list that's changing. Based heavily on Zenithar's Forge, but cranked up to 11, Living Skyrim 5 is absolutely gorgeous. We've switched from ENB to Community Shaders and ReShade, and are using a custom ReShade preset that makes the list look cinematic while still being playable. If you've been following along on Discord, you've seen some of the previews and I'm confident when I say that Living Skyrim 5 is not only the most beautiful version of Living Skyrim yet, it's also the most performant version so far. In my testing I average around 100FPS in exteriors, with dips to around 70FPS in major cities like Whiterun, Falkreath, and Solitude. There's also always the option to disable ReShade, which for me gives an average of 20FPS boost everywhere.

I have received a couple of questions about whether Living Skyrim 5 will be using Community Shaders' Physically Based Rendering feature, and the answer is no. There are some mods available that utilize PBR effectively, but for the most part, it's a feature that needs more support before I'm comfortable using it in the list. Instead, I've focused on trying to create a cohesive and stunning graphics package that won't melt your PC.

Because of the significant performance improvements and quality of what's in the list, Living Skyrim 5 will not need a Performance Profile and should run at least decently on most modern systems.

Combat and Magic

Combat and Magic have been drastically simplified in Living Skyrim 5. Instead of trying to get fancy with race-based movesets, ADXP/MCO, and so on, I've returned to a more cohesive, one mod solution for the list. You'll find that combat is now feasible whether you have followers or not, though I'll admit we do need to do some balance tweaking to make sure you can reasonably take on a couple of enemies at a time. The early game at the moment is a bit more of a challenge than I'd like. This is likely going to be a constant work in progress throughout the Alphas and Betas.

As for Magic, as usual, it's a tricky thing to balance in a modlist. With the addition of new magic spells from mods like Abyss, Natura, and related mods, we're working on expanding the available spell selections while keeping things fair. I think this is the most balanced magic has been in Living Skyrim, ever.

NPCs, Enemies, and Creatures

In this category, I've gone back to basics. We're using a lighter version of Hand Placed Enemies to reduce the enemy count slightly while still maintaining that 'living' feel. You'll find that enemies are still more numerous, but not overwhelming. This coupled with the Combat changes, and I feel like the NPC and creature count in LS5 is much more manageable.

As for NPC visuals, I've also opted for a more straightforward and simplified set of mods on this front. I've opted to not do hand-picked NPC visuals and am instead relying on a couple of core NPC visual overhaul mods so that the list is as consistent as possible on this front.

Followers

This is another section of the list that is receiving major attention. Between updates to followers that were in Living Skyrim 4 and new follower mods, you'll be able to craft the perfect adventuring party, should you wish. I don't want to spoil too much on this front, but I do also have a big surprise planned for Followers that I'll share more on in a future update.

Character Creation

The last thing I want to talk about for Living Skyrim 5 (for now) is the character creation. My goal was to make the character creation and progression in Living Skyrim 5 more interesting and complex while integrating it as seamlessly as possible into the game. To that end, you'll now find that classes are handled in a way reminiscent of games like Path of Exile, where you can focus on whatever suits your playstyle and also mix and match to find new and interesting combinations. Emergent gameplay at its finest. We've also switched over to Synergy for the perk overhaul, to encourage folks to specialize in just a few skills and really think about how they want to build their character. This also ties in nicely with the followers, where you can specialize your character how you want and then pick up followers that compliment and support your chosen style of play.

Masterstroke

Miss Corruption has been doing some absolutely magnificent work on Masterstroke, and the feedback we've received on the betas of Masterstroke 2 has been positive in almost every way. I'm very proud of what she's accomplished and the plans for the list in the future are extremely exciting. The biggest thing that's being worked on right now with Masterstroke is the graphics and gameplay, with Beta 3 shaping up to be absolutely massive in terms of both graphics quality and performance. On the gameplay front, there are a lot of updates happening that will make both the SFW and NSFW sides of the list better. Big shoutout to Turtman for taking the lead on the graphics in Masterstroke so we can bring you the best looking NSFW modlist possible.

Zenithar's Forge

As for ZenForge, I'm still working on this list. There are some bugs that need polishing, but I'm planning on working more on this list after we've got the Living Skyrim 5 beta up and running. Stay tuned for more on this front.

As always, thanks for reading and your support, and I can't wait for you to see what we have in store.

Cheers.

FG