Seven Skyrim mods that need to be in Fallout 4

It’s been just over two weeks since Fallout 4 arrived, and in that time we’ve seen a slew of mods released for the game – including a fair few NSFW nude ones. As the weeks pass and the modders and their tools improve, expect to see bigger and better modifications to become available. No doubt there’ll be plenty of fan-created stories, locations, enemies, and weapons making an appearance, but maybe modders should look toward Bethesda’s last open-world RPG epic for inspiration – Skyrim.

People sometimes forget that the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series was released all of four years ago, partly due to the incredible number of mods available for the game that have kept its visuals and gameplay fresh. And while Fallout 4 is said to contain around 500 hours of gameplay - should you wish to do every single thing the game has to offer - there will come a time when people start to drift away from the Wasteland. So why not recreate some of the best Skyrim mods for Fallout 4?

Here are the seven Skyrim mods that need to make the leap from the Northern part of Tamriel to post-apocalyptic Boston. Get on it, modders!

7. A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map – With Roads

I totally understand that having Fallout 4’s map appear on the Pip-Boy gives the game a level of immersion, but it’s not always the easiest thing to read – even when zoomed in. There’s already been one mod made for the game that replaces the original map with another that clearly shows roads, waterlines, topography, etc. This feat is achieved by increasing the map’s contrast, although there’s also a slightly darker version for those who find it too bright.

What we could use is a map mod that goes one step further -- that says “to hell with immersion” and gives us a more realistic map that’s pretty to look at and clearly shows the whole game area. Something similar to the ‘A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map – With Roads’ Skyrim mod would be good. This mod clearly shows the game’s roads, as well as adding better textures and more details. A Fallout 4 version should bring a full-color palette to the Pip-Boy as well.

You can download A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map – With Roads here.

And you can download the Fallout 4 mod Improved Map with Visible Roads here.

6. Realistic Needs and Diseases

In Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian added some new features to the game’s Hardcore mode. These included making sure you sustain yourself using food and water, as well as needing to get enough sleep. You also had to use special items to restore limbs, and companions could be killed in combat. Fallout 4’s Survival mode, on the other hand, is a bit misleading in its name, as it primarily makes the player take a lot more damage and give out less (it really should be called ‘hardcore mode’, and New Vegas’ most difficult setting should be named 'Survival mode').

Skyrim’s ‘Realistic Needs and Diseases’ essentially brought New Vegas’ Hardcore mode to the game; making eating, drinking and sleeping a necessity and causing serious debuffs if players ignored those basic needs for too long. There’s no doubt that a similar mod will eventually arrive for Fallout 4, and on top of requiring players to eat, drink and sleep, it’ll probably make radiation a lot harder to remove as well.

You can download Realistic Needs and Diseases here.

5. Alternate Start – Live Another Life

The ‘Live Another Life’ mod provides a way for Skyrim players to begin the game as a farmer, tavern patron or a number of other different starting points without having to go through the lengthy intro sequence at Helgen. Once you create your character and pick your start, you’ll appear in the appropriate location, carrying gear that reflects your choice.

Making a similar mod for Fallout 4 would let players pick someone --- say a raider or a settler -- skip the opening Vault sequence and begin the game somewhere in the Wasteland, carrying the appropriate equipment. Like the Skyrim version, you could choose to either follow the Fallout 4 story in this guise or, for more immersion, play the game in the style of the character you’ve chosen. You could pick a someone who’s been mugged and stripped of their clothes and equipment, then left to die in the far south of the Wasteland. See how long you can survive all the horrors trying to kill you without your armor and a mini-nuke launcher protecting you.

You can download the Alternate Start – Live Another Life mod here.

4. Sharpshooters Extreme Graphics ENB

Fallout 4 is far from an ugly game; in some areas it looks absolutely beautiful. But when compared to certain other recent titles, such as The Witcher 3, there are times when it can look a bit plain. So don’t be surprised to see a selection of graphical improvement mods arrive for the game at some point in the future.

One of the best visual mods for Skyrim is the Sharpshooters Extreme Graphic ENB. This mod pretty much overhauls the entire game’s graphics engine, adding things likes photorealistic lighting and water, life-like skin and hair, as well as a ton of other improvements that disguise Skyrim’s four-year age. A mod that added photorealism to the Wasteland would be awesome, as long as it didn’t require a GTX 980Ti to run it.

You can download the the Sharpshooters Extreme Graphic ENB here.

3. Interesting NPCs

Easily one of the biggest (in terms of file size) and most substantial Skyrim mods ever made, Interesting NPCs adds depth, backstory and even high-quality voiced dialogue to a slew of NPCs inhabiting the world.  With over 250 voiced NPCs, 50+ quests, 25+ followers with location-based commentary and over 15 marriage NPCs, the mod brought life to those characters in the game who didn’t offer quests or appear in missions.

Like Skyrim, there are plenty of NPCs in Fallout 4 who don’t have a lot to say. Bringing the Interesting NPCs mod to the game would add even more hours of gameplay to Fallout 4, as well as making most NPCs feel like more than just background scenery.

You can download the Interesting NPCs mod here

2. Falskaar

If you’ve done everything there is to do in Skyrim, then maybe you should try out the Falskaar mod. The thing feels almost like an official DLC, in that it adds an entirely new play area (roughly the size of 2-3 Skyrim holds), 20-30 hours of gameplay, and a massive 26 new quests (including nine long, main story quests). It also introduces new items, books, weapons, recipes, spells, a shout, voice acting, and even a new soundtrack. The mod actually gives players more content than a lot of paid-for DLCs.

It’ll take a while before modders can create as many new additions for Fallout 4 as Falskaar does for Skyrim, but we'll eventually arrive at that point. If people do start developing Fallout 4 mods comparable to Falskaar, then expect to be playing the game for a long, long time.

You can download Falskaar here.

1. SkyUI

I absolutely love Fallout 4; along with the Witcher 3, it’s one of my favorite games of the past few years. I am, however, the first to admit that - much like the vanilla version of Skyrim - Fallout 4’s interface can sometimes be a massive pain in the ass.

SkyUI is considered the original must-have mod for Skyrim – and the best. It improves the inventory, the map, the HUD and even lets players fine-tune other installed mods in its Mod Configuration Menu. It basically makes the game a lot easier to navigate, much slicker, and more fun to play.

Any mod that brings an improved inventory management system to Fallout 4 would be more than welcome, and the having ability to search the map for locations just by typing in a name, like Sky UI provides for Skyrim, is something Fallout 4 players deserve.

Bringing this mod to Fallout 4 won’t add a ton of extra content to the game, nor will it make it look prettier, but it will clean up that messy UI and greatly improve the overall player experience. That’s why I’m hoping it‘ll be one of the first ‘big’ Fallout 4 mods released.

You can download the SkyUI mod here.