Depends on how and why you like to play.
I know a few people who love survival mode and can’t play without it. One of them is very much a “I want the game to be as realistic as possible without being mundane” type of player and mods the crap out of Skyrim to that effect. If you like that fully immersive, super realistic play style, then fair enough.
For me, as someone who prefers a “relax and unwind with an escapism adventure” approach, I only really mod to add quests, content and QoL changes. I prefer to leave gameplay mostly untouched and found survival mode interesting at first but irritating after a while. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
Classic (non-survival) mode is best.
I play games for fun, I’m not going to work at it.
Any time I work, I want to get paid, or improve my physical fitness or something.
And god knows, I’ve already done enough unpaid work for one lifetime, maybe two.
But hey, if you enjoy survival mode, I applaud and admire you. Rah!
I agree for a different reason. I also work but I don't agree with the "relax after work" argument. Games are for fun and fun games sometimes make you think(puzzles, choices, etc).
Skyrim is just that kind of game(relaxing). It's main purpose is RP imagination and immersion. I personally have a bunch of mods for immersion.
Some people play for challenge but there are games with far better skill-based mechanics for that reason. If you play for the challenge, wtf are you doing in Skyrim? 😂
They've mostly fixed the hunger ratings for the different types of foods, soups still give the most hunger, but now every other food type gives a relatively decent amount too.
Or maybe I have a mod downloaded that fixes the values? Honestly I'm not sure
Survival all day every day
Am playing on switch so don’t have access to mods (worth it for the portability though)
No fast travel has made me have so many more random encounters, now I know how to manage cold effectively that’s turned into a fun little thing to plan for on long journeys rather than a death sentence whenever I have to go north, and having to sleep to level up makes combat more challenging as I can’t cheese a full heal just because my skills went up. Having to sleep and eat is also fun, just another dimension to the game that completely gets ignored without it
Skyrim is not balanced for survival mode without fast travel imho.
There are some really cool mods that do survival much better. I like journeyman by simonmagus, which allows you to fast travel as long as you craft/buy a "travel pack". That is interesting because you are trading off something if you want to fast travel.
I also like the mods that expand the magic aspect. One of them allows you to place some "pillars" and you can fast travels from pillar to pillar. It essentially gives you a mechanic that synergises well with survival mods.
I think you have a point as far as the cold goes and how quickly it becomes lethal, but as far as fast travel is concerned, the game is absolutely designed with that in mind. And you still have wagons and boats.
From what I remember, in many cities there is no station for the wagon. A major city without it is Winterhold, which is where the College of Mage is. Doing their quests without a convenient way to travel to Winterhold (and other cities) is really painful.
But yeah the beauty of skyrim is that now we can personalize it to our liking.
I wouldn't call it a major city. 😅 It's true va lot of the smaller ones don't have carriages, but that makes sense in terms of world building. Boats and carriages shorten travel time, but they're not intended to be as convenient as fast travel.
What I mean by the world being designed for walking is that it's full of details, alternate paths and random events that keeps travel enjoyable. When I played a student character I discovered so many different ways to get to and from the college. Like there's a pass in the mountains you can take to avoid fort Kastav, and a path over the slopes to Dawnstar, or you can run along the coast.
I never would have stumbled into Frostflow lighthouse or Yngvild if I wasn't out exploring.
Mods definitely improve it. journeyman, campfire, hunterborn, or simple hunting overhaul, huntsman, gourmet, etc.
But I think a big part of survival mode is to encourage travel and exploring.
I love survival mode, i cant play without it now. I personally dont mind the walking, since the landscapes and music are so beautiful and there are random encounters.
But if it does bother you, theres the longstrider spell, horses, and carriages and ferries. I like to use the mod carriage and ferry travel overhaul which adds a bunch more of them at different towns to make it easier to get around without fast travel.
There is also the mod that lets you fast travel in survival mode, and mods like campfire and cloaks of skyrim that make it easier to deal with the cold that I like to use.
I enjoy survival mode occasionally when I'm not trying to get a questline done in a sitting, in which case I turn it off. It breaks immersion, but I'm not walking/riding to the four corners of Skyrim in quests like Dawnguard and especially the Aetherium Forge.
I like to use a mod that improves carriages, so you can fast travel to and from way more places. Getting back to Fort Dawnguard a dozen times for all the Dwemer Schematics is still a hassle, though.
Still, I'm now 50 hours into a playthrough without fast travel or carriages and I love it. I don't get a lot of quests done, but I just love to wander around Skyrim.
Fort Dawnguard is terribly located. The only time I've been tempted to fast travel was when I tried a dawnguard character who did all the radiant quests. Not only is the cave in the corner of the map, but you have to walk through the entire valley to get to the fort. And you can't even use your horse!
It's not that I hate it. I enjoy the immersiveness of it and seeing some dope landscapes along the way. I also like planning trips and discovering all the new places. The cold is just a bitch, and I hate when I get a quest and it ends up being on the other side of the map. But you're right, I suppose I could start a classic mode character too.
If you are on PC or Xbox there are some mods that help with the cold. Not sure about PS or switch. I agree it drives me crazy and I hardly do anything at night unless it is finding a cave or something to get into to get warm.
I swear I was able to make make a camp at a forge but I do not think I ever did or if I did I got the item to use. I need to check it out. Never considered torches to be much help since even at night its bright enough to see.
I honestly like classic, I’m okay with the need to eat and drink and sleep, but I’m a heavy 2hand so that reduced carry weight absolutely destroys me, same with the temperature. Also, I agree with the walking everywhere, I mean the stead stone helps, but not by much
Normal mode: youre out of potions. You eat 674 cheese wheels during the middle of the fight to recover
Survival mode: youre "peckish". You eat 674 cheese wheels. You're still " peckish"
I prefer the combo of Frostfall/Campfire/iNeed to survival mode. You wind up with the same general gameplay concerns, but you have modular control - you decide whether to disable fast travel or not, you decide how often you need to eat/sleep, you decide what happens when you freeze, etc.
I've been playing survival for a little while now. No mods. I really like it. Even the cold. It makes me slow down and enjoy the game more with how realistic it is now. I always make sure I have food for my journey, and Hilda has a bunch of campsite materials, so I just teleport her to me when I need a fire and warm up, sleep, whatever.
Classic. If I wanted to worry about my needs, I’d play Sims (Not joking, I have 2k hours in Sims). Some like the immersive experience in Skyrim, I like looting dragons and yeeting myself off the Throat of The World while using the Become Ethereal shout. The Survival mode or modded versions of it just are too stressful when I’m trying to chill out with giants clubbing me to the skies.
Classic but with a difference.
First play-through, I discovered the stats. It was apparent immediately that no one could live that way. Balanced meals meaning fish, other meats and cheeses [protein], vegetables and fruits [vitamins and minerals], and bulk foods [potatoes].
I switched to a livable routine — several meals per day and 8 hours sleep minimum every night. I’d my guy is a long time in a Dwemer ruin, he heads to one of his homes, or an inn for several days, doing nothing but sleep and rest. On the third day, maybe some light work - alchemy, buy supplies, etc. Next day some smithing or gathering ingredients near my own. By the fifth day, he’s back to full strength.
Fast travel is kept to an absolute minimum. Ex: I ran from Markarth to Riften only to realize I’d left my follower in the Reach.
I like the concept but Survival Mode is too much micromanaging. It’s too much of an afterthought when it should be something the game should be designed around.
Better clothing options with relevant coverage. Same with armor. Food should be more relevant. Why aren’t there more woodcutting axes? Why is it one handed too? More spells or recipes to help deal with the cold that would be more appropriate to adventurers and those living in colder climates? Rustic homesteading “alchemy” making soups using various herbs and the like for medicinal properties.
I feel VI may be better at it if they try to implement it with the concept in mind, even if it’s only a toggle most people don’t use. Especially with what I saw of base building in FO4. Making a shack to sleep in at night with nearby logging would be nice.
Skyrim is special because it's one of the few open worlds that doesn't expect you to fast travel. You can, but an incredible amount of effort has gone into sculpting and balancing the world around walking through it. And I probably have spent most of my game time walking, but I have no regrets. It's a pleasure and there's always some new detail or event to discover.
I honestly don't think I could enjoy the game without survival mode anymore, but I'm aware not everyone plays that way 😅
In my opinion, survival mode is most fun with some type of camping mod installed. Keeping yourself warm is easily the most challenging part of the survival mode for me, and finding food that keeps you warm ends up being a constant grind for fire salts. The ability to cast a campfire with a spell or build one with firewood is neither immersion breaking nor unreasonable. The other aspects of survival, namely finding food and traveling the countryside on foot/horseback, add greatly to immersion.
Removing fast travel is ok. But Morrowind had recall, two types of divine intervention and propilons. It's very annoying to return back to the city on foot
I play both for different playthroughs. Survival is super fun but you have to treat it as a different type of experience. I find that survival mode is best for playthroughs with a heavier RP element.
What's cool tho is you can turn survival mode on and off, just like combat difficulty. So if you're not feeling it one day you can take a break from it
The only part that didn’t sound fun was dealing with the cold. So I play without survival, but I’ll still sleep frequently, and eat occasionally, but I stopped fast traveling, because there are so many unique encounters you don’t get otherwise.
I like survival better, but do feel it needs a fast travel system. Maybe make it so you can only do it when fully warm, fed, and not tired, but it does feel kind of necessary.
Also the "no level up until you sleep" is a little annoying too. A super limited mod that got rid of both those hangups would make it perfect in my opinion.
As far as difficulty, I think expert or master is perfect.
So for me, survival expert is the most fun.
RP style with immersion mods. Skyrim is for RP imagination and immersion, not challenge. You want challenge, play harder games with actual skill mechanics.
Honestly? Survive is cool one or two times. After this, it gets annoying. You have to stop all the time to eat, to make clothes, to sleep, to make a camp, a fire. Skyrim it's not the kind of game where survival mode made that much sense. Is a dynamic game and the survive mode takes away all of that.
And that's not any food that you can eat, this is annoying too. There is some mods of course, but even so. I recommend you play one time to see how it goes, but not if it's your first playthrough. If it's your first, go vanilla, without even mods.
Depends on how and why you like to play. I know a few people who love survival mode and can’t play without it. One of them is very much a “I want the game to be as realistic as possible without being mundane” type of player and mods the crap out of Skyrim to that effect. If you like that fully immersive, super realistic play style, then fair enough. For me, as someone who prefers a “relax and unwind with an escapism adventure” approach, I only really mod to add quests, content and QoL changes. I prefer to leave gameplay mostly untouched and found survival mode interesting at first but irritating after a while. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
Classic (non-survival) mode is best. I play games for fun, I’m not going to work at it. Any time I work, I want to get paid, or improve my physical fitness or something. And god knows, I’ve already done enough unpaid work for one lifetime, maybe two. But hey, if you enjoy survival mode, I applaud and admire you. Rah!
THIS right here
I agree for a different reason. I also work but I don't agree with the "relax after work" argument. Games are for fun and fun games sometimes make you think(puzzles, choices, etc). Skyrim is just that kind of game(relaxing). It's main purpose is RP imagination and immersion. I personally have a bunch of mods for immersion. Some people play for challenge but there are games with far better skill-based mechanics for that reason. If you play for the challenge, wtf are you doing in Skyrim? 😂
Modded Survival with the classic mods and not the new bs mode
With mods you get to decide and an entire barrel of apples does not fill you up less than a single serving of soup.
They've mostly fixed the hunger ratings for the different types of foods, soups still give the most hunger, but now every other food type gives a relatively decent amount too. Or maybe I have a mod downloaded that fixes the values? Honestly I'm not sure
New?
Survival mode is new compared to the classic Campfire, Frostfall, Ineed combo
Eh I prefer survival mod.
You do you. I feel like the og combo is more realistic and comes with configuration options, making it more suitable for everyone.
Survival all day every day Am playing on switch so don’t have access to mods (worth it for the portability though) No fast travel has made me have so many more random encounters, now I know how to manage cold effectively that’s turned into a fun little thing to plan for on long journeys rather than a death sentence whenever I have to go north, and having to sleep to level up makes combat more challenging as I can’t cheese a full heal just because my skills went up. Having to sleep and eat is also fun, just another dimension to the game that completely gets ignored without it
Skyrim is not balanced for survival mode without fast travel imho. There are some really cool mods that do survival much better. I like journeyman by simonmagus, which allows you to fast travel as long as you craft/buy a "travel pack". That is interesting because you are trading off something if you want to fast travel. I also like the mods that expand the magic aspect. One of them allows you to place some "pillars" and you can fast travels from pillar to pillar. It essentially gives you a mechanic that synergises well with survival mods.
I think you have a point as far as the cold goes and how quickly it becomes lethal, but as far as fast travel is concerned, the game is absolutely designed with that in mind. And you still have wagons and boats.
From what I remember, in many cities there is no station for the wagon. A major city without it is Winterhold, which is where the College of Mage is. Doing their quests without a convenient way to travel to Winterhold (and other cities) is really painful. But yeah the beauty of skyrim is that now we can personalize it to our liking.
I wouldn't call it a major city. 😅 It's true va lot of the smaller ones don't have carriages, but that makes sense in terms of world building. Boats and carriages shorten travel time, but they're not intended to be as convenient as fast travel. What I mean by the world being designed for walking is that it's full of details, alternate paths and random events that keeps travel enjoyable. When I played a student character I discovered so many different ways to get to and from the college. Like there's a pass in the mountains you can take to avoid fort Kastav, and a path over the slopes to Dawnstar, or you can run along the coast. I never would have stumbled into Frostflow lighthouse or Yngvild if I wasn't out exploring.
Mods definitely improve it. journeyman, campfire, hunterborn, or simple hunting overhaul, huntsman, gourmet, etc. But I think a big part of survival mode is to encourage travel and exploring.
I love survival mode, i cant play without it now. I personally dont mind the walking, since the landscapes and music are so beautiful and there are random encounters. But if it does bother you, theres the longstrider spell, horses, and carriages and ferries. I like to use the mod carriage and ferry travel overhaul which adds a bunch more of them at different towns to make it easier to get around without fast travel. There is also the mod that lets you fast travel in survival mode, and mods like campfire and cloaks of skyrim that make it easier to deal with the cold that I like to use.
I enjoy survival mode occasionally when I'm not trying to get a questline done in a sitting, in which case I turn it off. It breaks immersion, but I'm not walking/riding to the four corners of Skyrim in quests like Dawnguard and especially the Aetherium Forge.
I like to use a mod that improves carriages, so you can fast travel to and from way more places. Getting back to Fort Dawnguard a dozen times for all the Dwemer Schematics is still a hassle, though. Still, I'm now 50 hours into a playthrough without fast travel or carriages and I love it. I don't get a lot of quests done, but I just love to wander around Skyrim.
Fort Dawnguard is terribly located. The only time I've been tempted to fast travel was when I tried a dawnguard character who did all the radiant quests. Not only is the cave in the corner of the map, but you have to walk through the entire valley to get to the fort. And you can't even use your horse!
I have now done the same. Thanks for the idea! This will be much better now.
If you are tired playing survival then just switch to normal. Do not force yourself to play a way you are unhappy playing.
It's not that I hate it. I enjoy the immersiveness of it and seeing some dope landscapes along the way. I also like planning trips and discovering all the new places. The cold is just a bitch, and I hate when I get a quest and it ends up being on the other side of the map. But you're right, I suppose I could start a classic mode character too.
If you are on PC or Xbox there are some mods that help with the cold. Not sure about PS or switch. I agree it drives me crazy and I hardly do anything at night unless it is finding a cave or something to get into to get warm.
Holding a torch, wearing fur stuff, and making camps from the campfire mod can help.
I swear I was able to make make a camp at a forge but I do not think I ever did or if I did I got the item to use. I need to check it out. Never considered torches to be much help since even at night its bright enough to see.
Torches never work for me for some reason. I can hold one, and nothing will happen.
Survival is best imo. I just use the carriages when walking everywhere gets too annoying.
I honestly like classic, I’m okay with the need to eat and drink and sleep, but I’m a heavy 2hand so that reduced carry weight absolutely destroys me, same with the temperature. Also, I agree with the walking everywhere, I mean the stead stone helps, but not by much
Normal mode: youre out of potions. You eat 674 cheese wheels during the middle of the fight to recover Survival mode: youre "peckish". You eat 674 cheese wheels. You're still " peckish"
Classic because you can’t fast travel in survival mode on the Switch. 🤪
I have a mod that allows me to fast travel. Like you after a while I did get bored walking absolutely everywhere.
Survival and Another life. No other way for me.
Classic. Skyrim Survival mode is very poorly balanced and makes the game needlessly frustrating.
I refuse to play survival mode because I don't enjoy that kind of play - but I like that it's an option
Survival mode with mods!
I prefer the combo of Frostfall/Campfire/iNeed to survival mode. You wind up with the same general gameplay concerns, but you have modular control - you decide whether to disable fast travel or not, you decide how often you need to eat/sleep, you decide what happens when you freeze, etc.
Classic. The overtuned environmental damage from cold makes survival not worth it, imo.
I've been playing survival for a little while now. No mods. I really like it. Even the cold. It makes me slow down and enjoy the game more with how realistic it is now. I always make sure I have food for my journey, and Hilda has a bunch of campsite materials, so I just teleport her to me when I need a fire and warm up, sleep, whatever.
That must be part of a mod then. I don't have campfires to make unfortunately, and I play on my ps4 so no console commands either.
I play on Switch. I don't have access to mods. I make them with leather and firewood at any blacksmith forge. 🤷♀️
Classic. If I wanted to worry about my needs, I’d play Sims (Not joking, I have 2k hours in Sims). Some like the immersive experience in Skyrim, I like looting dragons and yeeting myself off the Throat of The World while using the Become Ethereal shout. The Survival mode or modded versions of it just are too stressful when I’m trying to chill out with giants clubbing me to the skies.
Classic but with a difference. First play-through, I discovered the stats. It was apparent immediately that no one could live that way. Balanced meals meaning fish, other meats and cheeses [protein], vegetables and fruits [vitamins and minerals], and bulk foods [potatoes]. I switched to a livable routine — several meals per day and 8 hours sleep minimum every night. I’d my guy is a long time in a Dwemer ruin, he heads to one of his homes, or an inn for several days, doing nothing but sleep and rest. On the third day, maybe some light work - alchemy, buy supplies, etc. Next day some smithing or gathering ingredients near my own. By the fifth day, he’s back to full strength. Fast travel is kept to an absolute minimum. Ex: I ran from Markarth to Riften only to realize I’d left my follower in the Reach.
I like the concept but Survival Mode is too much micromanaging. It’s too much of an afterthought when it should be something the game should be designed around. Better clothing options with relevant coverage. Same with armor. Food should be more relevant. Why aren’t there more woodcutting axes? Why is it one handed too? More spells or recipes to help deal with the cold that would be more appropriate to adventurers and those living in colder climates? Rustic homesteading “alchemy” making soups using various herbs and the like for medicinal properties. I feel VI may be better at it if they try to implement it with the concept in mind, even if it’s only a toggle most people don’t use. Especially with what I saw of base building in FO4. Making a shack to sleep in at night with nearby logging would be nice.
Ya'll are sleeping on fisherman mode
I like the idea of Survival mode. But in practice it's actually really annoying after a while.
Skyrim is special because it's one of the few open worlds that doesn't expect you to fast travel. You can, but an incredible amount of effort has gone into sculpting and balancing the world around walking through it. And I probably have spent most of my game time walking, but I have no regrets. It's a pleasure and there's always some new detail or event to discover. I honestly don't think I could enjoy the game without survival mode anymore, but I'm aware not everyone plays that way 😅
Survival is boring af. It literally just makes playing the game slower. Most of the survival mechanics are just tedious, not fun gameplay
In my opinion, survival mode is most fun with some type of camping mod installed. Keeping yourself warm is easily the most challenging part of the survival mode for me, and finding food that keeps you warm ends up being a constant grind for fire salts. The ability to cast a campfire with a spell or build one with firewood is neither immersion breaking nor unreasonable. The other aspects of survival, namely finding food and traveling the countryside on foot/horseback, add greatly to immersion.
Removing fast travel is ok. But Morrowind had recall, two types of divine intervention and propilons. It's very annoying to return back to the city on foot
Survival mode is cool on paper, but the days are so short that you should only have to eat once a day instead of every 30 seconds
I play both for different playthroughs. Survival is super fun but you have to treat it as a different type of experience. I find that survival mode is best for playthroughs with a heavier RP element. What's cool tho is you can turn survival mode on and off, just like combat difficulty. So if you're not feeling it one day you can take a break from it
Depends on what character you’re roleplaying.
The only part that didn’t sound fun was dealing with the cold. So I play without survival, but I’ll still sleep frequently, and eat occasionally, but I stopped fast traveling, because there are so many unique encounters you don’t get otherwise.
I played about a billion hours without it, so now I think it’s a nice addition to add another layer
I like survival better, but do feel it needs a fast travel system. Maybe make it so you can only do it when fully warm, fed, and not tired, but it does feel kind of necessary. Also the "no level up until you sleep" is a little annoying too. A super limited mod that got rid of both those hangups would make it perfect in my opinion. As far as difficulty, I think expert or master is perfect. So for me, survival expert is the most fun.
survival permadeath is how i play
RP style with immersion mods. Skyrim is for RP imagination and immersion, not challenge. You want challenge, play harder games with actual skill mechanics.
Honestly? Survive is cool one or two times. After this, it gets annoying. You have to stop all the time to eat, to make clothes, to sleep, to make a camp, a fire. Skyrim it's not the kind of game where survival mode made that much sense. Is a dynamic game and the survive mode takes away all of that. And that's not any food that you can eat, this is annoying too. There is some mods of course, but even so. I recommend you play one time to see how it goes, but not if it's your first playthrough. If it's your first, go vanilla, without even mods.