Summary
TheElder Scrolls: Daggerfallis aclassic 1990s game, and while being old is usually good news for mods, this one might be a bit too old. That’s why the game’s modding community has unanimously moved toDaggerfall Unity, a reimplementation of the original game using the popular game engine and development tool, Unity.
Players looking to experience theclassic 1996 MS-DOSDaggerfallof their youth again might want to play the original game. Everyone else should stick toDaggerfall Unity, in particular those looking for great mods. Maybe it was the modern and user-friendly Unity engine, the low-fidelity assets, or the surge in popularity caused by the re-release. Whichever it is, decades after its release,Daggerfallhas once again become a haven for mods and modders.
1Transparent Windows
Lets Players Look Through Windows To The Outside
Transparent Windows is straightforward enough. Because of system limitations, in the original version ofDaggerfall,players couldn’t look through windows from inside buildings. The same is true forDaggerfall Unity, which, being a recreation of the original, saw fit to keep many of those details as they were.
The Transparent Windows mod makes the windows actually transparent, but only when looking out from inside a building. Looking in from the outside is still not supported and might never be. Transparent Windows is fully compatible with many other visual overhaul mods like DREAM and Improved Interior Lighting.
2Daggerfall Unity Quest Pack 1
Adds Plenty Of Quests
As the name implies, Daggerfall Unity Quest Pack 1 adds a lot of quests to the game, with a focus on the game’sguild and faction quest system. Those quests don’t follow a single storyline but are instead meant to add more variety to the game’s otherwise repetitive tasks.
Daggerfall Unity Quest Pack 1 used to come in two parts, pack 1 and pack 2, but has since been unified into a single mod. Another great quest mod is JayH’s Random Little Quests, by the same author of Daggerfall Unity Quest Pack 1, which adds random events to make downtime a bit more interesting.
3Uncanny’s Always Hit
Every Attack Is A Hit But With Adjusted Damage
Combat inDaggerfallis quite different from most modern games and, indeed, mostThe Elder Scrolltitles. BeforeThe Elder Scroll 4: Oblivion, each swing of the sword would have its own chance to hit or miss. Since modern players might find the influence of those invisible dice frustrating, Uncanny’s Always Hit changes every miss to a hit that only deals a single point of damage.
Uncanny’s Always Hit works best with the Physical Combat And Armor Overhaul mod. This mod turns armor, which normally reduces the chance of being hit, into damage reduction. The to-hit chance reduction system might be commonplace in RPGs likeDungeon & Dragons, but it’s hardly ideal for action games, which is why those mods are highly encouraged.
4SIGIL - Wilderness Encounters
Adds Semi-Random Events Through The Wilderness
SIGIL - Wilderness Encounters is another mod with a simple objective but a complicated execution. At its core, this mod aims to make the areas outside dungeons and cities a bit more interesting, as inDaggerfall,the world can sometimes feel empty. But SIGIL doesn’t just increase the number of enemies that can spawn in the middle of nowhere, adding much-needed variety to the kind of encounters players can expect.
Players using SIGIL - Wilderness Encounters can expect to meet new characters like trainers, healers, and travelers, as well as less friendly NPCs. Of course, there are also monster encounters and simple fights. These can change dramatically depending on the player’s location, the time of day, and climate.
5Warm Ashes - Dangerous Dungeon Exteriors
Adds Random Encounters
In vanillaDaggerfall Unity, the entrance to a dungeon is usually left to itself. The same was true for the original 1996 game. While this might make sense for a bandit group’s hidden camp, it’s much less reasonable for a subterranean citadel or a castle. Warm Ashes is an attempt to change that.
Warm Ashes adds patrolling units outside almost every dungeon, including the “small dungeons” introduced byDaggerfall Unity. Warm Ashes tries to match the kind of enemies present outside dungeons with the type of dungeon and its population. That said, this is a mod, and it’s bound to get it wrong sometimes.
6Handpainted Model Replacements
Replaces Some 2D Assets With 3D Models
Even thoughThe Elder Scrolls: Daggerfallwas released on CD-ROM, somewhat of a rarity in 1996, the developers had to work very hard to make this enormous game fit in such a small format. This is why much of the game’s furniture is covered by a low-resolution texture instead of being fully 3D.
Handpainted Model Replacements tries to fix this. This mod turns a pixelated picture of a bookshelf into a real object, a piece of wood stacked with books, each with its own 3D model. But that’s not all: fire is much more realistic, tables have detailed textures, and in general, interiors look much sharper. That said, this mod completely changes the look of the game and might be a better fit for a second playthrough.
7Roleplay And Realism (And Realism Items)
Adds Many Optional Settings And Some Items
Roleplay And Realism is a big mod that, thankfully, has plenty of optional modules to pick and choose from. The mod’s main objective is to make the game more grounded and give roleplay options, but its list of fixes goes from enhanced horse riding to wildly different mechanics for bows and arrows.
Roleplay And Realism – Items is technically another mod, but as the author puts it, it’s just another module for the main mod that must be downloaded separately. The type of change introduced by the Items module, which modifies the weight of many objects in the game, can’t be turned on and off in-game but must be either installed or not.
8Archaeologists
Improves Language Skills, Adds A New Guild
Archaeologists is a weird mod, but that doesn’t make it less interesting. On its surface, this mod does two things: it makes the various language skills more useful, and it adds an Archaeologists Guild. Joining the guild gives players access to a device that always points in the direction of a dungeon’s objective, making those missions go by much faster.
Archaeologists also plans to make high-intelligence characters more viable, even for players who don’t like using magic. With this mod, having a high score in a language’s skill gives a big boost to diplomacy attempts.Leveling up language skillsis also far easier than in vanilla, too.
9Improved Interior Lighting
Improves The Lighting Of Dungeons And Buildings
Improved Interior Lighting makes such a small change that it’s hard not to undersell it. This mod makes lighting a bit warmer inside dungeons and buildings, but it also seems to change how light propagates in the game. It also improves shadows for NPCs.
The original 1996Daggerfalldidn’t have dynamic lights, andDaggerfall Unitykept things mostly the same. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Now that the game is on a modern engine, mods like Improved Interior Lighting can make it so fire and other illumination sources actually light the scene. Sadly, the mod isn’t regularly updated anymore and can cause issues when used with other mods.
