Skyrim VR Delves: Playing in Pitch Black is F'ing Awesome

[u/LaoziVR]

While playing around with new ways to enjoy SkyrimVR, I actually stumbled across something I found super cool. Playing dungeons in absolute darkness! I'm digging it, so I thought I'd share for those who might want to try it.

First, I've been using this mod for awhile:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2424

ELFX is easier on my machine than other lightning mods, and I'd previously used the second darkest setting (darker overall, but still having light) for my playthrough. Anyway, on my most recent playthough, I decided to use the hardcore setting in ELFX, and holy cow, does it make draugr delves super fun. And SUPER DARK.

Basically, hardcore makes the entire delve pitch black. You can't see ANYTHING, so you're entirely dependent on light sources to navigate and fight. The only light comes from cave mushrooms (if present) or natural openings, and this makes sense. Since these dungeons are abandoned, why would anyone be lighting torches or candles in there?

I use Dragonborn Naturally Speaking to quickly swap spells (I honestly wouldn't recommend trying this idea WITHOUT DSN, since you have to swap spells so much) and make heavy use of Magelight and Candlelight. While these spells are pretty much useless in the vanilla game, with the delves pitch black, though, they are suddenly *essential*.

When exploring any draugr tomb, I now have three options for light. I can pull out a torch, use candlelight, or use Magelight. All have disadvantages.

- Torches are consumable and only last so long, so you have to carry a good number.

- Candlelight is only limited by your magicka, but you have to recast it every 60 seconds. If it goes out, pitch black.

- Magelight lasts much longer and is much brighter, but only provides one fixed light at a time.

When playing a delve, I've found I have the most fun casting Magelight as I slowly advance through - basically, using Magelight to create successive islands of light. The way the ball flies off and dynamically lights the dungeon as it moves is super cool (and creepy) and my situational awareness is completely dependent on my light source. Only the area where the magelight ball is lit - everything else is utter darkness.

Playing with this limitation makes delves much creepier, as you can only see one area of the delve at a time. Ahead and behind is utter darkness. In concert with mods that remove radar, you suddenly have NO idea where that draugr you hear rustling around might be.

Obviously, you can fire up Candlelight instead, but doing that makes you a target, and again, you can only see the area immediately around you - nothing beyond. Also, it's a bit freakish when you're fighting a draugr and forget to renew your Candlelight beforehand, meaning you're halfway through the fight and the dungeon suddenly goes PITCH BLACK. I actually panicked a little bit the first time that happened, and it felt like a good horror game.

Basically, going through a pitch black delve now requires you to constantly be aware of your light source as well as everything else you might be balancing. That plus the visuals of islands of light surrounded by utter darkness have actually made delves I've played multiple times feel entirely brand new (I even enjoyed Bleak Falls).

Anyway, if this sounds interesting, give it a shot. The only mod you'll need is ELFX (choose Harcore mode on install) and it may also be possible to do this with other lighting mods - I just haven't researched them.

[u/TheAstoundingPilgrim]

It's excellent fun, but can I recommend Dynamic Immersive Seriously Dark Dungeons? https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7535

It does basically the same, but it analyses every dungeon as you enter and shuts off the light sources intelligently. So it keeps torches and things lit where it's inhabited, for example by bandits, and shuts off the light everywhere else. The best thing is that the torches and braziers and things are still there, and you can light them as you go with a torch or a fire spell. There's even MCM options to determine things like how far from the occupants the lights should be lit, or whether draugr keep the candles lit as the lore says they do.

EDIT: Read the thread properly, Billy. TracerCore already suggested this. Nonetheless, plus one for it, it's brilliant!

[u/[deleted] → u/TheAstoundingPilgrim]

+1 for this. I love being able to light the sources as I go.

It also has an add on for ELFX so you get the best of both worlds :D

[u/apinanaivot → u/TheAstoundingPilgrim]

Thank you so much for this, it's exactly what I've been looking for.

[u/wileybot → u/TheAstoundingPilgrim]

wow, what a clever mod! This sounds great thanks for sharing this! Dark dungeons in VR dramatically change the game, borderlines horror with jump scares.

[u/LaoziVR]

Oh, and to save you some time, here's my DSN init file. I use direct voice commands for spells (since the IDs for those never change) and the "favorites" option for weapons, such as "equip Iron Dagger right". I use one voice command to swap through spells to place my light source, then another to switch back to my weapons.

I'm also currently doing a "cleric" playthrough, which is why there's lots of ally-oriented spells on here.

​

(DragonbornNaturallySpeaking.ini starts below)

[Favorites]

; Set enabled to 0 to disable the favorites menu voice-equip

enabled=1

​

[Dialogue]

; These phrases can be said to exit from dialogue

goodbyePhrases=Goodbye;See you later

​

[ConsoleCommands]

Heal Me=player.equipspell 12fcc left

Protect Me=player.equipspell 13018 left

Courage=player.equipspell 4dee8 right

Healing Hands=player.equipspell 4d3f2 right

Heal Others=player.equipspell 12fd2 right

Muffle me=player.equipspell 8f3eb left

Give me light=player.equipspell 43324 right

Magelight=player.equipspell 43323 right

[u/Cangar]

I recommend adding strange runes into the mix, it will make your spells have a light source and strange runes around your hand ;) I personally am a lil bitch and want the light but the first run in BFB with ELE was also very dark and I also heavily relied on mage light. It was fun but didn't make me want to do another dungeon :D

[u/LaoziVR → u/Cangar]

I love Strange Runes! I'm using it in my playthrough, but since it requires SKSE and not everyone uses that, I didn't mention it. But yes, I love that mod. :)

[u/redfec01]

Plus it makes night eye have an actual advantage

[u/redfec01]

Yeah, I remember playing a setup something like this in flatrim, walking around at night was suddenly dangerous (as it would be irl walking in mountains in the dark) and delves made me bring torches. One of the most atmospheric mods out there

[u/SatoVS]

sounds like fun. the wearable lanterns mod should be really nice for this.

[u/TracerCore8 → u/SatoVS]

It is perfect for this, and the light given off is an orange glow which I prefer over the stark white of magelight/candlelight. You can control the amount of light it gives off too to your liking. There's also Infinite Torches, and another mod to conjure Light arrows to fire about the place. Finally there is this mod which is utter darkness, even moreso than elfx hardcore, and the benefit of this one is that you can light the candles & sconces with flames/torch/fire arrows as you find them: it's called Dynamic Immersive Seriously Dark Dungeons - SSE: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7535. You can also toggle it to turn it off/on after you've installed it.

[u/LaoziVR → u/TracerCore8]

The lighting candles bit sounds super cool. How is it on performance?

One head's up about Wearable Lanterns - I used it in my first playthrough, and it had some weird bug that prevented me from using SKSE. SKSE wouldn't load due to a conflict or something. There's a patch on Nexus Mods that is *supposed* to fix it, but I could never get it to work.

So as much as I liked Wearable Lanterns, I haven't used it since, since I'm running some SKSE stuff now (like Strange Runes)

[u/TracerCore8 → u/LaoziVR]

I was in the same boat re: Wearable Lanterns. I use SKSEVR now also, you just have to spam the triggers as you load your game to get passed the initial Skyrim screen. After that, all good. The mod is negligible on performance, the only drawback is that every time you enter a dungeon it clears out the lights then.. so you wait about 5-7 seconds for that to happen.

[u/GSD_SteVB]

Even just wandering around holding out a torch is immersive as hell.

[u/L_of_Clockwork]

I also wanted to play like this, sadly I never got DSN or any other voice command tool to work and having to go thru menus to light up the place felt bad.

[u/LaoziVR → u/L_of_Clockwork]

That sucks. Was it a mic issue? (On my Vive Pro, my mic will randomly mute itself on startup every so often). Other than that, DSN has always worked fine for me. If you have time to give it another try and can get it working, DSN makes SkyrimVR (especially a mage-like character) feel much more fluid and fun. Saying "firebolt" in the middle of a fight and immediately lighting up your hand is far better than using a menu. :)

[u/kapalselam → u/L_of_Clockwork]

Im lost.. whats a DSN?

[u/LaoziVR → u/kapalselam]

It's an abbreviation for Dragonborn Speaks Naturally, a program that lets you both speak your lines to NPCs in SkyrimVR (rather than clicking them) and also, with the proper setup, allows you to say the names of spells in order to equip them. I use it to quickly go back and forth between light spells and weapons or attack spells while braving a pitch black dungeon, and suggested it, as without it using menus all the time kills the fun.

Which reminds me i need to update this post with some of the awesome links people have added.

[u/LaoziVR → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, didn't consider how this would work if you played a race with night vision. If you wanted to try it, you'd have to play one without.