MaigretsHeadSpace: Tropical Skyrim - Run Through The Jungle

Well, this is something I never expected to see. Tropical Skyrim - A Climate Overhaul by Soolie.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33017/

It's a massive download at 897mb but worth every byte in my opinion. This mod bought me back to Skyrim after not playing for nearly 6 months and has given the game new life. In fact it's like a totally new game in many respects. Note that Soolie doesn't have any of the DLC's, and I don't either and don't care much, so I couldn't tell you how they may be affected.

There is now a high resolution texture pack by another author, however my PC would never manage it so apologies for what some would call crappy screenshots. Click to enlarge for a better view.

Sandstorm

This screenshot was taken somewhere east of Solitude at sunset.

I'm not going to go into other mod compatibility or such, but I have a lot of intense mods, some I removed for this, and I'll never go back now to the icy, snowy grey landscape. The main mods I removed were other weather overhauls and lighting otherwise everything works. Info can be found on the download page.

I must admit I was one of those Lore freaks when it came to Skyrim, but I've played it to death and eventually got bored with the same things over and over. Now I'm enjoying myself immensely playing a full mage, no armour, which I've never done before either. Usually I play warrior types exclusively.

I'm not bothered by NPC comments re the weather and things like that at this point nearly 2 years down the track. New players or stricter lore adherents than myself may be, but then it's their choice to install mods and accept the consequences of those choices. Realize that this is a huge overhaul so the changes are immense.

It also makes more sense now considering that the NPC's of Skyrim wear clothes and armour unsuited to a freezing environment....no pants on leather armour and short sleeves on guard armour when they have full face helmets?? which looks ridiculous, for example.

Riverwood

Some creatures have been changed. Raptors replace wolves which I wasn't entirely happy with at first, but now I don't miss wolves. Trolls are now apes which look very good and some bears have been changed to pandas which is OK except I find it odd that pandas to be aggressive but that's the default AI. Horkers are now seals and there are tigers and other animals, some I haven't yet seen.

I love the jungle look, but I think my favourite landscape is the deserts around Whiterun, Rorikstead and environs. They remind me of the Elsweyr - Deserts of Anequina mod for Oblivion which I loved.

There are some issues, a few of which have been fixed in the first update, but none of these makes the mod unplayable in my opinion. In fact my game runs better than it ever did now. Soolie is working on another big update which I hope resolves the issues of extremely loud bird sounds, trees blocking access in caves and dungeons (can be console fixed as a temp measure), optional load screen replacers, and generally thinning out the jungle around Riverwood and Falkreath etc which often obscures roads and buildings.

I can't imagine how long this mod took to create, but again, in my opinion, it's like a revelation and the only reason I'm now back playing the game.

There are some complimentary mods also made for this overhaul and others that will go well with it. The ones I'm using are:
Tropical Skyrim - Mod More textures. However, I'm only using the retex for Forsworn armour at the moment.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33263

Tropical Animals - Horse and Zebras.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33466