2 biggest things for me were vimplug (or something to make plugin installation easy) and NERDtree, which lets you open a window for directory navigation, set bookmarks, and change your current directory path for other vim commands.

I'm also super partial to Hydrangea scheme https://vimcolors.com/690/hydrangea/dark That site is good for browsing for something you'll like.

I recently made my own vim config. It was very easy and wish I had done it earlier.

Try github.com/amix/vimrc to start off. It has a nice look. You can then add more shortcuts/customize further as you gain more experience with vim.