LE Shared Plunder: Split it with Your Followers (aka Followers are Partners)

[Bizzquik]

An immersion mod....

 

I feel as though its a little self-serving for the Dragonborn to be wandering scary dungeons and inhabited caves with a Follower in-tow, expecting that person to guard the player with their life....but never giving that person Gold when looting or their pick of equipment when scavenging. If you think about it, after battle the typical Follower will just wait around for the player to finish what they are doing so the two can advance to the next battle, so as to then do the battle-wait-advance cycle all over again.

 

And sure, the player can always give the Follower "stuff"....but even that conversation is one-sided: the Follower must take what they are given.

Really, there's only so much the modding community can do to change these static design choices made by Bethesda. But a well thought-out MCM-based mod can help make adventuring with a Follower more immersive.

 

 

The point of the mod would be that the player MUST give the Follower a share of the Gold collected as they journey Skyrim together.

 

When a new Follower is added, the mod would keep track of all Gold found by and awarded to the player. This counted Gold would be different than Gold acquired through selling an item; the mod would just count the gold the player finds and is rewarded in quests while exploring with that particular Follower. Then, when the player enters a major city or inn tavern, the mod would automatically take a percentage of this Gold count and deposit this income with the Follower. This Follower Gold would then never be accessible by the player - it is the Follower's money, NOT the player's!

 

Here is where the MCM menu could make things fun for the player. The menu should be configurable so that the player can decide the percentage of Gold that the Follower gets. Then when entering a major city or inn tavern, an in-game text-based notification would appear to tell the player that "(Amount) Gold Was Given to (Follower's name)." For simplicity's sake, this total Gold count of the Follower could be either in the MCM menu or somehow shown in the Follower's inventory (though, again, must not be transferable to the player). At its core, that is all the mod would want to achieve. A sense that the Follower has earned their own money along the journey with the player, through a simple behind-the-scenes math equation.

 

 

But, if the mod author wanted to develop the mod further, more advanced features could be added later. Such as....

 

* Loyalty Matters - if enabled, the Follower automatically receives a higher percentage of Gold when the Follower has been in the player's company a certain number of game days (percentage can escalate as more game days pass).

 

* Sell, Sell, Sell - if enabled, the Follower automatically receives a portion of the player's sales of looted equipment (and, if also enabled, potions and crafted armor & weapons made by the player, etc).

 

* My Follower, the Bargain Hunter - if enabled, the Follower will randomly acquire better equipment (and show as owning less money, as it is assumed the Follower made a purchase). The equipment would be of the same type as what the Follower already has equipped (two-handed weapon upgraded to better two-handed weapon, etc) so that the Follower can maintain a consistent combat role with the player.

 

* Picky, Picky - if enabled, the percentage of Gold that the Follower requires of the player will be higher or lower based on factors such as the Follower's race, faction, gender, or skill proficiency (healer mage may require a higher percentage of Gold than melee fighter).

 

* Karma - if enabled, the player's Luck skill is improved if the Follower's Gold percentage is over a certain (very high) percent.

 

The mod could continue adding features along the way, such as in-game text-based notifications being replaced with a Follower conversation tree....or even the Follower directly starting a conversation to ask for their portion of the Gold now. The possibilities for feature expansion are endless, but the core idea of the mod would continue to be rather basic in implementation.

.....So, what do you think?

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My other mod requests:

* A Merchant that Charges Soul Gems

* Better Animal Followers (i.e. "Stay Outside, Dog!")

* Color-Coded Quest Markers / Waypoints