I suppose this is my first time bringing up a new mod idea - I'm not entirely sure how I'd tackle it, but if people like the idea enough, I might settle down and learn some Papyrus to see if I could do it. This is something I noticed whilst watching Gopher's Richard playthrough series - specifically his Falskaar one. I'm less careful when entering dungeons than he is and shoot without asking questions, and I can be sure the dungeon is populated with bandits because - well, that happens. If I let the cell respawn, when I return, it's guaranteed to be filled with the same sorts of NPCS - bandits will respawn bandits, draugr will respawn draugr. I really don't have to be careful with killing NPCs because I usually know what's going to be there. And that's unrealistic. Even worse is the fact they all have the same name. "Bandit" or "Bandit Marauder." Gee, I feel really bad for killing this anonymous bandit! Some bandits have idle dialogue that alludes to a past - one of them suggests his father wanted him to go to college, but he didn't know what to do and ended up in a bandit group for a living. Some show regret for what they do and want to pay off their bounties and return to the cities. They get angry and upset if they discover a corpse. There's some room here to play with morality and roleplaying! So here's my suggestion for this mod, in four modules. Ignore my silly naming, I'm sick and trying to humour myself. Module 1 - My Name's Not Rick Module 1 would deal with the names of NPCs only - those with names like "Stormcloak Soldier", "Imperial Soldier" "Mercenary", "Bandit" ect. The game would check the race of the NPC, then pick a random name off of a list of names with that race's etymology. For example, the list of names for Nords would have Scandinavian roots, Redguards would get Arabic names, Imperials with Roman/Italian names, ect. This makes approaching NPCs more difficult and challenging, but also fun, as you don't know if you're approaching a bandit or a merc, a traveller or a thief, by their name. Is Sally a cute farm girl or a vicious psychopathic murderess? Who knows! Not me! Module 2 - Yes, I'm a bandit. Yes, I'm going to spare you. This module would act as a dummy module to add more diversity to the random encounters. Every Thalmor that you go up to that's unnamed you can attack without worrying about the consequences. This would add people from factions like the Thalmor to random encounters which would allow you to go by peacefully, and incur a bounty for attacking or killing. It would be up to you whether to aggro on a Thalmor or someone who looks like a thief/skooma dealer/soldiers ect. Module 3 - Don't you know? Bandits don't spawn in the same location twice. Module 3 would randomise the spawns in dungeons. This would be done in a way that ensures each dungeon is realistically spawned, perhaps including dungeon/quest unique encounters. For example, instead of bandits in the first chamber of Bleak Falls Barrow, you might come across two excavators talking about hearing yelling further down and getting spooked, running back up. Questioning the excavators would reveal they heard someone screaming and yelling for help, but are too afraid to go look themselves. In other places, it just randomises what type of NPC you find. Sometimes you'll find necromancers, but next time, you might find Imperials have arrived at the fort and are using it to fight against the Stormcloaks. [This part would rely on the Civil War questline - so if the Imperials won, you wouldn't find Stormcloaks in forts]. A mine of bandits will respawn miners. A ruin full of draugr might spawn researchers in the next reset, and so forth. It would be balanced so you're more likely to encounter enemies than friends, however! This module would self-disable on any dungeon marked with a quest, so it doesn't bug quests like radiant quests [Kill bandit leader at x, etcetera.] Module 4 - Roses are red, Malachite is blue... This module would be designed to be coupled with mods like "I Yield, I Yield!", though not necessary for it to function. This module would give bandits and other unlawful hostile small chances to have notes on them, from wives, children, sick relatives, ect. or small mementos and heirlooms. This would act as an immersive way to give the bandits more motivation and character than simple greed, giving more moral ambiguity to the act of slaying bandits. As I said, I would be willing to learn how to do all of this if there's enough interest in it, though any help would be greatly appreciated.
