LE Unobtrusive activation text

[ruvuk]

Hi everybody. A mod like this would be a dream-come-true for me. I'm halfway convinced that I'll be able to do it myself eventually (as I've done similar mods for other games), but I know I won't be ready to try this mod for Skyrim anytime soon. Maybe one of you guys might be interested? :o)

 

The mod: Replace the "E" symbol and all of the text that accompanies it when the player is able to activate something. I get really tired of constantly seeing "[E} Take this" and "[E] Steal that," and "[E] Harvest something."

 

I'd like to get rid of ALL of that and replace it with a colored dot. (Probably the dot would need to be bordered with a white circle and that bordered with a black circle to make sure that the dot would show against all backgrounds.)

 

In my imagination, when I looked at a harvestable ingredient, all I'd see would be a small green dot. Anything that could be activated or taken or harvested would get a dot and nothing else. An item that could be stolen would get a red dot.

 

I know that this mod would not be good for new players. But I'm assuming that the mod would include a note explaining this and suggesting that new players hold off awhile.

 

If the modder were interested and had the time and skill to offer options for the mod, it'd be slick if the player could choose whether or not he or she wanted optional text added at the bottom of the screen. The text would simply name the item referenced by the dot. Instead of the original "[E] Take apple," the text would say, "Apple." Maybe the text could be framed with one of the box borders used by the game menus? (Don't know if that'd be too much visual clutter.)

 

I understand that the clickable zones for many items are not what the player expects. One can have the crosshairs on a book and get a pop-up message saying, "[E] Take Fine Clothes" if there are fine clothes nearby. This sort of confusion was the reason I thought that the optional text at the bottom of the screen might be needed. It might not even really be optional.

 

I figured I'd need to experiment with how tightly the crosshairs are focused. (There's a control to adjust this in the user settings, but I don't know offhand exactly what it's called.) My own experience with adjusting the activation focus has been that a too-tight focus meant I had to spend a lot of time hassling with getting the crosshairs positioned just right. It felt like selecting anything was a hassle akin to selecting a glowing mushroom! <lol> So, again, the text component letting the player know for sure what he or she was seeing as clickable might not be an option.

 

Maybe this mod is a whole lot more complicated than what I'm guessing?

 

If so, maybe somebody would be interested in doing a simplified version of it?

 

For example, instead of seeing "[E] Take Apple," we could just see "Apple." Only the theft items would need the red typeset or a red symbol of some sort. Maybe a red exclamation point? Or maybe a red asterisk? Whatever looked best. Maybe the text could be smaller, too.

 

Thanks for reading.

Edited July 7, 2013 by ruvuk