Trying to create proper local coop mod for Skyrim

[zahar0z]

Hello everyone. New here.

I’m here to ask for some advice and guidance. Would really appreciate it, thanks in advance!

As you probably guessed from the title, I want to create a local co-op mod for Skyrim. The idea is to capture that cozy co-op vibe, hanging out with a friend or partner, playing side by side, just chilling on the couch with controllers in hand, in front of a big TV, with some snacks or tea. My girlfriend and I started playing these kinds of games during the COVID lockdown, and it really brought the joy of gaming back into my life. I think a lot of couples share this experience, and it’s pretty cool. It also reminds me of childhood, going over to a friend’s house or inviting buddies over to play those old PlayStation-style co-op games. Online multiplayer just isn’t the same.

Anyway, sorry for the nostalgic detour, but I guess I just wanted to share the vibe and motivation behind this project.

The dream game would be something as immersive and full of player freedom as Skyrim, but designed to be shared with a friend on a cozy evening. I’d love to make my own game someday, but for now, I know I need to learn a lot before I’m ready. Making mods seems like a good place to start. Design-wise, I think a lot of skills are transferable. When I look at Skyrim modding, some projects completely transform the game into something entirely different—and that’s both fascinating and inspiring. Plus, there’s so much to learn from Skyrim’s original design, both from its successes and its failures.

We actually tested out an old couch co-op mod for an earlier version of Skyrim, but it wasn’t really finished, it was more of a proof of concept, and wasn’t really playable. The local co-op mod for Oblivion is a much much better design-wise, but it’s super unstable and crashes all the time. And then there’s also Avowed, but that’s a whole other story, and not relevant at the moment.

Anyway, back to the topic. I think you have to start somewhere, and for me, the beginning is probably figuring out how to control both players and create a shared camera positioned between them. I want to create shared camera, not split screen. If anyone has advice or guidance on how to achieve this, I’d really appreciate it. Any pointers on what I should research first would be super helpful.

I have almost no experience with Skyrim modding, I’ve only done simple things like adding a companion npc or a location in the Creation Kit back in the day. However, I have experience with other engines and some basic coding knowledge. I’ve worked on simple projects in Unreal Engine for my job and made a bunch of small mods for other games in the past. So, I’m ready to dive in and learn more in this new area. I'd really appreciate any hints on where to start. Should I look into SKSE? Where’s the best place to begin?

To recap, my basic goals for the start are:

1 Control two players.
2 Create a shared camera that’s positioned between them.

Thanks in advance for any tips and for reading through my rambling. I hope that was at least a little bit entertaining for someone. If this sounds like something you interested in, then wish me luck with this weird project.

[dylbill]

For someone not that experienced with skyrim modding, this is a very ambitious project. If you can get it to work though, more power to you. 

For camera, I'd check out some other mods. There's this one:
3PCO - 3rd Person Camera Overhaul https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/18515?tab=files
Which only appears to use papyrus scripts, so it won't be too difficult to understand. 

There's also this one: 
True Directional Movement https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/51614?tab=description
Which uses skse and new animations, which would be a lot harder to implement but probably perform better. 

For controlling another character, this would most likely require an skse plugin. You can do some stuff with papyrus, but it is limited.

[scorrp10]

Skyrim Together Reborn, anyone?  

I frankly do not see how Skyrim can even function with a "shared camera" between players.   It would be an absolute nightmare for both.    It can work in wide open spaces as long as players are close and in sight of each other , but as soon as you are in the woods, or mountains, or any sort of ruins or in a town, or in any house, or in any dungeon, there's constantly going to be stuff between players, obscuring either one or the other.   And what if one player goes into another cell?   (like a store in a town)  Games have to be built  from ground up to allow for gameplay like that, with world elements essentially 'going transparent' when they are between players.    Having to determine on the fly what needs to be 'faded' would be a massive undertaking, and if you 'fade' a piece of world in Skyrim, it will look like a void hole in the world.    

Split-screen - that might work.    But then you might as well have two PCs next to each other.

[zahar0z]

dylbill thanks for the advice. Yeah, I was thinking of starting somewhere in that direction, research that mods. TDM specificaly. And also the old co-op mod for the old version of Skyrim.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/72743
Well, let's see what I would be able to understand there.

Are there any other mods that allow you to control NPCs with button inputs at the same time as your player character?

As for the lack of experience. Yes, that's true. But I have a lot of experience in similar areas, so I think it might help. Well. We'll see, anyway. Maybe I will get bored and stick back with Unreal.

scorrp10 Split screen doesn’t really capture the right vibe that I'm searching, in my opinion. You’re absolutely right that some gameplay elements won’t work conveniently in a shared screen setup, in fact, there’ll be quite alot such elements. Anyway, as you probably know, a lot of vanilla Skyrim’s gameplay elements weren’t exactly set up perfectly to fit all play styles to begin with. Basically vanila Skyrim is intended to be played in first person, as it is very hard or simply impossible to do certain things in third person in vanilla. But over time, modders have been rebuilding different parts of the gameplay. A great example, of what Im talking about is Better Third Person Selection mod. So all that what you talking about is just something that should be adjusted. I believe most of those issues can be fixed or worked around over time. For now, I just want to focus on getting the bare minimum working.

But yes, if we’re only talking about the vanilla Skyrim experience, then yeah, shared screen wouldn’t really make any sense, and split screen would be the only real option. But I’m talking about a heavily modified version of the game. I’ve played Skyrim that way myself, and I think a lot of other players have too. With enough tweaking, I believe a shared-screen setup can not only work, but actually be really fun. Of course, you have to build up to that point, for now, I’m just trying to figure out how to get the basic functionality working. And I wouldn’t exactly call this moded version a completely different game, most of the vibe, gameplay, and story stay the same. It’s more like a 50/50 mix, or just a new way to play an old game. Does it even matter how we label it?)

There is an oblivion mod that is pretty good in designing shared screen local co, if you interested to understand more clearly what I'm talking about.
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40325?tab=description
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RyhkJ5m-e8&t=5s&ab_channel=MelkiahMonkey
It is unfortunately very unstable. But design wise it's pretty good I think. 

As for objects fading out when they're blocking the view of the camera, I actually wrote a similar function for a project in Unreal, so maybe I’ll be able to find a way to do it in Skyrim too. Most of Skyrim’s locations are built from modular assets anyway, which might make it possible to solve the issue.

I also saw a YouTube video where someone was remaking Oblivion into a Diablo-like RPG, and they worked on the same problem, scene elements blocking the view of the character.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=12P6O6hqJ50&ab_channel=TheCantina

There is also always easier solution from the design perspective to enable option exit/reenter coop mod on the run.

Edited May 12 by zahar0z

[csbx]

I'd start with creating a fetch quest in the creation kit using the tutorials and then continue studying related topics for a few years. But seriously, co-op would be cool.