LE An Armor Crafting Overhaul - All Armors at All Levels

[newzilla7]

Please note: I am actually interested in creating this mod myself. I have posted to the Mod Requests forum, however, as I can't commit to actually creating this and I'd rather the mod be created by someone else than stay with me and never be implemented.

 

Anyway, I've recently been inspired by watching video series like Skyrim Mod Sanctuary by Gopher and surfing for mods on Nexus. One of the things that's kind of bugged me (isn't that what all mod installers say?) is that certain armors are for certain levels and only those levels. For example, the dwarven armor has rockin' ratings for relatively low level characters (10-20 for me, keeping in mind I have some mods/edits). However, I have some characters using heavy armor that would hate dwarven armor's looks. This creates a split I despise: choose the immersive, better looking path (only use armors I like the look of) OR choose the better balanced path (use the best armor for my level). This is perhaps epitomized in the iron helmet: looks cool on Nords, has really sucky stats.

 

I propose that all armors be balanced so that most of them can be used by level 10-15. This is done through three overhauls:

1. Overhaul of the armor stats
2. Overhaul of the improvement system (more on that in a minute)
3. Overhaul of the Smithing tree (to complement the changes in stats and improvement)

ARMOR STATS

 

First, this mod would make all armors have relatively similar base ratings. The progression in protection from unmodified iron armor to unmodified orcish armor would actually be tiny. The idea is that while some armors start better than others, you only have to be a few levels higher to have awesome orcish gauntlets with your steel breastplate.

 

IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM

 

This overhaul is the meat of the mod. Essentially, improving as it exists would no longer apply to armor. Instead, since all armor starts at very similar stats, armor would only reach its full potential through improvement. For example, when your steel armor stats are lagging behind a bit, you would not just find some dwarven armor and be satisfied; you would weigh the cost of each (and the look) and possibly choose to upgrade your steel armor so it functions like dwarven armor. In addition, improving all items to their full potential would put them at the same cap (of course keeping in mind light vs heavy); iron armor upgraded could be as powerful as ebony armor. This not only allows you to wear the armor you like as long as you like, it makes the improving system mean something to people who would otherwise ignore it, giving it depth and playability. Most armors upgraded to full stats would be identical except for nominal differences in weight and base protection (once again keeping in mind light vs heavy stats).

 

SMITHING TREE

 

The Smithing tree in this mod would no longer be about unlocking the ability to craft armor but the ability to upgrade it. For example, instead of taking the Dragon Smithing perk, you would take the Legendary Improvement perk, allowing you to make all armors you can craft reach their full potential. A second path might unlock the actual armors, but this path would be completed by level 10-15 if you focused on it.

 

Here are some other ideas I had to flesh out this system and make it mesh a little more with vanilla Skyrim.

• Improvement has a visual effect. In the base game, leather armor is obviously less protective than elven armor. Maybe the first improvement for leather armor consumes some leather and an iron ingot or two and adds spikes to the arms and legs to catch blades. This would make the upgraded armor rating a little more believable.
• Unlocking armor is not done in the Smithing tree. Rather than waste precious perk points unlocking armor, and kind of defeating the purpose of this mod, you might unlock the ability to craft armor through pure Smithing level or through quests. For example, a character with 20 Smithing might be able to automatically craft steel armor.
• Dragon and daedric armor are separate. You might have noticed that I did not mention daedric or dragon armor in describing the mod above. This is because I believe these two armors are intended to be powerful in a way that is unique; only a master smith can truly bend these elements into a protective suit. Perhaps the crafting of these is only unlocked far after other armors, or requires a quest to unlock.
• Materials are easier to find. This is almost essential to balance this mod in my opinion. Unlocking orcish armor at level 11 would do little good if you couldn't find any orichalcum. Perhaps there are more mining locations in Skyrim to find and collect materials, or perhaps miners don't just sit around whining about dragons all day and actually sell ingots. As mentioned above, daedric hearts would likely stay hard to find.

In closing, I'd like to ask two questions.

1. Does a mod like this already exist? If so, maybe this system is an expansion to that mod rather than a replacer.
2. How hard would this be to create? I have no experience with Creation Kit or Skyrim scripting, but I do have a fair amount of programming practice and basic understanding of coding concepts, and time is no issue. I just need to know how realistic this is, and even if someone has any guides or tutorials to point me to so I can learn what I need to.
3. Is this description clear? Did I leave anything out, or ignore any possible improvements? If anything seems a bit obscure or if you have any questions or suggestions, reply away. I would love some feedback, as this is one of my first serious mod ideas.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with those dragons!