LE Immersion Tweak and Mod Ideas List

[LightShadeInc]

I am keeping this list as an idea list for myself so I don't have to remember every immersion idea I've had. Several of these mods are doable with little modding skill, but some of them are much, much more difficult.

 

*,**,*** = personal importance rank

Bold = Already completed by someone. Linked but not bold signifies partial completeness.

 

Super Effective, Low Hindrance Immersion:

 

1. Better Movement to make the world feel larger

• Lower Jump height. (Realistic Jump Height and Damage)***
  
• Slower running speed (Realistic Running Speed)***
  
• Slower Movement on different terrain, slowest on snow, fastest on road. Slower in rain and snow.***
  
• Better Idles (No heavy muscular walk and idle)***
  

2. Better Cities/NPCs

• Extra civilians with no proper names, just job titles. Also no dialogue other than a curt "hello" or nod. (Populated Cities)***
  
• Denser populations in taverns and market areas. Possibly a time of day trigger in these areas that have an ambient chatter track.
  
• A lot more houses and denser populations on the outside of the city walls.***
  
• More children and children variety.**
  
• Change all NPC greetings to "Hello" or a brief acknowledgement nod and nothing else unless you go out of your way to talk to them. (No NPC Greetings)***
  
• Dirtier/muddier/grassier streets. Less brick paths.*
  
• Fishing villages. Coastal villlages that have NPC sail boats going between them. Would probably require a whole new animation suite.*
  
• Northern Ice fishing tribes, some inhabited islands in the oceans with small fishing settlements, ice fisherman out on boats or ice blocks.**
  
• Guards have more variety, preferably by location. (Every city has various guards outfit TS Edition)**
  

4. Inebriation.*

5. Shadow casting torches. (Torches Cast Shadows)**

6. Better Wildlife/Hunting (SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators)

• Much faster game animals.***
  
• More alert animals they bolt sooner**
  
• One hit kills*
  

7. Better Ecology.

• Better beehives. Slight damage, poison, or disease.**
  
• More types of birds*
  
• Small animals in towns. Cats, rats, etc.**
  
• More animals in town. (More Village Animals)**
  

8. News should travel much slower. One week or so for a current event to be spread around.

9. Better Weather, stronger weather. (More Rain, More Snow, EDWS - Enhanced Dynamic Weather System), (Better Dynamic Snow)***

10. Better, more immersive sound. (Sounds of Skyrim - The Wilds and Sounds of Skyrim - The Dungeons)***

11. First Person horse riding. (First Person Horse Riding)**

12. Companions can join you on mounts. (Horses for Followers)*

 

Medium, Gameplay Hindering Immersion

 

1. Smithing/Weapon/Armor Tweaks

• Many more ingredients required***
  
• Skill-based forging. As skill goes up, damage goes up, and weight goes down (Similar to Alchemy) If items ID prevent a traditional method of doing this, pseudo-enchantments could work.**
  
• Armor fit. Only smithed armors provide full protection. Armors found in chests may be too large, causing lower armor ratings, movement speed penalties, or swing speed penalties. Or they may be too small and simply not fit.***
  

2. Better travel system.

• No fast travel. (No Fast Travel)***
  
• Fast travel systems. Docks with little boats on rivers (waterfall-aware points of travel), Docks with larger boats on ocean coastline, More carriage locations (ie small villages, famous landmarks, etc.), Mark and Recall (dungeon/quest aware, mark only works with "cleared" tag, etc.) (Cart in Each Big Town)(Mark and Recall)***
  

3. Better caves/dungeons

• All artificial light sources removed***
  
• Deadlier traps. (Tougher Traps)*
  
• Drop lit torches. (SM Drop Lit Torches)***
  
• Equipable, place-able lanterns and other light sources (Better Wieldable Lantern)**
  
• No pre-lit candles in dungeons that are ancient or unoccupied.***
  

4. Environmental tweaks

• Cold damage in water, health damage in hot springs (not fire damage, so you don't actually light on fire). (Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival)****!!!!!!!!
  
• Cold damage in prolonged exposure to snowy, high altitude areas unless wearing proper equipment or with a proper heat source such as torch, campfire, or resist frost potion. (Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival)**
  
• Traveling/Spawning camps, especially in the winter areas at night time (Similar to Khajiit Camps). Sometimes they could be unwelcoming, like a band of wary travelers, or welcoming, like religious pilgrims, and offer you a place to sleep, eat, for those types of mods.***
  
• More road travelers. (Some exist, but none are of high enough quality)**
  

5. Better guard/NPC responses to your outfit. Warnings for Brotherhood Armor, Stormcloak armor in Legion cities, Legion armor in Stormcloak cities, naked. Also if wearing top-tier faction armor, respect should be given rather than the "new recruit" chatter. I don't know all of the dialogue, so catch-all, high repsect or disgust chatter could be used for missing bits.**

6. Lower falling height in which you take damage. (Realistic Jump Height and Damage)***

7. Much denser forests.(Lush Trees and Lush Grass)*

8. Change all factions to friendly when a dragon battle is occurring so that bandits don't fight you while you are fighting a dragon. As soon as the dragon is dead, business as usual...or even possibly not.***

9. Customizable Compass. (Skyrim Compass Tuner)**

 

Heavy, Crippling Immersion:

 

1. Hunger, Thirst, and Sleep (Imps More Complex Needs)

• Sleeping animations, camping gear, penalties for "waiting".***
  
• Hunger and eating. In Oblivion, a mod was made in which you click a dinner plate and it goes into a food menu and hunger is diminished by the weight of the food. I would like to see uncooked food be inedible while cooked food is.***
  
• Thirst and water in general. Canals, wells, hand pumped spigots in cities, drinking river and lake water (risk of disease).***
  
• Slower timescale so that you don't have to do these chores constantly (Timescales modified)***
  
• Camping gear. Mostly for aesthetics rather than practicality, unless different types of shelter and cold weather protection elements were implementable. (Camping or Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival)***
  

2. Progressive weight burdening. Slower and slower as you get closer to your weight limit.**

3. Potion ingestion limit or only hotkey consumable*

4. Slower movement based on health. Injuries.**

5. Sneaking only effective while invisible, or completely shrouded in darkness, but highly effective in both situations. Night eye should be a must for creeping characters.***

6. Snow-blindness. Sunny and snowy could add a white screen filter that gets progressively whiter and more intense, longer the exposure. at full, you have to rest for several hours to remove the effect.*

 

Miscellaneous Mods:

1. Changes some perks, level lists, and vendors to make the game harder and more rewarding (HBE - Hardcore and Balanced Experience)

2. Better Lydia (Respectful Lydia - Willing Burden Carrier)

3. More detailed villages. (Better Villages WIP)

4. Much more detailed crafting system. (Complete Crafting Overhaul)

5. More immersive battles. (Duel - Combat Realism)

 

EDIT:Total rework of thread, plus links to mods that satisfy my list, and a list of mods that improve immersion, but are too big for a single category

EDIT 2: added 'sleep, eat, drink' details. added more detail to 'guard and NPC dialogue changes'. added details to 'invisible sneaking'

EDIT 3: With the release of the Creation Kit, a lot of links were added plus new additions based on mods people made that weren't thought of here

Edited March 20, 2012 by LightShadeInc

[Oo4SaKeNoO]

Some great ideas there similar to some which i have been thinking about.

I hope someone takes you up on these ideas

 

Need of a heat source in prolonged snow exposure, high altitude...possibly a torch, campfire, spell, or special type of robe/clothing

 

This is a must espcially when the skyrim online is up and running would be awesome to see other players camped up in hollows or at least having to find somewhere out of view to camp safely or the need to find one yourself to stop you from freezing to death.

 

Will force conversation with new people in the comforting surroundings of the camp fire :D

[IxionInc]

I want a functioning natural ecology. Birds that actually nest. Beehives that respawn, pollinate flowers, or migrate. Ants that show up on more than just those two tree-stumps in Riverwood.

 

I mean, it doesn't have to be extravagant; Maybe add wandering pheasants, and make beehives respawn or something. But if there could be a system where bears hunt in the streams for salmon, or wolves attack rabbits and drag them back to their den; That would be cool.

[LightShadeInc]

i like that ecology idea, makes the world feel much more natural and alive, i added it to my list

 

i especially like the idea with having traveling camps, or just spawning camps here and there...maybe pick a few areas in the game that look hospitable in the wild and have camps that show up every so often

Edited January 19, 2012 by LightShadeInc

[IxionInc]

The Khajiit traders have a system like that (Although they don't have any pack animals to carry their tents and stuff), so it's possible. Also, hunters and bandits trade off ownership of different camps around Skyrim, so no camp will be populated all the time.

[NSCReaver]

In reply to the heat source needed / cold damage in prolonged icy or watery environments, I'd like to see more ways to counter it. For example, packing your armor / robes with fur, or being able to brew special warmth potions, such and so forth. Camping in safe-zones is cool for the more harsh areas, but I'd still like to be able to travel where I please if I take the right precautions. And if you could get the fur packing to look good as well, I'd go for it.

[LightShadeInc]

In reply to the heat source needed / cold damage in prolonged icy or watery environments, I'd like to see more ways to counter it. For example, packing your armor / robes with fur, or being able to brew special warmth potions, such and so forth. Camping in safe-zones is cool for the more harsh areas, but I'd still like to be able to travel where I please if I take the right precautions. And if you could get the fur packing to look good as well, I'd go for it.

 

that could be something as simple as "having this in your inventory"...ie, a misc item that slows you down, but negates environmental cold damage. a mod like Cobl would be able to create stuff like that.

 

im specifically interested in gameplay changes...taking what's there and tweaking it. the reason for that is whenever new mechanics and items to work with those mechanics are introduced, they usually feel forced, immediately breaking the immersion for me...thats just my opinion though. the ones i chose to add to my list are what i feel like there shouldve been if something like a Hardcore Mode from New Vegas was added. Hardcore mode was amazing because it took advantage of everything in the game, and you actually had to be careful while exploring...radiation poisoning, etc. Winter in this game is purely visual, which is a bummer

[LightShadeInc]

I'm trying to get this list to be the 'go to' for the immersion people out there, so i added links to mods that satisfy items in my list, as well as links to mods that are great, but that don't fit in any one category. I would also like people to put their two cents in about what they would like to see, but I will only add it if I actually think it will improve the immersion and is actually a possible mod. If it is a great idea, but very hard to implement, i will add it, but with a side note of it's complexity or difficulty.

 

Also, if people know of mods that fulfill an item on the list, then post it and i will add it

 

Of course, this all implies that people will actually use this thread, but I hope they do.

[Kiloku]

Better fame related comments from NPCs, for example, guards should stop noting how you're the new member of the Companions once you're their Harbinger. More respect from the members of factions you've come to lead, too. When you're Arch-mage of the College of Winterhold, only one character seems to acknowledge it, and she is extremely annoying. This should also earn you a few new rights in those factions, like organizing missions for the group itself to do.

[Deleted3463132User]

We also need a sleep mod. I mean come on, We go to a bed click E on it, and the screen goes black, and we wake up. BOOM. It's like time travel in the mediaeval ages. I mean come on, Are we sleeping standing up? It sure looks like it! There should be some negative effects, like slower walking speed when you wake up because you are tired, and maybe if you drink a coffee-like potion it energizes you. I for one, would like the fact that you could see yourself get in bed, Oh and did I mention, we need pyjamas. I mean who goes to bed with the swords strapped to them, and their dragon armour on?

 

We should also have a Camping mod, where we can deploy tents using a hammer and nails, this would protect us from the snow etc...