LE Skyrim gargantuan gameplay improvement set

[Qndzio]

As I'm a big fan of RPG genre, I played many RPG games apart from Skyrim. And as Skyrim is brilliant in the term of graphics, animations and, most importantly, immersion (and I think overally it's the best), I've noticed it lacks some kind of addictive factor that other games, like these from Fable or Gothic series has. And i began to think why.

So there are 6 simple mods that alter the very basic mechanics of the game in ways that i think will make gameplay a few times more fun (yep, it's that important!) that could be made into an overhaul after all of them are done.

 

1. Useful money and merchants- i think that right now there is no fun from finding precious loot, as apart from houses and materials/ingredients, there is almost nothing to spend money on and it just keeps getting accumulated. Remember how it feels in Gothic, where you are smiling while picking weapons off defeated enemies as you already think what you spend money you will get from selling them on? So this is what that mod does: shops have all types of armor/weapons from the beginning. Of course not that one vendor has all of them and once - more like in Gothic. Vendors equipment is not scaling with your level. Armor/ weapons price at merchants are hugely increased, so that it takes long before you can afford them. Inrease differences between prices of different armor/ weapons types, for example so that it would be 10000 gold for ebony sword and 25000 for daedric. Make equipment take more materials to craft. Balance other aspects of the game as needed. Items quality in shops would depend on the location - so Alvor in Riverwood would have armor and weapon from fur to leather and iron to steel (less of the latter of course), whereas for example Beirand in Solitude would offer even ebony and daedric pieces. Also, merchants' gold should be increased about 15 times. Generally: make gold matter. As trading is one of the most important aspects of RPGs and in Skyrim it's reduced to just selling.

 

2. Altered enchants- this idea comes from Fable. Enchanting of weapons (i think enchanting of armor is good) in Skyrim has two flaws: firstly, it's irritiating that you must remember to keep weapon charged, and, what follows, soultrap enemies. 95% of the time I have my enchanted weapon uncharged cause I don't want to charge it every 3 mins. Secondly, enchanted weapons are seriously overpowered (when they are charged of course). So, this mod would: a) make the weapon charge infinite (and remove charge bar), b) decrease magnitude of enchanting effects by 4-5 times. For example: 5-7 fire damage instead od 25, 5% chance to paralyze enemy with Paralyse, and so on. (magnitude still dependent on soul gem).

 

3. No fast travel- completely disable fast travel from map, while adding more, realistic transport options- eg. teleportation stones (realistic, isn't it?) that let you teleport to all major cities and can be used once per 2 days (all of them are disabled for 2 days) and more carriages (idea comes from Gothic series and Morrowind). I would never want to make players have to cross the entire Skyrim for every quest. I'ts just to make immersion even bigger. Right now it's like "okay, get teleported to location nearest of the objective, 1 min of walking and we are in the dungeon". I aim to make exploration a real part of the gameplay- now it's fun, but not required to beat most of the quests, so it feels a little futile. So - 5-10 minutes of walking from the town to destination isn't much, and most of the unexpected adventures happen out in the wild. Along with mod #6, this would make exploring far more fun.

 

4. Melee improvement- precisely: faster weapons and magic drawing/changing. It simply takes too long, for example bow/sword tactic is much more useless and much less fun.

 

5. Magic improvement- instant incantation (you fire spell at the moment of bressing button), but cooldown after using, equal to the current incantation time. That is basic idea of this mod, but i would also want for it to have something that Skyrim clearly lacks - close-contant spells helping in melee, for example push (not fus-ro-da-ish of course). As the spells will be istant, it would make mage/melee combination MUCH MUCH MUCH more fun to play. Idea comes from Fable (but Fable lacks dual wielding; just imagine how awesome it will be in Skyrim).

 

6. Fauna overhaul- this mod is a bit bigger that the others. Idea comes from Gothic. As immersive as it may be, Skyrim's world is nearly empty of monsters and animals. You meet a bear or spider once for a few minutes and that's it. The idea of this mod is to populate the world with creatures, while making their view distance much shorter and making most of them threaten you for few seconds before attacking if you don't move away from them- just like in Gothic. Also, make the ecosystem more visible, to make sights like wolves chasing deer much more common (Gothic 3- like). AI must be changed so that while you hit the enemy with an arrow or a spell while sneaking, it immediately detects you and knows where you are. Now its like you shoot the bandit with arrow and he just says something like "Where are you", wanders around for a while and forgets about that stick coming from his head. Make player gain general experience by killing mobs and completing quests (instead of leveling skills- this will remain the same, but they will no more affect general XP bar) to make exploration rewarding - lack of which is another big flaw of Skyrim. Make certain mobs (eg. draug and bears) deal much more damage. I would like to see more species of monsters and animals added to Skyrim, but that's a bigger deal.

 

I have some more ideas, but for now these are the most important.

 

 

I've never been into modding in Skyrim, so I really would use the help of advanced modders. I think most of them are fairly easy to do (mods, not modders you perv...). Maybe even I'll handle some, when the Creation Kit comes. Message me if you are interested in helping make this game better.

 

PS. Sorry for my English, I'm from Poland.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Qndzio

[JanusForbeare]

Wasz język angielski jest doskonały!

 

These are well thought-out improvements, and I would download a mod that included them all (and I don't usually say that when it comes to compilation mods). Qndzio, for issue #6, you might want to try out Wars in Skyrim. Though I haven't playtested the mod personally, I've heard that it adds a lot more life to the wilderness.

[Qndzio]

Thanks! :)

 

This set aims to make whole Skyrim experience better, not just end-game like most of the mods do.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Qndzio

[Collers]

I like the sound of this set. The only one I'd really take issue with is #3. Off the top of my head I think it would take me... 40 minutes to cross Skyrim east to west on a horse, and an hour and a bit on foot. Maybe on my first play through I would have enjoyed footing it everywhere, but now that I have played most of the vanilla quests I can't say I would appreciate all that added walking. Plus think of the amount of footwork some of the most pointless quests make you do. This mod would just make me cry. All of the other suggestions seem great. #1 particularly. I thoroughly agree with this.

[Qndzio]

The only one I'd really take issue with is #3. Off the top of my head I think it would take me... 40 minutes to cross Skyrim east to west on a horse, and an hour and a bit on foot.

 

And that's what the teleportation stones and more carriages would be for.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Qndzio