LE Better Marriage?

[aozgolo]

I've been scouring the archives looking, but either I'm missing it or it doesn't exist yet.

 

Basically I find the marriage system in Skyrim to feel very lackluster, and almost "tacked on". Due to the sheer numbers of available candidates I am not expecting say a Bioware level of romantic plot, and I understand there is the gimme excuse for avoiding long courtships in Skyrim's lore but I still felt as if marriage was really vague and pointless, especially if you did like me and married a character who wasn't a follower (Temba WideArm).

 

Some ideas:

 

-Instead of favors unlocking the marriage proposal, they should unlock a courtship proposal that allows for you to "gain favor" with a character by giving them gifts. This would allow you to court multiple partners simultaneously before ultimately deciding on a single one. Each marriage candidate has their likes and dislikes, and giving them gifts at certain times raises or lowers it's effectiveness (IE: better to give someone flowers while they're at home than troll fat while they're chopping wood). Each marriageable candidate has a private journal in their home which you can peek at to get an idea of what they like/dislike as well as how well you are doing with them. Once you've achieved a sufficient level of favor with said person, the marriage option then becomes available. This idea is I admit blatantly ripped from Harvest Moon series.

 

-Once married, all NPCs become followers whether they were before or not. Their dialogue trees are updated to remove local references to their former locations. New dialogue options are added which include things such as asking them how they like their new home (changes depending on which house you picked, some NPCs will prefer one location over the other), asking about general rumors which can lead the PC to quest leads in the locale they are currently in.

 

-Spouses now will leave the house of their own volition and go about daily tasks. If they run a store, the town they are in will gain a new market stall where you will actually see them plying their wares, you can recommend the type of shop they open (or it can be based upon the profession of the NPC to begin with). They will always return home at night to eat/sleep

 

-Married spouses continue to gain/lose favor, you can increase favor by speaking with them, giving them gifts, taking them with you on adventures, remembering important dates (birthdays & anniversary). They lose favor if you give them the wrong gift or go more than a week or two without speaking to them, or continue courting someone else (though certain NPCs may be fine with this), they will also react positively/negatively on whatever faction you've joined or if you commit any crimes depending on their own personal morals. If they continue to gain higher favor they will occasionally reward you with leveled items increasing in potency/value with higher levels of favor, in addition the rested bonuses and home-cooked meal bonuses increase with higher favor, and they become a better shopkeeper earning more money since they are happier. If they have low favor values they may spend longer amounts of time out of the house at night in pubs drinking away the extra money they earn, be more hostile to you, and at extreme levels even divorce you (which may be wanted if you wish to re-marry someone else).

 

-Marriage events, sometimes your spouse will trigger an event with you upon speaking to them under certain conditions, typical ones include birthdays and anniversary celebrations. Sometimes they may ask you personal questions regarding your opinions. Sometimes they may react to you joining a certain faction, committing a crime, or completing a certain quest, each of these events can lower/raise your favor with your spouse.

 

-Have a child, due to the complexities of trying to incorporate children for all races and multi-racial offspring, this may be limited to adoption. The ability to adopt a boy or girl and name them. The child also will gain/lose favor with you based off certain things like gift giving, and supplying them with an allowance. Children can be used as an apprentice whom you can train to do one of a number of different professions such as farming, fishing, hunting, mining, woodcutting, etc. They will then accumulate x number of resources to give you on a daily basis dependent on their location, profession, and favor with you. A child with low favor will stop working, and at extreme levels will resort to petty crimes which the guards will come to you for the bounty on (though you can always train your little rapscallion as a pickpocket). You may also choose to lend your child out as an apprentice to a local shopkeeper such as blacksmith, apothecary, or trader, who will then give you discounts in exchange for the service.

 

-Buy a pet, you can use a companion dog, or acquire a pet rabbit, fox, hawk, etc. to keep at your house. These pets can either follow your around or stay at home to keep your spouse company, depending on type of pet and spouse's preference, they may lose/gain favor if you stick them with a pet.

 

 

 

These are just a few ideas I had based off other games like Bioware titles, Harvest Moon, and Fable, which I think would make the marriage system in Skyrim far more dynamic and deep like the rest of the game, would love to hear additional/alternative ideas for this as well, as well as any leads to mods that do part of this already.

[AuroraMoon]

f*** YES!! I would so totally love this mod hardcore. there's already a mod where they allow your husband/wife to go out and run a store, but the rest of it is pretty lackluster.

[meisemo]

If I could mod, i would put this in skyrim. Marriage in skyrim feels more like a business transaction than something romantic. i wished it would be more like fable 3, in which you have to make someone like you and stuff. modders pleasee make this *begging*

[Jitansgate]

I would like to see a Mod that lets your Spouse join you on your Journey and Kill Bandits and Dragons with you and pretty much make your Spouse a Special Follower. Ysolda with Deadric Armor and Deadric Sword or Bow or even Dragon Gear. Also when you and your Spouse are in Cities or Small Towns your Spouse will Sell Items they find and share the Gold with you and sometimes will buy you Special Gifts. And when You and your Spouse is at home he/she will cook you a Home-cooked Meal.

[AuroraMoon]

I've been thinking. in Hearth-fire dlc, you adopt children and you get those awesome random events with them... such as them finding items and giving it to you as a gift. or even bringing animals home and begging you to let them keep the animals as a pet! And there's tons more they do. This is the single reason why I visit my home more often now. :P

 

Why couldn't we have random events like that too with our married spouses? in fact I'm kind of dispointed that Health-fire didn't add random events or interactions with our wives/husbands.

 

for instance I would love to see events where I come home to:

1) Wife/husband chatting with adopted children. Seriously they don't really interact with each other currently!! they don't even act like there's somebody else in the same room.

 

2) wife/husband and child coming up together and the child showing me what the wife/husband taught them how to do. it could depend on what the spouse specializes in. for example if you married a mage then the child could be learning spells from him/her... could have a funny event where the child accidentally set something on fire? could be good for laughs. likewise with teaching the kid how to cook, etc... could have botched food attempts until the child gets better at it.

 

3) wife/husband coming up to greet the player warmly just like how the children does. "Oh, you're back! so good to see you after __ days. tell me about what you did?" instead of just saying "Back from an adventure, I bet, my love!!"

 

4) Hug/kiss on the cheek interactions for both spouse and child.

 

5) Wife/husband asking for gifts and also giving player gifts.

 

6) chatting and having the spouse talk about their backgrounds and stuff. this could be very tricky, and probably would need to be done separately for every marriageable candidate that the player liked. for example, a Mauricio Mod for my favorite sassy mage follower turned husband, talking to me about how the Mages college kicked him out because they couldn't handle his awesomeness or something.

[Arturius997]

I've been thinking. in Hearth-fire dlc, you adopt children and you get those awesome random events with them... such as them finding items and giving it to you as a gift. or even bringing animals home and begging you to let them keep the animals as a pet! And there's tons more they do. This is the single reason why I visit my home more often now. :P

 

Why couldn't we have random events like that too with our married spouses? in fact I'm kind of dispointed that Health-fire didn't add random events or interactions with our wives/husbands.

 

for instance I would love to see events where I come home to:

1) Wife/husband chatting with adopted children. Seriously they don't really interact with each other currently!! they don't even act like there's somebody else in the same room.

 

2) wife/husband and child coming up together and the child showing me what the wife/husband taught them how to do. it could depend on what the spouse specializes in. for example if you married a mage then the child could be learning spells from him/her... could have a funny event where the child accidentally set something on fire? could be good for laughs. likewise with teaching the kid how to cook, etc... could have botched food attempts until the child gets better at it.

 

3) wife/husband coming up to greet the player warmly just like how the children does. "Oh, you're back! so good to see you after __ days. tell me about what you did?" instead of just saying "Back from an adventure, I bet, my love!!"

 

4) Hug/kiss on the cheek interactions for both spouse and child.

 

5) Wife/husband asking for gifts and also giving player gifts.

 

6) chatting and having the spouse talk about their backgrounds and stuff. this could be very tricky, and probably would need to be done separately for every marriageable candidate that the player liked. for example, a Mauricio Mod for my favorite sassy mage follower turned husband, talking to me about how the Mages college kicked him out because they couldn't handle his awesomeness or something.

 

Yeah, the animations would be pretty simple.

 

For the spouse there are kissing animations already. And child-wise, it would be like a kneeling hug or forehead kiss animation.

[Bandasha]

This sounds totally awesome. My main character's husband is also a follower, but even so it doesn't feel like there's any real connection between them. I might as well have a puppy, for all the personality and emotion that's displayed. He's useful, but... there's just nothing there. Our romance was

'Hey, you can marry now.'

'Oh, cool. Follower, do you like me?'

'Yeah, I guess so. Do you like me?'

'Yeah, I guess so.'

'Great! Our wedding's tomorrow!'

'Wait, what?'

 

And the bed thing? I sleep, and he just stands there. I'm not suggesting sex scenes or anything, but when the screen says 'you awaken feeling your lover's comfort' all I can say is 'No, I really don't.' If my husband would get into bed or something too, that would make it much more believable. Just something to show that we are actually in a relationship.

 

I don't think any of my other characters will get married, because it was just such a disappointment. I'd hoped that I'd finally be able to care about one of the Skyrim NPCs. Perhaps there should also be a divorce option...

 

Anyway, just my thoughts. Someone make a mod like this!