rawr22 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 The first time I was sent to jail in Skyrim, as with Oblivion, I was so disappointed. Teleport in, activate bed, teleport out for negligible loss. I'm currently in the process of making a mod which makes a more immersive jail sequence. You are walked into jail by the guard that caught you, he locks the gate behind you and you have to actually wait (you can still sleep/use T) while your time is served. The guard will then come and unlock the cell and you are free to go. I plan on more content later but I'm just getting the basics working now, so my question is this: How long should jail sentences be if you can't skip the whole thing? They need to be long enough so it actually feels like spending time in jail, but not too long as to make the game really really boring. My first thought was maximum 7-10 days, but that seems really unrealistic for mass murderers. What do you guys think? Also anyone know the vanilla jail times? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brasher Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 If you actually had to wait 10 days of gametime in jail, it would be so boring that no one would want to play the mod. The procedure would be that when you went to jail, you would leave the computer and go eat dinner, read a book, turn on your X-Box 360, or do whatever. When you came back, hopefully your jail term would be over. I think that if you had a jail sentence of 1 day with no waiting or sleeping, and if you had the discipline to not leave your computer, then this jail sentence would be long enough to make you bored and punish you for your crime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trees415 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 (edited) That's a great idea, however I'd suggest keeping the actual waiting time to an absolute minimum since you don't want the player to become bored. It may seem tempting to try and make jail more realistic in that sense, however remember that people are playing this game for fun, and no one bought this game to sit in jail all day. Perhaps you could do a time lapse which could give the player an idea of how long the character is in jail for. You could also create various mini-quests for the player to take part in while they are incarcerated, similar to what they did in the game when you get sent to jail in Markarth.Remember that if you need to cater to your audience if you plan on publicly releasing this mod, unless you do not care about what people think or how many download your mod. Edited March 22, 2012 by trees415 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brasher Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I like the mini-quest Idea. Maybe each time you went to jail you would have to complete a small jail quest in order to get out of jail. I really liked how it was in The Shivering Isles where if you were arrested, you were dumped into a dungeon without gear, and if you could fight your way out and survive, you were free to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rennn Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 You could have the player do something besides waiting. There's a Civil War going on in Skyrim, so you could use that as a reason for there not being a regular jail. Like others have said, perhaps some kind of quest penalty. My suggestion would be to put in a very simple arena. If you're arrested, you get sent to the arena without your gear, fight other prisoners in a single group-match, and win your freedom. (under the explanation that the gold from the spectators paid your way out or something) Other than that, getting exiled to an ancient prison in the mountains and having to find your way out would be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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