LE Iceolation

[MasserLight]

I've had an idea for an isolation/survival type mod floating around and I think I have everything in pencil to make a decent mod request/suggestion/brainstorm.

I am well aware there are many survival type mods however this is much more than just a 'make drinking eating and sleeping necessary' type game addition. The closest thing I can relate this mod to is minecraft.

 

I am Not to sure on the name right now, I thought Solitude has a nice ring to it and fits with the theme but that name could only lead to confusion.

 

The main basis for my mod is for it to run independently from the core Skyrim game - in an entirely different world space.

 

I'll begin with a brief TL;DR:

 

You start by waking up in rags on an island in the snow. No items in your inventory, your levels are at zero.

In order to survive you need to eat, drink, keep warm and sheltered, sleep and defend, doing so increases your level, level increases and certain actions will unlock certain areas of the island leading to 'better' resources enabling enhanced survival, enemy difficulty will increase with level. Enemies encountered in locations, and in random encounters, killing boss enemies yields garnets which can be used to unlock gates, doors or chests. Ultimate goal is to construct a ship stocked with food, drink, and defense to survive enough days at sea to find landfall elsewhere. However the ship requires a dragons skull on the bow as a scare-pirate. The dragon is located at the top of the highest mountain on the island, accessible when you are ready...

 

 

Key features:

 

Survival

The player will need to survive the harsh isolated conditions. The main aspects of survival here are sustenance and hydration (Food & drink), warmth and shelter, and defense.

 

Resources, crafting and construction

The player will need to manage a lot of resources, such as stone and ores, foods, materials such as wood, weapons etc.

Basics will be acquired from the wilderness (Wood from trees with an axe, stone and ores from rocks with a pickaxe, food from animals, shrubs etc)

Resources will be used to make tools, shelters and many other things through a workbench, which in turn can make things such as forges, smelters, cooking pots and so on. Players will need to store resources in locked chests or bandits will steal their stuff when they are gone.

Many items already in-game will be added to crafting lists, with several stages for their construction

(E.G an iron arrow - Log + Knife on the Workbench = 10 wooden shafts. Iron ore - Smelter - Iron Ingot - Forge - 10 iron arrow tips. Wooden Shaft + Iron Arrow Tip + Feather = 1 iron arrow)

When building structures however it may be more difficult. Somehow, and I'm not sure but I am certain that some brilliant modders will know how to do this, the player will be given a 'kit' of the structure they have built at the carpentry/masonry/whatever workbench. When they drop/equip/activate the kit it will determine whether there is enough free, flat space to establish the structure. A special demolition sledgehammer can be made to destroy structures reclaiming some materials.

If possible I would think it could add to the mod if the player can place a single structure with an interior cell.

Building any structure or crafting any item, cutting down any tree, etc all takes time. Time will pass as with the wait mechanic. The player must sleep at night, or at least regularly.

 

Gathering

The gathering of resources will be fairly simple. Most resources however will require a tool of some form to speed up the process (Take much less time and hunger/thirst). The tools material (IE. Stone [forsworn], iron, steel, etc) will effect the time too.

Wood - In trees, replenishes weekly - Axe

Stone - In rock formations, unlimited - Pickaxe

Ores - In the mine, replenishes weekly - Pickaxe (Material may determine whether mining is possible)

Fish - Replenishes daily -Fishing rod/net

Branches/Vine/Straw/Weave - Replenishes weekly - Knife/machete

Hides/Furs - One per animal - Knife needed to loot corpes (possible?)

Garnets - acquired on level up, found by looting boss creatures

Soul Gems - Found deeper in the mine, need a strong pickaxe

 

 

Food and drink

If the player does not eat regularly, he/she will complete tasks much more slowly, fatigue will be drained, and eventually will die. Hunting, foraging, fishing and farming are the main ways of acquiring food. Early on the player will need to rely on foraging and hunting to acquire food, however hunger is delayed much longer if the food is cooked. Food can be cooked on the campfire (Low chance of success) or in a cooking pot (High chance of success).

Hunting will require crafted weapons, fishing will require a crafted fishing rod.

Farming will be the more complex, sustainable way of getting food, and will allow the player to stockpile food for the ship. A player will need to plant seeds for plant food and allow time, water and light to grow preferably with a fence to keep wildlife away. Livestock farming - fencing animals such as goats (Cheese, goat-leg and fur) cows (beef, fur, milk and horns) or chickens (Eggs, feathers and meat). Farm animals can be captured in the wild with traps, special tranquilizer poisons, or magic.

In order to survive

The player must also have to drink. Lack of hydration will lead to a swift fatigue drain followed by death. Water can only be consumed from streams or lakes, or the player can construct wells to have access to water. The player can make containers out of glass (Smelted sand, or machalite which will hold much more) or iron buckets to carry water, but must refill them.

 

Warmth and Shelter

As the island is located far north of Skyrim, the player must keep warm during blizzards and other undesirable weather. Players must craft clothing out of animal furs, stay close to campfires, sleep in beds or bedrolls close to fire to avoid the disease Hypothermia, which will kill the player if not tended to quickly. Bad weather will exacerbate the cold factor. The player can keep warm with flame magic but this will drain the players hunger very quickly.

If the weather is bad, sleeping out in the open will push the players hunger, thirst and cold down much more quickly the next day, so the player will have to construct shelters to sleep in.

Tents can be made out of leather from hides, and bedrolls from straw and furs, however these will have to be near a fire during bad weather, but still wont provide the optimum protection. The player can build open shacks with beds and indoor fireplaces which will be much more effective however these will require a lot of resources. If possible the player may even be able to construct a large house with an interior cell, completely shielding the player from the cold.

 

Defense

As well as bears, horkers, mudcrabs (the fearsome type), sabre cats, wolves and pretty much every other nasty of nature out to eat you on the island you will also have to keep yourself ready (that means fed, hydrated, slept and armed) for random encounters. Early on these will include bandit or pirate raids, but will level with the player resulting in daedra attacks, ghosts (the ones that haunt the sea of ghosts), falmer mobs, giant herds and towards the end when the player is close to finishing their ship, a single, but powerful dragon. Looting the boss of these events (I.e Bandit leader) will yield a garnet. I'll explain their significance later.

Weapons can be made from resources via forges, smelters, grindstones etc. Not much is changed from the core game here.

Garnets can be used to unlock magic chests containing spell tomes. Some spells can have special effects, such as capture animal, produce heat (flames), conjure water, but casting spells will make you very hungry.

Some animals can be tamed (Wolves for example) to fight or hunt for you.

 

 

Leveling, and the Dragon

I would really like individual skills to be added and capable of leveling but I am not entirely sure if this is possible.

If it is then the levels will basically increase the effectiveness of created/recovered items, whilst decreasing the time used to make/gather them. For example a high cooking level will make cooked food more effective at filling the hunger bar, a high carpentry level will speed up construction, a high fishing level will increase the rate which you catch fish, a high farming level will increase productivity. Individual skills will push up the overall level. Every level the player gets 5 garnets added to their inventory.

The dragon early on will be seen circling the highest mountain on the island, and perhaps at later levels will swoop down and toast your farm animals or terrorize you but not engage in combat with you or any other island inhabitants. To access the dragon however you will need to reach a high level, and acquire enough garnets.

The dragon itself will be tough, and require a lot of resources and preparation to take down, giving a much more triumphant glory upon slaying the beast. I mean the first dragon you kill in Skyrim felt like you whacked it a few times with a baseball bat. This one needs to feel tough.

 

The Island and Garnets

The island itself will be about half the size of Solstheim. It will contain forested areas, flat open ares for settlement and farming, a river/streams/waterfalls, a few caves, a mine, some ruins, some boggy swampy areas with lots of alchemical ingredients, and a few giant/bandit camps and a huge central mountain where the dragon lives.

The mines and caves will have locked doors or gates which can be opened with a set amount of garnets, requiring the player to level or explore to access them. These areas will lead to treasures or resources, such as higher level ores in the mine, or a grove of mushrooms. Some chests on the island will require garnets to open and may contain essential ship parts or spell tomes.

I've been trying to visualize how to ensure that players are at least initially limited to certain areas in the open world, and I feel as if quick death by hypothermia if you try swimming around the mountains as kind of cheating.

 

Freedom

Also of course those are all non essential goals. You can always just sit back and accept life as it is on your new island - that is if you can truly claim it as your own.

 

 

 

Now I myself am not a modder, but I will be learning how to soon through experimentation and basic knowledge of how the creation kit works (had experience with the old ESCS). I am able to spend time to clearly map this out. I invite anyone, and would like to collaborate with anyone willing to make this idea a reality, but before that can happen I would like you, the communities, opinion of the idea itself, cause there is plenty of ironing to be done.

[MasserLight]

Just an update, I have begun work on the island where the game will take place, I am also trying to figure out how to add things to crafting lists.

 

The reason this is in the request forum is because I know I can't do this alone, so any interest, ideas, or offers of help are welcome!

[imreallybored]

That sounds pretty cool

[MasserLight]

Thanks!

 

Yeah I'm not sure if the mod request forum is the right place I just need help with the scripting sides of the creation kit. The Island is about 30% built just need to add details and link the doors with respective dungeons and somehow limit them off.

I've made the ocean deal 30 damage per second.

 

I'm wondering if there's is a way to script an event where If you hit a certain ore vein with the pickaxe it could either give you an ore, damage the pick axe rather than the boring animation currently in the game. Right now I have working stone mines but haven't added the stone to any crafting lists yet. Will do it when I learn how :P

 

I'm thinking of rather than having areas locked out to the player, I'll just simply have higher level enemies in these areas, and one big long dungeon with several garnet gates which leads to the dragon at the top.