LE Immersive Maps

[Blazeflow]

Greetings!
I've been hunting on the nexus for a map mod that allows me to not see where I am, nor mark locations automatically on my map.

Why this would be immersive is that it would make you have to look for landmarks and figure out where you need to go with your own eyes, instead of using the inbuilt GPS system of Skyrim.

 

Now, there are plenty of mods that tries to do this (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37062/), but because the Map menu in Skyrim is kinda hard-coded, they don't really work because you will still discover places that gets marked on your map, which makes you know where you are.

 

This led me to try other alternatives, one was to have an "equip-able map" (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/4424/), which you would wear as a shield and be able to inspect when you block with it. Another was "Buyable maps", a map that you can use to look at in the inventory (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/67341/).
Both great mods, but the equip-able map is too big and forces you to change your FOV to see everything, and the inventory map is too small in the inventory, so you have to squint to figure it out.

 

My request for an immersive map mod would be an improved form of either these two mods (the two last mentioned), I have 4 suggestions, but you probably got some ideas of your own:

- Suggestion 1: To improve the "equip-able maps" mod, I would love to see the positioning of the map adjusted in your hands, so that when you block with it, it covers the screen better, no matter your FOV.
But if you are skilled with animations and such, you could improve it more with an animation mod.

- Suggestion 2: I know there is a way to summon items for animations mods (the vanilla games does it all the time; knife at tanning rack, NPC's uses brooms when cleaning), so what if there was an animation where the player would stretch out both hands and just acquire a map between them? The animation would play off with a keybind-able button or using the map in your inventory, and the Enhanced Camera (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57859) mod would be a recommendation to force the animation to be in 1st person.

 

- Suggestion 3: To improve the "buyable maps" mod, I would like to be able to see it better. I think there is something you can do with nifscope to increase the size of items in the inventory (I got no idea, really).

- Suggestion 4: But the better option would probably be to have the map in a book or a pamphlet, because those items covers your whole screen when you open them. But I think it is difficult to do because the map of Skyrim is rather huge and the size of pictures in books are limited, also photoshop skills would be nice to make it look good. It might sound "unimmersive" to have to pause the game to look at your map, but "Skyrimsouls - Unpaused game Menus" (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/83379/?tab=posts) fixes that, and would be recommended with it.

 

Having maps for Skyrim would be great, but to also include Solstheim would be even more great. (I think the area in Dawnguard is supposed to be uncharted, so it would probably be "unimmersive" to include it).

 

Some more ideas for all of my four suggestion, would be to have the general stores sell the maps. I think crafting the maps yourself is a little bit weird. But to make it even more immersive, it would be awesome to see a map of each hold in Skyrim at their respective general stores. This would make it harder for the animation idea, but maybe easier for the book idea, because it would be easier to fit the map in a page.

 

There are probably more ideas to be added, as long as the idea gets rid of the GPS system completely and makes you explore Skyrim like a real explorer, then I would be happy with it!

Edited February 5, 2018 by Blazeflow

[MoonNymph]

I was just doing this myself - looking for a more immersive map. I hide my hud and use iHud and paper maps. What I would like to see - and I have no idea how to create mods - is one that simple gives you a large circle indicating of the area you're at. Explorers will know how get an idea of where they are by landmarks and or stars. So, to hide the map markers and this for Warbug's maps would be perfect for me.