LE Mods you wish you had time to make

[JanusForbeare]

I was considering putting this in the mod talk forum, but I didn't want it to devolve into a request thread. So, here we are.

 

I'm buried neck-deep in a project that will likely take years to complete to my satisfaction. I dabble with secondary mods here and there, but I simply don't have the time to really devote myself to anything but my main project. However, during the modding process, I often come up with great, do-able concepts that I'd like to see in Skyrim. I often have a good handle on how these ideas could be achieved, and in the hopes that someone will take one or more of these ideas and run with them, I decided to share them with the rest of you brilliant mod authors. If any of you are in a similar quandary, please feel free to share your concepts. Similarly, if anyone has the time and inclination to develop these ideas into working mods (or just wants to add their two cents to an idea they see here), go right ahead.

 

Some of the ideas I wish I had time to develop include:

 

Funerals in Skyrim: The marriage mechanic gives us a great framework to use as a foundation for other "social events". The way I envision this is as a voluntary service that the player character could pay for. It would require a minimum of one voiced NPC - likely a priest of Arkay - whose services are solicited by the player. The priest would sell scrolls (or perhaps a power/spell) which could be used to mark a dead NPC for burial. Once a body had been marked, the player would be given a date and time to appear at the Falkreath cemetery, where they would be joined by NPCs with strong relationships to the deceased (and possibly to the player him/herself). A scene would then trigger, in which the priest would give a short, randomized service, and a new gravestone would appear in the cemetery commemorating the deceased.

 

Lost Souls: I actually began work on this one a little while ago, but stopped due to time constraints. The idea was to have a script that would trigger when unique NPCs die, which would give them a 5-10% chance to re-appear as ghosts (technically, the ghosts would be clones of the dead NPCs). The ghosts would be disabled during the day, and would re-enable themselves at night, and would ideally have randomized behaviour - as in, some might be aggressive, others might sandbox, etc. It would be nice to have a way to lay at least some of them to rest, as well.

 

Natural Disasters: This one could be pretty large in scope, but it wouldn't have to be. It started out as an idea to have avalanches (essentially, a bunch of shiny white boulders) materialize at the top of Skyrim's many mountains every so often. If the player was nearby, the screen would shake as a visual warning of the impending danger, and the player would have to run like hell to get away. However, there's no reason to stop there. Volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes and other disasters could potentially be implemented as well. Ideally, these wouldn't occur in heavily populated areas (to avoid putting undue stress on the player's rig and/or killing too many NPCs at once). That said, I'm sure some players would enjoy watching the townsfolk scurrying for safety during a tornado.

 

Family Matters: We can get married, we can have - or at least adopt - kids, but where does the Dragonborn come from? This is essentially an idea for an alternate start mod. It would require a lot of scriptwriting (the traditional kind, not Papyrus) and voice work, but I'd like to see a mod that adds parents, and potentially siblings, for Dragonborns of all races. It would add an emotional component, and the foundation for story arcs, that's sorely missing from the vanilla game.

 

I'm probably forgetting something, but those are the ideas that come to mind right now. Enjoy! Share! Create! :)

[Ironman5000]

I have that many ideas I could spend forever modding this!

 

I need to find time to add more to my Monster Wars and make more Challenge of the Daedra mods which will need a lot of time to complete, plus I want to make other mods;

 

- I would like to make a combat arena mod possibly based around Boeathia

- A massive trap-heavy dwemer dungeon using Momod stuff

- An armour/clothing store for many skyrimnexus items

- A proper oblivion realm mod

 

Some scripting would be required for some of these, which I suck at, so i'm not rushing into it.

Edited November 12, 2012 by Ironman5000

[EnaiSiaion]

Intelligent enemies for a more engaging combat experience. :)

[JanusForbeare]

@IronMan5000: I'm with you there! A lot of those ideas sound just great. There's a couple of arena mods in development, but I haven't tried them yet. The main one I can think of is here, and you've probably seen the WIP thread in the mod talk section entitled Dwemer Colosseum. Neither of those are Boethiah-themed, though... as the author of a Boethiah-worshipping Dunmer companion, I'd be thrilled if something like that were developed.

 

I've also seen a couple of mods that take you to Oblivion (one of which is yours, of course), but obviously you're looking for something even more fully developed. Do I detect a hint of nostalgia for SI? :)

 

@EnaiSiaion: You and me both. Of course, there's only so much that can be done with combat AI (which is now more broken than ever, thanks to 1.8 ) but it would be nice to see enemies sprint and jump, at the very least.

Edited November 12, 2012 by JanusForbeare

[demidekidasu]

Not so long ago I started work on a new worldspace called Polwun Island. Here was my premise -

 

About Polwun Island

A small to medium sized island located far out into the Eltheric Ocean, Polwun Island and its poor, peasant population, is ruled over by a feudalistic monarchy.

 

The theme of the Island is inspired very much by the world of The Witcher, and this will be reflected by the quests, characters and locations you will encounter.

 

I feel the need to point out that this will be my own interperetation of the original source material written by Andrej Sapkowski, adapted to fit within the world of The Elder Scrolls, and not based on the excellent series of games by CD Project Red.

 

The main story will revolve around your character becoming one of the "Hexers" (Witchers), and foiling an evil plot that has implications not just for Polwun Island, but all of Tamriel.

 

This new worldspace will feature plenty of new environmental sounds - many with scripted conditions such as church bells that strike at specific times during the day, birds that can be heard during the daytime in woodland, distant waves crashing on the shore, and background voices audible in the main towns during the day.

 

It also features an entirely new climate with custom weathers and image spaces to reflect the often unpredictable weather of an island surrounded by a vast ocean.

 

 

I had gotten very far into the project, hundreds of hours work all by myself, even arranged some voice actors, then managed to accidentally delete it all one night. My monitor almost had a foot through it...

 

I just don't have the time to start again right now, but plan to one day.

 

Luckily, I still had some of my source scripts so after a temporary rage-quite from modding (I was absolutely livid), I adapted them for other mods :P

Edited November 16, 2012 by demidekidasu

[Natterforme]

I would like to make a store for my own mods. I would also like to make some unique loading screens and some new weapons. Maybe over Christmas I will get the time to do that.

 

-Natterforme

[littleork]

I have a few ideas I want to do and not sure if I will be able to make them, one I think I won't have time to do is a newspaper for all the main cities, a little bit like the black horse courier but with side quests included.

[JanusForbeare]

I'm pretty drunk (my birthday was this week, and I went out to celebrate tonight), so forgive me if this post is a little frakked up. I've done my best to keep it legible.

 

@demidekidasu: I hadn't even considered victims of bugs/user error when I made this thread, but it's a very real problem that can be hard to avoid. As a proud native Pole, I am all for supporting the work of the fine folks at CD Projekt Red (even if I wasn't, the quality of their work is worth supporting - ps. did anyone notice the subtle references to Polish history in their games? For instance, the phrase "For our freedom and yours", or Geralt's statement in TW2 about the sheep filled with sulphur?). I remember seeing your post on the "Mod Talk" forum about this project, and I'm sorry to hear that you've run into technical problems. I hope that you'll continue to pursue it... I've often found that taking a break from a project that I've sunk a lot of hours into can be very beneficial. Glad to hear that you still have some of your scripts available - gotta love that, as .txt files, they're saved separately from the .esp.

 

@Natterforme: That sounds like a great way to add to the appeal of your mods. By the way, congrats on getting your ordinator armour into the "hot file" category... you definitely deserve it! I get the feeling that a lot of my users will consider downloading it for Atvir; I may even make it into a recommended file. On a personal note, I hope to include loading screens as well to add to the cosmetic appeal of my mod.

 

@littleork: I'm a big fan of your work. A newspaper would be a huge addition to the immersion of the game, and is a great example of your ambition (and I know that word can be a double-edged sword, but unlike a lot of users, you live up to the connotation). I've been very impressed with what you've done so far, and can't wait to see what you'll release next!

[Korodic]

Well I wish I could finish my arena mod, Dwemer Colosseum. However, I find it difficult considering the lack of voice actors who are dedicated...

 

I also wanted to make a proper Daedric God's realm. I chose Vaermina, and I WILL do this when I get the time and finish the colosseum as best I can.

 

You can see the relative WIP for Vaermina's mod "Night Terrors" here: https://sites.google.com/site/nightterrorsskyrimmod/

 

 

Shame college is such a soul sucking waste of time. I learned more from personal interest then courses forced upon me by the giant american college scam. But that's besides the point... wish I could get the time in for these! My werewolf re-equip mod came from experimental scripts in Night Terrors after all.

 

Perhaps I'll show a video of a prototype version of the mod for kicks. It will be scrapped unfortunately due to the corruption TESVsnip caused on top of the relatively poor coding and a revising of the story. In Vaermina's realm, things are never as they appear.

[demidekidasu]

@JanusForbeare: Heh, thanks for the encouragement. I absolutely support CD Project Red myself. One of the few devs left these days worth attention :P

 

I'm a huge fan of the books for The Witcher... The ones translated into English at least! (I'm an ignorant Brit who cannot speak any other language lol)

 

One day I will restart my project. It's just very disheartening when it all gets flushed away like that, after so much work, ya know? :(