LE Request - mod to remove fast-travel and make money less available

[RuslanGoskov]

This is my first post in these forums, and it’s become quite long. Here are a couple of ideas that I had to improve Skyrim. If I had any skill at modding, I’d try do them myself, but since I don’t I thought I’d put them here in case A) someone’s already done them (in which case please tell me where) or B) someone is willing to do them. Read my ideas, and please tell me what you think.

 

FAST-TRAVEL

The existing system of fast-travel in Skyrim allows the player to travel to almost any part of Skyrim near-instantly, provided there are no enemies about or the player is not over-encumbered (and with a horse, the latter is rendered obsolete). This makes it too easy to miss out on the landscape of Skyrim.

 

This suggestion is to revise the Skyrim fast-travel system to make it more along the same lines as the one that appears in Morrowind. The key differences in Morrowind are:

• Travel is only possible between certain specific locations;

• Travel is available according to a variety of methods (silt strider, mage, boat); and

• Travel (usually?) involves a cost (gold).

 

Implementing these changes to Skyrim would look like this:

• A mode of travel (tunnels with some kind of rail-car, perhaps) exists between all major and minor cities, as well, perhaps, as villages (with a gold cost);

• For players who have joined the Stormcloaks, a mode of travel exists (horse nad cart, maybe) that takes them to any Stormcloak-held city, camp or fort (and the same for Imperial Legion players, using different camps, obviously);

• Boats (eg linking Solitude, Dawnstar, Winterhold, Riften, and Windhelm; this might be able to be linked to the story, so that both Windhelm and Solitude can go by boat to Winterhold, which seems rather neutral, but not Windhelm to Solitude unless on the same side in the civil war);

• For players who have joined the College of Winterhold, the mages can transport the player anywhere on the map, for free, but it is a one-way journey; and

• There may be a method allowing the player to travel to any home that he/she owns and/or a spell of teleport which requires a movable semi-permanent exit point.

 

One of the major advantages of fast-travel is it assists players to manage their loot from dungeons. This is still possible by implementing another change. At a very early stage in the main story quest, the player receives Lydia the housecarl, and can purchase Breezehome in Whiterun. Provided both have been acquired, the player can bring Lydia with him/her when dungeon delving, and hand any excess loot over to her to carry (reducing encumbrance). When out in the wilds, the player can instruct Lydia to return to Whiterun to store the loot (it would have to be clear what is loot and what has been given to Lydia for her use), before returning to the player’s side. She will fast-travel to Whiterun, put the loot into a container in Breezehome, and then make her way back to the player (not instantaneously). This way it is possible to continue dungeon delving, AND manage equipment, while not resorting to fast-travel. Since Breezehome has non-respawning containers, the player can continue dungeon delving for a very long time, before returning to Breezehome, and all the loot will still be there. For this to be effective, it would be best if Lydia was either essential, harder to kill, or replaceable. An optional variation is to apply this to a different/all housecarls and houses; the benefit of using Lydia/Breezehome is that they are easily available from the beginning, but are nonetheless optional as well.

 

MONEY

It is easy, in Skyrim, to acquire vast amounts of money. A couple of dungeons, or exploiting the smithing skill, and, voila, you’re rich. There also isn’t very much to spend money on – once all the houses are owned/refurbished, and you have weapons/armour you’re reasonably happy with, there’s not much point to continuing. This idea tries to change part of that.

 

First, remove the wait command. As far as I can tell, it serves only one purpose – waiting until shopkeepers have refilled their purses and selling more junk to them (possibly waiting till an ore vein/ingredient plant etc. has refilled too, I suppose). It has no useful purpose except as a built-in exploit. (The same is probably true of sleeping, since the blessing gained by sleeping is pretty marginal; in this case, though, I’d make sleeping a more worthwhile thing to do rather than getting rid of it entirely – just for a bit of realism). If my first suggestion, about fast-travel, s also changed, the player can no longer sell all their loot as easily.

 

Second, make the Khajiit caravans a joinable faction. They can be similar to the orc strongholds – Khajiit players have automatic membership, everyone else has to perform some initiation quest. Once a member, the Khajiit will buy certain goods at fixed prices, without limit. Probably for the most realistic result, they will buy any item that comes from the wilds (furs, ingredients, meat, etc; possibly ores, gems and potions?). This can be done in the same way that farmers will buy any crops you want to sell them, and have an apparently unlimited amount of gold for doing so. It is separate to the trader screen (which the cats still have). The price paid should be pretty decent, perhaps equal or higher than the base value of the item. Hopefully, this will mean it is worthwhile spending some time just travelling the world, hunting different animals. (These changes could perhaps be applied to huntsman shops, such as the Whiterun one, instead of/in addition to the Khajiit caravans)

 

Third, make some small alterations to the value of natural products (reflecting their usefulness). The following is just an indicator (and only applies to furs):

Base price for furs ~5 gold

Rabbit fur = 1x multiplier

Fox = 2x

Wolf/goat = 4x

Deer/horse = 8x

Elk/cow = 10x

Sabre cat = 12x

Bear = 16x

Cave bear/snow bear = 18x

Mammoth (not present in vanilla) = 30x

 

The actual degree of change would have to be carefully worked out; it should also be designed so that changing fur into leather is less profitable than keeping it as fur. (Just for a bit of fun, the Khajiit should be willing to pay very highly for any fish you want to sell them, especially if fish are harder to catch). I also imagine the Khajiit as being the ‘no questions asked’ type of merchants – perhaps once joining their faction they operate as fences, too (although this is done through regular trading, not the fixed-price dialogue version).

 

Personally, I’d also like to see more Khajiit traders wandering around, and perhaps even a faction quest-line for them.