LE Suggestions from a hunter.

[KarlMarx2]

I almost always play as an archer character, i love to roam the wilds and i love hunting. And even though Skyrim is a really good game for hunting given it is not primarily a hunting game, there are still many things that could be better. I have a few things suggestions that could be made into mods if anyone shares my views. I see that it is not necessarily natural too put all these things in one mod, or maybe if it is if you are good at many different things. But thats up to anyone if they are willing to make something out of this.

 

The first thing is the distribution and placement of animals. In almost all ecosystems you find that there is an overwhelmingly higher number of herbivores compared to carnivores. One does not needs to be a genious to figure out that a wolf needs to eat a lot of deers in its lifetime. Therefore the number of wolves and deers can not be about the same(like it is in Skyrim). You can say that they attempted to sacrifice realism for gameplay. But you lose a lot of immersion when you go out to kill one deer and end up with 15 wolf pelts. Secondly carnivores(and to a certain extent also deers and elks) are concentrated around paths and roads. Not only is this not very realistic. But on gets very annoyed by seeing that same deer after the bridge north of riverwood or that same wolf 40 metres down that same road.

 

That brings me to my second point. Animals standing still on the same old spots until a player comes near and the player or something else scares or provokes them. What i want to see is animals roaming. Large packs of animals roaming the plains. And rarely a handfull of wolves hunting strategically. Not just running after the deer if they by chance come near each other.

 

Thirdly, the AI and mechanics. Animals just standing still until getting provoced or scared. Deer and Elk running in weird directions when scared. Often running right into you. Deer and Elk reacting extremely slow, sometimes allowing you to run up to them and kill them before they start running. Wolves attacking you unprovoked without warning. And generally the running speed of animals.

 

Fourthly, more wild animals. There are dozens of mods bringing new monsters and stuff. But i want more "normal" wild animals. Following the nordic/north american, with a little bit ice age theme. Some suggestions would be moose, bison, muskox, eurasian lynx(i really would like to see this one), eagles or other large birds(could be made with code from dragons i guess) and giant deer.

 

All these thing would make hunting(or just seeing wildlife) much more realistic, fun, immersive and would give it a much more wild touch.

Edited January 5, 2013 by KarlMarx2