Modding in a new effect?

[CptDryk]

Well, I've always seen the wasteland as sort of a desert mixed with a tundra. Desert in the summer, tundra in the winter. I want to create that a little bit, but starting with the winter. But what this requires is sort of a new stat, or effect of some sort.

 

I'm an experienced scripter, but have never worked in either Morrowind or Oblivion so I really don't know where to start.

 

I want the character to have a heat level, very similar to the radiation level with the same sort of effects. I want the character to suffer some while moving around during the freezing cold nights (outside of towns and buildings of course). I have a few requirements I have to meet, such as the cold stat subtracting during the night-time hours and becoming more severely so as the night goes into its peak, it has to effect skills/SPECIAL at more severe cold levels, it has to be able to be resisted so that certain clothing/armor can prevent the onslaught of the cold, and it has to be nullified by certain objects/effects within a radius such as a campfire, and it must be able to go down over time like the radiation in vanilla (albeit at a faster rate).

 

Later on, I hope to add in the ability to create a camp almost anywhere in the game world (in outside environments), complete with a bedroll and fire, with the capability being effected by a skill or SPECIAL stat (like the old game had Outdoorsman, but they don't have that, so I'm thinking Endurance), and possibly special drugs to negate cold. None of this is particularly important right now though.

 

Even with the GECK, can I even create this new "radiation"? Can the global effects on the outside environment be changed to add an ambient cold + based on time of day? Can I do the rest of the critical features?

 

Sorry for the novel, but I liked the idea and I'd like to know before I actually try to get started. ^^'