LE Immersion Mod Suggestion List

[SkinkFargle]

To add to some requests I made here, I have decided to create a large list for modders to mull over if they're at a loss for things to do and would like to help Skyrim feel like a more real world.

 

If any posters would like to add suggestions, I'll add them to the OP, and modders can simply browse the list and select which they'd enjoy making.

 

We can make this a sort of repository for all immersion based mod suggestions.

 

I'll start with my own:

 

Unique Inns and Taverns: The taverns of Skyrim are mostly copy-pasted. That's a shame, as there are so many unique interiors, and yet taverns - the places you're most likely to enter - are dull copies of each other. There used to be some projects which intended to do this, but they have since been discontinued. It's time to revive this great idea. Though there are some mods which alter existing taverns slightly, I feel a more radical overhaul is necessary.

 

Young People & Infants of Skyrim: Skyrim seems to be a region inhabited exclusively by people in their forties, young children and the elderly. What about young people in their twenties? What about teenagers? What about infants? We need a mod to rectify this. Women carrying infants with them, or strapped to their backs as they engage in field labour, would greatly increase immersion and make Skyrim feel like a real world with real communities.

 

Diverse Giants & Female Giants: The giants are one of the more memorable creatures in Skyrim. Unfortunately they're all clones! This mod would give existing male giants new unique faces, to make them seem like individuals. It would also replace some existing giants with female giants, who would behave like their male counterparts, though unlike the males they might have a collection of man-sized children following at their heels.

 

Prison Overhaul: In Skyrim, apparently you can sleep your jail sentence away. What is sorely needed is a mod which makes prison a real experience. There already exists a mod which attempts to do this, but it hasn't been updated in some time and unfortunately has many bugs. In this mod, you are daily forced to spend time in a mess hall with other inmates, where you can gamble, trade prison currency for goods, gamble and brawl with other inmates. If this concept could be refined, it would do wonders for Skyrim's immersion.

 

Lively Villages & Farmlands: We have populated city mods, lively inns and taverns mods, but what we lack is busy village mods. Ivarstead in particular has a larger guard population than it has a civilian population! Perhaps in conjunction with a Young People mod, the populations of smaller villages ought to be expanded. Farmlands around villages should be expanded and populated with NPCs, engaging in daily chores. Those armies we keep hearing about have to eat!

 

 

[AuroraMoon]

I would like for my followers to actually have conversations with each other and stuff. I've found that it breaks my immersion when they act like the other one doesn't exist. Yes, I'm using the UFO (Umlimate follower overhaul) mod where I can have more than one follower. I would also like for my followers to interact with my spouse and child. When I adopt a child, I tend to leave behind followers like Lyida so that she can act as a nanny.... and again it breaks my sense of disbelief when she barely alknowledges my child.

New Followers made by other Modders tend to conversate with other followers, even vanilla ones. So I would like for my Vanilla followers to do the same. simple enough.

[Petemichaelbabicki]

I'm all for immersion, it's the main thing I concentrate on when making my mods; but what I've learned is that some things are better forgotten; like why nobody goes to the toilet.. because who wants to see that? And you should also note that Skyrim is a cold tundra in a medieval setting, it's reasonable to assume towns and villages would be nowhere near as populated as our towns and cities; and as it is, every character in the game has their own bed or residence, so I think the immersion there is perfect.

 

Oh, and you'll notice that if you kill someone from that town, their coffin will appear in that villages crypt; and someone else will take over their chores.

 

Oh, and the taverns in each major settlement are different; they all follow the theme of that area; Bee and Barb follows the Riften feel, Bannered Mare uses the Whiterun tiles, Winking Skeever has the solitude look; they're all very different. If you're talking about the farming villages like Riverwood, Winterhold, Morthal and so on.. then yes, they're all very similar, but definitely not copy pasted. A lot of work went into making them different, but yes.. they use the same farm house interiors; but that's no different to what I'd expect in the real world; these villages are very close together.. of course they're going to look the same.

 

Prison is another one that's not really worth it.. a real prison experience? People in prison are there to be punished, and gamers don't want to be punished.. at least not on that level. I'm all for role playing, but it would basically mean game over. You'd be able to walk around your cell.. and sleep.. that's it. What else do you expect from a prison sentence? This isn't a modern world, where they had their prisoners work and do chores; it's a cold, medieval world where they'd likely let you rot in your cell for murdering an entire village.

 

Execution however.. that's something to look into; because lets face it. If you murdered an eight people in cold blood.. they'd hang you, not stick you in a cell.

 

My List

 

• A more adult experience. The Witcher did a great job of making the world seem dark and moody, much like something you'd expect in that era; men outside taverns urinating against a wall, stumbling down the street, singing and drunk. There are brothels (done in a tasteful way), fist fights in the street, underground fight clubs (which makes me wonder what people in Skyrim do for fun), and there was a lot of swearing too, which is great for that dark ages feel.
• A more involved crafting system. I know your character is the Dragonborn, but being able to become a master Blacksmith, better than anyone else in Tamriel, within a day is just ridiculous.. and all you do is pick which weapon or armour you want to create. I'd like a system where you pick a Steel sword for example, but then also pick the shape of the blade and hilt, so you can make many variations of Steel swords. Perhaps even a unique style for each of the smiths already in game.. so you could look at a blade and go; "Ah, this is Alvors work."
• Hardcore mode; I'm a sucker for these modes and always have been, since Diablo 2; when you die, your save game is erased; just like in Hardcore mode for the Witcher. I'd also like combat to be more realistic. I want enemies to die like they do on easy, but I also want the player to take as much damage as they do on hard. A couple of arrows or a well places swing of a sword should take you down. This would make me think three times before entering a dangerous situation; not just run in and kill everyone, like I do now. You'd have to weigh up each situation and plan it out.. you'd also never attack anyone in town, it would mean certain death.
• Fire. For the love of god, will somebody please make fires in taverns and so on actually hurt you; even kill you, when you stand in them.. it's nonsense. It's a massive immersion issue for me to stand there in a fire, talking to an NPC. I know why Bethesda left that out, because they didn't want their villagers accidentally walking into one and killing themselves, but that's a planning issue and a poor work around. These fires aren't navmeshed, so I don't see the problem.

 

Pretty small list, but they were the main things bothering me.

[Petemichaelbabicki]

New Followers made by other Modders tend to conversate with other followers, even vanilla ones. So I would like for my Vanilla followers to do the same. simple enough.

 

The problem here is that new followers have new voice actors. There's nothing anyone can do about vanilla voiced characters.. you could use existing dialogue, but there isn't much to use for what you're asking.. unless you have Paul Ganus's number (voice actor for all male nords).

[SkinkFargle]

I definitely still feel prison can be made into a more immersive experience. Think of all the interesting possible scenarios that could take place in a prison setting. When a player is arrested, they are already being punished. Their stolen items are taken away and they're forced to spend a tedious moment in a prison cell. That's definitely punishment.

 

If prison could be made interesting, however, it'd at least be a rich, colourful, immersion enhancing punishment. It could, for example, open the road to some custom quests, like delivering word to a skooma trader's friend on the outside, escaping with a wrongfully imprisoned old man and helping him seek revenge, becoming a snitch, organising a mass escape, precipitating a riot and then sneaking out alone etc. etc.

 

This would greatly enhance roleplaying and immersion, and it would turn what is at the moment a minor inconvenience to the player into an exciting experience in itself. Is it necessarily an accurate representation of prison life in medieval times? No. But, then, how much in Skyrim is an accurate representation of medieval life? The point is for it to feel believable within a fantasy context and be enjoyable to play.

 

As for the taverns, the taverns I was talking about are indeed the smaller ones which are copies. I don't underestimate the level of work that went into designing the world of Skyrim, but they clearly opted to take a short cut as far as these taverns are concerned. And, really, who can blame them? They're a minor part of the bigger picture. But seeing as modders have the time and capacity to make them unique, I don't see why they shouldn't.

 

Execution is an awesome idea. +1 to that. It shouldn't be too difficult to create. After all, an execution is featured in the first few minutes of the game, so all the basic elements are already there.

 

I agree with you on fire, so +1 there too. It's also quite immersion breaking if you're using Frostfall and you can literally stand inside the fire waiting to warm up.

 

More seedy activity would also be good. +1. The Lively Inns and Taverns mod adds some of this to the taverns, but what is strange is how people confine their drunken dancing and behaviour to allocated areas. Very public spirited of them! If some of that celebration could leak out onto the streets, that would really add to the feeling of Skyrim being a real world.

[AuroraMoon]

 

 

New Followers made by other Modders tend to conversate with other followers, even vanilla ones. So I would like for my Vanilla followers to do the same. simple enough.

The problem here is that new followers have new voice actors. There's nothing anyone can do about vanilla voiced characters.. you could use existing dialogue, but there isn't much to use for what you're asking.. unless you have Paul Ganus's number (voice actor for all male nords).

Well, you see... I'm Deaf, so the lack of voice actors thing wouldn't really bug me. But I can see how others would be annoyed... but I do know that there are plenty of voice actors out there who can easily mimick the oringal voice actors' voices. Just have to find somebody willing to do that. :)

 

I'd just like for them to actually LOOK at other followers occisonally instead of always vacantly staring at me. They also don't have to carry on conversations like all the time.... but I also find it hard to believe that when you've been travelling for two days non-stop without ever resting at a tavern or something, that they wouldn't say anything about it.

for example, my two most common followers are Lydia and Macurio. If I went ahead and did something like the above, I'd like to see them talking behind me about it. something like:

 

Marcurio, mumbling: "Ugh, I'm so tired...walking non-stop for two days.... I'll fall over dead any moment. Not all of us have the stamina of the dragonborn you know..."

Lydia: "Shhh, don't let him/her hear you! you should be more respectful of the thane!"

Marcurio: "Oh come on, I see dark circles under YOUR eyes. You act so tough, but you're just as tired as I am..."

Lydia: "....."

 

And if we were resting at an tarvern, I'd just like to see the followers just drink and maybe sing a ditty together. something simlar to the mod "Followers relax too", only this mod would be more focused on them socalizing. like Lydia saying something like: "Ahh... it's so nice to be outside of a dark dusty tomb. The tomb we were in before had way too many cobwebs for my liking!" And Marcurio saying something like: "Agreed."

Edited May 16, 2013 by AuroraMoon

[kat1004]

I'm all for immersion, it's the main thing I concentrate on when making my mods; but what I've learned is that some things are better forgotten; like why nobody goes to the toilet.. because who wants to see that? And you should also note that Skyrim is a cold tundra in a medieval setting, it's reasonable to assume towns and villages would be nowhere near as populated as our towns and cities; and as it is, every character in the game has their own bed or residence, so I think the immersion there is perfect.

 

Oh, and you'll notice that if you kill someone from that town, their coffin will appear in that villages crypt; and someone else will take over their chores.

 

Oh, and the taverns in each major settlement are different; they all follow the theme of that area; Bee and Barb follows the Riften feel, Bannered Mare uses the Whiterun tiles, Winking Skeever has the solitude look; they're all very different. If you're talking about the farming villages like Riverwood, Winterhold, Morthal and so on.. then yes, they're all very similar, but definitely not copy pasted. A lot of work went into making them different, but yes.. they use the same farm house interiors; but that's no different to what I'd expect in the real world; these villages are very close together.. of course they're going to look the same.

 

Prison is another one that's not really worth it.. a real prison experience? People in prison are there to be punished, and gamers don't want to be punished.. at least not on that level. I'm all for role playing, but it would basically mean game over. You'd be able to walk around your cell.. and sleep.. that's it. What else do you expect from a prison sentence? This isn't a modern world, where they had their prisoners work and do chores; it's a cold, medieval world where they'd likely let you rot in your cell for murdering an entire village.

 

Execution however.. that's something to look into; because lets face it. If you murdered an eight people in cold blood.. they'd hang you, not stick you in a cell.

 

My List

 

• A more adult experience. The Witcher did a great job of making the world seem dark and moody, much like something you'd expect in that era; men outside taverns urinating against a wall, stumbling down the street, singing and drunk. There are brothels (done in a tasteful way), fist fights in the street, underground fight clubs (which makes me wonder what people in Skyrim do for fun), and there was a lot of swearing too, which is great for that dark ages feel.
• A more involved crafting system. I know your character is the Dragonborn, but being able to become a master Blacksmith, better than anyone else in Tamriel, within a day is just ridiculous.. and all you do is pick which weapon or armour you want to create. I'd like a system where you pick a Steel sword for example, but then also pick the shape of the blade and hilt, so you can make many variations of Steel swords. Perhaps even a unique style for each of the smiths already in game.. so you could look at a blade and go; "Ah, this is Alvors work."
• Hardcore mode; I'm a sucker for these modes and always have been, since Diablo 2; when you die, your save game is erased; just like in Hardcore mode for the Witcher. I'd also like combat to be more realistic. I want enemies to die like they do on easy, but I also want the player to take as much damage as they do on hard. A couple of arrows or a well places swing of a sword should take you down. This would make me think three times before entering a dangerous situation; not just run in and kill everyone, like I do now. You'd have to weigh up each situation and plan it out.. you'd also never attack anyone in town, it would mean certain death.
• Fire. For the love of god, will somebody please make fires in taverns and so on actually hurt you; even kill you, when you stand in them.. it's nonsense. It's a massive immersion issue for me to stand there in a fire, talking to an NPC. I know why Bethesda left that out, because they didn't want their villagers accidentally walking into one and killing themselves, but that's a planning issue and a poor work around. These fires aren't navmeshed, so I don't see the problem.

 

Pretty small list, but they were the main things bothering me.

But then you wouldn't be able to stand in a blacksmith's forge... While forging. And I like that... Though I see your point. Not very immersive, is it...

[mr mctuffy]

Increase the fear

 

I definitely still feel prison can be made into a more immersive experience. Think of all the interesting possible scenarios that could take place in a prison setting.

If prison could be made interesting, however, it'd at least be a rich, colourful, immersion enhancing punishment. It could, for example, open the road to some custom quests, like delivering word to a skooma trader's friend on the outside, escaping with a wrongfully imprisoned old man and helping him seek revenge, becoming a snitch, organising a mass escape, precipitating a riot and then sneaking out alone etc. etc.

 

This would greatly enhance roleplaying and immersion, and it would turn what is at the moment a minor inconvenience to the player into an exciting experience in itself. Is it necessarily an accurate representation of prison life in medieval times? No. But, then, how much in Skyrim is an accurate representation of medieval life? The point is for it to feel believable within a fantasy context and be enjoyable to play.

I agree with this, I've played games in the past that involved finding clever ways to break out of prison as you say. It was actually the most enjoyable part of the game for me. I wouldn't actually mind committing crimes if I knew it was going to lead to something exciting like whats being suggested here ^_^

[mr mctuffy]

Increase the fear of being caught when using stealth by tampering with sound and visual effects.

For example, those with a low stealth level who sneak up on others will result in:

• Slightly blurred vision.
  
• All other sounds getting drowned out.
  
• Sound of your breathing rises as well as your heart beat.
  
• The longer you aim with your bow the curser gets shaky.
  
• Stamina decreases the closer you get to others while sneaking, eventually causing implications to your health unless you either distance yourself, go around or kill your target.
  

This idea could also be applied to things such as pick-pocketing or breaking and entering. As you level up in stealth these effects could become less noticeable but not completely go away.

[Maleel]

I agree with most of the requests up there (Although most of them have been done) Ill start off and name which ones have been done.

 

• Diverse Giants and Female Giants- This is already added by the Immersive Creatures mod
• Prison Overhaul - This mod has already been done (You can literally search up Prison Overhaul in google and find it) but its not on the nexus nor can i link it. Its updated still although you dont necesarily live in a cell.
• Lively Villages & Farmlands - This is somewhat done by Interesting Npc's this one may kind of a stretch (ive only tested this mod for like an hour and have found 5 NPC's.)