I've recently been trying to think of features to improve Skyrim as a whole, and create a more immersive experience. I'm not currently using a computer that can run games, so for now this is merely brainstorming. Perhaps in the future I can work on some of these ideas, but I wanted to get them out there in case anyone else with more skill, hardware and time might be interested in creating some of them. I understand that not all components of these ideas are possible with the current engine. None-the-less, I'm going to post the full idea. We can adjust it later. Some of them may already be in use by other games/mods I don't know about. If so, let me know.


1. My first idea is for a simple sound based system for being able to tell what your health is during play. When your health bar goes down, you start to hear your heartbeat. With minimal damage, your heart rate is steady. As your health bar goes down, your heart rate goes up. When you have very low health, your heart is beating incredibly hard. Finally, when you are at the end of your health bar and are most likely to die, your heart rate slows to barely beating.

Ideally, this would provide a way to tell what your health is without ever having to look at your health bar. By itself it might not be as effective, but in conjunction with a mod that provides visuals for losing health, I could see it working very well, hopefully making it plausible to play having your health bar removed from the HUD. It spawned from my disdain for looking at graphs, bars and numbers while I'm actually in the game and not in a menu. Most importantly, this would be a purely cosmetic addition, hopefully allowing it to work just fine with mods that affect the way combat or health works.

I would like to find a way to implement similar systems for stamina and magika, but I'm at a loss. Hearing your breath become more strained as your stamina goes down seems like it'd work, but not by itself (like health, it'd probably work better with something that adds a visual element as well). As for magika, I haven't thought of anything, we wouldn't want the player to be overwhelmed by all the different noises to keep track of.


2. My second idea is for having the animations for magic progress with your skills. For example, when you're shooting a fire spell with a low destruction skill, it should look like you're barely able to sustain it. Your hand will shake and contort vigorously. As you progress towards mastery, you become visibly more in control. By the later levels, you are a master of your skill, not the other way around. When you shoot a spell your hand is outstretched confidently and it is perfectly still.

I know adding animations to the engine can be a tricky thing, so hopefully someone can tell me if this is currently possible. This is another cosmetic change that results from me not wanting to look at numbers to know I'm a weak or strong mage. Hopefully this effect could be applied to NPCs as well, so you know very clearly when you're up against a very powerful mage.


3.Third: Kill moves for more animals. I was playing Far Cry 3 the other day, and I saw a tiger run up behind a buffalo and jump on its neck, bringing it to the ground. It was just a pre ordained animation, but it looked infinitely better than seeing the tiger swipe at the buffalo until it fell over. Considering the kill moves in place for humans and dragons, would it be possible to add unique ones for more animals? I understand a major problem with this would be finding someone to make high quality animations, but right now, I just want to know if it's possible. It would be extremely immersive to see a sabre cat run at a herd of deer and leap on one, tearing it apart; to see bears tackle people to the ground and maul them to death.




4. Not a new idea at all, but I'm wondering what it would take to add true seasons to the game. We've all seen the gamejam video featuring seasonal foliage, and the Andoran mod is apparently including the feature as well. First off, let me say as I've said before: I know this would be a massive undertaking, and I'm not particularly interested in trying, I just want to know if it is possible.

I think it could do a lot for the game. Imagine if that during winter all the plants and food died, and wouldn't come back until spring. This would make creating a lot of 'essential' potions much harder to make, as you'd have to buy the ingredients. During winter, the price on those ingredients would go up. These rules would be applied to all manner of crops and other foods you grow as well, making winter truly formidable when used with a hunger mod. Skyrim would be incredibly harsh during winter, even more so with a hypothermia mod like Frostfall. It would affect all manner of animals and bugs, too. Bears would hibernate in their caves for the winter, and be extremely angry if awoken. I'm sure I could keep going, but you get the idea.



I think that's it for now. Let me know what you think. If I come up with more I'll add them to this post.