So, I woke up this morning with a great idea for a mod, but I think it's probably beyond my abilities to produce it. The basic idea is that you would create mounds of earth similar to ore veins. If the player has a shovel in their inventory, they can interact with it by activation. This would trigger a digging animation that would go on for the same amount of time that mining typically would, followed by a mesh change to reveal a newly dug hole in the ground with a container at the bottom.

I know this would be relatively simple to implement because they did the exact same thing with mining for Stalhrim in Dragonborn; after picking at the vein, the mesh changes and a lootable corpse is found underneath it. In fact, with a little help, I could probably even edit the script to properly implement the digging. The only issue is the animation and the meshes. As far as I know, there currently isn't a digging animation in the game, so I would need someone to create that and explain how to implement it into the CK and have the script trigger it the same way it triggers the mining animation. I also would need the appropraite before and after meshes for the hole. I'm sure there are already mounds of dirt in the CK that I could use for the before mesh, but I'm not so sure about whether there's anything like a hole in the ground for the after mesh. I would want it to be designed in a way that would allow for both interior and exterior placement, similar to the way that ore veins can be found in both kinds of cells. Obviously the placement of these meshes wouldn't be a chellenge for me to do myself.

Any advice, suggestions, or aid in the mesh/animation proccess would be greatly appreciated. I feel like this would add a whole new element to treasure hunting and would give running into caves and adventuring across Skyrim's landscape a whole new level of excitement. Thanks for any responses I receive.

Well, there is the shovelling coal into a smelter animation. Perhaps that could do?

There is a mod that adds some super high tech assassin armor that you have to find at various locations throughout Skyrim, usually near wordwalls. It procures a shovel from thin air and begins playing a digging animation.

In fact, I am curious if anyone knows what I'm talking about as I'm unable to find it and the curiousity is killing me.

Found it: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5696/?

I don't really get what you're talking about, but I'd watch a video if you can find one that shows the animation. That really just looks like an armor mod to me, though, which is why I'm confused.

EDIT: And FloorBelow, that would work perfectly if the animation doesn't look weird when you're supposed to be throwing coals in the fire.

The only reason I posted that mod was to prove that it is not only viable to make the mod you want but that there is also a good looking shoveling animation. You ability to reason has me concerned.

Excuse me? I was just stating a fact. It's an armor mod that, based on the mod's description, seems completely unrelated to this topic. If you can show me something that says otherwise, I'd be interested.

Anyway, looking at the smelter animation again in-game, I believe it would work perfectly, so long as the coal that shows up on the shovel after digging into the pile could be retextured to look like dirt. So the only real limiting factor here is getting the right combination of meshes for before and after you dig. Anybody know of existing resources in the CK that could be used for the hole?

He was saying that the easiest way to figure out how to seperate the coal animation and use it for your own purposes is to take a peek inside that mod to see how the author did it, because it is used in there

- Hypno

Ah, I see. I was confused because the mod's description doesn't indicate that any animations were involved. Anyway, I should be able to use the smelter animation without needing to edit anything about it unless it's somehow tied to the smelter itself, which I doubt. Before I start looking into how to script this, all I need to do is find a way to retexture the coal on the shovel to look like dirt and to figure out what meshes to use for the mound and the hole.

As an extra I wouldn't mind seeing the opposite idea of this, where the player (hasn't got house etc.) digs his/her treasure stash that can be returned to later.

Yeah, that'd be neat as well. If I could find a way to place both a hole and a mound next to it upon completion of the digging animation, perhaps I could give the player the option to activate the mound and cover the hole up again. This wouldn't be too difficult since it would essentially be using the same script. All I'd have to do is make sure that the chest or whatever container is at the bottom of the hole is set to not respawn.

The only difficult hurdle I can see for this idea is the "hole mesh" being deep and going below the floor level. For both interiors and exteriors, the floor is a mesh in itself and so cannot be deformed at runtime.

For the exteriors you could dig the holes yourself using the landscape editor, then cap the top with a "DirtMound" activator static piece. When this gets activated, the animation plays, fade to black, Disable() the dirt and Enable() the chest, then fade in again

For interiors its a different story, you'd have to make your own custom dungeon pieces that include the hole in the floor.

Maybe instead of a deep hole, you could get away with a chest half sticking out of a dirt mound, with a heap of dirt behind it with a shovel sticking out? As if you just dug it up and half the dirt fell back in as you were lifting the chest out. I'll mock it up in 3ds max to show you what I mean

EDIT: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3u9z7s4guz8agb0/BuriedTreasure.png
EDIT2:http://db.tt/zDlWhHd8

- Hypno

I'm jealous, obviously got a much better grasp of 3DS Max than me. I had a similar idea to this in the past but using coffins instead so the player vampire could dig up a coffin to sleep in it.

Yep, so it sounds like Hyno and I will be collaborating on this to make it happen! I'll only be able to take credit for the idea, the placement of the mounds, and the contents of the chests; he's definitely doing the bulk of the work here. So excited to see this turning into reality! Hypno or I will update this thread with more information as we move forward with the project, but expect to hear a lot more from him than me since I'll be out of town for a couple weeks.

So far, the core mechanics behind the buried chest spots is complete and working. Once discovered, you should be able to use the chest without having to worry about losing your items.

Mindboggles, you'll be happy to hear that I'm expanding on this mechanic to add player positioned stash spots as a side feature of the mod. I'm nearly finished setting it up. Just need to test and polish

- Hypno

Sorry about the double post, but here is a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aAZqZ7ROnA&sns=em showing the core mechanics of the buried chests in action. The video shows the player-placable stash spot, but the ones you'll be stumbling upon all over the world will work exactly the save way, there just won't be a "Retrieve" option in the sneak-menu.

- Hypno

Very impressive and in such a short time also! Your making me feel bad, I have to push myself to mod at the moment.

Nice work on this mod! Just a thought, rather than using a treasure chest what about using a sack? I know there are some mods that allow you to build a treasure chest - which if you wanted to add another layer of immersion you could require that to be in the inventory before you can stash your loot - but anyone could find a piece of cloth/other material and make a simple sack like container that you could then bury.

Regardless, you guys really got this thing put together quickly and it solves the problem that most/all starting players have of not being able to "safely" stash loot that they don't want to drop/sell. My solution was to use potentially unsafe city containers and hurry along until I could buy some property which takes some time with the settings I have in place. Again, nice work with this mod!

Yeah, that's a pretty huge motivator to work on this for me; when using mods that limit your expenses, it might take months of playing before you find yourself with enough money to splurge on a house. I also use mods to limit carrying capacity, so I often find myself struggling to find a place on my body for everything I think I might need later down the road. Digging for Treasure should be able to provide a completely free solution to that.

Another big motivator for me is to give me more of a reason to observe and interact with the natural environment. Often I limit or completely restrict my usage of fast travel so I can give myself more opportunities to admire the landscape, but often you aren't rewarded for this with anything physical in-game unless you run into a ruin or bandit camp. I'd like to make exploration something more than just killing things can profitting from their bodies. While Digging for Treasure might not add mounds of dirt for you to dig up around every corner, it will add enough to make taking the time to explore worthwhile. I'll also be making a lot of the loot unscaled, which means you'll be able to get some pretty decent stuff early on if you go out of your way to hunt it down.

That's a good idea actually. I was thinking about the exact same thing last night, I wanted there to be a cost item too. I was reluctent to just make a new "Empty Chest" misc item because i would have to then distribute it throughout the world via the levelled lists. I'de rather not have to open that particular can of worms if I can help it.

I'll quickly throw together a buried sack mesh for the player made ones. It will also help distinguish between them and the static buried chests we'll be dotting about. I cannot find a suitable cost item for the sacks either, but its easier to stomach pulling a sack out of thin air then a big wooden chest

- Hypno

Agreed, I think a sack is a much better idea it's in keeping with the player doing things on the cheap too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y1bthCbXEc&sns=em

Featuring:
1. Digging sound effect during a slightly shorter fade sequence
2. New sack mesh
3. Player stash map markers

- Hypno

Excellent! I was wondering if stash markers could be included, I assume you will have a limit to the number of aliases?

Yep, 10. I could add more but I think its enough. The system is pretty simple and automatic. If somebody wants to increase the limit themselves, should just be half hour's worth of repetitive clicks in the ck

- Hypno

I was just thinking that it's probably a good time to start jotting down ideas for what kinds of items you would like to find inside the buried treasure chests that we'll be dotting around the world.

I was thinking that it would be good if a few of them had a note or a journal inside that gives a bit of a backstory of the original purpose of the stash.

Maybe one of them was where a Skooma dealer kept his stock? Or another could have been the payment for an assassination that never got collected?

Things like that...if anybody has any others, don't hesitate to post 'em.

Also another idea I had was to do something similar to what they did in Red Dead Redemption. Inside one of the easier to locate chests, as well as a small prize, there is also a note. This note is a clue to the whereabouts of the next hidden chest. There is no writing, just sketches of nearby landmarks, so you'll have to use your brain a bit to find the next chest. At the end of the chain will be a reward that is worth the effort of getting there.

Thoughts?

- Hypno

Not that the player could do it, but in Dragonborn there's the "Excavation" Quest.

I'm sure that could be implemented to have some NPC dig for treasure for you and you return after a couple of days/weeks.