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.