Something I missed in past games are realistic eco systems that include prey. It seems the only prey in Vvardenfell and Cyrodiil are kwama, guars, mudcrabs, deer, horses and a few more. And the predators only hunt down humans for some reason... There should be so many more, like squirrels, birds, a few fish species that DON'T kill you and maybe even insects if Beth are willing to go that far. But that's not important, the main thing is that there can't possibly exist 10 different predators every hundred meter. It makes the game feel somewhat cheap. Make the encounters a little less common and more exciting, while you can still see prey animals roaming around. Imagine you're wandering in the snowy pine forest. You see a squirrel running up a tree as you walk the trail. Later on (maybe 100 meters down the road) you can see a group of elks walk around among the trees. All of a sudden, one of those elks gets attacked by a troll, and another fight unveils. There can be dense monster zones as well, but they shouldn't be evenly scattered. Hunting grounds for different predators would be great. If you want to level up, go into a cave or to a place where the trolls (if ou want to hunt trolls, that is) usually hunt.

About hunting - you shouldn't be able to chase after a deer, wolf (all wolves shouldn't attack you, perhaps only when they're in packs) or a squirrel as they are way too fast. Instead you could perhaps set up traps or use your bow and arrow. Also, fishing would be great.

Predator or not, it'd be really cool to be able to stuff dragon heads and make wolf pelts that you can use as furniture in your house. There has been a few discussions on this on the unofficial forums, I just wanted to shed some light on it here as well

So what do you think? Do you want every single bloodthirsty being to appear behind every stone, chasing you down whenever you go into the forest, or would you rather have a more dynamic and realistic world? Will this make the game get less appealing to the casual audience, unpatient as it may be?

It may be sadistic but while reading this I suddenly had this idea of sending a Bethesda worker out into the wilds where there are bears and wolves using it as research bait, like let the worker run around the forest for a month and record how often predators that spot it go after it would make for a realistic figure Bethesda could use in their random figures, like if wolves attacked it 80% of the time have it be a random number from 1 - 100 and if it′s less or equal to 80 make the wolf attack, and if a bear attacks 25% of the time do the same.

Though it may be a little bit too extreme for a game.

I sure wouldn't mind a throne made from a dragon head... :biggrin:

I love the idea of taxidermy. Not so much the squirrels, but elk and other larger game "prey" animals would be nice. Hunting seems like it would fit nicely in with the kind of world Skyrim is.

Yeah, it'd be nice if everything didn't want to kill you.

More Realistic Animal Behaivours:

For most animals it should be fight or flight, if you get too close to a bear it will attack, otherwise it will run.
Wolves should hunt in packs and surround and attack you all at once.
Animals should stay away from the roads.
Sabretooth Tigers should ambush you from cliff-tops.
Vultures should circle dead and dying animals (including you).

If you've played MMM you'll know just how much better (and hilarious) a proper "ecosystem" can be.

Not every single rat goes after you, most animals flee rather than fight, or just ignore you completely, its really much better.

Plus its pretty hilarious when you stumble upon a pack of wolves fighting a group of raiders, then a bear wanders through the fray, only for some hill giant to come charging in swinging some giant club and taking everyone out.

Taxidermy is a great idea. It will add another option when owning a home, such as where to place the heads. I am also hoping Skyrim includes a more of a decor option in our homes. There wasn't much of a variety of choices in Oblivion.

Well, I didn't exactly mean you should spend a lot of time hunting squirrels, although you should be able to if you want. But more as a scenery feature, like birds and stuff, to make the areas feel more alive and not just a plain area filled with trees and monsters.


I love this one. Imagine walking on the tundra, and you see these vultures flocking above you, striking a fear of death in you. A few minutes later, you realize why as a local dragon comes crushing towards you!


Sorry, but "MMM"? Anyway, of course the predators (rats, wolves, bears, giants) can be as bloodthirsty as they alwys have, but some creatures like rats, wolves and bears should be a little more restrictive, unless wolves are in packs, or you're threatening the bear's cubs. But you can never be sure, that bear might be angrier than usual today... So there are basically three kinds of creatures - bloodthirsty "kill-everything" predators like giants, hostile humans, minotaurs, trolls, goblins etc; predators yet restrictive towards humans like wolves, bears and other natural animals that shouldn't attack you unless they're really hungry, you're threatening them or they outnumber you; and prey like deer, elks, fish species other than slaughterfish, squirrels, voles etc. that won't attack you, but they'll be hard to catch, thus you'll need to hunt them down and other predators might also hunt them.

Martigens Mutant Mod.

Agreed... Skyrim need more animals and insects (not the giants) for sure....

I want to look at the sky and see some birds, also birds flying from some trees, short animals (like squirrels and rabbits) in the forest,... you enter in a dirt shop and there is a cockroach running in the floor. this improve the realism of the game...

In a sugestion thread i cited the "Red Dead Redemption" that have a huge variety of animals, and we have the hunt challenge that is very very nice. And yet in RDR, the animals inhabits different areas of the map...

The "outside" really need a good improvement in Skyrim, and i hope we can see all these improvements in the game... =D

Alright, nevr played Fallout but thanks!


Exactly, the small details matter! But it'll be even harder to catch squirrels and voles since they can climb trees/hide underground. So it might prove a challenge, so perhaps even a hunter's guild could be included!

we need chickens as well as white eggs,brown eggs and rarely gold eggs.

They should totally add cazadors to skyrim!!

Oh yeah... dogs and chickens walking in the villages would be nice touch! Also farm animals in farming areas, like pigs, sheeps and cows...

Flies and even vultures flying over dead corpses...

And a Hunt Guild? Hmm... It would be interesting! =D

Please someone from dev team, read this thread! \o/

Hey, some carnivores eating dead animals would be great too! =D

I definitely would like to see more emphasis on hunting. I doubt that taxidermy will make any significant appearance, but I would certainly like to see hunting (mammoths, deer, elk, etc) be more feasible and more rewarding. It was so hard to sneak up and kill deer at low levels in OB and the reward didn't justify the difficulty.

I like the OP's ideas, its pretty much everything I want to do with animals in Skyrim.

If I recall correctly, there is an Oblivion equivalent called Martigens Monster Mod.


I would really like that as well, I have Mr. Siika's farm animals mod installed, and, while being a mainly modders resource, its cool having farm animals and such in villages.

Squirrels please.
I want smaller animals like squirrels and chipmunks and mice and every other cute little adorable animal.
I also want to see them getting swooped up by a bird passing through. Maybe even make creatures that are strange, but still small and fantasy-esque.
I want strange and normal in a perfect blend, as well as aggressive and passive in both sides of that blend.

MMM was originally Martigen's Monster Mod for Oblivion.

If it's properly implemented, I could spend the entire game hunting, like I did on Red Dead. :thumbsup:

And which is of course what I meant Damnit brain!

Imagine a Animal Friend Perk like Fallout in Skyrim...

Wolves (for example) should not attack you if you have Animal Friend Perk Level 1... in Level 2 they could also help you attacking foes... with the short animals (rabbits, squirrels) they could just follow you for some time if you have some Animal Friend Level Perk... Don′t need to be a "Snow White effect", but it would be funny to see reaction of this tiny animals in your presence with some Perks... =)

Taxidermy in real life is just evil, if it is about just having a dead animal(like a tiger) standing in the livingroom as a trophy. In Skyrim it would be fun though, but I doubt it will be implemented.

I hope the hunting part is a bigger part of the game than in their former games.

With OOO, it was quite fun to watch the wolves ignore me and chase down deer. They always had trouble killing them though because of their slow attacks. The mountain lions were more successful at getting their prey, though.

I think there should be far more cows, sheep, pigs, bulls, ducks, swans and rabbits cause their fluffy and it makes the world a bit more real as every corner you come around isn't full of angry animals and creatures that just automatically try to kill you