Not that I don't have faith in Bethesda's ability to make Skyrim a strongly immersive game, but there will doubtless be improvements made post-production in the form of official patches, unofficial patches, and community mods.
In searching with the search bar for "skyrim mod", I returned 27 results - all from the Oblivion General Discussion forum and none of them about Skyrim (only referencing it). So I'm starting this thread to talk about modding for Skyrim, which I am very excited about.

I have made several mods for Oblivion using the construction set (mostly making unique NPCs and spell effects/spells), but none of them outstanding. Except perhaps "Fortify All Stats for 2 Billion". I couldn't stop laughing when I jumped, fainted, and the game went to an eternal loading screen. But now the engine is different and will require some relearning and quite a bit of time in the new construction kit. That will svck for any modder, but, honestly, it's worth it to finally move on from Gamebryo.

On to business; Here are things I would like to see and/or anticipate seeing and/or plan on personally attempting to mod into Skyrim (essentially reposting a Facebook note of mine, anything in quotes is from someone else):

• Open Cities: If not implemented by Bethesda, I guarantee this will be made into a mod by the community.
  
• Crossbows and Thrown Weapons: I think this is very likely to come from the community if Bethesda doesn't do it themselves. I mean, they're NORDS. Why wouldn't they throw an axe occasionally?
  
• Armor Customization: Ability to decal armor is confirmed, what about smithing additional things into your armor? Socketing magical gems/ working runes into it for effects? [I think runes were mentioned in an interview?]
  
• Herbalism: Herbalism mod to make plants visually change when harvested and again when ready to be harvested. Saw this in Morrowind and Oblivion, moderately popular, just a nice touch.
  
• Fletching: Arrows will be uncommon to rare and we can officially "woodcut". What about using those logs for making arrows?
  
• Natural Environments: In Oblivion this made the world look much more natural. Perhaps there will be mods to up the ante on realism (likely in the aspect of weather realism).
  
• Deadly Reflex: A good example of the potential for improvement in Oblivion's combat - added in kicks, bashes, combos, and finishing moves. Bethesda has added in some of these to Skyrim already.
  
• Better Animations: The Oblivion "jump" animation comes to mind. Bethesda is using Havok Behavior in their animating so we probably will have more realistic animations (instead of an aerial Electric Boogaloo).
  
• M'Aiq the Liar: "...but this time most of things he says are false, and not just internet references and the developers opinions on things. In Oblivion he was more like M'Aiq the Opinion Giver."
  
• NPCs on the Roads: "...Roads in this game [Oblivion] were just so... lonely. I want there to be things like traders and travelers on the roads."
  
• Beards: Nords. Beards. You do the math.
  
• Seasonal Quests and Children: Children confirmed. Seasonal quests relating to specific herbs, perhaps? Maybe a cave entrance frozen solid in dead winter only opens after it warms up. Also quests that take place on a certain day/week/month/year.
  
• Hand-to-Hand Weapons: The Nordic equivalent of brass knuckles and such.
  
• Pauldrons and Dual Wielding: Not sure if Pauldrons fit into the armor used by Nords, I never spent time enough going through the lore to find that out for certain. Dual Wielding confirmed.
  
• More Questlines: "Morrowind had 14 major questlines [Morrowind MQ, Tribunal MQ, Bloodmoon MQ, Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Thieves Guild, House Hlaalu, House Redoran, House Telvanni, Morag Tong, Tribunal Temple, Imperial Cult, Imperial Legion and East Empire Company], Oblivion had just 7 [Oblivion MQ, Knight of the Nine, Shivering Isles MQ, Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, no the Arena does not count]."
  
• Specific Mage armor that BOOSTS spellcasting: Self-explanatory.
  
• No more Daedric Armor Bandits: Also self-explanatory.
  
• Slow Fall spell: Because sometimes I need to survive falling off a cliff. Usually that need occurs when I fall off a cliff.
  
• Reduce the value of items: Make gold hard to get, Morrowind style. None of this "I'll sell everything I found in this barrel in the middle of the street for 5 billion Septims". No.
  
• Window lighting and chimney smoke: AWLS did this for us in Oblivion, really helped make cities seem alive at night.
  
• Better Cities: Made Oblivion cities much more realistic by adding clutter and more NPCs. The extra people in the market district really did make it seem like a market district; the ambient noise was people talking (and I had a difficult time distinguishing conversations, so the poor dialogue didn't bother me ).

There's more I could list, but I've gotta drive my sister to the airport so I'll let others chime in. Who's excited for modding in Skyrim? What kind of mods do you anticipate the community working on after the release of Skyrim? Any mods from Oblivion/Morrowind you want to see in Skyrim? Any good mod ideas you have?

I never needed any I thought it was just fine the way it was, also whenever you add a lot of mods you always get crashes

if you actually think about it bandits with deadric armor make since becuase of all the Oblivion gates opening up, also explains why the value of deadric was reduced from morrowind, also would explain why money was so easy to come by just some thought for food. I do think the leveling system required some work but skyrim will have fixed that

Oblivion XP. Or Skyrim XP, as I suppose it will be called. I know Oblivion isn't a traditional RPG (and that's why I like it!) but I don't like the leveling system used in the Elder Scrolls games. I want to distribute my points myself, thank you; just because I run around a lot doesn't mean I want my weakling mage to be a star athlete.

"Window lighting and chimney smoke" Trailer already confirms this. They learned their lesson with Fallout 3 having it.

Somewhat.

I do look forward to the great mods this community will generate! I just tend to use fewer mods. I read on these forums sometimes of people have over 150 mods running, and it just boggles my mind. I doubt that I have ever had more than 20 player-made mods active at once. Doesn't mean I'm not excited about them, though!

No matter how good the game and how many the features added to the game, there will always be ways to make it better. Especially, since not everybody likes the same things. So basically, I think the Creation Kit will have a massive impact on the game, just like Morrowind and Oblivion.

I won't presume anything until I play the game but I'm more interested in new/modded assets than game play changes.

TAMRIELS HEIGHTMAPS IN SKYRIM



It is a must Cyrodiil would be larger than anything we've played before since Skyrim is the size of Oblivion...such would ferry along the population a frutition of Tamriel as a whole for the first time, to this very day no province has be completed other than presented in the games

i wouldnt play Ob without mods and FO3 and NV to a lesser degree so i voted "Incredibly".

if the game has dx11 support modders could tessellate everything, also shadows/lighting ect...o yeah texture packs goody.

I definitely can't wait to see what mods will be made for skyrim. Post beating what Bethesda painstakingly created first, of course.

I have a List ready the day the Game comes out :celebration:

Good quest mods will no doubt add to the Skyrim experience (Like Lost Spires, Heart of the Dead, Dungeons of Ivellon, Windfall etc), new armor and weapons from the likes of Lhammond and JoJo, Alienslofs excellent work, Midas Magic for Skyrim and many others. I can't wait to see what the TES community can do with their new toys. I might even develop my own skills and produce a Drop Bear mod for Skyrim.

I'm gonna get the PC Skyrim a couple years after it comes out (I don't have a very good PC and i like playing on 360), and I'm sure good mods will be waiting for me.

Two things Bethesda is good for, RPG's and their modding community. cannot go back to playing vanilla OB or MW or FO3 OR FNV with out mods, I just cannot do it.

Actually, that's the impression I got from Morrowind. You could just go into a mine only inhabited by a few rats, and mine it for raw ebony/glass and immediately get several thousand gold. More if you used the creeper. In barrels found in cities you could find steel weaponry. In oblivion before level 10 gold was actually pretty hard to come by. Only by doing quests or raiding dungeons you could get proper money. Oh, and with alchemy of course.

I would definitely count on seeing an updated Elder Scrolls Construction Set right around the time of release in November. I don't think it will require a stiffer learning curve either.

Some of you guys are taking this "new engine" thing the wrong way... It's a heavily modified Fallout 3 engine. They've changed the way interiors and exteriors are rendered, overhauled the LOD/distant land stuff, changed the physics engine, and of course modified the AI. They also found a way to include shadows. About a year and a half ago they praised their customized gamebryo-based engine since they were heavily invested and familiar/comfortable with it dating back to Morrowind. They also stated they chose to make their own graphical and shader modifications rather than use newer builds of gamebryo. Here is the article:

http://www.gameobserver.com/features/inside/all-platforms/gameobserver-interview-with-bethesda-softworks-130/

Skyrim would've been well into development at that time. You can't just rip out the heart and guts (the engine) and start from scratch like some gamers are believing. Todd Howard also stated initially that TESV was using a heavily modified FO3 engine. Here is the reality - they've modified the gamebryo-based Oblivion engine enough to where they can call it there own. And that is just what they have done (calling it creation or whatever). Just take a look at that one screenshot from the tavern with the human woman. Her face looks like it was modeled in facegen just like in FO3 except with a better female texture. Some guys are going nuts over that shot and saying "finally some attractive female NPCs!" but I don't know why they're getting so excited... Hair aside she looks like a NV female character. Whatever

Anyways, back on topic. I would definitely expect a new construction set that will work just like the old one with little to no learning curve. I'm sure it will even support gamebryo NIF files too.. Because if you believe they changed the engine then you probably also believe in Santa Claus. PS, Santa is fake!

I'm a consol player. but instead of -_- I would rather put

I like playing on the consols and using what the Developers give us!

Mod people- please don't hurt me! :cold:

Wait they had FIVE YEARS and some people don't think that's enough time to write a game engine??

I can't use mods being a console player,but i always look on youtube for mods. I just like what some people do with them,it shows skill and creativity. Though, not all mods are good.
It's also a good way for dev's to take /use ideas for the next game. A few months after skyrim is released,i will check youtube,just to see what people are doing with mods...it will no doubt carry on for years after release.

this is just a question from a non-modder 360 player: Do a bunch of modders ever get together to accomplish one very ambitious mod? or are most mods done solo?

I would like to see some of the best mod creators come up with one content/expansion pack that just blows everything else out of the water.

This. I'll have a good look at the vanilla version first, play through it once or twice and make up my mind about what's missing and what could be improved. And by the time I know what things should be fixed, there will be tons of good mods for exactly those issues. 'Cause the modders are great.

The problem is it takes time to release a good mod. And we only have 1 year left and then its 2012 and it wont matter any more.

Yes they do. Some of my favorites are the mods that let you see when containers have been opened (and you can close them by sneaking and "opening" too) as well as the mod that lets you see whether an alchemy plant has been harvested and when it's grown back. There are large mods too though.

Oblivion spoilers.

Yes, I've had experience working with a team of about 40 on a large Dragon Age mod, Dark Times: The Conderacy of Malkuth.

We primarily use Skype to collaborate, and an online database for the toolset.

So yes, not only do modders tend to get together for particularly ambitious mods, but members of one team can have people from everywhere from slovakia, to england, to california. There's remarkable cooperation and synergy from so many different cultures, and the individual's I've worked with from other countries speak remarkably good english.


For Skyrim I have a few ideas so far, for mods I'd like to do:
-A new Vampire Faction, with a questline about their ambitious goal to seize a sizable oblivion territory as their own private dimension, and to create a new species of daedra to serve them as immortal soldiers.

-A survival area where during the day the area is a quiet but abandoned town. During the night, undead rise and attack. Each night the Dovahkein survives there makes the next night a bit more difficult, making it a challenge to see how many nights you can survive.

-Adding in Bleach weapons and abilities: Definitely Cero, at the very least. I'll implement some of the notable swords and their releases if I can get a texture artist /modeler to make the physical swords for me to script. Otherwise I'll have to use sword models that are from the original game for the zanpakutos. Oh, and a Vizard Mask will be a must. So, if anyone reading this would like to make the new sword models - message me. Otherwise, I'll make do, as aforestated.

-Necromancy spells, if there's none in Vanilla Skyrim.

-The Vord, from the Codex Alera books. I modded them into Oblivion but never released it - they kind of overran Skingrad, lol. If I put them in Skyrim, I'll try and balance them so they don't zerg everything to death.