» Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:43 pm I used to make mods for morrowind, and I've had Oblivion for almost 2 years now, yet something's been keeping me away from the construction set. Maybe it's the idea that once I start modding for Oblivion, I'll once again become addicted and choose it over socialism. None the less, I've recently started poking around making small mods here and there, and from what I've seen it appears that the CS is MUCH more powerful than that of morrowind, which makes perfect sense.
Here's my current thought:
I was a morrowind addict for about 5 years of my teenage life, and I've never been able to quite pinpoint why I was able to spend so many countless hours playing the game, non stop, while never getting bored or worn out from it's lack of things to do. Perhaps there was too much to do, considering I put well over 9,000 hours of my life into the game and still haven't completed half the available quests! (No mages guild, thieves guild, morag tong, redoran, telvanni, mournhold, bloodmoon, or vampire quests ever finished). This is enough to make one think, 'well what the hell have I been doing all this time?'. The answer; Sorting. I was one of those 'collectors'. Something about morrowind just made it fun to collect anything and everything. I had multiple caves full of every color, shape, and size candle, lantern, torch etc that any adventurer would ever want. I would kill everyone within the entire city of Ebonheart, just to turn it into my own personal museum of Dwemer, Daedric, and Ebony artifacts and items. I owned over 50 buildings that were cleared out, and filled with my own crap, and to me that was fun.
I ask myself now, why can Oblivion not hold my attention in the same way as morrowind did? The only conclusions I've come to are simple. Not enough variety of items, not enough items within any given barral or crate, crappy menu system, and the physics causes perfectly placed items to very easily become messed up. This is something that's been on my mind for quite a while now, and if I make any major Oblivion mods, they would certainly be to bring back the element of kingship brought to the player who owns entire cities full of sorted forks and left pauldrons. This brings me to my goal, and overall point.
I want to make mods that bring back the fun in doing absolutely nothing important. I want to create hundreds of new items, or simply import some of morrowinds items, for the sake of saving time. All I ask is for more things to look at, sort, organize, set up, and play with. This means lamps, candles, misc crap, instruments, tools, mini games, better menus, more drinks, etc.
A few ideas:
To start off, I would fix something that's bugged me in every elderscrolls game. When you kill a damn dear, it should have AT LEAST 20 pounds of useable meat. This would be like 20 venisons. Why not?
Fishing Pole and minigame.
Elements to start campfires, flint, twigs, books and paper.
Campfire cooked meals, it would be very easy to make a system that forces you to cook meats before eating, otherwise you may become poisioned or diseased.
Target Practice mini game, in Morrowind I made a target practice game where the player can bet on his or her own abilities to shoot targets with a bow and arrow, and could win money and prizes based on his/her performance. This would be a great addition for the outskirts to many oblivion cities.
More villages part of the main world, I would add several cities and villages as part of the main world, complete with merchants and quests.
More ways to use misc junk, such as cloth, paper, knives, rocks, they all have many uses.
Construct your home, I would definetely add the ability to purchase and have built a home, mansion, or other building, wherever you so choose. This would include interior furnishings that can be placed wherever, and perminently placed with the click of a button.
More ways to harvest the dead, I made a morrowind mod that leaves corpses with meat, hide or fur, bones, hearts, claws, and teeth. Each item has multiple uses when obtained, and it's one of those 'small things' that gives you hours of meaningless fun.
Mining jobs, in morrowind there were many mines, and I made a mod that allowed the player to become a miner for a living, or just for fun. This adds a great way to make money and give you something new to do.
Mini raft, this was a mod for morrowind that I never finished, it gave the player a mini log raft which was perfect for floating around in caves and small rivers, and could be picked up so you would always have it. A great Oblivion addition.
Other stuff would be more water life, birds and bugs, fireplaces that can be toggled on/off, which would also change the chimney smoke, indoor storm effects, ability to start fires and burn down flora or houses, ability to collect things from the wilderness to build your own homes and structures, mor immersive repairing - perhaps a minigame with a hammer and anvil, and just mroe ways to craft your own items with junk you collect from the wilderness.
The main goal of these ideas would be to make something that works flawlessly, glitchlessly, and with full compatibility to every mod, and will work with vanilla Oblivion, maybe with OBSE..
I'm not sure that everything in this list can be done, but most of it is stuff I did in morrowind so I would imagine it's all possible. By no means do I want you all to think I'm making this mod or any part of it, but if I get anough interest, I may begin a series and slowly push a few out, or maybe find someone with the time to. I work 100 hours a week and it's hard enough to find time just to get some playing in.
Anyway, thoughts?
