So I realized when I started my recent play-through of Oblivion that, compared to Skyrim, Oblivion has some serious social problems.

I was in Bravil recently, and there were but a handful of people wandering around. Even worse, they often wouldn't wander enough to talk to a wider crowd, but rather just talk to the same handful of people over and over again. And while some mods have included more npcs to crowd the cities more, I don't think npc numbers is really that big of an issue.

What is a problem, I think, is that a lot of the NPCs seem to be hermits. Store owners stand in their shops all day, and no one visits them. Some leave their shops come day's end, and head to the tavern or wander aimlessly. This is good, but it only happens for a few hours in the evening. And most seem boringly amicable with each other, even though you get grumpy conversations sometimes.

In addition, they seem to have quite limited and imbalanced dialogue. Some conversations are far more common than others, while some seem quite rare. Now I know we can't just add new dialogue without it seeming very out of place. But what about all that npc-pc dialogue? Surely some stuff can be salvaged from that?

I could go on. But I want to get to the point sooner or later.

Anyway, I'm looking for a way to solve some of these issues I see. A little bit of what I'm looking for:

1) Less-stringent store hours: Let npcs off once in a while. Holidays and maybe every Sundas, even? Lunch hours?
2) Let NPCs gather. I'm thinking of the Dueling Club of New Sheoth. Where are the upper-class parties that people like Umbacano should host? Courtly dinners put on by Counts? Shouldn't there be like, guild conferences and things on alchemy and whatnot? Book clubs? Something...
3) Children. Skyrim's got them. Morrowind's got them (now). Its about time.
4) Let NPCs travel more. Get out of your house, get out of your district, get out of your city every once in a while. Go shop in the big Imperial City. Go on a pilgrimage. Go on vacation to Stirk.
5) Improved conversations: NPCs should have more to say, and be more sensible about it. Let that Leyawiin Argonian tell his Khajiit joke to another npc and have them cry out "That's foul." or some other response they use against the player when he/she attempts a joke.
6) More animations. Just because they stand around too much.
7) More interaction with NPCs. Play games with them. Woo them. Brawl with them.


Some things that I've already grabbed that I feel could help alleviate the situation:
http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/38466
http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/29038
http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/27147
http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/31319
http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/30829
http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11892
http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/4170

And that's all I've got right now. If you've got any mods that could help me out, that's great! Otherwise, I suppose this is a call for some pretty serious modding. Some of it I could do, some of it is beyond my particular talent, some of it just requires a lot of work.

You don't want much do you?

Sounds like you might enjoy http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/13670. For children, I've used http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11351 but I thought they were annoying personally. There's also a project called Children of Cyrodiil, but I have no idea about it really. There are several Crowded Roads mods, as well as http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/4387, that have travelling npc's. And of course Salmo the Baker (included in http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/21104 or there's a standalone version) has his delivery people.

Better Beggars was neat, but I disliked the Anvil-style building it added outside Bravil. Plus the beggars were a little too entertaining. They became the stars and made all the other npcs look bad.

As for children, I didn't feel like any of the current mods that add them did a good enough job. No voices usually. Many aren't different enough from advlts to look like anything other than shrunken advlts...

I've got Tamriel Travelers. Excellent mod, that one.

I forgot about Salmo...and I didn't know he had delivery people! Bravo, thank you!