Hello all. I'm kind of a novice modder, but I've poked around the Creation Kit and watched a few tutorials, and I want to make a mod that adds some variety to the various Draugr ruins, bandit camps, and what have you, by integrating some of the items and creatures from Dawnguard and Dragonborn, as well as some unused or not used enough items. My goals aside from this are to be as lore-friendly as possible, and reasonably compatible with other mods. Being as green as I am with modding, I'll need a little advice for that compatibility part. Dawnguard and Dragonborn are going to be required no matter what, though.

My game plan could pretty much go two ways; I could stick exclusively to editing leveled lists, which would be a lot easier, and probably a lot more compatible (so long as you use tools to merge leveled lists from multiple mods, anyway). If I stuck with that, here are most of the changes I'd be making, off the top of my head:

- Give Draugr a chance to spawn with Carved Nordic weapons. Not sure how rare they should be though; as rare as Ebony weapons on Draugr? Maybe just replace the Honed variants of Ancient Nord weapons with Carved Nordic? I was also thinking of throwing in Stalhrim weapons at a much higher rarity, and Dragonbone weapons for boss-level Draugr, at the same level they start appearing in loot. That's something I'm tentative about, though.

- Dawnguard added some beefed up and armored variants of skeletons. Would there be any difficulties in adding these to the leveled Draugr that reside in Nordic ruins? I know some of those Draugr have their own animations for resting inside of coffins and so on, would I even have to worry about that for the skeletons? Maybe I should just add them to the vanilla skeleton lists, so that they appear along their more fragile brethren, without toppling like a house of cards the moment you look at them the wrong way.

- There are a ton of different colored robes that don't appear in the game at all. I'm thinking it would be cool to add some enchanted sets of them, and give them to warlocks. I'm thinking Red Robes for Fire Mages, Blue for Ice Mages, Grey for Shock, Brown for Conjurers, and the classic black and black with skull robes for Necromancers. I'll even include unenchanted variants of the Necromancer Robes, because I'm such a nice guy.

- Bandits! Bandits have a terrible fashion sense, don't they? Chitin and Bonemold are both relatively low tiers of armor, so I wouldn't feel guilty about equipping Dunmer bandits in the stuff. Methinks bandit bosses would also look more fashionable in Heavy Chitin and Orcish Armor, for Dunmer and Orc Bandit Chiefs, respectively. For bandit mages, I'm thinking of giving them hoods to go with their armor, or giving them the yet-unused Green robes for a sort of hedge mage vibe. If they got hoods, they would be the various Novice/Apprentice/Adept Hood kind of things, in unenchanted and enchanted versions.

- Maybe I should add more faces and variants of enemies? I bet it would be fun to make some handsome bandits and warlocks. Similarly, Draugr Deathlords start spawning like cockroaches at higher levels, and with their uniform antenna helmets, you might just confuse them for roaches, too. Maybe I ought to try and add some new body types for our Deathlord buddies.

As far as I know, I can do that all without actually editing any interior cells, which should help with compatibility. I won't be completely replacing leveled lists with this, so it should still be largely compatible with other mods that change the leveled lists. I know it seems like an ambitious undertaking (it feels good to get all of my thoughts down, though!), but I feel like it's within my abilities.

Ye gods, I wrote a freaking lot. I would really appreciate any advice, feedback, and insight you guys could provide. I want to make something that people actually use and like! (oh, and I suppose it's worth asking if anybody's working on something similar. >.>)

Is it possible that you can change up the layout of the dungeons? Make them less linear and perhaps making the puzzles actually complex ?

Perhaps turn this into a Dungeon Overhaul.

That would involve editing almost every dungeon in the game. Maybe when I'm a bit more experienced with the Creation Kit, it might make for a fun summer project. But that's a lot of work. Right now I'm focusing on what kinds of enemies spawn, and what they spawn with.

A less ambitious project would be to add new enemies into the dungeons. Add Dwarven Ballistas to the Dwemer ruins on the mainland (most Dwemer enemies come out of those holes in the wall or something, which means Ballistas can't just be added to the leveled lists without weird things happening). Maybe add Death Hounds to Draugr ruins, like the Bonewolves from Bloodmoon. Or Stalhrim-clad ghosts, quietly keeping watch over the sleeping Draugr. I'd fix their armor to be unlootable, though, like the Daedric armor that Dremora Lords wear. A fun project would be to add Stalhrim deposits all over the various tombs of Skyrim, and maybe hide a few Ancient Nordic Pickaxes here and there.

(maybe I'll put a Dwarven Barista in the Bannered Mare, lol)