Looking back at TES titles past and the evolution of Skyrim it's interesting to see how user-made content has become an official part of the game. I got to wondering how many examples there were of this happening, namely, that someone should make a mod and the next elder scrolls game include it as part of their next game.

Anyway, how many unique examples can you name?

Here is my list:

Harvest Containers, that plants disappear when you harvest their ingredients and chests open.

Crafting, arguably inspired by CraftyBits and other similar mods.

The way the game levels around you, seemingly inspired by Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, being deeper in a dungeon or being farther from a city means higher level enemies. Also keeping bandits in low level armors for example, not levelling up to daedric as they did in Oblivion.

Followers, seemingly inspired by the popularity of mods such as Vilja.

Potion retextures based on color.

Merchants run out of gold, probably inspired by Living Economy.

The name 'stamina' being applied to the green bar instead of 'fatigue' which actually means the opposite, probably from the work of people such as Kobu.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head! What other user-made content has become an integral part of Skyrim?

The way chests, etc. opens up when activated is also from a Oblivion mod.

I thought of another one, the way you walk into caves is from the Immersive Caves mod, before you would always have to open a door to a cave, hahaha

These two are a bit of a stretch, don't you think?

Merchants running out of gold was a feature that existed in Morrowind.

I also remember someone mentioning that a combat mod for Oblivion inspired finishers in Skyrim. Dunno if it's true or not.

I was going to say the economy works the way it did in Morrowind again, but they probably wouldn't have changed it back if it wasn't for the popularity of mods such as Living Economy, which also comes packaged with OOO.

In Oblivion the less fatigue you had the worse you performed certain actions which should mean the opposite, so Kobu packaged a mod with his very popular leveling system that was called 'The Cure for Fatigue' renaming it Stamina. To me it is a pretty concrete example, but probably a lot of fans pointed out the inconsistency before mods were made.

Deadly Reflex - combat decapitations, on-screen blood spatter

Animated Window Lighting System - windows on buildings light up at night, animated chimney smoke

Womans Move (and others) - separate feminine walk/run animations

Cool example Tremayne, thanks for reminding me of the combat mod.

Also, the carriage travel system is very akin to the Cyrodiil Transportation Network mod from Oblivion. Even the dialogue is similar.

I believe dungeons getting marked as 'Clear' was also a mod for Oblivion.

And the ability to destroy the Dark Brotherhood.

Personally, I wouldn't credit mods for changes like those. They may have had something to do with it, but I think the changes would have been made had those mods not existed at all.
Although the fact that someone managed to implement a fully functioning Spell Crafting system into Skyrim gives me hope that it'll come back in a future installment. Technical limitations my ass.

That's the one!

actually, its just another reintroduction of a feature from Morrowind (to be specific, Morrowinds Silt Strider network)

I know transportation networks were present in Morrowind. What I mean is the use of carriages, even the way they look and the dialogue involved with them, is very akin to the Oblivion mod I mentioned.

The Bows is probably the biggest thing that came from a mod. I personally loved that change, as the bows were horrible in Oblivion and now they are actually pretty awesome to use.

Really, like the look of bows or the archery mechanics in general?

The mechanics of the bows definitely, it's much easier and more enjoyable then in Oblivion.

Yeah, I remember Todd Howard saying they got inspired for Archery by a Mod.

They liked the Idea that Archery could be slower, but more powerful. as I recall he said it felt more Natural.

and that mod was pretty much a replica of Morrowinds Silt Striders...

The only real difference between Skyrim Carriages, and Morrowinds Silt Striders is the fact Skyrim has voiced dialogue....

its not a mod that inspired that feature, its something that already existed in the franchise that they decided to reintroduce..

sixually dimorphic animation sets is something that was only missing in Oblivion. Morrowind has it, FO3/NV has it, Skyrim has it.

Extra-phat-lewt chests in Dungeons before you reach the boss chest is something I recognized from OOO as well. Just like in OOO, they're extra-locked down. I once got a dragonplate gauntlets out of one at level 16.

You're missing my point, I'm not talking about the feature, I'm talking about the actual design of the carriage and the specific dialogue spoken by the carriage drivers, I'm aware the concept of the mod itself was to reintroduce Morrowind style transportation. Because there were no carriages in Morrowind.

That would be Duke Patrick's archery mod for Oblivion; Todd mentioned it specifically as being an inspiration for Skyrim's Archery.

Anybody who says Bethesda is not responsive to their fan base is kinda silly. There's not an OOO type overhaul for Skyrim because Skyrim doesn't need it like Oblivion did. They're catching what players like, and using it.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if things from SkyUI or even some parts of iHud or SkyRe end up in TESVI

Yeah they can't seem to get the UI right for PC haha

Virtually all gameplay improvements in Fallout New Vegas were clearly inspired by Fallout 3 mods:

- hardcoe mode

- Iron sights

- Weapon modification

There's other things too but been a while since I played Fallout.

Indeed, that's the only feature which seems to go backwards with every game.

Hopefully TES VI finally has proper one.