I think bears popping up every 10 feet is silly, as are the plague bears and wolves. I think what is even more atrocious is how little damage bears do.

I watched a documentary about bears recently. Some researchers put a 1000lb Grizzly bear through some tests. The bear easily tossed a 700lb dumpster end-over-end and upside down. Even more impressive is that it lifted up a 650lb rock - using only one arm. That means a fully grown male grizzly has about the strength of five advlt male humans.

And yet, the Solstheim grizzly does a measly 9-18 points of damage. I'd like to see this amped up to the equivalent of an Ogrim titan - 20 to 40 pts. Bear spawning locations should be reduced, perhaps mostly clustered around the coastline (grizzly = coastal brown bear). The "plague" bears ought to be changed to just a different species of bear ("blonde" bear or "golden" bear perhaps, while the grizzly is renamed "brown bear") - and all of bears should be able to transmit a disease, they are wild creatures after all. The brown bears could be more concentrated in the southern forests, and the lighter blonde bears (or "glacier" bears) in the snowier climate of northern Solsthiem.

Likewise, I'd envision name changes for the wolves, maybe to be more true to their CS ID's. The regular wolf could be a "gray" or "black" wolf, and the plague wolf called a "red wolf." Their spawning locations could be such that they have different habitat locations - gray wolves in the snowier north, and red wolves in the forested south.

I'd also like to see wolf and bear aggression different between the species. The Snow bear and Snow wolves would be most aggressive, the blonde/glacier bear and gray wolf a bit less aggressive than that, and the brown bear and red wolf even less aggressive. The reasoning would be that more food is abundant in the less snow-locked regions of Solstheim, whereas the harsh snow and ice of the north drives these predators to desperation.

On a broader note, I find that many of the top-tier creatures and lesser daedra to be less than overwhelming, their damage outputs not comparable to the high damage a level 30 fighter can deal with a Daedric Warhammer. To me, it seems that many of the Beast type animals are weak, and that Vvardenfell's "harsh land" is a joke. Of course there should be low end creatures - how else can a newe character improve his/her skills? But it doesn't seem balanced that only undead and daedra are threats.

Just some thoughts, is all. Discuss!

I think your idea makes perfect sense, though I think that changing the ids associated with plague bears and wolves could create a lot of incompatibilities. If you could find some retextures to fit your idea of blond bears you could implement most of your ideas but keep a smaller number of plague bears and wolves on the island.

@gnomesrule: I think she is saying to name them related to the IDs they already have. Not change their IDs

I am right along with this idea. Have you tried http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5708? It's not exactly what you're looking for but I think it's close. Maybe? At least to keep you content until someone makes this. What? Don't look at me! I'm not always too reliable with larger requests...

But, more related. I also agree, that it is sad that there really aren't any tough creature opponents in Vvardenfell, just the daedra and undead as you said. I'd almost like to see some new creatures created that fit the "tough" profile necessary... but there are mods that make it more difficult. Just not sure which ones are any good.

Judging from all the other things I know you've released Alaisiagae, I feel like a mod such as this would be within your scope. B)

I also have that black bear texture I whipped up last year. Ah, http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr50/Alaisiagae/Mod%20Screenshot%20MW/Misc/bear_black_rawr.jpg. I'd give it another go, but I don't know if Paint.net has a "darken" tool like Photoshop does...

I had another idea. Can creatures use spells? Because I was thinking maybe we could add combat moves to them in the form of spells. For example, a "gore" combat move for creatures with tusks. Spell effects: damage attributes, or have a constantly bleeding wound (-1 hp per second, something like that? or a drain health effect). A bear could have "knock down" attack that wipes out a PC's fatigue and makes them prone on the ground. A Dreugh could release a spray of ink and blind the player character. Alternatively, some creatures could cast buff spells on themselves that makes them more dangerous for a brief time. A kagouti could have a "charge" spell that increases movement speed and fortifies attack.

Creatures would either need to have a lot of magicka, or there would need to be some sort of "cool down" system to prevent a creature from spamming their deadly spells/combat moves.

Yes, creatures can cast spells. The Snow Wolf casts a frost damage spell on the player. So a system like that could certainly be implemented.

I like this idea a lot. And yeah, bears were generally too weak, they should be able to 1hit kill a low level character.

Another thing that came to mind, I never saw a real pack of wolves. There are many wolves in a single area, but I have never seen a pack of 6-7 wolves, that would be cool. + they should also be much stronger. No matter how skillful a warrior is, mindlessly rushing into a pack of blood thirsty wolves should not be a survivable thing.

I like this idea too. An ideal Solsthiem is one where anyone under lvl 20 or so gets ripped to shreds the second they step on the island. I mean, there's plenty of stuff on Vvardenfell that'll get you up to and past that level, so making Solstheim tougher would greatly improve replay value. Same with Mournhold really. And I think some areas of TR should be made really hard as well, like the eastern coast and the Argon jungles.