Hello fellow dragon born.

I am a mod developer and look forward to re-joining the Nexus modding community in full force for Skyrim. Without having my hands on the game it is hard to determine what i plan to develop as I am sure certain "staples" for the TES / FO series may become obsolete with Skyrim and Skyrim will most likely spawn a new demand for other mods.

I figured I would throw up a poll for myself as well as other fellow modders to to gauge where the strongest interests lie in regards to Skyrim.

The above list is in no particular order, just how I thought them up creating the poll. Please feel free to select as many that interest you but in order to try and keep the poll as accurate as possible please try and limit your selection to your top 3.

Feel free to discuss any ideas you may have / want to see but please all I ask is be civil to one another.

If you are a mod developer yourself and are looking for people to work on projects with please send me a PM and we can discuss details.

Thanks all,
May the wait for 11/11/11 not melt your brains :celebration:

Cannibalism will be the first thing I'll mod into Skyrim

I have no doubt I'll be trying out a nGCD/Realistic Leveling-type mod, as soon as one is created. I will probably be interested in any UI mods that are developed. And I can't get enough new hairs/accessories. I will also be interested in any Village Shezrie makes (if she makes one for Skyrim) and any companion mod Emma makes (if she makes one of those for Skyrim).

(I know this flies in the face of what every other player out there thinks mods are good for, but I'm not interested at all in graphics mods. Frankly, the longer I play these games the less cutting-edge graphics mean to me. I used Qarl's texture pack when it came out - and it was wonderfully done and I enjoyed using it - but when I play Oblivion these days I play without texture mods of any kind. I find it somehow more relaxing, not to be constantly scrutinizing every rock and building and ground texture to make sure I actually like it and if it's better than some other texture pack that changes the same object and whether any of them are a real improvement over vanilla textures, ect, ect. I'd rather concentrate on getting into the head of my character and on my character's story then scoping out the latest graphical improvements I've added and wondering if they could be made even better with even more mods).

I haven't modded before, but I do plan to break into the mod community with this game. I do have several ideas in mind, but I'll need to see how the toolkit works.

I'm most hoping for some good companion mods.

I like mods that add additional weapons, armor, monsters and dungeons to the game.

I won't join any team and plan to work on some dungeon mods. I've done the team thing before (Half-Life..... those guys switched mods from a SP mod to a MP mod and I walked away and they never finished.. heh) and (Doom 2... was team leader on a megawad, which did get finished thankfully) and that was enough of the team thing for me. haha... Now everything I mod will be a solo effort like it has been in various games over the years. This reminds me, I should finish my fort in Oblivion.

I'd like to see open cities and maybe some ui tweaks. Haven't modded before in TES, but I may try with Skyrim.

Hypothermia. Quest Mods. Maybe some crime system tweaks or dynamic faction mods.

Hypothermia is rather interesting I can see this probably being done fairly easily utilizing the FO:NV fatigue system as a base.

I would highly recommend poking around in the TES construction kit or GECK to start getting your feet wet. They certainly are not the most intuitive tools to use. I wouldn't go too crazy with it though since I am not sure how drastically the toolkit, file structures etc will be changing for Skyrim.

Until now it has been somewhat seamless to go from one to the other, but the engine never changed much. We are dealing whith a whole new (well vastly re-written) engine for Skyrim, so I am sure there is going to be a fairly steep learning curve, something akin to climbing the throat of the world for modders to overcome at first. My hopes is that it is more familiar than alien but only time will tell.

Pretty sure we'll see some of the same mods we've seen in the past so I won't ask.

A couple I've not seen I believe would be great.

1. Mod that makes it so people don't just "know" who you are even if your wearing full plate with a helm that covers your face. It would have to cause people to treat you as a stranger and perhaps some anger. I mean who would sell anything or even speak with someone waling around all covered up. Always annoyed me when I walked up to someone and they'd say something like..."OH Hi... great to see you" with no way of possibly knowing who I was.

2. Care Free Buying and Selling. TES Player characters spend too much time selling items to this merchant and that merchant. I'd like to see a broker that takes my weapons and armor off my hands all at one time and then proceeds to auction off the goods to buyers, arms dealers from around Tamriel stc, of which I can be paid as items sell. Maybe I employ a blacksmith the repair merchandise before it's sold to get higher prices.

I I have a household with a budget I should be able to set parameters for the goods I want access to and have household staff seek and purchase those things for me to keep the Manor, keep, tower, etc...stocked.

It's just that buying and selling is way too tedious. Seems the game values for items are so unrealistic that it forces someone to pick up everything that's not nailed down sell it so as to get over that hump of need. Much rather be able to focus on items of real value. Pick up fewer things but sell for more. Getting 1/10 to 1/20 the value of something you faced down demons and undead for is an insult. I'd BSlap a merchant that suggested he pay those values for items I bled for. Additionally chests / loot should realistically reflect the owners that keep them. Oblivion had way too many chests with little to nothing in them... It had way too many chests for that matter. I want to concentrate on the game. Not every nook and cranny for balls of string and spoons.

Voted for everything other than custom races and cheats.

I need a mod that adds a single style hair Braid for males, thats it D: I cannot for the life of me find one ANYWHERE with the front of Ponytail 1 for Oblivion.


(insert long list of miscellenous gameplay alteration mods)

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1240572-mods-you-wish-to-see-soon-upon-release/

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll start simple then work towards the more grand ones I have in mind. A simple companion mod and a player home mod shouldn't be too difficult right?

Player homes aren't too difficult, as a beginner I would say start by modifying existing homes, before trying to create one from scratch.

Custom companion are definitely towards the more advanced end of the spectrum in order to do them well. Very heavy in the dialog / scripting / AI categories

OK. Can you think of other mod types that would be feasible for a beginner?

If it's not in vanilla, I'll be looking out for survival mode eat/drink/sleep stuff, in the vein of NOM or Realistic Hunger/Thirst for OB. I know it won't be an easy thing to do, but I have faith that something will be developed eventually, and I'll be happy to wait for it.

In terms of what I want to do myself, I am not an experienced modder for the previous games but I have had a little bit of a dabble at it purely for my own requirements and I might try my hand at expanding a home for my own use. But I'd really like to get more into modding this time around, if I can keep focussed on it long enough to get anything finished!

It really depends on your skill set. Can you 3D model? How well do you know Photoshop or paint programs? Have you ever scripted before? etc. There are many many facets that go into creating mods. Some are only good at specific things, like changing / creating textures and some people who know a wide variety of disciplines that can create more original material on their own.

Check out this site. A lot of this stuff may not even be applicable once Skyrim hits. We won't know for sure till we have the construction kit in our hands.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Main_Page

Some things I would recommend concentrating on first:

• Learn the different file types, what they are and how they relate to each other. BSA's(compressed game assets) ESM's(master files), ESP's(main mod project files). DSS's(textures) NIF's(meshes (3d models)) etc
  
• Start poking around the creation kit and learn how to navigate around the 3d render window, learn what the windows are, learn how to find specific areas in the game.
  
• learn how to create the most basic mod (create and esp) and load it into the game. Something like move a barrel from one side of the street to another
  
• Learn the games directory structure and how to override files
  
• Learn the importance of loading order and how dependencies work.
  
• Research and download some of the most commonly used player made tools. Things like a bsa unpacker an esp editor (TESEdit) etc
  
• Modding forums & youtube are your friends. Learning to mod can be extremely daunting depending on your knowledge going into it.

My biggest advice is start simple and learn your limits. At first work strictly on modifying existing content in the game, then maybe try modifying a mod that someone else made. When you start getting comfortable you can go from there.

I don't expect I'll be getting any weapon or armor mods any time soon since the weapons and armor already in Skyrim look fantastic. In fact content-wise Skyrim seems quite fulfilling so I won't be needing any extra items, monsters, races, etc.. right off. Don't know about house mods since there hasn't been much talk about housing but I'll probably end up making my own anyway.

The UI is definitely going to need some work so that will probably be the first thing I download. At the very least I'd like it shrunk down and have the quest markers taken off the compass.

I would love to have companions with quests and deep personalities with which to interact.

Concerning Keeps/Abodes- I love it when you get to upgrade aspects of a large Keep (not too huge or complicated in size though) that has an impact on gameplay- including hiring guards & training and equipping them, Basing an economy around your home like with the windmill in Riverwood, Helping out characters around your home and the like such as that. It also helps if there are opposing factions that would cause all of this to be meaningful.

Otherwise, large campaigns that arc. Especially if they delve into actual TES lore and aren't random stories just injected into the TES world.

EDIT: Concerning companions- In Oblivion there were a lot of good female companions but not really any great male companions. I would prefer a mod for a male companion though.

EDIT2: To be more specific concerning campaign arcs, I am fascinated by TES lore that delves into the realms of Oblivion. Daedric Princes or Characters that resides in/come from their realms are intriguing and add an element of fun because of that. If a campaign arc was created that dealt with any of the Daedric Princes, I think that would be great.

An inventory mod is high on my list. While the UI looks great and very usable, scrolling vertically through hundreds of lines of text to find that awesome item you just picked up is NOT going to be fun.

And while I'm willing to give vanilla leveling a shot, I have a feeling I'll soon be looking for a leveling mod similar to Kobu's or nGCD.

Those are my top priorities. Beyond that, I love UI tweaks, expanded character customization, and monster mods like MMM. Small changes to improve game mechanics are good, too, like balancing combat/skills, making magic or stealth more interesting, etc.

Thank You. You have been very helpful.

My wishlist is short and simple

-UI overhaul that works and easy to use with a Keyboard and Mouse, as well as compact and centralized Compass at the bottom of the screen, pop up messages being Text only again or 90% smaller then we have seen stat bars being smaller and just above the compass, and menus mainly lists that at least twice as many items on screen then seen and compact

-Game-play hardcoe mode, but more full fledged then NV's mode was along with Eating, and such include higher damage to and from enemies so that you MUST think before taking something on for example theres a bandit with 3 buddies charging in like Chuck Norris is quite frankly too silly having to think a wee bit before confronting them would be great and if you do you get benefit of not dying. This could also help if difficulties in Skyrim are the same as they were in the past being higher difficulty = longer not harder at all

-Economy no matter what Beth does money will be too easy to get and little to spend at end games either less drops by mobs/chests and/or less profit from selling such would be ideal for me I don't want to end up having all the houses in the world just because I "explored" rather then speed running through the game.

-Leveling, other then the UI part of leveling where the Huge heavily COD inspired bar pops up on screen (one of my top issues) want it be to challenging most likely extending how much is needed to level.

-Graphic enhancers, these will be last to come but as seen already modders can give Bethesda's games a HUGE face lift making the experience much more enjoyable of course without DX11 support some things will be missing (unless Beth codes it in not implement it though) if you say graphic make no difference sorry but your idiot it does.

-other fixes, Dungeons reset having control of how many days must past for a dungeon or such to reset its mobs but this time not just by more enemies but by its level too so when you enter a dungeon at level 1 there won't be level 10 mobs when your there at level 30

I'll be playing Stock Skyrim for quite a while i believe.

There is only 1 type of mod that REALLY interests me (if any ever does one) and that's a Total Conversion, Into the Forgotten Realms though, it would also have to add classes back into the game, separating perks from Manual selection to class oriented. Doing the same with spells and abilities like Shield Bash. Overall just making it more like D&D, that's all I'm interested in.