Tes4Mod:Mod Ideas/Game Balance and Immersion

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This article provides Game Balance and Immersion ideas, as part of the Gameplay section of the Mod Ideas article.

Contents 1 Steal Equipped Items 2 Realistic Harbour 3 Void Rift 4 Oblivion Derandomized 5 Better level-up system 6 Scaling of difficulty 7 Improved Difficulty System 8 Rebalance Wounds 9 Game Unbalance 10 NPC sneaking 11 NPC fleeing 12 Re-Load Cells 13 Politeness, insults, challenges (or statements of intent) 14 Options to not fight; Maybe "Ally" with some NPC/creatures 15 Invisible Walls 16 Wear more Rings and Amulets 17 Chronological advancement 18 Dizziness 19 Paranoia, anxiety, accidents, and other effects 20 Become Inebriated 21 Spirit World 22 RealSheogorath 23 Perks 24 Clothing-based Damage 25 Third person sleep animation 26 Borrow and try out items 27 Continuity

[edit] Steal Equipped Items

The equipped items of NPCs should show up in their inventory, at least for high security characters. I'm thinking of a thief, who is so good at stealing, that he can steal the clothes right off of peoples backs, without them noticing it. :)

[edit] Realistic Harbour

This mod should add a lot more boats and ships to Anvil and the Waterfront. To go futher, why not have roters for boats changing. It's rubbish that the boats will never leave the harbour, so instead why not have it so if you leave an area for long enough, or wait, the boats would have changed around.

[edit] Void Rift

There should be rifts scattered across Cyrodiil that randomly move around that generate gravity, which sucks the player in and transports them into a void, where they have to pass a test and get a reward (enchanted item), where they have to pass through a world with a black background and loads of misty bridges between weird pedestals with lost NPCs that you have to save and get rewards off them and storm atronachs that stand in cool passageways looking inwards lining the passage with a cool evil king (bad guy lost NPC or evil Void king) at the end.

[edit] Oblivion Derandomized

Cull 90% of random pieces of the game, replacing them with fixed, non-random monsters, loot, merchants etc of varied level. Adjust NPC level to level of monsters of given part of the game (not to make player redundant on low levels, NPCs redundant/swept immediately at higher in missions like defense of Bruma) Allow start of any quest for any level of the character, but enforce ordering of quests by their difficulty. (thieves guild - for players around level 5 or so, mages, fighters - 10, Dark Brotherhood 15, main quest - 20, assorted random quests - various.)

• there are several mods that tweak random lists so you get a better chance for better loot and harder enemies etc.
  • That's not what I mean, these still mean there's no point in visiting ayleid ruins near Leyawiin or Anvil because Fort Nikel gives you just the same probability for given kind of loot. Only applying a fixed variety of levels for different dungeons you can actually encourage exploration.

[edit] Better level-up system

Develop something like Galsiah's Character Development for Oblivion.

Try Kobu's Character Advancement System.

[edit] Scaling of difficulty

Monsters scale to your level, but NPCs who would be allied with you often don't (most notably in the infamous Kvatch battle). This would give NPCs who you fight alongside level offsets as well, making them more useful in a fight.

[edit] Improved Difficulty System

Difficulty effects things other than combat, such as lock picking.

• An easy change may be to have difficulty affect the luck attribute, as it has a wide impact on all your skills. I'm not sure if negative luck or >100 luck will work though.

[edit] Rebalance Wounds

It may be a sneak attack, but no one is going to be killed instantly by a arrow to the leg!

• has anyone ever played Godfather? In that game you can shoot someone at the knee, they will kneel and cannot walk. and they are disarmed when shot at their arm, as for a shot to the head, they die instantly. this game should have similar physics, i mean that i even shot 3 arrows to a guard's head and it still didnt kill him. what kind of person would be able to still be running around with three arrows in his left eye?
• A possible issue with this is if the same damage scale applied to you. That would mean an awful lot of times that you may get hit in the arm with an arrow and drop your weapon or whatever, and I can't tell you the number of times I'd see an arrow coming out of my forehead. I'd prefer not to have to reload constantly because archers are good shots.
• Try the Locational Damage mod

[edit] Game Unbalance

How about a mod that preserves the exploits that were fixed by the patch? For all us cheapos >:)

[edit] NPC sneaking

When an NPC goes into sneak occasionally, they are standing there looking so obvious it's almost silly. Kills the immersiveness big time. When NPCs sneak, if their skill is high enough, they should actually vanish from view. It would be creepy to hear footsteps behind you in a cave and see nobody. The game would be a hundred times more exciting if NPCs and monsters could sneak attack you, like you do to them.

[edit] NPC fleeing

Every NPC in the game usually always fights to the death. It would be nice if you could hack an enemy down to a certain percentage of hitpoints and have them flee for their lives. You see it occasionally, but not nearly enough. Is everyone so foolishly brave to stand their ground to the bitter end against the champion of Cyrodiil? How gratifying would it be to pick someone off with an arrow to the back while they're fleeing for their lives? Especially those really mouthy ones who figured they were all tough a few moments ago.

• Some flee, an example is Lord Drad's wife (Malacath Daedric quest) if you attack Lord Drad.
• What about the chances of an NPC fleeing increase if you look big and imposing or carry a big and imposing weapon like a warhammer or a claymore? And if you carry a little dagger or knife they can ridicule you and it increases their confidence, something along the lines of "You call that a knife?....THIS is a knife!" So a big orc in ebony armor with a huge hammer will more likely frighten someone than a bosmer in leather with a iron dagger. And certain NPCs not good at magic can be awed at its power, or non-sneaky NPCs get afraid if they know someone is nearby but can't see them. And there could be a new use for the previously useless skill of speechcraft, you could throw insults to terrorize your enemies and if your skill is high enough they could beg for mercy and volunteer to work for you to save their own life or they could flee in terror? And if you use this new skill with sneak you can impersonate a ghost or dremora from the shadows and terrify nearby NPCs into fleeing. Basically going "whoo-oo-oooo-oooo!". But if your skill is low they can find you really easily.
• Un-good - just imagine every fricking fool on flight. And some of them are quite fast. Done? And now imagine yourself tracking them down. Moreover the enemies do flee. When they are on low health, they sometimes flee, even the powerful dremoras (especially wizards).

[edit] Re-Load Cells

When I kill someone -- like Glarthier for example -- his body should not remain there forever! I killed Glarthier when I was like a level 5. I am now a level 20 and his dead body is still laying in Skingrad. How realistic is that!? Dead bodies should rot, or better yet get carried away by "coroners" or "the morgue" or something! There could even be a gravedigger who can later be seen digging a new grave and burying the body. Maybe a friend or two at the "funeral". I mean, come on... even Glarthier had to mean something to someone. What good person would leave their loved one's body laying around forever??

• There is a mod out there which causes a body to rot (I can't find it at the moment. Help?) What starts out as a body will become a zombie corpse, then a skeleton, then disappear. This was mainly brought about because of Prior Maborel.
• See Reneers Corpse Mod
• Some bodies like Glarthir's, are marked as quest items, so they never disappear. Besides, think of the advantages. Even if you don't live in Skingrad, you could store tons of stuff in his pockets if you need to.

[edit] Politeness, insults, challenges (or statements of intent)

• Sometimes, at the end of a discussion, it might be nice to be able to say "thank you", to whoever.
• Conversely, if you are feeling grumpy, something along the lines of the converse might also be allowable. It should be allowable to "insult" someone -- and have it lower disposition. It might even be desirable to have occasional, possible consequences. For example, if I'm insulting, it has good likelihood of lower targets disposition (not guaranteed, they might think I am joking or have thick skin). But for some NPC's, if they are "aggressively inclined", then {if they are "more powerful" (battle-wise), than me, they might start a fight; or if not so powerful, they might do nothing or try for a sneak attack if their stats would allow). Most NPC's _wouldn't_ start violence on being insulted -- but seems realistic if there were some that did.
• A third option would feel "right" in some cases. It was most disconcerting during the Daedric quest for Boethia, where one must fight a member of each race. About 80% of them (maybe 2-3 didn't) were non-hostile -- some even "friendly", in the Oblivion "arenas" in which they were placed. Felt very odd to always go from saying "hi", to making the first "hostile" move. Might have been nice to at least allow me to challenge them, or tell them to prepare for the great beyond...or whatever. Something to formally start "battle" and wipe those pleasant smiles off their faces without me having to smack-em first. Little things like that can affect sense of immersion in role playing.

[edit] Options to not fight; Maybe "Ally" with some NPC/creatures

More than once, looking upon a "creature", or, occasionally, an NPC, but especially those nature spriggans (maybe a bit on those cute flame atriochs), I think -- I don't want to fight this creature. I _like_ nature, and I like many nature creatures. Along the same lines -- many of the animal creatures in Oblivion should not be attacking by "default". Most creatures don't. If they are hungry, if they are cornered, if they are ill, diseased, or hurt -- there are various reasons real animals attack -- but often such animals are just as eager avoid battle with humans as they would be elephants. But the spriggans look like they have some intelligence even though they may be fickle. Maybe if one could bring an offering to one as a bribe? Maybe a salad from Wendy's? Er, ok...not sure what a spriggan would like, but in a way they remind me of sylphs, dryads, or similar. Not all of them would be hostile -- especially if I'm not attacking an animal when they are around. As for Flame atriochs -- maybe a carrying a torch for one? Not that this is a burning issue, but just seems a shame too have to give them a "cold shoulder" to get rid of them. A ring of fire-protection & fire-damage in 10-20' radius (continuous, 1 point) might keep a flame atrioch around, fire protection so wearer doesn't get burnt by their flame companion and the +1 fire damage as a constant "trickle" of "manna" for them. Of course, the ring would have a detriment of damaging friends if worn when they are around, and there's the problem that some of your more straight friends might not get along with your companion "flame-atrioch". If they attack, she would fight back... With some creatures, maybe animals, it might add to their chances of them running away rather than fighting (she might make them nervous, and they might not know where the ring-damage was coming from - other than it seemed to occur when they saw her around, thus escaping might not be a bad idea.

• If there is a hungry wolf or something instead of immediately attack you. Because possibly you could feed them some extra meat and they could be your "Pet" for a while as long as you feed them.

[edit] Invisible Walls

It's particularly irritating when you can't sneak attack X creature/person because that corner apparently juts out a few more centimetres than the visible wall.

• Exterior borders are removed in Borderless Cyrodiil mod.

[edit] Wear more Rings and Amulets

There has to be a mod for being able to wear more than two rings and one amulet (but not too many of each)

• This mod has been created (Unlimited Rings + Amulets)
• This one only covers rings, but you can limit the amount of rings you can wear (Un)limited Rings

[edit] Chronological advancement

New stuff happens. Deal with it. New places pop up in Cyrodiil to which your character may travel. People will have new things going on in their lives, generating more quests. Previously useless NPCs will now have a purpose, but continue to have completely useless people. More useless people generated, so there can be more murders, generating more possible quests. Etc.

[edit] Dizziness

You can spin in circles as much as you want, but youll never get dizzy! It makes no sense! After spinning X amount of times, an effect would be triggered that makes you lose balance and makes the world look sideways and stuff. Maybe dizziness could also be triggered by knock-downs or a blow to the head.

• Just make it recharge so that you don't get smack-out dizzy by spinning ten laps in an hour...

[edit] Paranoia, anxiety, accidents, and other effects

Realistically, even the most capable adventurer would be at least a LITTLE anxious upon entering his or her first Oblivion gate, or during the first encounter with a new type of monster. Make the player's sword hand tremble a little in unfamiliar territory, and make the overall damage or speed a little less.

• Not every shot with a bow will be on target in real life, make them miss once in a while (obviously make it less likely that you'll miss while you're calmly aiming from sneak mode, and more likely to miss as you're trying to aim for that ogre that's running straight for you). Possibly make it so that an arrow has a greater chance of missing if there's more distractions around, or if a sudden noise is made just as the player fires. Or even have random firings where a player is startled by a noise while the bow is drawn, or if his grip just slips.
• Have a few (small) effects of paranoia. Depending on the situation, have noises resembling the characteristic noises enemies would make that are all in the player's head, just to spook him or her out once in a while.
• How come the player can't make mistakes? Misidentify an ingredient, or at least at lower alchemy levels have the player not know some of the more rare ingredients (obviously anyone's going to know what corn is, but how is a player supposed to identify bloodgrass if he or she has never been to Oblivion before to even see bloodgrass?) Or why not get the place marker of a location occasionally wrong? Or when fast traveling have a small chance that you "forgot" where the actual location of where you want to go is, and when you try to fast travel to it, it only leads you to the general area of the place, and you must figure out where it is again by yourself.
• Although all of these would add to the realism of the game, how annoyed would you be if you had a perfect shot right in the head with a bow, and you missed, causing your death, all because of 'nervousness'? Or if you got killed cos you'd been shocked by a creature? or if you spent half an hour manually walking to a place, and then found out it was the wrong marking on the map? Or perhaps ate an ingredient that killed you?

[edit] Become Inebriated

In-game drugs and alcohol have negative effects, but realistically shouldn’t your character (or even NPCs) have the ability to get drunk? If you drink to much cheap wine the screen could go a bit fuzzy and you might stumble when you walk or something, and skooma could make NPCs have purple skin or whatever. It would be an excellent addition in terms of role-playing.

• Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul has that.
• There is also an Inebriation mod with that effect.

[edit] Spirit World

Somone should make a mod where when you die, instead of having to load your old game, you would go to Oblivion and then have to get back via a quest and everytime you died it would become much more difficult to get back.

this sounds fun but you dont go to oblivion when die according to books in tes4 you dont go to oblivion when you die

[edit] RealSheogorath

A mod that improves the god like experiance in many ways these being:

• No more tresspassing (seems highly unlikely)
• Damage multiplication (when inside the shivering Isles all damage you do spells and other alike should be dubbled)
• Better sheogorath protection (One that teleports you back before dieing even if your life is 0 you should be alive teleported and healed, also sometimes the power doesn't work and i don't teleport this must be solved)
• An ability to make the seducers or saints arrest people without reason.
• A power temporairely Dubbeling or even tripeling your size (as dagon)(only working in realm).
• The ability to enter both pinnacle rock and Brellach (+ Cleanup)
• Your escorts fast traviling with you.
• Recognition at the shrine of Sheogorath in Cyrodill.
• Accepted entrance into the Greenmote Silo.
• The ability to use Herdir to make people say stuff instead of just Disposition.
• The ability to use the sheogorath teleportation power inside the castle (The one the real one uses if you attack him).
• The ability to grow a beard (silly but fun) maybe even the ability to shapeshift.
• The ability to drive people even more insane with a lesser power or something.
• The power to make someone the new duke/duchess of Mania/Dementia.
• The power to make Theadil(the juggler) an amusing attraction in the palace (like the dancer)
• No more rudeness toward you (Unless they don't care whom you are)
• Raise the dead lesser power.
• the ability to work Xidilian.
• and the ability to make people (in the Shivering Isles) into your slave untill further notice.
• Change all Sheogorath shrine statues to your character with the sheogorath outfit on. (Shrine and darkfathom for example)
• The everscaps protect you and you can carry and drop the Staff of Everscamp as you please.
• The ability to change, add and remove things in the Shivering Isles (a bit the construction set just much simpler)
• The ability to cause madnes in Cyrodill and the Shivering Isles.

[edit] Perks

It would be nice to see enchanted items that fortify skills actually be useful, especially for spell skills. A 100 point fortify restoration spell should actually enable you to cast Master-level spells, and likewise 100 point fortify sneak should give you the Master-level perk and so forth.

[edit] Clothing-based Damage

There should be clothing and armor effects like a sack cloth shirt will do extra damage if hit with a fire spell or a near instant kill if wearing a steel cuirass and getting hit with a shock spell.

• Problem is, in your iron cuirass, your skin will cook off with a fire spell, you'll freeze into a block with frost, and get shocked to where you can see your skeleton with a shock spell.
• Actually you would not get fried by lightning when wearing steel, in fact if you were standing still with both feet planted on the ground you would be immune to it but it would be fun if your clothes could light on fire :)

[edit] Third person sleep animation

When player uses a bed in order to sleep, switch to 3rd person camera and make him play standard NPC 'go to bed' animations (like in Gothic™ series)

• The See You Sleep mod already does this.

[edit] Borrow and try out items

Sometimes when I go into a shop, I have to wade through a minefield of stealable items to get to the shopkeeper. Just an accidental tap of the spacebar is enough to go from "Hey, how are you?" to "Put that back you filthy thief!" and "Stop! You've violated the law!". That's neither fun nor realistic, as most real-life shopkeepers won't care if you pick up their stuff as long as you put it back.

When you mouse over a store item while not sneaking, it should give you a yellow hand instead of a red one. Activating an item with a yellow hand would either "pass" the activation to the shopkeeper (like saying "how much for this?") or (for equipment) let you pick it up and test it out. For example, you could pick up a bow or a set of arrows at a weapon shop and fire them at the archery targets there before buying them. Or pick up a robe in a clothing store and see how it fits you.

Just like stolen items, borrowed ones wouldn't be sellable, and if you were to attack the shopkeeper or leave the store with the items still in your inventory (shoplifting), they would immediately turn into stolen items. To get rid of the borrowed items legally, you could either talk to the shopkeeper and have him/her take them back (which would be the polite way to do it) or dump them all on the ground (the impolite way to do it). Of course, if you'd rather just steal something outright, you can always slip into sneak mode.

Something this simple would go a long way to make shopping easier, friendlier, and more immersive.

[edit] Continuity

A simple mod, only requiring making things make sense.. Hard to explain, but examples make it easy to understand, such as the shrine of Nocturnal realizing when you are wearing the Cowl of Nocturnal, the Shivering Isles quest To Help a Hero, and the associated NPC Pyke, as well as quest updates for it, realizing you're a Knight of the Thorn if you are one, etc. Things like that which just kill immersion when you come across them, and could easily be remedied.

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