Tes4Mod:Mod Ideas/Population

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995

This article provides Population ideas, as part of the Content section of the Mod Ideas article.

Slaves like in Morrowind

You can buy them, gain their trust, let them die for you, fight for you, make gladiators out of them like in film 'Gladiator' ,the old dude who dies', if they did that you could own a mine, you could own one with gold and silver and let them mine for you, you know, all the things slaves can do.

• Remember, slaves are illegal in Cyrodiil
• You could capture creatures like in Malacath's quest, the guy who has Ogres as slaves.

'Heretics' and their religions

Maybe you could stumble on some cult with their own religion and you have to convert people and cities to your chosen cult's religion.

• Or try to wipe them out in a crusade

Area

Include all regions of Tamriel, not just one in each game. Include all races and people from previous games.

Children

In oblivion you get people who are from 20 to 80 and some much older but no children, why is this?

• Because there are so many rules regarding children’s roles in games, I'd guess.
• That's the popular theory. The one that's rumored to actually have come from Bethesda is that it simply doesn't work with the NPC bodies/clothing system. Or maybe that was in Morrowind? But yes, there are technical difficulties and inconveniences involved as well. You know how beggars have silly accents until you ask them about rumors. Imagine children that turn forty occasionally. The reason isn't important, though. As a mod idea, though, this is entirely valid.
• Here's an idea to make kids that work with the NPC bodies/clothing system: make a mod that removes the pointy ears on wood elves. Pass them off as children in your mod.
• There actually is one child in a mod called thieves arsenal, so it is possible
• It would only keep the feel of the game if you could kill them. And that would be cruel.
• When i make mods i just make the npc scale lower and remove rumors so they look like children.

There is a children mod out there by Bob Zed on planet elder scrolls. It makes a lot of families have children. Here is the link to the download... http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=5442

Couriers

Make the couriers actually do their job (carry info, like crime status, to other cities instead of simply riding around and getting paid)

Random NPCs

For added submersion, the game should generate random NPCs to walk around from certain spawn points when you load into a cell. People you've never seen before. Just generic schmoes taking up space, wandering around, like you'd find in a real city. Maybe some are trainers, maybe some are merchants, maybe some try to pickpocket you, sell you a junk artifact, offer to sell you skooma/moon sugar, run away from you, and follow you around. Let it be all random. Five to ten new NPCs in each town, and one or two in each wilderness cell you enter.

• Tamriel Travelers
• There is a mod called "Crowded Cities" that does this

Non-hostile NPCs

Random non-hostile encounters, fully scripted:

• Non-hostile necromancers would be cool. Like the ones in Cadlew Chapel shouldn't be hostile. But when dressed in Mages guild robes, they should be. Otherwise, they should be just as friendly as any other citizen should.
• Border patrol, Imperial legionnaires. There should be a number of platoons circumnavigating Tamriel. It would be cool to have them properly marching, rather than just walking too. At dusk, they should make camp at various clearings, posting a guard using hourly shifts. Portable bedrolls would be a must here.
• Traveling bards and traders.
• Traders needing escort and protection from scripted ambushes, as well as the option to team up with bandits to ambush traders. Possibly with a function that keeps track of how frequent the ambushes are on that particular road and increases the guards. Perhaps also a higher level of difficulty of defending the trader depending on how much the trader’s cargo is worth.
• Adventurers. With some good loot or a map to some. Should also be ‘campers’?
  • Actually, there is such a thing as an Adventurer.
• Hunters or Rangers. Small groups of people who would rather be in the wilderness than be in large cities, but may occasionally send someone to sell furs or valuable stuff in cities. Maybe a faction you can join. They could also have people ride the roads to protect travelers (ties in with the traveling bard idea), and you can also find them in inns along the roads.
• Actually, there are Rangers in Tamriel, and I believe those people are apart of the legion and the are called Foresters.
• Drunk Sewer-Dwellers
  • For continuity reasons, at least a percentage of sewer-dwellers should be inebriated. Anyone who has been in a Colovian sewer has seen bottles of miscellaneous alcoholic drinks strewn everywhere, but not one sewer-dwelling bandit has appeared in the least drunk. (Some guards in the Imperial City, early in the game, make mention to a cell dubbed "The Drunk Tank" when you ask for rumors).
• Remake, for Oblivion, the old "Earthly Delights Corner Club" that was in Suran in Morrowind. ((Has already been made. It puts an identical one in the Arena District ((need the topless mod or full nude mod to see anything though)).
• Barbers, tattoo parlors, etc as seen in Fable would be a great idea. But why not include custom tailors (and while you're at it, why not make regular clothes actually worth something reasonable. Nobles in Morrowind wear fancy gowns costing over a hundred septims, and gloves costing 40, while Cyrodiil's elite own no clothing worth more than 6 gold), blacksmiths, alchemists, etc who make their own items if they receive raw ingredients (possible from the traders and merchants mentioned before), and could even take requests.

Hostile NPCs

More hostile encounters other than bandits:

• Criminals on the run.
• Thieves, in towns and out in the wild.
• Murderers, in towns.
  • There is a mod out that makes city streets 'dangerous' by adding highwaymen, but I have not seen them in my game yet.
• Bounty hunter that will respawn at some location, and will chase you all over Tamriel, including through dungeons and towns, trying to kill you.

Merchant Caravans

Merchants on horse, on foot, or with the old 2 horse cart. There should be chests and barrels in the back of the cart. Merchants will have leveled escorts, different types of escort depending on their cargo. Note: It would be impossible to tell from a distance what cargo is in the caravan. The only possible clue would be whether it is a horseback, foot or wagon caravan.

• Cargo could include: (in order from worst to best)
  • Household Goods (Cutlery, plates, both poor and rich versions)
    • Wagon only. Leveled melee guards (will always be fairly weak though, representing the low value of the cargo).
  • 'Raw Materials' (Animal hides, ores, rarer things like boar meat, etc)
    • Wagon or horseback. Leveled melee guards.
  • Low Level Alchemy Ingredients (foxglove, St Jahns wort, etc)
    • Wagon, horseback or foot. Leveled melee guards. One leveled hedgewitch.
  • Clothing (both poor and rich versions, robes, pants, etc)
    • Wagon or horseback. Leveled melee guards.
  • High Level Alchemy (rarer ingredients, e.g. frost salts, things like that. Should be very rare chance of acquiring a nirnroot)
    • Foot or Horseback. Leveled melee guards. Two leveled hedgewitches.
  • Weapons and Armor (Steel, Iron, Fur, Leather. At higher levels, add chances to find Dwarven, ebony, mithril, elven. NO glass or Daedric, however)
    • Wagon only. Leveled melee and ranged guards. Perhaps one leveled hedgewitch.
  • Jewelry and Gems (pretty straightforward, level will have no influence on range of jewelry, however higher levels will have better chance of finding better jewelry. Level has no influence on Gems found.)
    • Foot or horseback. Leveled melee and ranged guards.
  • Magical Items (enchanted clothing, rings etc. Soul gems, empty and full. One in say 10 chance to find Welkynd Stone. One in 25 to find Varla Stone. 1 in 45 to find black soul gem. 1 in 75 chance to find a Sigil Stone.)
    • Foot, horseback or wagon. Strong leveled melee and ranged guards. Two leveled hedgewitches, 1 leveled wizard adept.
  • Royal Treasures (leveled gold, enchanted royal clothing, golden weapons and armor. Guaranteed chance to find randomly-generated artifact. 1 in 10 chance to find Red Welkynd Stone. 1 in 25 chance to find perfect gem. 1 in 50 chance to find Varla Stone. 1 in 75 chance to find Sigil Stone. 1 in 95 chance to find rare spell tome.
    • Airship only. Extremely powerful Daedric guardians, plus a leveled Dremora Valkynaz and a Xivilai aboard the ship. Escorted by Daedric dragon-like creatures that breath fire and are ridden by Dremora, plus a Daedric gunship with fireball cannons. Almost impossible to ambush and attack, since the dragons randomly conduct searches for ambushers and attack them if spotted. Dragons can be hijacked. Boarding only possible when a dragon is hijacked and landed on the deck. Airship can be hijacked and loaded with ammunition.
• Maybe the simpler versions could just be a horse (or maybe a donkey: D) carrying a pack on its back with the merchant leading it.

Mercenaries

Another concept I would like to see would be hiring of guards, or mercenary soldiers. These would be useful to guard your manors, take with you into the wilderness, and/or guarding your property in plug-ins such as Deepscorn Hollow, Frostcrag Spire, Goblinwatch Keep, The Thieves Den, et cetera. Another interesting function, particularly for Deepscorn Hollow, Frostcrag Spire, Goblinwatch Keep, and The Thieves Den would be to introduce attacks by obvious enemy types. A message of the attack would be delivered to you wherever you are, summoning you home.

• Attacks may include:
  • Deepscorn Hollow: Imperial Legion Guards and mages. Mages guild members. Dark Brotherhood members (if I remember correctly, the Crimson Scars are a splinter cell not too friendly with the Brotherhood?)
    • But wouldn't it be stupid if you were either head of the mages guild or head of the Dark Brotherhood; it'd be like attacking yourself?
      • Perhaps when you become guildmaster of said factions they will stop attacking there.
  • Frostcrag Spire: Random attacks such as wolves, atronachs, etc. Stronger concerted attacks with atronachs and Monarchs (stronger version of atronach, mentioned in Morrowind in a book about the history of artifacts of Tamriel, referring to the Ice Blade of the Monarch), concerted by say a monarch or a strong wizard. Necromancer attacks (perhaps while in Mages Guild storyline - after death of Mannimarco they will cease.)
  • Goblinwatch Keep: Goblins (archers, skirmishers, berserkers, the whole caboose) perhaps with some Ogres and Trolls along. I recall seeing trolls and goblins working in concert in a couple of instances throughout Oblivion. These attacks would need to consist of fairly large numbers; after all, it is quite a hike from the bottom to the top of the keep path. Mechanisms would need to be in place to hire defenders, or recruit legion soldiers or something like that to defend the Keep, of course.
  • The Thieves Den: (by the Thieves Den I mean the plug-in that lets you get your own ship with pirates, and your own 'home' which acts as a sort of pirates hall thing). There could be attacks by Town Guards, Legion soldiers, marauders, fellow pirates, etc. Occasionally a Land Dreugh or maybe something new like a Kraken or such could wander in and have a go.

What about hiring a guard to follow you if you’re famous enough or a bodyguard acquired like the maid at rosethorn, or even, if you have completed the main story the ability to have a legion guard squad following you, interchangeable with foresters when necessary

New Races

Another race like a tribal culture or something introducing new weapons like blowpipes and different poisons (MOSH no1).

The mods have already created many new races, but some already existing ones that aren't included in the game, aren't there in the mods too. Some race ideas are Werewolf, Fairy, and on (be creative) {how about Dwemer that weren't destroyed in the Morrowind history}

• Well it's hard to just introduce new races into a world that never had them before. Just shoving in a new race is hard. They could have something happen and more races appear. Who knows though? I personally like the races now. Hm... Maybe you can be an offspring that's a mixture of two races?
  • How about a hybrid such as a cross between Argonians and Imperials, as if they looked in the original elder scrolls? Or, i know it’s a long shot, but Sload would be really cool, even if u can’t play as them
  • Or maybe they could add the races from the other lands that traveled to Tamriel or the ape race that is enslaved by the bosmer makes them into playable races
    • • The Akavir spring to mind...
        • Maybe a human-bird race. There could be a rumor that people have seen big flocks of large birds flying around; you see one and watch where it goes. You follow them up north and see more and more. Then you get in the Jeralls area and see this big rock floating above everything. You could climb to Dive Rock and see it's a city of bird people. QUESTS ENSUE!!
• Maybe addition of the Argonian/Khajiit subraces that work with the engine.
  • • • • • Maybe a race that is already in the world? Like a troll, goblin, whatever has two arms and legs should be fine
• Have some race that's almost entirely animal, and is so new that it barely speaks Cyrodillic, and still uses some of it's own language. Like some big ape that walks on knuckles and feet, and says, when asked about rumors says, "That arshurg Amantius Allectus is cooking up a lot of fordin." And there's some quest to find a translator that teaches you their language.

Werewolves

A version of the morphing mod which turns your character into a werewolf on full moons if he is bitten by a wolf or even an npc werewolf, giving them drastically altered stats - increased strength, speed, agility, and sneak while reducing others like security speechcraft and mercantile to zero. Also in werewolf form all npc's should have a disposition of zero towards you and silver weapons and arrows could do 50% more damage for obvious reasons.

• Modular Oblivion Enhanced has a Lycanthropy and Lichcraft component with very well-done werewolves (although the transformation occurs every night to make it useful).
  • I'd like to see something where normal people are all that's in a city during the day. But say you're in a city after dark heading to an inn or something, and a werewolf jumps off a building and attacks, maybe you get infected and are normal by day, yet by night you get a cool transformation sequence where you become a monster. And maybe after 3 weeks with this, you gain a greater power where you can transform at will, and if you don't use it by nightfall you transform anyway or if you do you don't transform at night.

Dwemer

What happened to all the Dwemer? It says in Morrowind that Dagoth Ur used the Keening, Sunder, and Wraithguard to make all the Dwemer disappear into another realm. Perhaps they were sent to Oblivion.

• I agree, it would be cool if, while exploring the Jeralls, you could stumble upon an (or so it seems) abandoned mine entrance, and upon exploration you find out that it is actually the last Dwemer stronghold, quests ensue!
• Perhaps a future expansion could explore a storyline that involves saving the Dwemer race from extinction on a plane in Oblivion and bring the surviving Dwemer back to Tamriel. Also, for the record, not all the Dwemer disappeared, there was one Dwemer that you could meet in Morrowind. Sorry for the spoiler.
  • That would be very inconsistent with the storyline in the ES series. In Morrowind Lord Vivec said that the Dwemer disappeared beyond his sight and he passes though all planes of Oblivion and traverses amongst the gods. What would be better is if you could run into Yagrum Bagarn and Divayth Fyr looking for a way to fix Yagrum.
• Maybe you could travel back in time by like a Dwemer ghost that comes to you in your dream and tells you to save him after that you would get a power or object with witch you could travel back in time to another cell. that is like a small country (a Dwemer stronghold) that you aren't able to leave because then it says for example that you can not leave the area because the rest of the world is in a separate time then you would have to help the Dwemer overcome the threat and return to your own time where now some Dwemer NPC's are present. You could also deactivate the object or cast the power again to return to your own time at any time in the mean while the Dwemer world would stand still and if you activate it or cast it again you return to the exact same time/moment and place. Saving the Dwemer would be the main quest but there would be lots of other things to do in the stronghold like smaller quests and buying things. Although this might be hard to create it would pretty cool.
• There is a mod in development already that adds High Dwemer (the supposed decedents of the survivors of the Dwemer not on nirn at the time of the Dwemer extinction.), see Children of Rourken
• The Dwemer are an (as good as) extinct race, there's nothing to do about that without disturbing the 'bigger' storyline. The one thing that should be added is the Dwemer artifacts but this isn't the right page to discuss that of course.
• Yeah Yagrum has survived (if i'm not wrong) becouse he was'nt on morrowind so maybe others to? and they could make a machine to find the Dwermers. Perhaps they are in the same place as Lorkhan.

Maormer

It would be cool to be a Maormer in the game. They could have a water breathing ability, a water walking greater power, if you could make a sea serpent, they could have a summon spectral sea serpent (so they wouldn't have to be in the water) for 120 seconds, and calm creature (because they can tame animals) lvl 5 for 30 seconds.

The Sload

I would like to see the Sload as a playable race or an NPC at least. The Sload are noted to be too large to move, however, they are adept in teleportation. Therefore they could have a lesser power called 'Sload Movement' in the school of Alteration where the player becomes a small wisp and moves at the speed of a normal character for 120-240 seconds. However, they can also lumber at slow speeds to speak with NPC's. They could also have the 'Recall' ability that has been mentioned. In using this Greater Power they would teleport back to the doorstep of the last cave, building, fort, etc. they entered. They could also have the attribute 'Sload Hands' that damages their Blade, Armorer, Blunt, Block, Marksman, and hand-to-hand skills by 10 points. They would specialize in Magic with a 20-point Conjuration and Alteration bonus to all Sload of any class, gender, or birthsign. Sload players also reap the benefits of a starting attribute of 55 endurance, 45 willpower, and 50 intelligence, while falling with a meager 20 strength, speed, and agility. Sload can also have the visual of their weight altered by the player during customization while not directly changes any stats.

Bottled Faeries

It would be cool to implement faeries into Oblivion. Not only would they be visually pleasing, but also you could trap them in bottles and harness their magical powers. There could even be a faerie-catching NPC added (to sell bottled faeries to, maybe?), and maybe even a quest or series of quests.

• Why don't we just fully integrate LoZ into Oblivion in a mod?: D

Contagious Disease

Dozens of diseases the player can catch, but nobody else seems to get sick. Should be a way to have NPC's get sick, either through plagues spreading in towns, normally from rats and zombies, or by direct infection from the player. Can a lesser power be created that spreads diseases the player already has? A quest to get sick with every disease in the game would be completely different from any other objective I've heard of...

• Perhaps it might even be feasible to introduce some logistical equation that govern how such common diseases spread through a city's population - over time, people would recover by themselves and others might contract the disease. Eventually, a strain will diminish because everyone recovers or so many people catch it that NPCs start commenting on the 'epidemic' and call upon the player to heal everyone.
• Maybe a rogue mage creates a plague? Nerastarel in Skingrad springs to mind, what with the dead tree in his backyard and the zombies in his house.
• Maybe a problem with city sanitation. Say there's a quest where you go into the sewers and clean up and find out some goblin shaman has been summoning zombies that rot and cause disease and you have to kill them.

Disease Immunity

Maybe when you catch a disease a few times, you become immune to it. And there might be some races that aren't just resistant to all diseases, just some.

• The Disease Immunity mod makes you immune to diseases you've been infected with several times.

Nomads

How about 10 people or so who are there doing stuff in a camp one day but move on the next and are somewhere else, could include merchants. Would require portable bedrolls and tents.

Chatting NPCs look at each other.

I don't think NPCs should stare at me when they're deep in conversation with one another. Taken one-step further, I would like all NPCs to ignore me (kept merchants and quest NPCs).

• Perhaps add some dialogue so when you interrupt a conversation the NPC you attempted to speak with will say, "Pardon, I'm trying to talk to someone here." or something along those lines, or just ignores you completely.
• Or (to get around voice acting issues), they could just sort of stop, look at you in annoyance, and carry on where they were. Maybe some do that and some ignore you, depending on whatever factors seem important to the modder.

More unique NPCs

I think there are simply not enough unique NPCs in Oblivion. I would find Oblivon more enjoyable with killable people that have unique objects such as the 40 or so people in Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon.

More Servants

I personally love Bruma but always buy the Rosethorn Hall just for the nord servant. Wouldn't it be simple for one of you guys to throw in a servant for Bruma and some of the other nicer houses such as Anvil? If I were literate at all in this modding business, I would try it.

Half-Race

Anyone who has been in the arena bloodworks at least once knows Agronak-gro Malog. He is a half-orc. Wouldn't it be nice to have a half-elf or a Half-Nord Half-Breton? All the race specified skills are averaged out, so one isn't unstoppable.

• Actually Bretons are half-elves...
• THAT is simply not true. Meric origins and actual "half-racedness" is something entirely different. See here for more information.

Legion Forts Or Legion Garrisons In Cities

There are dozens of forts in cyrodiil, but they're all in ruins. Why isn't there any fort used by the imperial legion that is still standing? They need a place too sleep outside the imperial city as well. So place some small forts around or at create some place for them to stay in the cities.

Change the Imperial City Watch's Greeting

It's irritating when an IC Watch member asks you "Speak" when you have no intention to talk to them.

City Wars

I though that you could have one major city that always seams to start small-scale wars with other cities so like Arcten could be it's name or something. This city would have endless amounts of soldiers that would respawn after a war. Also you should allow the city to participate in the wars and you would get paid. And if your city loses the war then you die and you just have to load a save game.

• Implausible. With the Empire lacking an emperor and the provinces becoming slightly disruptive there is already quite a bit of political turmoil in Cyrodiil, I doubt that the Elder Council and Ocato are going to allow actual combat between the cities of Cyrodiil. There might be some leniency towards minor political squabbles, but anything beyond that would likely lead to a declaration of martial law by Ocato... And if you're suggesting a foreign city that's also highly unlikely as there are no existing cities in Tamriel that have been shown to possess the necessary strength to actually take on the Imperial Legion. If you want more combat download OOO.

Morrowind Races in Oblivion

Some of the races have only small changes since Morrowind, others have major changes that would requires changes to the spell and skill system. Still it would be nice to have the option to play diffrent versions of the races. You could go the whole way and add Morrowind skills to oblivion as well. I wrote a comment here about some of the race differences.

Prev:  Content - Sound And Music

Up: Content

Next: Content - Creatures