Tes4Mod talk:Mod Ideas

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the Halo2 ideas would be cool if made possible and balanced...


I removed the request for bindable mouse buttons, because it's already present (although well hidden) in the standard game engine. Enter menu options>controls>controls and you'll see the bindings window with something like <- Keyboard -> on top. Click the arrows by the word "Keyboard" to switch to bindings for mouse and joystick. Unfortunately it seems mouse wheel rotation is unbindable. Took me a good while to find it. Maybe should be a faq entry? --Vook 17:49, 2 April 2006 (EDT)

Maybe on the Oblivion:Technical Support page... --Wrye 20:16, 2 April 2006 (EDT)

I realy like the ecomomy mod idea. If you attack a mine kill the workers and just leave it ruined the supply of iron goes down, less iron means less to use for making swords, therfore less weapons for sale in stores. It would be cool to see the effects of supply and demandin oblivion.

Contents

[edit] List Existing Mods

Some of these ideas already have released mods or mods in progress and I would expect many of them to soon have mods. Do we want to list some suggested mods that satisfy a particular idea (not all mods, a few of the most popular would do). I recently created a related page (Oblivion:Must_Have_Mods) but I would expect that to be limited to a few dozen 'elite' best of the best. -- DaveH 00:35, 4 April 2006 (EDT)

IMHO this should remain an -idea- page, and all ideas made into real mods should be removed. On the other hand, a page with MOD REVIEWS would be a neat idea. (your opinions/impressions about given mods, tell what mods you like and why, which ones suck, why, etc.)
I disagree with the last post before this. I think they should stay on the page, But I think that a link should be provided to where the mod is rather than just saying "a mod exists". In the case of there being more than one mod of that type, use the Bayesian estimate to post the best matching one. I'm in the process of providing links. --Rylasasin 11:57, 4 April 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Unlikely, Impossible and Downright Stupid Mods

Okay, quite a few of the ideas listed here are ones that would involve changing the game engine itself, or suggesting things Bethesda have said hundreds of times are not possible. Is it reasonable to delete the suggestions, and add a "Common impossible suggestions" section on the end? The 50 thousandth "Horseback combat" suggestion is starting to wear thin.Talkie Toaster 11:18, 27 April 2006 (EDT)

Another real bummer to me is that people always seem to demand Mods that crosslink to other games/stories/movies... Maybe I´m truely wrong here but I don´t get the idea why Jedis, Matrix Agents or Xenomorphs ever should play a role in a Medieval World like Tamriel. It also doesn´t make any sense to me to add "Ringish" Things like Hobbits to the game. In the end this is an elder Scrolls game and there are truely enough games out there dealing with the critters which I mentionned above.

It´d make much more sense instead to post those ideas in places which aren´t devoted to TES but to TCs of all sort. Just my thoughts... --Lizzarddude 11:42, 12 July 2006 (EDT)

I'm seeing too many completely moronic ideas on the page. I did some quick edits but is it cool to drop some of these? I know these are peoples ideas but some are just ridiculous and a waste of time to read. For example, just in one section we have, "Random sickos that snipe people from a distance", this is not Counter Strike, what purpose at all would that serve, would Lee Harvey Oswald be the new incarnate of Umbra? Next there's a few random extinct species that are cousins to more natural animals; can't we just have buffalo instead of the buflooloo Sippy that is completly unheard of and confusing? A Sea-Eagle, for what an easter egg?! Kvatch survivors looking for an Ornament... what are you talking about? Then we have "Felis Catus", what's wrong with the real terminology for Cat? "Evil Bunnies that attack en masse", what is this, I would break my game if it had this. I don't want to be the judge of others desire's but my eyes burn from reading such blatant stupidity. So, where do we draw the line on what can be edited off? --AlbinoMudcrab 12:31, 13 August 2006 (EDT)

A few thoughts...
  • The page definitely needs some clean up and organization by an experienced editor/mod.
  • The purpose of the page is just to list ideas so pretty much anything goes (short of vulgar and offensive ideas). We don't want to analyze every idea as to its merit which is very much in the eye of beholder. "Evil bunnies" may well seem silly/useless to you but someone else may think otherwise. Quickly scanning the page I don't see very many ideas I would remove (edit and organize definitely though).
  • Similarily be careful with gauging an idea's technical merit. "Multiplayer", "Mounted Combat" and other far fetched things may seem impossible but I assure you they are not (see the Morrowind multiplayer mod for example).
  • We can definitely split off good and great ideas into their own page or pages. That would make this the "anything goes" idea page while better and more thought out ideas would go on another page.
-- DaveH 13:05, 13 August 2006 (EDT)
When you see something that is absolutely impossible to integrate into the game, make a section saying "Things that can't be done" and put it in so people will stop requesting it. Unlikey and stupid ones I see no problem with. This page is designed to give modders some inspiration, and if the modder feels like making a stupid mod so let them. You don't need to rant at people about how much work is involved in creating X mod unless they are asking you specifically to make it and you dont want to. And even then it shouldn't be on this page.
Long story short, make a section for impossible-to-make mods and ignore the rest.
Some mods are stupid ideas, though. The evil bunnies are, for example, or the "Longcat" idea (Longcat is a cat that would be used as a claymore and would make meowing noises on strike). I agree with AlbinoMudcrab, that some ideas are stupid. The Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion (and in fact all Elder Scrolls games) take themselves way to seriously to include evil bunnies or "longcats." I too would break my game if I was ever attacked by evil bunnies. Also, I agree that hobbits and jedi do not belong in Elder Scrolls, besides the fact that it would be against the law. The Elder Scrolls series creates a living, breathing world, and, by including jedi and hobbits, would seriously break immersion, which these people are constantly complaining about. --Twentyfists 10:38, 24 February 2008 (EST)

[edit] "Active Quest"

Active quest wasn't removed by BTMod. BTMod just killed the compass. It didn't kill dialogs popping up every 30 seconds, telling you you just did some quest-related thing and to make it your active quest. Three bears attack you, you barely kill one, near dead. Suddenly a popup tells you you just killed a bear and that you must seek two more, they must be somewhere nearby. You click the OK and the other two bears start mauling at you before you manage to get back in character and take action. You barely manage to heal yourself and escape, then shoot the second bear with a poison. You aim poisoned arrow at the third bear and are just about to release it when a popup message tells you you have one more bear to kill, and the quest will be completed. You click OK and poisoned arrow flies into the nearby pond while the bear happily mauls you to death. These dialogs reveal WAY too much, tell you what to do next, despite lack of any hints as to what to do, if you're to read a journal or something, you first get the dialog with a summary, then text of the journal... A crime against immersion, a spoiler and a cheat. Morrowind's "Journal entry added" would perfectly suffice.

That´s one of the many concessions that were made to Console players. There are many studies which reveal that "the common" Console player is the more "faster" type of player who don´t like to deal with riddles or path-finding tasks. It´s the main point that makes Oblivion such a tedious game after a while. Regarding the crappy journal and that it often tells things before they happen, even Tomb Raider 1 had more RPG aspects --Lizzarddude 06:36, 23 July 2006 (EDT)

[edit] lifeline length

  • MORE QUESTS!! there is like 6 main story lines to complete that can all be done within a 4 hour limit.... for christ sake morrowind had a much bigger lifeline.
(actually, someone has beaten the main storyline of morrowind in 7 and a half mintes, and thats from the very START of the game! Character Creation included and all! Check it out at http://speeddemosarchive.com/Morrowind.html) - Woosty
That's because Morrowind didn't enforce stupid limitations on the player. Imagine this scenario: Lockpick maxed out near start. KILL blades and Emperor, grab amulet, escape from prison running from guards, cutting whole tutorial and canals part.Find a strong command humanoid spell and fortify mysticism and magicka to cast it. Fasttravel to Kvatch, ignore gate, kill daedra outside chapel, Command Martin to follow you to the Temple. Amulet, Martin, Temple, end. Except it's impossible because emperor won't die until the scripted event, blades don't really carry the prison keys, Martin won't do squat until you leave the amulet... and in Morrowind the main quest done -properly- was about twice as long. Plus there were twice as many factions with equally long questlines.
Yeah, those limitations are pretty stupid... Why shouldn't you be able to force the game to end in a completely unrealistic manner? :-)
The scripting is there so the story doesn't get bollixed accidentally, not to ruin the fun of the people who enjoy breaking the game. If the player should be free to do what you describe there's little point to having a story at all. If you write better and more varied storylines and integrate them better in the game mechanics then you don't need as much railroading, but then you get buried in the workload. Example: player takes Amulet of Kings, but player then goes out to find the Mythic Dawn to hand over the Amulet and accepts a mission to assassinate Martin... but now you've got two diverging story lines, twice as much work, plus you need to make sure all of it is still fun and challenging, yadda yadda. Oblivion deliberately skimps on choice and length in the main quest because you're supposed to get your kicks in the sandbox environment (unfortunately, its balancing system ruins this a bit because it doesn't matter enough whether you go out and train Superman for taking on the main quest or have Larry the Limp-Wristed charge right into Oblivion from the imperial dungeons). If you prefer the "six sides to every story" approach, or the "one epic story you get to star in" approach, Oblivion's just not the right game.
The most worthwhile approach is probably to add more and longer side quests with competing factions and whatnot, and there are plenty of mods to do that. I don't really see the point of making the main quest longer without rebalancing the game as well, and those things combined are a lot of work -- it's practically writing a new game.

[edit] Quests

  • Kvatch rebuilt- There have been rumors circulating that Bethesda will make a mod for this in the near future. (if you have the mod for the wizards tower you notice there is a portal to kvatch.)
Since the Wizard Tower was build long years ago it´s only logical that the portal to Kvatch is still there but no longer active. I don´t believe that there will be a Mod from Beth that deals with the Kvatch rebuilt since it doesn´t make any sense. Kvatch is a "big" city and it would take years for the ingame population to rebuild it. Also Beth didn´t take care about other minor inconsistencies, e.g. the fires around closed Oblivion gates that seem to burn forever... --Lizzarddude 06:23, 23 July 2006 (EDT)
I have Frostcrag Spire as well and this was the first thing I thought when I saw the portal. I've seen two user mods that have Kvatch rebuilt although I don't know if they're completed yet. However, I have to disagree, I think having Kvatch rebuilt as part of an expansion is a likely and good idea. Kvatch currently is just a large waste of unavoidable space, the "tent" merchants aren't even worth talking to after level 10. I would hope the rebuild of Kvatch wouldn't be the primary part of the expansion but I think incorporating it would leave numerous new paths open to explore. For one, it would be great to see it slowly be rebuilt, possible resource gathering quests could be used in conjunction with this. As far as the population question, reinforcments could be sent from other cities presuming the Main Quest has been completed. A Quest to start a new guild in the "newest" city, possibly with choices of Guild type would be crucial. Of course a new house to own, a quest could be done for this. Then you have the second Arena in Cyrodiil, which could be designed differently than the first, maybe with weapons that are scattered about, or with new exotic animals one must stay clear of when fighting. I just think the game warrants something in that area, it literally is a bump on a log. --AlbinoMudcrab 00:33, 12 August 2006 (EDT)
Sorry, but Battlehorn Castle was the last official mod.

[edit] Reply to "Quests"

I have heard that Bethesda IS going to make a mod for Rebuilding Kvatch and I'v seen that if you joined the Impereial city arena that they want you to be the blademaster and there be new monsters and wepeons.

[edit] Accidental deletions

Just wanted to apologise for my accidental deletion of about two-thirds of the page on the 7th of May. I was trying to fix a broken wikilink, but it appears my connection screwed up on me. -- 203.161.81.243 07:38, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Revamp

I just made some attempts to clean up this page, and make it somewhat less of a disorganized mess. I've tried to get the format a bit more standardized, and I tried to get rid of most attributions. Based on discussions earlier on the page I've tried to not filter the suggestions based upon merit or feasibility. However, there are still a fair number of things have been deleted. For anyone who is curious why some suggestion disappeared, here are the general reasons why I changed things:

  • Many comments were moved to more appopriate sections so that some sense of order could be restored to the page.
  • Some comments that were repeats of existing comments (especially noticeable after rearranging things) were deleted
  • Anything that consisted of a gripe rather than a constructive mod suggestion was deleted
  • Suggestions that have been made obsolete by official mods have been deleted
  • Story-telling and other commentary that added no actual information to the page has been deleted
  • As stated at the top of the page the article is not supposed to include suggestions for major expansions. Therefore I deleted ideas that consisted of completing overhauling the game.

There's still a lot more work that could be done on the page, but hopefully everyone else will find it a bit less chaotic now. --NepheleTalk 16:55, 14 June 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Going to start directing the Mod Ideas page at the Oblivion Mod Wiki here.

Well, the Oblivion Mod Wiki was recently relaunched. We're going through and attempting to consolidate the amount of work that we've got to do, so that we can focus all of our time on actually adding mods. Because of that, I figured I'd just start redirecting anyone who may want to add something to this page to the Mod Ideas page here. That is, unless someone objects. -Vhaeos 16:31, 18 July 2007 (EDT)

Makes sense to me, and makes me wonder whether longterm we should discuss whether to somehow merge the pages, instead of having overlapping and somewhat redundant lists. Also, if you or any other Oblivion-Mod-Wiki-ers have suggestions about this page, the input would be welcome. There have been a few discussions on this talk page about what should or should not be in the article, and getting more feedback from modders would always help with making the article be as useful as possible for those who might want to use the page. --NepheleTalk 18:20, 18 July 2007 (EDT)
If you don't merge them, can I suggest splitting the existing Mod page into several (one per section, maybe?) to make it easier to watch changes you're interested in, instead of the whole thing. --Robin Hood 10:55, 19 July 2007 (EDT)


[edit] Modeling program

I got this idea from the first series of "The Sims: Deluxe". There you could customize your persons, I'm not sure if this is already been said, but, why not make a program that runs outside the game, to be able to make your own weapons, and remodel characters, to suit your own opinion, remodeling weapons, armor, items, NPC's won't delete or overwrite their original look, you will just create a new one to add in the game...

There already is such a program. In fact, it's Bethesda endorsed too. It's called the construction set, and you can get it here.[1] It can be used not only to create your own content, but to examine the items, cells, scripts and actors of the game. --Saruuk 07:12, 29 July 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Akatosh mount upgrade

i heard of the akatosh mount... its cool, but i think it coud use some upgrading: here are my upgrade ideas: Make an option in the menu alowing the akatosh to feed on live prey, it woud be called: "Feed" When you have selected it, the akatosh woud find the closest live monster/humanoid(not a guard), take it in its jaws sling it high into the air, and swalow the prey head first, howle, then you shoud see a lump sliding down the akatosh's throught and dissapearing into the main body of the akatosh(the stromach).

Please tell me what you think. if any of you know how to make it please respond to me on this page... jkarlson

[edit] My request

I have an idea, but it doesn't fit on the page because it doesn't really add anything to the game. Can someone change the IDs of all the objects, spells, people, etc in the game to things easier to remember? Deleting spells with the console is especially infuriating, but for objects and such too.

It's how the game works. Everything is numbered, and what you're typing is a representation of that number. With a lot of effort, you could renumber things, but that would obviously be of no help. Being able to call everything by name would have been useful, but Bethesda just didn't write the engine that way.
You could conceivably write a script that can take a meaningful name and spit out an ID, but the people who could write such a script have no need of it, and you'd still need to consult a list for the exact name of things. JRM 06:16, 11 September 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Is There a Modder in the House?

Okay, there's been the usual trickle of ideas into the gutter that is this page and I find myself wondering this: is there anybody doing modding that actually reads this (and gets real ideas from it*)? Here's my suggestion. If nobody from the modding community responds to this within seven days I'm going to propose this article for deletion. If nobody responds within seven days after that, it is valid deletion fodder. Obviously, I'm willing to listen to other counter-arguments. It'll be interesting to see if anybody even notices this comment. --Rpeh•T•C•E• 17:59, 23 October 2007 (EDT) * Edit - --Rpeh•T•C•E• 18:05, 23 October 2007 (EDT)

The suggestion for deletion of this page keeps coming up. Yes, it's a bit messy. But it's also the most heavily edited page in the tes4mod section. I tend to think that it serves as something of a lightning rod. E.g., if we wiped it out, then someone would just recreate it. I'd say leave it.
Now, how useful is it? I personally have looked at it a couple of times, but have not derived any new ideas. Ideas are usually plentiful -- time and ability to implement them is not. Besides modders usually are only motivated to write mods that solve problems that they are interested in).
OTOH, I've several times seen people suggest mods or ideas on the forums that seems stupid or impossible -- only to have someone implement them soon after. A great example was someone's idea a Morrowind mod that would allow you to take screenshots that would then appear as paintings in play. Impossible on the face of it, but one of the experienced modders came up with a solution within 24 hours. Very out of the box and it taught the rest of us a new technique (a technique that Breeze is using in his Succubi/Seducers mod for Oblivion that allows the PC to shape shift into alternate characters).
I do think that where implemented mods exist, they ought to be linked to or at least mentioned. Truth is that probably about half the ideas are already implemented. --Wrye 00:36, 24 October 2007 (EDT)
Also, Oblivion Mod Wiki did choose to redirect their mod ideas page here (see earlier section). That wiki seems to be going through some technical difficulties again, but I'm guessing it's temporary, at which point they'll again be pointing modders to this page. If nothing else, Vhaeos' request indicates that members of the modding community are aware that the page exists. --NepheleTalk 01:12, 24 October 2007 (EDT)
I’m sure that, for the more experienced and sophisticated modders who access &/or submit to this page, Mod Ideas is a “gutter.” However, for Absolute Beginners such as myself, this is one of the very few places we can go to in order to get practical feedback for our personal projects. Believe me, I have spent many an hour these recent days (hours I could have spent in gameplay, mind you) trolling the wide, deep Web-verse for just such areas. Please keep us in mind when considering deactivating this page.
That said, the project I have eating away at the grey cells in the back of my tiny, li’l brain is this: construct a truly interactive companion to accompany my PC in his adventures thru TES realms
I’m sure that, in one way, this sounds like a wholly unremarkable goal; there may be a couple score companion mods out there for the asking (in one instance, I’m still looking for the “Female Pirate Companion” whom I read of in passing a week or so ago and haven’t been able to re-locate since). I want this companion for my guy because just about the only complaint I have in playing the TES games (if you can even call it a complaint) is how darned lonely it can become to go questing in a magical realm that’s inhabited by robots.
I guesstimate 40+ because I’ve looked as many of the TES/Oblivion related sites as I could find so that I might get some ideas of what’s doable and what isn’t; I’ve downloaded a few, “test-partnered” each (or more, in the case of the Fellowship of the Nine, say), and now I think I have a reasonably firm sense of where to go with this idea.
For one thing, I like the Heather Golightly companion for the base-model, who’ll eventually become my test-companion, mainly ‘cause the anonymous authorship and Mature warning label virtually guarantees that no one’ll show up down the line and rap my knuckles for “stealing” their ideas/hard work/script. I’m also mulling cherry-picking elements of other companions so as to give my companion access to as many conversational/physically interactive options as possible. The goal here is to make a companion with character, a personality that doesn’t exhaust it’s conversational bank into the first 15/20 minutes of play. Not just a pretty (or handsome, depending on the player’s gender-choice) face who’ll agree with everything the PC is directed to do. A someone who might actually argue with the PC, maybe even go off on their own direction for a time, or take any number of other actions that a thinking character might do in similar circumstances (with a variable choice option in the script, so the companion won’t make the same decision in the same situation every time).
I know that someone’ll surely suggest I look into online games such as WoW, or find other games –such as Bioware’s Jade Empire- that more directly address this kind of interactivity. Firstly, I simply don’t wanna pay a monthly fee for the privilege of joining a 40-member crew in an attempt to kill a major boss; and despite all its other virtues, Jade Empire’s “gameplay-by-committee” technique can be SO annoying at times that I almost wish my character was allowed to drop-kick (crane style, no less) the whole crew into the nearest canal.
Meanwhile, my biggest fear is that this could prove to be a HUGE file, owing to how ideally this companion would be able to anticipate any reasonable decision the PC acted upon and respond in their own unique (or at least individual) way. Worse, probably, I’d like to offer the finalized, workable model to the community-at-large with options like birthsign-, classe-, gender-choice.etc., and even Teen & Mature versions, just as a sop to ESRB, ya know?
As well, I wanna play in TES more than anywhere else, and ultimately, the sheer challenge of creating such a mod is really appealing.
So, it this just a punchline for a Letterman-style “Stupid Modders Trick,” an inoperable pipedream, or what? Any and all opinions will be happily read (‘though not necessarily acted upon, of course).Eddie Buddha 16:35, 30 October 2007 (EDT)
While mod ideas are listed here (with a very small amount of feedback), this is not the place to discuss mod ideas. Such discussions belong on the elder scrolls Oblivion Mods forum. --Wrye 20:56, 30 October 2007 (EDT)
Well it appears the majority is in favour of keeping the page, so fair enough. I just worry for my sanity if I see another comment beginning with "It would be cool if..."! --Rpeh•T•C•E• 03:17, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Mods for the Xbox360

Just a thought, but the other day I was on Xbox.com and I noticed that they had their patches available for download. Reading further, I found that you were supposed to download them (this is for people without Xbox Live) to a disk, and then insert it into your Xbox360. This would then start the automatic updating process. This made me wonder if someone with experience in code could format a mod into a psuedo-patch allowing for Xbox360 mods that could be downloaded via the internet. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.14.233.122 (talk • contribs).

Unless someone wants to hack the security layer that Microsoft adds to all Xbox content, no. The problem isn't putting the content onto some type of media and inserting into your Xbox 360; the problem is convincing your Xbox 360 that it is legitimate content, which is only possible if the content is wrapped in an Xbox 360 container file, which contains a layer of RSA security. You can only create the container file if you know the correct security signature. See for example Oblivion:Xbox 360#Transferring Game Saves. --NepheleTalk 16:12, 31 December 2007 (EST)

[edit] Wander into Morrowind?

Scripting issues aside, is it possable to load the morrowind data into the Oblivion client? --DreamSmith March 27th 2008 0131 (GMT)

[edit] Mods that already exist?

This page, and its subpages, is for listing ideas for mods that haven't been made. What should be done when somebody posts a mod idea, unaware that a mod already exists. For example, the Ranger's faction idea that was posted a while back. There are at least two existing mods that more or less cover this idea, and links to these have been posted (by Cruellae and myself). Volanaro mentioned that existing mods should not be listed on these pages (see Cruellae's talk page). Should these 'mod idea' - where a mod already exists - therefore be removed from the page, should it be left in place with links to the existing mods, or should it be moved to another page? --Gaebrial 03:21, 29 May 2008 (EDT)

I'm a modder myself, as well as a player who uses about forty or fifty mods, and the reason I decided to edit this page was because I was looking through it for mod ideas to make. I think mods that have already been made should have links to them, because people post here hoping to see their ideas made into mods, and when they are it is nice to be able to find them quickly and easily. Cruellae 14:24, 29 May 2008 (EDT)
It's been previously discussed under List Existing Mods. The final post there was a decision to add mod links, following which Rylasasin added multiple links to existing mods. Checking the pages shows that there are already numerous links to existing mods, so I'd say the de facto standard right now is that links should be added. It also seems that adding links is useful. Not that the page should attempt to provide a comprehensive listing of existing mods. But listing just one or two relevant mods will prevent duplication of effort by modders, and also can reduce the size of these pages in many cases (e.g., by replacing a long-winded series of requests with a straightforward link to the existing mod). --NepheleTalk 19:01, 3 June 2008 (EDT)
Further to Nephele's comments, I would suggest maybe putting the links at the top or bottom of the article (top is less likely to get lost in editing, though), or highlighting them in some other way. And I definitely agree with the whole idea of adding a couple of links to similar mods if they exist. --Robin Hood (Talk • E-mail • Contribs) 12:00, 4 June 2008 (EDT)
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