"Improving Immersion" brainstorming thread

[stratomunchkin]

This thread's function is to serve as a sort of slush pile to gather a picture of what needs/can be done to improve the aspect of player immersion in Skyrim, which I believe to be one of the weak points of the game. Since such a thread due to its fluid nature doesn't work well with the template in the Idea Proposal subforum, I propose to have it here. I will keep the first post updated with your (and my) suggestions. These can include everything you think valueable to add to the experience of Skyrim as a living, breathing world on which the player's actions have an influence. I may divide it into subcategories in the future.

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* Rorikstead needs a travelling peddler's stand several days of the week and needs a blacksmith.

* Ivarstread needs a travelling peddler's stand several days of the week and needs a blacksmith.

* Once the quest about finding out the fate of Narfi's sister in Ivarstead is resolved, changes have to affect Narfi. As it is, nothing changes after he has finally, after years of fearing and waiting, gotten the confirmation of his sister's demise. Their house has fallen into disrepair and he has gone mad. Needed is a change in that condition, be it either Narfi getting his shit together again (house ruins replaced with house and garden) or Narfi walking into the wild in mad grief where he is killed by wild life. But effects should take place thirty days after the quest has ended.

* Heartwood Mill. After the player discovers that Grosta's husband has been killed on his travels and Grosta comments that she may have to give up the mill in the future, several options should arise: a) Grosta re-marries and the mill prospers, b) Grosta abandons the mill c) the player (Speech Skill >50) buys the mill for 10,000 septims, employing Grosta as foreman while a new player home is erected nearby. Option c) should be brought up by Grosta in the closing dialogue of the quest. Unless C) is taken, a) or b) take effect 30 days after the end of the quest, either abandoning the mill or introducing a new NPC.

* A guarded merchant camp site along the road between Windhelm and Shor's Stone. Opportunities to trade, cook and sleep. Guarded by five mercenaries, behind a palisade.

* A guarded merchant camp site along the road between Falkreath and Rorikstead. Opportunities to trade, cook and sleep. Guarded by five mercenaries, behind a palisade.

* The Wreck of the Winter War north-east of Windhelm needs new textures. The wood looks too clean and bright for a broken ship stuck in ice. It also needs a couple of dinghies nearby unless we are to believe that the pirates there regularly swim through the ice water.

* Windhelm needs to be divided into two seperate sections (Grey Quarter & the rest) to allow for a higher density of NPCs, making the town actually appear alive. That way, new contained quests can also be more easily added.

* A quest line to Kill the Thalmor in Skyrim, started by the Empire. We know the Empire knows or at least suspects them to be the source of all troublei, and we know how little love is lost between the Empire and them, so it seems just logical that once the player has achieved a high enough reputation with the Empire that sources within it would approach him or her to get rid of the Thalmor Einsatzgruppen. It would be a typical blackops, untraceable to its source.

* Legion or Stormcloak soldiers should recognize you once you've started down their respective quest paths and should show respect towards you. The way it is, they bark at and threaten you and call you citizen regardless of the uniform you wear and the accomplishments you have racked up. It's as unrealistic as a lowly grunt talking down to a highly decorated combat veteran who also just happens to be a full colonel...

* More Guards at the walls of Cities like Solitude, Windhelm an Whiterun. They could be programmed to patrol the guard towers and walls 24/7 so you don't need to add more beds in the barracks. You could try to add more beds to the barracks, but I don't think there are enough room for more beds (idea brought forward by Julenissen666).

* The Nobles could have servants that live in the basement. Just add those haystack beds down in the basement of the noble houses. They could be programmed to go out in the market and buy food and stuff for their masters, leaving the Nobles to do more important things (idea brought forward by Julenissen666).

* More beggars in the streets. I think each town has like 1 beggar. There should be more and since they live on the street you could just add haystack beds in corners. The Grey District in Windhelm would make most sense for beggars to live in. And in other towns they could live next to the taverns (idea brought forward by Julenissen666).

* There are some beds in the cities that are not owned by anyone. You could easily add a new citizen or two that owns these beds (idea brought forward by Julenissen666).

* Taverns are really empty. You could program mercenaries to visit the taverns when the sun goes down. They could be programmed to just sit on a chair and drink beer and tell you to gtfo if you try to talk to them. And when the sun comes up, most of them leave (idea brought forward by Julenissen666).

* A band of jugglers/musicians. This may or may not prove difficult due to copyright issues, but I'm reminded of Gothic and the way the band In Extremo was featured in the game. Could be problematic, but OTOH there are enough medieval/folk bands who wouldn't mind the extra exposure.

* Additonal songs for the bards. Bard telling stories. Needed: a decent voice actor. Texts from the in-game books.

[Ultiman]

Some very cool ideas u have here i really like the ones that increase the population skyrim seams so deserted and so small because of it.

some traveling caravans and mysterious merchants are defiantly in need

Economy can serve to increase immersion a lot but at the moment i have no real ideas on the issue perhaps i need to get some sleep i will be back to post in this thread after i get some sleep and my brain allows me to do some thinking lol.

[runestyr]

Strongly concur with some of these, and have no problems with any of them.

Traveling merchant caravans are definitely needed. Given that Skyrim's wolf population exceeds its human population, you should NOT see many lone merchants wandering the wilderness. You should instead see small caravans like the Kahjit outside of WhiteRun -- a couple wagons, a merchant, his assistant, and 3-5 guards. Perhaps suitable ruins along a road, once cleared of bandits, would not only be taken over by stormcloaks or legion troops, as seems to happen now, but once they were so occupied they would also have a chance to contain a traveling merchant caravan.

Itinerant craftsmen are also a must. Archeological evidence from Viking Age Scandinavia suggests that certain crafts, such as the making of antler combs, were rare enough that they were practiced by traveling craftsmen except in the larger cities. The player might be hired to guard a craftsman traveling from one city to another, or might get a quest to find a certain craftsman to get special work done for someone.

I also agree with the companions-for-hire having something to do besides hang around the tavern all day. Script them to roam outside the city during the day, perhaps hunting the wildlife until someone hires their services, and others could be scripted to travel between cities (which means they might soften up some bandit lairs on the way). Most of the city's residents should probably take one of their meals in one tavern or another, just to keep the place busy.

The first time I found a shipwreck, my reaction was WTFH??? I've been to Roskilde and seen the modern recreations of Viking-era ships. The largest were a dozen or so meters long, and most were half that. But in Skyrim, the ships are the same general shape but exceed Noah's ark in size and tonnage? Bah.

We do need more skaldic songs. I once did a similar project for the Thief series, where I recorded songs based on in-game book texts.

[runestyr]

I added a thread to the Immersion: Varied NPC Voices project for the bardic songs, here:
https://project-skyrim.forumotion.com/t47-immersion-bardic-songs#178

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