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Jay H's general thread

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 3:42 am
by Jay_H
Update 4/14/16: I've now reached the character limit for this post, so I've started editing into the second one as well.

Edit 8/2/16: I've put an index here of the various ideas by topic. That should make this easier to navigate. Use Control+F to find any of these terms within the topic.

Banks: Bank overhaul; Loan interest

Beta material: Elemental shield spells; Climate survival; Telekinesis spell; Lost language skills; Detect Enemy; Jousting; Expanded conversation; Animal shop; Removed spells; Removed content; Furniture stores; Illicit substances

Character stats and skills: Skill rewards; Survival Mode; Gain Attribute potions; Weighted move speed; Chain armor; Climate survival; Experience-based leveling; Starting spells; Cursing at Chance; Immunity to Lycanthropy/Immunity to Vampirism; Spell Reflect trait; Magic skill checks; Lycanthropy feeding; Increase Skill spell; Magicka; Spell resistance; Lost language skills; Blessing at Chance; Attribute bonuses; Classmaker groups; Dread poison; Classmaker advantages; Real-time skill advancement; Master trainer; Language overhaul; Resistance consumables; Resistance loss; Alchemy skill; Merge Critical Strike skill; Fierce Aspect; Tension Power; Hunger system; Unique classes; Skill merging; Beast Class; Natural regeneration; Non-magic advantages; Perk system; Revamped Bard class; Mutation; Vampirism and Lycanthropy warnings; Innate Power; Birthsigns; Armor skill; Additional disadvantages; Digging

Combat: Summoned monsters; Crippling blow; Bodyguard; Parry; Sluggish and Drowsy effects; Blocking skill; Enemy casting delay; Ancient Lich; Spell effect messages; Weighted move speed; Chain armor; Unique monsters; Cumulative Damage effect; Cumulative Attribute Damage effect; Pacified enemies; Elemental shield spells; Fearful peasants; Shield materials; Crushing damage; Chain and leather materials; Always-hit Mechanics; Warring enemies; Refine weapons; Group awareness; Hostile options; Poisoned weapons; Silent enemies; Sneaking backstab; Slaughterfish; Sheathed weapon; NPC human classes; Horse damage; Fatigue depletion; Enemy panic; Dry land; Dread poison; Human groups; Silver armor; Enemy flight; Non-lethal attacks; Special hits; Cumulative resistance loss; Frenzy; Panic Impact; Resistance loss; Multiplayer modes; Confusion effect; Jousting; Distinct swings; Helpful companions; Multiplayer invisibility; Monster frenzy (berserk); More Monsters; Sleep status; Tension Power; Attack NPC; Weapon abilities; Enemy combat movement; Knockback; Targeting reticule; Glove effects; Dual-wielding; Magic Defense; Stunning blow; Click to Attack; Lunge strike; Back attacks; Style change

Controls: Climbing hold; Click to Attack; Backwards view; Hotkeys; Playtime reminders

Difficulty: Survival Mode; Labyrinth Mode; Difficulty Levels

Dungeons: Dungeon NPCs; Quest Init Objects; Runes; Megadungeons; Switches and corridor dungeon puzzle; Rope spear; Path-based rest distance; Claim dungeon; Monster tripwire; Strength-based door bashing; Dungeon shelves; Audible spellcasting; Unique monsters; Pacified enemies; Super Megadungeon; Plague/infestation; Enemy conversation; Wandering quest objective; Lycanthropy feeding; Loot piles; Warring enemies; Light source; Group awareness; Hostile options; Restless monsters; Random quest locations; Varying doodads in dungeons; Microdungeons; Enemies opening doors; Small bow; Brick walls; Dry land; New dungeon blocks; Darker dungeons; Overworld strongholds; Ally persuasion; Varied decor; Spawn locations; Dungeon-quest matching; Ambient messages; Giant Spider rare enemy; Climbing rope; Dungeon overhaul; Static dungeons; Solitary Dungeons; Capstone Dungeons; Starting dungeon randomizer; Ceiling traps; Invalid interiors; Character ghosts; Lava

Elemental Properties: Underwater shock; Elemental effect; Neutralize element; Absorb Elemental spell; Elemental affinity

Endgame: Megadungeons; Daedric planes; Sheogorath Daedric plane; Super Megadungeon; House construction; Multiplayer modes; Hermaeus Mora daedric plane; Nocturnal daedric plane; Hircine daedric plane

Guilds and factions: Dungeon NPCs; Occasional faction members; Off-The-Hook; Knightly orders; Inter-regional epic quests; Enchanting; Additional factions; Vampire factions; Knight quests vs Dark Brotherhood; Refine weapons; Tug-of-war factions; Peasant factions; Town gate key; Noble castles; Faction-specific rumors; Shrine NPCs; Warring quests; Stock message; Hostile guilds; Dynamic faction changes; Residency; Hitmen; Skill report; Turning foes; Rural hideouts; Everyone's headhunters; Temporary camps; Reputation discernment; Leveled questing; Capstone Dungeons; Unavoidable removal; Infamy; Order of the Lamp; Level-based questing; Reputation loss via rejection; Non-magical alternatives

Houses: Multiple houses; Rural Cabin questline; Claim dungeon; House shelves; Attic furniture; Rent residence; Boat NPCs; Microdungeons; Furniture removal; Training dummy; Abandoned buildings; House construction

Inventory: Flavor documents; Purchase bill; Dungeon shelves; Enchanting; Chain and leather materials; Loot piles; Light source; Refine weapons; Poisoned weapons; Clothing dyes; Unusual minerals; Horse damage; Equipment condition; Human class loot; After-hours inventory; Repairs; Silver armor; Weapon quality; Alchemy skill; Armor variations; Weapon information; Elemental augmentation; Food vendors; Effects via items; Ingredient effects; Jewelry Inset; Soulgem loot; Cursed items; Illicit substances; Glove effects; Equipment Presets; Magic Defense; Transmute

Merchants: Dungeon NPCs; Bank overhaul; Occasional faction members; Boat furniture; Diverse economies; Clothing dyes; After-hours inventory; Thieves Guild fence; Closing time; Wilderness shops; Temporary camps; Thief tools merchant; Store inventory randomizing; Animal shop; Food vendors; Economy Overhaul; Furniture stores; Training costs; Enchantment regents; Individual merchant reputation; Non-magical alternatives; Clothing appearance; Weapon forging; Robbing stores

Quests: Dungeon NPCs; Quest Init Objects; Skill Rewards; Royalty; Megadungeons; Occasional faction members; Off-The-Hook; Rural Cabin questline; Riddle quest; Inter-regional epic quests; Additional factions; Vampire factions; Ambient quests; Wandering quest objective; Boat NPCs; Hidden locations; Knight quests vs Dark Brotherhood; Innkeeper quest; Tug-of-war factions; Noble castles; Shrine NPCs; Miscellaneous questgivers; Random quest locations; Chaotic content; Lore quests; Dungeon-quest matching; Leveled questing; Quest-conversation link; Archived quests; Calls for quests; Empty during quest; Level-based questing; Reputation loss via rejection; Bounty; Pooled quest objects

Spells: Damage Attribute spells; Blind spell; Spellcasting rebalance; Distortion spell effect; Fear spell line; Sluggish and Drowsy effects; Resist Attribute Damage effect; Enemy casting delay; Spell effect messages; Invisible to Undead; Audible spellcasting; Destruction spells; Elemental shield spells; Barrier spell; Stagger spell; Starting spells; Spell scrolls; Leech spell line; Skip spell; Unstable Portal spell; Telekinesis spell; Increase Skill spell; Ghostsight spell; Undead status; Create Item spell; Summon Undead spell line; Seize; Bulwark; Scout spell; Safe rest; Stoneskin; Charge spell; Immunity to Normal Weapons; See Invisible spell; Body Illusion spell; Field of Absorption; Enemy recall; Warp Enemy; Recall Anchor; Dispel effect; Ethereal Wall spell; Stonefoot spell; Water Walking; Continuous Damage Fatigue/Magicka; Free Action; Polymorph spell; Neutralize element; Wither effect; Absorb Damage; Absorb Element; Illusion Object; Refresh spell; Beam targeting; Disadvantaged spells; Noise field; Immunity to Silence; Detect Enemy; Absorb Elemental spell; Gravity Pull; Revival; Ignite Magicka; TIme Freeze; Enchant Weapon; Magicka Restore; Cataclysm; Reverse Time; Devour; Timed Trap; Elemental affinity; Reflect Damage; Team-effect spells; Dismiss Foe; Damaging fields; Whirl spell; Elemental augmentation; Magicka Shield; Daedric Summoning spell; Enchant Strikes; TES Spell Effects; Removed spells; Percentage-based damage; Duplicate Item; Stubborn Life spell; Replenishment spell; Clairvoyance; Weaken Resistance effect; Regenerate; Necromancy spell line; Soul Capture spell; Transmute; Elemental form; Night vision; Flay; Illusion Monster spell line; Petrify; Charming Field / Pacifying Field; Darkness spell element

Thievery and crime: Pickpocketing overhaul; Lockpicking; Shoplifting; Trespassing; Strength-based door bashing; House shelves; Attract Guards status; Alert guards; Tougher guards; Sneaking backstab; Courthouses and prisons; Property damage charge; Penal record; Increased guard presence; After-hours inventory; Thieves Guild fence; Lockpicking ease; Limited guard; Guarded trespassing; Closing time; House treasure; Magic lock gems; Infamy

Towns: Random enemies; Raid nights; Night arrival; Attract Guards status; Monster attacks on cities; Plague/infestation; Jumping horse; Lycanthropy feeding; Boat NPCs; Fearful peasants; Alert guards; Tougher guards; Peasant factions; Diverse economies; Random hauntings; Town gate key; Courthouses and prisons; Noble castles; Night ambience; Mages Guild Laboratories; Peasant rumors; Increased guard presence; Miscellaneous questgivers; Warring quests; Idle warriors; Stock message; Limited guard; Residency; Hitmen; Wall ladders; Conversation refusal; Expanded conversation; Individual peasant personalities; Empty region; Attack NPC; Calls for quests; New landmasses; Carnival; Active guard force; Varying civilized doodads; Clothing appearance

Travel: Boat travel; Boat furniture; Overworld strongholds; Wilderness shops; Abandoned buildings; Human groups; Temporary camps; Travel bonus; TES4+5 Compass

World impact: Royalty; Town gate key; Peasant rumors; Warring quests; Chaotic content; Residency; Hitmen; Individual peasant personalities; Local recognition; Individual merchant reputation

Update 4/5/2016:

I've created a few monster bios of some things I've thought of modding into Daggerfall. My ideas, or any derivative of them, are always available for anyone's implementation in the way they choose. I have some concerns about altering Daggerfall's audio clips, but I can speak more on that when the time comes.

Lizardman concept

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Name: Lizardman
Visual: Daedroth sprite, reduced to 85% size. Green skin color brightened slightly.
Audio: Sound bites taken from Dragonling, increased in speed and pitch about 10%.
Canon: Lizardmen were low-level enemies in TES:Arena.
Stats: Health level similar to Orc, armor class similar to Skeletal Warrior.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 2. Featured in nature/cave dungeons.
Loot: Like Orcs, not likely to carry a lot of armor. Could carry jewelry, natural ingredients, and occasional weapons.
Elements: Arena Lizardmen sometimes paralyzed the character. Would be weak to Cold.
Poison Atronach concept

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Name: Poison Atronach
Visual: Fire Atronach, re-colored to green, possibly hints of brown.
Audio: Standard Atronach sounds.
Canon: Not canon.
Stats: Health similar to other Atronachs. Armor class similar to Vampire.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 6.
Loot: None.
Elements: Dwarven or higher required to hit. Attacks carry poison status effect, like high-level Nightblades. Immune to poison elemental.
Black bear concept

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Name: Black bear
Visual: Grizzly bear sprite, recolored to black/dark grey. Increase in size about 5%.
Audio: Sound bites taken from Grizzly bear, decreased in speed and pitch about 10%.
Canon: Black bears exist in TES4:Oblivion.
Stats: Health similar to Giant. Armor class similar to Grizzly bear.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 5. Featured in nature/cave dungeons.
Loot: None.
Elements: None. 
Alternate thoughts: Replace current grizzly bears with black bears visuals, and create a new Grizzly bear mob according to these specifications. Grizzlies would be tougher than black bears. Another alternate is to make a kodiak, making the grizzly bear sprite about 10% larger and changing its color slightly.
Wisp concept

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Name: Wisp
Visual: Magic-ranged-spell sprite, reduced in size by 30%. Could be recolored to blue. Melee attack sprite can light up momentarily.
Audio: Can't think of one yet. Maybe cut into segments the "spellcasting" noise, and then slow each segment down.
Canon: Wisps appeared in TES5:Skyrim, and Will-o-the-Wisps appeared in TES4:Oblivion.
Stats: Health somewhere between imps and spriggans. Armor class similar to imp.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 3. Featured in wizard/laboratory dungeons.
Loot: None.
Elements: Can be hurt by Silver or higher. Immune to non-elemental magic. Capable of casting a ranged AOE stamina damaging spell once or twice.
Arcane Wisp concept

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Name: Arcane Wisp
Visual: Magic-ranged-spell sprite, reduced in size by 20%. Could be recolored to white or grey. Melee attack sprite can light up momentarily.
Audio: Can't think of one yet. Maybe cut into segments the "spellcasting" noise, and then slow each segment down.
Canon: Wisps appeared in TES5:Skyrim, and Will-o-the-Wisps appeared in TES4:Oblivion.
Stats: Health similar to Wraith. Armor class similar to Lich.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 10. Featured in wizard/laboratory dungeons.
Loot: None.
Elements: Can be hurt by Mithril or higher. Immune to non-elemental magic. Capable of casting a melee AOE paralyzing spell that lasts one tick. Capable of casting a ranged AOE silence spell. Has a passive Spell Reflect status. Uses a weak non-elemental melee AOE damage spell once per tick when in melee range. Capable of using a weak melee AOE magicka reduction spell.
Dremora concept

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Name: Dremora
Visual: Daedra Lord sprite, reduced in size by 15%. Not sure whether to recolor skin.
Audio: Can't think of one yet. Maybe cut Daedra Lord's laughter shorter, and/or use Giant voice samples, perhaps with speed/pitch adjustment.
Canon: Dremora have appeared in many TES games.
Stats: Health similar to Orc Warlord. Armor class similar to Vampire.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 6. Featured in wizard/laboratory dungeons.
Loot: Standard Daedra loot.
Elements: Can be hurt by Dwarven or higher.
Ice Elemental/Ice Wraith concept

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Name: Ice Elemental or Ice Wraith
Visual: Ranged-magic-spell sprite or ranged-ice-spell sprite, reduced by about 40%.
Audio: Can't think of one yet. Maybe cut into segments the "spellcasting" noise, and then slow each segment down. Not sure if ice-spell-damage-noise is appropriate.
Canon: Ice Wraiths appeared in TES5:Skyrim.
Stats: Health similar to Imp. Armor class similar to Giant Spider.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 3. Featured in wizard/laboratory dungeons.
Loot: None.
Elements: Immune to cold element. Can use a weak ice melee spell.
Electric Eel concept

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Name: Electric Eel
Visual: Slaughterfish, reduced by 20%. Recolored greenish-yellow.
Audio: None contemplated.
Canon: Eels of various types appear in TES:Online.
Stats: Health level similar to Centaur, armor class similar to Rat.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 4. Featured underwater only.
Loot: None.
Elements: Immune to Shock attacks. Can use a weak melee shock spell.
Tuna concept

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Name: Tuna
Visual: Slaughterfish, reduced by 30%. Recolored lighter blue.
Audio: Sound bites taken from Slaughterfish, increased in speed but not pitch about 10%.
Canon: Tuna appear in TES:Online.
Stats: Health level similar to Rat, armor class similar to Rat.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 1. Featured underwater only.
Loot: None.
Elements: None.
Elder Giant concept

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Name: Elder Giant
Visual: Giant. Skin tinted with grey.
Audio: Sound bites taken from Giant, decreased in speed and pitch about 15%.
Canon: Elder Giants are non-canon.
Stats: Health level similar to Lich, armor class similar to Gargoyle.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 7. Featured in nature/cave dungeons.
Loot: Leveled Giant loot.
Elements: Resists Cold. Melee hits capable of causing Whirl and Seize effects, non-stacking.
Vampire [male] concept

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Name: Vampire [male]
Visual: Vampire Ancient. Re-colored to make clear it isn't a Vampire Ancient. 
Audio: Voice clips taken from atronach, likely altered in speed and pitch.
Canon: Male vampires have appeared in many TES games.
Stats: Equal to Vampire.
Implementation: Equal to Vampire.
Loot: Equal to Vampire.
Elements: Equal to Vampire.
Centaur Chieftain concept

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Name: Centaur Chieftain
Visual: Centaur, increased about 5%. Skin made darker.
Audio: Voice clips from Centaur, slowed in speed and pitch about 10%.
Canon: Centaur Chieftains are non-canon.
Stats: Health higher than Orc Warlord but below Daedroth. Armor Class similar to Orc Warlord.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 6. Featured in nature/cave dungeons.
Loot: Leveled Centaur loot.
Elements: Equal to Centaur. Can use a melee Damage Speed spell. Can use a self Fortify Speed spell.
Spriggan concept

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Name: Spriggan [version 1]
Visual: Equal to Spriggan.
Audio: Equal to Spriggan.
Canon: Equal to Spriggan.
Stats: Equal to Spriggan.
Implementation: Equal to Spriggan.
Loot: Equal to Spriggan.
Elements: Equal to Spriggan.
Additional notes: After several ticks, Spriggan corpse disappears (optional), and Spriggan [version 2] appears.

Name: Spriggan [version 2]
Visual: Spriggan, increased about 5%. Shaded green.
Audio: Spriggan sound clips, slowed about 5% in speed and pitch.
Canon: The ability of Spriggans to revive themselves is found in other TES games, and was purportedly intended for Daggerfall as well. The Spriggan would rise stronger than before.
Stats: Health greater than Spriggan. Armor class equal to Spriggan.
Implementation: Can only appear from the corpse of Spriggan.
Loot: No loot, or equal to Spriggan.
Elements: Equal to Spriggan. Regenerates health slowly.
Additional notes: After several ticks, Spriggan [version 2] corpse disappears (optional), and Spriggan [version 3] appears.

Name: Spriggan [version 3]
Visual: Spriggan, increased about 10%. Shaded very deep green.
Audio: Spriggan sound clips, slowed about 15% in speed and pitch.
Canon: Equal to Spriggan [version 2].
Stats: Health greater than Spriggan [version 2]. Armor class equal to Spriggan.
Implementation: Can only appear from the corpse of Spriggan [version 2].
Loot: No loot, or equal to Spriggan.
Elements: Equal to Spriggan. Regenerates health quickly. Successful attacks reduce character movement speed temporarily and fatigue.
Giant Shaman concept

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Name: Giant Shaman
Visual: Giant, reduced about 10%. Skin colored more red or orange.
Audio: Giant, altered by about 10% in speed and pitch.
Canon: Giant Shamans are non-canon.
Stats: Health equal to Giant. Armor class equal to Orc.
Implementation: Begins appearing two character levels after Giant.
Loot: Equal to Giant.
Elements: Resists Fire. Can cast ranged AOE fire damage spell. Can cast melee fire damage spell.
Black Widow concept

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Name: Black Widow
Visual: Spider, reduced about 10%. Recolored black.
Audio: Spider, altered in speed and/or pitch.
Canon: Black Widows are non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Harpy. Armor class similar to Orc Warlord.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 6.
Loot: None.
Elements: Can cast melee Paralyze spell. Can cast melee Poison damage spell. Can cast melee Damage Strength spell. Can cast melee Damage Speed spell.
Orc Berserker concept

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Name: Orc Berserker
Visual: Orc Sergeant. Skin recolored red.
Audio: Orc sound clips, increased in speed but not pitch.
Canon: Orc Berserkers are non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Daedroth. Armor class similar to Zombie. Extremely quick.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 8. Featured in stronghold/orc dungeons.
Loot: Leveled Orc loot.
Elements: Resists Fire and Cold. Can cast self Fortify Speed.
Plague Rat concept

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Name: Plague Rat
Visual: Rat, recolored grey.
Audio: Rat sound clips, increased in speed and pitch.
Canon: Plague Rats are non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Giant Scorpion. Armor class similar to Sabretooth Tiger.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 5. Featured in nature/cave dungeons.
Loot: None.
Elements: Can use melee Poison damage spell and/or effect. Can cause disease.
Haunt concept

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Name: Haunt
Visual: Zombie, recolored.
Audio: Mummy or Zombie sound clips, greatly decreased in speed and pitch.
Canon: Haunts are non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Ghost. Armor class similar to Grizzly Bear.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 6.
Loot: None.
Elements: Same as Zombie.
Additional notes: When a Haunt is killed, it will remain dead for a few ticks. The corpse is then removed, and a Haunt is created at full health in its place. A Haunt will follow character's location endlessly once character is detected. As a fail-safe, such as if a Haunt somehow spawns in a vital location like the character's house, Haunt can have a max death limit (10, for example) or can despawn once the character leaves the zone. For quest purposes, the Haunt's first death counts for quest completion. Attacks reduce character's fatigue with successful hit. If a spell such as Desintegrate leaves no corpse, the Haunt cannot respawn. A good candidate for Dispel Undead.
Vampire Patriarch concept

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Name: Vampire Patriarch
Visual: Vampire Ancient, recolored.
Audio: Vampire Ancient sound clips, slowed in pitch and speed.
Canon: Vampire Patriarchs appear in TES4:Oblivion.
Stats: Health and armor class scaled from Vampire Ancient.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 14.
Loot: Scaled Vampire Ancient loot.
Elements: Same as Vampire Ancient. Can cast a melee Absorb Health spell.
Witch concept

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Name: Witch
Visual: Vampire, skin recolored to normal.
Audio: Nymph sound clips, altered in pitch and speed.
Canon: Witches appear in several TES games.
Stats: Health similar to Werewolf. Armor class similar to Orc.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 5. Featured in nature/cave and wizard/laboratory dungeons.
Loot: Ingredients, gold, maybe books.
Elements: Resistant to magic and poison. Can cast a melee silence spell. Can cast a melee fatigue damage-over-time spell; a weak ranged spell to reduce character's magicka; a weak self spell reflect spell; a weak self spell resistance spell; and a long-range AOE Stagger spell. Spells likely Shock-elemental. Can reduce character's magicka with successful hit.
Iron Golem concept

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Name: Iron Golem
Visual: Iron Atronach, increased by 15%. Tinted slightly lighter or darker.
Audio: Atronach sound clips, altered in pitch and speed.
Canon: A very different kind of iron golem appears in TES:Arena.
Stats: Scaled from Iron Atronach. Health gains modestly, armor class gains greatly.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 7. Featured in wizard/laboratory dungeons.
Loot: Same as atronachs (none).
Elements: Same as Iron Atronach.
Vampire Bat concept

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Name: Vampire Bat
Visual: Giant Bat, recolored to grey.
Audio: Giant Bat, possibly altered.
Canon: Vampire Bats are non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Orc. Armor class similar to Grizzly Bear. High speed.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 3. Featured in nature/cave dungeons.
Loot: None.
Elements: Same as Giant Bat.
Additional notes: This enemy is incapable of seeing an immobile character, except at melee range. If the character is in motion, the Vampire Bat will be able to see and pursue it.
Magicka Atronach concept

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Name: Magicka Atronach
Visual: Ice Atronach, recolored.
Audio: Atronach.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Similar to Poison Atronach.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 6.
Loot: None.
Elements: Dwarven or higher required to hit. Attacks leech Health and Magicka from character. Immune to non-elemental magic.
Rot Mummy concept

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Name: Rot Mummy
Visual: Mummy, recolored brownish.
Audio: Mummy, possibly altered.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health higher than Orc Warlord. Armor class similar to Giant.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 8. Featured in undead dungeons.
Loot: Same as Mummy.
Elements: Mithril or higher required to hit. Susceptible to fire. Upon successful hit against character, causes an irresistible Blind effect for one tick (non-stacking). Can cause disease to character. Attacks reduce character's fatigue.
Orc Assassin concept

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Name: Orc Assassin
Visual: Orc, likely given darker armor.
Audio: Silent.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health between Orc and Orc Sergeant. Armor class similar to Orc.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 6. Featured in orc dungeons.
Loot: Leveled Orc loot.
Elements: Can cast melee Silence. Can cast melee Paralyze for one tick. Can use poisoned weapon effect upon successful strike.
Nomad concept

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Name: Nomad
Visual: Giant, reduced by 60%, recolored.
Audio: Maybe Giant, altered.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Spider. Armor class similar to Sabertooth Tiger.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 2.
Loot: Similar to humans. Will often have weapons of various kinds.
Elements: No elemental resistances.
Ancient Warlock concept

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Name: Ancient Warlock
Visual: Lich, recolored.
Audio: Lich or Ancient Lich.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Scaled from Ancient Lich.
Implementation: Begins appearing at extremely high character level.
Loot: Scaled from Ancient Lich.
Elements: Resistant to all magic and element types. Uses devastating magic of all elements. Can cast Reflect Spells on self.
Planes Warrior concept

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Name: Planes Warrior
Visual: Daedra Lord, reduced about 20%.
Audio: Daedra Lord.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Scaled from Daedra Lord.
Implementation: Begins appearing at extremely high character level.
Loot: Scaled from Daedra Lord.
Elements: Resistant to fire, cold, poison, and non-elemental magic. Successful hits on character can cause attack speed reduction. Can cast Fortify Speed on self.
Dire Werewolf concept

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Name: Dire Werewolf
Visual: Werewolf, recolored darker.
Audio: Werewolf, maybe Sabertooth Tiger.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Flesh Atronach. Armor class similar to Orc Sergeant. Extremely quick. Adrenaline rush trait.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 7.
Loot: Same as Werewolf [none].
Elements: Requires Elven or higher to hit. Can cause lycanthropy, 0.6% chance per successful hit on character.
Devourer concept

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Name: Devourer
Visual: Harpy, recolored.
Audio: Harpy, perhaps Daedra Seducer.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Gargoyle. Armor class similar to Dreugh.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 9.
Loot: Leveled from Harpy.
Elements: Capable of casting a long-range AOE paralysis spell and a long-range AOE Stagger spell. Immune to non-elemental magic.
Shapeshifter concept

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Name: Shapeshifter
Visual: Dreugh, recolored.
Audio: Not sure yet.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Orc Shaman. Armor class similar to Flesh Atronach.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 6. Appears outdoors only.
Loot: Natural ingredients, occasional books. Uncommonly drops a Potion of Gain [Attribute].
Elements: No elemental resistances.
Additional notes: Capable of using a Wabbajack effect on self one time when the character is detected, restoring health, fatigue, and magicka to max. Can transform into any enemy from vanilla.
Mirror Apparition concept

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Name: Mirror Apparition
Visual: Human Nightblade, wearing black instead of green.
Audio: None.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: All stats will be equal to character's.
Implementation: Begins appearing at extremely high character level.
Loot: Leveled Human loot.
Elements: Has character's resists, immunities, and weaknesses. Capable of using character's spells, with the single exception of spells with the Recall effect.
Shadow Stalker concept

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Name: Shadow Stalker
Visual: A small shadow on the ground.
Audio: None.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Equal to human Thief.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 10.
Loot: Leveled Human loot.
Elements: No elemental weaknesses.
Additional notes: Attacks with human thief pattern, three hits at a time. Intended to be an invisible opponent except for a small, circular shadow beneath it.
Orc Chieftain concept

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Name: Orc Chieftain
Visual: Orc Warlord, with some minor details recolored.
Audio: Orc audio.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Scaled from Orc Warlord.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 12. Featured in orc dungeons.
Loot: Leveled Orc loot.
Elements: Can use a mid-level melee shock spell. Can use a melee silence spell.
Orc High Shaman concept

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Name: Orc High Shaman
Visual: Orc Shaman, with some minor details recolored.
Audio: Orc audio.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Scaled from Orc Shaman.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 10. Featured in orc dungeons.
Loot: Leveled Orc loot.
Elements: Can use melee spells with the following effects: Blind; Self Invisibility; Shock Damage; Whirl; Absorb Fatigue; Damage Willpower.
Stone Imp concept

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Name: Stone Imp
Visual: Imp, recolored grey.
Audio: Imp.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Sabertooth Tiger. Armor class similar to Gargoyle.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 5. Featured in laboratory/wizard dungeons.
Loot: Scaled from Imp.
Elements: Resistant to Shock spells. Can use powerful melee elemental damage spells.
Dread Skeleton concept

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Name: Dread Skeleton
Visual: Skeletal Warrior, recolored red. Eyes could be yellow or some other color.
Audio: Skeletal Warrior.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health similar to Daedroth. Armor class similar to Lich.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 7. Featured in undead dungeons.
Loot: Scaled from Skeletal Warrior.
Elements: Same as Skeletal Warrior. Successful hits either stun for 0.5 seconds (character unable to move or swing, but can cast spells), or reduce character movement speed for one tick, not sure.
Revenant concept

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Name: Revenant
Visual: Ancient Lich, recolored
Audio: Ancient Lich, perhaps altered.
Canon: Non-canon. "Revenant" is an unrelated spell effect in Skyrim.
Stats: Health scaled from Ancient Lich. Armor class similar to Daedra Lord.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 13. Featured in undead dungeons.
Loot: Scaled from Ancient Lich.
Elements: Resistant to non-elemental magicka and frost. Capable of casting a variety of powerful melee and ranged damage spells. Immune to Silence.
Skeletal Head concept

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Name: Skeletal Head
Visual: Floating head from Skeletal Warrior, made much larger.
Audio: Not sure. Perhaps Mummy.
Canon: Non-canon.
Stats: Health scaled from Orc Warrior. Armor class similar to Giant Scorpion.
Implementation: Begins appearing at character level 4. Featured in undead dungeons.
Loot: Ingredients, perhaps rarely empty soulgems.
Elements: Equal to Skeletal Warrior. Could be a spellcaster.
*****

I wanted to write down other ideas I've had, just so I don't forget them.

Dungeon NPCs: The game is permitted to randomly and uncommonly place a passive NPC at or next to a dungeon quest location. Dungeon NPCs may act as merchants of various types, guildless Spymasters, daedra summoners, or questgivers (ie: a request to escort out of the dungeon and lead to family in a regional town or just out of the dungeon). Dungeon NPCs last one week, generated on the first day of each week. Dungeon NPC merchants would sell extraordinary goods only and may include potion sellers, soulgem dealers, potionmakers, and spell merchants (rare spells only). Any quests offered by Dungeon NPCs would necessarily sink into some other NPC or location, as the Dungeon NPC would disappear by the following day. (I'm thinking this could be accomplished by multiplying the dungeon's unique ID by the four-digit date, into 8(?) possible digits, with all unused digits being zero. Each of the dungeon locations would choose a different two- or three-digit string from the eight, which would correlate to the Dungeon NPC placed there. Most numerical values in the database will be empty so there aren't Dungeon NPCs at nearly every quest location (ie: 17-18 would be empty; 19 would be a member of the Necromancers; 20-22 would be empty, and 23 would be a blacksmith, etc). This would be pseudo-random so people would eventually be able to tell each other when to find a certain NPC in a place.)

Quest init objects: The game is permitted to randomly and uncommonly place an inventory item at or next to a dungeon quest location. Once the character picks up the object, the quest is added to the quest log, and the time limit begins. An example is a sheet of paper which indicates a kidnapping attempt at a shop within a regional town, where the character may inform the mark and/or defend against the kidnappers for a reward. Another example is a statue or a painting which has an inscription, "Property of Lord (name)," which the game directs the character to deliver for a gold and/or reputation reward. The character will never face faction losses for running out of time on these quests.

Skill rewards: NPCs are permitted to increase the character's skills as a quest reward. To prevent abuse, these can come out of innkeeper quests rather than guild quests.

Damage Attribute spells: The idea is present in a non-existent spell called "Notorgo's Curse," which was intended to damage the target's Speed. A temporary reduction is probably best, comparable to the Fortify Attribute spells, to avoid encounters similar to Morrowind's Greater Bonewalker.

Blind spell: The idea is present in Morrowind. To truly give it consequences, it would function more like in Everquest, where even the HUD is blacked out. There can be a message at the top of the screen like "You have been blinded." Blind spells can never last longer than a couple of ticks. On NPCs, the spell would probably reduce their movement speed to zero and keep them from turning, but they would still be able to swing where they face.

Multiple houses: The character would be able to get more than one house in a region or even in a city. A "House" button can be added to the Transportation menu similar to "Ship." If the character warps to the house in this way, the exit door will ask, "Do you wish to step outside or return to your previous location?" The character would be able to gain those little ranch houses out in the middle of nowhere, maybe by some difficult or costly quest. Assassins, werewolves, vampires, and/or robbers infrequently appear in house. A property list would probably be needful, showing in what locations the character owns things. Using that property list, the character could choose or change the "primary residence" at any time, which is the one that the Transportation button would send to.

Royalty: Whether through a faction check or a series of quests, the character is able to rise in the nobility of any region until becoming the monarch. Probably disabled in Daggerfall, Wayrest, and Sentinel due to main quest. A monarch character would be able to receive taxes (which could be meaningful if DFU's economy gets balanced), and be subject to possibly severe assassination attempts, maybe if there's a way for things to go wrong in the region. Brings to mind the original "warring regions" concept in Daggerfall's plans. If the character fails the current monarch during the questline, the "high treason" crime could be accused, which was planned for vanilla. While monarch, the character would be impervious to arrest, allowing to sleep anywhere within the city, pickpocket or steal from stores infinitely (perhaps stores could have mercenary guards appear eventually), etc within the region.

Bank overhaul: Loan amount is severely reduced, and/or bank begins sending out collectors on delinquent debts. The more delinquent, the more powerful the collectors will be. A parchment message could appear as a warning once the character is delinquent: "You momentarily wonder what Pothago will do regarding your bank loan." Loan maximum could be calculated on a formula such as ((sum of guild ranks + character level)*base), thus allowing the possibility for a great loan but also tying it to character progress.

Summoned monsters: Still not sure if this is something that would integrate well. They'd need zero collision with other sprites and have friendly fire protection at least. Presumable monsters would be imps, atronachs, gargoyles, and some undead. Summoning friendly imps could be pretty useful in early game, and in late game liches could be a part as well.

Random enemies: Rarely, a hostile level-appropriate human enemy can appear within a town, tavern, or shop. Have to ensure Daggerfall won't blame any collateral damage on the character. Maybe create a five-foot "peasant invulnerability" circle around any hostile in towns.

Survival Mode: When a character is created with this mode enabled, the character has only one save slot, and saving occurs automatically and only upon entrances to towns and dungeons and quitting the game. The character may only load at Daggerfall boot, not while the game is running. If the character dies, the save file is wiped.

Runes: Floor doodads that activate some negative effect when stepped on, similar to Skyrim's. Could probably be disarmed with the Unlocking skill, in Steal Mode. Besides raw damage, some effects could be paralyze+silence, Damage Speed/Damage Agility/Damage Willpower, maybe generate a dangerous enemy nearby (daedroth, mummy, etc). Willpower can provide save vs effect if inflicted on character. Runes may vary in color but would always be visible in some way. Not sure whether enemies could trigger runes. Damage runes might be made available to character in spell form. Likely high magicka cost if so.

Megadungeons: One(?) per region. These are hand-crafted, complex, and long dungeons, with fixed encounters like Daggerfall's storyline dungeons. Populated with level 15+ enemies and serious traps. Cannot be found except on foot and by looted maps from enemies. Quests cannot point to megadungeons. Megadungeons will have several goal points, in one of which per year (or once per dungeon permanently) the character may find a valuable reward (a deed to a rural cabin, a national treasure that grants a massive increase in legal reputation upon delivery, an unaffiliated Daedric artifact like Auriel's Bow, an NPC or other means of providing a permanent resistance to one elemental, etc). Megadungeons are colored black on the travel map, like witch covens. Some megadungeons might prevent or persistently dispel Levitate and/or swimming effects, to put all characters on an equal level. Some could be themed, such as shock-type enemies and traps dominating one megadungeon. A unique boss-type monster could be placed near the goalpoints' divergence (ie: a Storm Giant who casts a melee AOE shock spell once per tick). Some megadungeons could be entirely thematic and unique, like a full-scale underground castle filled with metal warriors. If it isn't excessively immersion-breaking, an occasional homage to some other game could be made (not sure if level design is safe. For a theoretical example, if someone re-created UNATCO from Deus Ex with handmade textures, would that be too far?). The overarching theme of megadungeons would be "epic."

Crippling blow: An enemy far, far above the character's level may cause a Crippling Blow on melee or archery(?) attack. This will cut the character's movement speed in half for one tick.

Spellcasting rebalance: In vanilla, raising any of the six spell schools above 100 skill trivializes the mana cost. This could be rebalanced to give a continuing challenge experience.

Pickpocketing overhaul: This can open an inventory screen. Depending on the character's Pickpocketing skill, one object may be present on the right side of the screen, or there may be nothing if it's too low. Attempting to take the object would work the same as in stealing from stores, and can be calculated similarly. There are many objects that could be used: books, ingredients, jewelry, small letters of credit, enchanted objects, occasional weaponry.

Bodyguard: Similar to the follower system in later TES, knightly orders and Fighter's Guilds may have an NPC who offers hiring a bodyguard. The cost per day will scale with level. The bodyguard can't die(?) and will have no collision with the character or with enemies, but will attack any enemy. Enemies will prioritize hitting the character if in range. The bodyguard can be lost by running out of money on hand, including letters of credit. The character can speak to the hiring NPC to return the bodyguard when no longer desired. This depends largely on a rebalancing of DFU's economy.

Occasional faction members: In rare instances, members of various miscellaneous factions may be found hidden in unexpected areas. Town wall spaces, furniture stores, guild halls, taverns and shops, even private residences. These faction members may give quests or perform other functions. Optimal if various factions have unique quests to themselves. Shadier ones will tend to be found in the hidden areas, and the more benign ones will often be found in open places like taverns and stores. Some of these factions could be found more often in certain regions, and perhaps some rare ones could be found exclusively, but more often, within one certain region. Some kinds of NPCs may also appear more often in certain locations (Order of the Lamp and Master of Incunabula could appear more often within Mages Guilds, etc.)

Distortion spell effect: When cast on the character, camera will distort, blur, or smudge (depends on what engine can do). When cast on enemy, hit chance is reduced. Perhaps increasing magnitude can increase distortion/hitchance reduction effect?

Parry: The character may use a block button, which has a trigger time of about .25 seconds. Any melee attack that occurs within that time is reduced by 75%. Not sure whether shield would be required. Spamming the button is disabled. Another implementation could be a precision period, where for .1 seconds the damage is reduced by 100%; for the next .1 seconds it's reduced by 75%; and for the next .15 it's reduced by 50%. A shield icon could appear in a corner of the screen, which fades out to represent the parrying effectiveness.

Off-The-Hook: One function for Dungeon NPCs or Occasional Faction Members could be a way to release the character from one current quest, so as to not take a faction hit if it's just impossible. The main questline would be unaffected by this option.

Rural Cabin questline: In those "House" locations throughout the world, an NPC may be found within who is the owner. Talking to this NPC may begin a fixed questline (there could be a dozen questlines that are invoked, but one is randomly chosen for each cabin), granting the character privileges of sleeping within the house, culminating eventually in inheriting the house. In the final quest for these houses, the owner could be slain by the Dark Brotherhood due to questionable business practices, could retire in some other region of Tamriel, could die to old age, etc., leaving the house legitimately in the hands of character. Perhaps some sort of furniture purchasing option could exist for indoors and outdoors, to give the character something else to sink money into, pending economy balancing.

Fear spell line: Analagous to the demoralize/hysteria spell line found in later TES games, an enemy affected will run in a random direction and refuse to fight for its duration. A very high-level spell could be a self-effect "mask of fear," which has a chance of making any encountered enemy run during its duration, likely dependent on character level vs monster level.

Flavor documents: Rather than mere "parchments" from enemies, the character could pick up a variety of more interesting but still useless parchments. Shopping lists, thank you notes, a letter from a family member, a threat, a receipt for a trivial transaction, etc.

Purchase bill: The character can find a document on humanoid enemies that indicates a shop and town in the region and a piece of equipment. If the character turns in the purchase bill, the merchant will give the indicated weapon or armor piece to the character. IE: "This document proves the purchase of one Elven Breastplate by the possessor, at Lord Gaerton's Best Armory, in Wildertown. The owner may present this document in a few days' time to complete the transaction."

Raid nights: Once per month per region, the towns are infested at night by a type of bandit (Acrobat, Thief, Rogue, Nightblade, etc.) If the character enters residences during that time they may also appear there. Taverns, shops, guilds, and palaces likely unaffected. This could be something learned from peasants by asking for news ("The 10th of the month is an awful time to visit Abibon-Gora.")

Sluggish and Drowsy effects: A Sluggish spell effect can reduce character movement speed by a percent. A Drowsy spell effect can reduce weapon swing speed by a percent.

Resist Attribute Damage effect: A spell, likely useful in enchanting, that provides a specific resist chance against Damage Attribute spells like the theoretical Notorgo's Curse.

Switches and corridor dungeon puzzle: A room has three levers in the middle, and one wall has a visibly mismatched section like a secret door. Behind the secret "door" are two more, identical to itself, in a corridor. These are not magically held locks, but permanent sections of wall. The character must manipulate the levers to cross the corridor, and each lever has a toggle effect on one or more doors.

Gain Attribute potions: These rare potions can only be bought from traveling Dungeon NPCs or received as a quest reward from certain factions. When consumed, it permanently increases the character's attribute by 2-4. Each potion is distinct (Gain Strength, Gain Endurance, etc).

Blocking skill: Introduced in TES3:Morrowind, this skill lets any character wielding a shield to automatically reduce physical damage. Percent reduced and blocking frequency increase with skill gain.

Rope spear: A utility item that shoots forward. Once it hits a wall, it brings the character over horizontally, floating over any empty space. Intended as a non-magical dungeon tool. The character could fall if hit by enemy projectile. Would probably be very expensive, to give place for jumping and climbing skills for the average character. Each spear can only be used once.

Enemy casting delay: It seems lopsided that enemies can cast 6 spells at the very start of combat, and then run out and just melee from there. Maybe some kind of random delay, between 0.5 and 3.5 seconds, could be created after each spell. This would also allow enemies like the Ancient Lich greater opportunity to use melee damage spells.

Ancient Lich: Maybe he could be fireproof, or at least immune to his own spells.

Spell effect messages: When an enemy casts a spell without an apparent effect, a message could appear at the top of the screen: "Nightblade looks stronger." "Sorcerer is surrounded by a shield."

Path-based rest distance: When calculating a safe distance from enemies to rest, the calculation could come from paths and eye contact with enemies. An enemy behind two walls, but requiring more than a mile to reach the character, wouldn't be taken into account. Locked doors would disqualify an enemy. Enemies pacified by language/personality would also not be taken into account.

Weighted move speed: The sum of the character's worn equipment can reduce movement and/or attack speed. A tower shield would also provide a far greater speed reduction than a buckler. Stealth success likely also affected by worn equipment weight. Weight of weapon could have a more significant impact on weapon swing speed than other factors. If implemented, all related mechanics would have a higher initial speed so gameplay doesn't feel sluggish when adjusted. Raising Strength above 50 would mitigate the effect.

Chain armor: Chain can weigh less and provide a dodging-emphasized armor bonus. Iron can weigh more and provide a shielding-emphasized armor bonus. Chain armor may also come in different materials.

Lockpicking: A lock can show a percent chance of how likely the character could open it ("This lock has nothing to fear from you... (3.1%)"). Locks can be attempted unlimited times, but a delay of about one second applies so it matters when fleeing.

Knightly orders: Maybe knight quests could give an increase in legal reputation, maybe +2 per quest. Still intangible, but it makes sense that you'd be better respected.

Night arrival: A travel option for characters who would prefer to arrive at a destination during the night. This is already in place for vampires. Useful for roleplaying and for avoiding the town guard.

Riddle quest: A miscellaneous quest could let the character answer five trivia questions about the Iliac Bay or other facets of Daggerfall life. Success TBD. If the character fails, a curse is put on the character, with such negative outcomes as causing a hostile imp or werewolf to appear near the character every six hours for a few days or being followed by Grizzly Bears for ten days, teleporting the character into a random dungeon or directly in front of Medora Direnni, losing 10 luck permanently, or contracting the Plague. If there's a Jester faction of some kind that would probably be most appropriate as questgiver.

Knight quest: Orcs in the region are planning an assassination on a noble. The character must reach a palace in the region and wait there during the nighttime for three Orc Sergeants or otherwise leveled Orcs. Similar to Mage's Guild night watch quest.

Climate survival: A temperature mention could be implemented on the Status parchment ("I" key), with varying effects if the temperature gets too high or low. Below 10 degrees celsius, the character could begin to suffer climate damage as a percent of maximum health; this would be negated entirely by wearing a priest robe, mage robe, or cloak. A message at the top of the screen could hint towards it ("The bitter cold takes its toll on you..."). Above 32 degrees celsius, fatigue would begin to fall more quickly, and at an accelerated pace if the character wears a priest robe, mage robe, or cloak. This temperature could be chosen at semi-random, with each day providing an adjusted range based on the month and region, interpreted by the hour (Morning Star in the Wrothgarian Mountains could range from 3-6°C at 3AM to 18-21°C at 3PM. Sun's Height in Bergama could range from 18-20°C at 3AM to 43-45°C at 3PM). Temperature conversion would be available for immersion purposes. Characters in lycanthrope form or possessing cold resistance could be unaffected by cold temperatures.

Experience-based leveling: All enemies killed and tasks done can add some experience to a sum. Picking locks, obtaining quest objectives, healing missing health, casting a status effect not already in effect, and getting the right response out of conversation (the first time per topic) can all add experience until the character levels up. Each enemy could have its own experience value (rat = 25, werewolf = 150, gargoyle = 375, etc), and this could be modified by the difference in character and enemy levels, perhaps (enemylevel/characterlevel). Experience from a single kill would cap at each experience level gain; if a level 2 character kills a Daedroth, the character won't rise to level 9, but to level 3, and all excess experience would disappear. If the character doesn't immediately level up, any further experience could still count for level 4, but a single kill would not exceed the experience threshold for the next level; more plainly, no enemy could account for more than a single level gain at a time. Human enemies could gradually scale in experience value. To avoid ambiguity, any enemy who dies in the scene could count for full experience.

Enchanting: This really could use custom effects options rather than inflexible, preselected spells and effects. It would function in a much more interesting manner if it had all the options of Spellmaker, with all the possibilities offered in Item Enchanter. Enchanting cost would probably have to rise a lot to compensate for the kind of power created by this. If additional spells are implemented as well, they could be added to the enchanter once they are in the character's spellbook.

Additional factions: If Occasional Faction Members and Dungeon NPCs open the door to meeting members of otherwise minor factions, it would make sense to be able to form a more formal affiliation with them. A wide variety of factions already exist that could be given a stronger association to give the world some more substance. The Fey, Quill Circus, The Great Knight, The Archmagister, The Crow, Agents of the Underking, The Night Mother, The King of Worms, The Bards, Healers, Scholars, the Underworld, Host of the True Horn, Master of Academia, Master at Arms, Master of Initiates for Mages and Thieves guilds, the Children, to merely begin with Daggerfall's nearly endless faction list; any of these could be given exclusive quests that allow the character to obtain specific benefits over time, whether directly from the NPCs at chance meetings or other benefits that the character can make use of in varied circumstances throughout the Iliac Bay. Some could function as joinable alternative factions (a Mages Outcast guild who have a vendetta against the Mages Guild and its allies, including the regional authority; a Dark Brotherhood alternative that lawfully carries out executions as ordered by the monarch, similar to the Morag Tong; a virtuous guild of thieves who steal back stolen goods and obtain evidence against unlawful imprisonments, etc.) for characters who want further roleplay opportunities. The advantages these factions offer should probably have a good degree of overlap, since meeting any of them at all is up to chance.

Vampire factions: Once the character becomes a vampire, a quest giver could appear permanently in a cemetery in that region, of which the character is notified by letter shortly after turning (if the character stops being a vampire, the quest giver might disappear). The character could find a quest giver in a cemetery of any other region with the same bloodline. A trainer and possibly a spell seller, depending on the bloodline, may also be available. Increasing faction with the bloodline allows for greater quests and greater rewards, along with other benefits to be found (vampirism could be reworked, such that the bonus stats and attributes could be incremental rather than immediate, based on character's faction/rank in the bloodline).

Spell scrolls: Some spells may not be sold by the Mages' Guild or temples. One option is to find a paper with the spell written on it. By using it, the character adds that spell to the spellbook and can thereafter cast it. These should be quite rare. They might be found very rarely in bookstores. Spell scrolls could potentially carry any spell available to the character whatsoever, sold by regular vendors or not.

Leech spell line: A spell with the same effect as Transfer Health/Stamina, but works over time, analogous to the Regenerate spell. Not sure whether spell should end when enemy is dead.

Ambient quests: An invitation to a random quest can arrive to the character at any time and under various circumstances. This is based on the Daggerfall Betony demo. The demo said something like, "Normally you'd be able to talk to people and get quests, but we don't have that implemented yet. So instead you find a piece of paper under your shoe from someone who's captured and in a dungeon. You can travel to..." Thus the idea is that the character can be requested for a task by any person at any time, either with a formal contact who will either tell the character where to go for more details, or the quest can begin right away. It's also similar in form to how the Thieves' Guild entry quest begins: you get a piece of paper telling you to steal something for them, or else. The difference is that Ambient Quests can begin with no visible trigger whatsoever. (Example: A man runs up to you and shouts, "Please! Prince Helseth has sent assassins after me! They will take my life unless you do something!" You see a figure nearby who motions to you to stay out of it. Will you protect the man? [Yes][No] "Thank you! I owe you my life! But I won't be safe unless I can make it to Palace in Arkbury Commons within 6 days. Please, let's hurry!" After accepting, assassins begin to attack every few hours until time is up or you complete the quest.) Some Ambient Quests could occur at any time to any character, while others could require some conditions to be met before they happen. Some prerequisites could be: Entering a new region for the first time; being inside any tavern on a certain holiday; gaining sufficient standing with a certain group or rank with a guild; spending more than one year in the Iliac Bay; doing more than 10 innkeeper quests in a certain region; gaining a high enough level, etc. Perhaps some Ambient Quests could give faction losses if the character fails them, but thinking right now that'd only be the case for ones that have faction prerequisites of some kind. All ambient quests will have an accept/decline prompt to allow the character choice, but declining ones with faction prerequisites may cause certain reputations to lower. Could be triggered by a general check (1/2048 in-game minutes at random), which then searches among the pool of eligible ambient quests the character can receive, to achieve a sort of uniformity in frequency. For programming's sake, when the ambient quest trigger occurs but no quests are available, a parchment message could appear on the screen with something generic: "You hear an owl hooting, not far away." or "You shiver slightly as you press forward."

Re: Jay H's Corner: Requests and Content

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 3:53 am
by Jay_H
Edit 4/14/16: I've begun overflowing things into this post, as the previous one is full.

Cursing at Chance: This Classmaker Disadvantage chooses a random and unique disadvantage for the character every 24 in-game hours, at midnight. At midnight the previous day's disadvantage is removed, and a new one is applied. The daily effect would override any racial or class advantage or disadvantage in conflict. Three different levels exist: Minor, Medium, and Major, with a corresponding effect on the progress meter at chargen. "Major" has such events as incurable Plague for 24 hours; magicka reduced by 5 every in-game minute; gold from loot reduced by 99%; all weapon skills reduced by 75%; all magic school skills reduced by 75%; all enemies spawned in dungeons range from +3 to +5 over character level; character cannot rest more than 2 hours at a time without interruption; enemies will occasionally have 5x health; character suffers critical weakness to two elements; all attributes halved; door unlocking difficulty increased by 200%; guards will randomly attempt to arrest character within city; all townspeople refuse to speak to character; any crime traced to the character drops legal reputation to -100.

Immunity to Lycanthropy/Immunity to Vampirism: These traits can be added as Classmaker advantages, for those who hate having to interrupt a dungeon crawl for them.

Plague/infestation: At any time, the game may choose to set forth a plague (infestation?) of some kind within a region. Any number of regions may have an infestation at any given time, but any region cannot have more than one. An infestation consists of the increasing presence of one kind of monster within a region, outdoors as well as in dungeons. Some examples would be wild creatures infestation (giants, spriggans, and nymphs), daedra infestation, bandit infestation (all human opponents), vampire infestation, atronach infestation, etc. Once an infestation occurs, perhaps the character could receive a general publication from a courier in town warning about it and telling of a noble who has supposedly found the root of it, or could perhaps ask around with the "Any news?" function until it's made known. Those bulletin signs at the entry to walled cities may also carry this sort of information. The character can obtain a quest to eliminate the source of the infestation, which will vary depending on the kind of monsters the infestation consists of. The character can escape to any other region and play normally there, so long as some infestation doesn't occur there, which should be quite rare. Infestations could begin small (20% of enemies, average level) and gradually grow in strength (80% of enemies, higher level). Resolving an infestation should bring a major reward to the character.

Enemy conversation: Once an intelligent enemy has been pacified by the character's conversation skill, the character may then click on the enemy and try conversation. This would most likely consist of the "Ask About" section only. May require a skill check to achieve, in addition to the pacification skill check. Perhaps pacified enemies could become flat, non-collision sprites. Could be related to Everquest's implementation, where listening to a person whose language you don't know scrambles several of the letters (ie: if you only have 40 skill in a certain language, "Akavir is a continent far to the east" would become "Alovor ik u wontirent cix to sfe eusn," letters scrambled at random. The scrambling would reduce as the character increases in skill).

Spell Reflect trait: Similar to Spell Absorption, a Spell Reflect trait could be included in Classmaker, with variants for light, darkness, and general. Naturally, this would drastically alter the progress bar.

Wandering quest objective: Very rarely (1/1000 hours rested?), when the quest objective is a hostile NPC, the character may be interrupted from rest by the objective, who will attack. Thus the objective may appear directly in front of the character, but other than that will not move to any other location in the dungeon. Intended to help with some of those absolutely impossible quest locations. Not sure whether to implement for non-hostile NPC and object objectives.

Telekinesis spell: Planned for Daggerfall and implemented in Morrowind, this spell allows the character to manipulate levers and buttons from further away, and obtain loot from a distance.

Jumping horse: The character's horse is capable of jumping at a fixed skill of 150(?), allowing to bypass fences and other obstacles. The cart cannot jump.

Magic skill checks: Magic skills could only increase when practiced on a legitimate target. AOE spells must include at least one legitimate target to count for skill checks. Restore Health/Stamina may only count when those stats are not full. "Open" spells only count when cast in the vicinity of a locked door. Fortify Attribute and any spell with lasting effect would not count if those effects are already in place on the target. This may require some internal lowering of the experience difficulty bar.

Lycanthropy feeding: There could be the occasional peasant in less-civilized areas such as rural homes, rural shrines, and near dungeons who the character can use to neutralize lycanthrope hunger without attracting the attention of guards. A reworking of the guard system near rural shrines and homes might be a good idea as well.

Boat travel: It would make sense that, once the character has bought a boat, sea travel would be faster. It provides an incentive (minor as it may be) and it's logical that the character wouldn't have to wait for someone else's ferry to depart.

Boat NPCs: Once the character has a boat, some kinds of traveling NPCs may be persuaded to stay aboard and offer their services. Some may be willing on their own, and others may require quests first. Perhaps some additional kinds of NPCs, ship-capable, could begin to appear in towns once the character has a boat to enable this, or perhaps there might be a grayed-out "Invite to Ship" option for some NPCs which becomes viable once a ship is in possession. The character could gain food vendors, trainers, weapons merchants, spellmakers, potionmakers etc., based on the Occasional Faction Member system. Each ship could have X number of slots that can be filled by different NPCs. Some NPCs could require a monthly cost to stay aboard, and if the character's sum of money from all banks runs out, they may begin to desert.

Boat furniture: Ships could also be furniture-capable, if furniture is implemented in houses as Daggerfall presumably intended.

Hidden locations: Some locations could contain secret NPCs who cannot be found in any other way. These locations could only be found on foot, though they would be added to the regional map afterwards. One example could be a location called "Acolyte's House," in Cybiades (Cybiades could use a lot of hidden locations), where the character might meet the Acolyte in person and begin some sort of quest line there. Such hidden locations could exist in many regions for many different notable NPCs or factions (some minor Blades NPCs in Ykalon, for example), where groups of a single faction congregate and could offer questlines, similar to witch's covens but more purposeful. These places/factions could offer one dedicated questline each and a random questgiver, who would function like a guild questgiver or an innkeeper, with faction increases after successful quests. There could be some particular services in each group as well. Some groups would refuse to speak with the character until a few quests have been done first, perhaps through Occasional Faction Members and Dungeon NPCs. Some locations might be hinted at by peasants when asking for news, letting the character find the actual location for themselves, sometimes even the region. ("They say Quill Circus has a hideout in Anticlere... I wouldn't trust that though." or "Ever hear of a place called Privateer's Hold? They say some agents of the Underking have a mansion to the east." or "Don't ever go north from a place called Divad Monument. The Necromancers would go ballistic if you did." or "The Old Masterhouse Shack keeps getting overrun from the west by people calling themselves the Host of the True Horn. Some people just have the worst luck." or "Chulmore Quill tends to visit Lord Flyte a lot. I wonder why he always comes from the south.")

Fearful peasants: When something scary's happening, peasants would probably move quicker. This wouldn't require a new running animation, just a 150% or so increase in movement speed. This can occur when the character is a werewolf or vampire or is being pursued by guards, or if monster attacks are implemented.

Shield materials: Different materials for shields could provide increasing benefits. A tower shield could use a formula such as [1+(0.5*materialvalue)], with Leather providing a defense value of 1.5 and Daedric at 6. A buckler could try [0.25*materialvalue], with Leather barely providing anything and Daedric giving 2.5.

Underwater shock: Shock-element Destruction spells could become AOE underwater.

Crushing damage: Anytime the character is directly on top of an enemy and under the force of gravity, the enemy takes damage per second unless the character jumps off. Slowfall would neutralize the damage. Levitate might neutralize damage, or might resume damage if the character chooses to press downwards onto the enemy.

Chain and leather materials: Chain and leather can come in varieties of materials, ranging from iron to daedric. The armor bonus will be reduced, but so will the equipment weight. This is analogous to the light/medium/heavy armor found in future TES.

Loot piles: Loot piles could be changed to visually reflect the first object in its list, or allow the character to determine a loot icon on a case-by-case basis, with one chosen as default.

Knight quests vs Dark Brotherhood: A lot of knight quests could be added that conflict directly with the Dark Brotherhood. The two seem generally incompatible, so it would make sense for some of their quests to reduce faction with the other mutually.

Innkeeper quest: Some months ago the merchant failed a serious obligation/desecrated a memorial and is now haunted by skeletons. The character is asked to accompany the merchant to a dungeon, where he/she can right the wrong and end the matter. Skeletons will appear periodically while the merchant is with the character.

Alert guards: When hostile guards appear after a crime has been committed, they would know the character's location and begin to move toward it. In vanilla they stare into space.

Tougher guards: Guards could be given their own class instead of Knight, receive a large AC increase, and become resistant to all elements. They could also hit werewolf and vampire characters. Guards would also likely attack any hostiles who appear within towns.

Loan interest: In addition to the 10% up front, a loan may begin accumulating interest after its due date. Maybe something like .5% per day afterwards. When combined with the debt collector idea, this means the character will be pursued by increasingly difficult enemies so long as the burden remains.

Always-hit Mechanics: As seen in Oblivion and Skyrim, this mechanic would eliminate the possibility of missing in combat, either for the enemy or the character. One way to do that is simply turn all misses into one-health-point hits. Another way is to scale all damage based on variants of the attack power/skill level vs armor class.

Warring enemies: There is a small chance enemies of various types could fight each other. Spriggans may fight against atronachs, humans may fight against animals, etc. when encountered in dungeons. Quest NPCs likely ineligible for warring.

Light source: This could function in two ways. One is that the character could have a hidden light attribute that starts low and increases every time a torch, candle, or lamp is added to the inventory, and reduced when sold or dropped. Another is that the character could be able to use such objects in the inventory to temporarily increase the light attribute, which would have a duration before going out. It's said that the current "Light" spell in vanilla is a holdover from the second idea.

Refine weapons: To extend the Daggerfall experience, more materials might be needed for weapons and armor. As an alternative, there could be an option to refine weapons with merchants (traveling NPCs?), who would charge a fee based on the value of the weapon to increase damage value by +1 in each case. Each weapon could be refined three times to grant a total of +3 damage. Depending on a rebalancing of the economy, this could require the cost of the weapon each time. If a certain exclusive faction offers this, then they could offer +1 to anyone, and require a certain amount (not a lot) of reputation before selling +2 and +3 effects.

Increase Skill spell: Would work the same way as Increase Attribute, but for individual skills.

Ghostsight spell: This spell would highlight all existing quest objects in an interior with a glow of some kind, which would be visible through walls. Thus the character would be able to have some general sense of where the objective is and whether certain obstacles (water, levitation, magically held doors) might be absolute impediments to reaching it. Quest locations would not be highlighted, but quest objects.

Undead status: Distinct from Vampire status, this spell effect would be semi-permanent, like werewolf form, and would grant the character immunity to poison, underwater breathing, and additional AC. Would be rewarded as a spell scroll in a hypothetical Necromancers questline.

Tug-of-war factions: Quests done for one faction and against another would provide a more serious hit to the antagonized faction. This would make it far more difficult to retain membership/reputation with two opposed factions.

Peasant factions: When a peasant is generated, he or she could be assigned to multiple regional or continental factions. If the character has high reputation with any of them, getting information from the peasant would be easier. (This could be noted in the peasant dialogue, ie: "For a friend to the Fighters Trainers, I'd do anything."

Create Item spell: In vanilla I've never found a very good selection of items to create with this spell. It could begin to use Magnitude to decide how powerful the items it creates are.

Group awareness: When a group of enemies is found in the same room or in proximity, attacking one would alert the others. Each swing could be checked vs stealth skill, and a stealth skill lower than the rolled number would mean the other enemies are alerted. Weapon weight could also figure into the stealth check, with a heavier weapon providing a greater handicap to the skill check (roll vs stealth could perhaps be between 1 and 50+weaponweight*4). If the killing blow is a backstab, an additional skill check could also be made vs backstab skill, and if backstab skill is higher than the roll (probably rolls between 1 and 100) and stealth skill check continues to be positive, the enemy will fall silently; otherwise, the enemies will be aware. This could further be calculated in radii from the character, in that enemies closer to the character would be alerted through a higher roll (between 1 and 60+weaponweight*4) and enemies in further and further distances would have a lower probability to be alerted (between 1 and 40+weaponweight*4, 1 and 25+weaponweight*4, etc). A non-stealthy character will quickly alert all enemies within a vicinity of its intentions.

Hostile options: Each of the four cursor modes could correspond to a different action with a hostile NPC. Steal Mode is already implemented. Info Mode could identify the enemy ahead, as the other modes currently do. Dialogue Mode could attempt to pacify the enemy ahead, as a more conscious method than vanilla employs. Grab Mode, not sure. Could perhaps be an attempt to push back and/or stun the enemy, but not very keen on that one.

Poisoned weapons: In vanilla, poisoned weapons can be found but not created. Recipes could be found for various kinds of poison, each one of a different strength (a poison using a small scorpion stinger, snake venom, and orc's blood would be of low-medium strength; a poison made of daedra's heart, a large scorpion stinger, and lich dust would be very powerful). Once the "Use" button is pressed on the poison in the inventory screen, the weapon is granted its effect until the next successful hit or until fast travel. Undead and certain other creatures would be immune to weapon poison.

Restless monsters: After the character has spent time in a dungeon, enemies would gradually start to move around from their spawn points, including leaving their room. It seems unrealistic for all the enemies to stay cooped up and stationary for hours at a time.

Diverse economies: Regions in the Iliac Bay could vary in economic stature. Areas such as Wayrest would be extremely wealthy, and goods in its stores would always be more valuable and higher-quality (the quality of each individual store impacting less). Other areas could be poor, with stores offering low-quality and cheap goods. This would remain constant, and goods sold in stores would not fluctuate on character level. Certain few stores such as the Odd Blades would always offer Daedric equipment for the character who could afford it.

Silent enemies: One out of every ten or so enemies at random would have its sound clips muted. This will allow enemies to uncommonly gain the advantage on the character.

Sneaking backstab: If the character is holding the Sneak key, the probability of using a backstab attack could be multiplied by 1.5.

Random hauntings: Rarely (1/100 nights?), a message would appear after nightfall, and various level-appropriate undead would periodically appear in a proximity to the character in any outdoor setting. Relevant image.

Town gate key: After attaining a high rank with a certain regional faction (Knightly Order, or perhaps a town guard faction), the character would be granted the ability to unlock the gates of any walled city and walk inside.

Courthouses and prisons: These are displayed as static images within the game, but not as visitable locations. They could be placed as separate locations on the regional map. Perhaps won't have much practical use beyond realism and roleplaying, but some new quests could point to these locations. The character could also be released outside the nearest prison or courthouse after being arrested.

Climbing hold: The climbing controls could be reworked: an icon could appear once the character has hold of the wall. Swim Up and Swim Down buttons could be used to control height, and the mouse could be used to look freely. Grip failure could occur as in vanilla due to low climbing skill.

Slaughterfish: Vanilla documentation states slaughterfish grow more aggressive as the character is wounded, smelling blood in the water. There could be several ways to implement that, with one being that the slaughterfish gains an invisible Fortify Speed effect, stacking, with each successful hit. Scaling slaughterfish speed inversely with character health percent would be another option.

Clothing dyes: Clothing stores could sell a service to change any piece of clothing to any color. Something similar could be created for weapons and armor, either at blacksmiths or by a specialist NPC.

Noble castles: In many regions in vanilla, the ruling noble can't be found, and a standard palace in the the capitol city has no royalty figures in it. A separate castle could be constructed in each region (probably not too far from the capitol) where the monarch and other royalty can be found, allowing for more questlines and factions, and the possibility of assuming the monarchy.

Night ambience: While indoors at nighttime, some ambient sounds reflecting occasional outdoor activity could be appropriate. A cat meowing, a horse neighing, a door opening, occasional cricket chirping, a wolf howling, etc. would all be muffled.

Mages Guild Laboratories: The questgiver in the Mages Guild frequently refers to laboratories, experiments, and escaped atronachs. Vanilla itself doesn't display any such laboratories, and it isn't likely the experiments occur within guild halls. This could be a separate location like noble castles, although they probably won't have much purpose. There would probably be hostiles such as atronachs inside but little point.

Magicka: Default magicka would be equal to Intelligence. Classmaker advantages could be 1.5x, 2x, and 3x.

Peasant rumors: In vanilla, peasants seem to remember and repeat all the character's doings, making it seem like the world revolves around you. Peasants could speak on a variety of subjects, some useless (rumors about rulers and other major figures, etc) and some gameplay-related ("They say that during a full moon, you can find werewolves anywhere." or "Sell your goods in the poorest stores. They're always desperate for good merchandise." or "Guilds won't beg you to stay a member. Ya gotta prove your worth or get the boot." or "If you wan' ta be a real big shot in a guild, ya gotta dedicate some time to their skills. After all, what's a thief who can't pick locks, or a mage who doesn't cast spells?")

Summon Undead spell line: If both Necromancers and a Summon spell line are implemented, these spells could be rewards in the Necromancer dedicated questline as spell scrolls, or could be sold by a Necromancer spell vendor. First would be Skeleton, rising up to Ancient Lich. Character would be immune to all spells by summoned companion.

Seize: This status effect would intermittently and randomly paralyze the character in bursts during its duration. While the effect is active, the character may be unable to move or attack for varying periods of .25 seconds, .5 seconds, .75 seconds, or 1 second, non-stacking, occurring at random. Spellcasting and inventory are unaffected, same as paralyzation.

Bulwark: This spell/spell line would provide an increase in armor rating for all of the character's equipment slots. Perhaps could be a different spell for +1, +2, +3, +4, and +5. Highest levels would probably have high magicka cost. Duration can be scaled. First two levels could be found as spell scrolls, and all levels may be earned through a questline. Was thinking of some way to only affect empty equipment slots (armor rating 0) and make the spell far stronger to compensate, to give unarmored mages a chance. Could perhaps function as (+0.5*(spellrank) for all equipped slots, +3*(spellrank) for all unequipped slots.)

Faction-specific rumors: Any NPC aligned with any faction may tend to provide hints slanted towards it. Members of the Mages Guild would give rumors and advice useful for spellcasters. Merchants would give rumors and advice useful for buying and selling goods. Blacksmiths would give rumors and advice regarding weapons and armor. Any NPC could potentially speak about any topic, but each would lean towards their own background for things to say.

Scout spell: This spell line would allow the character to create a detached scouting object which the character could control and see with. The first variant would be visible to enemies and unable to pass through doors. The second variant would be visible to enemies and able to pass through doors, including locked doors. The third variant would be invisible to enemies and able to pass through doors, including locked doors. The magicka cost for the spell would increase by variant. The scout would have a single health point and no resistances.

Sheathed weapon: The character would run 10% slower when weapon is unsheathed. Alternatively, the character could run slower by (2*weaponweight)% while unsheathed.

Spell resistance: This Classmaker advantage could be a lesser alternative to Spell Absorption, with variations for darkness, light, and general.

Safe rest: This spell would open a "Rest" dialogue while in a dungeon, and the character would be able to rest for the period chosen without risk of interruption by enemies. Likely high magicka cost.

Stoneskin: This Alteration spell would reduce the character's movement speed to zero and greatly increase resistance to physical damage. Likely to only last one tick. Not sure whether defense bonus would be magnitude-variable.

Charge spell: For most (all?) spell effects, the Spellmaker would permit a mandatory charge time for the spell. The character may apply a charge time to reduce magicka cost at the time of casting (ie: an instantaneous Recall spell may cost 78 magicka, whereas one charged for four seconds would cost 38). The character could choose the charge time during Spellmaker, which would remain fixed and individual for each spell. During charge, the character would be unable to walk, turn, attack, or use other spells. Max charge time would be 5 seconds. Charging would occur after the spell is targeted, not when it is selected (if different).

Unusual minerals: The character would be able to occasionally find mysterious lumps of a material among loot, usually in ingredient piles. These would be able to be identified to determine what effect they have. While in non-wagon possession, some effect would occur periodically (character contracts the same disease recurringly every few weeks; any enemy near the character would be randomly paralyzed; animal-type enemies have reduced hit chance against character; character turns into werewolf during full moon with accompanying attribute increases, etc.) Minerals would rapidly deteriorate during gameplay, similar to "Cast When Held" magical items but faster. One effect per mineral. Minerals would be generic and not matched to any effect.

Shrine NPCs: The NPCs found at shrines could offer certain types of rumors and information no other NPC can. A unified "Shrine" faction could exist, requiring the character to do an occasional quest to maintain positive faction with them, allowing for conversation. The character may also uncommonly find an Occasional Faction Member belonging to a rare faction.

Property damage charge: In vanilla, attacking the exit to a building while indoors summons guards, but they have no charge to arrest with, since it can't be considered breaking and entering. A minor charge of property damage could be instituted to allow them some reason to arrest.

Penal record: In vanilla, committing several distinct crimes in a short period of time only allows the guards to arrest on the most recent charge (if murdering and then pickpocketing, the guards will arrest for pickpocketing). A cumulative penal total could be created to allow the guards to punish for every crime committed.

Immunity to Normal Weapons: This Alteration spell would last one tick, learnable from a spell scroll obtained during a questline. Likely high magicka cost. All human opponents below a certain level would be unable to damage the character, and above the cut-off human enemies would still have a greatly reduced chance to hit.

Elemental effect: A spell would allow the character to put an elemental property temporarily on physical attacks, with each spell providing a different element. Not variable by magnitude. Each casting nullifies any other existing elemental effect, or the attack would only apply the most recently cast effect. Elemental effects may allow character to override material requirements vs enemies.

Fighters Guild quest: The guild has been hired to resolve a series of murders occurring in and around a shop within the city. Some hint is given that the current shopkeeper may be a daedra or daedra accomplice using illusion spells.

Fighters Guild quest: For the last twenty-four hours the city has had a rash of attacks by atronachs or gargoyles within various stores. After eliminating the threat within one building, the character will be informed by courier to move on to another location, and so on for up to six buildings within a period of forty-eight hours.

Knightly Order quest: News has spread throughout the region of a nest of dragonlings within a dungeon of a certain breed that the monarch wishes to protect. The Order has been requested to send a skilled knight to the dungeon to slay any poachers who enter, but not kill any of the dragonlings.

Fighters Guild quest: A rural home in the region has been assaulted by a family of fairly aggressive wild animals, and has hired the Guild to eliminate them.

Mages Guild quest: The Guild requests that the character eliminate an atronach with a puzzling new characteristic planted in an innocent citizen's home. The creature will multiply itself in two upon death repeatedly, and the character must endure to its final death.

Knightly Order quest: The character is asked to voluntarily accept a magicka-obliterating curse from a wizard who has suffered from it for several months. The character may end the curse by going into a dungeon and destroying the lich who cast it. Magicka will remain at zero until that time.

Noble quest: Certain debts the noble considers illegitimate are required by a particularly noxious band of collectors. The noble requests that you meet the collectors and either eliminate them or pay the sum out of your own pocket.

Noble quest: The ruler requests your aid in dispossessing a rural home of its current owner, as a previous agreement has not been honored.

Noble quest: The Dark Brotherhood has failed in making a certain person disappear, and now both the would-be assassin and the target must be eliminated.

Noble quest: The noble's child has been offered a piece of jewelry as a birthday gift from another noble, but it appears suspicious. In the role of a courier you will accept the item and test any curse it contains on yourself before delivering it.

NPC human classes: After a certain level, some human enemies would randomly appear in new classes the character can't select. These would scale higher than normal to provide an increased challenge. Some of these could be Gladiator; Archmage; Battlemaster; Illusionist; Stealth Assassin; Duelist; and Wizard. These classes may not necessarily be mere enhancements of existing classes, but could be stronger classes with unique sets of traits (Illusionist could cast Invisibility True and use archery; Stealth Assassin could use a Skip spell that turns it backwards, appearing behind the character for an easy backstab). These could also appear at any level in custom quests when a particular challenge is needed, though at low levels their enhanced scaling wouldn't have as much effect.

See Invisible spell: This spell would denote any invisible enemy within line of sight with a glow of some sort to allow the character to detect it.

Archmage NPC class: 18HP per level; Spell Reflection, general; immunity to fire and frost; spells include melee and ranged AOE Fire damage spell, melee and ranged AOE Ice damage spell, melee absorb magicka spell, melee shock spell, and ranged AOE Stagger spell.

Gladiator NPC class: 35HP per level; resistance to frost and shock; adrenaline rush.

Wizard NPC class: 15HP per level; resistant to all elements and non-elemental magic; uses melee damage-over-time spells in fire, frost, shock, and poison elements; can cast a melee Stagger spell, melee Seize spell, and melee Whirl spell.

Lost language skills: Vanilla originally planned the ability to use Faerie and Elvish languages. Were separate factions to be implemented with such races, these skills could be implemented, and a skill check could be made before the character could enter a dialogue menu or get a quest from them; otherwise, a parchment message of "You get no response." would appear. Faerie could be a good, rare choice for Occasional Faction Members in shrines.

Duelist NPC class: 22HP per level; very powerful melee attacks, but low agility and speed.

Battlemaster NPC class: 28HP per level; Spell Resistance, general; good stats all-around and high speed.

Increased guard presence: Once the character begins to massacre guards within any city, the guards would be replaced by more powerful versions who will gain advantages until they are nearly unstoppable. Stage 2 guards could be immune to all elements and resistant to non-elemental magic; Stage 3 guards could use melee Seize spells and be immune to all magic; Stage 4 guards could have an irresistible effect on successful strike, Damage Fatigue and Silence; Stage 5 guards could have every advantage of stage 4 guards but also add an irresistible Paralyze effect to successful strikes. Each stage of the guards would have further increased attributes and armor class. Each killed guard would be replaced by a guard of the next stage, who would appear nearby.

Fighters Guild quest: A merchant carrying very valuable merchandise has paid the guild to be escorted to two regional cities. Due to his fame he expects interference from brigands and/or competing merchants.

Fighters Guild quest: A regional city has contracted the guild to help with a group of criminals who have been roughing up and extorting local merchants. The character is asked to either persuade or strike down the outlaws, who can be found within a residence.

Miscellaneous questgivers: In vanilla, only merchants, tavernkeepers, and a very few taverndwellers can offer miscellaneous quests. The other NPCs waiting in these places could offer quests as well. Perhaps even the flat NPCs inside ordinary residences could offer quests randomly when spoken to.

Blessing at Chance: This Classmaker advantage would function in an opposing manner to that of the Cursing at Chance, granting the character some benefit for 24 hours at a time, chosen at random, occurring every day. Three varieties would be available: Major, Medium and Minor. "Major" in particular would make the progress bar skyrocket, and would offer effects such as: magicka regenerates by 5 every in-game minute; 5x gold from loot; all weapon skills tripled; all magic school skills tripled; all enemies drop loot ranging from +3 to +5 over character level; character is immune to all spells; enemies are randomly paralyzed upon detecting character; limitless encumbrance; character levitates, swims quickly, and breathes underwater; all swings are successful and critical; all attributes doubled; all doors are unlocked and enemies are unable to open doors; all damage to character reduced by 66% and character is immune to human melee attacks; all stats regenerate to full with one hour of resting.

Random quest locations: In vanilla, quest objects can only appear at certain fixed points within each block. This makes the task fairly predictable after a certain amount of experience in Daggerfall's dungeons. A new system could be created that could place the dungeon object at any point at all within a dungeon, likely using a method similar to that of Unstable Portal to ensure that it won't be placed in the void or under a stationary box. Alternatively, many more quest locations could be added to each dungeon block to provide further variety.

Medium Blessing at Chance: Possibilities could include loot dropped by enemies increased by 2-3 levels; gold weightless; gold looted increased by 60%; successful swings are critical; character resists all spells; character levitates and swims quickly; all doors are unlocked; all damage is reduced by 30% and character gains evasion to human melee attacks; all stats regenerate at 2x speed during rest.

Minor Blessing at Chance: Possibilities could include loot dropped by enemies increased by 2-3 levels; gold weighs half; gold looted increased by 33%; character has increased hit chance against enemies; character resists spells occasionally; character levitates; door unlocking difficulty halved; character gains evasion to human melee attacks.

Medium Cursing at Chance: Possibilities could include enemies in dungeons spawn at 2-3 levels higher; enemies resistant to all elements, including non-elemental; gold looted reduced by 60%; character movement speed reduced to 70%; character spells cost 45% more magicka; character cannot rest more than 4 hours at a time without interruption; character gains low tolerance to two elements; door unlocking difficulty doubled; enemies will occasionally have 2.5x health; most merchants and tavernskeepers refuse to speak to character; any crime traced to the character drops legal reputation by 3x.

Minor Cursing at Chance: Possibilities could include enemies in dungeons spawn at 1 level higher; enemies resistant to two elements, including non-elemental; gold looted reduced by 33%; character movement speed reduced to 90%; character spells cost 20% more magicka; character cannot rest more than 6 hours at a time without interruption; character loses resistance or immunity to one element; door unlocking difficulty increased by 50%; enemies will rarely have 1.5x health; some merchants refuse to speak to character.

Body Illusion spell: This Illusion spell creates a mirror image at each of the character's sides, confusing any hostiles, who will aim at the character or next to the character. Character evasion is also slightly improved during the duration.

Mages Guild quest: The guild has been troubled by the recent malicious campaign of a former member. Using a variety of illusion spells, he/she has attacked various people and groups out in the wilderness, and must be stopped. The character is sent to a dungeon to find this enemy, but it will be impossible to know what form he/she has taken until found.

Field of Absorption: This Restoration + Destruction spell would create a field around the character for its duration. Any foe within the field will have its health absorbed by the character.

Varying doodads in dungeons: Many of the flat decorations in dungeons could be altered to be randomly chosen from a small pool, allowing for a greater visual variety. One additional option could be occasional empty corpses.

Enemy recall: Some very few enemies (witches?) would have the ability to cast Recall->Teleport on the character, instantly sending the character to the Anchor unless a saving throw is made. If no Anchor, no effect.

Warp Enemy: This Mysticism spell would send the targeted enemy to a random walkable location somewhere in the same interior. If cast outdoors, would send enemy up to 50 feet in any direction. Possible to save vs spell.

Recall Anchor: Anchor would persist for as many castings as the character chooses, as implemented in TES3. Perhaps an "erase" option could be viable if the character wants no anchor.

Warring quests: In vanilla, regions are able to declare war on each other (needs more confirmation, fuzzy memory). Warring quests could be implemented to add further depth to this. The Fighters Guild could have quests that are only available during a region war (merchants need a mercenary to travel with them to warring region), same as knightly order (A Palace has fears regarding assassins from other region, requests a guard for one night) and Dark Brotherhood (noble in home region would like to eliminate a certain important person in warring region in a discreet manner).

Horse damage: Horse could be subject to a certain amount of damage within a period of time (one day, etc). If damage from any source exceeds certain number while riding on horse within a time period, horse dies. Cart cannot die.

Dispel effect: This Alteration spell would eliminate the opponent's beneficial magical effects, such as Shield, Resistance to anything, Regeneration, etc. Cannot dispel innate effects given by race or class. Castable by several kinds of opponents. Would not alter effects granted by enchanted equipment. Saving throw can be made by opponent. Not sure how many effects could be dispelled in one casting.

Fatigue depletion: When an enemy's fatigue drops to zero, a new bloodless corpse sprite could be used. The enemy would still be alive with greatly reduced AC but unable to move, attack, or cast spells. Enemy would revive after a minute or so. If enemy dies, normal dead sprite is placed.

Idle warriors: Some NPCs could be found in cities and rural homes dressed as great warriors. The character would have the option of challenging them to a duel to the death on the spot. The NPC would be high level and powerful, but would also likely carry very good equipment.

Over level 20 quest: A jester challenges you to retrieve a statue from within a dungeon. For the duration of the challenge, the character's health will be 1, but will have immunity to all spells.

Stock message: When talking to flat people, there could be an additional option: "Who are you?" This would present a standard message from the NPC about their background, purpose in life, philosophy, etc. A "Conversation" option could be the normal dialogue window as currently implemented in vanilla. All the various NPCs in guilds, rulers, peasants, shrinespeople, and so forth could have flavor text about their lives and their work (A guard could say, "I'm one of the many guards in this city. We're what separates order from chaos, day in and day out. If you're in danger or something's wrong, just give a loud shout and one of us will be there. I hope that's the only reason I would have to track you down." A guild trainer could say, "I provide training to those who qualify and have the gold to pay for it. Trainers are the driving force in the growth of a lot of new recruits, so guilds try to make sure the trainer's happy. Otherwise, only a few of the new people get far, and that's bad for business and the guild's future." A blacksmith could say, "Just look around and you'll see some of my creations. I buy and sell weapons and armor of the highest quality from all around the Iliac Bay, and improve on anything shoddy that reaches my hands. If your equipment's starting to crack, give it to me and I'll have it like new for the best price in town." A spymaster could say, "I'm one of those people the guildmaster kills to keep around. That means I get to have a very pleasant lifestyle without ever getting my hands dirty. I've got colleagues and underlings in more places than you can imagine, hearing and seeing and reporting everything I need to know. Ask your question, and I'll have the answer." A guild teleporter could say, "The Mages Guild insists on keeping a transporter in every guild hall, where practical, for the carrying out of emergency tasks. The power I wield can send a person to the Isle of Betony, the Dragontail Mountains, the city of Sentinel, or any other place worth visiting in an instant. Where will I send you? Say the word, then merely blink, and you will be there." While services can be barred by rank requirements in guilds, the stock message would be available to anyone. Peasants could have a wide variety of backgrounds to speak of.)

Ethereal Wall spell: Inspired by Starcraft 2's Sentries. This spell would create a circular, translucent field that would be impassable from the outside (from the inside there would be no collision). Enemies would be able to cast this to attempt to trap the character, or the character could use this to block off enemies. Could be cast at range or in immediate space. Duration probably fixed at a single tick.

Enemy panic: If the character instills a serious fear in the opponent (Mask of Fear spell, using a backstab to take off 80% of health by surprise, etc), the enemy could attempt to run rather than fight. This could follow a simple pathing algorithm with the nuances of Daggerfall's regular pathing, but rather than running towards the character, the enemy will attempt to run 180 degrees from the character.

Stonefoot spell: This spell would reduce the target's movement speed to zero. Likely not to last longer than a tick. Could have a "chance" component if it's too unbalanced, not sure whether it's needed.

Microdungeons: New, tiny dungeons consisting of a single block could be created throughout the landscape. These would each have unique names like regular dungeons, but quests probably would not be able to point to them (they would still maintain quest locations for the use of Dungeon NPCs, etc). This could permit a "dungeon claiming" ability for characters who want to live entirely outside the law, allowing the placement of furniture, and disallowing any further monster spawns or event flags such as Dungeon NPCs. These dungeons may carry a reduced number of loot piles, perhaps one to two, as a minor incentive to explore. Not sure whether they'd show up on regional map.

Hostile guilds: If the character enters a building belonging to a guild with which a sufficiently negative reputation is held, either hostile NPCs will be present inside, or speaking to anyone within will cause hostile NPCs to appear ("Everyone get over here! There's a filthy [race] called [name] here who needs to learn some manners!"). This would happen to anyone who is not a member of the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves' Guild inside their buildings (or perhaps at 0 reputation or lower), in the Mages and Fighters Guild when below -15 reputation, and with a knightly order when below -50 reputation with them. The hostiles could be related to the guild: warriors and barbarians inside Fighters Guilds, assassins and nightblades in the Dark Brotherhood, battlemages and mages in the Mages Guild, rogues and thieves in the Thieves Guild, and knights in a knightly order.

Enemies opening doors: Enemies would likely only open doors after the character is detected.

Equipment condition: Looted equipment could come in a variety of conditions, from New to Broken. Goods in stores will always be New (perhaps include Almost New?)

Small bow: A new form of weapon could be implemented, the small bow. This would be one-handed in practice though it would use the same two-handed graphic in first person. The small bow would be left-hand equippable, and would allow the character to equip another one-handed weapon in the right, such as a short sword, to allow instant switching between the two. The small bow would have reduced damage potential from the other two bows. Intended for thief-style characters who need to work quickly to dispatch enemies.

Bow disable: Bows would not be usable underwater.

Attribute bonuses: In vanilla, attributes provide bonuses, but they aren't all of equal value. Strength could be modified to provide +2 bonus damage per 10 strength rather than +1, to provide a "slow titan" archetype. Wisdom appears to be ineffective in vanilla so it's hard to see whether it should be modified, but its effect could be doubled as well. Endurance would probably provide a per-level multiplied bonus to heal rate, as the character's max health continues scaling up.

Classmaker groups: Classmaker could permit groups of advantages or disadvantages, similar to how the Weapon Enchanter allows to include all of a certain kind of effect (enhance reputation with all, etc). This would permit resistances to all elements, critical weakness to all effects, forbidden weaponry: all, etc.

Water Walking: This spell effect could be tempered by a Magnitude effect, similar to how TES3 uses it in levitation spells. To truly swim quickly, it would require more magicka.

Continuous Damage Fatigue/Magicka: These two effects could be made a lot more magicka-efficient. In vanilla they have little purpose, since they cost the same as Continuous Damage Health.

Brick walls: I'm not sure whether it would work, but I'm thinking the astro background for daedra summonings could be scaled and used to replace the brick wall portal texture, which I don't see as conducive to its purpose. Otherwise, a hunk of the Mantella Crux space background could work.

Free Action: This spell effect would increase significantly in magicka cost, and likely have a Chance attribute added.

Dry land: Underwater-only creatures (Lamia, dreugh, slaughterfish) would not be able to prevent the character from resting.

Chaotic content: After level 20, the game could begin to throw in more things at random, some of which may be beyond the character's choice and some of which may be unfair. Some examples could be that while the character rests in a tavern, screams are heard, and a hostile Daedra Lord could appear nearby, regardless of what state the character is in; or if in a cemetery, deep moaning comes from the earth, and two Liches rise to attack. Quests could be imposed, such as being accused of some crime and not having the option to deny it; failing the quest would leave the character with an impacted legal reputation. Ambient quests would also continue to exist, but this level 20+ content would make the game come even more alive, now at a state where one has sufficient chance to fight back (the character could be pursued occasionally by bands of adventurers, simply because he/she has gained such an amount of equipment that splitting it all could make him/her wealthy; factions that hate the character could begin to rarely attack during rest in towns, etc). These likely wouldn't be very common to not be irritating, but are meant to be one more little spice added, and a recognition for how far the character has gone.

New dungeon blocks: For the microdungeons and other modding uses, new dungeon blocks could be designed. Prison blocks, schoolhouses, underground mansions, training halls, and many repurposed building plans from existing guild halls could be implemented as parts of new locations.

Human class loot: For each human class, loot could be distinct. Warrior-type classes could carry heavy armor and many weapons. Thief-type classes could carry jewelry, valuable goods, and excessive gold. Mage-type classes could carry robes and enchanted items(?). These wouldn't be strict dividing lines between loot tables, but general tendencies.

Furniture removal: Houses for sale and claimable dungeons could have basic furniture inside to begin with (one bed, one table, two chairs). If so, a furniture removal option may couple well with a furniture purchasing option, as an alternative to beginning with empty houses. This would allow the character to remove objects within these spaces and reposition or sell them. In this way, a character could gradually begin to improve a living space with a fireplace, rugs, banquet tables, etc.

Training dummy: One piece of furniture for houses could be a training dummy, on which the character could practice weaponry for skill increases. Its health would likely be infinite and/or constantly regenerating 1000 health per tick. It would be immune to spells.

Darker dungeons: Dungeons could be far dimmer, both for realism and for gameplay purposes. This would create a need for light-creating items and spells, and could make dungeons more thrilling to explore.

After-hours inventory: When a business is closed, it may have only a fraction of its inventory on the shelves. This provides an incentive to shoplift during daylight hours.

Thieves Guild fence: A service offered by the Thieves Guild could be a fence, who buys any kind of item whatsoever. His pricing may become more and more generous as the character rises in rank, similar to Fighters Guild repairs.

Lore quests: In vanilla, only one random quest enters into any matter of greater import: one where a merchant offers to tell you about your shipwrecking in Privateer's Hold. More quests could be created that delve into various aspects of the Iliac Bay and Tamriel, offering a normal reward as well as exposition on a given subject (the Hoarfather, the Frozen Wastes, various factions, etc).

Lockpicking ease: In vanilla, a majority of doors won't open unless the character has a lockpicking skill well above a beginner's value. Residential doors could be assigned lower random values (between 5 and 40), with dungeon doors perhaps higher, and merchant doors either somewhere in-between or higher.

Limited guard: The number of guards who can appear at once could be limited by town size. A town with 30 or fewer buildings may only allow two guards to appear at a time. A city like Sentinel could allow up to 8 guards to appear at once.

Guarded trespassing: Uncommonly, in a shop after business hours, a mercenary guard may be found within to deter burglary. This may be more common in higher-class shops.

Dynamic faction changes: In vanilla, NPCs will occasionally talk about the breaking and making of regional alliances, but this seems to only be flavor text. A system similar to Mount & Blade could be implemented, where regions and factions organically add and subtract a random amount to each of their related factions every week. When the sum drops below a certain number between two factions, they may turn to a negative relationship. Likewise, more positive relationships could form in the same way. This would create a constantly changing Iliac Bay that would never be the same on two different playthroughs. Peasant rumors could then reflect the ongoing changes, rather than conjure statements out of thin air.

Residency: Some manner of residence could be established, where the character becomes a citizen of one region. Shops within that region could give a small advantage to the character for buying and selling prices. Regions favorable to that region may also alter their selling prices. Regions where the residence region is unpopular could raise their prices and make it more difficult to begin conversation. Within the ruler's palace there could be some NPC who grants this. Falling too low in legal reputation could perhaps sever the residency.

Polymorph spell: This offensive Alteration spell, castable only by enemies, can turn the character into a sheep. Character speed is reduced to 10 and armor class is halved for the duration. Save vs spell possible. No effect if reflected.

Neutralize element: This Thaumaturgy spell can be cast on enemies to cancel any elemental properties on them temporarily, and reduce attack power by 25% during its duration. Supposing the attack reduction would work only if element is present, but not sure if that's feasible.

Dread poison: Some of the highest level enemies in the game could use a form of poison that permanently reduces one attribute by one point when successful.

Hitmen: If the character does sufficiently negative things in one region, that region may hire headhunters to pursue the character throughout the Iliac Bay. Documents on the hitmen will show why they are arriving.

Overworld strongholds: The face of the would could be dotted with occasional monuments featuring enemies of some kind. Similar in concept to shrines, these could be Skyrim-like towers, shrine-like domes, staircases leading to altars, etc. They would not lead to interior locations, but would contain enemies while remaining outdoors. The kind of enemy could vary by type (towers would always hold humans, etc).

Skill report: When a character is unable to join a guild due to low skills, the message could also inform what the accepted skills are.

Closing time: When the character is in a shop and it's time to close, a parchment message could appear: "I'm sorry, but I have to close for today. Come back tomorrow and see what we have to offer." The character would then be placed outdoors.

Wilderness shops: Just like there could be small dungeons that dot the outdoors without appearing on the regional map, small shops could exist as well. An NPC inside could offer a shelf or two of some goods of a particular kind. There could also be a spare room available in stores to act as a countryside inn, with the shop NPC having a "Rent Room" option as well. Shops could be of all varieties found in towns, with perhaps the exception of banks, libraries, and furniture stores. Guild halls would not appear in the wilderness.

Abandoned buildings: Uncommonly, there could be civilized buildings in the wilderness with nothing in them at all. These would have little furniture inside and probably no enemy spawns. They could be used for sleeping and claimed for character residence.

Human groups: Enemy humans could occasionally appear in groups of two to four outside of dungeons. Each enemy could have a different class.

Turning foes: Any flat NPC aligned with a faction at -80 or lower with the character could turn into an enemy and attack when spoken to ("No more, [name]! You've gone too far!"). This would permanently remove the flat sprite and probably cause a -5 hit to all the NPC's factions. These enemies would vary in level between 1 and the character's current level to provide some degree of realism. If feasible, certain enemies could generally be higher level (combat-experienced NPCs would vary higher, commoners and nobles would vary lower). Main quest NPCs would not turn.

Rural hideouts: A few of the "Home" locations on the regional map could be converted into incognito Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood guild halls, or other guild halls if others are implemented.

Repairs: Repairs could take less time overall (set in terms of hours rather than days), and/or could vary based on faction standing with repairer.

Everyone's headhunters: Any faction at all having -80 standing with the character could send occasional assassins.

Classmaker advantages: Silver Tongue could add a permanent bonus to dialogue checks with non-hostile NPCs. Peacemaker could add a permanent bonus to pacify checks with hostile NPCs. Innate Magicka could restore 1 magicka per in-game minute when not resting. Natural Sneak could permit enemies to forget the character once a certain range/line of sight is lost. Locksmith could allow the character to attempt to unlock a door every 0.5 seconds rather than the theoretical 1 second and allow to lock closed doors. Stalwart could allow the character to use the theoretical Shield skill without actually holding a shield. Relaxation could restore 1 stamina point per in-game minute when not resting (or perhaps moving). Consume Magicka could work as Spell Absorption, but restore health instead of magicka (would conflict with any Spell Absorption); could perhaps work only on damaging enemy spells. Battle Terror could give enemies a natural tendency to run from the character (perhaps chance%=(characterlevel-enemylevel)*10), and increase the probability that an enemy will run when lower on health.

Ally persuasion: Once an enemy has been pacified, the character could use the DIalogue mouse mode and click on the pacified NPC, initiating a one-time check with stricter requirements than pacification. If the check is successful, the pacified NPC could follow the character and/or wander freely without character collision, attacking hostiles within the dungeon. This would require a high enough language skill for all applicable enemies.

*****

This post is getting full, so further addenda will be made to my third post in this thread.

Edit 4/6/2015: The old stuff I said before can be found in this pastebin. I don't know if I'd ever go back and do a quest like the one I've detailed here, but if anyone's curious I'll leave it there.

Re: Jay H's Corner: Requests and Content

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 5:11 am
by Interkarma
G'day Jay_H, welcome to the forums! :D
Jay_H wrote: Before I begin, I did want to say something to Interkarma. As one of the outsider people starting to speak up, I hope you understand that your work has been phenomenal from the beginning to now. I don't know if anyone could really ask for anything more, with the project at its current stage. Saying it all at once, I hope you don't feel pressured to get a public release out ASAP. A fun project can become frustrating and boring when you start to push it for X deadline. If you're worried that people will come, lose interest, and go because there isn't anything playable yet, I'd say we should wait on that thought. Once this is working, there are going to be promotional videos; there are going to be Let's Plays; there are going to be Reddit posts, forum announcements, and people who loved Daggerfall, or who always told themselves "I would love to play that if they fixed X about it" are going to come back. What I'm saying is that I hope you don't push too hard and burn out to try to keep people interested. For the sake of this project, I really would prefer a tortoise over a hare in this instance. Now, I could be entirely off-base and misreading the situation, and if I am, you have my full permission to tell me. And if that's true for any of the developers, it's just as well.
Thank you for the kind words! I don't plan on pushing myself to that point. I made this mistake a while back, and it prompted me to hit the reset button and walk away from Daggerfall Workshop for a few years. I have since made changes to how I approach my hobbies and allocate my time that have been working well for me.

The first Daggerfall Unity release in around a month's time will at heart be very similar to the streaming world demos released so far - but you'll begin seeing more game architecture being constructed around that core. To start with this will be basic character creation and save/load features. Then I will start layering down quest support, adding more features, and deepening how these systems all work together. It will likely take considerable time to reach that minimum scaffold I spoke of, but I plan to keep the wheels turning and regular updates coming. A little bit of progress at a time adds up over several months.

You've made some great suggestions here, but please keep in mind that my first order of business is to create the scaffold first and enhance later. I'm personally going to be very tightly focused on getting to a minimally-playable release, then we as a community can go nuts and enhance it in all kinds of different ways. Rather than respond directly to every point raised, I will just say that I agree with your points and would also like to see more content and better balance in Daggerfall. But first, we need something that works. :)
Like I said, my only aim in posting is to contribute. I realize that at this point the project is really about nuts and bolts than painting and organizing, so this may not be what everyone's looking for, but I want to get the content out there so we can have more opportunities for collaboration, if anyone else has a like mind. Whether there's any interest around for now or not, I'll leave this post here, and let interest build as it will.
Every contribution is worthwhile, especially adding new content when that becomes possible. I'm really excited to see what the community adds over time. It would be incredible to have even a fraction of the mods enjoyed by Skyrim. That would truly make all the work worthwhile.

Re: Jay H's Corner: Requests and Content

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:57 am
by Jay_H
Thank you likewise! My intent is really just to start a sort of "treasure box" for the future... Maybe so I can write them down before I forget them. I'll be here and around, though I don't know how often or how much I'll contribute until a fully functional release issues. But count me as one more of the fans of this incredible project.

*****

Edit 5/12/16: More ideas here.

Real-time skill advancement: Advancing in skills during gameplay as introduced in TES3, rather than after resting, could be a welcome change. The game could also signal an imminent level-up with a message at the top of the screen: "You feel an epiphany forming in your mind...", or something like TES3-4 use.

Temporary camps: In the wilderness, small circles of various NPCs could be found occasionally surrounding a campfire for a day. Each NPC could be of a different kind (one priest sprite, one trainer sprite, one mages guild member sprite, etc.) These would exist only from one day to another. One in the circle could perhaps offer services and/or shops, but not expecting much in this way. Circles could vary greatly in the NPCs they include. The character could speak to them in normal conversation concerning news and regional locations, like with shrine members.

Reputation discernment: Some provision to tell what faction standings the character has could be implemented. One idea is a fortune teller NPC who explains the character's standing with all immediate factions (joined guilds, region, and the 5 major reputation branches); this NPC could occasionally mention very high and very low standings the character has with any other faction at random. Another is a new GUI window that tells these things explicitly, though such blatant information may be less intriguing.

Silver armor: Pieces of silver armor could provide exceptional defense against lycanthropes (or perhaps invulnerability when struck on the protected location), inflict fear, and/or even damage the lycanthrope on each hit.

Varied decor: Each dungeon type (dungeon, laboratory, stronghold, natural) could have its own tendency towards a wall and floor texture. Undead dungeons could use black bricks, strongholds the usual adobe-looking bricks, laboratories darker colors such as gray and crimson, and natural dungeons could tend towards cave and plant wall textures. Doodads could also vary depending on the dungeon type.

Enemy flight: Flying enemies such as harpies and imps would be able to path in all three dimensions freely. In vanilla they can hover over empty space but appear to have very limited vertical movement, if any.

Dungeon-quest matching: In vanilla, questgivers will often state that renegade mages are hiding with an army of atronachs, or that orc sergeants are surrounded by their soldiers, etc., but the actual dungeon could be filled with bears and bats. A formula could be created to match a certain kind of quest with a certain kind of dungeon, which will be populated with enemies of the right kind by nature. This could also be used to a lesser extent to match the flavor text, such as to avoid situations where a temple questgiver says, "It's hiding in The Theodyrick Penitentiary, which used to be a sacred shrine of ours," and so on.

Leveled questing: Guilds could restrict the quests they offer by rank and/or character level. For the Mages Guild, the first set of quests could be the most banal: Researcher's Notes, Palace Imp, and Dungeon Ingredient; the next rank could include all the first rank and add Midnight Guard and Escaped Atronach; the next rank could include all previous ranks and add Mummy Wrappings and Mage's Protector, etc. The same could be true for all guilds. This would eliminate the matter of an initiate being told, "We've heard of your deeds across the Iliac Bay," or "As your loyalty has been unwavering to the guild thus far, will you aid us?" It would also prevent the character from entering into difficult quests too early (Banish Daedra, slay daedroth, slay orc warlords, etc).

Spawn locations: This one is well beyond my technical knowledge. Sometimes enemies spawn in empty dead-ends behind the character, where it would be impossible for any enemy to arrive without the character knowing (or without attacking the character, being hostile). Spawns could be allocated only in hallways facing the greater part of the dungeon, and if possible, on a path leading to the exit.

Wither effect: This spell effect, castable only by the character, reduced the target's level by 1 to 5 if successful. Modifiers are Chance and Duration. Spell cannot reduce enemy level further than its natural minimum (for example, if a mummy can spawn no lower than level 3, its minimum under this effect is 3). Stats are accordingly reduced.

Quest-conversation link: In the "Ask About" section of the dialogue window, a topic could correspond to each of the active quests in the character's journal, in addition to all other topics. For example, in one character's conversation list, the topics could start, "Any news?" "A Favor for the Emperor" "Visit from Brisienna" "Escaped Atronach" "A Duel for Honor." Peasants could have anything to say, useful and non-useful, about each one. In vanilla the character must ask "Any news?" repeatedly until getting something relevant to one quest.

Archived quests: A log could be kept of all quests completed by the character by date, as implemented in TES3.

Master trainer: One idea for a wandering NPC (occasional/dungeon) could be a trainer who offers several skills at random. This trainer would be capable of training any of those skills up to 95. Because these NPCs would appear and disappear from one day to another, it would be difficult to abuse the mechanic.

Absorb Damage: Inspired by DOTA's Abaddon. This high-level Restoration/Alteration spell would grant a chance to convert any receivable damage into health, stamina, or magicka, customizable in Spellmaker. Modifiers would be Chance and Duration. Fall damage might be excluded. Damage from natural poison could perhaps be converted.

Absorb Element: This high-level Alteration (Thaumaturgy?) spell would grant a chance to convert elemental damage into health.
Element would be chosen in Spellmaker. Modifiers would be Chance and Duration.

Non-lethal attacks: A toggle button could be added somewhere in menu or on the keyboard to allow the character to choose between lethal and non-lethal combat. Non-lethally defeated opponents would leave a bloodless corpse that would still be looted as normally, and would behave in all other respects as a dead corpse. Defeated opponents would not rise again. Some quests would require the use of non-lethal attacks to succeed: Fighter's Guild "Tiger and Bell," Temple "Drunk Priest," Fighter's Guild "Wild Spriggan," etc. Some provision is made for this already, as the current Tiger and Bell quest can fail if the character kills the tiger without using the bell.

House construction: A lot or multiple lots could be designated within each region, which the character could buy from the bank. This would enable a system of choosing and placing empty rooms as desired, which would be furniture-enabled. Likely to require an exorbitant cost as a continual money sink for endgame characters, far more so than regular houses.

Special hits: After agility or weapon skill exceeds 90, the character could occasionally begin to use special combat strikes, denoted by a unique swinging motion. These special hits would do 2.5x damage and stun the enemy when successful. Chance of using one would probably be about 10%.

House treasure: The treasure within houses could vary depending on the house size. Enormous houses could carry loot upwards of thousands of gold, with valuable objects. Tiny houses could carry loot of less than 100 gold, with simple objects. Larger houses could have more complex locks indoors and outdoors as a difficulty offset.

Illusion Object: This spell would make all enemies instantly forget the character. Enemies within line of sight would be unaffected. Chance modifier available. Probably lasts one tick, and spell breaks if character moves or attacks. Likely very low magicka cost.

Language overhaul: Language skills could be grouped and expanded. Giantish, Spriggan, Dragonish, Centaurian, and Nymph could be combined into a Nature Language skill. Bats, rats, spiders, scorpions, bears, and tigers could be grouped into a new Beast skill. Impish, Harpy and Daedric could be combined into an Arcane Language skill. Orcs could be turned over to a regular charisma check, same as human opponents. This would allow some synergy among these skills, providing more frequent and meaningful skill-ups, and permit some characters to move through entire dungeons of a certain kind while relying on a single language skill.

Cumulative resistance loss: Similar to the Cumulative Damage effect found above, this effect could be found on rare weapons as a "Cast when Strikes" spell. With each successful hit, the enemy's resistance to one of the five elements may reduce by 10%. This could perhaps last several ticks to allow the character sufficient time to make use of the effect. Enemies immune to an element would be unaffected, but enemies with resistances would be affected.

Frenzy: This effect could be found on rare weapons with a "Cast when Strikes" spell. The effect would be cast on the character and last one tick. It would increase attack speed percent with each successful(?) hit: by 2% the first strike, 4% the second strike, 6% the third, 10% the fourth, 16% the fifth, 26% the sixth, etc. Would probably only last one or two ticks.

Panic Impact: This effect could be found on rare weapons with a "Cast when Strikes" spell. With each successful hit, the enemy would have a chance of running in fear, calculated at (weaponweight)%.

Weapon quality: Weapons could have modifiers attached to alter their lifespan. A Shoddy weapon could have 60% overall durability, breaking more often. A Fine weapon could have 150% overall durability. A Well-Maintained weapon could have 130% overall durability. Weapons with such altered lifespans, when repaired, would be restored to their altered durability maximum.

Ambient messages: Flavor messages could randomly appear at the top of the screen while in dungeons to distract the character and add ambience. "You hear a creaking from far away." "Some footprints here are covered in dust." "A sudden gust of wind catches you off guard." "You wonder if any enemies have arrived recently." "You smell smoke in this area." "You sense pockets of concentrated magic here." Perhaps the flavor messages while approaching dungeons could have some role in this as well.

Refresh spell: This high-level Restoration spell would restore health, stamina, and magicka simultaneously over time. This could perhaps restore 10% of each per round, or be magnitude variable to determine the percent, incurring in a very high casting cost.

Beam targeting: In vanilla, it's possible to cast spells that hit enemies behind others, but it depends on a difficult targeting method with area-effect spells. A beam-area spell could be implemented, shooting forward and striking every enemy in a straight line, until 10 feet are reached or a solid wall is met.

Giant Spider rare enemy: This blue palette swap of the Spider would be about 30% larger, and would automatically cast an AOE around self spell once per round to reduce character movement speed by 30%. High attack speed.

Resistance consumables: Very rare items could be found, or granted rarely in quests, to permanently increase character resistance to one of the seven resistance branches (potions, etc). These would advance from "Critical Weakness->Low Tolerance->Normal->Resistance->Immunity." Such altered resistances would likely require a new info sheet to show their current state.

Resistance loss: Enemies would be able to cast spells that temporarily reduce the character's resistance to an element.

Alchemy skill: Alchemy could be implemented as a character skill. Potionmaker NPCs would create potions at a standard 65 or 75 skill, whereas the character's potion efficiency would vary depending on skill level. Either some menu button or item could be implemented that, with the Use option in the inventory, would pop-up the character's potionmaker window, somewhat similar to how the Identification spell works in vanilla. Potions could show six tiers of quality in their "Info" window; potions made with 1-20 skills would be deficient, 21-40 skill would be feeble, 41-60 would be standard, 61-80 would be expert (as would potions sold by merchants), 81-99 would be outstanding, and 100+ would be extraordinary. These would alter the magnitude and duration of the effects cast by the spell.

Climbing rope: A corollary to the Rope Spear, this item would cause the character to rise vertically, as if in climbing mode. Descent is not possible, though turning is allowed. Should the character move in any direction, climbing ends and gravity starts again. If the character touches the ceiling, movement ceases and the character remains there, allowing to turn around to look.

Armor variations: Leather and Chain could have different types and colors, like plate armor, to create levels ranging between +1 and +10 armor per piece. Leather could be expanded into Hardened Leather, Reinforced Leather, Daedroth Skin, Argonian, Tigerskin, etc.

Dungeon overhaul: Amalgamation of ideas here listed and NikitaTheTanner's post. Every regional dungeon would be given a number ranging from 1 to 5 as difficulty category. Dungeons rated 1 would only spawn enemies from level 1 to 4, and dungeons rated 5 would only spawn enemies from level 15 and above. Guild quests would also be tiered, as suggested above in "Leveled questing." Low-tier quests would always send to low-level dungeons (ie: Dungeon Ingredient would always send to the lowest possible dungeon, whereas Mummy Wrappings may send to a tier 2 or 3 dungeon). In regions with fewer dungeons (Tulune, etc.) this may limit the variety the character sees over time. This may conflict with "Dungeon-quest matching" as listed above, since not every dungeon type would be available within a suitable range for every quest. Possible solutions could be to open up the range of dungeons (Mummy Wrappings could send to a tier 4 dungeon if needed); prohibit that quest from appearing within that region; or replace the dungeon's normal spawns with the matched quest's spawns, regardless of the dungeon type, while setting the level of the enemies in accordance with the dungeon's tier.

Weapon information: In vanilla, it's difficult to determine what kinds of bladed weapons are Long Blade or Short Blade. Some indicator of the relevant weapon skill could be added.

Wall ladders: Some manner of ascending into the upper walkways of walled cities could be implemented, if only for realism. This could either be put outdoors on the inside of the city, or inside those wall compartments that are usually locked.

Multiplayer modes: Inspired by a post by Interkarma and the general idea of multiplayer as shared among the fanbase. Several modes of multiplayer could be implemented, beyond the regular worldwide co-op commonly envisioned. Assuming the characters will be portrayed as regular NPC sprites, different palette swaps for the sprites would be necessary to create a red team, blue team, purple team, yellow team, etc. A GUI would show the other party members' health, stamina, and magicka in a column on the left side of the screen, with the stat bars rising from left to right next to the character portrait (could be extended to the right side of the screen if the party becomes huge). In competitive modes, the matchmaker service would probably allow an in-depth look at each character's stats, equipment, and spells to ensure everything's legitimate.
  • Capture the Flag was mentioned by Interkarma, with Privateer's Hold as one map; several other maps could be written into a list (likely depending on what the community finds, as Daggerfall has literally thousands to choose from), from which the players would be able to choose on what map to play, likely to a number of points or a duration of time (determinable at the start of each game). Respawn likely open to toggle, and would have a 5- or 10-second respawn delay and/or limited number of lives if toggled on. Ideal maps would probably be largely linear, perhaps with a few branches in paths from red flag to blue flag. Invisibility would be persistently dispelled from anyone bearing the flag. Immunity to Frost, Magicka, etc will probably have to be reduced to like a fixed 80% resist rate (a character with 100 speed and immunity to everything is entirely broken). Perhaps some sort of knockback on melee would be necessary to prevent chars from stalling in doorways.
  • Endurance is another possibility, in which each team is placed in identical circumstances. A group of enemies appears in waves, starting at the average level of all participants, and increasing from there. So for a red team of (level 7 + level 8) and a blue team of (level 9 + level 11), the first wave would start with Daedroths and Liches, and would scale in difficulty by about a level each time. The number of enemies that appear would likely never be less than 2 nor more than 5, except for excessively large teams. Each character would likely only have one life for the entire match. The team whose characters die first loses. Human NPC enemies would also factor into waves in varying classes. Each wave would probably have a theme behind it; a level 5 wave could have two orcs and two orc shamans; a level 6 wave could have a zombie and a ghost; a level 7 wave could have a vampire and two mummies; a level 8 wave could have two gargoyles and a sorcerer; etc. All stats could be restored at the end of each wave. Random handicaps could also be toggled in the configuration of a match, which would apply to all characters simultaneously and change with each wave but not carry over from round to round (ie: magicka halved for this wave; magicka drops by 1% per second; all characters poisoned, ignoring immunity; all character move speed halved; all weapon skills halved, etc). One hypothetical arena for this would be the Wayrest painting room, with all doors replaced with walls; another could be the Orsinium room holding the Emperor's letter. Other similar arenas could be found throughout the game and quarantined as arena rooms. Certain kinds of custom enemies could appear infrequently who would act as boss waves all on their own (a level 25 Vampire Ancient with resistance to all spells; a level 30 Ancient Lich with immunity to its own spells; a large imp with 10x its normal health and infinite magicka, etc). This would probably reach all the way up to like level 60 (perhaps 100?) waves, which should be impossible to reach, as no one should feel like they've seen it all. Not sure whether character spell effects/buffs would persist across waves. This mode could be implemented in single-player and as a team co-op as well, with adjustments in difficulty (ie: in co-op the team could allow up to 16 characters, and monster difficulty would be multiplied as a result).
  • Quest race could place two teams at the start of clones of the same dungeon, with the same objective in the same place. Whichever team achieves the goal first wins. Resting would stall every member of the same team, requiring good communication to ensure resting is only done when everyone needs it (a party leader or consensus may be necessary to rest). The characters can stick together or split up if they choose, but the enemies would likely be given highly elevated stats to encourage teamwork (perhaps enemy levels would be calculated on a formula of (average of all character levels)*(square root of number of characters per team)). The quest objective would be identical to many of those found in vanilla (find a dungeon ingredient, slay a criminal, defeat an undead, find a lost adventurer, etc), but would not require returning to the dungeon entrance nor to any questgiver; once the correct interaction is made with the quest object, that team wins. Each character's journal would probably be temporarily wiped clean, with a single entry denoting what the objective is, ripped directly from a corresponding vanilla quest.
  • Co-op will likely have more thoughts in the community than can be written here. A Diablo 2-style increase in monster difficulty could be implemented for each character who enters either the same game or the same dungeon; a character exploring alone would face enemies with normal stats, but two characters in the same dungeon will find that the same enemies have elevated stats, and so on increasing for every character present. Attacking other characters would likely be permanently disabled. Characters could use differing time systems until they decide to form a party, at which time all time-reliant decisions (travel, rest) would require the consent of every party member ("Solidarity Scheme"); for streamlining, an option could be implemented to allow the party leader to make each decision and apply it to all members of the party ("Leadership Scheme"). When forming a party, time would automatically sync to either the party leader's time or the most future time among all party members. Messages could appear at the top of the screen to show the whereabouts of other party members: "Gaenor has entered Direnni Tower." "Martin has completed quest: Escaped Atronach." "Umbra has entered the Mages Guild." A "call" function could be implemented across cities and dungeons; when the call button is pressed, all other party members would be pinged towards the location ("Ulfric calls to you from the southwest." "Farengar calls to you from the north."). Characters who die in a dungeon would probably respawn at the exit of the dungeon, and on the outskirts of the city if in civilization. Respawned characters would leave a corpse with all carried items, necessitating a corpse run, though the wagon and horse would always remain on the live character. Several different "Your Ship" areas would probably have to be placed within the game, identical to each other, which would each be assigned the instance of a different character's ship. Any character would be able to sleep in a team member's house, but not in a team member's inn room. Until the character shows it to you, there would be no way to know which house belongs to any character, team member or not; this would prevent unfair looting from character houses (one alternative is to make the loot in character houses invisible and inaccessible to everyone except the character who dropped it.) If the decision is made to rest but other party members are not in adequate locations, they would only loiter for the equivalent period, passing time at the same speed but not gaining stats back. Any interruption to rest would interrupt all characters' rest, and no character would be able to rest if any party member is near an enemy (the one attempting to rest would get a message at the top of the screen: "Caius can't rest right now." or perhaps "Jauffre is near an enemy."). All characters would be able to see a quest objective item, but only the character holding the quest that spawned it would be able to pick it up (a message could appear at the top of the screen: "This doesn't belong to you...").
Sheogorath mode: I'm not sure where or at what point in gameplay this would be implemented. Inspired by Mario 64 Chaos Edition. At any time, effects could be brought into play with no impetus whatsoever. Effects would last for a random period of time (though within reasonable limits, like say 5 minutes to not totally obliterate gameplay) and could overlap. Some of the Sheogorath effects could be: all enemies gain the ability to fly and can clip through anything; character randomly dies and instantly respawns with full health; any enemy can cast any spell and have infinite magicka; the room containing the character begins to spin around (inspired by Lypyl's test video); all drops of any elevation are instantaneous and punishing; unusual lenses are applied for character view; strafe and forward-backward keys are scrambled among each other; character would be moved in a direction at all times, which could be altered or overcome by running in other directions; enemies would retain their stats but borrow audio and visual from other enemies (a werewolf that looks like a daedroth and sounds like a rat, etc.); character health, stamina, and magicka randomly setting themselves to different levels once every 2 seconds; and so forth.

Merchant quest (over level 5): When spoken to, a merchant/innkeeper offers you a cup of tea made of certain special ingredients. The greater chance is that the character's health and stamina are fully restored at no cost. The lesser chance is that the character blacks out and wakes up at a quest location inside a regional dungeon (similar to An Unexpected Journey quest), with a note asking for forgiveness, as there were threats being made against the merchant's family if he/she did not cooperate.

Tip of the Day: Helpful information could appear the first time a game is loaded/started after each startup of Daggerfall. Lots of the more obscure nuances and potential found in Daggerfall Unity could be revealed there, such as quest time limits, rising in guild ranks, dungeon mechanics, etc. If structured as a directory from which text samples are taken each time, this could allow mods to add their own helpful hints seamlessly (ie: for Dungeon Claiming, the tip could mention in which menu the Claim Dungeon action is found).

Magic lock gems: An item could be created, such as a gem, that casts a spell once to break the nearest magically held lock. The gem would be consumed after one use. Inspired by Jeff Vogel's Avernum series.

Thief tools merchant: A member of the Thieves Guild could be added, likely selling to rank 0 or 1 members, who offers thief tools at a discount. These would be rope spears, climbing ropes, gems that break magically held locks, etc. These items would be found at random in certain other stores, but the Thieves Guild would always have them, and for cheaper.

Store inventory randomizing: In vanilla, general and pawn stores follow a strict formula in determining their shelves: for general stores, X number of clothes, a wagon, a horse, X number of books, X number of weapons. This could be changed to allow a greater variety of goods of all kinds. Store inventory could be changed at its opening time each day; in vanilla, store inventory appears to be unchanged until the character leaves the city.

Disadvantaged spells: Some custom spells could be sold by spell merchants with both positive and negative spell effects. Such spells would have a reduced casting cost. Examples would be Battle Fury, fortifying Strength and damaging fatigue over time for its duration; Panic Flight, increasing Speed and Running but inflicting Silence for its duration; Sneaking Movement, granting invisibility and reducing Agility, etc. If spells could grant different targets per effect, that would open the door for such spells as Shockwave, causing instant shock damage in an area around the character but inflicting the character with Critical Weakness to Shock for a duration; Uncontrolled Flame, which damages the enemy for 40 points of fire damage but hits the character for 10; and Caster's Duel, which hits both the character and a target on touch with an irresistible SIlence effect, etc. Perhaps another idea could be for a heal spell that is much more economical than it should be, but on a random chance (1/20 castings?) it empties the caster's magicka completely.

Confusion effect: This enemy effect would inflict the character with a reversal of movement controls during its duration (forward becomes backward, left becomes right, etc). One further variation could be scrambling all movement controls among themselves, and another could be scrambling the controls anew every 10 seconds. No effect if inflicted on NPCs.

Noise field: Based on TES3's Sound spell. This spell effect would create a field around the character. Any enemies within that field who attempt to cast a spell will have their casting success rate reduced ("Spell effect failed."). Magnitude and Duration could be variables.

Immunity to Silence: This character spell effect could be cast to grant a temporary immunity to silence spells. Likely mid-high magicka cost. Duration likely the only variable to implement (Chance would make it frustrating).

Conversation refusal: In vanilla, peasants are willing to talk about rumors only at the first attempt, and afterwards claim they know nothing about anything. A peasant could be checked with each attempt based on the character's speech, Personality, and standing, and the peasant would continue speaking as long as each check is successful. Once a check fails, every subsequent answer will be something like, "Sorry (character), I've kind of got a busy life. Maybe some other time." "I'm sorry, but I don't have any more time. Nice talking with you." "I'd love to keep this going but I'm headed somewhere. Find me again later." "I'm kinda on a schedule. I hope you find what you're looking for." A very skilled character would be able to keep peasants hooked for a long time. Possible formula could be choosing a random number between 1 and (speech skill+Personality+highest faction standing held with peasant)*2, with each peasant holding a fixed requirement between 10 and 30.

Detect Enemy: A spell line allowing the character to visually detect enemies could be implemented (attempted in vanilla but non-functional). This would put a glow around any enemies detected by the spell. Variables would be Duration and Magnitude, possibly as distance of eligible enemies. Lower-tier spells would have just a specific enemy type included (Detect Human, Detect Animal, Detect Daedra, Detect Spellcaster, Detect Atronach, etc). Mid-tier spells would cover greater blankets of foes (Detect Living, Detect Undead, Detect Summoned). The highest-tier spell would be Detect Enemy, which would highlight any enemy or pacified sprite within range. The spell cost would increase by tier.

Merge Critical Strike skill: The Critical Strike skill could be eliminated and its effects implemented in the rise of each individual weapon skill. I don't prefer this right now since Daggerfall is already rather short on useful skills, but it would make for more streamlined gameplay.

Jousting: From notes by Mark Jones on Daggerfall's earlier designs. I don't have many ideas on how to implement this, other than having a jousting weapon of some kind that would be useless on foot but damaging on horseback collision. A Mount and Blade-style arena could be created with other competitors who move on a quick and varied pathing schedule.

Expanded conversation: An early screenshot of Daggerfall suggest an ability to ask for information about a much wider variety of topics. One way to begin to implement this would be to allow toggling between "Where is" and "Ask about," so any topic that could be asked regarding location (including regional) could also be queried for general information. Further topics could be added for people and things not easily placed in such a conversation.

Animal shop: Based on information extracted by Interkarma. The only thing I could think of is allowing the character to buy various animals as decorations for properties. Some animals could be indoor and outdoor (dogs, cats), whereas others would necessarily be outdoor only (cows, horses, likely pigs). Horses for riding could be sold in animal shops, whereas carts would be found in general and maybe pawn shops.

Fierce Aspect: Greatly inspired by Megaman Starforce series. Some characters may choose to be created with a special Aspect form as a Class Advantage with a sizable difference in the leveling bar. Once every so often (not daily, but a few minutes of cool down in real-time), the character would be allowed to take on its Aspect, granting temporary major advantages in a few select skills, and perhaps gaining resistances and attributes as well. This could either use a fixed percent of the character's magicka pool (34%, 40%?) or a new gauge could be created, similar in concept to TES5's Shout bar, that doesn't consume magicka. Some ideas could be Golem Aspect, which would increase all resistances by one stage and add 25 to Blocking skill and 7 to armor class; Warlock Aspect, increasing Destruction, Alteration, and Mysticism by 30 points and increasing non-elemental magicka resistance by two stages; and Fury Aspect, which would increase Hand-to-Hand and Running by 30 points and add 25 to Agility and Speed. Characters capable of using an Aspect would not be eligible to become lycanthropes or vampires.

Distinct swings: The in-game tutorial, and I believe Daggerfall Chronicles, mentions that the weapon swinging directions can use different damage and accuracy values in vanilla. Each swing could be given different properties to allow several different options. Bottom-to-top could be quick and accurate. Top-to-bottom could hit hard and grant a chance to stun the enemy (bonus to Critical Strike?). Left and right swings could use standard values and have a chance to confuse or blind the enemy momentarily. Diagonal swings could have extra pushback on successful strikes.

Absorb Elemental spell: This mid-level spell would allow the character to absorb all damage of a certain element, decided in Spellmaker. Modifiers would be Chance and Duration.

Gravity Pull: Inspired by DOTA's Pudge. This spell would pull all visible enemies towards the character. Magnitude modifier would determine maximum effective distance. Not sure whether enemies could fall into pits or float over them during spell effect.

Revival: This high-level Restoration spell would return the character to life if killed, likely with very little health, and perhaps in a weakened state like Stendarr's benefit. Likely very high casting cost.

Ignite Magicka: Inspired by DOTA's Anti-Mage. This spell would remove a portion of the enemy's magicka and cause an equivalent amount in damage.

TIme Freeze: Inspired by DOTA's Faceless Void. High-level. If successful, all enemies within the scene would become inoperative. May affect objects as well. Duration and Chance would be modifiers.

Enchant Weapon: This spell would grant the character a chance to inflict a status effect with each hit during its duration. Effects would include Paralyze, Absorb Health, Absorb Stamina, etc.

Magicka Restore: Inspired by DOTA's Keeper of the Light. This spell would regenerate the character's magicka over time at the cost of an initial large magicka investment. Modifiers would be Duration and Magnitude, which would sharply scale up the magicka cost.

Cataclysm: Inspired by DOTA's Zeus. This extremely high-level Destruction(/Mysticism?/Alteration?) spell would strike every enemy within the scene for an amount of damage. The damage would scale the magicka cost immensely. Not taking this one totally seriously, but it's still a sort of reward for extremely high-level Destruction casters.

Reverse Time: Inspired by DOTA's Nerubian Weaver. When cast, this spell would return the character to all stats as of five seconds previous. Might be redundant with regular restoration spells. Could be given a very low magicka cost to allow character to reverse time to regain magicka.

Devour: Inspired by Final Fantasy 8. This high-level spell would combine Disintegration and a full health restore if successful. Modifiable by Chance.

Timed Trap: This low-level Destruction(/Thaumaturgy?) spell would put a rune on the ground. After 3 seconds, damage would occur in a small area around the rune, and the rune would disappear. Modifiable by Magnitude and elemental.

Elemental affinity: This spell would grant the character the ability to absorb health from attacks of an element and add that element to the character's attacks for extra damage, where weaknesses apply.

Reflect Damage: As implemented in TES3 and 4, this high-level spell effect would return a percent of received damage to the enemy. Likely modifiers would be Magnitude (percent), Chance (percent), and Duration. When damage is reflected, the damage done to the character would proportionally reduce.

Team-effect spells: A new targeting icon could be added to Spellmaker to allow the character to exclusively target members of the same party. This would have a larger range around the caster than the regular "Area Around Caster" option, and would exclude anyone not in the character's party (summoned/hired beings could perhaps be affected).

Helpful companions: When an NPC accompanies the character with a GUI face, there is a chance that the NPC will occasionally attack enemies in melee range. A message could appear at the top of the screen when this occurs: "Abdyrick Gaerton strikes the enemy." "Belladonna Ashsmith casts a spell." The NPC would have no further interaction in the real world, but damage dealt to the enemies would register, and a blood spot/bone spot would appear on the enemy like with normal damage.

Static dungeons: These dungeons would be more like TES3-5, and somewhat like the megadungeon idea but toned down. The entry door would be locked until some quest enables it. Certain rare quests would point only to Static Dungeons, and they would be the only way to enter or find one (A message, "Some force holds this door shut...", would appear if found without a quest to open it). These would be hand-crafted with a certain progression in puzzles and monsters. There would likely only be one or two quest locations, near the very end of the dungeon (suggesting a more linear approach, although there may be some dead ends and branching paths). Not sure whether Static Dungeons would seal themselves back up after the quest is finished.

Solitary Dungeons: These hand-crafted dungeons would be much like Static Dungeons and Megadungeons, with small differences. It would not be like a megadungeon in difficulty or complexity, and it would not be like a static dungeon insofar as quests would never sink to a Solitary Dungeon. These could be found at any time by free travel. At the end of the dungeon, there would be a quest object of some kind (abducted royalty, ransom letter, etc) that would lead to an NPC who would give a major reward, being a self-contained quest starting within the solitary dungeon. Leaning towards making these the same every game, but not sure.

Capstone Dungeons: Once the character reaches both rank 10 in a guild and a high level (20+?), when speaking to a member of the guild, the character will be informed of a certain fortress somewhere in the Iliac Bay, which will be added to the character's map. This will function sort of as a megadungeon, which cannot be opened until this quest is received. There would be no time limit to complete it. The end of the dungeon would provide a unique artifact or other reward, individual to the guild and unobtainable by any other means. Each Capstone Dungeon would be tailored to the specific guild that offers it (temple capstone would be an underground mausoleum filled with undead; knight capstone would be a criminal stronghold; mage capstone would be a warlock's fortress, etc.) with some challenges based on the skills relevant to that guild.

Unavoidable removal: In vanilla, a character can do anything contrary to a guild's will and remain a member if he/she avoids speaking to any member of the guild. An additional system could be implemented that sends a note to the character after 30 days to inform him/her that he/she is no longer a member of the guild, causing a removal then.

Multiplayer invisibility: Different kinds of invisibility could be used. Invisibility would entirely remove the character from view, but a new "See Invisible" effect would render it useless. Shadow could turn the character pitch black, not susceptible to See Invisible. Camouflage could work like a light-bending spell where the outline is visible but the interior blends with what's behind, not susceptible to See Invisible.

Individual peasant personalities: A set of personalities could be decided (100 different types?), which would be unchanging once modded in. A serial could be created for each indoor NPC, similar to that found in the Dungeon NPCs idea, which would call a specific personality for that person. Some people would be unwilling to talk forever; others would be friendly; others would be quiet; others would be shifty, etc. This would be pseudo-random and the same on every installation. The character could get to know the personalities of the neighbors in surrounding houses and in shops, for example. If indoor NPCs were capable of granting quests, they would also remember what the character has done for them, as current questgivers do in guilds.

Monster frenzy (berserk): Inspired by many roguelikes. Some few monsters would have the ability to go berserk. This would reduce the waiting time between enemy attacks to 0. The enemy attack would play out fully but there would by no delay between the end of one attack animation and the start of the next. Likely to only last one round. Not expecting this to apply to the character; the closest thing I could imagine would be to do damage instantly to the enemy per strike with no attack animation, and that sounds broken. It would have to be an very expensive spell if the character could cast it.

More Monsters: I want there to be more kinds of enemies at higher levels, but greater variation would require new artwork (consistent with vanilla) and more creativity. In case either of those is lacking, the same monster visuals and sounds as in vanilla could be reimplemented for new enemies with new stats. A Wight could look and sound exactly like a mummy, but have far greater stats, appearing at level 25. A Ghoul could be a Zombie with higher stats that appears at level 18, and so on. I would hope there could be enemies to scale in power and difficulty well beyond the current 15-ish level range Daggerfall uses, even to 50+ like Skyrim and many others. Furthermore, we could just duplicate existing enemies, except for humans, in three degrees: Lesser, [unnamed], and Greater. A Lesser Mummy would appear starting when it normally does; a Mummy would appear starting at level 11 and have elevated stats; and a Greater Mummy could appear starting at level 19, with much more elevated stats.

Dismiss Foe: Inspired by many roguelikes. This low-level Mysticism spell would teleport the targeted enemy to any walkable section within an interior, or 50 feet away if used outdoors, when successful. Intended to get past those Vampire Ancients that occasionally appear in dungeons at level 3, etc.

Sleep status: I'm only working on impressions I have from the past, since I don't actively put enemies to sleep in vanilla. I imagine the end result of the vanilla sleep spell is similar to how it works in the Mages Guild quest. This could be reworked to put a "zzz" over the enemy and stop all movement and attacking for a couple of rounds. This would probably be a low-magicka, medium-resist spell.

Tension Power: Greatly inspired by the Final Fantasy series. Really just an adaptation of the Limit Break idea: when the character is hit, a meter somewhere on the screen rises (characters who block damage could also contribute the blocked damage to the meter). Once it's full, either a special category of abilities could become available for one use, like TES5's Shout system, or the character could become super-powered for about 10 seconds on activation. Could be button-activated on demand, and decrease gradually when out of combat to prevent "meter-farming." Once the ability is used, the meter empties completely.

Damaging fields: New spell effects could be created, similar to the Rune concept above, where a certain space is designated a damaging field for a period of time. It could be set to any of the elements or non-elemental. Any enemy who passes through during its duration will suffer damage over time while within. Variable by Duration and Magnitude. The space could perhaps be the same as a single Daggerfall square, like the ones hallways are composed from, generated in front of the character upon casting the spell. Likely a fairly high magicka cost when scaled.

Empty region: A new region could be created (island?) that would have nothing in it. Something somewhere in the game world would result in the colonization of that region, with the character deciding towns and other major decisions. The town(s) could be constructed block-by-block with a gradual populating mechanism, as Daggerfall was created, and would be based on the character's decisions. Guilds, shops, banks, and a palace could come into being, with the character either as a monarch or some kind of governor. Shop quality would also be determined by the character's decisions as they come into being. Taxes and so forth would be one decision among many, as well as costs for a force of guards (which may alter the presence of criminals such as the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood), etc. A neglected city could result in an enormous span of one-room huts; a well-founded city could have a wide variety of shops of every kind, with multiple banks, guilds, and temples. The city could start with the character's house and one other block, and from there extend outward by blocks. Could be named Miletus, using an unused city name found in fall.exe.

*****

Edit 4/30/16:

I'll include ideas for ambient quests here.

Outside/anywhere: 1. You see a traveling merchant being accosted by a pair of brigands. 2. A crying child asks you to help him/her find his/her parents, who are nobles in a regional city. 3. You hear a voice but don't see the source. "I need your money more than you do. Just 500/1500/2000, that's all I ask."

Outside/anywhere/night: 1. You hear a soft whispering in your ear, demanding vengeance for its death at the hands of paid assassins.

Outside/town: 1. A very suspicious cloaked figure approaches, under which cloak you can barely make out the green skin of an orc. In broken language he insists on taking you prisoner to a dungeon, or attacking you if you refuse.

Outside/town/daylight: 1. You hear a shopkeeper calling nearby, "Thief! Somebody stop him!" 2. An older man in worn clothes approaches and asks for a loan to pay his debts, promising to pay you back in a few weeks if you meet him in another town. 3. A hooded spellcaster proclaims, "This city and its citizens will bow to my power! Send forth your greatest champion, and I will fell him to the earth!" 4. A distraught voice calls out, "Do none of you care about my missing child?! Help me find him/her, please!" 5. You hear a lively voice call out, "Welcome one and all, and how wonderful it is to see you! Today, and only today, here in this glorious city of [city] I've come to offer free samples of my famous, fabulous, fanatically popular Miracle Elixir! You've all heard the stories from throughout the Iliac Bay of what wonders my potions can do! Try it, find out for yourselves! Who's brave enough to be the first to try this wonderful, unforgettable elixir?!" 6. A courier hands you and others a small leaflet. "The Bank of [region] offers a reward for recovering certain records that were recently stolen. Inquire with [NPC] in the Bank of [region] in [city] for more information." 7. A masked figure draws near, stating that a group of criminals wants to hire you to help rob a local shop at night. 8. The innkeeper quest regarding a false accusation of a jewel ("Are you [name]? The [race]?) could be made an ambient quest. 9. You hear some shouting around the corner. A hooded figure runs into view, briefly stopping next to you. "The heat's on me. Take this jewel and find me in [building] tomorrow. Good pay."

Outside/town/storm: 1. A voice booms from the clouds. "Why, what have we here? Frivolous, meaningless pursuits thou seek, running to and fro like the mightiest insect! Frivolous, indeed! Frivolous like the life of a child, somewhere in this city, pursued by a Spellsword of the maddest kind! One such as ye cannot resist the pull of a good game, will you? Find the child and slay the assassin, but where this be, I say not!"

Outside/wilderness: 1. A cloaked figure draws near haltingly and speaks to you in a whisper. "Please, listen to me. My name is [name], and I am, or was, one of the lords of this region. My brother has betrayed me and declared me an outlaw, and now every guard in [region] watches to throw me into prison or end my life. I can prove my innocence if you will only take me to Palace in [town] and promise me that no guard will see my face." 2. A youth moves close and speaks in hushed tones. "Good [race], my name is [name]. I need your help and your ironclad confidence. I am the son of Lord [name], one of the greater lords of this region. I've plotted to fake my own kidnapping and receive the ransom payment from my father, and then abscond to some corner of Tamriel where he may never find me. However, I require a partner to collect the payment, with whom I will split half the gold. Will you be my champion in this endeavor?"

Outside/wilderness/night: 1. A soft rustling is your only clue that others are nearby. A few feet away, someone says, "My friends and I would be happy to relieve you of all that heavy gold. You wouldn't want to take a chance with a group like us, would you?"

Outside/wilderness/storm: 1. A voice booms forth from the clouds. "Why, hello there, young child! Splendid to see a fine [race] such as yeself crawling across the earth, looking for entertainment! Entertainment, says you? I quite agree, there's always room for entertainment in that square skull of thine, is it not? And my near and dear kindred whisper that some hovel called [city] is just filled to the brim with daedra, looking for a partner for the next dance! What says the [race]? Will you dance? Have thou the life of a good party in you?"

Inside/dungeon: 1. You feel a tap on your shoulder from an injured adventurer who needs an escort to his home town. 2. You see a shimmer in the dim light, accompanied by a voice out of thin air: "Drop all your money or this blade goes through that armor." 3. You hear someone being chased by something dangerous nearby, but you likely won't be detected unless you intervene.

Inside/tavern: 1. You hear a loud patron trying to start a fight as others start to flee. 2. Someone asks, "Does anyone here know how to fight a werewolf? It's stalking my family's orchard and I don't have the money to hire the Fighters' Guild." 3. A patron sighs, "I think the only thing that'll work now is the Open spell. I'd split half of whatever's in that chest if someone got it open for me." 4. A patron complains, "It's impossible to find anything around here! Can someone show me the way to [general store/apothecary] so I can buy medicine for my brother/sister?" 5. A weak moaning emanates from a corner of the tavern. The innkeeper calls out for someone's help in taking a drunk tavern-goer to the temple for curing. Inspired by a Fighter's Guild custom quest as tavern guard.

Inside/shop: 1. A loud banging shakes the walls. The shopkeeper shouts, "I said you're not welcome here anymore! Stop! I said stop!" A brigand will walk away with several valuable items unless you step in. 2. For a small sum of money, the shopkeeper asks whether you would be willing to investigate prices in a general store of another town by talking to one of its owners.

Inside/locked location/night: 1. You hear a sudden rustling, followed by a few hushed whispers. It appears someone has chosen to burgle this place. Will you intervene?

Leaving dungeon: 1. You notice someone has left a wagon nearby. It contains few goods, but you could pilfer from it if you choose. 2. You find yourself surrounded by armed figures. "We'll take your spare weapons and armor, and in exchange we'll give you your life. Fair deal?"

High rank in Mages' Guild: 1. A letter arrives, indicating that a high-ranking official has specifically requested you for a task of serious import. The only detail you can make out is a passing reference to daedra summoning. 2. The Acolyte fears that a noble of the region has been kidnapped and supplanted by an illusionist, and asks you to investigate. 3. A band of apprentices, having heard of your fame, have trapped a powerful creature in a house and want to see you defeat it. 4. A letter from an anonymous spellcaster claims to have the power to turn you into a vampire unless you obtain a rare book from within a dungeon for him/her. 5. The Archmage of a Mages' Guild in another region requests a visit from you to hear from you regarding your experiences. However, he will meet within a private residence, as he fears the Necromancers may plan an attack should they become aware. 6. A letter arrives from an unfamiliar guild official, who states that you must pay guild fees totaling a few thousand gold due to your recent neglect of guild quests. 7. A letter from a local guild member informs you that a regional dungeon purportedly contains a rare spell scroll, which the guild believes you deserve the first chance at taking due to your past service. 8. A regional Mages Guild hall has been plagued by a series of attackers who arrive through teleportation. One of the advanced members of the guild has determined the location and may teleport you there to eliminate the spellcaster orchestrating the assault. 9. The vanilla Acolyte/Oracle quest could be made an ambient quest, rather than one obtained through the questgiver.

High rank in Fighters' Guild: 1. A courier from the ruling noble requests your aid in ending an infestation in a nearby city, leaving you to find out where they're coming from. 2. A shop in a regional city has a problem with gargoyles which keep getting summoned at midnight, causing a hassle for the town guard. The guild needs to find out what's causing it and get rid of the source. 3. A letter arrives, stating that you at some time were the cause of great offense to a powerful warrior. He challenges you to a duel to the death, and if you fail to appear, he will ruin your legal reputation in the current region.

High rank in Knightly Order: 1. A prince/princess has been kidnapped for an exorbitant ransom. The Order believes you are the only one capable of rescuing him/her before the time limit is reached. 2. A letter arrives, purportedly from an official within the Order, requesting that the character terminate a certain person who is claimed to be a known criminal. 3. An anonymous letter arrives, demanding that the character renounce all allegiance to the Order. Assassins will be sent until the character finds the origin of the letter and eliminates it.

High rank in Thieves' Guild: 1. An anonymous letter, hinted to be from a regional noble, says that you may be framed for a crime unless you help him/her get a rare jewel from a guarded shop. 2. A letter, supposedly from The Crow, challenges you to raid a locale where he says a bank holds its excess goods, in exchange for a magical piece of jewelry directly from him. 3. The Guild has decided that a certain noble has interfered for too long, and wants to exchange a piece of his clothing for something with disastrous magical effects. The Palace will likely be guarded, and killing any of the guards will have lasting ramifications for you. 4. A letter from an experienced thief challenges you to a race to obtain a certain treasure from within a dungeon with a strict time limit, at the risk of losing reputation with the guild upon failure. 5. An unnamed noble will reward generously if you retrieve several pieces of incriminating evidence from multiple locations in the region, at least some of which will be guarded.

Over level 20/outdoors: 1. A letter requests your aid in freeing a kidnapped person from within a regional city. The kidnappers were accidentally informed that the rich family intends a rescue, and it's likely that the city will be overflowing with hostiles once you arrive. 2. A noble has received word that an artifact belonging to the region has been uncovered in a distant region, and requests your help in recovering it in a clandestine manner, in return for a large legal reputation boost. 3. The infamous Radastyr Kingsfield, a necromancer (level 25-30 lich-type) who appears to be immortal through persistent self-revival, has appeared in a dungeon in the current region. A noble offers a large sum of money for defeating him, and the character will also find on the corpse Radastyr's Staff, a powerfully enchanted blunt weapon.

Failed more than 6 Fighters Guild quests: 1. A human attacks the character. On the corpse a letter is found: "Striking the least competent members will bring better work to us all. Start with [charactername], a no-good [race]. Find him/her, make me proud, and then talk to [name] in [residence], [city] for payment when you're done." 2. A human attacks the character. On the corpse a letter is found: "Your mark is [charactername], a [race] who we expect to be in the region of [currentregion] for the next several days. Complete the task, then find [name] in [city], who will have further work for you."

6/15/16: This post is full, so I'm moving on to the next one.

Re: Jay H's Corner: Requests and Content

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:34 pm
by Al-Khwarizmi
Jay_H wrote: 1. Remove the nudity.
As long as it's optional... I'd rather have my good ol' nudity, thank you very much!

Re: Jay H's Corner: Requests and Content

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:34 pm
by Interkarma
Al-Khwarizmi wrote:
Jay_H wrote: 1. Remove the nudity.
As long as it's optional... I'd rather have my good ol' nudity, thank you very much!
Don't worry - my primary goal is to be close as possible to standard Daggerfall, which is ESRB-rated M17+ for "Animated Violence" and "Mature Sexual Themes". That should be enough for responsible parents and gamers to make an informed decision about the content.

But I do think a better-functioning child guard feature (or similar) should be on the roadmap eventually. This obviously won't change the official ESRB rating, but I think it would be more inclusive of people who desire the option to turn this off for themselves. Even Bethesda made an attempt to do this in vanilla Daggerfall.

Re: Jay H's Corner: Requests and Content

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:24 am
by Jay_H
I suppose the thought of removing it entirely was a bit self-centered, now that I think about it. I'm certainly partial to a "toggle" option, as I'm sure that's something the community would agree on far more.

EDIT 6/15/16: More ideas.

Strength-based door bashing: I don't know what determines the bash chance on a locked door. Maybe a strength- and weapon weight-based approach would work, with fists given about the weight of a short sword. A warhammer really would do a better job than a tanto.

Dungeon shelves: Those weapon shelves in dungeons could be containers that randomly hold an item or weapon, or nothing.

Audible spellcasting: Enemies would become aware of the character after the character casts a spell in the vicinity.

Inter-regional epic quests: Probably for highest ranks in guilds. The time limit on these quests would be generous (except for Mages' Guild, since they can teleport from guild halls), and would take the character to several regions of the Iliac Bay, randomly determined according to Daggerfall's regular quest mechanics. Rewards would probably be a little elevated as well.

House shelves: Shelving inside houses could contain clothes, and the occasional weapon.

Attic furniture: The vast majority of attics in vanilla have nothing in them. They could be converted into a bedroom space or living area, since they tend to be much larger than any other area of the house.

Unique monsters: Inspired by many roguelikes. Extremely rare unique enemies with unusual abilities. Sum likelihood of spawning could be 1/1000, and only in certain kinds of dungeons. Could be given special kinds of loot (for example, one may always drop a "Silence On Strike" dagger, another may always drop a "Reflect Spells When Held" cloak, a "Regenerate (spell effect) When Held" ring, etc.).

Cumulative Damage effect: Likely only an effect found on a unique monster's weapon drop. Each time the weapon successfully strikes, it adds 1+(x-1) bonus damage, with x being the previous number of successful strikes made on the monster. Effect would last maybe 10 or 15 seconds.

Cumulative Attribute Damage effect: Same as above, but targeted at a specific attribute like Strength or Agility. The enemy gradually withers away as combat progresses. Duration would probably be 30 seconds or so before resetting.

Pacified enemies: Some indicator would appear once an enemy turns non-hostile. These enemies would also lose collision with the character, as they may block doors or quest objectives while pacified.

Destruction spells: I'm wondering whether an increased "Chance" attribute for Destruction spells makes sense. It would make it harder to roll a saving throw against it.

Super Megadungeon: There would be one region in the Iliac Bay (probably Pothago or Totambu or one of those other forgotten regions) that holds a Super Megadungeon (see Megadungeon above). Filled with the hardest monsters and the deadliest traps, this would provide a single fixed prize at a single endpoint, likely a bragging rights prize.

Elemental shield spells: This is something referred to in an unofficial Daggerfall guidebook, where choosing an element for your shield contrary to your enemy (Ice shield vs Fire atronach, for example) would provide an advantage in combat. Could inflict elemental damage upon successful enemy attack, perhaps.

Barrier spell: This Alteration spell makes the character invulnerable to physical attack and unable to use physical attacks for its duration. Probably very high cost, maybe includes Chance attribute (could fail when cast, requiring multiple attempts). Lasts one tick.

Stagger spell: This Thaumaturgy spell throws an enemy/enemies back a certain distance. Likely to start low-cost, and scaling the distance would increase the cost exponentially. Might be able to push enemies off high elevations. Intended to provide a clear path to run away from hard enemies rather than do Fus-Ro-Dah style damage. Maybe not resistible.

Starting spells: Any magical school in which the character starts with at least 8 skill will have a spell written in the spellbook to begin. For each multiple of 8, another spell from that school will be present at chargen.

Daedric planes: A wizard (Daedric Summoner sprite from Mages' Guild, colored purple) as a Dungeon NPC or Occasional Faction Member offers to send the character to a Daedric plane (for a high cost), which is in concept a dungeon like Mantella Crux but in appearance would probably present a variety of environs. Only humans and daedra may appear in a Daedric plane. Character's Anchor is set after being teleported into the plane, preventing early leaving. The only method of exit is through a designated return, similar to how Mantella Cruz returned the character to Shedungent. A corresponding Daedric Prince could perhaps be found at the dungeon's exit, and offer its artifact and/or some other reward. Daedric plane will vary by day, similar to witch coven summonings. Probably would limit each character to visit each Daedric plane once.

Sheogorath Daedric plane: At the end, Sheogorath congratulates the character on successfully passing through the plane. He then asks which the character would prefer to fill the world with: time or money. If the character chooses time, the character is reduced to level 1; however, due to how Daggerfall's leveling mechanic works, the character will effortlessly increase in level (and gain new stats) once every 24 hours until returning to the normal level. If the character chooses money, either all merchants use 10x value for all transactions in the region the character teleported from permanently, or the character will find an enormous sum of money in that region's bank account; not sure which would be better or more feasible. Each reward sounds extremely broken in any case. Maybe Time reduces character level to 1 and all primary stats to 30, major stats to 15, minor to 10, and miscellaneous to 3, while keeping all equipment and possessions.

Whirl spell: This Thaumaturgy spell prevents any action by the target for its duration and causes it to spin involuntarily in one direction. Likely not to exceed one tick, might have Chance attribute to prevent it being too broken.

Elemental augmentation: An enchantment on equipment could be "Enhance Element When Held," with variants for Fire, Cold, Shock, Poison, and Non-Elemental. Any elemental magic the character uses while equipping that object will be increased in magnitude by 25%. The item will deteriorate rapidly while equipped.

Food vendors: If a food/hunger system is implemented, it would be reasonable to have food vendors in general stores and taverns. This would presumably function independent of the tavern food option, which currently only restores health. Texture 213 offers some fruits, and other things could be reappropriated into new food sprites for the inventory. A very small and novice collection is here.

Hunger system: If the character has no food in the inventory, stamina will drop quickly (1/in-game minute perhaps). Depending on the food the character has in inventory, stamina may stabilize or increase over time. Every 6 or 8 in-game hours a food item is consumed, determining the character's new hunger and stamina disposition. Food is not be consumed during fast travel, and hunger disposition will remain as it was until 6 or 8 in-game hours have passed.

Travel bonus: When the character buys a wagon, map travel time could be reduced by 15% (reduced resting due to conserving stamina). When the character buys a horse, map travel time could be reduced by 30 or 40% (faster and conserving stamina).

Labyrinth Mode: Turns Daggerfall into a true roguelike. A new character would be created as normally done in Daggerfall. Upon creation, the character would be placed somewhere in a random dungeon. Instead of a normal dungeon exit, a portal would be placed, which would carry the character to a new dungeon. This would link 3 dungeons (easy), 6 (medium), or 9 (hard) together. The character would have no means of gaining equipment other than that which the enemies carry and the loot on the ground. In the final dungeon there would be no portal, but a strong monster would be the final enemy (wereboar level enemy for easy, orc warlord level for medium, gargoyle level for hard). Spell tomes could be found in the dungeon to teach spells. This would likely require a lot of rebalancing of attributes and a real-time skill advancement system, as well as a levitation ability that can be used occasionally, perhaps once per day.

Starting dungeon randomizer: After the character is created, rather than appearing in Privateer's Hold, the character would begin in a random dungeon at a random quest location, and would have to find the way out from there. This is already strictly possible in Daggerfall through the editing of config files, though the chosen dungeon must be researched beforehand.

Effects via items: Some items could provide effects similar to spells. They could be purchasable and have one use per item, and would provide an alternative for non-spellcaster characters to add dimensions to gameplay. A firecracker item could shoot a fireball at range for AOE damage; a lockpick could attempt to pick a door at a set skill level; a bandage could heal wounds, perhaps as a percentage of max health; a flash bomb could paralyze and/or blind enemies within a small radius; sleeping powder has a chance to inflict sleep in a radius near the character, etc.

Ingredient effects: The various ingredients could have effects on the character when used. This is similar to how TES3-5 implement ingredient tasting, but would be more immediately useful. Some, like bulb roots, berries, and figs, could restore a minor amount of health. Aloe could provide a minor Resist Fire effect for a short time. Elixir vitae could raise health and fatigue dramatically. Lich Dust could provide a temporary Resist Magicka effect. Blood items could restore health or magicka for a vampire. Ingredients would probably not duplicate effects of potions, or would have to be made more expensive to compensate.

Magicka Shield: An idea from many games. This spell effect would divert a percentage of received damage to the character's magicka instead of health. Magnitude would determine the percentage, and Duration would also be modifiable. Magnitude would scale quite low, though above 50 it would still be quite taxing. The spell effect could either expire when magicka runs out, or it may simply cease functioning while remaining active.

Jewelry Inset: Inspired by Diablo II and a topic by LypyL. The game's various jewelry could be attached permanently to pieces of the character's equipment to grant various benefits, such as increased durability, increased attack speed, greater probability of finding magical equipment, greater amounts of gold found, reduced magicka costs, better shop prices, etc.

TES4+5 Compass: A user on Reddit showed a desire for the quest compass from TES4+5.

Unique classes: Some of the features previously mentioned could be given only to certain preset classes. The ideas of Limit Break and Fierce Aspect could be given to classes who are naturally weak, starting with reduced stats (a sum of 320 instead of 400), etc. These features would not be available in Classmaker.

Attack NPC: An additional option could be added, similar to "Non-Lethal Attacks," with a button or box as enabler. When enabled, any interaction with a flat NPC would bring up a parchment message: "Are you sure you wish to attack this person? [Yes] [No]" If yes, the NPC will turn into an enemy human of some class. Each NPC type would probably have a set range of classes and levels. Innkeepers could be Bards and Rogues and range from level 1 to 5. Daedra Summoners in the Mages Guild could be between level 15 and 20, and would be spellcasting classes, etc. Initiating an attack on an NPC would probably bring a penalty for its related factions. Unique NPCs could perhaps be included; Lord K'avar could be a level 35 Knight; the King of Worms could be a level 75 spellcaster, etc. If unique NPCs can so spawn, perhaps they could carry a unique piece of equipment (some greatsword, artifact, etc).

Economy Overhaul: Likely another idea that can't fit on a single page. Starting gold sums would be based on single digits -- the human enemies in Privateer's Hold would probably have between 5 and 10 gold on them. Iron equipment would sell between 1 (boots, dagger) and 6 gold (daikatana, cuirass) per piece. Rank 1 Fighter's Guild quests would offer perhaps 40 gold. A horse would cost maybe 300. Houses would start at several thousands, and large houses would cost several tens of thousands. The value scaling in vanilla would have to be drastically reduced; Daedric would no longer be 256x the price of Steel. Gems would cost around 400.

Weapon abilities: As the character rises in weapon skill, abilities could be automatically and randomly implemented during combat while using a related weapon. Above 30 skill, the character could block melee attacks to reduce their damage by 50%. Above 45, the character could counterattack when receiving melee damage to get a free strike in against the enemy, skipping the attack animation. Above 60, the character could parry, reducing melee attacks to 0%. Above 80, the character could riposte, which combines a parry and a counterattack. This could merge the Critical Strike ability in, such that above 15 weapon skill, critical strikes would randomly occur as well. The maneuvers would be learned cumulatively and would not replace each other. The occurrence rate for any of them could be 2.5% individually or 10% if pooled; perhaps the incidence rate could increase with skill level. Some indication of the weapon ability could be graphically displayed or a message could appear at the top of the screen: "You parry the attack."

Skill merging: In addition to the language merging and critical strike merging previously mentioned, other skills could be grouped to streamline gameplay. Running, Jumping, and Climbing could all be put together into "Agile Movement." Swimming could be eliminated entirely, its factors integrated directly from Endurance and Running. Streetwise and Etiquette could be combined or reformed in some way so they would still be relevant during court; perhaps derive their skill from the guilds the character belongs to? (Knights, Temples, and Mages would boost Debate, and Dark Brotherhood, Thieves, and Fighters could boost Lie.) These bonuses could carry over into Daggerfall's Polite and Blunt conversation mechanics as well. Short Blade, Long Blade, and Axe could be combined into "Bladed Weapon."

Beast Class: Inspired by many roguelikes. This would be another feature which would not be found in Classmaker. A character created under the Beast class would begin with hand-to-hand, movement, and stealth skills. Upon creation, two random abilities would be chosen for the character, which would advance as the character levels up. Some examples would be Electric Skin (counterattacks some melee hits with a shock attack), advanced swimming, enhanced medical (resistance, then immunity, to poison and disease, greatly improved healing rate, regeneration), natural stealth (increased stealth which would turn into random invisibility), weapon master (all weapon rolls would be improved), stunning aura (enemies near the character would occasionally be given ailments, starting with slow, advancing to blindness and paralysis, etc.), omniphibian (all movement skills increased, then bonus to swimming, then underwater breathing, then levitation), hardened skin (modest starting armor rating bonus, which would increase per level). Some could perhaps use abilities through the spellbook, which would cost zero magicka but would be limited in frequency.

Difficulty Levels: If implemented, this would probably not affect enemy health; modestly affect combat rolls; and strongly affect enemy damage, movement speed, and attack speed. There would always be an over-the-top difficulty setting, like Might and Magic 2's "Thrill Seeker;" however, it should be theoretically possible to win, unlike reallyjoel's dad difficulty in Iji (think IWBTG on Impossible, only harder). Not sure whether difficulty setting could be alterable after chargen.

Daedric Summoning spell: This would allow the character to attempt to summon a Daedric prince, as members of Mages Guilds, Temples, and covens do, any day of the year. It could either be a series learned via scroll, ranging from rank 1 to 5 (rank 1 could have a 3% chance of functioning, rank 5 could have 65%), or could be added to Spellmaker, in which case the spell would scale the Chance modifier extremely high in magicka cost.

Infamy: Some guilds wouldn't tolerate a character's bad reputation. If the character is in a knightly order and falls further than "Undependable" (below -10) in that region, the character would lose membership. To become Hated (-80 to -100) anywhere in the world could remove the character from the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and Temples. To become a Villian (-40) anywhere in the world would remove the character from any knightly order. The quests "Smuggling" and "A Mix-Up" would likely have to be altered, or guild removal would have to be delayed sufficiently for these quests to be resolved (one month delay could work, as written above).

Calls for quests: While in towns, the character could occasionally be alerted by a parchment message concerning a merchant or innkeeper in the city who has work to be done. For example, "A young man calls out to you from across the way. 'If you've got some spare time, come see [name] at [building]. [He/she] has some work [he/she] needs done.' " These quests wouldn't have to be unique like Ambient Quests; they could just show newer players that there are more quests than in the guilds.

Enchant Strikes: Inspired by DOTA's Abaddon. This spell effect would add a chance to cause an effect with each melee(?) strike by the character. A high-level variant would be Enchant Paralysis, during which time the character's attacks would all have a chance to paralyze the enemy. This is similar to the Item Maker's abilities as in vanilla, but would allow any known spell effect the character has in the spellbook, which would add in any new spells learned by the character; additionally, this spell could be cast by the character, and during its duration any attack could trigger the effect, including hand-to-hand. Duration and Chance likely modifiers. Some effects like Reduce Movement Speed would cost little; Reduce Attack Speed would cost more, etc., and would scale fairly high.

Order of the Lamp: This guild is referenced in faction changes within Daggerfall, and has some minor lore to it. Some quest or group of quests could open entry to it, granting additional privileges aside from the Mages Guild (perhaps as a hidden faction with a base somewhere).

TES Spell Effects: Effects from other games could be implemented in Daggerfall. Feather could increase carrying capacity temporarily. Disintegrate Armor could reduce armor rating for affected human enemies. Weakness to Element could reduce the enemy's resistance to an element, except for immunity. Sanctuary could boost dodging ability. Sound could cause greater casting failure by the enemy. Divine Intervention could teleport the character to the nearest temple. Telekinesis could extend the character's reaching range for objects and loot.

Removed spells: A few of Daggerfall's spells were removed since 1.0 or prior to release. Some examples are Harbour Air (damaging aura), Acidic Field (damaging aura), Spell Drain (steals magicka), Flare (increases visibility), Ghost Form (invisibility+levitation), Null Magika (field around character dispels magic), Polymorph (gives appearance of a creature; could summon guards in civilization?), and Diminution.

Removed content: Just linking to TCRF from here for future reference. Lots of stuff that could be used.

Percentage-based damage: Inspired by many games. Attack spells could be created that damage the enemy as a percentage of its current health. Magnitude and Chance likely modifiers, with Magnitude being the percent removed. Initial Magnitude may have medium scaling but Per-Level would scale extremely high to prevent abuse. Could perhaps cap at 75% of health. Chance could be somewhat expensive to prevent this from being too broken late game.

Furniture stores: Existent in game but not functional. Data within the game provides some idea of their attributes.

Enemy combat movement: If the artwork isn't available, enemy combat moves could still be implemented. Intelligent enemies could step backward and sidestep during combat to dodge attacks. Human enemies could walk backward while using archery to kite the character.

New landmasses: I don't know how hard it would be to add new landmasses to DFU. If it weren't particularly difficult, there could be a master landmass mod that creates new territories for the removed regions in the Iliac Bay, and any other number of territories we think would best implement, somewhat similar to Tamriel Rebuilt. These regions would begin empty, and modders would be free to mod in anything they choose onto them. Many modders have shown an interest in creating "more sane" dungeons, and this could be a way to provide that without creating an entirely new world. In connection, perhaps a new continent could be created as an "expansion pack" to DFU; Somerset Isle, Akavir? This image could give some idea of how they could work; original taken from UESP.

Tutorial dream: While on the boat towards Daggerfall, the character could have a dream that puts him/her in some interior location. This could begin with a prompt after the Emperor's message, "While on the boat to Daggerfall, you suddenly feel your eyes getting heavy, as if a deep sleep were about to overtake you. Do you wish to sleep? [Yes] [No]" One main chamber could contain NPCs who explain how Daggerfall itself works, helping completely new players. They could have objects that show in-game mechanics (a torch that moves a bookshelf away from a door, a hanging chain that casts Slowfall near a staircase, etc). Weapon swinging could be explained and tested on a paralyzed enemy with infinite health. Throughout the area, there could be room for mod NPCs to be placed, who can each teleport the character to a new room to explain anything necessary about their own mods individually; this would resolve any problems of limited space in the tutorial area, essentially making it infinite. For example, the Dungeon NPC mod could place one NPC who asks, "I can tell you about those who wander in the most dangerous of places. Would you like to know more? [Yes] [No]." If yes, the character is teleported to a room containing a Dungeon NPC. The first NPC would say something like, "I see you've met my friend now. Why don't you wait around? You may find someone new here tomorrow. Would you like to return to the main hall? [Yes] [No]" If the character waits 24 hours, a new Dungeon NPC would replace the first Dungeon NPC, and so on for every 24 hours rested, as a demonstration of the mod's effects. Some NPCs in the main hall would also provide meaningful counsel, the kind every Daggerfall player should know: "Some people go into dungeons without some Rope Spears or means of levitation available. Those are the ones we never hear from again." "How good are your weapon skills? They will determine your lifespan. Learn them quickly, learn them well." "Ever tried hitting an Imp with an iron weapon? The laughing sound they make is terrible. And don't even talk about werewolves unless you're bearing silver or better." In the main hall, one conspicuous NPC would offer the choice, "It seems you've had enough of this place. The Emperor has high expectations of you, and untold adventures await you, after all. Do you feel you're ready? [Yes] [No]" If yes, a parchment message would explain that the dream has ended, and then the normal game would begin. This would entirely remove the vanilla tutorial in Privateer's Hold.

Knockback: Enemies could have the ability to knock the character back on successful hits. Collision damage against the character probably wouldn't be a good idea. This adds another element of danger when fighting on those high-rise towers and in other elevated places.

Carnival: On holidays, a carnival could be placed on the outskirts of each capitol city in the Bay. This could act as a showcase for various other things modders want to introduce to DFU but don't really have a place in the natural game; playing baseball, riding an eagle (modded version of the jet fighter) over the area, etc. Just one of those nice little surprises during an in-game holiday.

Natural regeneration: Not sure whether Skyrim's style of regenerating everything over time is consistent with Daggerfall. It makes the gameplay far more seamless, but it doesn't seem to fit with Daggerfall's time scaling, which is a much more important part of its gameplay than, say, Morrowind. Time would probably have to pass much faster to compensate (character regains 1 health+stamina+magicka every 2 seconds, but an in-game minute is now 2 seconds, etc). Otherwise, the option to rest would be redundant or near-useless. Traveling recklessly would still maintain stats as they are.

Soulgem loot: Very rarely, human spellcasters and orc shamen could drop soulgems as loot, either empty or with some weak soul inside. The monopoly on soulgems in vanilla is prohibitive.

Cursed items: Taken from many games. Some magical items could have no magical effect at all, but would simply be stuck on the character once equipped, either for a set amount of time or until uncursed by some means. Uncurse spells for sale or services found in temples could be available, perhaps similar to Cure Disease NPCs. Cursed items with greater value (Mithril to Daedric equipment, rings, etc) could begin to include serious harmful effects, such as a persistent disease that can't be cured until the item is unequipped, a reduction in movement speed by 25%, dropping like a rock while swimming, climbing ability halved, etc. Creates a significant use for Identify spells and NPCs.

Active guard force: Rarely, in towns the character may witness a criminal of some kind that the guards attack. In other words, random ambient demonstrations of guards doing things.

Illicit substances: In vanilla, illicit substances cause disease when used. One user in this topic states they were originally supposed to cause hallucinations and withdrawal effects. Hallucinations could be various things appearing in places where they aren't supposed to be, which can't be affected in any way (treasure piles, peasants, monsters, etc. that can't be harmed and which have no collision).

Duplicate Item: Taken from the Might and Magic series. This spell could attempt to create a permanent copy of an item in the character's inventory. When cast, a roll is made between 1 and the Chance modifier on the spell. If the roll is under 20, the item is destroyed. If the roll is between 21 and 40, nothing happens. This spell would scale extremely high in magicka cost. A GUI similar to the Identify spell could be created for this purpose.

Stubborn Life spell: Inspired by many games. This Restoration spell would last for two ticks. During that time, the character cannot be reduced below 1 health by any means whatsoever. After the spell ends, the character will be left with reduced strength, agility, and speed for a period of 12 (24?) hours. High magicka cost expected, likely no modifiers. Stat reductions could stack if cast multiple times within their span. King of Worms questline?

Replenishment spell: This Restoration spell would last for one tick. If the character dies during that tick, the character revives with full health, stamina, and magicka instantly. Intended to be very high magicka cost so it can't be cast frivolously. Likely hard to find, perhaps as a quest reward. Temple questline, Stendarr?

Clairvoyance: Adapted from TES5. An alternative to the Ghostsight spell above. While in a dungeon with a relevant quest, this spell (Thaumaturgy/Illusion?) can be cast successfully. A message will appear at the top of the screen: "You seek something to the southeast, far above you." or "You seek something to the north, at this elevation," etc., to help guide the character towards the quest object. This still wouldn't show a path to the object. If no quests sink into the current dungeon, a message would appear: "You sense nothing of interest here."

Flash floods: Just a momentary idea through a screenshot from reporting_a_bug. An area that gets temporarily submerged in water would just be great. Not intended for civilized locations.

Targeting reticule: If wielding any melee weapon or fists, the name of the enemy currently within range and aim will appear at the top of the screen: "Giant Bat". Perhaps if wielding a weapon for range, the same would occur when in range and aimed at. This will allow a friendlier combat system for those who are unfamiliar with Daggerfall's combat, and ensure that the character does not inadvertently aim at friendlies (a tag could be added to friendly units; "Guard <friendly>"

Non-magic advantages: Characters who can't cast spells could be granted some kind of compensating advantage for spell resistance. Spellcasters can use reflection or resistance effects, but non-spellcasters have nothing to compensate against Ancient Liches and Vampire Ancients in vanilla. Perhaps with the Classmaker Disadvantage "Inability to Regen Spellpoints," the character could gain a substantial resistance to all kinds of magicka. Or as intelligence increases, an innate save vs spell decreases -- this makes the more powerful spellcasting characters grow in risk with power.

Weaken Resistance effect: This effect could be irresistible or extremely difficult to resist, and would reduce the enemy's save vs spell roll for its duration. Intended to be a universally useful effect for anyone who finds the enemies are just resisting too often. Would be low magicka cost. Could be implemented as a weapon effect instead.

Local recognition: As the character does work for merchants and perhaps nobles, word could start to spread about his/her local fame. Within that city, peasants may begin conversation with such statements as, "Hey, if it isn't [name]! I've heard of you! What can I do for you?" or "Hey, it's [name]! You've been making a name for yourself around here. How are you?" Peasants could perhaps provide slightly more favorable conversation odds in that city. This begins to establish a "home" feeling in cities the character spends more time in. Each quest could increment +3 to a city counter and +1 to a regional counter. The city counter could drop by 1 every month, and the regional counter by 1 every 3 months. When meeting a peasant, a roll is made from 1 to 100, and if the counter is higher than the roll, a friendlier greeting is given.

Glove effects: Gloves and gauntlets could be enchanted with effects of "Cast when Strikes." These could then apply to successful hand-to-hand hits. Gloves and gauntlets could also perhaps increase hand-to-hand damage. Regardless of equipment, hand-to-hand would likely never depend on material to hit any monster.

Training costs: Training could be rebalanced monetarily. Rather than a flat (levelx100), the cost could be based on level and skill; ((level/2)*(skill/25)*100), or something to that effect. Personality and mercantile could also perhaps have an effect, granting another opportunity to increase mercantile.

Lord K'avar quest: I'm thinking this could be stricken from the game. The modder did a good job for the time, but it's both excessively intrusive once it begins, and it's somewhat immersion-breaking (why would Lord K'avar be in Urvaius or somewhere else, in a random dungeon, plotting the death of Queen Akorithi, coincidentally in the same region as the character?). Depending on development of DFU, such a thing could be reprogrammed regionally, with quest sinks leading to local palaces and local dungeons entirely. This could then add faction to the local region and monarch.

Ceiling traps: I don't know how difficult it would be to implement crushing traps from the ceiling, but it's another idea.

Empty during quest: For some quests, it would make sense for the building to be devoid of NPCs during its duration. Zombies in residences or inns, beasts in shops, mad mages taking over guilds, etc. break immersion when friendly NPCs are nearby, unalarmed.

Occupied Mages Guild: The modded quest that tells of an archmage who has caused a revolt in a distant Mages Guild could be stricken. It can be granted at level 1, making the mage also level 1 (thus rendering all the other Mages Guild NPCs of no use in combat), doubly breaking immersion since the mage isn't actually hard enough to pose any challenge, and triply because no one else in the guild seems to be bothered by it. This could be somewhat resolved by requiring rank 8 or something before it's offered, but it still feels out of place for role-playing.

Varying civilized doodads: Similar to Varying Dungeon Doodads, a small pool of eligible objects could be selected for homes and shops, and each could be replaced according to a hash based on town, perhaps with the region, ID. This avoids the feeling that once you've seen two residences of the same type, you've seen them all.

Equipment Presets: Inspired by Diablo 2. A series of buttons could be created for the inventory screen, from 1 to maybe 5. When wearing any given set of equipment including clothes, the equipment configuration could be saved into any of the five slots. When wanting to return to any given set of equipment, one could load from the given configuration. This would allow the character to quickly equip for dungeons, dress down for town visits, etc. If any particular piece of equipment is unavailable, a message could appear at the top of the screen: "You no longer have the Elven Longsword."

Invalid interiors: Some objects in Daggerfall are quest locations in error; objects and enemies can sometimes spawn in solid statues, giant boxes, etc. I'm unfamiliar with programming, but some kind of displacement effect on any object (item/enemy/character) in the interior of these solids could resolve the matter, where the object continues to be displaced by a few centimeters each half-second until it's entirely free of the interior.

Level-based questing: Some provision could be made to alter quests based on the level of the character. Haunting quests for temples could spawn skeletons at level 1-5, zombies at 4-12, and mummies at 6+. Local beasts for the fighters guild quests could be rats and bats at levels 1-2, grizzly bears and tigers from levels 2-4, spriggans from levels 5-9, harpies from 6-10, gargoyles from 8-15, etc.

Perk system: Inspired by Fallout 3 and TESV. Rather than choosing them in Classmaker, the character is permitted to gain advantages through leveling up. Disadvantages could perhaps still be chosen at creation to increase leveling speed. This would likely require an overhaul of vanilla's advantages, to add them in a more gradual way. Some perks could be +25% damage to Human, which can increase to +50% and +75%, same for Animal, Daedra, and Undead; Resistance to Damage from any of those groups, on the same scaling; Resistance to Elements; increased running speed and sustained stamina; longer underwater breath and greater ability to swim with weight; increased damage depending on weapon type; and any number of other advantages useful for shopping, dungeon crawling, and spellcasting.

Revamped Bard class: Inspired by Everquest. Vanilla has a bard, but it can be drastically altered. The Bard would be able to use songs, which would cost zero magicka. While a song is activated, it would cause some effect based on character level and perhaps some skill or attribute (intelligence, willpower, agility, etc). An AOE aura surrounding the character; health regeneration; stamina regeneration; increased attack and running speed; underwater breathing; levitation; pacify or sleep enemies; AOE slow enemy move speed; resistance to all elements; etc. Some kind of bard faction would probably be necessary, or repurposed bard NPCs found in taverns could act as merchants to sell songs.

Mutation: Inspired by many roguelikes. Some system could be implemented to grant the character variable advantages and disadvantages over time. There could be various triggers, including a permanent trait chosen in Classmaker to that effect (more permanent than Blessing At Chance, but less permanent than Beast class). The mutations would be chosen at random and could be positive or negative, as well as having multiple levels of each mutation. Some examples would be moving more slowly but gaining +3 armor rating on all slots (then moving more and more slowly but reaching +6 and +9 armor rating), with its inverse as -3, -6, and -9 armor rating but with higher and higher movement speed; all spells cost more magicka but are more powerful in any case where Magnitude applies, with its inverse as all spells costing less magicka and being weaker; weapon swings are quicker but less accurate, its inverse as weapon swings are slower but more accurate; the character takes more spell damage and less physical damage, its inverse being vice versa; spells from one spell school cost 25% more and spells from another cost 25% less, etc. Some manner of curing them could also be available, perhaps at temples or with Cure Mutation potions available at apothecaries, which would cost a lot.

Dual-wielding: This was clearly Interkarma's idea first, but it's still worth recording. Each hand could be delayed by half the attack animation of the other, meaning the attacks will happen in syncopation, not synchronization.

Reputation loss via rejection: When refusing a quest offered by a guild, the character could lose 1 reputation with the guild each time. Otherwise there's nothing to stop him/her from cycling through 30 offers for the best one.

Enchantment regents: To add to the complexity of enchantment and add more use to some other objects in the game, when adding certain spell effects to items, a regent could be required. If adding a "Dispel Undead" effect to an item, a Holy Tome or Holy Dagger could be required. To add Sphere of Negation, a daedra heart could be required, and so on.

Vampirism and Lycanthropy warnings: In vanilla, other than the dream cutscene, the game gives no indication that the character is infected with vampirism or lycanthropy. It's hard to tell whether it's been cured by a potion or a healer as well. The character's status could change from "You are healthy." to something vague, like "You're not sure what you feel right now." or "Your heart is racing."

Regenerate: In vanilla, the Regenerate effect only adds health. It could be granted variants of Health, Fatigue, and Magicka. Regenerate Magicka would scale extremely high in magicka cost, making it a special benefit to masters of Restoration.

Innate Power: A Classmaker advantage could grant the character the ability to cast a level-scaled spell once per day, regardless of silence or other inability at zero magicka cost. Restore Health, Free Action, Cure Silence, direct damage, etc. could all be candidates. This could give non-spellcasters the ability to still gain some effects.

Birthsigns: A constant in later TES games. Perhaps adaptable to DFU.

Magic Defense: An armor overhaul mod. Armor materials could be diversified and reassigned values for a physical defense and a magical defense. Each equipment piece would grant its bonus to the given slot, based on the characteristics of its material. Orcish could be 10 Phys and 1 Mag, providing astounding physical defense and minimal magic defense. Daedric could provide 7 and 7, being a strong choice in all situations. Dwarven could be 4 and 7, being particularly suitable against spellcasters. New kinds of materials could be created as well, such as Ghostskin (1 and 8, being the near-inverse of Orcish armor); Dragonskin (4 and 5); Impskin (1 and 4), and so on. Until we find out how armor rating reduces damage, we can assume magic defense would reduce damaging spells by a percent; rating 1 would reduce it by 12%, rating 2 by 18%, 3 by 24%, and so on until 8 = 60%, 9 = 65%, and 10 = 75%. Just like with physical attacks, spells would be assumed to target any given equipment slot, which would then determine the amount reduced. Armors would be balanced to ensure there isn't one "perfect choice."

Armor skill: A new skill could be created for armor, an analogue to Dodging. After all damage calculations are made, a net reduction could be applied based on Armor skill when an armored slot of the character is attacked, with trigger chance and damage reduction improving as skill rises. At 100 Armor skill, perhaps a 60% net reduction could be applied, 80% of the time.

Necromancy spell line: A new spell series could be created if ally compatibility is improved in DFU. Each spell would require a human corpse nearby to function. The spell line would advance "Summon Skeletal Warrior" to "Summon Zombie" to "Summon Mummy," and perhaps even getting to the liches at very high levels. The corpse would be eliminated and the summoned undead would accompany the character, likely based on Duration.

Soul Capture spell: Inspired by the Avernum series. An alternative to the Soul Trap spell would be Soul Capture, which would also use a soul gem. Once an enemy is captured in a soul gem, the soul gem could be used in some fashion, perhaps by the Soul Capture spell, to release it as an allied monster when the character chooses. Not sure whether the soul gem would be destroyed by doing so.

Transmute: A spell with modifier of Chance, and a GUI similar to Identify. The character can choose one item at a time to transmute. When the spell is cast, a roll is made from 1 to [spellchance]. If the roll is 29 or lower, the item is transformed into something inferior. Between 30 and 59, it is transformed into something entirely different. Above 60, it is transformed into something more valuable. Werewolf's Blood could upgrade to a Daedra Heart. Nymph's Hair could upgrade to Saint's Hair. A Holy Candle could upgrade to a Holy Dagger. Not sure what to do with equipment, like whether Dwarven would transform into Elven or Mithril; enchanted equipment would retain their enchantments.

Stunning blow: If the character strikes an enemy just before the enemy hits (perhaps a 0.2 second window), its attack could be interrupted, and the attack could do 1.25x damage. This would be less relevant for slow characters, but fast characters could potentially lock an enemy out of attacking entirely with good timing and some luck.

Bounty: Regional edicts (perhaps made known by those signposts at the entrances to walled cities) could occasionally make known a bounty in effect for a particular type of non-human enemy. For every one slain, some amount of gold could be obtained by speaking to any town guard within the region. Perhaps could last one month at a time. Example: "By edict of the Baroness, the presence of Spriggans within the region of Tulune is forbidden. A sum of 246 gold is offered for each one slain, effective through the month of Rain's Hand."

Click to Attack: Rather than requiring one to learn Daggerfall's swinging method, an option could be created to allow a swing just by clicking the mouse. This is analogous to Morrowind's "Always Use Best Attack" option, where the game decides what to do for you. By holding the button down, the character may attack continually.

Backwards view: Another newbie help would be the ability to show a picture-in-picture view of what's behind the character, similar to the mirrors in a car. This would be useful for dodging enemy attacks in a coherent way without needing to memorize the immediate dungeon layout.

Hotkeys: Spells and magical objects could be assigned to keys 1-0 on the keyboard, granting a quick-cast ability at any time, and negating the need to search through the spellbook for the most commonly used ones.

Elemental form: Inspired by too many sources. An advanced version of the "Resistance to Element" spell could grant immunity to the element, but weakness to a different kind. Fire Form could grant immunity to fire damage and low tolerance to ice. Ice Form could grant immunity to ice damage and low tolerance to fire or shock, and so on. This would keep the Resistance to Element spells relevant. Likely only one form spell could be active at a time.

Character ghosts: Inspired by many roguelikes. Every once in a while, Daggerfall could take a snapshot of your current character's stats and save them in a graveyard file, including equipment, skills, spells, and health/magicka. Every 1/500 enemies spawned could be a ghost. This would be a half-transparent human enemy visual. Upon its death, the ghost would leave no corpse. Any character ghost could at most be 2 levels above your character, so no snapshot above that level could be used.

Lunge strike: Any character would be permitted to use a lunge strike, which would make the character burst forward about one meter and strike heavily. The character would remain unable to move for about 0.5 seconds afterwards. The lunge would do about 1.5x damage, and is intended to strike against enemy archers and casters before suffering excessive damage. It would likely use a few points of fatigue as well.

Individual merchant reputation: If the character does several quests for the same merchant, that merchant's faction rating could improve, granting gradually better mercantile rates.

Non-magical alternatives: Some factions and new guilds could offer alternatives to magic. Rather than relying on an enchanter, some guild could alter weaponry to give the same effects at the same prices, but not relying on magic, and so forth. Thieves tools such as rope spears could also be bought from them. This is really just a vehicle for role-playing, so characters who insist on using no magic whatsoever could still benefit from these enhancements.

Hermaeus Mora daedric plane: This plane would consist largely of puzzles, with perhaps some gatekeepers asking questions related to various points of the Iliac Bay. Some chokepoints could have 4 NPCs who each have a different question, to allow the character variations in difficulty and area of knowledge. The reward for completing the plane could be a permanent reduction in magicka cost by 50% for all spells.

Nocturnal daedric plane: The reward for completing this Daedric plane would be a massive boost in stealth-related bonuses and the ability to see in the dark with greater ability.

Hircine daedric plane: In this Daedric plane, the character's equipment is unequipped and he/she is kept in werewolf form for the duration. Magicka could also be persistently reduced to zero, and some degree of health regeneration implemented. The setting would be an enormous system of underground arenas via interlinking chambers, where all existing combatants fight to be the last to survive. A lot of various werewolves of different levels would be present, though many other kinds of enemies would also appear. The reward for completing this plane could be a permanent bonus to all melee combat odds, both defensive and offensive.

Night vision: If dungeons are made darker, this spell could allow the character to better see in the dark, functional also outdoors. Khajiit could also have a natural night vision bonus.

Flay: Inspired by many roguelikes. This spell effect would last one tick and would drastically reduce the target's max health during its duration. If the spell ends and the enemy has not died, its health and max health are restored in equal amounts.

Illusion Monster spell line: The character could use various spells to appear as different enemies. The character's abilities or stats would not change. While active, this spell would have a chance to make any enemy of lower level than the illusion run away in fear, increasing with the gap between the illusionary monster's level and the enemy's level. The tiers could be Spriggan/Gargoyle/Vampire/Lich/Daedra, with their levels perhaps being 5/8/12/14/18. These spells should be low cost when used with a short duration, and the chance of inflicting fear could be ((illusionmonsterlevel-enemylevel)*12)%, checked when the enemy first is made aware of the character.

Petrify: This spell would be functionally similar to Continuous Damage->Fatigue, but would be particularly useful against enemies with high stamina and low magic resistance, such as centaurs(?), granting an alternative means to the same end. Once successfully cast on the enemy, its movement speed would begin to reduce over a period of several seconds, and then it would stop entirely, as if under paralysis. Its armor rating would increase by several points but it would remain unable to move for several rounds. Perhaps some sort of gray filter could be placed on the sprite to demonstrate the effect.

Lava: Lava is almost entirely unused in vanilla; it only has a resembled appearance in Mantellan Crux, in the giant skull room on the walls. Lava could be used in daedric planes and megadungeons if there's no other place to put it, and could cause severe fire damage to anyone who enters it. Could either be a flat surface or deep like water. The corpse could disappear if an enemy dies inside.

Clothing appearance: Each piece of clothing could have some internal value which adds up to a sum that alters the character's interactions with others. A eudoric or champion straps could provide little value; a long shirt could provide much more. Amulets, bracelets, and rings could improve the appearance rating substantially. Different kinds of NPCs would react in different ways, depending on the rating; nobles would almost universally shun conversation with you, if they enter into it at all. Merchants could perhaps alter their prices slightly based on the appearance rating, charging more from people with a disagreeable appearance. A failure to use clothing at all would bring universal condemnation, as implemented in Morrowind, but stronger.

Charming Field / Pacifying Field: Like with other field spells, this would grant the character a radius of effect, within which any enemy has a chance to be pacified or charmed, depending on the spell. Charm would likely be fairly high in magicka cost.

Additional disadvantages: Classmaker could provide more personable disadvantages to further customize the character. Allergies could cause a greater decrease in fatigue while outdoors during the daytime. Bad Back could reduce maximum encumbrance by a percent. Loner could negatively impact all conversation odds. Novice in [spell school] could increase the magicka cost for spells in that school by 50%. Unskilled in [weapon type] could permanently reduce all odds with that category of weapon (this could have the option, "All but Long Blade," and so on to make it faster to choose many at a time).

Digging: In another roleplaying option, the character could be permitted to pick up and use shovels. By digging in various places, the character may find loot of all kinds; small sums of gold, equipment, berries, valuable objects, and so on. Digging could only be done outdoors and not in a civilized area, though the character could do it on his or her own property, if he or she owns a rural home.

*****

In this section, I'll record things that are already a part of the game but could use some kind of alteration, for balancing or to add more avenues to play the game through.

Fortify Attribute: This spell effect could allow to exceed 100 in any attribute. In return, it would be far more expensive in magicka. Its flat value could be moderate, but its per-level value would scale very high.

Illusion spells: Probably could have a "Chance" level in each spell. They're too strong when guaranteed. Referenced in The Imperial Library website.

Spellmaker: The spellmaker could use fractions for Magnitude and Chance, multiplied by the character's skill level in that magic school, rather than use a "per level" multiplier. Spellmaker could also permit a zero value for per-level increases, to allow a spell to remain at its initial value permanently. It could begin with a library of spell effects but would not include every effect known in the game. Once the character gains a spell with a new effect, that effect would become available in Spellmaker, largely as implemented in TES3 (could register the spell effect in an invisible "known spells" category permanently, so even if the new spell is erased, the effect will persist in Spellmaker).

Invisibility: Normal could remain at its levels, but True could scale far higher in costs. It could have an end-game magicka cost rather than a regular one.

Pacify: This spell effect would cost a lot less. Its per-level could still scale fairly high, but since the effect isn't entirely useful, it could be cheaper.

Combat: All attacks by character and by enemies would hit. Dodging would reduce damage inversely to armor class, scaling in reduction as Dodging skill increases. All enemy health multiplied by 1.5. Short Blade weapons would need increased damage output, maybe curving all weapon damage higher towards daikatana/claymore/warhammer.

Enemy weapons: If it's true that enemy damage is increased by the weapons it carries, this could be removed for Zombies and perhaps for Skeletal Warriors. Zombies are already far too powerful, and adding a Daedric Daikatana on to their attack power is overpowered.

HP Scaling: Character HP gains would be scaled between numbers more narrow than 4 and 30. A character with 4 HP gain per level currently has no chance of survival past maybe level 6. The number could be scaled instead between 4 and 12, and all damage altered to match that (or between 20 and 30, and all damage altered for that to make it more consistent with vanilla). Endurance would play a larger role in HP gains; perhaps modify the per-level advancement for every 5 points in Endurance, so 100 End = +10, 50 End = +0.

Soultrap: Some more balancing could be put into soultrapping. Besides drastically reducing the sale value of filled soulgems, creating some sort of per-level resistance modifier could be appropriate. This could be an effect decided at the time of trap: A roll is made from 1 to 100, and if it doesn't exceed ((3+(Monster level - PC level))*18), the trap fails. This would prevent the imbalances brought by finding a Daedra Seducer through some quest, trapping it, and selling it for exorbitant amounts of money, and really just provides a more meaningful progression.

Giant Scorpion: Giant Scorpions could use a poison-type attack effect and perhaps a Seize effect to provide intermittent paralysis, but a blanket paralysis at level 2 is just unfair. Same with Spider.

Fighters Guild harpy attic quest: There is currently no indication when enough harpies have been killed. Also, I was given an indulcet as a reward rather than gold.

Weapon types: The Wakizashi and Katana could be moved to Short Blade, and Short Sword could be moved to Long Blade. This would provide Short Blade more meaningful options.

Classmaker: Leveling difficulty could use a lot of balancing. It may also be good to only set Primary and Major skills and omit Minor skills entirely (renaming them instead to Major and Minor skills).

Spell balls: The visual effect for long-range spells and their hitboxes could be reduced by about 50%. They currently take up most of the screen.

Damage traps: Damaging traps should trigger far less frequently or only once. The consequences of standing on one for three seconds are excessively harmful, especially against characters without levitation.

Longer-lasting messages: Skill-up messages and dungeon descriptors could last longer. In vanilla they're only on screen for a few mere seconds.

Mages Guild quest, Scholarly Research: The quest giver states the Necromancers keep interfering to prevent the delivery of the study. Some level-appropriate undead thrall could be spawned against the character during this quest to reflect that.

Identical objects: Some items such as Saint's Hair and Nymph's Hair are identical. One could be flipped horizontally to allow some degree of differentiation.

Temple benefits revamp: I don't know whether the UESP's current data on temple membership benefits is accurate, but it seems like they matter very little in their current state. Akatosh could grant a 50% reduction in travel time at rank 10; Arkay could be given something entirely different, since healing diseases is so rare and cheap; Julianos could grant an increase to magicka regeneration while resting and/or greater magicka resistance; Kynareth could provide improved stamina regeneration while resting as well as greatly improved underwater breathing; Mara's bonus could be multiplied by 3, but that bonus should probably apply to Dibella in any case; Mara would probably have a bonus to pacifying intelligent enemies; Stendarr sounds good but could probably be improved a little, maybe 2.5% or 3% per rank; Zenithar could provide continual passive skill checks to Mercantile, such that the character will improve in Mercantile from doing absolutely nothing over time.

Potion of Purification: This is more of a bug fix matter. My character drank a potion of purification, and two messages appeared at the top: "Spell effect failed." "You are now invisible." Stranger than that, I tried casting my previous spell with Q, and instead of levitate, it cast regenerate. Some pointers began pointing at the wrong thing there.

Follower portrait: Instead of adding some random PC portrait to the left side of the screen, the NPC's actual world sprite could be placed there, miniaturized.

Train all: Like temple trainers, any guild could train anyone, but increase prices drastically to non-members.

Victory music: Dan Goodale's 17FM could play on the character sheet while leveling up.

*****

This post is full, so it's time to make another one.

Re: Jay H's general thread

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 5:43 am
by Jay_H
With some degree of trepidation, I'm replying to this thread since I've run out of space in every other post. I'll also be reserving the next post to have more room in the future. I've started creating an index at the top of the first post, so people can look for specific things by category rather than read the entire list.

*****

Shoplifting: Two types of failures could occur: guard and non-guard. If the character has a high enough pickpocketing skill, some attempts that fail by a small margin would give a message such as, "You don't succeed and are almost caught." If the attempt fails by a large margin, a message could be, "You don't succeed. The guards have been called."

Trespassing: After entering any shop or house with a locked door, a check could be made every 10 seconds or so against the character's Stealth skill, rolled randomly from 1 to a number, maybe 85. If the Stealth skill is lower, a message appears such as, "Guards! Guards! There's an intruder in here!", and the town guard appears within the building. This may favor changing the inventory screen to real-time instead of paused, so that the check continues to occur while the character is looting the shelves. Trespassed areas may be dimmer than normal, both as a visible sign of the trespassing and for realism purposes. Store shelves may also have a similar check (1 to 65?).

Claim dungeon: Daggerfall's dungeons are generally too big for this, but some system for obtaining a dungeon, or a part of it, may be a good option for characters who choose an unlawful role to play. Once a dungeon is claimed, enemies would spawn inside it with a lesser frequency than outdoors, which would still greatly reduce the dungeon's population.

AndyFall: An old classic that shouldn't be too hard to implement.

Invisible to Undead: Likely a high cost Illusion spell.

Monster tripwire: Once crossed, this line summons a monster a few feet behind the character. A gargoyle, imp, or atronach could be good choices.

Pooled quest objects: Vanilla uses a strictly scripted system to determine what kinds of objects and enemies can be components of quests. For example, for a regular Fighter's Guild extermination quest, harpies, tigers, spiders, and bears can appear, but not daedroths or gargoyles. Some kind of flag could perhaps be added for which a mod system would check at each boot of DFU. The mod system would compile the various flagged pieces of data into available pools of options, which the game could then call in once a quest is configured on the spot. In other words, ordinary quests could implement modded additions through the use of such a pooling mechanism, making it entirely possible for the Fighters Guild vanilla quests to send the character to exterminate a modded enemy. The same could also be true of quest rewards and so on, and if modded quests also implement such a system for themselves, mods could perhaps be able to interplay fluidly. I'm not a programmer so I can't tell if this is a realistic way of looking at it, but the potential would be fantastic.

Back attacks: Even when backstabbing doesn't occur, enemy armor rating would be greatly reduced when attacking from behind.

Playtime reminders: Some games like Earthbound alert the player sometimes when he/she has been playing for a long time, sort of as a "don't forget about real life" call. I've seen some games implement this as a warning system in response to some real-life tragedies, though I can't remember any off the top of my head. Some configurable system could put a notice on the screen, at the user's request, at certain intervals: "Time elapsed: 60 minutes," and so on.

Darkness spell element: In a Necromancer's spell line, some new kinds of spells could be provided that don't conform to Daggerfall's existing elements. These could be Darkness element, to which most non-daedra and non-undead would have low resistance. This wouldn't require an additional element selection in Spellmaker, since necromancy is already forbidden in the Empire.

Weapon forging: Blacksmiths or other specialized NPCs could create new weapons using components in the inventory, similar to how potion making works in vanilla. Various objects could provide inherent benefits like quicker weapon speed, higher critical success rate, bonus to undead/humans/daedra/creatures, a guaranteed damage boost on each hit, etc.

Robbing stores: An option could be attached to every storekeeper to rob them. Once this is done, any items on shelves in the building cease to be for sale and are all available to grab. However, guards would pour into the building, and could either arrest on severe charges or simply fight to kill the character.

Style change: Inspired by Final Fantasy XIII. A character could choose between various combat styles at any time, which would automatically alter melee combat ability. A few would be Natural (no alterations); Vanguard (increases armor rating and weapon accuracy, but disables critical strikes and backstabbing and slightly reduces attack damage); Passionate (increases weapon swing speed and damage and chance of critical strike and critical strike damage, but increases damage taken and enemy accuracy, and slightly decreases attack accuracy); Illusive (greatly increases weapon accuracy and makes strikes silent, but decreases weapon swing speed), etc.

Flavor groups: This would only add more detail to the world. When the character is generated, a series of calculations can be made with two variables, similar to how Daggerfall originally created its tavern and shop names. The list would have names such as "Reckless" and "Crimson" as its first word and "Brawlers" and "Champions" as its second word. These names would then be allocated to the various regions of the Iliac Bay. When a human enemy is killed, rarely some document could be found on its corpse from its associated gang, telling details of a robbery plan, the future vision of their group, accolades regarding the past, etc. Not thinking of binding gang members to a specific level range, since that would probably be more work than necessary. Some quests could perhaps integrate some of these members as culprits, such as the rival gangs quest for the Thieves Guild, or a new protection job for the Fighters Guild.

Zombie apocalypse: This verges on silly, but it's just another idea. A Morrowind mod I can't seem to find, I believe named "What a Wonderful World," removed nearly every NPC in the world and replaced them with corprus stalkers. Imagine a Daggerfall where every building was filled with zombies, and every monster spawned was a zombie.

Tent and sleeping bag: Objects such as a tent and a sleeping bag could be bought in certain stores. Likely consumed after each use, to justify a low cost. If the character uses a sleeping bag, a resting prompt comes up, for which the character recuperates health, stamina, and fatigue at twice the normal rate during its duration. The sleeping bag could be used outdoors and in dungeons. The tent provides double recuperation of each stat and prevents any encounters whatsoever during its use, similar to the safe rest spell previously mentioned. The tent could only be used outdoors. Neither could be used in civilized areas.

Daggerfall expansion: Redguard was originally planned to be an expansion pack for Daggerfall. With that in mind, we could take some inspiration from Morrowind and Tribunal, and create some enclosed area the character gets teleported to from a certain point in the world. The travel map would be disabled there, and it would probably be a region of a few square kilometers, filled with static content. It would be an experience far more like TES3-4 than Daggerfall.

One-handed two-handed skills: All melee weapon skills could be merged into either One-Handed or Two-Handed types, similar to TESV. Hand-to-Hand and Archery would retain their own skills.

Global economy shifts: Inspired by Sierra's Jones in the Fast Lane. All commercial sums, including stores, houses, and ship prices, could be given a modifier that alters at random periodically based on a percent (perhaps daily at pos/neg <1%, or weekly at pos/neg <3%. This could also be randomized heavily at the start of the game, perhaps ranging between .6 and 1.3. Gold obtained through quests and loot would be unaffected. Items sold to stores would be affected in sale. Seasons of high and low prices would each have their advantages; sell when the modifier's high, and buy when it's low.

Reevaluate Custom Class: Upon reaching every fifth level, any character created with Classmaker could be given the option to return to the Classmaker screen with all stats at the current levels. Stats, skills, and reputations would not be modifiable, but advantages and disadvantages would be, as well as health per level. The level difficulty scaler could be changed based on any alterations made to the character's traits.

Enemies climb walls: Not all enemies, perhaps just humans, orcs, undead, and daedra. If the character is at a higher elevation, enemies could latch on to the wall and rise at walking speed until they reach the top. Movement would be vertical only, like for character.

Lockpicking enemies: Sentient enemies, already capable of opening doors, could also randomly unlock them. While within range of a door, every second a 1/200 roll could be made, and if successful, the door opens. Could be disabled for magically held locks, or only ultra-high level enemies (ancient liches, vampire ancients, humans) could open them.

Pursued by Vampires: Inspired by Morrowind's Daedric Crescent. This quest would request that the character confront or interfere with a powerful spellcaster. Upon doing so, the spellcaster would teleport the character to a prefab labyrinth, filled with corridors of Vampire Ancients only. The character is silenced and unable to use magical items while inside the labyrinth. No doors would be locked. There would be no legitimate exit to the labyrinth; some quest object at the opposite end of the maze would teleport the character out. Possible conclusions could be that the spellcaster was using his/her life force bind the dungeon closed, and the escape caused his/her death; tracking down and slaying the spellcaster; etc. There could be multiple design variants of the labyrinth, perhaps three or four.

Signpost text: The signs at the entrance to walled cities could be a lot more informative. If prices rise a certain point above average, it could talk about rising prices; after certain major quests, it could mention the fallout in the region; could give simple flavor text like citizens need to be indoors at nightfall to prevent criminal attacks, etc.

Rank 10 benefits: Each guild could grant some unique benefit for achieving rank 10. For the temples, that could be a unique, powerful spell or other benefit most in line with that temple's abilities. For the Mages Guild, it could be a guild member who sells only extremely powerful spells of each school. For the Fighters Guild, it could be an extremely powerful weapon based on the character's highest weapon skill, etc.

Sense Enemy: Inspired by Might & Magic IV. A new spell could be created which would create a circle in the top right of the screen. When no enemies are within rest distance, the circle is green. When an enemy is within rest distance but not in an immediate radius of the character, it is yellow. When an enemy is within 3 meters of the character, it is red.

Decoy: This Illusion spell would create a inanimate human enemy next to the character. Enemies would have a chance to direct their attacks at the decoy rather than the character. Useful for combat and for fleeing. Likely would only receive 3 attacks before disappearing. Modifiers would be Duration only.

Prison: Inspired by roguelikes. This spell would create four walls directly around the enemy target, holding them in place for one or two ticks. All other enemy abilities would be unrestrained. The enemy would be unable to attack or be attacked for the duration. Walls could perhaps be red bricks, currently used by dungeon teleporters.

Stalwart: Inspired by roguelikes. This Restoration spell could have a chance to add 1 armor rating for each hit received during its duration. Variables would be Chance and Duration. Chance would scale very lightly, Duration very heavily.

Mayhem: Inspired by roguelikes. This Alteration (Thaumaturgy?) spell would add 5% attack speed and 1 damage to the character's attacks for every kill made during its duration. Variables would be Duration only. At the end of its duration, the bonuses would be lost. If cast repeatedly, the bonuses would reset, not stack, and a new duration would begin.

Lingering poison: Poison-effect magic spells could add a lingering poison effect, similar or identical to the poison effect used by assassin NPCs. This effect could be inherent and damage-/duration-fixed in every poison spell.

Racial Bonuses: As implemented in future TES, each race could have its own particular benefits to skills. Nord could have innate +10 to Axe and Long Blade. Redguard could have +10 to Long Blade and Short Blade, and +5 to Archery. Breton could have +5 to all magical schools. Khajiit could have +5 to Running and +10 to Stealth. Wood Elf could have +10 to Short Blade and Archery and +5 to various language skills.

Leave when Pacified: When the character pacifies an enemy through speech, it could enter into a neutral state which then disappears once line of sight is lost.

Markers: In dungeons (or any location), a marker of some kind could be left behind at the press of a button. This can be done in vanilla by picking up and dropping items in the inventory, but Daggerfall's interface makes it unwieldy.

Start as Vampire/Lycanthrope: Perhaps as a character disadvantage or some other prompt, the character could choose to be a vampire or lycanthrope (and choose which) from level one. This precludes the sometimes difficult task of finding such an enemy and standing still for a few dozen hits. The condition would be curable by the ordinary means.

Obtain Castle: Inspired by Prophecy of Pendor. Similar to the dungeon claiming idea previously mentioned, some rare quest could lead the character to an abandoned castle somewhere in the region; there could be about 2 or 3 castles placed in each. This could then be used as a home and as a place to start a knighthood order of some kind. The castle would remain sealed shut until that time.

Conjoined Guild Quests: Some quests could be designed that pit one guild against another, and involve the character when appropriate. For example, the Thieves Guild could give a quest to steal an object from a Mages Guild in another area. If the character is also a member of the Mages Guild, they could send a letter asking the character to speak to an NPC within that Mages Guild to agree to defend it instead, not knowing about the assignment from the Thieves Guild. Choosing one side over another would result in a faction hit against the other. Further examples could be a temple asking the character to destroy an undead which the Mages Guild summoned in a dungeon; a Fighters Guild killing a dragonling a knightly order wants to protect; and so on.

Nontraditional Quest Endings: Some vanilla quests could be altered to add more endings. The Mages Guild quest for mummy wrappings could have one possible branch with no mummy, but a human who drops a quest parchment showing that the mummy was just a hoax. The innkeeper duel for honor could end with the innkeeper showing up and realizing he was just being hotheaded, asking for forgiveness and paying some small amount. The false accusation quest could end early with a letter from the city guards who investigated and found the real culprit, clearing the character from any wrongdoing. These alternate endings would be rare, likely not to exceed 10%.

Mages Guild quest: A mid-level Mages Guild quest could send the character to terminate a known Necromancer in a residence of another town. When the first hit on the enemy is struck, several undead could be summoned (skeletons, wraiths, etc) to attack the character.

Spell Scaling: For spells that have a min and max value, the costs for max could scale much lower than the costs for min. This means it could be cost-efficient to make a spell like Morrowind's Wild spells, and a guaranteed quality spell would cost much more.

"Did you Know?" loading screens: At startup, the game could provide text information explaining some of Daggerfall's lesser known and useful aspects.

Crouching stealth: Crouching could add a bonus to sneaking checks over walking.

Simple poisons: The poison ingredients (spider venom, etc) could be used in the inventory, which would apply an effect on the character's weapon for 30(?) seconds. Each venom could have a particular effect. Spider venom could have a chance to paralyze an enemy, snake venom could do damage over time, etc.

Buy businesses: Through some kind of NPC, the character could be given the option to take ownership of businesses in the city, including shops and taverns. The cost and payout of the businesses could be based on its rusty relics-incense quality and its type, as well as perhaps character level and region.

Starter dungeons: In vanilla, graveyards are the only available dungeons without a quest or map. Various other additional sites could be added, such as criminal dens, beast caves, and sorcerer hideouts which would allow characters of varying moralities the ability to get exploring right away. These dungeons would be prefabricated and generated throughout the regions, just as graveyards are.

Roguelike equipment: An entire overhaul of the weapon and armor system in Daggerfall. Pieces of equipment can come with variations in stats, damage, elemental effects, and special effects. A weapon could be "Elven Warhammer, +8 INT, -3 STR, +15% swing speed" or "Iron Staff, -19 Maximum Magicka, +1 Endurance, +11% walking speed" or "Daedric Daikatana, +42% damage to undead, fire enchanted, no weapon weight." Weapon price would be multiplied based on each equipment property. Other effects: Resistance to element, add magicka regen (number per in-game hour), add health regen, reduce stamina loss.

Stat-based spellcasting: Intelligence could determine the starting magnitude and chance of a spell, and Willpower could determine the "per-level" magnitude and chance gain of a spell.

Expressive combat: For each hit in combat, yellow text at the top of the screen could display how much damage being done:

"You hit a Zombie for 14 damage."
"You hit a Zombie for 6 damage."
"A Zombie hits your Hands for 22 damage."

Skills via guilds: For achieving certain ranks in guilds, some zero-magicka spells could get added to the spellbook. For fighters they could be things like a thrust strike or a pommel bash; for thieves they could be things like advanced lockpicking that increases in efficiency with rank increases (10% success, 18% success, and so on). Mages could get a magicka-regeneration ability, though it would work slowly.

Re: Jay H's general thread

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 5:43 am
by Jay_H
Reserved

*****

In this section, I'll be making a list of the top mods that I believe would take relatively little effort to make a large impact. If someone feels overwhelmed looking at this topic, a short list may help.

1. Click to Attack

2. Parry

3. Weapon abilities

4. Style change

*****

In this section, I'll post ideas for revamped spell costs.

Chameleon: Normal/True. Duration.
Charm: Duration, Chance.
Climbing: Duration.
Comprehend Languages: Duration, Chance.
Continuous Damage: Fatigue/Health/Spell Points. Duration, Magnitude.
Create Item: Duration.
Cure: Disease/Paralysis/Poison. Chance. Paralysis more expensive than other two (1.5x).
Damage: Destruction. Fatigue/Health/Spell Points. Magnitude. Non-self, any element.
Detect: Thaumaturgy. Enemy/Magic/Treasure. Duration. Self-only, non-elemental.
Disintegrate: Destruction. Chance. Non-self, any element.
Dispel: Mysticism. Chance. Daedra/Magic/Undead. Self-only, non-elemental.
Drain: Destruction. Magnitude. 8 stats. Non-self, any element.
Elemental Resistance: Alteration. Duration, Chance. Five elements. Any target, non-elemental.
Fortify Attribute: Restoration. Duration, Magnitude. 8 stats. Any target, non-elemental.
Free Action: Restoration. Duration. Any target, non-elemental.
Heal: Restoration. Magnitude. 8 stats/stamina/health. Any target, non-elemental. Stats more expensive than health.
Identify: Thaumaturgy. Chance. Self-only, non-elemental.
Invisibility: Illusion. Normal/True. Duration. Any target, non-elemental.
Jumping: Alteration. Duration. Any target, non-elemental.
Levitate: Thaumaturgy. Duration. Self-only, non-elemental.
Light: Illusion. Duration. Any target, non-elemental.
Lock: Mysticism. Chance. Self-only, non-elemental.
Open: Mysticism. Chance. Self-only, non-elemental.
Pacify: Thaumaturgy. Chance. Animal/Daedra/Human/Undead. Varying expensiveness. Non-self, any element.
Paralyze: Alteration. Duration, Chance. Non-self, any element.
Regenerate: Restoration. Duration, Magnitude. Any target, non-elemental.
Shadow: Illusion. Normal/True. Duration. Any target, non-elemental.
Shield: Alteration. Duration, Magnitude. Any target, non-elemental.
Silence: Mysticism. Duration, Chance. Any target, any element.
Slowfall: Alteration. Duration. Self-only, non-elemental.
Soul Trap: Duration, Chance.
Spell Absorption: Duration, Chance.
Spell Reflection: Duration, Chance.
Spell Resistance: Duration, Chance.
Teleport: No modifiers. 0 gold cost.
Transfer: Magnitude. 8 stats/stamina/health.
Water Breathing: Duration.
Water Walking: Duration.

Re: Jay H's general thread

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:46 pm
by MasonFace
I'm not going to lie- most posts this long are usually a chore to read, but it's been a delight reading through all these ideas. There are some really good mod ideas here. I wouldn't mind taking a shot at implementing some of this eventually. I particularly like the Megadungeons.