Here are some of the ideas I had:
- Persistent dungeons across all characters. This would be similar to the “Persistent Dungeons” mod, but data would be saved globally so the persistence would remain for all characters. For example, you have a thief who clears a dungeon. You then create a warrior and visit the same dungeon only to find it has already been looted.
- Any house purchased by a character is labeled accordingly and cannot be purchased by any other character. (Example: The thief buys a house in Daggerfall. When the warrior visits Daggerfall, the thief’s house will be labeled “Thief’s House” on the map and is not available for the warrior to purchase. (There could even be different levels of “friendship” between the two – i.e. stranger, acquaintance, friend, sibling, spouse, etc. - that could allow the warrior access to some of the perks of the house, such as sleeping, taking items, and even being treated as the owner.)
- Wherever a character is when the game is last saved, a paperdoll flat is rendered for that character (similar to the “3rd-Person Camera” mod). Thus, if the Thief logs out in a tavern, and the warrior visits that tavern, he will see the thief standing there. (He may even be able to interact with the thief in some way, such as pickpocketing, training, etc.)
- "Any News?" would also be affected, so if the thief completes certain quests for the thieves’ guild, the warrior may hear news from NPCs about her accomplishments. ("The Ashbury Residence in Daggerfall was robbed, but the owner isn't going to the magistrate.") If your character gains a high rank in the guild, you may even be able to hear about it from NPCs. (“They say the thieves’ guild has been handed over to Thief the khajiit thief.”)
- There could possible even be an option to open a “store” that allows one character to sell equipment to another character.
- The main quest would only be doable by one character. If no character is currently doing the main quest (or failed to speak with Lady Brisienna before she leaves), the player would be asked if he/she wants to do the main quest when a new character is created. As that character moves the quest forward, any changes to the world would be shared across all characters.
- Dates and seasons would be persistent, so if the thief quits on 5th of Morningstar 3E 405 and loads the warrior, it would also be the 5th of Morningstar 3E 405 for the warrior. Any quests would be affected, and potentially failed. Optionally, reputation with guilds and factions would be affected as normal, though it could be assumed the character is doing tasks for the faction behind the scenes to keep his reputation consistent.
- There should be an option to start in a random dungeon, a random inn, or even owning a random house in a random city. It could be an option to allow the player to choose the region, especially if he/she wants the character to be a native of wherever he/she lives.
- There could be character “worlds” which are selected at character creation. Only characters in a given world would be part of a given persistent world.
Projected Issues:
- There would likely be some syncing nuances due to loading/saving, such as quitting mid-dungeon, loading a different character and playing for a while, then going back to the previous character, finding you are stuck in the dungeon, and loading a previous save before you entered the dungeon.
- There could be some nuances with syncing dates and seasons. A character who quits in a dungeon may be there for months (or even years) if a different character is played for a long time. One way to potentially remedy this is to have (optional) “consequences” for characters who are not played for too long. A character left in a dungeon too long may find himself severely ill (or even dead), a character left in an inn may be charged a daily fee (falling into dept if he/she does not have enough money to pay for their stay). Quitting while in your own house would not accrue any penalties.
