Ashfall

This'd be a cool addon but as with all addons, it's best to have the game done first :P

Ashfall! I came up with that name too, credit me, wheres my award!?

Most important part of ashfall would be ash inhalation, blight protection, dehydration and overheating.

Water becomes sacred like gold in the ashlands.
Agree with drag that armour becomes important for protecting against blight and ash.

Damn this expansion could be fucking amazing if we pull it off.

Said the bishop to the netball team.

You should contact the person who worked on Frostfall, I gather they'd be able to provide us with a LOT of help with this idea. As awesome as it is however, it does pull away from the Elder Scrolls feel for a game. This would have to be a side project as sustenance, besides stamina and disease, were never main factors of gameplay. 

 

There are ways we could make these ideas esthetically apparent however, to make the character feel like Ash and Blight are true threats to the player while not affecting stats is a good way to go. I for one actually like the idea of ash blurring your vision and making it harder for your character to run. We do want the hands-covering-eyes animation from Morrowind, after all :P

Tajnarasha

You should contact the person who worked on Frostfall, I gather they'd be able to provide us with a LOT of help with this idea. As awesome as it is however, it does pull away from the Elder Scrolls feel for a game. This would have to be a side project as sustenance, besides stamina and disease, were never main factors of gameplay. 

 

There are ways we could make these ideas esthetically apparent however, to make the character feel like Ash and Blight are true threats to the player while not affecting stats is a good way to go. I for one actually like the idea of ash blurring your vision and making it harder for your character to run. We do want the hands-covering-eyes animation from Morrowind, after all 

Yes, agree with what you said. All of it. x1000 :)

If or when this is done are we going to have cool looking ash mask breather things like in kirkbrides concepts?

stijmunkeyIf or when this is done are we going to have cool looking ash mask breather things like in kirkbrides concepts?

I would certainly hope so. I think it's really exciting that you guys have a chance to realise Kirkbride's original vision of Morrowind more accurately than it was in Bethesda's original release.

I've already got a mod for Dragonborn that causes blurry vision during ash storms (Wet and Cold - Ashes). It's a cool mod, but for Skywind you could take it much further.

With 'Ashfall' in mind, you guys should make sure that armors made by Dunmer for Morrowind's volcanic conditions would generally be better protected against ash than foreign styles. For instance, Nord Iron Armor, Orcish Armor, etc. would be much less suited for weathering ash storms than Bonemold, Chitin, Glass, etc. And even within Dunmer armor styles there should be degrees of effectiveness. For example, the Glass Helmet's lenses should be slightly superior to Chitin's, just due to the quality of the materials used.

And this also means that you guys should follow Kirkbride's original vision for the Telvanni. They need proper protective gear and masks just like the other houses. And it just so happens that Kirkbride came up with some bloody awesome concept art for Telvanni mages' outfits, which made them look much more at home in the ashes of Vvardenfell.

What about hunting and skinning animals to make yourself a bag, which increase amount of things you can carry? Craftable lanterns? 

Also interested about immersive 1st person view (when you can see your whole body when you look down), footsteps on ash, bobbing boats, steam clouds from characters breathing when it's cold (or raining) and getting wet in water.

It would increase immersion over 9000 =)

You can do most of those things with mods already. But a Frostfall-like mod designed specifically for Morrowind's environmental conditions would probably have to be made by the Skywind team itself if it's ever going to happen at all.

This would be quite an incredible experience. Planning ventures ahead. The tension whether you can make it back to civilization after a long dungeon romp. Mapping out save havens. Maybe expanding on magic effects - no more happy jumping around lava areas! At least not without enough protective spells. Gaining favour with the ashland tribes so they show you survival techniques (i.e., a bonus to survival skills?). Maybe even expanding on the item placement: the best items are mostly stuck in the most dangerous areas?

As an aside - the other regions might be just as dangerous. Adding high chances of contracting diseases for stumbling through the swamps without clothes on (or even with them)?

It would certainly change the game, but at the same time inject a lot of fresh energy into it.

 

I really like this idea!

Especially the part about goggles and helmet version reminded me of a game with a similar approach: Metro and Metro last light.

When you enter certain areas you MUST put on your breathing mask, and it gets foggy as well and you have to switch out filters. Now, leave the filter thing aside, and it sounds perfect for ashfall if we can imitate it.

As soon as you enter parts of the ashlands or the border where ashstorms are known to happen, you are forced to put on your mask/helmet/goggles/mouthcover or suffer serious debuffs.

 

TLDR: Implement a system like in the 'Metro' or 'Stalker' game series with a need for facial protection and visual effects.

This would be good as a sort of "Hardcore Mode".
Similar to that of Fallout: New Vegas.

Yeah! Eating and sleeping would be a pain in the ass though... so leave that out or make it optional.

I personally would love to see this.  I know Wet and Cold: Ashes would be a great extra add-on to Skywind.  as it already comes with ash storm survival gear and NPC reactions.  But I know the main games must come first, so perhaps contact these modders to ask for compatibilty patches.

Would NPCs be affected by this, too?  Even if they just have a 'replenishing' food and water supply, it might allow for reverse-pickpocketing poisonous food and water, so that they will be affected when they eat their next meal.  Such options for cleaner and more anonymous kills would be nice.

I've had the idea of integrating face covers and robes that protect against ashstorms into the tailoring system for crafting, and I can add them in as a crafting recipe for the base game without the extra protection, so that it could be implemented later once Ashfall development starts. Another thing I was thinking about is breathing spells (for ashy/lack of air, not for water breathing) as described in the Doors of Oblivion book: "There is no sky or ground or air, only particles, floating, falling, whirling about me. I must levitate and breathe by magickal means."

I'd love to see the "Get Snowy" effects in an ash variant. As your walking through windy dust storms, your clothes desaturate and the crevices of your armor get gritty.

walking through labyrinthian and seeing my blade get frosty in the snow was SO IMMERSIVE.

Another relevant idea to box: Recycling

when player use potion/beverage - add bottle. Use it to contain new potion/beverage.
when player use soulgem - add some soulgem pieces. Use it to craft empty soulgem.
when player use some fruits - add some seeds. Use it as alchemical ingredient or smth.

For immersion purposes you also may want to check out the Footprints mod on the Nexus. It already has an ash plugin, and with a little retexturing could be applied to sand an mud. It would also help tracking prey for the other survival plugins planned; stumbling across the trail of a wild guar just as your stomach starts to rumble... almost like Hircine himself asking for an offering. And Frostfall makes an EXCELLENT starting point for a few more reasons: tents, campfires, cook pots, even the mobile tanning racks, alchemy sets and enchanter's circles (which needed bonemeal to draw when set up). It would make an Ashlander character much more plausible.