IMMERSIVE INTERACTIONS

Those that know my previous mods know I'm a sucker for realism and making your characters feel more alive. 

I approached this mod with a clear goal: Increase immersion by seeing your character perform context-aware animations when interacting with the world organically. Organic here meaning: without menus, spells, etc: Simply as a natural part of your gameplay adventure.

Most animations work this way: If your hands are free (no weapons/magic/fists), activating items in the world will play a short animation.

Huge Thank you to FLipdeezy for his help making this mod possible, and for TheFakeEmpire for helping with the LE port.

These are some of the animations included - There are almost 30 different animated interactions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Main Features of Immersive Interactions:

• Highly Customizable: Enable or disable interactions via the MCM!
  

• World interactions have more weight and feel more real: Similar to RDR2, things don't just teleport to your inventory, your character must perform an animation before the activation happens. Harvesting, pickpocketing, lockpicking, activating standing stones, opening doors, picking up objects... 
  

• Mod adapts to the narrative in your game: Being a Thane means guards of your Hold will salute you respectfully, if you join a side in the CW, you will salute your superior generals, etc.
  

• Bring more life to your NPC interactions: Pet your dog/horse, hug followers, applaud bards, wave hello to children, etc.
  

• Compatibility-friendly: Fully compatible with Skyrim Souls, compatible with Simply Knock, auto detection and compatibility with a couple of mods... In general, the customizable nature of this mod, paired with the fact that my mod will never trigger if you draw your weapon makes it so compatibility shouldn't be an issue at all. 
  

Heavy Burns was amazingly kind to provide an amazing mod showcase you can watch above. I consider him the best when it comes to Skyrim video content, so if you're not following him already, you're really missing out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Requirements:

• FNIS or Nemesis
• Dynamic Animation Replacer
  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


List of Quick Interactions

• Mourning Friends: When a follower (or someone with great relationship rank with the player) dies, your character will take a moment to mourn their friend. After this, the body can be looted as usual.
• Touching Standing Stones: Standing stones must be physically touched now before they activate. Just a short animation before they do their thing.
• Knock on doors: If you have Simply Knock installed, you will now visibly knock on doors.
  

• Pet Horse: If you are not in combat and you have no weapons unsheated, you will quickly pet your horse before riding it.
• Pet Dog: If you are not in combat and you have no weapons unsheated, you will quickly pet your dog before talking to them. 3 possible animations depending on the position of the dog.
  

• Applaud Bards when they're performing
  

• Pray at Shrines
  

• Salute Jarls respectfully
• Guards salute their Thane: As a Thane, guards of the region you're a thane of will salute you with the respect you deserve.
• Salute Civil War Commanders: If you're a stormcloak or imperial, you will salute your commanders before talking to them. Each faction has a different salute (Imperial is more formal, Stormcloak is more casual)
• Wave Hello to Children: You will look down and playfully wave hello to children before interacting with them. Kids will respond with 4 different possible reactions (animations). Some kids are excluded. (Ghosts... Aventus...)
• Open Containers: Fast animation that allows movement courtesy of FLipdeezy.
  

• Harvest flowers/ingredients - Two options: Fast harvesting or slower (alchemy-level based)
  

• Reading Books (Sitting Down + Standing) and Notes (Standing Only) - This will only work if you have Skyrim Souls.
  

• Give Gold to Beggars - Activated via dialogue as usual - Included a personal change: 1 Gold increased to 10 Coins, cause 1 Gold feels petty.
• Open Doors: Fast animation that allows movement courtesy of FLipdeezy.
  

• Loot Animals: An animation with a knife will play for a couple of seconds. If Hunterborn is installed, nothing plays as HB takes over. Again, thanks to FLipdeezy for his work here.
• Loot NPCs: You will visibly loot NPCs for a couple of seconds. If Skyrim Souls is installed, you will continue looting the NPC until you exit the menu.
• Pickpocket NPCs: You will play a short animation before attempting to pickpocket enemies.
• Lockpicking: Animation plays when lockpicking a lock.
• Pick-up Items: Fast animation that allows movement while picking up an item courtesy of FLipdeezy.
• Follower Interaction: If you are not in combat and have no weapons unsheated, your follower will briefly salute you as if saying "I'm behind you, boss". There's a tiny possibility your follower might give you a quick hug, cause the world needs more of those.
• Spouse Interaction: When interacting with your spouse, you might occasionally hug (Originally, you'd be able to kiss them. But DAR doesn't support paired animations yet. I'll restore the content when DAR gets the update, which might be soon.)
  

List of Special Interactions:

Special Interactions are similar to the actions found in Dynamic Things,  but this time without editing world elements except the ones you actually activate. Hold E (or activate button) for a second when facing one of these items to activate them:

• Woodpiles: This will play an animation where your character picks up wood. You will get more or less wood depending on the size of the woodpile. Woodpile disappears after the animation (unless it's a house-big huge woodpile, which are infinite.)
• Kegs: This will play an animation that shows the player filling a bottle with ale. This will give you two botles of ales, keg will be empty afterwards.
• Put Out Fires: When activated near a fire (campfire, a fire pit, etc.), player will play an animation putting out the fire. This will give you some wood back. This is useful for realism purposes: If you are using Campfire/Frostfall and you want to have a temporary base in a cave that has a vanilla fire, this feels like cheating because the fire is ALWAYS lit and never runs out of wood. If you decide to do so, you can now turn it off and create your own "mega super immersive-realist" campfire instead. This option is disabled by default because I understand it's quite niche. If you like the idea of disabling fires, you can re-enable this interaction via the MCM.
• Pick up Straw: You can pick up straw from a bale if you hold E near one of them.
• Practice Dummy: Hold E near a practice dummy to play a boxing animation (Thanks to the Enderal team for allowing me to use the animation here). This will do a warm up that "readies you up" for battle, giving you a small temporarily +10 boost to your health and stamina for 15 minutes.
  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Performance:

Short explanation: Mod only runs when you need it, and even then, it does its thing (which is pretty lite) for a couple of seconds then disappears. No background, looped or timed scripts. Should have no performance impact at all. 

Want to have a look behind the scenes?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alternatives to this mod:

If you want to explore alternative mods to this one, check out: 

- (Super Fast) Immersive animated Looting (SE Only): Very similar to this mod (they share the core code and a lot of the animations). The mod is a great alternative if you want quicker animations that don't slow down the game and not having to configure anything. (it works on the fly)

- Animations: A classic. Very similar to this one too and both cover a lot of the same interactions. Animations also does some things in a more advanced manner (detecting positioning of objects, for example). I found it to be incompatible with Skyrim Souls, but might be a good alternative too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Compatibility:

The mod already comes with some compatibility patches that will auto-detect and be enabled automatically: Simply Knock / Hunterborn should be automatically detected and supported. Skyrim Souls IS supported (and recommended since it enables more interactions), but you must tick the box for it via my mod's MCM to have full support.

Since most of this mod is togglable, it will be compatible with practically anything via the MCM. For example, if the mod doesn't detect hunterborn, just disable "Loot Animals", and Hunterborn will take over. Same for all the other options. Or just ready your fists/weapon beroe activating an object, which will let vanilla activations take place. 

Things that might conflict are: Pet The Dog standalone (since it's part of this mod already) and the alternative mods mentioned above (since they do similar things). Dynamic Things Alternative will probably have some overlap when it comes to the special interactions, but you can decide on a case by case basis which interactions you want via my mod's MCM, so there shouldn't be big issues using both.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~