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New project: "The Dragonborn's Bestiary"
Each time you kill a creature, a corresponding entry will be added to your bestiary, complete with an illustration and description, as well as recurrent loot. I am also planning to make the mod natively compatible with Know Your Enemy 2 and Resistances and Weaknesses, by detecting if you have one of these mods installed and then displaying the appropriate information.
Killing won't be the only way to acquire new entries for your bestiary. For examples, buying a Horse, or petting a Dog will unlock these animals' pages. Another mechanic I will try to implement: by reading certain books, you will also be able to discover new creatures before encountering them in the wild.
I'm trying to make it as add-on friendly as possible. In short, adding a new bestiary entry for your favorite mod will simply require a json file with the new creature's information and an image (dds) to be dropped in a dedicated folder. A spell might also have to be distributed via SPID but I haven't gotten around to that part yet. I'm also planning to write a short guide for modders on how to create bestiary illustrations, so that we can have a somewhat standardized approach.
The UI will be polished some more but you can already see the style I'm going for. Also, to give you an idea, I have currently added a total of 116 entries with descriptions (100% done) and illustrations (on-going) covering all Vanilla, DLC and CC creatures.
59 comments
HELL YES
I always wanted to use one of those mods but chose not to because i didn't want to constantly look up the mod page for info like a fandom wiki site, having an in-game Bestiary detailing resistance information is so much better and diegetic. Genius idea, man!
The portrait looks stellar and fits right in with Skyrim's UI, although you might want to remove the "often led by a dominant alpha," line.
Unless there's some Elder Scrolls lore that i'm not aware of, the idea that Wolves are led by an 'Alpha' is largely a myth that originates from outdated analyses of patterns in the behaviors of *captive* wolves in the mid 20th century. Here's a longer read! ; https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-alpha-wolf-idea-a-myth/
I'm aware of the alpha thing being an unfortunately popular myth, but I think that's actually how it works for wolves in the Elder Scrolls universe. Alpha Wolves are present in the game files and even restored by mods like Skyrim Immersive Creatures or SkyTEST iirc. But I'll check in UESP (my definitive reference to make this bestiary) and see what they have to say about this. Thanks again for the input, and I'm glad you find the resistance/weakness thing useful! Will work on implementing it this week
Possible Patch to consider.
Visual: For example, 4thUnknown's Nix-Hound (Morrowind Creatures), Spriggan & Flame Atronach, FrankFamily's Barbas, JPSteel2's Bears of the North, Praedyth's Skeleton Replacer or Mandragorasprouts Falmer Overhaul. These aren't adding new creatures, but you do get a bit of visual clash if you see the vanilla creatures in the menu and their different designs in the open-world.
You already have plans for new creature mods and support for mods that analyse their weaknesses or display their HP, so don't feel I need to comment there.
Dwemer Spectres - Adds the classic Dwemer Ghosts from Morrowind. I assume there are other creature categories planned, so these would probably go under 'Undead' alongside creatures like the CC Zombies and Bone Wolves? Or maybe listed under humanoids with Giants?
Legacy of the Dragonborn - Adds Falmer Loremasters, some unique Dwemer constructs, Fafnir the Racoon, An Elven Necromancer at Deepholme and some other unique named enemies.
Skyrim Extended Cut - Saints and Seducers - Added some new Daedric Creatures such as Grummites or Flesh Atronachs. Also updated the appearance of Golden Saints and Dark Seducers to be more lore accurate.
Moonpath to Elseweyr - Adds some unique creatures like Imga, Sload, Hyena and Zahilisk. The Hyena has a model replacer too.
Question: will this include unique enemies, maybe with some of their lore?
Yes, I am adding entries for some unique enemies as well