Frostbite adds a simple and lightweight cold weather recognition system to Skyrim. When outside in the elements, or in an icy interior location, your body temperature reduces gradually. When indoors or standing near a heat source such as fire, the cold temperature is counteracted and your body temperature increases quickly.

The goal of this mod is to give the climate of Skyrim a more immersive effect without introducing a "survival" mini-game or discouraging exploration. As always, a mod should balance immersion with fun gameplay. Additionally, Frostbite is designed to be widely compatible with other mods and play styles.

How It Works

Frostbite will be enabled by default, but can be disabled in the provided MCM. When outdoors, ambient temperature is determined by the current weather and time of day. There are six possible temperatures: warm, comfortable, neutral, cool, cold, and freezing. When the sun is below a viewing angle, the temperature is reduced by one step. When the sun is above a viewing angle and the weather is pleasant, the temperature is increased by one step. When actively swimming, temperature is also reduced by one step.

Interior zones are largely warm, but icy interiors are recognized as cold by default. If an interior zone is not recognized as cold, or is a zone added by another mod, either the location or the cell can be added to the recognized form lists in the Frostbite MCM.

Local heat sources, such as a camp fire, will boost the ambient temperature to warm. Stews and soups also have a warming effect if you find yourself stuck out in the elements without a fire. When consuming a food that is not in the base game, you will be asked how Frostbite should classify it. When near a heat source while in third person, a warming animation will play. You can cancel the animation by jumping or drawing your weapon. The animation will not play/cancel if your weapon is drawn or you're in combat.

Clothing in the body, hands and head slots can provide additional warmth. When a new clothing or armor is equipped, you will be asked what its warmth properties are, and this choice will be remembered for the duration of the game. Alternatively, clothing and armor can be automatically detected with an MCM option. Clothing will have minimal protection, light armors some protection, and heavy armors excellent protection.

When the player's body temperature reduces to a configurable level, attribute regeneration is stopped (though buffs such as potions will still have an effect). When the player's body temperature reduces to another configurable level, attributes are actively damaged on each polling interval. The attributes that are affected can be configured in the MCM, but the default is stamina and magicka. Note that when health effects are enabled, there is a chance of dying if your body temperature is too low for too long.

Frostbite provides a widget that shows both the current ambient temperature and the player's current body temperature as a progress bar. The widget will flash when your body temperature is below either the regen or damage thresholds, and will fade away when your body temperature is maxed out. The widget temperature colors are pink for freezing, blue for cold, light blue for cool, white for neutral, light red for comfortable, and red for warm.

While there are relatively few settings, all of them are configurable in the Frostbite MCM.

Installation

Frostbite is safe to install mid-game. Updates mid-game are generally safe unless specified otherwise in the change log.

Using your favorite mod manager, simply install and enable the plugin. If the widget does not appear at first, quicksave and reload. In some cases such as a new game the widget only appears on a reload (I'm still trying to figure out why).

Compatibility

Campfire's heat sources and Hunterborn's warming foods are compatible by default. Other mod-added foods will be automatically identified when consumed and the player can choose whether they are warming or not. This choice will be remembered for the remainder of the game.

Additional new lands such as Bruma are also largely compatible. The outdoor areas will function the same as Skyrim, and cold interior zones can be added in the MCM as needed.

Finally, Undeath and The Path of Transcendence are supported for the lich race.

FAQ

Q: Why only weather and time of day?
A: While tracking the position of the player within a region and adjusting the ambient temperature is possible (Frostfall and Hypothermia use this approach), the only reasonable method for that is using worldspace coordinates. This drastically reduces wide compatibility because a patch would be required for any new lands. I did try region tracking, and ultimately it wasn't better enough to justify the compatibility negative.

Q: Is wetness tracked?
A: Partially. Rainy weather defaults to cold, just like snowy weather, and swimming reduces the ambient temperature. However, tracking saturation beyond that complicates the scripts for minimal gain, so I chose not to include it. Swimming in particular is as simple as possible because there are times during quests when you must swim. Discouraging swimming too much would be a breaking feature, in my opinion.

Q: How are clothing and armors tracked?
A: Clothing and armors are tracked with an initially empty form list. When you equip an item, you will be asked how it should be tracked and that choice will be remembered for the duration of the game. Items with no protection will not provide additional warmth. Items with some protection will increase the ambient temperature by one step. Items with excellent protection will increase the ambient temperature by two steps.

Q: Are vampires or werewolves supported?
A: Yes. Vampires, werewolves and liches do not suffer from cold when the appropriate race is enabled in the MCM.

Q: Do different races/sexes respond differently to temperature?
A: No. Race/sex choice should be entirely based on preference. Giving one a measurable benefit or detriment over another would be unnecessarily punishing for some players.