This has been brought up a few times, and I think the idea is worth enough to not be lost in the depths of dev chat.



The idea is pretty simple. Very similar to another amazing mod made for Skyrim - Frostfall.

This one however would focus on ash survival, rather than frost. Through gameplay features it would give some depth to the armours we are going to have in Skywind (ash protection stats), ashlands would generally become much more hostile and dangerous, and it would beat up the immersion tenfold.



It's probably a thing we wouldn't really work on until we're finished with vanilla Morrowind stuff, but it would be good to start designing the gameplay beforehand ;)



I'm thinking it could be activated/deactivated/tweaked via MCM menu - that way players who just want to go on a happy reckless rampage aren't limited by some "Sims" stuff.



I'd break the feature into three modules, designed to best work together:



- Ash survival

This one in a version without any other addons would simply give us debuffs, sometimes big ones for ash exposure and inhalation. Ash exposure would irritate the skin of our character, making it much harder to fight (debuffs to skills), run, or walk. If we don't have our eyes protected our vision would get progressively blurry, and if we look into the ash for too long, the effects might heal up for days. Ash inhalation would make our maximum stamina decrease the longer we breathe dusty air, and stamina regeneration would be hit too.

All those unpleasantries could be avoided through the usage of proper gear. Different pieces and types of ash gear would have different values of skin/eye irritation and inhalation, of course the better quality is the gear - the better the protection. So armours and clothing with lots of loose rags would protect from skin irritation, goggles from eye irritation, and masks from inhalation. I think we could use separate slots for standalone masks and goggles too (however some helmets would take up all 3 slots). Some races would be more endurant to the harsh conditions, especially the Dunmer with their rough skin and red cover on their eyes, but not to the point when they can dance naked in the ash. Inhalating Blight Storm might give you corprus too ;)



- Basic needs

Many people, including me, feel a bit weird that our character is not fueled by anything. The level of immersion makes it so that we feel like we are really in the game, and stockpiling food and drinks really makes the planning of trips all the more interesting. Now you can't just trot around carelessly without ever having to think of your needs. And it also gives a purpose to all the foodstuffs in the game. In Morrowind at least they were used in alchemy, but Skyrim style "eat 40 steaks mid-fight to heal up" really breaks the illusion of reality we're trying to achieve here. The system would be rather simple, and I think could be based off (or actually the code could be used if author allows) already existing Skyrim basic needs mods. Only difference would be that Ash inhalation would greatly increase thirst and dehydration.



- First person helmet effects

Might sound redundant at first, but I already tried a mod like this for Morrowind and it was amazing. Limiting vision really makes it a new thing to take into consideration when choosing a helmet suitable for our needs. More importantly though, I feel like eye protecting features of goggles and masks wouldn't be complete without some kind of effect on vision (except for the fact it wouldn't get blurry in the ashstorm). But if we get it for goggles, other helmets should be covered too. That way, you would want to take the masks off when the weather is clear again. Could probably be done via screen effects, much like bloody screen or a few others.





Additionally, we could have portable tents that let us quickly build a small shelter to sleep through the ashstorm ;)