Hey!

In order to get back into modding Skyrim (haven't done anything Skyrim-related for quite some time) I've started a new small project, which to me is especially refreshing and fun since it's quite different from what I've done before (so far I've mostly done combat/sneaking gameplay), though it's still what I'm good at (scripting!) so it's not like I'm diving all the way into foreign territory...

Either way, the reason I'm posting this is because it would be nice if anyone can already give me some ideas/suggestions to add so I can immediately finish it all the way to being a fully fledged mod before releasing anything, and it'll not just be some useless features.

So time to say what I'm actually doing I guess.. as the title ''Knock knock'' may imply, I'm implementing knocking at doors. No fancy animations probably (unless some animation in vanilla skyrim happens to fit well), but at least functional. The idea is that when outdoors, not sneaking, and activating a locked door, you can pick the option ''Knock'' (in addition to the lockpicking option which will obviously remain available as well). If the door is an entrance to an appropriate indoors area (mostly aiming at shops/houses here), the mod will scan the interior for all NPCs who are inside and pick whoever is most appropriate to open the door for you (currently deciding which NPC is most appropriate is dependent on some technical stuff already like Cell owner, match between NPC name and Cell name and Faction owner, and hopefully in almost all cases the mod will be able to pick an NPC which ''makes sense'', so Belethor will open the door to his shop and not Sigurd).

That is pretty much as far as I have already implemented. What I'm planning to do next is figure out realistic ways for NPCs opening the door to react. Factors I'm already thinking of are:
- how much they like you (remember how back when Skyrim was being hyped up before release Bethesda promised that NPCs who liked you would let you enter their houses? Technically it's already ''allowed'' for you to enter as long as you don't mind picking their locks, but with this mod they'll actually open the door and let you in themselves!)
- possibly stats on the NPC (how confident they are)
- general reputation of the player (is he a famous hero or an infamous criminal)
- combat status (probably when there's combat going on outside the most realistic thing would be that most people dont even open the door at all, unless they like you very much and are brave enough to come out and help you fight)
- player's bounty
- player's equipped armor (Hmmm there's this person in Dark Brotherhood armor knocking on my door at night, let's open the door!)
- time (now most cases where doors are locked will only be at night so there should still be a reasonable chance that people are willing to at least react to the knocking at night, otherwise the feature will be useless, but I believe there are also some people in skyrim who lock themselves up in their houses during daytime and then they definitely should come out)

Obviously, due to the way cells in Skyrim works, you will not see NPCs physically opening doors and peeking outside or walking outside, they will pop up in front of you outside the door, just like they do when they normally leave their houses, but I still think even with this drawback it will be worth it.

The point of the mod would mostly be a small, fun boost in immersion, though in some cases it may actually be useful. For example, I have noticed that some NPCs who give quests lock themselves up in their houses sometimes. Then you have to break into their houses, they will tell you that you're not allowed to be there, you enter dialogue to turn in the quest and they'll be very grateful, you leave dialogue and suddenly they're angry because you broke in again. Such situations can be avoided by knocking on the door and having them come outside.

Now what I'm mostly looking for is if you guys have any cool ideas I could add, interactions which should be possible with NPCs coming out of the house or extra factors to decide how they'll react. Also, if anyone can foresee any issues which may break the game which I didn't think of yet, feel free to mention them and I can see if I can exclude those cases in some way.

One word. YES!