If anything in New Vegas was worth lauding, it was the hardcoe Mode feature it offered. The simple inclusion of a more "realistic" Wasteland experience extended the life of the game at least twofold for most players, as it offered a much more challenging but rewarding way to survive.

In Skyrim, I feel the same is true. The addition of a "hardcoe Mode" (does not necessarily need to be called that) to the Elder Scrolls world would extend the life of the game dramatically. However, since it has never been included before, the details of such a system are still completely up in the air. So, I'm curious: if you could design an ideal "hardcoe Mode" (name and all) for Skyrim, what would it consist of?

My ideal hardcoe Mode would have the following restrictions:

- Sleep is required for survival. Go too long without it, and I'll pass out from exhaustion or die.
- No fast travelling. If I want to get somewhere, I'll have to hoof it or acquire a mount. Also, since sleep is necessary, I'd need to map out my trip so I can stop at a campsite along the way, or bring a bedroll. Abandoned campsites around Skyrim would now be worth adding to my map, as they'd be necessary stops on long trips and good places to store emergency items.
- Speaking of the map: initially, the only locations that should appear on my map are major cities and locations in my line of sight. All others don't appear. Also, locations in my line of sight do NOT get automatically added to my map - I have to open the map, select the location, and pick "mark on map" or "add to map" in order for it to remain a persistent location. Otherwise, it disappears from my map as soon as I can't see the location anymore.
- Nonstop world. When I'm picking a lock, searching a chest, or browsing my inventory, the world is still alive. I can still be attacked and killed.
- Realistic encumbrance. Why am I able to carry five shields, a sword, an axe, and three hundred garlic on my person? If I want to transport lots of items (for trading, perhaps) I'll have to use my mount. Otherwise, I'm limited to what could fit on my body, in my sheathe, or in various pockets and satchels around my waist. Collections of weapons and armor would now actually be impressive feats. Also, gold would encumber me, but only if gold could be transferred in and out of a bank or other secure container - that way I could only carry the gold I'd need for whatever it is I'm doing, and leave the rest safely stashed away in a bank or personal chest or what have you.
- Realistic skill building. In the real world, many skills require years of learning under a teacher before you can become adept with them, and even then Mastery is years more away. Why then can I seemingly self-teach armor and weapon repair up to Mastery level? In hardcoe Mode, all skills take 2x longer to build, and Master trainers would be required to climb any higher than 75 in most (or all) skills.
- Balanced magic and enchanting. Magic is an area where it's hard to be "realistic", but, regardless, we can draw from common sense to come up with some interesting restrictions. For example, you cannot enchant items or create spells until you are 75 or higher in the school of magic you wish to use. Any enchantments you place on an item are limited by the size of said item - so rings may only be able to fortify a skill 3pts, while a cuirass could hold an enchantment of fortify skill 7 or 8pts. And magicka recharge rates are reduced, maybe even halved.
- Realistic economy. I want to see some economic improvements in Skyrim outside of a hardcoe Mode, but there's still some interesting ways to add realism. For example, price fluctuation based on outside conditions - e.g. some items are worth more in certain areas, and to certain people, than they are others. So in order to get the most value out of an item, I'd have to determine 1) who will pay me the most for it and 2) if the difference is worth the trip (remember how dangerous long trips would be) before selling. Anything that can kill someone with any sort of efficiency (spells, weapons, bows) should be costly. That way I'll focus on using the things I have and only upgrading when I can afford it. Also, the price curve overall should be steeper, so that things start out at the same base price, but become more expensive more quickly as you move into the higher tiered version of those items.
- The cold should be your enemy. There should be clothes that keep you warm that you can wear, trading protection in battle for protection from the elements. Certain regions should be safe to stay in (valleys) while others should be inhospitable without the right gear and proper planning (mountainous areas). Altitude should be a factor, as should the weather and time of day.

I'll edit with more as I come up with them. In the meantime, what would you like to see?

How about no hardcoe mode?
I didnt exactly read your whole post, but I'm pretty sure thats what the difficulty bar is for in the options menu.
You want hard? Turn it up. You want easy? Turn it down.
I find that easier.
Maybe as you turn the difficulty up, it affects many of the things you brought up instead of just how hard the enemies are.

I have not personally played hardcoe mode in New Vegas (I just want to finish the normal mode first), but judging by the amount of praise it is getting I would like to see something like it in Skyrim.

I remember playing Oblivion and being so bored that I made a character and forced myself to make sure he was fed, slept, did't fast travel and so on. So to see a mode that forces me to do those things and things that I personally can't challenge myself with (such as freezing or not carrying to much) I would be delighted to give it a try!

The only thing I don't agree with is the skill building. I don't want to have to pay a trainer 25 time just to get from 75 to 100. What if there were points that you couldn't pass unless you had a trainer, such as say 5, 25, 50, 80, 90, 95. So the idea is you learn something from a trainer (Say at level 50), and then try to master that concept (levels 50-79). then once that is mastered you go to a trainer to learn your nest lesson (level 80), and then you try to master it (level 80-89)

I vote Yes! :thumbsup:

How would you suggest conveying which things are being activated to the player? Also, many of these restrictions would have to be active from the beginning of a new game for balance - otherwise, it would essentially break the game. That's why, in New Vegas, you could turn hardcoe Mode off mid-game, but once it was off you had to start a new game to use hardcoe Mode again.

Not to be rude - I appreciate your thoughts - but if you're not going to at least read the first post in its entirety, then why reply with an opinion? What I just explained would have been fairly obvious to you if you had done so.


Yeah, that makes sense, actually. I like it. What about instead of stopping progression entirely, it's slowed down to a point that you'd still be motivated to see a Trainer? That way it doesn't feel like there was wasted effort if you hit that ceiling, but at the same time the mechanic would get the player to drop what they were doing and seek out a trainer if they wanted to advance normally again.

Please post your suggestion on the concept for a hardcoe Mode in http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1148533-hardcoe-mode/



The OP did not talk about a difficulty bar at all, but a feature similar to the one used in Fallout New Vegas. So please, if you don't read people's posts, please don't respond either.

Thanks,

Milt