We have some similar thoughts! Yes, I was thinking that it might be good if there were something like a "Companion Overhaul Project," and that's something I might try to contribute to once I start feeling satiated by my vanilla playthrough.

I was envisioning:

1) A common set of additional functionality for followers--better inventory management, the ability to adjust tactics via dialogue, manage leveling, teach and request use of spells, assign and ride horses, set a home, warp/teleport to the player character if lost or stuck, some sort of disposition scale, hotkey commands, etc. RickerHK's companions for Fallout 3 and NV are superb at most of this, and could be used as models, along with Emma's companion Vilja for Oblivion.

2) A common set of additional functionality for spouses. Emma's companion Vilja for Oblivion has many good ideas in this regard: being able to suggest having a meal together at the local inn; being able to suggest a quiet evening at home (if you own a home); being able to suggest going for a ride (if you own a horse); being able to give certain generic gifts like wine; disposition that decreases if you leave them alone too long, increases if you spend time with them, show affection, and give them stuff/do quests for them (spouses could become givers of Radiant Story-based random quests).

3) Optional NPC-specific files that add more personal dialogue--reactions to quest and environmental events, more of their personal history, additional interjections to the PC and/or banters with other companions and NPCs--as well as perhaps personal quests, their own unique gift preferences and/or "date" ideas, any overrides to the default choices and behaviors, etc. Again, Emma's companion Vilja for Oblivion, and also LlamaRCA's Willow for Fallout NV, Kateri's Julan for Morrowind, and Jac's Jasmine for Morrowind, have set standards for what can be done in Bethesda games--along with inspiration from the Black Isle and Bioware games of yore, of course.

So the idea would be that #1 and #2 would be shared libraries that functionality-driven developers could contribute to, and that would automatically benefit all in-game companions and spouses, as well as being available for easy use for mod-added companions; and then in #3 individual writing/story-oriented developers could pick NPCs and flesh them out further, giving those individual NPCs more personality, without needing to reinvent the wheel in terms of best-in-class basic companion functionality. Players could use just #1 and/or #2 if they wanted the basic functionality but not the pvssyr, or could use all three; there might also be multiple takes on individual companions--different people might create different interpretations of Lydia, for example--and players could pick whichever one they thought best, while still having the same core companion/spouse functionality.

I don't know how realistic this all is--feedback is welcome. It'd be a lot of work, for sure, and also I know that one of the appeals of modding is that it lets people do their own thing. On the other hand I worry about compatibility, if we have a bunch of separately-created mods to address different aspects of companion functionality. And it always feels weird, playing with multiple, separately-created companion mods, when one companion can do basic things that another cannot. I feel like modders in past games have established some best practices, and I don't see much point in aiming for less than that here. Ideally some of the more experienced modders would take the lead in this; but if not, I might give it a try, once I see how viable it all is in the Creation Kit.

A complete port over of Mesogea with the same vast heightmap and total overhaul of all races, cultures, history etc.

http://mesogea.org/

I cant wait to really develop areas like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsMUPOtK4l4&feature=related

the kind of diversity shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42TVnjGZ77U&feature=related

and make places like this look more active, slaves being whipped by guards, watch towers, a real nightmare of a place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IayK_nOo3Q&feature=player_embedded

And all under an Earth sky, stars and moon. A cross between Troy/Rome HBO/Conan and Lord of the Rings.

Same for me... CK ALL THE WAY!

I have an idea for a mod I might make: A dwemer city hidden in the mountains SW of Solitude and Dragon's Bridge...

The general feel of the thing... to use the geekiest possible references I can come up with... somewhere between Bioshock and Stargate Atlantis. It's a city hidden that hasn't been seen for years by proper civilization, a practically intact piece of Dwemer tech... But it's filled with Falmer and Spiders and monsters and various humans (For a particular reason I wont mention).

When you first encounter the place you need survive long enough to somewhat tame it, with the help of a small group. After that, it can become a settlement. Can become, because it is still filled with monsters, so it's your job to clear it out. As time goes on the settlement can grow with your help until it becomes something more than just a lone outpost in the hills.

Hopefully it will have some abilities towards crafting Dwarven technology outside of just armor and weapons.

Yet, if you have technology you also have to keep it in good shape, which means maintenance. Which means upkeep. Which means resources. Which means money. Which means Trade.

I'm fleshing out a lot of the core stuff now with a couple friends...

I personally would like to change a few things:

Alteration - I would like to increase the duration of buffs and make upgrades for certain spells and make lower level versions of Dragon Skin.

Destruction - Needs a balance pass on the lower level spells.

So, what you are talking about sounds reasonable if I'm understanding you. It sounds like you want to create a template for vanilla companions so there is consistency among the way they behave and making it available for other modders to use. However, I think that, based on FO3 and NV, many, many players will want to mod the companions, and trying to organize that behavior will be pretty much impossible. But, your desire to have the companions do what you want them to do shouldn't be hampered by that. You can still create the mod you want and apply it to the companions you want and make it available for other modders to use. These companions can use a lot of work, imo.

I just want to add a few new creatures, then see were it goes. I'l be starting with http://www.rcraig-design.co.uk/images/jawoz1.jpg as a test, then see what the community wants.

As for you guys talking about companions, I'l just chip in and say being able to have 3 follow you at once would be great, travelling the land in a little group of 4 would be perfect. Throw in a mod that allows you to set up a campsite and I''d be in RP heaven! :]

Actually higher-power versions of the base spells already exist in the game. Just type psb into the console and you'll see, like, seven versions of Flames. Why they didn't pick a few of them, rename them "greater flames" etc. and make them apprentice, adept, expert, etc. I have no idea. They should have had stronger and weaker versions of all sorts of spells in the game. I was hoping for a sustained fast-drain invisibility spell for low levels, and I'm tired of being forced to use fireball in close combat.

Companion quests would be amazing. And probably a huge amount of work given how many NPCs there are who can potentially join you. I've got Illia and she's not nearly as sarcastic about carrying my stuff but it would be nice if they had more than the one line that they say every single time. She occasionally comments on the points of interest we encounter. It was neat the first time we stumbled upon a Dwemer ruin and she marveled that she'd never seen anything like it. It started sounding strange after about the fourth or fifth one and she's still insisting she's never seen anything like it.

If there was even one small little thing each companion might ask you to help them do it would flesh them out and make them more three dimensional. Maybe they have a lost artifact or need to extract revenge on someone or they've just always wanted to see a particular place. Or if there were scripted dialogue events at specific places like you pass by a giant's camp and they say they want to go pet the mammoths or they ask if you want to explore that cave over there because they're working on their frostbite poison collection. Maybe they have an uncontrollable urge to go swimming in every lake they see or catch nearby butterflies. They could have specific agendas in the cities and maybe when you arrive they say they're going to head over to the inn for a drink or talk to a friend and then they just take off without you for a bit before coming back.

It would also be really cool if they leveled with you (not sure if they do but Illia is starting to feel underpowered and I'll be sad if one day she can't keep up anymore), and had their own perk trees. Maybe it could be limited to things that fit their personality so you can't do something totally out of character.

I want to give all the cities more life. They all seem so small to me.

A complete Mesogea overhaul and port. You want to see big cities? Visiting cities in Mesogea will be like strolling through ancient Rome, Athens, Sparta, Hattusa, Karnak and so forth in a fantasy earth setting. Think HBO/BBC Rome mixed with Conan and LOTR. I cant wait.