Hi! I've been making a lot of cloud textures for a long time now, but now it's time to make a mod out of them and add it to an .esp from the start.
But first, I need to come up with a good name for my weather mod and I was wondering if anyone could help me with their creative minds.

Here's some generic information about the mod and what it will feature so it's easier for you to come up with a good name:
- many new cloud textures, highly detailed and well-done
- new lighting systems (imagespaces), both for interiors and exteriors
- new weather sounds
- edited climate zones
- new sun texture
- probably new star and moon textures
- if I can get some help by other people, add actual lighting that strikes during thunderstorms
- optional ENB
In terms of art and style, I am aiming for a types of weather that feel natural and realistic, but still has a touch of "fantasy-feeling" to them (to fit the mystical world of Tamriel). I will still be maintaining the rough, harsh and rugged feeling of Skyrim. Variety is the key in a lot of what I'm doing, so sometimes there will be absolutely stunning shining skies, and sometimes very dark and dull skies, etc. Keywords are therefore natural, realistic, fantasy, and variety.

These are OUTDATED screenshots, and I've changed the lighting since then... but it shows you what kind of cloud textures I'm doing:
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/3485733-1334323594.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/3485733-1335627087.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/3485733-1337971496.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/3485733-1336935228.jpg

So... now with that information about the mod, what name do you think fitting?
It needs to be easy to remember, descriptive, easy to search for, and a litle catchy if possible.
Remember that there is already a mod called Climates of Tamriel, so for instance Climates of Skyrim wouldn't be a good idea for name!

Current list of ideas (from me):
- Natural Weather and Lighting (short will be: NWAL; inspiration for this name was taken from the famous mod Natural Environments for Oblivion - the first big and very successful weather mod ever made in Bethesda's games... so the name Natural would be a tribute to his great mod)
- Sky... something (can't think of anything more, but the idea is to use the letters Sky (as in a weather sky, and as in Sky in Skyrim).
- WEATHER (like the mod WATER), and then have each letter stand for something. It could be hard to come up with something that makes sense and fits for each letter for though...

Current list of ideas (from other people, you guys!):
- All Natural - Skyrim
- SKYrim
- Skyrim Skies
- Cloud
- SkyLight
- Natural Environments of Skyrim (short will be: NEoS or NEOS)
- Natural/Naturally Enhanced Weathers of Skyrim (short will be: NEWS)
- Realistic Environments and Lighting (short will be: REAL)
- Solace
- Solace - Weather and Environment Overhaul
- Natural and Realistic Weather and Lighting (short will be: NARWAL)
- Realistic Environments of Skyrim
- Natural Skies
- Above Skyrim
- True Environments
- SkyFix
- WeatherPlus
- Weather And Lighting Lush Environment Enhancement (short will be: W.A.L.L.E.E.)
- Real Sky

All Natural - Skyrim (since that mod was basically the best one out there for Oblivion)

But, hot damn, those screenshots are incredible.

My only recommendation would be to make it as modular as possible (maybe have a few different ESPs - one for lighting, one for weather, etc.)

'SKYrim', because I lack imagination and it'll be very recognisable; people will think you're shouting at them, and that's a good thing.

Even if outdated, those pics are very cool looking!

How about Skyrim Skies? I also think maybe just calling it Cloud, but I just watched Final Fantasy: Advent Children last night...

I'm liking NWAL. You could even name it Natural Weather and Horizons to make a decent reference .

The only name I could think of with "Sky" in the name is maybe SkyLight. Sounds a bit generic though.

Natural Envrionments of Skyrim (NEoS or NEOS) or maybe Natural/Naturally Enhanced Weathers of Skyrim (NEWS if you don't include "of") and maybe Realistic Environments and Lighting (REAL) are the only semi-original names I can cook up at this time.

Thanks for the replies everyone

I think All Natural - Skyrim sounds good, but still not something I prefer because it can confuse that I'm affiliated with the creators of that mod, which I'm not.

SKYrim is a good start but it needs to be more descriptive!

Skyrim Skies sounds good also, but it only covers half the mod. I will also change all interior lighting. One important thing is that it also has to have a good short name. Skyrim Skies would become SS... which we all understand is not very good xD. Perhaps Skies of Skyrim? But then we don't cover lighting again...

Also, good tips Rahu! I like REAL the most , but it doesn't explain that it changes weather (environments can be other things...).

Give it any name you want, but please don't make an acronym from it. I was away for a month recently, and when came back to reading this forum couldn't understand a thing with all those short names people throwing around. Seriously, skyrim is out for less than a year and we already have like 20+ short names, now imagine what would happen in 5 years before the next TES game. That current trend of short naming is disturbing.
Now about your mod, after watching screenshots the only thing that came into my mind was "solace". Checked nexus - yep, its free.

Really catchy and cool name, but it's not descriptive about what mod does so it will lose a lot of search results if people haven't seen the mod...
It feels like almost all names got its positives and negatives. Anyway, added to the list!

About acronyms, I will not overuse it. It will be so I don't have to say name over and over all the time in the readme. It will also be needed to represent the names of my textures and weather IDs. I too find it annoying when people overuse acronyms and expect everyone to know what they mean ^^

Call it something like Solace - Weather and Environment Overhaul

It would be very sad to see the use of All Natural without it being associated with Arthmoor and WrinklyNinja. In fact, it's sad to see they haven't started to port that yet.

I'm not sure I get why the push for a "Weather" name when really it's just visual changes. Are you actually changing the weather? Snow, rain, thunderstorms and when/where they occur?

I like the Realistic Environments and Lighting suggestion above.

I don't know about titles, but you need a catchy catchphrase.
Putting the Sky back into Skyrim,
Putting the atmosphere back into the atmosphere,
Putting the cloud back into Cloud Ruler Tem- wait, wrong game.


(anyway, I saw these a while ago, and they're still amazing looking. I await the release with some excitement.)

Natural and Realistic Weather and Lighting - NARWAL

Wow, GREAT job on this, this seriously looks fantastic! As for the name, I'd go with Natural Environments of Skyrim or Realistic Environments of Skyrim. Something along those lines I'm looking forward to seeing this one in its completed stage!

It'll also be the most difficult mod to search for, ever.

Realistic Lighting is already taken.

I used to be a cloud like you once, then I took an edit to the texture.


Officially worst joke.

Yes finally hlvr it's here!

I'm liking Natural as the name. There are so many acronym mods out there it makes me sick, so try and avoid another SkySOMETHING if you can.

Also Overhaul has been used so much, and for such small mods, the word has lost all meaning.

Maybe something simple, like Natural Skies, Above Skyrim, True Environments, Clouds and other stuff to do with lighting and atmosphere - or SkyCaOStdwLaA the Overhaul overhaul mod by hlvr Xpleaseendoresix (for short).

Or just call it Pure Naked Weather, have a skimpy anime girl posing below a lush array of clouds, and watch the downloads fly up by the thousands.

I love that movie, lol.
it does look incredible! I clicked the links expecting some 'meh' looking stuff. But i was like "HOLY CRAP! Where's the download link?!" lol.

More .ESPs never hurt. Though, I'll probably use the entire mod

As for names, the first thing i thought of was "Beautiful skies", but I svck at naming stuff :\ but hey, its true. those are some beautiful skies!

This will sadly actually get you hundreds of thousands of downloads =P


SKYrim would be my name of choice, but like povuholo said... searching for it would be super difficult, lol.

SkyFix
WeatherPlus
Weather And Lighting Lush Environment Enhancement (W.A.L.L.E.E.)
Real Sky
Natural Skies

It's in all its entirety a weather mod, so it kind of must be associated with that. Weather is also what you see ^^, plus I will also change climates (where and when weathers are located).

@Evilgiraffe: Good idea, I like the first catchphrase the most

@Everyone: I'm glad you like the look of the textures! But remember that these are outdated. If you think that looks good... just wait until you see what's up next.
I'll add a WIP thread soon and post new stuff there as I make them.

A good idea could be to have the mod named WEATHER (like the mod WATER), and then have each letter stand for something. It could be hard to come up with something that makes sense and fits for each letter for though...

Indeed, I suspect this would cause problems.

As for why we haven't done this yet, Wrinklyninja doesn't have Skyrim, and neither of us really knows yet how complicated the vanilla weather system is. It has more regional effects in it this time and has a lot of elevation related stuff too.

That one looks good to me.

It's pretty hard to come up with catchy names in general, much less for a weather mod.

Yes, Natural Skies sounds like a great fit. I don't think this was used before for New Vegas or FO3, was it?

Didn't realize B1gBadDaddy also suggested this one, perhaps great minds think alike, after all...