I feel it would add to the immersion if your character had hunger tiredness thirst and warmth bars accessed from a sub menu. These bars would go down slowly but ignoring them completely would have a slight negative affect. Get to hungry and you lose a bit of health tired and you lose some magic low thirst would reduce stamina. Not sure about warmth maybe lose a bit of both health and stamina. I'm not suggesting these things have a massive affect just a small one to a give more real feel to the world.

Try Fallout New Vegas, hardcoe mode.

It's a cool idea, but sort of turns out more tedious than anything though. I would welcome this feature in Skyrim though.

Imp's More Complex Needs + Frostfall. IMCN even keeps track of blood alcohol level.

Would be a welcome addition, but should be optional.

Yes I was thinking it should have a toggle on off option so if you just want swing a sword around you can.

This is how I feel, too. Myself, I like to roleplay these kinds of things on my own. I prefer to do them myself, rather than have a game do them for me.

But I realize there are people who'd like the game to do it for them. So I'm not averse to including these features as an option.

Its not that I want the game to do it for me more that I want the game to give me a reason to do it. When you sleep you get a boost to the speed at which you learn skills. If you didn't get that boost would you bother sleeping ?.

Only if it's optional. If it was a requirement, it would turn me off of the game entirely, to be honest.

I only played FNV with HC mode on from my first playthough to my tenth. It's not really that hardcoe but I agree that any introduction of a HC mode should be optional.

If it can be turned off it would be ok.

When I read the OP first thing that came to mind was SIMS and for me adding Sims like features would kill this game.

As I said earlier, yes. My characters eat, drink, sleep and bathe without mods forcing me to do so. It's called roleplaying.

I have two problems with most so-called "realism mods and hardcoe modes:

1. They generally only apply to the player. I don't want to be the only actor in the game laboring under these constraints. The only mod I've ever used that resembled a "realism mod" was Oblivion's Running Revised. That mod slowed actors to a walk when Fatigue hit zero, and allowed them to run again when Fatigue rose to 25%. I liked it because it affected all actors in the game, not just my character. Until a mod or mode finds a way to make these "realism" rules apply to all actors I'm not going to be interested.

2. I want to be rewarded for taking actions, not punished for not taking actions.

You're looking for a "life simulation" rather than a game. Nothing wrong with the concept, but to take a game and try to make it into something else is just going to frustrate you. There's a lot in Skyrim that you have to have a healthy suspension of disbelief to enjoy. I beleive my character is eating... resting... and yes, using the bathroom, even though I don't engage it in any of these activities. Forcing me to hit keys to do these things would make skyrim feel like one of those virtual pets that were so popular for a few weeks a few years ago.

What I'm suggesting is not a life simulation at all ( I don't want it to the sims) the effect should only be very small. That way If you want to ignore it you can but if you dont want to ignore it then you will at least know that your are getting a small boost.

Im not talking about being forced to do something a hunger bar reaching zero could remove just 1 point from health. Then if you dont want to pay it anty attention you dont have to. However for me at least it would put a reason behind going in to a tavern buying an apple pie and eating it.

I try to do the role playing thing as best I can, but honestly, don't bother to eat all that much. I do try to sleep at night whenever I can though.

The added realism sounds good to me, provided it applies to npcs and enemies as well. Facing foes that are immune to conditions that I must contend with just plain ain't fair!

Optional sounds good. The cold is a good one... slow down reflexes - i.e. combat skills.... same for hunger = less power in attack, thirst.... hmmm.... all in all lots of possibility.

Yeah, I don't necessarily consider it a life simulation. Just an excuse to make more features useful. Food is kind of useless atm. I try to make some use of the stews and homecooked meals, but it could be better. I don't truly need it.

I don't mind if NPCs don't do it myself. After a certain point (before the cap even), many fights become trivial. Why gimp them even more?

Insert the typical food is not useless comment.

It is useless. It falls more under the category of "prop" at this point. Unless that's what it's intended to be, then pardon my mistake. I just want it incorporated in gameplay more. Not just be something equivalant to playing in a dollhouse, and "pretend eating" or something. I'm a nerd, but not that nerdy.

Nords are not negatively effected by cold, so how does the mod work with that race?

Yes, I agree with this.

I experience hunger, tiredness, and thirst while playing Skyrim-so why do I need it in the game?

I think they might be more tedious mechanics, no need, there's already enough

I think the majority of games have been like this, where you never need to eat or drink anything. Many games you dont even need to sleep, you can run around for weeks at a time and not get tired. I think the first game I played where I can recall your characters needed to eat was Exile: Escape From the Pit.

I wouldn't really use it- I mean yea it would make sense to use it but this is Skyrim not the Sims. I would be more reluctant to use something like that if it had an effect on my body such as over eating would make my character fat and run out of stamina quickly. Or eating certain types of food would make me healthier or increase my experience or something. it would be an interesting aspect of the game because then there would be a reason to cook things (besides getting an achievement for it, I mean seriously when cooking ever become useful all you need is a healing potion and you get more health out of that than a cooked meal).

I agree. If there were a hardcoe mode I'd certainly try it since I'm a pretty heavy RP'er, but if it was penalty driven and those penalties only applyed to me then it's no different than how difficulty settings are now -- just applying modifier's that limit your character.

I like how they did sleep where you simply get a small reward for doing so. The problem with most food (a few of the stews being the exceptions) and all the drinks, however, is that their current benefits (and negatives with the drink) only apply to situations that a typical RP'er wouldn't use them in for immersion reasons. A small health or stamina restoration is only useful mid-battle**, and what RP'er could get their head around eating a venison chop while holding their shield up against a thug with a battle axe?

I'm not sure what rewards could be used for food/drink that would stay in the center between imbalance and pointless ... I'll have to think about that.

** If health/stamina didn't auto-regen so quickly, these small restorations might actually be useful.