Have you ever been playing through Skyrim when suddenly, you felt a massive break in immersion thanks to the sleeping NPCs not breathing? This is undoubtedly a huge issue, and frankly, it’s shameful that the game could even be released in such a state, not to mention the 11 years that this has gone unpatched. Thanks to the modding community though, Skyrim is finally playable.
For this great act of service, we have to thank JaySerpa, a prominent Skyrim modder over on Nexus Mods. Their latest creation is aptly called Sleeping Expanded, and basically includes a whole host of improvements to NPC sleeping behaviour. Because immersion!
Skyrim is so immersive, it might just be the best place for a virtual winter getaway. Just mind the dragons...
JaySerpa explained they were inspired to create the mod after their character got attacked by two bandits in the middle of sleeping: “They started attacking me, and naturally I tried to stand up. Did you know it takes roughly 9 seconds in vanilla for a character to get out of bed? 9 seconds. Not even my grandma takes that long, and she's 89 years old,” they said. “Needless to say, they killed our friendly khajiit before he could stand up. That sent me on a quest to tweak some sleep related things that have always bothered me.”
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So, what do the changes involve? As previously mentioned, there’s the all important breathing animations, so the NPCs actually remain alive in their slumber now, which is good. Perhaps more usefully, there’s three new speeds for getting out of bed, including a super fast speed to jump awake if you’re caught up in combat.
Most importantly though, the NPCs now get mad at you if you wake them up in the middle of the night. Around 100 (!) different reactions have been added, and while it doesn’t affect quests or any relationship levels at all, it’s just a lot of fun. "Waking up people in the middle of the night, this is what has become of Skyrim!”
If you want to try it out for yourself, you can download the mod here for free. The modder has previously released a whole host of other fun and immersive mods too, including the ability to pet dogs, which I think we can all agree is the most important feature Skyrim has to date. Thank you, JaySerpa. What would we do without you?
Featured Image Credit: Bethesda, JaySerpa (via Nexus Mods)Topics: Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls, Mods, Bethesda