In Vanilla I read a lot of the books. I always hoped to find some hint of something I could find in-game but unfortunately never found one.
I think it would be a good idea to leave a few breadcrumbs in some of the books.
Basic example I’ve thought out:
Find a biography of a particular dunmer hero from the four-score war (That’s the imperial occupation war?). The book would be written by one of his Lieutenants from the war. The book highlights this hero’s story, about how he did a bunch of heroic stuff. Led troops, inspired the people, won some battles… but when the Armistice was signed he felt betrayed and went off to live in the mountains in solitude. There will be a semi-vague reference to where he went (IE: to the northern part of the "X” mountains). There would not be a journal update or anything, but if the player decided to go search this area they would be able to find the shack/cave/tent where he lived out the rest of his life. As a reward you might be able to find one of his items from the war, a journal, or some other goodies. His hideout would be fairly off the beaten path, so that you’d be unlikely to stumble on it unless searching.
Personally, I would get a lot of enjoyment from finding something like this, as it would reward book rewarding and exploration, tell some history, and be all round very immersive.
Not to mention very easy to implement.
2016-03-14 17:47
1 week 18 hours ago
In the vanilla game you could sometimes also read such things, most prominent one I remember was the book written by the last Dwemer, where he speaks about different artifacts, all of which can be found in the game. Made for some good artifact hunting.
But I agree, that would make reading books more rewarding.
That would also translate well to the Imerial Archeologists Society. You know books about lost cities, a room made out of purley gold/glass, an acient treasure hall, a forgotten library etc. All of that Indiana jones goodness.
2016-01-17 16:36
5 years 8 months ago
Also a lot of the skill books are written by npcs you can find in the game, which was pretty badass as well. There's also some mentions of certain ancestral tombs in the books that you can find in the vanilla game as well.