View the name of an enemy before attacking

[oqhansoloqo]

Maybe I'm missing something, like a particular command/keystroke/etc, but does anyone know how to view the name of a NPC before actually getting into combat or close up with them?  All too often, I feel like I can be hiding somewhere and looking straight at NPCs for a while trying to figure out what or who they are just by their actions or visual look, with my crosshairs right on top of them.  I get no text to tell me what their name is or what type of creature they are unless I initiate combat with them, or get so close to them that I can pick their pocket.  In some cases this might be a good thing, because like real life, how do you know who or what exactly someone is if you never met them before.  We don't get heads up displays to tell us who people are when we see them in real life...  In other cases, and in this game it can really matter especially if you use any mod that delevels the game, you can be looking at a level 60 variant of a creature that looks just like a level 1 variant trying to decide if you are going to fight it and stand a chance or get 1-hitted.  Those are the cases that make not being able to tell ahead of time retarded.  Also, other NPCs seem to know exactly what they are looking at.

 

What am I missing, or do I need to install a mod to "fix" this?

 

thanks.

[GrantSP]

You don't have People are Strangers installed and forgot about do you?

[oqhansoloqo]

Never heard of that mod before now.  No - that mod looks like it just changes people's IDs when you are close enough to interact with them with the 'use' command.  I'm talking about being at a distance from a creature or person in the game and not knowing, for instance, if you are facing a "bear" or a "rogue bear".  I'm sure there is a vanilla example I could give, but I can't think of one right now.  For example, a mod called "Skyrim Immersive Creatures" has different creature variants and the creatures at different level tiers have different names to them.  So if you were a low-level PC and you happened to see a bear in the distance, you wouldn't know if it's a low-level variant (Bear) or a high-level variant (Rogue Bear) without getting close enough to get 1-hitted by the Rogue Bear or firing something at it to put it in combat with you - then it tells you what it is.  Nice way to find out you shouldn't have approached your death.

 

But once again, I could be missing a command...

Edited January 31, 2015 by oqhansoloqo

[Greg]

I don't know of any mod that identifies NPCs as enemies when they are in your crosshairs from a distance. There are a few possibilities that might accomplish somewhat the same thing.

• Cast Detect Life when you're in range. Hostile NPCs should glow red while non-hostile NPCs should glow blue. This is unreliable and may depend on whether the NPC is currently hostile; in other words, a bandit going about that isn't aware of your presence may show as non-hostile. The range of Detect Life may also be limited.
• Use a ranged attack near the NPCs while sneaking to see if the NPCs become hostile. Enemy NPCs will show as red dots in your compass and will begin immediately searching for you. Of course, you'll need a good sneak level for this to work without revealing your location. This may backfire as well because some NPCs (I think the Afflicted) aren't normally hostile even in close proximity but may become hostile if they detect an attempt to attack them.
• If you have a really good sneak level (and perks), sneak up behind the NPC to read the description.

Most of the time I think it's obvious when NPCs are hostile, but there are a few instances in which it's not so clear. Some seem to be intentional, but others seem to be AI glitches. Yesterday I was at the Falskaar docks giving the bandits an arrow to the knee and discovered a Falskaar Guard standing there surrounded by bandits. Of course, the only reason I know this is because I gave him an arrow to the knee and saw "Falskaar Guard" pop up in the damage display. Oops...

 

I normally just save the game before entering combat so I can reload if something goes wonky. Some may call this cheating. Me, I call them saving my trousers.

[oqhansoloqo]

My concern is not really whether a NPC is hostile or not.  My concern is having some sort of idea the relative level of a NPC before getting the NPC's attention or getting close enough to be killed immediately by a level 1,000,000 NPC (exaggerating, lol).  Since there are mods that can throw in hostile NPCs that are well over the ability of the player, it would be nice to have a way to tell what you are facing before you get in a situation where you are already destined to die.

[Quahogs]

Mfg Console by kapaer
Skyrim Â» Bug fixes

 

 

when NPC or creature is in view just hit call up the console(game will pause) and just point at the creature.  I believe it gives you levels - at least it did for the vampire I couldn't kill... L 100!  

[oqhansoloqo]

Thanks for the suggestion - know of anything that's more immersive or better integrated at just giving the player some kind of quick assessment of the NPC in the distance?  Since it seems as though there is nothing built in the game like this.  It would be cool if someone made a mod that will give you a difficulty rating of a NPC if you point the cursor at them and press a particular key.  It could take your level and then compare that to the level of the enemy and then give an indication like "very easy", "easy", "fair", "hard", "very hard".  And it can be a color range from green to red.  I'm surprised no one good at creating mods thought of this idea before.

Edited February 1, 2015 by oqhansoloqo

[kryptopyr]

I think this may be close to what you want:  https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30816/?

Also this one, particularly when used with the mod above: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30473/?

[oqhansoloqo]

Yes!  I really like the first one - it looks very configurable, so you could get rid of all the stuff that gives you telescopic vision and just get the extra info that tell you what you are looking at.  Just what I was looking for.  Thank you, Kryptopyr.

Edited February 1, 2015 by oqhansoloqo