TN's Realistic Oxygen Meter

Ever feel like the Oxygen meter was just a glorified stamina bar? Other space games make you keep track of your suit's oxygen when you're in vacuum. This mod overhauls the oxygen meter to work like a suit O2 meter. This is similar to other space games, and like the Subnautica series, but it is balanced for the speed of Starfield's gameplay.

The mod does several things to accomplish the goal of transforming your oxygen meter into a proper oxygen meter. These changes are largely only active when you're in a vacuum or when you're in a thin atmosphere. When you're in a pressurized area, or when you're in atmosphere, the game will mostly treat your O2 meter as it did in vanilla, except running will cause it to drain slower.

• When you are in a vacuum, you will slowly lose oxygen as your breath from your suit's stores. When you run out of oxygen, your suit's CO2 meter will fill, and when it is full you will rapidly lose health and die of asphyxiation. (You cannot die in atmosphere.)
• Running, jumping, carrying too much in your inventory, and power attacking will all drain your O2 meter quicker than regular activity.
• Thin atmospheres have enough O2 to keep your suit's stores from draining, but you will also not regain oxygen in thin atmospheres. You can still lose O2 from strenuous activity in thin atmosphere. (The Personal Atmosphere power creates a thin atmosphere, and prevents airborn environmental damage.)
• Holding your breath to steady your aim no longer drains O2 from your suit, but it does cause CO2 to build up in your blood.
• Passive O2 Drain and CO2 Buildup can be modified in the Gameplay Options menu, as well as how effective your Oxygen Tanks are, and how quickly physical activity drains O2.
• You will show/hide your suit/helmet when appropriate, from putting on your helmet in combat (if your suit was already on) to keeping your suit on when the outside atmosphere is dangerous, or your ship is in space. Best of all, your follower, crew members, and most NPCs in the wild will also be more mindful of safety, following the same rules.
• Gameplay Options exist for advanced suit visibility as well as advanced pack visibility for a more immersive experience.

Not all hope is lost in the black of space though, because you will be able to stock up on O2 Tanks to keep with you to give you more time exploring before you need to come back and fill up your O2 tanks again!

• O2 Tanks and Large O2 Tanks can be crafted at a Pharmaceutical Lab.
• The oxygen tanks you normally find around the map in certain areas will be replaced with the usable O2 tanks from the mod.
• O2 Tanks can be found on enemies as loot.
• O2 Tanks can also be purchased from certain vendors.
• Emergency Oxygen Masks can also be found in the world and in first aid containers which pause passive O2 loss for 2 minutes.
• Oxygen Refill panels are scattered around the world which can refill your O2 meter without using up a tank.
• Place Oxygen Refill Panels in your outpost too!
• Craft new armor mods like the CO2 Scrubber for your helmet, and the Pressurized Tanks for your pack.

Everything to do with Oxygen is rebalanced for the mod. Legendaries and armor mods which give bonus oxygen will give a lot more of it, since you're not going to be gaining it back all of the time. Perks have been slightly altered so they play fair with the new oxygen mechanics as well. If you feel like any of the balance of the mod needs to be tweaked, be sure to leave a comment!

WARNING: Uninstalling this mod can cause crashes when loading the save. In order to uninstall safely, craft the "Oxygen System Uninstaller" at a Pharmaceutical crafting station and use it before uninstalling the mod. Updating to version 1.2 may remove the CO2 Scrubber and Pressurized Tank modificaitons from your gear, but they can be re-applied.

For a demonstration of the mod, visit Strange's channel for a mod spotlight here: https://youtu.be/5I-5UTBrlD4?si=HHzCEwqFvqeT4Lhv

Find the mod on the Nexus as well! https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9827

If you wish to contact me, find me on the Nexus, or on many Starfield discords as TheTennessee. You can also join "The Stuff of Legends" discord here: https://discord.gg/K4eRYKzcAv