Mod: Readme - Followers Unlimited 1_6 Game: TES V: Skyrim Author: David Brasher Date: 4/4/12 Download Point: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10612 ************************************************************************ CONTENTS ************************************************************************ 1. Information on the Mod 2. Installation 3. Version History 4. Conflicts, Known Issues, and Troubleshooting 5. Copy Status and Credits ************************************************************************ 1. INFORMATION ON THE MOD ************************************************************************ This mod lets you have a whole bunch of followers all at once. The followers in this mod do not use the original follower system. This mod does not edit or conflict with that system and with mods that edit it. This mod makes a sort of a duplicate of the follower system usable only by followers that come from this mod and from copies of it. You can have followers from the original follower system along with followers from this mod. One main difference is that under the original follower system, you can only have one NPC follower and one dog. Using this mod and additional copies of it at the same time, you can have as many followers as you want that are added by this mod. You can have dozens of them if you want. There is no limit to how many NPC or animal companions you can have if they are added by this mod. (You can still only have one original NPC follower and one dog using the original system.) The instructions must be followed carefully to create multiple working copies of this mod to run all at once. If you use a mod to change the vanilla Skyrim system to allow you to have more than one NPC follower at a time, you can still have more than one vanilla Skyrim NPC follower at a time after you install this mod, plus as many new followers as you want that Followers Unlimited adds. To reiterate what has just been said, this mod does not edit how many vanilla Skyrim followers you can have. There are other really complicated mods that do that. Here are two examples: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1345602-wiprel-multiple-followers/ http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=12933 The follower system in Followers Unlimited is much like the one in the base game and uses very similar commands. It uses "Join Me", "Wait", "Follow", "Share" and "Dismiss." The followers use voiced dialog from the original game. The followers sneak when you sneak and draw weapons when you draw weapons. The followers in this mod are set so that they can be married. They do not own homes, so if you marry one, you will want your spouse to come live at a home that you own. The followers are set to wear armor that you give them in-game. They wear custom outfits made up of custom armor with the terrible armor rating of zero. This will make them want to wear any armor you give them, because it will be an improvement over what they have. In this mod, there are 21 potential companions. They are mostly found in the hold capitals. See the list below for details on who they are and where to find them. In the town where they live, they can usually be found wandering in the street, in front of a player home, tavern, or other location. You can consult the listing to see where a particular follower can be found. Some information on the 21 followers: AAMyFemEvenToned01, Female Spellsword, Whiterun, player home, Verona Lightbringer AAMyFemEvenToned02, Female Mage, Whiterun, tavern, Gretel AAMyFemEvenToned03, Female Warrior, Falkreath, tavern , Hilda Hot Temper AAMyFemEvenToned04, Female Rogue, Riften, player home, Skitty AAMyFemEvenToned05, Female Legionnaire, Solitude, player home, Ingrid AAMyFemEvenToned06, Female Savage, Markarth, player home, Kashaw AAMyFemEvenToned07, Female Ranger, Dawnstar, tavern, Gertrude AAMyFemEvenToned08, Female Mage, Winterhold, tavern, Ingmar Piercing Gaze AAMyFemEvenToned09, Female Warrior, Morthal, tavern, Margved AAMyFemEvenToned10, Female Stormcloak, Windhelm, player home, Hildebrand AAMyMaleBrute11, Male Warrior, Solitude, tavern, Org Thick Pate AAMyMaleBrute12, Male Warrior, Falkreath, blacksmith shop, Throngar AAMyMaleOrc13, Male Warrior, Morthal, bridge, Bargul gro-Vergum AAMyFemOrc14, Female Warrior, Riften, tavern, Mazgar gra-Balzahk AAMyFemSultry15, Female Vampire Mage, inside Dustman's Cairn, north-west of Whiterun, Bridget AAMyMaleSlyCynical16, Male Vampire, inside Dustman's Cairn, north-west of Whiterun, Arelden AAMyDog17, Dog, Markarth, tavern, dog is named "Scamp" AAMyFemKhajiit18, Female Barbarian, Rorikstead, tavern, Kavharri AAMyMaleKhajiit19, Male Rogue, Ivarstead, tavern, J'rahshka AAMyFemArgonian20, Female Cleric, Windhelm, Docks, Deet-Jaraw AAMyMaleArgonian21, Male Warrior, Windhelm, Docks, Zebekei This mod is designed as a modders resource that you can use to make companions that are the way you want them to be. You can edit the existing companion .esp or create a new one following certain guidelines. If you want more than 21 companions, you can run multiple copies of this mod at once if you rename the .esp files as described below. GUIDELINES FOR EDITING OR CREATING COMPANIONS There are two ways to customize companions using this mod: (1) Edit the companions in the .esp file to have the characteristics and gear you want. (2) Copy the .esp file and name it with a new number such as "Followers Unlimited 12" or "Followers Unlimited 13." Then edit the content within the new file. To find the followers in the .esp file of this mod in the CK, so that you can edit them, find the actors named like"AAMyFemEvenToned01" or "AAMyMaleBrute11" in the actor list. See the list above for the FormIDs of the actors. You may delete or move a follower from the worldspace where he or she is at in the .esp and place him or her somewhere else without breaking anything. If you edit the AI package list of a follower, the first two packages on the list must remain at the top of the list. A wander-near-editor-location package must remain at the bottom of the list. The follower should remain in both AAMyFollowerFaction and AAMyFollowerFaction2 which are added by this mod. These factions are designed to prevent fights between your followers. All the follower's other factions may be changed or removed. You might want to pay attention to the crime factions if you move the actors to new towns. Your follower needs to have an outfit assigned, or he or she will be naked when you first meet him or her and at other times. If things are built wrong, followers will not equip the gear you give them or will take it off at any opportunity. This seems to be caused by the default outfit being of greater value than the gear you give the followers. For this reason, the followers included in this mod have been given custom outfits composed of armor pieces with armor ratings of zero. So the followers should gladly wear anything you give them because it will likely be better than what they have. If you don't choose the proper race and sex for your companion, you can make the dialog sound bad. Like you don't want a follower who sometime speaks like a man and sometimes like a woman. You don't even want a female follower to say some of her lines in a soft pleasant voice and others in a harsh scratchy voice. So what you need to do is choose the proper slot and build a follower that fits the slot. For example: Build females with the even-toned voice in a slot named like "AAMyFemEvenToned08." Build males with the male brute voice in a slot named like "AAMyMaleBrute12." If you fail to do this, the vanilla Skyrim dialog associated with this character type will not match the dialog used by this mod. Your follower will than talk with two voices at different times. You cannot add any more than 21 followers to a single mod unless you are a goofball and don't know what you are doing, or unless you are a skilled modder with lots of time on your hands. Just don't bother with that approach. Create a second renamed copy of this mod and edit the NPCs in it to get another 17 followers. And if you need even more than that, create a third mod. Believe me, it is a lot easier than trying to expand and rebuild a copy of this mod to hold more than 21 followers. To create a new .esp file, you will need to copy the existing one and rename it using the format like "Followers Unlimited 12" or "Followers Unlimited 13" using whatever number you need to. You will also need to copy the Data\Sound\Voice folders corresponding to the .esp file and rename it like "Followers Unlimited 12.esp." If you don't want your .esps to add so many NPCs to the game world, you can go in and initially disable some of them or else go delete some of them from the game world. (Delete the actor object from the street or place he or she is standing in. Do not delete the actor from the object list. That would mess up the scripting and make it so you couldn't ever put a companion into that slot in the .esp ever again.) The way Skyrim scripting is, you should not edit the scripts in this mod because it will then edit the scripts in all the copies of this mod that you are running at once. What you should do instead is create new scripts (which could require that you create new dialog infos for them to attach to.) If you try to rename a copy of this mod to something other than a name like "Followers Unlimited 14" (where only the number changes) you will break the voiced dialog and have to laboriously rename each file to reconnect it. If you create a new .esp, you should change the summary header attached to the file to describe its content and to give it new version and variant numbers. To run multiple copies of this mod, rename them in a pattern like "Followers Unlimited 12" and "Followers Unlimited 13." To keep from losing the dialog, the number is the only part of the name you change. You would need to copy the existing sound folder and its contents and set it alongside the old one with a new name that matches your mod. For example, your new folder full of copied sounds might be: Skyrim\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data\Sound\Voice\Followers Unlimited 13.esp You just copy the entire folder and rename it and put it in the proper directory. (Copying the entire folder automatically copies all the folders and files inside it.) In Skyrim, actors do not really like to wear clothing you give them in-game, only armor. An actor will wear the armor in their inventory that has the highest armor rating. Clothing has an armor rating of zero, so followers are not very interested in wearing it instead of their default outfit, even if their default outfit is clothing. There is a way to work out around this. If for instance you wanted a companion to wear a pretty dress from a mod you downloaded, you can edit that mod so that the dress is light armor with an armor rating of 1. You have to be sure to edit two boxes in the clothing dialog: (1) "Armor Rating" (2) The box to the right of "Weight" which has "None" for its value. Make the first box say "1" and the second box say "Light." Then you also need to be sure that your actor does not have corresponding items of clothing or armor in his or her default outfit with armor ratings higher than zero. This is not a surefire approach, and sometimes there is a delay. Like you might give the NPC clothing and be upset to see that he or she won't wear it, but then the next time you load your game, he or she might suddenly be wearing it. ************************************************************************ 2. Installation ************************************************************************ Extract (decompress) the .esp, Scripts, Sounds, meshes, and textures folders to your Skyrim directory. (It will be something like *Installation directory*\Skyrim\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data) Mark the box next to the Followers Unlimited .esp you wish to activate in your mod manager. Alternately, extract files someplace else. Then move the .esp files, scripts, sounds, meshes, and textures to Skyrim\Data. Mark the box next to the plugin in your mod manager. ************************************************************************ 3. Version History ************************************************************************ V 1_6 4/4/12 Made it so Deet-Jaraw can heal you on request. V 1_5 3/15/12 Attempted fix to the issue of fights between followers erupting because of friendly fire. Twenty-one followers including male and female Argonians and Khajiit. V 1_4 3/10/12 Seventeen followers. Added a female Breton vampire, a male High Elf vampire, and a dog. V 1_3 3/2/12 Better audio files. Added Facegen data. Added a male Orc and a female Orc. V 1_2 2/29/12 Twelve followers in one .esp including two male humans. V 1_1 2/25/12 All ten followers in one mod. Added low-value default outfits so followers will be more likely to use gear they are given. Made it so followers sneak or set alert when you do. V 1_0_5 2/21/12 Fixed error in file description of .esp # 10 which said follower was in wrong town. Fixed corrupted .esp # 1 which made the follower disappear. V 1.0 2/19/12 Initial release. ************************************************************************ 4. Conflicts, Known Issues, and Troubleshooting ************************************************************************ This mod will conflict with Open Cities-type mods or other mods which edit the locations where the followers are so that they are heavily altered or unreachable. You can fix this issue by editing your copy of this mod to move the followers elsewhere. This mod will not work right if you do not install the scripts, sounds, meshes, and textures in the proper locations. This mod may not work if you are not using the latest version of Skyrim. Log on to Steam and allow it to automatically update your game to the latest version. Some mods just don't work on some computers. This mod has successfully worked on thousands of computers, but there are at least five computers that this mod does not work on for no reason that anyone can figure out. If this mod does not work on your computer and you think you have done everything right, read the mod thread which discusses a bunch of other things you can try. Then if it still doesn't work, just give up and don't use this mod. Computers are not always logical like you would think they should be. If you get too many followers, you will get lag, and AI problems, such as followers standing around instead of helping fight. If you have too many followers in narrow hallways, you will get stuck. The game becomes too easy when you use too many followers. The Skyrim design flaw which causes NPCs that you edit to have their head skin color not match their body skin color can be worked around by using this approach: (1) You .esmify the .esp in Wrye Bash and then load it in the CK. (2) You select all the actors added by the mod. (3) You press CTRL + F4 to export facegen data. (It takes awhile.) (4) You .espify the mod again using Wrye Bash. The original unedited followers added by this mod will have the proper skin shades for their heads. If you edit them in the original file, you may need to generate new facegen data. If you create multiple copies of the mod, you will need to generate facegen data for the additional copies. I can not figure out how to get the "I need you to do something for me." dialog to work right. The followers enter this mode and will do anything you tell them to do. But then they are stuck in this mode and won't follow you ever again. It sounds like other companion mod projects are having problems with this too. There may be a basic problem with Skyrim. This portion of the dialog has been disabled and will not be visible or accessible to players. However, there is a shortcut that many people don't know about to get your vanilla Skyrim followers to do miscellaneous tasks for you. You can aim your crosshairs at your follower and press and hold down the key assigned to the "activate" function. (The "E" key by default.) Do NOT use this shortcut with Followers Unlimited followers. It will cause the problem described in the last paragraph. You will break your game and need to load up an old savegame or else permanently stop using the follower you used the shortcut on. I believe that much of this part of the game is hardcoded, and I have not figured out if a solution is even possible. This mod does not really work with marriage. If you marry one of your followers, she or he will not be able to go adventuring with you anymore and will just stay at whatever house she or he lives at. (And your spouse will be awfully eager to leave the temple the instant the wedding ends.) This mod is still under development and will likely be changed and expanded. The amount of time spent play-testing so far has not been adequate. If you locate a bug, contact David Brasher on TES Nexus so that the situation can be examined and can hopefully be fixed. ************************************************************************ 5. Copy Status and Credits ************************************************************************ Credits: Bethesda for making Skyrim in an open format anyone can mod. Copy Status: Modders resource. Public domain with proper attribution. You should list the author in your credits if you distribute mods with content from this mod. You may use things from this mod in your own mods and distribute them. You are not required to ask permission to use things from this mod and not required to notify the author that you have used things from this mod. The structure of this mod is such that you are encouraged to make your own versions of the .esp file with the same name with different numbers and use them and distribute them. ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************