[WIP]Mermaids

[sweforce]

A proper mermaid mod is probably very hard to do. And it is freezing cold in Skyrim anyway. Anyway, I envision mermaids as, well awesomeness SHOULD come with a drawback. As such I suggest that mermaids should not be able to transform into humanoid form unless certain criteria are fullfilled such as: MUST be dry forcing the mermaid to pretty much move like a horker when on land until dried up. Further, transformation may be a learned ability that not all mermaids have. Any wetness more than the lightest of rain would force the mermaid back in her true form. Further, once dry a mermaid will need to get submerged in water regularly or she take damage, basically a mermaid player would need to keep an eye on a timer.

 

The most important of all, there need to be mermaid infrastructure in the world. I have seen too many racemods that add a new playable race and your character are the only one around of that race, perhaps with some braindead followers that really are counted as nords of some weird reason and never use their racial abilities. As such it could be nice with a community of mermaids somewhere, some mermaid housing, perhaps in the form of an underwater cave.

[GuruSR]

One thing about the messages, said that humans wear clothing, yet, she's wearing a top.  A possible option would be to be able to lure humans into a large body of water with her beauty (naked).  So she could then lead them down to drown them, though done a dozen or so drownings and don't see any curse.

 

GuruSR.

[Renora1976]

On 9/21/2023 at 7:52 PM, sweforce said:

A proper mermaid mod is probably very hard to do. And it is freezing cold in Skyrim anyway. Anyway, I envision mermaids as, well awesomeness SHOULD come with a drawback. As such I suggest that mermaids should not be able to transform into humanoid form unless certain criteria are fullfilled such as: MUST be dry forcing the mermaid to pretty much move like a horker when on land until dried up. Further, transformation may be a learned ability that not all mermaids have. Any wetness more than the lightest of rain would force the mermaid back in her true form. Further, once dry a mermaid will need to get submerged in water regularly or she take damage, basically a mermaid player would need to keep an eye on a timer.

 

The most important of all, there need to be mermaid infrastructure in the world. I have seen too many racemods that add a new playable race and your character are the only one around of that race, perhaps with some braindead followers that really are counted as nords of some weird reason and never use their racial abilities. As such it could be nice with a community of mermaids somewhere, some mermaid housing, perhaps in the form of an underwater cave.

Pretty much all of the elements indicated in the first paragraph are already in the mod. For the second paragraph, well, this is well beyond my capabilities in Skyrim (most of the work in this thread has been to make a functional mermaid and my contribution to this has been to work on the scripts to add to the immersion), although there is another mermaid mod being built which intends to have these items (other actors for this race, infrastructure, etc.).

 

  

On 9/15/2023 at 4:07 AM, GuruSR said:

Also a few issues:

 

. Created a new character (Redguard) to try it, got to Alteration 25 and nothing happened, a reload of a save caused it to start.

. Had to read up to actually get the tail/body working, but the bra isn't weight painted?  So chest moves, it doesn't.

. The "note" arrived twice (with dual dialogues).

. Can't move in 3rd person when "on shore" (not sure if you can fix that though).

. Slaughterfish are a PAIN (literally), they ruin luring because your victim stands on the shore waiting to attack the Slaughterfish after you, which apparently you can't hit or kill.  Can we get a bite shout we can use under water to bite them back?

. Initial transformation, was partially stuck in a boat, had a hard time getting out of it, perhaps force the player into 1st person during it so that we know we need to crawl into the water (maybe make a comment on that).

. Still see the notice that we shouldn't be disrespectful around shipwrecks after becoming a Mermaid.

. Siren form spell is too expensive at low level, at level 4 which wasn't hard to start this at, requires 1327 Magicka to use.

. Siren form spell can last less than a second and both transformation messages overlap each other.

. Bad Editor ID 009A42 found in inventory.

. Mermaid Voice shouldn't work on essential/quest characters, as they can't die and can break quests if stuff they own is part of it when dropped.

. Constant mist around player in and out of mermaid form and water, it is blinding in the sun and makes finding mortals to seduce impossible.

 

CK complaints (can this not be included, ask original mod author of the tail):

Could not find model Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_1.nif
Could not find model Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif
Problem loading body part for weight morphing 'Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif'
Could not find model Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif
Could not find parent node extra data for 'BASE meshes\Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif'. For 'Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif' from 'SkinNaked_Mermaid'.
Could not find parent node extra data for 'BASE meshes\Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif'. For 'Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_1.nif' from 'SkinNaked_Mermaid'.
Could not find parent node extra data for 'BASE meshes\Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif'. For 'Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_1.nif' from 'SkinNaked_Mermaid'.
Could not find parent node extra data for 'BASE meshes\Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif'. For 'Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif' from 'SkinNaked_Mermaid'.
Could not find parent node extra data for 'BASE meshes\Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_0.nif'. For 'Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_1.nif' from 'SkinNaked_Mermaid'.
Actor '' is wearing the geometry 'Coco_Cloths\mermaid\mermaid_tail_1.nif' twice from object 'SkinNaked_Mermaid' in slot 32 and 38.

 

A few suggestions:

 

. Give us a way to deal with Slaughterfish (or make them allies so we don't have to), crabs, all types of water animals.

. Skyrim's rivers and ocean areas aren't connected, how about offering up quest markers for "jetstreams" to other places, so we can get around.

. Bodyslide for obvious reasons.

. Mermaids should have better underwater sight.

. Quest indicator for the one you enthralled, for some reason he ran off, no CLUE where he went!

 

GuruSR.

Various of the points you have highlighted are fixed in my internal build (still some work to do before the next release). As for not being able to move in third person, usually go to first person, start moving and shift to third, it will work again. That Siren form spell is too expensive at low level is not a bug, it very much is a feature to force the player to be careful around rain/snow and the stuff, as well as to look for the other ways to get back in siren form (shrines, potion, etc.) with smooth form switching being a goal to achieve. For the bodyslide, to be honest, I have no idea how to do it, I usually run its executable to update it once in a while, but I never had issues with the bra: if you are using SE, check the relevant version (I am not using it, and a fix was made accordingly).

[GuruSR]

On 10/1/2023 at 4:36 PM, Renora1976 said:

Various of the points you have highlighted are fixed in my internal build (still some work to do before the next release). As for not being able to move in third person, usually go to first person, start moving and shift to third, it will work again. That Siren form spell is too expensive at low level is not a bug, it very much is a feature to force the player to be careful around rain/snow and the stuff, as well as to look for the other ways to get back in siren form (shrines, potion, etc.) with smooth form switching being a goal to achieve. For the bodyslide, to be honest, I have no idea how to do it, I usually run its executable to update it once in a while, but I never had issues with the bra: if you are using SE, check the relevant version (I am not using it, and a fix was made accordingly).

 

I figured the movement issue was a limitation of the engine (thanks Bethesda).  The Siren spell, the issue is not knowing about it in the first place and getting cursed at such a low level, perhaps make the mermaid transformation curses only apply to someone at say level 10, whereas other curses could be applied to the player, such as a weird need to stay wet and that being on land feels odd as if they shouldn't be there, other curses could be done to the player.  The mermaid you have on land at the moment by the mill, she doesn't do anything after you do become a mermaid, any chances of getting her to transform properly and perhaps offer you, the confused new mermaid with potions and such to help you out (for a price, quest, etc).

 

The bodyslide I have seems to "somewhat work", not sure what magic effect is on the top, but having "yucky" clothing on should reduce the abilities when on land, but enhance beauty when totally naked (nothing on, not even a necklace), men should flock to her like the best honey brew on display for free samples.

 

As for the tail color, isn't there a "skin tone" color that is normally used for body parts, a skin tone version would work pretty good because it'd make the tail match the player's skin, meaning they'd look very much fish like.

 

The transformation back to mermaid happens sometimes within seconds of going back, on a dry sunny day.  Messages about the longing for the sea happen when just trying to navigate shallow areas of the waterways in and around Windhelm and such, meaning being out of the water for a second makes you dry and you long to get back in.  So hoping you've got some better timings going on.  Can always pm me if you're not sure what I'm saying.

 

GuruSR.

[bakuti]

The best MOD I finally found!  I'm using the latest AE version, no problems now.  It's working.  I have a question?  In its current state, what percentage of the total do you think is complete?  Anyway, thanks for the great mod!

[navor5521]

Has the mod been discontinued? So sad to see it go after so many years ?

[Renora1976]

On 11/13/2023 at 2:05 AM, bakuti said:

The best MOD I finally found!  I'm using the latest AE version, no problems now.  It's working.  I have a question?  In its current state, what percentage of the total do you think is complete?  Anyway, thanks for the great mod!

I am tinkering with it now and then, but I still have to learn a lot about quest scripting to go beyond what is currently available, and I am not too experienced about it, plus I have other things that keep me busy IRL. Right now, I am testing some features but they are dependent on assets from other mods so it would quickly become a bloat if released.

 

EDIT: for instance, I am currently adding something I shamelessly copied from Sims 3 Island Paradise, a "lower-level" mermaid transformation with easier to find elements that turn you in a scaled female on the surface who can turn in a mermaid when swimming but with none of the perks or bonuses in either form, no weather-based forced transformation, a cheaper spell to revert to legged form and a time limit of two in-game days on legged form before reverting to your original race pre-transformation, with the timer reset any time you turn in a mermaid. Kind of a lower impact approach of sorts (still not fully reliable, though), but it requires the assets from this mod:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/91739

 

I do not want to bloat the mod with masters nor steal assets, so if I integrate this in a release (very unlikely, since the mod has a different face part for this race and I need to force switching between these every time there is a race change, which very quickly makes the character look like an unlucky World War I survivor), it would be through outside patches. And before anyone goes for the obvious joke... yes, this would be the lusty argonian (mer)maid patch:

 

ScreenShot8.bmp

Edited December 20, 2023 by Renora1976

[GuruSR]

With respect to the textures, you could always ask the author if textures are possible for you to include in your mod, they can say yes or no, or if you want, you could tell them what you're trying to do and see if they're willing to create an alterative set for this mod.  Never hurts to ask.

 

GuruSR.

[TheVolcanoGodess]

On 10/4/2013 at 11:09 PM, firepower02 said:

How do you convert the meshes into .nif file? Or could someone pls upload a .nif version of the tail?

A friend of mine said you have to use ckcmd, you can convert fbx files into nifs. Check it out

[emily1673]

On 12/16/2023 at 2:23 AM, navor5521 said:

Has the mod been discontinued? So sad to see it go after so many years ?

There was never a mod to begin with, though some modders posted a few things in this thread.

A great spin-off of this thread is here:

 

Edited March 4 by emily1673

[crazyboynes]

On 12/16/2023 at 2:23 AM, navor5521 said:

Has the mod been discontinued? So sad to see it go after so many years ?

 

see here the last post, Chinchinchang uploaded the files, i dont see if work but he is a master of the masters. Thanks him if you can.

[IceErines]

On 4/8/2023 at 4:25 AM, Renora1976 said:

Ah crap, I must have forgotten to clear the masters from my internal build (I'm using these two mods as well and make the release version after removing references to them). I should upload a fix fast.

 

EDIT: the fix was uploaded on the main download thread:

Thank you again for the quick bug report!

I just wanted to thank you for working on this! I'm super interested.