Follower Slavery Mod (FSM) (14/12/2025)

[Herowynne]

3 hours ago, Bane Master said:

Would be useful to know how much support there is for this idea, or whether folks are happy to see how Captive Followers develops

 

I would like to see this added to FSM.
 

I have been following progress on Captive Followers, but I prefer FSM’s model of follower enslavement, because it offers the rumor system, and it doesn’t make any changes to locations.

[Rosvinar]

10 hours ago, Bane Master said:

Theoretically it should be possible to add a enslave_on_load json follower list, along with a mechanism for 'arming' the process (so that it doesn't keep firing on every load).

 

The simplest way would be to action the json list and then clear it, a bit inconvenient to have to re-add the followers each time you want it to happen but probably the safest option

 

Needs some thought about possible unintended consequences/incompatibilities.

 

Would be useful to know how much support there is for this idea, or whether folks are happy to see how Captive Followers develops - Version 1.1 already addresses a lot of the issues raised with it.

that's interesting, logically if it was setup in a sterile way there shouldn't be any incompatibilities, my idea was to use purely basic modded followers, ones not tied to any quests or dialogue or any other custom features, that way nothing in-game should be effected or broken if they where enslaved. re-adding would also probably be fine as im guessing it's nothing a quick notepad copy and paste couldn't fix.

Edit: As you have correctly pointed out, yes this idea did come about due to captive followers, however i had a few issue with its reliability but more importantly on a personal note it just did a blanket cover all of followers, I've been toying with the idea of something more specific so there is a level of control over which followers exactly are enslaved or not. also the idea of the followers being owned by a bandit or some other ruffian feels more immersive then simply finding them tied up, but that just personal preference.

Edited May 4, 2024 by Rosvinar

[DonQuiWho]

1 hour ago, Rosvinar said:

that's interesting, logically if it was setup in a sterile way there shouldn't be any incompatibilities, my idea was to use purely basic modded followers, ones not tied to any quests or dialogue or any other custom features, that way nothing in-game should be effected or broken if they where enslaved. re-adding would also probably be fine as im guessing it's nothing a quick notepad copy and paste couldn't fix.

Edit: As you have correctly pointed out, yes this idea did come about due to captive followers, however i had a few issue with its reliability but more importantly on a personal note it just did a blanket cover all of followers, I've been toying with the idea of something more specific so there is a level of control over which followers exactly are enslaved or not. also the idea of the followers being owned by a bandit or some other ruffian feels more immersive then simply finding them tied up, but that just personal preference.

 

OOIC, what do you envisage happening to mods with groups of followers, or even merged single and group follower mods?

 

eg I have lots of followers from a ton of mods all merged into half a dozen esps

 

Not trying to put anyone off from this, as the general concept is great(!), but would there be practical difficulties in such circs? 

 

DQW

 

EDIT:  No need to reply to me on this, as 1) I have not techie knowledge to determine if it is a problem or, even if it is, 2) I wouldn't know what to do to fix it anyways.  Also, won't be here at all away for a few days as I'm tripping....  And No!, not that kind! 😛

Edited May 4, 2024 by DonQuiWho

[Rosvinar]

2 hours ago, DonQuiWho said:

 

OOIC, what do you envisage happening to mods with groups of followers, or even merged single and group follower mods?

 

eg I have lots of followers from a ton of mods all merged into half a dozen esps

 

Not trying to put anyone off from this, as the general concept is great(!), but would there be practical difficulties in such circs? 

TBH, not sure, I don't know the ins and outs of how FSM works ive only ever messed around with some of the settings to make the slavery more brutal and bleak, (my mod list is a dark world with a somber enb + reshade so you can probably get the idea of the atmosphere based on that). 

My best guess is it depends on the complexity of the followers, as the more simple and generic they are the less there is that could interfere with the system or effect the followers themselves, anything with a custom framework or follower manager could logically be at risk of problems, but this is all just theory atm, and i'll state again i have absolutely no clue how this mod works.

I only asked originally because it stands to reason that with FSM having from experience a very reliable enslavement setup it would be nice to have certain custom followers be but into slavery before the playthrough even begins, sort of as a side quest to the main game just as captive followers does but using the FSM system instead of having the followers simply tied up at set POI's.

[Bane Master]

8 hours ago, DonQuiWho said:

what do you envisage happening to mods with groups of followers, or even merged single and group follower mods?

 

6 hours ago, Rosvinar said:

My best guess is it depends on the complexity of the followers, as the more simple and generic they are the less there is that could interfere with the system or effect the followers themselves, anything with a custom framework or follower manager could logically be at risk of problems, but this is all just theory atm, and i'll state again i have absolutely no clue how this mod works.

 

Practically it's no different from FSM enslavement now, the underlying code will be almost exactly the same as when the MCM is used to enslave a follower.

 

As we know, highly customised followers involved in quest objectives and/or specific behaviour patterns are not good candidates for follower slavery as the follower or their associated quests will likely break FSM, the follower's quest(s) or both!

 

Since the user will be deciding which (if any) followers are enslaved at startup it will be up to them to determine if the follower(s) they are interested in using in  this way are FSM compatible. 

[Rosvinar]

2 hours ago, Bane Master said:

 

 

Practically it's no different from FSM enslavement now, the underlying code will be almost exactly the same as when the MCM is used to enslave a follower.

 

As we know, highly customised followers involved in quest objectives and/or specific behaviour patterns are not good candidates for follower slavery as the follower or their associated quests will likely break FSM, the follower's quest(s) or both!

 

Since the user will be deciding which (if any) followers are enslaved at startup it will be up to them to determine if the follower(s) they are interested in using in  this way are FSM compatible. 

Huh… this is weird, i wasn’t completely wrong for once, I’m not used to this.

 

joking asside.

 

Farodadestin on nexus has a large collection of super basic (but imo beautiful) followers that i’d assume are perfect for this, they have no special quest or dialogue. And there standalone using only what player skin / bodyslide preset you already have and i dont see how that would interfere, each one is installed separately as its own espfe. 

[Rosvinar]

Just now, Rosvinar said:

Huh… this is weird, i wasn’t completely wrong for once, I’m not used to this.

 

joking asside.

 

Farodadestin on nexus has a large collection of super basic (but imo beautiful) followers that i’d assume are perfect for this, they have no special quest or dialogue. And there standalone using only what player skin / bodyslide preset you already have and i dont see how that would interfere, each one is installed separately as its own espfe. 

If this is something i can setup myself let me know and ill look into it, if not as you mentioned before could i push for a polite consideration to add this idea as an update at some point even if its just an optional addon download? If its too much work I apologise, i thought id ask just in case cause this seemed really fitting for FSM.

[Bane Master]

38 minutes ago, Rosvinar said:

could i push for a polite consideration to add this idea as an update

There is an update coming soon that moves Slave to hostile dialogue to Hold Guards - I'll look at including it 

in that release.

[Herowynne]

7 hours ago, Bane Master said:

Since the user will be deciding which (if any) followers are enslaved at startup it will be up to them to determine if the follower(s) they are interested in using in  this way are FSM compatible. 

 

Yes, I think a white list approach is safer for choosing followers to be enslaved at game startup. This sounds great! 👍

 

 

Edited May 5, 2024 by Herowynne

[Rosvinar]

5 hours ago, Bane Master said:

There is an update coming soon that moves Slave to hostile dialogue to Hold Guards - I'll look at including it 

in that release.

 

This sounds amazing, genuinely owe you a massive thank you for considering this, this was already a core mod in my load order, with this addition I think it's more than earned a permanent spot.

[Bane Master]

What's New in Version 1.600

Released Just now

• Rumours of the possible location of slaves held by hostile Masters have been moved from Innkeepers to Hold Guards
• It is now possible to enslave Followers or Hirelings to selected Master types on game load

 

Enslave On Load

Enslavement of Potential Followers/Hirelings on load is controlled by the EnslaveOnLoadGame.json file. Any follower/hireling whose form is added to the "enslave_followers_on_load" form array will be enslaved when the game is loaded if they are a valid FSM slave.
When the EnslaveOnLoadGame.json file is processed the "enslave_followers_on_load" array is cleared to  ensure that the Enslave On Load process only runs once for the actors in the file. Keep a copy of your Follower/Hireling forms array if you are testing or plan to use them again.
The type of Masters that will be used is controlled by the "master types" string array - this can contain as many or as few master types from Masters.json as you wish. Masters will be chosen randomly from the types listed. By default this is "bandit camps", "warlock lairs" and "more bandit camps" but you can edit the list to suit your own requirements.

 

EnslaveOnLoadGame.json Example

 

Spoiler

The supplied json file contains this text
{
  "enslave_followers_on_load": [],
  "master_types": [
    "bandit camps",
    "warlock lairs",
    "more bandit camps"
  ]
}

 

To enslave Jenassa the vanilla hireling & Aretha Belven from the mod 'Lots More Followers' to a Warlock or a Vampire when the game is loaded the text required would be

{
    "enslave_followers_on_load" :
     [
        "__formData|JNL - Lots More Followers.esp|0x002302",
        "__formData|Skyrim.esm|0xe1ba9"
      ],
    "master_types" :
    [
        "vampire lairs",
        "warlock lairs"
    ]
}

 

Remember "enslave_followers_on_load" will be cleared when the file is processed (the "master_types" array will not be cleared).

 

When enslaving Followers/Hirelings using this feature bear in mind that FSM has a limit of 10 slaves.  Once this limit is exceeded FSM releases the longest serving slave whenever a new Follower is enslaved. 

Edited May 9, 2024 by Bane Master

[phobos33]

1 hour ago, Bane Master said:

What's New in Version 1.600

Released Just now

• Rumours of the possible location of slaves held by hostile Masters have been moved from Innkeepers to Hold Guards
• It is now possible to enslave Followers or Hirelings to selected Master types on game load

 

Enslave On Load

Enslavement of Potential Followers/Hirelings on load is controlled by the EnslaveOnLoadGame.json file. Any follower/hireling whose form is added to the "enslave_followers_on_load" form array will be enslaved when the game is loaded if they are a valid FSM slave.
When the EnslaveOnLoadGame.json file is processed the "enslave_followers_on_load" array is cleared to  ensure that the Enslave On Load process only runs once for the actors in the file. Keep a copy of your Follower/Hireling forms array if you are testing or plan to use them again.
The type of Masters that will be used is controlled by the "master types" string array - this can contain as many or as few master types from Masters.json as you wish. Masters will be chosen randomly from the types listed. By default this is "bandit camps", "warlock lairs" and "more bandit camps" but you can edit the list to suit your own requirements.

 

EnslaveOnLoadGame.json Example

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The supplied json file contains this text
{
  "enslave_followers_on_load": [],
  "master_types": [
    "bandit camps",
    "warlock lairs",
    "more bandit camps"
  ]
}

 

To enslave Jenassa the vanilla hireling & Aretha Belven from the mod 'Lots More Followers' to a Warlock or a Vampire when the game is loaded the text required would be

{
    "enslave_followers_on_load" :
     [
        "__formData|JNL - Lots More Followers.esp|0x002302",
        "__formData|Skyrim.esm|0xe1ba9"
      ],
    "master_types" :
    [
        "vampire lairs",
        "warlock lairs"
    ]
}

 

Remember "enslave_followers_on_load" will be cleared when the file is processed (the "master_types" array will not be cleared).

 

When enslaving Followers/Hirelings using this feature bear in mind that FSM has a limit of 10 slaves.  Once this limit is exceeded FSM releases the longest serving slave whenever a new Follower is enslaved. 

Cool new feature! 🔥

But I'm guessing all the FSM masters are still only valid permanent cell actors and not temporary ones.

[Bane Master]

31 minutes ago, phobos33 said:

all the FSM masters are still only valid permanent cell actors and not temporary ones.

Yep - unless, of course the cell in question is loaded

[Yuni]

I can't get 1.6 to load in Legendary edition. MCM doesn't show up, even after a reboot. 1.510 worked fine (well the MCM loaded in 1.510, I haven't encountered a slave situation with it yet).

[phobos33]

1 hour ago, Bane Master said:

Yep - unless, of course the cell in question is loaded

I tried man, it never worked. Even seeking help from the forums is in vain. Maybe DM me I'll tell you the problem. 

[TauNoob1]

1 hour ago, Yuni said:

I can't get 1.6 to load in Legendary edition. MCM doesn't show up, even after a reboot. 1.510 worked fine (well the MCM loaded in 1.510, I haven't encountered a slave situation with it yet).

I'm in the same boat with SE. Both upgrading and starting new-games don't seem to be activating the mod.

[Bane Master]

3 hours ago, Yuni said:

I can't get 1.6 to load in Legendary edition. MCM doesn't show up, even after a reboot.

I can't test this unfortunately as I don't have an LE install.

 

Can you post a papyrus log from when you first try to load a save with 1.600

[Bane Master]

3 hours ago, phobos33 said:

I tried man, it never worked.

Sorry - I don't understand. what didn't work?

[Bane Master]

2 hours ago, TauNoob1 said:

I'm in the same boat with SE. Both upgrading and starting new-games don't seem to be activating the mod.

Please post a papyrus log for both the upgrade and new game scenario and I'll take a look

[darkdesires04]

On 5/4/2024 at 5:02 PM, Herowynne said:

 

I would like to see this added to FSM.
 

I have been following progress on Captive Followers, but I prefer FSM’s model of follower enslavement, because it offers the rumor system, and it doesn’t make any changes to locations.

 

Well, I also like FSM's model better but I created captive followers just because of the 10 follower limit and I wanted to have 100+ of them enslaved at the beginning of the game. There would be no point of working on the same thing in both mods,  if FSM will eventually handle 100+ followers with the option to enslave them all at the beginning of the game at random locations. As far as I am concerned then it would make sense to merge the two mods.
 

[Bane Master]

1 hour ago, darkdesires04 said:

if FSM will eventually handle 100+ followers with the option to enslave them all at the beginning of the game at random locations.

There's no danger of that happening 🙂

 

As I see it Captive Followers is providing a different experience (and one I might add that I will likely use myself!) in comparison to FSM being able to enslave a few specified actors using it's standard mechanics.

[Þursona]

After updating from 1.510 to 1.600 I get CTD after the Bethesda Logo every time. I'm on Skyrim LE. I uninstalled 1.600 and reinstalled 1.510 and the game doesn't ctd anymore.

Edit: I found out that after deactivating ASIS.esp and EveryBody's Different.esp the game launches just fine even with FSM 1.600 installed and active.
I'm not sure what's going on there but it seems FSM 1.600 somehow is no longer compatible with ASIS and/or EBD? Both are SkyProc Patchers. I had no issues with previous FSM versions.

Edited May 10, 2024 by Þursona

[Bane Master]

3 hours ago, Þursona said:

I found out that after deactivating ASIS.esp and EveryBody's Different.esp the game launches just fine even with FSM 1.600 installed and active.
I'm not sure what's going on there but it seems FSM 1.600 somehow is no longer compatible with ASIS and/or EBD?

I'm not sure I can help with this - the changes to 1.600 are mainly script based along with the addition of the Guard Dialog for hostile Master locations, I can't see how they would have any  effect on  ASIS or Everybody's different.

 

A CTD after the Bethesda Logo usually indicates a missing master or incorrect dll version. FSM has no masters other than Dawnguard, Hearthfires and Dragonborn and doesn't have a dll. I suspect your issue lies with your install of ASIS or Everyboy's Different although I can't be certain.

Edited May 10, 2024 by Bane Master

[Þursona]

34 minutes ago, Bane Master said:

I'm not sure I can help with this - the changes to 1.600 are mainly script based along with the addition of the Guard Dialog for hostile Master locations, I can't see how they would have any  effect on  ASIS or Everybody's different.

 

A CTD after the Bethesda Logo usually indicates a missing master or incorrect dll version. FSM has no masters other than Dawnguard, Hearthfires and Dragonborn and doesn't have a dll. I suspect your issue lies with your install of ASIS or Everyboy's Different although I can't be certain.

Something else I noticed, when starting Wrye Bash, I get a message like "unrecognized version number" only for FSM 1.600.
Both ASIS and EBD add FSM.esp (and a whole lot of other esps) as a Master after running the patcher. Though the FSM.esp remains active so it should not be causing a CTD due to missing a master.
I'll probably investigate a bit more some time in the future. Maybe I can find the issue and come up with a solution. Either that or wait for another release and see if that magically solves the problem

[Bane Master]

4 hours ago, Þursona said:

Something else I noticed, when starting Wrye Bash, I get a message like "unrecognized version number" only for FSM 1.600

I think that's because you are using LE (Form Version 43) and FSM is Form Version 44 - afaik shouldn't cause any issues though