Prettier Bandits

[hydospam]

Posting to see if I can get some help here.

I was having problems with the two toned face/neck bug, and tried the previously mentioned CK method to fix it, but wasn't having any luck. so I just disabled Prettier Bandits from MO2 (mod organizer). Booted it up to find that almost all female npcs no longer have necks. Just pure black void in place of a neck texture. Reenabled PB, no change. Reinstalled it, reinstalled CBBE, nothing's fixed it. Starting a new character to experiment with racemenu, even the dragonborn isn't spared. Only npcs not affected are the Bijin remodeled npcs. Disabling all mods and running clean skyrim, the black-neck doesn't show. Is there any known mod conflict possibly causing this?

Not even sure where to start now, so if anyone has advice, it'd be most helpful.

[shencereys]

9 hours ago, hydospam said:

Posting to see if I can get some help here.

I was having problems with the two toned face/neck bug, and tried the previously mentioned CK method to fix it, but wasn't having any luck. so I just disabled Prettier Bandits from MO2 (mod organizer). Booted it up to find that almost all female npcs no longer have necks. Just pure black void in place of a neck texture. Reenabled PB, no change. Reinstalled it, reinstalled CBBE, nothing's fixed it. Starting a new character to experiment with racemenu, even the dragonborn isn't spared. Only npcs not affected are the Bijin remodeled npcs. Disabling all mods and running clean skyrim, the black-neck doesn't show. Is there any known mod conflict possibly causing this?

Not even sure where to start now, so if anyone has advice, it'd be most helpful.

 

 

I haven't heard of that particular issue

 

but based on what you're saying i think something might have gone horribly wrong with the facegen exports if you were messing around in CK.  I'd check your overwrite to see if there's any extra files you can't account for there.  Other than that if I were in your position I'd uninstall and reinstall all my cosmetic mods again and see how it goes.  But my money's on a bunch of messed up texture files and tintmasks in the overwrite (or whatever mod you told CK to export to).

 

[Heroine HoneyCrotch]

I seen that KS Hairs have been implemented but is not required, is APachii Hair still a requirement for this mod?

[EinarrTheRed]

@Heroine HoneyCrotch

Apachii hair is still a requirement and will be until I can get to v2.0 (see below)

 

------------------------

 

Mod status:  New update in progress

 

First, I had meant to get this update out around Halloween of last year and... life happened.  I haven't been able to work on any of my Skyrim mods in months so things got a bit messed up.  That said, I just posted a development build to my beta team this morning for them to test and critique and it has about 90% of the content I had planned for the next release which will finally take the mod to v1.0 and officially out of beta.

 

The next release focuses on a existing unique NPC villains (although not all of them are exactly villains) and some new ones I added.  All of the new NPCs have their facegen done in Racemenu so they look superior to anything else in PB, and the new NPCs all have KS Hair as the initial step towards converting over.

 

As it stands I just have two NPCs left to remake, plus any tweaks and fixes my beta team finds and then I should be able to get a release out.

 

Thank you for your patience, I'll get the new build out as soon as I can.

 

-------------

 

So what's ahead beyond v1.0?

 

v1.1

Planned for this will be some changes to the fates of three unique NPCs.

Salma at Ironbind will, if you don't kill or enslave her, show up at the Nightgate inn and be available as a follower.  Or you can enslave her, and I'm looking at what will need to be changed in her quest so that it shuts down if you enslave her so she has her PAHE dialogs and doesn't despawn.

Eisa Blackthorn, if you don't kill or enslave her, will end up in Morthal where she will be available as a hireling.

Fjola of Mistwatch will, if you don't kill or enslave her, end up as possibly a wandering encounter who you can hire, or something like that, its still in discussion how that might work.

 

From v1.1 I am hoping to jump straight to v2.0... but we'll see.

 

v2.0

This will be a major overhaul of the mod including a complete rebuild of all the encounter tables, and a new resource.esm with "NPC blanks".  These will be used to rebuild the appearance and tables of all the random NPCs expanding the variety of appearance, using KS Hairs (this will be the end of Apachii as a dependency) and better faces done in Racemenu.  At this point all the encounters should have a quality of appearance in the ball park of things like Immersive / Deadly wenches.   Not only that, but the resource.esm (which is what will contain the appearance data) will be available as a resource to modders who need to add a lot of better looking NPCs to their own mods.  This resource.esm will be the most time consuming part as I have to remake hundreds of NPCs in Racemenu, but I'm getting better and faster at it.  Once that file is done, rebuilding the encounter tables will go much faster and I'll be able to include things that never made it into PB like the hunters, Solstheim encounters, etc.

 

Beyond v2.0 I'm toying with more expanded encounters, travelers on the roads, etc.  Maybe either an add on or a core part of the mod (and probably with an MCM for configurability) so you can pick and control some of the content, but adding stuff like we see in mods like Populated Lands, Roads, & Paths (only updated and done better with much better looking NPCs).

[Leoosp]

@EinarrTheRed I'm definitely looking forward to the KS Hairdos - Renewal based release as the recent updates of that hair styles mod has really improved. The authors of KS Hairdos - Renewal removed, some hairs from recent updates but have added several more in their place.

[EinarrTheRed]

I need to make sure I have the current version KS Hair, and I'll be making sure going forward that the hair models I use are up to date, especially for the 2.0 release down the road.

 

For now I'm packing the few KS Hair's I am using in with PB for the unique NPCs I'm doing.  That's probably temporary for now until I get the whole mod converted over to KS Hair.

 

My testers have been helping be go through what I currently have for PB and get it tested, and they've found quite a few errors I am in the process of fixing.  I still have some eye texture problems for 3 NPCs that I have to track down the cause of and fix.  Once I get that done (hopefully this weekend), then I'll work on finishing up the two remaining unique NPCs I had intended to do and get it tested one more time before a public update.  The two remaining NPC waiting to be done are Luah al-Skaven and Anska (from High Gate Ruins).

 

With that released (hopefully in a couple weeks) then I can start work on v1.1 which will update three of the NPCs so they can be later added as followers or hireling and I've got some unique Solstheim NPCs I'll be adding as well.

 

That'll probably be it for the updates for awhile until v2.0, which I expect will take a lot of time to build.

[EinarrTheRed]

Another progress update.

 

Thanks to some diligent testing by @karlpaws I've gotten caught up on where I left off before my life got turned upside down.  So all my current work to date has been tested, all the errors found (and I'd made quite a few) and things are working.  That gives me a stable dev built to move forward on.

 

This week I'm working on finishing up things.  I don't have a lot left to do so I'm hoping it won't take long to finish up.

• Finish the ritual leader's journal (Wolf Skull Cave) for players to find in game, this give some more background on who the leaders of the necromancers are (the new unique versions), what they are up to and why.
• Finish some added clutter and misc. items I need to add to Wolf Skull Cave after adding a "bedroom" area for the ritual leaders.
• Update Luah al-Skaven in Ansilvund
• Update Anska in High Gate Ruins
• Make new promo images, including all the unique NPCs and some more (and improved) images of some of the current bandits, etc.

That's about it.  Once I get that done and my testers have time to do final testing I should be ready to update the download page with v1.0, move the mod out of the WIP downloads, etc.

 

I'm hoping to have it ready in 2-3 weeks.  Cross your fingers for me.

 

Once 1.0 is out I'll start work on v1.1 and also start on the resource.esm for the eventual v2.0 rebuild.  Will post more about that later.

[Namtar55]

I'm interested, but... why not making it standalone? The hair is already baked in the facegen mesh, the mod would only need the hair textures packed along. 

[karlpaws]

15 hours ago, Namtar55 said:

I'm interested, but... why not making it standalone? The hair is already baked in the facegen mesh, the mod would only need the hair textures packed along. 

 

Increases the file size for one, as I understand it, and the file is quite large already with the few hairs used included.  There are also a number of other mods that do require the KS Hair mod so many people are likely to have it already or would be well served by getting it.

 

Unless I am mis-reading you mis-reading something, the hairs are included in this version.

[Namtar55]

4 hours ago, karlpaws said:

 

Increases the file size for one, as I understand it, and the file is quite large already with the few hairs used included.  There are also a number of other mods that do require the KS Hair mod so many people are likely to have it already or would be well served by getting it.

 

Unless I am mis-reading you mis-reading something, the hairs are included in this version.

 

 

This mod uses KS Hair? I was commenting based on what's in the download page, which lists two hair mods as requirements: Apachii female and Apachii 1.6 full. 

[karlpaws]

6 minutes ago, Namtar55 said:

 

 

This mod uses KS Hair? I was commenting based on what's in the download page, which lists two hair mods as requirements: Apachii female and Apachii 1.6 full. 

 

Oh, yeah I am probably too used to the betas I've been using, which is switching over to KS. I thought you were commenting on some of EtR's latest posts on that, too.

[EinarrTheRed]

Mods like this, in regards to hair resources are never going to be "stand alone".  There are just to many files.

 

Right now the mod does include some of the hair meshes and texture from KS Hair, that's only for the new unique NPCs.  The rest (the over 1,200 random NPCs IIRC, its been awhile since I took a full head count), use Apachii Hair.

 

As Karl mentioned, I'm working towards phasing out using Apachii at all and moving entirely over to KS Hair, at which point it will be the only hair mod required.  That's going to take awhile and won't happen until the v2.0 rebuild release.  That will be a major change not just in hair, but in the appearance of the random NPCs and the way the mod works.  I'll post more about that in the future, including explaining what will happen and how it will work and how it will affect the mod, NPCs in your game, etc.  The short of it is, for now, when I get to that point not only will all the NPCs use KS hair, they'll have much better looking faces as well because at that point they will all have been built using Racemenu.

 

For now, and until then, only the unique NPCs will have Racemenu made faces, and they'll also have KS Hair.  I'm working this weekend as time allows on finishing up the last two unique NPCs for the next release and a few other bits, then getting some better looking screen caps I can make promo / preview images out of cause the current one sucks!  The current unique NPCs will give everyone a good general idea of where things will be going with the appearance of all the random NPCs in the future.  As for the current uniques, their appearance will probably get updated again eventually because after I finish building all those random NPCs I'll have had a lot of practice in Racemenu and I should be able to make the uniques look even better.  That said, their current appearance will still stay basically the same, just get improved.  That is I don't plan any radical changes from what you'll see in the next release.

 

That's the news for now.

[Heroine HoneyCrotch]

On 2/5/2022 at 2:23 AM, Namtar55 said:

I'm interested, but... why not making it standalone? The hair is already baked in the facegen mesh, the mod would only need the hair textures packed along. 

If you use MO, and or otherwise, you can dl apachii hair mod and open it on desktop and throw the texture folder from that archive into your data folder, esp is not needed, only textures.  MO wont care that you but texture folder into data folder and the npcs head/hair meshes will find their textures in game. 

[EinarrTheRed]

Getting close to having all the work done for the next release.

 

I've finished up with the extra details in Wolf Skull Cave.  So now the 5 ritual necromancers summoning Potema are all unique with custom faces done in Racemenu.  They have new outfits (I found some noble robes that didn't seem to be used much and added enchantments) as well as some beds and other odds and ends.  The leader, Dalrita, has a journal you can find and read which gives you a bit of background about her and the other necromancers and their motives.  They're a bit tougher with more perks and spells as well.

 

I'm working this morning on finishing up Luah al Skaven, the boss in Ansilvund.  She's been getting some special attention.  After doing some research on her she appears to be in her early 50's.  Most of what gets created in Racemenu end up looking 20-something-ish and the default age overlays (40 or 50) make her look like an old crone.  But I wanted Luah to be an aging beauty, starting to show her age a little but still quite attractive.  That meant diving into doing my own custom age overlay for her, its in testing now.

 

The other NPC I'm working on is Anska from High Gate Ruins.

 

I should have both finished up today and the last dev build out to my testers tonight.  Takes them a few days to test everything out and find all my goofs.  But that should keep me on track for a 1.0 release next week!

 

Stay tuned, I'll post previews soon-ish

 

Lu'ah al-Skaven preview

Spoiler

Racemenu

In Game

 

Anska preview

Spoiler

Racemenu

 

In Game

 

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by EinarrTheRed

[EinarrTheRed]

Finally got the new version of the mod out.  Sorry it took so long (see below about that).

 

This brings us up to v1.0 and officially out of beta.  Well, let's face it, the mod was out of beta a long time ago, I just never got around to moving it til now.

 

The focus of this update was the unique NPCs.  You get a total of 20 unique NPCs that have KS Hair and facegen done in Racemenu so they look MUCH better.  Also, I finally got around to doing new previews and posting them.  Not only do they look better, but they're tougher with more perks (perks make a LOT of difference in how effective NPCs are in a fight), better gear, better spells, and better stats.

 

Here's some of who you get:

The Imperial Captain at Helgen

Spoiler

 

Salma from outside Ironbind Barrow

Spoiler

 

Please note on the download page for instructions how to shut down her quest if you enslave her so her quest dialog goes away and she doesn't despawn.

 

I'm planning in v1.1 to update her quest so that it will automatically shut down if she is enslaved, and if you don't kill or enslave her, instead of disappearing she'll go to Nightgate Inn and become available as a regular follower.

 

Eisa Blackthorn is one tough and pretty gal, she's got scars on her face and an attitude (and combat perks) to match!

Spoiler

 

Fjola from Mistwatch is quite the Nord Shieldmaiden

Spoiler

 

Anska from High Gate Ruins is now a unique NPC (no longer a random leveled NPC) with better stats and perks to go along with her looks

Spoiler

 

Keeper Carcette, leader of the Vigilants in Skyrim got another make over  She might be a Breton, but she hang with the toughest Nord battle maids.

Spoiler

 

Lu'ah al-Skaven got another overhaul as well

Spoiler

 

Lu'ah took a lot more work to get to what I felt was right.  I did some lore research on her and based on what we know about her she should be in her early to mid fifties, possibly late fifties.  So I thought she might be an aging beauty, still attractive but starting to show both her age and the strain of everything she's been through (plus she's slightly nuts).  The age masks created by Bethesda were too strong, so I made a custom age mask for her to give her just that slight hint of age.  For her hair I wanted something a little... messy... like someone who was once regal but has let herself go cause... like I said, she's kinda psycho.

 

Minorne from Ruunvald also got another make over

Spoiler

 

I also added a couple more worshipers in her main chamber to make that fight a lil bit more... interesting. ?

 

The Ritual Necromancers in Wolf Skull Cave got a lot of attention!

Spoiler

 

Not only did I redo their appearance and overhaul their stats and abilities, I also added beds for each of them, extra loot, and a custom journal for the leader that gives you some background info on who each of them is, why they are hear and what motivated them to do this.  Lots of lore immersion!  They also got new "high class" magical robes to wear cause they're all aristocratic gals.

 

Dalrita, the leader of the group

 

Maeve, a Nord necromancer from Windhelm

 

Tristyn, a Breton brat and necrophiliac from High Rock.

 

Alecedonia, an Imperial from Bruma originally... and specifically the Underpall if you have Beyond Skyrim: Bruma installed (easter egg!)

 

Vinelore, an Altmer from the Rift... or is she?

 

I also added what my development team came to call the "Vaermina Dreamgirls". 

Spoiler

 

Originally there were six female devotee's in the Nightcaller Temple, only three of which woke up and fought you, the other 3 were dead.  While working on this part I discovered that Bethesda had created trigger boxes for all six to awaken, but never used 3 of them.  All I had to do was reconnect the links and the other three would wake up as well.  So I made them all unique NPCs, gave them lore friendly names and updated appearance.

 

Note that in testing we discovered that if you install this update on an existing game, 3 of them still won't wake up, that's because the broken links and dead state gets baked into your save game.  But if you start a new game with v1.0+ installed, they'll all wake up and be... quite unfriendly I'm afraid.

 

--------------------------------

 

What's Ahead?

 

The next version will be v1.1 and I'm mainly planning on continuing to focus on adding more unique NPCs for now.  I've been looking at doing a number of the NPCs in Solstheim since I've kinda ignored that.  I'm also experimenting with Alva and Laelette in Morthal.  Yes I know Pandorable already does a sexy version of Alva... I don't like it.  See Pan's version isn't actually a vampire, she's just a Nord (so is her version of Sybille Stentor and Serana) and that bugs me.  I know, Bethesda made Alva a Nord too, but why?  I can't find any good reason she shouldn't be what she is... a vampire.  She doesn't have to have the ugly vampire face or glowing eyes... though keeping the fangs is probably a good idea.  So, that's what I'm thinking, do an actual vampire race version of Alva and spruce up poor Laelette while I'm at it.

 

I'm also looking at taking some of the NPCs I just did and making them available as followers or hirelings.  I always had the feeling Bethesda meant to do that with some of them like Salma, Anska, Eisa and Fjola... so... why not finish it for em.  I've got a bit more to learn about scripting and quest making to get that part done but my goal is to have those four available as either followers or hirelings.  I'll leave where Fjola might show up a surprise. ?

 

In the future I'll also be making other currently random, leveled, no-respawning NPCs into uniques.  For example some more of the Legion and Stormcloak soldiers at Helgen (default start) or possibly all the charmed Vigilants in Ruunvald might get overhauled.

 

Finally there's working towards the 2.0 Rebuild.  This is going to be a big one because it will dramatically change not just the appearance and number of random NPCs, it'll change how it all works.  It's also going to be a huge amount of work and will require me to build approximate 2,500 NPCs, all of them with facegen done in Racemenu and with KS Hair.  That "catalog" of NPCs will form the basis of all the leveled lists in 2.0.  What that means is say you encounter a bandit archer, well right now there are only about a dozen for each level group and there are six level groups for bandits.  So that's only 72 different looking female bandit archers of mixed races.  In v2.0 JUST the Nord female bandit archers will have approximately 400 different NPCs.  That's because there will be a library of about 400 "blank" female Nord NPCs that can be run through a template to turn them into bandits, warlocks, witches, necromancers, Vigilants, Stormcloaks, Legionaires, guards, hunters, etc.  So you will see a lot more variety in each type, but I'll also be reusing those base NPCs a lot.  That means its possible you'll see a bandit archer, a witch, and a Vigilant that all have the same face, but different stats, gear and factions.  With so many of each race, that should reduce how often you see that.  And with so many filling the leveled lists, it should also help make PAHE's "Naked Bandit Bug" less noticeable.  Its taken quite a bit of researching how all the leveled lists work, what traits and voice types get used by which groups, etc. to figure out how to make this new system possible, but I'm finally there.  Now its just having the time to make all those NPCs and with my improving skill in Racemenu, I plan to do my best to make em all look damn good!

 

What's more, that catalog of "blank NPCs" will get packed into its own esm / bsa.  Why?  First because once its finished I shouldn't need to update or change it ever again.  That file will be the biggest, probably around 2 GB in size.  So you'll only have to download it once.  That means the actual Prettier Bandits esp, the part that contains the updated leveled lists, templates, leveled actors, etc. will shrink down to maybe a couple MB is size, and that's the file that will continue to get updates, so lot less to download for each update.   Also, that big library would be available as its own resource for modders.  Ever work on a mod and you needed some good looking NPCs for a new village but you didn't have the time or skill to make them in CK or Racemenu... well now you won't have to, use that resource file and you'll have 2,500 "blank" NPCs ready to be made into shop keepers, barmaids, or whatever else you want them to be.

 

Finally, I'm working on learning to convert my mods to SE, so yes, an official SE conversion of PB done by me is in the works.  Soon as I finish figuring out how I keep screwing it up... ?

 

----------------------------------

 

Why'd it take so long to get here?

 

Lot of reasons for that... mostly real life intruding.  I'm just going to be brief and blunt about this.  In the last 10 years I've had my life ripped apart, I lost virtually everything I owned and had to move in with family to keep a roof over my head.  I started rebuilding my life and this past year had a lot of that torn apart all over again.  I'm currently looking for a new job and eventually a new place to live.  Its been rough and that's not always left me time for mods.  There were periods I simply had to shelve all this for months at a time.

 

I hate it.  I'm working to do what I can about it.

 

I also hate asking for anything or accepting help... I'm just stubborn like that.   But I've had some good friends who've tried to talk some sense into me.

 

So I have set up a SubscribeStar account.  I dragged my feet about it for a long time, but I eventually realized it was a good idea.  So here's the deal.  I'm not asking anyone to sign up, I'm just saying its there if you want to show me some support.  If you can't, if you don't want to... that's fine, you won't hear about it from me again.  I'm hoping it will generate some extra income and help pay some bills, that means I have to work a little less and more time I can spend working on my mods.  The more time I have, the faster I get things done and the faster all of you get new content.  For those that do subscribe you'll get early announcements about upcoming releases, previews of new projects, bonus content, access to discussions about some of the behind the scenes stuff, lore and spoilers about easter eggs built into my mods.  But mainly you'll be supporting me and helping me get more done.

 

Regardless my mods will ALWAYS be available for FREE.  That's a promise.

 

So... here's the link.  SubscribeStar-EinarTheRed

 

And lastly, thank you to every for the patience and the more than 30,000 downloads of just this mod over the years.  Its been a blast, here's hoping the future is even better.

 

In the immortal words of Douglas Adams

 

"Sorry for all the inconveniences"

[chaimhewast]

If the faces you come up with for the blanks are as good as those uniques, then 2.0 will be incredible. Hopefully once you work out the kinks with porting to SE and have the time to make those 2500 faces, I'll have figured out a way to batch edit them to work with Disparity and Diversity, since I expect rebuilding the facegen in the CK will just replace your hard work with a generic face.

[EinarrTheRed]

Thank you, glad you like them.  I think by the time I've done 2,500 faces I'll be a lot better and will likely revisit all the uniques and make them even better.  I'm hoping to be able to start work on that and be building even while I continue to expand the current version.

 

48 minutes ago, chaimhewast said:

since I expect rebuilding the facegen in the CK will just replace your hard work with a generic face.

I'm afraid so.  You could replace the skin textures or the body mesh and that wouldn't cause any issues at all. 

[rcy68]

MO is telling me that KS Hairdos esp is missing when I updated to newest version of PB. Will having KS and Apachii both installed conflict with each other?

 

Also, can I just install the female only version of KS hairdos, since having dudes with flowing manes like Fabio really sucks, for me?

 

Lastly, I assume that 'bald Keeper Caracette(or whatever her name is) is this mods' doing. I hate bald women. Womens hair is Justice! But that's just my opinion, so ignore at your leisure. She and Imp. Cpt. are also a little buggy for me, when I enslave them.(especially when I set them to fight for me) I'm not sure how you feel about  your girls being used in this way, so if you don't like that stuff, never mind.

 

Regardless, LOVE the mod. I can't play Skyrim without it. Thanks so much for all your work.

[karlpaws]

2 hours ago, rcy68 said:

MO is telling me that KS Hairdos esp is missing when I updated to newest version of PB. Will having KS and Apachii both installed conflict with each other?

 

Also, can I just install the female only version of KS hairdos, since having dudes with flowing manes like Fabio really sucks, for me?

 

Lastly, I assume that 'bald Keeper Caracette(or whatever her name is) is this mods' doing. I hate bald women. Womens hair is Justice! But that's just my opinion, so ignore at your leisure. She and Imp. Cpt. are also a little buggy for me, when I enslave them.(especially when I set them to fight for me) I'm not sure how you feel about  your girls being used in this way, so if you don't like that stuff, never mind.

 

I'm not sure about a male/female version of KS... I thought there was only a one. It won't conflict with Apachii, they just provide more hairs to choose. I've had KS installed alongside Apachii's 3 for years.

 

Carcette being bald might be because you don't have KS.  Might be something else going on though... if you install the new one midway through a playthrough, some of the NPCs will already be loaded by the game and will keep their old look.  You can select her in the console and use recycleactor. (I think that's the right one, might need resetinventory if she shows up not wearing her outfit.)  Double check the main page for that.

 

As I am not EtR I cannot say for sure, but I think the enslavement of any of these NPCs is half the reason for making them pretty.

[EinarrTheRed]

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

MO is telling me that KS Hairdos esp is missing when I updated to newest version of PB. Will having KS and Apachii both installed conflict with each other?

As per the update, KS Hairdos Renewal 1.8 or higher (both male and female) is now a requirement.  I'm in the process of converting the whole mod over to KS Hair and will be dropping Apachii Hair, but the process will take time.  I have both installed and have never seen any conflicts.

 

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

Also, can I just install the female only version of KS hairdos, since having dudes with flowing manes like Fabio really sucks, for me?

I used both when making it, but for now have only used female hair models (for the 20 unique NPCs that have been done so far, all of which are female), so I'm not 100% sure if the female only version will work, it might.  The only male NPCs this mod has updated have been the male Vigilants of Stendarr and they have a mix of hair styles.  However, they, like all the leveled NPCs are currently only using Apachii hair.

 

I am presently debating trying to go ahead and convert the rest over in either v1.1 or v1.2.  It'll be a big project because there are around 1,200 NPCs that will have to be converted from Apachii to KS Hair, thats a LOT of work.

 

As a note to the future, when I do start converting the leveled NPCs over I'll be using a mix of hair styles so there should be something for everyone no matter what your tastes are.

 

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

Lastly, I assume that 'bald Keeper Caracette(or whatever her name is) is this mods' doing. I hate bald women. Womens hair is Justice! But that's just my opinion, so ignore at your leisure. She and Imp. Cpt. are also a little buggy for me, when I enslave them.(especially when I set them to fight for me) I'm not sure how you feel about  your girls being used in this way, so if you don't like that stuff, never mind.

She should definitely not be bald, she should have blonde long hair worn in a braid.  Here's her preview.

 

Spoiler

Like all the unique NPCs she got an upgrade in both her appearance and her skills and perks.  If she does not look like this, then something went wrong.  I could just be not having KS Hair installed and that would be my first guess.  If you try installing just the female hair pack and it works okay, please let me know, I'm curious if that's possible.  But my recommendation is the full hair pack of both male and female hair and eventually it will be required once I start doing the several thousand other NPCs ?

 

Regarding their behavior as combat slaves, that's entirely within PAHE.  There is no scripting on them or anything, nor are they kept in any aliases by my mod.  All the changes are directly to their actor record, mainly in the form of an update to their appearance, stats, perks, and spells.  As for enslaving them, like Karl said, that's kinda why this mod exists.  Originally it was made because people wanted nicer.... we... prettier bandits.... to enslave. ?  Its grown a bit beyond that origin, to say the least, and now its a general appearance improvement mod, as well as making some select NPCs more of a challenge.  Any oddities in their behavior as slaves I would address to Clifton or Musje or the makers of any other PAHE mods (Diary of Mine, which is really good but I can't get to run stable in LE)

 

On that point, Carcette, the Imperial Captain (who if you do a Helgen start an you're low level, be careful because she can and will sometimes behead you... watch out for her backhand swings), Eisa Blackthorn and Salma all make good melee combat slaves.  Anska is a good spell blade as she will use a sword and spells in combination.  The Caller (at low level she's a royal pain to take down, bring back up and watch out for fireballs!) and Minorne are both fairly nasty combat mages.  An then there's the Vaermina Dreamgirls (Valana is one of my favs) and the Ritual Necromancers who are all fairly good at magic (but mostly are just eye candy).  I have built one who is a good combat healer yet, I'm still getting the knack of making those.

 

This is the Imperial Captain as she should look btw.

Spoiler

 

Actual skin tone may vary depending on what skin pack you have installed.  They will also use whatever body type you have installed, I use a custom UUNP I made so YMMV.

 

PS:  I love long hair on women, that's my personal bias, so I have to kind of consciously work at it to remember to include other hair styles.  Bald women, no way!!!!  ?  But I do try to include something for everyone, I'm making this mod for more than just myself, I do listen to the feedback.

[karlpaws]

Looks like all I have is KS 1.7 - I guess didn't check that before.  I would guess that I only have the females version, so that should be good enough for now. Might need to double check, unless there is a fomod that installs what you want, but I only have the one Esp that doesn't mention male or female.

[rcy68]

7 hours ago, EinarrTheRed said:

If you try installing just the female hair pack and it works okay, please let me know

The female only KS seems to be working fine. It's esp is named the same as what MO said was missing. Keeper has hair, now that I updated. She was bald in the last version. I just thought it was an homage to those bald priestesses in Oblivion in the Imp. capitol central temple, since everyone else had hair. As for the Imp Capt., I liked her better before. But you do you, that's fine. You're the one doing all the work, after all. Question: if I don't install the male KS hairs, is the only downside bald male Vigilants? I can live with that, if it means no dudes that belong on the cover of romance novels. I hated looking at them in the last version. I just killed them all after harvesting the ladies from the Hall, so I wouldn't have to look at them anymore. Fabio dudes...*shudders*...ugh! But that's just me.lol

 

I won't see the Wolf cave girls, since I already did that quest. They all ded. But I think the rest should still be alive. I try not to enter dungeons unless I have a reason to. I picked up Alva and Laelette a while back, so will be looking forward to an upgrade. Alva isn't bad, but Laelette is fugly as hell. And I just got Anska tonight, actually. But she didn't draw her dagger even once. And she had plenty of opportunities to, since I hid and let the drauger Defeat her to farm soulgems and milk, a la SGO3. But anyway...

 

I`ve been thinking of doing a restart, to lose a couple mods(like Beastess. Love it, but it's just so broken. All I really want from it is the 'breed me' shout and crawling on all fours when I sneak) and add a few. Would love to add MME and the Devious stuff, but there's just so much to those two, it kinda scares me piling them on top of the slavery mods. Slaves and cows decked out in bondage gear sounds awesome, but I don't know if my game could take it.

 

Lastly, I humbly beg you not to mess with the Greymane chick that works at the Bannered Mare. She's the hottest vanilla npc in the game. Even the crappy vanilla hair looks good on her. But that's just me. If you do it, you do it, and I'll have to live with it. But I can't promise I won't whine a little about it.lol  She's my favorite random nobody npc. I don't even enslave her since Whiterun just wouldn't be the same without her. And the blacksmith lady and that super freak, Ysolda. Suuuuure you want a mammoth tusk to sell to the kajiit. Riiiiiight. And I've got some prime real-estate just north of Morthal I`ll sell to anyone that believes that.?

 

Sorry man, as I've said many times in the past, I DO like to ramble on. The downside of being a loner geezer, I suppose.

[rcy68]

12 hours ago, karlpaws said:

I'm not sure about a male/female version of KS... I thought there was only a one. It won't conflict with Apachii, they just provide more hairs to choose. I've had KS installed alongside Apachii's 3 for years.

 

That's good to hear. So I figure as long as I keep the Bijin mods under them, things should be golden. I definitely don't want to bork that mod. I'd probably cry, if I did.lol

[EinarrTheRed]

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

The female only KS seems to be working fine. It's esp is named the same as what MO said was missing.

Good to know, thanks.

 

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

Keeper has hair, now that I updated. She was bald in the last version. I just thought it was an homage to those bald priestesses in Oblivion in the Imp. capitol central temple, since everyone else had hair.

Glad to hear.  Keep in mind that far as I know perks get baked into your save game, so if you've updated on an existing game Carcette and the others won't have all the combat perks I added.  They will have updated levels and stats, updates spells and updated appearance and gear though.  Nothing I can do about it just the way TES V works.

 

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

Question: if I don't install the male KS hairs, is the only downside bald male Vigilants?

All the other Vigilants (except the new Carcette) were done with Apachii hair, and I haven't redone them yet.  The old ones have a mix of hair styles.

 

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

I picked up Alva and Laelette a while back, so will be looking forward to an upgrade.

I haven't added Alva and Laelette in yet, just be clear, but I may in the future.  If I do, I will make Alva actually be a vampire, just without the ugly face and glowing eyes (but with the teeth).

 

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

And I just got Anska tonight, actually. But she didn't draw her dagger even once. And she had plenty of opportunities to, since I hid and let the drauger Defeat her to farm soulgems and milk, a la SGO3. But anyway...

Will double check her gear settings.  She should have a bow and a sword.

 

Oh an keep in mind on an existing game half the Vaermina Dreamgirls won't wake up, all six only wake up on a fresh game with PB installed.  Again, stuff that gets baked into your save game.   Sorry, nothing I can do about it, on an existing save they're just prettier corpses unfortunately (sneaky trick, raise them as undead with a spell, paralyze them and then PAHE enslave them... presto... live slaves).

 

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

Would love to add MME and the Devious stuff

MME isn't too bad, especially if I turn off the milk market stuff.  But Devious adds a ton of scripting that has killed games for me.  I've tried running DoM twice now and while I love what it adds to PAHE (it really gives the slaves more personality) its just too script heavy for LE, my games ended up being unstable and crash prone.   My normal load order is very stable and rarely crashes.  Pity about DoM, it seems like an absolutely great mod and slaves seem kinda boring without it.

 

6 hours ago, rcy68 said:

Lastly, I humbly beg you not to mess with the Greymane chick that works at the Bannered Mare. She's the hottest vanilla npc in the game. Even the crappy vanilla hair looks good on her. But that's just me. If you do it, you do it, and I'll have to live with it. But I can't promise I won't whine a little about it.lol  She's my favorite random nobody npc. I don't even enslave her since Whiterun just wouldn't be the same without her. And the blacksmith lady and that super freak, Ysolda. Suuuuure you want a mammoth tusk to sell to the kajiit. Riiiiiight. And I've got some prime real-estate just north of Morthal I`ll sell to anyone that believes that.

I won't be doing any of the Whiterun NPCs in Prettier Bandits.  This mod is mostly about updating villians and people you normally fight. 

 

However, I have another mod in progress that does a MAJOR overhaul of Whiterun and I do update Olfina Greymane.  But I am also keeping that mod lore friendly and trying to stay true to what Bethesda created.  You can read a lil about that project here...  I'm hoping to have an alpha release sometime this year, depending on how much free time I can find to work on it.

 

Also I won't be doing Illia or the witches of Darklight tower, they're getting their own mod that I'm working on for release later this year.

 

Finally, if you don't like one of the unique NPCs I change, its not hard to remove the change in TES Edit.  So there's always that option.

 

Enjoy!

[rcy68]

Thanks for the timely reply. The modders on this website are really a cut above the rest.

 

1 hour ago, EinarrTheRed said:

Glad to hear.  Keep in mind that far as I know perks get baked into your save game

Not a problem. Since the combat feature of PAHE is so buggy for me, I rarely use it. I only level it up for completionism purposes. And when they train combat in my HSH outdoor camps, due to the presence of a bunch of Wenches mods npcs, it turns into a war zone. Luckily, all the slaves seem to be practically unkillable, so it's not a huge deal. Merely annoying. And I'm leaning more and more toward a restart, so it'll probably be a non-issue soon. As long as they look good, I'm fine. They're just eye candy, and cash cows when I train them as hoes with TDF. If I really need a hot fighting force, I use followers.

 

1 hour ago, EinarrTheRed said:

I haven't added Alva and Laelette in yet, just be clear, but I may in the future.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I saw they were a potential future thing in one of your previous posts. But Laelette is extremely fugly, so it'd be nice. I have no problem with Alva.

 

1 hour ago, EinarrTheRed said:

Will double check her gear settings.  She should have a bow and a sword.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I grabbed her just before I updated PB. I thought you meant she was a spellsword to begin with, but she seemed to be a pure spellcaster. No need to do any checking because of me. You probably have enough on your plate already. As for the Vaermina girls, I haven't done that quest yet. I've mostly focused on the Buxom Wench Yuriana mods' quests. I just dabble with others to mix things up for some variety. To this day, I have yet to kill Alduin. I get Dragons spawning and Fus Ro Dah, then forget that Blades skank, what's-her-name even exists. I might do the Embassy quest for a hoot to slaughter some Thalmor and get a bunch of High elf slaves, but that's it. The only Daedric quest I've done is Merunes Razor, to get a couple Daedra studs for my slave camps. A shame there's no females. I loved enslaving those girls in Oblivion. Strong breeders.

 

1 hour ago, EinarrTheRed said:

MME isn't too bad, especially if I turn off the milk market stuff.  But Devious adds a ton of scripting that has killed games for me.

Great to hear about MME, and a crying shame about DD. I really miss those Devious mods. What's the deal with that new 'Toys' mod? A bargain basement version of DD? I just want some basic, no frills bondage gear that looks good and strap-ons/plugs. Fancy effects and quests are unnecessary. Skyrim modders are really hung up on 'added features'. Too much so, IMO. Just start with a basic version, then do a 'Deluxe', optional version for the people with super-computers. Throw us poor folk a bone! lol

But now I know I'll be able to get Elsie in the future. She's such an adorable follower. And I really want the milking machines. Manually milking everyone, although cool to level up Alchemy, is a HUGE pain.

 

1 hour ago, EinarrTheRed said:

I won't be doing any of the Whiterun NPCs in Prettier Bandits.  This mod is mostly about updating villians and people you normally fight.

That's good. sorry for the brainfart. It's called prettier bandits, not prettier npcs. My bad.

As for the overhaul mod you mentioned, I shy away from those. Pretty buildings are ok, but not worth risking potentially destabilizing my game and/or costing framerate. I only get 30 FPS on the opening start screen as it is. I spend FPS exclusively on people, creatures having proper 'hardware', and seeing both from a decent distance for sniping. Everything else in my game is butt-ugly. And I'm good with that. Majestic screenshots...pffsh...can my PC fuck them? No? Then not interested. 'Good enough' is good enough. lol

 

Man, I am just a cunt-hair away from deleting my saves and starting from scratch...AGAIN. Damn you, updates! Why do you have to be so awesome?! Will I EVER see lvl 70? One day, maybe...one day. *sigh*

 

Suggestions/Requests: Female Dremora and forsworn shamans. I miss the first and love collecting the second. Although, I think Deadly Wenches handles the shamans, but Wenches are a handful in the outdoor slave camps. I have yet to see a war break out in my Lakeview Manor basement slave cell add-on. I think I'm gonna shut down combat training outside and only do it indoors and see what happens. It'd be nice if it was that simple a fix. ?

 

You're a Gentleman and a Scholar. I SALUTE YOU!?