Prettier Bandits

[karlpaws]

It looks like I found my everything attacks anything else halfway across skyrim problem.

 

SkyTweak has an option under the Stealth category "Sneak Base Value" that you can decrease to make sneaking harder.  It ran from 0 down to -200.  I had been setting it at 0 to make sneaking easy but it seems that doing so either turns off something or just makes everyone really good at detecting things that are not sneaking. I have had it at -1 or -2 and NPCs that used to attack when I'd enter a cell or an area no longer do and a lot fewer of the bandits and roaming wizard types go running off.

[EinarrTheRed]

Glad to hear you got your problem solved.

 

I haven't gotten much done on PB this past week other than fixing my skin texture problem.  I think I was getting a lil burned out, plus Steam had a couple of games on sale I wanted to try so I've spent most of the week (where did it go???) playing Sins of the Solar Empire.  Good game btw.  Anyway, now that I've had a bit of a break I'm getting back to PB and looking to make some more progress this coming week.

 

My immediate goals are to get the necromancer warlocks expansion finished up, work on some sort of PB test cell where I (or anyone else) can set up screen shots, and finish getting the outfits for the new Vigilants put together.

[EinarrTheRed]

Time for the weekly update...

 

Its been a busy week with Christmas literally around the corner, visiting with friends and family.  I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped but I did get the warlock Necromancers finished up and I've got a start on the conjurers, fire, ice and storm warlocks.  I also did a LOT of clean up, from going back and setting all those unused warpaints and such to Color Average instead of whatever Bethesda had left them set as, to clearing out a few more dark eye makeups, rough skin textures and other tweaks.

 

Now for some bad news.  With the holidays and new year upon us, not to mention a great big Steam sale in which I just bagged a half dozen games :-D  I'm probably going to be incommunicado for a couple weeks, maybe three.  But never fear, I'll be back and back to work on the rest of the factions plus continuing to add the new overhauled Vigilants.

 

On the subject of the Vigilants, something occurred to me.  There are five level groups of Vigilants which I'm now splitting into the warrior types and magical types.  Most groups have some sort of name associated with each group.  For example warlocks are novices, adepts, masters, etc.; bandits are thugs, outlaws, etc.  So be thinking up some suggestions for the Vigilants level names, I'm thinking the warrior types might be something like Wardens, Guardians, Protectors, Knights and the magical types might be something like Novitiates, Initiates, Banishers or something like that.  Anyway, ideas welcome.

 

Now for some good news and a Xmas surprise.  Below is a link to v0.8.1 which includes all my afore mentioned progress.  So you get all the new and revised bandits, necromancers and as far as I've gotten on the other stuff.  I'm not posting this on the main download page, this is mainly for those of you who have followed this thread, been supportive, and offered feedback.  So Merry Christmas and enjoy!

 

Prettier Bandits v0.8.1

[EinarrTheRed]

Happy new year!

 

Not officially back yet, but sorta working on some stuff cause... can't help myself.  LOL   Here's what I'm up to and a few things I'd like some feedback on.

 

My current top priorities are to get the rest of the warlock faction expansion finished up, and also the witches.  That will take care of the last of the expansion of the existing PB content.  Also to get the framework for the new Vigilants sorted out.

 

Currently on the Vigilants I'm sorting their gear / outfit lists.  There are 5 level encounter groups for the Vigilants so I'm thinking the first group won't have any chance for magical gear.  Then the next groups would have a 5%, 15%, 25%, 35% each respectively.  Most gear would probably focus on bonuses to destruction magic, restoration, magic resist or health boost.  Weapons might have a chance to banish daedra or something.   Once I get the gear sorted I can start building the templates and from there its just a matter of creating the groups of actors for each list.

 

For the warlock conjurer's I've been considering updating their conjuring spells so that they actually conjure stuff in combat.  Right now conjurer's tend not to conjure anything very often.  I'm looking at ways to get the AI to put a higher priority at conjuring something up early in a fight and also to not re-conjure anything either if they have an atronach already or for a certain minimum time.  Still working on perfecting that before I add it into the mod.  This change would only affect the NPC conjurer's, not player spells and wouldn't alter the stats of the atronachs or anything, its just an AI tweak (which ironically has to be done in the spell and magic effect).

 

If you poked around in 8.1 you may have found a bit of an 'easter egg' (xmas egg???).  Included was an unfinished update to the Imperial Captain at Helgen.  I'm planning on finishing that for the next release.  My current version (which goes a bit beyond what I'd included in 8.1) makes her level with the character at a 1:1 ratio (meaning she'll always be whatever level the player's character is).  I haven't set her skills or perks yet other than what she already had, I'm thinking of giving her some one-handed skills equal to one of the WEAdventurers which would make her pretty competent in a fight, particularly once she gets some levels.  She is NOT named nor set as unique so PAHE's auto-renamer will still give her a name when she is enslaved.  Additionally, I had thought about making 2-3 versions of the captain (different appearances and possibly different skill sets, maybe one that is a 2H berserker, one that is a 1H tank, and maybe one that is a spellsword) and set these as a random list so that when you play through Helgen you randomly get one of them and each play through you won't know which will show.  Any real interest in that?

 

The above was part of me poking around at the Imperial legions, looking ahead toward doing that faction (along with the Stormcloaks) once I get the Vigilants and Hunters done.

 

Okay, that's about it for the news.  Hope everyone had happy holidays.  I found time to do a full re-install of Skyrim, cleaned up my load order a bit (got rid of some old mods that either weren't needed anymore, got replaced or I just wasn't interested in anymore).  Also finally got back to my Whiterun Revisited project, for now that's a personal project to update some stuff in Whiterun and expand it some.  For now I just finished up rebuilding Chillfurrow farm, added a new NPC living there, moved Nazeem and Ahlam into their new farm house, updated the various behavior packages and updated the Drunken Huntsmen after moving Nazeem and Ahlam out (Elrindir now sleeps upstairs for example).  Still working on a small side quest involving Nazeem, Ahlam and the new NPC.

 

Also got some work done on my magic mod, and learning a few more things about creating magical effects.  That's another personal project, mostly something for me to play around with, experiment and learn things.

 

 

 

[karlpaws]

Sounds good.  While I downloaded the preview I did not give it a through look through.  Have noticed some new looks though.

 

It seems like the Thalmor justiciars summon flame atronachs fairly often, though not always, so that might give you something to compare to the conjurers and see if there are any AI diffs.

 

Helgen captain leveling doesn't make sense to me, since you normally only see her at level 1, and only if a stormcloak, unless there is something else I don't know about.

 

As you're working on the spellcasting types, are you setting the spells they use as "known spells" on that actor or leaving them as is.. scripted or whatever does that?  I ask because one of the mods I use let you learn known spells from NPCs but so often NPCs do not actually know any.  It seems the College NPCs are the best targets for that.

[EinarrTheRed]

Yes, there are quite a lot of new faces and more coming.  I also cleaned up some of the previous ones some more as I noticed a few more cases of dark eye makeup or rough skin textures.  Although the warpaints had been set to 0 interpolation (a lot of it originally was that way by Bethesda) I tried to change them all to Color Average which is supposed to be the default setting when a tint isn't used.  This won't have a game effect, but it will make it a lil easier for me or anyone tweaking PB to suit themselves to track changes.  Plus it just help make the mod a lil more tidy and I like that.

 

Getting the AI to summon stuff can be tricky, and exactly what and when seems to depend on several factors including the level of the NPC, how much majicka they have and so forth.  If I change the spell for the NPCs it wouldn't be anything you would want to learn for your character as it would have the exact same game effect (conjures the same atronachs and so forth as now) any new spell would just have condition statements and AI priority settings to help guide the AI in making choices I want it to make.

 

The reason for having the Imperial Captain at Helgen level is if you enslave her.  Prettier Bandits was originally designed, and still intended, to be used along with PAHE.  So by making that change to the captain, she'll continue to gain levels even after being enslaved gradually becoming a stronger fighter / combat slave.  Since both PAHE and HSH current use the level and health of an NPC as a primary means of determining sale price, a slave that can level also gains value over time.  If you aren't using PAHE then the change to the captain won't make much difference to you.  The only reason to create multiple versions of the captain would just be for variety so that you get a little something different each play through.

 

EDIT:  Forgot to mention, I'm also experimenting more with custom make up colors in this latest batch.  Just working on adding a lil more variety.

[karlpaws]

Yes, there are quite a lot of new faces and more coming.  I also cleaned up some of the previous ones some more as I noticed a few more cases of dark eye makeup or rough skin textures.  Although the warpaints had been set to 0 interpolation (a lot of it originally was that way by Bethesda) I tried to change them all to Color Average which is supposed to be the default setting when a tint isn't used.  This won't have a game effect, but it will make it a lil easier for me or anyone tweaking PB to suit themselves to track changes.  Plus it just help make the mod a lil more tidy and I like that.

 

Getting the AI to summon stuff can be tricky, and exactly what and when seems to depend on several factors including the level of the NPC, how much majicka they have and so forth.  If I change the spell for the NPCs it wouldn't be anything you would want to learn for your character as it would have the exact same game effect (conjures the same atronachs and so forth as now) any new spell would just have condition statements and AI priority settings to help guide the AI in making choices I want it to make.

 

The reason for having the Imperial Captain at Helgen level is if you enslave her.  Prettier Bandits was originally designed, and still intended, to be used along with PAHE.  So by making that change to the captain, she'll continue to gain levels even after being enslaved gradually becoming a stronger fighter / combat slave.  Since both PAHE and HSH current use the level and health of an NPC as a primary means of determining sale price, a slave that can level also gains value over time.  If you aren't using PAHE then the change to the captain won't make much difference to you.  The only reason to create multiple versions of the captain would just be for variety so that you get a little something different each play through.

 

Well nix on the learning spells thing, though if you're editing the NPCs I'm not sure how well another mod to make them know the standard spells would interact as well. Usually not that much of an issue as I get more than enough gold to buy the spell books, but they tend to only show up on vendors after you have the perks and I don't always want to have my skill that high. Eh.

 

Good AI is hard, yeah.

 

I don't use followers all that much since I'm usually doing a variety of things that the system can't keep up with, like sneaking through impossible places or jumping off cliffs or just using gimicks to make me a friend of some faction.  Never found the NPC training mini games from some of the slave mods that interesting either, but that means more fun for someone else.

 

Having a differently armed and armored captain could make for an interesting build choice though. If someone wanted to pick how they were going to play on a randomness factor and used the gear they got from the intro to pick for them, having a randomly spawned couple NPCs would be nice for that concept.  I suppose you could use similar ideas for some other NPCs as well. I know there are some mods that mix up the composition of the Imperial patrols so they are not all imperial men. Stormcloaks are a bunch of racists but khajiit and bosmer Thalmor and everyone as Imperial Soldiers makes for variety.

[EinarrTheRed]

If I give the conjurer's a new conjuring spell, what I would do is delete the existing spell(s) from their spell list and drop the new ones in.  They'd then use that and there shouldn't be any conflict with another mod, only these conjurer's (and maybe the witches) would have the new spell, the old spells would still exist unaltered in the game so any mod or NPC using those would still have that and be completely unaffected.  Whether I go ahead and add it (or when) will depend on when I've got a reliable replacement that does what I intend, and right now I'm still sorting that out.

 

I can definitely look at doing a couple different versions of the captain at Helgen, maybe do something similar if you follow Hadvar though I'd have to look up who you fight because its been so long since I went that route I've forgotten what happens.  Heh, I always had a bit of a grudge at the Imps over that start.  Kinda like... "Let me get this straight, you kidnap me, tie me up, dress me in rags, and then you order me to the chopping block and you want me to trust you???  I don't think so ace... not happening."  I suspect I'm not alone in this.

 

As far as mixing up the Imperials, that will happen when I work on them for PB... will be adding some cute Imperial "soldierettes" (I think I just invented a sexist word LOL).  I like variety but I also like keeping things mostly lore friendly.

 

Speaking of Khajiit, downloaded a new female khajiit skin and... well... now I think I'm gonna have to add some Pretty Khajiit to the mod. 

[karlpaws]

If I give the conjurer's a new conjuring spell, what I would do is delete the existing spell(s) from their spell list and drop the new ones in.  They'd then use that and there shouldn't be any conflict with another mod, only these conjurer's (and maybe the witches) would have the new spell, the old spells would still exist unaltered in the game so any mod or NPC using those would still have that and be completely unaffected.  Whether I go ahead and add it (or when) will depend on when I've got a reliable replacement that does what I intend, and right now I'm still sorting that out.

 

I can definitely look at doing a couple different versions of the captain at Helgen, maybe do something similar if you follow Hadvar though I'd have to look up who you fight because its been so long since I went that route I've forgotten what happens.  Heh, I always had a bit of a grudge at the Imps over that start.  Kinda like... "Let me get this straight, you kidnap me, tie me up, dress me in rags, and then you order me to the chopping block and you want me to trust you???  I don't think so ace... not happening."  I suspect I'm not alone in this.

 

As far as mixing up the Imperials, that will happen when I work on them for PB... will be adding some cute Imperial "soldierettes" (I think I just invented a sexist word LOL).  I like variety but I also like keeping things mostly lore friendly.

 

Speaking of Khajiit, downloaded a new female khajiit skin and... well... now I think I'm gonna have to add some Pretty Khajiit to the mod. 

 

I have an argonian and khajiit replacer I like, but now I can't find the links. Had 3 options for each, a smoother stomach, ripped muscles and ... furrier I think.  Makes the females a little thinner too I think but look nice.

 

There is a mod I am using called Legionettes, I think, that mixes in female soldiers.  Uses in game voices too. Not sure if that's exactly sexist or not. If anyone is bothered, well they wouldn't qualify as soldiers so it wouldn't matter

 

Pretty sure Hadvar and the PC just fight two random Stormcloaks though Hadvar does try to talk them down and be reasonable. Might be able to replace one of them with a Son of Skyrim or other stormcloak officer type (from another cart you don't see?) Its pretty much just the murderous captain. Notice too that the imperials take prisoners and will escort them ... somewhere.  You never see stormcloaks with prisoners, do you?

Anyway I always pick the regimented and beaucratic Imperial side.  More likely to get by with bribes and blackmail and other business as usual.  There just isn't any reasoning with xenophobic religious fundamentalists.

[EinarrTheRed]

This is the khajiit female skin from Nexus that I mentioned.

 

Its funny, you have 4 female officers in the game (the Imperial Captain at Helgen, Brina Merelis in Dawnstar, Adelaissa Vendicci in the East Empire Company office in Windhelm, and of course Legate Rikke at Castle Dour in Solitude) and you sometimes find dead female imperial legionnaires, but you otherwise don't see them.  Well, there is a live (briefly) female legionnaire archer at Helgen right at the start, she's one of the two archers that shoots Lokir.  Ironically enough right after Alduin attacks when you run into the first tower the female archer becomes a male corpse which you run past.  Point being, game lore indicates there are female legionnaires, you just rarely ever see them and the few you do see are officers.  Always thought that was kind of odd, so PB will be working to remedy that once I get done with the Vigilants and hunters.

 

I'll have to take a look at the quest or maybe reload an early save point and run that side so I can see what can be done.  Replacing one of the stormcloaks with a female officer type, or maybe a tall berserker with big... umm... biceps...

 

An who said anything about reasoning with anyone, that's why my mage has fear and calm spells.  Don't forget to snear arrogantly and all the frightened nords.

[karlpaws]

This is the khajiit female skin from Nexus that I mentioned.

 

Its funny, you have 4 female officers in the game (the Imperial Captain at Helgen, Brina Merelis in Dawnstar, Adelaissa Vendicci in the East Empire Company office in Windhelm, and of course Legate Rikke at Castle Dour in Solitude) and you sometimes find dead female imperial legionnaires, but you otherwise don't see them.  Well, there is a live (briefly) female legionnaire archer at Helgen right at the start, she's one of the two archers that shoots Lokir.  Ironically enough right after Alduin attacks when you run into the first tower the female archer becomes a male corpse which you run past.  Point being, game lore indicates there are female legionnaires, you just rarely ever see them and the few you do see are officers.  Always thought that was kind of odd, so PB will be working to remedy that once I get done with the Vigilants and hunters.

 

I'll have to take a look at the quest or maybe reload an early save point and run that side so I can see what can be done.  Replacing one of the stormcloaks with a female officer type, or maybe a tall berserker with big... umm... biceps...

 

An who said anything about reasoning with anyone, that's why my mage has fear and calm spells.  Don't forget to snear arrogantly and all the frightened nords.

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's the one I have.  Check out the argonian one I think from the same author.

 

Bethesda devs got lazy with some of the leveled lists.  only thing that explains the imperial imbalance.  You'd think there would be a lot more imperials and orcs at a minimum.

 

Think Adelaissa is East Empire not Army but not sure on that.

[EinarrTheRed]

According to the actor file, Adelaisa is both.  She is a member of the Imperial Legion faction and the East Empire Company faction.  My take on it is that she's former legionnaire now employed by the company.  If you do the Rising East quest, she becomes available as a follower.

 

Skyrim is kind of sparsely populated in most regards when it comes to people.  Solitude is supposed to be a major city, but look at how few people actually live there.  Just a compromise they had to make on the game I suppose.  I've thought about doing another mod once I get PB finished or close to finished that tweaks and adds more wandering encounters.  For example make Faldrus into one of about 5 or so pilgrims going to the shrine of Azura and maybe set it so they are are always actually moving towards it when encountered.  Same for the priestess making a pilgrimage to the Gildagreen in Whirerun.  Change the farmer and his wife to select from a random list of 3-5 farmers and 3-5 wives so you get different mixes to make it seem like you're not meeting the same couple all the time (cause right now those poor sods have the WORST luck in Skyrim, apparently dragons hate them more than the Dragonborn!  LOL).  Maybe even add a chance for a 3rd NPC to appear with them, their daughter which might be a child or an adult daughter.  If PAHE is detected, it could enable some slave and slaver encounters.  Maybe have a chance that the farmer taking a cow to the giants might instead be taking a buxom slave... because I'm just twisted that way.     Just some ideas I've had on the back burner but haven't had time to really get to yet.

 

Before any of that I have 3 other mods I want to get finished up and released soon.  Pinewatch Redux, Mistwatch Redux and The High Inquisitor.  They've been sitting half done on my computer for awhile now and I need to get them finished.  Pinewatch Redux does a full custom appearance (including custom face sculpt) for Rigel Strong-arm and adds 3 prisoners to the bandit lair.  The prisoners can either be released in which case they run off and disappear, or if PAHE is detected you get a dialog option to enslave them on the spot.  Mistwatch Redux does the same for Fjola and adds 2 prisoners with the addition that each prisoner also offers an escort quest to take them home for a reward.  The High Inquisitor updates the old Thalmor Embassy in Solitude (which is currently empty because Bethesda built it and then didn't use it) and populates it with a sexy high inquisitor, some guards and some prisoners that can be rescued or enslaved.  Any of the mods can be used on their own, in combination, with or without PAHE.

 

If I get myself real motivated, this could be a very productive year for me mod-wise. 

 

Speaking of being productive...  I've been making progress on finishing up the expansion of the warlock faction.  As of this writing the Fire, Ice and Storm warlocks are all 2/3 done.  I just have the the 05 and 06 groups for each left to do.  The conjurer's are only about 1/3 done and I'm still mulling over what to do with their conjuring spells.  I've got a rough outline of how I'm going to build the equipment tables for the new Vigilants, and once I get that done I'll post some sort of info about it.  I really need to do an SDK for this mod at some point I suppose, just to document everything.  Once I get the gear for the Vigilants sorted I can finish putting their templates together and that will have them ready for me to start building the actual groups of NPCs

[karlpaws]

According to the actor file, Adelaisa is both.  She is a member of the Imperial Legion faction and the East Empire Company faction.  My take on it is that she's former legionnaire now employed by the company.  If you do the Rising East quest, she becomes available as a follower.

 

Skyrim is kind of sparsely populated in most regards when it comes to people.  Solitude is supposed to be a major city, but look at how few people actually live there.  Just a compromise they had to make on the game I suppose.  I've thought about doing another mod once I get PB finished or close to finished that tweaks and adds more wandering encounters.  For example make Faldrus into one of about 5 or so pilgrims going to the shrine of Azura and maybe set it so they are are always actually moving towards it when encountered.  Same for the priestess making a pilgrimage to the Gildagreen in Whirerun.  Change the farmer and his wife to select from a random list of 3-5 farmers and 3-5 wives so you get different mixes to make it seem like you're not meeting the same couple all the time (cause right now those poor sods have the WORST luck in Skyrim, apparently dragons hate them more than the Dragonborn!  LOL).  Maybe even add a chance for a 3rd NPC to appear with them, their daughter which might be a child or an adult daughter.  If PAHE is detected, it could enable some slave and slaver encounters.  Maybe have a chance that the farmer taking a cow to the giants might instead be taking a buxom slave... because I'm just twisted that way.     Just some ideas I've had on the back burner but haven't had time to really get to yet.

 

Before any of that I have 3 other mods I want to get finished up and released soon.  Pinewatch Redux, Mistwatch Redux and The High Inquisitor.  They've been sitting half done on my computer for awhile now and I need to get them finished.  Pinewatch Redux does a full custom appearance (including custom face sculpt) for Rigel Strong-arm and adds 3 prisoners to the bandit lair.  The prisoners can either be released in which case they run off and disappear, or if PAHE is detected you get a dialog option to enslave them on the spot.  Mistwatch Redux does the same for Fjola and adds 2 prisoners with the addition that each prisoner also offers an escort quest to take them home for a reward.  The High Inquisitor updates the old Thalmor Embassy in Solitude (which is currently empty because Bethesda built it and then didn't use it) and populates it with a sexy high inquisitor, some guards and some prisoners that can be rescued or enslaved.  Any of the mods can be used on their own, in combination, with or without PAHE.

 

If I get myself real motivated, this could be a very productive year for me mod-wise. 

 

Speaking of being productive...  I've been making progress on finishing up the expansion of the warlock faction.  As of this writing the Fire, Ice and Storm warlocks are all 2/3 done.  I just have the the 05 and 06 groups for each left to do.  The conjurer's are only about 1/3 done and I'm still mulling over what to do with their conjuring spells.  I've got a rough outline of how I'm going to build the equipment tables for the new Vigilants, and once I get that done I'll post some sort of info about it.  I really need to do an SDK for this mod at some point I suppose, just to document everything.  Once I get the gear for the Vigilants sorted I can finish putting their templates together and that will have them ready for me to start building the actual groups of NPCs

 

Wasn't sure if the East Empire company was an empire owned entity in which case she could be Legion and Company, retired, or with the Legion and seconded to the Company as you lead a bunch of troops, not mercenaries (IIRC), to the island.

 

Video games in general scale down worlds just to make it not take 3 weeks to walk from Riverwood to Whiterun or however long that would really take. Realistically, that dragon should either have any towns in the area torched if it wanted to, or be done for the month in which case they're more than safe.  It is interesting how Dark Brotherhood, post quest chain, sends you to kill Visiting Merchant or Wandering Mercenary while the Thieves Guild can have you rob 3 golden objects of great wealth from any little shack occupied by a named NPC that can be a quest target, just because they do not have enough people in game.

 

Faldrus leading a group of pilgrims would be fine as far as I know, but the Solutions mod has interactions with both the farmer and wife and the farmer and cow.  Depending on your twist, Solutions option of the PC going to the giant's mound instead of the cow might appeal.  Maybe it would be you leading a slave instead of the farmer and cow. Not sure I've met the priestess heading to the Gildergreen.

 

I used to have Thalmor in the Embassy, usually 4-5 NPCs with a mix of Inquisitors and soldiers.  Often a great spot to get my slut on and then rob the place if I started there. I got a mod that was supposed to change some things, but instead it emptied the place out.  I have to remember to disable that mod next time and see if it repopulates itm (or find out if something else I've disabled put the NPCs in).

 

I would like to try the Mistwatch idea. I've long thought that would make for an interesting bandit type start since that location has its own independent faction and the game already makes them friendly if you do the quest the right way.  Starting as one of her crew and either doing the "I'm bored, check ya later" type start most of them are, or some bandit type radiant quests for a while (like a dark version of the non-existant Vigilant quests people want) until the end of a story of some sort.  It could even start with you spawning in the top and talking to Fjola about some guy they spotted sneaking in the tower. Either you go down and pretend to be someone sneaking in with him, or encounter an "Adventurer" sneaking up and defeat him, eventually sending Christer on his way.  For those of us without slaver ambitions, the escort quests could be taking the captives home after ransom has been paid.  Just pop an executioner's hood on them till you're in Darkwater Crossing or something.

[EinarrTheRed]

The idea I had for Faldrus wouldn't be him leading a a group, but replacing him with a list of 5 or so random pilgrims.  That way each time that particular encounter spawns you aren't getting the same one and if one of them dies (Faldrus seems to catch arrows in the back in my game for some reason ) it doesn't seem so much like its some guy who just won't die and go away.  I probably wouldn't even name them, just call them Azura Pilgrim or something... that way they seem more generic.

 

The priestess going to the Gildagreen has a dog with her, nothing particularly special about her except that if she gets killed the encounter does stop appearing (Faldrus doesn't, he just keeps coming back).  Same thing here, replace the one NPC Bethesda gave us with a possible list of 5 or so NPCs of which one gets randomly selected each time.

 

The idea for the farmer and his wife shouldn't cause an issue with the mod you mentioned.  You'd still see a farmer, and his wife (with maybe the occasional addition of a daughter).  What would be different is their appearance.  Again, the idea here is to make it seem less like you're meeting the same poor couple over and over, but create more of an illusion of it being different farmers that have lost their farm to a dragon attack.   The idea for the farmer and his cow... that was just me being twisted.  LOL

 

Keep in mind there are two Thalmor embassies.  One is outside Solitude on top of the mountain there, that one should be populated as its the one Bethesda fully developed.  The other one is inside Solitude next to Castle Dour and IIRC is referred to as the Thalmor HQ.  In an unmodded game its not populated, though it is decorated and there is loot you can simply walk in and take (no one to stop you and a lot of it isn't even marked as owned).  If that one is normally populated in your games then you've got a mod doing that.  The mod I started populates it, adds a small prison and torture area in the basement, along with a couple of prisoners.

 

Mistwatch was just one of those locations I'd thought needed and could use a bit more tweaking.  You get this set up that they're kidnapping women and ransoming them but when you go through the place the only captive they have is dead.  I figured it needed more captives, live ones.  I've also thought about maybe having some alternate option where instead of killing Fjola you can maybe recruit her as a follower but I haven't thought that through yet.  One other idea I've considered is that after you finish the quest there, set it up so that normal bandits respawn and it becomes a location you can repeatedly raid and loot.  One of these days I'd eventually like to do a separate mod that would let you take the place over, clean it up and turn it into a player home / fortress.

 

 

 

[karlpaws]

The priestess going to the Gildagreen has a dog with her, nothing particularly special

 

The idea for the farmer and his wife shouldn't cause an issue with the mod you mentioned.  You'd still see a farmer, and his wife (with maybe the occasional addition of a daughter).

 

  The other one is inside Solitude next to Castle Dour and IIRC is referred to as the Thalmor HQ.

 

Mistwatch was just one of those locations I'd thought needed and could use a bit more tweaking.  You get this set up that they're kidnapping women and ransoming them but when you go through the place the only captive they have is dead.  I figured it needed more captives, live ones.  I've also thought about maybe having some alternate option where instead of killing Fjola you can maybe recruit her as a follower but I haven't thought that through yet.  One other idea I've considered is that after you finish the quest there, set it up so that normal bandits respawn and it becomes a location you can repeatedly raid and loot.  One of these days I'd eventually like to do a separate mod that would let you take the place over, clean it up and turn it into a player home / fortress.

 

Might be the priestess is a low chance encounter or relies on doing something I haven't done much.

 

Farmer and wife encounter is modded by Solutions so you can offer gold for sex with one or the other, or more gold for both (25/25/50 iirc). Just changing the appearance shouldn't bother that, but a random look could be nice.  I don't see them all that often to bother me but the general idea is great.

 

Thalmor HQ might be filled by Cutting Room Floor, and if you're not using that you really should look at it.  So many little bits of the game that got cut out are put back in, though there are occasional conflicts with other terrain and house mods that modded the base game and put things where stuff got cut.  Stonehills is a good example. 

 

Mistwatch might be another CRF edit, or I have more mods. Usually (after I've killed every bandit there or just snuck up) I can talk to Fjola and offer to run Christer off. If you do not kill her the bandits do become friendly and you can run back down, tell him she's either dead or not there and he leaves, then you can get a quest reward from her.  Tagging her with the PotentialFollowerFaction would be good but that's all that's necessary from that point.

[EinarrTheRed]

I looked at Cuttingroom Floor and skipped it, some of it seemed nice but other parts I knew I wouldn't care for or would mess with things I was doing or planning to do.  If/when I get my Inquisitor mod done, most likely just dropping it in after CRF should work fine.

 

I never noticed if the bandits become friendly or not, by the time I always got to Fjola they were all slightly dead.  IIRC I have played it where I lied to Chister and went back to Fjola and she became friendly but she also disappeared after that... if I remember that right.  When I get back to work on the mod I'll need to look over the quest again.  But far as I can remember the bandits you kill never respawn, which is easy to change.  Always good to have another place too loot.

 

Still working on Prettier Bandits, trying to get the rest of the group 05 warlocks finished up and then move on to the top level group 06.  One other idea I've been pondering is to maybe go back to the bandit chiefs, boss warlocks, etc and set them so they have a minimum level but can continue to gain levels with no level cap.  That would make them a bit like the WEAdventurers, and they'd continue to be more of a challenge even after your character has gotten up to 60+ levels.

 

Eventually I think I want to go back and rework the WEAdventurer's again, they pop up reasonably often and probably need 5-8 appearance "packages" per type to keep enough variety you don't see the same ones too often.  Since they're also kind of a special case I think later, once I'm a bit more practiced, I'd like to do custom face sculpts for each.  Would take some time but I think in their case it would be worth it.

 

For now though I just gotta focus on getting the rest of these warlocks and witches done, build my Vigilant templates and get them done so I can get the next version out the door.  An hopefully get some better screen shots with the next release.

[karlpaws]

Did figure out that Cutting Room Floor does populate the Thalmor HQ in Solitude.  Inconsequential NPCs had a patch that was just supposed to remove some duplicate banners and a couple other things that both add, but apparently it removes a lot more than it should. Think I'll just not bother with that patch as the double banners are barely noticeable.

[Maddac]

Did figure out that Cutting Room Floor does populate the Thalmor HQ in Solitude.  Inconsequential NPCs had a patch that was just supposed to remove some duplicate banners and a couple other things that both add, but apparently it removes a lot more than it should. Think I'll just not bother with that patch as the double banners are barely noticeable.

 

i fixed that patch in tes5edit. whoever did it didnt put the correct info from CRF into it. have a look and tell me if you have any problems with it

Inconsequential NPCs - CRF Compatibility Patch.esp

[karlpaws]

 

Did figure out that Cutting Room Floor does populate the Thalmor HQ in Solitude.  Inconsequential NPCs had a patch that was just supposed to remove some duplicate banners and a couple other things that both add, but apparently it removes a lot more than it should. Think I'll just not bother with that patch as the double banners are barely noticeable.

 

i fixed that patch in tes5edit. whoever did it didnt put the correct info from CRF into it. have a look and tell me if you have any problems with it

 

 

Thought I got mine right from the INcon NPCs Nexus page.  Did re-read what it was supposed to do and decided I just wouldn't bother. Sounded like the largest issue was post-Stormcloak win of the Civil war but I doubt I'll even go in the HQ if I do take that path. A couple extra NPCs inside won't bother me much.

[Maddac]

 

 

Did figure out that Cutting Room Floor does populate the Thalmor HQ in Solitude.  Inconsequential NPCs had a patch that was just supposed to remove some duplicate banners and a couple other things that both add, but apparently it removes a lot more than it should. Think I'll just not bother with that patch as the double banners are barely noticeable.

 

i fixed that patch in tes5edit. whoever did it didnt put the correct info from CRF into it. have a look and tell me if you have any problems with it

 

 

Thought I got mine right from the INcon NPCs Nexus page.  Did re-read what it was supposed to do and decided I just wouldn't bother. Sounded like the largest issue was post-Stormcloak win of the Civil war but I doubt I'll even go in the HQ if I do take that path. A couple extra NPCs inside won't bother me much.

 

the patch on the nexus page is incomplete, thats why i fixed it. and it fixes the duplicate banners etc, not npcs. CRF changes the thalmor HQ details and as Inconsequential NPC loads after it, that changes the details back to original. the patch is needed to implement the changes that CRF makes to the HQ. load my version of the patch after Inconsequential NPC's and it restores the HQ to the CRF version. I have spent alot of time going through mods and testing in game to make sure they dont break it, and have tweaked quite a few in tes5edit to make a stable game.

 

to understand what i mean you would need to see it in tes5edit, load the nexus version of the patch and the errors are pretty obvious if you know how to use tes5edit and what to look for. you could even rename my esp adding a 1 at the end and load both nexus and mine in tes5edit and compare.

 

 

[karlpaws]

TES edit isn't something I've quite figured out yet... haven't really wanted to I guess.

 

There are a lot of non-visible changes CRF made besides the banners and NPCs?

[EinarrTheRed]

Time for another update.

 

I've managed to build my first big station complex in full operation and start a second one.  Bought two Skiron class corvettes and fully outfitted them as well as being close to having enough to buy a Deimos class frigate... wait... wrong game.

 

Kidding aside, the above is half of why I've been a lil quiet.  I got a little distracted playing X3 Terran Conflict.  Fairly cool game despite a few bugs and an awkard GUI.  But I'm getting back to work on my Skyrim projects now.

 

So for an actual update on Prettier Bandits.

 

Working on wrapping up the last of the warlock expansion.  I've also been going back and redoing a few of the previous warlocks to fix some missed make up issues, skin texture issues, etc.

 

One other thing I've been doing is varying they heights more, from 0.93 to 1.05 just to add a lil more variety that way.  I've also been experimenting with more custom colors in lip gloss, eye make up and cheek accents.  Being a straight guy, make up ain't something I would claim to know a lot about so I asked a couple of friends (one of whom is a professional make up artist) for some tips and I've been trying to apply what I've hopefully learned within the options I have available.  At any rate, there's more variety in the color choices for the latest batch of NPCs if nothing else.

 

I've pretty much got the new outfits for the Vigilants worked out and set up and I've also started building the base templates for them.  So we now have the beginnings of Vigilant Crusaders and Vigilant Wardens.  Crusaders, as you might guess, are the warrior / knight types.  I figured... sort of religious order, warriors, zealous knights --> crusades --> crusaders... and there you go.  The Wardens are the more magical types, their name came basically from me wanting something other than mages, wizards, warlocks... these guys protect from daedra... magical protections are called wards... wards... Wardens... and there you go.

 

As for their actual gear, depending on your character's level you'll see Crusaders in anything from Iron to Steel to Steel Plate armor, it may all be the same type or a mix of pieces.  At level 25+ there may be some enchanted pieces.  Wardens wear robes which are more likely to be enchanted, ordinary boots and may have gauntlets and/or enchanted circlets (women) or hoods (men).  I'm also planning to give all the Crusaders shields (since they all wear an amulet that boosts blocking) and possibly give the Wardens a 25-50% chance of having a shield.

 

Anyway I'm hoping to have the rest of the templates for the new Crusaders and Wardens hammered out by the end of this week, so next week should be ready to start actually making the new NPCs.

 

I still need to do a custom face sculpt for Keeper Carcette to really spiffy her up, maybe get to that next week.  Her behavior packages have her sleep in her bed at night but by day she's pretty much glued to that alter.  I plan to give her more of a daytime sandbox routine, maybe even have her wander outside sometimes.  Just to give her a lil more "life".

 

Also, I removed some changes to Luah Al-skaven, the boss NPC at Ansilvund.  I'd incorrectly set her to use a leveled list as her template and this caused the quest there to bug.  For now I just removed all the changes and reset her back to her default vanilla self.

 

That's all for now.  Now back to scrapping up enough credits for the Deimos... er... I mean working on my mod.

 

 

[EinarrTheRed]

Weekend update

 

I have the equipment lists for the new Vigilant Crusaders and Wardens finished and I've put together the base and leveled templates for each.

 

Crusaders use the same combat skill package as the original Vigilants, Wardens use the HumanMageConjurer skill package.  For perks I gave the Crusaders the following set of perks:

RestorationNovice

Juggernaut00

Armsman00

Armsman20

SavageStrike

ShieldWall00

DeflectArrows

FightingStance

 

Crusaders also know the Healing spell.

 

This makes them a cut above the original Vigilants without making them overly tough.

 

Wardens get the following perks and spells:

AlterationNovice

AlterationApprentice

RestorationNovice

RestorationApprentice

Regeneration

DestructionNovice

DestructionApprentice

DestructionAdept

Augmented Flames

 

Stoneflesh

BanishDaedra

WardLesser

FlameCloak

Flames

Firebolt

Candlelight

TurnUndead

FastHealing

 

Again, bit more skilled but far from being a big threat, they should however fair a lil better against the lesser vampires, daedra and undead now.  From initial test, the higher level wardens do seem to try to banish lesser daedra and they do heal themselves if somewhat sporadically.

 

For the female vigilants I'm adding Breton and Imperials to the Nords, Dunmer and Redguard; all of which use the FemaleEvenToned voice because this is the only female voice type that has the full Vigilant dialog audio.  For the male Vigilants I'm adding some Bretons to the Nords, both of which will use the EvenTonedHeavilyAccented, which is the only male voice with all the audio dialog.  I'm not adding any other male races because of the heavy accent, I think its believable with the Bretons, but I just can't see it with Imperials or Redguard or others.

 

I did get started making the first set of actors but then got interrupted when I pretty sick this week, spent all day Friday in bed.  I'm recovering now but its put me a little behind where I wanted to be.

 

I'm also thinking of overhauling the witches so that they use the various warlocks and templates for both spells, stats and appearance.  This would not only save me some work but also cut down on the file size of the mod (fewer facegen data sets to export) and I could increase the variety of witches while letting them share the appearance of the warlocks.  I'm open to feedback on this.  Any thoughts?

 

Hopefully next week I'll feel up to getting the new Vigilant actors built and some preview screen shots, plus take a crack at a custom appearance for Keeper Carcette. 

[karlpaws]

I'm working on a heavy head cold myself, and while not confined to bed I've found I just have enough energy to post up some of the gameplay story I was working on the last week or so.

 

At first I read "Conjurer skill package" and thought they'd be killing each other as heretics, but that's just the package name with the most applicable skills, mostly the banish ones, right? Some of that ends up Restoration too, but some Skyrim lore just doesn't make sense sometimes. Do atronachs count as daedra for the banish spells? I didn't think so but since I never see them fighting actual daedra but you say they do cast the spells I realized I might be wrong. Too used to the minor demons from Morrowind and Oblivion. Scamps, daedroths, winged twilights and such would kinda be nice to have back, but the magic dismissing nords probably make that lore-unlikely.

 

I am definitely all for reducing mod file size and you could probably mix more of the appearances but the mohawks and other wilder hairs probably wouldn't look quite right on vigilants and thalmor.

[EinarrTheRed]

Its the package the determines their health / magicka / stamina mix and the progression in various skills.  In other words it leans towards high magicka, skills in conjuration and secondary skills in some other magical skills.  You find it on the Stats tab.  For combat AI, the Wardens use the HumanMage combat AI which is what most sentient spell casters in the game use.

 

Yes, atronachs count as daedra for banishment spells (atronachs actually are supposed to be a form of daedra and apparently the Vigilants are supposed to be hostile if you have one conjured but they don't seem to).  Atronachs tend to be the primary target of them since they appear more often in the game.  The high level conjurer warlocks will not only sometimes banish your atronachs, they'll steal control of them as well which was always annoying when I play a mage focused character.  It gave me the idea that Vigilant Wardens that could banish atronachs might be an interesting switch up.  Previously Vigilants had no such spell ability and were pretty limited in what they could do.

 

The new Wardens can banish daedra (well lesser ones anyway) while the Crusaders swing swords and have a chance to cut something's head off (always a handy way to end a vampire permanently). 

 

I wish we had more minor daedra as well.  I've got a magic mod I was building for my own use and one of my projects in it is to add a "Mephit" which is a minor daedra I invented.  For now it uses a gargoyle body shrunk down in size, added a flaming aura to it so the lil guy is burning, and he's supposed to toss firebolts but I couldn't get the spell casting to work because gargoyles don't normally have the casting animation (I think that was the problem).  Then I got distracted with other stuff and never got back to experimenting with adding the casting animations in to see if it would work properly then. 

 

I'd love to import new meshes and such to Skyrim, but I never seem to find the time to learn how.  Too many irons in the fire.

 

Originally I had some of the mohawks and other odder looking hair types on the bandits, but nobody seemed to like them so I eventually removed them all.

 

I'm shaving off file size where I can but unfortunately its going to get much bigger before the project is done.  Its something I'm giving a lot of thought to for Smexy Bandits and ways to avoid it without compromising variety.

 

Anyway, get well soon.  Working doing the same myself.