Changing and restoring NPC/Follower armor

[Blackdog308]

Hello everyone,

 

I ran into a problem playing around with this mod yesterday: Follower Tweaks One component of it is to allow Followers to wear whatever armor you give them. A side effect is that all of the potential Followers will be nude by default, because they do not have armor in their inventories. This is a common problem if you read the posts section. Uninstalling the mod appears to have fixed the problem, but it destroyed all of the armor in my current follower's inventory, and she is now stark naked.

 

Is there a mod that allows me to change or restore the armors of my followers, spouse, stewards, etc. without affecting potential followers that I have not picked up yet? I would like for my followers to appear as if they are progressing with me through changes in armor and have spouse wearing something other than full plate armor, etc. However, I don't want to see a bunch of nude NPC's running around town. I am still traumatized from when Benor wanted to fight me wearing nothing but a dirty loin cloth.

 

Thanks!

[Shadeybladey]

There is Amazing Follower Tweaks (which allows 5 followers) and UFO (which allows 15).

 

I use UFO:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14037/

 

You can tell each NPC individually to dress better and can then swap armour, weapons and other items in their inventory.

 

Dismiss all your current followers first, making sure they don't have any items you have given them.

 

DO NOT use NMM to install UFO - it absolutely MUST be installed manually according to the instructions and MUST go last in load order except for World Map Min/Max Height Tweak, DESPITE what BOSS does.

 

Then you MUST use the Vanilla launcher to complete the installation, save and exit, then you can use the SKSE launcher forever after.

 

To uninstall, follow the instructions. UFO is designed to reset the NPCs to Vanilla and has scripts to remove all traces of the mod from your game. If all mods were this well made, we'd all be better off.

 

Also READ the readme and copy/paste the description page to Word or Notepad and READ it. Carefully.

 

It is a little temperamental with patch 1.9.32.0.8, but I find it works perfectly as it used to, as long as you do not later use NMM to install another mod. I had to dismiss my followers, remove UFO manually according to the instructions, add more mods with NMM, then install UFO manually again. According to the instruction.

 

So I do not bother with NMM anymore. I install everything manually and keep track of everything myself.

 

Good Luck!

 

~.~

[Blackdog308]

That is a bit intimidating as I just started playing around with mods a week ago. However, it seems to be exactly what I am looking for! What about the other you mentioned, Amazing Follower Tweaks? Can it do what I am looking for and does it work with NMM? I am searching for it now.

 

Thanks

 

Edit: It appears to do what I am looking for in a mod, but I can't test it until I get home tonight. In the meantime, is there any special do's and dont's when installing like UFO?

[Shadeybladey]

I have not used Amazing Follower Tweaks (AFT), so I don't know, but always read the instructions before installing anything. I think the functions are pretty much the same, or perhaps even a little more sophisticated than UFO, but it only allows 5 followers and I had 15 at my Pocket Empire Builder stockade.

 

With patch 1.9.32.0.8, they all started walking home, so I had to get all my gear back, dismiss them, uninstall, save, reinstall and get them all back again!

 

Then I used NMM for another mod, and UFO broke, so I had to do it all again.

 

AFT does not have this problem as it has been updated for 1.9.32.0.8, but the author was not interested in making more followers available, so I stuck with UFO as it works well (except with Serana and some other DLC followers).

 

The one you were using before you posted has not been updated for over a year, so some changes to the way Papyrus works may have caused that glitch.

 

NMM is quite good for beginners as it removes things like textures, meshes, scripts and other loose files when you uninstall a mod. But if there are multiple esp files in the mod zip it will install ALL of them, which is not so good. So use BOSS and it usually tells you which ones you should remove or use only one of.

 

http://code.google.com/p/better-oblivion-sorting-software/downloads/list

 

But note that BOSS is not 100% accurate, does not recognise all mods and some mods need sorting manually, like UFO. But it is a very good start to sorting your load order. Experiment and experience will eventually fill in the gaps.

~.~

[Blackdog308]

Thanks for the explanations! They are very helpful. I definitely want Vilja and Hoth as followers, so I will have to do some research on how UFO and AFT work with them. I am glad you gave a link to the BOSS download because I have seen many references to it but I didn't see it here on Nexus. It's something else for me to experiment with tonight. Slowly all of this is becoming less intimidating.

[Shadeybladey]

That's the way it works, bit by bit!

 

Glad to be of help. I started Skyrim 16 months ago and did a lot of research and got a lot of help from other people, so it's nice to put something back.

 

Other things you might need to know:

 

MOST IMPORTANT

SKSE is a script extender needed by a lot of very good mods, such as the indispensable, most essential SkyUI (if you use keyboard and mouse). SKSE is NOT a mod itself, so it does NOT go in the DATA folder and should not be installed with NMM.

 

http://skse.silverlock.org/

 

SKSE has three files:

skse_loader.exe

skse_1_9_32.dll

skse_steam_loader.dll

 

These go in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim

 

The same folder that has TESV.exe

 

SKSE also has a Scripts folder that goes in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data\

 

 

Mods also go in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data

 

*.esp is an Elder Scrolls Plug-in file- this has changes to items found in the CK that override Vanilla. Almost all mods have an esp, but not all.

 

*.bsa I think is Bethesda Script Archive, but it might stand for something else, but it DOES contain scripts, sounds, textures, meshes and other things the mod needs. Not all mods have bsa files.

 

In the DATA folder, you may have other folders for mod elements such as:

meshes - the 3D shapes of objects (*.nif)

textures - the colours that wrap around the meshes (*.dds)

sounds

scripts

and so on.

 

These folders contain "loose files", which are not archived in a bsa. Some mods have loose files instead of bsa files and NMM is good for keeping track of those and removing them when you uninstall. Loose files ALWAYS take priority over bsa files.

 

Some mods do not need a bsa OR loose files and so just have an esp file - these just change things in the CK like item values, damage, cost, perks, new spells etc.

 

Some mods might not have an esp either - these may be mesh and texture replacers for armour, weapons, body and face shapes etc that go in those folders. Sometimes these have multiple, alternative mods in one zip and you have to choose, so be careful if NMM adds them all at once.

 

E.G.

A Quality World Map v8.0 – All Roads, Clear Skies

HQ3DMap - Meshes Hi-Res

Hold Borders - New - All Roads

 

 

Others are *.dll mods that change other things and go in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data\SKSE\Plugins folder

 

E.G.

CFM_extensions.dll
MDX_NoPoisonDialogs.dll
Smart Souls.dll

 

 

Other mods have modified *.swf files, that go in the

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data\Interface folder, such as

 

sleepwaitmenu.swf for No Boring Sleep Wait

favoritesmenu.swf for Categorized Favorites menu

map.swf for Legwon's Coloured Map and HUD Markers

 

 

Another thing I and other newbies fell foul of at first is tweaking the ini files.

 

Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini are in

C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Skyrim

 

There is also a default, backup SkyrimPrefs.ini in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Skyrim

 

But tweaking that has no effect at all and it gets replaced if you launch on-line.

 

 

Finally, to get the most out of BOSS I have a shortcut on my desktop to:

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Skyrim

 

In here there are some text files:

SteamModList.txt - keeps track of mods downloaded from The Workshop (which I never use)

DLCList.txt - keeps track of all mods with esp files you have activated

loadorder.txt - this is sorted by BOSS but not used by Skyrim

plugins.txt - this is used by Skyrim at launch time.

 

So after running BOSS, I manually move those that need to be moved (like UFO and Daedric Punishment for Sweetrolls) in the loadorder and plugins file.

 

I keep track of my load order in Excel and compare with BOSS when I install new mods.

 

~.~

[Blackdog308]

Unfortunately, tonight is the last chance I will have to play around with this stuff for a while. So I may be resurrecting this thread a week for now.

 

Just for clarification with BOSS... I have installed the program and watched a brief video on how to use it. From what I understand, all you do is run it and it automatically sets the load order. The video basically said to run BOSS, check for errors, close it and then run Skyrim. I did notice that I was not able to manually adjust load orders. To change the load order, I need to move them around in loadorder.txt? Is BOSS generally pretty good at doing this automatically?

 

Also, I did the Nvidea ini tweak from their websites, which has you set SkyrimPrefs.ini to read only to prevent it from being overwritten. When I used NMM for the first time, it had me change it back to NOT read only. I assumed this was necessary to use NMM so I said yes which most likely changed all the ini tweaks back to default or something else.

[Shadeybladey]

Yes, BOSS will rearrange the mods it knows, put the others at the end and create LoadOrder.txt and a new PlugIns.txt which Skyrim uses.

 

The BOSS Log will tell you what it has done, and if you want to rearrange the order you can move them manually in PlugIns.txt. I do it in Excel and then paste the complete list back in.

 

I think you can use NMM to change load order as well, but I don't use it anymore.

~.~