LE Adding followers using the Familiar Faces Mod: Advice and future Alpha testers

[mellophonist]

Hey all!

It's been a long wile since I've made an attempt at modding, the last being my menu re-placer. But recently I was watching a video by gopher showcasing the Familiar Faces mod. In the video he suggested that it was possible to share not only just the presets of your character (a trend that a lot of people opt to do) but rather let other people download your entire character into their own game and not only be able to play them themselves but can actually import them into their current playthrough as a follower!

Ever since oblivion I've wanted a mod like this since I role play multiple characters that are often siblings or husband and wife but due to the lack of game mechanics having them both in the same world space has been impossible... until now. Now I can play as one sibling while the other is right by my side adventuring with me! The best part about this is you can tweak exactly what aspects of your other characters have like skill points health stamina and magika and they even level with you!

Now I'm sure most of you know what that mod is but going back to my reference to gophers video, my thread has two parts to it.

One:

While it is easy to go into the files in your data folder and just drag, drop and zip the files FF uses to save your characters I am more concerned about compatibility of uploading followers that I've made with a unique set of race menu based mods. So basically I am starting to see if anyone has some insight as to what will need to be "required" and what doesn't have to downloaded if someone opts not to use a particular mod.

And Two:

After I get the concept down on paper of what will be needed (hopefully after much participation from you all! >_<) I will create the first stage of the mod and I will ask for alpha testers to see what aspects of the "required" files can be left out and the mod will still work. I.E. if someone does not use CBBE and uses UNP instead will they just default to the new body? or will there be complications that will make CBBE a required file of the mod in order to work. Stuff of that nature, nothing hard just checking compatibilities.

Of course, any and all who contribute to this process will receive a spot on the Credits list which I will list FIRST on the mod page not last like a lot of people do.

So you are probably wondering, what the hell is this guy going on about! What is he trying to actually accomplish here?

That is a valid point I do tend to ramble quite a bit without really explaining much. This mod aims to add my two newest playthrough characters Fiona and Forlaith who are siblings, into anyone's playthroughs as followers or they can play as the characters themselves if they so choose thanks to the awesomeness that is the Familiar Faces mod which will simply add my two characters appearance and ability into the game. The best part about this is if they are sick of having them around they can simply go back into the hall of heroes and remove them from their world. Also if they want to make them enemy players where they will attack on sight they can do that as well! This opens up a whole new dynamic for follower mods since doing so is way easier as it handles the scripts and everything for you and you don't have to edit the new followers face in the CK you simply boot up your own game, make your character, get as little or as far as you'd like into the game and then save your characters files, zip it then upload to the Nexus! Its dirt easy and it also cuts back on .esps in your load order since the characters you download are simple loose files, you just drag and drop or let NMM do it point is no .esps!

Now here's is where I get into the main reason for this thread. While it is easy enough to just drag and drop files it usually starts to get a little wonky around compatibilities and these followers have a lot of mods that I used to make them appear the way that they are. So here is a list of what I think is "required" in order to make them look as intended as well as required in order to not crash. This is the list that, hopefully, the alpha testers will go through and test to see what is truly required and what is optional.

SKSE

Latest Skyrim official patch

The ningheim race

Brows ningheim add on

Familiar faces

Jcontainers (required by latest familiar faces patch)

Racemenu 3.0

ECE (for elf ears and body variation such as height)

Race compatibility and fixes

Apachii Sky Hair (For Forlaiths hair)

Kijiko Hair (for Fionas hair)

The Coenaculi (for Tattoos)

The Coenaculi Makeup (for Facial Tattoos)

All armor will be compatible because I will save them in vanilla either clothing or armor haven't decided which yet.

Also I have a list of recommended mods to add to these to better the experience.

Follower commentary overhaul (this will give them voices and dialogue automatically! The player can choose which voice in the FF MCM menu)

Amazing follower tweaks (one of many options is the ability to have multiple followers which will allow you to have both sisters at the same time)

Disparity (If someone uses one of these as a PC this is a great mod to tweak to their "lore" stats)

Open to more suggestions in this section as well.

Now with all the important parts out of the way hows bout a little back story into the mod? :smile:

This back story was not created by me, it was written by my Girlfriend who is also an advent Elder Scrolls lover and she is also a writer and loves writing fan fiction. So I asked her to write me a lore background for this when I told her I wanted to create a mod and this is what she came up with! It's a little sappy but I hope you all enjoy it just the same!

(I put a spoiler on it because its lengthy and I want to make the first post as compact as possible :tongue:)

Long ago in Tamriel in the province of Cyrodil lived a couple that met in a very difficult

time, the Great War. This couple most would say was a match that was not meant to be for you

see, this pair was between a Bosmer and a Nord. The Bosmer was a huntress of unmatched beauty

and had a voice paralleled to the gods themselves. Her name was Angreaneth and she grew up as

shop assistant to her father in the city of Bravil. She would go out into the fields and hunt for pelts and meat to sell.

It was one day while she was out in the field that she met her soul mate. He was being attacked by a

group of bandits. With the advantage of stealth Angreaneth was able to repel the attackers.

After taking this mysterious nord back home she tended to his wounds. The nord awoke the next day and

saw the beauty before him. He thanked her for saving his life and introduced himself as Klemmert.

He was an orphaned as a child and was thrown out of his local orphanage. He had turned to begging for

a time but realized that he had to do something with his life, so he decided he would become an

adventurer and make his own fortune, it seemed that had not gone as well as he thought.

Anreaneth had always dreamed of leaving the trivialities of a shop maiden behind and decided

right then that they should go and adventure together, they would be much more efficient together as a pair

instead of him going off by himself. Klemmet agreed to her proposition and in the middle of the night

they left Bravil behind. They traveled the wilds, exploring ancient ruins and dark caverns Klemmet charging in

with his sword and shield and Angreaneth covering him from the shadows with her bow. Both were unmatched

in their respected talents and made a good amount of septims along their travels. Howevever, whenever

they would stop by a town to sell their hauls people would scorn and bully the pair relentlessly,

Because they were a couple of different races, while this was not unheard of in Tamriel it was still judged

upon with skepticism, especially those that were more mired in traditional values of their races.

But in the eyes of Mara, love has no boundaries. So the pair eventually married despite their differences in

appearance. They settled down and had two beautiful daughters, Fiona who resembled her mother mostly in terms of her

eyes and stature but received the fair skin of her father and Forlaith Who took after her father

in terms of his eyes, height and hair color that which is prevalent in that of the nords.

Elvish blood is strong however and due to this both girls had the ears of their mother. Growing

up the other children often rediculed the two for their appearance. both never quite matching

the appearance of the children of their specific races. However they endured the remarks

because their parents loved them so dearly and that's all that they needed. But not all stories

have happy endings, When the Aldmari Dominion invaded Cyrodil, Klemmeth was drafted into the service

of the Emperor. While he was a skilled warrior and rose quite high into the ranks of the Legion

he was eventually killed in the battle at the White Gold Tower. Now fatherless the two girls only had their mother

but things were not about to get any better. While they were travelling to Skyrim to try and get away from the war

Angreaneth was bitten by a venomous snake and was infected by the Rattles. By the next winter

she was gone. Now Fiona and Forlaith without parents were left to survive on their own all

while being no older 15 and 19 respectively. This is where their story with you begins and you can craft their own

story.

The girls skills:

Fiona Takes after her mother and is a skilled archer and is well attuned to the art of shadow and subterfuge, striking from the shadows with daggers. She is also well acquainted to the animals of Nirn (if people use particular mods) all but the strongest of creatures will call her friend.

Forlaith is more like her father, she excels in the art of combat and is skilled in heavy armor and uses one handed weapons as well as a shield. At a young age she realized that she had a knack for magic as well and she practices the schools of Destruction and Alteration.

(I will also post pictures of them soon I just did a fresh re-install of Skyrim but I have their presets backed-up)

In conclusion this is a great opportunity to allow people who aren't as skilled in the CK to share their work with the community. So I hope you all join me in getting this up and running and start bringing our characters to the entirety of the Skyrim Universe!

Edited March 20, 2015 by mellophonist

[mellophonist]

Heres some teasers of the two followers! Ill upload some better ones if this thread ever gets rolling :tongue:

 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/7220/zL5bKz.jpgForlaith

 

 

 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img540/3174/Oo6mRg.jpg

Fiona

 

 

 

Hope you guys like it!