[Update] Horses For Followers

[Jorne]

Horses for Followers [Link]

version 3.5 Released

 

Apology about version 2.0. Some important script files were missing from the BSA. I never realised until I noticed it until preparing the upload for ver 3.5. I completely forgot how unreliable the Steam Skyrim BSA packager can be. :sad:

 

 

Version 3.5 has all the scripts! :cool:

 

Followers mounts / dismounts their steeds far more responsively whilst not being robotically instantaneous.

All-In-One: No more need for my supporting plugin, Better Follower Improvements. You need to remove that file.

Fast Travel to Walled Cities: Followers horse will be in stables just like the players horse.

Fast Travel: Followers Horse and follower teleport together. However the follower will be dismounted, but will remount quickly. Just ride on!

Follower Leads mode: Let the follower take the lead role. This feature has been improved. Speak to your follower about this feature.

Horse Utility (Bill of Sale): Many useful features, repair & rescue horse functions. Latest additions: teleport player horse (+ followers horse). Repair problem caused by buying a spawned horse (when the original dies).

Version Control System: - Thanks to wiki articles for a useful script.

Ledger book repaired - a way to buy the followers horse to circumvent the dreaded dialogue bug. This is really a deprecated feature since SEQ files.

 

Horse Call / Follow: Since follower horses will follow the players horse, this feature works in tandem with a horse call feature. One is being developed and you can test it via the Horse Utility. However, you can still use a dedicated horse call/whistle mod such as Whistle (I've been informed).

 

No horses was harmed in the making of this mod

 

[SMB92]

Nice, i like this feature from AFT, but the third horse always walks back to where i bought it. And only 2 horses fast travel with me.

 

I hather your mod addresses this, but any idea if it works with AFT?

[Jorne]

I don't know what AFT is so I don't know of a clash.

 

My mod - on its own - is catered for 1 follower + 1 animal + 1 player horse + 1 follower horse. So they are not added to an array. The reason is because having too many breaks the game balance, making it too easy. Think of the poor solitary villain that are prepared to fight even when out numbered. People often follow the path of least resistance, and that's often a mistake. So I don't want to have anything in place that would encourage people to dilute their challenge.

 

However, it is still possible to have more followers (even an array of them) if it uses a non-vanilla recruiting system. Mine uses the global follower count as a condition. These are usually follower NPC recruitment mods (which is what mine really is) or unique NPC follower. If those mods provide their own recruit selection process, horse and Horse riding AI, and a running script to push things along. Then set the follow distance to non-vanilla, depending how they work. Then there is little room for a clash. I don't know if the array of followers all follow the player or conga dance fashion (now that's an idea for a mod).

 

Player horses and follower horses are functionally different. Only the players horse returns to the stables, when the player rides another horse. This is not so with followers horses. The mods horses will only return to stables if you dismiss the vanilla follower (Global follower count == 0).

 

All Followers horses fast travel, best result is when they are ridden. They also go to the stables when you Fast travel to a walled city. The third horse would not be teleported, so it will arrive much later.

[SMB92]

AFT is Amazing Follower Tweaks. It actually uses the player owned vanilla horses, any follower within the vicinity of a spare player horse will mount it when the player mounts one also. This works for me with as many horses and followers as i can keep around me, so far i have had 4 followers on horses, the problem with it is as soon as they dismount the extra horses will start walking back home and wont fast travel with you.

 

Ive been meaning to look at AFTs code myself, but im not actually a follower kind of person, although i would like this feature to work.

 

Regarding the game balance, you clearly havent seen the Sands of Time mod, not so much poor old villian now but more like poor old dragonborn XD. I can appreciate that you designed this to your own specs so no problem, i was just hoping this was the quick solution to that problem in my own game.

[Jorne]

 

AFT is very similar to my old mod in Oblivion, except mine was a character NPC. It ended up more like it belonged to the Sims.​

 

All player horses act that way because they have an AI Travel Package with PlayersLastRiddenHorse == 0. Once that condition is true, off they trot. Clashes, and has always been a problem with TES games, and settling for the lesser of two evils. So my mod will solve your current problem - but give you another headache. Also you will have to experiment with load order.

 

The horses I've added only return to stables when you dismiss enough followers, so the Global Follower Count (GFC) hits zero. Say if you had 4 followers, and you dismissed one. So the GFC decrements from 4 to 3. No horse will be trot home (as the Travel AI condition looks for GFC >= 1). This means his horse would either stay put or fast travel. You could note its ID and disable it via the console, but you may risk losing the horse if you lose the ID. Say if you only wanted one follower, you could have a train of horses behind you. Not sure, but I may be able to add a feature that disables Horses, or manually make them go back to stables. In the meantime you would have to use the Bill of Sale and sell back the surplus horses. So the headache would be having to visit each stable again to buy them back.

 

Other foreseeable problem is fast travel, because my solution only teleports one horse. So you have to wait for the other horses to catch up. usually about 30 seconds. That was the situation with my mod before version 2.

[SMB92]

I see, thanks for the info. I havent looked into any of the AI or scripts for any of this, i thought there might have been an easier way, but as you say its one of two evils.

 

Just of the top of my head, i wonder if its possible to store a horses id via a spell or menu, whether manually or automatically and then say have a hotkey mini menu that acts like a quick select/favorites menu. Say for example, you have an mcm menu or your own. Then you have say 4 activators, and each one has a basic disable/enable and then placeatme command for the enable and a blank, definable reference that refers to the formid which has to be input via the player into the menu or by the spell for the horse they want in the slot. Then you simply toggle the horses on and off per say.

 

Im not sure exactly how that could work, but that is what pops into my mind after reading your post. I do appreciate the enlightenment, so if you have any input on that id be glad to hear it ;)

[Jorne]

 

I pm'd you