A Really Good Update

So as many of you know, my dog was injured last week. Since then she has had surgery and is in recovery. During this time I have had a lot of time to think about my modding. I wasn't expecting to come up with an idea that might change everything, but somehow I did. More on that below.

For folks wondering about my dog, Piper, she is sitting behind me right now and is doing fantastic. She is recovery well, doing her stuff normally outside when I take her and watch her like a hawk. She can stand sometimes when eating and has taken several steps many times, although a little wobbly (doctor said this is to be expected). I think she will get near to full movement back in about 3-4 weeks. Hooray!

So now on to the modding news. As I said, I came up with an idea while I was away from my desk for a while. I didn't know if it was possible, but I knew a mod that might make it possible. It is called "SkyPatcher" by Zzyxzz. Think of it like SPID, but even more powerful. A lot of people are already using it. SkyPatcher is a SKSE mod, doesn't take a spot in your load order, and does absolutely nothing unless you have SkyPatcher patches. Which is exactly where the magic I imagined would happen for my mods, especially NPC replacers.

I asked myself, "how do I get around all these conflicts when making an NPC replacer?" I already conceived my Asset Pack idea to optimize performance and normalize assets so they aren't duplicated for every npc. The biggest problem that exists for my users is being able to pick and choose which NPCs they want in case they are using other author's replacers alongside mine. Even people who say they only use my replacers have problems with black face and other mod-related conflicts.

The way SkyPatcher works is that it loads at game load. Anything it does is above and beyond what is the the plugin records and save. It can modify NPCs, Leveled Lists, Weapons, Armor, Books, Containers, and much more. All you need to do is create an "ini" file patch and put it in the right location. So I thought, what exactly can it update on NPCs? I found that it updated skills and a whole slew of other things, including the body skin, but not the head (appearance) of an NPC. I went to Zzyxzz and asked him if it could update an NPC appearance by creating an INI that updated hair, face, and brows. Zzyxzz said it could not, but he did say he could get it to copy the appearance from another NPC to the NPC you wanted if he added that feature.

This was a brilliant extension of my idea! I saw the possibilities, even better than the idea I came to him with. You see, by doing this we are completely ignoring the original NPCs record. That means when we copy the appearance of some dummy NPC record I create that has MY appearance on it (and never really appears in the game, just my plugin) to a vanilla NPC like Serana using a patch, it will ALWAYS work and will NEVER conflict with another mod's replacer. It never touches the head meshes and textures of the NPC, or the record of the original NPC. This means that it is compatible with EVERYTHING. It also means, if I create a replacer in this fashion for someone else's follower (let's use Secunda as an example - she is pictured in the images above), if the author of Secunda updates his mod, I won't have to update my replacer because my replacer only replaces the appearance at runtime and the author will never change the ID of his follower (that would break his whole mod even if he updated it with tons of more features).

So what did this new method of creating replacers and features for my followers result in? Well here comes the fun folks. If you read all that above, I give you credit for patience haha.

The New NPC replacers are coming. I call them ColdSun's Selects.

Features of ColdSun's Selects NPCs:

• FOMOD will allow you to choose which NPCs you want to install

• The NPCs will come in Packs related to the group I put them in (more on this below)

• They will still use the Visions Asset Pack

• The FOMOD will allow you to choose Soft or Muscular for each NPC

• The FOMOD will allow you to choose if you want to use SMP hair or not

• Some NPCs will have extra features selected in the FOMOD (warpaint, more skills)

• Guaranteed not to cause black face or conflict with other non-SkyPatcher replacers*

• Guaranteed to work with any npc expansion mods (special versions of Lydia or Serana for example) even when those mods are updated an update won't be needed

• Each NPC will be lovingly detailed by me using the best techniques I've created so far

• Possible different versions of NPCs (Visions and Pantheon)

The groups I spoke of above are:

The Supernaturals
The Companions
The Devout
The Housecarls
The Betrothed
The Villains
The Nobles
The Heroes
The Dawnguard
The Songbirds
The Mystics
The Seraphs
The Merchants

Notes on Conflicts * above

I imagine some people were watching Zzyxzz and I when we spoke in his Discord and tested this feature he made for replacing appearance. This means other NPC makers are going to see how powerful it is and some of them will be using it pretty quickly. This is the ONLY way to have a conflict now. Normal NPC replacers will always lose and never cause black face. I also imagine there will never be black face, but whoever wins the SkyPatcher ini conflict will just replace the other appearance. Skypatcher reads the ini files in numerical and then alphabetical order. Still, these ini files are easy to locate in each mod and if the other mod that conflicts with my SkyPatch ini exists, you simply delete it and boom you are fixed. I think that is the easiest conflict management you could imagine. I don't think a lot of NPC makers like me will be using this feature right away, but I would imagine at least one or two will. Don't worry, I'll be there to explain all this to you. I know it sounds complicated but I promise this is super super easy and actually fun compared to the issues we have now with normal NPC replacer conflicts.

SkyPatcher also means better follower mods from me. I'll be releasing more selectable features during install of my follower mods and more. I've had so much on my plate with updates to Visions I haven't been able to do much new things other than exclusives here on Patreon now and then (and expect those to continue), but this is some exciting stuff for me. The first replacer you will see from me with SkyPatcher compatibility is Secunda. Expect her soon, or even today.

If you haven't already downloaded SkyPatcher, make sure you do so when he updates it today or later. Don't worry about it if you haven't got it yet if he hasn't updated it on 09/03/2024 or later. That is when he will be adding the new appearance feature.

These are exciting times. I'm already working on the first set of Selects, The Supernaturals. This set includes all the named vampires (vanilla and Dawnguard) and the two werewolves from Dragonborn (Hjordis and Rakel).

Keep your eyes peeled here for more updates!

EDIT: Skypatcher 2.60 is up! Grab it now.

Heath aka coldsun1187