............................................................
Name: Better Horses
Version: 1.7.7
Author: LtMattmoo
Released: 06/03/12
Category: Animals, creatures, mounts & horses

Skyrim Nexus: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10579
Skyrim Nexus, German translation: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10404
Skyrim Nexus, Italian Translation: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11865
Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=9507
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Description
===========
Better Horses is an overhaul plugin for the horses of
Skyrim, inclusive of features such as saddle storage,
whistle commands and trampling as well as many configurable
stat tweaks.

Better horses aims to make Skyrim's horses how they always
should have been, useful, while leaving as many changes as
possible down to the individual player's preference.

Features
========
Before you begin using this plugin, you should read up on
each of the included features and get your head around what,
exactly, Better Horses will be changing in your game. Full
documentation on these features can be found below or in the
in-game manual, "How To Train Your Horse", which can be
found lying around at any of the major stables in Skyrim.

Breeds
------
A horse's breed, distinguishable by its colour, now makes a
difference to its stats.
~~Black~~
Black horses, Shadowmere included, are built for
long-distance running:
-25 Speed
+200 Stamina
~~Black and White~~
These horses are bred to be warhorses:
+100 Health
+100% Trample Damage
-50 Carry Weight
~~Brown~~
Brown horses are your average, well-rounded horses:
[Basic Stats]
~~Grey~~
Grey horses are true beasts of burden and make for great
packhorses:
+200 Carry Weight
-50 Speed
~~Palomino~~
Palomino horses are the fastest in all Skyrim.
Frost also has these stats:
+25 Speed
+50 Stamina
-100 Health
-150 Carry Weight

Cowardice
---------
Horses will now choose to flee at the sight of combat,
rather than getting involved and killed.
This feature is optional (see below). If not disabled, this
can be set to affect all horses except Frost and Shadowmere
or all horses (including Frost and Shadowmere).

Health and Essentiality
-----------------------
This feature marks horses as "essential", meaning that they
cannot die.
This feature is optional (see below). If not disabled, this
can be set to affect all horses or Frost and Shadowmere
only.
If you choose to disable Essentiallity, you will instead be
able to adjust horses' Health. This will allow for a
compromise between an immortal horse and a dead one.

Horse Calling
-------------
Using a special horse call, you can command your horse to
come to you, follow you or stay put. This call is listed
with your spells as a Power, is cast as a Shout and, when
used, will cause your last rode horse to follow you, stop
following you, or teleport to you, depending on the
situation.
You obtain the Horse Call by reading the In-Game Manual.
~~Come~~
If your horse is nearby when you use the call, providing
that it's not already doing so, it will come to you and
begin following you. Although it still will not engage in
combat, a cowardly horse will not flee while following you.
~~Stay~~
If your horse is nearby, but is already following you,
calling it will command it to stop following you and stay
put. Your horse will also cease to follow you and stay put
should you mount/dismount it or access its saddle storage.
~~Far Call~~
If your horse is out of ear-shot and you have the magicka
available, you will call with an ethereal whistle. This has
the same effect on the horse as a standard "Come" call.
This call costs 25 magicka to use.
~~Summoning Call~~
If your horse is especially far away and you have the
magicka available, your ethereal whistle will teleport your
horse to you. Once by your side, your horse will begin
following you.
This call costs 100 magicka to use.

Ignorance
---------
When horses detect you, your stealth meter will no longer
react. Simply, your sneaking crosshair ignores perceptive
horses.

Saddle Storage
--------------
The inventories of all saddled horses are now accessible.
Simply activate your horse while sneaking and, instead of
mounting it, you will gain access to its handy, mobile
storage. Naturally, horses have a Carry Weight of 300, but
this can vary depending on a horse's breed.

Speed and Stamina
-----------------
Horses' Speeds are now adjustable (see below), as are their
Staminas. High Speed makes a horse go faster, while high
Stamina allows a horse to "sprint" for longer.

Trampling
---------
If a horse you're riding collides with an NPC while
"sprinting", that NPC will be trampled, running them down
and causing significant damage. Trampling is hostile and
will cause NPCs to retaliate.
This feature is optional (see below).

Configuration
=============
Some of Better Horses' features are optional or adjustable.
After reading the In-Game Manual, you will be prompted to
set these options via the Better Horses Options Interface.

If you ever want to change these settings again, you must
type "set HorseSettings to 1" into the console, then read
the Manual again.

Installation
============
Better Horses installs as a simple plugin and archive.
Simply copy lt_better_horses.esp and lt_better_horses.bsa
to your Skyrim/Data directory and activate Better Horses
within your favourite mod manager.

Uninstallation
==============
Because of how deep this plugin digs itself into your game
in order to thoroughly improve the horses of Skyrim, trying
to remove it can cause a teeny, tiny um.. Mutation. This
only affects saves made with Better Horses enabled but can
show effects of significant severity.

Checking this mod out won't do any harm. These "mutations"
only occur on saved games that had Better Horse enabled so,
as long as you don't save, just taking a look-see won't
hurt. As for the mutations themselves; common side-effects
include the inability to mount horses and incorrect horse
stats (speed, stamina, health, etcetera).

There is little I can do about this, but I have written a
plugin which repairs every known mutation on a saved game.
I call it the Better Horses Uninstaller and it can be
obtained here:

Skyrim Nexus: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/download.php?id=36175
Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=10450

Using the Uninstaller is easy. Just remove Better Horses and
use this in its place and you shouldn't experience any of
the issues know to be caused by removing this plugin.

UPDATING: Unless stated otherwise, the Uninstaller is not
required when updating from one version of Better
Horses to another.

Known Bugs and Issues
=====================
First of all, it is worth mentioning that this plugin is
probably incompatible with any other mod which directly
affects horses in any way.

Other than this, and the uninstallation mutations, it is not
unheared of for some features to fail to function for a rare
few individuals. If you become such an individual, after
trying the basic stuff (reinstalling, rearranging your
plugin load order, loading a previous save) you should
collect as much information as you can about the particular
problem, then let me know.

Changelog
=========
---06/03/12---version1.7.7
- Corrected documentation on Breeds in the In-Game Manual.
- Revised the Options Interface for more accurate, interactive options.
---01/03/12---version1.7.6
- Removed Staying Put Feature.
- Bugfix: All vanishing horse bugs.
- Bugfix: No Health options follow setting Frost and Shadowmere to Essential.
---29/02/12---version1.7.5
- Revisited Breeds
- Reduced Natural Carry Weight to 300.
- Added "Shadowmere only" option to Essentiality.
- Added Ignorance feature (horses ignore you while sneaking).
---27/02/12---version1.7.4
- Bugfix: Horses don't fast travel to cities with stables.
- Bugfix: You are asked to set Health after selecting All Essential.
---26/02/12---version1.7.3---
- If only Frost and Shadowmere are Essential, all other horses get adjustable Health.
- Bugfix: Horses lose items in their inventory if left alone too long.
---25/02/12---version1.7.2---
- Mounted saves no longer cause bugs.
- Bugfix: Horse doesn't Trample when rode, but does when not.
- Made horses' Health adjustable.
---24/02/12---version1.7.1---
- Bugfix: No Saddle Storage on Shadowmere.
- Bugfix: Horses die when activated.
---22/02/12---version1.7.0---
- Added Breeds.
- Added In-Game Manual to all major stables.
- Introduced Saddle Storage limit.
---20/02/12---version1.6.4---
- Bugfix: Horse Call attempts a Summoning Call when LastRiddenHorse is dead or inexistent.
---20/02/12---version1.6.3---
- Bugfix: Horse disappears OnLoad.
---19/02/12---version1.6.2---
- "No vanilla cowardice" bugfix.
- Settings are now Vanilla by default.
- Added "Trample hostiles only" option.
- Essentiality now protects from fall damage.
---18/02/12---version1.6.1---
- Horse following distance increased.
- Horses now stay exactly where they are when fast travelling.
---17/02/12---version1.6.0---
- Rewrote In-Game Manual.
- Added Horse Cost adjustability.
- Added Better Horses Options Interface.
- "Manual not granted Horse Call" bugfix.
---16/02/12---version1.5.0---
- Added in-game manual.
- Added Trampling feature.
- Removed Horse Call mounting grant. Spell can now only be obtained from manual.
- "Send to origin" bugfix.
---15/02/12---version1.4.0---
- Staying Put feature (Horses Don't Fast Travel) added.
- Horses now "stay" when their saddle storage is accessed or when dismounted.
---14/02/12---version1.3.4---
- Horse Calling overhauled.
---14/02/12---version1.3.3---
- Faster Dismounting feature temporarily removed.
- "Shadowfax" calling whistle duration reduced.
---13/02/12---version1.3.2---
- Removed "But..." debug message.
---13/02/12---version1.3.1---
- Horse Calling sounds revised.
- Horses now only stop following when called to.
---13/02/12---version1.3.0---
- Increased default horse speed to 120%
- Added Essential Horses feature.
- Added Optional/Adjustable features.
---11/02/12---version1.2.2---
- Fixed Fast Dismounting.
---11/02/12---version1.2.1---
- Horse Calling scripts replaced with AI package for smoother functionality.
---11/02/12---version1.2.0---
- Added the More Speed feature.
- Added the Horse Calling feature.
---11/02/12---version1.1.0---
- Diagnosed Cowardly Horses and Fast Dismounting failures.
- Fixed the Cowardly Horses feature.
- Added the Longer Galloping feature.
---10/02/12---version1.0.0---
- Initial release.


Planned Features
================
Actually, I'm all but done here. All suggestions that have
not made it into the plugin so far, I have either given up
with or decided against.
There is one thing, though...

A cry for help
--------------
I still really want to put a Fast Dismounting feature back
into this plugin and I know that it's not only me that
misses it. The thing is, with my limited skill, there is noth
ing more I can do.

To get this feature back, I need the help of someone who
knows their way around an animation. I'm looking for a copy
of 'meshes\actors\sharedkillmoves\human&horse\paired_dismount.hkx',
modified as to be significantly faster. I was previously
using an empty animation but this approach was so buggy
that, although the idea was very well received, I was
repetitively requested to remove the feature.

If anyone has the skill to achieve the HKX that I need, and
is willing to do it, please let me know. There's no doubt
that you'll have the thanks of every Better Horse subscriber
along with my own.

Credits
=======
I would like to thank the following people for their
contributions to this plugin. So, in no particular order:

--Benboncan at Freesound.org--
http://www.freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/77752/
Author of original whistle sound effect which was modified
and used for the "Come" and "Stay" Horse Calls.

--Fuzzpilz at YouTube--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JU0XEMqShw&feature=related
Uploaded an extract of Lord of the Rings from which I
extracted and modified the Shadowfax whistle for the
"Far Call" and "Summoning Call" Horse Calls.

---Cyrus at Steam---
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198018561544
Came out with many a grand suggestion, helping me to perfect
the Horse Call feature.

---Needsaname at Nexus---
http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/556640-scripting-problems-when-did-this-stop-being-simple/
Helped me make the jump between TESCS/GECK and the Creation
Kit.

---Norden at Nexus and Steam---
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10404
Provided a German translation of this plugin.

---Arr! at Steam---
http://steamcommunity.com/id/4rr
Provided definitive knowledge on the Inventory Amnesia bug
which led to its repair.

---Sukeban at Nexus---
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/modules/members/index.php?id=3797636
Provided the detailed suggestion which became the 1.7.5
Breeds revision.

I hope I haven't forgotten anyone.. Cheers to y'all!

~ LtMattmoo