I hadn't been on this page for some time, so my apologies for the Late Reply.
To answer your question, it depends on how far you are into the Dawnguard Story, as far as Immersion goes. If you're just starting it, and have entered Fort Dawnguard for the first time, there is no detection system in place, at least that I know of, so she could easily just walk in. If you've recruited Sorine and Gunmar (or are later than that), then she could've cloaked in (Vampires have an Invisibility Power, although Svanhildr doesn't, and she doesn't have the AI to use it, since she uses Serana's AI package for the most part), so she may have used a Potion of Invisibility. And Vampires get Weaker Resistances to the Sun as they starve. Svanhildr isn't a very high level Vampire, so she won't be as susceptible as, say, a Nightstalker Vampire.
I'm one of those immersion-freaks who won't get any mods that break Immersion, and any that do, I try to find immersive and lore-friendly ways to tie it into the world. In any case, I hope my answer satisfies your curiosity.
I just wanted to put two things here, pretty basic and such. First off, thanks to everyone who's given some Feedback on it (and those who haven't, but have still tried Svanhildr), It's good to know there is interest in my Mod. Second, do you guys have any suggestions to Improve Svanhildr? Hopefully nothing with messing with Scripts, I still know very little about the Creation kit aside from the obvious things, and for me to add something that users would feel useless would be, realistically, a waste of both my own and the mods' users' time.
A Custom Voice isn't outside the realm of possibilities, but I don't want to mess with that, given my limited knowledge in CK usage. And if someone can help me out with the Navigation ordeal within Fort Dawnguard (When she isn't following you, like when first loaded into the Game), that'd be awesome.
Other than that, there's not much else I wanted to say. Again, thanks for showing interest, and suggestions for improvement are always good. And one idea, credit to Deathshead964, is to make more Followers like Svanhildr (Obviously, not All Dawnguard-sided, not All Vampires, and otherwise try to make them stand out a bit from the rest), I might do that, still considering possible ideas.
I also find this an interesting mod, at least it shows some imagination. Personally i have only played through the Volkihar side of the questline but does not Serana join the player at Fort Dawnguard if they side with that faction?. This alone would validate Svanhildr being there for her own reasons. On the point of Vampires disliking their own kind some of the Volkihar quests do seem to be about culling the less sentient members of the undead due to Harkon and his disdain of their weaker stock. Its all a matter of perspective i suppose...
I hope you do consider working on her and perhaps make some more vampire followers. Good work mate.
Serana sides with you regardless of the Faction you choose to Join, the Faction you have chosen simply chooses your allies, HQ, Questgivers and all those minor things, plus some Exclusives. As you can imagine, being Dawnguard and getting to Harkon will not be as easy as walking through the Castle casually. You're also still given the option to be turned into a Vampire Lord when you go to the Soul Cairn, or be semi-soultrapped and lose 45 points to HP/STAM/MAG and lessen their Regen Rate. Serana can also turn you when you've beaten the Main Quests and she hasn't cured herself.
Minor Spoilers over, Thanks for the feedback. I do intend to work on Svanhildr some more, though there is very little I can do without adding more Scripts/Involving SKSE or a Custom Voice.
As for more Vampire Followers, that's an interesting idea. I'll consider it, I might even end up making an entourage of Vampire Followers if I decide to (not ALL Dawnguard-sided, for hopefully obvious reasons) some will still be the Bloodsucking fiends in Clan Volkihar, and some will most likely not just regard you as a Friend instantly, then there's the problem of making Vampire Followers of the Opposite faction Hostile to you (so it makes logical sense according to the two sides of the Dawnguard DLC, Volkihar Followers will not be recruit able if you are Dawnguard, and Vice-Versa)
Rules are indeed made to be broken, you have the right idea. Thank you for the support, although I'm not sure what I can do to Improve her much, My CK knowledge is extremely limited. And I don't want to mess with Scripts or anything because I could cause some major screw-ups, and I personally don't think Svanhildr would Benefit from any SKSE-related Scripts.
But not Everyone has Dawnguard, so I could make a non-Dawnguard version if there's enough interest. Same FaceGen will be applied, of course, only how she Functions would change (different Spells and Gear)
A very good question, and I tell my solution in the Description, but I'll try to explain it here.
You're right, under normal circumstances, she would be killed by the Dawnguard. However, this can't happen for 2 reasons. 1. She is set to Essential, she can never die, no matter how many times she is knocked down. By default, the same is true for most, if not all, Dawnguard NPCs, since they offer some sort of Service, like Skill Training, or being a Merchant (or Both, in Sorine, Gunmar's cases) 2. I've marked her as a Member of the Faction, to prevent the endless combat. By marking her as a Member of the Dawnguard faction, it (should, by logical reasoning, at least) make anything considered to be in the "Vampire" faction inherently Hostile towards her, while also making her (mostly, save for the rare bug) entirely passive to any Dawnguard members (and any Dawnguard members passive to her)
Of course, she is entirely Passive to the Player, considering them an Ally from the moment she is loaded into the game.
But, for the lore-mongers among us, Vampires also posses the "Vampiric Charm" Spell (In-game, of course), which makes others non-hostile to the Vampire, so it's also somewhat lore-friendly if you think of it that she Charmed them all, at least in my mind, I can't say for other Lore-mongers. The Armour and Axe could've been taken from a Dead Dawnguard member (if you're late-game in the Dawnguard questline), or simply looted from around the fortress while the others were Charmed.
If this made any sense to anyone other than me, then it should suffice for an explanation. If not, then..... magic.
I know the problem you're on about, and I'm working on it. Her Body Colour is good, just the face is off since I didn't export the Facegen Data. I'll upload the altered file later, once I'm positive the issue is resolved. The navigation issue still remains, though, but that's not as important to me. Still, I'll work on it.
Give Feedback
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To answer your question, it depends on how far you are into the Dawnguard Story, as far as Immersion goes. If you're just starting it, and have entered Fort Dawnguard for the first time, there is no detection system in place, at least that I know of, so she could easily just walk in. If you've recruited Sorine and Gunmar (or are later than that), then she could've cloaked in (Vampires have an Invisibility Power, although Svanhildr doesn't, and she doesn't have the AI to use it, since she uses Serana's AI package for the most part), so she may have used a Potion of Invisibility. And Vampires get Weaker Resistances to the Sun as they starve. Svanhildr isn't a very high level Vampire, so she won't be as susceptible as, say, a Nightstalker Vampire.
I'm one of those immersion-freaks who won't get any mods that break Immersion, and any that do, I try to find immersive and lore-friendly ways to tie it into the world. In any case, I hope my answer satisfies your curiosity.
First off, thanks to everyone who's given some Feedback on it (and those who haven't, but have still tried Svanhildr), It's good to know there is interest in my Mod.
Second, do you guys have any suggestions to Improve Svanhildr? Hopefully nothing with messing with Scripts, I still know very little about the Creation kit aside from the obvious things, and for me to add something that users would feel useless would be, realistically, a waste of both my own and the mods' users' time.
A Custom Voice isn't outside the realm of possibilities, but I don't want to mess with that, given my limited knowledge in CK usage.
And if someone can help me out with the Navigation ordeal within Fort Dawnguard (When she isn't following you, like when first loaded into the Game), that'd be awesome.
Other than that, there's not much else I wanted to say. Again, thanks for showing interest, and suggestions for improvement are always good.
And one idea, credit to Deathshead964, is to make more Followers like Svanhildr (Obviously, not All Dawnguard-sided, not All Vampires, and otherwise try to make them stand out a bit from the rest), I might do that, still considering possible ideas.
I hope you do consider working on her and perhaps make some more vampire followers. Good work mate.
As you can imagine, being Dawnguard and getting to Harkon will not be as easy as walking through the Castle casually. You're also still given the option to be turned into a Vampire Lord when you go to the Soul Cairn, or be semi-soultrapped and lose 45 points to HP/STAM/MAG and lessen their Regen Rate. Serana can also turn you when you've beaten the Main Quests and she hasn't cured herself.
Minor Spoilers over, Thanks for the feedback. I do intend to work on Svanhildr some more, though there is very little I can do without adding more Scripts/Involving SKSE or a Custom Voice.
As for more Vampire Followers, that's an interesting idea. I'll consider it, I might even end up making an entourage of Vampire Followers if I decide to (not ALL Dawnguard-sided, for hopefully obvious reasons) some will still be the Bloodsucking fiends in Clan Volkihar, and some will most likely not just regard you as a Friend instantly, then there's the problem of making Vampire Followers of the Opposite faction Hostile to you (so it makes logical sense according to the two sides of the Dawnguard DLC, Volkihar Followers will not be recruit able if you are Dawnguard, and Vice-Versa)
I like the concept of this mod and it would be interesting to see this mod continue to grow. I find it intriguing.
Thank you for the support, although I'm not sure what I can do to Improve her much, My CK knowledge is extremely limited. And I don't want to mess with Scripts or anything because I could cause some major screw-ups, and I personally don't think Svanhildr would Benefit from any SKSE-related Scripts.
But not Everyone has Dawnguard, so I could make a non-Dawnguard version if there's enough interest. Same FaceGen will be applied, of course, only how she Functions would change (different Spells and Gear)
You're right, under normal circumstances, she would be killed by the Dawnguard. However, this can't happen for 2 reasons.
1. She is set to Essential, she can never die, no matter how many times she is knocked down. By default, the same is true for most, if not all, Dawnguard NPCs, since they offer some sort of Service, like Skill Training, or being a Merchant (or Both, in Sorine, Gunmar's cases)
2. I've marked her as a Member of the Faction, to prevent the endless combat. By marking her as a Member of the Dawnguard faction, it (should, by logical reasoning, at least) make anything considered to be in the "Vampire" faction inherently Hostile towards her, while also making her (mostly, save for the rare bug) entirely passive to any Dawnguard members (and any Dawnguard members passive to her)
Of course, she is entirely Passive to the Player, considering them an Ally from the moment she is loaded into the game.
But, for the lore-mongers among us, Vampires also posses the "Vampiric Charm" Spell (In-game, of course), which makes others non-hostile to the Vampire, so it's also somewhat lore-friendly if you think of it that she Charmed them all, at least in my mind, I can't say for other Lore-mongers.
The Armour and Axe could've been taken from a Dead Dawnguard member (if you're late-game in the Dawnguard questline), or simply looted from around the fortress while the others were Charmed.
If this made any sense to anyone other than me, then it should suffice for an explanation. If not, then..... magic.
I'll upload the altered file later, once I'm positive the issue is resolved. The navigation issue still remains, though, but that's not as important to me. Still, I'll work on it.