BFF Animal Companions
Your Animal Your Way
Version 1.3

Important 1.3 Upgrade Note:
You must save once and reload the save for the fix to take affect.

The gdsbffDialogAnimal quest must be restarted to properly restore the Unarmed Combat damage value after reloading. Failure to do this will result in the default animal damage.

Note: You will not lose any untrained levels or bonuses for levels already trained!

Rumor has it that Ran’dir, a traveling Khajiit animal trainer, has just made her way to Skyrim, from devastated Morrowind, with two unique animal companions. She’ll let you adopt for free and just asks that you take good care of them and return to her when they are ready for more training. Do you have a favorite or do you want both? Head out her camp near Refugees Rest in Dunmerth Pass, located at the end of the road heading to Morrowind. Her camp is not visible from the road so finding her is a test in itself and not for the feint of heart!

BFF Animal Companions adds two unique followers to Skyrim: a dog and a fox. Each animal features unique character traits and requirements to unlock additional bonuses. Adopt one or both animals to follow you through your journey in Skyrim. BFF uses its own dialog for communicating with the animals, including the option to customize your animal personality and behaviors. (No additional mods required.)

Unique Fox and Dog Animal Follower
* Each animal features unique character traits and bonuses
* Choose how your animal looks using the Texture Installer (see below)
* Unlockable features as animal gains experience
* Training for your follower’s combat skills as he gains levels
* Learn Dog Whistle (power) to call your animal from anywhere
* Tell your animal to avoid your Archer or Hostile Magic combat target
* Tell your animal to run away from combat when health drops too low
* Doggy Biscuits - provides boost of healing in combat
* Custom sounds for both animals
* Make any location the animals “home”
* Changes the vanilla dog behavior to remove the annoying constant bark
* Does not conflict with the vanilla animal follower

Custom animal companion system with the following dialog options:
* Follow Me/Wait
* Back Ups
* Follow Closer/Keep Distance
* What do you have there? (ask to see inventory)
* Hungry? (Give food menu)
* Go Home
* Behavior (Opens config menu)

Customize Personality Settings:
* Aggression Level (Unaggressive, Aggressive, Very Aggressive, Frenzied)
* Confidence Level (Cowardly, Cautious, Average, Brave, Foolhardy)

Gameplay Options:
* Mortality Options (Essential, Protected or Mortal)
* Survival Settings to take cover after health drops to specified level
* Option to avoid combat targets

Credits:

Grace Darkling - co author
Tobias Kosmos: Sounds - including Dog Whistle, all the fox sounds and some of the dog sounds (mixed with vanilla sounds)


Texture Choices:

Unique Texture Choices for B.F.F. Animal Companions
14 Dog Textures and 16 Fox Textures.
Softer Animal Fur via Edited Normal Maps
Brand New Dog Textures
Edited Fox Textures based on Bellyaches & Beth Hi-Res
Greatly Improved Fox Eyes
Whiter Teeth
Colour Map - 2k - Dxt5 Compression (Dog) 2k - Dxt 1 Compression (Fox) Normal Map - 2k - Dxt5 Compression
Specular Map - 1K - Dxt 1 Compression (Dog).


Technical Details

These Textures were created using Bethesda's Chosen Colour Palette for Skyrim, Therefore should not look out of place with both Vanilla and ENB lighting.
I tested these on;
Vanilla Skyrim
Unreal Warfare's Beautiful Skyrim, Cinematic (Early, Colourful Version)
Unreal Warfare's Beautiful Skyrim, Cinematic and Vibrant Varients (Final Versions)
Cinematic Skyrim by HD6
Vibrant ENB by KyokushinOyama, Staind716, and Doom916.
And Various Tweaked Versions of all of the above.
See the Texture File Readme for more info!


FAQ:

Q: How do I find the camp?
A: Starting at Windhelm, travel across the bridge. On your left is the carriage. Turn left and follow the road behind the carriage. You’ll be heading almost due North toward the river. Soon you will pass Brandy Mug Farm on your right. Continue traveling along the road and pass two more farms on the right. Keep going. You’ll come to Traitor’s Post, an empty house on your left. (Watch out for bandits!) Directly ahead is a broken tower called Refugees Rest. Keep traveling along the road then cut over to the trees on your right. Ran’dir’s camp is on the right side, on top of the snow bank. You made it.

Q: How will I know when my animal has gained new abilities or levels?
A: Talk to the animal about his behavior. This will open the config menu and notify you of any new abilities.

Q: The Animal Configuration shows Untrained Levels, how do I train him?
A: Return to Ran’dir and ask about training. Training costs though, and gets more expensive as the animal progresses.

Q: I'd like to know more about the animals?
A: There's more information on the animals in the README

Q: How do I uninstall?
A: Just send any adopted pet home then you can uninstall safely.

Q: How does the Dog Whistle work?
A: It will summon your companion that is either Waiting or Out of Sight. (Does not summon animals sent home.)

Q: How do I make the Doggy Biscuits?
A: Use a recipe at a cooking pot

Doggy Biscuit Recipes:
Each batch makes 25 biscuits

Doggy Biscuit +10 HP
Potion of Minor Healing
Raw Meat
Garlic (x2)
Wheat (x2)

Doggy Biscuit (Potent ) +50 HP
Potion of Extreme Healing
Raw Meat
Garlic (x2)
Wheat (x2)


Videos:
Video reviews including BFF Animal Companions:
Skyrim Mods : Week #34: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0V5uDmyr5AI
Skyrim Modding - Weekly - Bits 'n' Bobs - #18: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U677WMdb-aI
Skyrim Mod Showcase: Week #12: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvDZXMCwyB0


Animal: Fox
Name: Jorin

Unique character traits:
Chases butterflies - Lvl 1 +
Catches a fish once a day x 1 - Lvl 5 + (10/20/30/40)
Brings home a Rabbit or Pheasant everyday for dinner - Lvl 10 +
Catches Dragonflies once a day x 6 - Lvl 15 +

Special unlockable traits:
Shouts “Kynes Peace” on Combat with a Spriggan - Lvl 20 + Completed Kyne’s Scared Trials
Shouts “Throw Voice” - Lvl 30 + Killed 4 Dragon Priests (when in sneak mode and someone is searching)
Shouts “Disarm” on combat - Lvl 40 + Completed Siege on the Dragon Cult (25% chance per battle)
Animal Training - every 10 levels can be trained by Ran’dir for improved combat damage


Background story:
Raised by a tabby cat called Boo at an Inn in Blacklight, fed and looked after by the Inn’s owners yet left to his own devices, got in lots of trouble. Favoured travelling around on the roof tops. Later, sold to an imperial mage who experimented on his soul. The mage later died at the hands of a summoned Daedroth.

Found by a Khajiit merchant.

Favored Enemy Spriggan
Favored Enemy Necromancer
Favored Enemy Dragon Priest



Animal: Dog
Name: Eclipse
Unique character traits:
Collects troll skulls: Lvl 1
Gains Courage: +5 lvls with player (will cast at start of combat unless set to Unaggressive)
Shares skull: Relationship +100 (player can open inventory and see/take skull)
Heal: 10/20/30/40 - Healing ability and timers-per-combat increase each level
Ward: 1/33/66 - Ward ability and times-per-combat increase each level
Interrupt Spell Cast: 15/35/55/75 - increases times to interrupt spell cast in combat

Animal Training - every 10 levels can be trained by Ran’dir for improved combat damage

Background story:
Eclipse was raised from a pup by an old eccentric mage scholar who preferred the company his books and his dog, over that of noisy incompetent fools. Eclipse on the other hand, always enjoyed the many aspiring students who sought out the mage for his knowledge of the arcane. For whatever reason, some of that knowledge rubbed off on Eclipse, as he gained some magic abilities himself, especially in the self-healing arts. (Maybe it was in self-preservation as some of the students used Eclipse as target practice??)

Eclipse always accompanied the mage on reagent hunting excursions and learned to identify some useful ingredients. He gained a special appreciation for animal bones, particularly troll skulls. Though he found other animal bones appealing, he was unable to pick them up.

The old mage was very good to Eclipse, so good in fact, one student became very jealous. As overheard by a waiting student, there was some kind of argument between the old mage and this jealous student. The details will likely never be known, but the one thing heard very clearly was the jealous student exclaiming “A dog?! I demand this for the Aldmeri Dominion!”

Sadly, the next day out on a reagent hunting excursion, the old mage and Eclipse were ambushed by the Thalmor student. A short, fierce magic fight ensued with Eclipse tipping the balance. They killed the rival, but the old mage received fatal wounds and barely made it home. Almost two weeks passed before a student came to visit the old mage, when he discovered the old mage, laying in his bed, dead, with Eclipse by his side. Only by Eclipse leading the student to the ambush site was the story pieced together.

Barely a year old, Eclipse had no home. Though he would miss the students and the books and the old mage, those days had passed.

Favored Enemy: Thalmor


Changelog:

Version 1.3:
* Fixed Unarmed Combat not being set after reloading save game

Version 1.2:
* Changed the OnHit behavior to ingore non-hostile spells
* Changed the distance when avoiding player combat target, when player is using:
Hostile magic - moves 100 units (wants to avoid AoE damage)
Archer - moves 10 units (doesn't go far so can get back in to combat as soon as the player releases the arrow)
* Changed Dog Whistle to only summon when out of sight of player
* The "I want to adopt" dialog option doesn't show after the animal is adopted

Version 1.1:
* Changed animal NIF to use BFF Textures