Skyrim

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Created by

Dreamster91

Uploaded by

Dreamster91

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About this mod

Quite simply makes all named dogs in Skyrim unique!

Permissions and credits
Changelogs


Welcome to the "Unique Dogs" wall of tedious text!

Comments that show you obviously haven't bothered to read said waffle will most likely be ignored. You have been warned :)



Description

This is my attempt to make mans best friend, a friend worth having. At the moment if you want a dog follower, other than names there isn’t really any difference between who you choose. I want to create something that will make a difference between who you choose to join you, so needless to say some new textures are just the beginning. I want to change meshes, sounds, stats…. Whatever I can till we can say these dogs finally have a bit of “personality”. If you have any ideas feel free to chip in, however don’t be offended if your suggestion doesn’t get put in. And more importantly I hope you get some enjoyment out of this mod should you decide to use it!


The Texture Replacer

The texture replacer gives every named dog in the game a unique texture.

This includes
- Meeko
- Vigilance
- The stray dog
- Barbas
- Torom
- Stump
- Ysgramor
- Tiber

Now, any other dogs, for example bandit’s and hunter’s dogs will use the
standard vanilla texture. I want to add more dogs in the future but at
the same time I want to keep the file size and the performance hit to a
minimum. That is the one golden rule I want to stick to. Personally I
don’t have a pc that was meant for gaming (seriously, not in the
slightest!) and I must be using just about every trick in the book to
make Skyrim run the way I want (almost anyway). So naturally performance
is important to me. I can safely say this mod won’t touch your
performance unless you use hd textures. Scroll down to find instructions
on how to do this.

Reduced Barking

Because oh good god my ears!

As of update 1.3 you can now choose if you would like to have dogs bark less, or shut them up completely. This works by taking the animations for barking and replacing them with other animations. So technically they're still barking, but you can't see or hear it, they just sit there and wag their tail or look around....in silence. There are two options at the moment

LESS BARKING - This one replaces the standing and sitting barking animation, but whilst a dog is running behind you they will still bark. So if you don't like them barking while your trying to have a conversation with someone but don't mind it if your running around then this version will suit you.

NO BARKING - This one replaces the standing, sitting and running barking animations. So your dog is silent....always....

Dogs will still growl and bark in combat. Cause it would just be creepy if they didn't make ANY noise....


How to install

ONLY CHOOSE ONE FILE!
It installs just the same as any other mod. If your not sure how to install mods then follow the instructions below.

To use nexus mod manager

1. Click on the files tab above the description
>2. Click on “download with manager”
3. NMM will open and download the file for you. When it’s finished downloading it will appear in the “mods” tab. Just click to highlight it and then click the button on the left that says “activates the selected mod” when you hover the mouse over it.
4. You’ll then see it appear in the “plugins” tab, just make sure the box next to it is ticked and your ready to go!

Manual

1. Click on the files tab above the description
2. Click “download manually” and select one of the servers and the mod will download.
3. Now go to your Skyrim data folder. Usually this looks something like C: > program files > steam > steamapps > common > skyrim > data.
4. The zip folder you downloaded will have the file path but if your not sure it should look like this - Skyrim > data > textures > actors > unique dogs
5. Just pop the files there and your good to go!

Custom textures
You have to do this manually

1. Find the unique dogs folder, again the file path will look like this -  Skyrim > data > textures > actors > unique dogs
2. Find the texture you want to use and name the dog.dds file to the dogs file you want to replace. I named the files after each of the dogs to make them easy to find eg dog_meeko.dds.
3. Make sure you rename it EXACTLY and replace the old file with your one.
4. You can change the dog_n.dds with your own if you have one, just make sure the file is also named with “_n” because this is the normal map, not the actual texture. If your not sure just leave it be, it won’t effect the colour of your textures, just the way the light hits it (I don’t really know how to put it into words)

The nexus has some nice textures if you have a good rake. Bellyache and grace darling have some nice hd textures if your not sure where to start looking.

Updating

It's just the same as installing the file for the first time, when installing manually follow the steps above and overwrite the old files where asked. With nexus mod manager uninstall the old version first and then install the new one. don't run more than one version at the same time, I dread to think what that might do lol


To-Do List


I have afew things ive had lying around on the computer for a long while so im working on adding them in :)

Im also listening out for suggestions over the next week so if theres anything you think youd like to see leave a post BUT like I said in the sticky just because you want it DOES NOT MEAN it will definatley be added. This mod is my baby and i want to keep it simple, lore friendly with as little hit to performance as possible.


Ideas to Ponder....

- Increased follow distance. Cause if Meeko headbutts me one more time....

- A unique mesh for every dog. With the condition that it MUST fit in with the game (lore friendly I guess) I am not making chihuahuas, poodles or sausage dogs not matter how much you ask me and how adorable they are!

- Custom sounds. That bark would be a lot less annoying if it wasn’t as frequent and there was more variety, so different barks for different dogs essentially.

- Stats and AI. Whole other kettle of fish. I don’t want to add scripts (since they can leave that footprint on your saves) and I want stats to fit the individual dogs. So for example vigilance is a trained war dog that you have to pay money to own. Maybe he should have higher stats to reflect this but to balance this out there should be a downside, maybe he effects sneak level, sets off traps, he’s more a fighter and a bit of a pain when it comes to anything else. Whereas Meeko was probably a more family friendly dog, his owner certainly didn’t look like a warrior so maybe he would be more likely to run from a fight, and maybe there could be an advantage to balance this out, like a “pack-bag” and inventory space for example, more a “utility companion”. Something that gives you a reason for picking a specific dog.

- And finally an mcm menu thingy (cause I love customization)

Seriously though guys I’ve never released a mod before and I’m a bit of a newbie so this may not be the most polished mod on the nexus, so take everything with a pinch of salt. Don’t be afraid to lecture me on bad modding practices though, sometimes the only way we learn is through our mistakes and “creative” criticism.

Thanks guys, and happy adventuring! :) xxx

Credits and Thank yous!

Fierymarigold - thank you for reaching out to me with tutorials and help with meshes! I'd still be stuck if you hadn't messaged me and i totally forgot to say thank you..... so thank you. any new meshes coming in the future are thanks to this awesome mod maker :)

Darkfox127 - for many many MANY no nonsense youtube tutorials on everything you could ever need! I bet theres alot of mods out there that were started after watching this guys stuff.

Gopher - Also for brilliant tutorials and mod reviews that ive learned alot from but mostly for keeping me entertained with hours of of Stiv Gro Fur fun!



Check out my other mod!

Dream's Unique Horses - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/81886?