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MECR's Classic Nord Shields

A mod for TES V - Skyrim

Current version: V. 2.50
Compatible with: Skyrim 1.6.89.0.6 (not tested with older versions)

About this Mod

It always bugged me that colourful, Viking style shields are not widely spread in Skyrim.
So I went and made my own. So far there are 225 new shields. They can be found on Bandits and Stormcloaks. Some can be crafted, too.
Textures are based on the DLC HighRes Texture Pack (4096x2048, 2048x2048 and 2048x1024 respectively).

Version History - what this mod does so far (V. 2.50)

V. 2.50 (225 Shields in total)

• Adds a new light shield type, the Small Nordic Wooden Shield (33 variants).
• It's a slightly smaller version of the Vanilla Guard's Shield.
• All Guard's Shields are changed to this type (including the Shield of Solitude).
• Adds 2 types of a light shield type, the Nordic Wooden Kite Shield (19 and 16 variants).
• Adds a version of the Large Nordic Wooden Shield without spikes (24 variants).
• Adds a version of the Large Nordic Wooden Shield with spikes and a human skull (10 variants).
• Adds a new heavy shield type, the Large Nordic Wooden Targe (12 variants).
• Adds iron cladded variants of some of the shield types (stats are slightly better than their uncladded counterparts).
• Adds temper recipes for all shields and crafting recipes for some.
• Adds all shields to Bandits' and Stormcloaks' Level Lists.
• Updates all shields' stats to match seamlessly with vanilla shields' stats.
  

V. 1.50 (More than 100 Shields in total)

• Adds a new heavy shield type, the Large Nordic Wooden Shield.
• It's a remodeled Spiked Shield, with Textures from the DLC HighRes Texture Pack.
• It has a High Res Normal Map for extra detail.
• Stats are a bit weaker than the Iron Shield, but it is not as heavy.
• 16 Variants of this shield are added. All are temperable, and 8 are also craftable.
• All shields are added to Bandit Level Lists. Can you collect them all?
  

V. 1.00 (More than 85 Shields in total)

• Adds a modeled shield boss, removes the textured one.
• Adds another 63 painted designs of the Nordic Wooden Shield.
• All 88 shields are temperable and 12 are also craftable.
• All shields are added to Bandit Level Lists. Can you collect them all?
• Crafting recipes match the general balancing pattern introduced by Complete Crafting Overhaul.
• Dirt stains and smudges are added to all textures.
• High Res Normal Map for extra detail.
• Removes the changes that were made to guard shields. They are vanilla once again.
  

V. 0.75 (25 Shields in total)

• Adds another 13 painted designs of the Nordic Wooden Shield.
• Removes the 3 Nordic Hide Shields. (They are simple retextures and I think they did not go well with the basic concept of this mod.)
• All 25 shields are temperable and 12 are also craftable.
• All 25 shields are added to Bandit Level Lists. Can you collect all 25?
• Removes the chest at Riverwood's smith.
• Includes the tweaked Normal Map from the 0.55 patch.
  

V. 0.50 (15 Shields in total)

• All 6 Shields from the initial release are changed to Light Armor and renamed to Nordic Wooden Shield.
• Adds 5 new styles of the Nordic Wooden Shield and a Plain Wooden Shield as well.
• Adds the shield boss that BlueMoth hinted at (it is added to the 9 Hold Shields, too).
• Rotates the striped paint styles to reflect info from the vid BlueMoth posted.
• Adds 3 new shields of another style. Mesh and stats based on the Hide Shield.
• All the shields are craftable and temperable.
  

V. 0.10 (Initial release)

• Adds 6 Shields. Mesh and stats based on the Guard Shield.
  

Known issues

The shield boss of the Wooden shield isn't *really* modeled, it's 'niffed' or whatever you may call simple combining of nif-files in NifSkope - it's basically a resized and retextured Dwemer Bowl ;-) This means that there is some needless data in this model, but I deem it negligible compared to other high poly-count mods.
The Level Lists add the shields to bandits of all races. I will have a look into that and try if I can make them adding the shields to Nords only. I don't think that it's a big issue, however, why shouldn't a Khajiit Bandit come across a Nordic Shield and use it?
Some textures of the 2.5 update have minor flaws. I know about them and will fix them in a future update. I wanted to have the new shield types in, so I was content with basic texture quality.

Incompabilities

Probably any other mod that adds something to the Bandit or Stormcloak Level Lists and any mod that mades changes to the Guard's Shields. Besides, this mod only adds new models, textures and recipes to crafting, so it should be compatible with any other mod.

Installation & Uninstallation

Use the Nexus Mod Manager.

Plans for the future

Adding ...guess what... more shields!
Expanding the mod with more shield types (i.e. Steel Kite Shield, etc).
Maybe adding the Shields to other Level Lists.
Creating a place with an unique NPC who is collecting the shields.
Adding the need for paint to the recipes.
Adding the shields to common vendors.
Adding the Noble Wooden Shield that was shown in one of the preview images. It's not finished yet.
Decorating the smithies owned by Nords with some of the shields.
Fix/ adjust collision mesh for all shields.
Finetuning everything.

About bugfixing and updating

Please post any bugs or ideas in the comment section. As with any other mod, this is not guaranteed to work with whatever setup you have. Always make a back-up savegame before you activate any mods.
I've a full-time job. Playing and modding Skyrim is only one of my hobbies. I can't say how regularly I will update this. There will be times when I'm not able to answer to comments or personal messages in a timely manner. Please understand and respect that.

Credits

I want to thank the TESA School for hosting InsanitySorrow's texturing classes. They helped me a lot with basic understanding.
BlueMoth provided some insight and nice ideas (see 3rd comment). Thanks a lot!
Thx @ JonoPhoenix for the idea of making the shields collectables!
Thx a lot to the NifSkope programmers! You're awesome.
And last but not least: Blender, the 'Blender 3D: Noob to Pro' wikibook on en.wikibooks.org and the Blender NIF Import - Export Tutorial by Jen and 2pac4eva7. The new shield types of the 2.5 update wouldn't have seen the light without this great (and free!) software and this tutorials.

Permissions

Permission for translation: Granted, as long as you credit me and your upload contains the original readme and a link to the original file. Please send me a message, so that I might know what's happening with my mod.

Permission for adapting and reusing this mod's contents: Please ask for my permission. Not getting an answer counts as NO permission.

You are under NO circumstances allowed to upload this mod, any of your mods based on this mod or any mod translations to any other site than the Skyrim Nexus or the TES Alliance, especially not to Steam.

You are under NO circumstances allowed to ask for, demand or accept any kind of donation or payment for this mod, any of your mods based on this mod or any mod translations.