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jknjb

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jknjb

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About this mod

Adds several spells that can be used in-game to alter an NPC's weight slider setting: Increase Slider, Decrease Slider, Set Weight (to one of five values), Restore Slider, Get Current NPC Weight and Fix Neck Seam. Intended to be used as a modder's resource, not as a finished mod. (Ported from the LE version)

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Changelogs
September 2023

This is a direct port of the LE version.  I have not tested it, but it should work as long as you have an up to date version of SKSE.

To be honest, I'm surprised at the number of people who wanted this ported to SE (as in, more than one, heh).  Originally, I made it to satisfy my curiosity and haven't really touched it since.  If you want to extend this, play around with it, whatever, the sources are there.  I am not planning on doing any more development on this mod.  Have fun.

I don't know if this will work in VR, and I have no means of testing it in VR.  If SKSE VR has the same functionality as SKSE, it should.  If you try to use this in VR, please post in the comments whether or not it works so other people will know.  Thanks.



WHAT THIS MOD IS:

(Description from the LE page.  Mostly.)

A modder's resource that adds several spells to manipulate an NPC's weight slider in-game without using the console.  Feel free to patch the mod to use it however you need to.  The spells are added as spell tomes and are available from the console.  I have not altered any leveled lists, again, I made this mod to satisfy my curiosity, it's just a resource for weight slider functionality.


Three spells affect the targeted NPC's weight slider:

- Weight Slider Increase Spell increases the targeted NPC's weight slider by 10, up to a maximum of 100.

- Weight Slider Decrease Spell decreases the targeted NPC's weight slider by 10, down to a minimum of 0.

- Weight Slider Restore Original Value will return the targeted NPC to their original weight IF AND ONLY IF such changes were made by one of the above spells.  It will not restore the NPC's original weight if you've used the console or another mod to alter it.


Five spells set the targeted NPC's weight to a specific value (0, 25, 50, 75, 100)

- Weight Slider Set To number (where number is the specific weight the NPC will be set to)


Two spells are utilities:

- Weight Slider Fix Neck Seam will fix the neck seam - a gap between the head and the body meshes - that may appear on an NPC whose weight slider has been altered.  The neck seam issue seems to be a thing with the way head mesh informtion is handled by the game, and one may appear after you fast travel or reload a save.  This spell gives you a way to fix it in-game whenever it occurs.  For more information, see THE FINE PRINT, below.

- Weight Slider Get NPC Weight will tell you the targeted NPC's current weight.

VERSION 1.1
  - adds a simple example of a dialogue-based method rather than a spell-based method.  In this case to fix an NPC's neck seam.  The NPC dialogue uses the vanilla-voiced "Of course" generic shared line.  If you use the dialogue on an NPC with a voice that doesn't have this shared dialogue, you won't hear a response.

VERSION 1.2
  - Renames the spells so they all start with "Weight Slider" in the name to make them easier to find in your spell menu.
  - Adds spell tomes for the five spells.  You'll still need to console the spell tomes in.  Search on "Weight".

VERSION 1.3
  - Adds five spells to set the NPC's weight to specific values (0, 25, 50, 75, 100)



See THE FINE PRINT, below, for more information.



REQUIREMENTS:

Skyrim
SKSE

Yes, SKSE is a hard requirement, otherwise the spells won't work.



COMPATIBILITY:

Should work with any body mod that supports the weight slider.  If you want the changes to be seen when the NPC is clothed, the armors or clothing they're using should have weight slider support also.

Note that some custom followers and NPC overhauls use a "worn body armor" to customize the appearance.  The weight slider spells probably won't work on these NPCs because the weight slider affects the base body, not the worn body armor.  You can check in xEdit to see if your follower/overhaul uses a worn body armor, I posted an example in the images tab to show where to look.

If you use the mod "Save Unbaker" (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/85565), it causes NPC weight to always be loaded from the plugin rather than from the save file, so any changes you make - with any mod that alters NPC weight - will be affected.  (Thanks to jasonsgamename for the info.)



THE FINE PRINT:

- At the moment the spells must be added to your character via the console.

- The spells are conditioned to work on UNIQUE NPCs only.  There's a limitation in the game engine for weight sliders and non-unique NPCs, so if you try the spells on a spawned bandit or guard or the like they probably won't work anyway.  You can play around with the conditions as you like in the Creation Kit and see what else works.

- Since creatures are scaled but don't have a weight slider, I doubt the spells will work on them.

In short, the spells should be fine for any NPC that is weight slider compatible.  I've tried it with vanilla bodies and a couple of NPCs in my game that use CBBE and it seems to work well.  Obviously you'll need NPC armors and clothing that are weight slider compatible or you won't see any changes unless the NPCs are naked.

- Neck seams (and wrist and ankle seams) are a gap between the head mesh and body mesh on an NPC.  They occur when an NPC's weight slider has been altered so it's no longer what it was when the NPC's facegen data was generated by the Creation Kit.  The first time any of the slider-altering spells in this mod affect a suitable NPC, that NPC's current slider setting is stored as the NPC's rank in a faction added by the mod.  Fix Neck Seam uses this "original" slider setting along with the NPC's current (presumably altered) slider setting to update the neck seam so it matches.  Because of how the original setting is stored, it's possible there may still be a tiny neck seam due to roundoff errors.  Sorry about that, it's the best I could do with this method of saving the data.

- Wrist/ankle gaps may also be fixed by casting the Fix Neck Seam spell in some circumstances.  (Thanks to nexusmodstry for that information)

- If the NPC's weight slider was altered by another mod or via the console, the Fix Neck Seam spell may not fix the problem, it can only work with the weight information it has stored.  This may be an avenue for further development if someone wants to look into it, I'm sure there are other ways to access and store the data than what I chose to do.

- In order to see the notifications of the NPC changes (as seen in the images), go into the console and type

Set WeightSpellsDebug to 1

and hit return.  That will turn on debug mode and display the messages.  To turn it off again, go back into the console and type

Set WeightSpellsDebug to 0



LOAD ORDER:

Anywhere.  You'll probably want to add other stuff to the mod if you're not just testing the spells, though, it's pretty boring right now :)



INSTALLING:

I recommend using a mod manager of some kind since there are a few loose scripts and sources.

Installing mid-game should be fine, but make a hard save first so you can revert to it if you decide to uninstall the mod later.



UNINSTALLING:

Uninstalling mods mid-game is not recommended, the best option is to revert to the hard save you made before you installed the mod.

However, if you really want to uninstall rather than reverting to your hard save, you might want to use a save game cleaner to make sure there are no scripty bits left over.



PERMISSIONS:

Open.  I made these spells to satisfy my curiosity about how the weight sliders and neck seam issues could be gotten around with minimal fuss.  My curiosity is satisfied, I have no plans to take it any further.

Sources are included - there are five scripts and their source files plus the ESP.

If you do use these in your own mod, I'd be interested in hearing about it, but it's not required.  I can be reached as jknjb via Nexus PM.

THIS MOD IS FREE.  If you paid for it, you got screwed.

PLEASE NOTE:  Permissions are open.  I would appreciate being told if you use
my mods in your own, but it's not required.  I do ask that you don't use
it in paid mods.  You are free to include this in a modpack.  However, I
won't be able to support any problems you may find if you use it as
part of a modpack because I'll have no way of knowing if anything has
been changed.




OTHER:

If you find bugs in this I'd be interested in hearing about them, but other than bug fixes I don't expect to do anything more with these spells.



THANKS TO:

Gopher - I first learned about the neck seam issue after watching his "Richard" Let's Play and seeing his Pumping Iron mod.  I studied his code to see how to change the weight slider via a mod rather than the console.

The SKSE team - for making the game engine functions these spells needed accessible for modding.

Bethesda Game Studios for Skyrim.