Cavalry - Comprehensive Mount System

This mod introduces a comprehensive, balanced, yet much needed mount system which has been built upon the ideas on how the vanilla horses should have worked. This mod doesn't do anything fancy that goes outside the boundary of the game's original visions, yet FINALLY having a horse will actually mean something more than just vibe!



Features

Fast travel faster on horseback

You can now benefit from your horse's mobility when fast travel. Fast travel is faster (50% by default) while on horseback. You'll know that you will benefit from your mount by a notification that informs you that you are ready to travel.

Additionally, your horse will no more follow you when you fast travel on foot.


Call your horse at stables

You can summon(kind of) horses at stables, by talking to a hostler, via a dialogue option that tells you'd like to stable your horse there. Summoning horse has been done by several other talented mods, but summoning them by simply pressing a key anywhere seemed to me potentially troublesome, somehow not immersive, and almost negates summoned horses(like Arvak), so I implemented this system. Now not only you can call upon your horse with ease, but also stables will play a role throughout your entire playthrough, if you're going to use horses at all, all the while summoned horses still keep their unique worth.

Also you will be able to do the same at your Hearthfire homesteads by talking to the steward, once you've built the stable.


Call your horse with a whistle

You can also call your horse in proximity with a whistle. This only works when your horse is within a certain range. The range is 20,000 ingame unit, approximately about the distance between Whiterun stables and Whiterun Watchtower. Now you don't need to, or less need to, worry about losing your horse fled from the battle.

The whistle can be purchased at the price of 50 gold, from any hostler, via a new dialogue option. The dialogue option won't show up if you already have a whistle.

Once you got a whistle, it will grant you the Blow Whistle ability. It Blows the Whistle.


Access your horse's inventory

Horses' mobility alone wouldn't have an impressive effect on gameplay to be honest, especially when you're with means to improve your character's movement speed. By allowing you to access your horse's inventory, traveling with a horse becomes much more desirable option.

You can access your horse's inventory by activating them while pressing alt-act key, which is Left Alt by default. jayserpa's Dynamic Activation Key is also supported in an optional plugin. It is recommended to use this plugin if you already have DAK to avoid redundant scripting.


Claim horses

To avoid potential problems, and to provide more controlled and streamlined experience, I have restricted summoning horse and accessing inventory to only be available to your own horses. However, bought or quest horses are not the only options that remain, as you can now claim unowned, or even stolen horses.

To claim an unowned horse, you need to talk to a stable hostler, and they'll have a dialogue option to register them as yours for a fee of 750 gold.

If you have access to a fence, you can claim a stolen horse for the same price. This requires a working fence at service(Mallus after Dampened Spirits for example). Or if you have fence perk, or its equivalent from your perk mod, you can claim stolen horses by talking to regular stable hostlers.


Steed Stone Add-On

There's also an Add-On in the optional files section that grants your horse bonus while you're under the effect of the Steed Stone.

The bonus is 50 additional Health and Stamina, 10% Movement Speed bonus, and additional 100 Armor Rating.

This Add-On is compatible with Mundus - A Standing Stone Overhaul without a patch and hopefully with other Standing Stone overhaul mods, as this Add-On doesn't change the Steed Stone Effect.



Requirements

powerofthree's Papyrus Extender
Spell Perk Item Distributor (SPID)



Installation

Install with your favorite mod manager like any other mods. Should be safe to install mid-save.



Configuration

Alt-act key can be configured through console command
set cav_AltActDxCode <Your desired DXScanCode>
This will require reloading or restarting the game.

DXScanCodes can be seen here.



Limitations

This mod doesn't enable fast travel in Survival Mode. I've looked into it, and decided it's something that a dedicated survival mod should handle, rather than in this mod. You'll have to grab other options to enable fast travel in Survival Mode. Various survival mods, like Survival Mode Improved - SKSE provides an option to enable this, and there are mods like Journeyman that introduces its own fast travel solution.

I personally recommend Journeyman.

Claiming horse doesn't work with generated forms, i.e. random encounter horses. I made this so to avoid potential troubles.



Compatibility

Cavalry doesn't change any vanilla records, so technically any mods that don't directly overlap in functionality should be compatible.

Other horse system mods may be technically compatible, but it'd make no sense.

Mods that change horses(stats, appearances, etc.) should be compatible.

Mods that dynamically adjusts fast travel speed may be incompatible, but I'm not aware of any mods that do this.

To avoid summoned horses interfering Cavalry system, I gave them a keyword(cav_SummonedHorseKeyword, 0xCB028) through SPID. Arvak from Dawnguard and Daedric Horse from CC are examples, but I know that some magic mods add such horses.

But I've not tried many magic mods, and the only instance I'm aware of is Mysticism, so I distributed the keyword for Mysticism, but if you're using other mods that add summoned horses, you'd want them to have that keyword. Nothing terrible would happen, as it's just a vanilla behavior that goes back to its original location, but there will be some inconvenience.



My Other Mods

Destriers - Horses Redone

While Cavalry implements the mount system without any direct change to vanilla records, Destriers rebalances horse race as a whole, and then make player horses unique by distributing distinct attributes, as they all deserve.


Cataphract - A Horse Armor Improvement

Cataphract introduces a balanced and distinctive effects for saddles and horse armors, from vanilla Skyrim and other CC contents.



Credit

powerofthree - This mod wouldn't have been possible without powerofthree's works.