This mod is the release of a mod developed by me initially for the Legendary Edition, now available here also for the Special Edition and Anniversary Edition versions of Skyrim. The .esp is converted to Form 44 format, and all the .NIFs (meshes) and .DDSs (textures) are optimized in the correct ways to run in both SE and AE, requiring absolutely no further work on your part.
When possible, my releases to SE and AE are flagged as .ESLs, which means they don't take up an .ESP slot in the users load order. However, this is not always possible. Below, you can check the three possible scenarios and check which scenario applies to this specific release. Since the other two will be crossed out, and the correct one will be marked in yellow:
The mod is flagged as .ESL, so it won't take up space in your load order, and yet it will be read and executed perfectly by your game;
The mod is not flagged as .ESL, just like a normal .ESP, because it has FaceGen data on it, so if it was flagged, whoever is not using the last official updates for SE or AE, including most pirated Skyrim users, will have the NPCs added by this mod having the gray face bug. However, if you have the latest update installed, you can flag this mod as an .ESL using SSEEdit, at your own risk, but generally with no problems;
The mod is not flagged as .ESL, just like a normal .ESP, as it requires the use of .SEQ files. In all the tests I did, even regenerating the .SEQ files after flagging the .ESPs as .ESLs, the dialogues stopped working. So, to maintain the integrity of dialogues and even quests added by my mods with .SEQ files, you should not attempt to flag this file under any circumstances, and you should use it in the exact way I made it available for download.
One last comment: there is a common misconception that all LE meshes need to go through NifOptimizer in order to be used in SE or AE, with the most varied arguments defending this, and a few absurdities about what would happen if it wasn't done. This is just another one of the myths that this community believes without any basis, and that it spreads only because it saw many people repeating the same thing. DO NOT OPTIMIZE meshes, neither mine nor any from other mod's. Most meshes are ready to run directly from LE to SE. NifOptimizer should only be used in cases where they DO NOT WORK DIRECTLY WITHOUT BEING OPTIMIZED. Using NifOptimizer indiscriminately without need, and without knowing how to do it correctly, leads to terrible consequences, being able to damage UV's, Normal Maps, the very 3d structure of the models, and much more, in short, causing more problems than the possible problems you could have with 1 in every 100 meshes needing to be optimized, something you would later do manually and individually when proven necessary. JUST DON'T PASS MESHES THROUGH THE NIF OPTIMIZER EXCEPT IF THEY JUST DON'T WORK IN THE SPECIAL EDITION OR ANNIVERSARY EDITION AFTER YOU TESTED THEM YOURSELF FIRST.
It's a fact that yes NifOptimizer can solve problems in problematic Nifs, but in this case, and if these Nifs are mine, just contact me and I'll solve the problem for you. If you have really in-depth knowledge of how to correct any negative consequences of using the program on the problematic mesh, that's ok, do it, but if not, just contact me and I'll solve it, since the nif having the problem would be caused by a little oversight of mine while I was producing it, so would be my responsability to fix the problem as well.Unfortunately, because the use of NifOptimizer was recommended in many tutorials as a possible step, a lot of people took it as mandatory, and many fools started to use it as gospel and to convince others, but remember, it's not because it's on the internet that is real. There is absolutely NO such thing as an "old nif format". NiTriShape works perfectly in SE and AE, it is NOT necessary in any way to convert the .nifs to BSTriShape format for them to run smoothly in game, and this messy conversion can even lead you to severe ingame problems. Unfortunately, 3 or 4 paranoids managed to create a legion of players who live in constant panic of corrupting their games, and in an attempt to avoid it, they end up diving into a corruption many times greater, created by themselves, unnecessarily.But don't just take my word for it based on my years of experience and dedication to this activity, listen to Arcane University's own words about it, possibly the best center of studies on modding for The Elder Scrolls available on the internet: (image extracted from the link: https://wiki.beyondskyrim.org/wiki/Arcane_University:NIF_Data_Format)
Play more, have more fun, and let the authors be responsible for the technical condition and functionality of the mods they release. And if you don't trust them enough to use mods without trying to fix what often doesn't need to be fixed, just stop using those mods.
Take care, and if you have any doubts, look for me on my Discord server, Mihail
What made it possible to create the Imp with animated working wings was an ingenious mix of skeletons and animations. The wings in particular are attached as a special effect, and animated by an external set of bones. This means that at the time of the Imp's death, I was faced with two different scenarios: either the wings simply disappear when the Imp is killed (like a magical cloak disappears when the mage who produced it dies), or they remain flapping permanently, which wouldn't be good either. I found a middle ground for the sake of your immersion: after death, the Imp's wings flap for a little period of time (long enough for you to collect the loot and move on), and then they disappear. In terms of immersion, consider the temporary flapping of wings after the Imp's death to be involuntary reflexes, similar to a gecko's severed tail, or octopus tentacles that move even after being cut. Options like transforming into an ash pile don't make sense for this creature, and the tests I did to replace the live model with animated wings with a dead model with static wings at the time of death didn't prove to be worth the effort they would require;
It has been reported by some users who have installed mods that add animated wings to the playable character, that both types of wings can semi-blend into a weird bug, causing you to at certain times develop Imp wings on your back instead of wings that you intended to use, such as fairy or dragon ones, added by other mods. It's not quite clear how this bug works, but maybe it's due to animations and other files shared between mods. If you don't use mods for that purpose then you have nothing to worry about.
. Removed some spawn points and changed other spawn points conditions to avoid the risk of some Imps interfering with radiant quests such as killing a specific predator or bandit leader.
Hello there Mihail, love your work. A lot of your beautiful creations are a part of my mods list and populate Skyrim whenever I return to it. Just wondering though, is there any chance you'd consider adding spell tomes to allow us to summon our own imps aswell? I have this idea for a Witch/Warlock character and I'd absolutely love if I could conjure up some of these winged creatures to help me sow some chaos. Thank you again for your amazing mods ^-^
An update on this Mihail. After doing some research (because I use quite a few mods that add new spells and/or are related to magic) and noticing in spell vendors (I have already purchased it and tried it out with a couple characters) there's this spell: "Conjure Putrid Imp: Summons a Putrid Imp for 60 seconds wherever the caster is pointing. Its Putrid Fire deals 3 fire damage per second for 10 seconds. Whenever an enemy burning from Putrid Fire takes damage not from the Imp, its attacker loses 10 magicka damage and the target takes 10 fire damage. (Magnitude: N/A, Time: 60, Cost: 39)" The mod that this spell belongs to is Arcanum - A New Age of Magic, and I thought you should know of it because the critter summoned by this spell uses your imp model and sounds. I checked the Special Thanks section in the mods page and it does mention a "mikhail", but I'm not sure if they were referring to you and felt like sharing it here.
As much as I like the mod, there's an issue with it, or rather two issues that I've come upon - not that the mod isn't working; it works perfectly, as do the other ones by you that I'm using (I have quite a few of your creature mods installed, and they all rule), but what bothers me is that there's an imp located at the standing stones that can interrupt Ralof telling you about them when you pass them during your escape from Helgen, so the line gets interrupted in the middle of the sentence since Ralof comes close enough to the imp for it to become aggressive, and they start to fight before the line finishes properly, or it can also happen that it doesn't trigger at all - if the imp gets aggressive sooner and attacks, Ralof doesn't say anything and charges at the imp, and when he kills it (with your help or not), he doesn't wait for you to check out the stones since the fight prevented his line about the stones from triggering, so he runs further down the road instead of waiting for you to choose a stone.
The second issue is the entrance to the Embershard mine - there's an imp in front of the entrance that either kills the bandit that should have been there guarding the entrance, which is fine, or it can also happen that the imp is there by itself and no bandit at all, which makes the talk between the first two bandits you come across inside the mine about someone standing guard at the entrance without much sense. The Skyrim map is big enough, so I don't know why those two imps should be exactly there - I imagine you put them there so the player would see them as soon as possible after starting the game, but I think they should really be located elsewhere (at places that don't interfere with NPC lines and other stuff). Now, I don't know if there are others that are located at similar places that prevent certain lines from triggering, or break the immersion (or even quests) in a different way, but I hope I won't come across a dead NPC that I would need for completing a quest (a bandit bounty quest or something), otherwise I will have to uninstall the mod, which would be a shame as it's great otherwise.
P.S. I saw the sticky about the bandit leader bounty quest after I posted this. Thanks to EternalVoyager and to you for putting it up. ;)
hello friend, i may consider moving those 2, despite not causing issues at all, but, think with me, fact is that most times people do not wait for ralof or hadvar, since they even say you should go your own way right after the cave exit, so, no big deal missing one line or two, since we do that all the time even with our own in game choices regarding npcs and factions. the one on the mine fought and killed the bandit, just recently, so the guys inside are not aware of that. if the bandit is not there, is due to some weird glitch, usually he is there dead or trying to kill the imp, what happens most of the time tbf. so, just minor changes to the game, that really change nothing in your experience, if you think about it carefully.
Hi! While I agree that SOME people run ahead after exiting the cave below Helgen, it doesn't mean that ALL people do it and rather go with Ralof/Hadvar instead - me being among the latter, obviously. ;) So, I'm of the opinion that some vanilla stuff, like NPCs (and their lines) and locations, should be left alone and not be affected by mods that can interfere with their behaviour, unless they alter them in a way that enhances the experience, but not in a way that the lines get skipped, like in this case, or the quests get broken, or whatever. Sure, it's not a big deal to some, but a player like myself who enjoys experiencing everything about NPCs that are a part of their adventure, whether it's big or small, to the max, that is their lines included (minus information that the player character would already know, like why the Stormcloaks were being executed, for example, which is obvious, so I never ask Ralof about that, but I still like to hear his lines being said in full during our escape from Helgen to Riverwood), would like to see that the mods are accomodated for us as well. I'm not lecturing you here, ofc, because I'm not a modder, so I respect you as a mod author, and I use quite a few of your mods, like I said in my previous post, and I'm not by any means implying that your mod is broken because of my experience with it, but I'm sure that such stuff is completely avoidable, so putting the imps away from locations that trigger NPC's lines about those places and stuff would most defintely not take anything away from experiencing your mod like intended, but that's for you to decide if you're going to put those imps somewhere else or not - it's your mod, it's awesome otherwise, like I said, and it's most definitely not broken because of it, but it's just that it's better to leave such locations alone, so the lines, quests and other stuff can always work properly, no matter how the player chooses to play. ;)
i decided to remove those mentioned 2 following your suggestion. the one on the mine entrance is removed, the one from the guardian stones appears later on the road, but after the stones.
Great! I've already downloaded the new version. :) Thanks! Edit: What I meant is that I downloaded your new version that has another creature alongside Imps. It looked cool, so I decided to download that one instead; why not having two creatures with one mod. :)
Thank you so much! Ever thought of releasing equippable wings? With some minor edits these and those of the Wraith-of-Crows work just fine on my character.
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34 comments
The mod is not flagged as .ESL, just like a normal .ESP, because it has FaceGen data on it, so if it was flagged, whoever is not using the last official updates for SE or AE, including most pirated Skyrim users, will have the NPCs added by this mod having the gray face bug. However, if you have the latest update installed, you can flag this mod as an .ESL using SSEEdit, at your own risk, but generally with no problems;The mod is not flagged as .ESL, just like a normal .ESP, as it requires the use of .SEQ files. In all the tests I did, even regenerating the .SEQ files after flagging the .ESPs as .ESLs, the dialogues stopped working. So, to maintain the integrity of dialogues and even quests added by my mods with .SEQ files, you should not attempt to flag this file under any circumstances, and you should use it in the exact way I made it available for download.JUST DON'T PASS MESHES THROUGH THE NIF OPTIMIZER EXCEPT IF THEY JUST DON'T WORK IN THE SPECIAL EDITION OR ANNIVERSARY EDITION AFTER YOU TESTED THEM YOURSELF FIRST.
It's a fact that yes NifOptimizer can solve problems in problematic Nifs, but in this case, and if these Nifs are mine, just contact me and I'll solve the problem for you. If you have really in-depth knowledge of how to correct any negative consequences of using the program on the problematic mesh, that's ok, do it, but if not, just contact me and I'll solve it, since the nif having the problem would be caused by a little oversight of mine while I was producing it, so would be my responsability to fix the problem as well.Unfortunately, because the use of NifOptimizer was recommended in many tutorials as a possible step, a lot of people took it as mandatory, and many fools started to use it as gospel and to convince others, but remember, it's not because it's on the internet that is real. There is absolutely NO such thing as an "old nif format". NiTriShape works perfectly in SE and AE, it is NOT necessary in any way to convert the .nifs to BSTriShape format for them to run smoothly in game, and this messy conversion can even lead you to severe ingame problems. Unfortunately, 3 or 4 paranoids managed to create a legion of players who live in constant panic of corrupting their games, and in an attempt to avoid it, they end up diving into a corruption many times greater, created by themselves, unnecessarily.But don't just take my word for it based on my years of experience and dedication to this activity, listen to Arcane University's own words about it, possibly the best center of studies on modding for The Elder Scrolls available on the internet: (image extracted from the link: https://wiki.beyondskyrim.org/wiki/Arcane_University:NIF_Data_Format)
Play more, have more fun, and let the authors be responsible for the technical condition and functionality of the mods they release. And if you don't trust them enough to use mods without trying to fix what often doesn't need to be fixed, just stop using those mods.
Take care, and if you have any doubts,
look for me on my Discord server,
Mihail
. Removed some spawn points and changed other spawn points conditions to avoid the risk of some Imps interfering with radiant quests such as killing a specific predator or bandit leader.
The mod that this spell belongs to is Arcanum - A New Age of Magic, and I thought you should know of it because the critter summoned by this spell uses your imp model and sounds. I checked the Special Thanks section in the mods page and it does mention a "mikhail", but I'm not sure if they were referring to you and felt like sharing it here.
The second issue is the entrance to the Embershard mine - there's an imp in front of the entrance that either kills the bandit that should have been there guarding the entrance, which is fine, or it can also happen that the imp is there by itself and no bandit at all, which makes the talk between the first two bandits you come across inside the mine about someone standing guard at the entrance without much sense. The Skyrim map is big enough, so I don't know why those two imps should be exactly there - I imagine you put them there so the player would see them as soon as possible after starting the game, but I think they should really be located elsewhere (at places that don't interfere with NPC lines and other stuff). Now, I don't know if there are others that are located at similar places that prevent certain lines from triggering, or break the immersion (or even quests) in a different way, but I hope I won't come across a dead NPC that I would need for completing a quest (a bandit bounty quest or something), otherwise I will have to uninstall the mod, which would be a shame as it's great otherwise.
P.S. I saw the sticky about the bandit leader bounty quest after I posted this. Thanks to EternalVoyager and to you for putting it up. ;)
i may consider moving those 2, despite not causing issues at all, but, think with me, fact is that most times people do not wait for ralof or hadvar, since they even say you should go your own way right after the cave exit, so, no big deal missing one line or two, since we do that all the time even with our own in game choices regarding npcs and factions.
the one on the mine fought and killed the bandit, just recently, so the guys inside are not aware of that.
if the bandit is not there, is due to some weird glitch, usually he is there dead or trying to kill the imp, what happens most of the time tbf.
so, just minor changes to the game, that really change nothing in your experience, if you think about it carefully.
- Cheers! :)
the one on the mine entrance is removed, the one from the guardian stones appears later on the road, but after the stones.
Edit: What I meant is that I downloaded your new version that has another creature alongside Imps. It looked cool, so I decided to download that one instead; why not having two creatures with one mod. :)
Is it safe to update from version 3 to 3.1 mid-game?
Thank you
If you get this issue when doing the Jarls Quest to Kill the Bandit Leader, you can use the following console commands to progress the quest…
First check your quest progression:
player.sqs 0007172A
Then set the quest to the next stage, for me this was stage 15:
SetStage 0007172A 15
Question: safe to update middle game?
sure you can update.
Ever thought of releasing equippable wings?
With some minor edits these and those of the Wraith-of-Crows work just fine on my character.