--- Manifesto ---

I've always enjoyed having things being colour coded, and that includes my Skyrim Holds. I disliked having the ugly leather brown armour of the imperial guards contrasting against the coloured banners of a given hold. So I decided to fix that.

"Hey, isn't there already a mod that does that?!" I hear you proclaim. I did try out Better Civil War Guards (A.k.a. Less Oppressive Occupation) but it didn't really revert the outfits, it seems like it just adds and removes armour until the guards equipped the right set. This meant that other mods that tried to add stuff to guards usually just didn't work.

So, I made this mod with mod compatibility in mind. I specifically wanted to make sure that Cloaks and Capes worked, and for good measure I also tested it with Sleeved Guards and Stormcloaks.

--- Features ---

• Alter the probability of guards wearing their Hold's armour or the armour of their Hold's current Civil War allegiance
• Alter the probability of guards wearing their Civil War allegiance's armour but use their hold's shield (and cloaks and other accessories if you have the mods)
• Alter the probability of guards wearing helmets
• Change the names of guards (You have the format options of "[Faction] Solider", "[Faction] [Hold] Guard", and "[Hold] Guard")
• Change the race and sex of guards
  

• When starting a new game, please either disable this mod and only enable it after the new save has been created and HGA has initialized OR download the New Game patch (details below).
• Sometimes when helmets are disabled, some guards might look like they're still wearing a helmet (though this is purely visual. They aren't actually wearing it). If this happens you will need to Full Reset the guard to remove the helmet.
• Please allow up to 5 seconds for guards to update themselves after using one of the reset powers. I didn't enforce a cooldown because sometimes the updates are instant, but sometimes they do take a bit longer.
• Non-Nord Guards still use the Nord voice. I am not a voice actor nor do I meddle in that area of development, so I don't plan to implement new voices unless I hand over the responsibility to someone else.
• Removing helmets also removes the amount of armour the guards have (because unlike some mods that make the helmet invisible, I unequip it). If you want that functionality I recommend downloading an invisible guard helmet mod.
  

(Honestly this list is more of a reminder to my future self to not waste even more time trying to make these ideas into reality)

• Support for Solstheim or new lands guards: This mod was designed to only deal with guards affected by the civil war. If I ever do decide to make a mod similar to this for guards outside of Skyrim, it will be its own mod.
  

--- Installation ---

If this is your first time downloading, just download it using a mod manager and let it do the work.
It is highly recommended that you update your game when your last save was in an area with no guards, and preferably in an instance where you haven't been around any guards for a while. This is the best way to keep your save clean. It's also recommended that you clean your save using something like Fallrim Resaver (linked below) otherwise you may get some bugs with guards wearing multiple helmets or the wrong outfit until you cast a full reset spell on them.
It also doesn't hurt to clean your save once in a while.


I don't recommend uninstalling any mod mid-playthrough, but if you're going to anyway, you should save in a spot with no guards (e.g. a player home). Guard names and currently worn armour might stay until the guards respawn. Also, make sure that you do not have either of the reset powers equipped. I haven't confirmed what happens, but other mods that add spells and such have wanted that it prevents the player from equipping anything in that slot. I would also recommend cleaning your save using Fallrim tools or some other tool I'm unaware of.

--- Compatibility ---

Here is a list of mods that I have tested with my mod and are compatible. (last updated 2nd June 2020)
If you have tested this mod's compatibility with other mods, please feel free to add a comment in the compatibility thread under the forums tab. It helps me and fellow users :)

--- New Game Patch ---

--- Hold Riders Patches ---