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About this mod

This mod is a revamp of my older mod, BUVARP (Barely Used Vanilla Actors Recycle Project).

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Introduction

By popular request, I decided to revamp an older mod of mine, BUVARP. You can read some details about WARP vs BUVARP here. The "BUVARP" mentioned in this article refers to the old mod, which I will refer to as "BUVARP SE 1" or "OldVARP SE", while the one posted here would be referred to as "BUVARP SE RE" or "NewVARP".

Patches for several mods can be found here.

Other mods from me, that go along well with this mod:


Included in the spoiler are any changes made from Oldvarp to NewVarp:

Spoiler:  
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The most common requests were:

1. Getting rid of the USSEP, RDO and CRF requirements.

2. Removing unsupported NPCs. (Update: some of them have been reimplemented, see below.)

3. Minimizing quest and quest script conflicts.

4. Adressing the "cloning technique".

5. Adressing the black face bug/conflicts with appearance overhauls.

6. Minimizing world edits for compatibility.

Some have been done, others not so much.

Getting rid of the USSEP, RDO and CRF requirements

This has been succesfully done.

While USSEP (Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch) is no longer a direct requirement, it is highly recommended you use it.

RDO (Relationship Dialogue Overhaul) is no longer a requirement. However, you now will have to use THIS MOD in order to get follower dialogue for voice types that don't have it. This mod has minimal edits and only adresses this issue. While this again is not direct requirement, I would advise you to use it, otherwise you can't have certain NPCs as followers.

CRF (Cutting Room Floor) is no longer a requirement since the hunters from "Ill Met By The Moonlight" have been removed.

Removing unsupported NPCs

The following NPCs were unsupported:

  • Shahvee -> re-implemented
  • Shavari -> re-implemented
  • Malborn
  • Brelas
  • Selveni Nethri
  • J'datharr
  • From-Deepest-Fathoms
  • Deep-In-His-Cups
  • dunWatchRiverWolf aka Scruffy -> re-implemented as "Fenrir"
  • Nubaree
  • Razita
  • All NPCs regarding the Ill Met By The Moonlight quest

Those NPCs were done by TheBxushis, way back when. As I don't know how they were done, I decided to remove them. I might redo them myself at some point.

There were also some edits to Golldir, done by Skylover, which I removed as well.

Minimizing quest and quest script conflicts

I took a page from my other mod, Quests Award Perk Points, and decided to minimize all direct quest and quest script edits.

There is currently only one exception, namely the FreeformMarkarthM "Search and Seizure", as I need to add an extra quest stage.

Other than that, quest conflicts should be minimal.

Adressing the "cloning technique"

I've thought long and hard about this one, but I decided to keep it in. Removing this technique would be detrimental to overal compatibility.

The mods it does conflict with, are far less than the ones that they would otherwise conflict with.

In short, if I would get rid of it, countless other mods would become incompatible, and as that's what I'm trying to avoid, so it would be counter productive.

Known mods that might still conflict with this method, would be Amorous Adventures (gives certain NPCs another purpose, just like BUVARP, after their quests, so you'll end up with 2 NPCs of the same kind.)

I do not plan on patching those, but others can do so, given they also have permission from the other authors.

Adressing the face discoloration bug/conflicts with appearance overhauls

Originally, I wanted to minimize NPC edits as well, to make sure appearance overhauls wouldn't conflict. As I was unsure how to do this, I made this topic on Reddit.

/u/Piranha91 pointed out that there now are certain automated patchers for that, namely NPC- NPC Plugin Chooser and EasyNPC.

So that's probably the best way to go about it. I don't use those myself, so I cannot offer any support for using them.

If you're still having face discoloration issues, there's also this mod: Face Discoloration Fix.

Minimizing world edits for compatibility

Currently there are 3 places in Skyrim that have major edits.

  • Outside the gates of Falkreath: Valdr's home. -> Mods that overhaul Falkreath need a patch. Arthmoor's Falkreath overhaul also adds a home for him, so he'll have 2 homes. Also, the carriage and ferry overhaul mod places a carriage at that spot as well. There's a patch available here to disable that. ("No Valdr patch")
  • Outside of Windhelm, east of the river, next to the Brandy-Mug Farm: Anska's home. -> Not sure which mods edit this place.
  • East of the Hall of the Vigilant: Agmaer's home, Chillridge Farm -> As far as I know no mod edits this place.

If anyone wants to make a patch for these places, feel free. (see permissions)



NPCs covered

This mod gives new purposes to NPCs that are barely used in Vanilla. In many case, they are quest NPCs that get deleted by the game after their quests. Many of the NPCs I covered are recruitable as followers, but some of them also got a new home and/ or daily schedules after their quests.

Skyrim.esm's NPCs

Spoiler:  
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  • Adelaisa Vendicci: Boosted her stats and removed her level cap, to make her more useful as a follower.
  • Anska: I gave her a home east outside of Windhelm, where she can be found. You can recruit her there after the A Scroll for Anska quest.
  • Arvel the Swift: Added an option to bribe, intimate or persuade him to hand over the Golden Claw and spare his life, in the Golden Claw quest. If you succeed the intimidation/bribe check and he has given you the claw, he will run to the Ragged Flagon in Riften and become a member of the Thieves Guild. You can also recruit him there as a follower.
  • Avulstein Greymane: If he survives the Missing in Action quest, he can be found in the Palace of Kings in Windhelm, after the quest is done.
  • Bjartur: If the Stormcloaks win the civil war and conquer Solitude, she will be freed from Castle Dour Jail and can be found in the Winking Skeever.
  • Brelyna Maryon: removed level cap and a 0.75 PC level multiplier, to make her more useful as a follower.
  • Cairine: Added dialogue option to give her a potion of Cure Disease, for a small reward.
  • Eisa Blackthorn: Recruitable after completing the Pale Lady quest. She will be at the inn in Morthal.
  • Fenrir: (previously called "Scruffy"): He's the wolf in Whiteriver Watch. He can either be fed his favorite food or persuaded, in order to become an animal follower. Requires Missing Follower Dialogue Edit to recruit as a follower. If you dismiss him, he'll go to Bloated Man's Grotto.
  • Hefid the Deaf: Given a persuade option to calm her down, instead of running away. (high speech check requirement since she's deaf!) If you succeed to persuade her, she'll have beggar dialogue and you'll be able to give her gold.
  • Illia: Will now sandbox in the Bee and Barb in Riften after her quest, Repentance.
  • Kesh the Clean: Recruitable after The Only Cure quest. In addition, I also gave him a tent with a bed to sleep in.
  • Knjakr: Given option to intimidate him, so he won't attack you. If you succeed, he'll have beggar dialogue. (option to give gold)
  • Maurice Jondrelle: Recruitable after the Blessing of Nature quest, after you've taken the sapling to Danica. He will be at the Eldergleam Sanctuary. I also gave him a new "Summon Spriggans" spell, which he will occasionally use. (Requires Missing Follower Dialogue Edit to recruit as a follower.)
  • Nelacar: Recruitable after the Black Star quest. If you take the option of the Black Star.
  • Nurelion: Made a master alchemy trainer.
  • Ogmund: Added a dialogue option to warn him during the Thalmor quest in Markath, for a gold reward.
  • Onmund: removed level cap and a 0.75 PC level multiplier, to make him more useful as a follower.
  • Orthorn: If Cutting Room Floor is loaded, he is recruitable after the Hitting the Books quest.
  • Pumpkin: He can either be fed his favorite food or persuaded, in order to become an animal follower. His powerattacks trigger either a Firebolt, Ice Spike or Lightning Bolt spell. Requires Missing Follower Dialogue Edit to recruit as a follower. If you dismiss him, he'll go to Bloated Man's Grotto.
  • Roggi Knot-Beard: Boosted his stats, removed level cap. Will offer training in Block, after Dungeon Delving quest (to get his family shield) is done.
  • Salma: Recruitable after the Coming of Age quest. She will be at the Nightgate Inn, one ingame hour after you complete the quest. She will also bury Beem-Ja and a grave will be at the location where their camp was previously.
  • Salvianus: Given beggar dialogue. (option to give gold) I wanted to make him more indepth, but failed to find a suitable approach.
  • Shahvee: After completing her quest, she can be recruited as a follower, or you can have her look over the other Argonians at the dock. (In case of the latter, the disposition of the other argonians will rise.) (Requires Missing Follower Dialogue Edit to recruit as a follower.)
  • Shavari: Instead of attacking you after rescuing Esbern, she will forcegreet you and you have a change to persuade, intimidate or bribe her. If you succeed, she'll rethink her life's decissions. After a while a courier will bring you a letter from her. At that point, you can visit her in Riften and recruit her as a follower. (Requires Missing Follower Dialogue Edit to recruit as a follower.)
  • Stands-In-Shallows: Added a persuade dialogue option to help him get rid of his addiction + offer him a potion of cure disease, as alternative to the Some Light Theft quest.
  • Sven: Removed level cap and increased stats. Will offer speech training to the player, if the quest A Lovely Letter ends in his favor. This is done to make him more of viable alternative to Faendal.
  • Stalleo:
  • I gave him a clan name: "Deep-Heart"
  • I renamed his bodyguards: "Fridya Thrice-Dawn" and "Lokrenor Sable-Song"
  • I made Stalleo and the bodyguards into unique NPCs, no more leveled templates. This requires them to have facegen.
  • Renamed the bandit chief in Treva's Watch to "Brurid the Contemptible", to reflect the dialogue from Stalleo mentioning him.
  • Renamed the corpses inside Treva's Watch to Golius Daro, Vaella Deep-Heart and Ilske Deep-Heart
  • If you do his quest to reclaim Treva's Watch, Infiltration and see the corpses, you can tell Stalleo you found them and get a small reward.
  • After the quest, Stalleo and his bodyguards will sandbox at the fort, instead of returning to the camp.
  • After another 24 hours, a gravestone will be made inside the courtyard of the fort for Stalleo's deceased wife and daughter.
  • Thomas: Available from level 1 (as well as a leveled Troll) + moved a bit down so you can better find him. More information about him and the Troll can be found in this video. Added a low level variation called Wounded Troll, which should be easier to kill for low level characters.
  • Thorald Greymane: If he survives the Missing in Action quest, he can be found in the Palace of Kings in Windhelm, after the quest is done.
  • Threki the Innocent: If Riften is taken by the Imperials, she can be found in town, instead of jail.
  • Torbjorn Shatter-Shield: Added a dialogue option to return Aegisbane, if you have it in your inventory, for a small reward.
  • Tova Shatter-Shield: If you killed the Butcher, you can speak to Tova telling her that he's been dealt with. She'll give you a small reward.
  • Vigilant Tyranus: Added an option to persuade him to get you to safety, when stuck inside the House of Horrors. You could also cast Courage on him when he's attacking you, to get a similar effect. Doing so will teleport the both of you to Stendarr's Beacon, fails the quest, but gives you some other rewards. (This edit is no longer supported and turned into a seperate standalone file.)
  • Valdr: Recruitable after the Moss Mother Cavern quest. I also gave him a home just outside Falkreath, where he can be found.



Dawnguard.esm's NPCs

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  • Agmaer: Before Dawnguard has started (level 10 in Vanilla), he can be found at Chillridge Farm, a goat cheese farm near the Hall of the Vigilant, where he lives with his sister (Sitild), mother (Antild) and pet dog (Snow). (All three NPCs have been added by this mod.) Made his "Pa's axe" unique, stats similar to a Nordic Axe and given an unique enchantment. When you meet him in Dayspring Pass, he'll have more dialogue options.
  • Vigilant Tolan: Given a dialogue option to convince/persuade him to stay at Fort Dawnguard, after you first meet him. Later on, you can recruit him as a follower.



NPCs that don't actually exist in Vanilla, but are otherwise mentioned in dialogue or text
Spoiler:  
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  • Athel Newberry:
        - Was only mentioned in the letter called No Word Yet in Vanilla.
        - I added him to the Moorside Inn in Morthal, as placeholder for an upcoming quest for Rune.

  • Savela Nethri:

        - Daughter of Selveni Nethri: Saveli was only mentioned by Selveni in dialogue.
        - I added her to the Retching Netch Cornerclub in Raven Rock.


        - Was only mentioned in the letter called Timely Offer
        - I added her as a hunter to the hunter's camp south of Kynesgrove.
- If you read the letter mentioned above, her stash will appear in Riften. In addition, you'll be able to persuade, imtimidate or bribe her, to act as a fence.
       
  • Kilthinius Dandoril:

       - Manufacturer of the traps at Riftweald Manor, only mentioned in a letter To the Owner.
       - I added him as an NPC to the Winking Skeever in Solitude.



Dead NPCs that have coffins added for

Spoiler:  
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  • Friga Shatter-Shield: The daughter of Shatter-Shield in Windhelm. Gets killed by the Butcher prior to the player visiting the city. -> Added her coffin in the Hall of the Dead in Windhelm.
  • Lavinia: Daughter of Mathies and Indara Caerellia . Added her gravestone at the Falkreath graveyard.
  • Lilija Snow-Shod: The daughter of Vulwulf Snow-Shod in Riften, was a healer "battlemaiden" for the Stormcloaks. Fell in battle fighting Imperials. -> Added her coffin in the Hall of the Dead in Riften.
  • Naalia Aretino: Mother of Aventus Aretino. Died prior to the player first visiting Windhelm. Added her coffin in the Hall of the Dead in Windhelm.
  
    

Dead NPCs added to Sovngarde

Spoiler:  
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  • Friga Shatter-Shield: The daughter of Shatter-Shield in Windhelm. Gets killed by the Butcher prior to the player visiting the city. -> Added her coffin in the Hall of the Dead in Windhelm.
  • Lilija Snow-Shod: The daughter of Vulwulf Snow-Shod in Riften, was a healer "battlemaiden" for the Stormcloaks. Fell in battle fighting Imperials.
  • Reyda: sister of Narfi.



Requirements

Any mod that adds follower dialogue to voice types that don't have it in vanilla. I myself made a resource for this purpose: Missing Follower Dialogue Fix

Note: These kinds mods are NOT direct requirements, but many followers won't have dialogue if you don't use any of them, so beware of that!

Compatibility

Follower framework mods

Since this mod follows the Vanilla follower method, any follower framework mod should work: iAFT, NFF or EFF are the most popular ones.

Location edits

Any mods that make edits the city of Falkreath might have clipping issues with Valdr's house.
Arthmoor's Falkreath also adds a home for Valdr, so you'll have two homes for him.

NPC appearance overhauls

These can cause the "face discoloration bug".

There are automated patchers that can fix compatibility issues between these and BUVARP, namely NPC- NPC Plugin Chooser and EasyNPC.

If you're still have black face issues, there's also this mod: Face Discoloration Fix.

Conflicts with the "cloning technique"

Amorous Adventures conflicts with these, namely Anska, I believe. I have no current plans to make a patch myself,  but others are allowed to do so. (see permissions and also make sure sure its author is okay with you making a patch in that case.)

Mod recommendations

These mods do similar things to NPCs not adressed by this mod, which I endorse:


List of confirmed incompatible mods

The following mods are confirmed to be incompatible and will not be patched:


FAQ

A: Another BUVARP?! What's the deal with this one, the other BUVARP and WARP?
Q: This version can be seen as a lightweight successor to this one, which I'll dub "BUVARP SE 1" or "OldVARP SE" . More information about the differences between BUVARP SE 1 and WARP can be found here. BUVARP SE RE has some changes made from BUVARP SE 1, which I listed above.

Q: Wait? This version has even less NPCs than BUVARP SE 1. Why should I use this one?
A:

1. No more RDO, CRF and USSEP requirements.
2. Better compatibility with quest edits.
3. The NPCs that were removed, weren't supported either way, so if they had issues, I was unable to adress them.
4. New exclusive content, namely the edits to Vigilant Tyranus. No longer supported.
5. I will actively work on this version now and add new NPCs along the way. I added several new NPCs. (check the changelogs for more information)

If these changes don't convince you, I will be keeping BUVARP SE 1 up as well (though I no longer actively support it), or you could use WARP, if you'd prefer that.

Q: Can you include <insert NPC>?
A: Maybe. If you want to suggest an NPC, please let me know how you would want them to be implemented. Just asking "Can you implement <insert NPC>?" without any context isn't helpful to me and will likely be ignored or removed. In addition, I've gotten hundreds, if not thousands of requests for BUVARP and if I'm being honest I doubt the majority will ever be done. I'll take in into consideration, but don't expect it anytime soon, if at all. I have about 150 other mods to manage as well (and more coming soon), so all these suggestions will just end up on the pile, which in turn makes me not want to do them, as the list is ever growing.

Q: Can I upgrade mid-playthrough from an older version of BUVARP/WARP to this one?
A: I would heavily recommend NOT doing this. A lot of quest edits have been reverted, which will potentially break many quests if updating like this.

Q: Could you please remove the cloning technique, NPC edits and world edits as well?
A: Sorry, but I have no plans to do so.

Q: Will you make a patch for <insert mod>?
A: Only if it's a mod I use myself or plan on using, I have enough time and I actually like the idea. Otherwise, feel free to do it yourself. (see permissions)

Q: What about your patches for oldVARP? Do I still need them for NewVARP?
A: I didn't make those patches. They were provided by SkyLover way back when. They don't work with NewVARP, since I changed how I made edits to the quests and whatnot. DO NOT use them with NewVARP. Most likely they are no longer needed. I have no plans on redoing them, if they are even needed.

Q: What happened to the patches for Serana Dialogue Add-On and House of Horrors Quest Expansion?
A: The latest version of BUVARP SE RE no longer needs those, as I seperated all edits to Tyranus in a seperate standalone file. (which I no longer support.)

Q: ESPFE?
A: Unfortunately, no, since the file is too big.

Q: Does installing/updating/uninstalling on an existing save work?
A: As far as I know, it should. However, it's good practice to keep a backup save prior to doing this, just in case.

Q: Is this compatible with <insert mod>?
A: I don't know by heart. You might need to check yourself.

Q: I have a suggestion to improve the mod. Can you do it?
A: Maybe, if I have time and I like the idea, I'll consider it.

Q: Will you port this to <insert platform>?
A: No, I myself only support the Steam and GOG English SE and AE versions of Skyrim. If someone else wants to port it, feel free. (see permission) If you decide to port it, you yourself take full responsibility to offer support to said port. I will not provide no support for any ports by third parties.

Q: I use a ported version of this mod on <insert platform> and I have a problem. Can you help?
A: I don't provide any support for third party ports on other platforms than the Steam and GOG English SE and AE versions of Skyrim. If you have issues, you should adress the person that ported it.

Q: Does this work on Skyrim 1.6+, aka "Anniversary Edition"?
A: Yes, it should.

Q: Why don't your mods use MCMs and instead use this janky console command system to set globals?
A: I am not a fan of MCMs. You can set the globals by making a patch in xEdit. I have no plans of changing this. If you want to add an MCM, feel free. (see permissions)

Q: Why don't you use FOMODs?
A: That would require reuploading the entire mod, in question, even if I only make a small change. My internet is limited and reuploading the files each time will take a huge chunk of my monthly volume.