Description

Real life female elks don't have antlers. More precisely, females of the extinct irish elk Megaloceros, which served as the basis for the game's model, didn't have antlers (thanks to sh0tungsurge0n for brining this to my attention). So I made this mod to increase realism and improve their look. I also changed a few things related to small antlers. No esp!

With this mod:

(i) Female elks and wallmounted female elks no longer have antlers. Their ears also look a bit more realistic (at least to me). The ears have slightly more polygons, but it shouldn't impact performance.

(ii) Small antlers can no longer be looted from dead female elks. While at it, I also removed the possibility to loot the deer hide (which comes with antlers). Small antlers are still available from apothecary vendors (if you have USSEP, in vanilla you can't buy small antlers from vendors). As of v1.01, it's also no longer possible to loot a small treasure from them.

(iii) Small antlers are no longer required for building wallmounted female elks for your house (you still need a deer hide though).

Just to be clear, this isn't a port of the oldrim mod No Antlers for Females. I made the mesh changes from scratch and improved the ears as well. Points (ii) and (iii) are new too.


Requirements

As of version 1.04, this mod requires the amazing Skypatcher, so that the ESP is no longer needed. Compatibility is also considerably improved. That mod will become a common requirement in every recent load order. Make sure you endorse it.


Install/Uninstall

As usual, use a mod manager. Or extract the content of the archive to your Data folder.

If you still want to be able to loot small antlers from dead female elks, or if you just want the meshes, I've added a file with the meshes only (optional files).

Installing/uninstalling the plug-in mid-game should be ok (this mod doesn't contain any script). But, always safer to add on a new game. If you do install mid-game, make a  hard save (no quick save) before installing. After installation, make a new save (don't overwrite your previous save) so that you can easily roll back to your initial save. This is obsolete as of version 1.04. Thanks to Skypatcher, you can instal/update/uninstal whenever!

If you're already using version 1.03, there's no need to update to 1.04, as nothing's changed except that the esp is no longer needed. However, if you still want to update, then follow the usual recommendations when removing an esp from your load order.

If you just take this mod's meshes, then completely safe to install/uninstall mid-game.


Compatibility

- As mentioned above, highly compatible thanks to Skypatcher!

- The meshes should work with most textures. The screenshots were made with MM - Real Elks, which I love!

- This mod replaces female elk meshes (and wallmounted ones). So if you let anything overwrite theses meshes you won't benefit from this mod's changes.

- Mods changing what can be looted from dead female elks will need a patch. Can be Skypatched easiliy with Skypatcher, as of v.1.04.

- Mods affecting the constructible wallmounted female elk mesh (the one requiring small antlers) will need a patch. Can be Skypatched easiliy with Skypatcher, as of v.1.04.


Built-in compatibility

- RMOS. My meshes for female elks will win conflict (since RMOS's meshes are in a bsa file).

- SkyTEST. Place the plugin after SkyTEST. Thanks to Etayorius for the permission! SkyTEST is not required though. Pluging no longer present as of v1.04.

- Wall mounted dead animals fixes. Place my mod after. Thanks to GGUNIT for the permission! GGUNIT's mod is not required though.


Available patches

- Fluffworks inspired version provided as an optional file (meshes only). A huge thank you to SkySinclaire for making this! Check this mod for other fluffy animals.

- Carry Your Carcasses (meshes only). Thanks a lot to Swashbuckler24 for allowing me to make my modifs on CYC's meshes!

- Dynamic Things Alternative. Puts my meshes for wallmounted female elks and removes the possibility to harvest small antlers from them. Thanks to wSkeever for the open permissions for that mod. This patch contains an esp, but I'm working on a Skypatcher version.


Known issues

- Texture issue at the base of the ears. This is barely noticable, as you'd need to be really close. I might try to do something about it when I have time. Fixed in version 1.03.

- The ears look buggy when female elks sometimes stop foraging and lookout for danger, with their head high and the ears pointing forward. But this happens with vanilla meshes too. Not sure what can be done about it. Update: this seems much less noticable with v.1.03

Please be kind, this is my first mod!


Future plans

- Patches for a few mods.

- Improved meshes. Some initial changes were not optimal. I literally just started learning blender for this mod. Done! I remade mesh improvements from scratch in v.1.03, with proper subdivide and smooth of a small portion of the ears.

- A new deer hide without antlers, which could be looted from dead female elks, and would be required to build the wallmounted female elk.

- A FOMOD for the installation, with the option to include or not the plugin.


Credits

- SkySinclaire for providing the fluffy assests
- Swashbuckler24 for the permission to alter CYC's meshes
- Zzyxzz for Skypatcher