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Slof's Horses - Nightmare by AlienSlof 
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INDEX:

*Requirements
*About this mod
*Installation
*Known Bugs & Issues
*Incompatibilities & Save game warnings
*Credits & Usage
*Special Notes

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REQUIREMENTS:
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Oblivion (of course!)
Slof's Horses Base files

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ABOUT THIS MOD:
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I was delighted when Oblvion had horses in it, but then was disappointed when some of them were a bit on the purple side! After a steep, and often frustrating learning curve, and getting my head around a different way of working, I made a start on dealing with the purple issue. At first it was just going to be a simple replacer, just simply replacing textures without needing an esp. This would have been a lot of effort and faff unpacking bsa's or editing invalidation txts, so I decided to go down the esp road instead. Cue more frustrations and a temporary shelving of the project (again) until I could figure it out. Doing it this way means I can provide lots of different options. Firstly, I've made the player-owned horses unique, with their own markings and colours. Where the same type of horse is sold in different places, where you purchase the horse from will have a bearing on its colour.

For example: Bruma and Leyawiin both sell paint horses. With this mod, Leywiin's horses are brown and white, from Bruma they are black and white. This only happens for the player.

I've also removed the saddles from the pastured horses, since a horse doesn't wear a saddle 24/7. They are only saddled up for the player and other riders. Unicorn and Shadowmere are unique. A version with player-owned horses marked essential (god mode!) is also available.

This is the base version, playable and can be used as a modders' resource.

Shadowmere, the Dark Brotherhood horse, now comes as a nightmare, flaming mane and tail with glow and flaming effects (bareback).

*Special note: the horse's name can be changed in-game by using the console (~) and typing: setactorfullname horsename - if you want a name of more than one word, then type: setactorfullname "horse name" with the quotemarks. I could change the names in the editor, but this way allows players to choose their own names.

New in v.1.2: Meshes should now all have the correct texture paths - no more invisible horses with pink heads! Ambient lighting settings on heads now match the bodies. Horses are now gendered appropriately: Blossom, Shadowmere and Prior Maborel's horse are now mares as they are referred to in-game. Player-bought horses are now mare, stallion or gelding depending on colour.

New in v.1.3: Reins! All saddled horses now have reins.

There are more files than the esp's use in this release, as each horse colour now has mare, stallion and gelding models. This is so modders can make use of them and to allow players to change the models in the CS if they want something different.

New in v.1.4: Stallion models neck hole problem fixed. Saddlebag models added to player horses. Bay horse bought from Skingrad Stables is now a dun for variety. New 'extras' folder with base and essential esps with armour on the Imperial horses. Bethesda's Official Horse Armour mod is required for these to work, with the files installed. I have not supplied horse armour files to keep it all legit.

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INSTALLATION:
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This mod should consist of:
SlofsHorsesNightmareReadme.txt
Slof's Horses Base.esp - base version, Shadowmere as nightmare.
meshes folder (with subfolders)
textures folder (with subfolders)

Just drag all these (minus the readme) onto the data folder in your Oblivion directory and they will go where they are meant to. All the files are nested inside sub-folders - KEEP THESE INTACT - the game knows to look there for them. Overwrite esp file.

Paths for the folders are as follows:
Meshes: data/meshes/creatures/horse
Textures: data/textures/creatures/horse

The esps are named the same so they will overwrite the original. All that will change is Shadowmere. This won't affect your saved game at all, but back it up anyway, just to be on the safe side. If the flame effects are not appearing, go through a city gate, then back out and they will reset.

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KNOWN ISSUES OR BUGS:
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There are a few issues with Shadowmere's new flame effects which I will list here: (thanks to Seiggy for these)

FIRST: the effects only last until you fast travel... the effects will dissapear from the horses if you fast travel and never reapear until they are killed/disabled/resurrected/summoned...

SECOND: if you save while on one of the horses with the effects, it will also apply to the player until you save/load/save off of the horse. Best way it to get off your horse, then save!

This works best with a mod such as CallSteed by mjcallon, or any other that allows you to summon your horse to you. Summoning him resets the flame effects. Going in and back out of a city gate also resets the flame effect.

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INCOMPATIBILITIES & SAVED GAME WARNINGS:
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Will possibly conflict with any mod that alters the horses. Always make sure that you back up your existing savegame file before use.

This mod works perfectly well with both SaddleBags by MaboroshiDaikon and CallSteed by mjcallon - I know it does, because I use both of those along with this!

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CREDITS & USAGE:
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Thanks to everyone for testing this out for me.
HappyHannah and Phoenixamon for helping me to figure some things out
Special thanks to Capucine and Seiggy - without your excellent advice and help, this mod may never have happened!
The clever folks of NifTools for the amazingly versatile NifSkope which I'm steadily learning my way around
Bethesda for some of their textures which I have tweaked and used as a base for many of these - and Oblvion of course!
The folks on the ES forums for providing me with reference pics for the more unusual horse types.
Big thanks to jcarl904 for the mare and stallion meshes.
Big thanks also to XMarksTheSpot for making me the reins and tweaking meshes.
Thanks also to MysticHybrid for the saddlebag meshes and textures.

Consider this a modders' resource for making new mods from. I don't really mind if any of this is used for or in other mods, but it's nice to be asked (I rarely say no!), and please give credit to me for the textures where it is due. Many of these took me a good few hours of work. Make sure to change any filenames and ID's to avoid accidental overwrites. Please ask me before uploading it anywhere so I can make sure the correct version is used and not an out of date one.

I'm fine with this being made compatible with other popular horse mods. Indeed, I realise I can't cater to every possible combination, which is why I don't mind it being used in this way. All I ask is that I'm credited with the texturing, as I've spent many hours creating them. The horse body parts are all easily interchangeable and can be mixed and matched in many different combinations.

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SPECIAL NOTES:
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Mail me at my webby, www.slofshive.co.uk if there are any problems.
Or find me prowling the Planet Elder Scrolls forums here: http://www.forumplanet.com/planetelderscrolls/index.asp
Occasionally I lurk on the ES forums here: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php