ACCEPTED Convenient Horses (by Alek)

[Bealdwine]

Discussion thread:

Convenient Horses by Alek

Wiki Link

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Convenient Horses

Having seen this recommended by Skwareballz and in the latest Nexus video it looks like a very good contender, especially if combined with SKSE for key mapping.

 

I intend to add this to my setup for testing and while there appear to be a couple of non-game-breaking glitches, as yet I have seen no obvious incompatabilities.

 

The author seems to have thought carefully about this one and the inclusion of animation, both for immersion and to signify the trigger of a given command, rather than simply jumping from one state to another is especially nice.

[torminater]

I love the idea of combining this mod with eg. UFO and extreme difficulty enhancing mods. It seems as if you now could actually could play a rider-warlord-like character or a bandit chief like Jessy James causing chaos all over Skyrim or trying to eliminate thalmor presence there. I also have installed it and I'm going to test it asap.

[blacksol]

There is also Better Horses mod as an alternative although this one seems to have more. I have not used either one so make no comments on how they play in game

[skwareballz]

One of my favorite parts of this mod is blowing a horn to call your horse, and then the fast dismount so you can go right into combat.

[Neovalen]

Convent Horses has been updated for use with Dawnguard. Dawnguard is now required to use the new version (and future) I imagine. v3.3.2 is still available for those without Dawnguard.

 

V4.0:

Dawnguard is now required to run this version.

Added support for Arvak and other summoned horses. Summoned horses will not count as regular horses and they will only share following features: horse charge, fast dismount, horse speed tweaks and mounted conversations/harvesting.

Added support for new rideable zones: Blackreach, Soul Cairn and Dayspring Canyon.

New feature: Auto Loot. Enemies killed in mounted combat will have their inventory automatically opened. Maximum range 100yd. Can be disabled in config.

New option: Dynamic Speed. Followers will ride faster if they are further away from the player in order to catch up more easily. Speed is tweaked according to distance between the follower and the player and is fully dynamic.

Horse Call black screen fade can now be turned off.

Whistle and follow toggle player animations can now be turned off for uninterruptible gameplay.

Follower Ignore Combat feature has been renamed to Follower Behavior in order to avoid confusion and better descriptions have been made. Two behavior presets are called Fighter and Supporter.

Follower riding invulnerability can now be toggled separatelly.

Followers should now properly dismount when in combat if using Fighter behavior preset (previously known as Ignore Combat: OFF).

Followers should no longer assist player in killing their own horses. They will now defend them.

Followers should no longer dismount if their parent cell unloads. You could usually notice this if they fall behind too much after which they get teleported behind the player and use the horn.

Followers that were in process of mounting/dismounting while player was entering a new zone will now be moved near player as soon as they are finished. You no longer need to wait for followers to dismount before entering the city or a dungeon.

Followers will no longer be counted as teammates and draw their weapons while in the process of mounting. Multi-follower mod users are not aware of this issue because these mods already disable synchronized weapon draw.

Removed fast travel code because new Skyrim version takes care of mounted actors that are following the player.

Removed Inventory Transfer option, it is now always enabled. Other horse inventory mods should not be used anymore.

Removed Disabled control mode. You now must decide between Multi Tap and Bound Key mode.

Fixed bug with unbound keys triggering related functions.

Fixed bug with fast dismount that was introduced with addition of crossbows.

Reduced whistle volume further by 2dB.

[LeetMiniWheat]

Convenient Horses is pretty nice, I've been using it for awhile now except it can get annoying to dismount sometimes. (but may be strictly a gamepad issue - it takes a few tries usually)

[skwareballz]

Yeah, I have that issue where I can't dismount, but the amount of options for horses that has been added is impressive and would be to hard not to use.

[LeetMiniWheat]

I believe the dismount issue has something to do with the "meta key" whatever that is, that lets you pick herbs and talk to people while mounted. It's a relatively minor issue considering all the features this mod provides.

[gwoody79]

Is this going to be in the new STEP?

 

The reason I ask is because it does what a current STEP mod does (Cowardly Horses) and is still being maintained/upated by author, where cowardly horses seems abandonded. I am just finishing up a full play-through with Convenient Horses with no bugs at all, not even the dismount issues mentioned by others. The easy customization along with convenient horse call/whistle makes this IMO an essential mod for anyone who uses horses in Skyrim.

 

Mod author is extremely helpful also. I browse comments daily and he is always there helping others out who need it.  

This gets my very big recommendation for STEP as it is a 'fix' to the vanilla horse behavior.

 

[skwareballz]

New version 4.2 came out and the author decided to continue support for non-Dawnguard players.

 

Change log (pretty big update):

 

V4.2:

Alternative vanilla variant of this version is available for download. Both Dawnguard and Vanilla users can now enjoy new features.

New feature: Mounted Combat For Followers! It wasn't easy making it so I'd like to hear a feedback or simply share your feelings. See description for details.

No more instant spawning horses and black screens. Each time horse is called or recalled a magic visual effect will enhance the experience for both player's horse and followers' horses.

Follower behavior overhauled. Much better mounting/dismounting/horsecall response if using fewer followers and horses are spawned before followers finish blowing the horn in order to make mounting faster.

No more realistic/convenient/instant modes, it now defaults to realistic but there is new option called Horse Recall if you don't want horses to stick around.

Each time horse needs to be spawned or teleported followers will use a horse call.

Follower's automatic horsecall minimum distance can be tweaked by selecting one of three presets. If horse is closer than minimum distance followers will go on foot otherwise they will blow the horn.

New riding option for followers: Prefer Riding. If enabled followers will always ride regardless of player.

Removed behavior presets and replaced them with two toggleable settings: Auto Retaliate (engage enemies in combat automatically even if player is riding with weapons sheathed) and Combat Escape (break combat if player ride with weapons sheathed). If Auto Retaliate is enabled Combat Escape will not work to prevent conflict between these two features.

Followers' horses will not collide with weapons or projectiles anymore. This feature is forced for script procedure safety reasons and cannot be

turned off.

Followers cannot be made invulnerable anymore. Instead, they will not collide with weapons or projectiles while riding or being controlled by the script. This feature is forced for script procedure safety reasons and cannot be turned off.

Improved Alsvid combat behavior. It will no longer attack and will just charge at the target instead. Instead of exploding after few seconds it will now try to reach the target. Explosion damage scales with player level increasing for every 10 levels to make it usable in late game. Explosion will leave flame on the ground at the place of explosion that will deal damage to enemies who pass through it. Only enemies take damage from explosion and releated fire effects.

Horses will no longer follow to Castle Volkihar if using Smart follow mode.

Auto loot will now work properly if enemies were killed by followers and the Alsvid's explosion.

Followers will be forced to dismount if they were dismissed or told to wait while riding and will no longer be stuck on the horse.

Followers will no longer try to escape from combat if player is swapping weapons during mounted combat.

Fixed a bug where regular followers would be given Alsvid as random horse of choice.

Fixed a bug where under some circumstances Dark Brotherhood followers could not sit on the horse.

Fixed a bug where config menu would never display and character become permanently stuck if auto run was active.

 

 

Follower combat while mounted is probably the biggest thing here, mitchalek really has some sick skills.

[Neovalen]

Heck yeah! Love this mod and I will never play without it.

[littlemerrill]

I used this one quite a bit. It took some time to get the "tapping" down and to dismount/mount instead of the other options. Besides that, it was extremely useful and improved game play exponentially.

[torminater]

OK, new version up.

 

Changelog:

 

V4.4:

Dynamic horse mane. New animation behaviors are integrated with Horse.nif and Shadowmere.nif which allows mane toggle via script. Custom horse models will need same integration or mane will be visible when armor is on.

Horse armor mechanics overhaul. Horse armor is no longer applied by changing horse race which removes all compatibility issues with custom horse outfit mods. Dynamic horse mane is now used to hide mane when armor is on.

Fixes and tweaks of all horse armor meshes. Weight painting from scratch on all horse armors to remove clipping and streching - armor plates should now be rigid and will not deform while horse is moving. Increased size of rear armor plates, most noticeably on ebony and daedric horse armors. Added missing environment map and tweaked shader parameters for ebony horse armor so it should look more like ebony now. Replaced red edges on daedric horse armor with distinctive animated red glow and also added eye glow.

Followers' horses will now swap skins/armor instantly.

Serana can now ride regular horses after quest line has been completed.

 

[Omolong]

I'm wondering, would a patch for this so that it works with Dawnguard Rewritten - Arvak be useful?

 

Currently, this mod includes meshes and textures for Serana's horse, and from what I saw, it uses ones based off of the default content, instead of stuff based off of the Arvak mod.

[Bandy]

Inappropriate to necro this thread?

 

Many CH users encounter random problems with the CH scripts simply failing.  For me all of a sudden I could not fast dismount, talk/loot/harvest from the saddle, or even access my horse inventory/saddle bags.  Nothing had changed in my load order at all, it just seemed to randomly and silently fail.  Reboot did not help, re-install/replace mod files did not solve.  Just to troubleshoot I may decide to go back a few saves when it did work just to see if problem surfaces in that save.  Might this be caused by the CH script being orphaned or...?  Suppose it wouldn't hurt just to check with one of the script cleaning tools.

 

A workaround exists as posted on mod's thread:

 

1) Save following mod author recommendations

2) open console `

2) type:  stopquest CH

3) then exit console to either retrieve gear in saddle bags, or not (mod author says it is not required)

4) reopen console

5) type: startquest CH

6) Your whistle will not work, disable the quest requirement in MCM or do it all over (mildly amusing the first time, but...).

 

EDIT: the process above to 'reboot' the scripts resulted in my horse dying each time I 'stopquest' regardless of CH MCM settings.  I had to resurrect my horse, which is not difficult, but just a major pain if this issue becomes more frequest...

 

Would be nice to investigate a less script-heavy, more immersive horse mod, for core... 

Edited March 23, 2016 by Bandy