A Skyrim mod that allows characters to be shared between different playthroughs
You can use NMM or MO to install the mod from the 7z file. Other managers such as Wrye have not been tested, but should work. You can install manually simply by extracting the 7z file to the Skyrim/Data directory.
Familiar Faces does work with Mod Organizer, but files that get created during gameplay will be written to the OverWrite directory instead of to FF's mod tree. This is normal, but it does make MO show a warning. These files can be safely moved into the Familiar Faces tree after you exit Skyrim. Also note that if you need to send me the contents of Data/vMYC, you'll have to pull them from MO's Mod or Override directory instead of your Skyrim installation folder.
Make sure all followers provided by Familiar Faces are dismissed from your service before removing the mod.
If you plan to reinstall the mod, leave the Data/vMYC directory intact or at least back it up. It contains all the saved character data. Otherwise...
If you used NMM to install, uninstallation will work but may leave files behind in Data/vYMC. If you used MO, files may remain in your Override directory in the same location.
Search for and remove ALL files and folders in Skyrim/Data that begin with "vMYC". Remove JContainers.dll and the included version of CharGen.dll if you aren't using them for any other mods.
Shortly after starting or loading a game, you should receive a Portal Stone in your inventory. You can use that stone from your Inventory (under misc items) to warp to the Shrine of Heroes. Activate the "Tome of the Dragonborn" in front of an empty alcove to save your character there. The save process will take some time, dependent on how many skills, perks, and inventory items your character has. It should never take longer than a minute of real time and should rarely take longer than 30 seconds unless you have a huge number of inventory items.
Once your character has been saved in an alcove, a statue of them will appear, possibly surrounded by various trophies and banners. These reflect your progress and which paths you chose in your adventures through Skyrim. The trophies available are listed below.
Now for the fun part! Load up a saved game on a different character. As before, use the Portal Stone (there may be a delay before it gets placed in your inventory, just wait). The first time you visit the Shrine, your other saved characters will be loaded in. This process may take some times, depending on the number of characters, how many custom items they have, etc. Open the Tome of your saved character to send them into the world as NPCs. They will have a default spawn point which can be changed from within MCM. After changing their spawn point, you will either need to wait for them to travel to their new home, or summon them back to the Shrine by closing their book, then open it again.
Upon talking to your imported character, you should be able to recruit them as followers (see a Note on VoiceTypes below). You can also make them a marriageable lover or your worst enemy via MCM.
After that, just play around with your imported character!
In the MCM panel, you can change some aspects of your characters' behavior as well as how they level. Under Character Options, first choose the character you want to edit. This will bring up their info.
This turn the character on and off. This is mostly a debugging feature but may be useful if they become stuck or their mesh does not get applied properly. Avoid using this unless you have specific reason to do so. It will probably become a debug option in the final release.
This changes the voice your character uses. This is more important than you might think, because VoiceTypes also affect whether you can recruit, marry, or adopt children with your imported character. If you want to recruit your character, you will need to give them a VoiceType labeled as "Follower". If you are using EFF or another Follower manager, you can switch their VoiceType back to their original one after recruiting, otherwise you will need to keep them on the Follower VT to access the various Follower commands via conversation.
Changing their Class determines how their skill points are distributed based on level. By default they will try to follow a pattern based on the original character, but this can deliver mixed results: the preset classes are more reliable and are the same types the game uses for leveled NPCs.
Setting their class will also change how the character selects their weapon, which in turn affects their combat style. Experiment with these until your character acts the way you want them to!
This controls where your character will spawn in the world, as well as where they will go if dismissed from your service. At the bottom of the list are custom locations: exercise caution when using these, as they are still a bit buggy and may result in your character getting stuck in limbo. Summoning them back to the Shrine by closing their book will bring them back if this happens.
Here you can rearrange the order in which characters appear in the Shrine of Heroes. In future you will be able to summon/banish characters from the Shrine as well.
Please check the list of Quirks and Known Bugs below before reporting! See the section on enabling Papyrus logging for info on how to generate log files.
Use Github Issues to report bugs. If you can't do that for some reason, send bug reports to: verteiron+ffbugs@gmail.com.
If your current mod setup is stable, feel free to use it with Familiar Faces. Please make sure it is stable, though. If you find a bug, I may ask you to try to reproduce without certain mods loaded, so be sure you know how to enable/disable mods on your load list.
If you find a bug, it will be really helpful to have a Papyrus log to send me so I can try to figure out what happened. Make sure the following settings are present in your Skyrim.ini:
[Papyrus]
bEnableLogging=1
bEnableTrace=1
bLoadDebugInformation=1
The Papyrus log will be located in your Documents folders under My Games/Skyrim/Logs/Script/ and will be named Papyrus.0.log.
The following are not bugs and should not be reported:
Thank you for helping me make Familiar Faces the best mod it can be.
https://github.com/Verteiron/FamiliarFaces/releases/tag/v0.7.0-beta2
0.6.0
0.5.0
[0.4.6]
[0.4.5]
[0.4.4]