Familiar Faces 1.1.5

• Fixed #104 (Trophies sometimes fail to appear)
• Fixed #112 (Level scaling problems), at least in most circumstances. The imported character's level (i.e. what you see if you use the getlevel console command) will rarely if ever be their original level, but the levels of their various actor values will either be scaled appropriately based on class, or will match the original values. This is now checked much more frequently, so it should work more reliably.

Familiar Faces 1.1.4

Fixes the following:

• #107 Portal stone not appearing in inventory
• #108 Imported characters sometimes do not react when spoken to
• #109 Script latency debug tool gets activated and fills the screen with messages
• #110 Version check fix for newer versions of Racemenu (including 3)
• #111 Characters sometimes arriving in the world with their armor but no weapons or ammo

If the Portal Stone STILL doesn't appear for you, you can grab it from the guard house near just inside the entrance to Whiterun. Hopefully you won't need to, though.

Familiar Faces 1.1.3

• Adds support for the .jslot format used by newer versions of RaceMenu.
• Fixed a version check bug that gave the wrong error message if SKSE was out of date.

Familiar Faces 1.1.2

• Fix a bug added in efdefb5 that kept characters from offering the recruitment dialog. DUMB!

Familiar Faces 1.1.1

Patch release to fix a problem with the EFF compatibility module. Thanks to drakan_csn for helping me test it out!

• Fixed wrong JContainers version in compatibility check error message.
• Fixed repeated error messages from EFF compatibility module.

Familiar Faces 1.1.0

Version 1.1.0

New features

Hangout Manager

This replaces the old, half-finished custom Location with a customizable Hangout system for controlling where your characters live when they're imported.

• A character will have the location where they used the Portal Stone saved in their character file, and will appear there by default when imported to another game.
• All imported Hangouts are viewable via MCM. Any character may be assigned to any Hangout, and in most cases multiple characters may be assigned to a single Hangout. In other words, those of you wanting to build an army of Blades or Companions or Wizards will now be able to do so.
• Additional custom Hangouts may be created by simply traveling to the location and adding it to the list via MCM.
• Characters may also be set to wander from town to town, rather than living in a single place.
• Your Hangouts are stored in their own file and are persistent throughout all your saved games.

Better NPC behavior

Characters will now use IdleMarkers (wall-leaning, etc) and exhibit more appropriate behavior based on where their Hangout is.

• Towns or cities The character will wander from shop to shop, visit people in open houses, visit an Inn or Temple if there is one, and sleep if they can find a free bed.
• Guild homes Characters assigned to Hangouts in or near Guild locations will behave for the most part like members of that Guild's faction, eating and sleeping there if there are available places for them. Note that they will attempt to do this even if the Guild is not open or friendly to you in your current playthrough.
• Dungeons Characters that are friendly to you will wait just inside the entrance of Dungeon Hangouts. They may also try to enter deeper into the Dungeon if they were originally saved there, but they will not proceed if the way is blocked by doors they can't open or unlock, such as Puzzle or Dragon Claw Doors.
• Wanderers Instead of living in a single place, a character can be set to wander from city to city. Characters summoned to the world without a Hangout assigned to them will do this by default.
• Preset locations Some preset Hangouts have customized AI packages that will give the imported character extra behaviors suited to that location. For example, a character imported to the Winterhold College will spend some time practicing magic in the Hall of Elements, or reading in the Arcaneum. These custom behaviors will only apply to the first character assigned to a preset Hangout, though; additional characters will use the more general AI packages described above. As these are quite time-consuming to create, there are not many of them. So far these include:
  • Jorrvaskr
  • Winterhold College
  • Blue Palace
  • Bards College
  • Dushnikh Yal
  • Palace of the Kings
  • Ragged Flagon
  • Other preset locations do not have custom behavior, but may have as many characters assign to them as you wish:
    • New Gnisis Corner Club
    • Sky Haven Temple
    • Imperial Military Camp
    • Stormcloak Military Camp
    • All major cities
    • Some minor towns that I personally like ;)

Armor dyes

• Dyeable armor from the newest versions of RaceMenu/NIOverride is now fully supported.

Character features

• Auto-leveling may now be disabled. This allows your character to retain the exact same stats they were saved with, regardless of your level.
• It is now possible to recruit yourself. To do this, simply check the "Summon" box next to your character's name on the Shrine page of the MCM.
• You may now enforce the character's original armor, so that they will never equip any other gear than what they were saved with, or have them use their original gear to fill in any missing slots in their current setup.

Spells

• ALL Spells are now saved with the character data. Spell filtering is now done at the time of loading.
• A global option may be set to always allow characters to use self-healing and armor spells, if they know them, regardless of whether they are allowed to use other magic.
• There are now MCM options to load Spells provided by mods. "Select mods" will load certain mods with preset compatibility, or use spells explicitly listed as compatible by the mod's author (see Spell Compatibility section below). "All mods" will attempt to load all spells a character had when they were saved. This option is NOT recommended for general use, as many mod-provided spells are utilities or quest-related abilities that are designed for the player alone to use.

Shouts

• Global option has been added to automatically disable Shouts when your characters are in a town. This really helps with keeping the guards out of your hair.
• You may now restrict your characters to only using Shouts your own character has unlocked.
• The "Call Storm" and "Dragon Aspect" shouts may now be permanently disabled for all imported characters.

MCM

• A report of what mods are required to properly recreate a character can be viewed from that character's MCM page.
• Shrine of Heroes page now allows you to summon your character from the Shrine without actually visiting it. This can also be used to summon your own character as a doppelgänger, a much-demanded feature!
• Shrine of Heroes page can now be used to reset individual Alcoves by scrolling to the bottom of the character list. This can be used to clear a locked-up Alcove.
• Tracking can now be switch on or off for all characters at once.
• Added Hangouts, Global Options and Debug pages to the MCM.
  • Hangouts allows you to set all Characters to a particular Hangout (handy for screenshots!) or clear all Hangouts so they wander from place to place.
  • Global Options - Just what is sounds like. Options here will be applied to all save sessions. These relate to the interface or set defaults for character-specific settings.
  • Debug - Troubleshooting options. Be careful in here, as some of these will remove your characters from the game. You can also completely shutdown all FF-related scripts from here, for removing the mod or as a last-ditch troubleshooting step.

Miscellaneous

• Config, Shrine and Hangout files are now stored in the My Games/Skyrim folder rather than in Data/vMYC.
• Faster initial loading of character files.
• Spells, Perks, Shouts, and non-equipped gear are now deferred until after the character is actually summoned into the world. This greatly reduces the initial load time and reduces appearance problems in the Shrine.
• Character files now include a list of the mods required for their appearance and armor to be recreated correctly. Any missing mods will be shown in the character's MCM panel. If the required mods are installed later, the character's appearance will be updated.
• The mod now checks for write access to the Data/vMYC folder before attempting to start up.
• Notify player if a character's .slot, .dds or .nif (if using external heads) is missing and will optionally auto-delete the character.
• Character tracking should now be auto-disabled when they are recruited as a follower.
• Reduced duration of the character glow in the Shrine to bring it more in line with trophies.

Compatibility

• FF should now work better with AFT. Note: This is accomplished by disabling nearly all of the stat, spell, and perk assignments provided by Familiar Faces in lieu of AFT's handling of these options. AFT must be used to manage these if it is installed!
• FF now works with the latest beta of EFF and should update the names in the UI panels much more quickly.
• Mods that add spells to the game may now tell FF whether they're safe to load on imported NPCs. See "Spell Compatibility Lists" below.

Fixes

Tons. The following list is not exhaustive. Pretty much every part of the mod got at least some revisions, and several modules were completely rewritten.

Character Manager

• Fixed various threading-related issues during the initial startup and loading of characters. This should both speed up the initial load and prevent odd problems like multiple characters' data being assigned to a single actor.
• Characters now dismount before applying their appearance, which should prevent physics bugs.
• When a Character's actor is deleted or otherwise unloaded, their corresponding FaceGen DDS and NIFs are deleted as well. This is needed when using Racemenu's External Head/ECE support.
• Fixed actors sometimes showing up naked.

Shrine of Heroes

• Complete rewrite of the Shrine/Alcove code. New system is much faster, more stable, much more difficult to get into an invalid configuration, and attempts to self-correct if it does.
• Deleting the Shrine file now correctly empties out all Alcoves on the next load and resets the Shrine to its default state.
• Validation is now done for things like the lighting state, the book's open/closed state, etc.
• An Alcove that gets stuck in an invalid state for a long time will generate a warning message, so it can be cleared via MCM if necessary. Note: Individual Alcoves can be reset without resetting the entire Shrine! To do this, go to the Shrine MCM page, scroll to the bottom of the character list for the Alcove that is malfunctioning, and choose "* RESET *". Exit the MCM and wait for the Alcove to clear, then you may assign it as usual.
• Portal Stone is now given to the character only once the initial character loading process is complete. This may take as long as two minutes for the first load.
• Alcoves that are emptied via MCM now banish their characters to limbo, where the character's Actor will be deleted after 15 seconds of being unclaimed.
• Alcoves that are erased using "Destroy the book" now delete their Actors and corresponding FormID-based DDS and NIFs immediately.
• Characters with an invalid Race (due to missing mods) no longer hang the load process.
• Fixed book names not always showing up after saving.
• Added an option to break out of the Save process after 60 seconds, and every 30...

Familiar Faces 1.0.5

• Shouts can now be disabled via MCM.
• Added missing translation files.

Familiar Faces 1.0.4

Familiar Faces 1.0.4

The Nexus release is based on the next commit, 7fc7cda.

• Race, Armor, Weapon, Perk, and Spell dependencies are now written to the character save file. Files without dependency info will be automatically upgraded to include it the next time they are loaded. Dependency data is not yet read but this will support future features.
• Perks will now be loaded even if some are missing due to missing dependencies.
• A missing Race (for example because of missing plugins/mods) will now no longer hang the character loading process. Characters with an invalid Race will be set up as Nords, but will be updated to the correct Race if the required mods are later installed.
• If a Hangout is use, you will now receive a message telling you who is using it. Hangouts will receive an overhaul in the first feature release.
• NINode scale sizes are now saved with the character file. This allows for saving and loading of RaceMenu's extra sliders for things like Biceps. All NINodes provided by the vanilla skeletons and XPMS are checked. You must resave your characters for this to take effect.
• Enhanced Character Edit now has experimental support, thanks to some wizardry by Expired (and, frankly, no thanks to the authors of ECE). This requires RaceMenu 2.8.3 or higher be installed along with ECE. If ECE is found in the current load order, the character's head mesh will be written to a NIF located in Meshes/CharGen/Exported/. If a NIF is found for a character at load time, LoadExternalCharacter will be used to apply it to the actor's appearance. This file will be copied to Meshes/Actors/Character/FaceGenData/FaceGeom/vMYC_MeetYourCharacters.esp/. It may be necessary to quicksave/quickload before the head appearance will update.

Familiar Faces 1.0.3

1.0.3 changelog

Source differs slightly from the archive, archive is built on commit 8cf6878

• Character items, armor, and weapons will now be updated properly if their Shrine save is updated. This may cause them to flicker when loaded but should be fine otherwise. Items you have given your imported characters should remain with them unchanged.
• Fix for getting stuck floating in the air while saving.
• Destroying the Tome now actually frees up the Shrine. If you delete the last character in the Alcove, the Tome will still be named after them, but you can still use it.
• Related to the previous, fixed every Tome saying "You've already written down your story."
• Gracefully handle deletion of the the _shrineofheroes.json file. If your Shrine has become unusable, deleting the data file will cause it to be completely emptied without deleting your character data. You can then use MCM to refill it without having to re-save everybody manually.
• Fixed a bug where the Portal Stone would strand you in the Shrine forever if used there.
• Thanks to an update to RaceMenu (2.8.2), Vampire characters should now be saved without a gray face, though you'll need to update their Tome to fix their appearance.
• Fixed trophies remaining in the shrine after character removal.

Familiar Faces 1.0.2

Fixes this release

• Support for much-improved appearance loading with RaceMenu 2.8.1. It may be necessary to re-save Khajiit and Argonian characters in the Shrine to avoid a distorted appearance.
• Support for weapons with up to 8 enchantment effects (where are you people GETTING these?)
• EFF compatibility moved to a quest to prevent issues with having the module attached to actors when EFF is installed and removed.
• Additional checks on some translations in the Shrine that could cause a CTD in rare circumstances.
• Fix for MCM Character Tracking box still not responding properly.