Skyrim chain Beasts (v0.3.6)

This mod has been around for a while now, and I would consider it beta level, however, it's my first mod, it's complicated, and inherently at least somewhat disruptive to normal game play; I would still advice to keep well away from anything important.

Something I've been playing with inspired by an oblivion mod called `chainbeasts': (www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/34346).

So what does this mod do? well "that is a little hard to explain... ok its really hard to explain." (mxr skyrim mods 254).

This beta level mod adds chainbeasts to Skyrim.

There is an extensive MCM menu:

Choose who is targeted, tweak difficulty and other Gameplay aspects.

Control the mod; take different Debug actions, view and update the Status.

See how much of the mod content you have encountered under Achievements.

Skip ahead to where you ended up last time (eg new character or after update).

Content

Free roaming portion; how and where to encounter Chain Beasts:

Spoiler Try activation a Chain Beast Mine (floating glow ball on a chain) and see what happens.

Run into Traps (Traps must be enabled in the MCM under plugins).

Encounter wild chain beasts. (Wild chain beast must be enabled in the MCM under plugins). Different beasts may occur at different locations. They are added to leveled list for standard wild beast encounters.

Summon Mines, Summon and/or use Chain Beasts yourself. Learn the spells in quests, find spell books, or use the MCM. Check Debug menu for spells not (yet) obtainable through gameplay. Capture your enemies or ride through skyrim in style.

Some beasts are very tough. She who spots a Chain Beast and runs away...

Main quest line (requires at least base mod + integration plugin):

Spoiler Chain Beast Discovery Quest: Find out about chain beasts Start condition: Spoiler encounter a beast or a mine. Start location: Spoiler Could be anywhere.

Beauty and the Chain Beast (Minesweeper): Stop a deadric plot to take over Skyrim. Or perhaps it was just a nightmare. Start condition: Spoiler Complete Chain Beast Discovery Quest Start location: Spoiler Your dreams.

Ebony Mine: Yet another Deadric Prince thinks it's cool to enter your dreams and tell you to do things. Start condition: Spoiler Summon a Chain Beast after completing Beauty and the Chain Beast. Start location: Spoiler Your dreams.





Side (mini) Quests:

Spoiler The man who cried Chain Beast (Help quest): Encounter with a chain beast victim and corresponding mini quest. Start condition: Spoiler Beasts in the wilds must be active (MCM plugin setting). Start location: Spoiler On the road to Rorikstead (Near Gjukar's Monument).

Mine at the Mine (aka Bane of Ironbreaker Mine, Help quest): Deal with an unwanted addition at the mine. Start condition: Spoiler Beauty and the Chain Beast quest completed. Start location: Spoiler Dawnstar

Mine or Yours Again (Help quest): They delved too greedily and too deep. Again. You know what they awoke in the darkness. I mean, you likely know - if you think about it, it makes sense, no really you can guess... Start conditions: Spoiler Completed Mine or Yours (cleared red belly mine). Some chain beast activity has happened since then. Start location: Spoiler Anywhere. Danger Will Robinson - don't fall to your death...

Mark of the Beast (aka Caged quest): Being stuck in bondage furniture is bad enough, but it could be worse. Start conditions: Spoiler Player is a Chain Beast target, Caged quest enabled in MCM. Start location: Spoiler Pinepeak Cavern (or anywhere beasts appear with Caged quest on remote catpure MCM settings).



Game play; how does it work:

Spoiler Learn about chain beasts and mines. Investigate and use the chain-beast-mines to summon chainbeasts if you dare, or trespass in locations with special protection, run into traps. The gold ones really mean trouble! The large rusty will summon something (very) large... Discover Deadric plots involving Chain Beasts. Help Victims, but take care not to fall victim yourself, or use the power of Chain Beasts your self and possibly enslave your victims. Capture Spoiler Chain Beasts will attempt to wear out targets by using their stamina damaging attack. Their attacks will `capture' victims when their stamina is low (configurable in MCM). A captured victim is stripped of her/his items (which are dropped in a locked container). Captureable victims (of correct gender and of a playable race) are also equipped with some non-removable (see escaping below) ZAP metal bondage items each time they are captured. After fully disabling their victims (4 devices equipped) the chainbeast will capture the victim and attach. Several outcomes are possible such as the victim being taken to a nearby ZAP furniture. After a while (1min by default) the victim is released and the beasts will leave her alone (for a while at least) unless she is freed. Other possible outcomes include being send to jail if PC has an open bounty, to simple slavery or locked in a cage instead placed in ZAZ furniture. Escape Spoiler Picking up a chain beat key will release you from your bindings (but it consumes the key and chain beasts will be hostile again). Keys can be found on dead chain beasts and in stripped item boxes. (You can unequip devices manually with the console command UnequipAll but this will not end the `escape quest'. If needed it is better to use the MCM option `give a key' in the Skip menu.) Blacksmiths can be asked for help, they may help ... or not. To release NPCs, first release yourself, find an additional key and then talk to the NPC. This is a good way to make friends. Helping your friends can also have benefits.

Plugin structure:

Spoiler The mod is split into parts. The master file just provides the resources without really impacting the game world. Plugins provide functionality: Integration plugin: Adds ZAZ furniture to several place is Skyrim and `Mines' that can summon beasts when attacked/activated. In general it requires explicit player action for beasts to appear. Exceptions: Spoiler Traps are currently set to enabled by default. You can disable them in the MCM.

Pinepeak Cavern has a new inhabitant with some tricks up his sleeve.

You can enable random beast encounters in the MCM DB (dragonborn) adds mines and a new type of beast to Solstheim (REQUIRES: dragonborn)

PAH: Enables use of player summoned beasts to enslave NPCs (REQUIRES: Paradise Halls)

BAD: Marks Chain Beast as dwemer automaton, making them immune to certain magic effects (such as drain health).

Requirements

ZAZ animation pack; created with v7, v8 also works (v6.11 may also work, I'm not sure) (www.loverslab.com/topic/17062-zaz-animation-pack-v70-2017-05-16/). and its prerequisites such as sexlab.

FNIS (www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11811).

For DB plugin only: Dragonborn DLC

For PAH plugin only: Paradise Halls Extended

Recommended

SKYUI: For the MCM menu. (Highly recommended though should not be strictly required if you do not care about the menu, but not sure - not tested without.)

Fuz Ro D-oh: To see the NPC dialog.

Get up faster (www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17491)

How to install

If upgrading:

Export your settings in the MCM (optional).

Shut down the mod from the MCM (recommended; prevents losing confiscated gear).

Make a clean save. (Mandatory; will have issues without it)

Make a clean save ! (Yes I already said that but it is worth repeating, really it is necessary.)

If upgrading from before 0.3.4: Remove any loose mod files (*SCB_* especially from scripts and meshes).

Continue with `Fresh install below'.

Fresh install (Oldrim/LE) - latest version: 0.3.6

Download and install v0.3.4 (Oldrim/LE) if not done already (should be able to update to v0.3.6 from v0.3.4 or later).

Using a mod manager is recommended. ( Manual installation: unzip the file and place content of `00 Base' and of any options you want in your data folder. Ensure the esm and esp-s are activated. )

Download and install UpdateTo0.3.6, again mod manager is recommended.

Run FNIS for Users (this step may not be needed if you already had a recent version of SkyrimChainbeasts installed.)

Fresh install (SSE) - latest version: 0.3.5

Download and install v0.3.5SSE

Using a mod manager is recommended. ( Manual installation: unzip the file and place content of `00 Base' and of any options you want in your data folder. Ensure the esm and esp-s are activated. )

Prebuilt armors are CBBE physics body, 7Base preset. Use included bodyslide file to build your own preference.

Run FNIS for Users if you did not already have a recent version of SkyrimChainBeasts installed.

Known Possible Issues, Conflicts and Workarounds

Spoiler NPCs generated from leveled lists may not play nicely when captured. (No workaround yet.)

The caged scenario is a preview only and can break easily if used in unexpected ways. Workaround: If stuck, end the quest from the MCM Skip menu

Entering the furniture may place the actor with the wrong offset/angle. (Cosmetic issue only) For NPC a correction mechanism kicks in within a few seconds (but may still not always be perfect). For PC the alignment will still regularly remain wrong. (No further workaround)

Integration adds some items to a few locations in skyrim - potentially conflicts with mods changing the same locations. None known; Report any found so they can be addressed.

Mods that have unremovable quest items and not using certain zad(DD)/zbf(ZAP) keywords may break the progression in this mod. Also this mods will not remove quest items from inventory but may UNEQUIP items. (Devious devices should be compatible, other than some potential visual oddities - like the crawler not equipping due to a conflicting device.) None known; report any that are found.

Potential vanilla game issues that could affect this mod: This mod can create hectic battles and NPCs tend to flip out in case of friendly fire, causing them to attack each other/you if that happens. Workaround: There is a powerful calm spell in the MCM.

Sometimes pathing issues occur, especially with larger beast. Workaround: For Player use `struggling'; press motion keys to get temporary control. (Requires/consumes stamina, need to wait 5 seconds between struggles.) NPCs: try bumping them if they get stuck/clearing the path if they cannot find their way. If those fail, fast forward through the status page on the MCM.



Latest changes

Spoiler 0.3.6 [Added] An aid for melee fighters in the battle against unstable chain beast mines (and beasts in general, though it can only be obtained after a certain event happens during the Beauty and the Chain Beast quest). Hints: Spoiler Who might have assigned you this quest in the first place? They would not want you to give up should you falter... Spoiler (Think about the dream.) Spoiler Visit the relevant shrine after you got captured at least once during the quest.

[Changed] Skipping MineSweeper quest in MCM assumes the aid mentioned above has been revealed (but not yet obtained).

[Added] Achievement for obtaining above mentioned aid. [Added] Beast Are Dwemer (SCB_BAD) plugin: makes chain beast dwemer automaton, giving them some spell immunities (race gets the actorTypeDwarven keyword). Typically : Absorb health/stamina/magica (eg vampire drain, ebony sword etc.), mind influence; fear/calm/encourage effect (werewolf howl, intense flames,etc.), 2 versions; for with and without SCB_DB installed.

[Added] Option to limit how many restraints a key can remove. Player only, for NPCs a key will always remove all restraints. Key will still always be consumed, irrespective of how many restraints are removed.

[Added] Option to choose which restraints are still equipped after punishment. Player only (for now at least), NPCs will always use default setting. Collar is always there, other three restraints can be toggled.

[Changed] Option to start/skip quests now only appear once that quest is enabled.

[Changed] The select test beast now uses a menu (give it a moment to open) instead of a click through list. A bit slower but much more convenient to use.

[Changed] Quick capture mode now adds all restraints that would have been added if the beast had done the capture in multiple rounds.

[Fixed] Restraints equipped after punishment will be of the correct material.

[Fixed] Potential failure of custom animations on existing saves with SCB installed after other mods with animations have been (un)installed and FNIS rerun.

[Fixed] Some achievements did not respect the `show notification' MCM setting.

[Fixed] The names of player summoned beasts no longer refer to incorrect material. Corresponding crawlers have correct appearance for the material as well. Integration: [Added] New help mini-quest. Spoiler Clear Red Belly Mine (Shore's Stone) and go on with you Chain Beast related business.

[Added] (Difficulty option) Option to set at which level a certain type of beast will appear. (Under plugins in the MCM)

[Fixed] Man-who-cried-chain-beast quest: Victim will keep wearing what you gave him, instead of walking around naked again after a while.

[Changed] Same quest: The victim's box also contains some clothes & the victim will explain (once) where he is going if you ask him after you helped him.

[Fixed] Corpses of wild chain spiders should now also be usable with the `safe ride'-ride spider spell.

[Fixed] Ebony mine quest achievements now show up in the MCM. Other fixes related to this quest.

[Added] Option to start/skip parts of the Ebony Mine quest. DB: [Fixed] Register Chain Netch variants in correct order. Wrong order could lead to incorrect material being used eg for restraints.

Older updates:



Future

Spoiler Don't expect rapid progress. The core mod is reasonably well in place now, may try to add more story; depends on time and motivation.

I have very little of the former and the latter tends to come and go (especially seeing how frustrating it can be to build a decent story line within CK.) .

Can do some balance adjustments if I get feedback on what needs changing (eg effect of difficulty settings). If you have ideas please feel free to post them. If I like them I might try to implement them. (With the emphasis on try; see noob, time and motivation warnings.) Several people have offered to help and/or providing some add ins, installers etc. (Thanks a lot for that...) so I have made the core mod into a master file to make this easier.



Permissions

See ZAZ animation pack as this uses some of its resources. including Koffii yoke mesh (see ZAP for its Creative Commons Attribution license)

For the crawling animations see crawl-on-all-fours by DarkAngel1265 (www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33097) The alternate riding method was figured out by Fingerscrossed; custom riding animations support was learned from riding styles2.

The chain attack of the spiders is based on `Pull mastery' by xzax; https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/30351 (Stated permission: asset use allowed when crediting author but not for mods that are being sold.)

Other than that feel free to use as you like.

Credits & Tools used (in no particular order)