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Slof's Playable Xivilai 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 v1.2 (of course!)
Made with CS 1.2 (so it may not work on an older version of Oblivion)

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ABOUT THIS MOD:
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This mod adds a fully-featured playable Xivilai race. I know there is already one out there, but this is my take on the idea. Since the first time I met one of these big bruisers, I wanted to play as one, but until now was not sure how to go about it. Just how a Xivilai has ended up in an Imperial jail, I'll leave up to the imagination!

It uses several custom meshes that were made especially for it, including his proper horns. He starts in the prison as before, but wearing his proper Xivilai stuff - where would the guards get human clothing that fits him at such short notice? He can wield two-handed weapons in one hand, like all his kin. No separate race fix is required - this will work correctly right from the starting cell.

This will look best as a male character, but female is fully enabled too, complete with a full set of voices for each gender. Although I've made textures for them, female Xivs are likely to be ugly as well as big and brutish! The downside of genders having to share the same head data. They are very tall and equally as wide, standing at around 7 and half feet tall (males slightly taller than females). He has the same natural spell absorption abilities as his creature counterparts, as well as stunted magicka - I just used the original Xivilai's abilities. He also has fortified magicka and can summon a clannfear once a day. They suffer a minus to security and sneak skills due to their size and strength. Because of already having natural stunted magicka and spell absorption abilities, the Atronach birthsign has been disabled for Xivilai characters as it could be too easily exploited for no further loss. This was done to maintain a good balance.

Unlike the Dremora, his horns are not removed when donning headgear. They remain visible whether he wears helm, hood or wig. I did them this way as I don't like my horned characters losing their horns just to wear something on their heads!

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INSTALLATION:
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This archive should consist of:
Slof's Playable Xivilai.txt
Slof's Playable Xivilai.esp
Textures folder
Meshes folder
Sound folder
Extras folder

Install all but the extras into 'data' intact. The basic install is for stock Bethesda bodies, both male and female. This is to allow for maximum compatibility for those who don't use body mods. Install all of this first, in its entirity, including .esm and .esp.

*Note about the extras: I've included a lot of different stuff here, to allow for a certain amount of customisation of your character, so I'll try to explain it.

2-hand Weapons: this folder contains the new animations and esp add-on that allows the Xivilai to wield 2-handers in one hand. Because this changes the animations, it will work on ANY 2-handed weapon, vanilla or modded.

Ears: This folder contains 5 set of ears like the ones I've used, but with different earring combinations. I did this so players could pick and choose their ear decorations. All these will automatically pick up the correct texture as set in the CS.

Faces: This has three different face textures with normal maps: scarred, tattooed and scars + tattoos. Use these if you want something other than the unmarked default face. The tattooed one is especially good for hiding the neck seam. Although my textures are perfectly matched, some in-game lighting makes the seam very apparent. A tatt around the neck was my solution.

Horns+piercings: This has an alternate mesh and texture. The mesh has additional facial piercings that are part of the horns mesh, allowing facial jewellery without taking up an extra face slot. The alternate texture includes a silver end-cap on one horn.

Exnem: This includes a full body texture for Exnem's female body. Comes in normal and scarred options. A kilt mesh is also included to fit this body.

Robert: This is a fullbody texture for those who use Robert's male body and also come in standard and scarred. Kilt mesh also included to fit.

Corwyn: Contains fullbody texture and adjusted kilt mesh.

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KNOWN ISSUES OR BUGS:
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Shouldn't be any major bugs. If there are, please let me know.

There are a few issues related to his height which I will mention here, which at this time are beyond my ability to fix short of making him smaller, which I'd rather not do.

*The Xivilai is very tall - in relation to an average human, he's approximately 7 1/2 feet tall. He can get through doors just fine despite this. However, in some low-ceilinged caves, his head may pop out into the grey nothingness beyond the meshes. The best way around this without altering his height (Which I don't want to do as they are supposed to be big), is to crouch at those points - as any tall person would have to.

*His size also means that he floats a little above chairs when he sits - I'm not sure if this can be altered - I generally just live with it as I often play tall characters.

*Picking items up off the floor can be tricky as his eye level is so far from the ground and sometimes out of activator range while standing. Crouching will also help here to bring him into range. Most of the time, I've had no problems while testing him.

*The wild hair wig: This is a very high-poly mesh and may cause a slight performance hit on some machines. I wouldn't recommend using this on too many companions or mannequins in any one place. It's designed mainly for the Xiv player's use to have fun with.

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INCOMPATIBILITIES & SAVED GAME WARNINGS:
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I made this with the CS v1.2 and as such, may not work with older versions of Oblivion. Patch up to 1.2 for best results. Doesn't require Shivering Isles.

This uses Ren's odd-eye meshes that use different mapping, but are all contained within this race and shouldn't affect anything else.

It may conflict slightly with any mod which alters the stock Xivilai creature as I've added the clothing, ears and a hair as random drops from dead ones. To ensure getting the stuff, set this mod to load last using a utility such as Oblivion Mod Manager by Timeslip. I've also left a respawning chest containing one each of all these items in the Testinghall should you want them sooner. There are 6 ear variations: only one will appear at any one time as random drops from dead Xivilai to match the ones that come with the character.

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CREDITS & USAGE:
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Without these people, this mod wouldn't have been anything like as good, and for that they have my undying gratitude and appreciation. It has become much more than the sum of its parts.

throttlekitty: has had almost more enthusiasm for this project than me, making me several new hairs, a new head, proper Xivilai horn meshes as well as making the kilt thing wearable. He also supplied some voices and made the wearable mad wild hair that can picked up from dead Xivilai.

Kikaimegami: has helped me with the weapon scripting, making this work without needing a race fix and getting his clothing to work from the start. She has also made and rigged his collar and all the horns/piercings. Also playtested him as I've made changes.

Kafei: I made good use of her fabulous ear meshes with the earrings to give the Xivilai a certain amount of style. I'm a big fan of her work and just had to use them.

Xmarksthespot: always ready to help me out, he redid the mapping on the horn meshes which has allowed me to make the textures asymmetrical.

Scanti: without his wonderful little Conformulator utility, a lot of this stuff could not have been done and this race wouldn't have been as good. This race also uses the merged fangs he made at my request, and a merged mouth/tongue which freed up a head slot to use for the horns. He also recorded some of the voice files for the taunts.

Eldroth: he has a wonderful growly voice! He made the voice files so that the Xivilai can sound like a proper one when he's hit. He's also given me so much encouragement as well as beta testing all manner of stuff for me.

Kirel: got the custom voices up and running, including altering them slightly for the females. Again, this has made this mod so much more! It feels so much more complete with proper voices. Also figured out that changing the anims will make the 2-handers work in one hand for the player only.

SickleYield: very kindly made the kilt mesh fit on the new Fantasy Figures body without clipping. Kudos for always being so helpful and generous.

Ren: her odd-eye meshes have allowed me to make odd-coloured eyes to add more variety to this race - plus I'm rather a fan of mismatched eyes!

ShadowJ and Madcat221: for their help in getting the attributes and skills well balanced and logical. I'm dreadful with numbers and their help was much appreciated.

Orc: helped me create the levelled lists for drops off dead Xivilai creatures, then helped me test them and squash any bugs.

Kivan: of Unofficial Patch fame, has thoroughly tested this and made sure any bugs are found, squashed and suggested fixes. Who better than the no. 1 bug-finder to test?! :)

Many thanks also to the folks on the Beth forums for all their input and encouragement. Ideas that I liked have been taken on board and used if they're possible and fit within the Xivilai concept. I started out making this for myself - as much for the challenge of making it as well as playing - I had no idea that a playable Xivilai would be so popular. Without all that input, this wouldn't have been as good.

Textures are entirely hand-painted by me. It's about the only thing I actually did on this other than assembling it!

Consider this a modders' resource for making new mods. 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 the respective creators where it is due. This has taken us 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.

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SPECIAL NOTES:
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Mail me from my webby at 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
And here on CI's forums: http://canadianice.ufrealms.net/forum2/index.php
I can also be found in IRC in #TESModdersDen on Quakenet.