Clearsky Hideout - Fully Animated Playerhouse SE

Clearsky Hideout - Fully Animated Playerhouse SE

Special Edition conversion of the animated player home ''Clearsky Hideout'', optimized to SE, packed in BSA,

 

 

CLEARSKY HIDEOUT'S MAIN FEATURES

 

► Fully animated playerhouse
► Over 100 animated interactions.
► Sleep UNDER blankets rather than on top of them.
► Change table settings, bed sheets, lights, wall maps & more.
► Unlock mysteries left by previous occupants.
► Plant and grow your own crop (no DLC required).
► Followers craft, cook, mine, smelt, tan, for real.
► Followers store their own crafting supplies.
► Drinks in tankards, soup in bowls and pots, meat in bread.
► Learn how to craft some very unique items.
► Decoration as an homage to fellow modders.
► Customizable sleep and shower outfit management.
► Customizable crafting supply auto-storage.
► Fully navmeshed and cleaned with TES5edit
 
RECOMMENDED COMPLEMENTARY MODS
 
No DLC or other mods are required to use Clearsky, but as I deliberately avoided to mess up with followers quests and player's AI to preserve maximum compatibility, a couple of mods are strongly recommended to make full use of all the available features:

1. a follower mod that will let your follower(s) sandbox (FCR, AFT, EFF, etc.) - but if you do use followers I'm guessing you already have one installed. If you don't use followers, don't bother, anything they can do in Clearsky, your character will be able to do too and a lot more.

2. a player sleep mod if you want to see you character sleep under blankets (see links below).

HOW TO GET TO CLEARSKY
 
Right after you've installed Clearsky, a message will be delivered to your Breezehome door. Not by courier though - just stand on your door step and look around a bit, you should find it fairly easily, even if you have a modified version of Whiterun installed. Just follow carefully the instructions. If you're an 'Open Cities' user, a compatibility patch is available which moves the delivered message to the back door of Riften's Honeyside.

A FEW COMMON SENSE TIPS


1. NO key SPAMMING: as there are many activators in Clearsky, try not to spam your activate key to avoid triggering 2 events in the same time.

2. 3rd PERSON: all the animations used are Vanilla and many do not have a 1st person version - it is thus best played in 3rd person of course - but why would you want to use an animated mod if not to see animations at play? (See further below potential conflicts with FOV tweaks and mods).

3. FOLLOWERS: give them a little time to adjust to the new place and find their ways around activators. It shouldn't take them too long but they usually tend to get first to the furnitures they know, then as they walk around they'll gradually find them all.

4. DO NOT USE CONSOLE COMMANDS other than tfc - this will break Clearsky's features beyond repair. Clearsky (like every other mod - or the game itself) is not meant to be stormed through using console, it is meant to be PLAYED. Never thought I'd have to write that... (see further down for warnings).


A DIFFERENT KIND OF PLAYER HOUSE

Clearsky is a house mod unlike any other I've seen or used in my games. There are many great house mods on the Nexus, some wonderfully designed and decorated, and I don't pretend to do better - just a bit different.

A FULLY ANIMATED HOUSE MOD

Somehow, I always missed feeling that my character was actually living there other than being able to sit around, get the well-rested bonus and use crafting stations. So I created Clearsky to try a new concept: a lively, fully animated place where your character and follower will find a lot to do.

In Clearsky, you can read or drink in the tub, choose your dinner menu and play the corresponding animations, you can choose to set the table for dinner or for work, you can sleep under blankets rather than on top of them, you can carry your own wood from the stables to the house to light a fire, you can light and blow out the candles, dig and weed the ground, create your own seed blends and plant your own crops... and much more. You will play many small animated events that give your character a new life and a new feeling of immersion.

Your follower will find a lot to do too, not just using idle markers, he or she will be able to craft their own potions, cook some food, unload their firewood and crafting supplies burdens in the appropriate containers, melt some of their ores at the smelter and tan some pelts, they'll serve you soup, undress to go to bed or shower and dress up again when coming out, they'll sleep under the blankets too, relax with a snack, a drink or a book, relaxing in the shower or by the fire will set a smile on their faces, they'll even play a little music for you once in a while - and a lot more too.

You can even get to taste your companion's more or less fortunate attempts to create new potions...

 

 

A PLACE WITH STORIES TO TELL AND SECRETS TO UNLOCK

It also always felt a little strange to me that the modded houses I lived in appeared out of the blue just for my Dovahkiin's needs. Unless you build them from the ground up, houses have stories too, and in Skyrim they sure should.

In Clearsky, two generations of previous tenants have left many traces of their lives, adventures, dreams and misfortunes: a couple of wanted Nord renegades and a mysterious, kinky, long dead Dwarf.

Not just books and journals and notes - though they have left these too for you to read (animated of course) and discover who they were, but also custom drawings and paintings, home-made furniture, clothes, weapons, keys, bags, music boxes, artefacts, all lying around the place as they were obviously using it all before they had to leave in a hurry. Unfinished projects too, hidden caches, a mysterious laboratory, a secret escape route, etc. Even a grave which has its secrets to tell.

Most of these objects are not Vanilla, many are from other mods I love and admire, whose authors have kindly given me permission to use them in Clearsky. Others are my own creations to better fit the mood and story of Clearsky.

 


DECORATION AS A HOMAGE TO FELLOW MODDERS

As much as I enjoyed displaying armors on mannequins and trophies on the walls for a while, I grew tired of it. The truth is my favorite items and fondest game memories are modded ones now.

Which is why I always wanted to decorate my first house mod as an homage to fellow modders. So no mannequins here nor weapons plaques (they're buggy as hell anyway) but mostly very unique objects, beautifully designed items or particularily creative ones.

In Clearsky, you'll find some of FavoredSoul's most beautiful weapons, some of Kurese and the Roadstroker's nicest clothes, a model of MuppetPuppet's wonderful Elsweyr ship from "MoonPath to Elsweyr", Razorpony's inventive Steam Horse, Grohiik's mechanical Dwemer dragon or BrettM's aquarium - only to name a few. Of course, all of these modders have kindly given me permission to use their creations in Clearsky and I am very grateful for their trust.

Other very unique items from modders who created modders resources have been used too, with their permissions of course: Stroti's oil lamp, sundial, gramophone, tools, Runspect's globe, InsanitySorrow's hourglass, telescope, bed sheets, Tueffelachtein's modular crafting stations, JackMorris21 animated containers, etc.

Many of these items have been slightly tweaked, remodeled or completely retextured by me to better suit the spirit and mood of Clearsky. Bed spreads have been remodeled in 3DS for instance and all furniture entirely retextured to look like freshly cut pine wood rather than weathered old wood.

I nonetheless managed to keep the bed nifs 100% Vanilla so that they will work flawlessly with any player sleep mod you want to use - and no actor, player or NPC, will ever occupy the middle of the bed which can effectively sleep two.

This explains the fairly large size of Clearsky file (new meshes and textures) but also the very unique (I hope) feel to the place.

 

 

A 360° BREATHTAKING VIEW OVER SKYRIM

Clearsky is placed on top of the second highest mountain of Skyrim - and still low enough as to work beautifully with COT - in a cell where the most addicted player will probably only get once in a playthrough.

From up here, you'll have a stunning view over the plains of Whiterun to the South, Solitude to the West, Winterhold to the East and the Northern coast of Skyrim, as well as plenty of sitting or laydown spots to enjoy the stary nights or the boreal auroras.

Unless you can fly, there are actually 3 ground ways to climb up to Cleasky, but none of them is devoid of dangers and bad encounters.

The counterpart is it is far from Whiterun and Riverwood of course, but the idea is to use Clearsky as a stop-over, a place to relax for a while before moving on to new adventures. Should you want to settle down though, there are dozens of non-respawning containers in Clearsky. Auto-Storage of crafting supply can be turned on or off in game.

 

FIRST TIME INSTALLATION

As a precaution, for all scripts to initiate properly, make a clean save in an interior cell (Breezehome for instance), quit, enable Clearsky and reload. You need to be at least 5 cells away if you're in a exterior cell - there's a Vanilla bug that prevents some furniture animations to load properly ("chop wood" for instance) if you load your plug-in less than 5 cells away. No stress if you don't though, all you'll need to do is to enter the house, exit again and the chop wood furniture will again work properly.

As a general rule, always make a clean save you can return to whenenever you install a new mod. Take a quick tour of the place, try a few things, if you intend to keep it a bit longer, go on. If you realize this is not for you, just uninstall it and reload your clean save. That's the safest way to test a new mod.

 
 

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