SkyTEST - Realistic Animals & Predators

**Console Notice, this mod is a PC Exclusive... and is strictly forbidden to use this mod in consoles.**



Dear Nexus Moderators, if i am somehow breaking a rule, please give me a warning or send me a PM instead of just instant ban, i am always willing to correct humbly any wrong doing.



Many thanks to everyone who has Endorsed, Voted or have given small Donations, who ever you guys are, thank you all!!

SkyrimSE/AE Version Click Here



ABOUT THE MOD:


SkyTEST stands for "The Elder Scrolls Tweaks" and as the name states is a series of Tweaks who´s purpose is to tweak and balance the game in different "Aspects", in this case "Animals & Predators".

The name SkyTEST comes from my first Oblivion Mod called "TEST" The Elder Scrolls Tweaks.



"SkyTEST - Realistic Animals & Predators" was the first animal mod which gave new AI (Artificial Intelligence) to Animals & Predators, the mod main focus is to overhaul Vanilla Skyrim Animals behavior to act a much more realistic while leaving the Original Design of the Animals and Stay LORE Friendly. The mod does not focus completely on adding more variation to animals since there way too many mods for that, but its also not limited to only altering the Ai, the following things is what this mod offers once installed.


* Animals WILL NOT report crimes! heck this was one of the very first features of the mod back in 2012. and i believe Bethesda even addressed the issue in one of their early patches.

* 100% Compatible with HeartFire/DawnGuard/DragonBorn.

* 100% Lore Friendly and immersive, the mod feels like its has always been part of Vanilla Skyrim.

* No Save Game Bloat, since every single feature was accomplished without scripts.

* Can be Uninstalled at any given time without causing issues to your save game.

* Improved Combat AI for more challenging animal combat behavior.

* Tweaked animal Stats to make them Harder.

* Animal Food chain 100% Completed.

* Mammoths, SabreCats, Bears and Mudcrabs have a chance of knocking down the player. Just like in real life big animals will maul you to death, so be careful.

* Animals will NEVER Fight to the Death, they will flee as soon s they feel they had enough.

* All Animals now Fear Fire, they will flee for a bit but will come back after few seconds to try again.

* Some Animals will be scared and flee by eqipping a Torch, other may not be too impressed...

* Pack Based Predators can get a boost of Confidence as long as their numbers are high, on the contrary they will get Demoralized if they lost too many members and they may flee, Lions and Wolves have this behavior in real life.

- Packless Wolves will ALWAYS run away from the player, but if another nearby wolf joins them they may attack you. 
- Pack Wolves will never back down unless their numbers drop considerably, at this point the pack will disband and will try to flee on their own.

* Some Animals can be Intimidated to flee if you have the Intimidate Perk, others may not care...

* Animals will be scared by Dangerous Monsters such as Dragons, Giants, Trolls, Werewolves, Undead and Daedra.

* Created new spawn points through all Skyrim to give a little more life.

* Most animals will try to find a mate within their species once a year.

* Bears will hibernate in winter.

* Animals will search for water in near by lakes, ponds and rivers once a day. *WIP*

* Predators will go out and hunt 2-3 times a day, if you happen to kill a predator and find some sort of animal meat in their inventory, then is very likely that predator has gone out to hunt successfully prior to his death.

* Ambient/Prey animals that search for Flora few times a day.

* Animals have unique personality, some will be scared when you approach, others wont like it if you approach and may give you a warning before attacking or running away, in Vanilla Skyrim Animals attacked you as soon as they see you... so i gave all Predators 3 Different Radius and each will react different:

-2000 (Aprox 60Mt) They pay attention to everything you do until you leave this radius.
-1000 (Aprox 30Mt) You`re getting too Close, they will start giving you warnings to back off, if you don`t they will attack after about 6-8 Seconds.
-800 (Aprox 20Mt) You`re too damn close, instant attack.

* Animal parents being followed by their cubs, you can encounter mammoths being followed by baby mammoths, Female Horkers being followed by their cubs... Deer and Elk Fawn and Calf, maybe even Bears with their cubs.

* Most animals has been given a boost of their Max Speed like Deers, Elks, Bears, SabreCats, Wolves, etc.

* Animals has been increased/decreased their Acceleration Speed, example Bears will take a little more before achieving their max speed since in Vanilla Skyrim Bears achieve their max speed instantly, which is of course "BS" and now it should feel more realistic, the contrary applies to Deer/Elk, SabreCats, Wolves and many more which should achieve their max speed faster.

* Small Critters through all Skyrim, you can encounter small spiders, Roaches, Rats and even Crabs which serve as prey for smaller predators.

* Better Factionalized animals, now there is a chance for predators to attack each other if encountered, in vanilla Skyrim you would get owned by wolves, bears, sabrecats, spiders and chaurus all at the same time, they acted like if they were a happy predator family who shared the meal... ANNOYING AS HELL, No more.

* More variation to Farm and wild animals.



The mod was getting bigger and bigger since i worked on the mod on a daily basis, updates were frequent at the time, but currently no plans to update the mod.


If you want to check the mod in full action check the VIDEO SECTION.



FUNNY VIDEO v1.16




Animals in this mod are unpredictable, they have a mind and agenda of their own.



HOW THE MOD STARTED


The very First Version of the mod started with me getting pissed at the fact that in Vanilla Skyrim all Predator Animals ignore each other and group against you, an example would be that 3 wolves, 2 types of bears and 3 sabrecats all target only you and ignored each other, so i decided to fix the issue, the following video shows the very first version of the mod which addressed the issue.



As you can see, the mod has evolved quite a lot since the first build, and it has created the illusion of a Realistic Animal Behavior and Food Chain.



REPORTING ISSUES


Before reporting any issue or CTD please try the following:


* Disable ALL MODS and leave ONLY SkyTest enabled, if the problem disappears then it was not SkyTest, if problem persists then it was likely SkyTest is the culprit.

I request doing that before reporting because some people blame the mod before even doing some tests on their own, you cant expect me to take reports seriously if i just get a bunch of people claiming something like "oh i installed this mod and i had a CTD" or "this mod conflicts with X Mod please fix it".

PLEASE DO NOT use the COMMENT SECTION any longer to report issues, sometimes i will not be able to see your comment because i get too many comments making it hard to follow older comments, INSTEAD of commenting, send a PM with DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ISSUE, any report in the comment who does not try what i suggested and does not describe the issue enough, will be ignored... sorry that´s just how it is.



KNOWN ISSUES



* Aggressive Prey Animals - Skyrim

Caused by: Engine Vanilla Script?

Game Breaking Level: Low

Chance of happening: Low and Randomly

Rate of Report: Extremely Low

Status: v1.37 and higher.

Solution: Kill them, otherwise combat mode will never end.

Description: Slight chance to encounter animals that seems to be Aggressive toward the player, it also spreads like wild fire and will keep making nearby Prey Animals to go hostile, i have no clue what causes this issue. SkyTEST Prey Animals are set as Unaggressive and Cowardly, they should never go aggro to the player under any circumstances, they should not go aggro even if the player attacks them. So it must be something in the engine that makes them go wild, i assume some sort of Script that manages Factions/Aggression/Combat. It causes no harm to your game, so don`t worry... but it is annoying. 



* Ai Disabled Animals - Skyrim

Caused by: Engine AI Package Overload

Game Breaking Level: None

Chance of happening: Low and Randomly

Rate of Report: Very Low

Status: Present in all Versions

Solution: Bumping and Pushing the actor animal will force him to respond again.

Description: Slight chance to encounter animals that seems to be "Ai Disabled", this is related to Ai Packages Engine getting overloaded, this happens when there is an AI Package in work and for some reason it cannot reach the item or Specific Goal, it will basically confuse them and will force them to stop moving until the package Time has passed, the only thing i can confirm to make the animals respond again it`s if you repeatedly Sprint push them or bump into them, they will start responding again (this is an Engine Limitation and i can`t do anything to fix or prevent this issue but it happens very very rarely so it`s not really that bad.)



* Skating Animals - SkyTEST

Caused by: Running another mod in at the same time with SkyTest that also Changes the default LeveledCharacter Lists.

Game Breaking Level: None

Chance of happening: Extremely Low

Rate of Report: Very Low

Status: Eradicated since v1.0

Solution: Left LeveledCharacter Lists as default and created my own Lists


Description: There was a chance of encountering an animal that seems to be behaving well, but will be Stuck in the idle mesh pose and would not show any animation at all (probably because it was trying to use another actor animations), it would look as if it were Skating, this ONLY happened when running another mod that would also made the mistake i did of changing the default LeveledCharacter lists (SkyMoMod used to caused this issue), it would cause the engine to spawn a mixture an actor from both Mods, causing the actor to not to be able to show any animation but will act as it should.



* Crash to Desktop - Skyrim

Caused by: Bethesda Bad Scripting + Cramming too many Scripted Mods in your list. (Engine Related, not caused by SkyTEST)

Game Breaking Level: Extreme

Chance of happening: Moderate

Rate of Report: Low

Status: All Versions of Skyrim.

Solution A: Create a New Game (You`re Screwed), so next time try choosing your mods Wisely and preferably avoid Scripted mods, you cannot disable or remove mods with scripts from your save game, since removing them will make the problem even worse, the least you could do is live with that mod attached to your save game for ever.

Solution B: Try the Save Game Script Cleaner by Hadoram

Solution C: Try SKSE which addresses Save Game Bloat by removing Unregistered Update Calls, after installing SKSE, create a folder called SKSE inside Data Folder, inside this folder create a new TXT file called SKSE.ini and add this line:

[General]
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1

Click here for SKSE

Description: This issue is caused by Bethesda own bad scripting techniques, Bethesda Original LvlPredatorScript seems to cause Bloat and corruption on it`s own, also having a Huge List of Active Scripted Mods increases the chances for this type of CTD, they are also caused by Installing and later UnInstalling mods that contained scripts (Worst thing you can do to your Save Game), this causes the Save game to try to obtain Data from such mods/scripts which later causes the game performance to drop considerably and finally ends in a Crash to Desktop.

**SkyTEST does not adds any scripts, SkyTEST is not the cause of this issue**



* Crash to Desktop #2 - Skyrim

Caused by: Messing around with UGridsToLoad and Skyrim Engine hitting the 3.1GB Limit (Engine Related)

Game Breaking Level: Extreme

Chance of happening: Randomly

Rate of Report: Moderate

Status: All Versions of Skyrim

Solution A: STOP MESSING WITH THE GRIDS, Seriously... STOP MESSING WITH THE GRIDS.

Solution B: Try SKSE which claims to addresses the 3.1GB Ram Limit, after installing SKSE, create a folder called SKSE inside Data Folder, inside this folder create a new TXT file called SKSE.ini and add this line:

[Memory]
DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB = 768
ScrapHeapSizeMB = 256

Solution C: Try SSME by Queue. (RECOMMENDED)

Solution D: You can try SKSE Plugin Preloader & Crash Fixes by Meh321. (RECOMMENDED LATEST FIX BY COMMUNITY) After installing both go to SKSE Plugins folder and open the CrashFixPlugin.ini and search for UseOSAllocators=0 and change it to UseOSAllocators=1

Description: People messing around with the "UGridsToLoad=" setting in the Skyrim.ini, changing it to anything above 5 will drain your Ram, which in turn makes it easier to hit the Engine 3.1GB Ram limit and will cause instant CTD, Guarantee by Bethesda, the higher you set it the easier you will be having random CTDs, even using uGridstoLoad=7 will cause a CTD, SO DON´T MESS WITH IT AND LEAVE IT AT DEFAULT OF 5 if you really hate Random CTDs. Yes even in 2016 YOU WILL CRASH if you mess with the UGrids, no matter how much you tweak Skyrim or how many of the above Community Fixes you use, it will only delay CTD but it will never get rid of them if you Changed default Value of 5 UGrids.


* Invisible Animals - SkyTEST

Caused by: Nexus Mod Manager (Go figure...)

Game Breaking Level: Extreme

Chance of happening: Moderate

Rate of Report: Moderate

Status: As long as NMM exist...

Solution: Download the Mod MANUALLY from the File Section.

Description: People getting Attacked by Invisible animals, this is caused by NMM that somehow manages to downloaded the wrong BSA and ESP.



* Extracting File Errors - Compression Type

Caused by: Probably by Nexus Mod Manager...

Game Breaking Level: Low

Chance of happening: Low

Rate of Report: Low

Status: Present to some users.

Solution: download 7z Version 9.20 or newer and then try to extract the files through 7z Window, as last resort if you keep getting errors trying to decompress the files try extracting directly through NMM.

Description: As soon as you download the mod and try to extract the files, user report not being able to do so, some users claim NMM is able to extract the files with little issue, which in turns makes me feel it is an NMM issue by itself.



My mod list is quite low, and i never experience a single CTD after Skyrim Update v1.4, i did had a couple of CTDs while playing for a few hours in a row prior to updates 1.4, but after these Update i have not seen a single CTD, not even with mods that are known to have heavy CTD reports, which confirms my theory that CTDs are caused by using a TON of Mods. I did how ever had couple CDT´s with Dawnguard enabled, but these were random and could not be replicable, it seems Dawnguard is rather "dirty" and "unstable by design, yet the crashes appeared in a very low rate.

My mod list consists mostly of my own mods, few armor, weapons and clothes:

Dawnguard.esm
Heartfire.esm
Dragonborn.esm
SkyTEST - HarderCreatures.esp
SkyTEST - MysticLands.esp
SkyTEST - RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp
SkyTEST - Settings.esp
SkyTEST - Vision.esp
SkyBirds - Airbone and Perching Birds.esp
theRoadstrokersRoyalElvenSet.esp
DQ3SageOutfit.esp
kkfur.esp
ElvenWeaponryPack.esp
SabreFurBag.esp
HDT Capes.esp
SkyFalls + Skymills.esp
EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
PureWaters.esp
Better Dynamic Snow.esp
InYourShadow.esp
TKDodge.esp 


THAT`S RIGHT, THE LESS MODS YOU USE THE LESS ISSUES YOU WILL HAVE, I GUARANTEED IT %100, CHOOSE YOUR MODS WISELY & PREFFERABLY AVOID SCRIPTED MODS.



MOD COMPATIBILITY


This mod will conflict with anything that edits Animal Races, Animal Actors and Animal Factions, the following mods are confirmed to work fully with SkyTEST:


Deadly Dragons - 100%

SkyMoMod - 99%
(There may be small issues with Skating Animals/Creatures)

Summon Animal Pets - 100%

Dogs of Skyrim - 100%

Pets of Skyrim - 100%

Birds of Skyrim - 100%

SkyBirds - 100%

WATER - 100% But you MUST load WATER after SkyTest (using what ever mod sorting app you use).

PureWaters - 100% But you MUST load PureWaters after SkyTest (using what ever mod sorting app you use).

Tame the Beasts of Skyrim - 100% But you MUST load it after SkyTest (using what ever mod sorting app you use).

Tame the Beasts of Skyrim II - 100% But you MUST load it after SkyTest (using what ever mod sorting app you use).

It should also be compatible with any other non Animals Mods -



VIDEOS


Check Video Tab



REQUIREMENTS


As of v1.56 the mod requires Latest Version of Skyrim 1.9.32.0 + All DLC's, If you use an older Skyrim version you may be attacked by invisible animals.



INSTALL


Extract the BSA and the ESP files into the DATA folder and DELETE any previous versions of the mod if you have it.



UNINSTALL


The 100% safe way to Uninstall SkyTEST is the following:

* 1- Download the compressed "SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators Uninstaller" in the Files Download section, replace the original SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp (or .esm) with the Uninstaller ESP and overwrite when it asks you. 

* 2- Run the Game and Save.

* 3- Finally remove anything related to SkyTEST.

The Special Uninstaller esp is an EMPTY esp that forces any changes from SkyTEST, into the default game settings and preventing CTDs while making sure no traces of the mod has been left. This is the 100% SAFEST Uninstall way. Also this process can be used with any mod as long as it does not contains Scripts.



FUTURE PLANS


Start messing with Quests for Random Animal Encounters.



Check out my other Mods


"SkyTEST - Vision"


"SkyTEST - Settings"


"SkyTEST - Harder Creatures"


"SkyTEST - MysticLands Races"



CREDITS


shingouki2002 for modifying some animal meshes to give a baby appearearance

wrig675 for her Bellyaches Texture Pack.

Chocolambot for his HD rabbit Texture Pack

TheRagMan for his HD SlaughterFish Retexture

MaxSustain for the Low Resolution Textures Pack

Vioxsis for modifying the rest of the Animals to fit baby proportions

Stormshallow for his CONVERSION OF THE FREE MODDERS RESOURCE OF SHEEP MESH

Macadamstreet for her PIG & GOOSE MESH

LazySkeever for the Optimized Audio Files

KrittaKitty for allowing to use his True Wolves Mesh/Textures



SPECIAL THANKS TO


"frankthefish" thanks for support!

"Nedius" thanks for support!

"Jsnider193" whom without his help not even half of this mod would have been made possible, he just keeps supporting!! awsome you rock Man!!



CONTACT


[email protected]

www.facebook.com/etayorius

www.e-mods.net



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