Name: Sclerocephalus' Abriael Human Partners Compilation 
Version: 1.0
Date: August 24, 2010

By Sclerocephalus


Description
===========

A compilation of Human Race CMPartner mods originally released by Abriael, all packed in a single archive that does not require any additional race mods to be installed.

The compilation is fully compatible with cosmetic mods that alter the vanilla eye meshes (e.g. Beautiful People). This will effectively prevent 'googly' or black eyes from appearing on the characters added by this compilation. A complete list of modifications is provided below.



List of original CMPartner mods included in this compilation:
=============================================================

- CM Partners: Abriael's Humans Volume 1
  http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25527

- CM Partners: Abriael's Humans Volume 2
  http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25543

- CM Partners: Abriael's Humans Volume 3
  http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25604

- CM Partners: Abriael's Humans Volume 4
  http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25747



Additional mod included in the compilation:
===========================================

- Knightwalker's 'Allies and Companions Play Nicer' mod:
  http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29737

This mod makes all companions less susceptible to 'friendly fire' and prevents them very effectively from getting engaged in endless fights with guards, town people or themselves. To realize this, two game settings are modified.

As usual with altered game settings however, they have an impact on general gameplay. Although I did not notice any negative effects in-game, I cannot fully exclude unwanted side-effects in combination with specific mods. Therefore, I have included two .esps with the compilation, one with and the other without Knightwalker's mod included.



Requirements
============

- Oblivion Patch 1.2.0.214
- The CMPartners mod:
  http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7819 

All other files are included with this download. 



Installation Guide
==================

Preparation - Important!!!
--------------------------

If you're already playing with some of the characters included in this compilation (see list above), open the game and get all their inventory. Then save, uncheck the related .esp files and delete them. Also uncheck Abriael_Human.esp and delete it, unless your player character is using it. This compilation does not need it, though.

Preparation of this compilation required to change some formIDs. Technically, that means that your companions will disappear and re-appear again at their original starting points, and you'll have to team up with them again.


Installation
------------

1. Extract the archive to a temporary folder
2. Open the 'Data' folder, then drag the two sub-folders ('Meshes' and 'Textures') into your Oblivion\Data folder and click 'yes' to overwrite.
3. Open the 'Esp Files' folder and select one of the two files, depending on whether you want Knightwalker's Allies Play Nicer (APN) mod included:

   - ABCompilation.esp (without APN)
   - ABCompilation_APN.esp (with APN)

   Drag the chosen file into your Oblivion\Data folder as well.

4. If you decide for the .esp with APN support, place it after all other companion mods in your load order. Also, if you have been using Knightwalker's
   mod before, uncheck its .esp and delete it.
   There won't be any conflicts when you're using another mod with APN support at the same time (e.g. another one of my compilations).
5. Start the launcher, check the .esp file and play



List of improvements:
=====================

- Removed the dependency on Abriael's Human Races Revamped mod.

- Set all custom races exclusively defined for the companion characters to non-playable. No more confusion in the character creation menu, with multiple copies of vanilla races showing up for no obvious reason (except you have other NPC-adding mods running where I did not put my hands on). Addition of playable races to the game (and the character creation menu) should be left to mods that have been tailored for that purpose.

- Also set all custom eyes and hair styles defined in this mod to non-playble, for similar reasons as those explained above.

- Assigned unique names to all custom races, eyes and hair styles, that are unlikely to be incidentally chosen by another modder, in order to prevent potential conflicts from happening.

- Packed all resources in one archive to allow for an easy installation.

- Added an alternative .esp file that includes KW's 'Allies Play Nicer' mod.


Note
----

The mod is also fully compatible with cosmetic mods that alter the vanilla eye meshes (e.g. Beautiful People), and also with Wrye Bash's 'Import Race Info' option (which is known to produce unwanted results sometime). However, this is a result of Abriael's excellent programming, and not of my own work with this compilation.



Incompatibility Issues
======================

None known so far.



Thanks to ...
=============

- Abriael for his fine characters, and his Human Races Revamped mod on which they are based.
- Blackie for the CMPartners mod without which there weren't many Partner mods out there for us to enjoy
- Ren for head, eye and hair meshes
- Flonne and Nequam for additional eye textures.
- Soya and Idkrrr for additional hair styles.
- Knightwalker for the 'Allies Play Nicer' concept.



Tools Used
==========

TES Construction Set
TES4 Edit
TES4 Files



Licensing/Legal
===============

All contents of this compilation are the intellectual property of Abriael. All inquiries about his work should be directed to him.