Cerwiden -SMART Healer- AI Configurable Companion
Cerwiden is an intelligent, CONFIGURABLE and CUSTOM-VOICED mage companion who can buff and heal you and your other followers. She has her own personality, installment questline, and will \”SMARTcast\” offense spells. She\’ll even engage in random, situation-aware banter, recognize your other followers, and change outfits and hairstyles.
v1.7.1 released, includes 2nd installment of backstory quest, fully voiced
Want a different look for Ceri? Try the Custom Appearance Patch!
Ceri voted as one of the August 2012 Mods of the Month, thank you!
Cerwiden (Ceri) is a young Priestess of Donblas who hails from distant shores.
She recently ventured to Skyrim, and is still new to its vast lands.
Will you be her guide, friend and companion?
Cerwiden is the first of a new breed of “smart” AI, CONFIGURABLE followers to join in your adventures in Skyrim. She is fully voiced, and includes custom backstory/quest content (new content planned with updates). As a Priestess of Donblas, Cerwiden will:
Cast defensive buffs on you and your other followers, with buffs increasing in number, magnitude and duration as she gains more experience adventuring
Heal you and any other followers you may have in your adventuring party (if you have other followers, they’ll occasionally comment on Cerwiden’s heal spells, just like when the player casts heals on them)
Cure you of normal diseases if you become infected (after combat of course, she’s smart enough to realize you may get reinfected, so she’ll save her magicka); she won’t cure “quest” diseases like lycanthropy so you can do those quests if you’d like
SMARTCast offensive spells; she’ll choose spells based on the opponent she’s facing, so more silly mage followers casting cold spells at frost trolls (in Ceri v1.7+, she’ll also SMARTCast using her unique staff)
Change outfits periodically when not following you actively(and at night will wear her sleep clothes, and may decide to wear her hair “down” instead of in a pony-tail)
Take instruction from you on how you’d like her to (re)act in combat; with “Battle Command”, she’ll even change tactics while in combat at your direction (see “Configuration” section)
Bring you on HER adventure and mission in Skyrim, if you so choose
If you’ve played Skyrim with vanilla mage companions, you’ve undoubtedly recognized their limitations. Ceri is a departure from the vanilla follower mold, and is a companion who can be customized/configured to suit your playstyle and level of difficulty, extending far beyond the equipment you may give to her. This mod comes with a fully voiced, custom dialogue-based interface, available after you first recruit Ceri, to configure how she should fight and heal, and even where to go if dismissed. The Configuration section below shows the options available, and there are many! (A copy of the configuration options map is also included in the download archive in the Data\Docs folder.) Please also take a look at the FAQ, as many questions are answered there.
If you’re new to using Ceri, please don’t get overwhelmed at the number of configuration options. Consider leaving her at her “defaults” to start and see how it suits your style. If you find her too strong/weak for your particular game, just speak with her and give her new directions on spell/weapon use. If she’s healing too frequently or not enough, just let her know. Do you want her to attack enemies when she spots them? Or try to avoid engaging enemies completely, and stick to being the party healer? Don’t want her to cure you because you’re using an immersion/realism mod? It’s all up to you, and how you believe Ceri would be most helpful, in YOUR game.
Version 1.7.1 (requires SKSE, more info on SKSE here), 26 October 2012, includes the following updates from 1.6.3:
2nd Backstory Quest Installment: Help Ceri accomplish her mission in Skyrim! Includes “intelligent” enemies (e.g., mages will heal their allies, SMARTCast against you, and have a few surprises). This quest is intended for player levels between 25-45; some opponents are fixed level (between 20 and 30) and others scale with the player to level 100 but have a minimum level of 20. Full walkthrough document/spoiler guide is available for download in the Optional Files area.
Initial Prototype for Better “Party” Combat: Two new quest allies to join you, one of which is a rogue archetype, the other a warrior archetype. The warrior archetype includes a defensive mode that allows for “taunting” of enemies, and the player now has the ability to call targets to these allies, Ceri’s and any other followers who’ve been “friended” to Ceri. These allies are only available for Ceri’s questline, and may be configured via dialogue or, during combat, with Ceri’s Battle Command feature. They also come with a “Call Allies” spell in case you get separated. Please see the FAQ for additional information on how the new “taunt” and “call target focus” features work, and their limitations/restrictions.
New Staff for Ceri: Doesn’t require recharging but set at apprentice level damage, and works with Ceri’s SMARTCast. Related to this, I reduced her melee and increased her staff use propensities, respectively, noting that these only come into play should you configure her to use her staff, etc.
Some additional banter lines for Ceri, including some relating to vampirism. Also changed the timing of some of her existing banter.
Normalized volume the voice files from v1.6.3 so volume discrepancies shouldn’t be as noticeable.
Fixed Ceri’s NPC dialogue detection to work with the Companions “Take Up Arms” quest and fixed the toggle.
Additional checks against brawls (I’ve still not been able to replicate any instance of Ceri’s interference).
Ceri’s combat heals now also restore stamina.
Fixed the broken condition in Ceri’s dialogue that eliminated certain dialogue choices based on your current friend/favor progress scores.
Added a debug dialogue option to “reset” Ceri’s friendship quest for those who want to go back and redo it. Note that this option must be used PRIOR to starting the installment quest segments in v1.7, so if you plan on using the “reset”, do it right away after you install v1.7.
Fixed an empty condition that resulted in Ceri’s tier 2 buff spell being unavailable.
Fixed certain spell animations that weren’t firing properly (e.g., Ceri’s curing of the player).
Fixed the “dupe exploit” relating to Ceri’s remembered outfits. If you are using this exploit, re-ask Ceri to remember the outfits after you give to her.
Added a check against Ceri’s “don’t use weapons” code to accommodate an override by Convenient Horses and mounted combat by followers.
Added SEQ file to prevent the Skyrim v1.7 “dialogue bug”
Please don’t forget to “Track” this mod for updates in your Tracking Center (click on the little binoculars icon above the green “Download with Manager” button). Also, your opinion matters for future development of Ceri, so please provide feedback and vote on Ceri’s development polls!
Open Polls
Poll 4: General Development Path is up!
Closed Polls
Poll 3: Interaction: This was taken between Ceri versions 1.6 and 1.7. The majority of respondents picked custom followers for interaction, and for Ceri’s quests to recognize the Skyrim’s vanilla quests when possible.
Poll 2: General Development Path: This poll was taken from the v1.5 release and closed with v1.6. The majority of respondents voted for re-voicing of vanilla dialogue (a fair bit of which is done with v1.6) and Ceri’s backstory/questline (first installment included in v1.6).
Poll 1: Ceri and SKSE Requirement: The majority of respondents are voting for Ceri to go SKSE, with a few “don’t cares” and a minimal number of “No SKSE” respondents. This poll was taken prior to release of Ceri v1.4; SKSE will be required starting Ceri v1.5 so everyone should have ample time to get it. 🙂
Skyrim 1.6.89.0+
SKSE (make sure the SKSE version you download corresponds with the Skyrim version); if you’re new to SKSE, please check out this video primer on what it is and how to install
If you’d like her to look like the screenshots, you’ll need the following, but not having them won’t break anything:
Apachii SkyHair 1.3+
UNP Base Skinny Body
Envision Face for UNP
Cerwiden is compatible with Skyrim 1.7.7.0 and Dawnguard, but does not require either at this time. Ceri has been reported to work with Hearthfire as well, though many users have reported issues with UFO in conjunction with followers and Hearthfire (these issues were not reported by EFF/AFT users, only UFO). She should work with just about any other mods, subject to the following:
Mods that toss auras without requisite checks and/or use a brawl patch/plugin may cause Ceri to inferere with your brawls. Ceri is NOT the cause but is merely the symptom; see FAQ Troubleshooting section for details.
If you want to use another mod to manage Cerwiden’s wardrobe or that alters your followers’ outfits/gear, you’ll want to toggle Cerwiden’s outfit changing ability so as not to confuse the poor girl (see FAQ below on how to do so).
If you want to use other mods to (micro)manage Ceri’s spells, perks, etc., you may do so but I strongly advise against it, as Ceri’s AI is intended to be self-sufficient. In other words, you should NOT need to micromanage her spells. If you do, you do so at your own risk of breaking her AI. By way of reference example, if you remove her healing and buff spells, she won’t be serving her purpose. 😛
If you want to use gear mods made for a specific body type, make sure you have it installed. Ceri isn’t packaged with body meshes, so she’ll INHERIT from whatever you’re using. This is intentional on my part.
Mods that alter follower packages in combat may result in unpredictable behavior from Cerwiden (e.g., she may not heal/cure when you expect her to do so). For example, using UFO’s “Stop Fighting” option in the middle of combat may result in her not healing. Similarly, if you use mods that allow you to add/remove perks, spells, abilities, etc., this may affect Cerwiden’s AI in unexpected and unintended ways. Users report that Ceri works fine with Ultimate Follower Overhaul (UFO), Extensible Follower Framework(EFF), Amazing Follower Tweaks(AFT), Convenient Horses, Followers Can Relax, My Home Is Your Home, Spouses Can Live Everywhere. It should be noted, however, that if you use the follower mounted combat option from Convenient Horses, it WILL override any command you give to Ceri to not use weapons. This is because Convenient Horses scripts a “fake weapon” on followers to simulate combat.
Mods that silence follwers will likely break Ceri’s voice-based quest triggers.
Mods that alter certain actor value indices, including Fame, Variable09 and WaitingForPlayer (CH and EFF accounted for already) may conflict with this mod.
Please also note that Ceri’s v1.7 quest installment includes some new areas, but have exterior Tamriel/Skryim entrances. Mods that alter the exterior locations may conflict, but none are known to do so at this time.
Wilderness Tamriel 45, -19 (Near Fallowstone Cave)
PinefrostTowerExterior01 -35, 24
Wilderness 29, 25 (Base of Winterhold Cliffs)
If this is a NEW installation of Cerwiden:
NMM Install: Download via NMM or drag the archive into NMM and activate. If you use one of the options, install over the main file.
Wrye Bash Install: Drag the archive into the Installers Tab. If you use one of the options, install over the main file.
Manual Install: Unpack the archive and copy the contents into your Skyrim install folder, and activate in Data Files when loading Skyrim. If you use one of the options, install over the main file.
IMPORTANT: When meeting Cerwiden at Riverwood’s Sleeping Giant Inn, note that, if you’ve updated to Skyrim 1.7, Bethesda changed some parameters with custom dialogue that (sometimes) makes custom dialogue not appear when first meeting a newly installed/clean-save-updated follower. This should be resolved with the SEQ file I added in Ceri v1.7+. For earlier Ceri versions, if this happens, save; exit to the desktop; run Skyrim again and load the save. The dialogue should now appear.
Optional: If you want to use the Appearance Mod Patch, see the section below the FAQ.
Optional: If you use a bashed patch, rebuild it after installation.
Optional: If you use ASIS (or something similar), please put CerwidenCompanion.esp in your ASIS.ini “ModExclusions” section and rebuild ASIS.esp after installation.
If this is an UPGRADE installation of Cerwiden from v1.7:
If you don’t feel like downloading the full version of v1.7.1, simply download the update version you’d like and install/activate ON TOP of your existing v1.7 install.
If this is an UPGRADE installation of Cerwiden from v1.6.x:
An overwrite install is fine:
Save your game normally; you don’t need to dismiss Ceri or do anything special
Deactivate Ceri v1.6.x and UNINSTALL
Install and activate v1.7.1, load the game you saved from #1 and play 🙂
If this is an UPGRADE installation of Cerwiden from v1.5 or earlier:
A “clean save mod install” is REQUIRED. Follw the CLEAN SAVE MOD INSTALL instructions below.
“CLEAN SAVE MOD INSTALL” INSTRUCTIONS:
1 Go to a location NOT the Riverwood Sleeping Giant Inn.
2 Take from Ceri any equipment you don’t want to lose, and say goodbye to her (dismiss her from your active followers, remove her from any follower management mod/house guest list, etc.; if you’re married to Ceri, please take note of the FAQ entry below to avoid issues).
3 If you have Ceri’s summon/Battle Command spell in your Favorites menu, remove them from Favorites. From the console, type “stopquest kcfDPDialogueCerwiden” without the quotes, hit enter and exit the console. Do the same for “kcfCerwidenAddsQuest” and “kcfCerwidenModInitialize01”.
4 Save your game in a NEW slot (do not use quicksave), and exit Skyrim.
5 Uninstall the old version of Ceri (if you use ASIS and/or a bashed patch, rebuild now WITHOUT Ceri to be safe).
6 Load the save from 4, save AGAIN in a new slot (not quicksave) and exit Skyrim.
7 Install and activate the current Cerwiden mod using the “New Installation” instructions below.
8 If you use a bashed patch or something similar, rebuild it.
9 If you use ASIS patcher or something similar, add CerwidenCompanion.esp to your ModExclusions section of ASIS.ini and rebuild your dynamic esp.
10 Load your save from 6 and Ceri will be waiting for you at the Sleeping Giant Inn.
11 IMPORTANT: When meeting Cerwiden at Riverwood’s Sleeping Giant Inn, note that, if you’ve updated to Skyrim 1.7, Bethesda changed how custom dialogue works without telling anyone and (sometimes) makes custom dialogue not appear when first meeting a newly installed/clean-save-updated follower. If this happens with Ceri v1.6.3 or earlier, save; exit to the desktop; run Skyrim again and load the save. The dialogue should now appear. This should not occur with Ceri v1.7+.
12 Reconfigure Ceri’s settings to suit your playstyle and balance preferences.
If you are using the Appearance Patch Mod (either with the default Alt Look or your own custom look), please see my update post because Ceri’s voice type is now changed to custom.
If you’ve modified the Appearance Patch Mod with your own look, make sure you have a copy of your modified facegen/facetints, etc., and reapply them AFTER you’ve installed Ceri’s main mod. DO NOT REDOWNLOAD THE APPEARANCE PATCH MOD OR YOU WILL OVERWRITE ALL YOUR CUSTOMIZATIONS WITH THE ALT LOOK DEFAULT.
If you’re using an unmodified Appearance Patch Mod, simply re-install it after installing Ceri’s main mod.
For Load Order, I’d recommend using BOSS, as Cerwiden is included in the master list. Many issues relating to mods “not working” can be solved through proper load order. If you really, really prefer to order manually, please place this mod along with other companion/follower mods (e.g., after Ultimate Follower Overhaul/UFO if you use it) and make sure Ceri loads after ANY mod that alters DialogueFavorGeneric (how followers in the vanilla system get recruited).
To minimize conflicts with other mods that may have interacted with Cerwiden (e.g., companion frameworks), please do the following PRIOR to uninstall of any version through v1.5:
Dismiss Cerwiden from your active followers
From the console, type “stopquest kcfDPDialogueCerwiden” without the quotes, hit enter and exit the console; do the same for “kcfCerwidenAddsQuest” and “kcfCerwidenModInitialize01” (if you’re using v1.6.x, choose the “uninstall” option from the debug dialogue, and it will take care of these and other quests added by v1.6)
If you’ve added Ceri’s summon/Battle Command spell to your Favorites menu, remove it from Favorites
If you’ve married Ceri, follow the steps in the FAQ to ‘divorce’
To uninstall/remove Cerwiden’s asset files:
NMM Uninstall: Deactivate the mod in NMM and delete EXCEPT if you use Stormbringer Chronicles (see Manual Uninstall notes)
Wrye Bash Uninstall: Select uninstall from the Installers Tab; don’t worry if you also use Stormbringer Chronicles, Wyre Bash will handle the differentials
Manual Uninstall (BSA versions): Delete CerwidenCompanion.esp, CerwidenCompanion.bsa and docs\Cerwiden*
Manual Uninstall (Loose Files versions): In your Skyrim Data directory, delete the following files/folders:
CerwidenCompanion.esp
docs\Cerwiden*
meshes\actors\character\facegendata\facegeom\CerwidenCompanion.esp
meshes\actors\character\character assets\CerwidenCompanion
meshes\clutter\books\CerwidenCompanion
meshes\armor\CerwidenCompanion
meshes\weapons\CerwidenCompanion
textures\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceTint\CerwidenCompanion.esp
textures\actors\character\character assets\CerwidenCompanion
textures\interface\books\CerwidenCompanion
textures\armor\CerwidenCompanion
textures\weapons\CerwidenCompanion
Sound\Voice\CerwidenCompanion.esp
Sound\Voice\Skyrim.esm\kcfVoiceCerwiden
scripts\*kcf*.pex (too many to list)
After uninstalling Cerwiden:
If you use a “bashed patch” (e.g., through Wrye Bash or SkyBash), rebuild it if your bashed dependency ordering needs updating (can’t hurt to rebuild in any case).
If you run ASIS, rebuild your ASIS.esp.
Similar to ASIS, if you run any mod that alters NPC/followers dynamically via SkyProc or something similar (e.g., RePerkussion), re-run your configuration/patchers for those mods.
There are two ways to configure Cerwiden’s behavior. The first is through her dialogue, which is available when Cerwiden is a follower and NOT in combat. You may speak with her to access basic configuration options, as well as a summary of her current configuration. When you speak with her, you see a special dialogue branch for her configuration, as shown below. A full-size configuration chart is included in the download in the Data\Docs folder (along with the README file), and a larger version of the configuration tree is also in the Images area.
Starting with Ceri v1.5, you will also be able to use “Battle Command” to have her change tactics while IN COMBAT. This is accessed through your Lesser Powers panel, and works as a “shout/voice command” so you will not need to unequip weapons/shield/spells. Battle Command works only while Ceri is a party member, and has fewer configuration options than her normal dialogue-based configuration. For example, you won’t be able to set wardrobe toggles while in combat, and this is INTENTIONAL on my part.
A few important notes relating to use of Battle Command:
Subject to the following, Battle Command may be used to “speak” commands to Ceri, whether you’re next to her or on the other side of the battle area.
If you have Ceri set to “Use Weapons”, you may manage her weapons (e.g., give/take away weapons) *IF* you are close to her. In other words, if you’re halfway across the battlefield, you will be able to tell Ceri to “Use Weapons”, but you won’t be able to give her something new to use unless you are close. The reason for this is to promote a degree of “realism”, and should be somewhat obvious. 😛 To prevent abuse of this feature, the “Inventory” option won’t even display as a menu choice unless you’re “close enough” AND have her set to “Use Weapons”.
When changing Ceri’s spellcasting options, the new option(s) may not take effect until Ceri acquires her NEXT target.
The Allies configuration option will only show if you’ve recruited them (Ceri v1.7+)
Please see the Images area for Status Panel samples of Cerwiden’s “default” configuration, as well as a common “Party Healer” configuration.
Some IMPORTANT CONFIGURATION NOTES and summary settings for those who want to try things out:
If you find Cerwiden commenting too frequently, not enough, etc., speak with her to configure banter probability, frequency, etc. See the FAQ for detailed instructions.
For those who find Cerwiden too strong in combat, make sure you tell her NOT to fight with her staff (apprentice damage, ironically) and/or turn off her combat spells. Both of these options are available through her dialogue configuration. Note that Ceri’s staff is OFF by default.
You may want to turn off SMARTCast in Ceri’s configuration; with it on, Ceri will select spells that maximize damage against a given opponent’s weaknesses (see SMARTCast section below for more information).
For those of you who find Cerwiden healing too often during combat (she’s just trying to do her job :P), set the heal threshold LOW (e.g., don’t attempt heals until target is at 10%) AND the reserve requirement HIGH (e.g., if you don’t have at least 90% magicka, don’t cast heals).
IMPORTANT: If you set Ceri to not use weapons you give her, DO NOT GIVE HER ANY. If you do, she’ll junk them. This was the only way I could effectively get around Bethesda’s NPC “weapon looting” combat AI with the least amount of scripting overhead. Until Bethesda releases the code for core combat to modders, I don’t have many options.
SMARTCast is the next step in the evolution of mage follower AI, and embraces the concept of “smart” spell selection. What do I mean by this? Have you seen mage followers (or even NPC enemy mages) cast cold spells at frost trolls? Not very SMART, at least not in my book. With SMARTCast, Cerwiden will assess an opponent’s inherent weaknesses and resistances as part of her decision on what offense spells to use. In other words, if she’s set to use offense magic, and comes up against a troll, she’ll use available, leveled FIRE spells. Why? She’s SMART like that. 🙂
Please note that v1.4’s SMARTCast represents what I consider to be a “proof-of-concept”/prototype of sorts and I’ll be expanding on the concept in successive versions when possible. In v1.4, Ceri only considers elemental weaknesses and chooses her spells accordingly. For any given combat session, she will also only assess an opponent ONCE, and only uses available, leveled “vanilla” spells. Even with such limitations, SMARTCast makes Ceri even more dangerous and powerful than before. With v1.5, Ceri will include in her assessment whether the opponent is undead or a spellcaster. That said, and contrary to popular belief, Skyrim undead do NOT have a general weakness to fire. This includes vampires (Bethesda handles sun damage separate and apart from what is considered a “fire” weakness, at least through Skryim v1.7). For lore purposes, however, v1.5 Ceri should, as a general rule, use fire spells against undead when in SMARTCast mode.
Please note that if you have Ceri set to be the “party healer” and not use any offense spells, SMARTCast won’t come into play at all, so you don’t have to worry about Ceri obliterating critters too fast. 😛
How does SMARTCast work? To explain SMARTCast, it’s important to understand how the generic Skyrim “mage” NPC AI works (this goes for enemy NPCs as well as follower mages). The vanilla AI determines what spell an NPC caster uses based generally on (i) the NPC’s available spells at a given level, (ii) the NPC’s current magicka, and (iii) the spell’s casting “cost”, with all else equal. For the most part, NPC mages (including spellcasting followers) consider nothing else; this is why you sometimes see them cast cold/shock spells against trolls, even if they have available FIRE spells (remember trolls have a racial -50 to fire, so it’d be SMART to use fire with all else equal). This is also why you see NPC mages casting the same spell over and over until they run out of magicka for it, and then they drop to a lower spell tier, rinse and repeat. SMARTCast essentially adds another consideration factor: the spellcaster’s opponent.
With SMARTCast, Ceri will assess EACH opponent she faces in a given combat session as follows:
Does the opponent have an elemental weakness? If so, Ceri will exploit that weakness if she’s able. By way of example, trolls have a racial weakness to FIRE, so Ceri will choose from available, leveled fire spells.
Does the opponent have one or more elemental resistances? If so, Ceri will attack the “least” of the opponent’s resistances (a “relative” weakness, so to speak).
If the opponent has no relative elemental strengths or weakness, Ceri will go back to the “vanilla” mage spellcasting AI.
In SMARTCast mode, Ceri will also choose the appropriate protective “cloak” spell, assuming she is able to cast it at her level. While in SMARTCast mode, she will also comply with any other directions you’ve given her relating to combat magic. For example, if you’ve told her to use area-of-effect spells, or use her staff, she’ll do so in a “SMART” manner. 🙂
Many of you have either PM’d me or posted on the official comment thread about how to change Cerwiden’s appearance without breaking the mod/losing the custom appearance when I update versions. I’ve created a full-blown Appearance Patch Mod that uses the “ALT look” from the Images area as a reference example, including compatiblity with her hairstyle change features. Included with this mod are all the supporting files for the ALT look, as well as FULL INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOM APPEARANCE AND IMPORT INTO THE PATCH MOD. If you follow these directions, you will never have to worry about updates to Ceri’s AI; the appearance patch mod works with all versions of Ceri from v1.0 through the current and will continue to work with future updates I may make.
The .NPC file I imported into the appearance patch, as well as Ceri’s original .NPC file, are included in the patch mod download file. I will NOT be creating any additional, alternate appearances for Ceri until I’m comfortable with where her core AI/infrastructure are at; I’ve now provided everyone the tools and knowledge to customize Ceri’s appearance to any desired form without worrying about whether an update to Ceri’s AI will break the custom appearance. 🙂
The Data\Docs folder of the appearance patch mod includes the following:
CerwidenAppearancePatch-README.txt: Instructions on installing the patch mod (CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp is included in BOSS master list)
Comparision Screen Captures: ALT Look F28/F37 hairstyles
.NPC Files: Both Ceri’s original and ALT look as reference
How to Change Cerwiden Appearance.pdf: Complete step-by-step instructions with full-color screen captures on how you can customize the included appearance patch (CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp) with your own custom look.
“I’ve never been one for AI companions in Skyrim, they tend to hinder more than they help. The lovely Cerwiden has proved to be the exception. She’s a powerful mage who can be programmed to do all manner of different support roles, meaning that she no longer gets in the way when I’m trying to be stealthy. In fact, I have her set to never attack and to act only as a healer, which is needed a lot more often now that I’ve bumped up the difficulty.” – Kirk Hamilton, Features Editor, Kotaku.com
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“I want to say this is a revolutionary follower for skyrim. It should get more exposure. No one should ever create another vanilla AI follower again.” – RasAlegethi24
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“Awesome work! With UFO I feel like I am in a dungeon party with a healer and tackling challenges as a group. Really adds to the immersion of Skyrim. My favorite mod for Skyrim as of yet.” – jheise44
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“Really great, balanced follower. I have her on full on priestess mode, heals only, no combat, for my spellsword (sword/destruction) toon on Master, with Deadly Combat, First Aid, Locational Damage and Deadly Dragons (along with a couple of needs mods). Needless to say my gameplay is a total blast- a difficult one. Works great with Convenient Horses. Can’t wait til you get a voice actor to flesh Ceri out even more. Thanks a lot for this mod!” – AlasQuatro
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“Ceri is a wonderful companion to have around, and she greatly adds to my enjoyment of the game. I’m using UFO, and the added enemy NPC spawns from ASIS. With Lydia as a striker, Faendal as an archer, Myself as a tank, and Ceri as a healer, It makes for truly awesome battles!” – DraxisVII
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“I can’t believe this isn’t a more endorsed or downloaded file this is everything I was looking for in a follower, I wish there were more this “smart”. Endorsed downloaded and used every freakin chance I get!” – crazyboywp
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“Best companion on nexus (and that comes from companion modder xd) voted also xd” – razien
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“First off, this is a great mod. I really enjoy companion mods which have personality and aren’t just the same as the vanilla companions with bigger chesticles. I really like that she does party buffs and heals. No use having a priest that isn’t the party doctor.” – 10000101
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“This is further reminding me of something that I really enjoyed when I played FFXI which was an AI companion that you could tailor to suit whatever you needed them to do. If you needed them to heal, you could tell them to. If you needed them to attack more, that too. Something the existing follower systems (UFO, BDO, EFF) don’t do is give more fine tuning control exactly. I really hope you continue to develop this and branch off into making other followers. Keep up the great work!” – zeromus88
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“I love this mod keep up the good work. My character is a magic use, and I have 4 other companions along this one and makes a great party. I am using a mod that makes Dragons extremely difficult so I always have a challenge and it takes a whole party to take one down :)” – Noblesse00
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“Fantastic mod! Very few mods motivate me to click the authors and see what else he/she has done but this is one of them. Works exactly as advertised. You just set the bar very high for companion mods. A++” – RooksGambit
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“I found this companion/follower yesterday and was intrigued about the SMART concept.. I must say this is a very impressive character indeed. I love playing it. Additionally, I began browsing into your brillient and talented mods and was so happy to find more SMART followers. Respect to you and your skills. Thanks for the useful and efficient additions to the game. I’m very happy to say that your characters are really amazing and not just eye candy bimbos…although there is something to be said for nice looking characters as well. Yours deliver on both accounts. beautiful AND Smart!!” – LavaHawaii
Skyrim Mods Weekly: See v1.0 Ceri in action at 2:34 ——- GamingEthos Skyrim Mods Show: Review of v1.2 starts at 2:12
Please see the Videos section for more gameplay videos, courtesy of jburrowes
Ceri may have some issues relating to leading the player to her questline locations. This is in significant part due to Skyrim’s vanilla crap-quality navmeshes. See the FAQ for workarounds.
Ceri will not use the horse given her via Convenient Horses while leading the player to a plot destination; she will instead use her “temporary” custom horse.
There are some pronunciation mismatches in Ceri’s quest dialogue. I’m working with the voice acting volunteers to get the lines redone.
Ceri’s “hairstyle change” textures and colors differ slightly from style-to-style. I’m still working on trying to make them as consistent as possible, and need some help from you mesh/texture experts! 🙂
Ceri doesn’t 100% stay out of combat when I ask her to. Unfortunately, this is a limitation of Bethesda’s combat/follower AI. There’s not much I (or anyone) can really do about this until Bethesda releases the combat code, short of what’s already been done by this and various companion framework mods that essentially force followers out of combat (which, unfortunately, means Ceri won’t do her combat-heals). Most users don’t have issues on this after setting her “combat engagement” to be defensive (only if she’s attacked).
Ceri sometimes heals bandits/highwaymen/adventurers who go hostile on the player. This has a twofold cause, one of which was a judgment call by me. First, I set some of Ceri’s healing to cover “non-hostiles” and, specifically, to cover ‘town’ NPCs in my game, which includes OCS and ASIS. Because these mods spawn critters on the outskirts of some towns, the vanilla NPCs were getting wiped out because I could not kill the spawned critters fast enough. As a result, the NPC deaths broke a number of quests, including the “Agent of Mara” quest. So what does this have to do with some bandits and whatnot? That goes to the second cause: Bethesda was rather inconsistent in how certain “world encounter (WE) quests” were coded, and these include bandits/highwaymen who ask for money, adventurers who insult you on the road, etc. In these WE quests, the NPCs start out as non-hostile; they don’t go hostile on you until some dialog trigger (you don’t pay your bounty, fail to intimidate the adventurer, etc.). The rub is that Bethesda coded SOME of those encounters, when the trigger occurs, to pop into a hostile faction. Others they didn’t. So, as a result, Ceri reacts as she should in SOME of those instances and, in others, heals a bandit. 😛 If this is causing a problem in a particular instance for you, try going to the console, clicking on Ceri, and typing “resetai” without the quotes and hit enter.
Because of Nexus restrictions on the amount of content included on this page, I’ve moved Ceri’s FAQ to a forum post.
Quest and Dialogue/Banter Information: Topics relating to Ceri’s installment questline and dialogue, including configuration of random comment frequency.
General Information: Where to find Ceri, protected vs. essential and other general information.
Cerwiden’s Wardrobe and Hairstyles: How to manage Ceri’s wardrobe functions.
Use with Follower Management Mods (UFO, EFF, AFT, etc.): Information relating to using Ceri alongside with follower framework mods.
Installation and Troubleshooting: Information on error logging, load order, clean installs, and tips and instructions on what to do if Ceri isn’t behaving in an expected manner.
Please thank and kudo our amazing voice acting talent, without whom, we’d all be staring at subtitles!
