Readme:

***** "Illy's Dark Sisterhood-NBBFix" by Illuminiel *****



1. Description:

This mod replaces the original Dark Brotherhood armour with Better Bodies meshes using unique textures.

The armour was originally designed as female only for another mod and the icons and groundart use the female versions hence the name Dark Sisterhood. However the male armour is designed to be masculine and is probably more sensible than the female version which exposes a small amount of skin around the upper thighs.

The NBBFix version is for those players who use the full anatamony version of Better Bodies - it replaces the original upper leg mesh of the greaves with a groin version - this prevents the male privates from going public - in order to make this work I had to adjust the female greaves to also use the groin slot which meant a different texture would be required - in the end I opted to just use the male mesh of the greaves for the females as well - the icon however remains as the original in a homage to the original intent of the mod which was to give a more sophisticated female version of the armour.

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2. Installation:

First create a backup of your save files.

Drag the folder named Data Files into your Morrowind folder - a windows message prompt will ask you if you want to overwrite files/folders in that directory - select yes. 

This installs the esp file "Illy's Dark Sisterhood-NBBFix" and two new folders into your meshes and textures folders called Illy which inturn contain the subset folders called DS and Cali. 

When you start your next game remember to select the Mod "Illy's Dark Sisterhood-NBBFix" from your game launcher window. 



WARNING: If you downloaded the original Illy's Dark Sisterhood do not use that esp at the same time as this one - the files included will work for either this version or the original but if you try and load both at once you'll confuse the game.



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3. Playing the mod:

This mod is dependent on the Tribunal expansion... since Tribunal introduces the Dark Brotherhood. 

While not dependent on Better Bodies there is no point using this mod if you don't use Better Bodies as the meshes will clip through the vanilla body parts very badly.

Wait for a Dark Brotherhood assassin to attack you - then if you survive you will be able to have their armour. 

The stats have not been changed for the armour. I doubt this mod is compatible with any other mod that changes the Dark Brotherhood armour.


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4. Issues:

Unavoidable issues 

a) Armour Clipping - clipping is annoying, long and short hair clips through clothes - sigh ... in the Morrowind community we just live with it or don't use the mod. I normally select short hair for my characters, but still have to deal with clipping around the shoulders. I noticed with the male the mesh for the cuirass appears to split in the chest area near the arms - it only does this during the standing still breating animation - I'm afraid that is a limitation of the mesh used and is beyond my skill to fix. It's a small split and you can always roleplay it's normal armour wear and tear :)

b) Armour disappears when underwater or when using Chameleon spells - I'll let Tetchy explain this:


"That's a limitation of the Morrowind game engine where alpha channels overlap.

Most modded clothing uses alpha channels, especially when the designer wants parts of the underlying body or other clothing to show (e.g. transparent parts of clothes, holes in clothing, etc). Invisibility is achieved by using alpha channel transparency over the entire player model, and similarly the water plane uses an alpha channel to allow you to see below/above the water surface. Viewing your player in 3rd person across overlapping alpha channels causes the layer closest to the camera to override, so in these cases the full transparency has precedence.

The only way to avoid it is to use clothing without alpha channels - in most cases that would be the stock clothing."



I would add the other way to avoid this issue is to play in first person not third when underwater. 

I've amended the glasses to 1-bit alpha to try and improve the way Ren's hairs work with the glasses - some hairstyles may make the glass lenses disappear due to alpha channel fighting.

c) My Paper Doll doesn't show the armour correctly there's all these extra black layers - again this is a problem with the game engine being confused about which alpha (invisible) layer to show - I can't fix it though Hrnchamd can - try reading the official forums on Repairing the Cogs of Morrowind to find an answer or search for the Morrowind Code Patch amongst many other small miracles it will make your paper doll look fabulous - depending on what you are wearing :)

d) Clothes look odd when enchanted - enchanment works across the mesh not the texture - so if only part of the clothing mesh is textured the enchantment will show the outline of the original mesh - try using one of the no-glo mods that removes the strange plastic enchantment look.

e) If I wear the male pauldrons by itself part of my arm disappears. Sorry I've tried to set up the meshes as best as i can in the CS - the pauldrons had to be renamed to use the right forearm slot in order to be compatible with the female mesh I'm afraid I only have limited knowledge of adjusting meshes with Nifskope - if you or the Dark Brotherhood assassins have the full suit on evertyhing will appear correctly.

f) I don't like the syle or I would of made 'x' piece different - this is an issue of taste and sadly there's no accounting for taste. Best you uninstall the mod and try someone elses creation or even better make your own.



Unintentional issues

Modding can create unintentional GMST errors - I built this mod using a clean install of Morrowind GOTY and used TESAME before upoading to check and clean errors of which I found none. While all effort has been made to quality check this mod as with all mods it is use at your own risk. 

A safe modding practice is to create a backup of your save files first, please do this before installing this mod. If you find an error or technical issue please post the problem or PM me on the official forums at http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums Morrowind Mods and if I am still active I'll attempt to address it.

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5. Credits:

For the game: 	Thanks Bethesda you've kept me entertained for years - your games are enormous value for money

For the CS:  	Wow thanks again Bethesda for enabling us to mod your world

For the meshes:	

* Nioliv created the clothes meshes
* Regan created the glasses mesh and glasses case mesh (Alpha channels amended to 1 bit alpha by Illuminiel)
* Male boot mesh by Durgoth

For the textures:

* Calislahn did the glasses and glass case textures
* Illuminiel assembled the armour textures 

For the tools:	The Nifskope team - I neither could nor would want to mod without Nifskope, thanks so much for an awesome tool :)



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6. Usage:

Use at own risk

These textures are strictly for non-commercial use.

You may use the armour as a resource for your own mods as long as you give credit to Nioliv for clothing meshes - if you wish to use the glasses I suggest you download Calislahn's Optician mod and follow her directions for usage of resources.

If you wish to use the armour textures along with these meshes you are allowed to use them as a resource as long as they are for Morrowind and for non-commercial use. It is polite to give credit for the work.

This mod is allowed to be converted to non-english versions of Morrowind - however please included a translated version of this readme.


If you don't like this mod delete it, if you think you can do better then please do so as everyone else will enjoy your contribution to the moding world :)

I frequent the Official forums http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums and http://princessstomper.proboards74.com/index.cgi as Illuminiel

May you enjoy gaming and life - oh and all the best in surviving the Dark Brotherhood attacks

Illy

May 2010