HEMINGWEY'S CAPES v3.0 BETA

Announcing the beta release of Hemingwey's Capes Version 3.0.

Hemingwey's Capes version 3.0 integrates hundreds of unique capes, both mundane and enchanted, into your Oblivion game -- offered for sale by merchants, worn by NPCs and looted from chests.

Summary of Features
========================
1. 240 unique cape designs in all.
2. Capes that match most Vanilla Oblivion clothing and armor sets (as well as those from many popular mods).
3. Capes designed for most guilds and factions in the game and donned by their members.
4. Hundreds of NPCs, both citizens and adversaries, wear capes appropriate to their stations and affiliations.
5. 8 unique traveling merchant trainers.
6. Capes for sale at 12 Vanilla Oblivion shops.
7. Numerous rare capes which can be discovered through adventuring.
8. Over 100 unique enchanted capes (more to be added before final version 3.0 release) to loot from chests and fallen foes.
9. Compatibility versions for popular overhaul mods, such as OOO, MMM and FCOM.
10. Most of the original capes have been reworked and substantially improved in appearance.

And...of course...

Lots, lots more!

Credits (short version)
==================
Thanks to Someone1074 for creating the original Capes and Cloaks mesh I used for the capes in Hemingwey's Capes.

Special thanks to Corepc for his support, help and advice concerning constructing compatibility patches/versions for OOO, FCOM and MMM, as well as his work to integrate Hemingwey's Capes into MMM's forthcoming update/release.

Thanks to the various players/modders who have made suggestions for new capes and cheered me on as I developed version 3.0. In particular, thank you to the 'original fan' of my humble mod, Magirock, as well as Johnn123 and Anithinks, who have both consistently responded with enthusiasm to my posts and progress reports on the Official Oblivion forums. Really, thanks guys!

Licensing/Legal
===============
Bethesda Softworks retains all rights to any original content, concepts, and ideas taken and altered from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. All original textures and assets belong to me and may be used ONLY with my express permission. If and when permission is received, credit must be given for my work in all distribution materials.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29012

Enjoy!

Regards,

Hem

P.S. Please note that this is a beta version. There may be bugs! (If so, please report the same so I can fix 'em.)

P.P.S. In the coming weeks, the MMM and FCOM compatiblity versions of Hemingwey's Capes 3.0 will undergo substantial changes (at least behind the scenes, i.e. mechanically). Upon the release of the forthcoming new versions of MMM and UFCOM, new compatibility .esp files for Hemingwey's Capes for MMM and UFCOM will be released. Corepc and I are working diligently on support for Hemingweys Capes as an intregrated part of the new version of MMM. The beta compatiblity versions of Hemingwey's Capes 3.0 released today are compatible and do work with MMM and FCOM (afterall, Hemingwey's Capes 3.0 was developed and tested primarily in an FCOM game environment), but, with the release of the next version of MMM and UFCOM, present and future compatiblity will improve.

What he Said :wink_smile:

Enjoy

Congrats on the release Hem, can't wait to check them out. Awesome work getting this done!!

Tried to download and was told the file was temporarily unavailable.

nevermind - works now - thanks.

weeee its out! downloadin now, thx Hem!

Thanks for chiming in, guys. :foodndrink:

If anyone notices any bugs, please report the same, so I can squish 'em. For example, I just noticed that Necromancer Capes are 'Necromaner' Capes... :hehe: (which will be fixed in the final release version).

Also, I am actively soliciting feedback, impressions and/or suggestions.

For example, I built this mod to go with my game. I always play with Modem's City Life and Extended Imperial City installed. However, when I loaded up a pure vanilla version of the game, the number of NPC citizens wearing capes seemed possibly a bit much (probably because in vanilla Oblivion, the cities are practically ghost towns ). Should I provide a 'lite' version that cuts out about a third of the citizen NPC cape wearers or does the existing number of caped citizens feel right?

Hopefully, the foregoing example gives an idea of the kind of feedback/suggestions for which I am looking. (However, I always really appreciate, 'this mod rocks!' too. :wink_smile: )

Regards,

Hem

NO!! i play without any city additions and i love seeing all the capes!

What about the component esp's those can be considered Lite Version, sure more than esp is needed..but they are bashable once again..

People can mix and match and say only have Baddies and Guards wearing them and not the vanilla npc's..or Vice Versa..

my 2 cents on that..

True. Perhaps I have already provided enough options? :hehe:

In any event...I have uploaded to the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29012 a file containing all the cape grids...so players can download it and look over all the capes in order to determine more readily which capes their character(s) might want to seek out.

Enjoy.

Regards,

Hem

Wow. You really did good this time around. Congrats. :celebration:

Lots of options. I guess I'll have to write a fancy BAIN wizard for it.

If you'd be interested in the wizard, shoot me a PM.

Oh, and did you ever give a try at the gleemans cloak?
All a traveling gleeman would need would be a flute or woodwind for a weapon and the juggling animation is already there...
Oh, and have great tales to tell...

If you got a psd template or something, I would give the the cloak a try. Haven't done one before, couldn't be that hard.
Just patching it all together. LOL

Metalio Bovinus

Very nice cloaks for sure! :tops:
The "lite" option you speak of could be quite nice however. I don't have any mods that add NPCs to the cities out of fear for major performance hits (though I suppose I should try one at some point and see if my computer breaks or not ) and I noticed like you said that perhaps too many are wearing the cloaks. While I already sorted that for myself using the Component ESPs (thanks a lot for providing those!) I think it would still be a nice option in the full version since not everyone knows how to use tes4gecko. Hell, I barely do myself, but fortunately knew enough for this to work.

I would be interested in a BAIN wizard...or even a suggested structure for a BAIN ready archive...I haven't mastered or even used BAIN...been too busy making capes. :wink_smile:

On the Gleeman's Cape...its one of those I might work on now that the main mod is finished (along with a Warlock's Cape for Johnn123 and others). Creating the cape textures is more difficult than one might imagine (ask Johnn123 about that, I think)...the mesh stretches in unexpected ways in certain areas...and it folds and reuses portions of the texture in certain areas. As a result a nice looking Gleeman's Cape will require many hours of work. I suppose the original creator of the Capes and Cloaks mesh didn't really envision the complex designs I have created...more the solid color capes which were introduced by the Capes and Cloaks mod. One of these days I might try my hand at developing my own mesh...or re-skinning the Capes and Cloaks mesh...fiddling with rigging and bone weights and such, in an effort to create a more flexible cape. I have not taught myself how to create meshes yet...but I might at some point...I have some armor in mind... ... :whistling:

I do have certain design templates/layouts I have developed...but those are kinda like the Coca-Cola formula or the KFC recipe...if you know what I mean. :hehe: Plus...while I do have photoshop...I actually use a really old version of Paint Shop Pro for most of my color map creation :drool: ...simply because I am very familiar with its menus, functions and so forth.

Regards,

Hem

Yeah...for those who want citizens to wear capes...but not quite so many...I think at some point I will use Gecko to create a couple of split groups of citizen cape esps...a core group...guild cape wearers and such...then split the rest up into one or two component esps...probably only take me one night to do a decent job of it, it I don't get too picky.

Thanks for comment, Peste.

Regards,

Hem

Umm. 2 quick questions and the base wizard should almost be finished.

Is the Hemingweys FCOM NPC Capes Improved IC Guards.esp the same as the one in the component FCOM folder?

And if one wanted to pick from the FCOM component esps, should the Hemingweys Capes for FCOM_FrancescosNamedBosses.esp in the FCOM folder be an option also? That would make (11),Right?

(1) Yes...it should be the exact same file. (I duplicated that file in the download package --several times with several names-- in order to avoid user confusion and having explain things that might confuse some folks.)

and

(2) Yes.

Both of those files (the FCOM IC guard file and the Francescos file) are separate and optional and not included in the complete, stock Hemingweys Capes Improved for FCOM esp.

(3) 11, yes.

(btw...if you doing a component or custom build of Hemingwey's Capes for OOO or FCOM, you really need to use the FCOM/OOO Cape Patch file(s)....or bad things will happen... )

Regards,

Hem

Hem im getting a rea;lly weird issue at the nexus. Whenever i click download i get an error saying the file was just recently uploaded and isnt synced with the database yet? anyone get this issue or know how to solve it? i need the new capes!

I have been having that problem with alot of files at TESNexus lately...even though I live in 'the colonies' I find I don't experience that issue if I download from the UK download server. :rolleyes:

Someone ought to tell the DarkOne...I suppose....since I am not the only one having this problem....it appears.

Regards,

Hem

that server worked for me, how strange

Glad you got it sorted. :wink_smile:

After you try out version 3.0 beta, let me know what you think concerning the discussed...'citizens lite' version?

Regards,

Hem

Awesome, awesome mod, thanks so much. I would agree about a light version though, to me they should be the exception, not the norm. But hey even like it is now I wouldn't go back to playing without it :thumbsup:

Thanks again!

Thanks Qbit. :biggrin:

There is ice here this morning...and Southerners don't drive on ice...so I spent a few hours and pulled together a lite version which would cull about 115 citizen NPCs from the cape wearers...leaving 230 or so....which includes guild and other faction members, named guards and a dminished assortment of 'walkers' (i.e. NPCs that walk the streets of the IC and other cities). Not sure when I will release the lite version because I have to test the new lite esps and I have alot going on during the holiday season.

Regards,

Hem

Good news! Just let us know if you want some testers for the lite-version
And pfft.. ice THIS morning?! For the past month it has taken me 20+ min to get rid of the ice on my car every morning :flamethrower:

Greetings:

This morning I have uploaded a supplemental package of esps designed to allow users to create a build of Hemingwey's Capes version 3.0 beta with fewer citizen NPC wearers. As explained in the readme, these esp files still require the Hemingweys Capes Improved.esm file, as well as all the textures and mesh files from the main download.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Hem

P.S. Please let me know if these supplemental files don't work properly as I have not done much testing with them.

P.P.S. Also, please feel free to provide feedback, gameplay impressions, etc. concerning these or any of the Hemingwey's Capes version 3.0 beta files.

P.P.P.S. No bugs have been reported up to this point...hopefully means there are not many...or at least not any glaring bugs. :wink_smile:

Love the pics, love the integration with all the other mods, great idea, looks really well done, but I cannot bring myself to use this whilst it utilises an exe program, sorry
It is possible to open the exe with 7zip, so when I've a little more time I'll see about making myself a BAin archive for it, for myself.

Nice work in this mod! Got realy impressed (certainly going to replace my old capes from Oscuro's - thats for sure)

Haven't played with all the files, not the latest yet, but I have a suggestion.

Could you use a bain friendly packaging format in future releases of the mod?

Cheers and thanks for the mod!



EDIT: seems poster above ninja'ed me btw it's a 7z auto extracter. Opens fine with 7z .