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THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION

Blades Smithy

By: Madcat221 and Elhoim

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PRE-FACE: INSTALLATION

You should know the drill by now: Drop all contents of the archive (sans this Readme) into your Oblivion\Data folder.  
Activate the mod through the launcher's "mod menu."  Some overwriting of Corthian's and VA's meshes and textures will
occur, but I have changed neither of those.

For Retroactive Fixing, refer to Section 6: Retroactive Fixing for details.

1: THE PREMISE

Ever notice that the Cloud Ruler Temple has a smithy in the East Wing basement... but no Smith?
This mod adds Thranger the Faithful, a Blade who serves as CRT's Blacksmith.  Besides offering
replacement weapons and armor, he also will issue you two new graduated levels of Blades armor made of better
materials as you progress through the main quest.  Talk to Thranger for details (Replacements will appear in
his inventory as soon as you get your first issue of gear).

2: THE ARMOR
Retextured from the Akaviri Dragonscale Armor that you see the Blades wearing, the two new grades are
the Special Issue and the Elite armors.  The Special Issue is made of gleaming Mithril Plate, and the Elite is
made from super-hard Ebony.  The standard issue is roughly on-par with Dwarven armor, offering more armor HP at a lower weight
at the modest cost of some armor protection.  Special Issue armor is similarly related to Orcish armor, and
Elite armor is also similarly related to Ebony armor.

3: THE WEAPONS
Though you've seen them in many other instances, VagabondAngel's Godai and Itami katanas are perfectly matched to these two armors.
White-colored Itami serves as an upgraded Katana weapon issued alongside the Special Issue armor, while Pitch-Black Godai is issued
alongside the Elite armor.  The two-hand variants are also available through Thranger's inventory (though not when he issues you the
free armor).

4: THE CLOTHES
I have availed myself to the basic textured versions of Corthian's Akaviri/Japanese clothing as well, and you can also acquire them
through Thranger.  Elhoim also textured up a black and white cape with the seal of the Dragonborn adorning them.

5: THE BLADES
All the blades have been altered to make use of the items above: Most simply have Corthian's clothing for their "Civvies", but some
have the uprated armor.  Roliand, Achille, and Fotris all sport Special Issue gear, and Captain Steffan and Master Jauffre don Elite gear.
You will also note that Baurus's personal weapon is now an Itami katana, and that ill-fated Captain Renault at the beginning also has
Special Issue armor.  Later in the quest, Baurus will sport a full set of Special Issue armor.  So that Corthian's clothing is more visible,
I have altered the RAI routines in all the Blades so that their "downtime" activities (eating, reading, sleeping, general loafing), is done
without armor on (but still with weapons).

Also, be aware that Thranger has a full schedule involving sleep, eating, loafing, and service offering.  Don't expect him to be on duty 24/7.

6: RETROACTIVE FIXING
Odds are that you have loaded this mod fairly far along in the MQ.  To that end, I have implemented a retroactive system that will
arm Jauffre and Baurus with new armor, and also will easily allow You The Player to "catch up" with the issuing.

To enable Retroactive Fixing, there are three small Ayleid buttons on the table in front of Thranger's smithy.  One starts Thranger's issuing system off, 
the second causes Baurus to re-armor, but it won't armor him if it's not past the MQ stage point where it would happen normally or if he's DEAD, 
and a third functions for Jauffre similarly to the button for Baurus.  All three will give messagebox notices, and will disappear after pressed.

7: OOO COMPATIBILITY:
I'm an OOO Beta Tester, so OOO compatibility was definitely a priority for me.  I have made a compatibility version (more like a 
"Overwrite The Entries With Similarly Decked Out Entries" version) for OOO.  There WILL be conflicts between this and OOO in OBMM,
 just ignore them.

If you don't have OOO, then use the standard one.  Although, if you want OOO-grade beefups on the Blades in a non-OOO world, that's
entirely your perrogative. ;)

8: CREDITS

Chris Edmonds AKA MadCat221 (ME!) for starting and organizing the mod, and authoring the ESP file
Oscar Velzi AKA Elhoim for creating the Special Issue and Elite armor textures, and for the capes.
Corthian for his Akaviri Clothing
VagabondAngel for Godai and Itami

BUG REPORTS: 
Email Madcat221@Gmail.com for bug reports, or report them in the [REL] topic on the TES Official Forums.

9: CHANGELOG
V1.01: Fixed a problem with improper mesh pathing to the "Civvy" clothing.

V1.02: The OOO version caused the hated Baurus Bug to rear its ugly head again. I've mimiced the solution to the problem in the 
appropriate quest scripts. Also fixed the lack of a "decline" reply to Elite Issue armor, and also fixed an issue where Thranger 
would issue the Special armor over and over again. Full version upload will occur at a later time.

V1.03: Properly squashed the "Elite Issue Decline Reply" bug.  Also added some additional text to the point where the Elite
Issue occurs, explaining the "Ignore Normal Weapon Resistance" attribute of the Elite Katanas.  I also lengthend the duration
of the silent reply MP3s.