catch the rider

The feeling of Oblivion returns to Skyrim with Hold Riders!

As many of you know, Oblivion is a great role-playing game that has many great role-playing aspects that improve upon it from Morrowind. NPCs have schedules, eat, sleep, and travel. They even had Imperial veterans patrolling on horseback. I think it's great, as do many others. However, many people are understandably very unhappy with Skyrims being downgraded to RP. You can't have conversations with any NPCs you want, NPCs don't travel, and guards don't patrol on horseback.

What Hold Riders does is it adds a Rider to each Hold that patrols between Settlements in each Hold, Occupied Mines, Occupied Guard Posts, and Occupied Ruins. To help these NPCs serve all users, they have no ties to any faction in the Civil War, meaning Whiterun Rider will not change if Whiterun falls. She still wears her uniform and is still friendly because she doesn't serve either side (she still arrests players and then takes them to Dragonsreach). Not only does this keep mod scripts free (everyone wins), but it also helps those who use mods that allow conquered cities to maintain their original uniforms rather than comply with martial law and be occupied by the military.

Plus, there's an added bonus! An unused NPC, whose existence is only confirmed through a single dialogue in Darkwater Crossing, named Dasturn has been recreated and re-added to Darkwater Crossing, taking on a life of his own. Now, some users claim that Derkeethus was originally named Dasturn, but is that true? Dasturn sounds more Nordic than Argonian.

FAQ

Question: Which file do I need to download?

A: Do I need to break some finger puppets and do an interpretive dance to explain this?

Question: Are they born again?

Answer: Yes. They are indeed born again.

Question: You said a rider, did you only add one rider to this mod?

Answer: No, I added Riders to each hold based on the size of said Hold, the number of settlements, the distance between settlements, and additional merc Riders depending on the influential families present in the Hold.

Question: The rider does not ride the horse, what gives?

Answer: Very simple. Limitations of the Skyrim engine. NPCs don't usually fight on horseback, and I have no fucking idea. Unfortunately, I don't know of a mod for Newrim that adds loading combat for NPCs.

Problem: My rider doesn't ride a horse, but follows the horse to follow them/do other things. Need help?

A: AI bug affecting all Skyrim NPCs, whether modded or vanilla. Push the guard closer to the horse or ignore it and move on. Riders will eventually ride, and it all depends on how close they are to each other. If the horse is close enough, the rider will actively seek and mount it. Hope this helps.

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As many of you may know, Oblivion was a great Roleplaying game, and it had many great roleplaying aspects that improved from Morrowind. NPCs had schedules, ate, slept, traveled. They even had Imperial Legionnaires patrolling the roads on horseback. I thought it was great, as did many others. But, understandably, many were quite upset at Skyrims downgrade to RP. You cant hold down a conversation with any NPC you wish, NPCs do not travel, and guards do not patrol on horseback.

What Hold Riders does is that it adds in one Rider for each Hold that patrols between the Settlements, occupied mines, occupied guard posts, and occupied ruins in each hold. To help make these NPCs work for all users, they are not affiliated with either faction in the Civil War, which means if Whiterun falls, the Whiterun Rider will not change. She will still be in her uniform, and still be friendly, for she does not serve either side (she still will arrest players and bring them to Dragonsreach, though). This not only keeps the mod script free  (a win win for all), but also helps those who use mods that allow conquered cities to keep their original uniform instead of going under martial law and occupied by …