EFF or AFT

[Sacralletius]

Hi there

 

I'm planning on doing another playthrough of Skyrim and I'm selecting new mods to try out.

 

Up until now, I have always been using AFT as follower mod. However I heard EFF might be better.

Features I really like about AFT were:

• Followers level up with the player (even over lvl 81)
• Followers can heal the player
• Followers can learn now spells
• Werewolf/vampire support

However, I didn't find any of these features in EFF. Expecially the missing leveling and healing features in EFF bother me a little. Is there a way around this? Or should I should continue to use AFT?

 

Another option would be to use FollowerLivePackage with the compatibility patch for EFF. However, after reading the comments, this one doesn't seem to be compatible with iNPCs, another essential mod for me.

 

Any advice or recommendations would be very appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance

Sac

[Kuldebar]

I switched from AFT to EFF (non-Beta) and have no regrets. I have had little to no issues with followers with EFF, I tended to have more compatibility/glitches with AFT. /just my two cents

[Sacralletius]

I switched from AFT to EFF (non-Beta) and have no regrets. I have had little to no issues with followers with EFF, I tended to have more compatibility/glitches with AFT. /just my two cents

Good to hear. But is there a way around the max level cap of followers? Another mod perhaps that deletes them? As for the healing issue, I'm sure it will be intregrated later on?

[TehKaoZ]

From my experience both mods are fantastic.

 

Healing the player is planned for EFF but when/if it happens is still in question. The beta is also perfectly stable for a play-through as well according to the mod author, it is simply marked as beta because he still plans on adding features.

 

Both mods share a lot of the same features but have some strength and weaknesses for each

For me I would say:

 

EFF Pros:

- The wheel interface in the beta version is fantastic and much more convenient that navigating through slews of dialogue options

- It also comes with an MCM menu for additional customization

- Followers health/stamina/magicka bars displayed as hud widgets is pretty awesome, allows for you to see how they are doing in combat

 

EFF Cons:

- A lot of plugins (esp), Author plans on merging them eventually but I think its about 4 or 5 plugins for the mod currently

- currently no support for animal followers

- no player healing (yet)

 

AFT Pros

- More customization of followers through custom leveling options such as what skills/abilities to increase

- ability to heal the player

 

AFT Cons

- Supposedly AFT is more script intensive based on my research. While I never had issues with it in this regard it might put extra stress on your game if your already running a lot of scripts

- limited to 5 followers (although, I never use more then 2 or 3 anyways)

 

I know there is more, this is just off the top of my head.

[Sacralletius]

I'm leaning towards EFF. However, I would really like for followers to level alongside me. I'm thinking of manually setting the maximum level of followers to "0", which removes the level cap. However, this can be a lot of work and I will have to do it each time a mod gets an update. (for instance Inigo, Interesting NPCs) Or is there any mod available that does that already?

[Kuldebar]

Sacralletius, on 13 Apr 2014 - 09:52 AM, said:

I'm leaning towards EFF. However, I would really like for followers to level alongside me. I'm thinking of manually setting the maximum level of followers to "0", which removes the level cap. However, this can be a lot of work and I will have to do it each time a mod gets an update. (for instance Inigo, Interesting NPCs) Or is there any mod available that does that already?

I guess I don't understand...using EFF (non-beta) my followers level along with my character -I don't have to manage that. The only exceptions are custom follower mods that create super high leveled follower NPC's...EFF doesn't "de-level" them for you -but personally I avoid follower mods made like that...

 

I know when I create a follower NPC, I always ensure they start out relatively low level...like, say, 4 and then level based on Player Character Level.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Kuldebar

[Sacralletius]

I guess I don't understand...using EFF (non-beta) my followers level along with my character -I don't have to manage that. The only exceptions are custom follower mods that create super high leveled follower NPC's...EFF doesn't "de-level" them for you -but personally I avoid follower mods made like that...

 

I know when I create a follower NPC, I always ensure they start out relatively low level...like, say, 4 and then level based on Player Character Level.

Vanilla followers and followers added by mods have a level cap. For instance, Lydia has a level cap of 50. She will continue to level alongside you until level 50, and then she won't level any higher.

I suppose I can fix this myself by setting the maximum level of each follower to "0", which removes the level cap. However, mods like interesting NPCs get updated quite often, so I'll have to remake my patch everytime Interesting NPCs gets an update.

[blattgeist]

I know.. gravedigging is wrong but this one serves a reason *g*. I made some changes to my mod for the exact reason of using EFF (although I changed my mind later on and stayed with AFT).

 

But for anyone going for EFF and worrying about missing out on the neat uncapped follower levels feature of AFT. You could try this mod out: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/53602/?

 

Use the "NPCs Protected Redux with Uncapped Followers" file.

Edited June 30, 2014 by blattgeist