The Mercenaries cannot die. Because of how the mod is made they cannot be Followers but I will think it over.

maybe make these mercs not immortal, but make it so if one dies, another shows up soon. also could you consider adding the ability to hire them? like if you hire one itd go back after, or if it dies another shows up

Interesting. I created this mod because back when I started playing Skyrim it felt as if too many NPCs were dieing to Dragons and Vampires. Perhaps if they could die but it would also be possible to hire more but that would be more work than I have time for these days.

Nice idea but undying mercenaries will break the immersion for me. Sorry :(

I hate Immortal beings.. Tis the only thing that stopped me from Downloading this.
Death belongs to us All.

I would like it very much if you could set the male and female mercenaries to both be normal height. It kinda pulls me out of the game to see comically large NPCs. That's my one annoyance with the mod; other than that it works nicely.

Height. No reason that I can remember. I probably made one, the height is 1.1, and just copied him, then made the Orcs the same height. The woman is height 1.2, again no reason I can think of. Might be worth saying that there are actually only about 6 NPCs in the game but because of the way I placed them ingame there seem to be be 58 same as rabbits, one rabbit seen multiple times.

No scripts are in this mod.

Why are the mercernaries taller than everyone else? Also, can I uninstalll this mod without it leaving behind any scripts that might cause problems in the future?

lol yea those vamps had no idea what they were up against. 1 vamp and two thugs vs 2 dawnguard volunteers, 2 dawnguard sentries, 2 skyrim mercenaries and every guard and villager present. I play on legendary and needless to say they still were very lucky to last even 10 seconds. Any longer and more volunteers and sentries would fly into combat.

Thanks for the info. I'll check those out.

Instead of "When vampires attack" and "Run for your lives" mods I've combined this with "dawnguard sentries" and "dawnguard volunteers" mods

Back to normal after halloween

Just a few small changes. One of the Mercs is a woman. The armour they wear is a bit different for one of the male Mercs and the female Merc. They look more battle hardened, war paint and scars. They are less friendly, that is to say they don't talk to you much unless you hit one of them :)

I will get them back to normal very soon. Bit busy.

Sounds ace

Yes. Not something complicated but simple and easy to do. I think people like the simplicity of this Mod, install then ignore.

Awesome idea. So it becomes a quest to get the Thord Mercs to protect towns?

Main thing I have been thinking of, using Riverwood as an example.

Dragonborn passes through Riverwood, talks to some people on the way through and agrees to get help from Whiterun. A couple of soldiers are sent, hardly enough. Letter arrives by messenger "please find us more help here is some gold". Dragonborn visits the local Inn or whatever, talks to a Thord Merc who agrees to go to Riverwood. Could be someone like a simple hired to contract, someone who just wants adventure, someone agreeing to go but more like a companion. Could even be a couple of Companions from Whiterun, easy to add 2 or 3 extra Companions to the game.

"Alternative" - I meant The Companions :) Aspiring Mercs seem to have these two "factions" of Mercs to consider joining (The Companions and now The Thordians). So it seems the Thordians are an alternative to The Companions. What separates the two Groups? Is it ethics, or traditions, or location, etc... I thoought maybe if a Thordian Merc delivered a line of dialogue in reference to this it could add a layer of lore to The Thordian Mercs... Or even just hint at such a lore to open up the players' mind to such possibilities (kinda prompt us to imagine their backstory for ourselves...)
I actually like how they react/don't react to player actions as you wrote about below. They are pure Merc, not police or guards, and the petty theiveries of Skyrim's plebians are no concern of theirs. Their contracts are their only concern.

Not sure which "alternative" Merc faction you mean. The mercs who walk around skyrim are there to be bribed, then they will add a map marker. These marks are in two factions, the "isguard" faction, for some weird reason they would not attack anything without that even if I set them allied to Player. Second one is "crimefactionnull", without that they attacked if you picked a pocket etc. What they do not have is a crime faction which is why you get no bounty as long as they are the only ones who can see you doing stuff.

I have never liked the fact that they have no backstory. All they do is stand in more or less the same place, they dont even sleep. I did experiment, from time to time a different merc group would arrive and the old group left, my test was the falkreath guys walked to riverwood, on arrival the riverwood guys walked to falkreath to take over there. The things is though that route is buggy and they kept getting stuck, I got bored and gave up.

No worries - and I like both of these ideas (below) a lot :) The addition of a woman merc would balance this "faction" out with a lot of other Skyrim factions insofar as having an obvious Diversity Employment Policy and would be a great addition. Different voices, maybe a couple of extra lines of dialogue, would also enhance the mod. I was in Darkwater Crossing and it occured to me that maybe a humorous line would be cool, but then I was hit with the old, "Arrow In The Knee" comment and was reminded thatthe appeal of single repeated lines like that can wear off quickly...
Maybe a comment from one of them in reference to The Companions? That "alternative" Merc Faction... What is their main point of difference? I dunno, just thinking aloud, might intro a little lore to these guys...
Oh by the way, nice to see the Orcs are not forgotten :)

Thanks Fayde :) I do think at the very least though when they return to normal different voices would help, at least one of them sounds like he would be afraid to break a nail. Maybe I will change one of them for a woman.

This mod is still going strong, the updates and tweaks for things like Samhain are appreciated, the communication from the Mod Designer is a welcome change, and the mod itself - fantastic for immersion and gameplay without being "obvious," intrusive, nor lore-breaking. Still Three Thumbs-Up for this one. (Yep, I had to borrow a thumb)

I just noticed the cover picture has changed to a pic of another of my Mods. Steam does that sometimes, I will change it but that needs a reupload so can wiat until I undo the halloween changes.

Enjoy Halloween fellow adventurers.

If you have any seasonal ideas regarding what to do with these guys for Christmas let me know.

They will have changed a tiny bit after halloween, maybe a bit more grouchy instead of those happy go-lucky guys we all love.

I gotta say. This is a great mod and its nice with all the different weapons and armor equipped on the mercenaries. But I'm unsubscribing... I do this because i pissed of some mercenaries and they hunt me down all the time and i can't kill them. Since this is bugging me, goodbye mercenaries 3:

Thanks for that Fayde, good to know :)

Heya Thord – Just out of courtesy, letting you know I’ve added this awesome Mod of yours to my Collection, “Mods That Enhanced My Early Skyrim Immersion.” Thank you for making this game even better! Fayde1 :)

@Thord - awesome. Nah I simply haven't been in the same time and place as them when there's a threat to them yet, so haven't seen them swing into action yet. And thanks for the clarification on their Faction - again, makes sense. Ok this mod get's the Rating :) I think the Mercs are a terrific choice for the towns and adds realism/vibrancy to this game. The Mod has also worked fine for me - no probs with installation, nor running it.
Your clarification closes the "gap" between what I've experienced of the mod and what I'd hoped it would be - thank you for your creativity and effort with this :)

Just checked to be sure. Simple version they attack anything which is a threat to them. It can sometimes happen that one is farther away from the fighting than the others and does nothing because that mob is not within the games aggro range (bit like they can't see it).

Have you seen Vampires, Dragons, Wolves, etc nearby which they are ignoring?

They fight whenever they see an enemy. It doesn't matter if you spot the vampire etc, I have noticed them fighting and killing things before they show as red dots to me. Should be and sometimes is even a handy way of knowing a dragon is coming, they can go into combat before you even hear it coming.

No they do not get involved in any Civil War battles.

If it helps to understand they are part of the same Faction as hold guards so they will react in the same way. Not in the Imperial/Stormcloak Factions so will ignore battles.

I haven't yet seen the Mercs fight, but definitely their weapons are levelling up. Under what conditions do they fight? ie: do they not get involved with Cival War combat? Are there set triggers? By the way, they are true professionals - very polite to those who are paying for their mead :)

It would be great if you could upload that mod to workshop.

No. I made another Mod (not available for download) that places a couple at one of those places for only my use. Would it be helpful for you?

@Thord, Does this mod place mercenaries at player's Hearthfire houses (Lakeview Manor, Windstad Manor, and Heljarchen Hall)?

If not, would you consider adding them in? Maybe the option to hire mercenaries from steward. I would love to have more people to protect my spouse and livestock.

All is back to normal. No more midget guards, restored to the pre christmas version. Have fun.

Thanks. Added six clones who do nothing more than run around Skyrim. You'll see what I mean just keep an eye open for a short guy wearing one of those same outfits and named "Merry Christmas", they should stick to the roads. They will be attacked by the usual bandits etc but will not fight back. If they annoy anyone let me know and I will remove them.

hahaha this mod is awesome and i love the changes for the holidays you are a genious!

I think I should just say that the little guy without a head is not a bug he is wearing the Ghost Armour.

A few changes for Christmas. Happy holidays.

That patrol I bumped into was from the Helgen Mod I am working on not this one but if anyone wants to see patrols as part of this one say so.

Funny. I'll give it a go later maybe.

anyone noticed how easy it is to get 100 pickpocket from robbing their arrows? ;)

I was somewhere between Riverwood and Falkreath yesterday and 4 of my Mercs walked past me. I might have set a patrol in the mod somewhere, if you see those 4 mercs on patrol it's this mod.

Name change. After being called Miriana I decided to switch to my usual screen name of Thord. Yes folks I am a man! Thanks Steam for allowing me to chnge that, I wish I had known it was possible before today :D

They now all have torches. Moved a few to make them look more natural and/or make sure they are closer to where the action is so they actually hit something. Added 2 to the stables outside Riften.

If you want to try it is better to either start with a new Actor .... or try TG02EncMercenaryTemplate used for other mercs.

If you want to try it is better to either start with a new Actor.

These are simply basic Actors with two Factions one to make them behave like a guard (without that they wouldn't attack dragons only bandits etc which was really weird but there you go this is Skyrim after all) the other to be 100% sure they don't care what kind of crime you have commited and where they might have been commited. I gave them different high level armour, ebony etc, so they don't all look the same (giving levelled item armour would have given all the same armour) with levelled weapons, normal guards have terrible armour and weapons.

Last thing done is drag and drop into the world hopefully where they won't get in the way or interfere with another Mod.

I should consider. Hmmm I would build off of what you've already started if you'd let me?

I am not sure if that would be possible but an interesting idea. It would be a different Mod though. Thing is without you breaking laws there would be noone to arrest without a Quest which means lots of Quests, like the thieves guild for example.

You should allow them to be a playable faction. I mean considering you're already a mercenary I think it would be cool to be a guard and patrol and take in criminals and produce evidence.