NH VLCE Jester Armor 1.2.4

By NecroverseHeroes. Companion version 0.5.9; accepted Taylor character bundle 0.5.4, preserved byte-for-byte. The unchanged legacy Chaos host remains version 1.1.0.

What's updated

• Integrates the saved R09 Taylor copy's armor appearance: vanilla silver ring-mail plate regions, matte worn brown leather, and native worn cloth on thigh and recessed shin regions.
• Includes the current source's reviewed chest-disc removal, without changing Taylor's body or the current armor fit.
• Matches the grey mantle and hanging cloak appearance; preserves the wolf head's saved eyes, mouth and teeth materials.
• Attaches the decorative wolf head rigidly to Spine2 inside the mantle renderer, with its own material submesh. Original geometry remains unchanged. The cloak remains one independently equipped item with two renderers.
• Preserves baked armor normal and roughness/metal maps in the native armor shader adapter. Cloth startup now retains the candidate's drape maps while using the vanilla cape shader and physics configuration.

Author Mode and character preservation

Existing Author Mode/account verification and F8 switching remain unchanged. Each new session starts with ordinary appearance. Other players cannot activate Taylor; clients with this package can display the verified author's replicated appearance.

The accepted face/neck repairs, starter pants, lower-back corrections, Battleaxe grip, character geometry, skin textures, weights, skeleton and animations are preserved in the exact accepted character bundle. Non-fitted armor visuals are hidden only while Taylor is active; their gameplay benefits remain.

Fitted armor and progression

Helmet, chest and greaves equip independently. Covered hair, body and starter cloth are hidden reversibly for the corresponding gear; unequipping restores them.

Silver items use the installed game's vanilla Drake Helmet, Wolf Armor Chest and Wolf Armor Legs recipes, stations, statistics and quality upgrades. Later-biome progression reforges each piece into a new tier using its corresponding vanilla recipe plus the preceding Taylor piece. Helmets retain Wolf Fur Cape frost protection.

Tier	Helmet	Chest	Greaves
Silver	NH_TaylorSilverHelmet	NH_TaylorSilverChest	NH_TaylorSilverLegguards
Plains	NH_TaylorPlainsHelmet	NH_TaylorPlainsChest	NH_TaylorPlainsLegguards
Mistlands	NH_TaylorMistlandsHelmet	NH_TaylorMistlandsChest	NH_TaylorMistlandsLegguards
Ashlands	NH_TaylorAshlandsHelmet	NH_TaylorAshlandsChest	NH_TaylorAshlandsLegguards

Taylor Wolf Cloak

NH_TaylorWolfCloak owns the fur mantle, attached decorative wolf head and hanging cape. Crafting station, recipe, quality upgrades, statistics and frost modifier follow vanilla CapeWolf. The cloak retains vanilla quality progression; no additional biome-tier cloak items were introduced.

The hanging cape uses the installed game's MagicaCloth2 solver, the existing five-pin contract, exact 84-vertex source, fitted colliders and rest initialization. No game assemblies or separate physics plugin are distributed.

Installation and local acceptance

Install this ZIP through Thunderstore Mod Manager into the intended test profile. Avoid loading an older standalone NH_TaylorV5Test.dll beside the integrated companion. Keep your previous package and configuration for rollback.

Verify companion 0.5.9 loads, enable Taylor with F8, and inspect helmet/chest/greaves/cloak independently and together. Check running, head turns, wolf-head attachment, cloak startup/wind, face/neck, waist and knees. Unequip all gear and confirm original hair, body and starter pants return; switch F8 off and confirm ordinary appearance returns. Test crafting, quality upgrades, biome reforging, frost protection and remote-player appearance as applicable.

Console test identifiers:

spawn NH_TaylorSilverHelmet
spawn NH_TaylorSilverChest
spawn NH_TaylorSilverLegguards
spawn NH_TaylorWolfCloak

Verified scope and remaining gate

This candidate passed Unity build/reload, exact canonical roundtrip, eight coverage/restoration masks, independent skinning across 21 recorded running poses, exact exported positions/normals/UVs/triangles/raw influences, and saved texture-pixel checks. The compiled companion passed 1,293 installed-game API, author-policy and preservation assertions.

The hanging cape's complete source packet is byte-identical to the prior offline physics-tested input; its solver settings, pins and colliders are unchanged. Its new materials and added rigid wolf head still require fresh Valheim visual/behavior/performance acceptance. Offline skinning and Blender renders do not prove in-game clipping, remote appearance, crafting or physics behavior.

Prepared for local visual acceptance. Public upload should follow that acceptance. No game installation or live test was performed for 1.2.4 preparation.

Crystal Battleaxe grip hotfix

Companion 0.5.9 adds a visual-only BattleaxeCrystal correction using its exact shaft and both active Taylor hand references. Mesh collider, native item root/socket, Taylor body/rig/animations, armor, cape, Author Mode/F8 and other weapons remain unchanged. Crystal glow, lights and trail reference objects follow the corrected display and restore on deselection/unequip. Unsupported Crystal mesh/effect layouts restore the original weapon without disabling Taylor.

Offline verification: 158 exact active Crystal frames, including 50 attack frames; all 558 retained legacy grip references; 9,441 Unity numerical/ownership assertions; compiled installed-game API and author/preservation checks. Two fitted-unavailable captures were excluded. Existing reference guards and the 15 degree rotation bound were retained. True palm/skin contact, native effect scripts and blocking still require fresh in-game visual testing; no live acceptance is claimed.