How to setup your kitten character 101

Date Published

Post originally written by Horizon

First off, you need a custom launcher in order to install "plugins" to your game, which is needed to add mods and modify your game. https://github.com/goatcorp/FFXIVQuickLauncher

Once installed, log into the game through the XIV quicklauncher and type /xlplugins then click Settings at the bottom left and then navigate to the Experimental tab under Custom Plugin Repositories copy and paste the two .json links below.

Penumbra - Repository to add in Experimental Custom Repositories

1https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xivdev/Penumbra/master/repo.json

Glamourer - Repository to add in Experimental Custom Repositories

1https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ottermandias/Glamourer/main/repo.json

And finally click Save and close at the bottom right of that tab.

Next type /xlplugins again and go to All Plugins and Search for Penumbra and Glamourer and install them. Penumbra is where you will be importing your mods to, and glamourer allows you to change anything about your character, other characters, NPCs etc as well as wear any item in the game which is very handy for modding. First we'll be typing /penumbra to open the plugin, on the Settings tab you'll need to create a folder on your PC that will store all of your extracted mods, I recommend making a folder on your fastest hard drive with at least 100 GB of free space, but it's not required. I named my folder Penumbra Mods and for simplicity i'll be referring to this folder by that name for the rest of the guide.

On the Mods tab of Penumbra is where we'll be importing our Mods with the use of this button at the bottom of that tab.

Before we install any mods, I want to explain how modding as a kitten character works, the Kitten Head Mod is a head overhaul mod that only works with Midlander female heads. but luckily we have Glamourer plugin and are able to change our race through the plugin to Midlander Female and even create a Glamourer preset that will automatically transform our character into our kitten character with a single click once created (more on this later) As for your body, any body, including vanilla base body will work with the kitten head mod, there is an official kitten body mod but most people use their own preference of body mods due to the kitten official body not working well with custom outfits and in general looking outdated.

Now that kitten form is explained, the next step is to download the Kitten head mod, there's two versions, a large head and a small head, they both have the same options, the only difference is size, the large head has a more loli look while the small head has a more hebe look to it (in my opinion) download whichever one you want, or both to see which you like more.

You can see more faces by browsing mods or browsing presets.

I also strongly recommend downloading your mods to a DIFFERENT folder than your Penumbra Mods Folder, Just because some mods will be in a ZIP folder rather than the raw .ttmp file. The two above can be downloaded directly to your root penumbra folder though as they are raw .ttmp files. (.ttmp = TexToolsModPack & .pmp = PenumbraModPack)

Once the mod(s) are in your penumbra mods folder, click the import button on the bottom of the mods tab on the penumbra plugin(/penumbra) and select the kitten head mod to import it. Now you can design your kitten character, there's lots of hair options, faces, and a height setting, Most of us use 0.6-0.7 Height. Each setting replaces a base game asset hair style, base game face, etc, all for midlander female characters. Some additional things to note are - The Kitten face NPC and some of the higher numbered hairstyles are meant for NPCs being used in Group Pose. Kitten Option hair at the bottom will add additional features to your hair in place of a Ring.

Now you might not be seeing any changes to your character when messing with the mod, and that's because your character needs to be a midlander female, to set this up type /glamourer and go to the Actors tab, select your character name and then Customization, here you can set yourself to any race\clan in the game, select any hair style, etc. Turn yourself into a midlander female, and click Redraw self on the bottom of Penumbra Mods tab to refresh your character, Ta-da you should see yourself with a kitten head now. Once you look the way you want to (in terms of face options and hair) it'll be time to move onto your body.

So for body mods there are two types, there's IVCS bodies and non IVCS bodies, Both have their negatives and positives, IVCS bodies have more physics tied to them while non IVCS bodies are the same as base game body in terms of physics, the only catch is that a lot of body mods are not supported by IVCS yet. Even if you don't use an IVCS supported body, you will still want to download and set up IVCS for when you sync with other players via Mare \ Loporrit to prevent crashes (more about these programs later). Download Illusio Custom Skeleton & Expression Library and import them into Penumbra as you would a regular mod, once done set their priority as follows. IV Expression Library - Priority 0 Illusio Vitae Custom Skeleton Base - Priority 1 Once that's done you have IVCS set up. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yo-ynhqH-gMTN7SQv55x2yzOe_V2II9dSAJE8FnEghE/edit

Next is deciding which body mod you want to use. Body mod set ups can be found I recommend using https://www.xivmodarchive.com/modid/101701 for female characters and setting AP body (https://www.xivmodarchive.com/modid/123106) mod 1 priority higher for flat chest\f+ compatibility\cute males.

Once you have a body you like, and have a hairstyle, face, skin tone, makeup, etc that you like, it's time to make a Glamourer Design. Click the little floppy disk button on your glamourer Actor tab at the top to the left of your characters name and name it and save, I recommend naming it something like [Body] Kitten 1

Once done, navigate to the Designs tab of glamourer and you should see your glamourer design aka preset there. Since this design will only serve as a way to transform our character into a kitten, we want to keep it separate from our outfit designs. Click on your [Body] Design that you just made and click on Application Rules, now uncheck all Weapon and Armor options

Now at the top of glamourer you can select a Design to apply by just left clicking the -> arrow button at the top of glamourer as soon as you open it, I use this to turn into a kitten as soon as I log into the game. You can also use the Automation tab to apply certain designs under certain conditions as well, such as swapping to a specific job.

And finally it's time to show off your beautiful kitten form (or whatever form you're using this guide for o.o) There's three plugins that are used to be able to see other peoples characters with mods, two plugins are Kitten/Smol character friendly: Loporrit and Namazu, if you have Mare Synchronos, do not join a public invite syncshell as a kitten character and be careful with who you individually match with. As you can be banned from mare if someone reports you while a kitten. Like with Penumbra and Glamourer, you type /xlplugins > Settings > Experimental > Custom Repositories and put the in an empty field > save and close at bottom right.

Loporrit - Repository to add in Experimental Custom Repositories

1https://raw.githubusercontent.com/loporrit/LoporritSync/master/repo.json

Then search for Loporrit on the Plugin Installer and install, type /loporrit and follow the instructions to register your character. Once that's done head over to the ⁠syncshells channel to join any of the syncshells that us kitten players use.

The same can be done for Namazu with the following repository:

Namazu - Repository to add in Experimental Custom Repositories

1https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Friendly-Namazu/dalamud-repo/main/repo.json