Sabenn

Actually, instead of me raving about ideas, perhaps this might be more appropriate to your actual request. I would caveat this with the caution, as noted by one of the previous responses here, that there may be serious copyright issues around using other voice packs. It might be kinda okay to quietly experiment for yourself, but if you want to upload something like this as a mod I would definitely check that it is legal to do so. Anyway... Look up the youtube video for setting up Skyrim to play with Japanese Audio with English subtitles. Basically it is just swapping the audio resources in data/sound/voice/skyrim.esm You might try just changing one of the voice sets. This may or may not work as I've not tried it myself. Download the Skyrim - Voice BSA of the language of choice. (all 1.5 Gigabytes of it) Then put back the English version of the file. Unpack the foreign language version with something like BSAopt, so you get access to the individual files. Then copy just one folder manually into you active data folder say the /sound/voice/skyrim.esm/femalenord Play the game. Either you will CTD because the file IDs are all different, or else you find a lot of nord female characters speaking another language. If it works, it may quickly give you an idea of how broadly that file set is used across the game. Hmm.... now I'm kinda curious now...

Ah, thanks for putting this idea out there. It touches on a couple of ideas I've been pondering myself. As to why you might do something like this. 1) The multiple audio packs are an amazing set of very under-utilised resources. Gigabytes of high quality voice performances. What's not to like? 2) English voice fatigue. Even though there is an amazing range of English voices to start, after playing a while you do start noticing the same voices being reused over and over again. 3) Audio richness. Imagine busy market-places with multiple languages going off. I think it could potentially bring a remarkable freshness to replaying the game. 4) Different styles of voice performance for major NPCs - there might be a tonal quality that are a better match for the character type even though it is in a different language. I wonder how Lydia comes across in Italian? That being said, I do think it is potentially a bit much to overhaul all the different races to all speak in different languages, not to mention a potentially massive task for a first mod. As mentioned there are potentially a large number of technical and immersion challenges to changing that many NPC interactions. In some ways, it might be technically easy to do the basic idea with just swapping the right audio resources, but in practice you may find yourself with a messy, unsatisfying result. Might I suggest you test the idea with a simple follower mod, and see if you can get only the follower speak in different language. I have seen this done with a couple of Japanese follower mods (thought without English subtitles), and it is quite an interesting effect. Certainly much better than having yet another follower who sounds like Lydia. For my part, I have been wonder about the more technical challenges. Like, how could you control the subtitle display so that it would only show up when an NPC used a different language audio file. Behind this an idea for a Language Understanding system. First use some of these other audio voice packs in a context where they might make more sense - a newly discover race of beings, a new land, a different kind of creature. At first flush, there are no subtitles, and you need to "learn their language" - via magic or constant conversation or reading training books - until eventually the appropriate English subtitle starts appearing. The learning experience might be gradated by replacing the subtitle text with dots, and as you learning more, actual words are inserted. Language skill level 4, every four word in the subtitle is revealed. Level 8, every second word and so on. It might also be fun to have characters who are dual language speakers. Imagine the snobbish sisters at Radiant Raiment, who would speak to you in English but then swap a couple of lines in French amongst themselves, just because they know you wont understand them and it will piss you off. Or talking with some slightly unsavoury characters, who swap language when they talk to each other because they don't want you to know what they are plotting. In these case, the lack of subtitles would add to the moment - but we are talking modifying NPC behaviours here. But I do believe there a rich set of possibilities with these language packs, if used in the right way. In fact, I may have a go at that foreign language follower idea myself, when I next rebuild my Skyrim base again. Good luck with your ideas. I look forward to seeing how you progress.