Sofia - a funny, fully voiced and scripted follower(WIP)

[ryanshowseason2]

 

Honestly I would much prefer if Skyrim has like 4-6 followers instead of current 20 or so, but all of them would be like Sofia. Quality over quantity is something Bethesda never understood.

 

Truer words were never spoken.

 

They tried with Serana. Dawnguard could be viewed in a certain light as a follower mods centered around her. Lets face it the plot line revolved around her. If we had a few more serana's in vanilla at the cost of all the followers I wouldn't complain.

 

Anyways this mod is on the rails can't wait to see v1. If you're doing beta tests I'll have to start up a new character for it.

[djjohnjarvis]

Well there's no real reason to start a new character as I never did and she works just fine but that's up to you. I will post here when I need beta testers but Christine (the voice actress) has called first dibs on that :)

 

Yea I really liked Serana and she demonstrated that with a bit of effort Bethesda were capable of some degree of character development.

[Megakoresh]

Well there's no real reason to start a new character as I never did and she works just fine but that's up to you. I will post here when I need beta testers but Christine (the voice actress) has called first dibs on that :smile:

 

Yea I really liked Serana and she demonstrated that with a bit of effort Bethesda were capable of some degree of character development.

Even so they didn't really pull that off. They really tried, it was obvious, but Serana still doesn't really have much of a personality display. She is not reactive,which is probably the most important thing for a character. The only way to make it apparent that a character has some personality mapping is to make the character respond to locations and events, as well as player's actions. Serana doesn't do that. She only drops brief comments on the locations of the DLC and nothing else, does not react to any choices of the player, even such big ones as the Stormcloack rebellion, or the faction quests. She also does not really develop much. She barely has any difference in tone based on whether you went with vampires or Dawnguard. She also makes no remarks of characters or the world in general. I take her to Blackreach she is like "What do ya need?", I take her to Solstein: the same, I give her a silver weapon, not comments, I give her Auriel's bow, no comments.

 

Your character is already 10 times better than her simply because of that reactivity.

[maxx130]

That is perfect! Excellent work! Id like to see guards get involved and arrest her so you have to bail her out. Or arrest you as well if you decide to get involved. In that case if you both get arrested they miss a lockpick on her and you have to breakout?

[djjohnjarvis]

@Megakoresh - I agree with you, I only said they demonstrated some degree of character development for Serana but the amount of work put into this mod already probably explains why Bethesda didn't make followers to the same level. They are a business after all and from a business viewpoint it wouldn't have really affected their sales that much and would have cost them more development time which equals money, although it would have been cool.

 

That is perfect! Excellent work! Id like to see guards get involved and arrest her so you have to bail her out. Or arrest you as well if you decide to get involved. In that case if you both get arrested they miss a lockpick on her and you have to breakout?

It looks like another vote for the whole arrest and bail out thing which actually sounds like a lot of fun and hopefully I will get round to doing something like that.

[Megakoresh]

@Megakoresh - I agree with you, I only said they demonstrated some degree of character development for Serana but the amount of work put into this mod already probably explains why Bethesda didn't make followers to the same level. They are a business after all and from a business viewpoint it wouldn't have really affected their sales that much and would have cost them more development time which equals money, although it would have been cool.

As someone who studies game development professionally, I understand how difficult it is. As I said: it's about the tradeoffs. Anything involving voice acting and integration with storyline is much easier for the studio to pull off than for the modders, however making a dungeon, castle, fetch quest, an item, a helmet, texture and so on is something modders will always provide in abundance. if they are given the tools. What Bethesda easily could do but chose not to is not make half the swords and weapons, not make half the alchemical ingredients and potions, not make half the enchantments, not make half the spells, not make half the random dungeons, not make 20+ followers and instead take that money and spend it on believable reactive characters, on some 5-6 followers that were really good quality (I wouldn't expect Dragon Age quality, but at least halfway to that), on a proper physics-based combat engine with worldspace weapon physics geometry and programmable hit reactions (e.g. individual bone nudging vectors based on impact), and then let the modders do the filling up.

 

I have not downloaded a single weapon or spell mod (aside from balancing ones), because there are already so many weapons and spells and equipment and books, etc. etc. etc. that I am getting drowned in them. But this mod is so far the best character mod I have seen so far and it is so very rare. There are thousands of interesting and cool spells, potions, armours and weapons for download, but hardly a dozen good new characters. This is not because modders are bad, it's because it's extremely difficult to find a good actor or actress, write lines, make a model, and all that and do it all by yourself. In studios casting is done by a specialist, modelling is done by another specialist, behaviour is done by another specialist and so on. What you have been able to achieve is a miracle for a modder. It requires not only a lot of talent, but also a fair bit of luck with a good willing volunteer voice actress. It should be this type of work that the studio puts most effort into, not the gameplay content.

 

I know they probably would never see this conversation, but I ask people to keep these points in mind. Maybe through collective effort we deliver this message to Bethesda in time for their new ES game (Not ESO, it's not really an ES game). I also have a strong feeling that this mod will be very successful.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Megakoresh

[AlduinWorldEater]

Megakoresh is right. They leave the CK open to us for the very purpose of modding...so how about they just give us a world with just a few fully believable, high-quality characters, a handful of weapons and armour to pick from, maybe a few miscellaneous items...and just let the modders go to town on it? Build a game specifically FOR the modders...hell, modders could even come out with sub-versions of the game a la Nehrim...and then those of us, like myself, who don't have much modding talent, could enjoy from there?

 

Sure, it'd be a huge risk to create a game with virtually no content, but isn't that what Elder Scrolls fans are all about? User-created content, put together by "average joes" like ourselves? That's the entire point of the Nexus and other sites like it - a place for people who create content for existing games to come together and share their love of the game.

[djjohnjarvis]

I don't think the whole CK argument would work since Bethesda's target audience is always going to be consoles first, which have no access to the CK whatsoever. They would just see the CK as a little extra for the PC users to keep them happy and to keep the game alive for longer by getting them to post lots of content online. I'm not sure console users would really agree with your statement about what the Elder Scrolls is about but then again I think they are seriously missing out.

 

I think we would all do the game differently if we were in charge but unfortunately PC users and modders are the minority and the console users are probably more bothered about having lots of content. That may be a generalisation of course but consoles are stuck with their vanilla content and lower graphics, that's not console bashing (I also have Skyrim on Xbox) it's a fact. I think for a game like Skyrim even if your computer isn't fantastic you would be crazy to get the console version, something I didn't realise till I played the game. As for advanced physics and all that, until they create an entirely new engine and not just an upgraded version of their old one used in Oblivion and Fallout I don't think we will see that. As far as I can tell it was more of a graphical upgrade than anything else.

[maxx130]

I have to agree, ES is totally lacking in quality characters. In fact when I first met the Serana character I was whoa! she actually moves around by herself and don't just stand there and take up space. That there are not many well rounded, fleshed out companion mods out there is a fact sad to say, so it's like a breath of fresh air when modders like yourself and very few others create interesting companions that are not only engaging but can also surprise you and make you laugh. So Thank you again for yours and Christine's hard and very much appreciated work. A huge Kudos to you both.

[Megakoresh]

I don't think the whole CK argument would work since Bethesda's target audience is always going to be consoles first, which have no access to the CK whatsoever. They would just see the CK as a little extra for the PC users to keep them happy and to keep the game alive for longer by getting them to post lots of content online. I'm not sure console users would really agree with your statement about what the Elder Scrolls is about but then again I think they are seriously missing out.

 

I think we would all do the game differently if we were in charge but unfortunately PC users and modders are the minority and the console users are probably more bothered about having lots of content. That may be a generalisation of course but consoles are stuck with their vanilla content and lower graphics, that's not console bashing (I also have Skyrim on Xbox) it's a fact. I think for a game like Skyrim even if your computer isn't fantastic you would be crazy to get the console version, something I didn't realise till I played the game. As for advanced physics and all that, until they create an entirely new engine and not just an upgraded version of their old one used in Oblivion and Fallout I don't think we will see that. As far as I can tell it was more of a graphical upgrade than anything else.

IMO even half the content that skyrim has is already a lot. And if they made that half actually good quality people would praise them for it even more, regardless of platform. Also PC is the primary platform for Bethesda they have said it and it's apparent just because it's where most of the sales are. First week sales are better on console of course, but most sales for their games still come from PC. Furthermore they can always create good content as a DLC later. What they probably can't do is "fix" the story characters/followers and that kind of stuff with proper reactions, character development and all that stuff, cuz that is not exactly "fixable".

 

And yeah the engine is pretty much the same as the old one with a few graphical enhancements mostly in lighting and polycount. It really is not very good. Although the infamous and mighty Kettle is kinda exactly the thing I would expect weapons to copy. It damages based on it's physics mesh intersection and weight and the intersection actually occurs in worldspace. But yeah I agree, they will need to make a proper engine for the next game.