Oblivion Character Overhaul : Mute NPCs

[Aetol]

Hello,

 

I recently installed nuska's Oblivion Character Overhaul and all the NPCs, except the Imperials, became mute (for face-to-face conversations AND random chatter).

 

I'm running Oblivion 1.2.0416 french version with Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nines, on Windows 7.

 

My load order is the following :

Oblivion.esm

DLCShiveringIsles.esp

Knights.esp

All+5AttributesModifiers.esp

CapesandCloaks.esp

Oblivion_Character_Overhaul.esp

MidasSpells.esp

 

All mods were installed with NMM.

 

OCO is definitey the culprit : the NPC voices come back if I uncheck or uninstall it, and the problem remains if I play with just OCO.

According to OBMM, OCO conflicts with Knights.esp and MidasSpells.esp, but unchecking these files doesn't fix the problem.

 

Of course, the simplest solution would be to play without OCO, but I'd prefer to avoid the awful faces (especially for argonians/khajiits/orcs).

I've tried the solution described here (post #7) but it didn't work. Not sure if did it right though.

 

So, is there a solution to my problem ? Could it be possible to install OCO manually without interfering with the voices (the mod pages doesn't give manual installation directives) ?

[Striker879]

It's covered in the OCOv2 mod description:

 

 

*OCOv2 only works with an English language copy of Oblivion as it alters race records and NPCs. Users with other languages will get mute NPCs. It can be patched for other languages, but I'm unable to do that for anyone. Feel free to make your own and I'll gladly link to it from here.

[DrakeTheDragon]

The problem here is the French version of the game.

 

Oblivion sadly was designed in a way so mods made in an English (or insert random other language here) version are likely to change the internal folder names used for the races they touch.

I don't know how the folders are named in the French version, but if you're using any race-changing mods made for another language, the game will search for the voice files inside the folders the other language version uses.

 

Race-changing mods are basically 'converting' your races to the language version they were created in. This already happens even when a mod just adds one more eye option to the selection of a race, or a hairstyle. The race touched changes to the other language version and will no longer search its voice files inside the folders for your language version.

 

The solution you linked likely didn't work for you, because they're never talking about actual folder names, and you likely just don't know the folder names that are expected by your game 'now' after it's technically converted to English. Putting the voice files into the same folder your French version uses won't help, as they need to be put into the folders the English version uses now instead.

 

But that's only one way of solving it. You can, of course, also try and find a 'translation' of OCO for the French version, or create one on your own, if you know how.

It should basically be just the Display Texts of the races' names you find inside the OCO plugin(s). They still need to be the French ones, as those are the ones dictating the folder names as well. Or at least I 'think' that was all behind it. I'm not a trained mod translator though and could be missing something.

 

 

edit: Me and my slow wall-of-text-style typing. Ninja'd by Striker again :ninja:

Edited November 8, 2014 by DrakeTheDragon

[Aetol]

@Striker : that's OCO v1 I'm using, precisely for this reason.

 

@DrakeTheDragon : so what you're saying is that I need to extract the voice files (as described in the solution I linked) and change the folder names to english ?

 

And, would that work for OCO v2 ?

Edited November 8, 2014 by Aetol

[DrakeTheDragon]

@Striker : that's OCO v1 I'm using, precisely for this reason.

 

@DrakeTheDragon : so what you're saying is that i need to extract the voice files (as described in the solution i linked) and change the folder names to english ?

 

It's not about 'changing' the folders. If you change the existing folders' names now, you will render the other races not mute yet mute as well.

The quick'n'dirty cheap solution works by providing both, your language and English voice files' folders.

So if you have both, the French and the English language version's folders filled with voice files, it won't matter anymore which ones the game searches in for, as both are present.

 

For reference, the English version's folder names are these:

"Data/Sound/Voice/Oblivion.esm/..."

"Argonian"

"Breton"

"Dremora"

"High Elf"

"Imperial"

"Nord"

"Redguard"

 

I hope you'll only need to add these for the "Oblivion.esm" folder, thus the Vanilla game's voices. Not sure if you won't need to do the same with voices from other mods inside their respective voice folders as well. Like I said, I'm not a translator. I'm just educated-guessing here.

[Aetol]

If you change the existing folders' names now, you will render the other races not mute yet mute as well.

 

Well the only race not mute are the Imperials, and it's probably because the name is unchanged in french (folder names have no accents).

But better safe than sorry, I'll try as you say.

Edited November 8, 2014 by Aetol

[Aetol]

Ok, here's what I did :

 

1) Extract Voice1.bsa

This gives a directory : "sound/voice/oblivion.esm", which contains three folders : "argonien", "drémora", "haut elfe".

2) Extract Voice2.bsa

This also gives a directory : "sound/voice/oblivion.esm", which contains three folders as well : "imperial", "nordique", "rougegarde".

Remark : the "breton" folder seems to be missing.

3) Create a new directory in the folder "Data" : "sound/voice/oblivion.esm" (oblivion.esm IS A FOLDER).

4) Move all six race folders to this directory.

5) Duplicate these folders (except "imperial") and rename them to "Argonian", "Dremora", "High Elf", "Nord" and "Redguard".

 

And... it works ! Almost. Bretons still have no voice (surprise !), and some Nords seem to be missing some dialogues. Otherwise, everybody talks fine. And if I play without OCO, Bretons can talk, so the problem still comes from there. Any idea where I could find this missing "Breton" folder ? It's not in the Voice<X>.bsa files, anyway.

[DrakeTheDragon]

I was afraid of a similar situation such as this. There's no guarantee a different language version will have the same voice files or all of them.

The French game doesn't have different voices for the Breton race? Then what voice do they have? Imperial?

 

You didn't need to keep the French named folders unpacked as well by the way. If those are missing, the game will still use the files from inside the BSAs.

The English named folders however, are not inside the BSAs, thus you needed to create them.

 

Nords are missing only 'some' dialogue? Hmm, I feared as much as well, yet again. It can very well also be there's not every individual voice file the same name in all languages, they could have French naming counterparts just as well as the folders did.

 

I think that's why this solution is called the cheap quick'n'dirty approach. The cleaner (or really clean) solution would always be a translation of the bogus plugin made for the English version into your language. But of course, at the end of the day, both will work when done correctly.

[Aetol]

The cleaner (or really clean) solution would always be a translation of the bogus plugin made for the English version into your language.

 

Well do you, by any chance, know how to do that / know a guide explaining how to do that ?

 

Edit : I found this, this and this. I'll test them as soon as I have the time.

 

Also, concerning the "some dialogue missing" for Nords : in retrospect, it was just one missing "rumor" line, everything else seems to be fine. I need to make more tests, but that could be a freak occurrence.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Aetol

[LFact]

If I were you, I'd open Oblivion.esm and any vanilla race related plugin with TES4Edit, then compare race records of both. You can simply drag'n'drop from one plugin's column to another plugin's to overwrite sub-record.