Arasdir - Custom Follower and Your New, (Slightly Strange), Best Friend! (WIP)

[AirtightSpring3]

Arasdir Crassus

First of all, I want to take the time to thank you for reading this post. This is a mod that I started close to a week ago, so far I have recorded about 70 lines of dialogue, created a quest with multiple branches, and made a follower that is off the base follower system who has a custom voice. This mod is my attempt at making a follower who is a little bit different than any you have had before. I know, I know, all of us mod authors say that, but in a way it’s true, each custom follower that is released gives something different to the community, that will be perfect for a particular set of users. So without further ado, I present to you, Arasdir Crassus.

 

Who He Is

http://static-8.nexusmods.com/15/images/110/5468649-1444282644.jpg

Arasdir is a Breton from a noble family, as you will find out during his first quest. I don’t want to give too much about him away, but I will tell you that he has a vast network of connections that will be quite helpful to the player in certain situations. He is very opinionated and will tell you if he thinks you are doing the wrong thing by doing certain quests, he may even tell you that he thinks you should be massacring a particular guild as opposed to joining them. He does care deeply about his own desires so there is one path on the first quest you can take which will negate your ability to have him as a follower altogether. Arasdir takes some inspiration from a certain Game of Thrones character who built himself up from nothing and who uses manipulation and the chaos of the realm to get what he desires. You will find that Arasdir may not be completely trustworthy, but he sure is useful to have around. And yes, his voice is slightly annoying, but that’s just part of his charm.

 

Mod Goals

I hope to add many features to Arasdir, the most basic among them being a vast array of dialogue and comments available for given situations, a custom follower system, and a line of quest that focuses on player choice which starts right as you meet Arasdir. Now since I am hoping to keep Arasdir as a non combat follower there are a few things I want to add to him to make him especially useful to the player, so I’ll list some of my ideas which I have not yet implemented. I want him to be able to make temporary alliances between the player and certain enemy factions so that the player can complete some quests without violence if that is how they wish to proceed. I hope to give him the ability to remove bounties from the player once a day for a discounted price, and possibly even have him use his connections to remove the “stolen” marker from items. He is an expert on illusion magic, so I want him to be able to help the player learn some new spells and possibly cast a few in times of need. I want him to be able to use magic to buff the player in battles, what that buff is may be customizable. All of this will be an ongoing work in progress and will probably not be available for the first release, right now I am focusing on getting him many lines of dialogue, and on getting his first quest perfected (it alone has about 40 lines of dialogue). So please give any feedback you have, for example, if the community as a whole hates the idea of a non combat follower, I am open to change. Please let me know what you think.

 

Progress and Closing Statement

First Quest Completion: 100% (And tested for bugs: it works!)

Second Quest Completion: 80%

Quests Written: 2

Quests Planned: 7

Lines of Dialogue: 120

Custom Follower Framework: 100%

Link to My SoundCloud for Voice Samples: https://soundcloud.com/airtightspring3

Thank you for taking the time to read this description. I hope many of you come to love this idea and are looking forward to its eventual release. I am not the fastest worker seeing as I am a college student, but I did just start studying computer science so my scripting skills will only improve as time goes on. If something seems to hard for the time I may have to put it off a few months until my learning progresses to a point where I can handle it, but I will keep working all the same. I also want to thank Mattiewagg for her follower framework tutorial and help over the last few days, she responded quickly and was very informative. Thank you for your time.

 

- AirtightSpring3

Edited October 12, 2015 by AirtightSpring3

[Mattiewagg]

Good luck with it! If you ever need any help with any aspects of it, feel free to shoot me a PM.

 

Also:

"I want to thank Mattiewagg for his follower framework tutorial and help over the last few days, he responded quickly and was very informative."

 

*She/her

[AirtightSpring3]

Good luck with it! If you ever need any help with any aspects of it, feel free to shoot me a PM.

 

Also:

"I want to thank Mattiewagg for his follower framework tutorial and help over the last few days, he responded quickly and was very informative."

 

*She/her

 

 

 

Thanks! I am guessing I will have a few questions on some of the more complex scripting when I get to that aspect of the mod. For now I am adding quests and dialogue. Also sorry about my mistake in my post, I feel bad now, I worked with you for months on Immersive Quests and for some reason assumed you were a guy the entire time! My apologies.

 

On another note, progress update to the community: I just recorded about 30 lines of dialogue and updated the description :)

Edited September 14, 2015 by AirtightSpring3

[Mattiewagg]

Hah, no worries, most people didn't realize.

[AirtightSpring3]

Update: I have completed the first quest. I decided to go back and split up the ending so it allows for a different quest in the future if you made a certain decision. I know that is vague but I don't want to spoil anything. I also tested it and all of its endings in game and came out with no bugs! Now back to recording lines!

[AirtightSpring3]

Okay it's been a few days. I have been doing some optimization to my Skyrim to make the game actually run well. I finally managed to fix Shesons memory patch so now I can run mods without infinitely loading once again! I have also implemented a large variety of hellos for Arasdir and I am currently in the process of writing his random dialogue for cities.

[Caerylia]

Hello! I hope your mod goes well. I am also in the process of making custom-voiced followers myself. It's going to be difficult... but I'll try!

[AirtightSpring3]

Hello! I hope your mod goes well. I am also in the process of making custom-voiced followers myself. It's going to be difficult... but I'll try!

 

Thanks! I hope yours goes well too! It does get pretty tough but its fun and rewarding, just work at your own pace and don't be pressured to go faster than you can. Release a solid product on your time :)

[AirtightSpring3]

I posted some samples of my voice on SoundCloud, check it out and please tell me what you think in the poll! Right now I am just writing more lines of dialogue because I don't want to get farther along with recording and then have to go get a new voice actor. So PLEASE I want YOUR opinions, vote in the poll above and post comments here. Thanks!

 

SoundCloud Samples: https://soundcloud.com/airtightspring3

[AirtightSpring3]

Progress Update: I have written misc lines for Arasdir to say in half of the cities in Skyrim and have outlined the Second Quest, which is the beginning of the first "Episode" as I would call it, at the end of which the player will be able to get Arasdir as a permanent follower. I don't want to spoil too much about the quest or the questline but this new quest will involve two branching paths, the possibility of failure, and a contract with the Dominion. I will start working on implementing the quest frame in game tomorrow, but I am putting off doing more recording until I receive adequate feedback on my voice acting or find a voice actor who can be committed and produce the voice I am looking for.