LE Dynamic orphans

[sepiallubia]

I apologize ahead that I can't make it short and simple with good English.

 

 

Orphans, especially the four orphans added in HF, seem to be placed in dire situations. My delicate heart was shattered upon realizing you were only available for adopting two. At first, I thought about getting a mod to allow for more adoption, but it was then I learned the fact that the adopted children lose their personalities and traits after being adopted.

(It is as if they go insane from a overflow of sudden happiness when coming to realize they are now living with the legendary Dragonborn.)

 

I have two ideas for this issue I feel, both mainly aimed to alter the orphans without adoption or having them as followers.

 

 

My first idea for a mod should be more simple - Adding an option to send the orphans to the Honorhall Orphanage with some editing of unfitting dialogue and a update of appearance to fit in. I hope this method will provide of effect of having the orphans stay slightly unique but a little bit more fortunate than prior to the mod.

 

 

My main idea is to have the orphans ultimately replaced with more adult versions of them, specifically around 18 to early 20's, if the Dragonborn does not choose to adopt them.

These versions will be as (subjectively) fortunate as the normal NPC, having some type of duty, a real place to stay, and most of all, retain character. The reason for the age is to keep the children distinguishable from other NPCs especially so that the player can feel the effect of the mod.

 

How this would be achieved is by a new option when talking to the orphans. It would be something among the lines of (1.) introducing the orphans to a NPC for adoption, learning the trade of the adopter if fitting, or (2.) have the Dragonborn sponsor them in some way, like sending them to the College of Winterhold.

 

My priority would be: orphans from HF > orphans involved with Honorhall > interesting children who are (subjectively) better off if adopted > other children with one guardian > other children adoptable if orphaned > other children > Bottar and Sond (too little information about them so I will just imagine they are fortunate, just needing some pocket change). My concern is mostly with HF orphans, orphans involved with Honorhall, and Sissel (take to her the dragon of her dreams, ultimately leading her to challenge the High Queen with her shouts! This would probably need more work in it though...). The other children seem content with their lives and not in need of immediate intervention. Killing the guardian(s) to make those children adoptable would go against the mod's purpose though I admit some of them are more interesting, like Agni and Nelkir, but my initial motive is to do something about orphans.

 

It would nice to have incremental steps to be able to feel the child's growth, having a hand in the child's growth. The problem is that it is impractical to observe the stages "immersively" as it would involve real-time scripting if set purely on time. My amateur approach as a guess would be: having level = age (like the mod "Growing Up in Skyrim"), then have a subtle size increase with console command "setscale" with each level/age increase from interaction with the Dragonborn at set time intervals. At a certain age/level, an important event triggers, the child conveniently disappearing for a period of time so the model swap with the adult version can happen with some reason, then continue growing/scaling for a short period of time as follow-up. At the end of the growing/scaling up, the child is conveniently done with puberty and now a young adult, so they do not provide drastic changes in appearance in a short amount of time anymore - the age range above is suggested as the minimal ages puberty ends. (Further progression may be "immersive," though it's not as if most NPCs in Skyrim show change over time as adults, so... "Then what about the other children?" ...Maybe a drop of the Dragonborn's blood allows the selected orphans them to develop faster in a shorter period of time like the Dragonborn him/her-self? Maybe Elder Scroll? Maybe... magic? ...I unfortunately do not have a team of lore and immersion scientists to consult... I guess having models for other children too would be more consistent but that would be more of a option...)

 

One hurdle this mod will have is that multiple full sets of voiced dialogue would be needed to have consistency from child to adult form. Boys will have a voice change with puberty so some disparity is natural, though girls should mostly sound the same throughout. Also if this mod does add having these children as followers, they will again need voice acting to be consistent. I don't know if muting them or having partial voice may it be inconsistent would be better.

 

Since I have no modding knowledge, my contribution would be thinking of the minimal backstory to the mod, dialogue, and the child and adult model based on popular mod, "RS Children Overhaul" (Of course with permission from the mod author, since the author may take it up and produce something potentially far better than me... Nyeh heh heh!). Reason being vanilla children being too similar looking, all of them resembling potatoes, so I hope altering their looks would imbue sympathy through uniqueness.

 

I apologize there is a mod like this that already exists... I did try running searches but I couldn't really find what I was looking for. Please direct me to it if you may.

Also, it would probably have been a better request proposal if I had created a few of those child and adult models I mentioned but I just wanted to see if anyone feels the same way beforehand. (Also, my graphics card is broken and I'm waiting for my replacement.)

 

Thanks for reading this wall of text and may you not CTD today.

[DOVAHKI1N]

Are you still working on this? Because this sounds great. Children that actually grow up and- tbh even more important for me - keep their personality (though Sissel's sister should stop the bullying gradually, especially when the father's influence is gone), be indivdual and their former life reflected in their behaviours...that would be awesome!

 

I have never adopted any children, because I just can't ignore the personality change. It's okay if they're grateful and even adore the player who adopted them but they still need their individuality. I can't and won't adopt if they just end up some generic sweet child with the same personality. The sweet child routine might fit Lucia or Sophia, it seems quite close to their base personality, but anyone else would just be changed too much. And even Sophia and Lucia need a personality that reflects what they've learned through their struggles.

[poppyharlowclone]

Senpai are you working on this?