[WIP] Atvir Dres: The Last Prince of Tear

[JanusForbeare]

As that suggests, we don't even technically need a separate .esp file for inter-mod banters. For example, all the Atvir-Aela banters could be in your .esp; or they could all be in my .esp; or we could divide them up so that some would be in your .esp and some in my .esp. And again, similarly with Feres, Vilja, and others. At that point it's more a question of politics and trust.

 

Well, now, that's certainly interesting. I'm reading about the GetFormFromFile function right now; it sounds very promising. I take it that the scripts simply won't be executed if the linked file isn't loaded, right? It doesn't cause CTDs?

 

At first glance, I'm assuming not - based on what it says at the bottom of the page, it seems to simply record an error in your papyrus logs without any other ill effects.

 

@Calfurius: Any number of situations are possible. Beginning with the first Content Update, some of Atvir's conversation dialogues will only appear when he's relaxing, to create more opportunities for conversations around the campfire. Depending on how the other major follower mods function, we could possibly script some interactions to only occur when both characters are relaxing. Others might only start when both are following. Some might only occur in taverns; others might only occur in battle. Some might not have any restrictions at all, aside from both characters being relatively near to each other.

[calfurius]

Awesome! Also what's the story between Atvir and the Dark elf (Forgot her name >.<) that runs the Shatter-Shields logbook. I mean did they date? Also I know you're super busy and i'm just throwing this out as an idea. What if Atvir would give his opinion on some quests? For example the quest "Rise in the east" and "Return Viola's gold ring" both have people Atvir knows personally involved. Maybe Atvir could give you an opinion on what's going on.

 

Anyways keep up the good work answering my questions and take your time with the content update :)

[DreamKingMods]

Well, now, that's certainly interesting. I'm reading about the GetFormFromFile function right now; it sounds very promising. I take it that the scripts simply won't be executed if the linked file isn't loaded, right? It doesn't cause CTDs?

The way I'd suggest doing it is having a function that gets called when the player loads a game, that checks which mods are loaded and starts/stops the relevant quests. If a particular mod isn't loaded, you get a single error in the log, but that's not a big deal. No CTDs that I've seen.

[Darkvalkyr]

That function is actually very handy! This is good, yesssss.

[JanusForbeare]

The way I'd suggest doing it is having a function that gets called when the player loads a game, that checks which mods are loaded and starts/stops the relevant quests. If a particular mod isn't loaded, you get a single error in the log, but that's not a big deal. No CTDs that I've seen.

 

Makes sense. Thanks for mentioning that function; the prospect of being able to add interactivity so easily is exciting, to say the least. It also frees up another mod slot in people's load order, which doesn't hurt at all.

 

@DarkKingMods: I'm downloading your Aela expansion right now - but my current character is a mage, and hasn't even gone near Jorrvaskr, so I'll probably have to wait for my next playthrough to test her out. I'm curious, have you begun to insert/replace her voice files yet?

 

@DarkValkyr: I've had Feres in my party for a few days now, and he's doing great. I'll send you my feedback in a message, and we can talk more about interactions between Feres and Atvir from there.

 

@Calfurius: Are you talking about Suvaris Atheron? Atvir is - or was - close to the entire Atheron family, particularly the older brother, Aval, who, along with Atvir and Ambarys Rendar, make up the proverbial "three musketeers" of the Grey Quarter: the most vocal opponents of Ulfrik's prejudicial policies. The Atherons, by nature, are more discrete and adaptable than the Rendar or the Dres; this can be seen in Aval's legitimate, political approach to solving Dunmeri problems (his support of Brunwulf Free-Winter, for instance). Ambarys and Atvir tend to be more confrontational.

 

This same strain of accommodation and flexibility is present in Suvaris Atheron as well. She has accepted the reality of her present situation: she is, by virtue of her blood, a stranger in a city of Nords. Survival, and the chance at an improved quality of life, have motivated her, and her brother Faryl, to seek employment from the Nords, a decision which was offensive to die-hard patriots like Ambarys and Atvir. Atvir did have a very close relationship with her prior to this decision, the nature of which is not entirely clear. From what little he says about it, however, one can infer that there was a romantic component to it. This small detail may be explored in more depth when I begin to write Atvir's romantic subplot.

 

Regarding quests, I do plan on giving Atvir quest-specific dialogue, particularly in and around Windhelm. Whether that makes it into the first Content Update or not has yet to be decided. Probably not, or at least not to any great degree, because I already have several hundred new lines to record (and counting). Don`t worry, though. There will be no shortage of conversation topics!

Edited August 22, 2012 by JanusForbeare

[wiggs]

Thank you so much for this mod - it rocks!!

 

I've really missed having ill-tempered, foulmouthed Dunmer around; the ones in Skyrim seem so... broken, and I don't know... tamed. It's made me sad. I've modified Erindur as much as I can without actually getting into scripting; but while a great member of my team, he remains a sweet, poetic soul... hardly the embodiment of Dunmer badassery I've been missing ;)

 

Atvir is great in every way (altho I've made him a bit prettier to my liking ;) The voice acting is GREAT - could you redo all the male Dunmer voices in Syrim? ;) (seriously - Cockney? WHY??? It just jars my teeth out every time I hear it) Atvir's growly voice is totally morrowind :)

 

And the writing - superb. SO looking forward to more!!

 

I've already endorsed. Thanks again for your (and your team's) hard, impressive work - Bethesda has laid the groundwork, and modders like you are taking advantage of the potential and running with it, to the benefit of the rest of us :)

[DreamKingMods]

I'm downloading your Aela expansion right now - but my current character is a mage, and hasn't even gone near Jorrvaskr, so I'll probably have to wait for my next playthrough to test her out. I'm curious, have you begun to insert/replace her voice files yet?

I've actually just concluded auditions for a voice actress, and am finalizing my selection now. I imagine it'll take us a couple months to work through re-recording Aela's existing dialogue before we get to the new stuff I've been writing. So if you're interested in interactions, it sounds like we may both be in a better position to talk about banters sometime this fall, after I get that far and you release your content update? In the current release I've done a fair amount with chopping up Aela's existing lines and repurposing lines from other characters voiced by the same actress, so there are some limited voiced interactions I could manage presently. But that pales to what I'll be able to do, now that I have a voice actress on the project.

 

Anyway, sorry to butt in uninvited, but I figured the GetFormFromFile technique was useful enough to be worth inserting myself into the conversation. I'll be in touch this fall about interactions if I don't hear from you first, and feel free to PM me in the meantime. Good luck with your content update, and cheers!

[JanusForbeare]

Anyway, sorry to butt in uninvited, but I figured the GetFormFromFile technique was useful enough to be worth inserting myself into the conversation. I'll be in touch this fall about interactions if I don't hear from you first, and feel free to PM me in the meantime.

 

@DreamKingMods: No worries at all, all are welcome! Especially those who bring me such useful info! :D

 

I will definitely be in touch about getting some banter going between Atvir and Aela. Though I`ve yet to try out your mod, just looking through the screenshots on your download page gives a pretty clear indication of its depth and quality. Waiting till later in the year isn't a bad idea, either... as you say, I should be wrapping up the Content Update by then, and you'll have a voice to add to your dialogue! I probably won't have time to work on it much before then, anyhow.

 

Good luck with the voice-work! It can be a b***h to get custom voice-files into the CK. Not sure if you'll need it, but I wrote a tutorial on the process a while back. I'll wrap up this message and then re-post it into this thread.

 

@wiggs: Thanks for all your encouragement! The Dunmer of TES III were certainly an inspiration when it came to Atvir's voice. I remember reading somewhere that their "growly" voices were a result of living in a land of constant ash-storms, which might explain why the Dunmer in Skyrim sound more civilized. Technically, Atvir hasn't grown up amongst ash-storms, but I figured that he would have subconsciously picked up the Morrowind accent, having been raised in a staunchly patriotic and conservative family of exiles.

 

I don't think I'm about to take on the task of re-voicing ALL the Dunmer, though - AD is a big enough project for me right now! :teehee: Nevertheless, I appreciate the sentiment.

[JanusForbeare]

TUTORIAL: INSTALLING CUSTOM VOICE FILES

 

When I install dialogue, here is what I do:

 

1) Record and sweeten the audio files in a 3rd party program. I use audacity on my mac, as it's set up for that kind of thing.

 

2) When you're satisfied with your files, export them and place them just outside the voice folder for your character. For example, my WIP companion, Atvir has a voice folder called "JFADAtvirVoice" that can be found in C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/SteamApps/Common/Skyrim/Data/Sounds/Voice/Atvir.esp. I strongly suggest that you name each file by the first few words that are spoken, so that you can easily match them up to the written text without having to listen to each one.

 

3) In the CK, write all the topics you will need for your entire scene (or whatever you're voicing).

 

4) For each topic, record a second or two of silence. The reason we do this is so that the CK believes that there is a voice file associated with the topic - if we don't, and we just import our custom voice files, the CK won't detect them, even if they're named properly and in the right folder.

 

5) Now comes the long and annoying part. Each line of dialogue has a "Voice Filename" that you can find if you double-click on the "Response Dialogue" in the Topic Window. For each of your lines of dialogue, you'll have to find the associated "Voice Filename", highlight it, CTRL+C to copy it, and rename its voice file counterpart to whatever it's called.

 

6) Once you've got all your voice files properly named, drag and drop them into the character's voice folder (continuing with my previous example, I would put them in "JFADAtvirVoice"). You will be asked if you want to replace existing files, select "Yes to all".

 

7) Now that all your voice files are named correctly and in the right location, all that remains is to generate .LIP files for each one. For each line of dialogue, go back into the Topic Window, double-click on the Response Dialogue, select your character's voice type from the list at the bottom (if you're using a custom voice, it'll probably be the only one listed). With the voice type highlighted, click on "From .WAV" at the bottom of the window, then click on "Generate Lip File", at the left.

 

That's it!

 

It may seem ridiculously complicated (hell, who am I kidding, it is), but it's the only way I know of to import clean, custom dialogue. If you're still having issues, and you're sure you followed the above-mentioned steps correctly, then you might want to try converting your .WAV and .LIP files to .FUZ format. Doing so requires Microsoft's XWMAEncode program, found as part of the Direct X SDK (http://www.microsoft...on.aspx?id=6812) to first convert your .WAVs to .XWMs, followed by Agnahim's FUZExtractor (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/950) to combine your .XWMs and .LIPs into .FUZ files. The FUZExtractor's main page and comments section have a lot of good info on that process.

 

[Darkvalkyr]

Ohgod, that's the only way to do a recording from elsewhere to import it to the game? I knew of this possibility but I always thought 'there's gotta be an easier way right?'

 

CK never ceases to amaze me.

 

It's also why my current step is fixing up dialogue in the past - I'm also taking note of the filename numbers and what is the line in that file on excel. X.x;