SSE Altering sounds governed by hkx behaviour: possible or crazy?

[cumbrianlad]

Edit: I've finally found a thread on this and it looks to be so complex and full of potential pitfalls that I don't think I even want to try! Basically, the answer to my own question looks like being "Hey, man! You're crazy to even think 'bout doin' this! What planet you from? Dumb ***!" Let me know if you know differently.

 

 

Hi.

 

The last and very last stage of my dwarven stealth spider pet... honest!

 

As the title suggests this may not be possible and if it is it may be inadvisable or just plain beyond me, crackpot or whatever.

 

I have so far made sound files for the spider to 'speak', when responding to the player. These are suitably quiet and stealthy.

I have added a perk to it to make detection 96% harder... very stealthy.

I have managed to alter its 'conscious' sound, movement sound and footsteps to be quiet. The last I ran through Audacity to add a muffled effect... no change there... stealthy.

I have made it turn invisible except for its steam plumes when the player sneaks... almost totally irrelevant to detection now, but aesthetically very sneaky.

 

In stark contrast to the rest of its quiet and sneaky repertoire, whenever it does the 'PickWall', 'Pick' and to a lesser extent 'Search' animations*, it plays the vanilla sound files which are now all about 20 dB louder than all its other sounds, higher pitched and not at all muffled sounding... It may as well shout "We're over here!" These sounds have no effect on the detection formula but are a bit immersion-breaking.

 

I have a nasty feeling that these sounds are untouchable and buried in some dark and lonely hkx behaviour files.

 

Am I right about that?

 

If I'm wrong and there is some way to edit these sounds in CK, let me know.

 

If I'm right, is there a way to edit the behaviours without the need to use FNIS afterwards? Is it just plain stupid to even attempt this?

 

* You know the type. It rears up and clicks its pincers like castanets and goes "rat-a-tat-tat... click-click!" ... very un-stealthy!

 

Edit: Okay, I've found out how to open the original hkx files and can see where the sound is being played. I can edit that accordingly to point to my own sounds. I assume I 'Save As' but that leaves how to get that new hkx assigned to my actor. I've looked at the DwarvenSpiderProject.hkx, which is the file assigned in the race form for behaviour graph but I'm much less certain what to do with this one. It must be what is driving all the rest because other than the skeleton.hkx, nothing else is assigned anywhere. The 'Skeleton.hkx' has no sound assigned anywhere, so I'd think this could be left as the default vanilla hkx file?

 

Edit 2: It now looks as though the only line needed to be edited in the 'DwarvenSpiderproject.hkx' is the line pointing to character\DwarvenSpiderCenturion.hkx. In that hkx, there is a whole set of strings pointing to each of the idle animations that appear in the actor form for the NPC. I would think that I'd have to edit each individual animation to point to the right sound files (probably won't bother with combat ones. If it hits something I don't want it to be stealthy, I want it to clobber my enemy with ultimate force!). I then edit this character hkx to point to my new idle animations, leaving the ones I'm not bothered about untouched. Then I asign the new behaviour graph into the race in CK.

 

Still leaves the question 'Will it need FNIS', even if I'm right with all that semi-educated guesswork!