BladeSong


BladeSong



EDIT/

PLEASE REFER TO THE NEW AND FINAL THREAD FOR BLADESONG :

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1115170-relz-bladesong-v13-final-thread/page__gopid__16370836&#entry16370836



Version 1.1

Website Location : http://bladesong.homestead.com/

Download Location : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32426

Author : Sornan



Description :

A Romance/Adventure quest mod.

Meet the owner of a small general goods store in the town of Aleswell... Tess, a simple commoner with a mysterious past. Discover what destiny may hold in store for the two of you...

Take part in an epic adventure that slowly unfolds over time and journey across the lands of Cyrodiil to discover new locations and entirely new distant lands. Meet new characters along the journey, join with other allies in the struggle to stop a menace which threatens the entire northern regions of Cyrodiil.



Features Included :

An evolving romance story intertwined within a slowly growing epic scale adventure holding many surprises, dangers, and leading to new unexplored places along the way..

Detailed and constantly changing quest lines, numerous new npc's added.

New locations, points of interest, and dungeons added into Cyrodiil.

An entirely new worldspace.

Various immersive and unique 'scenes'.. involving a wide variety of content.. action, mystery,
mysticism, drama, romance, exploration.. and more.

High quality voice acting for all of the characters.

Two new custom races (npc's)

A large scale war.

And much more..



Version 1.1 :

Fixed : Rare random issue with getting stuck while sleeping at the camp.

Fixed : Many major issues with companion for Non Shivering Isles users.

Fixed : Removed chance of player being killed during a certain scene due to mods used.

Added : BladeSong will now notify the player if they are not running Obse, or not running version 0018 or higher.

Updated : Readme And Description updated to include the need for having Screen Effects version 1.0 .

Updated : After the main quest line is completed in BladeSong, if one desires to keep BladeSong active and runs into another quest mod that also uses of the town of Aleswell, you can now use the following console command to reverse changes made to the town : SetStage RestoreChangesDl 10


Version 1.0 :

Release




Requirements :

Oblivion updated to the latest official patch. - v1.2.0416 .

Screen Effects Mod : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16323

OBSE Version 0018 or greater : http://obse.silverlock.org/

Oblivion Mod Manager : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097
*note : If you are not running any mods other than BladeSong, then you do not need Oblivion Mod Manager*



Recommended level of player character :

Level 15 or higher, and well geared. Levels between 10 to 15 may be possible, but will be very difficult. Expect greater difficulty in wilderness areas if Fcom is used.

*Note* The quest line was not designed for companion usage during it, and most will find things to be far too easy with a companion. Also one may experience potential bugs along the way with a companion during the quest line as well, again, the quest line is not designed for this.



Optional .Esp's :

BladeSong - Darker Dungeons Version :

If you are running Darker Nights/Darker Dungeons mod, there is an .esp version provided for BladeSong which will set the lighting to be correct for the dungeons in BladeSong.


BladeSong In Game Credits Video :

A credits video was created during the development of BladeSong, which contains a large volume of cut-scenes from the main quest line. This video was intended to be a part of the main BladeSong mod and was designed to play in game directly after the final quest line was completed... but due to the massive file size of the video, it has been put into a seperate mod, more as 'bonus' content, for those willing and able to download the additional files. This small mod, when activated, will add to the players inventory a new book. Reading the book will start the video. *It is strongly recommended that one completes the main quest line first before viewing the video, as it was designed to do originally in BladeSong.*
Just copy the provided Data folder to your Oblivion folder. When your ready, activate the CreditsVideoBladeSong.esp . You can even wait to activate the .esp until you have finished the main quest line in BladeSong.




**IMPORTANT** Please be sure to follow the simple and quick step by step installation instructions! If one does not follow the instructions and instead simply 'throws' in BladeSong and runs it, chances are something will go wrong! The installation time is like 5 to 10 minutes max, and will set things up for a problem free first time experience..



Installation :

*If you do not have an existing version of BladeSong installed, go strait to the **Full Installation** area*


**UPDATING V1.0 TO V1.1 INSTRUCTIONS**

**These instructions are ONLY for those that had downloaded the release version 1.0 of BladeSong previously, and are only installing the .esp v1.1 update. All others go strait to the Full Installation area below this area.**

1 : Download either the BladeSongEsp V1_1 or the DarkerDungeonsVersionEsp V1_1, Extract the contents of the .Rar file to a safe location on your computer. Open the new folder created, and inside copy the folder named Data. Then Paste to your Oblivion folder (normally located in Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion). If prompted to overwrite, check 'Yes". Be sure to copy the entire contents of the Data folder provided, the new DistantLod files must be installed along with the .esp.

2 : When using save games from V1.0 , there are a few places and scenes where the old version saved games *cannot* have been made at, as they may cause significant visual anomalies and bugs. These areas include the following : Inside any of the new interiors added by BladeSong - most significantly Tess's shop, any time during the 'campfire' scene - after that scene is completely finished it is then safe to use an old saved game. Suggested not to use old saves made on the day of the battle.

3 : Those that are using save games from v1.0 that were made *after* the main quest line was completed, if you are running Shivering Isles, you should enter the following line in console mode once the save game is loaded : StartQuest AAZShivIsleFixskg Again, *Only* do this if the save game was made *After* the main quest line has been completed in BladeSong, if this console command is inputted at any point before the quest line is done, it will cause harm rather than good.

**Important : For those few of you that may have your 'Grab' command bound to your activate or select button through a custom setup, during the quest line please bind grab to a separate key or button, or else you will get stuck at a certain point. Once the quest line is finished you can re-bind again.**

4 : Installation Complete.



**FULL INSTALLATION**

*These instructions are for those that do not have a version of BladeSong installed at all.*

1 : Download the BladeSong Main Content file, Extract the contents of the .Rar file to a safe location on your computer. Open the BladeSongMainContent folder, and inside copy the folder named Data. Then Paste to your Oblivion folder (normally located in Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion).

2 : Download the current version of either the BladeSongEsp or the DarkerDungeonsVersionEsp, Extract the contents of the .Rar file to a safe location on your computer. Open the new folder created, and inside copy the folder named Data. Then Paste to your Oblivion folder (normally located in Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion). If prompted to overwrite, check 'Yes". Be sure to copy the entire contents of the Data folder provided, the new DistantLod files must be installed along with the .esp .

3 : One of the new races used by BladeSong requires you to select a particular texture provided if you are running a body replacer which has a match in the selection.
If you are not running a body replacer mod, then there is nothing you need do here at all, and you can skip down to the next step (4 : Load Order and Mod Conflicts)
If you are using a body replacer, within the BladeSongMainContent folder select the folder named 'extra' and see if you can find a folder that matches the name of your body replacer. If you find a match, just copy the folder "Textures" from within the correct body replacer folder provided, and paste to you Oblivion Data folder. Done.
If you cannot find a match from the provided textures, then you do not have to do anything at all. (the default textures for the new race were installed when you copied the Data folder, so your all set) Proceed to the next step.

4 : Load Order

While running the main quest line in BladeSong, you should set the BladeSong.esp to the last load order position. The only currently known exception to this is MergedMaps.esp, which can be loaded after BladeSong.

BladeSong Must be in a load position *after* Fcom and Martigens Monster Mode during the main quest line.

Once you have completed the main quest line, if you desire to continue to have BladeSong active, you may set the BladeSong.esp to any load order position you like, even to the top of the load order list. It is advised that after the quest line is complete that BladeSong is loaded *before* Personality Idles mod.


5 : Mod Conflicts

There are a few mod's which **MUST** be turned off *only* during the main quest line. Once you have finished the main quest line for BladeSong, you can re-enable all of these if you desire to still have BladeSong active.

Here is the listing of mods which again, MUST be turned OFF during the main quest line :

Duke Patricks - Near Miss Magic And Arrows Alert The Target.esp

Duke Patricks - Actors Can Miss Now.esp

*Any* mod which modifies the exterior areas of the town of Aleswell.

*Any* mod which modifies the exterior areas of the Ancestor Moths Temple.

It has been reported that Reaper's Coldstone is suggested to be turned off as well.


6 : Make a clean save game in a safe area before activating BladeSong... BladeSong modifies a number of wilderness areas in the North East area of Cyrodiil. Basically anywhere south of the Imperial City would be safe. Just go in game, before you activate BladeSong, and travel to anywhere south of the Imperial City, and make a new save game. Exit Oblivion, and proceed to step 7.

**Important : For those few of you that may have your 'Grab' command bound to your activate or select button through a custom setup, during the quest line please bind grab to a separate key or button, or else you will get stuck at a certain point. Once the quest line is finished you can re-bind again.**

7 : Activate the mod's.. In order to play BladeSong, you must have the following checked as active in Oblivions active mod listing : BladeSong.Esp and ScreenEffects.Esm.

8 : You are ready to start Oblivion and play BladeSong. Important - Once you are in game please find a location to sleep for 24 hours. This is to ensure all Ai will process correctly. This is purely for your sake, as the user, to have the most bug free experience possible while playing BladeSong.

9 : Important note before you play : Once you have slept for the 24 hours, if you have not yet completed the quest to remove the invisibility spell effect from the town of Aleswell, you will need to complete it before you can proceed into the main quest line. You *can* do this safely with BladeSong active, it will be fine.
Find Diram, if you can't locate him, search around the tavern where he is usually at almost all the time (he will be invisible, but a close look reveals a blurry pattern of his body if he is nearby). More then likely he will find you first though..


**End OF Installation Instructions**



Uninstalling BladeSong :

1 : While BladeSong is still active, go in game and load your last saved game. Once in game, press the ~ (title) key. Then type : SetStage RestoreChangesDl 10 and then hit enter, then hit the ~ (title) key again. Now you must wait about 5 to 10 seconds for the confirmation message to come up that indicates changes to Oblivion due to BladeSong have been reversed. Once the message has come up, and you have exited the message box, you must make a new save game. This save game will be safe to continue to play from once BladeSong is completely removed now. Then exit the game and proceed to the next step of uninstalling BladeSong.

2 : Start Oblivion Launcher, click Data Files, uncheck BladeSong.esp.

3 : Navigate to your Oblivion Data folder (normally located in Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion).

4 : Delete the following files and folders from the given locations :

BladeSong.esp located in Oblivion\Data

BladeSong.bsa located in Oblivion\Data

All files that contain the following text "aanorrianplains" located within Oblivion\Data\DistantLOD

BladeSongMusic Folder located in Oblivion\Data\Music

BladeSongRaces Folder located in Oblivion\Data\Textures\Characters

5 : Uninstall Complete



Troubleshooting :

**For quest related problems please refer to the BladeSong website - http://bladesong.homestead.com/ . Navigate to the Support page.**

The quest line was not designed for companion usage during it, and one may experience potential bugs along the way with a companion.

There are two fairly lengthy fade out/fade in sequences, which will result in the screen fading to black for up to 15 seconds, please just be patient and wait for the loading process to complete. During these two fade out sequences, there is a very *minor* chance a random crash may occur. In both situations, a save game is created just before the the fade out starts, so in the event of a crash you can come back to where you left off and proceed forward from that point.

There is a particular instance involving a large scale battle. During this instance, a save game is created just before and also after the battle is finished. Save games that are made during the battle itself may prove to be unstable and cause crashes. A text prompt comes up in game before the battle starts which reveals this identical information.

Depending on the users system specs and/or video card, a small percentage of users may experience a random crash while fast traveling to Aleswell. As far as I can tell this not due to the mod itself, but due to the vast exterior area and it's impact on computer performance during the loading process. I have confirmed on my end that even with BladeSong de-activated rare random crashes do happen when fast traveling to exterior areas around and at Aleswell at times.
In the event of such an occurrence, a second try will likely work fine. If a constant crash issue persists, please be sure that BladeSong is set to the last load order position, beyond this, try waiting a few moments once in game again to allow everything to load properly before trying again. In the worst case scenario one may need to use an earlier save, or may even need to re-boot to reset the video cards memory. It is unknown at this time if Screen Effects may increase the chance of in game crashes.



In Game Problems And Solutions :

Please visit the main website for BladeSong, and navigate to the 'Support' area to find potential solutions to your issue :

http://bladesong.homestead.com/



Contact :

You can find me on the official Elder Scrolls forums as Sornan

Direct contact to me via email : mrpibb53@yahoo.com



Credits :


Christian Arnold (aka Sornan)
BladeSong Author, Producer, Developer, Scripter


Debbie Foster
Voice Of Tess Rysan

Steven Frost
Voice Of Captain Grenaw

Bart Flynn
Voice Of Thomak

Torry Clark
Voice Of Halgrad

Anthony Lettl
Voice Of General Damascus

Sean Cooper
Voice Of Fergon



The BladeSong Beta Testing Team :

AliTheLord

Phoenix7

nottlong

Malonn



InsanitySorrow
Huge credit to him for jumping in and saving the day by creating the normal map file needed for Tess's shop sign to appear properly.


worm82075
Creation of multiple videos for voice actors to see their work installed in game during development.


Rsdnt-Evle
Huge credit goes to him for companion follow scripts (that actually work always), script that always works reliably to force an equipment change, player-to npc item sharing, and scripts that fix the double face issue, along with a few other details that cause problems with companions. His excellent script work in these areas from his Companion Neeshka mod saved tons of time in testing and work to fix these issues, and therefore the credit is due him direct for such applications in this mod.


Phitt
Testing in various complex script areas. Creation of a bug free version of the 'barricade walls'.


Pronam
Testing and discovering the fix to keeping dialog topics 'gold forever' for a companion.


ShadeMe, QQuix and Vagrant0
For helping many times with questions and some major issues in the Bethesda Construction Set Forums.


Miss Onatopp
Elves of Lineage II Mod
The new 'Saiphar' race in this mod uses the identical meshes and textures (included), except for a few facial modifications. Hence credit is due directly to Miss Onatopp for this new race.


Danis13
Meshes and textures for the new Dagrukhai race use his updated Orc textures. Also full credit to him for the new textures used in the Vibrant Npc's mod, the only thing Vibrant Npc's does is modify the age slider settings for the default races while using his textures.


Jojjo and Petrovich
UFF & RM Morrigan Armor
Jojjo : creator of the original Morrigan Armor
Petrovich : Alterations to the armor's appearance


The Bloke
Creator of the Uruk-hai scimitar and shield which are used by a number of the Dagrukhai warriors.


The entire Oblivion Script Extender Team
Huge thanks to the entire team of developers of Obse, many scenarios in this mod may never have been possible without Obse.


quetzilla
Screen Effects Mod
Various areas in BladeSong that have fade in's and fade out's are only possible because this mod.


The entire TES4Gecko Team
Huge thanks to the entire team of developers of TES4Gecko, an essential tool for anyone creating new vast world spaces properly.


Lightwave
Tes4QLOD
Proper generation of distant Lod landscape in the Norrian Plains.


Bioxx
Tes4QLOD GUI
A very useful button style interface for Tes4QLOD.


Thanks to God for creating us all.


Final Huge Thanks and Credit to :

Debbie Foster for her high quality voice overs. To find out more
about Debbie, please visit her site http://www.voiceadvertising.com
or her page at http://debbie.voices.com

Hey, you've released it finally :thumbsup: Keep up the bad work, mate !

Thanks for the INSTANTDOWNLOAD...

Looks good trying it now

Where did this one come from? God, I'm getting slow in my old age

Oh well, I've got slots, time to download! Thank you!

Sounds and look great

Is it a technical issue when having:
Duke Patricks - Near Miss Magic And Arrows Alert The Target.esp
Duke Patricks - Actors Can Miss Now.esp
enabled?

I am only wondering out of interest (always good to know why mods affect certain things and why)

Cheers!

Aren't you running low on open mod slots, Richard? :laugh:

I myself am full at the moment. I need to play Oblivion a little more so I can start clearing the list of all the quest mods I've already done.

Congrats on the release though, sornan!

Wow, where did this come from?

Looks great, and voice acted too! Love the battle scene shown on the trailer video.

Anyone run into compatibility problems with big popular mods, eg Better Cities or Unique Landscapes?

Congrats on the RELz



None that I came across whilst beta testing




For me it caused a CTD on any attack that you landed whilst those mods were active.

Does the author know why Duke Patricks mods are not going to work? what the conflict is?

I thought that this project was dead, luckily that wasn't the case

As AliTheLord said, it caused constant crashes during combat with some of the Dagrukhai on his end during testing. To be honest, absolutely no apparent reason why it would cause a problem, and the bottom line was just that it was happeneing, and hence it is required to turn them off at least during the main quest line. As stated, once the quest line is complete it should be fine to re-enable them.


Thanks to all for downloading and playing BladeSong

Hey Sornan! Congratz on release, mate! :foodndrink:

Great, looking forward to see the large battles you've been working on for so long. I like the mod very much so far.

One tiny bug I found is that only one ingredient of each type is removed when you deliver stuff to Tess (flour, wheat etc). This could be an engine bug as I had the same happen in my Museum mod sometimes (removeitem XX 5 would only remove 1 item instead of 5). Just mentioning in case it is an oversight in a script.

And I have a problem with screen effects. Everytime I load a savegame all my values are reset to 0, causing a gray screen. It's not the fault of Blade Song as I tried without it, but I'd still like to know if anyone has a solution for it. I've seen there is mod to fix it, but if I understand correctly it will just reset the mod to default every time it happens. Strange thing is that I've used Screen Effects before for a short while and didn't have this bug. I even downloaded Pluggy since Screen Effects seems to make use of it without even mentioning it in the readme. For now I've just set the settings to values I like directly in the script and removed the ini read on game load which obviously didn't work.

I'm also stuck right now:

Although I haven't gotten as far as installing and trying this (that is if it works with Screen effects, I am using it though - cracking!); from the OBGEv2 thread:

So maybe if you use the new OBGE it would sort itself out, or maybe you are using the new one?

I am also wondering about the changes to northern Cyrodiil - is it evil on the Unique Landscapes?

Will install soon so much to do...

Cheers!

Will try, although it seems to be a problem with the script since the shaders are ok, only the values are reset to 0 on game load. I have them set to the values I like now directly so I it doesn't matter that much anyway.

But I have a serious problem now:

Fully played the mod, Loved the work and voice acting lovingly done, the way you placed the ambushes were excellent, I jumped at every one of them >_< and the large scale fight was fine and well, my concerns are though that everything was quick, very quick the mod was right to the point and I felt shoved into this conflict and the love lol, but mute the mod was great now I just need a house lol

I just finished it and enjoyed it a lot - it's very professionally done with some really nice use of "you lose control and just have to watch" scenes, which I normally don't like. Also, possibly the most professional voice acting I've heard in a mod. The only thing that didn't work as I suppose is intended was



Also, if doing an update it would be nice if someone would proofread the dialogue etc. as there are quite a few small mistakes. Anyway, excellent mod - many thanks for sharing.

That was intended to happen, they don't actually kiss

And must have missed some dialogue mistakes when testing lol

I too agree the voice acting is the most professional I've heard, was blown away when I heard it the first time

Great mod sadly couldnt finish it due to when i was in the camp to sleep i selcted half battle and it was done and nothing but a black screen nothing else started.

First off thanks for everyones input

Secondly, a number of issues are reported here that have never cropped up in the testing phases, and I will certainly see what I can do about these issues.




Thanks m8




First time Ive heard of someone truly dying, yes, using ModAv2, and will look into this and ensure that this cannot happen again.

The Dagrukhai are almost all at levels comparable to OOO's guard levels. That particular enemy was originally at a lesser level, but 2 testers that had characters around lvl 15 reported him as an easy kill, and hence upped him in level. I can surely say that higher difficulty levels will of course only make things harder though.




Im sorry this is happeneing to you m8 This is the third report of this issue now, of which cannot be replicated on my end, nor was reported by testers as well. I'm not sure if this boils down to the computer specs of the user, or what.. Believe me I have tested that particular area probably 200 times without flaw on my end, but something is going wrong on a few peoples side, I have to look into this. There is a significant amount of stuff that happens during that black out, which results in the loading of up to 60 npc's at their new locations.



Glad you liked the mod overall
During that particular scene, do you mean your character was not even there with her?




Again, my apologies. This is the third report of this issue amongst the volume of people that have played the mod, and I am looking into it.

Yes, both were there but the only thing I saw was the sky and the camp. After the scene was over she stood beside my char with her hand raised as if she would caress someone who wasn't there. So I thought it should have been a kiss scene of some sort. In short, no idea what happened as my chars view was locked and she didn't see anything.

BTW, I noticed that my char has a really powerful scroll in her inventory which comes from BladeSong, but I can't remember when she got it?

Tess gave it to her after you helped/payed up for it, I was under the impression I would have to use it during the quest ti be honest, I was tempted to wait out the five days and see what would happen if I didnt buy it lol

Geez, my memory is starting to fail me... That was the start of the whole thing. I figure it would help taking out Lord Volmyr (OOO) in no time - might try it out.

For those that are running into a 'bug' during the point at which you sleep at the encampment, here is what will hopefully work until I can get V1.1 released, hopefully tonight after work :

Once the screen fades to black and you hear a messageBox come up of which you cannot see, enter console mode (press ~ key).

then type : Tm and hit enter

then type :EnableMouse and hit enter

Close console (hit the ~ key again)

You can then click the done button on the messageBox and then the black screen should remain for about another 10 to 15 seconds and should end roughly at that point.

Important, in this event you will likely need to hit input Tm again in the console mode once the fade scene ends.


/Edit

Huge thanks to Phitt for trying out the fix, it does work. I will be installing the fix in V1.1 .