[Veronica Martinez]

It would be great if we could get interactions with other "personality-heavy" companion NPCs, but I know that would be a collaborative effort, and very time-consuming.

Thought I'd mention it, though. I can dream, can't I?

[Daniel Brown]

I can't wait to try this companion- I've wanted a companion like this, with a "mind of their own", that WASN'T a romance companion. (Hooray for non-romance companion! :B) Previously I was intrigued with Duke Patrick's "The lady said NO!" companion mod, but he removed it and I haven't really messed with it since.

Thanks very much! I'll try this out and tell you what I think.

[Allison C]

It would be great if we could get interactions with other "personality-heavy" companion NPCs, but I know that would be a collaborative effort, and very time-consuming.

Thought I'd mention it, though. I can dream, can't I?

Well, Oblivion doesn't work like Morrowind, where the 'infamous' "short emmasnpcid"-variable made companions from various mods automatically interact with each other. So such advanced kind of interaction is as far as i can see not possible. There might be other options, though, provided that the companions have conversation files (unfortunately, companions with unique voices and/or races rarely have this). I'll never be a good scripter, but I'm very interested in this kind of challenges (although I definitely don't know yet what is possible). Do you know of any personality-heavy companions that has conversations? Baddy, maybe?

[KU Fint]

I can't wait to try this companion- I've wanted a companion like this, with a "mind of their own", that WASN'T a romance companion. (Hooray for non-romance companion! :B)

That's why I said that if I ever add any kind of 'romance' to her, it will be extremely optional. There are already several romance companions around, I wanted to make a companion that you could above all have a *friendship* with. That way, players don't have to feel bad about having both Vilja and a romance companion in tow. And there are also many of us female players around, that don't want to romance another girl. (I made the first 'romance companion' for Morrowind - Laura Craft - and I never felt completely comfortable when she treated me like her loved one and I was married to one of my male companions, Wulfren).

Previously I was intrigued with Duke Patrick's "The lady said NO!" companion mod, but he removed it and I haven't really messed with it since.

Thanks very much! I'll try this out and tell you what I think.

I have heard many good things about "The lady" by Duke Patrick. I believe that Vilja is more sweet-tempered than her and more eager to tell you when she is mad at you. But in many ways, these two are probably of the same kind, although Vilja is more focused on dialog and how you respond to her, whereas The Lady's moods was scripted.

I do hope you will enjoy Vilja's company .

[rae.x]

Incorrect, her moods were absolutely NOT scripted.
They were a compounded result of how you treater her both in short term and LONG term.

The AI was designed to remember the things you did and said, and made decisions based on that as well as moods and current circumstances.
For example she was afraid of the dark and that affected her mood in dungeons and after sundown. That then affected some of her responses, but never was any response only dictated by a caned script result.

So she was more likely to agree to staying in her home after dark, if the player figured this out they had a chance to "trick her" into staying at home but it was never a "sure thing".

In fact that is why I stop working on her, her AI became way too complicated for me to continue on with as there were too many interacting decision making loops to follow consciously. So she stated to become neurotic with some responses to the player that were not "sane".
I am not a skilled programmer, so I (like most people in general) I can only hold 7 or less conscious loops of thought at a time.

Way back then (when I made her) there was nothing but an ocean of soulless robots for companions, and my hope was to change this. So I
am glad to see someone else finally trying out my ideas for making companions less then a slave to the player's whims and requests.
All NPC in games should be made this way now that we have the PC power to do it.

I have studied psychology as part of my profession as an illusionist. Focusing mostly on the way people use logic and come to conclusions.
So that may have made it easier for me to design the mechanics for this kind of NPC. That could be why this had not been done as I did it.

From what I read Mass Effect 2 is a game that is now using this kind of mechanic. That is great to see! Now more pro DEV may try it as well.

I have heard many good things about "The lady" by Duke Patrick. I believe that Vilja is more sweet-tempered than her and more eager to tell you when she is mad at you. But in many ways, these two are probably of the same kind, although Vilja is more focused on dialog and how you respond to her, whereas The Lady's moods was scripted.

I do hope you will enjoy Vilja's company .

[Danielle Brown]

Well, Oblivion doesn't work like Morrowind, where the 'infamous' "short emmasnpcid"-variable made companions from various mods automatically interact with each other. So such advanced kind of interaction is as far as i can see not possible. There might be other options, though, provided that the companions have conversation files (unfortunately, companions with unique voices and/or races rarely have this). I'll never be a good scripter, but I'm very interested in this kind of challenges (although I definitely don't know yet what is possible). Do you know of any personality-heavy companions that has conversations? Baddy, maybe?

Baddy only converses (thus far) with my character(s). I think Sultericdrums is planning at some point to combine his Viconia and Saerileth mods, but I'm sure that's out there quite a bit.

[Ebou Suso]

Incorrect, her moods were absolutely NOT scripted.
They were a compounded result of how you treater her both in short term and LONG term.

The AI was designed to remember the things you did and said, and made decisions based on that as well as moods and current circumstances.
For example she was afraid of the dark and that effected her mood in dungeons and after sundown. That then effected some of her responses, but never was any response was only dictated by a caned script result.

In fact that is why I stop working on her, her AI became way too complicated for me to continue on with as there were too many interacting decision's making loops to follow
consciously. So she stated to become neurotic with some responses to the player that were not "sane".
I am not a skilled programmer, so I like most people I can only hold 7 or less conscious loops of thought at a time.


At the time there was nothing but an ocean of soulless robots for companions, and my hope was to change this. So I
am glad to see someone else finally trying out my ideas for making companions less then a slave to the player's whims and requests.
All NPC in games should be made this way now that we have the PC power to do it.

Hi Spookyfx/Duke Patrick - good to see you post here! :wave:

I'm sorry for the confusion - I based my words on something you had said about an alternate set of variables controlling her moods. This was in another thread, about companions, where people talked of your Lady with fondness and wondered what had happened to her. Alas, I didn't play Oblivion while she was around. Therefore, I'm not sure whether or not I'm using anything in a similar way as you did with the Lady. All my companions before Vilja have been Morrowind ones, and ever since the first one back in 2002, my goal has always been to put as much heart, soul and personality into them as possible. Vilja is set up pretty much in the same way as my Morrowind companions - i.e. huge amounts of dialog and randomly appearing dialog subjects where you might improve your relation with her if you are lucky (persuasion disabled, of course). But as I'm not very skilled at scripting, I have always tried to make use of the dialog and result box scripts as much as possible.

I have a feeling that our thoughts are very much the same on what makes a good companion - I would really have liked to meet your Lady.

[Karen anwyn Green]

Baddy only converses (thus far) with my character(s). I think Sultericdrums is planning at some point to combine his Viconia and Saerileth mods, but I'm sure that's out there quite a bit.

OK, thank you for the information .

I had thought he was a nord and thereby using the nord conversation files, but maybe he has been made an unique race. I'll have a look at him anyway, in case he is using the nord voice.
I'm thinking there should still be possibilities .

[Leticia Hernandez]

Sorry I may have come off a little too strong there, I am a little defensive about her AI as it was the most work and I have put into any mod. A lot of the mechanics came from my previous work in making a decision making "engine" for D&D characters so that the DM could give results with out it being only the DM's "choice" and yet still not be just a dice roll. So There was many many many years of thought involved in this project.

To have her go insane on me because my lack of programing skills made me upset, I wanted to get it to the point that I could proudly document the mechanics for other moders to use in companions as well. But As I said I think Mass Effect 2 is now doing this (based on what I have read about the game, I have not play it) so this kinda makes my work "old news".

I am happy to hear you also are doing this for companions, I hope other companion modders for oblivion also start to do this, that is... NOT only "random dice" results or just dialog tree results based on simple disposition checks (as it is now in Oblivion.)

In Vanilla Oblivion, all you need to do is raise the NPC Disposition and it matter not how many times in the past you offended them because they have NO memory of how you treated them.


If you can do this in your mod (memory of past offenses) that would be the number one thing I would like to see in any companion AI.

Hi Spookyfx/Duke Patrick - good to see you post here! :wave:

I'm sorry for the confusion - I based my words on something you had said about an alternate set of variables controlling her moods. This was in another thread, about companions, where people talked of your Lady with fondness and wondered what had happened to her. Alas, I didn't play Oblivion while she was around. Therefore, I'm not sure whether or not I'm using anything in a similar way as you did with the Lady. All my companions before Vilja have been Morrowind ones, and ever since the first one back in 2002, my goal has always been to put as much heart, soul and personality into them as possible. Vilja is set up pretty much in the same way as my Morrowind companions - i.e. huge amounts of dialog and randomly appearing dialog subjects where you might improve your relation with her if you are lucky (persuasion disabled, of course). But as I'm not very skilled at scripting, I have always tried to make use of the dialog and result box scripts as much as possible.

I have a feeling that our thoughts are very much the same on what makes a good companion - I would really have liked to meet your Lady.

[RObert loVes MOmmy]

"If you can do this in your mod (memory of past offenses) that would be the number one thing I would like to see in any companion AI."

A very simple way to do this would be similar to the disposition system. Every-time disposition goes down to a certain level their "past memory of bad things about you" variable goes up. This is then compared to an opposite but similar variable for "memory of the times they had a high disposition with you".

Then NPC current reactions and current disposition can be modified (to what ever degree) based on comparing the two levels.

I try very hard in all my mods to use a multitude of conditions to calculate outcomes and always try to minimize the "dice rolls" as much as possible. In this way results can still be unpredictable and pseudo random depending on conditions out of the player's control but will have an underlining logic to them that the player can eventually learn (somewhat) if they are paying attention.

Again this is very very simple overview of what I did in my AI, but this will make your NPC 100 times more realistic than the vanilla NPC.

I might be able to find some time to script this in a Quest script for you if you want me to. I would output a "relationship history" number you could use how ever you like in your result scripts.

[Zach Hunter]

deleted a error in pressing my reply button

[Gemma Archer]

Thank you ever so much for your input, spookkyfx. I truly appreciate the information you cared to share with me, and will definitely evaluate if there is something I could incorporate with Vilja (without breaking her into small pieces). Although I have to put Vilja's personality into the picture as well, and she is relatively sweet-tempered (especially compared to some of my Morrowind companions).
The way you describe the 'memory of past offense' seems like a very neat and clean way to manage long-term relation setup. If I interpret your descriptions right, I believe that your Lady has been quite a bit more sophisticated in this aspect than any of my mods (whereas my mods have probably been heavier on the dialog side).

[Emmanuel Morales]

I'm so sorry, I must have been away when you posted your replied, cause I haven't seen it until now!

:shifty:

It's okay, cheers! :violin:

1 - add a quick-option for "wait" in the main topics menu (for situations where you for instance don't want her to follow you further into a dungeon)

2 - add a check to the part of the story where she gets poisoned, so that you can make her use a cure poison potion if she already has one in her inventory.

3 - filter dialog entry about riding so that she doesn't tell you she wants to go for a ride when she is already on the horseback.

4 - force her to reevaluate her aipackage (evp) after fasttravelling, to as much as possible prevent her from going into wandermode.

5 - Add a quest icon.

Yup, definitely! (Especially no. 1 and 5, as I have requested)

6 - Make her report stats skills for mercantile and armorer correctly (although these skills are redundant; she never uses them)

7 - Adjust the skillreport for marksmanship. Now it is reporting fully according to her *current* class-package, but it might be better to always report the higher marksman skill, so players don't think she is lousy at using a bow.

8 - The dialog filter for the Dragonic Madstone quest might not be corrent (?) (she talks about it even if you have done the quest? - not confirmed)

I did notice she mentioned Draconiac Madstone a few times even though I have completed the Pale Pass quest. No idea about no.6 and no.7.

All in all good ideas for improvements, and definitely looking forward no.1 and no.5 :hubbahubba: :nod:

[Farrah Lee]

Maybe also reevaluate her Morrowind-gush lines in case PC is a Dunmer. A promise to show Morrowind to *him* sounds rather silly.

[Nick Swan]

Maybe also reevaluate her Morrowind-gush lines in case PC is a Dunmer. A promise to show Morrowind to *him* sounds rather silly.

Well, is it? I understand what you say, but I'm not sure I agree with you. Of course there might be players (especially former Morrowind-players like us) who roleplay that their dunmer char is from Vvardenfell or that their nord char is from Solstheim, but I always believed that Cyrodiil was since generations a melting pot for all races and cultures, and that our characters are born in Cyrodiil (i.e. that this is what is assumed by the game developers). Then it wouldn't be more silly for Vilja to want to show a dunmer Morrowind than it would be for an american born and raised in Peking to want to show China to Mr Wong Li, fourth generation american at the New York Chinese restaurant.

The first time you meet Vilja, she also asks you if you have been in Morrowind (I couldn't resist that ) and the options are "no" or "yes, a long time ago". Maybe the player in the roleplay 'lies' to her by saying it was a long time ago when he (or she) in fact just arrived by the ship, but *Vilja* doesn't know of this.

[Connor Wing]

That means you cheated, disallowing the player a chance to tell the truth.

I noticed that Vilja sometimes urges the player to continue some of quests he is stalling with. What would be also nice is that she also express her appreciation or discontent with ways he solves them, usually when several "good" and "evil" ways are possible. Not that she *always* has be good, though. Of course, the script would have to be aware of time, so that the comment might come in a couple of minutes but rather not hours since the discussed action took place.

[Nick Pryce]

Baddy only converses (thus far) with my character(s). I think Sultericdrums is planning at some point to combine his Viconia and Saerileth mods, but I'm sure that's out there quite a bit.

Hey, I just added him to my game and left him, Vilja and a little WIP-companion of mine alone in wandermode - and I was laughing out loud. Baddy (using the standard Breton voice) and Vilja where chatting all the time, sometimes with hilarious results, and I will see what i can do to expand on this. I hadn't tried Baddy out before because of his location in the prison, but now I 'cheated' a little so that he would join me where I was. And I'm glad I did - he seems to be quite an interesting character! If you have both Vilja and Baddy in your game, you really should try this.

[Gemma Woods Illustration]

That means you cheated, disallowing the player a chance to tell the truth.

Who?? Me?? :ninja:

I noticed that Vilja sometimes urges the player to continue some of quests he is stalling with. What would be also nice is that she also express her appreciation or discontent with ways he solves them, usually when several "good" and "evil" ways are possible. Not that she *always* has be good, though. Of course, the script would have to be aware of time, so that the comment might come in a couple of minutes but rather not hours since the discussed action took place.

this sounds like an interesting idea! Thank you

[Monika Fiolek]

All in all good ideas for improvements, and definitely looking forward no.1 and no.5 :hubbahubba: :nod:

I will always think of no 5 as "XtremeRampage's quest icon" . (It *does* look better with the quest icon, though )

[Neil]

Hi Emma, I really enjoy Vilja Thanks for making and sharing her. I too think your voice acting is great.

Alas i have developed a bug with her. She wont stop healing herself. Every few seconds she heals. Its like she never fully heals so its constant. I dont think its a mod conflict because my daughter plays on the same pc with the same mods and Vilja works fine with her.

Any way I thought i would report this and ask if you have any ideas to get her to stop.

Thanks again and im looking forward to your Vilja update.

[Sunnii Bebiieh]

Hi Emma, I really enjoy Vilja Thanks for making and sharing her. I too think your voice acting is great.

Alas i have developed a bug with her. She wont stop healing herself. Every few seconds she heals. Its like she never fully heals so its constant. I dont think its a mod conflict because my daughter plays on the same pc with the same mods and Vilja works fine with her.

Any way I thought i would report this and ask if you have any ideas to get her to stop.

Thanks again and im looking forward to your Vilja update.

Hi,

and thank you for your kind words

I wonder, are you using the first version of her, or have you switched to the ver 1.02? with ver 1 there were two incidents with people who ran into exactly this. I don't recall exactly what it was, but it was something with scripted spells in a mod. To reduce the risks for this to happen to her, I changed her health to match the health of the player in the next versions.

It seems that in most cases an old trick from Morrowind companions work just as well also with Oblivion companions when they start to act oddly: first off, remove enchanted items from her so they don't play part of the problem. Then bring her to a safe place where you leave her behind for +72 game hours. without visiting her in between. After +72 hours, you can return to her, and I bet she will be acting normally again.

[rolanda h]

Hi,

and thank you for your kind words

I wonder, are you using the first version of her, or have you switched to the ver 1.02? with ver 1 there were two incidents with people who ran into exactly this. I don't recall exactly what it was, but it was something with scripted spells in a mod. To reduce the risks for this to happen to her, I changed her health to match the health of the player in the next versions.

It seems that in most cases an old trick from Morrowind companions work just as well also with Oblivion companions when they start to act oddly: first off, remove enchanted items from her so they don't play part of the problem. Then bring her to a safe place where you leave her behind for +72 game hours. without visiting her in between. After +72 hours, you can return to her, and I bet she will be acting normally again.

Thanks for the fast reply Emma. I will try your suggestions. Im not sure what version i have ( my daughter is playing at the moment)

I do have a eat, drink and sleep mod installed and it causes MY health to be just alittle low most of the time. I'll check that out also..

[M!KkI]

Har alltid elsket moddene dine Emma, Kommer til ? pr?ve denne ut! ^^

[Joie Perez]

I'm impressed and theroughly creeped out at the same time. i am using Real Sleep extended and as soon as I got sleepy s he actually NOTICED how did you do that?

[Evaa]

Thanks for the fast reply Emma. I will try your suggestions. Im not sure what version i have ( my daughter is playing at the moment)

I do have a eat, drink and sleep mod installed and it causes MY health to be just alittle low most of the time. I'll check that out also..

Tajond, I think maybe you misunderstood me (or rather, I was very unclear) because her health is set to your maximum health, not to your current health. in the first version it was set to 85 % of your health.

I'm not sure how an eat, drank and sleep mod might affect her, probably not at all. I suggest you just try the 72 hours trick, and make sure she isn't wearing anything with constant magical effects when you leave her.

quote Sazuke21

Har alltid elsket moddene dine Emma, Kommer til ? pr?ve denne ut! ^^

Tack s? mycket! Thank you, it's good to know you appreaciate my work. Hope you will also love Vilja, then.


quote tnu

I'm impressed and theroughly creeped out at the same time. i am using Real Sleep extended and as soon as I got sleepy s he actually NOTICED how did you do that?

"You look tired... maybe we should take a break and rest?"

Oh yes, I have heard her saying that, too...
There is an increased chance that she will say it late in the evenings, but many times I wonder, myself, if she has something more than just a simple AI up in her head. She tends to say exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment.

Yesterday, I was testing some of her features and was planning to go swimming with her. As we were approaching the beach, she suddenly charged ahead, killed two mudcrabs and then continued out in the water and killed of a slaughterfish.

She returned to me and said: "How about mud crabs for dinner?" Followed by: "I do like swimming, but I hate those slaughterfishes".

Sufficient to say that I'm thoroughly creeped out as well, from time to time.