[RELZ] Companion Vilja

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 2:13 pm

COMPANION VILJA - ver 1.0


http://lovkullen.net/Emma/index.htm



Vilja in swedish means willpower, guts, determination. And that is something Vilja has got lots of!

When her sister was put in prison on bread and water for selling beauty creme with unexpected effects to the Vvardenfell nobility, Vilja instantly decided to help her. But things hasn't turned out the way Vilja expected... She is now waiting for a friend of her sister in The Bloated Float at the Waterfront in the imperial city. But, the days are passing, and the friend hasn't shown up. Meanwhile, her sister is suffering in prison.

Will you help Vilja? Will you let her come along with you in her search for ingredients for an antidote potion that might make it possible for her sister to help those unfortunate that used the beauty creme?

Vilja is a young nord girl, born in Solstheim and living in Cyrodiil since... well, that she will explain to you, herself, when she knows you better!

She isn't the best fighter in the world (why would she then need your help?), nor the best marksman, and when it comes to spells, she has only learnt waterwalking, teleporting and some healing ones.

But she will certainly change your lonely life in Cyrodiil, as she is talkative, curious and very unpredictable.

Background

Although I have made several companion mods for Morrowind, Vilja is my first companion mod for Oblivion. When I had played through the game for the second time this spring, I started to feel lonely and looked around for companions similar to my Morrowind ones. After a lot of research, I found my favorite - Companion Neeshka by Rsdnt_Evle, an absolutely lovely Dunmer lady who I recommend every companion user to use in their game. After using her for a while, I got so intrigued that I couldn't resist starting out on my own companion. At first she was just a clone of Neeshka (which is why also Vilja will be found in the Bloated Float in Waterfront) but as time passed, Vilja took her own path and Neeshka would today probably disagreeingly shake her head if I insisted that Vilja was a 'distant relative' of hers...

Vilja is in many ways similar to my Morrowind companions - she has her own story, her own personality, her own mission, and lots and lots of dialog (68 meg, 1500 voiced and lipsynced dialog lines).

What to expect

- There is a quest-line connected to Vilja which will keep you busy for a number of hours; you will have to fight, convince, guess and maybe do some less honorable things in order to help her. However, don't expect a long, involved storyline with new landmasses! Instead, it's a relatively short, simple story that is mostly there to give you a background and a reason why Vilja will want to team up with you and be your side-kick. Those of you who have played my Morrowind companion mods (Laura, Constance, Witchgirl et al) will know what I mean.

- Vilja has her own life story, her own goals, her own wishes and needs. If you talk to her, you will learn more and more about her over time. Treat her well and your friendship will grow stronger and stronger.

- Vilja's level is set to 3 levels below yours. This means that if you start out with her when you are at level 1, it will take a while before she reaches higher levels (should happen when you are level 4).

- You will get a Vilja SUMMON SPELL that will bring her to you, should she ever vanish. Note that she will be in wander-mode when arriving!

- There are two esp-files in the package. In one of them, Vilja is 'essential', i.e. she will not die. In the other one she is not essential and you will have to protect her quite a lot as Oblivion enemies tend to prefer to attack companions and horses rather than the player!

- Vilja has her own horse, and when you mount your horse, she will summon hers and go riding with you.

- She is very talkative, but you can tell her to shut up if you don't want to listen to her.

- You can't bribe her or play the speechcraft game with her. But you will find other ways to improve her disposition towards you. (Do you like strawberries? Well, hope you are not too fond of them, as Vilja will want them all).

- You can tell her to eat, drink, take a nap, go home, meet you in various cities. She will recognize your home as her home as well, once you have told her that this is where you will live.

- When she is in wander mode, she has her own daily routines, and unless you tell her to stop, she will continue small-talking to you.

- She can make some simple potions for you if you give her an ingredient. She can collect ingredients for you. She can later on heal you if you ask her to. When you are at home, she might surprise you with one of her pies. You can send her to do some shopping for you, but it's quite hazardous as she might not have the same idea as you on what is a bargain. If you run out of lockpicks, you can buy some from her, and she can help you with a hammer if necessary. Oh, she can lit a torch, too.

- She can be ordered to fight aggressive, defensive or not at all. If she is not supposed to fight at all, she will only fight back if she is attacked and you - the player - draw your weapon. As long as you remain passive, she will just heal herself, silly girl!

- On top of that, she offers heaps of advice and suggestions on what to do - but her ideas might not always match yours.

- She is not a romance companion, but she does offer affection, loyalty and friendship.

- When left in wander-mode together with other npcs and companions (for instance CM Partners), she will small-talk with them as well, sometimes using standard topics, sometimes bringing up her own topics (note that some companions, in particular those with unique voices, don't have any conversations and therefore Vilja cannot chat with them)

- As I have voice-acted Vilja, myself (where else would I find a lunatic that would voice-record and lip-sync 1500 voice-entries?), she is speaking english with a strong scandinavian accent (I'm from Sweden) and she is probably making quite a few mistakes, especially when it comes to pronouncation. Please let me know of unacceptable mistakes that should be attended to in later versions (her english won't be flawless no matter what, as my english isn't flawless).

Known issues

- Vilja is very talkative and will chat with you whereever you go. However, the lipsync in Oblivion only works when you are facing the talking npc. This means that sometimes, her lip-movement will appear once you turn around and look at her, i.e. she will then appear to be talking but you won't be able to hear anything.

- Vilja can fight both melee and ranged, but like every companion in Oblivion, she sometimes "forgets" to load her bow with arrows! (If you are already using companions in Oblivion, you are probably familiar with this problem). I haven't found any way to 'fix' this, but she will start using arrows again after you have switched cells.

- Like any other companion, Vilja will only sleep in beds that have no owner assiged to them, and she might not sit in chairs that aren't marked as "persistant". If you tell her to take a nap and she refuses, it's not her fault - there simply isn't a suitable bed at the location. She will then revert to her daily schedule and do what she would normally have done at that hour of the day.

- Some modder-made houses are companion-friendly, others aren't. If there are no pathgrids, no persistant chairs and no beds without ownership, companions won't behave very well. Thank you Korana for explaining all the important things regarding this, and for always making your houses companion-friendly!

- I have seen that at rare occasions,in particular when fast-travelling, she might remove her armor. This is also something she has in common with the other Oblivion companions I have seen. Just tell her to add it again! If that doesn't help, it's probably because her armor is broken and then you'll have to repair it.
Sometimes when you give her new equipment, she will not use it at first (I have even seen her start fist-fighting after getting a new sword), but if you just tell her to equip her armor again that should be cured. This is also a known issue with Oblivion companions in general. If she still misbehaves, check if parts of her armor is broken - you will have to repair it before she uses it again.

- When she is asked to make a potion for you, she is supposed to actually switch AI-package and you can watch her make the potion. This works just fine when she is not wearing armor, but is unreliable when she is wearing armor. Often it works just fine, but occcasionally, especially after switching between interior and exterior cells, she might just stand there idle for a little while before she initiates dialog with you to tell you that your potion is ready. I've spent days on trying to cure this, but have not been successful... However, you will always get your potion, it's just the potionmaking-animation that won't always work.

- There is dialog added to some original Oblivion npcs, but don't get alarmed, 'cause the dialog isn't filtered for the npc-ID (filtering for ID can cause serious problems if more than one mod includes dialog for that npc). Instead it is filtered for the npc's race, gender, class and specific location! That, I believe, shouldn't ever cause any conflicts!

Installation

ALWAYS MAKE A SAFETY COPY OF YOUR SAVED GAME BEFORE ADDING OR UPGRADING ANY MOD, THIS ONE INCLUDED!!!!

Just drop the content in the Vilja data-folder into your Oblivion-data-library. The various folders (meshes, textures, sound) should automatically merge with your existing folders (which will guarantee that everything ends up at the correct locations). You will get a message concerning this from the computer, just say OK. Then, choose one of the esp-files, depending on if you want Vilja to be essential (can never die) or not essential. Remove the esp-file of your choice from its sub-folder and place it in your Oblivion-Data folder.

Compatibility

Vilja should work very well together with other mods. However, an old mod called Cheydinhal Petshop affects a global that will prevent Vilja's daycounters from working (this is not unique for Vilja - the Petshop has the same effect on all mods with daycounters).
If you use mods like for instance persuasion overhaul you might find that npcs from the Vilja-mod will have additional topics where they will use the game-original voices. It's not a conflict, but it sounds a bit annoying. There isn't much I can do about this, although immersion-breaking it won't cause any real problem.

Credits

- Rsdnt_Evle for his lovely Neeshka companion, which inspired me to start out on Vilja. Vilja's script is a rework of the latest version of Neeshka, although the differences in script and AI-packages is by now quite extensive. If you want many companions in your game, I strongly recommend Neeshka, she is adorable! You will find here here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8256

- CM Partners - Looking through this great companion template gave me many valuable ideas and solutions. The skill-report script I'm using is a rework from the skill-report system for the CM Partners, adjusted for a single-companion. The Partners base mod can be found here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7819

- Charley the Khajiit - for voiceacting Heneri, Runar and Thorgeir

- Cyrano - for proofreading, script optimizing, brainstorming, troubleshooting, encouragement, playtesting and many invaluable suggestions.

- Korana, Princess_Stomper, Kateri, DarkDiva, Loriel, Blockhead, Osiris, Neko, Pseron Wyrd, Ogramirad - for encouragement, playtesting, troubleshooting and many invaluable suggestions.

- Nequam, who made the lovely eyes Vilja is using. Vilja's eyes are included with the mod, but for those who would like to see more of Nequam's eyes in their game, the full mod, Elaborate Eyes, can be found here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5097

- the original author of a texture called something like CZ01.dds, which I edited and reworked long ago and have now used the result for Vilja's face.

- All the helpful people at the Oblivion TES-forum, who among other things helped me to sort out why my resultbox-scripts kept vanishing.

- Last but not least, the modders who with their scripting achievements made the foundation that originally turned Elder Scrolls companions into useful friends rather than cannon fudder, Grumpy (RIP, dear friend) who spent years on improving and finetuning a warping system for Morrowind companions, and The Other Felix, who has optimized and improved almost every aspect of Morrowind companion behaviour.


I hope you will like her! :)

- Emma
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Amy Melissa
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 8:50 am

I liked your companion mods for Morrowind, i shall try out this one. You can never have too many Companion mods.
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Kelly John
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 5:14 pm

Wow, what a mod. The oblivion companion to end all. Not even Simyaz's companions were fully voiced, and I tend to consider his the best of the best.
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Hannah Barnard
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 5:55 am

Thank you :)

I hope you will like her... I have spent the last 5 month silently working on trying to add life, heart and soul to her... and voice, of course.

She is fully voiced, but... she is also chatting, you know... Smalltalking with you, while the two of you are travelling together (but you CAN ask her to keep quiet so it shouldn't get too annoying). And she has her own likes and dislikes, too... I hope you will find her, well, human, with good habits and bad habits :).
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Prue
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:57 pm

I have tried out most of the companion mods for Morrowind and Oblivion and Vilja is my favorite. I have never seen a companion who appeared to be so real, who seemed to be a separate, unique individual as Vilja. This mod is truly an amazing achievement.

If you want a puppet don't bother with this mod. But if you are interested in traveling Cyrodiil with a virtual 'person' you will not do better than this mod.

Anyone who is interested in companion mods needs to download this mod. Emma has raised the bar. And on top of everything else her Swedish accent is adorable. :wub:
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Rex Help
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 7:32 am

Hello. Emma.
Downloaded your Vilja, your breton heads for Oblivion.
had a look at the other goodies for Morrowind, they made me feel sorry I never managed to start Morrowind as it should be played... sighs... maybe this year (2010)...
great job, thanks.
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tegan fiamengo
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 1:11 pm

Anyone who is interested in companion mods needs to download this mod. Emma has raised the bar. And on top of everything else her Swedish accent is adorable. :wub:

Agreed: her voice is sweet. :)

This is the mod that got me to play Oblivion again.

It's so nice to see it released.
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Sarah Edmunds
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 10:51 am

Again, congratulations to the release. Happy to have been able to test this mod. :)
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Sheila Esmailka
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 9:52 am

A companion mod for Oblivion by Emma? Yes!!! :wub: Sign me up!

(If you ever want a female VA in the future, though... gimme a shout. I'm your lunatic that would voice-record and lip-sync 1500 voice-entries , er, girl. :D )


Congratulations on the RELZ.
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Emma Copeland
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:50 pm

Downloading this now to give it a try! Most companions just feel like robots, I agree!
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Hussnein Amin
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 5:58 am

Congratulations, Emma. I will definitely give your new mod a try.

BTW, will this companion use vanilla health and/or magicka potions if they are in her inventory?
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Tracy Byworth
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 10:56 am

When talent takes the stage, I shut my mouth and pay attention. :huh:

Thanks, Emma.
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mimi_lys
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:13 am

I have tried out most of the companion mods for Morrowind and Oblivion and Vilja is my favorite. I have never seen a companion who appeared to be so real, who seemed to be a separate, unique individual as Vilja. This mod is truly an amazing achievement.

If you want a puppet don't bother with this mod. But if you are interested in traveling Cyrodiil with a virtual 'person' you will not do better than this mod.

Anyone who is interested in companion mods needs to download this mod. Emma has raised the bar. And on top of everything else her Swedish accent is adorable. :wub:



Awww :) :embarrass: :wub:

Thank you... Especially for the comment on my voice from both you and Blockhead - now I feel more at ease :embarrass:

(On a side-note - the original plan was to make Vilja a forceful nord warrior. But after my family had been rolling on the floor laughing at my attempts to sound dangerous and forceful, I gave up that idea... Probably a very wise decision :biglaugh: )

(On another side-note - Pseron, I've unsuccessfully tried to reach you via PM for quite some time - if you read this, please get in touch, I have a question for you)
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Jon O
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 2:05 pm

Hello. Emma.
Downloaded your Vilja, your breton heads for Oblivion.
had a look at the other goodies for Morrowind, they made me feel sorry I never managed to start Morrowind as it should be played... sighs... maybe this year (2010)...
great job, thanks.



You know.... it's never to late to start playing Morrowind ;).

Maybe Vilja will inspire you to it? You see, she IS from Morrowind, born in Solstheim, have been working in Vivec. And I'm sure that when she tells you more about herself, she will also tell you more about her astonishing home country :)

(I *am* seriously considering to port Vilja for Morrowind btw :))



Quote Blockhead

This is the mod that got me to play Oblivion again.

It's so nice to see it released.



Thank you for all the time you spent on testing Vilja! :)
I don't know what I would have done without you. :)

I'm glad you like her - although it's sort of weird that my Oblivion companion is what has dragged you away from what I know is your normal RPG-world - Laurenna and Lokken :D


Quote Osiris

Again, congratulations to the release. Happy to have been able to test this mod.


Many thanks also to you for helping out to test her. So silly that my forum went down during this last test-session during Christmas :(.

I hope you will have lots of fun together with Vilja in Oblivion :).
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courtnay
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 10:42 am

Many thanks also to you for helping out to test her. So silly that my forum went down during this last test-session during Christmas :(.

I hope you will have lots of fun together with Vilja in Oblivion :).


Don't worry about the forum went down. This can happen to any other site. :)
Surely I will have a lot of fun with Vilja, and your other http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1061745&hl=. Waiting for other releases, too! :)
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latrina
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:42 am

A companion mod for Oblivion by Emma? Yes!!! :wub: Sign me up!

(If you ever want a female VA in the future, though... gimme a shout. I'm your lunatic that would voice-record and lip-sync 1500 voice-entries , er, girl. :D )


Congratulations on the RELZ.



Thank you for the offer! I'll definitely keep this in mind :)!

TES Alliance is a wonderful resource both for voice acting and for learning more of all aspects of the Oblivion CS, I'm just angry at myself that I didn't find it earlier - it would have saved me so much trial-and-error-work!

I've always felt that the worst part with making mods for Oblivion was the voice-acting, and that's part of what has kept me away from Oblivion modding for such a long time. But now when Vilja is released, I *would* like to do more, and knowing that there are people like you and places like TES Alliance Voice Project surely is encouraging :).

I'm looking forward to listening to your voice samples from the Voice Project one of the next few days :)
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Breautiful
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:56 pm

(I *am* seriously considering to port Vilja for Morrowind btw :))

Oh, please do. I've just restarted Morrowind and I love your work; I always have Lokken Mountain and Witch Girl in my game.
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Emily Shackleton
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:18 am

It would be great to have her in Morrowind. As for now, thanks for the Oblivion version:P


Cheers,
Pushkatu!
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Monika Fiolek
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 5:28 pm

Downloading this now to give it a try! Most companions just feel like robots, I agree!



I hope I didn't say that companions feel like robots! :o

I love companion mods, and as said in the original post, I find especially Neeshka by Rsdnt_Evle quite adorable :). She reminds me a lot of the not-so-talkative-but-very-useful-and-helpful Morrowind companions by Grumpy :).

It also gets quite hilarious if you leave Vilja and a few of the CM Partners together in wander-mode. They will start to chat - and i have set up Vilja so that she will sometimes trigger them to discuss "Vilja-topics" rather than standard Oblivion topics. I have had many good moments listening to them, for sure! Only yesterday, Vilja told a CM Partner that the Partner "seriously needs to take a bath". And the Partner replied "Yes, I have heard others say so as well..."

Quote Torbin

Congratulations, Emma. I will definitely give your new mod a try.

BTW, will this companion use vanilla health and/or magicka potions if they are in her inventory?



Honestly, I haven't thought much about this... Vilja has her own healing spell, she isn't likely to need any potion healing. (Later on, when you have been travelling together for some time, she will offer to give you some healing as well)
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Wayland Neace
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:58 am

Always glad to see more companions. Like Greenwarden said, that many lines isn't crazy. She did over 1,000 for Viconia DeVir Part III and if we redo Part I it will be far more than 1,500.

I'll be interested to see how she interacts with my companions and I'm looking forward to playing this.
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Star Dunkels Macmillan
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 5:18 pm

Don't worry about the forum went down. This can happen to any other site. :)
Surely I will have a lot of fun with Vilja, and your other http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1061745&hl=. Waiting for other releases, too! :)



Well, forum is back up again :)

There won't be any new releases for Oblivion a while... the houses was something I did as i was getting restless during the testing of Vilja :embarrass:
Although it was fun doing the houses, I admittedly prefer to work with npcs, to try to make them come alive. (My family would tell you it's the same in real life - I've never been good at house-keeping either :P).

Vilja has kept my mind occupied for such a long time now. But, I do have other ideas, both for Morrowind and Oblivion, so there will surely come more :). The next thing I have in pipeline is for Morrowind, though...


quote Garx

When talent takes the stage, I shut my mouth and pay attention.


When my english is insufficient for fully interpreting what the original poster is saying, I keep quiet as I don't know what to say :)

I'm afraid I have to do this right now, as I'm not sure I fully understand you :). But I hope you will download and like the mod!
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Maeva
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 4:51 pm

(My family would tell you it's the same in real life - I've never been good at house-keeping either :P).


:D

Vilja has kept my mind occupied for such a long time now. But, I do have other ideas, both for Morrowind and Oblivion, so there will surely come more :). The next thing I have in pipeline is for Morrowind, though...


Fine, will wait for the next mod regardless for which TES it will be. ;)
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Liv Staff
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 8:05 am

Looks like this companion has a lot of efforts behind her, I'll give her a try. Downloading mod right now ^^.
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flora
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 12:18 pm

Hmm i wasn't planning on using any companions in Oblivion but i'm really tempted by this one, i'm going to give it a shot.
Thank you.
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kitten maciver
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 12:15 pm

Okay: a fourth companion to accompany Viconia, Baddy, and Saerileth. -And eventually, Stoker Wolff: so that will make five.

Can't get enough of companion mods with personality.

Thanks, Emma! Really looking forward to this. Especially the ability to witness discussions of Vilja's own concerns with other companion mods.
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Amanda Leis
 
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