» Fri May 27, 2011 2:13 pm 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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