Thank you
If Vilja has converted one companion-hater, then that makes me really happy .
Myself, I find Cyrodiil too lonesome in the long run, it definitely adds something to have a companion in tow (especially when you don't know what she is going to do or say next)
Actually, Vilja is a tad bit cynical, too, when you meet her. Not over live, only over... certain aspects of life, as you may find out. And I'm sure she'll enjoy a woodelf as friend. She already has one. I play as a woodelf, myself.

If you are still having Stoker Wolf in tow, you may find that Vilja is very well aware of this and will comment on it occasionally. If you leave the two of them in wandermode, she will also talk to him (although he cannot make any 'real' replies as he, like many other companions with unique voices, hasn't got any conversation files (apart from a little quick-fix that I added in)). Like http://lovkullen.net/Emma/pics/Vilja747.jpg for instance.

I hope you will continue to enjoy Vilja's company - myself I couldn't really imagine Cyrodiil without her anymore.

Hmm... it's weird if she is asking you about changing her hairstyle all the time, as there is actually a script variable that should prevent her from asking this more than once a day (although she might ask about her hair color once a day as well).
You mean she asks it *often* - like in many times the same day - in your game?

She won't change her hairstyle (heh... she's a girl.. she thinks about it, she talks about it, like girls do). But if you'd like to see her look different, I suggest that you grab a couple of whigs from the Apachii Goddess store, where you can find plenty of them.



I'm not going to tell you the full secret of how the ingredients thing works. Let's just say that she will find them even if you pick up every ingredient there is. It can happen at any time while you are out in the wilderness, but it won't happen more than once a day and not in cities or interiors. If you are eager for her to find some, you can actually force this to happen if you starts dialog with her often while you are out in the wilderness together. As soon as she finds her first ingredient (oh... that won't happen until you have travelled with her at least 24 hours, btw...) there will be other ways that you can help her with her mission. She'll let you know...



Thank you .


P S As time passes and you learn more and more about her background, she will have more and more things that she chats about.

Thanks for the clarification.
Yeah, I got lots of mods that places tokens and check the current cell with intention to change NPC/critters.
I am glad I am not cluttering up the world with "move to" markers

Cheers!

I tend to agree with CDCooley. There are times where there shouldn't necessary be any fixes. Vilja is not a henchie, she is a person and the player's friend. She's supposed to have feelings and a moral standard. If she had been a real life friend, she wouldn't had remained passive here. And you would have known that about your friend and avoided to bring her with you...

When I played Vilja 1, I used Xtudo's voice reduction files, which I have removed for Vilja 2. Some questions...

1. Have these been incorporated into Vilja 2's BSA?

If not...

2. Is there any conflict with Vilja 2 (ie overwriting files that have been changed for Vilja 2)?
3. If I install the files, will it automatically override the files in the BSA (which is how I think it works) or do I need to something else?
4. Do you recommend using them?

Many thanks for your guidance.

No, they haven't. Reason: Xtudo is working on voice reduction files also for the new files in ver 2. Once they are ready, we can package them in an alternate bsa and make available as an optional download. Some people prefere Xtudo's files, some prefere the original ones. Those by Xtudo might be 'cleaner' from noise, but as a side effect, some of the 'depth' in the voice is lost. So, it's better that people can pick their own choice.



I do not think so... but now that you bring up the question I wonder if there might be occasional dialog entries that I have changed for ver 2... only small changes, though. Oh dear... why didn't I think of this earlier?
It shouldn't be more like say 4-5 entries in the whole package though. If you choose to run Xtudo's files and you hear a voice entry that isn't the same as the text displayed, please let me know!



I'm not so knowledgeable in this, but CDCooley has explained to me that the youngest file will overwrite the older ones. I haven't re-recorded the files from ver 1 in the bsa, so I reckon they will be considered as older than Xtudo's files, and then his files will override them.



If you liked them before, you'll like them now as well. As they are in a sound-folder and the bsa is, well, a bsa, you can simply remove Xtudo's files if you feel the difference between the entries in his files and the new non-noise-reducted files for ver 2 is too big, you might want to remove the voices in the soundfolder until Xtudo has completed his work with the new voices in ver 2.

Hope this is of some help

Many thanks Emma - as always, a great help

Based on your comments, I am going to try Vilja 2 without Xtudo's voice reduction files and see how it sounds compared to when I first played Vilja 1 with his sound files.

:)

The result will probably depend on how your play... if you always play with headset on and without music, you might find Xtudo's files very useful. If you play without headset and with the music on, you might not experience much difference.

Files with the latest modified date will be used over older ones. Using OBMM's 'Reset BSA timestamps' option under Archive Invalidation will put them all back to cerca 2006, so the loose files will be those that are actually used in game.
In regard the sound files, I found Xtudo's noise reduced one slightly better, but I use headphones and no background music, so can hear everything very clearly. A little background hiss was evident on the originals, but perhaps there is a trade-off with voice depth :shrug:

Well, Emma, I may have found a bug. it seems that if you haven't hired Vilja before you start the quest http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:An_Unexpected_Voyage, Vilja wanders around the Bloated Float, even when she really shouldn't, since the quest assumes only you're on the ship. Would it be possible to remove her from the Bloated Float for the duration of the quest?

It might also be a good idea to set a script so she doesn't stay with you (for the duration of the quest) if you've got her as a companion. I only suggest this because, with the exception of the Tavern Deck, the Bloated Float is not made for companions. It's just way too cramped, and might cause problems. Besides, it seems odd that the brigands locked everyone else up... except for Vilja. I mean, I know they were incompetent, but...

Hope the incompatibilities with Duke Patrick's mods get sorted out; I'm really beginning to miss your creation, Emma... I started with 1.0, to see what all the fuss was about. I'm glad I did. Vilja seems... so real sometimes. There's so much depth to her character; she's someone you can connect with. You've definitely got a gift for creating realistic NPC's. If I ever get a hold of Morrowind, I'm going to add as many of your companions as I can, along with Children of Morrowind.

On that subject, add me to the chorus of people who'd love a remake of CoM for Oblivion. I realize that you worry about the mod being abused if you released it officially... and I completely understand. That said, perhaps you could release it privately, making sure only the people who wouldn't use the mod for evil could get it?

...I dunno. I guess I just find it really odd that there aren't kids around (actually, now that I think of it, the lack of kids seems to be common in many RPGs). It's like the people of Cyrodill come into the world as advlts. I mean, even Daggerfall had kids! Granted, they weren't common, but at least they existed... but I'm ranting...

Well, to bring this post to a close, and because I haven't said it enough, thank you so much for Vilja, Emma. I'm gonna try adding her as a companion; I have a theory about the problems some people have had with Vilja summoning Bruse in conjunction with Duke Patrick's mods. If my hunch proves true, I may have something to help you fix the problem, or, at least, a workaround.

Edit: Well... I might have found out a workaround. I added Duke Patrick's Companion Friendship Ring to Bruse... and it didn't CTD when Vilja summoned him. I'm going to do a bit more testing, since it seems someone else tried this and it didn't work. Still, I'm hopeful, if only because I miss having Vilja. She's the first person I've met who's tolerant of my Orc Battlemage... It's nice. That gives me another thought: Would it be possible to add dialogue for Vilja based on your character's race? It might be an interesting idea for a future update.

I believe Erudite's little snippet about children is an outcry to emma to bless oblivion with children as done with morrowind

The Friendship Ring should work but you have to get it to Bruse before he's ever around any combat. And that can be tricky because any combat while he's in a loaded cell is enough to be a problem. That silly orc at the stables attacks horses is enough.

I've found an alternate solution to the problem and send information about it to Duke Patrick. He's going to look into it and if he doesn't find any flaws in my solution there should be a new version of Actors Can Miss Now that won't require giving Bruse (and maybe other companions) the friendship ring just to avoid crashes.

Ah nice, you jst release and theres 7 pages already of comments will defnietly check it out Congratz on the release

Sigh... well, I do know that Bloated Float has its disadvantages as the location for a companion. The thing is that when I started out on Vilja, my only intention was to see if I could at all figure out Oblivion dialog and make a companion. I looked at Neeshka meanwhile, so for practical reasons, I put Vilja in the same location as her... Then, Vilja so to say took off on her own and one day I realized this was going to be a companion mod... By then I had way too many dialog entries etc that were filtered for the location of her refname in the Bloated Float, so moving her was not an option...
Yes, it should be possible to disable Vilja during the quest if you haven't asked her to be your companion yet. The rest would be possible, too, but I have played the quest with Vilja without any problems (and she actually even has some quest-pvssyr for it).



As CDCooley described, he has found the problem with Actors Can Miss Now, and forwarded the information to Duke Patrick. It seems an update is on its way: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17706
That should means that companions users in the future also will be able to use Actors Can Miss Now without any CTDs.



Thank you! You should be able to safely use both Vilja and Actors Can Miss as soon as the update is out, and if you managed to give Bruse the ring in time, it should hopefully work already now.

Of course you should try out Morrowind! It's a wonderful game! Maybe the graphics aren't that great compared to Oblivion, but there are mods that actually makes it looks approx. as good as Oblivion. The only thing I find is a bit annoying with Morrowind are the npc animations. But, on the other hand, the mainquest and the other quests are absolutely wonderful. Morrowind is too good to miss... and Vilja will tell you more about the grim beauty and the strange people in what used to be her home country.

As for children in Cyrodiil, I don't know if there is a huge interest in that at all. I would be reluctant to officially release a children mod for a game with so many quite abusive six mods as Oblivion, as there would be no way to protect the children. Private releases... well... maybe that would be an option. I'm not sure if I should write this, but... I have a mod that adds talking, playing children (with strong swedish accent) to all cities except the Imperial City. There are some ai-packages that needs to be fixed up, but now that Vilja is released I'm intending to do this. I made it for my personal enjoyment, but I guess I could share it on an individual basis if there is an interest - I already have a couple of friends that are using it. (If you head over to my web-site, you'll find my e-mail address, you can send me an e-mail there, please don't use the PM system as my inbox is almost full already)



As said before, Duke Patrick will probably update his mod so that it won't cause these conflicts any further. Hopefully the Friendship ring will work for you until the new version is out.



Actually she already has comments based on your character's race . They will show up after a little while.

It would be nice to see Kids, but with all the People allready complaining about "Perverted" mods, it Would cause a nightmare for you...

I Did manage to finalll get an http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1099967-idea-conjured-armor-overhaul/page__view__findpost__p__16079907 on my "Exibitionist" compainon, seems that's just one of the game quirks...

I started Vilja 2 over a Vilja1 save, but she was acting very strange, so I'll just Restart her, do I need to wait out the Respawn period after a Clean save??

Normally, it should work well to just start vilja 2 over a Vilja 1 save, if it doesn't, try the suggestions for updating saves here: http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/runoblivion/updatesaves

However, I have understood that if you are constantly using quicksaves or other saves where you save multiple games on saves with identical names, you might have more extensive problems. These are not related to Vilja, but to the fact that quicksaves tend to store artifacts from previous saves and even previous games. (I have talked to two players now who have had the habit to constantly use quicksaves and have had serious problems upgrading not just Vilja but also other mods). So if you have continuing problems upgrading Vilja, this is likely to be the cause.

And yes, Morrowind was a lot easier in regards to children mods...

:/ seems your Site Contact link is not working for me i was to request the ambience of children onto my game (well a far flung request anyway), along the lines of -the mailing client was not installed properly- or something to this extent, I am unsure if it is my computer or the site.




OMG VILJA IS SO STUBBORN!


I acquired a new home, Shadow crest Vineyard? lovely place, found it in the middle of nowhere, did not even remember putting that mod in, Vilja was with me, after finding the key on the dog, we scoped out the house a bit, I did not set her to the house as I did not plan on staying long, I went to the master suite, I felt it was late but Vilja decided to mix potions, I had another companion who sat off in a corner and began to read, myself simply went to sleep, 8-11pm Im awoken by a quest box detailing strange noises in the laboratory, Vilja finished up making potions and decided RIGHT THEN AND THERE to sleep Im like :sadvaultboy: but I need you down there...I woke her up and changed her follow mode from relax to follow, but she went right back to sleep lol did so again and she still went to sleep :facepalm: lol so I left her to purr quietly upstairs, I wasnt sure what to expect upstairs so i left my companion with her and headed down to see what was up.


long story short I got beaten and battered by undead, transported to some cursed realm, endured nightmares, buring a remains of a ghost woman all by morning, and as I watched over the nearby lake near the grave, beaten and bruised, here comes Vijla skipping along "I have a potion for you!"..



My goodness she is so awesome


Thank you Emma.

I'm not really sure where you got that idea, I have Streamsave witch cycles through 15 resaves, but if I don't crash, I use a hardsave everytime I quit or enter a duegon or "nasty" area. (and 10minutes between saves can be a Very long time)
I'm not sure what her problem was, she just seemed to be a little upset with me. (I won't say it)
Most of my problems have turned out to be "Normal"

I didn't evan know Mods existed when I played Morrowind, or the first couple times through Oblivion for that matter, I couldn't imagine playing without them now

Maybe it was something temporary - it works well for me. The e-mail address is in Vilja's readme as well... the one with lovkullen in it.






I got the idea from those who had serious problems with their saved game (among them a tester of Vilja), where even new games would get corrupt. As I remembered the artifacts stored by quicksaves in Morrowind, I suggested that they'd abandone the quicksaves and see what happened. The result was that all problems vanished. On person who had had these problems made a search which came back with information that the problems were not only valid for quicksaves but also for when you saved over and over again on a slot that kept it's name.

Bearing in mind the very similar but even more extensive problems I have seen in Morrowind (where quicksaves even stored events from previous characters!) I would be very reluctant to at all use quicksaves. As for regular saves, I of course delete them regularly, but I never save again a second time over an old save.

Now, I'm not going to claim that I am 'right' about this, it may be that my suspisciousness towards quicksaves is a bit over the top. But if you are experiencing any kind of problems with your game, I'd still say that it might be worthwhile to just start fresh without using quicksaves.

I guess your 'normal' problem with Vilja was a lowered disposition? I think that *will* happen when you upgrade... so you better go and get some strawberries as soon as possible

That could well be, I have used Quick saves (I thought I'd heard they were allright), I don't use the Autosaves at all, but I was pretty sure I never mentioned it.. :whistling:
Her disposition was @ 100 but she just didn't seem to be anywhere near as attentive, I had her Book and she was pretty ingrosed in that, or I thought maybe she had Monthly cycles of Orinreness B)

I started a New game as a "limited mod" test and have pretty much switched over, and I will refrain from the Quicksaves... :angel:

Heh... You mean that you bought her a certain book and she was very disappointed? ;D

Well, that's not because you upgraded... she just think it is piece of crap ;D.

Hmmm I assume this is the book featuring a certain Argonian maid?

Sorry if you already answered this somewhere that I didn't catch, but...Is Vilja multi-cell compatible when it comes to homes? I use primarily Shadowcrest Vineyard, and I've noticed that my current companions, Viconia and Saerileth, only recognize the cell that I give them the "this is your home" command in as their home, rather than the entire house. Will this be the same with Vilja?

Tamerial Flora, I don't remember if I took it Back from Vilja1 or was just holding on to it until she asked about it...

Vilja has one cell as her major home, but you can also give her a separate cell to sleep in, and an outdoor area where she can go (there, she will also collect ingredients for you if there are any available). However, in houses with multiple cells she will only recognize her main cell and her bed cell.




If you had it in your inventory, you couldn't have given it to Vilja... once it is hers, you won't be able to see it again. It should be clearly stated in the journal if she had received the book or not. Maybe you had given it to her in your gave, but used a save since before you gave her the book when you upgraded?