Author: Kris Takahashi

Trailers and Teasers – Kjen, Sven, and Maren

Kris Takahashi Trailers and Teasers 2 Comments

One of the things I don’t like about the vanilla taverns is the fact that they’re so quiet. I wanted to make Robber’s Refuge more like a normal bar, and fill the halls with a chorus of words, songs, and laughter, without the player ever having to engage anyone.

While I want to experiment with a number of tools, the first thing I played around with was the concept of prolonged skits. Over the course of several scenes, these characters can be given the same dimensions and depth as the other NPCs and still be part of the background.

Of course to shoot this scene, I needed a bit of quiet, so I had to kill everyone else off save Ortheim. You may notice the corpse in the top right corner. This is just one of 7 scenes between these traveling adventurers, and just a small sample of the kind of goodies I want Robber’s Refuge to have.

Dialogue Overhaul Bug Testing

Kris Takahashi Other 3 Comments

2013-07-04_00009

Heyo! I’ve added a torrent of what I have right now. It’s not exactly a playable release, it’s basically to bug test the dialogue overhaul, which has seen nearly every NPC’s dialogue tree re-organized for better gameplay. Make sure to download the Hearthfire patch if you own the DLC.

About 10 quests are included as well, but most are still in the experimental testing phase. You can try them at your own risk, but most are connected to Darkened Steel which starts at Orphan’s Tear if you’ve met the prereqs. Idle Dreams is probably an easy one to test though, just head to Haelga’s Bunkhouse and talk to Amicus. With the exception of 1 song for Alassea, no new bard songs are included as they’re still being made.

For those intrepid souls who want to help test this thing and get it working, here are some things to look out for when talking to folks:

• Getting kicked out a conversation for no reason – This is not to be confused with going back to the top level. I mean a random, forced goodbye, which is either a symptom of dialogue not being connected properly or the NPC is a jerk.

• Stuck in a dialogue loop – A symptom of things connected when they shouldn’t be. For instance, if a bard asks you “What would you like me to play?” and the choice is “Can I make a request?” That’s not a catchy new song title, it’s a bug.

• Questions not matching answers or just out of place – Example: If an NPC tells you bandits killed her brother, and  the only available response is “Does this dress make me look fat?” then that’s a bug.

• Top-level questions showing up prematurely – For instance, you meet an NPC, and right away a question about his/her choice of lube is at the top before the topic of masturbation has even been broached. Also a bug.

• Missed Stuff and Other Dialogue Tweaks – I may have missed a tweak here and there, so if you see anything else that needs fiddling with let me know. Even if none of the above things show up, you may notice a conversation seems halfway finished, or perhaps you’ve spoken to an NPC before and certain stories are unavailable. Stuff like that.