There have been close to 100 actors who have worked on this project, and while the DNA tests may prove inconclusive, to me you are all my children. So while as your parent I can play no favorites, I think everyone who’s contributed to the mod can and should audition for Bioware’s new Dragon Age contest, which user Reznore alerted me to on Nexus.

Details can be found at the link below, but I encourage everyone to send in an audition and become famous. Then maybe you can invite your deadbeat father to the red carpet unveiling.

http://blog.bioware.com/2014/02/25/take-your-place-in-the-inquisition/

Victory or Sovngarde?

I’m experiencing something odd as of late pertaining to combat.  Previously, the Combat to Normal dialogue wasn’t firing, so I moved it to a separate location and that seemed to fix it. Recently, the taunts have stopped, although it only seems to apply to old saves.

In this video, the first half shows the combat with the taunts mysteriously muted. In the second half, I move them to the Attack section, and they suddenly fire. This means that the taunts themselves are conditioned correctly. They just for whatever reason aren’t firing off, and only for old saves. 

While in the video you wouldn’t see much of a distinction between taunt and attack dialogue, the advantage of a “taunt” is that they’re spoken regardless of what behavior the NPC is exhibiting. So a taunt can be screamed while someone is chasing you around, but an attack only fires when you’re, well, attacking. In any case, it’s bizarre, but I may need to move them all to the Attack section like in the video until I can figure out what the hell is going on.

It’s a common notion that Valentine’s Day is a corporate-driven cash grab. For starters, you don’t get a day off, which already regulates it to the weaker tier of holiday celebrations, right up(down?) there with Columbus Day, April Fool’s, and Chinese New Year.

However, for those of us who are lousy spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, or in my case, bloggers, we need a Valentine’s Day. We need someone to force us to do something because fuck if we’re going to find the motivation to do it ourselves. That’s what Valentine’s Day is for me.

It’s a reason to make a blog post.

While the most romantic quest in the mod is To Warm Sands, there is plenty of love and heartbreak to be found, from Morviah‘s tragic affair with a Nord soldier to Vigram‘s romance with his horse. The player too can write their own love story, as the mod offers an ever-growing number of men, women, and zombies to wed.

However, there are some possible missed connections as well. Maybe you think two NPCs are perfect for each other. Or perhaps you think an NPC is perfect for you. If you’d like to ship a pair of NPCs together, make it known. Who knows, maybe I’ll make it happen.

Before you ask, that’s not a spot on your glasses, it’s just blood. On the screenshot, not in your eye. Maybe. If there’s actual blood in your eye, I don’t want to be responsible for telling you everything is okay. Because it’s not. Just so we’re clear, only go to the hospital if that blood smudge is there when you turn away. Nod if you comprende.

In non-blood related news, the amazing Daniel Hodge has completed all the lines for Arghus, so that will be in the next update.  I kind of want to utilize his talents for a larger quest as well. Another quest I’ve finished writing is a Skjarn based adventure, but I don’t think I’ll release it as silent content as I haven’t  had a chance to test it. But ultimately, I think we will have no problem moving past the 50 quest mark in the next few months. The original goal was 100 NPCs, and now we’re nearing 300. Similarly, the original goal was 100 quests, so while I still think that’s unlikely, you can never  underestimate how obsessed I am with this shit.

DID SOMEONE SAY CATS?

There might be a shitload of cats coming to your area code soon. They are voicing your characters, they are manning the phones. Lajjan is a caravan NPC I’m working on that will be voiced by Cassandra Wladyslava, and Yushari the florist is nearly complete as well, voiced by an actor new to the mod. I just need to figure out how to credit her (Spoiler alert: It’s Jennifer Hedwig).

VERSIONS AND UPDATES

Lastly, the size of the smaller updates has almost gotten untenable. I may need to skip ahead to v3.05 just to avoid hitting the bandwidth cap for WordPress.