Creation Kit – Making Tikrid Awkward

Kris Takahashi Other 2 Comments

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One thing that has bothered me for a while now has been Tikrid‘s AI. Her character is supposed to be physically awkward but effective, but the standardized animations belie that. She fights normally, she moves normally, as does every NPC in the game. So for the most part, for narrative purposes, I’ve resorted to breaking the cardinal sin, telling you why she’s awkward instead of showing you said awkwardness.

Without being able to alter her fighting style, the best I could do was make her gangly by dropping the weight slider down. There’s also the tan lines I’ve placed on her face – a story I will elaborate on further in v3.01 since most people seem to assume it’s dirt (Basically, when I constructed her face, I thought it’d be typical of her to try on war paint on the hottest and brightest day of the year, and come home with a tan line that stayed on her face for months).

In Darkened Steel, I was able to direct her a little more and have her commit faux pas – knocking urns over, crossing sacred boundaries, and stepping on traps – but she still does them with the same grace that is intrinsic in all NPCs. In other words, she feels a little more clumsy than awkward. After all, she’s bound to the matrix of the game, and the people who designed its animations wanted them to look impressive. For the most part, they succeeded.

However, while explaining this on the Nexus forums, I realized I’ve come across animations that aren’t really utilized in the vanilla game, mostly because they are patently ridiculous. For example, in the video below are the IdleLaugh and IdleGetAtttention – idles that for whatever reason do a head-first dive straight into the uncanny valley.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTGHchsjlNE

There are some animations though, that fall in the tenuous space between the impressive and the absurd. Animations that are just realistic enough to simply be, well, awkward. While it’s impossible to change Tikrid’s fighting style, in the next version I hope to add little touches here and there that unintentionally match her character. Given her background as a guardsmen, the IdleSalute and IdleSnaptoAttention actually fit perfectly, and having her stand at attention whenever you speak to her is one way to show her awkwardness instead of telling it.

Character Profile – Lundvar

Kris Takahashi Character Profiles No Comments

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One of the things I find fascinating about sports is how it’s completely goal oriented. Creativity is a means to an end, but it’s hardly a requirement. The great Yankees closer Mariano Rivera built his Hall of Fame career on one pitch. In his later years, Michael Jordan would make a living going into the post and executing a simple, turnaround fadeaway. Neither of these could be considered original or groundbreaking tactics, but nobody cares how the ball gets in the basket, or how the outs are made. The goal is to win. To win, you need but one, unimpeachable skill.

All you have to do is repeat it.

The same can’t be said for an artist. What comes next can’t be the same as what came before. While athletic skill is built upon repetition – training your muscles to reflexively perform the same task over and over again – for an artist there is no greater sin than imitation, even if the person you’re imitating is yourself. The goal isn’t just to make something interesting, but rather, to do it in a way that hasn’t been done before.

This neverending search for novelty is why I changed Marigoth to a Disney villain. It’s why Ignar the Lucky embraces his odd misfortune whereas Jade can only see it as a curse.

For the character Lundvar, it’s the entire reason he was created.

Whether it was Hjoromir bitching about his sister, or Ingarte being driven off by her father, some of the early NPCs didn’t always have the healthiest relationships with their family. With Lundvar, I set out to create someone who unequivocally loved his brother, and as such, the conflict was derived from losing him as opposed to wanting him gone.

Only Lundvar doesn’t love his sibling the way Zora loves hers. It isn’t complicated. It’s compulsory. His brother is blood, and that makes him infallible. No matter what you say, he lived a great life, and died a greater hero. Lundvar would rather stick a fork in his eye than see the truth. That makes him loyal, and to an extent, admirable. It also makes him blind.

Moreover, Lundvar’s devotion isn’t limited to his brother. He’s your classic jingoist, your banner-waving, axe-wielding, mead-blooded Nord. It’s what blinds him to the rampant corruption of the city, and what makes the narrative of his brother, Defender of the Reach, such an easy sell. You often hear about people altering the facts to fit their viewpoint. Lundvar is the same way. Nords are paragons of honor, and the guardsmen are true Nords.

So when confronted with Wuuthmar’s letter in The Raven of Anvil, it’s no surprise Lundvar struggles to grasp its inherent contradiction. The words are damning, and while he partially accepts them, he still insists on going through his superiors – despite the likelihood those are the very men who betrayed his brother. Ultimately, there is only one answer that will satisfy Lundvar. He wants his superiors to convince him the letter is fake. His goal is to seek the liar’s comfort, a place where the integrity of his misguided beliefs remain safe. For Lundvar, these lies can be true.

All he has to do is repeat them.

Trailers and Teasers – Sixby

Kris Takahashi Trailers and Teasers 1 Comment

It’s likely many players have already met this and other NPCs I want to feature, but I’m way behind on these videos and the actors deserve to see their work.

Similar to Prompt-But-Bashful, Sixby is loosely inspired by a Nexus troll who claimed the mod destroyed his game and could somehow manage to travel through time and infect his older saves. Luckily, this occurred about a week before the release of version 3, giving me ample time to write the lines and SageHalo to voice them.