What's been going on?

[SACarrow]

This board has been quiet lately, and I'm sure a few of you have been wondering if anything's happening. Like the proverbial duck, all is quiet above, but much is happening underneath.

What I have been doing lately is working on TES4Gecko (one of the major ESP editing tools available) to make things easier in terms of dialogue editing and voice acting. Now with TES4Gecko, it is possible to duplicate a dialogue quest, renumber it and re-merge it to the ESM so that it can serve as the basis for a different set of voice files. Using this method, I have separated both the Bosmer and the Dunmer from the tyranny of the "High Elf" voice directory, so that persuading a Bosmer sounds different from persuading a Dunmer (and will, once we get a voice actor, sound different still from persuading an Altmer). It is also possible to extract lines of dialogue from the ESM for either a quest or character, edit either the line or the associated production notes and the re-upload them to the ESM.

In other news, We Who Decide Such Things have decided that the wonderful voice acting of Ibsen's Ghost should form the basis of a healthy portion of the male generic dialogue in this mod. So far, his voice has been selected for Nord, UC Imperial, LC Imperial and Khajiit, if of course he wishes to continue his sterling work. (Please, please! :worship: ) This, combined with the spot-on Morrowindesque Dunmer & Bosmer work done by AndySlayer, means that a very large portion of the male generic dialogue will be completed once these two wonderful [see above grovel] gentlemen have been able to voice a boatload more lines. :lmao:

Speaking of wonderful, Ja-Kha'jay has completed editing the generic dialogue for the Khajiit; this will form the basis of (again) a much more Morrowind-reminiscent Khajiit. She has not only gotten rid of those pesky personal pronouns, but has also provided several words of Ta'agra so that they can properly express their contempt for the less-fuzzy inhabitants of Tamriel. Also, she has graciously offered to voice the distaff side of Kitty-Cat dialogue, so she is indeed an Honored One. :worship:

Alright, I think that's it for now. Once we get the new quests merged to the main file, it will be much quicker to add new VA to ST, so that the Sounds of Silence do not dominate our landscape.

Thanks for reading this through,
The Voice Guy

[Ja-Kha'jay]

things are moving along nicely :banana: :banana:

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Great news, SACarrow.

Crush that tyranny! I should be okay continuing with those voices. In fact, some more of the battle lines would probably have been done by now if I hadn't had the flu over the past week or so which has taken me out of action for a while.

Incidentally, I've recently been busying myself with recruiting female actors for the Lost Spires mod which is at last approaching its final release. Whilst doing so, I've been asking if some of them fancy the idea of a serious and hardcore voice acting task like the generic voices. At least one of them sounded genuinely interested and eager to get going. Let's hope she can help to fill the female voice actor vacuum, too.

I'm fascinated by your news of Ja-Kha'jay's work (I recently learned the significance of your name, btw) but wondered if this meant that I should avoid recording anything further for the Khajit voice until I receive the dialogue.

- Steve B (IG)

[SACarrow]

By using the techniques outlined above, I ran with the 2.92 ESM and 5 ESPs: 3 defining the substitute quests for Dunmer, Bosmer and Khajiit, 1 defining the LC Imperial quest, defining a new ST voice faction and adding two male Imps in Steadhelm (Curio & the deserter from Kvatch) to that faction, and the last editing StGeneric to remove Dunmer, Bosmer and Khajiit from its influence.

Once I included those ESPs and the renamed voice files in the proper directories (and keeping in mind that the gruff-Scot Nord and the UC Imperial are now the "standard" ST voices for those races), I was able to wander through Steadhelm and attempt to persuade male Bretons, Argonians, Khajiit, Nords, Bosmer, Dunmer, UC Imps, and LC Imps in the same game with all sounding as they are supposed to. :bananarock:

OK, the Khajiit lines were mixed up, partly because they were recorded before JKJ's editing and partly because they were numbered differently 'cause that quest was based on Generic rather than StGeneric, but it was still pretty cool. From an ESM geek's viewpoint, I think the way I approached form IDs means that upon merging that voice files will only have to be moved and not renamed; we shall find out soon.

All for now,
Steve

[AndySlayer]

Morrowind-esque voices :thumbsup: Awesome progress on everyone's sides, let's try to keep it up!

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Given some thought, I really like the idea of rewriting some of the dialogue for a more authentic Khajit feel. I have an ever-increasing interest in the Khajit race.

Incidentally, I've just been writing some additional dialogue lines for NPCs in 'Lost Spires' and really enjoyed it. I think it's given the whole Guild more character. I haven't done any writing for a campaign for about 3 years and any modders I work for tend to want lines done to strict requirements.

I added one line for the last bunch of persuasion game lines I did. I wouldn't want to screw things up too much for you guys as far as alterations go. Modders often get very protective when I suggest something new but I'll not hesitate to add some more 'off-the-cuff' lines in future, especially as I've been learning much more about Oblivion lore lately, which is more interesting than I thought it would be.

Great work, SACarrow!