Made for Patch 7, Updated for Patch 8 (I was working on this for Patch 6, though! But I can't guarantee it'll work if you're still running Patch 6 atm. People have been testing the mod for Patch 6 and have had no issues, so it's likely safe to use with Patch 6. It's just had the new Patch 7 changes incorporated into it!)


A note for the 2.0.0.0 update: the way the mod works changed significantly with the Patch 8 update to improve compatibility with the ingame mod manager. Please read the installation instructions and the “Changes in the 2.0.0.0 Version” sections below!

The 2.0.0.0 update is also likely not reverse compatible with Patch 7, due to the changes made to Wyll’s InParty dialogue. If you try it in Patch 7, please proceed with caution!

I’m going to try and make a Patch 7 compatible version of the mod that’ll fix the IGMM compatibility issues, but I’m not able to test it myself, so please be patient while I work that out. Thank you!

-- 💖🖤  <3  🤍💚  --

The randomized emotion system in this game will be the death of me.

HI. THIS TOOK SO MUCH WORK, BUT IT'S DONE!!!

...And by "this," I mean I made a fully custom cutscene, editing the BG3 dialog files on the XML level. Holy $#!%!!!! Even I'm in shock a little!!!!

It's all XML, which you can read more about on the mod page for A New Voice In Town—a mod adding a new voiced custom NPC to Emerald Grove, to accompany all the guides and other sample mods I've made breaking down the BG3 dialog system.

If you'd like to do stuff like make cutscenes, or add characters to the world like I did, you can find a ton of information on how to do so there!

...Now, let's talk about the cutscene itself.


This mod is the first in a series of mods by Aimryax and I, dedicated to adding more content for Wyll—the Wyll Cinematic Universe, or WCU.

This is Brightest Star, a mod adding a new romance scene for Wyll in Act 3. It has voice lines, brings back his early access cuddle animation, and allows you to comfort him after a key story moment. Available for all races and bodytypes! ***Spoilers ahead!!!***


To trigger the scene, you need to do the following things:

• Be partnered with Wyll
• Break his pact with Mizora (the scene currently won't trigger if he's in an eternal pact with her!)
• Talk to him in the docks camp at night, and select the option, "Are you alright, Wyll? You've been through a lot - I'm here, whatever you need."
• The scene should play after this!!
  

You can watch a video of it here:

The scene is currently locked to the dock camp, but I will be updating that later. This is because the camera angles I configured are extremely specific to the dock camp, and I haven't made a new cinematic for the Elfsong yet 😅 Like I said, this mod took a lot of work! This work included:

• Setting up entirely new dialog files for the scene
• Editing vanilla voice lines and adding them to the game (Wyll's second line is already a line from the game, just with his expressions altered, but I edited his initial stuttering "I—" from one of his existing lines. I also extracted a couple EA lines I'm planning on adding in the future. They're already in his voicebank!)
• Using the expression system to add lipsync for that inital "I—" voice line (I used an open-mouthed expression rig timed to match the line)
• I had to manually edit everything from expressions, to character positions, to camera angles, and camera motion via XML. This required trial-and-error tweaking numbers in the XML to get the camera angles I wanted—with the game fighting me the over it the whole time, mind you. (This particular file wasn't handling transforms well and I'm not sure why.)
• I added music to the scene (I used the choral version of The Power, which is a variation of the song used during Wyll's Act 2 romance scene. It's also used during the funeral for the Avenge the Drowned quest—Aimryax was the one who found it!!)
• Adding the music required setting up a new resource referencing the song as a sound effect (you can also set it up as cinematic music, which is different from overworld music, apparently 😅)
• I also needed to add a resource for the dock camp music, so the cutscene could return to the right music when going back to camp.
• I set up a new SceneTrigger to take the scene to the Elfsong rooftop (I explained how to do this in my dialog timeline sample mods!)
• I also set up a custom Atmosphere resource for the part of the scene on the Elfsong rooftop, changing the environment effects, lighting, and color grading.
• I brought back Wyll's Early Access romance scene cuddle animations for the scene, too!
  

...All of this is to say, this entire project was a massive labor of love. And I do feel like I'm losing my mind for having made this this way, but I'm so proud of everything that went into it too, on both my and Aimryax's part. Aimryax helped with picking lines and storyboarding for the scene, mod testing, and he took screenshots, made gifs for the mod page and Tumblr, too!!!

This mod is still a work in progress—although I do actually think it's pretty polished as-is!!! We've got more planned for this scene though, so be on the lookout for that 👀

Future plans include adding dialog options, more lines and animations, including Wyll's "I'm used to being the hero—not so used to needing one" lines from Early Access, refining the Early Access animation a bit, adding unique options for Origin characters, as well as adding support for the Elfsong etc. And I'd like to look at Osiris scripting to make the scene a true camp night! Right now you need to trigger it from his regular InParty dialog, but I would like to change that in the future.

Changes in the 2.0.0.0 version:

To improve compatibility with the ingame mod manager, this mod has now been split into two parts! Mods that contain both override files and new files aren’t currently compatible with the IGMM, so previous versions of this mod would be knocked out of your load order if you opened the manager at any point. You’d then need to add it back to your mod load order and avoid opening the IGMM to play the scene, even though the dialogue option would still be there regardless.

(To explain a bit further, override files will affect your game as long as they’re in your mod folder, but new files can’t be accessed if the .pak isn’t in your load order, so the dialogue option I added to his InParty dialogue would still show up, and then immediately cancel out when it couldn’t find the Brightest Star scene itself.)

To fix this, I separated out the override to Wyll’s InParty dialogue and the new files made for the scene into two different .pak files. You’ll now need both a base version of the mod (that has the new files for the scene) and a mod that adds the dialogue option for the scene to his InParty dialogue. This should fix any issues with the ingame manager breaking the mod, but please let me know if you still have that problem!

There are two different versions of the base mod: the non-replayable base will enable the scene when the conditions for the scene are met, and disable the option once the scene has been played through. The replayable version of the base will also enable the scene when the conditions for it are met, and then will allow you to replay the scene as many times as you’d like!

Both the replayable and non-replayable versions of the dialogue option are included in the override to his InParty dialogue, and are designed to check which version of the base you have installed. If neither version of the base is in your load order, the dialogue options won’t show up!

Again, make sure you have both a base and an override of his InParty dialogue with options for the scene installed for the mod to work.

I’m hoping separating out the dialogue overrides like this will make it easier to work on compatibility with other mods as well! If you’d like to try and work on compatibility with your mod and Brightest Star, please let me know; it would hopefully just be a matter of copying the dialogue options into your own override of his InParty dialogue, and then adding the Brightest Star scene to his InParty dialogue bank resource if you edited that as well.

...Unfortunately, I’m still struggling with making this mod compatible with my Hug Your Companions mod, but it might have more to do with the lighting in the hug dialogue than the compatibility methods I’ve been trying to use. (If anyone has any ideas why having both this scene and the hug scene as nested dialogues of his InParty dialogue would create bugs with cached lighting, please let me know!)

Also, all this talk of compatibility might be more relevant to other mods depending on how quickly I’m able to rework this mod, because I do need to prioritize finally making this a proper camp scene, thanks to one small issue in Patch 8:

Known Issues in Patch 8:

Patch 8 made it so talking to companions in camp will no longer put the characters in consistent positions for the dialogue. In previous patches, the dialogue would look the same most of the time, and place you and the companion you’re talking to in similar positions relevant to the companion’s tent, no matter where your character was standing when you talked to them. This is no longer the case in Patch 8, and where you’re standing at the start of the conversation now very much matters.

This is a big issue for this mod, because it relied on the positions of the characters when you talked to Wyll in the Lower City Slums camp. Now objects in the camp can end up blocking parts of the scene depending on where you’re standing when you talk to him. For the best results, you can try standing directly to the left of him, between the map and the pillow on the ground in his camp, but this mod is really going to need another update to fix this. (Please check the demo video for this mod to see what it looked like in Patch 7, which is. How it’s meant to look 😅.)

This mod still needed an update to account for changes to Wyll’s InParty dialogue in Patch 8, and to fix the issue with the ingame mod manager breaking the mod if you opened it. And this mod is still usable, with the update making it Patch 8 compatible as well! But I am going to try to prioritize an update to this mod to make it a proper camp night, both to fix the positioning issue, and to improve compatibility with other mods, since I won’t need to override his InParty dialogue anymore.

This was always the plan, but having it in his InParty dialogue wasn’t as much of an issue until now, so I ended up trying to finish up other WIPs of mine instead in the middle of work/school/life stuff. I had the intention of coming back to this mod when I had more of my long-term projects and other plans for the WCU taken care of. But because of this issue in Patch 8, I’m going to try moving the scene into a full camp night as soon as I can. Again, this mod is now compatible with Patch 8, and still works, but it’s unfortunately not working as well in the patch, so please look out for a future reupdate!

Installation instructions:

This mod now comes in two parts! To get the scene to play, you’ll need a base version of the mod (which has all the new files I made for the scene) and a mod that overrides Wyll’s InParty dialogue to add dialogue options for the scene. Currently, the only mod that adds these options is the DIALOG OPTIONS override you can find in the files for this mod page, but I’ll be updating this page if any other modders add the option to their mods as well!

Both the replayable and non-replayable versions of the option are included in the override file, but only one will show up at a time, depending on which version of the base you have installed. If neither version of the base mod is in your load order, the dialogue option for the scene won’t show up.

Only install ONE version of the base mod at a time!

Install via BG3 Mod Manager. Uninstall by removing the files for the mod from your mod folder.

This mod is safe to install and uninstall mid-playthrough!

A note about the In-Game Mod Manager:

Unlike previous versions of the mod, the 2.0.0.0 update is mostly compatible with the ingame mod manager, but the override half of the mod likely won’t show up in it. Opening the ingame mod manager will no longer break the mod, though, and the base versions of the mod should now show up in the manager! But if you’re wondering why you don’t see the override file, don’t worry; it’ll still work in your game as long as it’s in your mod folder.



The mod overrides the following file, so it can link to the cutscene:

//Data/Mods/GustavDev/Story/DialogsBinary/Companions/Wyll_InParty2.lsf

This means that it will conflict with any mods editing this same file. However! The way I set up the cutscene actually makes dialog edits easier to make compatible. Permissions to the assets for this mod are closed, but I'd be happy to work on compatibility patches for it.

Known Issues (pre-Patch 8):

• There's some clipping in the Early Access cuddle animation; I'm going to do my best to correct that in time.
• The mod currently doesn't account for Karlach's engine upgrades. This isn't necessarily a problem, she can play out the regular scene just fine, but it might be a bit immersion-breaking if she hasn't gotten her second upgrade.
• Textures might load a bit slowly in the Elfsong roof part of the scene; unfortunately I think this is a vanilla game issue, and not something I can do much about.
• This scene is not meant to be skipped through or freecamed before the cuddle on the roof of the Elfsong! Skipping through the scene might result in improperly positioned characters. This is just, a quirk of how cutscenes work (you're skipping over where the position changes would've happened in the dialog timeline) And the freecam thing is due to the fact I really struggled with character positioning with this scene, for reasons I haven't quite figured out yet. I had to cheat a bit and hide the characters at different points.
• None of these are really game or scene breaking issues, but still important to be aware of.
  

...And that's about all for now! Take care, and give Wyll some cuddles for us, okay?


Other Mods In The Wyll Cinematic Universe:

• Francesca's Journal
• Wyllzel Flirty Banter Restored
  

-- 💖🖤  <3  🤍💚  --

Mods Used In Previews:

• Terpsichore - Wyll Edits
• Clay's Custom Companions - Dancer Edition
• Wyll's Devil Form
• Wyll's Eye Colour Restored
• Vanilla (And NPCs) Hair Mixer
• Kay's Hair Extensions
• And a personal Tav mesh edit + camp clothes for Aimryax's character Ra'ed, made by Clayspace
  

A note about the WCU mod series:

As mentioned before, this mod is the first of a planned series of mods by Aimryax and I—Wyll Cinematic Universe (WCU). It's a project that was made for two reasons, explained in this statement from both of us:

The first reason is out of love for Wyll, as a wonderful character with a compelling narrative and a tender romance.

The second, however, is a consequence of Larian's mistreatment and disregard of Wyll. Wyll has the least amount of content out of the six origins, amounting to roughly eight hours, second to Karlach, who has ten, and in contrast to Astarion, who has twelve hours’ worth of content. Not only is the disregard evident in the content disparity, but what was done after release. The game has been out for over a year, but this content disparity hasn't been addressed in any significant way, and Wyll continues to suffer major bugs, from missing captions in his Act 3 party banter, to improperly flagged companion reactions to his quest, and more. And Patch 7, while promising to address the bugs and add more for him, did very little to actually address the content disparity and the issues that affect him.

Ulder Ravengard doesn't acknowledge the player's relationship when romancing Wyll. You couldn't kiss Wyll in the epilogue without a mod when romancing him until Patch 7, and even now the option only exists on a single ending path for him. There are typos in some of Wyll's questline dialog options, and some of his scenes can be very hard to trigger because of improper flagging. And, most seriously, in our opinon: Wyll is denied of his catharsis from his abuser, the main theme of the game, and is denied a chance to be comforted by the player at any point of the game. Not only that, but the player is often actively encouraged to be cruel towards him.

This project dedicates itself to Wyll as a result of this mistreatment, and all ideas and efforts will be exclusive to Wyll only, as WCU aims to give Wyll the same amount of content as other origins.

For cutscene mods: We do not grant permission to model swap Wyll in his custom cutscenes for WCU. If one wishes to create custom cutscenes for their character of choice, refer to the tutorial here. Otherwise, using this mod for any character that is not Wyll is forbidden.