Q. Does Piper need to be in my party to receive the articles? A: No - you will still receive all of the articles from Nat regardless of where Piper is. I've tried to write them in a way that makes sense whether she's with you or not. The only thing I haven't accounted for is if she hates you, and will no longer join your party (you monster).
You'll have to figure out your own headcanon as to how she learns the news, or how she manages to write articles and send them back while travelling. Caravans and settlements can pass on messages, though, so I don't think it's too outlandish.
Q. Nat isn't giving me any articles! What gives? A. The most likely answer is that you haven't completed the quest 'Story of the Century' yet, where Piper interviews you for the newspaper. As some players were completing quests before ever reaching Diamond City, they would speak to Nat for the first time and receive articles that referenced an existing relationship with Piper. This was the easiest way to avoid breaking immersion - sorry for the inconvenience!
Q. Would you consider adding AI generated voice lines? A. No, sorry. I've messed around with ElevenLabs, and it's an incredible tool, but I can't justify stealing someone's voice, much less someone whose performance I love (and who is openly against AI voice replication). If anyone wants to start crowdfunding for some OG Courtney Ford and deal with Bethesda's lawyers, be my guest - I'll happily write the script.
Q. Why hasn't the No Fonts version of the mod been updated? A. I've stopped updating this version as very few people seem to have issues with Better Notes, and most issues I've seen have been resolved either by changing load order or applying the fonts file fix below. Let me know if it still isn't working for you and I can reconsider updating it.
Q. I lost my copy of an article. Can I get another one? A. While there aren't any spare copies, you can find all of the articles backed up on Piper's terminal inside Publick Occurrences. One of them even contains an Easter egg that you won't find in the regular article, so look out for that!
If you want though, you can use In Game ESP Explorer to view all the articles, and manually add them to your inventory. Spoiler warning, obviously!
Q. I can't get the Jamaica Plains note to trigger! A. You'll only get this one if you sell the World Series bat to Moe Cronin, and not when the quest actually finishes. Sorry not sorry ;)
Q. I updated from a version prior to V2.2 and now I can't find the articles. Where are they? A. Depending on the sorting mod you use, the articles will likely have moved to wherever your perk magazines (e.g. Guns and Bullets, Grognak) are sorted in the Misc tab. This is one of the side effects of copying the perk magazine behaviours, and means you don't have to dig through hundreds of regular notes to find the articles.
Q. I can't see the articles in Piper's terminal! What's up? A. Only one person has reported this issue, which makes me think it's a compatibility problem rather than a bug. Try putting POE at the bottom of your load order. If that doesn't work, leave a bug report with your mod list and I'll see what I can do. Q. I'm seeing black boxes instead of text when I open the articles! A. This appears to be an issue with other mods overwriting the interface/FontConfig.txt file from Better Notes. Let me know which mod is overwriting it if you find it (double click -> 'Conflicts' in MO), and I can work on a patch.
The easiest way to fix this is to put POE and Better Notes as far down in your load order as possible, to ensure that the FontConfig file from Better Notes is given priority. However, this may break fonts added by your other mods.
You can fix this by manually amending the FontConfig file in Better Notes. Open both files (from Better Notes and the other mod) and copy-paste any differences (i.e. the fonts that the other mod adds) into the BN FontConfig file, then save. If BN and POE are below that mod, this should retain the fonts from the other mod and fix the issue with BN/POE.
If this is too much hassle, I've now added a standalone version without Better Notes, which adds the paper texture from BN but doesn't modify the fonts. As of writing, this still needs updating to V3.0 - I'm working on this at the moment.
Q. The articles are triggering, but Nat doesn't talk / Nat is talking, but the articles don't trigger / Nat says one voice line when receiving an article, but the subtitles/lip sync are different! A. Please let me know which of the four versions of the mod you're using, and the quest that isn't working, and I'll look into it ASAP.
V3.4 is finally here! This is a less momentous update than I would have liked, but it's a good place to leave things prior to the next gen update, and a good point to jump off from afterwards.
First off: anyone coming here from a Wabbajack modlist SHOULD be able to update from 3.3.1 with no issues. Nothing has fundamentally changed - if anything the mod is better optimised - so you should just be able to overwrite it. Backup the plugin just in case, as those modlists are delicate. Please bother me and not the modlist authors if you update it and it breaks.
I've written two new articles for quests from the base game that were obvious oversights, both of which I really enjoyed doing. You may notice a reference to a previous, as-yet unwritten article in one of them - I may add that to the terminal in future, I just know nobody reads those!
I've also written five new articles covering three quests in Sim Settlements 2 Chapter 2: two side quests and the main quest ending. This does now mean that you need Chapter 2 for the SS2 version. I'm not planning a Vanilla + SS2 version as I imagine this will be a very niche case now. I'm sure there's more to be written about Chapter 3, I just haven't played it yet.
All versions of the mod now have the correct item pickup sound that was fixed in UFO4P. The mod doesn't require UFO4P, but I would highly recommend it. The mod is also now flagged as an ESL, which should help reduce compatibility issues, and means it won't count towards the maximum number of ESPs. Many thanks to Exoclyps for talking me through that and a few other things and providing some example files to work from.
One of those other things was another restructure of the mod, recreating all of the versions. As part of that I've finally got a sensible workflow, with properly updated and formatted master files and documents to work from. So while that hasn't impacted hugely on this version (beyond some more spelling and grammar fixes), it should make future updates less of a chore.
The VR version is now in the main installer, hence why I've removed it from the optional files. I still need to rewrite the new content for SMU Redux, and make sure all of the fixes from this version are applied to that version, so that patch may be a little way off. V3.3.1 is still available to download for SMU users.
I'll be across the next gen update in case it breaks anything, although I wouldn't expect it to. Otherwise, the next update will likely be focused on covering more of the faction quests. I had originally ruled this out, as I thought it would lead to an excessive number of articles, and just get a bit annoying. But a few people have asked for it, and I think we crossed that line a while ago! I'll consider making a stripped-back version of the mod if it starts to feel too cluttered.
Compatibility for Cabot House Enhanced Quests has been mentioned to me, and I'm sure it's feasible, but it will require some rewrites and likely some new content. I may add this as a patch, although I'll have to play through it first to figure out how to approach it.
I may also add some more SS2 content if I get around to finishing it, and possibly an easter egg or two from the TV show. I've ploughed an inordinate amount of time into trying to implement player pronouns over the years, and gotten nowhere, so unless anyone knows how to do it for a player.additem command in a script fragment, that's probably off the list. I am still open to any ideas about ways I could tie Publick Occurrences and the Boston Bugle together, or content I could add to their terminals.
I'm pretty confident that everything is working, but please let me know if you find any issues. Otherwise, enjoy the mod!
Hi all. Sincere apologies for the radio silence since the Next Gen update dropped - I've been moving house among other things, so haven't had the time or energy to check everything was still working.
PC users seem to be reporting that Better Notes is no longer working correctly. A temporary workaround for this may be to install the VR version, which is identical to the DLC version but without Better Notes. Please let me know if this works and I can look to adapt this for all versions.
The developer of Better Notes has made it available for other mod authors to use freely, so if it's possible to fix the issue, I could bundle it with POE in future. I will look into this when I have more time, but this may not be for a couple of weeks.
The Xbox version may have been broken by a widespread issue with images on the mod page. I have tried to fix this but with no luck so far. It's hard to test as I don't have the game on Xbox, but I will see if I can pick up a copy and look into it. Sorry!
I like the idea and the writing, but the articles are far too detailed to be plausible. I haven't taken Piper with me one second as a companion in my current playthrough, yet she knows that I informed the Brotherhood of Acadia's existence and that we destroyed it together. Where did she get that information?
What can I say, she's a good journalist. She's got her sources...
You're right though - the mod assumes you have at least some relationship with Piper for her to find this stuff out, and care enough to comment on it. I can't account for that many playstyles unfortunately - they'd either be detailed articles or super vague, which wouldn't make sense if she was there the whole time either.
I think it would be far more plausible for Piper being there and not publishing all the details than her being nowhere near the action and knowing everything, so I would very much prefer the articles being more vague. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way suggesting that you should rewrite your articles, the mod is very well made. It is just not for me. Thanks for taking your time to respond.
Here's a quote of advice given by someone with experience with the Bethesda.com mod menu to someone else who had the same image problem. Hope it helps you out there. Edit. Also only the second and third to the left of the first image appear to be corrupted. I'll test it on your behalf if you want.
"delete one, save, delete one, save it's a pain but that usually lets me eventually delete images when they're corrupted"
Sorry for the long delay. My PC was out of action for a long period, but I will try and look into this soon, as I'd really like to continue supporting SMU Redux.
That's Sim Settlements 2 Chapter 2, which is required for the SS2 version of the mod.
I would recommend reinstalling and choosing the 'VR version'. It's identical to the DLC version but doesn't require Better Notes, which was broken by the Next Gen update. I'm hoping to fix that soon.
This is not lore friendly... Piper should not be able to keep writing articles while traveling with the player because the rain is always ruining her notes
Any chance you could merged this simple little fix (for english version only apparently is it simple) from Betters Notes - NG Patched (FR-EN) for next gen update users?
Thanks for the heads up, that looks like an ideal solution. If I can confirm it works with all versions I will just make it a required download for now, and replicate the fix in future versions.
So I read that the reason some mods on xbox like this one are having error operation could not be completed msg is not because the mod itself but because the images with the mod are broken. So that's the only thing that needs to be fixed are that new images need to be put on the mod page
Sorry, I've been really busy moving house recently. I've tried updating all of the images on Bethesda.net, but their uploader is being really screwy and won't let me replace the banner image properly. Let me know if it's made any difference!
409 comments
A: No - you will still receive all of the articles from Nat regardless of where Piper is. I've tried to write them in a way that makes sense whether she's with you or not. The only thing I haven't accounted for is if she hates you, and will no longer join your party (you monster).
You'll have to figure out your own headcanon as to how she learns the news, or how she manages to write articles and send them back while travelling. Caravans and settlements can pass on messages, though, so I don't think it's too outlandish.
Q. Nat isn't giving me any articles! What gives?
A. The most likely answer is that you haven't completed the quest 'Story of the Century' yet, where Piper interviews you for the newspaper. As some players were completing quests before ever reaching Diamond City, they would speak to Nat for the first time and receive articles that referenced an existing relationship with Piper. This was the easiest way to avoid breaking immersion - sorry for the inconvenience!
Q. Would you consider adding AI generated voice lines?
A. No, sorry. I've messed around with ElevenLabs, and it's an incredible tool, but I can't justify stealing someone's voice, much less someone whose performance I love (and who is openly against AI voice replication). If anyone wants to start crowdfunding for some OG Courtney Ford and deal with Bethesda's lawyers, be my guest - I'll happily write the script.
Q. Why hasn't the No Fonts version of the mod been updated?
A. I've stopped updating this version as very few people seem to have issues with Better Notes, and most issues I've seen have been resolved either by changing load order or applying the fonts file fix below. Let me know if it still isn't working for you and I can reconsider updating it.
Q. I lost my copy of an article. Can I get another one?
A. While there aren't any spare copies, you can find all of the articles backed up on Piper's terminal inside Publick Occurrences. One of them even contains an Easter egg that you won't find in the regular article, so look out for that!
If you want though, you can use In Game ESP Explorer to view all the articles, and manually add them to your inventory. Spoiler warning, obviously!
Q. I can't get the Jamaica Plains note to trigger!
A. You'll only get this one if you sell the World Series bat to Moe Cronin, and not when the quest actually finishes. Sorry not sorry ;)
Q. I updated from a version prior to V2.2 and now I can't find the articles. Where are they?
A. Depending on the sorting mod you use, the articles will likely have moved to wherever your perk magazines (e.g. Guns and Bullets, Grognak) are sorted in the Misc tab. This is one of the side effects of copying the perk magazine behaviours, and means you don't have to dig through hundreds of regular notes to find the articles.
Q. I can't see the articles in Piper's terminal! What's up?
A. Only one person has reported this issue, which makes me think it's a compatibility problem rather than a bug. Try putting POE at the bottom of your load order. If that doesn't work, leave a bug report with your mod list and I'll see what I can do.
Q. I'm seeing black boxes instead of text when I open the articles!
A. This appears to be an issue with other mods overwriting the interface/FontConfig.txt file from Better Notes. Let me know which mod is overwriting it if you find it (double click -> 'Conflicts' in MO), and I can work on a patch.
The easiest way to fix this is to put POE and Better Notes as far down in your load order as possible, to ensure that the FontConfig file from Better Notes is given priority. However, this may break fonts added by your other mods.
You can fix this by manually amending the FontConfig file in Better Notes. Open both files (from Better Notes and the other mod) and copy-paste any differences (i.e. the fonts that the other mod adds) into the BN FontConfig file, then save. If BN and POE are below that mod, this should retain the fonts from the other mod and fix the issue with BN/POE.
If this is too much hassle, I've now added a standalone version without Better Notes, which adds the paper texture from BN but doesn't modify the fonts. As of writing, this still needs updating to V3.0 - I'm working on this at the moment.
Q. The articles are triggering, but Nat doesn't talk / Nat is talking, but the articles don't trigger / Nat says one voice line when receiving an article, but the subtitles/lip sync are different!
A. Please let me know which of the four versions of the mod you're using, and the quest that isn't working, and I'll look into it ASAP.
V3.4 is finally here! This is a less momentous update than I would have liked, but it's a good place to leave things prior to the next gen update, and a good point to jump off from afterwards.
First off: anyone coming here from a Wabbajack modlist SHOULD be able to update from 3.3.1 with no issues. Nothing has fundamentally changed - if anything the mod is better optimised - so you should just be able to overwrite it. Backup the plugin just in case, as those modlists are delicate. Please bother me and not the modlist authors if you update it and it breaks.
I've written two new articles for quests from the base game that were obvious oversights, both of which I really enjoyed doing. You may notice a reference to a previous, as-yet unwritten article in one of them - I may add that to the terminal in future, I just know nobody reads those!
I've also written five new articles covering three quests in Sim Settlements 2 Chapter 2: two side quests and the main quest ending. This does now mean that you need Chapter 2 for the SS2 version. I'm not planning a Vanilla + SS2 version as I imagine this will be a very niche case now. I'm sure there's more to be written about Chapter 3, I just haven't played it yet.
All versions of the mod now have the correct item pickup sound that was fixed in UFO4P. The mod doesn't require UFO4P, but I would highly recommend it. The mod is also now flagged as an ESL, which should help reduce compatibility issues, and means it won't count towards the maximum number of ESPs. Many thanks to Exoclyps for talking me through that and a few other things and providing some example files to work from.
One of those other things was another restructure of the mod, recreating all of the versions. As part of that I've finally got a sensible workflow, with properly updated and formatted master files and documents to work from. So while that hasn't impacted hugely on this version (beyond some more spelling and grammar fixes), it should make future updates less of a chore.
The VR version is now in the main installer, hence why I've removed it from the optional files. I still need to rewrite the new content for SMU Redux, and make sure all of the fixes from this version are applied to that version, so that patch may be a little way off. V3.3.1 is still available to download for SMU users.
I'll be across the next gen update in case it breaks anything, although I wouldn't expect it to. Otherwise, the next update will likely be focused on covering more of the faction quests. I had originally ruled this out, as I thought it would lead to an excessive number of articles, and just get a bit annoying. But a few people have asked for it, and I think we crossed that line a while ago! I'll consider making a stripped-back version of the mod if it starts to feel too cluttered.
Compatibility for Cabot House Enhanced Quests has been mentioned to me, and I'm sure it's feasible, but it will require some rewrites and likely some new content. I may add this as a patch, although I'll have to play through it first to figure out how to approach it.
I may also add some more SS2 content if I get around to finishing it, and possibly an easter egg or two from the TV show. I've ploughed an inordinate amount of time into trying to implement player pronouns over the years, and gotten nowhere, so unless anyone knows how to do it for a player.additem command in a script fragment, that's probably off the list. I am still open to any ideas about ways I could tie Publick Occurrences and the Boston Bugle together, or content I could add to their terminals.
I'm pretty confident that everything is working, but please let me know if you find any issues. Otherwise, enjoy the mod!
Hi all. Sincere apologies for the radio silence since the Next Gen update dropped - I've been moving house among other things, so haven't had the time or energy to check everything was still working.
PC users seem to be reporting that Better Notes is no longer working correctly. A temporary workaround for this may be to install the VR version, which is identical to the DLC version but without Better Notes. Please let me know if this works and I can look to adapt this for all versions.
The developer of Better Notes has made it available for other mod authors to use freely, so if it's possible to fix the issue, I could bundle it with POE in future. I will look into this when I have more time, but this may not be for a couple of weeks.
The Xbox version may have been broken by a widespread issue with images on the mod page. I have tried to fix this but with no luck so far. It's hard to test as I don't have the game on Xbox, but I will see if I can pick up a copy and look into it. Sorry!
So if we lose one we can still have the item using console commands?
You're right though - the mod assumes you have at least some relationship with Piper for her to find this stuff out, and care enough to comment on it. I can't account for that many playstyles unfortunately - they'd either be detailed articles or super vague, which wouldn't make sense if she was there the whole time either.
Edit. Also only the second and third to the left of the first image appear to be corrupted. I'll test it on your behalf if you want.
"delete one, save, delete one, save it's a pain but that usually lets me eventually delete images when they're corrupted"
Thanks!
I would recommend reinstalling and choosing the 'VR version'. It's identical to the DLC version but doesn't require Better Notes, which was broken by the Next Gen update. I'm hoping to fix that soon.
for next gen update users?