New year, time for a new update! Thanks for your patience.
More Content Is Coming
I have been steadily working on the content I mentioned in the previous update. Mostly, I've been writing dialogue. It's been slow progress, for a number of reasons. Partly I'm just a slow writer. I try hard to imagine what Aela would think and how she would speak, neither of which come naturally to me. And because Aela is not a talkative character, it's important to me that what she says is interesting. She shouldn't always be talking just to remind you that she's there, or constantly talking about herself. She needs to pose questions or suggest answers that make her feel equally as engaged with the game's events as the player character. My hope is that Aela will help you see new dimensions to the game's content, to enrich your playing experience even if you've played through these same quests before. I'm only now getting some of the new longer dialogues I've been working on refined to the point that they do sound like Aela's voice to me, and feel like they're accomplishing those goals.
Beyond that, some of the writing I've been doing for this update introduced new complications, compared to what I've done before. For instance, the quests "The Blessings of Nature" and "Kyne's Sacred Trials" that I've been writing commentary for both involve aspects of the goddess Kyne/Kynareth. Whichever quest the player pursues first with Aela, should trigger some dialogue about Kyne from Aela. So I've needed to write that dialogue about Kyne to fit either quest. And Kyne is important enough that I also wanted to include a way for Aela to share her thoughts about the goddess even if the player has already completed both quests without Aela: a third situation I needed to account for. But when you're playing the mod, whatever the situation is should flow naturally. Getting "shared" dialogue topics like this to sound natural in different contexts has been a challenge. But again, after some revision I'm starting to feel good about what I have done.
I've also happily found a way to prevent Aela from making her random comments when someone else is already speaking nearby. But, that has involved revising by hand the 100+ separate quests that were already used to handle her commentary. The end result is worth it, but that has been taking a lot of time, too.
So what I have decided is that the big additions included in the next update will just be for the two quests I mentioned above, "The Blessings of Nature" and "Kyne's Sacred Trials." (Both quests each include 3 or 4 separate conversations.) I'm still working on conversations for other quests, but I don't want to delay getting the update and its other fixes and additions out. And just these two quests, plus the many additions to her location commentary for cities, dungeons, etc., already total over 400 lines of new dialogue. I will of course post a full changelog when the update is ready.
An Update On Voice Acting
Voice acting update! Skyler, the voice actress I've been working with, had a few months where she just didn't have much time for voice acting work, so little progress has been made since the last update. But, just two weeks ago she sent me a note that she'd be getting back to it. She has lines to send me (edit: which I have received), and I'll be sending her a new batch (edit: also done). But you will see from this why I'm being very cautious when it comes to talking about the voice work or posting samples. It'll be nice if it happens, but given that it can always be pre-empted by more important circumstances, until it's actually done it should be treated as speculative.
Future Integration With ESF: Companions Guild
Further on down the road, I should mention that I think at some point I am going to need to make ESF: Aela dependent on my Enhanced Skyrim Factions: The Companions Guild mod. This is mostly for technical reasons because of the voice acting, so it probably won't happen until the initial set of re-voiced lines is ready. And it does not mean you'll need to go through my Companions Guild mod to use Aela, since you can always install both mods together after the Companions questline is complete. This is all still some months away, I imagine, but I wanted to give people advance warning now, since it may factor into issues of compatibility and so forth.
Compatibility With Face Mods
A lot of new users ask about using this mod with mods that change Aela's face. The basic way Bethesda's moddable games all work is that only one mod can edit a particular NPC. This mod edits Aela, and so overwrites any face edits another mod might make. Simply positioning a face mod lower than this in your load order may seem to work in the short term, but will cause problems when the new voicing is added. What you can sometimes do is merge the changes made by this and the facemod together using the TES5Edit tool. Position the facemod lower in your load order than this mod, load both into TES5Edit, set the facemod to have this mod as its master, and then looking at Aela's actor record, copy the changes that this mod makes into the facemod's .esp file. However, note that because of how the game handles face data, this will often work only when starting a new game; adding a facemod for an NPC into an existing game that had mods already editing that NPC often results in Skyrim's infamous "grey face bug." But if you're already using a facemod and want to add this mod, that shouldn't be a problem.
Greetings sir. I have downloaded this mod today and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Though I will admit that I am a little sorrowful about the lack of romance and marriage for Aela in the mod. I understand that other things may take priority but would it be possible to provide an update on that side of things? Thank you sincerely.
Now this is probably not the best place to ask, but Resaver is giving me a lot of script-related issues, pointing towards something like esfaeladialoguecore*... Which keeps being called.
I don't know what's causing this, but the number of calls can quickly grow out of hand. I should also note that I've tried porting it to SSE.
A question arises. How the hell did not anyone make a functional port on SE Nexus already? Because this would (or rather should) be incredibly popular, I imagine many people want that. So, why did it never actually happen? It seems there is some sinister reason behind it. All the other less popular mods have working ports on SE Nexus, while this one, till this day, still has not. How is that possible?
I did, it worked, although I haven't tested it extensively, just for a bit, at the beginning of the Companions Quest, when you arrive at Whiterun.
UPDATE May 26th, 2022: Since some users have sent me p.m. asking me about this, then here: Instructions to convert an Oldrim mod to SSE:
1) If the mod has a .bsa file, then you need to extract it, if you use the latest version of Mod Organizer 2, you can simply install the mod and tell it to extract it. If you don't use MO2, then you need to extract the .bsa manually, using a BSA extractor. I recommend this one: Bethesta Archive Extractor (B.A.E.) https://www.nexusmod...dition/mods/974
2) After you extracted the .bsa file, you can load the mod on the Creation Kit of SSE, then you simply save it, and that's it! It is now an SSE mod.
P.S. If the Oldrim mod you want to convert doesn't have a .bsa file, then you simply need to load it on the Creation Kit SSE and save it.
The mods ESF_Aela, and ESF_Companions have .bsa files so you need to follow the 1) and 2) steps.
Also it's a good idea to convert the meshes and textures files to the Skryim SE newer formats, you can use
No offence but just learn it people stop waiting for other people to do everything always. There's a lot of tutorials around it's easy (Arkano comment above sums it up just fine)
Yeah, its not about "waiting for others" to do something for me that I easily can do myself, just because I am lazy... I actualy spent years (well, hours at a time, but with very long breaks after I failed) trying to port it and get it work. I used many different methods, I tried everything there is, and I cannot get it to work... Well, my problem is, the mod seems to be working from the outside, even the startup conversation is there, but when I talk to her, no dialogue menu/options will show up. When I close the dialogue manually (that is not even there), and run away from her, and then come back and talk to her again, the dialogue continues, but the new dialogue menu/options will never pop up. I cannot respond to her, no matter what I do. And I cannot do anything else with her, each time I approach her, she says the same line, waiting for my answer, and I cannot respond or in any other way talk to her. So I guess it is a problem with my port, right? I somehow ported it wrong again, or not? (Btw, the funniest thing is, I ported dozens of oldrim mods already, and they always worked perfectly, only this one has issues...)
I download this mod then my aela got bugged her body and her head are two different texture help how do i undo this i tried to reinstall the bijin mod but nothing works pls help
Give Feedback
2848 comments
More Content Is Coming
I have been steadily working on the content I mentioned in the previous update. Mostly, I've been writing dialogue. It's been slow progress, for a number of reasons. Partly I'm just a slow writer. I try hard to imagine what Aela would think and how she would speak, neither of which come naturally to me. And because Aela is not a talkative character, it's important to me that what she says is interesting. She shouldn't always be talking just to remind you that she's there, or constantly talking about herself. She needs to pose questions or suggest answers that make her feel equally as engaged with the game's events as the player character. My hope is that Aela will help you see new dimensions to the game's content, to enrich your playing experience even if you've played through these same quests before. I'm only now getting some of the new longer dialogues I've been working on refined to the point that they do sound like Aela's voice to me, and feel like they're accomplishing those goals.
Beyond that, some of the writing I've been doing for this update introduced new complications, compared to what I've done before. For instance, the quests "The Blessings of Nature" and "Kyne's Sacred Trials" that I've been writing commentary for both involve aspects of the goddess Kyne/Kynareth. Whichever quest the player pursues first with Aela, should trigger some dialogue about Kyne from Aela. So I've needed to write that dialogue about Kyne to fit either quest. And Kyne is important enough that I also wanted to include a way for Aela to share her thoughts about the goddess even if the player has already completed both quests without Aela: a third situation I needed to account for. But when you're playing the mod, whatever the situation is should flow naturally. Getting "shared" dialogue topics like this to sound natural in different contexts has been a challenge. But again, after some revision I'm starting to feel good about what I have done.
I've also happily found a way to prevent Aela from making her random comments when someone else is already speaking nearby. But, that has involved revising by hand the 100+ separate quests that were already used to handle her commentary. The end result is worth it, but that has been taking a lot of time, too.
So what I have decided is that the big additions included in the next update will just be for the two quests I mentioned above, "The Blessings of Nature" and "Kyne's Sacred Trials." (Both quests each include 3 or 4 separate conversations.) I'm still working on conversations for other quests, but I don't want to delay getting the update and its other fixes and additions out. And just these two quests, plus the many additions to her location commentary for cities, dungeons, etc., already total over 400 lines of new dialogue. I will of course post a full changelog when the update is ready.
An Update On Voice Acting
Voice acting update! Skyler, the voice actress I've been working with, had a few months where she just didn't have much time for voice acting work, so little progress has been made since the last update. But, just two weeks ago she sent me a note that she'd be getting back to it. She has lines to send me (edit: which I have received), and I'll be sending her a new batch (edit: also done). But you will see from this why I'm being very cautious when it comes to talking about the voice work or posting samples. It'll be nice if it happens, but given that it can always be pre-empted by more important circumstances, until it's actually done it should be treated as speculative.
Future Integration With ESF: Companions Guild
Further on down the road, I should mention that I think at some point I am going to need to make ESF: Aela dependent on my Enhanced Skyrim Factions: The Companions Guild mod. This is mostly for technical reasons because of the voice acting, so it probably won't happen until the initial set of re-voiced lines is ready. And it does not mean you'll need to go through my Companions Guild mod to use Aela, since you can always install both mods together after the Companions questline is complete. This is all still some months away, I imagine, but I wanted to give people advance warning now, since it may factor into issues of compatibility and so forth.
Compatibility With Face Mods
A lot of new users ask about using this mod with mods that change Aela's face. The basic way Bethesda's moddable games all work is that only one mod can edit a particular NPC. This mod edits Aela, and so overwrites any face edits another mod might make. Simply positioning a face mod lower than this in your load order may seem to work in the short term, but will cause problems when the new voicing is added. What you can sometimes do is merge the changes made by this and the facemod together using the TES5Edit tool. Position the facemod lower in your load order than this mod, load both into TES5Edit, set the facemod to have this mod as its master, and then looking at Aela's actor record, copy the changes that this mod makes into the facemod's .esp file. However, note that because of how the game handles face data, this will often work only when starting a new game; adding a facemod for an NPC into an existing game that had mods already editing that NPC often results in Skyrim's infamous "grey face bug." But if you're already using a facemod and want to add this mod, that shouldn't be a problem.
It's an easy enough mod to port, just run it through Cathedral Assets Optimizer.
Thank you sincerely.
Which keeps being called.
I don't know what's causing this, but the number of calls can quickly grow out of hand. I should also note that I've tried porting it to SSE.
Could anyone tell me why this is happening ?🤔
UPDATE May 26th, 2022: Since some users have sent me p.m. asking me about this, then here:
Instructions to convert an Oldrim mod to SSE:
1) If the mod has a .bsa file, then you need to extract it, if you use the latest version of Mod Organizer 2, you can
simply install the mod and tell it to extract it. If you don't use MO2, then you need to extract the .bsa manually, using a BSA extractor. I recommend this one:
Bethesta Archive Extractor (B.A.E.)
https://www.nexusmod...dition/mods/974
2) After you extracted the .bsa file, you can load the mod on the Creation Kit of SSE, then you simply save it, and that's it! It is now an SSE mod.
P.S. If the Oldrim mod you want to convert doesn't have a .bsa file, then you simply need to load it on the Creation Kit SSE and save it.
The mods ESF_Aela, and ESF_Companions have .bsa files so you need to follow the 1) and 2) steps.
Also it's a good idea to convert the meshes and textures files to the Skryim SE newer formats, you can use
SSE NIF Optimizer
or
Cathedral Assets Optimizer