The method described in this article was used to set up the dialogue lines that play when using this mod's shouts.  It has been working well in my tests so far.  If you experience any bugs or know of any possible issues, please let me know!

This mod's shouts re-use vanilla shout dialogue.  You might notice that all shouts in this mod have a combination of the first word from one existing shout, plus the second two words from another shout.  For example, Wildfire from this mod uses words Fire Never Dying, which combines Fire Breath (Fire Inferno Sun) with Call Durnehviir (Curse Never Dying).

The reason behind this is that in the quest that manages shout dialogue (VoicePowers for Skyrim.esm), the first word is separated from the others, but the two final words are recorded together in one sound file.  For example, for Fire Breath, the dialogue files look like this:
Start short: Yol!
Start long: Yol...
End short: Toor!
End long: Toor... Shul!

Because Toor and Shul are played as part of the same file when all three words are used, it would be necessary to splice sound files in order to create a shout that used a different combination (like Toor Diin).  Mods which replace the files for this dialogue might also be audibly inconsistent without a patch.

With this in mind, there are several ways to set up the voice lines to play.

First, it's possible to simply edit the vanilla shout dialogue quest (VoicePowers) to also play lines for your mod's shouts.  As a demonstration of what this looks like, this is how Thunderchild adds lines for Phantom Decoy and Splinter Twins:



This method allows your mod to work together with any mods that replace the sound files.  The downside is that if multiple mods use this method, they'll need a compatibility patch to reconcile the changes.

Second, it's possible to manually create your own audio files or copy existing .fuz voice files for the new shouts' voice lines.  This is the approach used by Thoom.  The upside of this method is that there's no compatibility issue with other mods that add new shouts, however they handle the lines.  You can also splice lines together for more creative word combinations (or record new lines altogether).  The downside is that mods that change the sound files for shouting could result in audible inconsistencies.

Because I have no experience with audio editing and also didn't want to make a passel of patches for every combination of add-ons for this mod with and without Thunderchild, I found an alternate way to implement the dialogue.

Each plugin that adds spells and shouts in this mod (including DraconicMagic.esp, DraconicMagic - Diverse Dragons Collection Patch.esp, and DraconicMagic - Meteor Add-On.esp) has its own new Quest record.  This Quest contains several Info records that don't have their own new sound files, but instead point to the existing INFO records in the VoicePowers quest for the matching lines.  For example, when the Wildfire shout from this mod is used, the INFO points to the "Yol!" info from VoicePowers and uses whatever sound file would be played by it.

This cannot be done in the Creation Kit; the program won't allow you to set the Response Data field to any record that isn't already flagged as a Shared Info.  It needs to be done in xEdit after the fact.  The upside of this method is that it will be compatible out of the box with mods that change the voices used by shouts as well as other mods that add new shouts regardless of how their voice lines are set up.  The downside is that new shouts can only be composed of the first word of an existing shout plus the second and third word of another existing shout.  There's no dialogue to reference for any other combination.

If you want to use this method to enable voice lines to play for a new shout, the process looks like this:

(1) Create a new Quest in the Creation Kit.  It should be flagged Start Game Enabled (or be set to start sometime before the shout can be obtained).  Close the window and save the plugin before proceeding, or it's possible for the CK to crash.
(2) In the Combat tab of this Quest, create four new Topics.  They can be named whatever you like, but they should use subtypes VoicePowerStartShort, VoicePowerStartLong, VoicePowerEndShort, and VoicePowerEndLong respectively.
(3) For each shout you've created, make a new Info under each of those four topics.  For each info:
    (a) In the first pop-up, enter a simple label; for example, for the Skyfall shout (Storm Sand Eternity), I put "Strun!" under VoicePowerStartShort, "Strun..." under VoicePowerStartLong, and so on.
    (b) In the second pop-up, add conditions to restrict this dialogue to only the relevant shout.  For Skyfall, I used:
            Subject.GetIsVoiceType(VoicePowerVoicesList [FLST:0010D29D]) = 1.000000 AND
            Subject.GetEquippedShout(__DragonShoutMeteor "Skyfall" [SHOU:FE005814]) = 1.000000 OR
    (c) For consistency, set "Audio Output Override" to SOMMono09000_verbSHOUTS [SOPM:00017497].  This can also be done in xEdit later.
    (d) Repeat for each of the four topics for each shout added.
(4) Save and exit the CK.
(5) Load the plugin in xEdit.  You may also need to manually load Dawnguard.esm and Dragonborn.esm if you intend to use lines from shouts added by those expansions.
(6) Expand the Dialog Topic header, where you should see the four topics you created.  For Skyfall, these look like this:

(7) For each added INFO record, edit the "DNAM - Response Data" block manually to the corresponding INFO that you want to use from the VoicePowers quest or equivalent in Dawnguard/Dragonborn.  The "Responses" block below can be left as-is; as far as I can tell it will simply be overwritten by the Response Data block.

(8) If the Quest you created to hold this dialogue is Start Game Enabled, you also need to create a SEQ file for it to start up promptly in a new game.  You can do this by right-clicking on the plugin name in xEdit and selecting Other > Create SEQ File.  Don't forget to pack this up together with your mod when uploading.  This file also may need to be re-generated if you've changed the plugin; if shout voice lines stop working, try this first.

Please be aware that if you edit any of those INFO records in the CK after doing this, you may need to edit "DNAM - Response Data" in xEdit again afterwards; the CK clears out the field.

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LeucisticDinosaur

1 comment

  1. kyuubiwindscar
    kyuubiwindscar
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    I've used this guide twice now for my shout mod, thank you so very much for your work here.