Mod Status Update of June 8, 2024:
*looks guiltily at mystery mod* I know! I know! Ugh. Started brainstorming quest ideas for Angwe and one thing led to another. I'll get around to testing ?????-??-????? eventually. Maybe tonight, if luck holds out.
Mod Status Update of June 7, 2024:
Navmeshing of vital areas in DoH is wrapped up temporarily for mystery mod testing! At least the NPCs will be able to get where they're going without hassle, and I am free to *shudders* rearrange my load order to start an actual new game in the first time since...forever. I fell into the classic pit where mod authors no longer play the games they create mods for a long time ago.
Vanilla cell before: 283 Tri count. Vanilla cell after I got through with it: 111 Tri count. Performance is buttery smooth now. Huzzah!
Mod Status Update of June 6, 2024:
Got caught up with what should have been a simple mod for Fallout 3 (you won't be seeing it on the Nexus, so don't bother looking), and juggled that alongside the transfer of another Kindred Spirits character to DoH. I'll be headed back to the mystery mod soon, but my mind is mainly focused on Denizens.
Mod Status Update of June 3, 2024:
Back again. Physically at least. Mentally, I'm not so sure about.
Not in the mood to crack open the mystery mod just yet. I left Denizens of Hjaalmarch in a lurch where some of its navmeshes were concerned, so I've been attending to those.
Discovered a cut character intended for the Frozen Hearth. Angwe. Female Altmer, or so my research into TES lore indicates. It's old news at this point that we are (it's much less lonely than saying "I" am) overhauling the inns in DoH as part of the Kindred Spirits transfer, so space has been made for her. She plays instrumental music and is a great friend to little Eirid.
Speaking of the latter, I have made her something very special. Well, actually quite a few things, because the inn in Winterhold isn't just an inn--it's home to a family. One of my philosophies when it comes to the inns (other than creating a series of REF IDs and global variables to enable easier patching for those who wish to disable the changes), is making sure that the ones which house children truly take them into account.
For example, in the vanilla game, little Eirid's bed is right across the room from Enthir's place of (shady) business. She has no privacy whatsoever! And this is the same area where Enthir is supposed to meet his business contacts!? I wasn't having that, no siree.
To heck with dialogue!--not really, but you get my point--visual storytelling is the real bee's knees! I spent four weeks just on Nelacar's room alone. If he insists on having the biggest room in the inn, then he's going to use it, by gum!
I LOVE navmeshing now. I glory in every tri I manage to shave off the original vanilla number, I revel as I dash off one triangle after another, I feast my eyes upon the FPS counter and grin triumphantly at the results. Even just talking about it... I feel light as a feather now.
I don't know if any of the modified inns will show up when I attempt to record footage of the mystery mod in action. All I can say if they do is that (1), I love colour, and (2), much of what you catch sight of is tied into quests or features and not just there to look pretty, and (3), what is seen is always subject to change.
Mod Status Update of May 23, 2024:
I have to take unexpected journey out of state to look into a family-related matter. Not sure how long this might take, but I think it's safe to say that I won't be releasing the mystery mod any time soon. If, however, the mystery mod does manage to grow a little closer to release, I will continue to update its title on my profile page, so keep an eye on that.
Sorry for the brevity, but I did promise myself not to drag personal matters back onto this article, so this is me attempting to honour that.
Mod Status Update of May 22, 2024:
Those new scenes in the mystery mod may be more of a benefit to Denizens of Hjaalmarch than to Fare Thee Well.
I just cracked open the latter for the first time since last August, and this image sums up how I feel after looking over its Spouse Tasks feature:
Mod Status Update of May 21, 2024:
A hiccup in the shape of more concrete results from one of my unreleased mods for Fallout 4 bears ominous tidings for Fare Thee Well.
It's yet another debacle concerning ANDs and ORs, but this time I think the fault lies with the Creation Kit itself, specifically with certain Faction checks. If the CK can content its rebellious self with just those, the Spouse Tasks feature of FTW may yet stand a chance at life.
I will know soon enough--just wrapped up five brand new conversation scenes for the mystery mod. These new scenes are special. They shall be conditioned to check for not just one single particular area, but two. If they play for both without any problems in both areas (meaning that full duplication will not be necessary), then I'll have a better idea about how to tackle FTW. I am wary of ORs in the extreme, but the risk is worth it.
Mod Status Update of May 20, 2024:
More letters have been added to the mystery mod! (R, N, and Y.) Its title is probably looking pretty obvious, but this is still fun to do. Finishing up the rest of the scenes and then moving on to the gruelingly tedious, yet essential task of transferring and renaming the dialogue responses. Then conditioning, Story Manager shenanigans, and testing will follow.
Cross your fingers for luck. My main test subjects are engaged elsewhere, so I'm flying solo.
By the way, the mod WILL require an esp slot. There's too many records for it to be anything other than a good old fashioned esp, so if you play SE or AE, be sure to save a free slot just in case it takes your fancy.
Mod Status Update of May 16, 2024:
Hoping I can add more letters to the mystery mod soon. I pride myself on keeping good documentation about any and all dialogue changes, but apparently some time in 2022, I took it into my skull to change some of the responses around--rather drastically, too--and failed to document them. :(
Currently going back and forth between _____ __ _____ and Deni to check and compare. The LE CK isn't exactly swift, so it often happens that I usually can't resist the urge to work a bit on Deni itself while it's loaded up. ;)
A startling thing happened about half-an-hour ago--my computer became mildly unresponsive and the screen started fluctuating in and out of existence. Managed to restart it, but it moved far too quickly, so access Safe Mode was cut off. It seems to be okay now. Did some DISM checks, and no errors were found. Still, it's scary. But for being thirteen years old, I think it's doing pretty damn good. It's entitled to be quirky at that age. Or so I keep telling myself.
The goal is to have _____ __ ____ up and about before June. Armageddon is probably upon us now that I decided to go against my nature and set a goal. If any of the signs of the K'Sharra Prophecy come to pass, you have my apologies.
Mod Status Update of May 12: 2024:
I almost have all of the scenes rebuilt!!! (Of the mystery mod).
Making a few judgement calls where responses unique to Denizens of Hjaalmarch are concerned. I already have a patch made for DoH and (the unreleased + undergoing surgery version of) Fare Thee Well, so I might just go ahead and start building a patch between _____ __ _____ and DoH while I'm about it.
The core of what I'm working with was made in 2021, and I honestly forgot how funny some of the scenes are, particularly the ones regarding a certain temple... :D
Not exactly sure what line of logic my brain was following back then. I suppose I thought conversation scenes between NPCs should stay in as few mods as possible for compatibility and function's sake (hence why Kindred Spirits and Denizens were built specifically to share each other's workload), but I now see that I should have just released this particular aspect of Denizens as standalone.
I think Mother's Day was today, but that only makes me miss Gram. As a practical consideration, it would have been a good time to release it, but there is still much to polish up and test, and I don't want to get sloppy and start making mistakes.
Anywho, if you'd care for a glimpse of how many scenes there actually are, take a look at the following video.
(Be warned, though! The CK didn't like being filmed so it's a bit blurry. And my desktop is
Mod Status Update of May 10, 2024:
The title of the mystery mod has revealed two new letters, that of V and M. You can see what it now looks like by scrolling to its entry on my profile page.
So far everything looks pretty good. I just wish that the act of slicing it from DoH could have included the scenes being fully set up and in tact. Rebuilding over 200 conversations scenes that already caused burnout during their original implementation in Denizens is more mind-numbingly dull than words can describe.
And to think, I'll still need to film footage of it in action! I'm at the 255 plugin limit (remember--I play LE); haven't added any new mods in years since scrambling my load order could play havoc with DOH's dialogue box order. If releasing _____ __ _____ somehow scrambles all of the new conversation boxes between the player and Benor & Company in Deni, I will lose what's left of my shattered mind and have to be committed to a mental institution. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm half way there already.
Mod(s) Status Update of May 8, 2024:
Denizens of Hjaalmarch has achieved a new layer in terms of completion--my Nexus avatar has changed colour and shape to mark this change.
The title of the mystery mod has revealed two new letters, that of I and S. You can see what it now looks like by scrolling to its entry on my profile page.
Fare Thee Well received unexpected help from an unreleased mod for Fallout 4, and its future looks infinitely brighter as a result.
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