This mod changes vanilla game dialogue audio to make NPCs call you by your custom name, wherever they call you "Dragonborn".


What this is

I've gone through and manually picked out all the lines in the game where NPCs call you Dragonborn (leaving out lines where they speak about dragonborns in general, and such). I've then taken those lines and prepared a batch file that can be dropped into xVASynth, which will re-generate all the lines, but with your own custom name, instead of "Dragonborn". You just need to do a Find+Replace of "___" with your own custom name, in the .csv file (don't use Excel, use notepad or some other text editor, Excel has been known to break the formatting), before running it through xVASynth. You can then drop the output into the game folder, and that's it!

Read the full instructions below for more details.

Demo video

Here's a video showing some places where lines are changed, with some custom player names:




Full instructions



Step 1. Download and install xVASynth. You will need the following voices installed, as these are the ones with "Dragonborn" lines:

sk_arngeir
sk_delphine
sk_esbern
sk_femalecondescending
sk_femaledarkelf
sk_femaleeventoned
sk_femalenord
sk_femaleorc
sk_femalesultry
sk_femaleyoungeager
sk_frea
sk_galmar
sk_kodlakwhitemane
sk_maleargonian
sk_malebrute
sk_malecommander
sk_maledarkelfcynical
sk_maledrunk
sk_maledunmer
sk_maleeventoned
sk_maleeventonedaccented
sk_maleguard
sk_malekhajiit
sk_malenord
sk_malenordcommander
sk_maleoldgrumpy
sk_maleorc
sk_maleyoungeager
sk_tulius
sk_ulfric

Step 2. Install the .lip/.fuz plugin for xVASynth, which will also generate the .lip and .fuz files for you. Make sure the .lip format is set to Skyrim, in the app settings, once you enable it

Step 3. Download the batch file from this page, and open it in a text editor such as Sublime Text, or Notepad (not Excel). Do a Find+Replace of "___" with whatever name you want the NPCs to speak out. 

Step 4 (Optional - recommended) If your name has strange or unusual pronunciation, you can tell xVASynth exactly how you want it to pronounce it in the generated lines, by adding the pronunciation in the ARPAbet menu. I'd recommend you do this anyway, just to make sure it's always pronounced the same (correct) way. REMEMBER: You need v2.0 models for this, so make sure you've got the latest voices. Note, you need v2.1.1+ of xVASynth to use ARPAbet for names with _ underscores.

Step 5. With Hz set to 44100 in the xVASynth audio settings, drag+drop the batch file into the batch menu in xVASynth, and start.

Step 6. Once the files have finished generating (located in <xVASynth.exe>/resources/app/batch/say_my_name), copy the Data folder into your game folder (or install via Vortex)


Current limitations and future plans

Subtitles

Currently, the dialogue TEXT in the game (the subtitles) remain as "Dragonborn". I couldn't find an easy way to adaptively change these to the player name, as these strings can't do <Alias> replacements. If you know of a way, do let me know!

Multiple Characters

Another limitation right now is that you can only have one set of game files at a time, meaning that if you are using multiple characters, you'll have to change the game files between changes (Vortex should make this easier though, if you zip the files up and install them through it). I could fix this maybe by making an .esp that reads files from a specific location, and use SKSE to copy/replace game files from auxiliary folders, based on player name, on load. Depending on demand, this is something I may explore in the future.

Adding your name to more conversations

This currently only covers lines in the vanilla game. An update or follow-up mod could change existing lines in other places in the game to add your name in casual conversation. If someone is interested in making this mod, please do, as I will likely take too long to get around to doing it (it took me >6 months to get around to making the video and publishing the mod page). It would be a matter of finding appropriate conversations to change, and adding the lines to the batch file - and optionally changing dialogue subtitles, but until the first issue is fixed, you'll have to pick just one name to use, eg "Dragonborn".