https://imgur.com/a/9Jg7or6 Hi! Just letting you know that I found a group overlaping on Moonlight Jely Festival year 1 Your Aymeric is standing on the same place as 3 other characters. https://imgur.com/a/9Jg7or6
Hi, thanks for letting me know! Unfortunately, it's really hard to account for all the possible custom NPCs out there when choosing festival positions, so I probably won't adjust his location for the time being. If you're interested in moving him yourself, I'd be happy to walk you through the process of altering the coordinates :]
Aww, happy holidays!! I hope you have fun with it 🥺❤️ I wish I had a bit more to offer, but I've had so much going on these past few months, I just wanted to get something substantial out there - hopefully the new dialogue is exciting enough!
Start of the year was so chaotic, I didn't get to try this out as much as I want; but I just wanted to say, so far got through the "talk about past" dialogues, and I really loved how you rendered the added bit, talking about his guilt as well... that way it wasn't just "added information" but a nice personal insight as well, reminded me a bit of the wol in dark knight quests, very skillfully made :)
The poor dude is now allergic to stuff even in the place he's supposed to relax in though; he really can't get a rest :D
I'm now through most of second year, and my farmer recently married Aymeric; it's been nice so far seeing all the more interactive dialogues he has, both before and after marriage, making him overall more alive, layered and responsive to what happens.
I particularly liked how he reacted to my farmer cultivating tea, and expressing the desire to buy some once the saplings were mature; while dating, it was very nice to see all his reactions to all the different movies and comments afterward, instead.
On top of that, I really appreciated the new description for spirits eve with him in his costume, but the best parts, are the random dialogues where he opens up a bit more (especially the second one about his biological father); it's been a ton of nice surprises that spruced up the mod quite a bit.
I wanna also report some minor things, though:
- When married, and in second year, he has a dialogue during the autumn fair that is about the grange display and "not slacking off"; after the grange display results, he repeats the same dialogue again, not sure if intended or there was supposed to be another dialogue depending on how it ended, but I thought worth mentioning it.
- One of his "welcome back home, here's some dessert" dialogues post-marriage has a typo with a gold symbol and a 1 at the end of the sentence (if it makes any difference, it happened at night and it was black cobbler).
- This is a funny bit, but the second day after he returned to Ishgard, my farmer got asked by him if they wanted to have a baby; some people can undress you with their eyes, but apparently Aymeric can do so much more with just words on a letter... paladin magic? Either way, I hope I didn't miss pregnancy dialogues (if any).
- Here's more of a "personal taste kind of observation", so take it with a grain of salt: at a certain point, maybe around winter fest but can't remember, there was a dialogue about "missing the pomp and fast of religious celebration, like we have in Ishgard" or some such. Honestly though, given his background and considering all that he could've gone through, I somehow found that comment a bit dissonant; I'm sure he might still be a believer, and he certainly loves seeing people celebrating and coming together, but given this is the same dude that wears an elephant costume and goes around town just to entertain people in his (very scarce) free time (when he's not writing letters to the wol during starlight celebrations :P ), or showing up unannounced during fetes, it feels like he's more about "being with people" and celebrating with them in a cozy way, rather than ritualism itself. Again though, this is just my 2 cents and honestly I admit I didn't read all side stories on the official website, so maybe I missed something somewhere; stardew players that don't play FF14 probably won't even notice anything out of place, given that he talks about his father only as a wicked man and nothing about his rank etc.
edit:
- Once again, my farmer was offered flowers (this time post marriage) during winter 3, twice in the same day (morning and afternoon); must say, second time he upped his game with a fairy rose... after mastering blue, he's now conquering green (thumb) :D
- If you give him elven jewelry post marriage, he still refers to your farmer as "my friend" and "maybe I'll wear it" (full 14 hearts... is there something you wanna talk about Aymeric? You sure everything's ok hun?).
- During the spirit's eve event, while he's near the table (year 2), he's wearing the elephant costume (playing with cuter Aymeric mod at least), but he states that he left the costume at home (still, having dialogues about it was great, especially the one at home lol).
Overall, splendid job, thank you so much for this great update :)
P.S. As of the publication of this mod , have you considered making Aymeric an adventuring companion? It would be kind of great to bring him along for some extra adventures :P
Hi again!! I'm so glad you've enjoyed the update! The ability to add dialogue responses for specific gifts is definitely one of my favorite 1.6 features; I might try adding in some more in the future :]
Addressing your comments: - The grange display is an interesting case... There are different dialogue lines depending on the result of the competition, but as far as I know, those lines become unavailable once you're married. It's possible he repeated the line because the player's spouse doesn't have variable dialogue, or that there are different flags for year 2 competition results that I'm unaware of. I'll see what I can dig up!
- This is a bug I'm aware of! I accidentally put two portrait flags in that line by mistake. If you want to fix it yourself, you can remove the $1 from the end of the "Indoor_Night_3" line in the MarriageDialogueAymeric.json file (but this fix will be included whenever I push a new update).
- Wow Aymeric, that's some impressive rizzing lol. Due to the nature of the 14-heart event (read: it's a bit of a coding mess), there isn't a way I can keep that pop-up from occurring, but it is incredibly funny. There isn't any pregnancy-specific dialogue, though there are a few lines where he's nervous over the prospect of being a father; however, I believe they have a random chance of triggering sometime between saying "yes" and actually getting the baby, so you prooobably didn't miss anything. A fun fact about the 14-heart event is that Green Rain can also interrupt it, and Aymeric will suddenly being back from his trip lol... It isn't gamebreaking, but it's a weird quirk. Alas, I don't have any good way of fixing it (yet) while working within the framework of Content Patcher 😔
- I can understand why you'd feel this way, and I don't think you're wrong, either--I just think Aymeric is a man deeply in love with his home, and being away from it is giving him a stark reminder of all the things he didn't typically give much thought to. It's not that he doesn't appreciate a cozier, more personal atmosphere--he's just noticing the things that are now missing from his life, and Ishgard's unavoidable religious celebrations were certainly something that brought its people together. I also like to believe he was something of a choir boy growing up, and Pelican Town doesn't seem like it'll be putting a chorus together anytime soon. All that said, I've expanded the line further to give it more nuance (I don't want all of his lines to be too lengthy, but since a 10-heart line is pretty niche to encounter anyways, I figure there's no harm).
- Oh wow, two flowers in one day is lucky! Stardew works in such a way that your spouse will give you two randomized lines from the daily pool (one in the morning and one in the afternoon--the nighttime dialogues are all separate), so you just got lucky enough that it picked the same dialogue twice in a row haha.
- There's no way to distinguish gift-giving dialogue for being unmarried/married, so that's just a quirk of the game. Who says your spouse can't still be your friend?
- I've debated over this one a few times, especially since the Cuter Aymeric Portraits are so popular (deservedly so!), but since it's possible to have sprites that don't put Aymeric in the elephant-costume, it's hard to tailor the dialogue in such a way to account for both while keeping mention of the elephant costume intact (and Spirit's Eve just seems like the perfect time to bring it up). I might change it in the future if I can find a good balance between them that I like :]
I do continue to make tweaks to dialogue as I encounter it in-game (I play very slowly lol) to improve clarity and flow, so at some point I'll push an update that has a few bug fixes and general polish. Nothing too gamechanging-ly crazy for now, but we'll see what the future holds! Thanks as always for leaving detailed feedback, and I'm so glad that you've enjoyed the new dialogue!!
P.S. Adventuring companion Aymeric sounds so cute 🥺 I'm not sure how much work would be needed to make him compatible, especially with the language barrier, but I'll try looking into it sometime if I'm feeling adventurous!
Just came here to comment thanks for this mod. It pairs wonderfully with the Chocobo Valley mod, as having one other being other than Buckwheat the moogle know that chocobos exist is great. In fact, having it is what gave me the excuse to download Aymeric because otherwise he felt too out of place in Pelican Town in my eyes.
Yes, I know that sounds absurd when Qi, Rasmodius, Krobus, and the Dwarf exist. Feel free to tell me how absurd I am for it.
I don't think that's absurd at all! I tried to make him fit in as well as I could, but he's definitely still immersion breaking :') That said, I'm glad you like him! There are a lot of wonderful FF-related mods out there.
this mod works great on a fresh save, but even with bushes destroyed in a pre-existing save he doesnt start his path and stays in bed all day. any reason for this? (not using SVE, only other mods are destroyable bushes and some recolors)
As someone whose brain is occupied by this guy 24/7, I cannot express to you just how much this mod has changed my life LOL. The way you write him is probably the most spot-on (to the aspects of his character that i enjoy) I've ever come across, and I know this also a very personal thing, but I think you nailed his demeanor/ personality relative to canon, too. It's easy to forget that he's a really sentimental, earnest guy when there's no pressing matter at hand (though he only gets that once a year loool).
Loved how you interspersed dialogue from canon as well without spoiling anything T__T thank you for keeping us all fed until they inevitably decide to cart him out in another patch a century from now. you're incredible!!!
I really can't express how much this comment has made my week 😭 ❤️ It sincerely means so much to me to hear, especially because I'm always a little worried that I've softened his character a little too much... It took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to portray him for this mod because while I love the serious, pragmatic parts of his personality that shine through when he's in "lord commander" mode, I just couldn't imagine him falling back on that when he's been separated from duty and tossed into a place full of people who don't know anything about his reputation/past. In those (rare, lol) moments of downtime when he's allowed to just talk to his friends like WoL or Estinien, he tends to be just like you said: earnest, sentimental, and a bit of a romantic at heart, so that's what I tried to focus on while still attempting to hint at some of the things I think he struggles with (like his general loneliness, difficulty fully opening up to people, and self doubt). It's a little hard to convey that kind of nuance in Stardew dialogue boxes (I'm forever trying to find ways to make him express the more witty/wry side of his personality he occasionally shows in-game), but I did my best!
I'm also currently working on a patch that adds in more varied dialogue to trigger on certain days/at different heart levels/in year 1 vs year 2, but work has been beating me up lately so I've been writing slower than I'd like to 😵💫 But if Square Enix won't feed all six of us Aymeric enjoyers any new content, then I guess I'll have to do it myself lol
Thank you again for leaving a comment!! I'm so glad people have been enjoying his characterization 🥺
💙💙 YES to all of this omg you just get it... 😭 It's difficult like you said to integrate every facet of his character into a mod for a completely different genre and canon but I think you've done just that. and you've done a marvelous job conveying that more serious/ introspective side + his sense of humor too now and then!!
rattling the bars of my enclosure re: the latter but also take it easy 🥺 i'll be looking SO forward to that and even then if you decide you'd rather leave it where it's at i have been sustained for lifetimes already LOL. thank YOU!!!
I'm sorry for posting my translation without waiting for your reply, but anyway... This is my mod addresshttps://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/27418
Hello! I downloaded this mod, and it's great! Just one quick question though: I added this mod to my pre-existing save, and I downloaded the DestroyableBush mod, but do you know how I can assure they won't grow back? I destroyed the bushes near his house, but are there any more I need to chop down to ensure his scheduled walk won't get messed up? Thank you very much! I hope you have a great day.
This is a great question!! I believe DestroyableBushes actually lets you modify how long it takes bushes to grow back (so they can technically be permanently removed). If you open the mod's config file in something like Notepad, you should be able to make certain adjustments. If you change the "WhenBushesRegrow" value from "3 days" to "null", this should stop all bushes from regrowing. Alternatively, I believe there is a way to remove specific bushes permanently, but it would require having the coordinates of the bush's location, so that method is a little more complicated.
The only bush that I think technically needs to be destroyed is the one that blocks the pathway into Aymeric's "flower garden" on the right side of the house. To my knowledge, all other bushes should be fine, but if you notice him walking in any exceptionally weird directions (like across lakes, or rivers, or off into the void...), then that's an indication that something has blocked his path in a way the game couldn't resolve.
You can also just use the GMCM mod , and in the start/load game screen, there will be a little cog on the bottom left; it's a simpler graphic UI if you don't know how to edit stuff (like my dumb self), and it includes options for the destroyable bushes mod.
Speaking of "mid-save" just in case, do I need to set the bushes as "never regrow" then, or do I just need to do destroy em once with the never regrow option, save, and then can set them to regrow again? Does Aymeric destroy them in case or do I need to play stalker for a few days?
Sorry for the silly questions, I like to plan ahead for any scenario...
I'm actually not sure! I don't entirely know how the mod works--I was just trying to find a solution for him mysteriously walking through waterfalls and off the map if those bushes are there 😅 I doubt Aymeric will destroy them himself, so whatever way keeps the bushes in front of his "flower garden" from regrowing will be the safest bet.
It's allright, I need to start a fresh playthrough at some point, so that will solve any issue... just wondering if I should wait for the update or not... eheh :P
Hi, thank you for the interest in my mod! Unfortunately, I don't have a finished version of the mod for Stardew 1.5 🙁 However, I do have an older version that worked in 1.5, and I've tried to fill it in with the events and dialogue from the 1.6 version. I can't promise it will work, but you're welcome to try to use it if you want. I don't have a Chinese translation for it though, sorry :[
Here's the Google Drive link if you'd like to try it: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1J9PHCLn8z5iaFuHy1FIOB-ENXJ30gx0R
Hello, I just finished a playthrough with this mod, so I came here to give my unwarranted and umprompted review lol.
Generally, I try to avoid mods that add npcs I know very well, because the writing differences that are bound to be there usually give me big headaches; but I'm really glad I decided to download this despite everything (I admit, slightly cuter Aymeric had its say in it, ahah).
While it's true that there are some differences with the source (at times he feels more mellow and cheerful compared to the original), the gap is really thin and you managed to keep the essence of his character, not a small feat by all means; the writing itself overall is honestly good, and not just for the staggering amount of dialogues and descriptions (especially the mails are always on point and never dull or inane), but for the level of care that shows through the attention to detail that personally I really appreciated (like him having even his big board quest, or saying goodnight in bubble text while in bed, and all those amazing little-yet-big things)... on top of that, I found a real breath of fresh air that he recognizes you're your own adventurer/fighter and even asks you to spar, we have already too many "I'll treat you like a fragile princess" npcs out there, including some of the vanilla ones sometimes (nothing wrong if that's your cup of tea of course, I'm not kink shaming here).
The mod is totally immersive, wether you know the source material or not; if you're into nice guys, he's definitively worth having in your playthrough, and even if you're not into romance, he makes for a very interesting friend to have around and his story is compelling regardless (he's also very generous with gifts to boot)... if I gotta find a fault with him, maybe it's that he was depicted as "too nice" sometimes, but I admit the whole "i like blue, tea and chocolate" completely sold me regardless lol, on top of it being mostly lore correct (my 3 fav things as well ahah).
My very ultra-geeky, supertiny only gripes with the mod so far are:
- The sword on the wall (guess it's supposed to be Naegling?), despite being descripted as blue, is totally not blue :P - After asking to marry him, 2 days from the wedding day, he already says "Tomorrow" (the same dialogue for both days basically). - Once in winter, he said he managed to blossom some flowers and gave my farmer a fairy rose.... magic! :D - This was actually a super funny moment, but during the spirit Eve festival, he had this super descriptive, beautiful paragraph about how (among other things) his lips shine under the moonlight... but since I was playing with the slightly cuter mod, my farmer was looking at a giant axx blue elephant lol
************************** possible spoilers********************
**** this last point is a bit spoilery, so read at your own risk****
- Aymeric mentions being adopted and talks about his adoptive parents in one of the heart events; he then proceeds to talk about his troubles back in his homeland, and the fact that he "was accused of patricide"... now I know the backstory and all, but someone who doesn't might think he casually offed his adoptive father, since he never talks about his biological one, not even in passing, anywhere else :P
Thank you very much for leaving such detailed feedback! This was a really nice message to read before bed, and I'm thoroughly glad you enjoyed having him in your game 🥺 Hopefully you don't mind if I get into a bit of the creation process here and address some of your feedback!
Truthfully, I never intended to post this mod publicly, but I had a few people on Twitter express interest, so I figured there wasn't much harm in it. I really didn't expect it to get this level of attention (I know Slightly Cuter Aymeric certainly helped!), but I created and wrote this mod for myself first and foremost, and I decided early on that there wasn't much point in it if I wasn't portraying a version of Aymeric that I wanted to see. I spent a while going back and forth on how, exactly, I was going to fit him in to Stardew--I thought I was wasting an opportunity to explore some of his richer character themes if I displaced him from the FFXIV setting entirely, so that ruled out a proper alternate universe scenario, but I also found it unrealistic to imagine that he would end up leaving Ishgard after everything he's fought for to permanently relocate somewhere else. Ultimately, I tried to make it mesh as well as I could just to fulfill my own desire of having Aymeric on my little farm.
It was also rather tricky to decide where he should land personality-wise. Obviously we see fleeting glimpses of Aymeric in-game where he's experiencing self-doubt or is going out of his way to be kind/happy, but most of his time on-screen is spent with his "Lord Commander" mask firmly in place, which can make him a little hard to pin down. It was my goal to portray an Aymeric free from the burden of duty and his public-facing persona, which would in turn give him the opportunity to be a bit more open with his feelings (both positive and negative) in a way he's not allowed to be in-universe. It's certainly a fine line to walk, and I can understand how various lines might lean too far in either direction, but I figured it was worth the risk to have him present himself in a way that's less hidden behind his usual mask (NPCs in Stardew also tend to be very direct with their feelings, and I only have so much dialogue I can fit into a text box before it gets boring to click through, so I tried to keep that in mind, too). He definitely borders on being "too nice," but that's a trait I tend to attribute to Aymeric as a whole, since he always seems a little eager to please the few friends he has (in that "take an entire ship's worth of ceruleum" sort of way).
As for the nitpicks: fair enough! - As is probably readily apparent, I'm not an artist. I did my best with the original, not-slightly-cuter portraits/sprites and worked with my younger sister to get them to the point where I was decently happy with them, but I was keen to avoid any other asset tweaking or tilesheet additions as I was afraid I couldn't emulate the Stardew style. It's the reason Aymeric's base house model is pulled from the Adventurer's Guild instead of being colored a bit more fittingly, and alas, it is also the reason Naegling is gray and totally not blue 😔 This is something I might look into fixing at a later date, but it also doesn't bother me too much, so I can't make any promises. - The engagement dialogue issue is definitely weird! I haven't noticed it doing that to me before, but sometimes I forget to talk to him when I'm actually playing the game, so I'll look into it with some extra attention and see what I can do to fix it. - Hey, flower pots exist! Let the man have some indoor planters! (As a bonus, there is a line of dialogue when he stands out on the Spouse Patio that references him trying to grow flowers indoors during the Winter, but it's an easy thing to miss!) - I actually had no idea Poltergeister was going to add the Elephant outfit to the Spirit's Eve festival, but I do adore it! The base mod is, tragically, missing the silly costume, so the line makes a bit more sense there, I promise 😂 I might tweak it, but it might also end up as just ~one of those things,~ particularly since the festival outfits can be toggled off within Poltergeister's mod itself (and just wait until Spirit's Eve Year 2, where he actually references the Elephant suit... and boldly claims he isn't wearing it lol).
For the spoiler comment: - This one is more thanfair, and I'm very glad you brought it up. The 6-heart event was actually my least favorite to write on account of the fact I knew it needed to be an exposition/summary event, and it was exceedingly difficult to figure out how Aymeric would sum up the events of his own life without making it too boring, nonsensical, out-of-character, or all three. It's hard to imagine a situation where he would willingly bring up Thordan and announce his feelings on the man, but I can look into adding a bit of clarification on the patricide accusation (maybe an after-event dialogue where it occurs to him that what he said could be misconstrued and he'd hate to cast a shadow over his foster father, or some such).
I'm sorry for the lengthy ramblings, but I truly appreciate you taking a chance on a mod for a character you feel passionately about, and I'm glad that, for the most part, Stardewmeric managed to surpass expectations :') I tried to stay as true to the character as I could, speech patterns and all, and it makes me inordinately happy to hear that the effort paid off. Thank you again for taking the time to leave a comment!
Never be sorry for the passion you put in a work well done, and thank you once again for sharing this really good mod :)
The funny part about that winter dialogue, it was that it's exactly the one I got while he was on the patio, everything covered in snow... but he doesn't mention indoor pots, he just said he was able to grow a rose, so that's why it was surprising; no biggie and it made for a good laugh, like "Oh wow, you really surpassed my farmer as gardener then" lol (but it's entirely possible I missed some bit maybe).
For the spoiler, yeah I don't imagine he would talk about him willingly (or ever if he could); but as you said, maybe you can still insert a line of explanation during the "exposition dialogue" since you're already at it (and he's willing to share at that point), or as a followup post-event dialogue would work, too, but it seems too an important detail for something the player might miss if they don't talk to him right away after that.
On a totally unrelated note, out of curiosity: how did you manage to make his custom sprite show on map (I'm using the npc map location mod)?
Ah, that's where the discrepancy is! The "patio" dialogue is technically different from the "outdoor" dialogue... The patio dialogue will occasionally appear when he stands at the unique spouse area outside the main farmer's house (which unfortunately can't happen in multiplayer, unless the host marries Aymeriic), and it should read: "patio_Aymeric": "'Tis not so grand as the farm, I know, but I am fond of my little flowers all the same. Perhaps I shall try to grow a few indoors during the winter." The dialogue where he actually gives you the flower, however, is random outdoor dialogue where he stands on the porch outside, so it is technically possible for you to get one dialogue without having seen the other... It is funny to imagine he's just an incredible farmer, though. He missed his calling as a botanist 😂
For the spoilers dialogue, the fun part about adding "post-cutscene" dialogue is that I believe it will always be the first dialogue a player sees when they talk to the NPC again, regardless of if it's on the same day or not. So it should work nicely as a fix (I hope)! I'm sitting on a few dialogue changes I'd like to push at some point (when I'm not so busy with work and Dawntrail), and several of them are to address your feedback, so I'm grateful again for your comments :D
And honestly... it's the sheer genius of the NPC Map Locations creators that lets him appear on the map--I was shocked that it worked without any effort on my end, but it made me incredibly happy to see his little head wandering around in real time. So a huge kudos to Bouhm and Pathoschild :]
I'm really glad if anything I said helped in any way, instead of being a bother; I shall be waiting on new and improved Aymeric, but take your time and rest when needed - we like happy and healthy authors (as much as possible).
Hi, I never leave comments so I feel a bit awkward lol, but I wanted to say how good the writing is in this mod. I actually only have 2 NPC mods so I'm very choosy, and I hadn't played FFXIV before due to fear of MMOs, but he looked cool, I loved Poltergeister's outfits, and I wanted a best friend who also likes combat for my farmer!
I didn't expect it but he became my favourite villager and I look forward to talking to him everyday, my farmer's bestie for sure! I loved him so much it actually made me start FFXIV in spite of my anxiety and I'm really enjoying it! I just met him and Lucia yesterday and I was so excited, I love them both! My WoL is based on my farmer so she can be his pal here too
I think you did a great job of capturing the way they speak in Eorzea, which can't have been easy, and whilst I have barely seen him in FFXIV so far, he does seem very likable! ^^ Thank you for making such a lovely mod! <3
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for leaving a comment 🥺 This is so incredibly sweet, and I can't believe you started FFXIV just to meet him!!! I love the game to pieces, and Heavensward in particular has such a special place in my heart (and you've made great progress if you've already met Aymeric and Lucia 😱)! I'm so glad you've enjoyed having Aymeric on your farm, and I really hope you continue to enjoy your time in Eorzea!
Thank you again for taking the time to comment! It means so much to me to know that people like him, and that he can offer something new to the world of Stardew Valley 🥺🫶
49 comments
Hi!
Just letting you know that I found a group overlaping on Moonlight Jely Festival year 1
Your Aymeric is standing on the same place as 3 other characters.
https://imgur.com/a/9Jg7or6
Thank you so much for your hard work; please do find some time for your own rest and relaxation, health always comes first :)
The poor dude is now allergic to stuff even in the place he's supposed to relax in though; he really can't get a rest :D
I particularly liked how he reacted to my farmer cultivating tea, and expressing the desire to buy some once the saplings were mature; while dating, it was very nice to see all his reactions to all the different movies and comments afterward, instead.
On top of that, I really appreciated the new description for spirits eve with him in his costume, but the best parts, are the random dialogues where he opens up a bit more (especially the second one about his biological father); it's been a ton of nice surprises that spruced up the mod quite a bit.
I wanna also report some minor things, though:
- When married, and in second year, he has a dialogue during the autumn fair that is about the grange display and "not slacking off"; after the grange display results, he repeats the same dialogue again, not sure if intended or there was supposed to be another dialogue depending on how it ended, but I thought worth mentioning it.
- One of his "welcome back home, here's some dessert" dialogues post-marriage has a typo with a gold symbol and a 1 at the end of the sentence (if it makes any difference, it happened at night and it was black cobbler).
- This is a funny bit, but the second day after he returned to Ishgard, my farmer got asked by him if they wanted to have a baby; some people can undress you with their eyes, but apparently Aymeric can do so much more with just words on a letter... paladin magic? Either way, I hope I didn't miss pregnancy dialogues (if any).
- Here's more of a "personal taste kind of observation", so take it with a grain of salt: at a certain point, maybe around winter fest but can't remember, there was a dialogue about "missing the pomp and fast of religious celebration, like we have in Ishgard" or some such. Honestly though, given his background and considering all that he could've gone through, I somehow found that comment a bit dissonant; I'm sure he might still be a believer, and he certainly loves seeing people celebrating and coming together, but given this is the same dude that wears an elephant costume and goes around town just to entertain people in his (very scarce) free time (when he's not writing letters to the wol during starlight celebrations :P ), or showing up unannounced during fetes, it feels like he's more about "being with people" and celebrating with them in a cozy way, rather than ritualism itself. Again though, this is just my 2 cents and honestly I admit I didn't read all side stories on the official website, so maybe I missed something somewhere; stardew players that don't play FF14 probably won't even notice anything out of place, given that he talks about his father only as a wicked man and nothing about his rank etc.
edit:
- Once again, my farmer was offered flowers (this time post marriage) during winter 3, twice in the same day (morning and afternoon); must say, second time he upped his game with a fairy rose... after mastering blue, he's now conquering green (thumb) :D
- If you give him elven jewelry post marriage, he still refers to your farmer as "my friend" and "maybe I'll wear it" (full 14 hearts... is there something you wanna talk about Aymeric? You sure everything's ok hun?).
- During the spirit's eve event, while he's near the table (year 2), he's wearing the elephant costume (playing with cuter Aymeric mod at least), but he states that he left the costume at home (still, having dialogues about it was great, especially the one at home lol).
Overall, splendid job, thank you so much for this great update :)
P.S. As of the publication of this mod , have you considered making Aymeric an adventuring companion? It would be kind of great to bring him along for some extra adventures :P
Addressing your comments:
- The grange display is an interesting case... There are different dialogue lines depending on the result of the competition, but as far as I know, those lines become unavailable once you're married. It's possible he repeated the line because the player's spouse doesn't have variable dialogue, or that there are different flags for year 2 competition results that I'm unaware of. I'll see what I can dig up!
- This is a bug I'm aware of! I accidentally put two portrait flags in that line by mistake. If you want to fix it yourself, you can remove the $1 from the end of the "Indoor_Night_3" line in the MarriageDialogueAymeric.json file (but this fix will be included whenever I push a new update).
- Wow Aymeric, that's some impressive rizzing lol. Due to the nature of the 14-heart event (read: it's a bit of a coding mess), there isn't a way I can keep that pop-up from occurring, but it is incredibly funny. There isn't any pregnancy-specific dialogue, though there are a few lines where he's nervous over the prospect of being a father; however, I believe they have a random chance of triggering sometime between saying "yes" and actually getting the baby, so you prooobably didn't miss anything. A fun fact about the 14-heart event is that Green Rain can also interrupt it, and Aymeric will suddenly being back from his trip lol... It isn't gamebreaking, but it's a weird quirk. Alas, I don't have any good way of fixing it (yet) while working within the framework of Content Patcher 😔
- I can understand why you'd feel this way, and I don't think you're wrong, either--I just think Aymeric is a man deeply in love with his home, and being away from it is giving him a stark reminder of all the things he didn't typically give much thought to. It's not that he doesn't appreciate a cozier, more personal atmosphere--he's just noticing the things that are now missing from his life, and Ishgard's unavoidable religious celebrations were certainly something that brought its people together. I also like to believe he was something of a choir boy growing up, and Pelican Town doesn't seem like it'll be putting a chorus together anytime soon. All that said, I've expanded the line further to give it more nuance (I don't want all of his lines to be too lengthy, but since a 10-heart line is pretty niche to encounter anyways, I figure there's no harm).
- Oh wow, two flowers in one day is lucky! Stardew works in such a way that your spouse will give you two randomized lines from the daily pool (one in the morning and one in the afternoon--the nighttime dialogues are all separate), so you just got lucky enough that it picked the same dialogue twice in a row haha.
- There's no way to distinguish gift-giving dialogue for being unmarried/married, so that's just a quirk of the game. Who says your spouse can't still be your friend?
- I've debated over this one a few times, especially since the Cuter Aymeric Portraits are so popular (deservedly so!), but since it's possible to have sprites that don't put Aymeric in the elephant-costume, it's hard to tailor the dialogue in such a way to account for both while keeping mention of the elephant costume intact (and Spirit's Eve just seems like the perfect time to bring it up). I might change it in the future if I can find a good balance between them that I like :]
I do continue to make tweaks to dialogue as I encounter it in-game (I play very slowly lol) to improve clarity and flow, so at some point I'll push an update that has a few bug fixes and general polish. Nothing too gamechanging-ly crazy for now, but we'll see what the future holds! Thanks as always for leaving detailed feedback, and I'm so glad that you've enjoyed the new dialogue!!
P.S. Adventuring companion Aymeric sounds so cute 🥺 I'm not sure how much work would be needed to make him compatible, especially with the language barrier, but I'll try looking into it sometime if I'm feeling adventurous!
Yes, I know that sounds absurd when Qi, Rasmodius, Krobus, and the Dwarf exist. Feel free to tell me how absurd I am for it.
Loved how you interspersed dialogue from canon as well without spoiling anything T__T thank you for keeping us all fed until they inevitably decide to cart him out in another patch a century from now. you're incredible!!!
I'm also currently working on a patch that adds in more varied dialogue to trigger on certain days/at different heart levels/in year 1 vs year 2, but work has been beating me up lately so I've been writing slower than I'd like to 😵💫 But if Square Enix won't feed all six of us Aymeric enjoyers any new content, then I guess I'll have to do it myself lol
Thank you again for leaving a comment!! I'm so glad people have been enjoying his characterization 🥺
rattling the bars of my enclosure re: the latter but also take it easy 🥺 i'll be looking SO forward to that and even then if you decide you'd rather leave it where it's at i have been sustained for lifetimes already LOL. thank YOU!!!
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/27418
The only bush that I think technically needs to be destroyed is the one that blocks the pathway into Aymeric's "flower garden" on the right side of the house. To my knowledge, all other bushes should be fine, but if you notice him walking in any exceptionally weird directions (like across lakes, or rivers, or off into the void...), then that's an indication that something has blocked his path in a way the game couldn't resolve.
If you want to read more about it, this GitHub link has all of the possible options: https://github.com/Esca-MMC/DestroyableBushes/blob/master/readme.md#remove_bush
If you need any more help, just let me know, and I'm glad you're enjoying the mod! :D
Speaking of "mid-save" just in case, do I need to set the bushes as "never regrow" then, or do I just need to do destroy em once with the never regrow option, save, and then can set them to regrow again? Does Aymeric destroy them in case or do I need to play stalker for a few days?
Sorry for the silly questions, I like to plan ahead for any scenario...
Here's the Google Drive link if you'd like to try it: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1J9PHCLn8z5iaFuHy1FIOB-ENXJ30gx0R
Generally, I try to avoid mods that add npcs I know very well, because the writing differences that are bound to be there usually give me big headaches; but I'm really glad I decided to download this despite everything (I admit, slightly cuter Aymeric had its say in it, ahah).
While it's true that there are some differences with the source (at times he feels more mellow and cheerful compared to the original), the gap is really thin and you managed to keep the essence of his character, not a small feat by all means; the writing itself overall is honestly good, and not just for the staggering amount of dialogues and descriptions (especially the mails are always on point and never dull or inane), but for the level of care that shows through the attention to detail that personally I really appreciated (like him having even his big board quest, or saying goodnight in bubble text while in bed, and all those amazing little-yet-big things)... on top of that, I found a real breath of fresh air that he recognizes you're your own adventurer/fighter and even asks you to spar, we have already too many "I'll treat you like a fragile princess" npcs out there, including some of the vanilla ones sometimes (nothing wrong if that's your cup of tea of course, I'm not kink shaming here).
The mod is totally immersive, wether you know the source material or not; if you're into nice guys, he's definitively worth having in your playthrough, and even if you're not into romance, he makes for a very interesting friend to have around and his story is compelling regardless (he's also very generous with gifts to boot)... if I gotta find a fault with him, maybe it's that he was depicted as "too nice" sometimes, but I admit the whole "i like blue, tea and chocolate" completely sold me regardless lol, on top of it being mostly lore correct (my 3 fav things as well ahah).
My very ultra-geeky, supertiny only gripes with the mod so far are:
- The sword on the wall (guess it's supposed to be Naegling?), despite being descripted as blue, is totally not blue :P
- After asking to marry him, 2 days from the wedding day, he already says "Tomorrow" (the same dialogue for both days basically).
- Once in winter, he said he managed to blossom some flowers and gave my farmer a fairy rose.... magic! :D
- This was actually a super funny moment, but during the spirit Eve festival, he had this super descriptive, beautiful paragraph about how (among other things) his lips shine under the moonlight... but since I was playing with the slightly cuter mod, my farmer was looking at a giant axx blue elephant lol
************************** possible spoilers********************
**** this last point is a bit spoilery, so read at your own risk****
- Aymeric mentions being adopted and talks about his adoptive parents in one of the heart events; he then proceeds to talk about his troubles back in his homeland, and the fact that he "was accused of patricide"... now I know the backstory and all, but someone who doesn't might think he casually offed his adoptive father, since he never talks about his biological one, not even in passing, anywhere else :P
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The amount of work in this mod feels immense, so thank you so much for making this, it made for a really interesting playthrough :)
P.S. for whatever reason it's not letting me endorse it even if I downloaded it twice at least /sad.
Truthfully, I never intended to post this mod publicly, but I had a few people on Twitter express interest, so I figured there wasn't much harm in it. I really didn't expect it to get this level of attention (I know Slightly Cuter Aymeric certainly helped!), but I created and wrote this mod for myself first and foremost, and I decided early on that there wasn't much point in it if I wasn't portraying a version of Aymeric that I wanted to see. I spent a while going back and forth on how, exactly, I was going to fit him in to Stardew--I thought I was wasting an opportunity to explore some of his richer character themes if I displaced him from the FFXIV setting entirely, so that ruled out a proper alternate universe scenario, but I also found it unrealistic to imagine that he would end up leaving Ishgard after everything he's fought for to permanently relocate somewhere else. Ultimately, I tried to make it mesh as well as I could just to fulfill my own desire of having Aymeric on my little farm.
It was also rather tricky to decide where he should land personality-wise. Obviously we see fleeting glimpses of Aymeric in-game where he's experiencing self-doubt or is going out of his way to be kind/happy, but most of his time on-screen is spent with his "Lord Commander" mask firmly in place, which can make him a little hard to pin down. It was my goal to portray an Aymeric free from the burden of duty and his public-facing persona, which would in turn give him the opportunity to be a bit more open with his feelings (both positive and negative) in a way he's not allowed to be in-universe. It's certainly a fine line to walk, and I can understand how various lines might lean too far in either direction, but I figured it was worth the risk to have him present himself in a way that's less hidden behind his usual mask (NPCs in Stardew also tend to be very direct with their feelings, and I only have so much dialogue I can fit into a text box before it gets boring to click through, so I tried to keep that in mind, too). He definitely borders on being "too nice," but that's a trait I tend to attribute to Aymeric as a whole, since he always seems a little eager to please the few friends he has (in that "take an entire ship's worth of ceruleum" sort of way).
As for the nitpicks: fair enough!
- As is probably readily apparent, I'm not an artist. I did my best with the original, not-slightly-cuter portraits/sprites and worked with my younger sister to get them to the point where I was decently happy with them, but I was keen to avoid any other asset tweaking or tilesheet additions as I was afraid I couldn't emulate the Stardew style. It's the reason Aymeric's base house model is pulled from the Adventurer's Guild instead of being colored a bit more fittingly, and alas, it is also the reason Naegling is gray and totally not blue 😔 This is something I might look into fixing at a later date, but it also doesn't bother me too much, so I can't make any promises.
- The engagement dialogue issue is definitely weird! I haven't noticed it doing that to me before, but sometimes I forget to talk to him when I'm actually playing the game, so I'll look into it with some extra attention and see what I can do to fix it.
- Hey, flower pots exist! Let the man have some indoor planters! (As a bonus, there is a line of dialogue when he stands out on the Spouse Patio that references him trying to grow flowers indoors during the Winter, but it's an easy thing to miss!)
- I actually had no idea Poltergeister was going to add the Elephant outfit to the Spirit's Eve festival, but I do adore it! The base mod is, tragically, missing the silly costume, so the line makes a bit more sense there, I promise 😂 I might tweak it, but it might also end up as just ~one of those things,~ particularly since the festival outfits can be toggled off within Poltergeister's mod itself (and just wait until Spirit's Eve Year 2, where he actually references the Elephant suit... and boldly claims he isn't wearing it lol).
For the spoiler comment:
- This one is more than fair, and I'm very glad you brought it up. The 6-heart event was actually my least favorite to write on account of the fact I knew it needed to be an exposition/summary event, and it was exceedingly difficult to figure out how Aymeric would sum up the events of his own life without making it too boring, nonsensical, out-of-character, or all three. It's hard to imagine a situation where he would willingly bring up Thordan and announce his feelings on the man, but I can look into adding a bit of clarification on the patricide accusation (maybe an after-event dialogue where it occurs to him that what he said could be misconstrued and he'd hate to cast a shadow over his foster father, or some such).
I'm sorry for the lengthy ramblings, but I truly appreciate you taking a chance on a mod for a character you feel passionately about, and I'm glad that, for the most part, Stardewmeric managed to surpass expectations :') I tried to stay as true to the character as I could, speech patterns and all, and it makes me inordinately happy to hear that the effort paid off. Thank you again for taking the time to leave a comment!
The funny part about that winter dialogue, it was that it's exactly the one I got while he was on the patio, everything covered in snow... but he doesn't mention indoor pots, he just said he was able to grow a rose, so that's why it was surprising; no biggie and it made for a good laugh, like "Oh wow, you really surpassed my farmer as gardener then" lol (but it's entirely possible I missed some bit maybe).
For the spoiler, yeah I don't imagine he would talk about him willingly (or ever if he could); but as you said, maybe you can still insert a line of explanation during the "exposition dialogue" since you're already at it (and he's willing to share at that point), or as a followup post-event dialogue would work, too, but it seems too an important detail for something the player might miss if they don't talk to him right away after that.
On a totally unrelated note, out of curiosity: how did you manage to make his custom sprite show on map (I'm using the npc map location mod)?
Once again thank you for the hard work!
"patio_Aymeric": "'Tis not so grand as the farm, I know, but I am fond of my little flowers all the same. Perhaps I shall try to grow a few indoors during the winter."
The dialogue where he actually gives you the flower, however, is random outdoor dialogue where he stands on the porch outside, so it is technically possible for you to get one dialogue without having seen the other... It is funny to imagine he's just an incredible farmer, though. He missed his calling as a botanist 😂
For the spoilers dialogue, the fun part about adding "post-cutscene" dialogue is that I believe it will always be the first dialogue a player sees when they talk to the NPC again, regardless of if it's on the same day or not. So it should work nicely as a fix (I hope)! I'm sitting on a few dialogue changes I'd like to push at some point (when I'm not so busy with work and Dawntrail), and several of them are to address your feedback, so I'm grateful again for your comments :D
And honestly... it's the sheer genius of the NPC Map Locations creators that lets him appear on the map--I was shocked that it worked without any effort on my end, but it made me incredibly happy to see his little head wandering around in real time. So a huge kudos to Bouhm and Pathoschild :]
I didn't expect it but he became my favourite villager and I look forward to talking to him everyday, my farmer's bestie for sure! I loved him so much it actually made me start FFXIV in spite of my anxiety and I'm really enjoying it! I just met him and Lucia yesterday and I was so excited, I love them both! My WoL is based on my farmer so she can be his pal here too
I think you did a great job of capturing the way they speak in Eorzea, which can't have been easy, and whilst I have barely seen him in FFXIV so far, he does seem very likable! ^^ Thank you for making such a lovely mod! <3
Thank you again for taking the time to comment! It means so much to me to know that people like him, and that he can offer something new to the world of Stardew Valley 🥺🫶