What does "Live Phase" mean?
I have probably answered this question or similar questions when this mod was in its “Beta Phase.” Simply put, when I built this mod originally, I had three phases in mind:
-Phase One would be bug fixes and personal edits. Pretty much establish what this mod is going to do.
-Phase Two would be quest dialogue expansion. Push Serana into becoming a livelier version of what she used to be.
-Phase Three would be the risker and exciting features that I wanted to add into Serana. Essentially, completing the goal of this mod in making Serana the follower that Bethesda wanted (and possibly, even more).
But because of my OCD and my inner engineer, I decided to use a bastardized version of the software release life cycle and call the three phases alpha, beta and live. Both are interchangeable.
It won’t change the fact that someone will ask this same question in a week or two :P, but I hope those reading it will now have an understanding why this mod reaching Phrase Three/Live Phase is important and exciting for me.
But right now, the mod is 10% complete and I am expecting the mod to be about 25% complete by the end of the week. A little ambitious, but things will slow down once I begin rebuilding the quest dialogues into Serana, especially with the relationship mechanic incorporation.
I have mentioned that there was some sort of a relationship mechanic that was supposed to be in Serana that got left out of the final product. Remains of that mechanic can be seen when you dig in the Creation Kit and see that Serana has multiple dialogue answers with triggers that seem very arbitrary as well as Serana’s marriage dialogue having two routes where she is either ‘blah’ about the player proposing to her while the other option (the one that this mod reactivated) showed that Serana cared about the player.
My original solution was to introduce three variables (in a bool format) into Serana and have these variables change based on player actions. Instead, I took a simpler and more dynamic approach with this and made a variable that is an integer and this value will increase and decrease based on the player’s actions.
Essentially, it is a bastardized version of the disposition that is already in Skyrim. But I wasn’t a fan of that version and decided to make my own scale for Serana. Below is the proposed chart:
It’s a pretty simple system. Serana will start off with a relationship value of 0 with the player. Some of the player’s dialogue will dictate how this value will grow or shrink. The more positive the number, the more likely Serana will be ‘caring’ towards the player. Likewise, the more negative the number, the more likely Serana will be a ‘mean’ towards the player. Some dialogues will be open or closed based on this value.
For the case of the Amulet of Mara and proposing to Serana, I was planning on re-incorporating the original dialogue back and having the player ‘work’ for Serana to admit she cares about the player (pretty much making the player pick the ‘right time’ when proposing). I am also planning on adding a third option for those who are a complete ass to Serana and still propose. Ultimately, she will still reject the player no matter what, but her responses will be different based on the relationship value we talked about.
So, a person with a relationship value of 6 or greater will get the “Look, I care about you. A lot...” dialogue. A person with a relationship value between -5 to 5 will get the “Look, you’re great. Really...” dialogue. And lastly, those with a relationship value of -6 or less will get the “Ha ha... Not going to happen” dialogue. :P
Of course, those who screwed up in their choices will have the chance to fix their mistakes by using the dialogue with Serana that resets the value back to 0. I haven’t really planned out what this will entail, but it is something that I have in mind.
In other news, I have added dialogue to Serana reacting to when the player is doing random things near Serana. The problem with a lot of those 'random things' is that it requires Serana to not be a follower (which is something that the people in Bethesda should really look into down the road). But for some things (like Serana coming up from being underwater for a long time) will give just a little more immersion to the player.
I am also planning on perhaps opening a document on google docs for those who want to see the up-to-date progress of the mod instead of waiting for when I update the mod page. If anyone is interested in that, let me know in the comments section here or on the mod page.
In the next article, I will begin talking about the re-introduction of Serana’s introduction.
10 comments
thanks it's been about a week and half ingame I think she stuck as she is staying at the archmage quarters instead of visiting the person she is supposed to.
Again, this is still all on paper so I haven't fully decided on what I am going to do with it. But it is being considered.
For example, the Detection Dialogue (one subtype) takes advantage of this mechanic with having 3-4 responses that she will say no matter if she likes you or not and 2-3 dialogues each for if she likes you or hates you. So, when Serana goes from a 'normal to alert' stance (i.e the dialogue where she says 'who's there?' resides), you have these options:
-Added Audio: ‘Who’s there?’ Random/Once every 2.5 in-game hours
-Added Audio: ‘Careful here.’ Random/Once every 2.5 in-game hours
-Added Audio: ‘Sigh...’ Random//Once every 2.5 in-game hours
-Added Audio: ‘Wait… I think we may be in for some trouble.’ Random/Once every 2.5 in-game hours/Serana Relationship Value: 6 or greater
-Added Audio: ‘Wait… Something’s not right here....’ Random/Once every 2.5 in-game hours/Serana Relationship Value: 6 or greater
-Added Audio: ‘Ugh!’ Random/Once every 2.5 in-game hours/Serana Relationship Value: -6 or less
-Added Audio: ‘Ugh… damn it...’ Random/Once every 2.5 in-game hours/Serana Relationship Value: -6 or less
You can see in this list that there are 3 neutral responses that she will say no matter what and 2 dialogues added on if she likes you and 2 dialogues for if she hates you. So if you have a relationship value of 7, you will get the two 'wait' dialogues but you will not get the 'ugh' dialogues as you're relationship value is too high. Essentially, you can get a nicer caring Serana or a bitchier Serana based on that value.
So, don't think it just player-Serana dialogue conversation that is affected by this.
Also, the player dialogue with Serana throughout the quests will gauge it, not just what happens in Dimhollow Crypt. So, if you missed a quest or two, not only do you still have the planned gauge dialogue for those people who use this mod after the quest, but you also have dialogue options in other quests in Dawnguard.
You get plenty of chances if you missed out on getting the Serana you want.
Keep up the work! I personally will refrain from doing further Dawnguard quests until the mod is out since that's where it gets personal with Serana (after Prophet) in vanilla Dawnguard.
It will take 3-4 days then she will appear at Fort Dawnguard.