[WIPz] Children of Cyrodiil

[Emma]

Ever felt that something is missing in the towns and villages of Cyrodiil? Why are there no children?

Well, there are now... In fact, there are more than 80 of them, of all races and all ages. They have families, homes, full daily schedules, they are fully voiced, you can play games with them, give them gifts, listen to them talk with each other and other npcs or just watch them play. Their schedules are based on who they are - the wild-hearted daughter of the stable owner might go for rides on her pony most days, whereas the shy son of the Chorrol bookshop owner rather spend his time reading books than playing around with the other kids on the street.

In their homes, they have toys and beds, and some of them are actually expecting a new little sibling, which you can see if you take a closer look at their mothers.

I know that it is late in Oblivion's history now; the game has been around for so many years. And I must admit that I have had this mod as a slow work in progress for quite some time; at the time when I started to work on it, there arrived so many animation mods with very dark-themed sexual special effects, that I felt uneasy at the thought of that kids could be "exploited" through these mods. Still, I have shared the WIP-version with many players on an individual basis.

At this point, the mod is almost finished. But, as there are so many children, I could really need help with Beta-testing to look over their schedules - I would be grateful for some volonteers that simply had the mod in their games and looked for problems with schedules, animations, behaviour. Are the kids coming out each day? Are there some that always get stuck at the same spot? Are there conflicts with other mods that will ruin this mod (or the other one)? Is the voice-acting endurable? They are all fully voiced, but this was recorded many versions ago of Audacity, when my children still sounded like relatively small children, and therefore the quality doesn't match today's standard - I would never had considered to release this to the more unforgiving Skyrim community. Also, the girls talk a lot more than the boys, as the boy-recordings are based on what my son made for Children in Morrowind back in 2005!


Here are a few screenshots of the children - hope you like what you see.
.

lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids353.jpg - at the Leyawiin swing
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids370.jpg - pregnant mother in Cheydinhal (the house is a WIP of mine)
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids382.jpg - mother and son in Cheydinhal
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids616.JPG - Have you got a sweetcake?
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids692.JPG - A new artist?
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/Child595b.JPG (one dress is outdated)
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/child580.JPG (orc girl in Cheydinhal)
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids316.jpg
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids344.jpg
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids347.jpg
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids378.jpg (trying out a rocking horse)
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/Kid477.JPG
lovkullen.net/Emma/OB/CH/kids399.jpg

So, I guess my immediate questions are:

Is there still an interest in a mod like this?
Is there anyone who would feel like very soon helping me to test the mod ingame?


So, I guess my immediate questions are:

Is there still an interest in a mod like this?
Is there anyone who would feel like very soon helping me to test the mod ingame?

[blockhead]

Wow, just when I thought you'd relax after the stresses of Vilja ... another project released.

Um, those pictures seem to be 404-ing for me?

[Emma]

Oh, it's not something I started on today... I have been working on this for ages, as I'm sure you know

I have to look over the link - I just spent half an hour on equally dysfuctional links on es-boards, and now when I copied the corrected one here, they still doen'st work

[Sniffles]

I'd be glad to help. If someone could direct me to where the mod can be acquired. Can I also please put in a request? Street urchins that pick pockets, say obnoxious things, and you can surreptitiously drown in the lake when the watch isn't watching.

[OldRPMDaddy]

Miss Emma, I'd be happy to help if needed. I'd always wondered why nobody had made a convincing Oblivion child mod, but I don't know enough about modding to pose the question properly. Please let me know if you need my help.

[marek0712]

Whoah! This looks really neat!
I love the facts that there are new animations. I think it's really necessary.
As I said, I've been playing The Sims and the kids there are really cool. Animations are a must.
Your "Kids of Morrowind" is a must-have-mod here. I'd love to help in any way I can. If my voice can be used somehow, let me know too.

EDIT: By the way, I'm on vacation in January. =D

[Emma]

That's wonderful

As I'm not quite sure that I have yet deleted everything that I don't have permission for, I'll PM you the download link of the current WIP-version, with some further information (Sniffles, you already have the link).

With feedback, you can either post it here or PM me. It's not a "secret project", so posting here might be the best way to double-check if you all see the same things.

[Seyheb]

As Im updating my Oblivion mods with a view to spending some breaks in Cyrodiil away from Skyrim, I'd be happy to join in with the playtesting of this if you would like me to.

[wotan]

I can see Vilja's face in all of them - some more than others of course.

[Emma]

Jan 2, 2015 21:09:58 GMT Seyheb said:

As Im updating my Oblivion mods with a view to spending some breaks in Cyrodiil away from Skyrim, I'd be happy to join in with the playtesting of this if you would like me to.

That's tremendeous news, Seyheb! Yes, I agree that one needs a break from Skyrim from time to time. I'll send you a PM.

[Emma]

Jan 2, 2015 22:50:26 GMT wotan said:

I can see Vilja's face in all of them - some more than others of course.

Well, that might be true for some of the imperial girls, but I bet she'd slap you in the face if you claimed the orc girls look like her.

[marek0712]

#REPORT#1

I've started checking out. So far, it's my favorite "children mod". (I think, "Better Cities" has children, but, I never liked them much. I'm not fond of the mod anyway either).

I spent some time both in Bruma and Chorrol (I also played Dead Rising 2 and Super Mario... lol)
Chorrol seems okay. I met Regina, Andytor, Jelinda, Ariadne, Remier, Marseli and Ihindri. All kids showed up after nine. At lunch, most of them went home. In this case, Andytor and Remier were having lunch under the great oak. Regina seemed to follow her mother at the chapel (needs confirmation). At five, there weren't kids on the streets.

The only bug I found was with Marseli on her horse. She was playing those animations and she was doing acrobatics in the air in the morning. When you talked to her, she was riding the horse. Better check the animations conditions.


Bruma was fine. I saw Geniini, Lina, Isthen, Fjorngrin, Alva, Geniiran and Eida. I think I experienced a small conflict with my own overhaul mod. Eida wasn't able to enter her own house. But, on the second time I entered the city, the problem didn't occur. Lina was the most interesting. At lunch, she ran to a spot near Nord Winds and did nothing for a while before heading to Reger's house. When I entered his house, the girl disappeared. Maybe she went outside. I might repeat the observation in Bruma.

I tried to check their AI in the CS, but I got confused with so much information. I'm just checking things in game.


Some questions, will there be boys fighting? I remember those boys fighting in Seyda Neen, I missed it.

Cheers

[Seyheb]

My first report after four game-days in Leyawiin. I'll be moving onto other towns soon.

The children came out around 9.15am, then returned home at 12.00 until 1.00 pm, then returned home again at 6.00pm. There were some exceptions. One of the children didn't go home at lunch time on one day but instead entered into an eating animation between 12.00 and 1.00. I guess that seems entirely reasonable. I didn't notice if he did it on other days as I only noticed it on the last day. I didn't follow all of them home, just some, but they did go into buildings with that one exception.

There was a glitch that affected the timing with some, but I don't think this was a mod issue, I think it's something to do with my game. What happened was that some of the children either between themselves or with an adult NPC would enter into the conversation animation, i.e. with one of them slowly waving a forearm and hand, but no words were spoken. This happened in the afternoons and they sometimes appeared to be stuck in the animation. If they were still doing this at 6.00pm they didn't go home. If I spoke to one of them they immedialtely did go home.

I found that they were well-dispersed around the town and they did move around as well. Sometimes four or five would gather in one place but later they would disperse and go elsewhere. This seemed entirely natural to me. Between them there was a lot of variation in the animations, though some had their own favourites.

They all responded when spoken to. The lip-synch was working well too.

One thing I found amusing was that adult NPCs would sometimes approach the children and start serious conversations with them about politics etc, while the children would reply with things like "You're silly" and "whatever" etc.

Their behaviour does look very natural and they do add a lot to the ambience of the town.

[Seyheb]

I haven't done very much more just yet, but wanted to report two things.

Vilja and I visited the Imperial City. We were in the Market District where a number of children were playing. I had started speaking to some of them and they all responded. However a short distance away a fight began between a NPC and a guard. I have no idea why. Before very long the whole city seemed to be fighting each other entirely randomly. I was the only one not involved! Anyway the point is that two of the children joined in; Paloma with a glass dagger and Caroline Perrich with a bow. I let the fight run for a while and the two children continued fighting just as strongly as the adults!

I restarted from a save and decided to return to Leyawiin for a short time as I remembered I hadn't looked around the castle area. I found two children playing there, though they weren't playing together and the swing wasn't being used either. However they did not return home at 6.00pm even though they weren't stuck in a conversation animation. In fact they were still there at 8.00pm, when I decided to advance the time towards morning in stages. However as soon as I started to do so they did then run home. The two children were Jolina Platius and Solveig.

[Sniffles]

Observed the children in Anvil, Chorrol, Bruma and Cheydinhal. All acted exactly as others have noted, quite normal and natural with two minor issues. In Cheydinhal two children were acting identically in tandem near The March Rider, doing dance steps, and another two on the lawn near the castle doing cartwheels. Synchronized movements. That however only lasted about 2 minutes then they ran off acting natural. However, children do mimic each other and that could easily have been what there were doing.

A larger problem. The in town battle as Seyheb described happened in Chorrol. It was confined to the guards between the Oak and Crosier and the Fire and Steel. Several children were present though only the guards fought and townspeople fled the area. 5 guards were dead at the end of the melee, killed by other guards. I strongly believe if a civilian had gotten involved by getting hit or shot the battle would have spread as it did for Seyheb in Imperial City. Children inciting riots?

As others described, same time schedules and interactivity.