Vilja is a problem child. ( Major spoilers inside)

[thedude]

I tried this mod first time a few days ago. never played Vilja before, not even in Oblivion, because i was using my all time companion Saerileth.

Okay.. me thinks:  in skyrim... lets try this Vilja character.

My First play-trough.

I meet Vilja in the bannered mare. I do the quests as they present themselves. i change her looks to the angel-lydia that was available... i like it way better then the original... the Hlaalu character with the green hair is priceless.. She keeps me in stitches. The feared first bug starts when Vilja needs lute lessons from Wilbert, or whatever his name is, in the downstar inn. Vilja and this bloke just wont talk to each other, no matter what i do.

After some searching on the net... a console code finally helps me out, it was major immercive breaking... But the quest's continue. I keep having problems with the wardrobe, but keep them to a minimum. she anoyes me a bit with her constant chatter, that i cant seem to limit to a desired value... I dont want to shut her up completely, but 2.5 min is too much. I think... "Yeah.. i want to know a bit about you.. but not every five damn minutes Vilja...." I swear to myself that i will not play this Vilja again, but i will see this ride out, because i want to know how it goes, and ends.

As the following order of the quests isn't always clear, i mess up on one of them, and get stuck. i have to reload a save from an hour back and do them again.. annoying.. but okay.  the rest seems smooth so far. I will marry this damn problem child... if my life depends on it...  
I play my Skyrim heavily modded... and on legendary mode.. with deadly dragons, including assault option.. even in cities.. on insane difficulty, and heavily souped up creatures, wildlife and bandits in Deadly monster mod.. Vilja will know what she is in for, if she wants to stay with me..

This becomes painfully clear when two insane difficult dragons decide to assault attack Riften together.. and in minutes most people are dead.. including the guards.. the streets are layered with dead body's, but we manage to kill one of them them off.. I watch as Vilja bravely charges in on the last one with a two handed sword..shouting something like a lizard insult to the dragon.. and "get your hand off her.."  (meaning me.. i play a female character.)   I think that swayed me a bit in her favor.

All went fine, until that coward Wilbert is too chicken-shit to help out when Vilja gets kidnapped.. i fly into a rage, and chase after her... in minutes the bandits along the way are dead... dont piss off Emily... (My PC..)  - i chase to the ship, and rescue Vilja.. and minutes later i find myself asking.. or better yet... begging Vilja to stay with me... then i suddenly realize... damn.. i am invested... didn't want that to happen.. now i had the chance to get rid of that annoying chatterbox... and what do i do ?... yeah... really.

Her father wants to break every bone in my body, but he can try... when i finnaly meet him, he is my best friend in minutes... his name is almost mine... my real first name is Matthijs. and we team up to smash some bandits.. pirates, or whatever, to rescue Vilja's wedding dress..  we were a good team... two loudmouths against 8 bandits... they never had a chance. He is satisfied that his daughter is in good hands.. and we give the dress to Vilja... i marry her a day later in bikini.. because she obviously doesn't want to wear the dress, but warm me up for the wedding night i suppose...

Oh-well.. trashing those pirates with her father, was no less fun for it...

Days later, i decide that Vilja is a must for playing skyrim... even beter then Soo Ji, my normal follower... although i had fun with our dance routines... especially on ZZTop. but at least i got one on video...

i start my second play trough... with Vilja.. i meet her in the bannered mare, and once i can.. i want to give her my painstakingly prepared armor and weapons... but her inventory wont open... DAMN...

That cosmetic shite again, i bet... do i have to change that every play-trough ? .. shit... sigh.... so.. i uninstal the cosmetic changes.. reload an earlier game--save .. and meet her again in the bannered mare.. after another 15 min.. her inventory wont open,... GRRRR....

I uninstall the whole shabamn.. and re install only the 3.2 Vilja... get in game.. reload an earlier savegame... and go meet her again in the bannered mare. after another 15 min or so.. her damn inventory wont open... okay.. this was it... i had enough.. it was fun while it lasted... but this is way beyond annoying... why so damn complicated  ? ...  just do the A,B.C  thing etc..and one inventory... done.. no more reinstalling the cosmetic changes... etc... that doesnt help anyway... obviously...

I had fun... Vilja is well done... My compliments to Emma for the voice acting... love the voice and the accent is endearing... i will never forget how you say adventurer ever again... a classic in my book..  i enjoyed it... it got me hooked...   So... yeah..  i got invested..  so be it... against my will no less.. so that means it was damn good... my compliments.. and those aren't easy to get... ask my GF... but this inventory thingy... it is getting on me tits...

Sorry.. endorsed on the nexus.. but the end of Vilja for me... i will keep it tracked... just in case.. but i have to uninstall.. i just cant handle this inventory shit... back to Soo Ji...

Good luck on your modding...

Answer me if you wish, or don't if you think i am not worth it... whatever...  wont think any less of this Vilja Mod... or the team working on it... you modders make Skyrim twice the game it is... keep up the good work.


Matthijs.

AKA

The DuDe

[Dova]

Hi Matthijs,

First off, welcome to the forums!

It was actually quite a pleasant read to know that Vilja's storyline caught on to you, and that you enjoyed her despite the rocky beginning. I am very sorry that you still have problems throughout and decided to uninstall her at the end.

amgepo is working on to get rid of the requirement for deactivating addons and patches when starting a new playthrough with Vilja. This should become available in 3.03. The reason that this is needed currently is because addons and patches are built using older versions of Vilja, so having them activated lower than a new Vilja before her actor script is initialized would corrupt her.

I am not sure why her inventory won't open the second time around after you have re-install her, but it could be due to other things, such as mod conflict. The mod Animations is known to cause followers' inventory won't open in some system due to the BlockActivation bug, so my guess would be that if you do use that mod.

Yes, the lute lesson scene between Vilja and Wilbert doesn't always work, and Emma has been trying to figure out how to improve it.

I hope you will come back to Vilja again. Thanks for taking your time to write your feedback. We value everyone's feedbacks.

Dova

[thedude]

Thanks for reacting to my post Dova, i appreciate it.

The way i wrote it down here, is the way it happened. I used to be a fanatic FPS gamer, have my own clan called RFA, and only changed to RPG when i bought Fallout 3, thinking it was an FPS.  (learn to read ffs..) 

I don't get invested in characters easily, because usually, you get disappointed anyway. Happened with Dragon age Origins, when Leliana didn't return in Awakening... but that annoying filthy dwarf did. It happened again in dragon age 2, when Bethany was eighter killed or left after only 1 act.. and again, when Tallis was not becoming a new companion after her personal quest.  and i can go on..  I was careful with Vilja.. because well.. i expected her to leave or die at one point.. after that rescue thingy i thought.. see ?.. i was right, she wants to leave... with that lousy bard no less, i am going to kill that fooker... so when the option came to maybe sway her idea's.. i took it... and that's when i discovered that i was invested. So, well done on that one...

Atually, it was my woodelf named Anaya that did the first playthrough, recorded the whole thing... I tried the second with a Nord named Emily... that didn't work... I use the same characters every play-though... Nords Emily and Amy after my 2 deceased daughters.. WoodElf Anaya after a nature freak Macro Chaotic Girl i once knew.. (that was quite the experience,...)  And Blondie Femke after a girl i was going to marry, but that died at 17, of TRI before i could... so... yeah.. they all have meaning to me in one way or another. So i also like my  followers to be meaningful to me..... I use Soo Ji.. (cant change her name, which is too bad..)..  because she reminds me of a past sultry Indonesian-Asian girlfriend i had.. called Ambia..I rescued and imported her from Singapore... and she was very jumpy because of that county... she wasn't very talkative eighter out of fear... but did want to marry me in the end anyway.... lol.. Never got that far... But...that fitted Soo Ji perfectly.. that's why i had Searileth in Oblivion.. that mod at least had some sort of fade to black romance option.. Soo Ji is a little more talkative with the FCO mod... but i like a little less talk... so its set at 10 percent. (Deactivated that mod while using Vilja.. because of a possible conflict)

About my second play-through of Vilja failure... No.. I have no animators installed anymore.. i did have a dance animator.. but that was all before Vilja. .. with Emily, I am after the graybeards now.. with the main quest, doing Dawnguard, because i intend on marring Serana... Yes.. i can, because i installed a mod making this possible.. It breaks Dowguard at one point.. but console commands help there.. Which is fortunate. because it was yet another let down in companions, thanks to Bethesda.. But along the way the Dawn-guard quest-line.. i was caught catching butterflies, picking blisterworth..and having 21 bottles of Alto wine, (although i hate the stuff myself...) . and 17 Sweet-rolls in my inventory.. .. Guess i was missing Vilja... So yeah.. i would love it when this inventory thing gets sorted.. because TBH.. its a pain in the ass... No Need for that wardrobe thingy anyway, because no one notices what you wear in Skyrim... Vilja does.. obviously... at one point her wardrobe failed again, and Vilja was walking in her underwear, and said; "I absolutely refuse to walk around Solitude dressed like this..."  Which made me laugh out loud... and say:  "that's your own fault sweetie, sort you damn inventory better and this wouldn't happen.." 

If i wouldn't have to at least use the inventory wardrobe.. and don't have to reinstall the cosmetic changes with every play-though.. i would certainly re--install Vija.. She is as mandatory for skyrim as Willow is for Fallout New Vegas... wouldnt even play that game if it wasnt for Willow... i loved Fallout 3.. but hated new Vegas.. Willow saved it from being completely uninstalled. I use a shitload of mods in Skyrim.. the UNP-BBPs redux Body.... And No.. not for the breasts or the ass... i don't care about that ... most mods are to make Skyrim look better.. And ECE etc, to make my characters look the way i want to.. and all are installed using the council of Gopher.. So i hardly have a crash at all... Skyrim and all mods at maximum settings... i have a beast of a machine... a frame-rate of around 40.. and record using my Bandicam on 30 fps. works like a charm.

Oh.. and a better looking basic dress for Vilja would be an improvement imho. I use several armor mods, like Daughter of War recolor.. (Love that one to bits..)  too bad it hasnt got a BBPs version.. but no clothing mods.. so i cant give her any myself. And going into a fight with a Deadly dragon on Insane difficulty in a dress,... would be suicide... I even die using max armor..  when choosing a wrong tactic... or when that damn dragon makes a unexpected move... Skyrim on Legendary, and deadly monsters and dragons on insane difficulty is rather hard anyway as it is.. no need to have Vilja charge to war in bikini or a dress.. because she would die in seconds..  I have this thingy of defending my girl in a fight to the death.. and in my skyrim.. every fight is one... but i must have a chance to win... and Vilja dressed wrong with my settings in skyrim... well.. no chance whatsoever.. she would lose a fight with a mudcrab... In fact.. even i did once.. Or was that a Skeever ?...

In fact.. many bandits in full armor lose fights with wolves in my Skyrim all the time....I set creatures and wildlife to be way stronger than humans.. (Nords etc)   So every duel i have.. or anyone else has... is a fight for real... choose the wrong tactics, and you die... no playing games or easy kills here.  Get my point ?.. now try to attack a bandit camp...

If i can get through an entire play-trough without dying once... then that would be a massive achievement.. hasn't happened yet though.

So having a great person like Vilja helping me, with her own story, and her own quests.... and a little more depth in romance perhaps... Less go and fetch quests.... (no criticism here..)   A better way to know the best following order in her quest line.. well.. that would be a superb addition to my game... it would be, and certainly had the potential of being the Mod of the century... again..  kudos on Emma's voice acting.. it is really well done... too bad she didn't have a better mic.. and then to think i have one here that i hardly use... i would have donated it gladly... had i known... but like i said, i miss Vilja already... however.. the way Vilja is now... she is more maintenance then she is worth... I trust you guys will get that sorted.... in time... at least... i sure hope so.

Fyi:  I reinstalled Vilja on my second play-trough, without her cosmetic changes.. but with the Solstheim add-on... i thought it wouldn't be a problem because the first play-trough i used the exact same setup, and had no problems there. Are you saying i cant use the solstheim add on as well, before meeting Vilja ?... because that would explain the failure.. however, it  is strange it worked the first time... see what i mean with maintenance ?... its totally unpredictable... also.. after the wedding, at the inn.. i had no idea how to end that party.... i must have been standing there for an real time hour before i figured it out... a hint in your quest update would have been help-full... and i couldn't do much intreracting,... nobody had anything funny to say... Exept that green haired hag..... lol. "Considering the situation i suppose they will have to adopt children ?... "   really Hlaalu.?... no.. we can make them ourselfs... using the GECK... Lmfao.... loved dad to do his happy dance   but not 20 times.. no conversation possible with either Melinda or her mother.... or that cuty little girl... asking for mead all the time... I was thinking... Give the girl a drink ffs... one line with some of them doesnt feel like enough....these are Vilja's close family, i want to know them more, have better conversations... have them ask me more... possibly related to PC being Dovakiin... Just an idea. Also the solstheim addon is a  bit of a let down... i had imagined her parents to have a house there.. where i would/could visit etc... nope..they werent even there... No interaction with the skaal... i would imagine she knows well... all in all a dissapointing experiance.

Just a few suggestions... and observations....

You have my support, far as you need it...

Matt.

[Dova]

Hi Matthijs,

Sorry for not responding sooner. I understand what you mean about getting disappointed when investing emotions towards people (that apply for both fictitious and non-frictional settings), and thank you for sharing something important about yourself.

Getting back to Vilja, her wardrobe system is off by default, and you don't have to use it if you find it unnecessary. You can simply just put a better dress into her main inventory, and she ought to wear that by default. Being a country girl, I doubt she would have something extravagantly beautiful to wear at the very beginning though.

Emma re-records some of the lines using a professional microphone whenever she finds time, it may not be obvious, but Vilja's voice files are constantly getting updated every time a new version is released.

Yes, the Solstheim add-on is similar to other cosmetic patches as it was made based on older version of Vilja, so don't activated that until after you can access Vilja's inventory. I noticed that this wasn't specifically stated in the sticky. This step applies to all addons and patches that has a esp file. IMHO, this is a bit inconvenient, but this is the only required step to install Vilja properly, and she really shouldn't have been a big hassle besides that.

Vilja is still a work-in-progress mod (i.e. she is stable, but the team is still working to get new content in), so I am sure Emma will develop Vilja's family more in the future.

Dova