Understanding & Adding To Scripts
Step 1 - Where Our Scripts Are Kept
For our scripts the way we upload them are via Google Drive & our website. The finished copies of scripts are uploaded to the website (fully recorded, tested and no need for alterations). The documents on Google Drive are still work in progress, they can change at anytime.
Scripts are organized based on either the Town, Hold or Other (e.g Daedra) that script belongs to. As seen below.
Scripts are organized based on either the Town, Hold or Other (e.g Daedra) that script belongs to. As seen below.
Then by the race of the character.
Followed by gender.
And lastly by their completion.
If you open up any of these they'll contain the scripts appropriate to their level of competition. E.g partially complete scripts.
Step 2 - Types Of Scripts
We class scripts into four categories.
- Incomplete Scripts. Scripts that do not have any dialogue exported from the game into their scripts are classified as incomplete.
- Partially Complete Scripts. These are scripts in which the dialogue from the game has been completely exported from the Creation Kit to the scripts.
- 80-90% Complete Scripts. These are scripts that are almost complete, all of the Misc dialogue, additional scene/overheard and player direct dialogue have been added to the script and it just needs to be recorded and tested in-game.
- Complete Scripts. These are scripts that have been completely written, recorded & tested in game. They're final excluding patches & updates.
Step 3 - Opening Up A Script
For this tutorial we'll start off with opening up the Carlotta Script voice acted by Druundev. Which is located under:
More Voice Actors Mod > Documents > Scripts > Whiterun (Town) Scripts > Imperial Scripts > Female Scripts
More Voice Actors Mod > Documents > Scripts > Whiterun (Town) Scripts > Imperial Scripts > Female Scripts
Step 4 - Understanding The Format Of A Script
So lets have a general overlook of the script.
The first page is always the name of the character and a photo of a character. This is just to establish the character.
Next we have the first of three main categories of dialogue. Player Direct Dialogue.
Player Direct Dialogue is dialogue that is direct to the player. For example a guard coming up to the player and telling them to pay for their crimes. Or alternatively the more classic and common type of player direct dialogue is player prompted. For example you (the PC) going up to a NPC and asking them questions.
Next we have the second type of dialogue. Scene/Overheard Dialogue.
Scene/Overheard dialogue is mostly dialogue that occurs between two NPC's, a conversation in which the Player Character is not an active participant. It can also be you guessed it overheard dialogue, this might be a Daedra god shouting in your mind or a scripted event in which a NPC starts spewing hate at you. With Scene/Overheard dialogue we try to include the lines of the other NPC's, the NPC's that they're talking to. This provides context and helps us during voice recordings. The common colour we use for this purpose is maroon/purple.
The last category is Misc dialogue.
Misc dialogue is a...huge collection of dialogue to say the least. There are several sub categories that fall under its umbrella ranging from Hello's to Combat initiation comments. Now for the first release of Varied Voices Skyrim Combat dialogue will fall under Misc. In future iterations it'll fall under its own main category.
Misc dialogue is a huge huge huge amount and variations of dialogue. To show you how much dialogue there is have a look at this page . As you can see there's many many categories that fall under Misc that need to be written for characters, some dialogue doesn't need to be written for a character e.g you don't need service dialogue for someone who doesn't sell goods.
Misc dialogue is a huge huge huge amount and variations of dialogue. To show you how much dialogue there is have a look at this page . As you can see there's many many categories that fall under Misc that need to be written for characters, some dialogue doesn't need to be written for a character e.g you don't need service dialogue for someone who doesn't sell goods.
Step 5 - The Format Of Dialogue
So now you have an OK understanding of the format of our scripts we'll now better learn how to understand the format of a piece of dialogue.
The first thing you'll notice is (PF6) coloured in Green
The first thing you'll notice is (PF6) coloured in Green
(PF6) Is the file assigned number for that line of dialogue. Every line of dialogue has its own code assigned to it so when we record a piece of dialogue we assign that recording that file name/number. This is great for multiple reasons ranging from myself and others having to fine the correct file for that line of dialogue and so we can keep things relatively organized.
Scripts writers don't have to write file code numbers for pieces of dialogue as we have people who can do that.
Please note if that text is black it means that the dialogue has not been recorded. If its green however its been recorded by the voice actor.
Scripts writers don't have to write file code numbers for pieces of dialogue as we have people who can do that.
Please note if that text is black it means that the dialogue has not been recorded. If its green however its been recorded by the voice actor.
The next thing you'll notice is the player prompt.
This is as you can tell by the name the player prompt that causes the dialogue. This is whatever the player says and whatever appears on the screen as a player option.
As you can see some lines of dialogue will have fractions next to them whether it be 1/3 or 7/12. This means that this is one huge piece of dialogue that has been split into whether it be 3rds, 12ths, etc. This can be done with player prompts or overheard/scene dialogue.
Now there's two reason for this. Number 1 the creation kit limits a piece of dialogue to 160 characters total it does however allow continuations. Number 2 some pieces of dialogue would be huge to record in one take especially some of the speeches.
If you see or alternatively if you make dialogue that is bigger than 160 characters that just means you have to treat is a big piece of dialogue. Another tell-tale sign of this is if you see the player prompt repeat. For example.
Hey There Scum Bag! (1/2)
Love you too you son of a wilderberry
Anger 15
Hey There Scumb Bag! (2/2)
You father to turnips
Anger 15
Now there's two reason for this. Number 1 the creation kit limits a piece of dialogue to 160 characters total it does however allow continuations. Number 2 some pieces of dialogue would be huge to record in one take especially some of the speeches.
If you see or alternatively if you make dialogue that is bigger than 160 characters that just means you have to treat is a big piece of dialogue. Another tell-tale sign of this is if you see the player prompt repeat. For example.
Hey There Scum Bag! (1/2)
Love you too you son of a wilderberry
Anger 15
Hey There Scumb Bag! (2/2)
You father to turnips
Anger 15
This is the NPC response to a line of dialogue. Now I choose this line as there's a few interesting things about it. First off this is the line of dialogue the NPC says in response to the Player, another NPC or a prompt e.g stealing from them. The dialogue inbetween the * is meant to indicate small things for the voice actor whether it be *small chuckle* *mumbles inherently*, etc.
Underlined dialogue is more for voice directors to indicate things to voice actors e.g for this line I'm trying to get the Voice Actor to emphasis that line.
Underlined dialogue is more for voice directors to indicate things to voice actors e.g for this line I'm trying to get the Voice Actor to emphasis that line.
Happy 50 is an example of the facial expression that the NPC will express on their face as they're saying this line of dialogue. The expression are as the following
Disgust
Anger
Sad
Puzzled
Neutral
Happy
And the value of this is on a scale of 1-100. 1 is barely noticeable if noticeable at all, 100 is extreme e.g if some was Happy 100 it'd come off almost exaggeratedly. The most common values are 15, 30, 50. However don't be afraid to use other values such as higher ones or odd values such a 63.
Disgust
Anger
Sad
Puzzled
Neutral
Happy
And the value of this is on a scale of 1-100. 1 is barely noticeable if noticeable at all, 100 is extreme e.g if some was Happy 100 it'd come off almost exaggeratedly. The most common values are 15, 30, 50. However don't be afraid to use other values such as higher ones or odd values such a 63.
This final line of text is a script note. A script note is a note from the Voice Director and/or Script Writer to the Voice Actor. For example do you want to tell them to slur these lines, should they focus on a word, should it be spoken with sarcasm or insincere, etc.
This isn't required but use when necessary.
This isn't required but use when necessary.
Step 6 - Conclusion
Now you're ready to start creating dialogue scripts. Use your imagination but research the character. The best form of research excluding playing the game is to research the characters UESP article (similar to wikia), I highly recommend using UESP over elder scrolls wikia.
Remember when it comes to characters you're building off of the foundation not changing the foundation of the character.
Remember when it comes to characters you're building off of the foundation not changing the foundation of the character.
Written By Charles