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Vilja
means willpower
Vilja in Swedish means willpower, guts, determination. And that is something Vilja has got lots of!
When she inherits a mysterious bottle from her grandmother, the young Solstheim girl decides to go to Skyrim to find out the truth about its content. But, things haven't turned out as Vilja has hoped. After travelling the hostile roads of Skyrim for months with her horse Bruse, she still hasn't found the only person who can help her, and now someone has stolen the bottle! She may be brave, but now she needs help!
You'll find Vilja in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. Will you help her? Will you let her come along with you, and will you help her in her missions? Yes, over time it will turn out that she also has another, secret, reason to be in Skyrim. In fact, if you let her tag along with you, you will find that her quests will mingle with your quests for a very long time to come, and you will learn to know quite a few interesting and fully voiced side-characters.
Vilja is a companion mod with quests, rather than a questmod with a companion. So, what is the difference? Well, you should never feel "forced" to play Vilja's quests instead of your own. They should be a natural, integrated part of your life in Skyrim, but last for a long time.
Vilja doesn't only have her own agenda - she also has her hopes and visions, her thoughts and opinions, and a background story that she will share with you over time.
Her dream is to become a bard, but as all women in her family traditionally become alchemists, this is what her family expects also of her.
She isn't the best fighter in the world (why would she then need your help?), nor the best marksman, and when it comes to
spells, she starts with only a teleport spell and basic healing. However, this will surely change over time, and she will become more and more proficient. She also has a broad range of other features, and she will certainly change your lonely life in Skyrim, as she is talkative, curious and very unpredictable.
NEW
IN VER 4.2 - brief overview:
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Side-by-side walking - developed from the system introduced in the
Followers as Companions mod by Ishara Meradin.
- Improved hotkeys attack system - Vilja should now hit her target more
accurately.
- Improved sneaking behaviour. Vilja can be ordered to stay away and take
cover.
- New flute music - four new tunes - for Vilja by Bosa123.
- Tweaking of marksman behaviour - Vilja should no longer prefer steel
arrows in combat but instead use the best possible arrows in her
inventory.
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Minor tweaks and corrections.
NEW IN VER 4 - brief overview:
- A new system to interact with Vilja through hotkeys. The system will allow you to:
a) determine attack targets for her, also for sneak attacks.
b) configure her dialog tree to your liking and be able to talk to her without activating her with the E-key.
c) make her shut up when needed.
d) smalltalk with her as you travel without using the E-key or breaking the movement (perfect for roleplayers)
- Full interaction and lots of scenes with the follower Inigo by SmartBlueCat http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40960/?. Inigo is an excellent mod which we highly recommend!
- A new questline which will give you a new optional follower and a new full set of armor. For reasons that will become obvious, this quest line is only available for pc-characters that are married to Vilja.
- Vilja's chatter setup has been reworked and it is now possible to keep down the chatter pace to every 10th minute (quest-comments and other typical event-based comments are not affected by chatter pace)
- Vilja can sit on your character's lap.
- You can ask Vilja to step aside if she is blocking your way.
- A variety of *optional* player pet-names that you can suggest that Vilja call your character if they are married.
- More diversity to Vilja's healing of the player - you can now decide how much healing she should provide.
- You can decide where Bruse should stable, and ask Vilja to send him home to the stable. This will also work if you should manage to bring him to a location where he shouldn't be.
- New, fun features for Leifur. He can be ordered to follow anyone, and he can hunt down prey on your command. (Please note! among the optional files for Vilja, you will find the "Barking Dogs Cure" http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/22124/? which will keep Leifur from barking all the time. As this will affect all the dogs in the game, we have chosen not to include it in the main mod.)
- More drunk dialog and new chatter lines (including more comments on Thieves Guild quests).
- Another +500 of the original low quality voice files have been manually cleaned or re-recorded with a high quality microphone. As around 800 lines have been re-recorded previously, this means that less than 2000 voice files remains to be re-recorded. (Please be aware that the majority of the low quality files appears during Vilja's first quest, so the quality should improve over time)
- Various fixes, changes and improvements, for instance:
- - horse riding and mounted combat should be more stable.
- - brawl behaviour should be improved
- - thanks to the enclosed files by Fore, we should now have a totally reliable cure for the hug-kill-bug. The solution is fully compatible with FNIS.
- - Vilja now goes to prison with the player.
- - Radiant quests shouldn't pick places in areas added by mods anymore.
- - Wolfcry armor should now also work for beast races.
- - Certain quest glitches have been ironed out; you should no longer need to tab out of dialog with Wilbert, Magda should be reliable found where she ought to be.
- - Vigilants of Stendarr should no longer go hostile when Vilja is using her "free running" following style.
- - Vilja' headtracking after scenes should now auto-reset so that she starts looking at the player instead of the other follower.
- - Vilja will no longer double her amount of torches after performing.
- - It should now be safe to change Vilja's appearance before you have started her quest (this has in previous versions caused an inventory bug).
- - increased compatibility with SPERG and NPC Knockout overhaul. For
previous changes, see change-log document
More about Vilja
With multiple quest lines (including a romance-track for romance and marriage), unique abilities, 28 custom music pieces and over 9000 lines of voiced dialog, the Vilja-mod should keep you entertained for many, many game-hours to come. But the dialog and features have evolved so far that even her creators can't keep track of it all. There are many surprises tucked away in Vilja's dialog topics and we encourage you to just try them all. This is just a brief overview of her features and what differs her from other companions/followers.
- The mod includes more than 9000 lines of voiced dialog, and almost 6500 of these lines are for Vilja. Vilja is by default very talkative, but if it is too much for you (which would be understandable), you can easily adjust the settings in her dialog (Main topic: Travel together). She won't be upset with you even if you tell her to keep completely quiet.
- Improved following behaviour. In order to make Vilja follow as well as possible, she will warp to you whenever she gets stuck. This will only happen when you are not watching, so if you notice she is stuck, just turn away from her and continue to walk. (The warping can now be toggled on/off for situations where you don't want her to follow). Vilja also has a summon spell that you will have access to as soon as you have completed the very first part of her quest. (It is activated with the shout-key). If you should lose track of her, you will be able to find her by activating her quest - a questmarker will then show you where she is.
Vilja has the Lightfoot perk, so she is unlikely to be the victim of common traps.
By default, Vilja will follow you with a behaviour similar to other followers, but through dialog you can choose to allow her to sandbox while following (similar to the Dawnguard companion Serana), which will make her a little more lively. The sandbox behaviour can be toggled on and off in dialog (Main topic: Travel together)
With ver 3 of Vilja, we are also using another alternate following behaviour, which can be combined with the sandbox, where Vilja acts more lively and sometimes run ahead of you.
- Disposition system. Her disposition towards you will change over time and depend on your actions towards her and towards the rest of your environment. If she is really mad at you, she will surely let you know, but you will also spot that her current disposition towards you will be mirrored in what she says and how she responds.
Of course there are also ways to improve her disposition. For instance, she enjoys a sweetroll or something to drink. You can give her a compliment, thank her or give her a gift, and sometimes this will lead to an increased disposition. And as a bard-wanna-be, she will of course like it if you care to listen to her music.
With ver 3, Vilja has started to build up a "long-term-memory" which we are hoping to expand on. Certain things you say and do will be stored in her "memory" and it might affect her responses towards you.
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NEW!
Comprehensive Guide to Vilja’s Outfits and Wardrobes
Read online
or download PDF version
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- Optional wardrobe system with several possibilities: a) Decide exactly what Vilja should wear b) Predefine what she should wear during different situations (adventuring, city life, at home etc) and tell her to auto-change depending on the situation c) let her totally decide on her own (like in ver 1.5). (Manual for the wardrobe is included)
- Detailed fighting instructions. You can tell Vilja if she should participate in fights or stay out of trouble. You can also tell her whether her fighting style should be ranged or melee. Later on she will learn to use different spells and chants, and you will then be able to finetune which of these spells and chants she should use. As soon as you finished the very first part of her quest, you will receive three "commands" (activated with the shout-key) that you can use to give Vilja quick-instructions during battle: Vilja Attack!, Vilja Stop Fighting!, Vilja - Stop Fighting and Follow me! With ver 4, you can also command Vilja whome to attack (see above).
- Configurable features. Within her topic "Travel together" you can configure various things regarding her behaviour, her
wardrobe, her chatter, essential/protected, warp/not warp etc. You can also configure a number of her habits. If there are things with her that irritates you, have a look and you might find that you can easily get rid of this habit.
- Healing. From start, Vilja can only heal herself during combat, but later on she will also be able to keep you healed.
- Sparring. You can practice your fighting skills together with her in a friendly combat. You can also let her practice fighting skills with your housecarls, or you and your housecarls can practice sparring.
- Crafting. Different from vanilla followers, Vilja can actually use crafting stations! Provided, of course, that you give her the correct material. She may not use them for the same purposes as you, though. Here is a list of what she will do:
Cooking pot: Vilja will cook various meals for you, depending on what ingredients she has in her inventory
Alchemy station: Vilja will make various potions, depending on what ingredients she has in her inventory.
Enchantment station: Vilja cannot do anything useful at enchantment stations.
Forge: Vilja can use the forge to create lockpicks for you, provided that she has at least one Iron ingot
Workbench: Vilja can use the workbench to fletch arrows, provided that she has at least ten pieces of firewood and an ingot of iron, steel, silver or dwarven.
Tanning rack: Vilja will use the tanning rack the same way as you do. Give her pelts, and she will turn them into leather. If she has leather but no pelts, she will turn leather into leather strips.
Sharpening wheel: Vilja cannot do anything useful at the sharpening wheel.
Smelter: Vilja can use the smelter the same way as you do, provided that she has ore.
Chopping block: Vilja can, like other followers, use the chopping block to chop wood.
Mining: If Vilja has a pickaxe, she can help you mining.
(Note that the crafting stations have to be correctly set up and using the vanilla IDnames in order for her to use them; some modded stations might not work)
Vilja can also do some simple crafting on the fly, without any crafting stations:
- Simple potions. If you can provide one ingredient, Vilja can make simple potions like healing, restore magicka, restore
stamina and cure diesease without having access to an alchemy station. She can also learn to make new potions if you give her a recipe.
- Cooking. If Vilja has appropriate ingredients in her inventory, she can cook you a meal on the fly. Once you are married, she will also offer not only the "Homecooked meal" but also a special bonus dish that is else not available in Skyrim.
- Torches. If she has firewood and linenwraps, she can make torches for you.
- Playing music. Vilja wants to become a bard, and is always happy to play for you. From start, she can only play the drums, but after completing some of her quests, she will be able to play flute and lute as well as sing for you. Thanks to Adrien Ortone (KindaInappropriate) (lute) and Bosa123 (flute) she also has her very own music that she can play.
- Playing for the audience. Once you have completed some of Vilja's quests, she will be able to entertain the audience in some of the inns, and she will actually even earn some money on it! It is up to you to decide when or if she should play for the audience.
- Playing music with you. with ver 3, Vilja can play music together with you - see change-log for ver 3.0.
List of Music included in this mod
- Horseriding and Mounted
combat. Vilja is not a standard follower but an unique stand-alone companion. She has her own horse, which she will summon and use whenever you are riding. You can also tell her to ride when you are not riding. With ver 1.4, we incorporated mounted combat and dynamically speed adjustment for Bruse. It has since then been improved, but we are well aware that it should be further improved, and we are intending to do this.
- Lead the way. Vilja doesn't always have to follow your lead. YOU can also go adventuring with HER. Yes, you can actually be her companion. She might suggest it, or you can suggest that she takes the lead. She might show you places you've never seen before! It's a very different and rewarding roleplay-experience to travel side by side instead of having a companion always five steps behind you. This feature was originally introduced with Oblivion Vilja, but Skyrim Vilja will do the same thing.
- Teamleader. You can ask other followers to follow Vilja instead of you. That way, you can act more strategically in a dungeon. Or you can simply use it to send Vilja and other followers to wait for you in a different location. Or just let them go on a stroll together.
- Quest-related chatter. Vilja knows what is happening around her, and will, once you have travelled together for a little
while, start to comment on some of the vanilla-quests you are doing. This will be further expanded on in later versions. (She is still rather oblivious of what is going on within the Thieves guild and the Dark Brotherhood).
- Place-related chatter. Vilja will always have opinions on the places you are visiting. She will often tell you spontaneously, but you can also ask her through dialog.
- Interaction with other followers. Vilja interacts with many of the vanilla followers on various levels, from basic to quite advanced. For the best experience, I suggest that you go exploring with Vilja and either Lydia, J'zargo, Jenassa, Jordis or Brelyna, Marcurio, Aela, Farkas or Argis, Sven, Erik or Onmund, and you will soon find that Vilja not only interacts with them - they will reply, and sometimes they will be involved in quite lenghty discussions. Similar but more generic interaction will happen also with Iona, Ria, Benor, Stenvar, Ahtar, Illia, Uthgerd, Adelaisa, Anneke Crag-Jumper, Kharjo, Aranea, Faendal and with any modder-made follower that use one of the following voice-types: Female Eventoned, Female Commander, Female Darkelf, Female YoungEager, Male Brute, Male Khajiit, Male Eventoned, Male Young Eager.
With some other popular vanilla followers, Vilja has simple interaction, i.e. Vilja will know that they are there and sometimes comment on them, but they will not respond and there will be no discussions between them. These followers are Mjoll and Calder.
With ver 3, we incorporated a very basic platform for interaction with modder-made companions with unique voices.
With ver 4, we have incorporated a fullfledged interaction with Inigo by SmartBlueCat. It's thoroughly recommended that you try this out!
- Creating a home. You can tell Vilja where you want her to live, and when she is in this location and in wandermode, she will adapt a daily schedule that involves everything from cooking and cleaning to playing music, reading books, discussing with other followers and going for walks, or even to an inn. She will of course have special dialog for when she is at home.
- Making a campsite. Since ver 1.4 Vilja has her own tent and can make a Frostfall-compatible campsite and campfire. In version 3, her tent has been improved and includes cooking facilities.
- Reading books. Vilja will be happy to read books for you. From start, she only has one book that she can read, but she will tell you about other books that she'll read for you once she has them.
- Collecting and cleaning. Vilja can help you to collect various items like arrows, weapons and, of course, ingredients. You can also tell her to "clean up the mess" and she will then appear to use a broom to do so.
- Spellcasting. From start, Vilja can only use some simple spells for healing and teleporting. As her quests progress, she will eventually learn a range of other spells. Nothing really fancy, though, as she is not supposed to be a spellcaster. You will be able to finetune through dialog what spells you want her to use. New in ver 1.4: Once Vilja has learnt the first basic spells through her questline, you will be able to teach her more spells (although not every spell) by giving her spelltomes.
- Chants. Once Vilja has become a "real bard", she will be able to use completely new bard chants that affect either the player or the enemies and can be used to improve battle tactics.
- Shopping. You can tell Vilja to go shopping for you, and either determine what kind of wares you want her to buy or leave that decision to her (good way to raise her disposition, although you might not always be so impressed with what she drags home). She has a special container in her inventory where you can place things that you want her to sell for you - the outcome of her bartering will depend on her speechcraft skill. Vilja will sometimes go shopping spontaneously. This will only happen when you are in one of the main cities and she will always tell you in advance.
- Skills report. In the main topic "Let's just talk for a while" you can ask Vilja about her current skills. This will also expose how much she currently likes you.
- Play games. Vilja is childish and she enjoys playing games. You can race her to various destination, you can play rock, paper, scissors and you can practice sparring with her.
- Roleplaying features. To enhance the gameplay for roleplayers, there are many features included that aren't vital functionality-wise. You can for instance buy her drinks at inns, thank her if she has been of great help, you can tell her when you give her something precious, you can give her compliments, give her a hug (after you have learnt to know her better), and if you are romancing her, you can tell her that you love her. She will also occasionally ask for your opinion on more serious and in-depth matters, where you can pick choices according to your character's personality (or, of course, the choice you hope will please her). Since ver 2.0, you can also "reply" to what she just said (topic in the main menu) and in ver 3.0 you can also ask for her thoughts on specific subjects.
In ver 4, her various "horns" will allow you to communicate with her without bothering with E-keys or halting your travelling.
- Introducing an infamous Solstheim tradition. I think those who played Oblivion Vilja will grin and immediately guess what we have been up to... For those who haven't got a clue, we suggest that you head for one of the inns, buy Vilja a few drinks and give them to her through the special dialog option that show up only inside inns. It shouldn't take many drinks before she will show you what the Solstheim people do when they are celebrating.
- Romance and
marriage. Vilja finds the whole idea of using a silly amulet as some kind of advertisement quite repulsive. To her, love is about friendship and trust. If you want to romance her, you will be able to do so, eventually, but only after you have learnt to know her better and her main mission in Skyrim is completed. The romance will eventually lead to a wedding ceremony and wedding party, and you will meet and interact with Vilja's whole family.
- Cyrodiil Vilja. Through e-mails, forum-posts and PMs, I have learnt that there are many players who want Vilja to be the very same person as in Cyrodiil. Therefore, I have added in a special option for those who want to roleplay this. At the end of the very first part of her quest, you will have a dialog-option that allows you to decide that she is your long-lost friend or lover, and if you choose this option, her background story and some other aspects and comments will change accordingly.
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Install, uninstall, reinstall
Install: In order to run the mod, the esp as well as the bsa should be placed in your Steam/SteamApps/common/Skyrim/Data-folder.
With ver 4, it should be possible to add cosmetical changes to Vilja also before you had got access to her inventory.
Uninstall: Just uncheck the Vilja-mod. A script will then auto-shut-down all of her quests. NOTE! In order to ensure that all features from this mod is shut down, please wait 52 game-hours ingame before re-installing.
If you for unknown reasons need to reinstall the mod, you can easy get back to where you were before the uninstall. Pick up Vilja at the Bannered Mare, do the very first part of her quest. Then go to the topic Travel Together->Off-topic - Configuration and Settings. Tell Vilja that you have already done some of her quests. This should bring the npc Beata to the Bannered Mare, and through dialog with her, you can get back on track again. Note that you have to skip a bit back and forth in her dialog, for instance, you have to acknowledge that you have finished Vilja's quests before she gives you the option to state that you are romancing
Vilja.
Upgrading
Upgrading from version 3.02:
Make a back-up save in case anything should go wrong. Replace the esp and bsa.
Upgrading from versions previous to ver 3.02:
VERY IMPORTANT!!! If you are using any cosmetic change on Vilja that requires a patch esp (alternate faces, unique body etc), you MUST!! disable this before you install the new bsa and esp! Else you won't be able to access her inventory!
Go into the game and meet Vilja with her default looks. You will see a message in the upper left corner about "Upgrade to ver 3). After approx 30-90 seconds, you will get a new message that the upgrade is complete. Check that her inventory is working - if you did disable all changes of her, it will work. Now you can save game, exit, enable the cosmetic changes and return to your game. Her inventory should work properly.
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