Companion Vilja version 4

Character, story and voice by Emma (emma9158@hotmail.com, emma@lovkullen.net)

Scripts by CDCooley (cdcooley@fastmail.us)
Featuring Zrenk Dungeon by Blockhead

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to a Great Grandmaster in storytelling, Discworld author Terry Pratchett.
He has been travelling Cyrodiil with Vilja in tow since the first version was released. He has not only been so kind as to brain-storm over her with me, but has also written more than 130 new chatter- and Thieves Guild-entries especially for Vilja. Several of her new features and topics originate from his thoughts. Many, many thanks!


Introduction
Installing & Upgrading
Conflicts & Limitations
Version History
New in Version 4
Credits & License

The current version of this mod may be found at:

If you have received this mod from another source it may not be the latest version!


Introduction

Vilja in Swedish means willpower, guts, determination. And that is something Vilja has got lots of!

When her sister was put in prison on bread and water for selling beauty creme with unexpected effects to the Vvardenfell nobility, Vilja instantly decided to help her. But things haven't turned out the way Vilja expected... She is now waiting for a friend of her sister in The Bloated Float at the Waterfront in the Imperial City. But, the days are passing, and the friend hasn't shown up. Meanwhile, her sister is suffering in prison.

Will you help Vilja? Will you let her come along with you in her search for ingredients for an antidote potion that might make it possible for her sister to help those unfortunate Dunmer ladies who used the beauty creme?

Vilja is a young Nord girl, born in Solstheim and living in Cyrodiil since... well, that she will explain to you, herself, when she knows you better!

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 waterwalking, teleporting and basic healing. But she will certainly change your lonely life in Cyrodiil, as she is talkative, curious and very unpredictable.

With multiple quest lines, unique abilities, and thousands of lines of dialog, Vilja should keep you entertained for many, many game-hours to come. But her 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 her dialog topics and we encourage you to just try them all, but you will also want to read the Dialog and Gameplay Manual for Vilja version 4.


Installing & Upgrading

INSTALLING

Always make a safety copy of your saved game before adding or upgrading any mod, this one included!!

All the resources are packaged into a BSA file, so you can just copy the 1em_Vilja.bsa and 1em_Vilja.esp files into your Oblivion Data folder. Or you can use the mod manager of your choice if you think that's easier.

If you aren't using the GOTY or Steam version of the game, you will also need to install the latest official patch (1.2.0416) or Vilja will simply not appear. But there are no other dependencies (i.e. you do not need OBSE, Shivering Isles, CM Partners, etc.)

UNINSTALLING

Just remove the 1em_Vilja.bsa and 1em_Vilja.esp files.

UPGRADING

From what we have seen, upgrading from versions 1-3 of Vilja should be easy:

  1. Put Vilja in an interior cell, leave the cell and save your game. Do NOT use quick-save!
  2. Leave the game. Replace the old esp and bsa files with the new ones. (You should keep a backup of the old esp in case something should go wrong and you need to re-do the upgrading.)
  3. Restart the game and return to Vilja. Ask her to join you again.
  4. You should also give her new combat instructions! Else, her behavior is unpredictable.

This should be enough... you are ready to continue your adventures in Vilja's company. However, there is no way to guarantee that this easy-upgrade will work in your game. If something doesn't seem right, start by checking the In cases of emergency... section of the Vilja Dialog and Gameplay manual. If nothing helps, and you are not happy with how your 'new' Vilja behaves, use this recommendation from TESPOSitive on how to update saves: http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/runoblivion/updatesaves.

CUSTOMIZING

Vilja will always think of herself as a blonde Nord, but it is possible to change her appearance. There are quite a few pre-built "custom Vilja" mods in the Optional Files section of her download page on TESNexus. There is also a Customization Pack which contains many of the early customizations and a guide with detailed instructions for creating your own. All customization mods must be loaded after the 1em_Vilja.esp file.

The add-ons and customizations built for version 3 will still work with version 4.


Conflicts & Limitations

Vilja should work very well together with other mods. We have avoided adding things to the exterior game world and made minimal changes to other locations. Vilja is "Sensual walks-ready", which means she will automatically adapt the walking style that has been assigned for her in that mod. But we do know of some conflicts and have corrections for most of them.

CONFLICTS

original, unpatched Oblivion
the quest won't start and she's not in the Bloated Float
The conflict here is with the unpatched game. Unless you are using a GOTY or Steam version of the game, you need to install the latest official Oblivion patch (1.2.0416) and there are different versions depending on your language and whether you have Shivering Isles.
Cheydinhal Petshop
she's not finding any ingredients
Vilja won't find more than one ingredient per day and there's a day-counter to enforce that limit. This old mod affects a global that will prevent Vilja's day-counters from working (this is not unique for Vilja - the Petshop has the same effect on all mods with day-counters). We have no fix for this problem.
See You Sleep
she won't follow many any more, she just stands there then teleports to your side
The jail bedroll scripts will permanently ruin Vilja's AI-packages. But the problem scripts can be disabled in the latest version of See You Sleep and with the console command: set P1DsleepJail to 0. If you are already seeing the AI problem, you'll need to completely uninstall and reinstall the Vilja mod.
Companion Share and Recruit (CSR) - Faction Recruitment Add-on
after you asked her to join you she doesn't have the features she should
Vilja is a member of the Fighters and Mages Guild, so if you choose the wrong topic the faction recruitment add-on will override her own companion features and turn her into a common henchman! Fortunately, Amgepo's DRC mod corrects that problem for Vilja and all other companions. It's available at http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32473.
Persuasion Overhaul and other mods that add topics to all NPCs
some NPCs are switching between different voices
If mods add topics to all NPCs, Vilja and other NPCs from this mod might use the game-original voices (or voices provided by the other mod). It won't cause any real problem other than being annoying and immersion breaking. The Vilja mod can cause the same effect on companions from other mods in some cases, too.
FCOM, OOO, MMM, and other mods that add enemies with non-standard factions
enemies are attacking Vilja and practically ignoring you
Enemies from mods like these will attack Vilja far more often than they should. Some mods don't add enemies to the game's original enemy factions (and OOO actually removes all animals from those factions too) so our attempts to let enemies focus on the player instead of Vilja don't work. If you run OBSE, the enemies from OOO should behave better. You can also find an FCOM patch in the Optional Files section of the TESNexus downloads page to lessen the problem for MMM (and OOO if you don't use OBSE).
Open Cities and other city overhaul mods
some NPCs aren't where they should be
You might have trouble finding Heneri and her sister if you have mods that alter Cheydinhal and Bruma. Try looking the the Imperial Bridge in and Olav's Tap at various times of the day or talk with the creators of the specific city overhaul mods about workarounds.

LIMITATIONS

her lips move but she's not talking
Vilja is very talkative and will chat with you wherever you go. However, the lip-sync in Oblivion only works when you are facing the talking npc. This means that sometimes, her lip-movement will appear once you turn around and look at her, i.e. she will then appear to be talking but you won't be able to hear anything.
sometimes she doesn't use arrows
Vilja can fight both melee and ranged, but like every companion in Oblivion, she sometimes "forgets" to load her bow with arrows! The issue tends to be more apparent if you also have Shivering Isles installed. (If you are already using companions in Oblivion, you are probably familiar with this problem). We haven't found any way to 'fix' this, but she will start using arrows again after you have switched cells. She is also likely to start using arrows again if you use her summon spell to tell her first to switch to melee fighting and then back to ranged fighting. Vilja's fighting behaviour, especially when using a bow, will be a lot better if you let her use an unenchanted Oblivion vanilla weapon than if you give her enchanted weapons added by a mod.
she thinks you're nude (or that she's nude)
If you are wearing the Mythic Dawn robe, the Arena armor or the zero-value armor provided by the Alternate start by ship-mod, Vilja will consider you as 'nude'. This is because these items have 0 value. The 'cure' is to put on a ring, an amulet or shoes that have a value of at least 1 Gold. (The same applies for any clothing or armor you give her.)
she won't use the beds or chairs
Like any other companion, Vilja will only sleep in beds that have no owner assigned to them, and she might not sit in chairs that aren't marked as "persistent". If you tell her to take a nap and she refuses, it's not her fault - there simply isn't a suitable bed at the location. She will then revert to her daily schedule and do what she would normally have done at that hour of the day.
she walks into walls, tables, rocks, trees, etc.
Some modder-made houses are companion-friendly, others aren't. If there are no pathgrids, no persistent chairs and no beds without ownership, companions won't behave very well. Thank you Korana for explaining all the important things regarding this, and for always making your houses companion-friendly. A list of companion-friendly houses can be found here: http://emmates.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=oblivion&action=display&thread=181.
she doesn't seem to know what's happening related to some other mod
With very few exceptions, Vilja is completely unaware of the content added by other mods including the official downloadable content like Knights of the Nine. She'll also have only limited knowledge of the Shivering Isles. This is all because mods work like layers and one mod can't see the others.
she won't wear the magic ring, amulet, or clothes I gave her
At any moment she'll only agree to wear armor or normal clothing. It's very rare that she chooses to wear some of each. If what looks like clothing acts like protective armor, then it's armor. If an enchanted ring or amulet has a combat-oriented enchantment it might only get equipped when she's wearing armor. Rings in the game also come in left and right styles. While the player can wear them on either hand, NPCs are bound by the ring's hand designation. So if you want her to wear two, you'll need to find one of each type.

Version History

Background

Although I - Emma - have made several companion mods for Morrowind, Vilja is my first companion mod for Oblivion. When I had played through the game for the second time in spring 2009, I started to feel lonely and looked around for companions similar to my Morrowind ones. After a lot of research, I found my favourite - Companion Neeshka by Rsdnt_Evle. After using her for a while, I couldn't resist starting out on my own companion. At first she was just a clone of Neeshka (which is why Vilja will also be found in the Bloated Float in the Waterfront). But as time passed, Vilja took her own path and Neeshka would today probably disagreeingly shake her head if I insisted that Vilja was a 'distant relative' of hers...

Vilja is in many ways similar to my Morrowind companions - she has her own story, her own personality, her own missions, and lots and lots of dialog. Vilja is also very much aware of what is going on around her. She will comment on your ongoing quests and actions, and sometimes your decisions will please her... or make her really angry. Read more below.

The most important difference between version 1 and the newer versions is that since version 2 we are now two people working together on Vilja. CDCooley, who I have previously worked together with on Morrowind projects, had fallen for Vilja's charms and offered to work on her scripts. This has meant a huge leap forward when it comes to functionality and general AI. All her original scripts are thoroughly reworked. The small, but annoying, glitches from version 1 are since long gone, and since version 2, Vilja is not only a hopefully nice company but also a well functioning companion that can be an asset rather than a burden in combat and other situations. On top of this, we have introduced interaction between companion mods - something that since long is standard for Morrowind companions. Quite a lot has happened since version 1 was released in December 2009.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Version 4


Credits & License

CREDITS

In alphabetical order:

FURTHER USAGE AND UPLOADING

- Emma

e-mail, Emma: emma9158@hotmail.com, emma@lovkullen.net
e-mail, CDCooley: cdcooley@fastmail.us
web-site: http://lovkullen.net/Emma/index.htm
Emma's forum with hints- and spoilers- section: http://emmates.proboards.com/