Happy Canada Annexed Territory Day everyone! Back again with some more info on the upcoming BBR v7!
Work has been slow and steady so far, but not without its challenges. There's nothing like an AI to make you realize just how much of a miserable bastard Boone is - whenever I need a happy or surprised tone, the AI just doesn't know what to do! Its so far outside the realm of his normal tones and inflections that more times than not, it produces something truly heinous. While hilarious, it also gets exhausting when you really need it to come through for you but it keeps making 'gorilla stuck in a cavernous rain barrel" noises.
What's most maddening though is when you have several different versions of the line, and one line has a perfect inflection but suddenly turns robotic at the end, or some variation of that outcome. In these cases its possible to splice together something good, but in the process I have to listen to it over and over and over...after awhile it all sounds the same.
Needless to say, frequent breaks and many treats are needed. Please send more treats!
While voicing the lines, I've taken the opportunity to expand some of the dialogue for more role-playing opportunities.
One thing that has bothered me about this mod is the plot hole in the Birth Control quest - as its written currently, the Followers of the Apocalypse already have a birth control implant, the only thing stopping you from asking them about it is knowing it exists.
Thanks to my better understanding of quest coding, I've expanded 'Stork Without Wings' to not only make more sense narratively, but also play out a bit more like a traditional quest. There's a little hidden backstory and a small nest to clear out now. Here's a preview of that...
However, I think its only fair to warn you all that my skill with coding is still very limited. It is very easy to soft-lock the quest. I am currently looking for fixes, but I will place a detailed warning for players if I can't figure it out.
Anyway, I haven't forgotten about the main attraction. Behold! A new WIP video!
I'll admit, this is one of the conversations that could use a second voice over. Its been tough managing my perfectionist tendencies, so for the most part, I've focused on the most emotional conversations of the mod. As a result, I understand the AI much better now, and its easier for me to get neutral lines that still sound human, if that makes sense.
Once I've finished giving a voice to all of the original dialogue, I plan on expanding with new stuff. Now that voice lines and lip syncing are a thing I can do, this has opened up vast new avenues for me. Currently I am thinking about new greetings (Lines an NPC says to you upon starting a convo) and location chatter (something a companion will say unprompted when you take them to a specific place), but as that is a new egg for me to crack, I am not going to rush into it. Greetings especially worry me - there's a chance it will somehow conflict with the original GREETINGS topic and cancel each other out. Here's to hoping the game doesn't crap its britches!
Another thing I've always wanted to implement is the ability to be an ass to Boone. Since New Vegas is a game where you can be outright evil, I consider it important for mods to uphold that standard for roleplaying in order to feel like a true extension to the game. To me, BBR doesn't wholly rise to that standard if there's no mean options.
I've thought about implementing outcomes where Boone will break up with you under certain conditions, (e.g if you sleep with Benny while you're in a relationship with him, disrespect his wife's memory, etc.) but these scenarios would naturally extend to Boone refusing to follow you anymore, and that is code I haven't figured out how to work with yet. I am also concerned about messing up vanilla game content if I am not careful. If I have to leave these options out for the mod to remain stable, I will.
For less theoretical updates, I plan on adding more convos with Novac residents as a reaction to your relationship with Boone. So far that list only includes one person, Ranger Andy, but hopefully it will grow once I manage to get more voices cloned! I also want to expand the quest 'Something Blue' so its a bit more challenging, and perhaps make a whole new interior for it if I can figure out the GECK controls.
That's about everything for the time being! Let me know your thoughts below and thanks for reading!
