Removing default dialog tutorial
In this tutorial, I will teach you how to remove the default dialogue that is present in all NPCs including the ones you create newly. Look at the screenshots for a guide but please note that what you see on your screen can differ from what you see on the screenshots. Except for the key concepts, it does not have to be exactly the same.
What does ‘default dialogue’ mean?[edit | edit source]
The default dialogue refers to the set of speeches that are generic among every NPC. Examples of such default dialogue include the 'YOU ARE THE HERO OF KVATCH' speech that every NPC tells you once you completed the kvatch section of the main quest. Another example would be the 'What can I do for you' greeting that NPCs use on you.
These default dialogues apply to every character you will encounter in Oblivion. That is the reason you may notice how a character's voice changes when you speak to him about a rumour or when you try to persuade him. The main reason it is there is to save time. There are hundreds of NPCs in Oblivion and it will be unwise for Bethesda to create a seperate set of generic dialogue for every NPC.
Why would I want to remove it?[edit | edit source]
However, it poses a significant problem to you if you are trying to create your own quest with your own NPCs. When you create your own NPCs, you most probably have your own set of dialogue for them and you will most likely record the voice-overs yourself or get a friend to do it. Now when you do that, it is obvious that your voice is not going to match or be similar to the voice in the default dialogue. So the person who is playing your quest will notice that the voice changes constantly.
If you prefer to create your own set of dialogue using your own voice for the various dialogue aspects of the NPC, then you will need to know how to remove the default dialogue.
What should I be aware of when removing the default dialogue?[edit | edit source]
The default dialogue can consist of several hundred lines per character. If you are creating a general NPC that is also able to interact with you based on the events happening in Cyrodiil (such as calling you the hero of kvatch or congratulating you for taking care of Mehrun Dagon), you may have to record a lot of dialogue lines and then create the lip sync manually for each line.
You should not be removing the default dialogue unless you fit in one of the following categories:
- You are creating a character with a specific behaviour and dialogue set and you don’t care if the character is unable to say things like ‘I hate mudcrabs’
- You have the resources(mainly money) to hire people to record down the dialogue
- You have too much free time.
Now that we have gotten all these out of the way, let us focus on the ‘how’.
Enough talk, How do I remove the default dialogue?[edit | edit source]
These are the steps we are going to undertake to remove the default dialogue:
- Create a custom faction
- Make all our custom NPCs a member of this custom faction
- Make a condition on the various generic dialogue to NOT appear on NPCs that are part of this custom faction.
Creating the custom faction
Firstly, open up your TES construction set. Click on the character menu and choose the faction option (Character->Faction). These are the list of factions in use by Oblivion to group certain characters together. We are going to create our custom faction here.
On the left pane, right-click on any existing factions and choose New. It will ask you to enter a new form editor ID. For the purposes of this tutorial, I will enter ‘CustomCharacterFaction’. After you have done that, make sure you select the ‘CustomCharacterFaction’ on the left pane under the EditorID line.
On the right-pane, you would see several fields. The ones that matter to use now is the name field. You can enter anything there but once again, I chose to enter ‘CustomCharacterFaction’. You would also have to select the ‘Hidden From PC’ option. I believe the ‘Hidden From PC’ option will hide this faction from the Player Character(PC).
Now that this is done, just move the faction window to another area of the screen. You will need it later.
Making our custom NPC a member of the faction
Secondly, create your custom NPC. After you have done that, double-click on the name of your NPC to open up the NPC properties dialog. Click on the ‘Factions’ tab to view the factions this NPC in. We shall now make this NPC a member of the ‘CustomerCharacterFaction’.
Align the NPC properties dialog window and the Faction dialog window such that you can see them both. Now select ‘CustomCharacterFaction’ on the left pane of the Faction dialog window and drag it to the area under the Factions tab in the NPC properties dialog. After you have done that, the NPC is now a member of the ‘CustomCharacterFaction’ faction. Now close the various dialog boxes.
Creating the condition
Finally, it is time to create a condition so that the default dialog does not appear for that NPC. Before we create the condition, please review on how dialogue works in oblivion. If you do not read that tutorial first, you may not be able to understand the following sections. If you already know how it works, read on.
The following is a list of quests that are used for the default dialogue set. Note that the list is not complete and feel free to update it as necessary.
- Generic
- GenericArgonian
- GenericBreton
- GenericCurrentEvents
- GenericDarkElf
- GenericDremora
- GenericFodderCombat
- GenericHighElf
- GenericImperial
- GenericKhajiit
- GenericLore
- GenericNord
- GenericOrc
- GenericRedguard
- GenericWoodElf
- CRIME
- Vampire
- TGGrayCowlBlocker
- MQEndGame
- MQ00
- Disease
- MarkNDeleteMe (This is an interesting quest. I think it is left there accidently by the guys in Bethesda)
- DispositionBlocker
- FGConversations
- Dark00GeneralNPC
- MQInfoGeneral
- TGQuestTalk
- NQDWilderness
Note that the different quests account for the different aspects of the default dialogue set. For example, GenericNord only applies to the Nord NPCs. The Vampire quest will affect those who are vampires.
For the purposes of this tutorial, let us remove the ‘Generic’ quest, which accounts for the various greetings used by the NPC, from our custom NPC.
Open the quest window by clicking on the Character menu and choosing the Quests option (Character->Quests). Now on the left panel in the Quest window, click on ‘Generic’ under the EditorID section.
After you have done that, click on the ‘Quest Data’ tab on the right panel if it is not already selected. On the bottom, you would see a ‘Quest Conditions’ area. This is area where we are going to create our condition.
Right-click on an empty section of the ‘Quest Conditions’ area and click NEW. Now on the bottom, to the right of the ‘NEW’ button, open the dropdown list and choose ‘GetInFaction’. Click on the ‘Function Parameters’ button and choose ‘CustomCharacterFaction’. Make sure the ‘==’ sign is chosen on the Comparison dropdown list. Modify the value to ‘0.000’ and click on the ‘NEW’ button.
Basically, this creates a condition where the quest only applies to NPCs who are NOT part of the ‘CustomCharacterFaction’ faction. To verify it works as intended, open the ‘Dialogue’ window and look at the filtered dialogue for your character. The generic dialogue would not be in the GREETING topic anymore. Woohoo!
To remove the rest of the default dialogue, just modify the respective quest with the same condition as above.
Note:[edit | edit source]
As far as I am aware of, this is the only solution to removing the default dialogue. If you know a better solution, please update this page and let us all know.
This is the first article I have ever written for a wiki site. If you find that certain sections can be improved or made more user friendly, please feel free to do so. Constructive criticisms and help would be welcomed and appreciated.
I hope this tutorial helps you. Now get to work you ambitious modder!