Changelog For the Latest Content Update (4.2)

Version 4.1.0.0

[Content Additions]

• Rewrites

  • NPC Banter Conversations Revamped: I've revamped and expanded dialogues for a range of characters, including (but not limited to): Belethor, Carlotta, Grelka, Gunmar, Sorine, Lisette, Ysolda, Camilla, Delphine, Elisif, Jarl Balgruuf, Maven, Mikael, Mjoll, Nazeem, Taarie, and Talen-Jei.

    • Deep Dive into Character Arcs: Carlotta, Sorine, Ysolda, and Elisif stand out with the most expansive rewrites and additions. Dive into enriched conversation stories and watch their relationships with Serana evolve. Experience both scripted dialogues—packed with intricate character arcs—and radiant conversations showcasing enhanced character nuances.

    • Minor Edits and Tweaks: The other NPCs in the list have gotten minor edits and rewrites, remaining mostly the same. They might be revisited in the future though, depending on how I feel with possible character arcs and possible explored story possibilities.

• Feature Improvements and Expansions

  • Reciprocal Training: Elevate Serana's combat prowess by training her in specific skills—namely Block, Archery, Heavy Armor, Two-Handed, and Sneak—as long as you've mastered them (at least level 40). Remember, these are practical, NPC-applicable skills; so, no Blacksmithing! Wondering about Alchemy, Speech, Conjuration, Destruction, or Light Armor? Serana's got those covered; she's already a pro!

  • You can also train Serana in skills she's already knowledgeable in (like magecraft), considering your skills are a high enough level yourself (again, at least level 40)

    • Just as Serana has coached you before, now it's your turn! Gear up for engaging training sessions with her every 24 hours.

  • Gift-giving with a Twist!: Ever wondered what Serana thinks about certain items? Present her with specific treasures, trinkets, or even seemingly mundane objects and enjoy her exclusive reactions! Whether they're of "importance", bring a chuckle, or are simply her favorites, these items are sure to spark a response. Here's a breakdown:

Epic Artifacts:

- Dawnbreaker

- Harkon's Sword

Must-Reads:

- Herbalist's Guide to Skyrim

- Lusty Argonian Maid

- Argonian Maid Vol. 2

- The Real Barenziah

Food & Drinks She'll Relish:

- Sweet Roll

- Colovian Brandy

Random Items (For a Good Laugh!):

- Ingots (Any type)

- Ore (Any kind)

- Tankard

- Iron Dagger

- Wooden Sword

- Shovel

- Bread

Classic Reactions:

She'll continue to react to her previous favorites, especially general alcohol, fauna, and items of high or low value.

Gift Serana something from this list and revel in her unique reactions. It's all about the little moments, after all!

• Vampire Blood Potion (if the player is a vampire) and Colovian Brandy choices added to Drinking Buddies. More responses for Velvet LaChance and Cliff Racer Drinks.

• New Radiant Dialogue

  • New radiant dialogue added (Hello Greets, Goodbyes, Trading, Wait Dialogue). Nearly 50 lines, so Serana should feel much more alive and less repetitive now!

• Users will now be able to set Serana's Radiant Hello frequency from three presets (Less Frequent, Medium Frequency, and High Frequency)

• New In-Game Items

  • New books and research (that Serana can comment on) connected to my upcoming Ashe - Fire and Blood follower mod will be added to the overworld. When Ashe is released, these books will be deleted or replaced via a compatibility patch for the Ashe mod's new versions.

    • Player gets a speech skill boost after reading the research notes. Other than 'Speech', there isn't any other skill in the game that encompasses general scholarly knowledge, hence why I've chosen speechcraft as the skill being leveled up when you read Aryo's notes. Why a skill increase in the first place? Give the player a gameplay reason to actually read them and talk to Serana about it.

• Expanded Hearthfires Awareness

  • More Hearthfire Home Awareness

    • This includes new 'Clicked Hello' commentary for vanilla Hearthfire abodes, when inside said home. Dialogue should be more varied, natural, and immersive!

  • Basic Adoption Awareness

    • Done through conversations with Serana before and after adoption, depicting an adoption character arc for her. The conversation is in-depth and gives the player a chance to role play, with different conversation outcomes depending on the stage of the player's relationship with Serana, current events, and their answers to Serana's questions. There are no actual child interactions currently - the actual children interactions themselves will be added in a later update.

• Awareness for Modded Homes. With the following player homes in the list, Serana will be able to comment on them through radiant hello dialogue, and you will also be able to ask you "What do you think of this place" locations for each home. The homes are intelligently checked in your load order, without needing a patch plugin ESP.

  • Underground Spa - a Ayleid Spa Playerhome

  • Leaf Rest

  • Autumngate

  • Mirele Basmath Reborn

• Compatibility and Awareness Patches

  • Awareness Patch for Varietea Mod (Built into the mod)

    • Users can now select different kinds of tea as an option during Drinking Buddies

  • Awareness Patch for Sweets and Such, through gift-giving awareness. Serana will now comment on being given various sweets!

• New Batch of Custom Names + Conversations

• Custom Names integration during Dawnguard and quest commentary

[Bugfixes/Improvements]

• Improvements to the code of SDA's check of external mods. This may help fix follower detection on LE, and offer general backend improvements on all platforms as a whole.

• Add College of Winterhold conditions to Serana Ancano opinion dialogue. It didn't make sense that she could comment about Ancano despite never visiting the college.

• One of the nicknames (Swims) had Serana say the "Swims" name properly, followed by a lot of other names. This was because the audio file was not edited properly.

• Fixed bug with Twilight Princess Armor commentary - Serana did not say one of the lines properly for the non-romantic option, and the conversation was infinitely repeatable (it shouldn't be).

• In line with the NPC Banter Rewrites, the entire backend of the NPC Banter for the mod has been overhauled, improving efficiency and overall coding practices.

• Added Random End flags to NPC Banter dialogue where necessary. Without this (due to a Bethesda game engine limitation) sometimes random dialogues/scenes get stuck in a repeated loop.

• Removed redundant dialogue conditions, freeing up engine resources.

• Reworked Training Dialogue Script, making it more robust and versatile in place for the new Reciprocal Training additions.

• Lessened frequency of Serana's "I'm a sorceress" line by 75%

• Adjusted and fixed cooldowns for Clicked Hello lines which were supposed to have cooldowns of 24 hours, but didn't (instead having cooldowns of 0.5 hours) quite repetitive.

• Reduced cooldown for some radiant hellos by a decent margin. Some of them had cooldowns way too long which means they got buried by other more repetitive lines. The whole point of the radiant dialogue is that its supposed to be varied and not repetitive. Not possible if Serana is saying the same thing over and over again.

• Added quest journal objectives for Serana Valerica conversation (post-Dawnguard)

• Removed "Tamriel" location condition for Serana sleep dialogue to increase compatibility with other mods.

• "(Fail Quest)" added to one of Serana's HoH quest dialogue, that actually lets you fail the quest.

• Added two-day skill cooldown for all skill complement dialogue, both old and new ones (added in 4.1). Don't want Serana to be a sycophant here!

• Optimized various dialogue conditions, like by removing the SDA_AlternateVoice condition. SDA has been fully revoiced by Kerstyn so it doesn't make sense to have this setting there that was there from the old voice toggle days.