Tes4Mod:Mod Ideas/Sound and Music

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This article provides Sound and Music ideas, as part of the Content section of the Mod Ideas article.

Contents 1 Voices 2 More dialogue options 3 Rumors are not Commercials 4 Music 5 Custom Music

[edit] Voices

There should be more voices. It's like all of the people of the same gender and race sound the exact same. And with certain races (IE beast races) you would expect a certain sounding voice but get something more generic (a few Kajiits and Argonians really strike me as individual and exotic, but others are just blah).

• Please note that the chances of voice replacement mods seeing the light of day are near zero (sound effect replacements are workable). I'd love to be proven wrong, but the amount of work involved in (re-)recording voices is ginormous (not the least of which is finding good amateur voice actors with good recording equipment). I fully agree that Bethesda's work in this area is so-so at best. For example, listen to a beggar feebly whining for coins in a fake accent, then chat that same beggar up and ask for rumors—the beggar will reply like any other commoner, sounding a whole lot less pitiful in the process. At least the voice still matches...
• Although the repetition overall is quite noticeable, this is not really any worse than seeing the same fort/dungeon/church over and over again (then again, that could be improved too).
• Side note: it's not just the same voices over and over again, it's the same dialogue over and over again (everyone says the same things about the Gray Fox, the emperor's assassination, etc.) See [1] for an opinion piece on that.

[edit] More dialogue options

and real consequences to choosing the wrong one. It should be extremely rare that there's only one choice of what to say in a conversation. Most of the conversations feel pretty one-sided.

• Enhanced Roleplay is the the mod for you!

[edit] Rumors are not Commercials

If I hear once more I should join the fighters guild 'cause it's such a fine job, somebody's going to die. There are definitely too many generic rumors.

• Agreed, In some of the loading screens it tells you that rumors can lead you to treasure,

but like 1% of my quests and 'treasure finds' are actually attributed to asking about rumors, I'd like to see more useful rumors, or maybe even some gossip. I liked the option in Morrowind to learn about services, That could easily replace the "The Fighter's Guild is hiring" rumor.

• Oblivion also falls prey to the "every rumor you ever hear is 100% true" RPG cliché,

There are never half-truths, surprises or just plain red herrings in the folk lore; everyone's knowledge perfectly reflects the game state, This, combined with the incredibly generic and repetitive nature of them, means you soon stop bothering to ask for rumors, They might as well have used a town crier for them.

• • Morrowind also fall prey to that, not sure about Daggerfall but Arena did NOT (NPC's would say things like "My *some type of psychic* says Sumerset isle will flood over within the year", *insert cities ruler here* is an impostor, I don't have any proof but you must believe me,

and other non true rumors.

• • • There are actually untrue rumors, but they are few and far between,

The only one that comes to mind is that Amantius Allectus was killed in a burglary if you don't kill him, although there is speculation over whether or not this rumor was intentional.

• • • • I agree, I've only come across a couple false rumors, the one that comes to mind however is when I heard a rumor that "shady things" were going on in The Oak and Crosier in Chorrol,

I picked the lock to The Oak and Crosier basement and the dungeon exploration music came on - however, I didn't notice anything unusual, Perhaps this was supposed to be a quest that was removed in the final version and they overlooked the rumor trigger?

[edit] Music

The regular music in Oblivion is decent. Nothing spectacular. There are a ton of fan-made compilations that add to the mix. However... It would be very nice if there were a few more cues for songs than 'Battle', 'Dungeon', 'Explore', and 'Public'. Especially different weather types, night/day, and elevation, and different combinations of these. This would make things a lot more atmospheric if you have as much music available as I do - the stuff included in the game seems purposefully vague, because the same piece may be played when raining at night in Blackwood, or during clear skies at day in the mountains.

• A nice tweak would be to have battle music starts when the battle actually begins rather than when you are spotted by the creature. It would add a nice effect of surprise, and could be very nice combined with other mods (with not so aggressive crabs, for example).
• I think there should be a different song for each city. Bruma is not nearly the same sort of place as Imperial City, and neither is Cheydinhal. A change in the music would be good for the spirit of the different towns.

[edit] Custom Music

Being able to use Music that is on your Xbox 360/PC/PS3 Hard-drive would rock. Adding a new thing in Options would give you the opportunity to use your own music. I mean, you could customize it completely... Like, for battle, something fast and upbeat, or something loud, and for exploring, maybe something quite quiet and calm? Or just have a playlist that is like background music, but doesn't get interrupted when a battle starts. This'll make monsters or Bandits/Marauders more fun, as they could properly ambush you without you knowing they were there unless you saw them or they attack you.

• Can't you just rename a song "Atmosphere_01" or whatever and put it in the oblivion folder?
  • Not if you have the 360 or PS3 version.
• You can have an uninterrupted playlist playing, although my music doesn't fit the game.
• If you have music saved to your hard-drive, at least on the Xbox 360, then you can press the Xbox button while playing, press the music tab, and choose the music you want to play, but it is a little time-consuming, and I find that it drowns out some of the other sounds, like people talking, but is that really a bad thing?

• If you don't like the original Oblivion music, you can remove the default music files from :
  C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\Music
  Once removed, you can add your own music into the folders already there. Don't replace anything in the "Special" folder, as it doesn't seem to have any effect, also you can add as many mp3 files in the folders as you like, they all get played, in no particular order.
• Composing more dramatic/fitting music would be very appreciated to most PC users.

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