Configurable Commentary Rate Slider

Skyrim LE Version

Very recently, I released a mod that makes Lydia an actually interesting character. An issue that a lot of people had with it, however, was that Lydia talked way too much in the earlier versions. To counter this problem, I made a SkyUI menu that allows the player to change the likeliness that Lydia will say something when the game permits her to.

There is a fundamental issue with this: What happens if despite setting that likeliness slider to a very low point, Lydia defies the odds and keeps saying idle lines at a high frequency? There was no hard stop against idle lines, just a decrease in likelihood.

To fix this, I've made a whole new mod that won't only work with Lydia, but every single character with randomized commentary. Mjoll the Lioness? Works for her. Erandur? Bandits who sing songs about frowning orcs and women as fair as springtime evenings on old Stros M'Kai? Works for them.

As far as other follower mods go, it should be noted that many follower mods use idle lines for quest progression or triggering random scenes (I've never used that methodology myself and haven't looked at the architecture of every mod). A lot of the bigger names use this methodology, from what I've been told, so you probably shouldn't use this mod alongside any major follower mod. If you ignore that and have problems with quest progression in a follower mod, try disabling this mod or dropping comment frequency way up (to lower numbers). Don't re-install the mod on a save where you uninstalled it.

Let me explain how this actually works. There are two factors that determine when characters will make a comment: The conditions attached to the line of dialogue itself, and two game settings, fIdleChatterCommentTimer and fIdleChatterCommentTimerMax. Dialogue conditions can rely on a whole manner of things, such as an NPC's equipment, their location, the player's progress in a quest, when the last time they said that line was, or even a simple percentage, which is how I made the configuration for the Lydia mod; changing the percent chance she'd say something. The two aforementioned game settings, however, are the minimum and maximum time after their previous comment that a character will make another, if the conditions for the dialogue are met. By default, these times are 10 and 20 seconds.

In simpler terms, every 10 to 20 seconds, the spirit of Todd Howard appears in your follower's head and secudes them into making a comment. Fleetwood Mac plays, the whole nine yards. Attached to each individual comment they could make are conditions to stop them from saying certain things at certain times, as well as a percentage that determines the likelihood of your follower falling victim to the immeasurable charm of Todd Howard and making their remark.

That happens every 10 to 20 seconds, further pro