Inconsequential NPCs
Adds NPCs and dialogue scenes to Skyrim to enhance the social ambiance of the game, all voiced. Aims to be unintrusive in implementation to maximize compatibility with large load orders.
Do you chat with everyone you see on the public transit? Make inquiries into the name and profession of whoever you meet on the street? Why is it that almost every unique NPC in Skyrim is willing to stop everything they are doing just to waste precious time answering the Dragonborn’s stupid questions when they probably have better things to do and more important places to be. For that matter, where are all the people in Skyrim? Why does the entire country have less population than your local pub on a Saturday night?
‘Inconsequential NPCs’ aims to add more NPCs to Skyrim in unintrusive ways that will allow them to blend immersively into the social fabric of the land. Most of the ‘Inconsequential NPCs’ do not care if your character is the Dragonborn. They don’t really want to talk to you (but they are all voiced), so most of them won’t have much to say to you (and those that do, will generally not have nice things to say). They won’t ask you to ‘deliver this…’ or ‘fetch that…’, and they won’t tell you their life stories because they just don’t want to get to know you. There is no way for you to improve your relationship with them, because you are as inconsequential to them as they are to you. They are not going to drop everything they are doing to become your followers (…at least, not for free). They are so unimpressed by you that the thought of marriage is completely ridiculous to them. All they want is to go about their business and cope with the daily grind.
But these are not just completely ‘random’ NPCs. They are all ‘unique’ and are intended to fill ‘gaps’ in the the various social environments of Skyrim. How often have you entered a particular location in Skyrim, expecting to find certain ‘types’ of people loitering in that area, only to be greeted by merely a couple of NPCs or an empty room? Just as lighting mods aim to subtly enhance the ‘visual ambiance’ of the game, ‘Inconsequential NPCs’ aims to enhance the ‘social ambiance.’ Permit me to explain by way of examples….
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New in 1.9
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Under the rule of Ulfric Stormcloak, Argonians and Khajiits are prohibited inside the walls of Windhelm. But apparently, the guards don’t give a crap, they would rather hunt you down like a skeever for killing a farm animal. With ‘Inconsequential NPCs’, there is now a guard at each of Windhelm’s gates who will actually enforce the law. You will be harassed by the gate guard upon entry to the city. If you are an Argonian or Khajiit, you will be promptly informed of the law, and the gate guard will attempt to escort you outside of the city. Everyone else will be given a race-specific warning to let you know just how much the Stormcloaks appreciate the presence of foreigners in Windhelm–except Nords, who will be able to come and go freely. This is not madness–this is Windhelm!
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Optional Enhancement Module
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The optional ‘Enhancement Patch’ assigns gears from ‘Immersive Armor’ and (the full version of) ‘Winter is Coming’ to some InconNPCs. In order to use the ‘Enhancement Patch’, you -MUST- have both ‘Immersive Armor’ -AND- ‘Winter is Coming’ installed. I will not be doing modular patches, because the changes edit the same record type (which means I would need to maintain 3 different versions). Plugins should be loaded in this order:
1nivWICCloaks
hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
Inconsequential NPCs.esp
Inconsequential NPCs – Enhancement.esp
‘Work Around’ if you are using alternative versions of ‘Winter is Coming’ like ‘no guards’ or ‘no imperial’: rename your alternative, ‘no guard’ or ‘no imperials’ WiC plugin to ‘1nivWICCloaks.esp’ (without the quotes). The InconNPCs Enhancement Module will then detect your alternative WiC plugin as if it was the ‘full version.’
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The Inconsequential NPCS – Cutting Room Floor Patch
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Both InconNPCs and CRF ‘fixes’ the empty Thalmor HQ building in Solitude. InconNPCs adds 2 Thalmor justiciars in plain cloth guise, who moves about the city and has some dialogue scenes with the city’s inhabitants. It also adds 2 Thalmor guards to stand guard in front of the Thalmor HQ entrance. I also replaced the Solitude banners in the HQ building with Thalmor banners. CRF adds some respawning Thalmor soldiers and justiciars to the building, and also replaced the banners in the HQ builds with Thalmor banners. The InconNPCs changes to the Thalmor HQ were made a few months before CRF was released (otherwise, I don’t think I would have bothered).
In CRF, if the Stormcloaks win the Civil War, the Thalmor soldiers added by CRF will be automatically disabled, and Stormcloak guards will spawn inside the building instead. In InconNPCs, if the Stormcloaks win the Civil War, the Thalmor justiciars and sentries I added will retreat into the building and hole up there (the justiciars will no longer move about the city to intimidate people). If you visit the building after the Stormcloaks win the Civil War (with the aid of the Dragonborn), this is what will happen:
What the InconNPCs – CRF patch does is to disable the changes made by CRF to the Thalmor HQ setup, and revert those changes back to vanilla/USKP state. So you won’t have any of the respawning Thalmor/Stormcloaks from CRF, and you won’t have duplicate banners. Instead, you’ll just see the changes from InconNPCs.
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Compatibility
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I am a fan of Kris Takahashi’s ‘Interesting NPCs.’ One of my aims is to make this mod complement ‘Interesting NPCs.’ So before anyone asks, this mod is fully compatible with ‘Interesting NPCs.’ It’s also compatible with -random- city NPC spawn’ mods like ‘Populated Cities.’ This mod should be compatible with mods that adds NPCs and spawns to the wilderness, such as ‘Immersive Patrols.’
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Installation, Updating, Uninstallation Instructions
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Installation:
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I recommend you use a mod manager like NMM or the Mod Organizer to install mods. If installing manually, extract the archive contents into ‘…/data/’.
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Updating:
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1) Dismiss any hirelings from this mod that you have recruited.
2) Go into an interior cell with no NPCs, and make a new save game.
3) Uninstall the old version of the mod using the mod manager you installed it with. If uninstalling manually, delete ‘Inconsequential NPCs.esp’ and ‘Inconsequential NPCs.bsa’ from ‘…/data/’.
4) Install the new version of the mod.
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UnInstallation:
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1) Dismiss any hirelings from this mod that you have recruited.
2) If you have recently procured the…’services’ of a ‘flower girl’ or a ‘skooma addict’, wait for the ‘Relaxed’ effect to wear off (it lasts one in-game hour, check your character’s ‘active effects’ tab).
3) Make a new save game in an interior cell with no NPCs.
4) Uninstall using the same mod manager you installed it with. If uninstalling manually, delete ‘Inconsequential NPCs.esp’ and ‘Inconsequential NPCs.bsa’ from ‘…/data/’. That’s it.
