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The Official “Ask the lead writer of SS2 anything” Thread!

OscarN1N7 said:
Just curious about the actors' involvement in writing, if any. Did they have much or any room to improv their lines? Did you re-write anything after an actor had been cast to better suit their voice? Similarly, did any of them have any ideas that you decided to write in? And, lastly, (I know this isn't strictly a writing quesiton but maybe you know) were the character designs locked before the actors came onboard, or did any of them change to fit the actors?
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So usually what happens is, I write the scripts, create the characters, decide what I want them to look like and then either create the faces myself, or write a description, find reference images, then hand the task off to someone with more talent. I believe a fair number of main quest faces not made by me were created by VaultGirl. (Someone correct me if wrong)

Some NPC face examples...
Jake: VaultGirl (beta version by me)
Mansfield: VaultGirl
The Ron: Tweaked by Me (but inherited from an old first draft)
Algernon: Me
Berman: Me
Hubert: Me
Stodge: Me
Cassandra: VaultGirl
Lupe: Me
Wise: Me
Theresa: Me

Usually if I'm struggling with a face, I'll hand it off to someone who's better at making them.

Then once we have a script and a face, these will be handed over to Khobis (our voice director) who'll find a VA with a voice that matches. Most VA's will read the scripts as is, but we do encourage improvs, and sometimes an improved line will make it in instead of the original! But for the main quest, I've never had to rewrite anything post VA being cast. Khobis has always done a great job at finding the right voice pretty much right away!

I don't believe any major character traits have been created from our VA's, but for some I have found it easier to write for their character after hearing their voice. Theresa (Kemi Haydee Stanton) and Berman (Jeff Wong) come to mind. Their VA's give such good performances, I hear them in my head clear as day as I write for those characters. And of course, Tom Schalk who voices Jake nails how I want the lines read so well, I could swear he was cheating somehow.

Off the top of my head, I only recall one face being changed post casting of VA, and that was for Ellis from the Nightingales quest-line. His original face looked a bit too old I think, so I was asked to age it down.

So, to try and sum things up!
1. What's the actors' involvement in writing?
None really, but I am inspired by their performances.

2. Did they have much or any room to improv their lines?
They do, and we sometimes use improved lines. But they'll always give us a take of how it's written on the page as well, allowing us to pick which we like best.

3. Did you re-write anything after an actor had been cast to better suit their voice?
Nope! But we have had VA's re-record to better get the voice we want. (Ungaged Elk was kind enough to do this for all of Mansfield's Chapter 1 lines)

4. Did any of them have any ideas that you decided to write in?
A few odd lines, mostly swearing and curse words funnily enough...

5. Were the character designs locked before the actors came onboard, or did any of them change to fit the actors?
Usually locked in, but there has been at least one exception to that.
 
Skywise001 said:
Im curious if we can know whats up with the Hub/Olivia Station/The note in the station? Was it a plot thread that got dropped? For the first time I got the dialog from Jake in VT HQ about how we wont ever know and I admit it fired my curiosity. :)
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Stay tuned for C3.
 
Antoine Soverie said:
Chapter 3 is chilling in New Vegas with Magnusson and House confirmed
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no Magnusson is a special agent that was sent to earth from the enclave on mars and we have to build a rocket to travel to mars to start a guerilla movement supported by ASAMs to fight the dictatorship enclave mars government that has enslaved the humans and the zetas
 
This line of Cassandra's.
Who is she talking about? (as the screenshot shows, we're in HQ right now - I want to assume she's talking about Jake, but... a lot of those kinds of lines still have funky triggers; Circe gave her "settlement doesnt have enough Water" line at me while the Nightingales were still in their initial little house near DiamondCity)
 

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yaugie said:
This line of Cassandra's.
Who is she talking about? (as the screenshot shows, we're in HQ right now - I want to assume she's talking about Jake, but... a lot of those kinds of lines still have funky triggers; Circe gave her "settlement doesnt have enough Water" line at me while the Nightingales were still in their initial little house near DiamondCity)
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I've heard that line before and I'm pretty sure she's talking about Ellis.
 
yaugie said:
This line of Cassandra's.
Who is she talking about? (as the screenshot shows, we're in HQ right now - I want to assume she's talking about Jake, but... a lot of those kinds of lines still have funky triggers; Circe gave her "settlement doesnt have enough Water" line at me while the Nightingales were still in their initial little house near DiamondCity)
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Its her student Ellis.
Ive also had Cedric complain about radroaches getting into his office while he is hanging out in the Security office in Vault 81.
 
Here's another question I just randomly thought of: How would the HQ heads react to the Sole Survivor building the molecular relay? (I feel like I would know how Jake and Lupe would respond, but not sure how the others would)
 
It just came to me that we could use HQ to build the relay. Would be the perfect thing. Definitely way way better than a junkie in a church or some guy with a hammer.Or even BoS since they just give us a rundown airport. With all this power and science staff it wouldn't even fall apart as we use it!
(also some lines from everyone about how we infiltrated the institute/move up in ranks/etc would hypothetically be awesome)
sendhelporcaffeine said:
Here's another question I just randomly thought of: How would the HQ heads react to the Sole Survivor building the molecular relay? (I feel like I would know how Jake and Lupe would respond, but not sure how the others would)
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Antoine Soverie said:
It just came to me that we could use HQ to build the relay. Would be the perfect thing. Definitely way way better than a junkie in a church or some guy with a hammer.Or even BoS since they just give us a rundown airport. With all this power and science staff it wouldn't even fall apart as we use it!
(also some lines from everyone about how we infiltrated the institute/move up in ranks/etc would hypothetically be awesome)
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That would be so cool! I wanna build the reactor with Jake and co now!
 
New idea for a fanfic: Jake getting all sad and lonely and jelly cause player stuck in the institute instead of HQ :/ maybe sneaking in there too, maybe killing a courser for it..
But yeah, i just did the molecular relay thing (again..) and I'd roll back just for that. Even if it's just wishful thinking
 
Antoine Soverie said:
New idea for a fanfic: Jake getting all sad and lonely and jelly cause player stuck in the institute instead of HQ :/ maybe sneaking in there too, maybe killing a courser for it..
But yeah, i just did the molecular relay thing (again..) and I'd roll back just for that. Even if it's just wishful thinking
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Dang it man I already have so many story ideas floating around in my head LOL. I'll add this to the list.
Honestly I'd do the same thing, just to be able to build it with him.
 
sendhelporcaffeine said:
Honestly I'd do the same thing, just to be able to build it with him.
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cue RDR house building music
I can totally see us exchanging technology with the Institute... then replacing Maxson with a synth if he gets too cocky and wants to destroy any of it... Most of HQ would probably disagree with those methods but, what else is there to do? Blowing up an airship seems excessive.

edit: now that I'm thinking about it, Theresa would probably be fine with blowing it up. Or at least the robot. Maybe with a false alarm from Lupe so not everyone dies. Mansfield would try and talk it out nicely, to no avail. Cassandra would stay impartial I guess, since there's no talking and she's not exactly into violence. Aiden would maybe capture and torture him till he agrees to leave the tech alone? Though that's not really his style, someone like Caleb Saunders would fit the torture department better.
 
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Antoine Soverie said:
cue RDR house building music
I can totally see us exchanging technology with the Institute... then replacing Maxson with a synth if he gets too cocky and wants to destroy any of it... Most of HQ would probably disagree with those methods but, what else is there to do? Blowing up an airship seems excessive.
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Just imagine the stuff that could happen if we took over the Institute and had a partnership going on with them and the HQ.
 
Sirick said:
I'll be keeping you in suspense.
BUT! I will say, my goal is to have other NPC's to romance (if not on release, then in post patches), and Jake to give you some more love.
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Always saw Aiden as an option given how many missions he's apart of, but maybe that's because I know it's the same voice actor from that skyrim romance mod LOL
 
Sirick said:
You'll have to wait for Chapter 3...
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In reference to this (the griffyn and Salvador question), is there a reasonable amount of concealed information about who/maybe what is in Chapter 3? (i.e. Information available to the player through specific action like Algernon's note via pickpocket, the Ron's Dossier, etc)
 
Personally, I'd love to know the ages (age ranges?) of the rest of the Nightengale crew. we get general things like Ellis being the youngest, but like how young? I imagine not too terribly young/inexperienced if Cassandra is fine with leaving him to operate without her.... in the same train of thought, How are we imagining medical training going in the fo4 world?
 
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