[MOD] SilenceYouAll - Skip chatter!

[pref]

Workshop link

Dropbox

Removes NPC & player audio communication that does not contain info for the player, such as chat from
Yisha (boarding as well),
Station and ship personnel,
Traders,
Ren in general

Tested on 4.0 beta.

For 4.0 'Menus' under game settings has to be set to HUD!
Under 3.61 the HUD Detail Monitor option has to be turned On, otherwise the skill and build related windows will not open!


Cutscenes related to HR duties are removed as well.
Main plot and smalltalk are not affected (intentionally at least).
In other cases (generic missions mainly) where the speech was kept UniTrader's approach is used from his UTFasterDialogue mod, which lets the player select the next conversation option without any delay.

Big thanks to UniTrader and strude for the help!
If i missed anything let me know!


Changelog:
* v1.14: 4.0 release update
* v1.1: Bugfix
* v1.0: Enable NPC comms during attack/protect
* v0.8: Disable farewell lines for generic missions, enable reputation dependent welcome on dock
* v0.7: Disable docking speech, shield reload sound
* v0.6: Disable NPC hire/fire/relocate cutscenes
* v0.5: Disable license trader and some superfluous trade comms
* v0.4: Enable more confirmations (from arhitect, traders), improve compatibility, fix log messages
* v0.3: Enable more informative comms (hired npc arrives, no drones etc)
* v0.2: Enable more betty and marine speech
* V0.1: Release


See below the discussion that led here..
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Is there a mod that allows skipping of or removes entirely the command related speech?
I wanted to try 4.0's new features, but all these forced dialogs infuriate me so much, i kinda ragequit after few 10 mins.

If there is no such mod, is there a way to do this manually somehow?
Find all voice files, and make a 1ms silence out of them or such?
Or might there be a scriptable solution?

[Ezarkal]

Ohhh, I second the motion!

I just can't figure some speech can't be skipped. It's infuriating. We should make this an official request for devs. After 300h of gameplay, you'd think they would have figured the player would be bored hearing: "Are you sure you want this model? Once we start building this ship, we have to complete it."
G-dammit! I just asked you to build it, shut it and get going!

[UniTrader]

its not that difficult to remove it, just write a diff file where all speak commands in the related md file are removed.. if you do it similiar to the Improved Dialogue Mod i did a while ago where i just added an attribute to all choices that they arent hidden when someone talks it can be done in about 30 minutes..

[pref]

Thanks!
Is this the one?
https://github.com/UniTrader/UTFasterDialogue

I see if i can unpack and find the files needed to change. Or does your mod include all files that need to be modified possibly?
Any pointers welcome

[UniTrader]

yep, thats the mod i meant.. it should already contain all files needed, but instead of the

Code: Select all

<add sel="(//add_npc_line)[*]" type="@hidechoices">false</add>

you need many

Code: Select all

<remove sel="(//add_npc_line)" />

and also the amount of them may differ since the number of choices in an md file does not match the number of spoken lines. and the number in square brackets also does not change because when you remove the first node the previously second one is the new first - you just need enough remove actions to get them all (but not too many because this spams the debuglog on startup)[/code]

[pref]

Thanks again!
Do you know how to decide how many of the remove lines are needed?
This will not keep the delay without audio right?
Do i just need to remove all <add_npc_line /> from under every cue/action?

Which cat file(s) i need to unpack to see the originals? Does cat08 hold all md scripts relevant?

Sounds like something to be done with xquery relatively easily..?

Perhaps any way to keep up subtitles for a few secs even without audio?

lots of edits..

[UniTrader]

Do you know how to decide how many of the remove lines are needed?

as many as the command you want to remove is in the related file.. a search with NPP through the whole MD folder should give the exact count for all files

This will not keep the delay without audio right?

this removes the command to play any audio so there shouldnt be any delay

Which cat file(s) i need to unpack to see the originals?

not sure, i usually have all of them unpacked in a single folder so i dont have to worry about that..but its the same as with previous games: latest file is in the cat/dat with the highest number
if you want to extract them all here a handy batch file:

Code: Select all

mkdir "..\X Rebirth\XR_extracted"
XRcatTool.exe -in "..\X Rebirth\01.cat" "..\X Rebirth\02.cat" "..\X Rebirth\03.cat" "..\X Rebirth\04.cat" "..\X Rebirth\05.cat" "..\X Rebirth\06.cat" "..\X Rebirth\07.cat" "..\X Rebirth\08.cat" "..\X Rebirth\09.cat" "..\X Rebirth\10.cat" -out "..\X Rebirth\XR_extracted"

place it in the same folder as the XRcatTool.exe and execute it - after about 15 minutes you will find a folder containing all extracted files in their current Version

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Ohhh, I second the motion!

I just can't figure some speech can't be skipped. It's infuriating. We should make this an official request for devs. After 300h of gameplay, you'd think they would have figured the player would be bored hearing: "Are you sure you want this model? Once we start building this ship, we have to complete it."
G-dammit! I just asked you to build it, shut it and get going!

Although much speech cannot be skipped in vanilla, there are a few ways it can be minimised. There's a list on the Wiki we can add to if other tips are known:

https://www.egosoft.com:8444/confluence ... +life+tips

[pref]

Sorry for the late edits, i repeat it maybe someone can confirm/give an idea:

Do i just need to remove all <add_npc_line /> from under every cue/action?

Perhaps any way to keep up subtitles for a few secs even without audio?
This would mean it can act as a proper mod, does not hide vital info from the player (not sure how easy it would be to follow the game without any speech).

[pref]

Anyway it seems strange, control is not blocked but the audio still plays in the background. Isnt that the same thing your mod did, UniTrader?

For ex. i added md/AssignToCommander.xml as

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<diff>
<remove sel="(//add_npc_line)" /> {14 times as there are 14 occurrances}
</diff>

Also tried it without brackets too, like: '..sel="//add_npc_line"..'
same result. Is there a way to check how the result xml looks like after the diffs are applied?

[Ezarkal]

Just preventing control lock would already be a good improvement.

Thank you for looking into this. Let us know if a mod comes out of it.

[UniTrader]

Anyway it seems strange, control is not blocked but the audio still plays in the background. Isnt that the same thing your mod did, UniTrader?

For ex. i added md/AssignToCommander.xml as

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<diff>
<remove sel="(//add_npc_line)" /> {14 times as there are 14 occurrances}
</diff>

Also tried it without brackets too, like: '..sel="//add_npc_line"..'
same result. Is there a way to check how the result xml looks like after the diffs are applied?

oops, sorry, made a mistake.. it should be
<remove sel="(//add_npc_line)[1]" />

and there is a tool somewhere in the internet which applies the diff files to xmls but i forgot where i found it.. if you use linux you may find it in a package which is named xml-patch(-tools) or xml-diff(-tools) or something like this, for windows i havent found a pre-compiled version yet (although i have one somewhere on my disk i think, but no idea where exactly)


and if you want subtitles with no voice the aforementoined method of an empty audio file might work - the method i suggested removes the speech completely.. for this you have to pack multiple copies of the file in a subst_01.cat/dat with the same name and path as the Voice Files you want to mute (but the delay might stay to display the subtitles, not sure because not tested so far)

[pref]

Million thanks Uni!
Yeah, had to keep the order# - and reverse it ofc.. <3 xquery, i can generate the mod with it
I spent hours searching for a diffpatch tool, only found linux ones... i wanted a VM anyway, at least i have one now.

Its done more or less, if you don't mind i keep some of the dialogs your way (voiced with delay, but control kept with player). I thought mission related chatter would be better this way. I also kept the computer messages (no room for passenger etc).
Let me know if i should remove anything.

@Ezarkal: Seems to work, try it if you have the time - not sure i did not remove any text that should have stayed or the other way around.
Due to the annoyance factor i might have overreacted.
So far it seems ok without speech, usually its obvious whats going on without it anyway.
For ex you dont get any feedback if hiring an NPC who cannot be hired (manager of the station in question for ex). In this case the comm just ends - as no other outcomes have the same result during the conversation i think it's ok (more or less). Subtitles without delay would be nice in some cases, not sure if its worth the effort yet though.

Tried to upload to steam workshop, but did not work out - steam cant connect to itself. Hope dropbox will do...
SilenceYouAll

Edit: OK, steam did finish the upload, should work via workshop.
Did a quick update to add more betty (scanner modes) and marine banter.. left smalltalk for now, not sure if i should kill those lines as well.. probably yes

[strude]

Hey pref.

I've done some work on this. Swing between releasing what I've done, and realising there are so many more thing that I can't be bothered removing.

Here's a link to my files

Google Drive Link

Hopefully you can access that OK. Don't know how that compares to what you have already done, but feel free to take whatever I've already done for your mod. I've added lots of comments so you should be able to figure out what I'm removing at each point. It's mostly just something I was playing with for myself, so missions are really only the missions I generally do while playing.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask or PM if you prefer.

[pref]

Thanks strude!
You need to grant some permission i guess - cant access it from the link.
What did you change? Or if it should all be obvious from comments, ill just wait until you can share it.

[strude]

hmmm, OK try this link

A good amount of changes, just as I came across things that annoyed me in game.

Conversations.xml for general greetings and goodbyes and the captain comment when opening the trades menu

gm_*.xml for mission offer chatter for missions types I commonly do. You should be able to know what mission types from the file name

npc_*.xml for general conversation chatter with specific npc types. Some npc_*.xml files include removing the cut scene that plays when crew enter or exit the skunk. Can probably use similar to remove cut scenes for mission files too.

notificiations.xml for docking chatter and sending new coords to squad on zone change.

mainmenu.xml for show skills variants and scanner modes. I didn't completely remove scanner modes chatter, but reduced it a lot, mostly by removing Yisha's chatter but keeping Betty's.

Maybe you've covered all that already.

[pref]

Thanks this works.

I kept the generic mission speech because i rarely play those, and have no idea if they have any necessary info for the player (still they can be skipped by selecting the next option).

Are those all safe to remove entirely, without holding back info from the player? Or did you keep the rest because those are needed?
Kept smalltalk for similar reasons - i never do it, and i guess the people who do probably like the audio that comes with it.

I see you hide audio based on line IDs - is that safe between patches for XR?
Maybe i should do it the same way to have more flexibility for the future XR updates...

Edit: I removed almost everything from conversations.xml for ex. 40 lines in total. Was there something useful? none of the lines seemed to contain much useful info except for 2 (in 'Speech' cue, these are supposed to be started by the NPC).
I wrote an xquery script that can generate the mod code, so its not an issue to include more entries or add exceptions, if the conditions are clear.

[Ezarkal]

Thanks for putting this together. I'll try it as soon as I can (not likely until friday evening, sadly) and give feedback.

[pref]

@Ezarkal: Sweet, let me know!
So far i can play much more fluently like this, these constant few sec delays unnerved me so much.
No important info seems to be missing, but ill fix any issues if there is feedback - i can't really check all aspects of the game unfortunately.

@any modder: please let me know whats the safest way to diffpatch out these <add_npc_line/> commands to stay as compatible as possible!
Thanks for any info regarding this. Currently i do this based on occurrance order which might not be so great..?

[YorrickVander]

couple of errors in the log at startup :

Code: Select all

[General] ======================================
[=ERROR=] Cannot match path '(//add_npc_line)[6]' in patch file 'extensions\silenceyouall\md\gm_assassination_v2.xml'. Skipping node.
[General] ======================================
[General] ======================================
[=ERROR=] Error loading MD file extensions\silenceyouall\md\notifications.xml.xml: Ignoring root node 'diff' in XML file 'extensions\silenceyouall\md\notifications.xml.xml'.
[General] ======================================

running 4.0 b2