#merrill mod

[sapphim]

Can anyone tell me if they've seen any of the following Merrill dialogue in the Climax?

"Make him fight the battle he has begun." (instead of "He should come with us. Do what he can to put things right.")

"These templars will kill everyone if we stand by and do nothing." (instead of "I know we can do this. I believe in you, Hawke.")

"As you wish. The die is cast." (instead of "Then… I won't abandon you. I owe you too much.")

"Are you mad? The templars won't be satisfied until we're all dead!" (instead of "You can't side with her! Please, I can't support this!" or "Please, don't do this. You must know in your heart this is wrong!")

"Let that be enough to clear your conscience, then." (instead of "And I'm defending everything I hold dear.")

These lines are attached to genpt_app_merrill flag 21 which, as far as I can find, isn't used anywhere outside of the climax (really common occurrence in the climax!) and, as far as I can find, wouldn't be set at any point. The genpt approval flags are standardized but indications are that they were also, initially, copied over directly from Origins, so many of them would have existed in the toolset but gone completely unused. Clearly someone thought this was an appropriate flag to use here but I have no idea what it was labeled when they selected it in the toolset. And this dialogue is set up in a way that is pretty unique to Merrill in the climax, so there's not really an analogue in other followers' dialogue I can compare it with. (The closest comparison I can attempt to draw is to Isabela who has a few lines of dialogue in the climax that are specific to a rivalmance? but I sure hope it's not that lmaoooo.)

I'm just wondering if this dialogue is currently accessible or not because it's possible that this flag is set at some point—even if it was never intended to be used—and I'm just overlooking where.

[sapphim]

so about fiveeeee years ago? I got this idea into my head that I could replace the unnamed hunter in Merrill's intro with Fenarel to restore some of this cut ambient dialogue about Mahariel and Tamlen which. did not work in the slightest. but just tonight it occurred to me that I could use anshela's new audio tutorial to fix the issue where ambient dialogue won't play in cutscenes, by copying those lines to a new soundbank 🥳 (sorry merrill)

Fenarel: Why are you doing this?

Merrill: Fenarel… I've explained before.

Fenarel: No, you haven't. You wring your hands and stammer and declare that nobody understands what you're doing.

Fenarel: You've spit on Tamlen's memory. On Mahariel's.

Fenarel: If you're wise, you'll stay far away from Merrill. No sane person would touch what she's taken up.

Bethany: So… this is awkward. Anyone else think this is awkward? How about we move along?

Fenarel: You can't bring her back, Merrill. Just accept it.

Merrill: Don't bury Mahariel yet! We don't know for certain…

Fenarel: Still lying to yourself… Just go.

Merrill: I… never mind. There's no use in discussing this.

Merrill: I have made my choice. And I will save our clan, whatever you think.

Hawke: Sundermount seems very… mountainous today, doesn't it? Lots of… rock. And hillside.

Merrill: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to— Let's go. We should hurry.

[sapphim]

Hey DAII enthusiasts, can you think of any points in the game where it's possible to lock yourself out of a romance and it maybe shouldn't be? I don't mean just bugs or mistakes but also points that are fully intentional but maybe a bit questionable. I've received a query about:

Getting locked out of pursuing Isabela's romance by agreeing to remain FWB rather than selecting the one dedicated "pursue romance" line

Getting locked out of pursuing Fenris's romance by telling Varric he broke up with you(? I'm not familiar with this one, but that particular conversation with Varric is messy as fuck and already on my to-do list as needing more attention than I've already given it.)

And I've personally taken issue in my last replay with

Getting locked out of Merrill's romance dialogue in the climax by failing to select the one single flirt in the conversation about what she should do with herself in the future

I can always skim the wiki for similar known issues (and probably will) but that's annoying and you guys are usually on the ball so: If I were going to post something that did a little bit of romance clean-up, what else should be on my radar?

[sapphim]

?????? so they patched merrill's great big follower conversation, and one of the changes that they made was to her romance dialogue in the climax. which is fine that's fair I know they had a lot of issues particularly with merrill and isabela flagging romances that should have been cut off earlier in the game.

but instead of changing the flag from merrill's "romance active" flag to like... something sensible like the "romance committed" or "romance confirmed" flag, they changed it so that her romance dialogue ONLY plays in the climax if you very specifically in her 100% approval conversation choose the "whatever you do next, we'll do together" option and NO OTHER OPTIONS. is that how they decided to fix this.

we have been COHABITATING for THREE YEARS but bc I wanted to be a good gf who encourages her to pursue her interests she's gonna blow me off right before we die huh I see how it is

(ok now that I know where I'm supposed to be looking I can see where the issues is documented on the wiki but BABES if I did not already know exactly where the problem was supposed to be, how on earth was I supposed to magically know where to find this information)

[sapphim]

I've been putting off and putting off and putting off tackling merrill's quests for the big dialogue overhaul mod because my aim for that mod is to add as much dialogue as possible and unfortunately all the dialogue in merrill's quests is people being mean to merrill and I can't, I just can't

[sapphim]

my stated goal of modding the party members to talk more frequently during conversations vs my personal desires for everyone to shut up and stop berating merrill: fight

[sapphim]

icb anders and merrill don’t get a makeout cam halfway thru act 3 like isabela and fenris do

finishing their Questioning Beliefs in act 3 felt so anticlimactic but I couldn’t place why exactly until hawke and isabela started macking in public

[sapphim]

I’ve wanted to add some of Merrill’s lines about the dalish that play in mhawke’s friendmance to fhawke’s for like two years now, and I’m finally ready to give it another shot. super duper rough cut! the hard part of futzing with cameras and animations comes later, but I’m pleased with what I’ve been able to cut together.