Courier Descriptions 1.3.0 (Skyrim 1.7.104, SkyrimNet beta 29)

A compatibility release: the courier now works on Skyrim 1.7.104 and on SkyrimNet Beta 29. Nothing about his line, the writing or the timing has changed — if you're on an older game and an older SkyrimNet, there's nothing new here for you.

✨ New

• 🆕 Works on Skyrim 1.7.104. Earlier builds couldn't load on it at all. Still one download for SE 1.5.97, AE 1.6.x, 1.7.104 and VR — there's no version to pick.
• 🎙️ Works on SkyrimNet Beta 29, which rebuilt how it voices silent NPCs.
• 🤝 Dragonborn Voice Over is no longer needed. On Beta 25–28 SkyrimNet spoke these lines through DBVO, so you had to have it installed. Beta 29 does it itself.

⚙️ Heads up on the setting

The SkyrimNet setting that makes the courier speak has been renamed to "Voice Silent NPCs" (WebUI → Settings → Voice). It was "Enable TTS For Silent NPCs" on Beta 25–28. Your saved value carries over — only the name changed.

⛔ And on any version: if you have Dragonborn Voice Over, DBVO.esp must be disabled, or the courier stands there saying nothing.

📌 Good to know

• ✅ Safe to install over 1.2.0 mid-playthrough. Just overwrite.
• 🧪 1.7.104 was a pre-release until testers confirmed it working — this is the same build they tested.
• 🪵 If anything sounds wrong, send me Papyrus.0.log, SKSE/SkyrimNet.log and SKSE/CDNBookText.log from that session.

📦 Requirements

• Skyrim SE 1.5.97, AE 1.6.x, 1.7.104 or VR, with SKSE — 1.7.104 needs SKSE 2.3.1
• SkyrimNet Beta 25+
• Address Library for SKSE Plugins — 1.7.104 needs v13 or later
• Fuz Ro D-oh
• SkyrimNet's "Voice Silent NPCs" turned on, and DBVO.esp disabled

Courier Descriptions 1.3.0-rc1 (Skyrim 1.7.104 support)

Pre-release. Behaviour is identical to 1.2.0 — the only change is that the SKSE plugin now works on Skyrim 1.7.104. If you are on 1.6.1170 or 1.5.97 and 1.2.0 is working for you, there is nothing here you need; install this only if you are on 1.7.x, or if you want to help test it.

What changed

• CDNBookText.dll rebuilt against CommonLibSSE-NG v14.0.0. Skyrim 1.7.99 moved the game's minor version number, which made older builds classify 1.7.104 as "SE": they resolved the wrong Address Library ID for the function this mod hooks, looked for the wrong database filename, and could not read the new format-5 Address Library that 1.7.99+ ships. All three are fixed by that bump.
• One download still covers 1.5.97 (SE), 1.6.x (AE), 1.7.104 and Skyrim VR. The DLL resolves what it needs through the Address Library while the game starts, so there is no version to pick and no separate file to install.
• The log now names the game, not just the mod. CDNBookText.log opens with e.g. CDNBookText loaded - Skyrim 1.7.104.0 (AE), and the hook line names the Address Library ID it resolved. If you ever report a problem, those two lines are the first thing I read.
• Nothing else changed. The plugin, the SEQ file, the prompt and all 24 placeholder audio files are byte-identical to 1.2.0; the Papyrus scripts are the same code recompiled.

Requirements on 1.7.104

SKSE	2.3.1 (the 1.7.104 build)
Address Library for SKSE Plugins	v13 or later — you need the file versionlib-1-7-104-0.bin. 1.7.99 and later use a new format, so an older Address Library download has no usable file for your game at all.
SkyrimNet	beta 25 — beta 24 cannot start on 1.7.104 (it stops with "Unsupported address library format: 5")

On 1.6.1170 and 1.5.97, requirements are unchanged from 1.2.0.

Status

Confirmed working on 1.6.1170: the DLL loads, identifies the runtime correctly, hooks the dialogue function at the right address, reads a letter's text, identifies the sender, and writes and reads back the generated line. The skip-list scan found all 28 letters the courier voices himself on that load order.

1.7.104 itself is untested — I do not have that runtime. Everything that could be checked without it has been (the Address Library ID this mod needs is present in the real 1.7.99 database, and the plugin declares the flags SKSE 2.3.1 requires), but nobody has watched an actual delivery on 1.7.104. That is what this pre-release is for.

Courier Descriptions 1.2.0 (requires SkyrimNet Beta 25)

Important

This version requires SkyrimNet Beta 25 (0.25.0).
It does not work on SkyrimNet Beta 24 or earlier: the courier falls back to his plain no-name line and the generated line never happens. If you are still on Beta 24, stay on 1.1.0 until you update SkyrimNet.

The supported version now that SkyrimNet Beta 25 is out. Safe to install over 1.1.0 mid-playthrough — the plugin file is byte-for-byte unchanged.

Changed

• Ported to SkyrimNet Beta 25's new plugin format. Beta 25 stopped reading content from the old loose folders, so the mod's SkyrimNet content now ships as a plugin of its own.
  • Check it loaded under SkyrimNet → Plugins → Installed Plugins: it is listed as Courier Descriptions with an External badge.
  • The old copy an earlier version left under SKSE/Plugins/SkyrimNet/prompts/ is simply ignored by Beta 25; there is nothing to clean up.
• The settings page moved into the plugin too. Two things follow:
  • Your settings go back to their defaults once. Only matters if you changed one — Debug Mode is the likely one; turn it back on under WebUI → Courier Descriptions.
  • If you install by hand rather than with a mod manager, delete the old SKSE/Plugins/SkyrimNet/config/plugins/Courier Descriptions/manifest.yaml — left behind, it shows a second settings page that nothing reads.

Added

• Support for The Courier Crew. Its couriers deliver under four extra voices, and each needs its own copy of the silent placeholder that holds the line's slot open. Without them the generated line was more likely to be talked over by his closing "Looks like that's it."

If you tested a Beta 25 release candidate

The final Beta 25 release is fine. Release candidates before rc12 run the mod, but not well:

• His line plays after the goodbye (seen on rc6). SkyrimNet mistook the silent placeholder the mod ships for 13 seconds of real speech and held the generated line back behind it, so it arrived after the hand-over. Fixed in SkyrimNet rc12.
• The settings page does not appear before rc12. The mod still works, on its defaults.

Known issue

• Skipping right after his line can lose the goodbye. If you skip within about a second of his generated line ending, SkyrimNet drops the closing "Looks like that's it". The items are still handed over. Waiting a moment, or skipping later, avoids it. This is SkyrimNet's behaviour and cannot be fixed from the mod.

Requirements

• SKSE · SkyrimNet Beta 25 (0.25.0) · Address Library · Fuz Ro D-oh
  • All four are required — see INSTALL.txt inside the archive for what each one failing looks like.
• SkyrimNet → Settings → Voice → "Enable TTS For Silent NPCs" must be on, or his extra line appears as a subtitle with no voice.
• Install the archive with a mod manager. The plugin is ESL-flagged, so it costs no load order slot.

Courier Descriptions 1.1.0

A bugfix release. Safe to install over 1.0.1 mid-playthrough — the plugin file itself is byte-for-byte unchanged, so there is nothing in your save to disturb.

Fixed

• He no longer doubles up on letters he already has a line for. The mod carried a list of those, and it only covered the base game — so a delivery from the DLC or another mod got his own recorded voiceline and a generated one stacked on top.
  • The list is gone. The mod now reads the answer out of the game itself as the delivery arrives, so he stays quiet for every letter he can already speak about, whichever mod added it. Nothing to configure, and nothing for other mod authors to register.
  • On one ordinary load order the old list was wrong by nineteen letters. Hearthfires alone adds five.
• Real letters could get a line that had nothing to do with them. Anything longer than a single line — which is most letters actually in the game — broke the request the mod sends off to be written, and what came back was written blind: a sender invented from nothing, or a reply that was not a line at all.
  • It only ever misfired on genuine letters, which is why the short test ones never showed it. Letter text is now cleaned before it goes anywhere.
• Speaking to a courier before he delivers could cost you the line. The mod took that conversation for the delivery and spent the line on it, so the hand-over itself passed in silence.
  • It now waits for an actual delivery before committing, so a chat beforehand costs nothing.

Changed

• His line is shorter — one sentence, up to fourteen words. He has a fixed window to speak in, and a line that overran it did not merely crowd whatever came next, it deleted it: either his closing "Looks like that's it", or the line about a second item in the same delivery.
  • Shorter lines land whole, and leave room for a slow TTS voice.

Requirements

• SKSE · SkyrimNet · Address Library · Fuz Ro D-oh
  • All four are required — see INSTALL.txt inside the archive for what each one failing looks like.
• SkyrimNet → Settings → Voice → "Enable TTS For Silent NPCs" must be on, or his extra line appears as a subtitle with no voice.
• Install the archive with a mod manager. The plugin is ESL-flagged, so it costs no load order slot.

Courier Descriptions 1.0.1

A bugfix release. Safe to install over 1.0.0 mid-playthrough — the plugin file itself is byte-for-byte unchanged, so there is nothing in your save to disturb.

Fixed

• Crash on load with Dynamic String Distributor 1.4.2 or newer. DSD 1.4.2 added a hook on the same engine function this mod hooks to put the courier's line into his dialogue, and the two overwrote each other rather than stacking — the game crashed about a minute into loading, with an access violation inside DSD.
  • Neither mod was at fault; it came down to which installed its hook first. This build installs later, so the two now chain correctly. There is nothing to configure.
  • If you are on DSD 1.4.1 or older, or do not use DSD, you were never affected.

Added

• Support for Lilly - Female Courier Replacer. A replacer that gives the courier its own voice type sends the engine looking for this mod's silent placeholder — the file that holds the courier's line open — in a folder it was not shipped to, and his line gets cut short by "Looks like that's it." Lilly's voice type now ships.
  • Replacers that keep the vanilla voice type never needed anything. Using a different one? Say which and I will add it; carrying an extra voice folder costs nothing.
• The delivery is always written to the Papyrus log. Previously it only was with Debug Mode on, which meant a delivery that misbehaved left no trace unless you happened to have the setting on beforehand.
  • Debug Mode now controls the on-screen notifications only, so a problem records itself the first time instead of having to be reproduced. See REPORTING A PROBLEM in INSTALL.txt.

Requirements

• SKSE · SkyrimNet · Address Library · Fuz Ro D-oh
  • All four are required — see INSTALL.txt inside the archive for what each one failing looks like.
• Install the archive with a mod manager. The plugin is ESL-flagged, so it costs no load order slot.

Courier Descriptions 1.0.0

Initial release.

The vanilla courier now says a line about who handed him your mail — generated at delivery time, spoken in his own voice, in the per-item slot between "Let's see here..." and "Looks like that's it. Got to go."

"Redguard barmaid from the Mare gave me this, sounding desperate."

"Jarl Balgruuf handed me this himself, looking like he had something heavy on his mind."

He never reads your mail — the letter's text only tells the mod what sort of person sent it. Deliveries the courier already voices are left alone.

When the letter names its sender, the mod resolves that name to a real NPC and describes the actual person; how familiar he sounds scales with how well-known they are. When it doesn't, he describes a stranger and invents no physical details.

Requirements: SKSE · SkyrimNet · Address Library · Fuz Ro D-oh. All four are required — see INSTALL.txt inside the archive for what each one failing looks like.

Install the archive with a mod manager. The plugin is ESL-flagged, so it costs no load order slot.