Nos' RR Companions, v1.8, Upcoming

Well, I said that left to my own devices again, I was going to resume work on my own mods, and so I have.

Unfortunately, the voice thing ain't gonna happen in this version. There were more than twenty thousand voice files to sort through, and I'm not even a quarter of the way done yet.

Even if I narrow it down to only using one or two voices, it's gonna take awhile yet.

On the up side, I put two other idea I've had into use this lazy Sunday afternoon/evening.

From 1.8 on, there will be two versions of the mod.

1.7, as it now stands, is done. It's as far as I'm going to take it. It will be the "basic" version. No custom bodies, no companion will ever flee from combat.

1.8 and on will be the 'advanced' version. Using custom bodies from Dimon99's Type 3 system, with some custom textures to go along with them. I'm still debating whether to use one of the textures I modified for my own use, or just leave it to Dimon99's exceptional work.

I've also completely reworked my custom eye textures. They look much better now. I'll probably reupload a new repack of 1.7 to get the new textures out for it, too.

The new companions will be individuals. They each sport a custom combat style, and AI settings appropriate for their personality. Some will flee from tough fights. Others won't. Some will completely disregard the safety of 'innocent bystanders' and gleefully use explosives, no matter who gets caught in the crossfire. They even use stealthboys, from time to time.

Further, I finally sat down and hammered out the framework to allow the companions to "help" you out with things involving their pertinent skills.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make them physically go over to a lock, or terminal, or whatever, and work on it. The game engine doesn't really support targeted anims created on the fly like that.

So, to simulate their assistance, you'll be able to ask certain companions for help. This help will be a semi-permanent buff to the relevant skill, in the amount of 25 points. I wanted to make it timed, but the game engine doesn't like doing that from dialog without tons of extra scripting. Thus, it ended up as an effect that lasts until the companion is removed from your party, via either the stay command, or breaking up. When re-hired, the effect can be reacquired from dialog once more.

Alma will buff your medicine skill.

Celia will buff your barter skill.

Engel will buff your lockpick skill.

Kate will buff your science skill.

Melody will buff your repair skill.

Mai and Sabine, while not giving skill buffs, will be able to teach you to use power armor.

I've also added some backstory to talk to the companions about, and they'll sometimes have comments on your currently running quests. Sometimes tips, sometimes just snark.

Hopefully, between the skills and the commentary, there will be sufficient reason to drag along companions who may not be the most useful in a fight.

I'm still writing in the last of the commentary. (had to stop to let the computer clean its cache up, what with the GECK's memory leak and all...) Once that's finished, I'll be nabbing some new screenshots to post to the Nexus file entry, and hopefully remind people that my girls are still around.