Wednesday, November 10, 2010

NCCS - The NosCo Companion System for New Vegas

We here at NosCo Modding Division are pleased to announce publicly our latest project, the NosCo Companion System, or NCCS for short.

This companion system will be similar to our earlier work in RR, save that this will be streamlined; and will fix the overriding problem that the RR Companions Vault has had since day one: the vault.

NCCS has no Vault. No house. No buildings whatsoever. Use it with whatever house mod you like. The NCCS alters no vanilla game items or cells, and thus has perfect compatibility with all other mods.

For those players who prefer the FO3 style companion interface, we have already identified and subverted fully the NV mechanism that institutes the "companion wheel".

NCCS companions will have a traditional dialog interface, just like RR, and CM before it.

As of this moment, Beta 0.1 is in final testing, and about to be packaged up and sent out to our offsite tester for additional trials.

This is not a "I'd really like to..." or "Someday soon..." NCCS exists now. I've been playing it all evening; working out features. There is already a working companion in it:













Creation of companions in this system will be much like previous generations, save that the master does not contain any companions this time. In the CM tradition of not making you use anything you don't want, premade companions will be included in separate plugins; wholly independent of each other. Use one, or another, or none - and stick with your own companions.

NCCS contains a custom class, combat style, dialog, and packages. The master contains two template companions - one male, one female; to serve as simple bases for your own companions.








I'll grant that the templates are not my best work... but they're not meant to be. They're to give you a base with factions, package, and dialog already intact - not to be works of art unto themselves.

I'm also very pleased to announce that everyone's favorite little Fairy, the ever-talented Miss Herculine has agreed to provide some pre-made companions to be included with the master as well.

Hopefully, between the two of us we can give you all some fun-filled group trips in the western wastes.

Thus far, NV appears to have many of the companion bugs that FO3 shipped with. We can minimize these, but only official game patches will fix them on a wide scale.

Thankfully, the head/body texture mismatch bug does not appear to have carried over; so we won't have to worry about the whole esm-ifying process for companions this time around.

NCCS companions are basic as it stands: they follow, stay, share, and can be fired/hired. I've already instituted the self-stim code, as well as weapon drawing and holstering. Unfortunately, NV seems to be very finicky about when it will let the companion scripts actually run, and when it blocks them somehow... so how well automatic features will work over the long haul remains to be seen.

More details (as well as a download link) will be forthcoming in the near future.

Also: while Ren's hairs don't appear to work out well in NV, the eye portion of my cosmetic pack transferred over perfectly, and will likely be officially ported and uploaded (minus hairs) soon.




Goddamn, I still love that effect...

4 comments:

  1. I'm working on names and faces now. Since, as the CEO has mentioned, custom cosmetics are still scarce my first set of companions will only use the default hairs and equipment, so don't expect 140 characters of my usual caliber just yet. But that's not to say I intend to just throw together a bunch of ugly folks either. I'll do my best with what I have to work with to create some interesting folks with a bit of personality.

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  2. Ohh would love to see this in new vegas

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  3. David:

    I expect to have a set of at least a dozen companions put together within the next couple of days. After that, it will be up to the CEO...

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  4. Give me a break, wouldja? It takes time to subdue a new engine and bend it to your will...

    I've had a few more ideas to fix the lingering problems; but it'll have to wait. Today's a holiday - no not Armistice Day; it's the Lady of Darkness' birthday, and I never mod today.

    Wouldn't even be using the PC here, except I'm running my email while I shave.

    Tomorrow though; I go back to the NVGECK mines. If I get lucky and this fix actually does the upload will be a day or two after that; when Miss Herculine and I get our respective plugins for the master done.

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