Setbacks. Setbacks. Setbacks.

See, this is why I don't announce any of my new mods until they're nearing completion, anymore.

I'm apparently operating at the bleeding edge of what the engine is capable of without using one of the script extenders already; and nine times out of ten when I try to take my personal companions a bit farther, it fails. Not just fails, either, but crashes-and-fucking-burns fails.

Myself and several players have banded about the idea of taking companion behavior to the next level, as it were. Something more akin to real MOUT behavior for FO3/NV.

Current companions, even with their enhanced combat styles, behave as they said in Mechwarrior 4: a mis-matched group of single combatants, and not a team.

I've had various ideas to remedy this; but written most off as too complex, and not flexible enough for general companion use.

I had another idea the other night. Tried it a bit today in FO3, and it was a spectacular failure.

The idea was this: rather than always being in such a state, companions would follow normally until the player drew a weapon; at which time they'd draw weapons and fall into formation. When combat was over, they'd return to normal follow behavior.

The packages were set up so that rather than the companions simply running off a-kilter, going off after whoever they liked; one would take point. Second would follow first, third would follow second. The one on point would decide where they went, and the others would follow in line, taking shots on enemies as they appeared.

I had the scheme laid out in my head well enough. Set up packages, modified companion scripts. Everything parsed and looked good.

Got in game to test. Drew a weapon, and the companions reordered; falling into a new formation behind the point(wo)man -- who then followed me until contact was made with the enemy.

Contact made... and they kept following me. Fight ended. They never fired a shot.

For some reason, with the new "formation" they won't enter combat. At all. Nor are they attacked by enemies.

I swear, some day I am going to get a hold of the drugs they were taking when they coded this damned engine, and none of you will ever hear from me again as I will become a permanent resident of the magical land of Oz.

As always, I have other methods of implementation in mind... but the problem is refusal to enter combat is usually a package issue and not a script issue... so I'm probably looking at having to go flag-by-flag on the packages and figure out what's fucking up where this time.

Ugh. Why does one plus two never equal three in these damned games...