Nos' Companions, Upcoming

I promised Sgt Ovakil a post on this, and I aim to keep my word.

I want to preface this post, however, with the notice that while I do plan to do all this, because of my day-to-day life, some health issues, and the quite frankly stupid number of mods I've gotten myself involved in, I can't make any promises as to when something specific will be done. Take a zen attitude, if you would: it will be when it is.

That out of the way...

In the immediate, near future, you're going to see two changes to the companions pack.

Firstly, it will be getting the same script edits as v5.2 of the RR master, to set the girls as your teammate upon joining your party, and removing when they leave it. This will - I think - stop the option to pickpocket them. Why you people want to adjust inventory while sneaking I will never understand, but whatever. I just work here.

Second, is the reorder of the resource directory. I plan on moving the custom eyes to a new directory, and adding in the hair pack resources directly, to cut down on problems from people who won't RTFM. I have an ulterior motive for this, as well: that being that once the resources are in place, I'll have a unified directory for all custom content for the girls... including the new Type 3 version I've been working on for months. It's actually more or less done, and has been since mid-October. I've just had to spend every second of my modding time working on the RR master (and that little jaunt into 20th Century Weapons territory...), and haven't had time to make the final race changes and line everything out.

Once v5.2 is up, however, that's going to change. v5.2 marks the essential end of the RR Companions Vault for now. The companion system is working, the prisoner system disabled, navmeshing fixed and loudspeakers working. The only issue may still be Chloe and crew, and if worse comes to worst, I know how to fix them - it'll just be drastic, and I don't want to go that far unless I have to. The main master will go onto the back burner while I work on the things I actually enjoy, for awhile.

Which brings us back to the girls.

One of the major things I have in store are stories. Quests, past events, etc. Not all will get the full story treatment, but most will.

I'm not talking about "bring me X item and I'll come with you forever" type of stuff, either.

I mean actual interactions. Multiple ways to convince them to join you, for one. Some may respond to gifts, some money, some a witty line.

I know of two who are going to demand you kill some people.

Item-based interactions... "Hey, I can't help but notice you found a beer there... mind if I take it?"

I'm even thinking of requiring that you pay them. Money will be removed from their inventory and stuck into a safe container where they can access it later but you can't simply take it back from them.

I also want to give them personal menus, where you can ask about their history, see if they have any tips on your current location or quest, even maybe try to get... close. Although obviously I'll use a fade-to-black sorta thing and not tie-in AP or anything if you do manage to get any. Sorry, Kiddies, but I'm not really a pornographer.

One of the biggest things I want to do is integrate the girls into vanilla quests. Have them make comments, offer advice, even block you from completing certain quests if you have certain companions in your party.

I'm planning to have events occur that, depending on how you act or what you say, may have the companion(s) leave you - temporarily or forever - in extreme cases even set to unessential and start a fight with you, resulting in your or their death.

Of course, the stuff I promised before will still be there: varying levels of aggression, bravery, faction interactions that can cause the girls to start trouble in certain places.

It's... an auspicious project, I know. It'll take me quite a while to complete, too. Still, I think it'll be worth it.

One major new thing, is a flash of inspiration I had the other night, while mulling a problem.

You see, adding the girls to the vanilla quests will require changing scripts, dialog, etc. Doing this will cause incompatibilities with other mods that do the same.

Now, I could pull a Project Beauty and say "tough shit, it's my mod or theirs!" but I try not to be that much of a dick.

Didn't say I always succeed... but I do try.

So, the thought occurred. My companions pack is a master file... and dialog doesn't change NPCs, so no body/head texture mismatch problems... just make the stories optional.

That's right, I'm going to release the deeper portions of the mod in add-on form. Each character or pair of characters - for the ones who interact so heavily with another that there's no point in splitting them up - will get their own plugin. If a particular character's story causes conflicts with another mod you run, just turn it off. You can still play with the others; it won't be an all or nothing proposition. Because of this, I'll also be able to release the stories in something akin to episodes, and won't have to have all ten ready before release.

Very good for you guys, as it won't be as dependent on me getting everything done on time.

Also very good because it will allow the same story plugin to work with either the standard body master, or the one that uses the sexy Type 3 custom bodies.

Ellie will probably be the first released. While she isn't my personal favorite, she is the one that I have the most story worked out in my head.

As a teaser, I'll give you a basic outline of how her story will open...

I mentioned in the readme that Ellie ducked into Jocko's to hide from some slavers. Thus far, you haven't seen the slavers, but you will.

On nearing Jocko's Pop and Gas Stop, a band of four or so slavers will come up to you, asking if you've seen a blond teenage girl thereabouts.

You'll have several options, including telling them the truth or lying - depending on whether you've been into Jocko's and know where she is - fighting them off, or even ageeing to bring her in. This last option would, of course, cut the story extremely short... but it'll be there nonetheless.

Obviously, if you've already recruited Ellie before meeting the slavers and they see her with you, attacks will be made on sight.

Provided you survive and help her, Ellie will be grateful, and agree to accompany you on your travels.

Ellie will be the most "normal" of the companions, by far. From my character notes, circa August:

"If it were two hundred years ago, Ellie would be the girl down the block that you had a crush on in highschool. Pretty, witty, and well-grounded, Ellie could have been a prom queen, except that she just isn’t ruthless enough to climb the social ladder. Born and raised as a wastelander on a small Brahmin farm, Ellie has spent her short life learning to hide from raiders, deal with traders, and avoid radiation. Nevertheless, she has managed to reach her teens in the wasteland without becoming jaded and bitter, and is a genuinely caring and decent person. Though leery of combat in any form, she has nonetheless learned to handle some small arms with aptitude, and will stand by your side through all but the more overwhelming situations, should you convince her to join you. Ellie has little in the way of a temper, and never starts the fight."

I don't want to spoil too much, but Ellie will also be one of the possible romantic interests for the player, and I do want to note that I don't discriminate - you won't be precluded from playing the romantic paths in one of my mods just because your character is female.

I'm hesitant to post most of the notes, as they are out of date and don't necessarily apply to the story I have in mind anymore, but I'll give you one more, as Alma is still pretty much the same now as then:

"Alma is an honest-to-goodness modern Paladin. Unlike the Brotherhood of Steel Paladins – who Alma believes tarnish the title – she lives her life to protect the weak and innocent, without allowing herself to be beholden to any political or organizational restrictions. Alma is a trained medic, and is predominantly quiet and gentle. Though, when the innocent are threatened, she becomes fierce and even sometimes brutal in their defense. She desires money only insofar as it allows her to continue her lifelong quest to help people. Gaining Alma’s aid in your own wanderings may be difficult, if you have led a life of evil; as she is surprisingly well connected, and knows much of most of the wasteland’s more prominent and colorful personalities. Alma will not set foot inside Paradise Falls, and will actively attack any known slaver she sees. Though she prefers peace, once the fight has started, Alma will not surrender, nor flee for any reason."

Don't want to give the impression that it's all going to be goody-goody stuff, though. I'll warn you up front that a lot of my writing is pretty dark stuff. Expect some pretty horrible things to happen in most of the stories.

The kicker will be whether you're responding to the evil, or causing it...

I'll also warn you that while I am not, as I already said, a pornographer, the stories will not be suitable for children, and will include much violence, swearing, and probably some explicit speech.

Really wish I had a female voice actress.

Regardless, there you have it. My plans, such as they are, and some previews. I haven't been sitting idle these months, and do have some written, and ideas of where I want it all to go.

The problem is that to make these stories work, I have to write out scripts, almost like a movie, to keep it visually and textually coherent.

This is one of the spots where I envy Sultericdrums. As the maker of the wildly popular Viconia and Saerileth companions for Oblivion, he had a big task to complete... but he also already had the story written, as both characters were ports from Baldur's Gate 2.

I've got to write this stuff myself from the ground up.

Previews will, of course, continue to trickle in as I get things further along.

Explanation

Alternate title: Foot moving towards mouth.

Before I launch into my plans for the future, I want to clarify something.

This last little outburst of mine has drawn some attention - obviously I have more than a handful of readers around here now.

I just want to note that I do appreciate you guys and gals who say thanks. Who endorse, who offer constructive feedback.

I'm not upset in your general directions.

I've never minded reports of legitimate bugs. By that, I mean things that do or have the potential to break a game, destroy a save, generally mess up your playing experience.

What bugs me are the people who incessantly yammer about how I should re-do this mod or that to make it more like someone else's.

Those people bother me, and believe it or not there are quite a few of them.

I'm not other people. I'm me. My mods and scripts and NPCs follow my own tastes, my own habits, the way my mind works. I realize follow the crowd and blend in is the norm in our post-hippy world, but it's never been me. I'm not good at it, and have no desire to try.

I should also note that while I try to keep my personal life off the blog here, I hate most of it. The people whose blood I ostensibly share, my apartment, the town I live in... it all drags on my nerves every waking moment of every day. Consequently... I frustrate easily, and tend to explode in what I consider to be a "safe" form - this blog, where I can rant and rave and swear and vent and call peoples' lineage into question without getting my ass banned from the Nexus.

So, when you see a rant here, consider it my pressure relief valve in operation, and know that I will feel better and less prone to walking away after some sleep and a meal.

I really appreciate the support and well-wishes, Kiddies. If I still had a heart, I'd be all misty right now.

Maybe Not...

You know, I was going to lay out my plans for the companions pack in the future, express my brilliant idea for adding in the story component... and maybe work on the storylines a bit...

But I've just spent thirty minutes fucking around with teammate setting to see if I can make the companions not pickpocket-able anymore.

I'm not in the damned mood anymore. Gonna go play Sins of a Solar Empire and pretend the Nexus doesn't exist for awhile.

RR Companions Vault... Worth it?

Not planning to up and vanish... but I'm beginning to wonder.

Got the shower packages worked out, and decided to do a little more cleanup on that fucking mess that was the prisoner system.

While I disabled the stuff before, the NPCs, dialog, items and quests were all still there - in case I needed to reactivate it all for whatever reason.

The dialog for the prisoner system is so integrated into the mod that it's going to take me forever to get rid of. It's all throughout the guard system, to the point that it may actually be less trouble to scrap the whole rottin' mess and write a new guard system.

Y'see, Kiddies, this is why I don't like mod teams, or working from someone else's stuff.

If it's my work, it's my mess... but working out around someone else's mess...

I'm losing interest in it. I spend my day to day life cleaning up other peoples' problems. Everything from picking up their garbage to fixing fucked up guns to un-fucking computers that I am amazed will still boot.

My record on the computer thing is something like 1342. Thirteen HUNDRED and forty-fucking-two viruses of various lineage I pulled off a laptop in ONE virus scan.

You don't want to know how many pieces of spyware there were.

I'm getting sick of it. Playing nursemaid to everyone else's fuckups is keeping me from working on my own things.

I am so very tempted to rip the companion system out, rename the references, and build it into a standalone master to run my girls. I had considered doing it more than once in the past, but always decided not to, as I didn't want to leave ttomwv hanging.

Seems he's already left me hanging, though... so I dunno.

So much I want to do. Want to expand the girls and get their stories told, I want to create homes just for them - a separate cell containing their rooms, and maybe a few houses in the wasteland for some of them - I want to at some point update my fucking CALIBR compatible 1911's mod, since I know now how to make vendors sell custom stuff without conflict.

But what do I get stuck doing?

Tracking down faction bugs and occlusion planes and...

Shit like this latest bit. Comment that was posted while I was writing the v5.2 changelog update, from someone who wants me to disable the pickpocket option on all the RR companions, so he can talk to them while sneaking.

I mean... why in the fucking hell do you need to talk to them while sneaking? If it's inventory, here's a thought: PLAN AHEAD MORE THAN TEN SECONDS! There's no reason you should have to re-equip companions in the middle of sneaky-sneaky time.

I dunno. I'm tired, I'm frustrated, my teeth are bugging me, and I haven't gotten to shoot anything in weeks.

Now I get to go digging through someone else's companion mod to see how they did it, to shut up people who can't be bothered to express a thought with the articulation of an autistic twelve year old.

RR Companions Vault, v5.2, Upcoming, Part III

Shower packages work. AI pathing problems in the game engine itself continue to manifest and annoy the holy living shit out of me, however.

Still, I can minimize those with some navmesh adjustment, and the rest simply are, and must be accepted as such.

Just a few more things to tweak...

RR Companions Vault, v5.2, Upcoming, Part II

It took some doing, but I got a package worked out that will passably simulate NPCs showering. Including undressing, showering, occasionally dropping the soap, then redressing when done.

Kicker is, the way I want to do this for best effect, is going to require a separate package for each NPC in the tunnels. That means ten packages I have to run up. This is going to take a little while.

On the up side, once done, v5.2 should be about ready for upload.

RR Companions Vault, v5.2, Upcoming

Well, we here at NosCo have made it through yet another Christmas without eating a .45 hollowpoint, seeing how many sleeping pills we could swallow, or running amok with my ever-trusty Ka-Bar Kukri machete, so it's time for work to resume on FO3 modding.

v5.2 is already in the works. Thus far, we have:

*Fixed clipping room pieces in Chloe's bedroom.

*Fixed tunnel guard patrol paths, a broken chain of linked references had previously rendered the path dead at point 17. This is fixed now, and patrols should run through point 33 and restart as intended.

*More edits made to Chloe's guards' faction interactions, setting them as "friendly" to Canterbury Commons to hopefully avoid the bloodbath one user reported. Personally? I like the reality of pissed off guards kicking the holy living shit out of townsfolk that don't know when to shut up, but what do I know.

*Preliminary fix made to Chloe's inventory. Caps have been heavily reduced. This is due to a bug in the Fallout 3 engine, explained here:

http://geck.bethsoft.com/index.php/Adding_items_to_vendors

To whit: There is a cut off in bottle caps where the merchant will display buggy behavior and stop paying the PC for items. The Merchant will take the items but the PC will not receive the bottle caps. If the merchant has 32767 bottle caps they will behave correctly. However, if the merchant has 32768 bottle caps they will take the player's items but no bottle caps will be transferred to the player.

As this is on the page for adding items to an existing vendor, I didn't see it, else I wouldn't have added so many to her inventory to begin with.

Special thanks go to Sgt Ovakil for pointing it out to me.

The new change should fix her from the get-go for new players, but I still have to test to see if it does likewise for people that have had the bug already manifest.

Also: two new plugins are in the works, for the "optional files" category of the file entry.

1) A plugin that removes the Protectrons from Vault 1. Not only have these damned things never worked right, but they constantly get in the way, and refuse to stay in their pods. At a later time, I may remove the protectrons from the base mod itself, and replace the protectron pods with something else.

2) A plugin that will stop the auto-opening and closing doors in Vault 1. Can't vouch for anyone else, but that crap has annoyed me since the first time I ran the mod, way back in v3.7.

Both plugins should be fully compatible with Refurbished - provided the door plugin is loaded AFTER Refubished in your load order.

That's it for this update. I must now return to endlessly bug-testing this mess.

Tune in next time when I'll rant and rave and swear some more, while occasionally actually adding content to my mods.