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My Companion Mod Review Discussion 03-04/2020


kanami24

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Back in the Oblivion and Fallout 3 days these were really amateurish productions. I guess it has a lot to do with the availability of good and willing voice actors and equipment.

For Oblivion, Vilja was the standout. Vilja set the standard for all subsequent mod companions. Never really used companions for Fallout 3 until mod author Kris Takahashi developed some characters in anticipation of Fallout 4. That was the first introduction for two of the companions for his Tales from the Commonwealth mod.

 

Skyrim is where mod companions hit its zenith. Bethesda learned something from how well mod companions were received by players. Unfortunately now in the age of microtransactions, great mod companions are a relic of the past.

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Unfortunately now in the age of microtransactions, great mod companions are a relic of the past.

You mean for Skyrim right? Because I could list at least 5 outstanding ones for Fallout 4

 

No, I meant for future Bethesda games, not existing ones like Fallout 4 and Skyrim. Of course, I would love for Bethesda to prove my cynical prediction wrong by them making another single player game and having a Creation Kit available to modders.

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i have only one problem with companion mods, and this is only about Heather Casdin. After i recruit her, i stop getting experience points, even i discover a new location or kill a enemy. i must save the game, exit and load the last save, so this problem solved. i think, most of mod companions have the AI of vanilla companions and this is bad. Most of Fallout 4 NPC have bad AI. This is not new. Also i don't think the mod Unofficial fallout 4, mod, works. Maybe because is a esp file and (the mod manager said) works like a esm / why ? i think the author of that mod, must tell us, if we must rename the esp file to esm. That's all. Thanks.

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I don't think that the Bethesda companion ai is that bad. All games I can remember, had similar problems with companions.

 

You see similar problems of companions also in other games, like in the Mass Effect franchise, or the State of Decay games and I bet there are even more examples that I have just forgotten over time :smile:.

Edited by taryl80
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@taryl80 Mass Effect 1-3 are relative simple games, mostly set in narrow areas. And don't even feature real A.I. for instance when being on civilized planets

And for comparision even primitive games like Borderlands 1-3 have constant AI issues but it doesn't bother anyone that much.

The AI issues stick out in a game like Fallout that is openworld-sandbox and constantly changed by mods

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About NPC AI : Deacon from Railroad : Immediately after the mission begins where you meet him on the elevated road route, if he does not find a completely free road ahead of him, he can stay in the same place for hours... / Also standing in the same place where the Railroad signs are present and either he does not talk at all or he is waiting for something to talk about. About Settlers : at settlements, even we use workshop or not, in tight spaces, they don't step aside to get through or we have to start running to the same spot to make the edge / Several times they do not find the way to climb a ladder / they are not all activated together when an attack is made, and several times the enemy is next to them and they do not see him. About companions, they must see the character shoots an enemy, and only after that they start shooting too, and also again they do not see an enemy even if he is at 5 meters close to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i2S-a1H9CU

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  • 5 months later...

I've now played 500 different playthroughs. Not as much as many, more than some. What I know is AFT has without a doubt broken the AI on Heather, Ellen, Random Panser, Darlene, Valkyrie (once, made her aggro me), and forced me to restart. Can't count the times Heather or Ellen or Panser was standing in the BOG near a railing, and not responded to E)Follow despite saying yes. Nor would they be dismissed.

 

Now without changing anything else, I disabled AFT and played with Ivy and Heather, Heather and Dogmeat, Heather and Ellen, Panser and Heather, etc., and not once did I experience those AI glitches. I have also tested UCF and it seems to work better as far as not breaking companion AI. Also, any companion based on vanilla AI is more likely to survive to the end of a playthrough.

 

Darlene is my favorite companion (love being able to do things that would run Curie or Piper back home in a few hours), and Panser is my next favorite. I like them because they keep up, they don't break sneak (I only play Survival or Very Hard+), and such. But of all the mod companions, how many run into the elevator with you consistently? Think that over a second. Ivy does, almost without fail. When I do Mechanist I do the holotapes to elevator entrance, and Ivy runs right into the elevator with you. The rest of 'em, I'm lucky if they are in the same room, much less in the elevator.

 

I'd like to see a companion based on the Warrior Nun series, with a more concise back story. She would easily fit FO4 lore, its not like we don't have churches and other weird s#*! all over the place. If she was as complex as Darlene and Ivy, with better manners, and did all the cool stuff like sneak well, shut up when you are trying to hear something other than the companion, and gets into elevators/lifts with you, it would be the only companion mod I ever used.

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Right now I’m traveling with Heather, Darlene, and Passion, the only one I’ve used AFT on is Passion, and that was just to change her looks, made her into more of a UltraViolet type.

AFT or any other managing mod should really never be used on custom AI mods, and that goes for Skyrim as well.

No quicker way to break a follower.

This is my first play through with Darlene, and I really like her, she’s not the typical feel sorry for me companion, she’s abrasive, independent, and really doesn’t act clingy like so many others plus she can hack terminals, yes Heather can too, but she has to level up on them.

 

As for Skyrim SE mods, I like Sofia, and Vilja, Sofia being my favorite as she can go with you regardless of the area, even if companions are not supposed to be able to follow.

Vilja is good, but really some of her quest can get tiresome.

Edited by Gunslinger808
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