NellSpeed

Will check those out-- thanks!

Just checking in-- is this mod going to be released? It's exactly what I've been looking for!

Thanks, that's very kind. :smile: And hopefully, I'll remember the lessons I learned with Val! (Although I may've picked up some new bad habits.) Yes, Harry likes to talk. A lot. Quiet makes him tense-- he feels like he's waiting for an ambush. The big problem is going to be deciding which events need commentary, because doing something for every single one seems like overkill. OTOH, is there ever too much chatter? Earworms still exist after the War. Have you ever been incredibly irritated by hearing one of RNV's songs for the ten thousandth time? Because he sure is! (and other stuff too, but this is the most fun so far). Testing it may be a PITA, but we'll see. I've got a back-up plan, just in case my first shot doesn't work consistently. Yes! Still working on the mechanics, although the dialogue's easy enough. Ditto-- that was one of the most irritating things to put together, just from the back-and-forth clicking from window to window to window.

gromulos: Not familiar with Cerwiden, but I did love the other two, especially Vilja! theDemonJackal: That's an interesting approach, and I'd have to agree that, in general, the most interesting characters are those who have something to say besides dialogue. WhiskeyRiver2: Oh, I'm with you on VA work; it really can make or break a character. I'm 95% sure this will be a no-voice mod, though-- so that's one thing that won't go wrong. Thanks for the input!

After writing (and breaking) a lot of code, I finally have a functional companion (although there’s still work to do, of course). Now it’s time to do the dialogue. Features: Idle chatter, non-specific (code is finished, writing in progress) Idle chatter, event-based / reactive (ditto) Conversations about NPC backstory (barely begun) I’m also trying to figure out how to get the NPC to ask the PC questions about themself. That may or may not work out, since there are so many options: NPC: What was your family like? PC: I don’t want to talk about that. PC: Pretty great. Not a lot of money, though. PC: Lots of money, lots of happiness. PC: Rich and abusive. PC: Broke and horrible. (And so on. I have a feeling that part's going to be 25% writing, 75% editing.) Anyway, question for other players: what roleplay / conversational features do you look for in a companion? ETA: Also planning to include gift-giving, if the NPC learns enough about / likes the PC. We'll see how that works out.

Something you might try: write one quest, set in the Mojave, and mod it. Make it as detailed or simple, as morally complex or as good-evil as you want. Include at least one NPC-- make sure you really like them. That'll give you a better idea of what your strengths are going into a bigger project; and more importantly, if you want help from other modders, it'll give them reason to listen to your bigger ideas. (Oh, and keep caffeine and the headache remedy of your choice on hand.)

The Chairmen have a vested interest in getting people to visit NV; they're all about the $$. (Benny's comment about what nomads don't have stands out here.) So they also want to keep it accessible and safe. #1 Maybe a group of bandits sets up camp outside the city, targeting potential visitors. As usual nobody's got the time or the ability to get rid of them... except the Courier. Courier can: just open fire on them all, ORintimidate them into leaving, ORrecruit them as a clean up crew, keeping other similar groups from setting up shop.#2 Ghouls seem to be rare in NV-- maybe Swank (or whoever) decides they might be worth encouraging as customers... and so Ghouls' Night In is established! Half-price drinks for all ghouls! ...except it doesn't quite work, since they can't seem to get any ghouls to show. So the Courier gets to see if he can't coax a few to attend. #3 Whisky Didn't Kill the Pain Bootleggers are trying to force NV casinos to buy only from them. Some of them are just assholes, but others are business people trying to make a living. Courier gets to evaluate them and decide who's legit and who isn't.

I had to disable GECK PU-- but FWIW, I noticed that if I added conditions, they did actually appear; I just couldn't see them in the conditions box!

I asked "Is it considered acceptable to use New Vegas assets in a New Vegas mod? Specifically, extracting sound files from a DLC to use to create a companion mod." Mod response was as Nivea noted-- it's fine "as long as that DLC is also required for your mod."

So long as you REQUIRE the DLC to be installed its fine to release it, just make your .esp/.esm require Dead Money. That way no one is getting the content without having bought DM. ...what she said. :smile: I ended up PMing a mod to triple-check my understanding. As it turns out, extraction & editing are, as always, the easiest technical part. (And, of course, not getting over-elaborate is the hardest planning part.)

Dean's a very well-written trainwreck-- just not someone I'd want at my character's back when the wheels come off the wagon! As it turns out, though, it's very much possible to recycle his lines-- thank goodness for Audacity!-- and I've got the basic companion put together using the tutorial Mishaxhi linked. Now comes the fun part (i.e., editing & re-editing & re-re-editing dialogue, and running dozens of tests on pretty much everything).

Hey, there! Good to see you, Modder Who Introduced Corgis! (I need to hit endorse on that later.) I'm still at the outline phase at the moment; easier to take the time to put it together from the start, than leap into the GECK and realize, Oh, yeah, I should've done X like Y, Y like Z, and left Z out altogether. So I'm keeping it simple: you get a choice of OTP, BroTP, and maybe NoTP, as many general comments as possible (gotta make sure to include conditions so New Guy (I don't think he can be a revamped Dean, after all-- doesn't quite work on review) doesn't keep running his mouth over something quest-related), and presents! (And did I mention I loved your corgis? They're wearing tiny hats!)

They list NPCs by factions, too, so as long as you know the name of the group, you should be able to find who belongs to them.

The Fallout Wiki has lists of just about everything, including NPCs-- you might check it out.

Amen to that. Last time I did something like this I ended up with nearly twice as many lines of dialogue as I ended up actually using. Thanks for the good wishes!

Yes, I love these! I feel like they add a lot to the atmosphere, even if the timing can be a little wonky. It looks like NV uses the same basic code as Oblivion, and I remember at least some of that-- initial test run of random comments seems to have the same problems as before, which is actually kind of comforting! And as usual, it's going to be the writing and planning that's going to take more time than actual coding, since I try to keep things simple. (From an ethical standpoint, as I understand it as long as the DLC is required, use of assets is okay; but of course, I'm going to do my research first. Worst case scenario, I stick to silent files / lip-sync.) Thanks for the link and the input!

Got a general question for the community-- is there any general commentary on using existing in-game NPC assets to re-create a new companion NPC? I've been fiddling around with Dean Domino the last few days, and the more I listen to his voice, the more I feel like he'd make a great, totally different character. Instead of Dean Domino, famous singer (and sociopath?), he would be Dean Domino, actor-- using as many existing voice files as possible. (Here's the general outline, for the sake of thoroughness.) Dean Domino the actor started out in Shakespearean theater. Unlike many aspiring actors, he was more drawn to comedy than tragedy or history, and his willingness to introduce physical comedy into his performances made him stand out. Unfortunately, his easily-bruised ego put him in the ranks of "Oh, god, not again", and he bounced from troupe to troupe, finally taking his leave from Europe, convinced that he'd be properly appreciated in America. At first, all went well. He joined a group that set Shakespeare's plays in the Old West, and not only did he learn to use firearms, he also learned something about special effects (fireworks, safe use of gunpowder, etc). It seemed as if he'd found his niche. And then, during a tour through the Southwest, he had yet another gigantic fight with yet another fellow actor, and they dumped him... just in time for all War to break loose. He ended up stranded in the Sierra Madre, shutting himself away in a room the size of a closet, emerging only as long as it would take to scavenge for food. And there he stayed for the next 200 years. Until one day, everything changed-- and after poking around for information, Dean couldn't help but feel like he owes the rescuer of the Sierra Madre an in-person thank you. Actor Dean's skillset would stay about the same, there would be a fair number of in-game collisions (such as posters), and of course most of the dialogue would be text-only, with silent ogg files to keep it from speeding by and animations to help make it interesting. I don't think I'd do any quests this time, unless it's something like "Hand over wine and fireworks and nice clothes to improve your relationship with him". I'm already fiddling around with adding random comments, and of course with commentary on current events. ("You really think they're not going to stab you in the back-- or the front-- the moment they get a chance? Well. Far be it from me to argue with you, but... no. No, wait. I am, in fact, going to argue with you.")

How do you choose your character? That can be a good starting point to choosing what to do next-- an anti-social character might actually steer clear of all the cities; a bibliophile might deliberately collect all the books s/he could get hold of; an aspiring alchemist might hire a mercenary for protection while s/he scours the countryside for ingredients, and so on.

Sadly... no. If I was an NPC, even if I avoided death by dragon, there are plenty of other Bad Endings, including malnutrition (if not actual starvation), being a casualty of the war itself, and dying of a minor injury that got infected, in addition to illnesses like pneumonia (which still can kill you). Also, even if I was the Dragonborn and/or the Hero... there's no reload if you screw up in combat IRL, and no way to pause to drink health potions or eat a dozen bowls of soup. One shot death == permanent death. Not to mention that most of the injuries you sustain as a PC could, if not kill you outright, incapacitate you. Oh, and head injuries? Cumulative in effect-- get hit one too many times in the head, even if you're helmeted, and permanent brain damage is the result. (I admit healing potions and/or magic may make that less of an issue-- but again, possibly not accessible to the average citizen.) Finally, I like having modern hygiene and flushing toilets (I was in the US Army years & years ago-- I'm familiar with outhouses & not having access to running water). I like antibiotics and modern medicine (Did you know: India is winning the war against polio?). I like modern transportation. I like literacy (although that's never seemed to be a thing in ES games, come to think of it). I like modern conveniences like sewing machines, washing machines, stoves, and heaters. I love the ES games, I love reading about history (fiction and non-fiction both), I love fantasy... but there's no way I'd want to live there. ...that isn't stopping me from playing Skyrim for 10 hour straight sometimes, of course. :dance:

From my own fiddling around with the CK, I'm pretty sure the problem isn't the faction. Instead, it may be the voice files... unless you've already assigned her one of the default voices (and of course, checked the conditionals) in which case it should, in theory, work-- which would mean it's just the CK being flaky.

There's a jeans for guys mod on TESNexus-- for women, you might do best to retexture something, like Roadstroker's Annika outfit.

If you don't mind messing around a little with the CK, it should be fairly easy. Just go to his Inventory tab and set his default outfit to whatever you want: http://finalgirl.us/NellSpeedFG/howto-defout.gif That ought to work. In theory, anyway; the CK is flaky sometimes, and follower AI is a bit... challenging.

I'm afraid I didn't have enough time this weekend to do any serious modding, but I did learn a bit about how quests are run, etc. The easiest possible option is definitely going to be creating a new quest, just to marry him. OR. To create a new NPC and go from there. I did that with a Vilkas clone this weekend, in fact.

Eyrika - Keep trying! Keep trying! Seriously, the more modders out there, the better. It looks way more complicated than it really is, trust me. Start with something tiny. Too many would-be modders decide they're going to do this big giant complicated world-changing project-- they almost always fail, because they get overwhelmed & discouraged. So start with... a new book, or a journal, or a chest sunk at the bottom of a stream. Or maybe a half-dozen notes, scattered around an abandoned house, telling a small story about the people who lived there-- the brother and sister from Helgen who only stayed there for a night after their home was destroyed, the 60-year-old man who finally achieved his life's dream of becoming a bard, the little kid who wants to be a soldier (like her older brother), but hasn't seen him for months and months, and doesn't know where he is, so she writes him letters he'll never get. In the end, modding is about stories. Tell one. :)