Multi-character gameplay in Oblivion

[delta17]

Hey, new to the forums.

 

I've been having a look at a few mods that allow for NPC companions like the CM Partners Mod, and that's when a scenario occurred to me:

 

You're playing as a warrior-type player character who specializes in melee combat, and tagging along with you is an archer-type NPC companion who's an expert in stealth. Suppose the two of you come across the entrance to a bandit cave; sources indicate that there is some fine loot in there. The catch is, however, that a regiment of bandits are standing guard outside. A REGIMENT. Guess that means a full-on charge into the fray would be the last move you'd want to make given the circumstances...

 

A viable method would be to snipe off as many as you can with some arrows before the guards realize they're being attacked, but of course, you're not an archer. Your Marksman skill is the pits, and you probably don't have any good concealment spells like Chameleon to help avoid detection while you try & make the headshots.

 

So, what about your NPC archer companion? Yep, they could take a few of them out while you ready yourself in case they spot you and come charging your way... but what's to say that they'll know when to use a concealment spell, or who to snipe first? Wouldn't it be nice if you could, for the time being, switch from controlling your default warrior to playing the game through the archer's eyes, exploiting their abilities, inventory items, and appearance?

 

Here's my idea of a possible (mod) solution to the above situation:

 

1) Tell your NPC archer companion to stand ground-- for now.

 

2) Hit a hotkey or cast a lesser power spell of some sort... and watch as you float out of you default warrior-type PC and enter the body of your archer-type NPC, whose very soon gonna count as a playable character instead!

 

3) Once the transition is complete, you (in the archer's body) can now issue commands to your warrior-type companion (the character you were playing as moments ago-- now acting like an NPC) just like you would with any other NPC.

 

4) As the archer, lead the warrior to somewhere well out of visual range of the bandits guarding the cave, tell them to stay there, then find a good spot to snipe the guards from. With the high marksman skill of the archer character & access to their inventory & spells, as well as the obvious fact that you're in control of them, you've definitely got an edge now!

 

5) Once the bandits are full of arrows, head back to your warrior character, switch back into their body, and head on into the cave.

 

Adds a nice touch of tactical gameplay to Oblivion, don't you think? You could play as a party of, say, four members (e.g. a warrior, an archer, a battlemage, & a healer), and switch between characters at any time to gain control of them & have access to their arsenal or abilities. And the best thing is, all that in ONE savegame! How nice would that be?

 

Of course, we'd have to be practical and realistic here (especially in the modding & gameplay snese); Oblivion would suck if there wasn't a level of difficulty to it, and a function such as this might make the game too easy. We wouldn't want to make the game vulnerable to crashing either while this function is in use!

 

A modder could implement some restrictions to this "multiple character" function to ensure decent, balanced gameplay that wouldn't impact too badly on performance either. Some ideas:

 

- When switching between characters, both the "departure" & "arrival" characters must be within a certain range before the function can work. The player might even need to initiate a "conversation" with the target "arrival" character in order to perform the switch. No switching characters when one's at the other end of Cyrodiil!

 

- A limit to the number of characters you can bring with you on the party... or at least a way of setting & determining which members of your party are able to be "possessed", and which ones you would prefer to remain as fixed NPC companions. Perhaps even have a limit to the number of members in your party that you can switch between at any given time (e.g. out of the warrior/battlemage/archer/healer party example given earlier, you can only only choose three of them to switch between, say the warrior/archer/healer, leaving the battlemage to do their own stuff; you could later reorganise the party when no-one's in combat and change the "possessable" members around, so that on the next day, it's the archer who can act freely and not be controlled by the player).

 

- If the "departure" or "arrival" character (or both simultaneously) are engaged in close-quarters combat with a hostile NPC/creature, switching is temporarily disabled.

 

So what do you think? Any suggestions, criticisms (even those as to why I SHOULDN"T have this function), ideas, scenarios, or more to add to the "restrictions/limitations list" would be appreciated. :thanks:

[Tchos]

Wrye was working on that sort of thing. He has a mod where you can cast a spell on someone, and then transform into them with all their items and powers and other stats, and they disappear until you change yourself back. Here's a video of it in action

 

And here's the mod.

http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Wrye%20Morph.html

[delta17]

Wrye was working on that sort of thing. He has a mod where you can cast a spell on someone, and then transform into them with all their items and powers and other stats, and they disappear until you change yourself back. Here's a video of it in action

 

And here's the mod.

http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Wrye%20Morph.html

 

Yeah, had a look at that one. But it just doesn't have that "companion" feel, you know? Instead of using magic to mimic your companion, you can simply switch over to them and still retain the ability to give orders and such. Also, your default character should still be there, just as a NPC who can be bossed around.

 

I probably also forgot to mention explicitly that I was thinking about making this "multi-character" mod as an add-on to the CM Partners one.

 

Still, thanks for bringing it up; that "clone" one is still a great mod.

[delta17]

D17 here again. Heads up, here's something else to consider:

 

In the CM Partners mod, your companions aren't able to mount horses, meaning that you'll have to rely on the supplied "Party Ring" to teleport them to your current location after you've reached your destination on horseback, in order to keep everyone together.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if your companions could ride horses? That way, they can own their own horse (if you're the kind of person that likes role-playing), and you'd be able to use those horse-saddle mods out there to increase the party's total carrying capacity, as well as assist in separating out which items belongs to which party member. (

Click here

to see the horse-saddle mod I'm refering to)

 

The Solution (via the multi-characters mod):

 

1) Using your default character (e.g.

warrior

), buy a horse from the stables in the city.

 

2) Mount the horse.

 

3) Get it to trot a little until you're now facing one of your companions (e.g.

archer

), who doesn't have a horse and normally can't even mount, let alone buy their own automatically due to the limitations of the companion mod (based on the CM Partners mod).

 

4)

Use the hotkey or lesser power to initiate the possession of the companion, while you're still on the horse.

 

5) Now in the body of your archer, order the warrior character (who you were playing as earlier) to stay put & not ride off into the sunset immediately. Go back into the stables and ask to buy another horse.

 

6) The seller will assume you to be another player & sell you a horse. Now the entire party can ride off into the sunset on their own little ponies, to make it look more realistic & add to the fun.

At this point you can repossess your default character if you want to, or even possess another different companion and repeat the process for them to buy their own horse.

 

The same applies for when you want your entire party to mount their horses; just mount your default character on their horse, then switch between your companions via "possession" and get them to mount their horses while you're actually playing as them, while your default character watches on from where you left them.

 

NOTE: The main reason why I'm using the

CM Partners mod

as an example here, is simply because its a great

self-expandable mod

; it allows users to create their own complete NPC companions using the Construction Set. I don't know about you all, but I like to role-play my Oblivion games a little, make my own unique characters and give them a little back-story to why they're the way they are. There's no better companion mod out there than this one.

The only problems that this one has is, as mentioned above, the inability for the companions to buy or mount steeds.

This is one of the main, if NOT OVERRULING, reasons for me to come up with this "multi-character" mod concept.

 

This concept doesn't just have to be used for CM Partners, however; it can apply to any companion mod out there, even the quest companions that come in Oblivion itself!

 

Please, more suggestions & comments. I need ta know what people want so that I know what to make as an end product. :thanks:

[bben46]

Good ideas, but I really don't have a clue as to how to implement the multiple PC idea.

 

However as to companions riding, several independent companions do ride. They have their own horse as a part of the mod though. The ones I can think of right away are Neeshka and Rhianna. If someone who is a better scripter than me could look at how those were done, and incorporate something similar into CM, (With Blackie's permission) or as an independent mod that would allow Companions to ride That might work.

[SaijaRii]

Kinda like KotOR... I think its a cool idea... The CM thing is so buggy (Though I think some of it is my fault), I just use my partners as decorations around the house (Bodyguards, wife, guard-ogre, etc)... definently can't pull off tactics like that as they are now.

 

Here is a thought, though I am sure its already out there, let us choose what abilities the partners use? Say they get the eight abilities, and they do their stuff in that order, so you can set them to equip a bow, chameleon, attack, in that order beforehand and then they do it when you tell them to attack?

 

And it would be nice, as is, if you could choose what they equip and what they can use. :(

 

EDIT: BAH! - Didn't read the post date, sorry for the necro. :wallbash: