(WIP) Desmond Harper Companion - Big update

[Saxxon91]

This is something I've been thinking about for a while. I first released the mod just over 2 years ago and it's been doing pretty well but there have always been thing I wanted to change about it. I stopped modding for a while and I'm just trying to get back into it not so I figured this would be a good time to make these changes.

 

I'm starting this as a way to find out from players what they would want from the mod.

 

First of all this is going to be less of an update and more like a remake of the entire mod, some of the changes I have in mind are so big that I think starting over from scratch would be much easier that changing everything that already exists.

 

Here are the changes I have in mind so far (I'm only in the planning stage at this point so any of this could be changed):

 

• First of all I always thought the location you originally meet him (Freeside) was too far into the game. So now you first meet him at Goodsprings saloon but cant recruit him at that point. He tells you he was heading to Vegas through sloan but had to turn back because of the Deathclaws.

• You meet him a second time at the mojave outpost and this time you can convince him to travel with you if you pass a speech check.

• If you don't convince him to come with you then he moves on to Novac where the player can pick him up without a speech check. But if he's not recruited within a few days of meeting him in Novac he decides to settle down in Novac with his friend Sara (who's alive at this point) and is blocked off from ever becoming a companion.

• I have at leas 5 quests in mind. quest 1 has been re-written so it makes sense with the new story. Instead of Desmond taking part in the attack on the fiend hideout it's three of his friends that where supposed to be waiting for him and a different guy survives and tells you that one of the others was killed and another one captured so the first quest is to save him.

• Quest 2 is going to stay basically the same as in the original mod, and hopefully this time I'll be able to avoid having the weird glitches.

• I don't want to go into too much detail about the 3 new quests because I'd like to keep some of it a surprise (plus I haven't worked out the details) but here's what I have in mind: Quest 3, Desmond and the Courier are hired as bodyguards by a prospector who wants to explore an abandoned Enclave facility. Quest 4 Desmond takes some time off from travelling with the Courier and goes to the strip and gets mixed up in some crazy assassination plot. Quest 5, Desmond's sister pays him a visit and tells him that their father ran away from home and she tracked him to the Mojave and you have to find him.

• Another thing I want to add is DLC content. Mostly it'll just be stuff like random comments or conversations but maybe more. For example in Dead Money he also looses his weapons & armor and is given an explosive collar. Nothing big planned for this but it's something I'd like to do.

• I'll be redoing most; if not all, of the dialogue and voice acting. Most of it will need to be redone to fit the new story and I'd also like to think I've gotten better at writing and Voice acting since I last worked on this. I'd also like to find other people to voice some of the other characters so It's not just me doing all of them again.

• A romance option is something I've had a few requests for so I'm considering adding it but I haven't decided on and if I was to do it it would probably be an optional plugin that I release at a later date rather than part of the main mod.

 

Anyway, that's all the plans I have at this point. If anyone want's to give me their thoughts on them then please do, or if anyone has any suggestions then feel free to share them with me.

I really want to get this mod on the level of some of the bigger companion mods and I figure the best way to do that is by finding out what people want.

 

 

[IronAlpha]

Longtime fan of Desmond here.

 

This all sounds pretty fantastic, and I like the sound of it all, really. I like the possibility of failing to get him, and even more the idea of repeatedly bumping into him. I'm obviously excited for this project, and if you need voice actors, I'd be more than willing to help out.

[theDemonJackal]

DESMOND is one of my fave companions! I am excited to hear his story expanded.

[UnEvenSteven]

As the above two posters Desmond is one of my favorites to, one of the few companion mods I tend to have loaded almost every game. Looking forward to the update.

[Saxxon91]

I'm glad to hear people are interested in this.

 

I've made quite a bit of progress over the past week. Here's what I've done:

 

Rebuilt the whole character into a functional companion, this is on a new esp so it means to play it you will have to uninstall the old version and start over.

Made a custom face retexture; nothing amazing, but I've added a couple of faint scars to his face.

Also retextured the jeans on his outfit so they're not so bright and look more like denim.

I've got the thing with him travelling between towns working, and recruiting him. I tried following him from Goodsprings to the mojave outpost and then all the way to novac. He takes a really awkward route but it works.

Right now I'm finishing off the first quest. I spent most of yesterday trying to get him to have a conversation with another NPC which was a pain but I finally got it to work.

 

So far it's going fairly well, I think I'm going to try and post weekly updates on my progress.

[Doomguy137]

I would love to beta test this :P Sounds like something worth my time to keep my eye on :D

[Saxxon91]

So much for weekly updates, truth is I've been busy working on Willhaven so I've barely done anything with this since last time I posted.

 

I've finished the first quest, that all works.

And I've just finished re-building the locations for the second quest and they all turned out pretty well.

 

I want to try and get quest 2 done sometime this week, hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult since it's the only part of the mod I'm not really changing.

[Saxxon91]

Here's another little update, got quite a bit done since last time.

 

Quest 2 is now finished, still need to fix a couple minor things but its perfectly playable.

Quest 3 is also mostly done, I've got everything in place, now I just need to get it all to work.

I've also redone all the personal questions you can ask him.

[Polyfemus]

Sounds good to me looking forward to seeing the complete project!

[robberfox]

I've had Desmond forever, I think I actually downloaded him when he first came out and I've always liked him, but wished I could do more with him.

_{But as an eternal fangirl, I am very very interested in this romance option you speak of because there's not enough companion lovin going on in the Mojave}