What do you like in a follower mod?

[Mattiewagg]

Disclaimer: If I do make this follower mod, it will not be anytime soon. Mostly likely months away, maybe this summer. But no guarantees. I just want your guys' opinions.

 

Some time in the future, I intend to work on a follower mod. By some time, I mean quite a while. I want to release the first version of Immersive Quests first, and from there it will have updates as I add more quests and fix bugs. But after that first release, I won't be working quite so hard on adding new quests and such and I may well allow more quest designers to come onto the team. So I'll have some free time, and my next big project (if I don't burn out...) I would love to have as a follower mod.

 

First - my inspirations

(May contain spoilers about some of these mods)

 

Ruined Tails Tale - Oblivion Follower Mod

I watched Squee's Let's Play of Oblivion some time ago, and a major part of his RPing LP was Ruin. Ruin was a follower with several new features, but the coolest part was his engaging and long questline, which included deep conversations that impacted the quest and it's endings in a myriad of ways (oh yes - the quest had multiple endings and twists throughout based on the player's decisions). You really got to know Ruin as a character, so when he finally did die in the end of the questline, I actually found myself crying. However, Ruin was also an unvoiced follower, which is something I don't want. He could be a little buggy at sometimes, and his philosophical questions were timed so horribly - and I mean horribly - that after having him as a companion for 5 days, he was already going on about how he had traveled with me for some time and was considering romance. Part of this was Oblivion's scripting limitation - timing in it was notoriously hard, but still, this is something I would like to avoid. It was quite immersion-breaking. Also, when he wanted to speak to you, if you decided to access one of his follower options while say, in a dungeon, you had to go through this long conversation first. One of the mod author's later follower mods rectified this, but it lacked other features I would have enjoyed and so I didn't play with it long.

 

 

 

INIGO - Skyrim Follower Mod

 

 

I've not yet played 2.0, but INIGO is my favorite follower mod for Skyrim by far (you can find my review here). He's got advanced follower features, including many more as of 2.0, and has lots of dialogue. I mean LOTS - thousands upon thousands of extremely well voiced dialogue that is quest, location, etc. aware. Also, he's got a great personality. A quest for him is in the works, and the foundation for a larger quest has already been laid in 2.0. There aren't as in-depth conversations as Ruin's story, but there are many great conversations you can have. I have no idea how much they'll impact his quest as of yet.

 

 

 

There are plenty of other great mods with advanced features and great quests (Vilja is one, though I couldn't continue playing her because there were some things that irked me too much) that I take inspiration from, but these are the biggest ones.

 

Second - What I look for

 

1. Good voice acting
2. Well-written dialogue, including idle dialogue and such that is quest aware, location aware, lots-of-things aware
3. New follower features - some of my favorites include Inigo's Any thoughts? where he'll tell you about his surroundings; a toggleable quest marker so you can find your follower; a summon follower spell for the same reason as the former; a regard system like that of Arissa the Wandering Rogue - I'm very into the player's actions affecting characters
4. Customizability - the ability to customize their combat style, following distance, and much, much more - mostly through the follower, though I wouldn't be averse to an MCM (which I am quite well versed in)
5. A good character - this one is very important. I have to like, or at least feel for (or perhaps dislike and come to like) the character in question. Otherwise they're bland and boring, like many of Skyrim's vanilla followers
6. Player Impact - I like it when the player's actions/thoughts/what they say impacts the follower. Probably not to the extent of Ruin - the character of Ruin was very malleable, unlike most real people (though Ruin had a reason). But like Arissa. A system where the follower has a dislike/like for the player, and depending on their respect of the player, may adopt some of what the player wants
7. Questline - not as important as a good follower, but I enjoy a good questline. Ruin is a fantastic example. My main skill is also quest creation (which happens to include many parts of follower creation), so that may be part of it.
8. Not skimpy - I like my followers realistic and interesting. As such, my follower would likely be male. Nothing against female followers/characters/whatever, but many follower mods are skimpy females with the vanilla follower functionality which get a bunch of endorsements. There are also not a lot of male follower mods. And no matter what, there wouldn't be any skimpiness or whatever. It's just not something I would spend my time making - I want to like my own mod.

 

Third - Wrapping it up

 

I'd love it if you shared your thoughts on this matter. What do you like in a follower? Voting in the poll is great, but if you could also post to explain your thoughts or go into more detail, I'd appreciate it very much.

 

Also note that this may or may not come about as a mod, and if it does it will be some time away, but without your feedback it likely won't be created at all.

Edited October 25, 2014 by Matthiaswagg

[Mattiewagg]

Added the poll. Totally forgot about that before posting... :facepalm:

[deathbymanga]

Do you need any animation help? I'd be glad to offer my services if you offered to tell me how to add animations to the CK

 

edit: :P didn't realize it was your thread when i posted :P

[TheBawb]

One thing I've always enjoyed about Vilja was her ability to interact with other NPCs, just short conversations with the ones the player is around the most, like Lydia, Farkas, Farengar etc.

It made the game a lot more immersive, Although I admit it did get a bit old when she kept repeating them.

 

On a side note, is the absence of Nord in the poll an error or is it intended?

[Mattiewagg]

Do you need any animation help? I'd be glad to offer my services if you offered to tell me how to add animations to the CK

 

edit: :tongue: didn't realize it was your thread when i posted :tongue:

See the disclaimer at the top.

 

And I'm not sure if he'd be able to use your help, but darren83 of Discworld MIGHT. Just search around on the forums here for Discworld.

[Mattiewagg]

One thing I've always enjoyed about Vilja was her ability to interact with other NPCs, just short conversations with the ones the player is around the most, like Lydia, Farkas, Farengar etc.

It made the game a lot more immersive, Although I admit it did get a bit old when she kept repeating them.

 

On a side note, is the absence of Nord in the poll an error or is it intended?

I knew I was missing something... :facepalm: I'll add that later tonight, I'm just leaving for an event right now.

[Mattiewagg]

Do you need any animation help? I'd be glad to offer my services if you offered to tell me how to add animations to the CK

 

edit: :P didn't realize it was your thread when i posted :P

Also Damar just posted a topic about needing an animator. "You yes you" or something along those lines.

[deathbymanga]

 

Do you need any animation help? I'd be glad to offer my services if you offered to tell me how to add animations to the CK

 

edit: :tongue: didn't realize it was your thread when i posted :tongue:

Also Damar just posted a topic about needing an animator. "You yes you" or something along those lines.

 

i looked it over and posted on it, but it sounded more like he was asking for help animating

[BlackRampage]

I voted Dunmer with lots of world-aware dialogue. Don't really care about a questline. Well, except maybe a (small) quest in order to recruit the follower. Just walking up to an NPC and saying "I need your help, follow me" isn't exactly very immersive after all.

 

I'd love to see a good voice-acted male follower for once btw. Yes, there's a couple of really good ones like Hoth, Inigo and that Dunmer who's name eludes me atm, but that's about it.

[Corwin1971]

I looked really carefully for the "Pointless nude Anime girl" checkbox, but I didn't see it. :wallbash:

 

My real answer: there are enough follower mods out there that I don't have to time to see them all as it is, so for a new one to catch my eye, it would have to feature a character unique in some way....backstory, personality, etc. Quests would be helpful to flesh that out. I like all my followers to be as quest and location aware as possible.

Edited October 23, 2014 by Corwin1971