A couple of companion mod ideas

[immortalfrieza]

If possible, I'd like to see a couple of changes for companions.

 

First, a mod that lets the player walk through companions. Especially if one has an unlimited companion mod companions tend to clutter up entrances and hallways and other such tight spaces so much that it becomes a pain to try to walk past them.

 

Second, if it can be done I'd like to see a mod that somewhat boosts enemies depending on the number of companions the player currently has, but not so much companions themselves become useless. Even with just the vanilla 2 companions allowed and their base equipment most of the time the player can just sit back and watch as your companions kill everything for you, and with melee enemies often before the enemies can even get close enough to be able to fight back. Throw in mods that allow you to increase the number of companions you can have and it just gets even more lopsided.

 

Therefore, a mod that dynamically improves the statistics of enemies slightly by the number of companions you have would help ensure that companions are somewhat balanced out, even with more companions than usual. For instance, alone a Golden Gecko would be the same as vanilla, with one companion it would improve it's health, durability, and damage by say 1.2, and if you've got say 12 companions the Golden Gecko would boost to say, 3 times it's vanilla. I'm just guessing here with that example, but the point is to boost enemies so they stand a chance against you and your small army of companions but not so much that having companions in the first place is pointless. Some enemies such as Deathclaws probably wouldn't need much of a boost, being powerful enough as it is, then there's enemies that have ranged attacks such as most human ones, which would need somewhat less of a boost than melee as they can fight back without having to close distance, and enemies that typically spawn in groups such as giant ants wouldn't need much of a boost at all.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

Edited June 27, 2015 by immortalfrieza

[devinpatterson]

First, a mod that lets the player walk through companions.

I don't think your going to see any practical way to implement that due to the way the armature works.

 

Second, if it can be done I'd like to see a mod that somewhat boosts enemies depending on the number of companions the player currently has,

A better way to go about this might be just to reduce the pc leveling scale that companions use. Instead of having them level at the same rate as the player, maybe make it .75, half or what have you. Changing existing encounters for the worldspace is going to be work intensive. Even altering encounter lists to bump them higher might be problematic.

[immortalfrieza]

 

First, a mod that lets the player walk through companions.

I don't think your going to see any practical way to implement that due to the way the armature works.

 

Okay, maybe a way to make them go through area transitions after the player instead of before, just like other NPCs sometimes do? That would at least fix the problem with entrances right?

 

 

A better way to go about this might be just to reduce the pc leveling scale that companions use. Instead of having them level at the same rate as the player, maybe make it .75, half or what have you. Changing existing encounters for the worldspace is going to be work intensive. Even altering encounter lists to bump them higher might be problematic.

 

I'm worried about that though, if one just lowers their abilities in general across the board that's probably going to make companions of a certain number less effective while barely affecting the problem with companions of a greater number. I don't want this to make companions ineffective, just no longer gamebreaking and accounting for those that have many more than the base game is designed for.

Edited June 27, 2015 by immortalfrieza

[Morgwynn]

When my companions block my path I just " tcl " command myself past them and then " tcl " back to normal and it only takes a few seconds to do that. You could try that maybe.

[devinpatterson]

Okay, maybe a way to make them go through area transitions after the player instead of before, just like other NPCs sometimes do? That would at least fix the problem with entrances right?

The way companions follow is determined by packages, but some AI behavior like combat is going to override that regardless of the package. I assume that's the problem your having, when you select "Keep Distance" in the companion wheel.....otherwise they would always be trailing you (or as you say "go through area transitions after the player instead of before") and wouldn't be in your way.

 

If that's the case you can force them to evaluate packages faster via script (IsInCombat, AddScriptPackage, and a var), and you can also provide a bit more flexibility for swapping out packages via getDistance.

 

I'm worried about that though, if one just lowers their abilities in general across the board that's probably going to make companions of a certain number less effective while barely affecting the problem with companions of a greater number.

It's a linear progression not geometric, it will reduce their effectiveness by the same proportional amount, whether it's one companion or many.

 

I don't want this to make companions ineffective, just no longer gamebreaking and accounting for those that have many more than the base game is designed for.

What is ineffective or gamebreaking may be very subjective, and that's why this method may work well for you. You can fire up the geck and adjust it to your liking. It's also one of the simplest mods you can make. Realistically no one is likely to change all the opponents in the game world based on a small group of NPCs (companions) abilities, that's *ss backwards. A much more practical/sensible choice is to alter the companions.

 

If, however, you can't work within the geck for some reason, I did propose an alternate method in this forum. It involved reducing companion damage based on the current number of companions following the player. If your interested you can probably find it under my content, or I can track it down for you. It was fairly recent.

[devinpatterson]

Over here;

 

Unlimited Followers Damage Balance

[dangman4ever]

I regularly run around with 10 or more companions. They do block some entrances. That's where the Groovatron mod comes in. It allows you to grab NPCs like companions and move them around with the "Z" key like you would with most in-game objects.