Primary Character Switcher

[Paegus]

I have had a look (here and google) but haven't found much to do with this so hear goes:

 

The basic idea is the turn the Single RPG game style with companions into a Multiple RPG where you get to play as any one of the characters that are companioned with you. Think Dungeon Siege.

 

The quests could probably be left as universally shared among all the characters but it might be nice to have at least the active quest character specific so when you switch character you switch active quest as well so you can't have 2 doing the same.

 

If separation occurs there could be mod specific quests that can be assigned to the player while not under direct control. Things like 'come to me aggressively/evasively/directly/etc', 'defend me', 'go to the place i hit aggressive/evasive/directly/etc' and so on.

 

I'll leave the rest up to the potential coder.

[ItWotBeSoonBeforeLong]

You have a good idea.But that would be very difficult.Also,Oblivion was made to be a control your own player type game.The idea of-"If separation occurs there could be mod specific quests that can be assigned to the player while not under direct control. Things like 'come to me aggressively/evasively/directly/etc', 'defend me', 'go to the place i hit aggressive/evasive/directly/etc' and so on."would turn the game to third person orriented(sp?)Its a very good idea though!

[Paegus]

well if it can be taken to that extreme it would still be pretty cool... but it's hardly required.

in the meantime the 'go there and do such-an-such' commands would be yoinked from the advanced companion mod where you can case a spell that targets an enemy and then tell your mates to attack him.

[Vagrant0]

If I'm understanding this correctly, it cannot be done in any way, shape, or form. The player character is very specific and unique. It is the only NPC that can be controlled by the player directly. There is absolutly no way to switch over to control another character. You cannot even copy over another characters appearance onto the player. There is simply no way to control anyone else other than the player character. I was something bethsoft never intended to happen in any shape or form, so there is no method of accomplishing this in any shape or form. Even with OBSE it cannot be done. Even if you had access to the base code, you probably couldn't get anything like this to happen without actually writing that code from scratch. You're forced to only have control of the player character, and can only change your race/hair/eyes/gender/face through the race creation menu.

[Paegus]

the advanced companion/neeshka(?) plugin lets you issue basic commands to companions.

when you create a companion you're just making a duplicate actor.

so when you switch it'll copy your current and make it a companion. then all you need to worry about is either switching the player control to the NPC or overwriting the current with the existing companion's data then deleting the extra actor.

 

you don't have to have explicit control over any more than just the 1 character at once. sure it would be nice but it's just extra icing that the cake doesn't really need to accomplish its goal of tasting nice.

[Vagrant0]

you don't have to have explicit control over any more than just the 1 character at once.

It is not being limited to only controling one character at once, it is that the player is the ONLY character that you can control directly. Everything else has to be controlled remotly though dialogues and scripts. You will NEVER be able to see through the eyes of a companion, and never control them in the same manner, or anywhere close as you can the player character.

 

then all you need to worry about is either switching the player control to the NPC or overwriting the current with the existing companion's data then deleting the extra actor.

is exactly what I am saying is entirely 118% impossible within Oblivions environment. It cannot be done. No ammount of scripting can accomplish it. It is not something which is possible within the game. How many other ways do I need to explain it... It won't happen, can't happen, ever. As I said, even replicating charistics of an NPC onto the player is impossible. The closest you could probably get would be making a specific full body suit for that NPC, and even then you would still run into issues including voice, race checks, gender checks, functioning mouth, eyes, and lots of other stuff. Anything which could be done would be a poor, and broken imitation at best.

 

Since it would require a very specific set of meshes turned armor, it would only work for that one NPC, and would not allow other equipment to be worn in those positions. Additionally since there are problems, as mentioned, which would ignore your current "costume", you could not use such a thing outside very specific circumstances where you can adjust all interactions to take that "costume" into considderation. This means such a thing would only be viable in cases where you have a specific situation where you need the player to look like someone else for a short period of time, where the player won't have any interactions outside that situation. Which means two things. First, setting up that situation will take alot of planning and ability. Second, it cannot be used outside that specific situation without problems (and trying to reduce those problems by adjusting each and every dialogue or script that performs those checks would require alot of time and would likely conflict with alot of things).