Starting a massive Companion mod

[drunk3nrabbit]

For a Summer project I want to make an incredibly immersive companion mod. I've planned this all out with every detail that i can think of. At first I was asking someone to do this for me, but now I think that I'll start on it on my own.

 

I think that Antoinetta Marie, from the Dark Brotherhood would make a great companion considering that the Dark Brotherhood Murderer isn't a very good one. One thing that i dislike about many companion mods is that they aren't very advanced or automatic, not that they aren't great Mods, they just break immersion too much for me. I've wanted a companion that is a little more automatic and advanced.

 

If you don't want to read through this all I have two questions. The first, is there already a mod that does most of this already (you really should read the list to answer) and the seccond, where should I begin. I've NEVER made any type of a mod before for any game, and I have very little coding/scripting experience. I do how ever have a very creative mind and can pick up on technology related things quickly, so I don't believe that this will be impossible for me. I'm not going to deny that It will be a huge challenge though.

 

Here is the list of what I want this companion to do:

• Set as essential (togelable)
   
  
• Comes with personal Black Horse that fast travels with her/me
   
  
• Will automatically mount or dismount her horse when I do
   
  
• When I speak to her I can tell her to "Let me see your equipment" which will bring up a pickpocket window to allow me to customize her inventory (like add normal clothes, other weapons, better armor)
   
  
• When I speak to her I can tell her if we are "on a mission" (she will don what ever armor/weapon i have given her weather it is the shrouded armor of daedric armor) or tell her that we are "out for a stroll" (she will don what ever non armor/remove weapon that i have given her e.g. robes or shirt/pants/shoes)
   
  
• If she doesn't have anything of that type, she just won't wear anything
   
  
• When I enter sneak mode she will do the same
   
  
• If she is in "mission mode" she will turn 35% chameleon otherwise whe will just stay visible
   
  
• Make her detectable-ness have the same relation to stats and chamelion as the PC (sorry if that's confusing, if i need to clear it up I'll try)
   
  
• All her stats and level mirror the PC (I just think that it is annoying having my companion leveling up because I've had too many that don't level properly for some reason and kept getting axed)
   
  
• Have a feature that will send her to attack the targeted opponent (to add some tactics to the game, if we were sneaking up on a bandit camp, i could have her target one and focous on him while i take on the rest)
   
  
• When I speak to her I can tell her to "protect me" (she will go and attack hostiles that have noticed us), "stay in the shadows" (she will keep her distance when i get into a fight), or "look for a fight" (if she can see an enemy she will attack it)
   
  
• Allow her to decide to use a bow and arrow or a meelee weapon depending on the distance of the enemy
   
  
• Unlimited arrows (if i give her one she can shoot 100)
   
  
• unbreakable armor/weapon
   
  
• impossible to disarm
   
  
• Disposition at 100 no matter what
   
  
• During conversation display current commands (e.g. "Protecting You" and "On a Mission")
   
  
• Keep her very close to me, especially in sneak mode
   
  
• won't attack PC ever
   
  
• keep facial structure, but change race to Imperial (remove elf ears)
   
  
• Give thief Birth Sign
   
  
• When I speak to her at the Sanctuary I can tell her to "Follow your master" and then I can tell her to "Return home sister"
   
  
• Leave her original conversation options such as "Lucian Lachance" "sithis" "nightmother" but remove "rumors" and "contract" because I don't want her telling me that she is going to have ocheeva's position while ocheeva is dead.
   
  
• Follow me into the Shivering Isles? (and leave the horse behind for immersion?)
   
  
• Follow me into Jail
   
  
• Give a lesser power "Call Antoinetta Marie" to me to summon her if she gets lost, but set the point of spawn out of view so that she comes running to me instead of just appearing.
  

Some issues that i can foresee that might be problems:

• remove currently equipped items or make them unremoveable from the inventory screen (if she is "out for a stroll" then her non-combat items will not be removable) but i guess that you don't see worn items while in pick pocket which is why when I tell her "Let me see your equipment" it should show the pickpocket inventory (thus removing the need for me to pickpocket her)
  
• when she is summoned make sure that the first copy isn't left around. it would be annoying to have her get stuck between two rocks twenty feet back summon her and then find her trying to follow me later, while a copy is already following me. Also make sure that her inventory is left intact when the summon spell is cast
   
  Extra notes:
  
  • I don't think that it would be very difficult to give full voice because she is already voice acted. All that would be needed would be to take snippets of her regular conversation monolog, and from her persuasion minigame.
    
  • It would be best if the original Antoinetta Marie was removed from the game and marked as killed {by Bellamont? if there is a tag that says "by who"}(so that the purification can continue) and make the companion version stand in her place. That way I could have her follow me from the beginning without conflicting with a DB quest (hopefully)
    
  • If possible, it would be neat to have her run the scripted schedule of the original while in the DB Sanctuary so that she isn't in the same place every time I tell her to return
    

  I am planning to make this fully open source so that others can make better companion mods (if it hasn't been done already)

   

  Just from looking at some scripts I get the feeling that at least most of the list that involves following the actions of my characters can be done by getPlayerlevel, getPlayersneak and stuff like that. Not just like that, I know that there's a lot more, but I can't take this off the top of my head.

   

  I am also willing to have a team work on this if you're interested, to split up the work load and release it before TES V: 1337, comes out :)

   

  I guess to start, you could point me to some good places to just make a basic companion mod.

   

  thanks for the help

[martine94]

The best companion mod i know is nammed ''Ramy's enfant'' it's Great to learn from and absolutly an amazing mod.

[drunk3nrabbit]

The best companion mod i know is nammed ''Ramy's enfant'' it's Great to learn from and absolutly an amazing mod.

 

I just installed and it is very excellent, thanks.

 

Does any one know how I could replace the model in Ramy's enfant with Antoinetta Marie?

I'd also want to know where to look in the files for how to change the stats to mirror what the player's are

lastly, just to get me started I want to know where i could get the sound files for Antoinetta Marie, how to edit them (if they are a standard sound format i have what i need), and replace the sounds in ramy's enfant, and the conversation options.

[martine94]

It be possible to simply change ramy to marie , Don't forget you will have to ask permission to submit any changed to the mod and release it.I think it might be as easy as this , Look up ramy in the NPC Id stuff and simply change her race , look etc... I'm not sure there's a way to copy marie's apperence auto , In worst case you will have to do it manually.

[drunk3nrabbit]

It be possible to simply change ramy to marie , Don't forget you will have to ask permission to submit any changed to the mod and release it.I think it might be as easy as this , Look up ramy in the NPC Id stuff and simply change her race , look etc... I'm not sure there's a way to copy marie's apperence auto , In worst case you will have to do it manually.

 

If there is a way to bring up the character creation panel on an NPC? If so couldn't I use it to get the numbers of Marie with the numbered sliders mod, write them down. then do the same with ramy, but change her race and sliders to the same numbers as marie?

[PanzerOfGod]

In the middle of an NPC's edit window, there will be some tabs up top. The advanced face tab is like the character creation screen.