Animal companion/follower commands

[MrSly]

I made a Polar Bear companion (including a PolarBearCompanionRace). If you talk to him (no dialog on his end), he will follow you everywhere. Can't make him stop.

 

At Markarth you can buy a trained dog to follow you around. He has a couple of commands - stay - follow - go home.

 

I copied that dog and made him into another Polar Bear (also using the same PolarBearCompanionRace). The Dialog is still there, I just can't seem to get it to fire. I can talk to him, but there are no dialog options. I can't even get him to follow me now. Not sure how to get the commands to be active so I can tell my Bear to stay put.

 

Ideas?

 

There HAS to be an easy way to do this!!

Edited February 17, 2012 by MrSly

[r1de]

I made a Polar Bear companion (including a PolarBearCompanionRace). If you talk to him (no dialog on his end), he will follow you everywhere. Can't make him stop.

 

At Markarth you can buy a trained dog to follow you around. He has a couple of commands - stay - follow - go home.

 

I copied that dog and made him into another Polar Bear (also using the same PolarBearCompanionRace). The Dialog is still there, I just can't seem to get it to fire. I can talk to him, but there are no dialog options. I can't even get him to follow me now. Not sure how to get the commands to be active so I can tell my Bear to stay put.

 

Ideas?

 

There HAS to be an easy way to do this!!

 

Ok... uh where to start... took me a while to figure all this out. I'm just starting to even slightly understand this stuff, but here goes...

 

sounds like you got your new race working ok, that's good. use the "FollowerDog" script and attach it to your NPC, make an alias property on that script that is "Dog" *edit* actually it looks like I just attached "WEDogFollowerScript"" script and then allowed the properties on that script to auto-fill, then your going to have to go into "DialogueFollower" quest and add your race to the conditions of each one of the "(bark)" uh... topics, yeah I think those are topics.... :)

When you activate your animal follower the first time, nothing really happens, if you activate them again after that then you'll get the dialog, but only "Wait here" and "Leave".

 

*

I do also remember making a "Dog" alias somewhere pointing to my NPC, but I can't remember if that was just something I did when I was testing, I can't find that area again... as I said I'm just starting to get the hang of this. :)

*

 

Took me days but I finally have a "Follower Wolf" who is a new race has a unique skin and does not effect any of the other wolfs (or follower dogs) in the game.... at least I don't think it's effecting them.

At least that is how I remember it. I'll double check in a bit here....

 

I hope that helps, I could email you my .esp if you like. I'm not sure if I am ready to release it just yet, it could still use some finishing touches.

 

hope that helps you. :)

Edited February 17, 2012 by r1de

[MrSly]

That helped a LOT!! Thank you so much!! I now have the dialog showing up when I talk to him, just doesn't work. Neither of the options works.

 

I had the WEDogFollowerScript initially, just needed the info on the DialogFollower piece. That seems to be the thing that was missing.

 

What I actually did was to copy each of the (bark) Topics into my own version (within the DialogFollower) and modified them to suit a Bear. Again, ALMOST there!! Just need to figure out why the dialog isn't functioning...

 

You know, when we can create these followers easily, we NEED to document it in the wiki. ;)

Edited February 17, 2012 by MrSly

[r1de]

That helped a LOT!! Thank you so much!! I now have the dialog showing up when I talk to him, just doesn't work. Neither of the options works.

 

I had the WEDogFollowerScript initially, just needed the info on the DialogFollower piece. That seems to be the thing that was missing.

 

What I actually did was to copy each of the (bark) Topics into my own version (within the DialogFollower) and modified them to suit a Bear. Again, ALMOST there!! Just need to figure out why the dialog isn't functioning...

 

You know, when we can create these followers easily, we NEED to document it in the wiki. ;)

 

I'm still not too good with the quests, sorry. I was trying to make my dog a "quest" sort of like meeko but I couldn't for the life of me get it to work. I gave up on that and just tried to get "wait" and "leave" to work, tried all kinds of stuff, giving her a human voice, etc... (which incidentally worked, I could even trade with the dog, but it seemed to screw with the humanoid follower)

eventually, I just about gave up and started the tutorial on creationkit.com and as I was doing that I had a eureka moment and sort of understood how it *should* work. After that I nearly kicked myself cause it seemed so easy... (when in doubt, get the manual out ;) )

Maybe go try that if you haven't already...

 

My problem is ever since I created a new race for the Wolf Followers they make no sounds at all, no barking, no howling, nothing... Can't figure out why...

If I were you I'd probably just leave the Bears dialogue at "(bark)" and just pretend he has a cold or something...

Trying to learn this thing from scratch is daunting, even with a lil bit of programming knowledge....

 

*edit*

Just need to figure out why the dialog isn't functioning...

this part... check the conditionals on your copies.... maybe....

Edited February 17, 2012 by r1de

[MrSly]

Your talking wolf sounds like fun. I hope you get it to work some day.

 

I think you are right. I'm going to start from scratch, document what I do, and see if I can get it working. If so, then I'll have a template. If not, I'll know what didn't work. :biggrin:

 

As I recall, I:

- MADE a new race (copied from BearSnowRace)

- - ticked Allow PC Dialog, and Copied Data BearSnowRace

 

- CREATED a new Actor (copied from WEFollowerDog)

- - Changed ActorBase to EncBearSnow

- - I tick Use Traits, and Use Stats

- - Then untick Traits and Stats (just wanted the defaults loaded)

- - Set the Race to my new race

- - Go to AI Data and change the Combat Style to csBear

- - Double check that the WEDogFollowerScript is still in the Scripts, and the Factions haven't been changed

 

At this point if I place him in the game he should follow after you talk to him. No way to get him to stop.

 

- OPENED the DialogFollower quest

- under the Player Dialog tab, go through the Branches on the left and wherever there is a Topic with (bark), (whine), (woof), (panting) or (growl):

- - Copy the Info line and change any Dog reference to Bear (crDogVoice, DogCompanionRace, etc.)

 

I think that was it.

 

Thanks again for your help. I think we will figure this out pretty soon now. I will try to help you with quests as soon as I get this Bear to stay put!! Maybe I will add a quest for my Bear as well...

Edited February 18, 2012 by MrSly

[r1de]

I'll have to check out your Bear. I might not have a chance to look at it until monday.

We going on our own quest to find somewhere nice to camp out for the night. :)

 

You inspired me to try and polish off one of the dogs and release her...

so I stayed up way too late last night and finished.

 

Shady the Companion Wolf

 

I hope she works on other peoples game...

stupid comments are locked tho, I have no idea why... :S

[Lazer382]

I'm doing the exact same thing with a fox. You are on the right path with the WEDogFollowerScript but there is a bunch of things you will have to do to make this work:

 

Make a copy of WEDogFollowerScript. Rename it something like WEPolarBearFollowerScript. Open the script and there is a line which says to go to state "done" after activate. Either remove or comment out (put ';' infront of) that line so the actor never goes to the state done. This fixes a bug where if you dismiss an animal follower he wouldn't follow again because he was no longer in the waiting state.

 

The next thing you will need to do is open up the quest DialogFollower. Go to DialogViews and find the dog's dialog prompt/responses for dismiss and the one for wait here/follow me. You will need to copy each of these and then edit them. You will see that one of the requirements for these dialogs is that the follower is in the DogCompanionRace. The trick is to create a PolarBearCompanionRace and set the dialogs to check for for that instead. You will also need to make sure the polar bear follower is a PolarBearCompanionRace.I recommend making a copy of the PolarBearRace (or is it BearRace?) to use as the base and make sure PC dialog is allowed.

 

Might be a couple other things I missed but that should just about cover it.

Edited February 18, 2012 by Lazer382

[MrSly]

I'm doing the exact same thing with a fox. You are on the right path with the WEDogFollowerScript but there is a bunch of things you will have to do to make this work:

 

Make a copy of WEDogFollowerScript. Rename it something like WEPolarBearFollowerScript. Open the script and there is a line which says to go to state "done" after activate. Either remove or comment out (put ';' infront of) the that line so the actor never goes to the state done. This fixes a bug where if you dismiss the follower he wouldn't follow again because he was no longer in the waiting state.

 

The next thing you will need to do is open up the quest DialogFollower. Go to DialogViews and find the dog's dialog prompt/responses for dismiss and the one for wait here/follow me. You will need to copy each of these and then edit them. You will see that one of the requirements for these dialogs is that the follower is in the DogCompanionRace. The trick is to create a PolarBearCompanionRace and set the dialogs to check for for that instead. You will also need to make sure the polar bear follower is a PolarBearCompanionRace.I recommend making a copy of the PolarBearRace (or is it BearRace?) to use as the base and make sure PC dialog is allowed.

 

Might be a couple other things I missed but that should just about cover it.

 

Wow, Lazer, talk about perfect timing... I was just testing my new Bear, and he does everything perfectly, EXCEPT once I tell him to go home, he won't follow me again. SO funny I just found this issue at the same time you told me how to fix it!! Can't wait to try your fox mod (if you release it)! Foxes are my second favorite, right after Polar Bears! You know, the whole SLY thing... :biggrin:

 

I went to the Gameplay menu, selected Papyrus Script Manager, and Filtered "followerscript". Found the script.

Opened it with Notepad.

Copied the contents to the clipboard.

Closed the script.

Right-clicked in the Papyrus Manager and created a New script.

Named it WEPolarBearFollowerScript

Extends ObjectReference

Hit OK.

Pasted in the script from the WEDogFollowerScript.

Deleted the second Scriptname line (with the WEDogFollowerScript).

Changed the middle section to read:

	If PlayerAnimalCount.GetValueInt() == 0
	(DialogueFollower as DialogueFollowerScript).SetAnimal(self)
;		gotostate ("done")
EndIF

 

Closed Notepad and saved the script.

In the Papyrus Manager I right-clicked on the WEPolarBearFollowerScript and selected Compile (I'm guessing I have to do this).

No errors, so must be good. Although it said "Uncompiled" and <nothing selected>.

 

Went back to my Actor.

Under Scripts, Add WEPolarBearFollowerScript

Remove WEDogFollowerScript

Hit OK.

 

Went in to test my Bear. Now the dialogs aren't working. They show up, but don't do anything, can't be selected. I'm guessing it's because the script didn't compile. I don't know how to do that.

 

Putting the WEDogFollowerScript back and removing the PolarBear one fixes the dialogs. But he still won't follow me again after dismissing him, of course.

 

3 questions:

A) Did I change the correct line in the script?

B) Am I supposed to compile the script to be able to use it?

C) How do I compile the script so it can be used?

 

I am SO close to wrapping this up!!

 

Thanks for all your help!

Edited February 18, 2012 by MrSly

[MrSly]

I tried everything I could think of today, no go. Maybe I need to go watch some instructional videos for awhile... Edited February 19, 2012 by MrSly

[Lazer382]

Yes you did comment out the right line. To compile scripts go to Gameplay > Papyrus Script Manager and then you can right click the scripts to compile. Also I released the fox mod (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10304), but since we are modifying the same files they might conflict :( To avoid conflicting we might need to create our own copies of the DialogFollower quest. Then on the custom WEFollowerScript have it point to the new DialogFollower (different name though) made specifically for your new companion(s). Haven't tried myself but in theory should fix potential conflict with modifications to DialogFollower.