LE Super Player to Follower Commands

[Petenks]

We all know you can order a Follower to do certain things by talking directly to them.

 

"Go here"

 

"Take this"

 

"Shoot that"

 

yada yada, you get the idea.

 

Most of the time these commands are next-to-useless; if we need a Follower to Wait, we tell them to wait, and unless you specifically want a follower to sit down on a bench or take a specific item for you, you probably aren't using the "I need you to do something" command.

 

But the idea of commanding your Follower is still cool.

 

Now what if you could do a similar system of commands in-battle?

 

"Use Firebolt!"

 

"Heal yourself"

 

"Buff me!"

 

"Use your Daily Power"

 

"Heal me!"

 

"Switch Weapons!"

 

The possibilities are very expansive, but for the sake of reasonability, let's start with a baby-step, getting a Follower to use a specific ability via the player's remote-command.

 

I've been fitzing with a way to do this using an item or self-spell on the player with an OnHit trigger to relay the information to the NPC, but so far my crappiness at Papyrus is holding me back. I don't know if anyone has already tried an idea like this, but I figure it would be a great idea for a mod, both for improving Followers in-general so they are more useful in heated battles instead of just being mindless attack-drones, and for creating a system modders could play-around with to come up with interesting ideas to implement remote-NPC-commands.

 

Thoughts? =)

[Morodiilunahzaal]

This is prolly just a personal oppinion, but replace the "Buff me!" with something else. "Buffs" should stay in mmos :biggrin:

[Petenks]

This is prolly just a personal oppinion, but replace the "Buff me!" with something else. "Buffs" should stay in mmos :biggrin:

 

Fair enough, but you get the idea. Cast Courage or Rally on the Player or the like.

[Petenks]

How about this for a list of commands:

 

"Switch to X" - Possibly changes the values under the Combat Style, outright switches them, or forces an inventory/spell-list change.

 

with "X" =

 

"melee" - Follower changes to close-range combat, using whatever physical weapon they have on-hand.

 

"ranged" - Follower changes to long-ranged weapons such as bows or spells, and falls back from combat.

 

"healing" - Follower uses whatever healing spells or potions they have, and falls back from combat.

 

"support" - Follower closes on the player and uses AoE healing spells and buffs.

 

"Cast element" - Fire, Shock, Frost, etc.

 

"Stop attacking!" - VERY useful and necessary; how many times have you had a situation where your Follower(s) either start attacking an NPC or enemy you really don't want to fight, each other, or you (due to an accidental AoE destruction)? Cause the Follower to stop attacking its target and return to the Dragonborn.

 

"Go all out!" - Cause a Follower to use any Powers they happen to have. This is mostly for custom Mod-Followers who may be capable of using Shouts, Powers or Transformations.

[DreamKingMods]

For what it's worth, my mod for Aela has something like this--here's a screenshot with the available options.

 

It is implemented via a magic effect that opens the menu--in this case triggered by a lesser power, although it could also be a spell or item. SKSE will make this sort of thing easier, eventually, since it will allow detecting keypresses.