[LE] Ideas for a truly useless follower?

[nerdofprey]

I've got this little mod in the works that's really just for laughs. Without spoiling too much, the idea is to make the worst follower ever, one that actively makes the game more difficult.

 

I've got a lot of plans already, and there are some obvious things that are really easy to do like terrible stats...

 

I'm adding a perk that puts his stagger chance at 100% so he can't take a punch.

 

I'm going to add random chatter lines that only fire when you're sneaking that have a "detection event" script to alert enemies to your presence.

 

I'm making him super aggressive so he will run around starting fights you can't finish...

 

I'm making it so he can't equip basically any gear (custom race where the default "skin" is an ugly outfit) and has next to zero carry weight, and probably won't even add a "let's trade" option... His primary weapon is a wooden sword.

 

 

I'm trying to think outside the box a bit. I want it to be impossible to dismiss him, but if possible I want to go beyond just not adding dismiss dialogue. I'm trying to think if there's a good way to block other follower management mods from giving the player more options. I think maybe just putting "reserves reference" on the quest alias and locking his AI into the alias will block most mods from taking control.

 

I'm trying to think if there's a clean way to stop him from even being console disabled, it might be as simple as an on-load script on the reference that enables it. Like I really want to make sure you're f--ked forever unless you uninstall the mod, haha...

 

 

I'm pretty proficient at modding in general at this point, and I'm not really asking for "how-to" stuff here, so much as just more ideas for "features" I could add, or better ways to handle any of the above. Suggestions are welcome!

[greyday01]

Make him a drunk that sings loudly. Usually dirty songs about various races that enrage anyone within hearing.

[dactyl]

Anything you give to him he eventually misplaces.

 

He can't resist stealing anything in sight and getting the guards angry at you.

 

If the player tries to hit him or cast a spell on him it's just reflected back on them.

 

He purposely stands directly in front of the player when he's aiming a bow.

 

You can ask him to unlock a chest/door for you but he always damages the lock so bad the chest/door is forever un-openable.

 

If you disable or kill him in the console two more of him are spawned at the player :laugh:.

 

If you try to sleep while he's around he'll keep waking you up every 30 minutes to say something completely useless.

 

I wonder how many endorsements you'd get :teehee:.

[nerdofprey]

I was actually just thinking about letting him misplace your items... Let the player trade stuff to him but his inventory gets wiped at random.

 

I'm not actually sure how to make him wake you up when you try to sleep, but that would be hilarious and perfect.

 

It's worth pointing out that "worst follower ever" isn't 100% of what the mod is about, the dude has story reasons for existing and not every idea will be applicable to the character, but I just want to make sure that as a follower he is more a liability than anything...

[foamyesque]

Randomly casts Candlelight, ideally when you're trying to sneak.

[Di0nysys]

Make him drop every single item you give him, give him a speed of 10. Done.
Also, have him spring into random singing episodes.

[agerweb]

I did a butler for my Enderal player home and everytime you try to give him anything to carry he would make some excuse, like 'not with my back'.

[SmedleyDButler]

Couple of ideas:

 

- Basically Erik the Slayer (farmer turned adventurer), but actually useless in a fight and has no gear, like a real farmer-turned adventurer.

- "Stupid dog!"

- Bad skooma problem combines being unreliable and a chronic thief (and maybe other issues, like being twitchy, bad in combat). Replace skooma with a different, harder to obtain drug (and possibly similar), for extra comedy.

- The Skyrim equivalent of a redneck, who insists on doing crazy nonsense all the time (I have no idea what the Skyrim equivalent of putting rockets on your riding mower or anvil blasting would be though).

[JonathanOstrus]

My favorite is followers that can "heal" healing enemies. A bit tricky to pull off but still amusing.

 

A twist on the misplaced items would be to have him just randomly drop them while traveling. Would at least allow the player a chance to recover it if desired.

 

Making the NPC a reserved reference won't necessarily prevent them from being used on other quests. All they would have to do is "allow reserved" on the alias.

 

I had to do an arguably ugly hack to prevent Mirai from being added to AFT. Not sure about EFF or other follower systems.

 

 

ReferenceAlias Property Alias_Mirai  Auto  
Faction Property TweakIgnoreFaction Auto
 
Function CheckAFT()
    TweakIgnoreFaction = Game.GetFormFromFile(0x0229C3, "AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp") as Faction
    if TweakIgnoreFaction
        Alias_Mirai.GetActorReference().AddToFaction(TweakIgnoreFaction)
    endif
EndFunction

Edited September 10, 2018 by BigAndFlabby

[corrado33]

Randomly leaves your side to walk off in some other direction only to come running back a few seconds later followed by a dozen or so enemies. (Of course having lost his weapon and some of his armor.)

 

Or basically anytime he gets too far away from you.

 

Constantly pisses off guards (Some followers do this already by accident.)

Edited September 12, 2018 by corrado33