UPDATE 3/13/10

I hit a huge snag with the mod about 10 days ago and had to rework the whole thing to fix it. The consequence of that has been a cleaner, leaner mod and a lot of work. I’ve also made some changes based on gameplay and testing and the valuable feedback I got from my first posting of this topic.
So, I hadn’t originally intended to change anything about Charon’s combat characteristics. I guess, because I’m pretty new at this, and so few mods make any real change to combat characteristics, I assumed it was beyond me, but after receiving those comments it got me thinking. Why shouldn’t I try and improve his combat performance? So I started poking around at what controls his behavior and this is what I’ve done to him since my last posting.
Combat Style Charon now always fights with his Ranged Weapon only if the player does nothing or chooses Ranged as his Combat Style. So, even if he’s three feet from a target he will not use his melee weapon. This is his default Combat Style. He still unsheaths his Combat Knife when he is searching for enemies, but even if they appear while his knife is out and they are a few feet away he will put it away and use his ranged weapon. He does have a Combat Style choice now for using both types of weapons and will then fight up close using his melee weapon.
Not Engaging in Combat I’ve implemented a couple of forms of this. (1) There is an option to put him on a “Wait” where he will stay put in a location and not fight. He will try to hide if there is cover very close by. And (2) which I am very excited about and didn’t think I would like personally, but has turned out to be so much fun, I have implemented an option during his SNEAK following option which makes him not engage in combat at all. So you can tell him to “Follow while sneaking and do not attack anything or anyone at all” and he does it. I’ve also created a headwrap which gives the StealthBoy effect to him. So I thought this would be very lame, but I like to play Unarmed and he tends to shoot targets before I can get to them, and I put him in the sneaking, no fight, invisible mode and took him through The Chryslus Building with me while I hunted and punched all the Muties to death. He didn’t attack anything and was perfectly silent except when combat ended, “Good Riddance.” And, although this mode might make him flee, I’ve condition his flee dialogue to be unavailable so he won’t ever sound like he’s scared and running away. He might cover his head and cower sometimes though, but I like to think of it as a consequence of you ordering him to be passive. Plus, I can’t do anything about it as it is just a part of the game I cannot change. He also has a sneak, follow mode during which he attacks more like he usually will.
The CTFTD (The Companion Tracking and Fast Travel Device) has turned out to be fabulously useful. I had originally set it up to be able to rehire him remotely once he had been fired to the Ninth Circle. I did this because I hated returning there whenever he was autofired. I hadn’t planned this, but because I did that Charon can be brought into Raven Rock (that was fun!) and Point Lookout with it. I haven’t tested it in The Pitt yet but it should work there as well.
What I’ve removed from original
-I axed his disapproval of Evil Characters. It was very subtle and added nothing. What little there was fell flat during gameplay IMO.
-I axed what little I had left of a new background. I had originally conceived of something I liked and had built it and then removed it for compatibility reasons. What was left was pretty lame. It’s now all gone.
-Right now he isn’t talking to other NPCs except for Gob. And I’m hoping for some feedback about Gustavo at Tenpenny Tower. So I have a conversation crafted that allows the player to talk past Gustavo into TT, leave with Charon or blast into the Tower. This is all because Charon is there and I always felt Gustavo would object. This conversation would take place if Charon is there at the initial gate entrance. I was also planning one for later inside if Charon wasn’t there initially. Anyway, even if Gustavo says something, NOBODY in the Tower will acknowledge Charon’s presence because I’m not rewriting everyone’s dialogue. Will having Gustavo say anything be worth it or is it pointless considering the rest of the residents still ignore him and they are supposed to be raving bigots?
-llama

End of Update

I'm working on a mod to improve the experience of having Charon as a companion. I have most of it completed and am posting this thread to find out if there would be any interest in the mod when it is done. I'm asking this question so I can plan the rest of the development of the mod. If I release it I will be more careful with compatibility issues than I would be if I am only doing it for myself.

My motivation for doing this mod is a lot of hours (hundreds) of playing with Charon as a follower on the 360 and thinking of all the things that would make him a better, more believable character. I find some of the vanilla companions to have good personalities, but they are lacking in so many ways. This is my attempt to make my favorite vanilla follower better and more fun to have in the game.

What's been done:

Personality
Dialogue
I have retrieved all of the dialogue for all of the ghouls in the game done by the same actor who voices Charon and have used it to flesh out his dialogue. It isn't an enormous increase, because there just isn’t that much available, but he does have a lot more Idle pvssyr and a lot more lines. Most of his new conversation is used to give him new capabilities. I've tried to make everything conversation based with him for immersion reasons.

Disapproval of Evil Characters
So Charon really doesn't like Ahzrukhal because he's an evil bastard”and it's always bothered me that he is completely neutral about our behavior. I’ve added some ability for him to display disapproval if the PC engages in certain evil activities. It is NOT karma based, but activity based. He never nags or leaves (he has a contract after all) but his dialogue is more grumbly and less polite when the PC is evil in his eyes.

Background
I've added a microscopic amount of info in the Ninth Circle to give him some background out in the Wasteland so he has some more substance. I dislike that we pick up a companion who has so little reason for the things he does.

Independent Action
He has a Sandbox mode, in addition to Wait, but I've also added the ability for him to go off on his own in Megaton and Rivet City. The PC has to retrieve him and it’s all done in dialogue as a conversation. He will chose randomly what he is interested in doing when asked.

The CTFTD (The Companion Tracking and Fast Travel Device)
This isn't terribly original, but because of his independent action I felt it was necessary. He could get lost if he goes haywire while he’s wandering around. This device,which is similar to radios in other mods, allows the PC to bring Charon back from wherever. It's actually turned out to be quite useful for portals that he cannot go through and when he has glitched and gotten stuck somewhere for whatever reason.

Appearance
I changed his appearance. I gave him a head of hair (it looks like Snowflake’s). It's the same color as his scant hair and I gave him clear blue eyes. I've also dressed him more appropriately for his life as a bouncer. However, he’s got a kit ready to take with him upon hire because of the new additional background info I added.

Screenie of Charon just after he's been hired. Shows his new hair and an Idle Animation while following.
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/624/screenshot70f.png



Wait, there’s more:
-The PC can trade him for his personal”weapons; his combat shotty and a new weapon that I've given him. When the PC talks to him about it in the trade menu there is also an option to return the weapon in the menu. This allows him to have unlimited ammo for the weapon even after the PC has removed it. Although the weapons could just be given back in the normal trade window so he doesn't have unlimited ammo available.
-He uses StealthBoys via dialogue
-I've added two additional Follow options. One that is closer than his default distance and one in which he sneaks the entire time until the PC tells him to stop. One of the things that always bothered me about the companions is the way they stand up when you are both in sneak if you talk to them. Using this sneak package keeps him crouched when dialogue is initiated.
-If you talk to him about it in dialogue he will agree to take a good Energy Weapon and learn to use it. And then, if you give him one he will use it. I do take away his superior SG to get him to use a Laser Rifle. He'll still use the superior weapon, even if it's SG, but if you remove them from his inventory he equips the EW and uses it.
- There is a dialogue option that pops up when he is injured out of combat that allows the PC to tell him to use a stimpak, which he does, complete with idle animation
-I've implemented a dialogue option for when he’s off chasing enemies, which he has a terrible habit of doing. It calms him down. It works, right now, about 80% of the time. I'm looking into making it work 100% of the time.
-There's the requisite dialogue option to make him Essential or not.
-I've added Idle Animations to his Follow packages so that when the player has finished combat, for instance, and turns around and looks at Charon he isn’t standing there like a cardboard cutout. He is crossing his arms, or rubbing his face, etc. I can't stand that dead standing still thing they do. I added Idles to his Wait as well so he is moving and acting normal even though he is standing still.
-I've added a dialogue option to tell him to holster his weapon because the companions so frequently walk around with their weapons drawn when they shouldn't.
-I've added a new combat style to him. It allows him to use both melee and ranged weapons. He fights more like Clover or Jericho with that choice. He'll use melee close in and his ranged weapons further away.

Dialogue throughout the Wasteland
To avoid more compatibility issues I’ve done as little touching of NPCs as I thought I should. However, Gob initiates dialogue with Charon the first time he enters Moriarty’s because two ghouls out of Underworld should be talking to each other. I've also added dialogue to Gustavo, who will now confront the player about Charon’s presence. Ideally Charon would talk to a lot of NPCs. I'd like it if he used bodyguard”type language with the more obnoxious NPCs and if he could directly voice a dislike of the BOS to them. I'd also like a lot of pvssyr among followers. I'ts awfully disappointing that they can run around together but never interact. I've piloted some dialogue between Charon and Jericho. It’s pretty sweet, but I would want to do a complete revamp of Jericho and include him in this or another mod before I implemented as much as I can imagine would be good. I'd love to have Charon, Jericho and Clover all pvssyring away, but a lot of this would cause compatibility issues. So, right now, he is using Idle pvssyr, or random comments, when certain NPCs are around or he’s in certain locations, but it means that he might or might not say things when the player is in the location where he should, because of his character, be saying these things.

Compatibility
Here's the bad news. Charon isn't compatible with Phalanx. He cannot be used with any other mod that scripts him, like Companion Behaviour Overhaul. I've played with Better Companions and 0hFollowersHireContinued and he is fine if CharonImproved is lower in the load order. That way other companions are affected but he isn't affected. FollowersRelax, even if it is higher in the load order, will turn his Waiting into a Sandbox function, so that gets lost, but otherwise doesn't affect/break the mod or my game when I have it loaded.

There are a couple of more things I am working the kinks out of and then I need to play a full game with Charon to see how it goes, but mostly he's done and I expect to be "finished" within a month.

llama

:clap: *patiently waiting on Llama to finish*

Done yet? This looks amazing, Llama. I always wanted him to be able to talk to Gob and the sneaking bit is a fabulous idea.

I most definitely would be interested in this, Charon as he is now is a more than a little boring so all those changes to dialogue you have made sounds like just the thing to make him more interesting to have around. Now if there was only a way to tell followers to stay and not move even if they detect a hostile npc. *remembers Charon running amok and dying in metro central*

I have historically not played with companions at all - just not caring for the way it fits into my personal FO3 experience.

However, while I don't care for the suit or the hair in the screenshot (the hair just feels like a bit "too much" to me), reading about what you're doing with this makes me actually want to try out a character that uses him (with this mod) as a companion.

Kudos for the work you've put into this, and yes - please release this when you're done!

Thanks guys. I've really enjoyed fixing him up. He's much more fun to have around. And, ghouls, the sneaking thing is really cool. I think consoling or getting Chinese Stealth Armor for him combined with the sneak following would be amazing. I don't know if I'd want him to sneak all the time, though. I've conditioned his dialogue so he says absolutely nothing when he's sneaking unless you speak to him. Although if I release it and sneaky players don't like him that silent, it could be changed very easily.



Ya, I was thinking if I released it I would have a version with the new looks and one with the original appearance because there would be players who were attached to the way he's always looked. I added the hair because I was always a little freaked out by the way his scalp looks and I like to have him not wear a helmet, but overall I'm trying to improve him without ruining the original experience of having him around. So, ya, he talks more, but I've tried to keep it isomewhat in line with the way he's always been, or related to what his original dialogue said, or something pretty innocuous. He is a little more jolly, but not too much. I guess I'd describe it as content to be away from the Ninth Circle. Unless you blow up Megaton or get too seriously into slavery. Then he's gets grumpier again.


Ya, that's definitely a bad habit of his. I've implemented a dialogue option to tell him to calm the heck down, and it mostly works. In combination with the FT "device" he can be brought back to the player's side without having to chase him down. It's working pretty well right now. I've only had one incident where he just wouldn't stop chasing a baddie. I'm not sure what that was about but my goal is to tinker with it so that he can be brought back or stopped all of the time.

I'm really interested in this.
Does it also change his combat behavior a bit? I'm tired of setting him to use his ranged weapon just to see him charge at enemies with his worthless knife

No, not really. In fact I gave him a new combat style that makes him use melee weapons even more; like Jericho and Clover do, although the original choices are still there. I usually manage his behavior by giving him different weapons. For instance, if his combat knife is bugging you, you might give him a Shiskebob. The animation gets messed up sometimes though and he'll be wearing the gas tank and his ranged weapon at the same time. I prefer to use The Immolator from Kikai's Equipment mod. If your primary interest is combat, you might want to check out another mod, Phalanx, which is much more combat centric and gives options for more commands for combat. It works well with a group of followers as well. Here's the link:

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1925

Thanks for your ideas. I've implemented a couple of things that I've detailed in the update that cover these concerns. The wait option works best if you have him wait before he becomes alerted to an enemy's presence. The calling him back option I've implemented should work for that. I'm trying to get the two to work together, but it doesn't look right yet. I'm still working on it.

This looks incredible. Charon has always been my favorite follower.

I know you said it won't be compatible with Phalanx, but what about SCC?

I went and looked at SCC's page on the Nexus and under Known Issues it says this:

Any mod that edits vanilla companion packages or contains the aaaFriend quest;
-Brahmin Bessy

I'm not familiar with SCC, and haven't used it, as I don't use FOSE, although I did go and download the not-FOSE version just now so I could check it out for you, but then I saw the comment on the Nexus which leads me to believe that my mod would not be compatible since I not only edited his existing packages, but added a lot more of them.

This is the real problem with trying to improve Charon's personality, which was my main goal. There are other existing mods that improve the rest of the companion experience, but I wanted him to be a more well rounded character, as much as possible.

Alright. I'll take this over SCC any day.

Wow, great, that's what I need to hear !

I wrote this above, but I wrote a ton of stuff so you may have missed it. I'm looking for feedback from potential users. Do you have any opinion on this?