So, I'm porting CSR from Fallout 3 to Fallout New Vegas, and wanted opinions on a new feature I'm adding.

For those unfamiliar with CSR from Fallout 3 and Oblivion, it adds the ability to (if you pass a speech check) recruit most named NPCs as companions, and order them around- up to half your Charisma worth of them. If they have the appropriate skills tagged-

• [Lockpick] They can unlock doors & containers.
  
• [Science] They can hack terminals.
  
• [Explosives] They can pants people, or explosively breach locks.
  
• [Medicine] They can be set to automatically heal you or fellow party members who get hurt in combat.
  
• They can loot bodies or containers.
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pS5w-hZkfs

You can also befriend NPCs with an easier speech check, to lend them items or borrow their stuff.

The mod also contains group orders you can use to order all your followers to follow, wait, change weapons etc. simultaneously. It handles this part through a common resource, so you can order followers around from any mods that use it simultaneously (and all followers that use it will automatically heal/repair each other when appropriate). The New Vegas iteration of this resource (Companion Core.esm) has been set up with default dialogue and scripts to allow you to easily plug new companions into the system so they can use the special orders, follow group commands etc- making it easier for people to make custom companions, so they don't have to wrangle with understanding the Companion Wheel themselves.

CSR Fallout 3 added the option for you to change the class of your followers, if you had the Educated perk, and the New Vegas edition is expanding on that. Each class has 3 tag skills, and if you want to change someone to a class each of the skills must be either a Tag skill for them, or known at >=40 by you- so if have a chump follower with Speech tagged, and you have Medicine of 50, you could read a Programmers Digest, pop some Mentats, then teach them to be a Follower of the Apocalypse. Since companions in NV all add perks, the classes in CSR:NV are all themed along the lines of the factions of the Mojave, and add perks themed by that faction too (although giving someone a class doesn't actually add them to that faction, just themes them). The classes are balanced such that there's at least 4 classes with each usable skill, to try and ensure there's always a variety of classes you can assign people to and to encourage you to have a broad variety to get as many useful perks/abilities as possible.

Here's the list, broadly split by active effects only, active & passive, passive only and Faction Effects.

• [Medic/Sci/Speech] Follower of the Apocalypse - - - Is Doctor
  
• [Guns/Lockpick/Repair] Mechanic - - - Can Repair
  
• [Energy/Repair/Sci] Brotherhood Scribe - - - Can Workbench
  
• [Guns/Melee/Survive] Prospector - - - Can Campfire
  
• [Guns/Repair/Barter] Gun Runner - - - Can Ammo Bench
  
  
• [Guns/Melee/Speech] Kings Ganger - - - Can Haircut, 3 Bonus DT whilst wearing no hat
  
• [Expl/Lockpick/Sneak] Powder Ganger - - - Can scavenge dynamite 1/day, 10% Damage bonus with thrown
  
• [Guns/Medic/Melee] Great Khan - - - Can scavenge chems 1/day, -20% Addiction chance
  
  
• [Barter/Energy/Lockpick] Van Der Graff - - - 20% Bonus Energy ammo retention
  
• [Guns/Sneak/Survive] Mojave Ranger - - - 10% Range bonus
  
• [Barter/Speech/Survive] Caravaneer - - - 10% Buy Price Reduction
  
• [Expl/Guns/Repair] Boomer - - - 10% Explosion radius increase
  
• [Energy/Guns/Melee] Fiend - - - 25% Modify positive chem duration
  
• [Energy/Sci/Unarm] Paladin - - - 5% Crit chance bonus with E-Weaps
  
• [Energy/Expl/Guns] Mercenary - - - 10% Bonus aiming move speed
  
• [Sci/Speech/Unarm] Vault Dweller - - - NO IDEA
  
  
• [Expl/Guns/Medic] NCR Trooper - - - 3 Bonus DT in NCR Armour
  
• [Expl/Guns/Sneak] NCR First Recon - - - 5% Bonus Damage in NCR Armour
  
• [Guns/Melee/Survive] Legionary - - - 5% Bonus Damage in Legion Armour
  
• [Guns/Survival/Unarm] Praetorian - - - 3 Bonus DT in Legion Armour

As you may have guessed from the big red NO IDEA I can't think of an effect for the Vault Dweller class, and it can't really be ditched as it rounds out the Science & Unarmed class count.
I also can't really think of any other iconic dwellers of the Mojave, and those I can think of (Gamblers, Viper/Jackal Gangers) don't have particularly distinct skillsets or abilities. If you can think of a suitable ability for Vault Dwellers, or identify any holes in the skillset or ways to plug them (for example, there's only 3 classes with Lockpick), or have more interesting perk ideas for some of the classes that're a bit dull (Mercenary, Ranger, Paladin, Boomer) then I want to hear from you.
Plus, I'm not hugely satisfied with the Mechanic- it's a tad plain, compared to the others, but the 'Repair items' role needs to be filled. Ideas?

Please don't suggest damage/DT modifying perks- they're a little dull and too powerful, which is why the only existing ones are heavily themed. I also don't want to just add dozens more classes for their own sake, as that'll clutter things up- but unique and interesting perks are more than worth the menu clutter of one or two more classes.

For the Vault Dweller, how about something like 3% xp bonus, due to their broad educational background? I don't know if that's high enough to matter, considering the Well Rested effect, but it's a thought.

I suggest adding some 'generic' NPCs to places where there classes would hang out. Otherwise what you got so far sounds gravy.

XP bonuses are sort of non-benefits, as they tend to accelerate how fast you hit the level cap rather than giving benefits to a particular playstyle or influencing how the player actually plays.

The 3rd Type: Good idea, given a bunch came out for CSR:Fallout it would make sense to have a 'extra recruitable NPCs' mod from the start. The downside is I'm awful at making faces, so they'll all have ugly 'Random button' faces, but eh.

I could make there faces look slightly more human, if you want. Depending on how many, and what comes up, I mean.

I don't know it can be done, but you ask for ideas so heres a few of mine to toss out

maybe some kind of bonus when inside a vault? a combat bonus due to there knowledge of the insides of a vault

or maybe they could allow you to unlock all the doors or hack all the computers inside any vault

or they reveal a random vault location to allow fast travel to it?

probably some bad ideas but there it is, maybe someone else can do better :shrug:

True, I rarely consider that, but today I came to understand it. In the course of holding off waves of Cazadores, I gained an absurd amount of XP, to the point where I'm trivializing what is supposed to be 'hard' combat now. I think I would be annoyed by an XP bonus follower.

What about something like Raul's perk? Reduction in rate of equipment degradation, since they've actually seen many things in pristine condition, and due to being vault dwellers, likely know at least basic pre-war maintenance in order to upkeep the needed tech to survive in a vault. May not know how to fix it, but they know how to clean it up real nice so it won't be breaking down so soon. (That would likely make them very popular, since not many people I know of approve of how quickly your toys break down.)

Vault Dwellers should give you a speech bonus. Say, 10%. Their English has been preserved since the War, essentially. They correct your Wastelander's garble and tell you when to say "whom" over "who".

Ta. There'd be a surprisingly high number, though- with a meagre 2-3 for each class it'll end up with 40-60 NPCs .

Yeah, unfortunately those are a little over-specific. Whilst some of the perks (e.g. the 'bonus damage with thrown'/'bonus in X gear') ones are quite specific, they run off things the player has control over- a companion who's only really good in vaults will be granting no benefit most of the time, whatever you do.

Bingo, that sounds like a winner. The vaults are well-known for keeping running for centuries until a single irreplacable thing breaks, so they're masters of make-do-and-mend. And it also gives people a reason to visit Vault 21 if there's a few dwellers there to recruit early-game. Thanks.

pnutman: Yeah, that was one I considered but it seemed to skate a little too close to the skill books territory.

Loved the mod for FO3, looking forward to this.

EDIT: NVM :facepalm: I missed that...

The Toaster is back for NV...looking forward to the release. For the vault dweller...

10% bonus against small critters such as Radroach, because he spend his time in vaults killing Radroaches?

Looking forward to what you can cook up Toaster.

PS: I like silent93's idea about he vault dweller.

Now I wait eagerly. The Companion Core mods for F3 are part of my small list of mods I considered 'essential'. All 3 of them, to be honest. If you can't decide between critters, bots, and people...just bring 'em all, I say!

Oh, are you going to do anything special with recruiting the remnants of the Master's army? I have this odd concept of a sniper stalking around backed up by a squad of nightkin with supersledges.

Heh, NP. Just goes to show it's a good class if two people think it up independently.

Eh, a tad underwhelming as it just means you kill things that are trivial threats quicker.

I'm not really likely to add much more, unfortunately- I'm busy with university this year, so porting stuff and adding minor features is pretty much it. However, you don't need in-depth knowledge of how Core works to use it now, so it'll be a lot easier for others to add things like that.

TT I dont know if your still keeping an eye on the FO 3 forums I thought you might like the resource mod http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1123635-fallout-3-coop-multiplayer-partially-working/page__pid__16709831__st__20&#entry16709831 Kai Hohiro has shown what can been done.

Nice to know this mod is being ported to FONV Enjoyed it in Oblivion.

Can I ask for a feature to be added (ignore if there already)?

A faction (or token) that if the NPC belongs too, cannot be recruited by the speech check. This is for mods where you want the player to do something special before a specific NPC would join (if ever).

Like setting it up so that you have to have a certain amount of standing with their faction before they're willing to go with you?

Yup, that's in- it was in the previous lot to prevent you recruiting the RobCo Robots and Wasteland Whisperer animals. There's a 'Lock' faction which locks NPCs out of being recruited whilst they're in it, or you can add them to a 'banned NPCs' list to permanently prevent them being recruited.
It's a bit of a shame there's no easy way to do it, in Oblivion the No Rumours flag was usually a good way to tell if an NPC was supposed to be unrecruitable.

steamerni: Looks pretty nice, an 'Assuming direct control' ability for companions would be interesting, but I don't really have the time for it.

Great news! I've been a huge fan of CSR throughout Oblivion and FO3. Can't wait for a FNV version. Thanks for all the hard work!

This is exactly what I've been waiting for!


Now if only there were an option to -coerce- people into coming with you based on some stat -other- than charisma!

>.>
<.<

I usually have a rather low Charisma. And I never understood why it somehow mattered to the number of friends you could potentially make. I would understand if it made it more difficult on a person-to-person basis... but it always seemed arbitrary... like they just wanted a way to limit how many folks could come with you.

Oh well! I'm just glad to see this is getting made!

Don't mind me! I'll go polish my Advanced Power Armor mk II for a while...

So basically you want to keep it Charisma as a dump stat.

Just a note that, whilst I've finished the mod, I haven't had the chance to test it and I won't be able to release it for another month or so as I've got exams and presentations lined up so I don't have time to support/bugfix it. Turns out final year is busy, who'da thought.

As it stands CSR has a perk you can select multiple times that ups your follower cap, so you needn't go high cha to be a squad leader but if you're not you will have to expend some resources.
Cha serves as your companion limit because, well, more charismatic people are better 'people people'. If you've not got great people skills (low cha) then even if you're great at arguing (high speech) you're not going to be able to keep a lot of people enthralled and encouraged, they'll get bored and leave.

Whilst there's definitely room for an intimidating-people-mod, and it'd be fairly easy to make fit into the core framework, it's not really an appropriate feature to add to CSR as you'd want them to be temporary, to not have the same follower bonuses/retraining features and so on..

Update?