Name: Companion Fergus
Version: 1
Date: 2/15/2011
Recommended: Oblivion Mod Manager, Oblivion Patch 1.2.0.214
Author: Marcos (Sylar0712 or Marek0712)
Download Page: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37157

============================================================

Just released a new voiced companion (I voiced him, so he has my accent) and decided to open a threat here to have a new space for users to exchange ideas. I plan on working more on Fergus, that's why he's a WIP. Here's almost the same description avaiable in TESNexus, more information, credits, legal issues and so on in the ReadMe.

============================================================

If you want to compare Fergus, he was born directly from the womb of mother Neeshka and has as father, Stoker Wolff. Sonia is his grandmother and Vilja is his sister and muse. Other companions mods influenced him, specially Arren, Companion Share and Recruit and Indiana James. I also checked CM Partners, Valtierro, Vincent/Valeria and Saerileth.

He is designed to be a bit versatile, you can use him as your buddy or you can start a romance with him. He starts playing fool, this was done so players not interested in romance might not have the trouble to have him flirting with them. While you listen to his tale, there'll be some silly dialogue options that shall start his flirting options (you have to hit them three times), keep on going and he'll be all yours. He has a couple of dialogues lines written exclusively for woman and others only listened if you're man. He doesn't offer explicite sixual interaction.

Check the section "Companion Features" in the read-me to see what he can do.


A couple of Notes

In this stage, Fergus doesn't steal nor pick locks for you, but I'm planning a spell to force him do these things.

Finding him can be tricky because having him as a follower is supposed to be a kind of a quest, like, you're adventuring and then you found the man, instead of he was sitting on a PUB waiting for your arrival. His intro is a bit longer than the others. If you need a tip, check around the Golden Road, between Skingrad and Kvatch, near those bandit's camps, like, Ra'sava Camp. I'm not telling that it's Ra'sava Camp, it's just an example, but if you want to check that camp first, suit yourself. He might be in trouble, but he will only accept joining your group after he complete his task in Imperial City (you can choose to escort him or ignore that and talk to him there later).

He starts been part of the Thieves Guild and he's very loyal to them. You can ask him to join the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild anytime you want as long as you're part of those guilds. If you're into the Dark Brotherhood, Fergus might need time to accept to join and only YOU, as a speaker or listener can make him join. I also added option to join the BlackWood Company, but I didn't have time to see if it's compatible with Lingwei's "The BlackWood Company" mod.

Hope you'll enjoy! =)
Any doubts, just ask.

Excellent. A fully-voiced male companion to keep Vilja company. Now I just need to find time to play the game so I can really enjoy him.

During my quick test I found it funny that twice he started whistling right after Vilja started talking. It was almost as if he was saying "there she goes again, pvssyring about nothing".

Congrats on the release!

Having had the pleasure to try out the WIP-version, I already know that this is a KEEPER. He has character, personality, story, and endearing little habits.
When I first promised to have a look at him, I thought I'd go ingame for 20 minutes or so. Two hours later I was still playing!

I was working on a male companion for personal usage; even if I find some male companions around likeable, no-one has been quite what I have been looking for. Well, I hereby solemnly dump my little WIP, as Fergus has all the characteristics I have been looking for. And on top of that he is handsome! In a masculine way!


What I particularly like about this companion is that he is not a perfect person. He has normal habits, a normal (well... rather) background, a normal horse, he doesn't come with 100 disposition towards you from the start.

And, he is a BLOKE. He talks and acts and responds like a real guy, not like the man of your dreams. One can tell that this is a male companion made by a male. I like the way he whistles when travelling around - he doesn't have to have thousands of dialoglines like Vilja, it probably wouldn't even be realistic or suitable for a guy, but he has his unique habits, some of them really endearing. And he has his unique voice.


I'm looking forward to adding in unique interaction between Fergus and Vilja, and I'm looking forward to having Fergus as my permanent companion in my game.

Hey, folks, thanks a lot for the support!

Sure, besides Fergus has several ideas to oppose Vilja, I hope they'll get along well.

hahaha, another day I was in Benirus Manor with both, Vilja speaking, Fergus whistling, the house was really noisy. Hahaha The best is at night, the house isn't quiet too. hahaha

Nice job! To few companions like this around between you and emma i have two companions that will always be in my game.

Thank you, permanent1! I'm glad to know that you're enjoying my character! =)

As a fan of a certain Morrowind companion whose profession was "a little of this, a little of that," I'm grateful to anybody that creates an Oblivion thief companion. Especially one with personality and commentary.



I have no idea if this is possible--scripting isn't my forte, to put it mildly--but it would be great if you had a dialog option that made him your "designated lockpicker." In other words, if you start to pick a lock, he'd immediately take over, and his own stats and skill levels would be employed, instead of yours. Doing this as a dialog rather than a spell makes it seem more realistic, if you follow me.

What about letting Fergus loose in a city with a choice of options: a) be cautious when liberating items (less chance of getting something good or expensive), B) use your best judgment on liberating items, c) take risks (more chance of getting something good or expensive, but also of getting tagged as a pickpocket)?

Hey, Fable2, thank you. Well, I chose to create a thief because of CSR (Compnaion Share and Recruit - my favorite generic companion mod) and the fact that I don't have thieves in my group and I also like to play something in a little D&D style.

I'm not a scripting master, so I try what I can have a reference to study. The idea of the spell follows the "Start Combat Spell" design from Neeshka and other companions. It would be great if you pump into a locked chest and he could try and pick it for you, like in Neverwinter, when I tried to open a chest and since it as locked, Sharwyn or Tomy used to come to my help and I "let them try". And you could turn on or off this behavior via dialogue.
However, I don't know how to do it this way, so, until I can figure it out, probably the spell to indicate which thing to be unlocked will be in use.


Took a note on your idea of letting Fergus loose in a city, seems like a very cool idea hahaha

Well, you seem to have gotten great support and appreciation for your companion marek0712 :celebration:
When time allows I will set up a new fresh Oblivion installment and chunk your mods in there.

Hey, you should link to your Better inns mod in your signature too!

Cheers!

Believe it or not, I first saw something very much like this in Challenge of the Five Realms, a 1992 Microrprose title. Was kind of funny--as I recall, the game defaulted to using the best companion in your party for a given skill, and that person would say something along the lines of "Oh, let me do that," or "By your leave," once you started.

I have an idea about how that might be done, but I'll have to experiment to see if it would really work.

Very interested in this - will be following development, trying and bookmarking.

Actually the things I am most curious about are some of the comments so far - A bloke, with endearing habits/qualities - visions of the UK comedy Men Behaving Badly comes instantly to mind.

Joking asside, good luck with this, you have grabbed the attention of some talented experienced supporters too.... nice. Looks like another essential for us, although I will have to meet him first before I introduce him to my families game

@fable2, maybe neverwinter and other games with this are supposed to be children of that one you talked about?
Haha, let's see where Fergus can arrive while I'm modding him.

I just finished the "spell", but the interaction with other companions are in the to do list before release. CDCooley, if you're interested, I put the last esp in Emma's.

I think I'm pretty lucky to find out some great supporters. =)
Hope you'll enjoy too alt3rn1ty

Greetings! Just came here to announce that Companion Fergus was updates with a new version. I hope that one will be even more stable and more fun.

I'm going to put here a part of the read-me. I should add it at http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37157, but I'm not able to edit the File Attributes right now. I also opened a thread in http://wolflore.fliggerty.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=546 and I hope that people with doubts about his romance may find the place okay to contact me.

========================================================================

I implemented, removed and changed many features in Fergus for Version 2.

Fergus "Start Combat Spell" has a new function. If you use it on a locked chest or door, Fergus will enter sneak mode, approach the chest and open it, IF he has lockpick with him. I studied the scripts in Talkie Toaster's "Companion Share and Recruit", so Fergus behaviour is the same as the one for the thieves in this mod using the same thing. I mean, as limitation, Fergus will never get a bounty for unlocking chests or doors, because of this, Fergus will only open locks with picklocks in his inventory, Skeleton Hand doesn't count. If you're not a thief, take Fergus to Ongar, Luciana, Dar-Jee or Orrin and if he has few lockpicks, he'll ask money to buy some with them. Another important detail is that, some chests and doors makes him act oddly, so, there is a timer in case he messes up and forces him to unlock.

I worked together with amgepo and with the help of cdcooley to implement a script to save Fergus from the jail bug, the one that can kill any companion Follow AI once player is in jail. I hope you guys won't need to reload a previous saved game anymore.

Implemented a "Companion Recognition System", I mean, in Companion Vilja, you can introduce other companions and Vilja may call them by name and all. That's one of my favorite things in Vilja and of course, Fergus should have it too. The system I chose is different, you talk about the companion and Fergus gives you an item to put in this companion's inventory. Drop it in the inventory and voila! Fergus might call them by name and have special things to tell to them. Right now, I added interactivity to Vilja, Neeshka, Arren, Sonia and Rosalind. These are the companion mods that I usually use. There could be more things to be added and I need you, Fergus users, to create a larger library. What are the other companions you have in game? I prefer to focus on the pattern that users have, since there are lots and lots of companions mods avaiable.

Side Note: Fergus can't recognize if the item is in the world, since you can loose them, talk to Fergus again and tell him that the NPC lost a certain item, he'll give you another, and another, and another, you can have 10000 Neeshka's favorite mug if you want. Another VERY important thing is about Rosalind, she's the maid for Benirus Manor created by Khetienna. To add his token, you should sneak and drop it (since it's 0 weight, that's ok), BUT, the girl respawns! So you should remove that flag or drop the token all the time you visit Benirus Manor.

A new menu in Sneak mod, to give Fergus quick orders.

Skills and attributes are shown via dialogue, instead of a messagebox menu. I did this to open space in Fergus scripts.

Other NPCs in the world may know about Fergus and might talk about him. (Silent voice only)

Follows and wait topics were changed a bit. Both follows will be shown if Fergus is not following you, if he follows you in armor, only the casual one will appear, if he's casual, only to follow in armor will appear. The wait topic only appears while he's following you, and now he'll respond according to what's happening: if he's in amor, he'll wait in armor; if he's casual, he'll wait casual; if he's sneaking, he'll wait in sneak mode and, if he's in the exterior cells of the Market District, he'll laught and wait without armor. After one hour, there are 30% of chance of him having more gold or jewelry in his pockets. Fable2 suggested something similar, to tell him if he can stay without doing anything funny or not, but I chose something simplier and well, he only does it in the Market District and well, he's weak. "Relax here for a while" and "Find some flora" were moved to "Before we continue..." to avoid too much clutter when you start talking to him.

People complained that Fergus died constantly. That's why he has a birthsign that gives him a troll skin (he restores 6 points of health every second), enchances his acrobatics and athletics by 15. Since it looks overpower, he has weakeness to fire 25. It's like a better The Lord bithsign. Yup, now Fergus has a birthsign. Besides that, I still recommend you to give him a bow.

Now, the part that Fergus lovers were waiting. I revised and changed how Fergus handles his story and love options. I banned the variables "trust" and "love" that I added to make him more random. Now, to romance with him, you need to follow his story and if you're not interested in romance, don't worry, because he's not going to flirt with you, except if you really want it. The story is now dependant on your Level, so, if you're in level one, you can't listen to his full story, but, if you're level 10, you can do it, as long as he has enough disposition.

Crowlotus reported Fergus using messages for boys while you're a girl, there was a problem in the conditions and I hope that was completely fixed. So sorry for that, girls!

NOTE: IF you got stuck in Fergus' romance and you already listened to all his story and upgraded your version, open the console and type "set fcmfergusquest.story to 12". That will make the last piece of his story avaiable again. You must have at least a level 9 character to go through it.

I guess that's all about the new changes. Any problems, feel free to contact me here, or in TESNexus, or in Emma Elder Scrolls forums or at TESAlliance.

Your companion looks very curious, I'm going to add him to my game!:) Could you please add Viconia and Stoker as recognisable companions too?

I'm looking forward to try out this new upgrade, and to continue to tinker on the interaction between Fergus and Vilja.

My favorite male companion is getting more and more interesting .

And, as my daughter says, Fergus is also one of the most handsome male npcs.

@Olja, sure, I can do that. I was thinking to make Fergus jealous if you have Stoker in game (and of course, if you choose the path to make Fergus your boyfriend) hahaha
Since it needs more thought, I decided to leave for a next update.

@Emma, I'm glad that you enjoyed the news! I particularly prefer Fergus with those beard textures I did. Please, check the readme later, I added some information that I found important and I found in your forum (everything with the proper credits, of course). EDIT: That reminds me that I don't check Vilja for a while!

Great idea! I will wait for next updaet!

@Olja, thanks! Might take a little while, I want to see if there are any bug report about Fergus or the romancing (and take a little breath)