http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/zz331/drg6520/jason_1st_draft.png
Voice Actors Needed (see two sections down)
This project is now undergoing a complete revision and re-write, planned to use voice actors for all content, instead of splicing. The general hope is that this results in a much more story-driven companion.



The Premise of the Mod (as of 1/16/10) (for those who don't want to read the entire post)
- Adds a new Vault Dweller to the prologue, whom you can pursue a friendship with from your 10th birthday on. Should you do this, he leaves with you at the end of "Escape!" and becomes a fully-functioning companion in the Wasteland. It also acts as a story enhancement for the Vault 101 sequences -- through dialogue with Jason and related characters, you can define certain aspects of what your life was like living in an isolated Vault.
- Dialogue heavy, with several lengthy, branching conversations as the game progresses, with a personal goal of over 1000 lines of dialogue for the companion alone.
- Highly detailed, reacts to quite a few situations and locations in-game, such as your state of health, your birthday, your house, combat targets, etc.. Also makes use of several idle animations.
- Full integration into the MQ; he'll be present at key moments in the story and have his own viewpoints on the subjects involved.
- Several companion features including dynamic character development and dialogue, drug usage (Psycho, Buffout, and Med-X/Morphine), in-game haircuts, a radio to issue orders (and solve any lost-follower issues), going on full alert when you draw your weapon, gifting skill books and misc. items that "unlock" new features, among other things.
- Interaction with the game's vanilla followers, a few specific NPC's, and my own Sydney follower mod, in the style of party banter from Bioware RPG's like DA:O or KOTOR. All NPC lines will, naturally, be fully voiced through the wonders of splicing.
- Lore-friendly and sensical. This isn't a shallow NPC that you can hire within 1 line of dialogue after meeting him. Nor one who just shuts up, carries crap, fights, and dies for you without any question. He will object to the game's more heinous choices, he will argue with you about some things, he will have opinions on certain matters, and above all else, he will care about what happens to you.



VOICE ACTOR Requests
Jason Matthews (Male, age 16, 19) - friendly, somewhat laid back. American accent. Has a "best guy friend" quality to it without going overboard with crack addict behavior. Masculine without trying to sound "tough" -- he's actually a bit on the sensitive side. Requires extensive work (several hundred lines), and commitment to them. As a perk, you get to acknowledge yourself as my personal savior.
Jason Matthews (Male, age 10) - quiet, shy, somewhat socially ostracized like the PC due to plot reasons. Unlike the older version, this only requires 1 scene of voicing.
Linda Matthews (Female, age 17, 23, 26)
Sylvester (Male, late 30's) - experienced merc, distinctly western voice, gruff-n-tough without trying to sound antagonistic - he's a pretty nice guy overall. Minor character with a decent number of lines.
Phillip Matthews (Male, middle-aged) - retired Security Chief who's plain weary of the world and how things have turned out. Requires voice acting for a few holotapes.

Screenshots: Most have been removed since they reflected dialogue and content present in the old version. Still worth a look if you like my character design.
http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/zz331/drg6520/Jason1.png
http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/zz331/drg6520/jason0.png
http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/zz331/drg6520/Jason8.png
http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/zz331/drg6520/Jason11.png



A Request to the Those Interested in the Mod:
I am interested in collecting some feedback from the community about what they personally would like to see in such a companion mod, as well as:
- What would make a good, generic birthday present for the LW (post-Vault)? (From both a gameplay and roleplaying perspective)
- Anything about my Sydney mod that you'd like to see improved for this mod (and I will eventually get back to that and spruce her up a bit after this one)
- Suggestions for mini-quests and random little experiences and the like. I've got a few lined up so ideas aren't desperately needed, but they will still be welcome.
- If there's any instance in the game of Liam Neeson uttering a "jay" sound. Found plenty of "son"s, but no "jay"s.


The Rant:

As far as companions go, one thing that I would've liked to see done was a follower who would be there with you from the very beginning - someone who left the Vault with the PC and shared in both the story and experiences of the normal game. Not only that, but a character whose abilities would be shaped by the way that his/her life turned out, and have it turn out slightly differently depending on player actions during the prologue. So, since my Sydney Follower mod turned out to be relatively successful in terms of voice and function, I decided to try just that for my next project. At first I considered doing this to Amata or Butch, but decided against both for several reasons, both technical and content-wise. I also considered a few of the other Vault NPC's, but the only ones that seemed suitable weren't that interesting. So I ultimately decided just to create a new character altogether.

Enter Jason Matthews, a Vault Dweller around the same age as your character. The son of the Chief of Security (prior to Hannon), he keeps mostly to himself, though the LW has a chance to befriend him during his/her 10th birthday. He would then go on to become one of the LW's best (and sadly few) friends, participating in most of the Vault's events alongside him/her, such as the G.O.A.T.. During the events of "Escape!" you would encounter him near the beginning of the quest and at the end he would offer to venture out into the wastes with you.

From there, he would become just like any other companion. My style of companion, anyway.

For those that used my Sydney Follower mod, you can expect a similar treatment; lots of dialogue, each line fully-voiced (the Sydney mod hit about 249 lines before I stopped, and I intend to raise that bar in this one ). A good amount of gameplay features -- Med-X/Psycho usage, drawing weapons when you do, essential toggling, defining custom homes and rendezvous points, and a radio-esque item to order him to those locations. The ability to improve his skills via certain mini-quests and skill books. etc. etc. All of his features will be created with a minimal conflict mindset, and I can at least guarantee this mod will work fine alongside other followers and overhaul mods like CBO and Phalanx, even though it can't make use of their features. In-game haircuts will also be supported for those who'd prefer him with something like a mohawk or the sarge cut instead. The entirety of the mod is intended to be lore-friendly and sensical in its execution, with integration as seamless as I can make it.

The revised mod is expected to have over 1000 fully voiced lines once completed, complete with both full-length conversations and situational one-liners both, in order to make Jason feel like what will hopefull be the most "life like" follower for Fallout 3 to date. Admittedly I've been partially inspired by Bioware's companions, though the content won't necessarily reflect their style of dialogue -- Jason is a follower who gives you the chance to flesh out your own character's past and thoughts, not just experience his.

A romance component is planned, though it will not contain anything that could even possibly flag this mod as advlts Only. This mod will feature some strong language here and there, as well as some sixual innuendo (especially if you get him talking to characters like Nova and Susan Lancaster), but nothing that Fallout 3 is not already guilty of.


All comments, suggestions, etc. will be appreciated.

Sounds awesome. For a present he could give the PC a baseball and glove so they could play catch together in the corridors, or something.

Cool. I liked him when I first saw him in the picture thread. Cynna would get along well with him, I'm sure. Her current companion may not be as welcoming, though. Three's a crowd, and all that :hehe:

Overall it sounds good, though. Something I'd definitely be interested in. I didn't really like how the other Vault Dwellers treated my character, such as Butch's gang. I know you get bullies like that anywhere, but being called Spaz and Nerd Girl/Boy just for being the Doctor's kid reminded me of my early highschool school days
It'd be good to have a friend back then. Amata doesn't really count. To me she didn't seem like a proper friend.

Anyway, I've no suggestions at the moment. I'll be watching this thread, though. I really should try Sydney first. I still haven't :unsure:

Cool :thumbsup:
It's a damn shame I can go with one companion once. Megaton house is full of them

That is something that I was planning on putting in. What I'm actually looking for is what would be a good birthday present for the LW on each of his/her birthdays outside of the Vault. Right now the best I idea I can come up with is a few bottles of Quantum or a stack of pre-war books.



"Dude, Harkness, WASSUP??"
"Jason, you're REALLY starting to piss me off...."

Shame I never really did get around to those follower-to-follower interactions like I wanted with Sydney. Did only a few test exchanges between her and RL-3 and Butch and then moved on to to do other things.



Yeah, still not quite sure how I'm gonna fit him into that particular sequence. The only real option including him would have would be to have him beat up on Butch's gang, but that makes the PC look rather pathetic by comparsion if he/she just ran off to have someone else save Amata for him/her. Maybe I'll just have him hang out in James' office until the G.O.A.T. officially starts, then have him slink in late-as-usual.



It's not a necessity or anything, but it would give you a decent idea of how Jason's dialogue structures and features work.

Aww man what the... I was under the impression he was going to be Jason the hockey mask wearing psycho.

Well, you can always give him one and go on murderous rampages together

That sounds awesome.
Will be watching this.

Somewhat bad news: I've made very little progress on this lately given that I've recently been introduced to DA:O and Borderlands.

I have to say though, the well-written and thoroughly detailed companions of Dragon Age do give me a few ideas to use in my own follower mods - I'd scrapped my ideas for an influence system a while back since there wasn't really anything I could affect with it, but now I'll probably implement it and attach a bonus to his combat skills (DR, probably) when he's near your character, proportional to how much he likes you. Or something like that. There's certainly enough gift options already to bump it up. Romance options for him and Sydney wouldn't be entirely out of the question either, though I'd hardly consider myself capable of writing a decent love story.

On a different note, I still would appreciate answers to the questions I'd posed in the first post, particularly about the O:A requirements, the birthday gifts outside of the Vault, and any instance of Dad uttering a "jay" sound so I can have him address Jason by name. Having Dad acknowledge him is a major component of maintaining story consistency and immersion, so it's kind've important.

Hey, DRG, I started playing on the PC this weekend and have been adding mods and cheating like mad, but mostly tinkering to get the game running mostly crash free and stable. I'm looking forward to taking Sydney out with Charon and I'm thinking it would depend on why I had to go to O:A on whether or not I'd be willing to do it for Jason. How would that work? If I grew up with him in the vault would I be invested in him emotionally so I'd want to go to O:A for/with him? I guess my question is really about player motivation to go to O:A.

I have also been thinking about companions and love stories in general with NPCs and storylines and how those might work and had thought of a present in those musings and meant to come to your thread and share my idea and totally forgot. So my idea was the non-irradiated food that Madison Li is growing. I figured it would be good for a female or male love interest.

Finally given in to the dark side have we? Yeah it takes forever to balance out the game to the point that it doesn't crash every 5 minutes, but it's a blast afterwards.



The O:A requirement would be just for legal reasons, not for Jason's actual involvement in the quest; the voice actor does a ton of generic characters in O:A with the same tone, and if I made the mod require Anchorage, then that would give me a much wider variety of dialogue to work with, for a greater range of generic responses. That's not to say that I can't get enough out of the vanilla voicework (because I can) but it would just make my job easier AND add tons more in the way of dialogue if I used O:A. For his actual participation in the O:A DLC, it would probably amount to a few extra lines of dialogue expressing his opinions of the quest.

That's why I asked in the first place; I need to know if people would consider it a worthy trade-off, requiring a priced DLC for the sake of lots more dialogue. Unless someone with far more legal expertise than myself can confirm that I don't need O:A dependency to include spliced voiceovers from that add-on, then I can add them in anyway.



That does work pretty well as gift idea; one would think Rivet City's non-irradiated fruit the equivalant of a box of chocolates in the wasteland. Of course, I'm sure that Sydney would prefer a bottle of whiskey all things considered, but it would be a nice touch.

I like the gifts idea.

The companions in DA:O are very fleshed out indeed but the gift system, although kind of cool, is also kind of half assed. It doesn't feel like true influence. I like how in KOTOR your actions would warp your companions, at least visually. It would be nice to be able to warp their personalities as well.

For instance have Jason a completely neutral character. When you do extremely good deeds, like help someone without asking for a reward for example, Jason should compalin about that. But unlike in DA:O where you just say something like "S.T.F.U. I do what I want" and have him lose influence, have the option to explain why you didn't ask for a reward, and even if he doesn't agree, over periods of time of doing this he'll start to become good like your character. Same thing goes for evil. Explain why you shot that innocent civilian, over time he becomes more cutthroat and ruthless, now spouting bandit style dialogue in combat situations and praising you for doing the evil things you do...getting addicted to the money and booze and drugs, etc. Let me mold my companion in the way I see fit. Viusual changes if you can do that would be cool too. Darkening around the eyes, bandit druggy skin if hes a chem addict, etc.

The influence altering situtations would take place on dicisions you make while doing the various quests available. For instance selling a certain child NPC into slavery instead of reuniting him with a lost relative. Plenty of good/evil decisions in the game to warp your companion

Lots of work sure but you said above and beyond right?

I have OA so that all sounds great to me. Lots of great animations there as well. pushups, saluting, etc.

Just an idea if you are ever looking to do another companion mod, but I always wanted to adopt, raise, influence that kid from the fire ant questline (Whilks?). You meet him very early on (Super Duper Mart usually) and he would be a great character to go through the main quest with. And of course an Amata love interest is a highly requested and obvious one

By default Jason is a "good" character because of his upbringing, but I am planning on adding conversations that take place because of "shocking" actions that he disagrees with. He won't react too drastically since personality-wise he's a bit clingy to the one thing that hasn't gone to hell in his life (a.ka. the PC). Whether or not I can add the opportunity to "mold" his personality depends largely on how much I can squeeze out of the vanilla voice resources. I'm gonna have to say "no dice" on the cutthroat bandit dialogue since the voice actor doesn't portray any such character in the game already. I'm considering addiction via the drug-use mechanic, and he's all set to complain about how ill he's starting to feel if you don't address a certain dilemma during "Escape!" like a concerned friend should, but I can't say there will be any major attitude overhauls.

As for appearance add-ons, while they are VERY possible, I'd prefer to keep the mod "bare bones", with only the *.esp and sound files. Mostly because I can't texture worth a crap, but it would create conflicts of sorts with mods that editted the default body and face textures, and create some bad seam issues. Not to mention that there's really no way to make the changes "subtle" -- they'd be really abrupt changes.



That I did and I intend to follow through with what I've promised so far. I can't promise a follower that's in-depth to the degree you'd probably want (thought I'd certainly love to), since there are some definite limits I have to worth with. That and, TBH I don't feel fully motivated to go the extra 10 miles, especially since it's unlikely that many would even so much as try this mod out once it's finished -- the demand is for female followers who do nothing but shut up, carry crap, follow without question (while having only barely met), and look great in sixy (read:minimal coverage) outfits.

What I'll probably do is release the "basic" version, which is everything I would've wanted for my own game, and then continue fleshing it out if it garners enough interest. I'm already decided to hold off on the "main" quest, at the very least.



Forgot about the animations -- one more reason to consider using it, I suppose.



I actually did consider Bryan Wilks as a potential follower, especially since the "find him a home" part made him the best choice for a child candidate. However, there are a few problems I encountered; first of all, I can't wrap my head around the idea of having a young kid totting guns around and shooting up raiders, meaning that in gameplay terms he'd probably amount to a human Dogmeat without the combat capabilities. Second, given that the PC is constantly traversing into dangerous territory, it would seem a lot more humane on the player's part to simply send him to his cousin's since that's a safe place where he's unlikely to die a painful death. Also, I'm horrible with kids and wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to properly script the PC taking care of one. Were I to make a child companion, it would be a girl and I'd pretty much copy directly from the Ripley/Newt relationship in Aliens.

As for Amata, the problem with her is that there's no existing dialogue that could even be considered "romantic". She's either whining, pleading, or scolding most of the time.


Overall, no guarantees on most of what you've suggested, but I do thank you for taking the time to add creative input to the mod. I know I'd certainly love to follow through on all of it.

I would like to say that I am a lurker, I read threads and quietly appreciate them. I really should be voicing my support for mods more.

I usually don't read long introductions, but I have ready every single word in this thread, that is how interested in this mod I have become. I am really looking forward to this mod and will be trying it out the day it is done. My favorite part about this companion is the fact that he starts in the vault with you. It really makes me want to take good care of him from the very beginning. I also really like the way he turned out.

I have Operation Anchorage (hope I spelt that right) so that isn't an issue for me. I say this, if you need a DLC to make the mod even better, go for it. Xmas is right around the corner, people can put it on their list to get .

Thank you for making a male!

so how the progress going ?

To be honest? Very slow.

I'm confined to a computer that can't handle FO3 right now, and it will remain that way until January, so I can't really do much with it right now. Aside from the render window, the G.E.C.K. works on it though, so I can manage blind with a few things -- the important thing is that I can still assemble all of my voiceovers, since that's the most time consuming aspect of this mod.

The basic follower stuff is all done and voiced, but I'd rather release the mod in a more complete state with the Vault sequences all finished than something that adds a random guy right to Vault 101's exit that joins you if you choose the debug option "YOU'RE HIRED!!!".

I'm in the middle of assembling the dialogues for Jason's career-related abilities, but I haven't really made up my mind about all possible G.O.A.T. results he can get. So far I've got him down as a technician with the ability to repair items, and fry cook with the ability to cook a few meals, but I haven't really decided on what other possibilities there should be. Heck, the current ones are more like carry-overs from my Sydney mod than anything.

I'm looking for some feedback on what YOU'D like to see as a potential career path. Keep in mind that any G.O.A.T. result needs to have a custom feature to go with it, and ideas for them would be VERY appreciated as I'm drawing a blank right now. Well, ones within feasibility anyway; it's NOT feasible, for example, to have him as a tattoo artist since there's no simple and sure-fire way to apply tattoos to characters.

The remaining results to choose from are:

Vault Chaplain
Laundry Cannon Operator
Pedicurist
Waste Management Specialist
Vault Loyalty Inspector
Clinical Test Subject
Pip-Boy Programmer
Tattoo Artist
Shift Supervisor
Marriage Counselor
Little League Coach
Masseuse

u can do him a tattoo artist without the ability to do tattoos
also there are other result that might fitt jason like Little League Coach, Fry Cook,Jukebox Technician and more

ah crap i thought you were making jason from friday the 13th movies. you know there already is a hockey mask in game all you need is someone to make a machete and some bloody clothes.

Lol once i did sort of combination of Jason (Friday the 13th) and Leatherface (Texas chinsaw masscare)
I put an hocky mask on my face I put my leather armor on my and used the Mauler as my weapons.

I went to Tempany tower and killed 'em all

Now those were good time :fallout:

He's hot. I dig him, can't wait to see what you do! I've been looking for a good, sensible companion, and I always wondered why nobody came with you from the vault. Amata was the obvious one, but I was like meh, when I found out she couldn't come. I know its a single player game, and Jericho is right there, but I find that others make the experience worthwhile, not a single person.

I got the impression that he reacts to things you do, one thing I was disappointed about with Fallout 3 Companions is that they didn't do that, its why games like DA:O or Mass Effect (Which feels obsolete after watching the infa' for 2.) look far superior. Thing is, those games are -linear.- While I do adore them, I wish that kind of liveliness could be brought to an open Bethesda world. Now, this long winded pvssyring is in fact a compliment, as you seem to have accomplished just that with Jason. I just got back into Fallout 3, but I'll definitely be downloading your other follower mod as well. Thanks for doing what Bethesda should've! (No disrepect fellas, I know these things never come out exactly how we want them.)

EDIT: Oh, and on a funny note, I prefer male companions. I find that in my games, the scantily clad women always look... bizarre. Maybe I just don't have the right idle poses, huh.

Wow, this guy looks amazing. I love the idea for him, I love your plans for him, I love the fact that he's going to have voice acting, and I cannot wait for him to be available.

On to the questions you've posed: I wouldn't object to requiring Operation: Anchorage, though I can't speak for anyone else. If it makes your life easier and Jason a better character, I'd say go for it. With the GOTY edition and all, there's probably plenty of people who have it.

For the birthday gift idea, you could have him give you a Grognak the Barbarian comic. It might not be the most useful thing gameplay-wise, but it's got a connection to memories of the vault and certainly wouldn't be game-breaking or anything.

I don't know of any mods that give backstory on the Armored Vault Suit. Scrounger and Fortune Finder might be affected by major perk overhaul mods, or mods that try to limit the amount of available stuff in the Wasteland, but I can't think of any off the top of my head--I don't go in much for those sorts of mods.

Can't think of any "jay"s uttered by Dad, but I'll keep an ear open when playing.

Regarding the GOAT, you could have him be a Little League Coach--find a baseball bat, baseball, and glove, and he can give you some pointers on hitting (Melee Weapons), pitching (Explosives), or catching (Big Guns--for recoil? I don't know, but saying you're a catcher on the GOAT gives you a nudge towards Big Guns.). If you wanted, you could make it so he could only teach you on a baseball diamond--that would give you a few opportunities to do it throughout the game while not just giving you free skill points. Alternately, is there a chance you could have him become a security officer? He could start with better stats and equipment that way, and maybe distract guards for you while escaping or something. I don't know if that's feasible with the dialog, though.

One question: If you don't take Jason with you during Escape!, what happens to him? Would you put him in the Vault during Trouble on the Homefront, or put his body in, or just drop him altogether? I'm thinking that if you have him in during Trouble on the Homefront, it could be a chance for people who don't want to start a new game to get him without breaking immersion, but that might be a lot of work and he starts looking pretty similar to Butch that way. Food for thought!

Thank you for your input.

With the GOTY and disc DLC released, I guess most of the PC crowd would have O:A by now anyway, so I guess I'll go ahead and throw O:A voiceovers in.

The comic is definitely worth considering, though it might have to be some "lucky 1st issue ever" comic, since the skill book comics can be given to him to increase his melee damage, and it would be cheap if the player could turn around and give it right back to him.



Those are good ideas to consider; mostly I wanted to avoid just having basic combat modifiers as the only bonuses for a G.O.A.T. result, but the coach thing might actually work, and having location specific dialogues are quite feasible. As for the security officer thing, I don't think there's a voiceover for it from Mr. Brotch (which is the main reason I've only listed player-possible results), though I'll keep it in mind.

As far as his involvement in "Escape!" goes, currently he doesn't actually help you escape; you meet up with him early on (if you've pursued a friendship in the prologue sequence) and agree to meet near the Vault door, and he'd show up at the same time as Amata, at most helping you fend off the officers that come in to stop you. I don't really want to go tampering most of the sequence. You'll get a few more lines of dialogue out of Amata, maybe, but I'm trying to minimize compatibility issues as much as I can. Well, I'm probably going to kill off a vanilla character for part of Jason's backstory, but no one important (or likeable, for that matter)



The current plan is that he ends up dead, presumably the result of disease or a riot like the other bodies scattered about. It's a cop-out, yes, and one I *might* reconsider later on (and I could lift some dialogue from Freddie Gomez or Wally Mack to pull it off), but it's difficult enough creating specific dialogues with what I've already planned, and most of his current dialogue was created in the context that he'd be leaving the Vault at the same time as you, and I'd hate to have to re-write and re-splice it all to accomodate an option that goes against the general "feel'' that I'm trying to establish. Personally, I kinda like the irony that dragging him out of the Vault and into certain danger being the only way to save his life.

Oh! I must have Jason as my companion :wub: You did an excellent job with his looks!

I haven't used any companions to fight with, so I really don't know what to suggest. I have only used them to test out a navmesh

I guess the things I am interested in with a companion are:

Sneak when I sneak
Use the items I give him (armors, weapons, ammo, food, meds, etc)
Able to make anyplace home (I use a home that I teleport to, so it doesn't have a door exit).
Ability to check his items and his stats (I really don't even know if this can be done, that is how little I know about companions lol, so if it can't be done, no biggie)
Able to think on his own - For example, he isn't going to go running at a scorpion with a sword, he will pick something that is appropriate for the fight (again, not sure if it can be done, no biggie if not)

Oh, I have OA, so that is great that you can use more lines

Bump for great justice?

I agree in having him meet you later on. If the Overseer turns hostile, he'd just kill him anyway.