A question about making TTW exclusive Custom Companions

[TheShadowPhoenix]

Now, I've been trying to make custom companions for some amount of time. The first one of two is a girl who I want to put in Vault 101 and have her grow up with my Lone Courier. Now, CG02 and CG03 I figured out how to make the dialog work and everything. But getting her to work with following me out of the vault in CG04 is where I'm having issues.



What has been giving me trouble specifically is the companion scripts. When I try to have the script reference her specifically, she won't show up in the selection. I put her as a REF on the map in the Vault and everything.



Is this common with TTW or am I the first to bring it up?

[TheShadowPhoenix]

[quote=luthien]

 

Quote:

...she won't show up in the selection

What selection are you talking about here?

[/quote]



In the ref section whether you use GetREFID after you put her on the map or GetScriptVariable.



And I apologize in advance, but I figured it out. The reason was her ID used four zeros, which for some reason, even when she was placed on the map in the G.E.C.K, her ID wouldn't show up when making scripts for her. She's working now, but I'll offer this advice for anyone who wants to make a TTW Companion.



NEVER, EVER, give your NPC an ID with four zeroes (0000). Once I started a clean slate and had her ID use a 1 (ID Example 1Max), she was able to be read in the ID ref.

[TheShadowPhoenix]

[quote=luthien]

 

Never, EVER prefix the EditorID of anything with numerical values. You will only create headaches for yourself.

[/quote]



Yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way. I'll never do that again.

[jlf65]

Generally, people stuck numbers on the front of their stuff to make it easy to find in GECK. That's a no-no. Despite making it tougher to find in GECK, never put numbers on the front of your stuff. Use a decent descriptive name and just write it down if need be. It's not THAT tough to find in GECK - it's all in alphabetical order by default. It's also not an issue when using xEdit instead of GECK since xEdit orders things by the mod, not grouping everything together like the GECK.

[TheShadowPhoenix]

[quote=jlf65]

 

Generally, people stuck numbers on the front of their stuff to make it easy to find in GECK. That's a no-no. Despite making it tougher to find in GECK, never put numbers on the front of your stuff. Use a decent descriptive name and just write it down if need be. It's not THAT tough to find in GECK - it's all in alphabetical order by default. It's also not an issue when using xEdit instead of GECK since xEdit orders things by the mod, not grouping everything together like the GECK.

[/quote]



Or, you can also use the search bar in the G.E.C.K to short the search down. And yeah, from here on out, since I mainly want to play NV while using TTW, I'll give the label TTW before the NPC's name cause these NPCs are supposed to be TTW exclusive.

[RoyBatty]

And yeah there is the filter box, for example everything in AWOP is prefixed with AWOP. Or TTW for TTW, etc.

[H1ms3lf]

Okay... I'm going kinda nuts here =]



Just went through this topic and it made me go back to check something...



There was this NPC that I was trying to give some extra behavior, but no matter what, the package would refuse to work. Even worse it would stall the NPC, so I gave up. After reading this, created a new package, with the exact same instructions, and the unimaginable happened.

IT NOW WORKS!



The only difference between the 2 seems to be the ID in GECK (I even tried switching the names back and forth, but the one with just numbers would keep stalling the NPC).



[url=https://postimg.org/image/wcx26r47d/][img]https://s4.postimg.org/wcx26r47d/WHAAAT.jpg[/img][/url]



Doubts:

1 - I didn't get a chance to name this ID field, nor could find a way to change it. Is there a way to edit that ID?

2 - Whenever I create a new FORM and it comes with just numbers, I should instantly scrap it and make a new one?

3 - Lastly, I assume this also affect vanilla content and content included by mods? So gotta be careful when noticing those numbers. Last package in the picture is only numbers too, but vanilla content. No wonder the devs named it as hold position and left by last, since it stalls the NPC.

This may very well be the most f*****up thing I've ever cracked my head at while modding a game. I swear I would throw a rock at Bethesda windows if I lived near them (during the night to not hurt anybody ^^). Would even write a message in paper letting them know exactly why. Man am I pissed right now :)

[jlf65]

You can set the form ID to whatever you want in xEdit, but you really shouldn't unless you know exactly what you're doing. Just keep the ID you're assigned. If a character is new the top two digits should be the mod # of your mod. If it isn't, you're accidentally overriding a form ID instead of making a new one. If you're trying to copy an NPC to serve as the base for your new one, that's probably easier to do in xEdit - select the NPC and then either create a duplicate (if you want a new NPC based on the one you selected), or create an override (if you wish to replace the NPC with your NPC). If you create a duplicate, it will show up in your mod with a form ID that's COMPLETELY different from the original ID.

[H1ms3lf]

99% sure everything matches (checked so many times!). Went to see if I had a backup but no luck, made so many changes since then. There is always the possibility I screwed up ofc, but nvm this, the important thing is that it works now :)



Thanks for the alert on how Xedit behaves with the IDs. There is another (smaller) issue where strange behavior happens and I can't fix/prevent it or find out why it happens. I'll post it as soon as finish editing this plugin, maybe u peeps can help me there =D

Wouldn't like to waste anybody elses time though, I'm sure you all have one or other important TTW work to do ^^

[TheShadowPhoenix]

The ONLY thing I ever did with vanilla NPCs was change their appearances and such. Example: I change James (Dad) to have more or less black hair and green eyes while with Catherine (Mom), I changed her to a Caucasian with blonde hair and a hairstyle similar to Samus Aran from Metroid (to do that, you have to give her the be all races option like James, otherwise she won't change. I usually prefer to play as Caucasian, but that's me.). Other than that, scripts, hard changes, N-O. I don't bother cause I don't wanna screw up my game.