Companion Characteristics Mod

Overview:

This simple mod uses JIP's capacity to provide perks to NPCs to provide more gameplay quirks and personality to companions. There are a mix of debuffs and buffs, though a few get mostly or all debuffs.

Companions which are not mentioned on the page are untouched.

This mod is highly recommended for use with other mods which make companions use normal ammo and non-essential. Balance issues when not using such a mod will not be considered consequential.

While the beta version of this mod gave these companions more total buffs and debuffs, after extensive playtesting I decided to narrow them down to make for a more straightforward set of decisions on how to equip and use them. If you review this list and feel that the changes to the companions that I made will not be consequential enough to matter for you or be in a direction that you would find consequential, there is no real point to using this mod.

Features:

ED-E

ED-E cannot bear any of your burdens. It has 5x crit. chance, but it suffers -75% crit. damage.

He's a turret orb, not a pack brahmin.

Boone

Boone takes the time to line up his shots, but when he fires, he hits his target. He has -50% spread with non-automatic weapons, but has -50% attack speed. He also suffers -25% damage with Unarmed weapons, but gains +25% damage when using combat and bowie knives.

Slow this boy down! He hits hard and very accurately in vanilla, and he needs to take the time to pick his targets to be more balanced..

Cass

Cass shoots first and asks questions never. She gains +25% attack speed with non-automatic weapons and +25% reload speed, as well as +15% run speed in light armors. She will periodically steal and drink your Whiskey if you are carrying any, which will double her attack and reload speed boosts when she drinks it.

She'll burn through ammo, but she can be a substantial boost to DPS if she's hitting her target. Slow her down with low-capacity weapons to moderate her ammo usage in the early game.

Arcade

Arcade specializes in Energy Weapons. He gains 50% better crit. damage and spread when using Energy Weapons and has no movement spread penalty when using medium armors, but he suffers -50%% damage with Melee and Unarmed weapons.

Lily

Lily's vision may have suffered, but she's still pretty tough. She has -75% reload speed, -25% run speed, and no crit. chance whatsoever, but she takes 25% less damage from all sources.

She's old, her sight is bad, and she's used to swinging her bumper sword, not firing guns or other melee weapons. Take care of her.

Raul

Raul may be old, but his skills are still sharp. He gains +75% attack speed with western weapons, and his equip speed and limb damage are improved by 50%, but he suffers -50% carry weight, and -20% sneak speed.

Veronica

Veronica knows her greatest tools; her fists - she will only use Unarmed weapons. She has +10% run speed and gains +25% crit. damage while not wearing a helmet, but she suffers -35% damage when using a Melee Weapon instead of an Unarmed weapon. She also gains +25% crit. chance when there is another woman in your party.

Rex

Rex can't carry much and his sensors are tuned to detect animals and vermin very effectively, but he is highly resistant to many forms of damage. He will always deal critical hits against animals and insects, and takes -50% limb damage, but will always receive critical hits from Abominations, Super Mutants, and Robots.

Sunny

Sunny is a quick-moving, pragmatic hunter at heart. She gains +15% reload speed and +50% equip speed when wearing light armor or clothes, 2x critical chance against animals and insects of all kinds, and -90% spread when using Varmint Rifles, but she suffers 66% worse spread and reload speed with Energy Weapons, Big Guns, and automatic weapons and cannot land critical hits while wielding Energy Weapons or attacking robots.

Keep to her general aesthetic - she'll use your varmint rifle ammunition very effectively, and she'll be crit-sniping most weak critters before you have to even think about them. Sunny will always receive this perk, regardless of whether a companion mod for her is installed or not.

Follows Chalk

Follows-Chalk was trained by Joshua Graham; as such, he takes time to aim his shots accurately. He has -75% spread and +20% crit. chance when using .45 Auto Pistols, but -66% attack speed. He also suffers -25% damage with melee weapons, and has 4x Energy Weapon spread.

Waking Cloud

1. Waking Cloud will always wear her own clothing, use her Yao-Guai Gauntlet, and won't change armors or wear headgear or accessories. (Backpacks are okay.)
2. To compensate, both her body (and head, if localized damage in JIP is enabled) get 9 DT+DR, and she has a mesh replacement to justify this change a bit. Her outfit also has a playable version with male and female meshes added to the reward chest at the end of HH.
3. Waking Cloud has honed her skills sharply, and will not vary from what she knows. She will not wear any clothing but her own, and she will not use any weapon except her Yao-Guai Gauntlet. She takes -75%% limb damage, and enemies have -75% crit. chance against her. She deals 2x crit. damage against Yao Guai, and has 2x crit. chance while below 25% health.

Joshua Graham

1. -50% attack speed, -50% spread, +50% reload speed with handguns, 2x crit. chance vs. humans.

As he is a temp follower, he does not have a message pop-up.

Roxie

The advanced technology present in Roxie's body grants her health regeneration while above 50% health, and she deals +50% damage vs. lobotomites.

The health regeneration is indicative of high tech healing systems present in her technology, and her military cybernetics allow her to target NPCs (just lobotomites, since she can't leave OWB) with extreme effectiveness.

Clover

Clover is most capable with shotguns and one-handed melee weapons. She gains +10 DT and +15 DR when wearing light armor or clothing, and +25% crit. chance when using shotguns and one handed melee weapons, but suffers -70% equip and reload speed when using heavy weapons.

Dogmeat

Dogmeat is an outstanding example of tenacity in the wasteland. He has +50 Sneak and +15% run speed and gains +4 Strength, +4 Endurance, and +25% Damage Resistance while below 25% health, but he has -90% carry weight.

Has the Legion Mongrel "hamstring" effect, which deals guaranteed damage to a random leg upon hit.

Fawkes

Fawkes' time spent imprisoned has diminished his skill with ranged weapons. He suffers 3x weapon spread and -15% run speed, but deals 2x crit. damage and receives -80% limb damage.

Charon

Charon's years have taken their toll on him. He has -50% spread when using explosives and automatic weapons, but he suffers -75 max health, -25% attack speed with non-automatic weapons, and he takes 2x limb damage.

Jericho

You already paid Jericho; what does he care if you catch a stray bullet? He has x2 spread with automatic weapons, and he deals 3x damage to you if he hits you. He gains +10 DT when using medium armors, and has +5 DT penetration.

Echoes of Ian in Fallout 1 burst-firing your whole health bar in one attack when he misses his target. Hire him at your own risk.

Butch

Butch is fresh out of the vault, and he needs your guidance to survive in the wasteland. He suffers 25% worse spread and limb damage until he spends a month with you, at which point those maluses will disappear and he will gain +25% attack speed.

Butch will observe the karmic actions you perform, and after a month his disposition will change for the better (-75% enemy crit. chance) or worse (+5% crit. damage).

While Butch is a follower, your karma changes will be tracked. Once a month has passed, Butch's disposition will be decided and you will be notified, his skills will improve, and you will gain some XP. Your positive and negative karma changes are summed, and sum must be greater than 100 (karma is on a scale from -1000 to 1000) for Butch to get the good bonus. Otherwise, his disposition will be decided as evil. He did start a gang and (threaten to) assault people, after all. Karma changes will still be tracked to their full magnitude even if you already have maxed out karma in one direction or the other.

Star Paladin Cross

Star Paladin Cross is very competent, but she undervalues your input on her behavior. She will always stay close to you, regardless of the follow distance you instruct of her. She has -25% attack speed with non-Melee and non-Energy weapons, and she will only wear her own armor.

Clingy, but tanky. She's very competent.

Sergeant RL-3

Sergeant RL-3's scavenged sensors may be a bit... imprecise. He suffers +50% spread and -90% crit. chance.

Bittercup

Bittercup's not exactly a wasteland savant, but she's lucky. She sneaks 25% faster, has +35% explosive radius while outdoors, and 2x crit. chance, but she suffers -50% carry weight and -25% run speed while wearing medium or heavy armor, and deals -75% damage with non-ranged weapons.

Bittercup will always receive this perk, regardless of whether a companion mod for her is installed or not.

Sarah Lyons

Sarah is a highly trained commando who excels at teamwork in combat. She has 100% crit. chance on her first hit against a target that has attacked you, but she attacks 40% slower when targeting anything else.

Sarah's specialty is "covering fire." She's highly trained and has practically no maluses, but she does take some time to line up her shots.

Customization:

I may open some of these factors up to customization in the future; for now, I don't plan to.

Requirements:

xNVSE

JIP LN

Johnny Guitar

Installation:

Regular installation. Ensure that this file loads last if Veronica is willing to stay on ranged weapons, or if Star Paladin Cross is willing to accept a further distance order and stay on it.

Ensure that uNPCPerks in your JIP config ini is set to 1 specifically. If this setting is 0, this mod will not function at all. If it is set to 2, crashes may occur, due to JIP attempting to put the perks in this mod onto inappropriate entities.

Patches:

I will likely make patches to apply these philosophies to modded companions that I like. There is no timeline for these changes, and I will not be doing so for any companion mods that I don't use/like.

Compatibility:

Compatible with most things, including NPC appearance edits.

Incompatible with other mods which directly edit the scripts of Veronica or Star Paladin Cross.

The fix to allow Veronica to accept Vera's Dress as a dress is included.

Waking Cloud Sorrow Combat Armor and it's optional retexture are included here. Do not use this with the standalone version of that mod.

Bugs:

Under The Hood:

These changes are performed by adding perks to each character. Each perk is removed and readded when the game restarts, since perks don't always update their changes behind the scenes if you change their values.

Direct overwrites to companion scripts were only used where necessary.

Questions:

There's a change in the changelog that I'm not seeing!

Check the version number vs the one that's currently available. Listing changes in the changelogs for upcoming changes as I make them is the only way I can make sure I don't forget to document them.

One of the companions has only debuffs and no buffs!

Yeah. Sometimes that's because there aren't thematic things I want to emphasize about a character, sometimes that's cause a companion is really good and needs more debuffing than others.

I can just wait for a month for Butch's progression and that's dumb/annoying to have to do!

Play hardcore, and there will be an economic penalty for doing so.

I don't like hardcore!

Exercise the restraint to not just wait the month then.

A whole month is a long time for Butch to improve.

This may be true. There's a lot of TTW though, and plenty of time by my estimation to use Butch without having to be stuck with him for a huge chunk of the game. I am open to changing this amount of time; but only based on feedback from players who play in hardcore mode.

Neutral Butch bonus?

Nope.

No perk addition to non-vanilla companions if no companion mod for them is present?

I don't want to bother with that.

Note: I didn't bother to add characteristics to DLC companions that wouldn't come up during their DLC. For instance, Honest Hearts companions don't have maluses against robots, even though I normally would have given characters of their flavor such.

Permissions:

Do whatever.

Support:

If you'd like to support my modding work or say thanks, feel free to donate here at Ko-Fi.