Heather Casdin - A Unique Companion Experience v0.91 for Fallout 4 game.
Version 0.91
BUGS FOUND AND FIXED:
- Worldspace data missing from esp. Added
- She had dialogue for lockpicking but she doesn't lockpick. Removed.
- Player took her to the Prydwen as part of Tour of the Commonwealth, but
didn't get objective for it. Added
- Heather's newspaper, if read after Sweet Revenge had been completed,
would re-launch the quest. Script modified.
- She said it was raining. She lied. Conditions modified.
- Removed femalebody.tri and unnecessary textures from her folders/ba2 file.
- Hubris comics had a silent comment. Removed.
- Optional objective to give the Alien Blaster to Heather didn't appear after
finding the crash site. Added.
- Wrong messages showed for both the Alien Blaster and Grognak's Axe on
Affinity Award. Edited messages.
- Player fired Heather and she attacked Carla. I'd accidentally commented
out the line in a script that kept that from happening. Added back in.
- She was getting stuck in smoking animation. Fixed script that prevents that.
INTRODUCTION
From the author of New Vegas' most popular companion mod, Willow - A Better Companion Experience, comes a new, complex companion for Fallout 4.
Heather is a caravan trader who grew up in the Commonwealth. She hates and distrusts synths, wishes she lived before the war when everything was nice, believes in aliens and has heard that pre-war donuts were delicious. Heather is a complex companion similar to the vanilla companions in concept with over 1200 lines of custom, voiced dialogue that is delivered during quests, in specific locations, in random chatter and in conversations with the player and other NPCs.
Heather has a tragic past, like most everyone else in the Commonwealth, and when you meet her she still feels that loss acutely. By completing the
quest Sweet Revenge you will help to heal her wounds letting her move on with her life. As time goes on her history will be revealed to you through conversations, general chatter and terminal entries.
WHERE DO I FIND HEATHER IN THE GAMEWORLD?
A radio quest will trigger a few minutes after you leave the vault/start the game with the mod installed. That quest will guide you to her location. THE RADIO QUEST IS ENTIRELY OPTIONAL. YOU CAN GO DIRECTLY TO HEATHER AND PICK HER UP WITHOUT IT EVER TRIGGERING. (see images for her location on the map).
IMPORTANT: Currently her outfit will cause a CTD if you use VATS on her before hire. I'm working to solve this, but in the meantime, play it safe when you approach her. I won't let this go too long. If I can't get the mesh fixed she'll get a new outfit.
DO I NEED TO START A NEW GAME TO PLAY HEATHER?
No, you do not need to start a new game to play with Heather. She has content for quests as early as going to Concord to save Preston, but she'll have comments whether you take her with you or not. She has comments for locations around the gameworld, so if you have a character at a very high level she'll still have dialogue content for you as you travel around in addition to her quest content. You will miss out on main quest or side quest dialogue content, but if you like her you could always take her along on your next new character to see that stuff.
WHAT ARE HEATHER'S ABILITIES/STATS?
1. Special Ability: "Never Trust A Synth"
-Heather's attack damage is increased by 10% against synths
2. She carries a laser rifle
3. Her default outfit has Ballistic Weave and provides +30 AR and +30 Energy Resistance.
4. Her bag (which can be removed) provides an additional +25 carryweight. If you unequip it from her she loses that carrying capacity. Reequipping the bag will return the effect. SEE BELOW ON HOW TO MANAGE THE GAME BUG WHICH REMOVES THESE TYPES OF EFFECTS FROM NPCS
5. She hacks Novice level terminals. You can train her to hack more difficult terminals by telling her to hack a terminal via the command menu. Her skill levels as she uses it. Every five terminals unlock moves her up a skill level. Once an hour when she hacks a terminal you get +15 affinity points. She will have 100% success hacking a terminal she is trained to hack.
6. She has several perks/settings which improve her performance
-She has four levels of the Sneak perk and doesn't affect the stealth meter.
-She is affected by the Inspirational perk and by the perks given by Live & Love.
-Her default running speed is much higher than vanillas and closer to the player's sprinting speed.
-She doesn't suffer damage when she takes a fall from high locations.
-The PA she wears doesn't degrade.
-She has infinite ammo for any weapon similar to how that works for settlers. Give her at least one each ammo for a weapon you want her to use.
-She actually stays where you tell her to stay.
HOW IS HEATHER DIFFERENT FROM THE VANILLA COMPANIONS?
Heather was built using only a few bits of the companion system that the vanilla companions and most other modded companions use. That means there are some differences in how she handles dialogue, affinity and gameplay:
DOES HEATHER HAVE HER OWN QUESTS?
Heather has three quests for the player.
-“Tour of the Commonwealth”
Heather gives the player a list of 18 locations she'd like to visit. This quest cannot be completed until after the player has reached Level 20.
-“Sweet Revenge”
Requires some of the Main Quest be played through and her affinity cannot be maxed until it is completed. Does not trigger for players that have completed the Main Quest until you reach 500 affinity points with Heather.
-“A Promising Partnership”
This is her affinity quest, however it will never leave your Pipboy quest log. Her location marker is run through this quest as well as other events that happen throughout the life of the mod, as well as most of her dialogue. NEVER RESET THIS QUEST IN THE CONSOLE.
HOW IS HEATHER'S GAMEPLAY DIFFERENT FROM THE VANILLAS (not dialogue)?
1. She reliably stays where you tell her to and won't leave that spot ever.
2. She won't automatically sandbox while following you EXCEPT if you are in a settlement or workshop. There she will wander around and use idle markers, furniture, etc. She'll do this in any workshop or settlement, even modded ones, if they have the right keywords on the location. She sandboxes when you are standing in one place. If you move she'll follow you and sandbox again when you are standing still again.
3. She has three combat styles you can set in her dialogue menu. Vanilla Aggressive, Vanilla Defensive or another style I call Enhanced Sneak. Default is Vanilla Defensive. When she's in Enhanced Sneak mode and you are sneaking, she will not attack anything until you take damage. Once that happens she'll join the fight. At any point you can stand up and she'll attack freely. Using sneak during combat will make her fight one engagement at a time. When combat is over for her (this happens quite frequently for NPCs) she won't attack anyone else until you are damaged again or you stand up.
4. She does not spam the player with messages about what you're doing. There will be zero, “Heather liked/loved/disliked/hated that” messages because, "llama hates that." If Heather has an opinion about something going on in the game you will hear it in a comment or conversation.
5. If she becomes crippled or is bleeding out she may heal herself but only if both of the following conditions are true:
a.she is > 3000 units away from the player
b.has a Refreshing Beverage in her inventory
6. She has a permanent marker showing her location. You can see it by choosing the quest, "A Promising Partnership" in the Pipboy and looking on the map for her marker.
7. She can be permanently fired. Doing this will shut down her quests, remove perks from the player, etc. However, even though she will no longer be actively present in your game as a character, you should never delete the mod if it is present in your current gamesave. You’ll destroy your gamesaves doing that. You should never do it with any mod.
8. Heather cannot be sent to a settlement. When you fire her before you've reached 250 affinity she'll return to the spot where you first found her. After 250 she'll go back to the bunker.
9. She gives you a transponder to carry. When you turn it on (highlight it in your Pipboy inventory (it’s located in the same section as chems)) she'll come to your location. If you don't have one in your inventory you can craft one at the Chemistry Station. You can use this if she's been fired. USE THIS TO RESET HER AI IF SHE IS ACTING FUNNY (not following properly, etc).
10. Like the vanilla companions she will not follow you into the Institute except during the end of the main quest. Once Sweet Revenge is complete, however, you can choose to use the transponder to bring her into the Institute with you.
11. Her store inventory resets every three days. Heather carries unique alternative medicine products and scrap in her store.
12. You can set her follow distance in her settings menu (short, medium or long). Default is medium.
13. If you are playing in Survival mode Heather will not cast Lover's Embrace when you sleep with her. Instead she will cast "Heather's Embrace" which increases XP +5% and lasts for 12 hours. This is meant to supplement the Well Rested perk you get in Survival so that the effect is equal to what you'd get if she did indeed cast Lover's Embrace. This is a workaround I had to do because she is built outside of the vanilla companion system and doesn’t automatically cast Lover’s Embrace like the vanillas do (or companions built with that system).
14. Her affinity with the player progresses in bit differently from the vanillas and you do not need Charisma to successfully progress through her affinity quest. As time goes on she likes you more and conversations reflect that.
15. She doesn't count as a companion in the game so you can freely hire your allowed vanilla companion with no issues.
HEATHER'S AFFINITY PROGRESSION
(To see the complete list of what Heather awards affinity points for look in the Articles tab above.)
250 Points - first affinity conversation
-Perk awarded 2/5
-She gives you the key to her bunker
500 Points - second affinity conversation
-Perk awarded 3/5
-She increases her carryweight by 25 pounds
650 Points - third affinity conversation
-Perk awarded 4/5
-Gives you a couple of small presents based on previous gameplay
750 Points - fourth affinity conversation
-Perk awarded 5/5
-She gives you the key to the safe in her bunker (contains some worthwhile loot)
-Her Alternative Medicine recipes are unlocked
-You can choose to sleep with her or remain friends
-No one is in love at this point; if you sleep with her it's not an exclusive or serious relationship. No one says the word love.
-You can stop here if you want. A Promising Partnership is never removed from your Pipboy because it houses her permanent location marker and other things that can happen at any time during the game. If you do nothing more to increase her affinity you could stay at this stage with her forever. NEVER RESET 'A PROMISING PARTNERSHIP' IN THE CONSOLE.
900 Points - fifth affinity conversation
-Only available once you've completed "Sweet Revenge"
1000 Points - final affinity conversation (takes place three days after the 900 conversation)
-You can remain friends at this point or declare you're love for her
HOW DO I TRACK MY AFFINITY PROGRESS WITH HEATHER?
1. Two messages should appear whenever Affinity Points are awarded. One tells you what happened that earned the affinity award and how much was awarded and one that tells you the current affinity point total.
2. There's also a dialogue topic in her settings menu that you can use to see the current affinity point total. That exists until her affinity is maxed out.
HOW DO I LOSE AFFINITY WITH HEATHER?
You don't.
Heather is isolated from the rest of the NPCs in the game so has no proper faction to protect. She's got nothing against chem use or drinking. She wishes she could have lived before the war and can understand, once she knows what's going on there, that the Institute is a hot bed of technology and pre-war luxury. Also, she's kind of blood thirsty. She enjoys killing Raiders, doesn't care if you kill the NPCs at the Drumlin Diner, etc. However, she isn't against the player doing good things either because she assumes that's why the player helps her. She'll tell you if she has an opinion about something you've done.
DOES HEATHER'S DIALOGUE WORK LIKE THE VANILLA COMPANIONS?
Heather's dialogue menus are similar to the vanillas. She has the command menu (trade, stay, follow, cancel) and further dialogue menus. However, those further menus contain different topics. She doesn't have a dedicated "Relationship" or "Thoughts?" topic, for example and instead has a Barter topic and one topic for talking to her about other things entitled, "Chat With Heather." Feel free to explore her menus so you become familiar with them.
1. She never force greets you. When it's time for an affinity (or other quest)conversation you will get a quest objective to "Chat with Heather" which is a dialogue option in her menu. Choose it to get that dialogue. It will be lit up when you have a convo waiting for you. When there is no quest objective dialogue in that topic, she will periodically have other things to say. It will be lit up whenever there is something new to talk about.
2. She has a tactics menu where you can set her following distance to short/medium/long (default is medium) and where you can set her combat style (Vanilla Aggressive, Vanilla Defensive or Enhanced Sneak). Default is Vanilla Defensive.
3. She has some comments in the game world where the vanilla companions do. If you travel with more than one companion you will not hear all comments from all companions. First companion to the trigger usually gets the comment. She does not comment everywhere they do. She says something when whatever's happening is interesting or relevant to her.
4. I've scripted comments to play during quests or in locations and she has a lot of random chatter about those things too. She comments on some holotapes you listen to, but not all of them. She has conversations which play randomly with several other actors in the game. You may hear her talk to some of the caravan traders or Mama Murphy and until you've completed Sweet Revenge she will talk to Cricket.She talks to several of the companions (Cait, Danse, Deacon, Hancock, MacCready and Piper have the most interaction with her).
5. She doesn't comment when you pick up junk or read a magazine. She does talk about a few things you do, but not every time it happens and may only say something about it once (she only comments once about swimming, comments once in awhile about the player taking radiation damage, comments about some killed enemies, some clothing items you or she are wearing, your rank, when you heal her, etc).
6. She has options so you can tell her to get out of her default outfit, get out of Power Armor and to put her default outfit back on again. If you remove her bag from her inventory it will not be restored when you re-equip her default outfit in dialogue. If you unequip her bag she loses 25 pounds of carrying capacity. Reequipping it restores that.
7. If you are sneaking she will not say general chatter or combat chatter. She will deliver scripted quest and one-time location lines whether you are sneaking or not.
WHERE IS HEATHER'S BUNKER?
Heather will tell you about her bunker at Wildwood Cemetery when you get to 250 affinity points with her and you'll get a quest marker for its entrance (maybe; it's behaving badly for some players). The bunker is located in the broken down house closest to where you found Heather. There is a hatch on the floor up against the middle wall. See mod images for pic of exact location. This is Heather's house littered with items that fill in her backstory. It is usable, has workbenches that share inventory among themselves, a bed, etc, but it is not a settlement/workshop for the player to redecorate and make their own. It's her house and she returns here if fired after 250 affinity points.
DOES HEATHER HAVE A UNIQUE BODY AND DO I NEED ANY OTHER MODS TO GET HER LOOKING LIKE YOUR IMAGES?
FACE:
You do not need any other mods to get her hair and eyes looking like my images. However, Heather does not use unique face textures and will use whichever face textures you have installed in your game for female NPCs. The best mod images were taken by Elianora and she uses Valkyr Female Textures.
BODY:
She is set up with her own body so that, no matter what you are using in game, she is using the CBBE nevernude, curvy body. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE CBBE installed in your game the back of her neck will have an odd discoloration. The CBBE esp fixes that problem.
CAN I CHANGE THE BODY MESHES SHE USES?
(or OMG WHY ISN'T SHE NAKED UNDER HER CLOTHING?? or I HATE CBBE GIVE ME A VANILLA BODY NOW! or WHERE ARE THE BOUNCING BOOBIES? etc.).
Yes you can!
To change her body mesh create a new folder to overwrite the ba2 file whereher default meshes live. The Meshes folder path should look like this:
Meshes > llama > llamaCompanionMeshes > Body
Then drag the meshes you want to replace her default meshes with intothat last folder (Body).
If the body mesh you want to use requires something other than CBBE textures you will need to overwrite Heather's default textures as well by doing something similar to what you did with the body meshes.
The Textures folder path should look like this:
Textures > llama > llamaCompanionTextures > Body
Drag the textures you want to replace the CBBE textures with into thatlast folder (Body).
ISSUES
1. Just like the vanilla companions, Heather won't always do what you tell her to do via the command menu. She is no better at navigating in the gameworld than the vanillas. If you tell her to go sit in a chair, hack a terminal, sleep in a bed, etc there is always a chance she will say she can't when there is no visible object preventing her from doing it. It's a FO4 thing.
2. Heather may follow you into the Kellogg brain Memory Den scene. It's never happened to me, but if you tell her to wait before you go into the pod that should prevent it from happening.
3.When you use the dialogue menu option to have Heather reequip her default outfit it will remove every other thing she is wearing. That's because unequipping only those slots her default outfit actually fails to remove her outfit so I had to unequip everything to get it to work at all.
INSTALLATION
The mod has been set up to be installed via NMM or manually. Put Heather at the bottom of your list or very low in the list.
GAME BUG: MAGIC EFFECTS TAKEN AWAY FROM NPCS AND HOW TO MINIMIZE THIS ISSUE
When you equip an item on the NPC(clothing or weapon) their current magic effects are removed. Those effects return after you go through a load screen. I recommend, if you want to change Heather's weapon, clothing, equip a hat on her, etc that you do it right before you go through a load screen to limit the time she's without these effects. I tried several scripting solutions to solve/fix this issue and was unsuccessful. So, doing unequipping/equipping stuff right before a loading screen is the best advice I've got right now.
LLAMA, YOU GONNA PUT HEATHER UP OVER AT BETHESDA.NET?
I'm seriously considering it. I need to get the bugs all ironed out with my PC players and once that's done, if I have no stubbornly recurring bugs that require the dev console to circumvent them, then yes, I think I'll release her over there. I don't own an Xbox One so can't play her on it and am very reluctant to release a mod on a platform I cannot use until she's running as bug free as we can get her.
