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companions:tribeoftwo

Table of Contents

A Tribe of Two

A Tribe of Two

A Tribe of Two is an unconventional companion mod designed for players who like to roleplay, or who are looking for an even more challenging experience than Hardcore mode. As you wander the Wasteland, you stumble across an orphaned baby and, if you so choose, can take her under your protection. By doing so, you will be responsible for managing the baby's Health, Hunger, Hygiene and Comfort in addition to your own as you travel together. Environmental factors will affect the baby's needs, and your character's skills will affect how well you perform at managing them. If you get overwhelmed, you can always try to find someone who will take the baby off your hands.


How It Works

The baby has four core needs (Health, Hunger, Hygiene and Comfort – each expressed as a percentage) that will immediately begin to degrade upon discovery, meaning that if you decide to just walk away and abandon the baby, she will eventually die of exposure. However, if you do decide to take the baby with you, various environmental factors will cause those needs to degrade faster. Hanging out in irradiated areas will negatively affect Hygiene, and combat encounters will negatively affect Comfort (As will firing your gun, or using anything other than Melee weapons). Not tending to the baby's needs will negatively affect Health. If any one of the baby's needs drops below the acceptable threshold, she will begin to cry and not stop until she either dies, or you have tended to her needs. If you are trying to be stealthy while the baby is crying, NPCs will be able to hear it and investigate. If the baby's Health is below 100% but her other needs are above the acceptable threshold, the baby will slowly regain health.

Because the baby is considered a Quest Item, you will not be able to remove her from your inventory. Therefore, a hotkey-able Baby Status Checker item is automatically added to your inventory when you first pick up the baby, which will let you interact with her and tend to her needs.

  • As the baby's Health decreases, you can treat her using either your Medicine skill or consumables (Healing Powder or Doctor's Bag). Using consumables will heal a fixed amount, whereas using your Medicine skill will heal an amount derived from your skill level.
  • As the baby's Hunger decreases, you can feed her Baby Food, Brahmin Milk, or (if your character is female) breast milk. Baby Food can be looted, bought from vendors or crafted yourself at a campfire using ingredients found around the Wasteland. Brahmin Milk can also either be looted, purchased, or acquired manually using a new perk that allows you to milk any Brahmin that you come across.
  • As the baby's Hygiene decreases, you can bathe her using either Dirty Water, Purified Water, or Abraxo Cleaner in combination with either of the waters. Which option you choose affects how much Hygiene is restored. You can also bathe the baby in sinks, water valves, or drinking fountains. Additionally, you can craft a makeshift Baby Radiation Suit which reduces the amount of Hygiene lost when exploring irradiated areas.
  • As the baby's Comfort decreases, you can soothe her in various ways. Each option will restore an amount of Comfort based on either your Charisma or your Speech. Tending to the baby's other needs also raises Comfort. You can also craft Baby Ear Plugs which reduce the amount of Comfort lost during combat encounters.

Tending to the baby's needs will raise their values gradually over time. I've also made it so that things become slightly easier if you acquire the book on pediatrics during the quest Bitter Springs Infirmary Blues.

Additional Features

Mr. Nanny Mr. Nanny

Mr. Nanny

There is an optional Mr. Nanny babysitting service that can be toggled on and off (see User-Configurable Settings). Mr. Nannies will take the baby from you and maintain her needs while you go off and do your own thing. The service costs 500 Caps up-front plus 100 Caps per day (which you pay upon picking up the baby). These costs can be adjusted by changing the corresponding global variables. Mr. Nannies can, for the right price, also provide emergency treatment if the baby's needs fall below a certain threshold.

Mr. Nannies can be found in various places across the Wasteland. In New Vegas, they can be found in Goodsprings (Doc Mitchell's house), Novac (in the lobby) and Freeside (in the Old Mormon Fort), while the Tale of Two Wastelands plugin also adds them to the Megaton Clinic and Rivet City Clinic.

Handing the Baby to a Companion

Companions can be asked to carry the baby for you by enabling the corresponsing global variable (It's disabled by default). This only works with humanoid companions, both from the base-game and those added by mods, assuming they have been set up properly (i.e. GetPlayerTeammate returns 1 when they are hired). When given to a companion, the companion will automatically feed or clean the baby when her needs drop below an acceptable threshold, provided they have the necessary supplies. Companions will attempt to feed the baby first with baby food, then Brahmin milk, and lastly (if the companion is female) breast milk. Companions will attempt to clean the baby first with Purified Water & Abraxo Cleaner, then Dirty Water & Abraxo Cleaner, followed by Purified Water, and lastly Dirty Water. Companions cannot heal or comfort the baby. Also, be aware that enabling this option will supersede the companion wheel. This means that the pop-up message box to ask the companion to hold (or return) the baby will always show up first, adding an extra step before you can access the companion wheel. This will get in the way of issuing commands and could potentially be annoying, which is why I've opted to leave the ability disabled by default.

Scout All grown up.

Growing Up

The Tale of Two Wastelands version of the plugin has an optional mechanic to age up the baby into a child when traveling to the Mojave from the Capital Wasteland for the first time, to account for the four-year time skip (this can be toggled on or off). When the baby grows up, she automatically becomes a companion, running a pared-down version of my Customizable Companion Framework. Her home location is set to Doc Mitchell's house by default, but you can set it to wherever you'd like by taking her there and choosing the corresponding dialogue option. I chose not to implement the companion wheel for her because a lot of the options would've had no functionality, which would have been confusing and possibly frustrating. You can still issue commands through dialogue options, however. Additionally, you can ask her to find things for you, such as ammo, chems, food or weapons. However, you need to remove all such typed items from her inventory before doing so, or else she will simply give you what's already in her inventory.

Because children are unkillable in New Vegas, she will not take damage during combat. However, I've made it so that she takes fatigue damage instead, and after a certain number of hits, will be knocked unconscious. \[ FatigueDamage = (\frac{BaseFatigue} {Endurance}) \times aaaGLOBDifficultyMult \] This means the number of hits she can take is roughly equal to her Endurance. If playing in non-Hardcore mode, this shouldn't be that noticeably different from the default companion behavior. The child can also accompany you for certain DLCs if you enable the corresponding global variable (It's disabled by default).

Locations

Where to Find the Baby

  • New Vegas Plugin: You will find the baby hidden in a steamer trunk inside the overturned semi trailer along the road from Jean Skydiving to Sloan, northwest of the Powder Ganger camp.
  • TTW Plugin: You will find the baby hidden in a steamer trunk at the raider camp south of Dukov's Place.

Putting the Baby Up for Adoption

  • New Vegas Plugin: Julie Farkas at the Old Mormon Fort will permanently take the baby for adoption.
  • TTW Plugin: You can also drop the baby off for adoption in Little Lamplight, if you're in the Capital Wasteland.

Additional Required Files

I used some sound assets from Fallout 3 as well as The Pitt DLC that do not exist in the New Vegas game files and which I can't legally redistribute with this mod. If you aren't running Tale of Two Wastelands, you'll need to extract the following files yourself and place them in the New Vegas Data folder:

From Fallout - Sound.bsa

  • sound/fx/phy/babyrattle/phy_babyrattle_01.wav
  • sound/fx/phy/babyrattle/phy_babyrattle_02.wav

From ThePitt - Sounds.bsa

  • sound/fx/npc/baby/npc_human_baby_sleep_a_01.wav
  • sound/fx/npc/baby/npc_human_baby_sleep_a_02.wav
  • sound/fx/npc/baby/npc_human_baby_sleep_a_03.wav
  • sound/fx/npc/baby/npc_human_baby_sleep_a_04.wav
  • sound/fx/npc/baby/npc_human_baby_sleep_b_01.wav
  • sound/fx/npc/baby/npc_human_baby_sleep_b_02.wav
  • sound/fx/npc/baby/npc_human_baby_sleep_b_03.wav
  • sound/fx/npc/baby/npc_human_baby_sleep_b_04.wav

Technically, these sounds are only used to provide feedback to the player, confirming that things are happening. The mod will still work without them, but there will just be no audible cues.

User-Configurable Settings

There are a number of global variables that can be changed using either the G.E.C.K., FNVEdit, or console commands, in order to tailor the experience to your personal preferences. When using console commands, the proper syntax is set aaaGLOBWhatever to #.

aaaGLOBDifficultyMultDetermines how difficult the mod is, including how quickly the baby's needs drain. The higher the value, the higher the difficulty. Set to 1.0 by default.
DO NOT SET TO 0! Use a decimal instead, to avoid divide-by-zero errors.
aaaGLOBEnableMrNannyIf set to 1, enables the various Mr. Nanny's scattered throughout the Wasteland. Set to 0 by default.
aaaGLOBBabysitDepositDetermines the cost of the initial downpayment in caps for Mr. Nanny's services. Set to 500 by default.
aaaGLOBBabysitPerDiemDetermines the cost per day in caps for Mr. Nanny's services. Set to 100 by default.
aaaGLOBCompanionCanHoldBabyIf set to 1, allows you to hand the baby over to any of your humanoid companions. Set to 0 by default.
aaaGLOBBabyDebugIf set to 1, adds a new option to the status checker that resets all variables, resets all the baby's needs to 100, and stops her crying. Set to 0 by default.
aaaGLOBEnableAgeUp(TTW plugin only) If set to 1, allows the baby to grow up into a child companion. Set to 1 by default.
aaaGLOBKeepCompanion(TTW plugin only) If set to 1, allows the grown-up child companion to accompany you into DLC areas. Set to 0 by default.

Credits

companions/tribeoftwo.txt · Last modified: 2024/01/16 19:14 by mc_tammer

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