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[Help] Creating a custom follower/companion for a character


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Hello! I'm in the beginning phases of creating my own character for DS and DST (I would eventually like her to be compatible with both, including Shipwrecked). I believe I understand how to make all the other changes to her that I need to, but wanted to add a bird follower/companion for the character.

The bird would do the following:

  • Follow the character
  • Idle close to the character (Not run away when you get close, like Abigail does)
  • Pick berries and deliver them to the character
  • Assist the character in combat
  • Be invulnerable/untargetable (I don't want the bird tanking everything like Abigail does--just to swoop in and attack every few seconds)

I was planning to make the bird use the same animations and model as the regular birds, though I don't know what would work for a "swooping" attack animation. Now that I'm thinking about it, I suppose I could use animations from GlomGlom or Broodling so that the bird actually flies behind the character. Unfortunately, my knowledge of code basically extends as far as changing "false" to "true" in the files, and after two days of googling I've only come up with a couple character mods with companions. Anyone that could point me to a tutorial that tells me exactly how to customize a follower, or could help me out here on this thread would be amazing. 

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It sounds like you're gonna need to make a brain for these behaviors, which might be a bit much for you (Im not that well into brains atm either).

Also I'm assuming you're planning to use the bird's bank, in which case you can't use animations from GlomGlom or Broodling. You'll be limited to animations that only the birds have. 

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7 hours ago, SuperDavid said:

I don't much how to this, but there is this mod that the character has a pet bird.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=366048578

Maybe it can help you :D? Good luck!!

Thanks for this, but it appears the bird in this mod is just an item/hat. :/

1 hour ago, DarkKingBoo said:

It sounds like you're gonna need to make a brain for these behaviors, which might be a bit much for you (Im not that well into brains atm either).

Also I'm assuming you're planning to use the bird's bank, in which case you can't use animations from GlomGlom or Broodling. You'll be limited to animations that only the birds have. 

The issue with the bird animations that I only realized as I was typing this thread out is that the birds are never persistently on screen--they drop down to the ground, peck at some seeds, then fly up out of camera view. I was really wanting to make a bird that is always there, following the character like a pet. Which may mean I'll have to delve into animating--something I've never tried before but would be willing to give it a go. So basically, it would code as a pet? With some variations for combat and berry-picking, obviously.

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Just now, DarkKingBoo said:

Probably, I'd code it as a mob personally. You can make it untargetable by adding the notarget tag and giving it inst.components.health:SetInvincble(true). But coding it after a pet might be easier.

Coding it as a pet means it will rely on pet coding, which is only in DST, though. Hmm... 

I had found this guides post earlier, but wasn't sure where to begin with it. So You're recommending I code it as a mod that's a follower essentially? The issues I imagine with that would be getting the bird to spawn in with the character in the first place, as well as making it never stop following you.

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Having it spawn for the character is easy, you just make a function that spawns the pet (if it isn't spawned already) and have the master_postinit call it. The following bit should, in theory, be controlled by the component that pets have. But if not then you can create that behavior in the brain file.

Anyways if you don't know the basics of programming/lua, I would start with that first. Once you get an understanding of how programming works then you'll be able to understand guides easier and be able to start working on this.

Or go the easy route and get someone else to do it for you.

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1 hour ago, DarkKingBoo said:

Having it spawn for the character is easy, you just make a function that spawns the pet (if it isn't spawned already) and have the master_postinit call it. The following bit should, in theory, be controlled by the component that pets have. But if not then you can create that behavior in the brain file.

Anyways if you don't know the basics of programming/lua, I would start with that first. Once you get an understanding of how programming works then you'll be able to understand guides easier and be able to start working on this.

Or go the easy route and get someone else to do it for you.

Lol well while the easy route is tempting, I'm willing to try to learn new things. :) Thanks for your help, I'll likely have more questions as I go along ;) 

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I'm working on something similar only without invulnerability or berry picking. What I am currenly using as a base is this persons mod;

Kyle, the Symbiont

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406913232

 The character crafts a variety of followers (I haven't crafted them all) but I noticed that the worm spiderling doesn't flee from character so that's where I'm focused. I'll share if I figure out more before you do.

Edit: The rock worms also help to harvest rocks so that might be useful for configuring the berries, not sure.

Edited by GutterFish
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