Chosen One said:
Dogmeat is a surly son of a bitch, but even he likes to relax sometimes. Here's a simple mod almost anyone can use with minimal effort. The Chosen One can now play games (fetch and tug of war) with his favorite pet, try to teach Dogmeat some basic doggie tricks, and reward the mutt with treats when desired. As an additional bonus, some bugs were fixed in Dogmeat's script[SUP]1[/SUP] and loads of useless orphan code were ruthlessly annihilated for increased efficiency. All functions were tested (except with a low IN Chosen One) during regular gameplay, but please report any bugs here.
Files available here. Compatible with Fallout 2 1.02d and Fallout 2 Restoration Project (version 2.0 or higher).
Anyone is encouraged to take this basic material and develop further embellishments for Dogmeat-- but please share your work with everyone so we can all join in the fun! Maybe Dogmeat should be able to play additional games (I don't have a dog, so fetch and tug of war were all I could think of) or maybe the games should incorporate skill checks of the Chosen One and Dogmeat, etc. Something else folks may want to do is copy the tricks and incorporate them into the various cyberdog scripts. A treat for cyberdogs could be the oil can from the Tin Woodsman encounter.
To use:
Unzip the download. Move the file ecdogmet.int to the folder Fallout2\data\scripts whereever your game is installed. Move the file ecdogmet.msg to the folder Fallout2\data\text\english\dialog whereever your game is installed. Overwrite any existing files as necessary (after making a backup). Ecdogmet.ssl is a decompiled script for reference, and is not needed to use the modified character during gameplay. To ensure a bug-free experience, if you're not starting a new game then you should at least replay from a saved game before you entered the Cafe of Broken Dreams for the first time. If you haven't yet visited the Cafe in your current game, you have nothing to worry about and can just keep on keeping on.
FAQ
Q: My game doesn't have brahmin milk or chocolate bars!
A: No big deal. The script will work fine, and the relevant lines will never be called or seen by the player. If you're following my mods, you'll get these items at a future date.
Q: Dogmeat should get drunk and fall over when I give him beer!
A: Use your imagination. In your mind's eye, anything you want can happen to Dogmeat-- coding narrow responses often limits rather than increases player fun and freedom in my opinion.
Q: Can I use this script with the Megamod?
A: Sure, if you adapt it. This would be a fairly easy project for anyone wanting to learn the ins-and-outs of the scripting language. A bit of caution is suggested, however-- since the Megamod is a work in progress, MIB88 may have some bits in the script that are currently underutilized in anticipation of future enhancements. In other words, any work you do now may have to be redone later. You'd want to take particular care in examining contrasts in local variable usage. There are also important differences in Dogmeat's armor use. I also didn't examine the interplay of Dogmeat with other MM scripts. Beyond that, you'd simply need to change the itempid, AI packet, team, and map number references to Megamod equivalents (which would only take five minutes). It also looked to me like there was a bug in the MM script for cases where the pc attacks Dogmeat and "looks like Mel" appears, but I didn't follow the thread all the way through, so one may want to look at that as well if changing the script. If script compiling is beyond you, just wait for the next version of the Megamod and if MIB88 hasn't picked this up I'll look further into the matter. If anyone wants to make an adaptation in the meantime, please share your work with the rest of us.
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[SUP]1[/SUP] Among other matters: no more phantom dialogue interfaces, no more weirdness with giving Dogmeat gecko-on-a-stick after he's joined the party, local variable irregularities, and Dogmeat turning hostile if trying to steal from him when he's friendly (not that he has anything to steal anyway except fleas, but...). Don't bother killap, the poor man is trying to retire. Just use this script instead and don't play with Dogmeat if you are only interested in bugfixes.
I'll have to check this out. I haven't run into him yet, so I don't have to worry about restarting my game.
