I wonder who creates predefined characters in RPGs?! They all suck big time, not just in FT or Awaken, also in other games, like Kotor or NWN2 etc. Always investing points in endurance/constitution, most useless attribute ever!
Characters with tagged barter, science and repair skills are useless!
Characters with PER, AG, Luck below 10 are useless!
Characters without nightvision, sharpshooter, tunnelrat perks are useless!
Characters without tagged small guns, big guns/energy weapons and sneak skills are useless!
Characters like dogs that can't change stance are useless, because they can't sneak effectively! they are constantly detected!
There are editors for FT that allow you to change the squad member stats to your liking, but they don't work for the Awaken mod, so you need to do this through the editor. Problem is, if you already began to play the game, the characters are saved in the sav files and you can't change them through the editor any longer. So you need to create new ones and put them on some map you haven't yet visited. Set their status to "Human" and when you enter the map, they will automatically join your team.
Use the entity editor to create 5 squad members for Awaken. I suggest the following combination:
Your own character:
Traits: Small frame, gifted
Tagged skills: Small guns, energy weapons, sneak
Stats: Per 10, AG 10, Luck 6-10, depending on how many points you invest in charisma, Str 5-6, endurance 2, Int 8-9 (traits increases already included)
Two additional energy weapon squad members and another 2 with tagged big guns skill
The last squad member should be used for menial tasks like pickpocketing, lockpicking, trap disabling (not necessary in Awaken). Tag lockpicking, pickpocketing, sneaking, use Tag! for traps in FT (not Awaken). He should be given the leader perk too, he then can increase the stats of all other members. So his Char must be 6 at least.
Squad member stats:
Traits: Small frame, gifted
Stats: Str 6, Per 10, En 2, AG 10, Luck 10, Int 8, Charisma 2 (trait increases already included).
Perks: Night-vision, tunnelrat, sharpshooter, weapon handling (for minigun, gatling, turbo plasma rifle, browning), better criticals, more criticals or more ranged damage, bonus ammo, sniper...
After you've created the characters, launch the level editor, load a Awaken Map you haven't visited yet and drag your recruits onto the map. Use Entity Edit to change their status from "Scenery" to "Human", save the map. Start the game, go to New Chicago, dump the predefined squad losers at the recruit master's, go to the map you put your characters on, and they will join. Check out my cool new team:
http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr40/WRFan/fbos0015.jpg
I also set the Outdoorman skill to 200, because those random encounters are just annoying and I changed the leather.ent armour stats to increase weight my characters can carry to 1000 lbs, because the weapons weigh so much in Awaken and I got tired of always being encumbered. Up to you though, maybe you like it the way it is.
Now some SPOILERS about where to get the weapons for your team:
If you have 3 energy weapon members and 2 big guns members, you need:
3 laser rifles
3 plasma rifles
3 gatling lasers (eat buffout to use until you get weapon handling)
2 big guns (miniguns won't do until you get weapon handling at lvl 12)
Michael at Michael's tower is wielding a turbo plasma rifle. Use poison on him to get it. Str 6 required (standard plasma rifles need Str 5 only, but deal less damage)
One standard plasma rifle at the mutant base in a locker
Another one used by a supermutant at the mutant base
Another one used by a guard in New Chicago (can't be poisoned due to combat armour poison resistance). Can't be super-stimpacked to death due to a bug (weapons are not spawned on death, so don't bother)
One gatling laser at the laboratory (high lockpicking skill required)
One gatling laser at the mutant base
One gatling laser on a guard at the brotherhood of steel (use poison to kill him)
One laser rifle at the laboratory
several laser rifles at the mutant base
Some shop keeper sells one, possibly Michael, don't remember
Big guns:
Bozar is found in a special encounter
M60 is at the mutant base (chief mutant using it). M60 is using depleted ammo, very good against heavy armoured enemies (50 per cent penetration).
Miniguns, flamers and rocket launchers are easy to get, to I won't go into detail
Characters with tagged barter, science and repair skills are useless!
Characters with PER, AG, Luck below 10 are useless!
Characters without nightvision, sharpshooter, tunnelrat perks are useless!
Characters without tagged small guns, big guns/energy weapons and sneak skills are useless!
Characters like dogs that can't change stance are useless, because they can't sneak effectively! they are constantly detected!
There are editors for FT that allow you to change the squad member stats to your liking, but they don't work for the Awaken mod, so you need to do this through the editor. Problem is, if you already began to play the game, the characters are saved in the sav files and you can't change them through the editor any longer. So you need to create new ones and put them on some map you haven't yet visited. Set their status to "Human" and when you enter the map, they will automatically join your team.
Use the entity editor to create 5 squad members for Awaken. I suggest the following combination:
Your own character:
Traits: Small frame, gifted
Tagged skills: Small guns, energy weapons, sneak
Stats: Per 10, AG 10, Luck 6-10, depending on how many points you invest in charisma, Str 5-6, endurance 2, Int 8-9 (traits increases already included)
Two additional energy weapon squad members and another 2 with tagged big guns skill
The last squad member should be used for menial tasks like pickpocketing, lockpicking, trap disabling (not necessary in Awaken). Tag lockpicking, pickpocketing, sneaking, use Tag! for traps in FT (not Awaken). He should be given the leader perk too, he then can increase the stats of all other members. So his Char must be 6 at least.
Squad member stats:
Traits: Small frame, gifted
Stats: Str 6, Per 10, En 2, AG 10, Luck 10, Int 8, Charisma 2 (trait increases already included).
Perks: Night-vision, tunnelrat, sharpshooter, weapon handling (for minigun, gatling, turbo plasma rifle, browning), better criticals, more criticals or more ranged damage, bonus ammo, sniper...
After you've created the characters, launch the level editor, load a Awaken Map you haven't visited yet and drag your recruits onto the map. Use Entity Edit to change their status from "Scenery" to "Human", save the map. Start the game, go to New Chicago, dump the predefined squad losers at the recruit master's, go to the map you put your characters on, and they will join. Check out my cool new team:
http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr40/WRFan/fbos0015.jpg
I also set the Outdoorman skill to 200, because those random encounters are just annoying and I changed the leather.ent armour stats to increase weight my characters can carry to 1000 lbs, because the weapons weigh so much in Awaken and I got tired of always being encumbered. Up to you though, maybe you like it the way it is.
Now some SPOILERS about where to get the weapons for your team:
If you have 3 energy weapon members and 2 big guns members, you need:
3 laser rifles
3 plasma rifles
3 gatling lasers (eat buffout to use until you get weapon handling)
2 big guns (miniguns won't do until you get weapon handling at lvl 12)
Michael at Michael's tower is wielding a turbo plasma rifle. Use poison on him to get it. Str 6 required (standard plasma rifles need Str 5 only, but deal less damage)
One standard plasma rifle at the mutant base in a locker
Another one used by a supermutant at the mutant base
Another one used by a guard in New Chicago (can't be poisoned due to combat armour poison resistance). Can't be super-stimpacked to death due to a bug (weapons are not spawned on death, so don't bother)
One gatling laser at the laboratory (high lockpicking skill required)
One gatling laser at the mutant base
One gatling laser on a guard at the brotherhood of steel (use poison to kill him)
One laser rifle at the laboratory
several laser rifles at the mutant base
Some shop keeper sells one, possibly Michael, don't remember
Big guns:
Bozar is found in a special encounter
M60 is at the mutant base (chief mutant using it). M60 is using depleted ammo, very good against heavy armoured enemies (50 per cent penetration).
Miniguns, flamers and rocket launchers are easy to get, to I won't go into detail
