Hello peeps! I am so thrilled to announce that version 7 of BBR is finally ready! Thank you everyone for your encouragement, support, and patience! You can find it here:
In case you haven't been following the updates, version 7 adds full voice work to the content of BBR via AI. There's still room for improvement, (especially in No Bark and Manny's lines) but all in all, it turned out really well. I still plan on tweaking lines here and there if I can manage to synthesize better ones, but that's a pure hypothetical at the moment.
To show the voices at work, take a look at this video here:
I always found it weird that Boone had nothing to say about this quest, especially in the suicide outcome. What Hanlon says no doubt hits too close to home for the poor guy. This mod amends that!
Version 7 also adds Boone's 2nd armor set, '1st Recon Assault Armor' to the game. Although, the set is spelled wrong (1st Recon Asalt Armor) on purpose to distinguish it from the real one. It also serves as a low key pun so it fits with the themes of the mod. You can find it in a footlocker in the bathroom of the Novac motel player room.
I always found it unfair that the good ending of 'I Forgot to Remember to Forget' gave you the lame looking armor set of the two. Plus, I always prefer to dress Boone in black so he can't sneak up on me so much.
So I added a clone for everyone to use! Its playable for couriers, too! It counts as an NCR disguise, so keep that in mind. I also slightly modified the texture to make the black richer and the reds more vibrant. To keep things at least a bit fair for those that choose the bad ending though, this armor weighs 10 and is worth slightly less.
HOWEVER!! If you want to get Boone to wear this armor set like in the former screenshot, you need a separate mod that allows you to change a companion's armor. I debated trying to code the ability to do so within BBR, but 1. Such coding is still WAYY beyond my skillset, and trying to bash my head into the problem would have delayed this update significantly, and 2. A lot of players use companion mods that include this feature already. If I tried tinkering with it, the likelihood of BBR being incompatible with them would have rose a lot.
Speaking of complementary mods, there's a hidden feature in BBR that has existed since v5, and now seems like a good time to let people in on the secret.
In vanilla, companions will regenerate their health after combat. (this may not be true for hardcore mode, I haven't played that mode yet) I recommend installing a mod that disables this feature, because this will make the hidden content...not so hidden anymore.
If Boone gets hurt in combat, a new conversation will unlock. The conversation changes depending on how much health Boone has left and whether or not you are currently romancing him.
There's also a reverse of this convo, taking place if the player is hurt instead. The same variations based on the same factors as above also exist.
The third biggest change concerns the female-exclusive quest, 'Stork Without Wings'. If you like to play as a guy, this information probably isn't relevant to you. All you need to know is that there may be more ant activity at Searchlight Airport now.
For lady couriers that wish to romance Boone, click on the spoiler text below:
The quest will first point you to a letter under the wing of a plane, where environmental context will tell you that the book you need has been pilfered by ants. If you pick up this letter before the quest is active, the quest won't advance as intended and be stuck forever. The same happens if you pick up the book before the appropriate quest stage. If this happens to you, reload a previous save and return to the airport once you activated the quest.
I am working on ways to make the quest not so easy to soft-lock, but as of now I am stumped. If anyone has any pointers or suggestions, please feel free to share!
I have to admit that I am relieved this is done. It was a gargantuan task that almost drove me (even further) into madness. Now I can focus on adding new content! I am excited for what's to come!
Couldn't you apply a script that, when the game loads, the book starts as disabled (something like bookREF.disable), then when your quest stage hits the stage you want, then enable the item (something like bookREF.enable)?
Or, have an X marker reference object in the airport, then when you hit the desired quest stage, use something like xMarkerRef.placeatme [item code for book]. Although from what I remember the item codes for items created in custom mods are influenced by mod load order, so this might not work? I dunno, been forever since I touched the GECK.
Anyways, cheers and I wish you the best!
That's a really good idea! I'll look into this, thank you so much!