Compatible Companion Mod Creation/Active Party

The Active Party step describes how to add a choice to remove or add your custom companion to the active party.

</rant on>The partypicker is the only resource that you really have to change in order to make your companion show up. No way around this. However, as more mods come out, disregarding what others have done, and changing game resources at will and without knowing what they're doing very often, installing more than one mod messes the whole game up.</rant off>

With that pleasant thought in mind, here's an option to make all our companions "compatible", in the sense that even if they don't show in the partypicker, you can still get them, or sent them back to camp.

What we need

In your npc dialog, say valeria_npc.dlg, we build an option as you see in the pretty pictures. You first notice that this option is available only if we haven't been through the last partypicker choosing at the gates in the climax (when we talk to Riordan).

Notice how we call the script valeria_come_with_me, to have her join the active party.

Notice how we call the script valeria_go_back_to_camp, to sent her back to camp(remove from active party).

The come hither script

#include "utility_h"
 
#include "plt_valeria_npc_hire"
 
void main()
{
    object me=OBJECT_SELF;
 
    SetImmortal(me,0);
    SetLocalInt(me, CREATURE_REWARD_FLAGS, 0); 
    SetLocalInt(me, AMBIENT_SYSTEM_STATE, 0);
    SetFollowerState(me, FOLLOWER_STATE_ACTIVE);
    SetObjectActive(me,1);
    AddCommand(me, CommandJumpToLocation(GetLocation(GetHero())));   //Ensures follower appears at PC's location.
 
    WR_SetPlotFlag(PLT_VALERIA_NPC_HIRE, PARTY_VALERIA_IN_PARTY, TRUE);
 
}

The go back to camp script

Notice the checks to see if we are in one of the camps. You should have different locations for your companions of course.

#include "utility_h"
#include "sys_ambient_h"
 
#include "plt_valeria_npc_hire"
 
void main()
{
    object me=OBJECT_SELF;
    object curArea=GetArea(GetHero());
 
    SetFollowerState(me, FOLLOWER_STATE_AVAILABLE);
    WR_SetPlotFlag(PLT_VALERIA_NPC_HIRE, PARTY_VALERIA_IN_PARTY,FALSE);
 
    if(GetTag(curArea)=="cam100ar_camp_plains"  || GetTag(curArea)=="den211ar_arl_eamon_estate_1"  ||GetTag(curArea)=="cli300ar_redcliffe_castle")
    {
        location ValeriaLoc;
        if(GetTag(curArea)=="cam100ar_camp_plains")
            ValeriaLoc=Location(curArea, Vector(135.85, 123.18, -0.08), -71.33);
        if(GetTag(curArea)=="den211ar_arl_eamon_estate_1")
            ValeriaLoc=Location(curArea, Vector(28.1, 4.75, 0.0), 176.33);
        if(GetTag(curArea)=="cli300ar_redcliffe_castle")
            ValeriaLoc=Location(curArea, Vector(2.56,-14.84, 0.0), -130.38);
 
        SetObjectActive(me,1);
        AddCommand(me, CommandJumpToLocation(ValeriaLoc));
 
        if(GetTag(curArea)=="cam100ar_camp_plains")
            Ambient_Start(me, AMBIENT_SYSTEM_ENABLED, AMBIENT_MOVE_NONE, AMBIENT_MOVE_PREFIX_NONE, 70, AMBIENT_ANIM_FREQ_ORDERED);
 
        if(GetTag(curArea)=="den211ar_arl_eamon_estate_1" ||GetTag(curArea)=="cli300ar_redcliffe_castle")
            Ambient_Start(me, AMBIENT_SYSTEM_ENABLED, AMBIENT_MOVE_NONE, AMBIENT_MOVE_PREFIX_NONE, 56, AMBIENT_ANIM_FREQ_ORDERED);
    }
    else
    {
        SetObjectActive(me,0);
    }
    SetImmortal(me,1);
}