Automatron EyeBot Companions
AUTOMATRON EYEBOT COMPANIONS
When Automatron was announced, I was ecstatic at the prospect of travelling once more with my favourite little buddy from the Mojave. I raced through it because I was told there were buildable EyeBots at the end, only to be bitterly disappointed by what were basically fetch quest bots that wouldn’t accompany me on my journey into the bowels of hell (especially when the first one sent me to Medford Memorial Hospital (which is basically the bowels of hell for me given how often I get sent there).
Anyways, I really, really wanted to hang with my little buddy again so I decided that if Bethesda weren’t going to do the right thing, I’d do it myself. And here we are.
Fly Far, Fly Fast!
Spoiler Show
WHAT IT DOES
Adds EyeBots to the Robot Workbench. They work like any other Robot companion, and have a range of customisation options. And yes, you can turn Ada into an EyeBot, and as a new feature, EyeBot-ed companions can now be un-EyeBot-ed. As of v0.9a, EyeBots can now be painted in 50+ different colors for their visors and shells, for a total of over 2500 unique combinations. And yep, it now includes Sonya’s model! Oh and as of v0.99a, thanks to the generous texturing of mkdo40 (whose mod Wasteland Imports you should definitely check out if you’re finding yourself missing the Mojave), it now has a proper Duraframe (ED-E!), with optional numberplate and sticker. Ya.
Plus, as a less-than-serious bonus they can be used as Torsos with the various legs (though they sit around the pelvis region rather than on top of the legs).
Obviously, this mod requires Automatron.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
Most important thing: if you haven’t already, please follow THIS GUIDE RIGHT HERE to properly enable mods.
Install the mod manually or through your mod manager as you would any other.
Once in game, you just need to wait a few seconds so that the formlist updater script can run before you use the robot workbench (it runs on every load but checks if it needs to make each change so on later loads the wait shouldn’t be necessary unless something messes up the formlists)
Once you get a message in the top left corner of your screen saying the installation is done, you’re good to go.
I strongly recommend that you try the mod out right away after installing it (using the cheat recipes esp if need be, to get an idea of the full capabilities of the mod) and decide whether you want to use it or not, and if not uninstall it and revert to a save from before you installed it (which won’t require using the uninstaller as the mod obviously can’t do anything to save files made without it installed), making sure you don’t lose any progress if you decide not to use it later. That said, I will always endeavour to make any changes that might be too immersion breaking entirely optional and avoid foisting the mod upon you in gameplay, so that if you don’t wish to use it any more it can simply be kept installed but ignored without any hassle, and also try to ensure that there shouldn’t be any changes that make you want to stop using the mod after having it installed for a while. The scripting is an improvement in this regard because it means you’re much less likely to need to uninstall the mod to use another Automatron mod, and again I’ll always try to keep things compatible (at least to the degree of not causing crashes etc – only so much can be done above that).
Note that this advice isn’t specific to this mod, or even to scripted mods – it goes for every mod out there. Consider it a PSA of sorts.
MISC NOTES/ADVICE
EyeBot Weapons:
For most EyeBot Weapons, you will need the playable weapon the mod is based off in your inventory (eg any plasma gun for plasma weapons) – the idea being that you’re making a miniaturized version of the weapon so you need an example to work from.
COMPONENT LISTS:
The component lists for many of these items don’t fit on Bethesdas gigantic console-focussed interface without scrolling. If you think you have all the ingredients and perks and the recipe is still grayed out, please try scrolling.
Various Paint/Decals
A lot of the Paints/Decals, especially those for factions from this game and others, have minimum level or quest requirements (usually completion of the first quest in that faction’s quest line).
Atomic Radio Tuner:
For this tuner to work you’ll need the Atomic Radio mod, found on Bethmods or here (download link is in the menu at the top). It’s great and I heartily recommend it.
MOD TYPE RUNDOWN
EyeBot (Submersible) Propulsion System (Legs) – Makes it an actual EyeBot with working EyeBot weapons etc. Precludes arms.
EyeBot Propulsion System Upgrade (Legs): Improves movement speed.
EyeBot Core (Torso) – Needed for EyeBot Frames, needed for most EyeBot mods. Prevents use of a Head.
EyeBot Frame (Torso) – This is what makes it look like an EyeBot, and also acts as Armor, though it may have other effects.
EyeBot Sensor Package (Torso): Like the Mr Handy eyes, sets the Combat AI, can improves perception and eventually accuracy. Requires EyeBot Torso.
EyeBot AI (Torso) – Determines the aggression of your EyeBot buddy.
EyeBot Hat (Torso) – Choose a hat – generally requires the appropriate hat in your inventory to show up and a piece of cloth (or fiberglass in some cases) to build.
EyeBot Radio (Torso) – Select a Radio Station for your EyeBot to play, or No Radio to turn it off.
EyeBot Duraframe Accessory: Exclusive to the Duraframe, choose an Accessory, including ED-E’s numberplates!
EyeBot Paint – Shell (Paint) – Does what it says on the tin.
EyeBot Paint – Visor (Paint) – Also does what it says on the tin. Doesn’t affect the Excavation Frame.
EyeBot Decal (Paint) – Adds Decals to your EyeBot’s Visor. Doesn’t affect the Excavation Frame.
EyeBot Weapon (EyeBot Weapon) – Requires EyeBot Thruster for technical reasons. Primary weapon type for EyeBots. Most recipes will only show up if you have the playable weapon they’re based on in your inventory.
Q&A
>Why are these mods so expensive/hard to get?
>>(I’m not sure if this is an issue or not) Most of the really expensive ones are really good. If it’s a problem for enough people I might cut the numbers. As for requirements, EyeBot tech in the Commonwealth is kinda limited aside from groups/people that would know a bit about robotics, science etc, and I felt perk requirements were kinda underused by the DLC, given the subject matter (especially Robotics Expert).
>>Please provide any feedback you have on the balancing in the thread, I can’t promise I’ll act on any of it, but I might.
>My EyeBot runs away instead of fighting!
>>Poor little fella is scared, it doesn’t understand violence. If you wish to shatter its illusion that the world of Fallout is one in which a small, orb-like robot can survive without resorting to casual brutality, give it an EyeBot Weapon and maybe change its AI package. If that doesn’t work let me know what weapon it’s using and also open the console, click on the robot, type “showinventory” and post what it returns, if you can.
>Why aren’t there any Automatic weapons (or proper flamers)?
>>EyeBots don’t have animations for anything but single-shot weapons. Yeah, it annoys me too and I might find a way to work around it once the GECK is out and I can see what’s going on a little better. If it’s worth anything, I found out when I was doing what I thought was the final batch of testing, and in response I stayed up late adding about half of the weapons that are now in there (including the FlameSpitter and Cryolator, which both took a good while to figure out), just so there was still a good variety.
>>UPDATE: I experimented with swapping the regular attack animation to an automatic one, and while the weapons became automatic, they also failed to stop firing before my little buddy turned to face me, which was both adorable and quite painful. Don’t know if I’ll be able to do this until .hkx files are better understood.
>Why is there no Gauss weapon?
>>There is now. It looks like the Suppressor which isn’t ideal but yeah. Someone in the thread mentioned something about a coil inside the barrel, which was a good enough explanation for me.
>Does doubling up on Hacking, Lockpicking, or Recon Sensor mods do anything?
>>Nope. Might remove the ability to do so sometime.
>What about the others?
>>Yeah, should do. Numbers say it does.
>Why do companion EyeBots float higher than regular ones?
>>Mostly because that’s about where I remember ED-E floating (don’t currently have NV installed to check), but it has the added bonus of making it unlikely that they’ll block your shots, which is something that bugs me with most companions. I was tempted to make it high enough to walk under but there are already some instances where they clip through the top of doors. UPDATE: They’re now a bit lower, around head height. Still higher than vanilla ones but about the same as the original ED-E.
>Why does my EyeBot sound like it’s taking fall damage?
>>Don’t worry, your little buddy’s propulsion systems are working just fine – it isn’t actually getting hurt when it falls, it just wants attention, like a small, adorable child might. (Really though it’s just because setting the movement type to hover causes a whole bunch of problems.)
>My EyeBot weapons don’t work!
>>This is likely a conflict with another mod that allows the use of arms with parts that otherwise wouldn’t allow them. The problem shouldn’t occur for EyeBots built from v0.9a onwards, but for those affected, the solution should be to go back to the workbench, change to non-EyeBot legs, select no arms and no hands for both arm slots, then change back to the EyeBot thruster (and re-add your EyeBot weapon). The EyeBot is trying to use the hand weapon (which wasn’t removed because I was referring to a pre-existing list of all the hands which certain mods wipe) and doesn’t have the animations for it. This should remove those weapons, fixing the issue.
>My EyeBot is buzzing! Make it stop!
>>Sadly there’s not much that can be done about this retroactively – it is/was caused by the excavation frame having a looping sound in the lightning effect .nif and there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop it once it has started. v0.9c will prevent it happening to new EyeBots, but not much can be done retroactively without altering vanilla stuff. Sorry 🙁
>Modification options aren’t showing up!
>>Could be a mod clash (less likely now) or a bad install. Run the uninstaller holotape, follow the uninstall directions to fully uninstall the mod and then reinstall it.
>Meshes aren’t showing up!
>>Uninstall and Reinstall the mod in your mod manager (no need to follow the full uninstall guide in this readme/description), the files probably haven’t unpacked right. If you’re updating from v0.1c or earlier this will also happen due to the significant changes made to the underlying mechanisms of AEC. Take your EyeBot to the Robot Workbench, remove and readd the modifications you want, and it should be fixed.
>I told my EyeBot to farm and now it’s just sitting in one place!
>>You asked a robot that doesn’t have any hands to pick vegetables for you. It will – it is, it’s just concentrating incredibly hard to do so, all so it doesn’t disappoint you by not meeting its six-unit quota.
For real though it’s an animation thing and we don’t have the tools to fix it (at least not without causing a way more serious bug). It’s just the animations, food should still be produced normally and once reassigned they’ll start moving again. I suggest assigning them to Scrap duty, it fits thematically.
>I don’t like [thing] about hats!
>>Please do not take the optional hats seriously.
>I like hats, can you make them for other robots?
>>The way I did it isn’t directly transferable to other robots and also takes a fair bit of tedious work. I also think someone was working on it already and don’t really have much interest in (or time for) doing so myself.
>Why can’t I make my EyeBot self-destruct?
>>(Aggressive Bleep)
OPTIONAL ADDONS
I’ve added a couple of optional addons over time, here is what the current one(s) do(es):
1. th1nkEyeBot-CheatRecipes.esp: Lets you make all of the EyeBot modifications at no cost, with no skill requirements, so you can pimp your EyeBot ASAP.
2. Aquatic EyeBots: Allows EyeBots to swim underwater and even better, attack underwater. They can also still hover above the surface when they want to. I’ve kept it separate as it might be a little immersion-breaking for some. No longer needed as of V1.1a, see Submersible Propulsion System in Legs.
VIDEOS
Some lovely people have been kind enough to make some lovely videos about my mod. Here’s a small selection (sorry if yours wasn’t included, it’s not that I didn’t like it, I’ve not seen a video of my mod that I haven’t loved, I just only have so much space)
COMPATIBILITY
Now that I’ve changed to scripted formlist edits, the mod should be compatible with most other Automatron mods in terms of things showing up right, unless their mod’s edit timing clashes with mine. Mods that edit the vanilla assets it references (projectiles, any eyebot files, etc etc) may cause problems if they’re really drastic, but generally shouldn’t.
Also, mods that add arms and hands may cause issues where the hands remain in the inventory after changing to the EyeBot thruster, causing it not to attack due to lacking animations for those weapons. Make sure you manually remove the hands before switching to the EyeBot Thruster if you have mods that do that.
NOTES FOR OTHER MOD MAKERS
At the risk of being patronising, if you’re using scripts to edit Automatron’s formlists (and you probably should be with console mods coming), there are a few scripts that need to keep things in the right order. This mod edits DLC01Workbench_ExclusionList, DLC01Workbench_RemovalList, RobotWorkbench_RaceChangeModlist and RobotWorkbench_RaceList, which are all order-critical. I use a delay on mine, and it only modifies them after the initial install if my entries aren’t in corresponding positions, but either way our mods shouldn’t edit them at the same time. I’ve included a few trace lines in my script to indicate when things happen for this purpose – all edits to these formlists occur between the lines “Automatron EyeBot Companions order-critical formlist edits started” and “Automatron EyeBot Companions order-critical formlist edits completed”. If you do the same with yours you should get an idea of whether they’ll clash or not. Keep in mind that my script will take different amounts of time to do its checks/make its changes depending on whether it’s already done the initial install or not.
BUGS
EyeBots walk off during dialog, especially hiring dialog. Not sure why this is, probably a package thing. Select a slower thruster upgrade so it doesn’t move away as quickly, remod it once it’s added, or just keep trying and walking with it.
EyeBots just pause mid-air when incapacitated. I think this is a result of how I had to set things up to make them work with the way Automatron goes about its business. But hey, you shouldn’t notice this unless you’re the sort of awful person who puts adorable little EyeBots in the line of fire. You wouldn’t do that, would you?
EyeBots loop falling through the ground (IT KEEPS HAPPENING) occasionally. Yeah, they’ll do that, no idea why. Just let yer little buddy walk it off, it’ll stop soon enough, often telling them to move somewhere if you can chat to them mid-fall will fix it too. As of v1.0 it seems marginally more frequent and I’ll try to fiddle with it, but the only solution I’ve found so far (making them hover) results in a similar but non-self-resolving bug (they face upwards and swivel/waltz, it’s quite strange).
TO DO/WISHLIST
Note: This is all tentative stuff and I don’t know if I’ll get to it because I’m busy and have a bunch of hobbies that I flit between regularly.
Paint: DONE
Animations for furniture like guard posts – DONE bar farming (needs animation tools I think) and vertibirds (makes them go nuts)
Sonya Skin DONE
Gradual unlock rate/maybe adding some of the parts to Automatron Eyebot drop lists (definitely won’t happen before GECK, also might cause compatibility issues). Certain Faction/Quest Related things do require related quests to be completed already, though.
General post-GECK Cleanup and tweaking – DONE
ED-E Mesh: DONE
ED-E Weapons: WIP
Ability to add ED-E’s battle music from New Vegas: Due to Beth not allowing us to reuse stuff from other games including NV, this requires a lot of work on the user side to have it work reliably, to the point that anyone who can do that work is already capable of doing the full thing themselves without much additional effort anyway.
Automatic/Flamer/Plasma Thrower weapons, proper Melee weapons: Can’t do these unless we get animation/behaviour tools.
Weapon Stat Refinements: Always open to feedback on this, mostly happy with how things are.
Radio: Apparently this is scripted messily but I’ll take a look once the GECK is out, I’d definitely like to make it happen. DONE
Maybe some kinda silenced weapon, for your stealth? DONE
UNINSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS – If you desperately want to permanently remove the mod from your game
NOTE: Uninstallation of mods is not supported by Bethesda – they advise against it, and with good reason – Uninstallers Are Not Perfect. Uninstallers Do Not Always Work. No matter what people say, there is always significant risk that even after using an uninstaller your save will still be dirty. You should always revert to a save made prior to installing a mod when uninstalling it – make sure you retain your saves from before installing each mod!
I’ve included the uninstallation section and holotapes ONLY because I know that some people won’t listen to these warnings and I’m inclined to at least give them at least some chance above 0% of their save not being damaged – if you use it you are solely responsible for what happens. Don’t complain to me, don’t complain to Bethesda, don’t say you weren’t warned, don’t take this as any sort of endorsement of the practice. Uninstallers are not reliable, they are not perfect, and you should not and cannot uninstall mods willy-nilly, scripted or otherwise.
Spoiler Show
To be clear, none of this is needed for updates (where you uninstall one version and install a new one without loading/saving a game in between), or when repairing an installation that hasn’t installed all of the files. It’s only if you intend to no longer use the mod in your save file.
CREDITS AND THANKS
Mkdo40, for generously texturing my ED-E model (and doing so in spite of my pretty damn average UVMapping). Check out his super neat Wasteland Imports mod here: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3793/?
matzman666, fireundubh and DarthWayne for a tonne of help and advice with scripting over on the Beth Forums.
Bethesda, for the game, Automatron, and everything else (even though they should have done this themselves).
The lovely people who made and maintain this site: Thanks for everything
The people at the Tales of Two Wastelands forums: For a tonne of advice with previous mods for New Vegas (none of which ever reached release stage) that I applied here.
The folks behind FO4Edit: Without whom this would be impossible and I’d still be crying about the lack of my little buddy.
jonwd7: for Bethesda Archive Extractor.
Obsidian: For ED-E. The greatest little buddy there ever was.
The team behind NifSkope, for NifSkope
Everyone who said thanks for the little bugfix I uploaded. Probably wouldn’t have spent as much time on this as I did without that indirect encouragement.
ED-E: FLY FAR FLY FAST little buddy.
COOL MODS
Wasteland Imports by Mkdo40
Atomic Radio by Kris_Takahashi
UPDATES
v0.1: Initial Release
v0.1b: Dropped EyeBots down to head height. Added optional Cheat Recipe and Un-EyeBot/No Torso restrictions esps.
v0.1c: Eyebot Thruster can now be used with other torsos, allowing you to remove the EyeBot torso from your robots and change back to another. Also fixed a small mistake I made that changed a vanilla thing, shouldn’t cause problems, but it’s fixed now either way.
v0.9a: Major Update:
*Changed underlying way constructible EyeBots work (allowing me to do the things in this update and hopefully fixing some bugs.)
*Added paint (2500 combinations of frame and shell.)
*Renamed Brotherhood, Minutemen and Servomech frames and changed paint to regular eyebot scheme.
*Swapped old Brotherhood and Servomech effects.
*Added new Sensor Package, using EyeBot AI for those who like that, while still having the accuracy and perception bonus from the top one (Advanced Targeting System).
*Added new frames:
**EyeBot Amplified Frame: (reduces energy resistance (-20), increases energy damage (approx double, I think, the effect is applied really unclearly and doesn’t show in the workbench, so I had to run field tests)),
**EyeBot Excavation Frame (Sonya) – only available with the EyeBot Propulsion System, prevents use of an EyeBot Weapon, adds a large-radius explosive attack using Big Dig Visuals. Only affected by Shell paint due to the way the mesh is set up, and the wires on the orb get turned into solid strips (would be pretty easy to fix had Bethesda not decided to use a Grayscale+Gradient thing for a single texture, for no discernible benefit).
v0.9b: Adds Enclave paint (requires level 28 & completion of The Glowing Sea), fixes various problems with antenna textures.
v0.99: Major Update:
*ED-E, thanks to Mkdo40
*Major buffs to most weapons.
*Added an additional 9 weapons.
*Added a second Misc Mod slot to EyeBots.
v1.0a: Major Update
*Replaced direct formlist edits with scripting for greater compatibility and added uninstall holotape
*Decals – 20 decals in 4+ flavours each
*New Close-Range Taser Weapon
*New Courier Frame (+60 Carry Weight)
*Added EyeBot Radio Playback
*Added AI (aggression) Options
*Added individual meshes for the various weapon types.
*7 New Paintjobs: Plain Black, Flat White, Beige, Vault-Tec, Legion, Ranger and Steel.
*New EyeBot Core mesh based on the Mr Handy Torso in place of my placeholder one
*Advanced Targeting AI accuracy fixed – no longer abysmal
*Minor rebalance to account for the above
*Idles should now play properly (let me know if they don’t)
*Most settlement animations should play properly if they weren’t already – farming animations still don’t work, probably can’t fix that without Animation tools
*EyeBots now ride in vertibirds with you
*Particle Effects (eg fire, berry mentats) no longer cause eyebots to fade out
*Main antenna cables no longer float loose on Amplified, Scattering and Shielded Frames.
*Pretty much all other things I spotted that I could fix without having access to animation/behaviour editing tools
v1.1a: Major-ish Update
*Hats! (38)
*New less-glossy Tint Paints (23)
*New Frame
*Atomic Radio Playback
*Racing Stripes and Conductor Antenna for Duraframes
*Long-range combat Sensor Package based on Robobrain AI
*Submersible Thruster now a mod choice rather than separate ESP
*New Mechanist Decal
*EyeBots are now banned from Vertibirds due to bad behaviour
*Vanilla EyeBots no longer float just above the floor
*Removed stray BoS quest requirement from Shielded Frame
*EyeBot Mesmetron now matches body colour
*Other bugfixes/improvements/very minor rebalances
*Uninstall holotape is no longer automatically added to the inventory to make sure people read the description and warnings before using it.
WARNING:
While this mod was made using FO4Edit and the CK, I take no responsibility if this destroys your save, your computer or your life, gets you arrested, causes a nuclear holocaust or anything else. I hope it doesn’t though.
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