Are you referring to the selected vanilla settlers i.e. Wolfgang, Trudy....? Not all vanilla setters you come across in Fallout 4 can be recruited. The recruitment of the modified vanilla NPCs is disabled by default. See the following note in the mod description on Nexus....
IMPORTANT: recruitment of these 'tagged' vanilla NPCs is disabled by default (see IMPORTANT Considerations).
The usual suspect for not getting a 'R'ecruit prompt is that you are possibly running another mod that utilizes the alternate dialog. Typically only one such mod can be used as one or more mods attempting to use this feature will usually conflict. The RL-Recruit Framework is the part that implements this action and the Framework as been enhanced to work alonside some of the more popular mods that use the alternate dialog (i.e. some SKK mods, QuikTrade, etc). However it is not possible to ensure compatibility with all mods that use the alternate dialog.
If using other mods that use the alternate dialog load order can be important, more often a specific patch may be needed, and sometimes you just have to choose one or the other mods.
No there is not currently a non DLC version. While the mod doesn't touch the DLC, it does use assets from the DLC's. I'll take a look at it and see what would need to change to create a version that does not require any DLC. No promises however.
I cannot recruit some of them it appears. So far it's only humans I've had a problem with too. I met Jinks, the Biggstroms and Machs in a group. Able to recruit Jinks just fine, but not the others. Was also able to later recruit PR-BZ9233 no problem. Then I encountered Clem and was unable to recruit him. For all the humans just getting the standard dialogue.
There is no recruitment dialog, standard dialog is all you will get. There should be a 'R'ecruit Settler option when you get close. Just don't get too close as the option will not appear if too close. This is by design to make my mod more compatible with other mods using the alternate activation. Also you do have the RL_Recruitment_Framework loaded?
Also it could be a conflict with another mod that uses the alternate dialog. Are you using any other mods that provide alternate/recruitment options for NPCs? Based on your description, this may be the case since you can recruit non-humans ok.
What I mean is I only get the dialogue option to talk to them, no R comes up at any distance. The two robots I've recruited are from this mod, and the animals are from Animal rescue, and I do have the recruitment framework or that one wouldn't work either. I have some other mods which also use the framework and those are also working fine so far. I have more individual mods (a bunch of the ones made by LarannKiar) that allow me to recruit some unique NPCs already in the game as well as settlers of the commonwealth and better settlers. But why would those prevent me from recruiting humans but not robots from this mod?
Frankly, I have no idea. I do suspect a mod conflict as I have not seen this ever in 100's of games with over 700 mods loaded. I suspect something in your load order is conflicting. This is not unusual given that there are often conflicts with mods that use the alternate activation i.e 'R'ecruit. I use many mods by LarannKiar so I doubt his mods are causing the conflict. I suspect another mod that offers some alternate activation for the human race or such has precedence over my framework so you do not get the prompt.
I would suggest making a save of your current game and mod settings. Then disable all other mods that might use the alternate activation. See if my mod starts working, then slowly re-activate the other mods to see if you can identify the conflicting mod. If you can identify a conflicting mod you might try moving it higher / lower in the load order to see if that fixes the issue. If not, then provide me the name of the mod and maybe I can make a patch for it.
You cannot recruit any NPC. You can recruit several previously non recruitable vanilla NPCS and many new NPCs added by the mod. If the NPC can be recruited, you should get a 'R'ecruit option as you approach an NPC. Note if you are too close to the NPC (i.e. on top of) the recruit option may not appear.
The prompt has a distance limit to allow other mods that use the alternate dialog to function. That said if you have other mods loaded that use the alternate dialog, you might not get the 'R'ecruit option at all. Mods often conflict when trying to share the alternate dialog used to offer the Recruit prompt.
I am not aware of a mod that allows any NPC to be recruited. An NPC needs to be defined with specific scripts to be recruitable and not all NPCs have the needed scripts.
I did upload up a couple 'proof of concept' mods that add the needed scripts to most unique 'named' NPCs, but I cannot guarantee these mods will work in all cases. There is a good chance loading the mod will break quests, and NPC dialogs. I created the first version for use with SKK Commonwealth of Decay where most quests are shut down and the game becomes a sandbox, but I also uploaded a version for the vanilla game.
The mods are provided 'as-is' and I do not plan on making any further enhancements nor making any fixes should they not work. If they work for you great, if not, then they don't work.
There has to be a way that it can be done, it seems so easy So of course unique npcs would be off limits, however most npc that aren't attached to a quest or script act all the same. Settlers are very simple in terns of their sameness, they all basically do the same thing, have the ability to activate workstations, while being assignable. Family planning is a loverslab mod that allows even npc that aren't unique to be affected. Not sure how they did that, but the same thing would be kinda doable for npcs, in not in a less complicated way. I'd do it myself tbh, if I knew how, but I'm definitely not skilled in scripts or anything like that, I'd just break peoples games trying it, so I'm going to just leave it until somebody more knowledgeable than me decides to give it a go.
The problem is identifying all the NPCs, many are not specifically defined, but generated dynamically. All such NPCs would need to be identified and then the coding updated to add the needed scripts. Solution is simple, implementation is complex given NPCs have quests, dialogs, actions attached that might be broken if turned into a settler.
Notably, I think the VanillaSettlers mod I created will do much of what you want, just understand the risk. The mod should allow you to recruit most of Diamond City, Vault 81, and many other non faction NPCs. I use it in my SKK Openworld games but have not used it in a vanilla game.
If you just want a recruitable copy of 'any' npc check out the Portable Cloning Device which allows you to make a recruitable copy of any NPC while the original NPC is not impacted. Another possibility is Abuduction which is similar but you need to drop an item into the NPC inventory.
I guess I can check the later methods. The point of this is that using fanily planning, I got a Scavenger npc pregnant, and wanted to make sure she stays in the settlement, otherwise she could vanish from the game She's not a unique npc.
I've never used Family Planning, but I would recommend Crime and Punishment which has a settlement pregnancy system. You can turn off the parts of the mod (like the karma system) that you do not want to use. Another option is to use Liga of my Companions which should allow you to recruit the Scavenger as a follower, and then tell her to live in a settlement.
I prefer family planning's pregnancy system over crime and punishment's planning, and so I'm afraid I can't switch, especially since I already have pregnant npc. That liege of my companions though, that looks like what I could use for what I'm looking for
No he should look bigger but not like a balloon. Don't think any mods should conflict with his npc model, so unsure what might be happening here. I'm not actively playing Fo4, and I do know he looked ok in my prior games. However I have not tested my mods with the latest Fo4 update. That update caused some issues with mods.
I really don't remember his look, haven't recruited him in a long time now. I do know he was intended to be heavy set. That may be how he looked, I just don't remember.
I took a look in Creation Kit and that is his model. He was intended to be round as the character was part of an old TV show, and the Shultz character was heavy and round. With the default outfit, he was pretty much what I intended, but when you replace the outfit, not so much specifically the hair. I will probably rework him some should I decide to update the mod in the future.
several of the recruitable npcs are tongue in cheek representations from some old TV shows. I'll leave it to you to figure out which :) I did update the mod with a toned down shultz, and new hair that is more representative of what I wanted. I am testing the mod as I had added new characters, added native SKK Openworld support, and some other minor fixes sometime back, but just never got around to testing it. If all goes well, I'll put it up sometime towards Fall this year.
I'm running into an issue where several of the NPCs can't be recruited. The Bradshaws just have generic NPC dialogue ("Huh?" "What?" "Yeah?"), and the two prisoners I've run into so far were freeable and I could give them items but I couldn't recruit them. Charles DeWitt recruited just fine, but these others didn't even give me the option.
@ninalyn, are you running any other mods that may be interacting with captive/prisoner functions? Based on what you've posted here and on my Recruitable Scavengers page, the recruit issue you're encountering seems to be limited solely to the captives of Recruitable NPCs. You mentioned Breanne (at the Federal Ration Stockpile) and the Bradshaw couple, all of which are captives. Have you encountered Julia Todd or Rachel Diggs? They're the other two captives in this mod. If they have the same problem, but others (e.g., Charles DeWitt) do not, then the issue almost certainly revolves around captive/prisoner functions.
rsm000rsm is pretty much spot on. All the names you mention are capitves. They cannot be recruited until freed. That said the recruit prompt will not prompt at close range. If you are too close you will get the talk option. Try backing away a bit and see if you get the recruit prompt. The distance limit was put in to ensure other mods such as quicktrade and Get out of my Face work with the framework mod. Please let me know if this might be the issue.
My mod uses a custom captive script so I would not think that another captive mod would interfere, but then there are so many mods out there who knows for sure.
Does your script make use of the vanilla BoundCaptiveFaction or CaptiveFaction? If so, I would think any mod that tinkers with those factions directly might have some adverse effects on your mod.
That being said, the recruit distance for your captives makes sense, too, even though I never noticed. I'm still curious how ninalyn is accessing their inventory without recruiting them first. I don't recall being able to do that until they're recruited.
Sorry for the wait in getting back to you! I have a major event next week and Fallout hit the back burner for awhile. But I do have an update:
I don't think I have a mod that would cause this, but I DO have a test case showing it's not just captives. I forget the woman's name, but near Prospect Hill you've got a woman chilling on a couch on a roof near a milk machine she appears to have hauled up there. I couldn't recruit her either.
I also realized Charles DeWitt is not the Charles I was able to recruit when I went back to look at his name again--I found a ghoul in a lab coat with a different last name, who's probably part of one of RSM's recruitable settlers mods.
I'll see if I can find that woman again and try recruiting by standing back, and get back to you.
Okay, just went and found her again. It's Jayln. Standing back didn't allow me to do anything; talking to her provided nothing but generic NPC dialog. Weirdly, I have a different mod that highlights unassigned settlers, and while new recruitable NPCs from other mods are highlighted by that mod, Jayln is not. It's like the system isn't recognizing her as an NPC at all.
All the NPCs you mention are placed as captives and must be freed before you will get the Recruit option. The recruit option does not appear until they are 'freed'. I suspect something is conflicting with the captive code, but this too is strange given the captive NPCs added by my mod have their own custom captive code.
Opps my my bad, you mentioned Jaylyn who is not a captive and should be easily recruited. I really suspect that some other mod is conflicting. I cannot reproduce the problem. I use and have used my mods in all my games with a maxed out load order and have never seen this issue. That said I have seen conflicts when other mods are installed that allow 'Recruitment' of NPCs. Load order is critical in many cases. I've created patches for mods like some of the SKK mods that allow recruitment. However, I have no way to know exactly which mods are used and if there are conflicts.
What version of Fallout 4 are you running? If running the most recent update released in Apr 2024, that might be the problem. I have not tested my mods against the new release. Atm there are no plans to do so as I've pretty much lost interest in Fo4. I will fix bugs that exist under the prior version, but I have no plans to load / test the new release of Fo4.
If you are running a mod manager like Mod Organizer II, I'd recommend creating at test profile, then slowly load up suspect mods along with my mod until you determine what mod is causing the conflict. That is how I identify problem mods. If you can isolate the mod that introduces this issue, I might be able to create a patch mod (no guarantee however).
Any mod that adds a second activation to a NPC (not necessarily a recruitment mod) could be the culprit. Such mods often prevent the secondary activation (i.e. Recruit) from working as intended.
rsm's mods don't allow me to reset character names, so the "what's your name?" prompt isn't given. Would I be right in saying your NPC records don't list the characters as having unique NPC names (the way, say, Preston is a unique named NPC)?
Weirdly, I haven't had time to tinker with my load order, but I did get my first recruit from your mod! It's...I don't remember the guy's name, there's a camp near the Castle that's up on a rooftop and has two men living there. One of them was sleeping when I arrived, and it prompted me to recruit him. His companion couldn't be recruited, and I want to go back at a different time of in-game day to see if he's sleeping and, if so, if I can recruit him then. Having a full dialogue window that offered me the sandman kill might be what made the difference. If that's true then it might still be easier for me to move this mod below What's Your Name if it isn't there already (I....admittedly outsource a decent amount of my load order to LOOT because it's so huge), but it also might provide information I can use to try to effect an in-game fix.
The NPCs I added in Recruitable NPCs are all tagged as 'Unique', I would think that 'Whats Your Name' would not prompt until the NPC has been recruited.. Once recruited my mod no longer prompts. The distance check allows my mod to prompt when not closer than ? units, after which my mod will no longer prompt but other mods like Quiktrade, Get Out of My Face will prompt. Seems the easiest thing to try is to disable What is my Name and see if every thing else works. If so I can take a look at Whats my Name. Might also ping rsm000rsm as I think he has much more experience running my mods alongside settler naming mods. I just use 'Rename Anything' which is an console command and doesn't interact with NPCs in the game.
Yep. It's What's Your Name. I recruited Bob whatshisface (the guy near the Castle), Jayln, and...a gen two synth whose designation I don't remember, but they were in the Science Center near the center of the map. Anyway, with WYN disabled I got all three of them with no problem, and your mod and WYN do indeed use the same activation key (R). It doesn't appear either mod is broken, they just don't play nicely together.
Also, when I said my "this person is glowing because they're recruitable and doesn't have a job at the moment!" mod wasn't working with your NPCs? It works with them once they're recruited. Normally recruitable NPCs will already be glowing when I approach them before recruitment, but since you said you set yours up in a slightly different way to avoid conflicts I'm guessing that mod just doesn't read them as settlers until they're recruited. I personally don't feel that's a problem--I don't need the mod to tell me who's recruitable, just who has a job and who wants to kill me--so I'm just reporting that here for troubleshooting purposes.
Thank you so much for helping me figure this out. I was absolutely at a loss--I've tried looking at commands and reading tutorials before to figure out how mod backends work, and I might as well have been trying to decode Linear A. I absolutely would never have thought of that combination if you hadn't suggested it.
Just attempted, and this froze my game. I will say outright that this happens A LOT when I try to mess with my load order--it's a very delicate balance. It's extremely likely this has nothing to do with how the mods work together, and more to do with me having 400+ mods in my LO. Most of them are settlement mods, but sometimes those touch the weirdest things.
For now, I can just putter around and find people, and reinstall WYN later. I think that might be the safest thing with my load order.
This mod, unfortunately, does not play nice with others. It appears to break lists when combined with other settler affecting mods. On its own it seems to be fine, but combine any other mod, and it breaks sadly. Specifically it breaks lists in such a way that Sim Settlements 2 war mechanics can't properly identify soldiers. Interestingly your Covenant mod works fine.
As I recall this mod doesn't touch any list. I run it alongside over a dozen popular settler mods with no issues. I cannot speak to sim settlements but I see nothing in the mod that should conflict, other than some possible issues if you try to recruit the vanilla NPCs. The mod added NPCs are just like most every other settler mod other than I use the Framework for the recruitment prompt.
Can you be more specific as to what you see breaking? I would also mention you are the only one to mention this issue out of the 5700 folks who have downloaded the mod.
Ok so it's an interesting case. Sorry, I think I may have misled by omission, unintentionally. RL_Recruit_Framework (RLRF for reference) on its own and with the covenant addon seem to work just fine. This mod also works fine, but only if they are the only settler mods + SS2 active. The conflict seems to arise when any other mod adding settlers comes into play. For example if I were to use the Facials for everyone mod with this one, suddenly SS2 Chapter 3's war mechanics stop functioning with regular settlers, but any NPC recruited with your mods function with it, strangely. I'm afraid I don't quite know how the mechanics function at a deeper level, but it almost seems like this mod somehow overwrites the script(s) to add settlers to the list of assignable soldiers.
I understand it's a strange issue, and I'm sorry I can't necessarily help more. My only thoughts are that it might interfere with something in Workshop Framework - a key mod made by the SS2 team that is heavily used (And as such, required) for SS2.
I've ran my mods alongside workshop Framework with no issues. I don't run SS2 as my game already has pretty extensive script load.
If it is the RL_Framework interfering that would be understandable if the other mod are also using the 2nd (alternate) dialog prompt. This creates a potential for conflict any time multiple mods attempt to share the 2nd dialog prompt.
My Framework restricts usage of the 2nd dialog to only NPCs managed by the Framework, other vanilla, mod added NPCs should not be impacted. Moreover, it is only fires IF the NPC is managed by my mod and IF the NPC is not assigned to a settlement. However I have no idea what the other mods you reference are doing, so there is certainly opportunity for conflict, specifically if other mods also have the ability to recruit settles via a 'R'ecruit prompt as does my Framework.
You might try moving the Framework, Recruitable NPCs, and Covsettlers higher in you load order and ensure the other mods you mention appear lower in your load order.
I took a look at SIM Settlements, and it certainly uses the alternate (2nd) dialog. However, it also looks as if it might have it's own recruitment mechanism, so maybe try just removing RL_Recruit_Framework. If Sim Settlements has a Recruit option it may work with directly with my mods and you would not need my Framework.
Please let me know if any of these suggestions address the issue you are seeing.
Hi. Sorry for the delay. I am not proud to admit that it was just a horrendous load order issue. Some kind folk guided me in rebuilding my load order and this mod now appears to function properly.
Did you set the global value as described in the mod description? You cannot recruit these unique vanilla NPCs by default. There is a disclaimer in the description that describes the risks and tells you how to enable the recruitment of vanilla NPCs. If you did set that global correctly and still have issues send me a PM and I will assist.
I'm glad it worked for you in a new game, but strange that you had to hardcode the global..... I've used this mod in dozens of different testing and playthru scenarios and never had an issue with the vanilla NPCs after setting the global in my game.
That said there is a verified bug for any NPC that is essential and set to be recruitable. The framework has a typo in the RL_RecruitEssential perk property and the perk is never given to the player. This only impacts the recruitment of essential NPCs such as Nat in Diamond City. I have uploaded a new version of the Framework that fixes these issues (combining the Unique and Essential perk into a RL_RecruitTagged perk for recruiting the vanilla npcs)
I am not sure I "had" to set it. Sometimes if I start a new playthrough I forget to set it. I figured "Why not just set it in the plugin?" because recruiting some of the unique NPCs is one of the things that drew me to the mod in the first place.
Also curious about the latest version being set to 4.1.
The version bump was because I uploaded a patch mod for this mod and SKK Openworld to address a problem with Isabel Cruz when SKK Openworld is run alongside my mod. No changes to the base mod. I do maintain a changelog and always add an update description when updating the mod / mod page.
Okay, so I found a bit of a workaround for PZ92. It doesn't fix (or explain) why he starts out dead, but it does fix the post-resurrection issues I encountered when I went that route in the past. Here's the scoop.
I went to his location and rather than use resurrect on him, I just tried recycleactor from the get-go. That caused his dead body to respawn into a live body, which proceeded to sandbox normally, even going so far as to interact with the chem station nearby. Unfortunately, he didn't respawn with any gear. So, I reloaded and consoled recycleactor before entering his location. Upon entering, he was alive, sandboxing, and had all of his gear. I recruited him to a nearby settlement and assigned him to a guard post, which he manned per normal. In the past, if I resurrected him first, he wouldn't properly respond to assignments, regardless of subsequent recycleactor/resetai attempts. This alternate "resurrection" method appears to be working so far, but I'll have a better idea once I start another long term playthrough. I'll let you know if it fails during a longer run.
As an aside, his ID in the console is 007a35, but Fo4edit shows it as 007a34. The former doesn't work for moveto commands, but worked for resurrect and recycle actor, as well as the placeatme. I needed the second one for the moveto command. Might this difference be the root of his starting dead problem?
You are running the latest versions from the Nexus? I have not encountered any issue with PZ922 through multiple games. He's been alive every time. Have you loaded your full mod list in FO4Edti to see if anything is conflicting with his record / template?
You are correct on the long / short names, I have fixed those in the release I'm working on. I've currently fixing some lingering issues I've found and repacking the set 'RL Framework, Animal Rescue, Nomads, Recruitable NPCs ' as ESL tagged ESPs.
Update 5/1/2023: Think I have fixed Blaze and Boscoe so hopefully they will remain in the mod.....
Blaze and Boscoe were an experiment that I could never get working as intended. They will most likely be removed in the next release, unless I can find what is bugging them out.
Yes, I'm using v3.2. I have run Fo4edit with my entire mod list. It had conflicts with the UFo4P, but that was all NAM1-Music entries which it didn't carry over from vanilla, while your mod did. So, I just dragged the music file into UFo4P to eliminate the conflicts. The only current conflict that Fo4edit detects is a Record Header>Record Flags (sorted)>Partial Form conflict with the Creation Club Noir Penthouse, but that's at Back Street Apparel, not PZ92's location.
Settlers of the Commonwealth places a recruitable Mr. Handy at the same location, which I thought might be killing PZ92 during the load screen, but I've tested with SotC disabled and PZ92 was still dead.
You mentioned his template. Are you referring to the TPLT - Default Template field? If so, that field is empty for me. In fact, it is empty for all of the NPCs in the mod. If that field is supposed to have his RecSet entry, I can add it and test in game to see if it works. If it doesn't work, I'll try a redownload/reinstall (even though I tried that a week or so ago, but another try won't hurt).
Too bad about Boscoe and Blaze. Between your mod, the raider-ish NPCs from SotC, and the raiders from Recruitable Settlers, I'm planning a raider-themed settlement for my next playthrough without having to side with the NW raiders. Would've been nice to have Boscoe and Blaze along for the ride.
Side Note: I know you're always on the lookout for unique NPCs for your settlements. Are you aware of this one: Commonwealth Families. All three NPCs, though settler types, have custom voices. The author originally planned to make more recruitable NPCs of this sort, but never did, which is unfortunate.
Well if you want more Raider Settlers you are in luck. I have a new mod that I'll be posting soon that uses the Workshop traps. I've added new traps for Raiders, Triggermen, Synths, Mutants, Normal Settlers, Gunners, that once trapped become settlers in the settlement where the trap was built. After that you can manage them like other settlers. Works like the NPCs from Nomads, the npcs retain their voice types / traits / etc.
Just check the NPC form for PZ92, he was created from a default template but as a new record, So there really isn't at template attached to the newly created record. He is protected meaning only you should be able to kill him. Thus far you are the only one to report him as being dead. I too run Settlers of the Commonwealth, and have not seen the issue you have reported.
With regard to captives, I've made some further changes to their implementation. Hopefully they will be glued to their respective markers until freed by you.
I don't use the DLC cages very often, usually only to catch dogs for the settlements, but cages that convert raiders, gunners, etc. into workshop settlers? Yeah, I'll use that for sure. Will the traits that carry over include their usual combat AI packages and so forth? It would be nice to have Gunner guards in my settlements who still fight like Gunners.
The PZ92 issue remains a mystery to me. I've found all but three of your NPCs now, but this starting dead business only affects him. D21A is fine. Synths spawned via Nomads are fine. Vanilla synths are fine. Fo4edit doesn't detect any conflicts, and I can't find anything in my load order that would single him out. I checked to see if he had his protected flag (he did), and I even went so far as to set him as essential. When that didn't work, I set him as invulnerable, which also failed. However, Fo4edit says his form ID as 007A34, but if I type help "PZ92" 4 in the console, it says his ID is 007A35. That's the only discrepancy I can find, but I'll keep digging.
Glad to hear you found a fix for Blaze and Boscoe. When I found them wandering around outside their cage, I thought that was the bug issue you had previously mentioned. When I found the Bradshaws outside their cells, too, I realized something else was up. By the time I finished taking out the rest of the bad guys, though, the Bradshaws were back in their cells, which is what leads me to believe that script lag is why captives in that playthrough were wandering about.
That's it for now. Looking forward to the new mod!
If you query pz92 in game you are most likely getting his ref id not his form id. All ingame commands should use the refid other than the setprotected, setessential which require a form id. I have no idea why he is dead on arrival as I have never seen this issue in all my testing and many, many games.
I have an idea, once you find him dead just try to spawn a new copy of him. i.e. spawn [form id]. See if the copy spawns alive.
The captives / markers needed some additional settings needed. In my testing and so far in my current game they've been on their assigned marker.
Also the captures in the cages will work like Nomads, they retain their respective traits, voices, lines, etc. but are non hostile.
121 comments
See Upgrade Notes for history of past upgrades.
IMPORTANT: recruitment of these 'tagged' vanilla NPCs is disabled by default (see IMPORTANT Considerations).
If using other mods that use the alternate dialog load order can be important, more often a specific patch may be needed, and sometimes you just have to choose one or the other mods.
Also it could be a conflict with another mod that uses the alternate dialog. Are you using any other mods that provide alternate/recruitment options for NPCs? Based on your description, this may be the case since you can recruit non-humans ok.
I would suggest making a save of your current game and mod settings. Then disable all other mods that might use the alternate activation. See if my mod starts working, then slowly re-activate the other mods to see if you can identify the conflicting mod. If you can identify a conflicting mod you might try moving it higher / lower in the load order to see if that fixes the issue. If not, then provide me the name of the mod and maybe I can make a patch for it.
Does this mod allow you to recruit any NPC?
The prompt has a distance limit to allow other mods that use the alternate dialog to function. That said if you have other mods loaded that use the alternate dialog, you might not get the 'R'ecruit option at all. Mods often conflict when trying to share the alternate dialog used to offer the Recruit prompt.
I did upload up a couple 'proof of concept' mods that add the needed scripts to most unique 'named' NPCs, but I cannot guarantee these mods will work in all cases. There is a good chance loading the mod will break quests, and NPC dialogs. I created the first version for use with SKK Commonwealth of Decay where most quests are shut down and the game becomes a sandbox, but I also uploaded a version for the vanilla game.
The mods are provided 'as-is' and I do not plan on making any further enhancements nor making any fixes should they not work. If they work for you great, if not, then they don't work.
The mods can be found under Miscellaneous files on the Alternatives to Vanilla Settler Recruitment... mod page as VanillaSettlers-Recruitable.
So of course unique npcs would be off limits, however most npc that aren't attached to a quest or script act all the same.
Settlers are very simple in terns of their sameness, they all basically do the same thing, have the ability to activate workstations, while being assignable.
Family planning is a loverslab mod that allows even npc that aren't unique to be affected. Not sure how they did that, but the same thing would be kinda doable for npcs, in not in a less complicated way.
I'd do it myself tbh, if I knew how, but I'm definitely not skilled in scripts or anything like that, I'd just break peoples games trying it, so I'm going to just leave it until somebody more knowledgeable than me decides to give it a go.
Notably, I think the VanillaSettlers mod I created will do much of what you want, just understand the risk. The mod should allow you to recruit most of Diamond City, Vault 81, and many other non faction NPCs. I use it in my SKK Openworld games but have not used it in a vanilla game.
If you just want a recruitable copy of 'any' npc check out the Portable Cloning Device which allows you to make a recruitable copy of any NPC while the original NPC is not impacted. Another possibility is Abuduction which is similar but you need to drop an item into the NPC inventory.
The point of this is that using fanily planning, I got a Scavenger npc pregnant, and wanted to make sure she stays in the settlement, otherwise she could vanish from the game
She's not a unique npc.
That liege of my companions though, that looks like what I could use for what I'm looking for
By the way, should Schultz look like an inflated balloon? Is this intended or is there something wrong with my load order?
This is how he looks.
I took a look in Creation Kit and that is his model. He was intended to be round as the character was part of an old TV show, and the Shultz character was heavy and round. With the default outfit, he was pretty much what I intended, but when you replace the outfit, not so much specifically the hair. I will probably rework him some should I decide to update the mod in the future.
Any suggestions for troubleshooting?
My mod uses a custom captive script so I would not think that another captive mod would interfere, but then there are so many mods out there who knows for sure.
That being said, the recruit distance for your captives makes sense, too, even though I never noticed. I'm still curious how ninalyn is accessing their inventory without recruiting them first. I don't recall being able to do that until they're recruited.
I don't think I have a mod that would cause this, but I DO have a test case showing it's not just captives. I forget the woman's name, but near Prospect Hill you've got a woman chilling on a couch on a roof near a milk machine she appears to have hauled up there. I couldn't recruit her either.
I also realized Charles DeWitt is not the Charles I was able to recruit when I went back to look at his name again--I found a ghoul in a lab coat with a different last name, who's probably part of one of RSM's recruitable settlers mods.
I'll see if I can find that woman again and try recruiting by standing back, and get back to you.
Opps my my bad, you mentioned Jaylyn who is not a captive and should be easily recruited. I really suspect that some other mod is conflicting. I cannot reproduce the problem. I use and have used my mods in all my games with a maxed out load order and have never seen this issue. That said I have seen conflicts when other mods are installed that allow 'Recruitment' of NPCs. Load order is critical in many cases. I've created patches for mods like some of the SKK mods that allow recruitment. However, I have no way to know exactly which mods are used and if there are conflicts.
What version of Fallout 4 are you running? If running the most recent update released in Apr 2024, that might be the problem. I have not tested my mods against the new release. Atm there are no plans to do so as I've pretty much lost interest in Fo4. I will fix bugs that exist under the prior version, but I have no plans to load / test the new release of Fo4.
If you are running a mod manager like Mod Organizer II, I'd recommend creating at test profile, then slowly load up suspect mods along with my mod until you determine what mod is causing the conflict. That is how I identify problem mods. If you can isolate the mod that introduces this issue, I might be able to create a patch mod (no guarantee however).
I HAVE "WHAT'S YOUR NAME"
rsm's mods don't allow me to reset character names, so the "what's your name?" prompt isn't given. Would I be right in saying your NPC records don't list the characters as having unique NPC names (the way, say, Preston is a unique named NPC)?
Weirdly, I haven't had time to tinker with my load order, but I did get my first recruit from your mod! It's...I don't remember the guy's name, there's a camp near the Castle that's up on a rooftop and has two men living there. One of them was sleeping when I arrived, and it prompted me to recruit him. His companion couldn't be recruited, and I want to go back at a different time of in-game day to see if he's sleeping and, if so, if I can recruit him then. Having a full dialogue window that offered me the sandman kill might be what made the difference. If that's true then it might still be easier for me to move this mod below What's Your Name if it isn't there already (I....admittedly outsource a decent amount of my load order to LOOT because it's so huge), but it also might provide information I can use to try to effect an in-game fix.
Yep. It's What's Your Name. I recruited Bob whatshisface (the guy near the Castle), Jayln, and...a gen two synth whose designation I don't remember, but they were in the Science Center near the center of the map. Anyway, with WYN disabled I got all three of them with no problem, and your mod and WYN do indeed use the same activation key (R). It doesn't appear either mod is broken, they just don't play nicely together.
Also, when I said my "this person is glowing because they're recruitable and doesn't have a job at the moment!" mod wasn't working with your NPCs? It works with them once they're recruited. Normally recruitable NPCs will already be glowing when I approach them before recruitment, but since you said you set yours up in a slightly different way to avoid conflicts I'm guessing that mod just doesn't read them as settlers until they're recruited. I personally don't feel that's a problem--I don't need the mod to tell me who's recruitable, just who has a job and who wants to kill me--so I'm just reporting that here for troubleshooting purposes.
Thank you so much for helping me figure this out. I was absolutely at a loss--I've tried looking at commands and reading tutorials before to figure out how mod backends work, and I might as well have been trying to decode Linear A. I absolutely would never have thought of that combination if you hadn't suggested it.
For now, I can just putter around and find people, and reinstall WYN later. I think that might be the safest thing with my load order.
Specifically it breaks lists in such a way that Sim Settlements 2 war mechanics can't properly identify soldiers. Interestingly your Covenant mod works fine.
As I recall this mod doesn't touch any list. I run it alongside over a dozen popular settler mods with no issues. I cannot speak to sim settlements but I see nothing in the mod that should conflict, other than some possible issues if you try to recruit the vanilla NPCs. The mod added NPCs are just like most every other settler mod other than I use the Framework for the recruitment prompt.
Can you be more specific as to what you see breaking? I would also mention you are the only one to mention this issue out of the 5700 folks who have downloaded the mod.
RL_Recruit_Framework (RLRF for reference) on its own and with the covenant addon seem to work just fine. This mod also works fine, but only if they are the only settler mods + SS2 active. The conflict seems to arise when any other mod adding settlers comes into play.
For example if I were to use the Facials for everyone mod with this one, suddenly SS2 Chapter 3's war mechanics stop functioning with regular settlers, but any NPC recruited with your mods function with it, strangely.
I'm afraid I don't quite know how the mechanics function at a deeper level, but it almost seems like this mod somehow overwrites the script(s) to add settlers to the list of assignable soldiers.
I understand it's a strange issue, and I'm sorry I can't necessarily help more. My only thoughts are that it might interfere with something in Workshop Framework - a key mod made by the SS2 team that is heavily used (And as such, required) for SS2.
If it is the RL_Framework interfering that would be understandable if the other mod are also using the 2nd (alternate) dialog prompt. This creates a potential for conflict any time multiple mods attempt to share the 2nd dialog prompt.
My Framework restricts usage of the 2nd dialog to only NPCs managed by the Framework, other vanilla, mod added NPCs should not be impacted. Moreover, it is only fires IF the NPC is managed by my mod and IF the NPC is not assigned to a settlement. However I have no idea what the other mods you reference are doing, so there is certainly opportunity for conflict, specifically if other mods also have the ability to recruit settles via a 'R'ecruit prompt as does my Framework.
You might try moving the Framework, Recruitable NPCs, and Covsettlers higher in you load order and ensure the other mods you mention appear lower in your load order.
I took a look at SIM Settlements, and it certainly uses the alternate (2nd) dialog. However, it also looks as if it might have it's own recruitment mechanism, so maybe try just removing RL_Recruit_Framework. If Sim Settlements has a Recruit option it may work with directly with my mods and you would not need my Framework.
Please let me know if any of these suggestions address the issue you are seeing.
I apologise for wasting your time.
I too have sent a few mod author's chasing issues that turned out to be on my end. Happens to many I assume not just us.
For some reason Trudy and Patrick are not recruitable. I have checked both of their records in FO4Edit and this mod is the only mod that affects them.
What am I missing?
I had set the variable as soon as I stepped out of the vault. It was not consistent but I did get some of the recruits.
Before I started my last playthrough, I went into the plugin and set the global to 1. Everything has worked perfectly, so far.
This mod is definitely on my must have list.
That said there is a verified bug for any NPC that is essential and set to be recruitable. The framework has a typo in the RL_RecruitEssential perk property and the perk is never given to the player. This only impacts the recruitment of essential NPCs such as Nat in Diamond City. I have uploaded a new version of the Framework that fixes these issues (combining the Unique and Essential perk into a RL_RecruitTagged perk for recruiting the vanilla npcs)
Also curious about the latest version being set to 4.1.
I went to his location and rather than use resurrect on him, I just tried recycleactor from the get-go. That caused his dead body to respawn into a live body, which proceeded to sandbox normally, even going so far as to interact with the chem station nearby. Unfortunately, he didn't respawn with any gear. So, I reloaded and consoled recycleactor before entering his location. Upon entering, he was alive, sandboxing, and had all of his gear. I recruited him to a nearby settlement and assigned him to a guard post, which he manned per normal. In the past, if I resurrected him first, he wouldn't properly respond to assignments, regardless of subsequent recycleactor/resetai attempts. This alternate "resurrection" method appears to be working so far, but I'll have a better idea once I start another long term playthrough. I'll let you know if it fails during a longer run.
As an aside, his ID in the console is 007a35, but Fo4edit shows it as 007a34. The former doesn't work for moveto commands, but worked for resurrect and recycle actor, as well as the placeatme. I needed the second one for the moveto command. Might this difference be the root of his starting dead problem?
Well, that's all for now. Until next time...
-RSM
You are correct on the long / short names, I have fixed those in the release I'm working on. I've currently fixing some lingering issues I've found and repacking the set 'RL Framework, Animal Rescue, Nomads, Recruitable NPCs ' as ESL tagged ESPs.
Update 5/1/2023: Think I have fixed Blaze and Boscoe so hopefully they will remain in the mod.....
Blaze and Boscoe were an experiment that I could never get working as intended. They will most likely be removed in the next release, unless I can find what is bugging them out.
RL
Yes, I'm using v3.2. I have run Fo4edit with my entire mod list. It had conflicts with the UFo4P, but that was all NAM1-Music entries which it didn't carry over from vanilla, while your mod did. So, I just dragged the music file into UFo4P to eliminate the conflicts. The only current conflict that Fo4edit detects is a Record Header>Record Flags (sorted)>Partial Form conflict with the Creation Club Noir Penthouse, but that's at Back Street Apparel, not PZ92's location.
Settlers of the Commonwealth places a recruitable Mr. Handy at the same location, which I thought might be killing PZ92 during the load screen, but I've tested with SotC disabled and PZ92 was still dead.
You mentioned his template. Are you referring to the TPLT - Default Template field? If so, that field is empty for me. In fact, it is empty for all of the NPCs in the mod. If that field is supposed to have his RecSet entry, I can add it and test in game to see if it works. If it doesn't work, I'll try a redownload/reinstall (even though I tried that a week or so ago, but another try won't hurt).
Too bad about Boscoe and Blaze. Between your mod, the raider-ish NPCs from SotC, and the raiders from Recruitable Settlers, I'm planning a raider-themed settlement for my next playthrough without having to side with the NW raiders. Would've been nice to have Boscoe and Blaze along for the ride.
Side Note: I know you're always on the lookout for unique NPCs for your settlements. Are you aware of this one: Commonwealth Families. All three NPCs, though settler types, have custom voices. The author originally planned to make more recruitable NPCs of this sort, but never did, which is unfortunate.
Well, that's it for now. Until next time...
-RSM
Just check the NPC form for PZ92, he was created from a default template but as a new record, So there really isn't at template attached to the newly created record. He is protected meaning only you should be able to kill him. Thus far you are the only one to report him as being dead. I too run Settlers of the Commonwealth, and have not seen the issue you have reported.
With regard to captives, I've made some further changes to their implementation. Hopefully they will be glued to their respective markers until freed by you.
I don't use the DLC cages very often, usually only to catch dogs for the settlements, but cages that convert raiders, gunners, etc. into workshop settlers? Yeah, I'll use that for sure. Will the traits that carry over include their usual combat AI packages and so forth? It would be nice to have Gunner guards in my settlements who still fight like Gunners.
The PZ92 issue remains a mystery to me. I've found all but three of your NPCs now, but this starting dead business only affects him. D21A is fine. Synths spawned via Nomads are fine. Vanilla synths are fine. Fo4edit doesn't detect any conflicts, and I can't find anything in my load order that would single him out. I checked to see if he had his protected flag (he did), and I even went so far as to set him as essential. When that didn't work, I set him as invulnerable, which also failed. However, Fo4edit says his form ID as 007A34, but if I type help "PZ92" 4 in the console, it says his ID is 007A35. That's the only discrepancy I can find, but I'll keep digging.
Glad to hear you found a fix for Blaze and Boscoe. When I found them wandering around outside their cage, I thought that was the bug issue you had previously mentioned. When I found the Bradshaws outside their cells, too, I realized something else was up. By the time I finished taking out the rest of the bad guys, though, the Bradshaws were back in their cells, which is what leads me to believe that script lag is why captives in that playthrough were wandering about.
That's it for now. Looking forward to the new mod!
-RSM
I have an idea, once you find him dead just try to spawn a new copy of him. i.e. spawn [form id]. See if the copy spawns alive.
The captives / markers needed some additional settings needed. In my testing and so far in my current game they've been on their assigned marker.
Also the captures in the cages will work like Nomads, they retain their respective traits, voices, lines, etc. but are non hostile.