As we have in previous months, here is the File of the Month Interview for May. The mod that won this month was Willow - A Better Companion Experience by llamaRCA. We'd like to thank llamaRCA for agreeing to the interview, and we hope you enjoy reading it.

Did you have any inspiration for this mod? If so, what was it?
It started with my experiences with companions in FO3 on the 360. I've spent hundreds of hours with the vanilla companions there and knew what I thought they needed to make them more alive, entertaining and fun to have around. And when I moved to the PC about a year and a half ago the first thing I started trying were the modded companions and I wasn't finding what I wanted. Except for DRG6525's work with Sydney, I wasn't finding expansion on dialogue, building of relationships etc. I wanted much, much more from a companion. So, there I was with a PC, and my favorite companion was still my old favorite vanilla companion (unmodded). I started learning to mod so I could make Charon into more of what I wanted. But, because he has limited dialogue available he could only ever grow so much. At some point, when I knew NV was coming, I started thinking about making a companion from scratch for NV and that evolved into a plan for a girl because I realized that I could try to voice her so I could write/rewrite as much dialouge as I wanted.

What did you find most enjoyable about the creation process of this mod?
Planning her personality and using the different things available to me (idle chatter, direct dialogue, presents, cooking, idles, skills, one-time comments, her clothes, journal entries, weapon skill, etc) to reinforce it along the way. It took me a very long time to build Willow because I tried and rejected, or failed at, a lot of different ways of presenting her and her personality.

Were there any challenges you came across in the making of Willow?
My biggest challenges were trying to make her as interactive and interesting as possible for as long as possible and to set her up as an interesting character right from the beginning. One of my greatest dislikes about the followers in FO3, most modded followers in both games, and even the vanillas in NV to a degree, is that once hired they are no longer interesting or the relationship is full of assumptions. They become "a companion" in the mind of the player. The reason I don't give Willow the companion wheel when the player firsts meets her is to stop that initial falling into the usual routine of the player-follower relationship. I wanted to hold off that assumption by the player that she will do whatever the player wants her to do, be, etc. I want the player to pay attention to her as an individual.

Roughly, what was the total time it took for you to put this mod together so far?
I started working on Willow in November. It took me about six months to finish her. I have a high need to try out everything I conceive of and a lot of that doesn't look good to me so I undo that work, or it doesn't work. I also did all of her voicework myself. And I play tested it a lot so it would be minimally buggy by the time I released it.

Do you plan on any more new features in your mod? Specifically anything not listed on your mods page on the Nexus?
Right now I don't have any plans to do anything new to Willow in NV. I am trying to get her into FO3 though. I've started playing around with that. My fear is that it's going to turn into a larger project than it needs to. She could easily say hundreds of lines about the Capital Wasteland because I've spent so many hours in the gameworld.

Do you have other mods you are working on or do you plan to create other mods? If so, what might those be?
I have no plans for anything more in NV, but I'm very excited about Skyrim. If I enjoy it as much as I did Oblivion I might make something there. But, if I do a companion in Skyrim she won't be like Willow. I love Willow, but she was created specifically for the NV environment and what I thought it needed. I would like to do someone sharper, smarter, tougher. I won't know for sure what that companion would look like until I've played the game and decide what would complement it best.

Tell us a little about yourself. Where you are from, what are some of your other hobbies outside of games?
There's something more to life than modding, playing games and eating Cheetos?

What are some of your other favorite games if Fallout New Vegas isn't the only game you play? Any other game genres besides the RPG style games that Bethesda publishes?
Since I started modding about 18 months ago I've only been doing FO3 and NV. I'm obsessed.

Do you have any advice for aspiring mod authors?
lol! Yes, but it's pretty boring and obvious. If you really want to mod something and you are willing to apply yourself to learning how to use the GECK and whatever other tools you need, then you can do it. Oh, and it can be VERY frustrating at times, but don't give up. Ever.

And finally, do you have anything you would like to say to our readers out there?
Thank you so much to everyone who has been so supportive, kind and helpful to me since Willow's release.

And the same to everyone who's known me much longer!

Check back next month for June's File of the Month Interview!