PACE 1.5 Released!

So I'm happy to announce that I finally got the long awaited 1.5 update to PACE (Pack Attack Companion Edition) done and out. I'll do a full video in a few days, but in the meantime this is the official changelog for this version:

[NEW] Differentiated personalities (weapon class preferences/skills)
[NEW] Combat chat control, optional module
[NEW] Customs can now be keyword-assigned a vanilla AI profile
[NEW] PACE_AIEnabled AV for easy AI cutoff switch
[CHANGED] Improved combat targeter to better distinguish nearby vs. larger enemies
[CHANGED] HSF mode paused when player is sneaking (out of combat)
[CHANGED] Dogmeat and Heather now use the Base AI script w/updated combat styles
[COMPAT] Support for Heather Casdin 2
[PERF] Optimizations ported from PANPC 2.0.x
[FIX] Companions should no longer teleport if waiting

This version got all the optimizations that were recently made in PANPC, so you can expect faster (and hopefully better) AI decisions. The wait/teleport bug was fixed, companions should no longer bolt into combat when the player is sneaking (unless combat is already happening, or they are attacked), and PACE now supports Heather Casdin 2.

There are two major upgrades in this release, both of which I expect to provide foundations for doing more interesting things in the future.

Combat Chatter Control

Like PANPC, PACE takes a lot of liberties with the vanilla Fallout 4 combat system, and the vanilla system doesn't always understand it. That confusion is most obvious in how companions handle in-combat barks: "Did you HEAR THAT?", "I don't LIKE THIS BLUE", etc.  

In the vanilla system, they make perfect sense. In PACE, you will get those lines occasionally even when you and they know full well that combat is happening, and so it breaks immersion.  

This version includes an optional module that adds hooks into the vanilla combat dialogue, giving PACE selective control over when they are used. When PACE needs to do something that may confuse the vanilla layer, it will send a signal to the game that says, basically, "I'm about to do some sketchy stuff.  Keep your mouth shut until I'm done."

Again, this is an optional module, because it alters base game records. If you want to use it, be sure to load it lower in your load order than anything that alters companion dialogue.

Differentiated Combat Personalities

All PACE companions now have specializations! Up until now, the joke at GreslinGames was that all companions were in "Everybody's Cait" Mode: everyone was aggressive, everyone was good at everything. But that was never the long term design goal.

Now you actually have to consider which companion you take along with you for a mission. Each companion has primary and secondary weapon class specialties. If they are equipped with a weapon from one of their skilled classes, they will fight more confidently and get an aim bonus. If they are not, they will fight more defensively and have more trouble landing their hits.  

In general, each companion's primary skill is their default weapon type (melee for Cait, for example). I've tried my best to make each skill set logical for the character and the Fallout 4 story.

In addition, each companion is mediocre at other classes (aggressive but no aim bonus) and actually poor at others (defensive and aim penalties).  Each one has a different mix.

This means two things. One, you have to consider which companion you wish to bring along for a particular mission. And two, if you are using a multiple companion mod, you now have to consider which skill sets complement each other.

I need to update the official PACE documentation in the next day or two, to include the current specializations. In the meantime, you can mostly use common sense to figure out who is probably good with what.

As always, you can grab PACE 1.5 on the GreslinGames Discord. You'll need Citizen role, so if you haven't asked for it yet, pop into the #role-requests channel and do so. I'll approve you as soon as I'm able.

Now I turn my attention back to PANPC. Next round of PANPC work is going to start the long awaited (and long avoided) push into bot AI, starting with Sentry Bots. Expect that to take a couple of weeks, probably, with a few videos in the meantime, as well as whatever One Hour Special mod projects capture my imagination.  

Have fun, and all my best,

- G.