About this mod

The most feature-complete companion mod for New Vegas. Check changelog for latest additions. Over 4500+ lines of dialogue and reactivity to almost every player event.

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INTRODUCTION

What if we took the worst meme chracter in Fallout: New Vegas and made it into the best modded companion available? Wouldn't that be like winning the lottery?





WHAT IN THE GODDAMN?

A fully-voiced companion mod for Oliver Swanick. The Swan takes flight, bitch!

Oliver has to survive your first meeting in Nipton to become a companion afterwards. He has all of the features you'd expect, so read on for more details.

If you let him live, he'll end up in the Prospector's Saloon staying safe from the radscorpions. Note: if he ends up in the Wrangler then you probably use a mod that restores cut content - it was originally planned by the devs for him to go there, but never implemented in-game.

WHY?

Swanick is the encapsulation of the New Vegas experience. A minor character with just 1-minute of recorded audio, by a recurring VA clearly having fun. He survives a lottery only to get blasted to bits by most players. If he doesn't get blasted, the scorpions get him as he runs off.

This mod uses this meagre start, this dramatic irony, this pathos, and creates an epic adventure.


HOW?

As shown in the video below, simply go to Nipton as usual and exhaust Oliver's dialogue. Don't shoot him, not yet anyway.

If things have worked, he will run off and a popup message will show. Then he will magically be in the Prospector Saloon waiting for you.



DETAILS


First off, as a companion he's marked essential. I know this sounds weak, but I followed the lead of other awesome mods like Molerat on this.

HOWEVER: it is possible to kill Oliver in a sort-of Disco Elysium style interaction, see for yoursef!

UPDATE: you can kill him in several ways. Including being baptised in irradiated waters.

Oliver uses a never-ending bag of dynamite at range, and a combat knife up close. His throwing isn't that great, as that's just a limitation of the game in general. Hopefully his garrulous immaturity makes up for it somewhat.

You can train Oliver in various perks to become better at throwing, of course.

Oliver will comment on story events, much like vanilla followers including House, Caesar, Benny etc as well. He also will comment as you visit locations not just generically on them but also certain people he likes or dislikes (Chet, Sunny, Fantastic, Red Lucy etc.)

Oliver's Perk is The Luck of the Swan which will grant the player +1 luck. That's it, there's no more. He's lucky, so he makes you lucky. But don't worry - this meagre perk is the very start of your relationship together, he will do much, much more for you and you for him!

DISPOSITION

On your travels with Oliver you can improve your relationship with him. This is interally called "disposition" or in-game as "relationship". You hear a nice stinger for it going up or down.

Relationship increase triggers:
  • Killing 50 things whilst Oliver is your companion. ONLY PLAYER KILLS count for this. Don't worry - Oliver tracks his own kills and these stats are important for his own perks. But simply put, he respects that you're a killer so you can't sit back and let him or other companions do all the work
  • Playing simple word games like "Red or Blue" can increase disposition
  • Being nice to Oliver generally is a good way to earn his favour
  • Rescue his pet mole rat, Mr. Jizzy
  • Find his pre-war porn mags that are scattered across the wasteland
  • Don't sell him into slavery, or talk to him abusively
  • Teach Oliver skills and perks. 

Relationship decrease triggers:
  • Dismiss his ideas out of hand, choosing the obvious "asshole" option
  • Extort him for his porns
  • Sell him into slavery
  • Give him up to people who want him

It's pretty hard to lower your disposition, and it's easy to earn it back if you do.

Disposition unlocks:
  • Word games
  • Unique interactions in the world (Oliver's Army Quest, Zombie Jamboree quest etc.)
  • Quest triggers
  • Mr. Jizzy
  • Random rants and drug-induced stories from Oliver
  • More dialogue

UNIQUE SWANICKMOD FEATURES

You don't just want some shitty, half-baked features do you? "Oh my companion can wait here, or move their home base, or even whistle the fucking national anthem if I remove their clothes!" Fuck you and your companion, just read this:

PUSHY: Oliver will randomly push non-companions over if they get close to him. Why? Because he's a dick. You can tell him to stop this.

LIGHT FINGERS: Oliver will steal consumables so long as he's not at risk of getting caught. Why? Because he's a kleptomaniac. You can tell him to stop this.

HELLO/YOU'RE DEAD: Oliver has unique lines for a lot of named NPCs, stored in a huge formlist for HELLO and DEATH barks. These aren't some crappy triggers placed statically in the world (which cause conflicts). No, this bad boy detects the actor in range and spits fire from the Swan's beak.

HEALER: Oliver will heal himself if you give him stimpaks. "Oh that's fucking boring isn't it? My mod Farty the Fluffy Kitten does that". Does Farty also take an antidote when poisoned? Does Kitty take PSYCHO, MED-X and other chems to FUCKING KILL in battle? No, they don't. Oliver rules!

TEACHER: Olly Swan isn't a total troglodyte. We mentioned you can teach him perks (even including Bloody Mess, Strong Back etc.). Boring? Ok, he can learn skills e.g. Guns. Boring? Ok, you can give him skill books and he'll go up by 3 points. Boring? Ok teach him comprehension and it'll increase by FOUR POINTS. Zzzz. Skill magazines? Nice. And they are affected by comprehension too!

BANG BANG: sometimes when a prick dies, Oliver will go over to the corpse and shoot it in an angry way. Why? Because it's just fucking cool, a bit like Joshua Graham.

FIGHTER: Oliver can duel many characters in the wasteland! Try taking him to Lil' Buster, Genaro, the Freeside guards, Grecks, Rotface, Joshua Graham and more! These fights are safe, but not fair!

OLIVER GOES BOOM: Oliver knows when enemies are standing near to exploding objects such as cars, and can shoot them. Be careful!

COMBAT CHATTER: the FNV combat dialogue system is pretty good. And vanilla tools allow you to do an awful lot. But we're the fuckin' Swanick boys and we want more. MORE!
  • He dismembered someone? Comment! Woof woof!
  • Reactions and shouts for most factions, unique characters and creatures? Bark!
  • Hit by a sniper long shot? HOWL!
  • You hit a beauty of a long shot? HELLO!
  • You sneak attack critted a poor bastard? HIYA!
  • Finish fight on low health? He'll comment
  • Finish fight with just 1 in the chamber? Hell yeah!
  • React to dead bodies! Why? Well I don't know.
  • Friendly fire? Check!
  • He gets crippled? Check! And much better than the crappy vanilla version.
  • Cripples a foe! Ch-ch-check, baby. Vanilla have that? No, it does not!
  • Hi-Score! Oliver will track how many kills he made in battle, often commenting "Hat trick" or "A dozen kills!" at the end. Kills he got the finisher on count here, unlike in disposition where YOUR kills count.

NOT JUST ONE COMPANION

Oliver has a special friend in Nipton - his pet mole rat! You can only discover it once Oliver sets you on the breadcrumb trail.



INTERACTIONS & COMPANION BANTER

Oliver Swanick will have something to say about all vanilla humanoid companions.

In a rather experimental feature, Oliver can react to MODDED COMPANIONS. But wait for it, without the use of patching, forms or any requirements at all. The mod will dynamically detect modded companions by their name.

  • Molerat
  • Eliza
  • Russell
  • Tags
  • Hawkins
  • Hope
  • Daria Duval
  • Rosa
  • Moooore coming at some point - feel free to ask in the comments if I include anything. Just none of that simpleton porn-adjacent crap, though thankfully FNV doesn't seem to be as afflicted with it as other games. Possibly because the characters look like lego people.

He will randomly react to people in the world such as The King, Hanlon, The Wrangler Crier as well.

There are special interactions at The Wrangler (comedy sets) and with Little Buster (a fight!).

The ethos is not to lock the player out of any vanilla content, so any characters features have to sit nicely. For example: Little Buster is not a quest giver, so if he dies it's inconsequential.



CHALLENGES

There are many challenges (achievements) implemented now:
  • Disposition with Oliver
  • Killing ghouls
  • Feeding jet to dogs
  • Sticking dynamite up Brahmins' asses
  • Comedy performances
  • High score in a round of killing (HAT TRICK!)
  • Unarmed duels
  • And many, many more!

REACTIONS & FEATURES

Oliver will do the following:
  • Oliver can take chems with special animations and effects
  • Oliver can take mentats and have changes to most of his dialogue to reflect this
  • Oliver will react to dismemberment in combat
  • Oliver will sometimes shout stuff at your companions in battle, even modded companions like Molerat, Rosa, Russell or Eliza (more support coming)
  • There are loads of challenges unlockable for Oliver along the way
  • You can upgrade Oliver either by talking to him and teaching skills, him killing stuff with certain weapon types or even take him to Dr. Usanagi
  • Oliver will ask you about a job once you increase your relationship with him. Either teach him perks or kill stuff together. You'll go grave robbing.
  • Is Oliver slandering ghouls again? After a few times (his random barks, or jokes from his comedy set at the Wrangler) the Suffraghouls will come and beat the shit out of him! They are a new hit squad like the Legion and NCR equivalents.
  • There are several random encounter NPCs - The Nipton Avenger, The Preacher, The Loan Shark and The Super Mutant. All have a bit of a tale and basically act a bit like Malcolm Holmes i.e. will hunt you down so long as you roam the main NV Wasteland.
  • There is a quest you can kick off at the Boulder City Saloon. Slavery! Betrayal! Profanity! It has it all.
  • Play games of chance with you as disposition grows. Done via dialogue for a bit of flavour.
  • Play a game of "Truth or Bullshit" when you're at a high disposition.
  • Discuss some things based on unique perks like Confirmed Bachelor or Cannibal.
  • React to your stats such as low int, high agility etc.
  • He doesn't like Snuffles.
  • He really hates Chet. Rumours are unfounded and not personally verified by me.
  • Sunny is his ideal woman.
  • He will react if you get romantically involved with Fisto.
  • Rotface and Orris will also provoke reactions.
  • Chris Haversam and Rotface are ghouls. Oliver doesn't like ghouls, even fake ones.
  • Hanlon likes 'em old and will kick Oliver's ass if he doesn't shut up.
  • The King isn't a queen, and hates Swanick.
  • Most major story locations have at least a few reaction barks.
  • As you kill more stuff together, his disposition towards you will increase which will unlock some crafting fluff like bobby pins and free dynamite once a day.
  • You can teach Oliver certain perks as you learn them such as Strong Back and Burden to Bear which will increease his carry weight. Other perks are available so keep checking in.
  • There are dialogue triggers for increasing his player disposition, but also there is a counter that ticks up as you both destroy enemies in the wastes. At each 50 kills it ticks up more.
  • There is a small quest for maxing out his disposition with a bit of loot.



STINGERS & MUSIC

I added a few custom "stingers" (gamedev term for transition music/sound basically) that play on giving perk to Swan, increasing relationship and one key dramatic event.

Songs added:
  • Most of Oliver's psychotic breaks have custom music
  • If you kill Oliver via a special scripted encounter, things will get emotional. The song is unreleased as yet (a few people on YouTube have asked).
  • Oliver can play a rather memey song about himself if your relationship improves enough.
  • After playing that, he can play a more subdued exploration song which would suit Zion rather nicely.
  • There's also a song that plays in your unarmed duels with Buster, Grecks and the Freeside bodyguard.
  • The Jamaican Midgets are suitably accompanied by a track.

Since music is my main passion, let me know what you think!

SHUT UP, OLIVER

You can now ask Oliver to be quiet and he will mostly respect it. But why would you download this mod if not for the absolutely stellar writing? Hmm?



Oliver will react to dismemberment as well as critical hits against his foes.

AI IS FOR LOOOOOSERS
I used elevenlabs for this. Olly S only has around a minute of dialogue in the game so it was a bit of a challenge, but I think it turned out fine.

If you don't like AI, please DO NOT TELL ME. I fully understand the moral and ethical implications of this and do not want to debate it.

I am against using AI for art and in particular voice acting when human alternatives are viable. But in this case I felt not.

BIG THANKS TO Yuri Lowenthal WHO VOICED THE ORIGINAL CRAZINESS!


COMPATIBILITY
I used an awesome follower template for this, as well as looking at Russell, Eliza and my first love, Todd. His style of inarticulate rage was a particular influence. I expanded on this way more though

Since the only actual edit to the original game is in Oliver Swanick's travel AI package, it should work with anything. And of course Swan 2.0 has a home in the prospector's saloon so there's an edit to its record, but it should not conflict.

UPDATE: now there are more quests, there unfortunately is more of a risk of incompatibility with vanilla or Viva New Vegas-added items. I have found very little in xEdit when testing, and I always do a clean sweep before uploading. I cannot however check for every mod, but I tend to do the most popular FNV quest mods.

CREDITS

Orange Jumpsuit: https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/67593
Psycho face race https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/53529
Snakeskin suit https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/6348
NPCS Use Aid Items https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/68742
Men's Magazines (Interchangeable) https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/87732
Burrowing NPCs textures  https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/74045
Added a backpack for Oliver (credit to Odioss https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/57521)
Backpack icon courtesy of ahseph (credit to his RHS Simple Backpacks Mod https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39503 )
Added a pipboy icon for the synth component courtesy of NoraCHUCHU (https://next.nexusmods.com/profile/NoraCHUCHU)
Added hairstyles from https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/82454 credit to papitopaez
Added hair from mohair https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/78553 credit to NuclearForest
Acoustic guitar weapon model from the awesome Flip777 (https://next.nexusmods.com/profile/Flip777/mods
Testing and perk icons the amazingly detailed n2jay


FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Oliver is pretty fully featured, but there are always more madcap ideas.

Roadmap:
  • Slides!
  • Integrate the songs more effectively
  • Use the six main characters from Oliver's Army again
  • More interactivity
  • Evil paths to have major consequences
  • And whatever else!