Devious Device Helpers 1.04.8

Followers help you out of and in to devious devices.

Upgrading from versions prior to 1.04: A clean save is required.

Motivation and Concept:

While playing with Deviously Cursed Loot and other Devious Devices mods, I found that my character being tied up and helpless was amusing for about five minutes.  I also found that NPC's could be tragically stupid when it came to restraints.  For example, when my character was doing the key fumble thing to remove "Paw Bondage Mittens" the follower would stand there, with his free hands at his side saying "Let's not waste time.", "Let's get going." and, dumbest of all, "We've stopped, what is it?".  So I decided to start on a mod.

First; followers would get smarter about removing debilitating restraints.  While the normal thing would be for the player to ask to have her hands freed and then free herself from any blindfold and gag, what happens when the wrist restraint is not removable because it either requires a special key, is time locked or a quest item?  I wanted the follower to be able to assist with blindfolds and gags too.

Second; a follower would, in a reasonably safe location, offer to help the player character have some fun by tying her up for a while.  When they are done having fun (after no more that five minutes real time), the follower would untie her, put the toys away and go off to hack and slay.  Related to this would be reluctance to remove restraints in "safe" areas.

I have decided to release this mod because the removal of "Can you help me?" from DDi 4.0 has left a vacuum for dungeon divers.

What this mod does:

Device unlocking:

Any items tagged "Heavy Bondage", bondage mittens, blindfolds, gags, restrictive corsets, and chastity bras can be removed by either a blacksmith or a follower subject to certain conditions.

Neither the blacksmith or the follower will attempt to remove items tagged as quest items or block generic so as not to break other mods.

A blacksmith will always charge a fee.  A blacksmith will use a key if the player has one, but will fall back to hammer, cold chisel and anvil otherwise.  Any device which is cut off is destroyed and your character can't play with it any more.

A follower will not charge a fee, but if the device requires a key then the player or follower should have that key.  If the correct type and number of keys is not available, and the device can possibly be cut, the follower will attempt to cut the device.  This uses the same base chances of success as DDi, but uses it's own success chance modifier in it's own MCM (after all it's the follower, not the player doing the cutting).  Again, any device which is cut off is destroyed and your character can't play with it any more.  Whether the follower will cut a device is controlled by a MCM setting.

If the follower decides it's "play time" (see below) the follower will be reluctant to remove a device when asked.  This reluctance can be overcome by being insistent.  The places where this can happen are selectable in the MCM menu.  Available locations are inhabited areas, dwellings, stores, player homes and cleared dungeons.  (The follower will always cooperate in a dungeon or the wilds.)  How often the follower is reluctant and for how long are controlled by MCM settings.  The defaults are that the follower will become reluctant to remove devices once every one to two game days and will persist in his or her reluctance for 1/2 to 2 game hours.  These times can be adjusted in the MCM.

Play time:

The play time system runs in a cycle:

1. Adventuring and work time:  The follower does not want to tie up the player and will willingly remove devices.  Lasts one to two in-game days by default, but is adjustable in the MCM.
2. Ready for Play time:  The follower wants to tie up the player but has not done so yet.  Usually this is because the player is in a location where being tied is not allowed.  When the player enters an eligible location the follower will force greet the player and ask to tie her up.  Ends with the beginning of play time.
3. Play time:  Starts when the follower ties up the player or the player, after asking to remove a device, is persuaded to continue wearing it by the follower.  The follower will borrow the player's devious keys.  By default play time lasts 1/2 to 2 in-game hours, but can be adjusted in the MCM.  If the player asks for a device to be removed the follower will attempt to persuade the player to continue wearing a device during play time.
4. Willing to untie:  Begins with the ending of play time.  The follower will force-greet the player, announce that play time is over and offer to remove all the devices added by the follower at the beginning of play time.  If the player consents then all keys are returned and all devices locked on by the follower are removed.  Once the player is free it's adventuring and work time again.  The player may, through dialogue extend the play time.

In order not to delay the game any more than the player wants, all bondage is fully consensual by the player.  When the follower asks to tie up the player, the player may allow it, hesitate, refuse, or ask the follower to wait two minutes.  If the player hesitates the follower will make a feeble attempt to persuade the player.  The player may end play time early by asking to be untied.

The follower will only approach the player for "play time" when in eligible locations such as Player homes.  When in the wilds or a dungeon the follower will not ask to tie up the player and will always cooperate in the removal of devices.

The eligible locations currently include Player homes, Stores, Inns, Dwellings, and Inhabited areas.  Dungeons, Forts and other locations tagged "LocTypeClearable" may be eligible after they have been cleared.  The categories Player homes, Stores, Inns, Dwellings, Inhabited outdoor areas and Cleared Locations can each be enabled or disabled in the MCM options.

As a blatant exception to the consensual bondage philosophy there is an MCM option (all the way at the bottom) called "Bondage lover" which defaults off.

• When off (default), any and all bondage is fully consensual as described above.
• When on, indicates that the player loves bondage and will not refuse to be tied up or ask to be untied early.  The dialogue options like "Can you help me out?" and "I'm not in the mood." are not present when the follower wants to tie up the player or during "play time".  Also, if the player walks away from the tie-up dialogue the follower will tie her up anyway.
• The disruption to game progression that this causes has two adjustable mitigations:  The follower will only ask in eligible locations and the "play time" can be kept short.  This is adjusted in the MCM.

The player may start play time early by saying "I think it's time to relax for a while." or "I feel like being tied up." which will lead to the follower tying up the player.

Requirements:

Devious Devices (Assets) 3.0e

Devious Devices - Integration V4.0+

Devious Devices - Expansion V4.0+

And their requirements

Known issues:

Some custom devices from other mods may not work and generate errors.

There are some items from other mods which the follower should be able to remove, but won't.  This is due to the item being tagged with block generic.

The lock jam state, time lock state and cool-downs are not respected.  This is actually symmetric since none of these apply to the player removing devices from a NPC.

Slaves acquired with Paradise Halls Enhanced will not function properly as "followers" with this mod.

Acknowledgement:

The code which ties up the player is taken, with minor changes, from Deviously Cursed Loot by Kimy.

The users for their ideas and bug reports.

Permissions:

This is a Lovers' Lab exclusive.  Do not upload it anywhere else.

You may not use any part of this in a for-profit project.  Tips are fine provided they are voluntary.

This is an open source project.  You may use my code in your own project but if you do then your project must be open source too and you must allow others to use it in a similar manner.

If you publish a "fork" of this project with similar functionality, please make sure that no one is confused about which is which.