Adventures in Mooing...er...Modding

[katrina.balanchuk]

In some ways I think I may like this better than wasteland dairy not as overly complex and involved but with a belivable background too.

 

[davethe]

Are you thinking of ever releasing an alpha/beta version of this mod? I'd love to play around with it, and it could get you valuable user feedback

[punkin2011]

are you still working on this cause it looks awsome i hope it comes out thanks

[Farsh-nuke]

I have been away from modding too and am just coming back to it. I think it now a logical end point that I will make a mod at some point. Your little blog here will I think be quite invaluable if I do. I hope you finish your mod in time it looks very interesting

[GrimGrim31]

I took a long break from working on mods and just started back again in July.  Surprisingly, it was easy to pick back up again and some things that seemed hard before were very simple this time around.  NPC to NPC conversations finally worked, I figured out a new method to deal with NPCs milking the cows, picking up poop, racking milk bottles, and placing them in the refrigerators.  This week I finally got a trader sorted out to buy cows from the Player when settlements have a lot of them.  The trader will also buy milk and cow care items but that wasn't a big deal since all traders will buy these.

 

All of the quests that I was working on are done.  So, what still has to be finished before I can publish this mod?

 

More new NPCs?  The mod currently introduces seven humans and one ghoul.  I enjoyed their dialogue and development more than most aspects of making a mod.

More NPC to NPC conversations

Companion Affinity changes for player actions with hucows?  Preston is way too complacent as the Player turns half the Commonwealth into near animals and Piper didn't blink an eye when I turned her into a lactating cow as part of a herd at the Red Rocket.  That should probably be corrected.

A few more quests or random encounters?  I had some new ideas for quests.  One was to rescue settlers and hucows from a supermutant camp so that I can create some new furniture items.  I am bored of gorebags.

NPC comments when the Player is a hucow, maybe some effects on trading or other interactions?

Male on Male functionality?  Someone may want a herd of all bulls.  Right now, a bull player can easily have sex with female hucows but there is not a way to do the same with male hucows unless you use AAF Home Key or another mod's sex hotkey.

New Animations, Animfurns, AnimObjects?  Still a lot to learn about making these.

Playtesting, especially as a bull since I haven't done that much.  There is a lot more activity as a female hucow or a male player so far.

AI voiced dialogue?  Silent Voice Generator is great for silent dialogue, but voiced dialogue would be better if it sounds right.

MCM options - Yes/No cows poop?  Yes/No random sex in settlements with hucows?  

Figure out what to change when Fusion Girl or another bod mod is used instead of CBBE

Cleanup of odds and ends that are no longer needed.  I have been tidying up as I go but there are still things that need to be deleted.

 

The mod making journey has come a long way since I started in March of 2021?  I have learned a lot along the way and it has gotten easier and easier.  I put some things into this mod just to learn more and the process is lengthened because I keep exploring new things instead of just cranking this mod out.  I guess I owe you some pics at least to help fill up the time.

Edited September 6, 2023 by GrimGrim31

[GrimGrim31]

 

I returned from another long break away from FO4 around the last week of May 2024, and I have been working on the Human Cattle mod nearly every day since then.  

 

I decided to go ahead and release a beta version that will have most of the things that I planned for this mod.  The quests are done, the frameworks are functional, and the dialogue is voiced thanks to Elevenlabs. 

 

 

The question is how do I summarize what Human Cattle does now and what I still want to work on for the final version? 

 

What the mod does now:  The mod doesn't change the base FO4 game in any appreciable way.  It allows the Player to learn about a Vault-Tec experiment (#134) that turned humans into human cows (AKA hucows), capable of surviving - even thriving - after a nuclear war.  The female cows produce milk that will reduce radiation levels in humans.  This makes them a valuable commodity.  There is a quest in the game to allow the player to learn more about the background while helping NPCs to find clues so a serum can be made to cure one of the NPCs, who is a female hucow.  After the quest is completed, some of the NPCs may be recruited as settlers.

 

 

Of course, you may choose to learn other things and take a more nefarious path so that you can start your own hucow farms at the many settlements of the Commonwealth.  Create hucow serum that you can inject into hapless settlers and other humans so that they become milk producers and make you filthy rich with caps.  You can milk your cows or designate settlers as hucow farmers who will do the milking for you every day.  You just have to collect caps, every once in a while, from the settlement workbenches. 

 

You may also find that some of your settlers either slowly (and mysteriously) become hucows on their own or they may ask you to make them hucows, for reasons of their own.   The Wasteland is a hard place, and some people just want a release from it all.  Others have a hucow fetish.  You can even choose to be a hucow yourself, male or female.  You will find that male hucows, called Bulls, are capable of fucking just about anything.  Both sexes can be very sexually active although you can limit this a great deal via the MCM.

 

 

The mod adds some furniture too.  There are leafy beds for the cows to sleep on the ground, an examination table where you can do lots of things to assigned settlers or hucows, and versions of normal workbenches and furniture that are not usable by hucows when they are sandboxing around the settlement (note that some of this furniture is also unusable by the player if he/she is a hucow).  There are also food and water troughs and invisible animation mats that you can place around the settlements where you want NPCs to do things.  One example is an eating mat so that hucows will stop and eat grass from the ground at the location.  I usually put about 10-20 of these in a settlement so the hucows are active during the day.  A few settlements (Sanctuary, Abernathy, Ten Pines) already have some of these in place.

 

 

There are also a few unique NPCs that you will encounter outside of the quest.  There is a hucow trader at Goodneighbor and another at Diamond City.  You can buy and sell hucows there.  You may also find a researcher shows up at one of your settlements if you have enough hucows there.  I won't tell you much about her because she'll tell you everything you need to know.

 

 

You will also find some things that are not part of the Vault-Tec experiment that are just darn fun to play with:

 

1)  A misc object called Can of STFU that you can give to settlers, so they stop telling you about the ghouls and their tarberry bog or how much their feet hurt.

 

2) Syringes that will turn human enemies into hucows.  Note: it also turns males into females, so you are guaranteed to get a large herd of milk cows quickly.  I use these to capture raider bosses and then "employ" them as "cash cows" at Sanctuary.  Don't use these on any NPC that you need for quests (e.g. Preston Garvey).

 

 

3) A helmet that will turn a female settler into a Battlebabe who will follow you into combat, deal damage on your behalf, and heal you for free.  She will also help you with your "Morning Wood" problem if you choose that setting in the MCM.  She can even become a settler or a hucow in a settlement if you give her a disguise.

 

 

 

4)  Refrigerators to hold milk and milk crates to hold milk bottles.  The fridges with the doors that open allow you to put milk crates inside them.  Each fridge holds three crates.  If you put the Vault-Tec (blue) refrigerator with the door that is always closed in a settlement, your hucow farmers will occasionally put milk crates in it.  It also holds three crates.

 

 

5) Poop, the lowest humor denominator.  If you choose to allow it in the MCM, hucows will very rarely poop.  You'll find their droppings decorating your settlements (hopefully not on the carpet).  As a player hucow, you can also squat and poop using a hotkey, but be careful not to do that around Codsworth, as he is not amused.

 

6) Robots in settlements will clean up hucow poop.  No need for you to do such a menial task when you are the general of the Minutemen.  Put a robot in a settlement and it will clean the poop up for you.  I added this so that Jezebel would have some work to do, but every robot will do the job.

 

 

7.  Moo like you mean it.  A player hucow can use a hotkey to moo.  If Brahmin moo at you, moo back!

 

8.  The Player hucow can eat plants.  There is an MCM setting to switch cow hunger on/off.  If it is on, the player will have to eat plants or suffer adverse effects when cow hunger gets too strong.  Wander the Commonwealth munching on wild fruits and veggies or nibble on something more exotic?  I sometimes got distracted from quests during playtesting and went around munching everything in sight.  I don't know much about Boston now, but I know the location of nearly every edible plant along the roads.

 

 

9.  Cum addiction.   An MCM option will give the player a cum addiction, which means you will have to pester anything with a dick to get your daily supply of cum or suffer adverse effects.

 

10.  Vault-Tec tattoos and restraints.  The player can put Vault-Tec tattoos and restraints on the cows.  There are a few other tats as well that you can apply via Looksmenu.

 

 

11.  Punishment baton.  Another version of the universal baton but NPCs will notice it when you use this one on them.  If you have the Whipped and Branded mod, this baton will also leave a mark.

 

 

 

Now, here is where I list the things that are not in the beta that I am still working on.

 

1.  Improving the animations and animfurns.  I finally got Blender set up to do this but the learning curve is steep.  

 

2.  More dialogue?  It seems that the addition of dialogue never ends.  I haven't made existing NPCs react strongly to hucows or the Player making settlers into hucows.  There is a lot that could be done.  I am not sure yet, how much I will do.  It might also be nice to redo the male player dialogue because the voice that I used is a bit "wooden".

 

 

3.  Improve the tats, especially the barcodes on the arms.  I learned how to use Blender to view the tats on a 3D actor model with hucow proportions.  Now I just have to spend more time fine tuning the positions of the tats so they look better in game.

 

4.  Integrate this mod more with other mods?  I don't know which mods are most desirable for this but I suspect that you will tell me once the beta is available for download.

 

5.  Deconflict this mod/hotkeys, etc. with other mods/user preferences.

 

And now the big question:  When is the beta available for download?

 

Soon, I have finished playtesting the loose files.  Now, I have to pack my Ba2s, remove all of my loose files, and playtest the packed mod to make sure everything got into the Ba2s and nothing is still loose anywhere in my files.  My best guess is that I will have the beta out before the end of July.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2024 by GrimGrim31
Add pics

[greg100]

i would love to beta tes this

[GrimGrim31]

On 7/15/2024 at 3:25 AM, greg100 said:

i would love to beta tes this

 

 

The Beta version is available now.  Let me know in the mod support forum if you spot any problems.  Someone already noticed that some textures are missing but did not tell me for which objects which makes it very difficult for me to fix.  If you build any mod items and you see purple on them, a texture is missing.

 

 

[katrina.balanchuk]

On 7/21/2024 at 12:41 PM, GrimGrim31 said:

 

 

The Beta version is available now.  Let me know in the mod support forum if you spot any problems.  Someone already noticed that some textures are missing but did not tell me for which objects which makes it very difficult for me to fix.  If you build any mod items and you see purple on them, a texture is missing.

 

 

Wow you only put this up a few days ago and already 1800 downloads!

[katrina.balanchuk]

On 7/14/2024 at 10:37 PM, GrimGrim31 said:

 

 

 If you have the Whipped and Branded mod..

 

 

a)Where is this mod?

Anyone have a linked?

Search did not work for me.

 

b)Also how does the quest start?

Do I need to start a new game?

 

c) I have some fast start mods, might they be interfering with me meeting the vaultect scientist to start the quest? For example I have no trip to thru the vault and codsworth or early codsworth and the MM do not exist in the game versions where I tried this .

 

Thanks!!

 

d) Also some ideas on NPC dialogue;

-If player is a cow maybe NPCs could make some disparaging remarks to her. And they would be different depending if it was a man or woman NPC, mens remarks could have some sexual charge to them, referring to her anatomy or the like. (I have no suggestion abut male player hucow it just seems odd to me)

-Not all traders would be willing to trade with her. Many will ask her for her owner instead or tell her send her owner instead, a couple of them might want to take her into their inventory,  some might offer money for cooperation of getting milked ( with out without it actually ocurring depending how hard this is to add)

- Male players who are known to own a minimum number of cows might get some admiring remarks from NPCs about this, even if the cows are far away in a sperate settlement. mal NPCs might even ask to "borrow" one (with functionality of actual boring or without if not realistic). traders, male or female might ask for milk shipments.

e)The trader in DC I could not find ( but I have a DC location mod so maybe its due to this), the trader in GN had no cows to sell and the rest of his trading screen was empty too ( I do have "bigger good neighbor" so maybe this interfered?)

 

f) Maybe something could be done with the big auction house near the lake? Maybe convert it to cow auction house? (but this is asking  a lot just an idea)

 

Edited July 30, 2024 by katrina.balanchuk

[GrimGrim31]

10 hours ago, katrina.balanchuk said:

 

a)Where is this mod?

Anyone have a linked?

Search did not work for me.

 

b)Also how does the quest start?

Do I need to start a new game?

 

c) I have some fast start mods, might they be interfering with me meeting the vaultect scientist to start the quest? For example I have no trip to thru the vault and codsworth or early codsworth and the MM do not exist in the game versions where I tried this .

 

Thanks!!

 

d) Also some ideas on NPC dialogue;

-If player is a cow maybe NPCs could make some disparaging remarks to her. And they would be different depending if it was a man or woman NPC, mens remarks could have some sexual charge to them, referring to her anatomy or the like. (I have no suggestion abut male player hucow it just seems odd to me)

-Not all traders would be willing to trade with her. Many will ask her for her owner instead or tell her send her owner instead, a couple of them might want to take her into their inventory,  some might offer money for cooperation of getting milked ( with out without it actually ocurring depending how hard this is to add)

- Male players who are known to own a minimum number of cows might get some admiring remarks from NPCs about this, even if the cows are far away in a sperate settlement. mal NPCs might even ask to "borrow" one (with functionality of actual boring or without if not realistic). traders, male or female might ask for milk shipments.

e)The trader in DC I could not find ( but I have a DC location mod so maybe its due to this), the trader in GN had no cows to sell and the rest of his trading screen was empty too ( I do have "bigger good neighbor" so maybe this interfered?)

 

f) Maybe something could be done with the big auction house near the lake? Maybe convert it to cow auction house? (but this is asking  a lot just an idea)

 

 

 

A)  Use the Captive Tattoos mod instead of Whipped and Branded.  Both created by the same author.  He removed the Whipped and Branded mod.

 

B)  You do not have to start a new game.  The quest begins when you play the holotape that you can find in a mailbox in Sanctuary or when you go to Finch Farm.

 

C)  Fast Start mods should not interfere with the quest.  I use SKKFastStart in all of my playthroughs.

 

D)  I like many of your dialogue ideas.  I may add some stuff like that eventually.

 

E)  The trader in DC is standing at the turn to Shane Kolwaski's water store.  If your DC mod puts something there, the trader may not be visible.  Look for a woman named Luci.  The traders do not have cows yet.  I will add them in a later version.  If you sell them cows, they will have those cows in their inventory later.

 

F)  I have no current plans to add an auction house but there will eventually be a hucow trader store that you can build in every settlement.

 

 

 

 

[katrina.balanchuk]

9 hours ago, GrimGrim31 said:

 

 

A)  Use the Captive Tattoos mod instead of Whipped and Branded.  Both created by the same author.  He removed the Whipped and Branded mod.

 

B)  You do not have to start a new game.  The quest begins when you play the holotape that you can find in a mailbox in Sanctuary or when you go to Finch Farm.

 

C)  Fast Start mods should not interfere with the quest.  I use SKKFastStart in all of my playthroughs.

 

D)  I like many of your dialogue ideas.  I may add some stuff like that eventually.

 

E)  The trader in DC is standing at the turn to Shane Kolwaski's water store.  If your DC mod puts something there, the trader may not be visible.  Look for a woman named Luci.  The traders do not have cows yet.  I will add them in a later version.  If you sell them cows, they will have those cows in their inventory later.

 

F)  I have no current plans to add an auction house but there will eventually be a hucow trader store that you can build in every settlement.

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for your fast reply

[katrina.balanchuk]

EDIT: NVM found the answer in the other thread.

 

Thank you

Edited August 1, 2024 by katrina.balanchuk

[katrina.balanchuk]

One of the most entertaining mods We have seen on here in a long time!

Thank you so much!!!

 

A couple of notes from a beta test look:

 

-Character apoligizes to the cows after milking them every time.

-Never seen any inventory at the traders except that which I sold them. 

- The baton seems a bit too brutal to me. it makes such a strong wooden sound as if I am damaging bones. The baton is intended to get them back home after they wander off right? I once used it on a cow who had wandered away form Sanctruary to where i knew some wild dangerous dogs were. So I tried to get her back to Sanct. and it worked. but still..

Could there maybe be a crop of some kind that makes more of a twack sound so I dont have to feel so guilty when I use it?

Edited July 31, 2024 by katrina.balanchuk

[evergrey]

where did you get the barcode tattoos?