myNPC companions

"The droid has better lines than I do. I wrote them, which makes it worse." — Archivist Vel Torrin
Verified

A myNPC is a named voice you can speak as without leaving your own character.

You need full membership. Guests and disabled accounts are refused. Former members are refused too, unless the server has set sf_formercanusemynpc to 1.

What it does

You get 3 slots. Each slot holds a short name you type and a display name other people see. Once a slot is set, typing /vess hello in chat sends that line as Vess rather than as you.

This is for the companions that follow your character around: a droid, a pet, a servant, an aide. It is not the NPC system, and nothing appears in the world. There is no model, no body and no scoreboard entry, only a voice.

Slots are stored on your own machine and re-sent when you log in, so they follow your installation rather than your character.

Using it

Pick a slot, give it a short name and a display name, then talk. The short name is what you type, so keep it brief. The display name is what the room reads.

  1. Set a slot with /mynpc 1 vess Vess.
  2. Speak as it by typing /vess followed by your line.
  3. Clear it with /mynpc clear 1 when the companion is not in the scene.

You can also edit all 3 slots on the myNPC screen, opened from the StoryForce hub on the ESC menu. Each row has fields for the short name, display name and language, with SAVE and CLR buttons beside it.

Commands

Listing your slots

Setting a slot

Short names are 1 to 10 characters, letters and numbers only. Display names are up to 63 characters and also allow spaces, apostrophes, hyphens, underscores and colour codes.

Some short names are already chat commands, so a companion cannot take them. The blocked list is: say, me, ooc, cs, shout, whisper, mynpc, reply, r, character, char, account, login, logout and translator. Trying one prints ^8+++^7 '^3say^7' is a reserved command name^8.^7.

Giving a companion a language

The companion then speaks that language, garbled for anyone who does not know it, exactly as Languages describes. none and basic both clear it.

Clearing a slot

Speaking as a companion

Companions reach the other chat channels the same way you do. Put the channel marker after the short name.

Type this Result
/vess Boska! speech
/vess /whisper keep still a whisper
/vess /shout run! a shout
/vess /me ducks behind the crate an action
/vess /ooc back in five out of character

Typing the short name on its own prints the slot rather than sending an empty line.

Settings

Server-side. Set to 1 to let former members use companions. Defaults to 0.

Things to note

Things that catch people out:

  • Plain companion speech carries further than your own voice. The game widens the normal speech range by 1.4 times at the near edge and 1.85 times at the far edge, and that widened range is the same for every listener whatever their hearing. Companion whispers, shouts and actions take the ordinary channels instead, so those still scale with each listener's hearing.
  • A short name cannot repeat one of your other slots. The refusal names the clashing slot.
  • r is reserved for comlink replies. A companion called Arr cannot use r as its short name.
  • Slots live on your machine rather than your character. A second install starts empty.
  • A display name cannot contain a colon or a vertical bar. Letters, numbers, spaces, apostrophes, hyphens, underscores and colour codes are the whole set.
  • There is no body. Nobody can look at, target or inspect your companion.
  • Losing membership stops your companions speaking. The slots stay saved on your machine, but /mynpc refuses you until you are a member again.

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