Version 1.2 at the nexus: http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=41396

Description
This mod lets your companions use stimpaks, superstims, doctor bags and hydra while giving you a large variety of options to customize their behavior.

The core behavior of CCC is that companion limbs can and will take damage and ultimately become crippled like any other character. Through the inventory item ":: Companion Tweaker ::", you can control: when your companions should use Stimpaks and SuperStims, if / when they run away from combat, if they should be essential, and if you want them to be so passive that they never fight back.

There is an optional Fallout 2 style HP system for your companions. In the regular game, when the player levels so do companions and they gain hitpoints. If you play with any mods that increase NPC health, it usually increases your companion health making them unfairly strong. If you enable Fallout 2 Style HP, there are 6 preset "levels" of HP that companions will have solely depending on the player's level and nothing else. All other companion stats will continue to autolevel like normal.

Ultimately, this mod lets you much greater control over how your companions behave. You can nerf companion strength so they're no longer the killing machines that shipped with FNV, make them mindless packmules, or essential characters that you don't have to think about. The point is to have choice, and make the companions more reactive. I hope you enjoy it.


Features
Upon loading CCC, the item ":: Companion Tweaker ::" is added to the player's inventory. By activating this item, you can control all aspects of companion behavior. New is the ability for companions to use antivenom, stimpaks, superstims, doctor's bags, and hydra directly from their inventory. Antivenom will only be used by a poisoned companion after they have finished combat, to prevent chain drinking of antivenom while fighting creatures that use poison. Whenever a companion uses a drug / item out of their inventory, a message will appear on the HUD for a few seconds.

When a companion's limb is crippled, they will decided to use a Doctors Bag / Hydra / Stimpak based on several factors. If all 3 items are in their inventory their order of preference goes like this:

hardcoe game
-Doctors Bag > Hydra

Non-hardcoe game
-Doctors Bag > Stimpak > Hydra

Super Stimpaks will never be used by the companion to just heal broken limbs, but if used to heal in a non-HC game will repair limbs like normal.

New is v1.2 is a hotkey (P by default) to switch true passive off / on. It is enabled by default


Configuring The Mod
Use the ":: Companion Tweaker ::" in your inventor armor section to control all aspects of companion behavior.

If automatic healing after combat is disabled, and your companions are essential and knocked out, they will no longer get back up with 100% health.

An optional file for download is provided, CCC - Robots.esp that restrict ED-E and Rex from using stims and Doctor Bags. Instead, the player must craft robot-specific stimpacks (Robot Spare Parts, Small), super stimpaks (Robot Spare Parts, Large) and doctors bags (Robot Repair Kit).
For those that find companions too overpowered, even with the options included, there is a file marked "weaker weapons" that you can load in addition to the main .esp that will reducer the power of Boone's rifle, Arcade's Plasma Defender, Lily's assault carbine and ED-E's default red laser.


Compatibility
I've included an override file for CCC that is compatible with the Save Cass mod. Load it after CCC and SaveCass.esp. The "recommended" mods listed below do not conflict, and include all the extras most people want like storing faction clothing, sandbox "wait" mode, and a lot more. All 7 companions main scripts are modified by CCC, so any mod that overrides them will be not be compatible. No NPCs are directly edited, so mods that edit the characters themselves, like the face replacing mods, should be compatible.


Known Issues
If you use essential companions in hardcoe games and disable companion autohealing, I have made a workaround for knocked-out companions to be revived with just 1 HP. Unfortunately, essential companions set to true passive will be healed each time the "stopcombat" section of the passive code executes. A fix for this issue is being worked on.


Recommended Mods
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=39582
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38643
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40695
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=39058 and other excellent XFO modules
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40097


Change Log
1.0. First Release
1.1. Updated Release, fixed bugs with Passive mode and companion fleeing.
1.11. Uncommented a piece of code to deal essential Boone being knocked out.
1.12. Clarified menu options.
1.13a. Added healing messages, tweaked superstim use to be quicker and fixed FormIDs for Save Cass version.
1.20. Added a hotkey (configurable, P key) to switch passive on/off. Moved save cass component to override ESP.

Looks interesting. Anything that makes things work more like Fallout 1 is good in my book.

Looks like the file hasn't finished uploading on the Nexus yet, so since I can't check the plugin in FNVEdit, I might as well just ask here. Does this conflict with Povuholo's Companion Sandbox mode?

If you want that, FO3 is probably closer in regards to lack of control of NPC behaviors

Hah, exactly. That's why I compared this to Fallout 2 not 1.

ripple- it overrides all companion scripts as of this version. The Module Pack which I listed above gives you sandbox mode without overriding companion scripts, so you could use my mod with that. I took the file down from the nexus because the passive quest wasn't running, so I've fixed that and am working on a few more bugs I found before I upload a 1.1 version.

EDIT: new version up, take it for a spin.

It's true. Companions were a last minute addition and you had to pickpocket them to trade
Fallout 2 was good in this regard, though.


As for the mod, it looks good. I'll try sometime soon.

Thanks. Just updated and added a feedback for when companions use drugs to make it a bit more like Fallout 2.

I played around with this yesterday, and it looks good. Good job. I didn't fiddle too much with the healing aspect but found the passive mode toggle to be really useful in those situations where you don't want your companions to run off chasing enemies and get themselves killed. I did experience one issue though, which is that often I am unable to toggle defend player and defend self independently of each other. Strange. The combination I was trying to achieve was to have passive and defend self on so the companions would not attack unless they were being targeted.

One of the things that really annoyed me about companions since FO3 is that there is a complete absence of battle commands, like 'hold', for instance, thus leading to many scenarios where companions run off chasing enemies and getting themselves killed. Is there something you can do about that? I am not asking for Tarant's companion overhaul or anything, just a command or a toggle of some kind that would prevent companions from running off once combat has started (but that would not prohibit them from shooting any enemies that are in sight). I mean, there's a reason why people use firearms, it's so they can shoot enemies from a distance, rather than close to melee range. It just annoys me to no end that Boone would always insist on chasing after enemies in tight corridors and shooting everything point blank with his sniper rifle. I know that this is just the lovely default combat AI, which turns every NPC into the stunt actors in John Woo's "The Killer", but....

Thanks for trying it out, and I'm glad you're finding a component of it useful. I don't expect anyone to use all the features but I wanted to give people options depending on their play style. Defend player / self are actually tied together, and unfortunately I can't decouple them without you loosing the passive aspect completely. I believe that since a companion is allied with you, an attack on the companion is equivalent to an attack on the player (in the sense that IsInCombat will return a 1 on the player even if Boone is attacked). So I can't let the companion defend himself without also defending the player.

I have some ideas of how to do this but nothing that works 100% yet. I've requested a NVSE function to find when the player has [danger] and [caution] displayed (or would, if they were sneaking) which add some granularity to when they attack or not, but I don't know if the NVSE team will / can make that.

Lastly, about the distance thing: this gets into custom AI packages. One thing I've found that made my companions do a lot less of what you're describing is Modified Combat Values / Enemy AI revamp (links in 1st post). In general, companions take cover a lot more and run around like crazy bastards less frequently. You might give it a try, and see if you like it. I load Enemy AI after MCV, fyi.

Yup, I am using XFO's AI revamp, as well as Modified Combat Values v.2. These were the only AI overhaul mods I could find that made meaningful changes (tried Project Ultimatum, didn't feel it actually enhanced NPC 'AI'). For the most part, the changes made by these mods is sufficient to remedy the default AI for me, given what we have to work with. Other than the fact that NPCs still don't seem to care much when a comrade's head explode beside them from a sniper shot, the "close to melee distance using range weapons" issue is the only other AI problem that annoys me. This becomes really noticeable in multilevel interiors, where companions scramble to get a clear line of sight almost without consideration for anything else. I was in an abandoned vault yesterday and Boone would habitually run off chasing enemies a level down, in other rooms, get stuck behind barriers, open doors by himself and eventually getting himself killed. I got annoyed and just toggled him into passive mode and 'essential.'

I should mentioned that I am also using the lower companion health feature as well. This one's great too and works well with my own custom edit to lower the player character's health formula. No more taking 10 shotgun blasts in the face in order to kill my character or companions. But if only NPC combat AI did not behave so stupidly, I might feel safe and toggle 'essential' off for the companions.

Just an idea: how about making a hotkey for the passive mode toggle? I found toggling passive mode useful in those situations when companions would run off and I lose track of their whereabouts. I am not sure if this might create all sorts of oddities if passive mode was being toggled too quickly in the midst of combat.

So in the original game are companions not able to use items like stimpacks?

I really like this idea, lets see if I can get it working well enough to release.

EDIT: added it, and updated the package on FNV nexus. Let me know how you like it (the key is P, but you can change it in the menu).

I've played around with the passive mode hotkey, and it works great. I can easily use it to 'recall' NPC who wander off in combat, ensure they do not suddenly go psycho and start shooting at factions you have not been vilified by (as they at times did in my game with the powder gangers), and I have experienced no anomalies. I haven't tried it yet but I suspect I can now even prevent Boone from firing at legion NPCs on sight! This has done wonders to address some annoying vanilla AI issues. Thanks for addiing it so quickly.