Fatherhood

If you enjoy this mod and have kids, I ask for no donations. Instead, turn off your rig for an hour, head outside, and play cowboys with them.

Don’t just mod your game—mod their childhood.

FATHERHOOD v0.5.0d
Native Aim Companion Menu Experimental
Gnarly Bastard Mods

1. OVERVIEW

Fatherhood adds young Jack Marston as a persistent free-roam companion for
Arthur Morgan or John Marston in Red Dead Redemption 2 Story Mode.

Version 0.5.0d keeps the clean native aim interaction from v0.5.0c and expands
it into a nested companion menu. Aim/focus on Jack to talk, select dialogue
actions, change his outfit, or choose how he rides the player's horse.

This is an experimental branch. Use a spare manual save and back up your Story
Mode saves before testing script mods.

2. REQUIREMENTS

- Red Dead Redemption 2 for Windows, Story Mode
- ScriptHookRDR2
- A working ASI loader

Do not use in Red Dead Online.

3. INSTALLATION

1. Close the game.
2. Remove any older JackMarstonCompanion.asi.
3. Copy JackMarstonCompanion.asi and JackMarstonCompanion.ini beside RDR2.exe.
4. Start Story Mode as Arthur or John in safe free roam.
5. Wait several seconds for Jack to spawn.

Do not install two Fatherhood builds at the same time.

4. NATIVE AIM MENU

Remain unarmed and focus on Jack with:

- Right Mouse Button on keyboard and mouse
- LT/L2 on controller

MAIN PAGE

- Talk: contextual conversation
- Dialogue: opens Encourage, Check in, Goodbye
- Outfit: opens Next, Previous, Random outfit
- Riding: opens Front, Rear, Random ride

Each submenu uses the same four native interaction controls shown by the game.
The fourth submenu choice is Back.

These are target-bound prompts, not global Fatherhood keybinds. The buttons do
nothing for Fatherhood unless Jack is the focused target and the menu is active.

5. DIALOGUE REPAIR

v0.5.0c could make every action sound like a greeting because invalid action
contexts fell through to GREET_JACK. v0.5.0d removes that universal fallback.

- Talk may use the greeting pair.
- Encourage uses its own positive/encouraging context pool.
- Check in uses its own conversational/check-in pool.
- Goodbye uses its own goodbye/close-conversation pool.
- Cargo, riding, and recovery conversations use their own contextual pools.

Every Arthur/John line and Jack response is checked against the active voice
bank before playback. If an action has no compatible pair, it stops cleanly and
writes the failed context checks to JackMarstonCompanion.log instead of silently
turning into another hello.

6. OUTFIT MENU

The Outfit submenu provides:

- Next outfit
- Previous outfit
- Random outfit
- Back

Only presets enabled by AllowPreset0 through AllowPreset7 are selected.
The chosen preset is applied immediately. With PersistChangesToIni=1, the mod
also updates [JackOutfit] OutfitPreset in JackMarstonCompanion.ini.

7. RIDING MENU

The Riding submenu provides:

- Front ride
- Rear ride
- Random ride
- Back

The selection becomes the normal preference for the next mount attempt.
Changing it does not forcibly remove or remount Jack during an active ride.
With PersistChangesToIni=1, the mod updates [HorseRiding] RidePosition.

Cargo-aware riding remains active. If the horse has configured cargo and the
cargo override is enabled, cargo can still force the front position even when
the normal preference is Rear or Random.

8. GENERAL CONTROLS

F7 Status and diagnostic log entry
F8 Enable or disable Fatherhood
F9 Force a new ride attempt
F10 Reload the INI
F11 Remove and reset Jack

Dialogue, outfit, and riding menu actions do not use global keys.

9. PRESERVED BEHAVIOR

- v0.5.0b single-dismount fix
- v0.4.9n cargo-aware front riding and cargo-side spawn behavior
- v0.4.9h single-scene front-lift timing
- Arthur and John support
- Jack outfit presets 0 through 7
- protective behavior, following, recovery, and mission safety
- no discarded v0.4.9i through v0.4.9m animation code

10. FIRST TEST

Test as Arthur and then John:

1. Focus on Jack and confirm Main shows Talk, Dialogue, Outfit, Riding.
2. Open Dialogue and test Encourage, Check in, and Goodbye.
3. Confirm the player no longer says the same greeting for every action.
4. Cycle outfits and confirm Jack changes immediately.
5. Select each riding mode and confirm the next mount follows the preference.
6. Put a deer/carcass on the horse and confirm cargo override still works.
7. Dismount and confirm the single-dismount fix remains working.

Include the complete JackMarstonCompanion.log when reporting a problem.

11. UNINSTALLATION

Close the game and delete:

- JackMarstonCompanion.asi
- JackMarstonCompanion.ini
- JackMarstonCompanion.log, if desired

Created by Gnarly Bastard Mods.


Created by Gnarly Bastard Mods.

If you would like to buy me a beer https://cash.app/$DayzSaltedJurassicZ   
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