So, I got a pretty ancient bug that I just found out 20+ years later:
In Sierra Army Depot, you can get Skynet as your companion. You need three parts to construct a working robobrain to transfer the AI onto, and this companion is unique in a sense that the better your science skill is, the better Skynet's performance will be. Sub-optimal science will give you a damaged or chimpanzee brain, both of which will render it nearly useless as a melee companion that cannot be healed with stimpacks. With a decent science skill you can get a proper human brain, and with science at least 125% you can get the cybernetic brain, the one you actually want since it turns Skynet into the best sniper in the game that can also auto-repair after each battle.
Now, if your science skill isn't up to snuff, you're SUPPOSED to be able to drag one of your unwanted companions, like say Vic in my case, into the nearby Vault-Tec Organ Extraction Machine, by simply leading him there and interacting with the nearby terminal while making sure your other companions are watching from a distance. This has been covered in Per's Nearly Ultimate Fallout 2 Guide, a perfect resource that has been the staple of many Fallout 2 playthrus over the years.
The information there is accepted as fact, so much so that even the wiki covers the organ extraction...except that this isn't actually possible in the game, not even the latest version of Restoration Project. You see, the script for the brain extractor is a mess, and you will never actually get a brain out of any companion. Why nobody has been able to verify this, nor why this was never fixed in the RP is beyond me, but luckily, there is a solution:
I attached a zip file that I found on NMA, you can download it from there as well if you want
It contains two files you drag where the readme tells you to, and the raw script is there decompiled as well, if you feel like tinkering with it or looking thru it. I can confirm now that you do not need to load an earlier save, one where I was standing right next to the machine ended up with a human brain spawning right next to the corpse of Vic. Janky solution, but it's better than nothing, more importantly it gives non-science boy characters a way to get at least a mediocre Skynet without dealing with the alternative method that is dependent on your science skill, like it was originally intended.
Not sure how many people here actually play Fallout 2, but if you're planning on doing so, make sure to install this script. Oh, and I found out that if you download the Megapack, another Fallout 2 mod, apparently there is a quest to turn Skynet into a sentry bot, if that's something you feel like doing(not recommended personally since these are really big critters that will move slowly thru the map and block doorways/not able to get thru doors, so I will stick with RP).
