SSE Bound Weapons for Standalone Followers?

[Gorgopis]

We're stuck!

 

Will new NPC standalone followers use bound weapons placed in their inventory?

 

Are there combat styles that affect whether or not they actually use these weapons in game?

 

Thanks.

[Sphered]

If just wanting the visual immersion you could just give them a regular weapon where those FX are part of the nif. Might have to do some playing around with relevant nifs in nifskope. Otherwise followers can use bound spells to create one and use it

[Gorgopis]

Thanks, @Sphered,

 

In the CK, we made a NPC standalone, and placed the bound bow and 99 arrows in her inventory. In game she sometimes wears the bow on her back, but she never uses it in combat. Does she need a special combat classification?

 

Uh Oh!

 

Maybe we forgot to add the bound-bow spell to her spell list? Did we need to do that? We'll check. . . .

 

Thanks again!

[Gorgopis]

We tweaked our follower by examining her spell list, and she still won't cast the spell, and thus she still won't fire the weapon, though it's in her inventory, and she has the magicka needed. Still puzzled!

[Sovrath]

We tweaked our follower by examining her spell list, and she still won't cast the spell, and thus she still won't fire the weapon, though it's in her inventory, and she has the magicka needed. Still puzzled!

 

I think there are several things to consider.

 

You want them to cast a spell to summon a bow correct? It's my experience that not all spells or shouts can be automatically used by npc's. Or at least, I've had the same experience you've had.

 

As Sphered mentions, can you just use the nif of the bow, create a new weapon, and you'll have the look? Also I don't think you have to have 99 arrows. There is a tickbox in the construction set that determines if the npc uses arrows from inventory. Otherwise they seem to just use an infinite amount of arrows from whatever type is in their inventory. You can test this but I've put 10 arrows in an inventory only to have the npc shoot many more.

 

Back to the npc, maybe make his combat type something like Draugr missile or Thalmor Missile or something like that.

[Sphered]

I've never tried having NPC cast bound bow specifically but they can def cast bound sword. Just look up an NPC in the CK which uses bound sword (left or right hand version) and apply their combat style etc to yours for testing. Make sure your NPC is willing to A) use a bow at all aka an ebony or whatever and then B) Cast a bound spell (try sword at first just to see) and if both seem doable then try your bound bow spell

 

If you want a bow visually on their back when sheathed though you want to go the nif route

[ocloki]

For the bound bow I found out after being confused for a while. I forgot to put bound arrows in their inventory which I really wasnt aware they were needed until I looked at the ammo section. I just thought they were created. But it worked as soon as I added them. LOL. If you want to open my follower esp file in CK to see how i set it up. here it is. The actor name in the esp is called aaMani01. The follower's name is Mari and she is by the bridge just outside of Riverwood if you want to test it out to verify it works.

 

https://rapidgator.net/file/9e83c5f0ff7ae35972a7897f378e0a01/aaMani01.zip.html

[Gorgopis]

Thanks, @ocloki. We did add bound arrows to the inventory, but the NPC still would not cast the bow and then shoot. We will experiment! We haven't tried @ Sphered's advice, yet, and want to try that too!

[javaplaza]

Are you using an AI package ? This might help

[Gorgopis]

@Sphered, and @javaplaza, duh, sorry, but is there a method for finding an NPC which uses the bound bow, or a bound weapon, in the game, or in the CK?

 

We've played a thousand hours, but we don't recall any NPC's doing that.

 

If we could find one in the CK, we could examine an AI package.