[LE] Looking for help creating scripts for NPCs

[serranna]

I know very little about how to use CK effectively, but I learned enough to know how to create custom followers.

I've been working on a follower mod in which I have about 20 or so NPCs who are recruitable as followers and are placed in the world.

What I'm looking to do though is to create scripts for each of them to travel around Tamriel so they're not always hanging around the same place. This is the part where I know nothing.

 

Ideally what I would like is for a character to travel to one of say 3-4 possible places at random, stay there for a day or 2, leave at a specific time (say 8AM) and travel to another place on that list chosen randomly. That way the script is not predictable based on the day of the week or where they were seen previously.

 

I'm nto sure how much of this is actually doable but I'd change up what happens based on the games limitations. It's just when I look at the section where you would go to try and code this stuff it looks so confusing to me.

 

Is someone able to help get me started on this? I'm going to want to create unique scripts for each character I created so I'm just looking for a general idea on how to get started with this.

 

Thanks!

[acidzebra]

Much of this can be done through quests (which can run in the background invisible to the player) rather than papyrus scripting.

 

the rough outline (one option at least) would be quest reaches stage X > quest has alias that gets filled by specific NPC > NPC gets a travel AI package from quest through the alias and will move to new location > quest reaches new stage when NPC is at location > quest loads sandbox AI package to NPC through alias > quest reaches new stage, waits, and goes back to start > rinse, repeat)

 

https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Category:Tutorials - if you have no idea about quests you will want to start reading at section "Quest Design Fundamentals" to get a general grip on what bits go where, and then from "Intermediate Quest Design" the stuff about packages and aliases. It will take a while and practice to get the hang of it, but will help you in pretty much all NPC-related work going forward.

 

You can also see how others solved it by looking at their mods and how their quests are set up, there are lots of mods on the nexus that give NPCs travel/sandbox packages through similar mechanisms.

[serranna]

This might be a little too advanced for my simple mind. I know nothing at all about quests, so I'll have to study on it.

 

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'll at least have a look at at that link you posted and see if I can figure something out.

[greyday01]

You might use packages. There are travel packages and sandbox packages, eat packages, ect. These all can have set times and days of the week.

 

On Monday 9 AM go to the bannered mare and eat at 12Pm then Sandbox 1pm to 10Pm then sleep !0Pm to 8am.

On Tuesday at 9am go to, ect

Each NPC can have a quite elaborate schedule.

[serranna]

You might use packages. There are travel packages and sandbox packages, eat packages

I actually found a package template called Sandbox multiple locations. It allows me to pick up to 6 locations for them to sandbox, and it will randomly choose between them which is basically what I was looking for. It was pretty easy to figure out how to set up too, I'm only trying to get the timing correct. It wants you to enter the amount of time they stay there sandboxing in seconds, but it's not matching up to the time I expect it to be before they go off elsewhere.

[Sphered]

You can setup travel routines in a package, with conditions based on a random value. GetRandomPercent specifically. Wouldnt even need a script for this

 

Create stacks in a chain. If Random > xx and not in solitude, then travel to solitude then sandbox and wait a while. Then do it again with ofc several locations in the stack to choose from

 

Could also throw in target practice, find target dummy and use bow on it. Cast magic. Etc. Sandbox imo is well in good but kinda dull by itself, so I like to add more random things to choose from personally