Need help with invisible door

[niston]

So, uh.. this is sort of embarrassing.

 

I've set up an invisible door in Vault 118. It leads to a load door in a helper cell. In that cell, there's another load door that leads to another invisible door in Cliff's Edge hotel.

 

The path looks like this:

[Vault 118 -->[invisible door]--->[load door in helper cell]--->[load door in helper cell]--->[invisible door in cliff's edge hotel]-->path outside

 

I've navmeshed everything in all involved cells and places, The navmesh is finalized. Yellow triangles at the doors and all.

 

I removed the blockplayeractivation from the invisible door for testing purposes. I keep a companion NPC with me.

When I walk to the invisible door on either side (vault or hotel) and activate it with my char, the companion NPC follows.

 

So I go from cliff's edge, using the invisible door, through the helper cell, into Vault 118. No problem, companion NPC follows.

Same thing when going back. I activate the invisible door in V118, go through the helper cell, into Cliff's Edge. Companion NPC follows.

Then again back into Vault 118, no problem - Companion NPC follows.

 

But then in Vault 118 I dismiss the companion NPC to Longfellow's cabin.

The NPC walks up to the invisible door, activates it (animation plays) and... Nada.

 

Zilch. Nothing. NPC just stands there dumbfounded and does not teleport into the helper cell.

 

Just to be sure, I've tried with multiple companions now. They all do the same: Walk up to the door, activate it and nothing.

Also, the same thing happens when I replace the invisible door in V118 with a regular load door.

 

I'm like wtf. Why doesn't it work? Help ??

[SKKmods]

I kinda sorta remember that unique/persistent npc actors dont like to transition worldspaces on their own (without a follow package) when loaded, only unloaded.

 

If your super stuck then test the regular dismiss companion in regular worldspace to workshop in other worldspace whilst loaded and follow them and Debug.Trace what package is active (probably WorkshopSandboxDefault)

[LarannKiar]

If you walk through a load foor, the follow player package teleports them to you if I'm remembering right (the "treat as player follower" flag maybe). Is the helper cell located in the worldspace of the Commonwealth or Far Harbor? Does it work if you move the door marker out of the helper cell to an exterior cell (assuming the helper cell is interior)?

Edited November 9, 2022 by LarannKiar

[niston]

After an awful lot of testing, I am unable to come to consistent conclusions.

Sometimes it works, sometimes not. What was working during test #537 doesn't work during test #538 etc. Or what is working at first, won't work after save/reload.

It's impossible situation, really.

 

Only consistent things I found:

- When invisible door is placed too close to a wall, another door or really just any object, companion and settler either ignore the door, or walk up to it and activation anim plays, but they do not get teleported.

- When door has BlockPlayerActivation keyword, companion NPC flat out refuse to use it.

- When door has no name, both companion and settler NPC walk up to it, but don't use it.

- When using BlockActivation(true, true), NPC and companion refuse to use the door.

- When companion follows player into Vault (or when using moveto player) and is then dismissed, they will walk up to the invisible door, activate it (animation plays, but no activation event is received) and no teleport happens.

- In this case, even when door has NoNPCDoorOpenAnim keyword, the animation will play regardless (but no activation event and no teleport happen).

 

Also it seems impossible to make an invisible door that can be used by NPC but is completely hidden from player. Best I can do is remove activation option for player by perk.

If it has a name, that will still show up. If it doesn't have a name, player can't see it but it can't be used by NPC or companion either.

If activation is blocked by script with activate text hidden, neither companion nor settler will use it.

 

I give up now.

 

But to answer LarannKiar's questions: The helper cell is an interior. All invisible door markers are already in exterior (Cliff's Edge - FH worldspace), except the one in Vault 118 (interior).

In helper cell interior, I use regular load doors.

 

NB: To test with settler NPC, I build a store in Cliff's Edge Hotel and assign the settler to it. Then I teleport them into Vault 118 with moveto player.

 

 

EDIT: It appears that the hidden door problem was probably due to some weird interaction with Locksmith mod. Now that I've made a script that adds the invisible doors to LocksmithNoLock list and blocks default activation on them for the player, it works fine. They don't seem to have any activation text by default and what I was seeing was probably added by that Locksmith mod.

[niston]

So I tried one last thing.

 

To explain a bit, this whole construct was supposed to be for the NISTRON elevators in my Cliff's Edge mod.

The NPC pathing cell looked like this:

 

 

Every strip corresponded to an elevator, and every door to a floor of the respective elevator. Except the door at the front is the one leading into V118.

 

In the Cliff's Edge exterior, it looks like this:

 

 

I did hide some floor pieces, so that you may better see the elevators.

The lowest door on the elevators is actually a load door. When you travel down to that level in the elevator, it teleports you to another load door like it in V118. You can also call the elevator in V118, of course. And when it arrives (simulating the elevator cart travelling as needed, as the exterior cell with the elevator is unloaded while in V118 and nothing can be translated in an unloaded cell), it teleports you back into the elevator.

All this works very well.

 

But now, the idea with the invisible doors and the pathing cell was that NPCs would use the invisible doors, and that cell, to navigate the multi story elevators.

But it turns out that the AI doesn't like to use load doors when there's another path available, even if that path is of much greater length. :sad:

 

Which strikes me as odd, as I have seen provisioners in Concord Restoration Project mod pathing through the civic access cell to get into the workhouse (I built a tunnel), and I had to put a min use door there to prevent that.

But I digress...

 

After I moved one of the NPC pathing strips to the exterior cell and hid it below terrain, the NPCs and Companion would now consistently use it to exit from Vault 118.

But they would always use the nearest door on the pathing strip to get back into the hotel, ie Level "P" (which is closest to the V118 door).

For example, if I assigned a settler to a store on level 3 and then teleported them into the vault, they would nonetheless exit at level "P" and walk up to level 3 through the building.

If I put the store on level "P" and used moveto to teleport the NPC to level 3, they would not use the invisible door at the elevator either.

Instead, they would path to their store through the building, using the stairwells.

 

So the whole thing becomes moot and it was all mostly a giant waste of time *sigh*

 

I will just link some invisible doors directly between Vault 118 and the Hotel Lobby.

[niston]

Another update: When travelling with companion to the vault and then dismissing them, they still walk up to the door, play the activation animation but no activation event is received and the teleport doesn't work.

However, when dismissing the companion at the hotel, assigning it to a store and then teleporting it into the vault, they will correctly use the door to get back to their store in the hotel.

 

It seems extremely weird to me that the activation animation would play, without any detectable activation event being generated on the door. There's nothing I can do about it however because can't catch an event that does not fire, heh. Even when the invisible door is flagged as "automatic door", it doesn't work. Only observable difference in that case: Companion doesn't even bother trying to walk up to the door.