David Brasher Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 The personality of my companion in the mod I am building totally changed. She used to start casting lightning if she even saw an enemy, and then would draw her hammer and rush to the attack, no matter what the odds of success. Now she stands around and watches me and my summonings fight. She shouts out advice like "look out!" If a monster reaches her and hits her two or three times, then she will draw her hammer and start swinging it and casting lightning, but this seems to stop when the enemy that hurt her is dead. She might then return to giving unhelpful advice to me and my daedroth and Midas Melon Atronach. She might be standing a sword-length away from from the battle, and it is fortunate that the enemies have as terrible of an AI as she does. She might be wide open but they don't attack her. Other times, she is a horrible coward. After seeing how useless she was in a dungeon, I took her to the beach. There I watched with dismay as she ran away from mud crabs. If one managed to catch up with her and claw her, then she would kill it in one blow or with one spell, and then continue running away if there was a second mud crab. In old save games I load, and in a game with a different player character, she is still her old aggressive self. But her cowardice and apathy in the current game have lasted for three game weeks. I don't think this problem will go away. Some of her stats: Follow player character AI package. Aggression: 10. Confidence: 100. Character Class: Barbarian. Hit Points 700. Level 35. Does anybody have any ideas what is going on? If this is something that will sometimes happen in my mod, I want to be able to fix it so it won't happen, or add an in-game fix, such as a dialog option where I can tell her to stop being such a coward and have a script that would activate at that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maigrets Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 I only do creature companions, but she may have had her attributes damaged by spells or poison. Is she essential? I've been finding that my essential companions can be damaged permanently if hit with a Damage Speed enchantment for example and they run as though through syrup. Other damaging effects can also happen, like if they are hit too many times and go unconscious a lot they keep dropping and can't function at all. The only way to fix it temporarily is to disable the mod, make a clean save and reactivate it. She already has 100 confidence so that's not the problem. Other than that I've given mine Resist magic and Resist Poison abilities since these are the things that seem to affect them most. If they weren't essential they'd die as normal, but because they can't die the damaged stats remain and can't be fixed since companions can't pray at a chapel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brasher Posted July 3, 2009 Author Share Posted July 3, 2009 This companion is not essential. It is sometimes difficult to keep her alive. If she dies, I restart the game at the last save point just as if I have died. She does get her attributes damaged and catches diseases, the worst one being astral vapors. But every weekday morning when she gets up, she casts "cure disease on self" and "restore all attributes." This last one is a modification of the chapel alter spell. I just realized that maybe I could heighten her aggression by putting her in the player faction. If I got hit, or if my summonings got hit, that could make her mad and get her to join the fight. Although the companion in my earlier savegames and with my other player character didn't require this step. I didn't really want to do this because that would raise my companion's disposition to me by 30 points. That doesn't match her personality, because she is a mean and troubled person who is hard to love. If I accidently hit her in combat, I sometimes have to run away from her until she calms down because she often won't accept my yield. This matches perfectly with her hot temper. Is my plan going to work? Does anyone have any more ideas or suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pronam Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 Use the console to check if those attributes are changed somehow..click on her and type getav Agression and other attributes.. maybe something has changed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maigrets Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 Be careful with the Aggression. You already have her at 10 and more than that causes companions to attack anything and everything. Depending of course on whether you want her to attack friends or not. Player Faction will only stop her from attacking you if you made her Player Owned as well. Make sure her Personality is low to make sure she stays unlovable. :biggrin: Player Faction gives companions all the rights and privileges the player is entitled to, but she still should fight back if you hit her a few times. It's the only faction I give my companions, but they are meant to be fairly self reliant and have abilities to help counter permanent damage. Besides, I make them Player Owned now, because people complain about them fighting back, which I think is more realistic, but I did it anyway. After all, even in real life a friend will only take so much before retaliating. Vanilla summoned creatures and monsters also fight back if hit too many times. Otherwise, it still sounds like she's had some damage that she can't fix with her own spells. Try vicICE's suggestion to see if her attributes are damaged and haven't been restored for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suilebhain Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 You might also want to check that Essential box. Re-starting to save a companion gets old, especially when they run off after anything in the woods that annoys them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brasher Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 It is sort of a matter of taste. To me, the essential character box is sort of a flaw in Oblivion. It does not seem like realistic role-playing for characters to be immortal and indestructible. It would be real convenient for people if their companion never died though. I thought about programming an in-game method of reviving the fallen companion, but none of the methods seemed realistic or plausible. They did not fit with my sense of aesthetics. I guess restarting the game upon death is not realistic and aesthetically pleasing, but it is the industry standard. I guess what we are essentially doing is going back in time or hitting the "take back move" button. Nearly all video games are too hard to play in the "hard-core" style where you have to create a new character each time you die. If such games exist, they are probably rather dull and easy. Other people do have different likes and dislikes though. If I made a mod which was too unpopular, I would need to look more closely at what people wanted and change to suit them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suilebhain Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Don't get me wrong. My CHARACTER is not essential, only my companions. I have to reload when I screw up and die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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