How much of not unloaded exteriors is still simulated when in an interior cell?

[NeinGaming]

I often noticed little things here and there, but this takes the cake: as usual, I was ignoring Preston and had gone into the Concord Speakeasy via the back door. I was busy looting, as Piper was suddenly shouting about something being "not her fight", and as I turn around I see Preston Garvey come in via the front door and crouch walk upstairs and into a room.

He proceeds to hide in the corner near the green trunk, holding his hand up briefly, then he grabs something (I'm not sure but I checked his inventory and he now had a 10mm and 1 10mm round), which apparently bolsters his courage so he confidently sticks his laser musket into the wall, as if watching for hostiles. After doing that for a while he decides that "it looks like we ran them off", tells me if I asked him, freedom is always worth fighting for. Then he runs back downstairs and promptly leaves via the back door.

I have a script on companions that takes away one ammo for every 50 shots fired, could be he ran out of ammo, and I have disabled combat boundaries on literally all encounter zones, I guess otherwise that would not have happened. But still, how?

One explanation that wouldn't require actors actually "doing stuff" outside while the player is inside might be that just before I got inside, he ran out of ammo, and for some reason decided the 10mm in the Speakeasy might be his best bet, and started pathing there when I was outside and just continued pathing when he was "off-screen", which we know actors are kinda good at. But Then how would he know about the 10mm before I was even inside?

edit: I just checked the footage, he had the 10mm but also fusion cells for his laser musket, so ammo wasn't the issue here.

Or is this related to cells not always being unloaded immediately when the memory isn't needed (like when entering a small interior)?

Before, I had notifications about people dying or killing just after me entering an interior... but this time I was in there for a few minutes, I was nearly done picking up all the small things, so I was really dumbstruck when he strolled in.

Any ideas?

Edited November 30 by NeinGaming

[Qrsr]

Sounds like a script sequence part of the Sandbox he is using during the quest. Which when loaded proceeds when moving into the interior and vice versa.

[NeinGaming]

Well, it's still in the "Preston stands on the balcony until he spots the player" part of the quest (and as far as the game is concerned, he hasn't spotted me yet). Preston running into the Speakeasy then back to his balcony isn't part of any scripted sequence there. He's supposed to be stuck in the museum. n my games he constantly gets knocked off though, and then fights the raiders all over Concord. So that's normal, it's his entering an interior after I've been inside for a few minutes that I find so odd.

I also should mention that I increased all sorts of the game settings named fCombatAcquireObject[...] so NPC go more out of their way to grab items. But he did have ammo for his Laser Musket, and when he was back on the balcony he used that one, not the 10mm.

[LarannKiar]

The cell buffer, preloader and combat AI are quite complex but basically, you need to force equip the weapon on the NPC to force them to use it in combat. (Either equip the weapon on them in the ContainerMenu or call EquipItem() with abForceEquip = true). The No AI Acquire flag (Render Window >> Reference) causes the combat AI to skip the ref from the "best nearby weapon search". (And SetNoAIAcquire() from Garden of Eden SE). As far as I remember, there's a game setting to control the number of NPCs that can travel through load doors in combat. Note that companions can also be teleported ("warped") to the player due to the AI Package >> Treat As Player Follower flag.

[NeinGaming]

Quote

The cell buffer, preloader and combat AI are quite complex but basically, you need to force equip the weapon on the NPC to force them to use it in combat. (Either equip the weapon on them in the ContainerMenu or call EquipItem() with abForceEquip = true).

The grabbing a weapon isn't what confused me per se. He wasn't my companion at that point (and as far as the game is concerned, even after this incident, we never spoke). And when watching him via photo mode or tfc from the outskirts of Concord, I've seen him pick up and use weapons plenty of times. Like last game where he took a gamma gun and then shot that from his balcony, one-shotting raiders haha.

Him getting pushed off the balcony sooner or later, and running around Concord slowly killing the raiders until they respawn is just what happens in my games. And the fact that he came in via the back door, but left via the front door, leads me to believe he wasn't on the balcony before he came in (so the shortest path was the back door), but that's where he ran off to (after the timer that makes NPC forgot about enemies they haven't seen in a while ran out)

Though the way he did it was hilarious: he grabbed the 10mm, then turned around 180° degrees and pretended to fire his musket in the air, then turned around again and cowered. Later he pointed his musket at the wall... so the 10mm never entered into anything, and when I checked him later on the balcony via free cam, he *seemed* to be using his musket (I say seem because I think he kept hitting the railing so no raiders were hurt until I got bored of watching that).

What intrigues me is how he was this active when I was in an interior for minutes. Since he was sneaking when he came in, maybe he was pathing "as if sneaking" and that's why he took so long?

I also wonder *why* he was sneaking, and did that until he reached that 10mm upstairs, then cowered in fear, for a bit, then, without anything changing (that I would know about), pointing his laser musket at the wall. In my mind, an NPC is either scared or not, if nothing about the threat changes, why would that change? Not that I'm 100% sure it changed, I think NPC can also point their gun a bit while technically fleeing, and I know this game can be fickle and random and that there ultimately might be no answer to this other than "it's a Bethesda game", but I just wonder if the raiders are similarly in some kind of limbo state where they can path around or something. Because if Preston did that, why wouldn't everyone else, right?

This makes me want to create some kind of test NPC that are hostile to each other, and report their location while unloaded. If an NPC has zero packages they still can fight, right? One could also put two objects somewhere, go inside (or outside) and then spawn the NPC that are hostile to each other. Hey, one might be unarmed, and the only weapons in the vicinity could be in the interior you're in...

Quote

The No AI Acquire flag (Render Window >> Reference) causes the combat AI to skip the ref from the "best nearby weapon search".

Ohh, interesting, thanks! I look at references too seldomly, I basically just mess around with base objects in xEdit (not much fun placing things in the world that way, and CK is just tooo slow and crashy for me, I can't with that)

Quote

As far as I remember, there's a game setting to control the number of NPCs that can travel through load doors in combat.

That one I know, it's called iNumberActorsGoThroughLoadDoorInCombat and I set it to 50 ^^ It's kind of required to make disabling all combat boundaries really good. E.g. I simply can't sprint through downtown Boston and then take shelter in an random interior, because 5 seconds later everyone who was after me, even if they just saw me from a distance, pops in

Quote

Note that companions can also be teleported ("warped") to the player due to the AI Package >> Treat As Player Follower flag.

Yeah, I kinda hated FO4 until I discovered this setting:

[Pathfinding]
bUseCompanionWarping=0

 

I will never ever revert that change. I have a hotkey that teleports followers to me, but a rule to not use it to cheese combat, and it's so much more fun to play this way.

 

Oh, and NPC being teammates makes some things weird in the same way as that package flag.

 

I made something to keep all protected/essential peeps in bleedout until I help them up (which requires checking they're still in bleedout and putting them back down constantly, because as soon as they unload, the game seems set nobleedoutrecovery to false). But even when I do all that, as long as they're a teammate, even though they are in a package that makes them travel to their own current location to prevent precisely that (and isn't flagged flagged as treating them as player follower), they still get teleported to the edge of the loaded area when they unload, or to the door when change between exterior/interior etc. (regardless of bUseCompanionWarping).

 

I was so glad when I finally figured that out, by that point I had already given up on it. Another thing that drove me crazy for ages is not realizing that kills of teammates trigger the OnKill event on the player (which I never checked), I just thought for some reason it doesn't trigger at all for them.

Edited December 2 by NeinGaming