What is a "linked path point?"

[Thalassicus]

What exactly does linking a path point to an object do (R key in tes set pathmap editing)? I haven't seen it used anywhere in the Bethesda maps I've inspected. The wiki doesn't define it either, only indicates the hotkey.

 

My educated guess is that it links pathgrids through doors that have teleport references, so both pathgrids are unified for creating the spanning trees, but since I haven't seen it officially used I'm unsure if this is true or when it's beneficial. NPC's obviously have major pathing issues when it comes to doors in the vanilla game, so anything would be an improvement on that.

[DavidBudreck]

When you are in the editor, under "World" select "Edit Cell Path Grid". You will see a bunch of diamonds with yellow lines connecting them. Oblivion uses the cell path to tell it's actors where they can go and where they're not supposed to. There is a tutorial on the wiki, but it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

 

Make sure cell paths don't go through solid objects, otherwise creatures and NPC's will think they can walk through walls, but will run into the wall's collision. This happens when modders forget to edit the cell paths.

[Vagrant0]

To clarify things specifically about linked path points, this is usually done so that specific path points can be enabled or disabled based on a scripted state of the parented object.

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index...inkedPathPoints

 

It's used mostly in cases where you have an activator that blocks a path that would normally have a pathgrid through it. The advantage is that you won't have NPCs trying to walk through that closed path and into a wall until they appear on the other side. In more specialized uses, it would allow for the active pathgrid to change according to what objects are enabled, such as the case might be with something like a "build a town" mod where you want actors to path through the spaces where a building will be, but not path through after the building has been built.

 

For the most part, it's one of those things that is good to know for those cases when you need to make NPC movements through an area change, but is not useful for most modding applications.

[Thalassicus]

Ah I see, yes that makes sense, parenting the path point to an object. That will come in handy, since I have some areas that can either be blocked off or open, depending on some random variables with each 3-day reset. Thanks.