How can you make NPC's Travel throughout Skyrim?

[DrNewcenstein]

Ok, so I did just that: made my NPC a custom Anti-Thalmor Faction, set the Thalmor Faction as Enemy, created a modified package for her (jog instead of walk), and then added Patrol Markers to Dragonbridge, Markarth (exterior, near Left Hand Mine), Solitude (exterior, near the Carriage), and Dawnstar (near the caravan). I linked them all so she'd start in Whiterun as before, proceed to Rorikstead, then up to Dragonbridge, then Solitude, then over to Markarth, then back to Dawnstar, then back to Whiterun. Each marker has an idle time of 5 seconds.

 

When I loaded the game, she just stood there at Whiterun. Waited 24 hours, entered the city and came out to reload the exterior cell, but she won't move. Either the markers are too far apart, or there are too many, or it simply takes a while to load the links and calculate the pathing. It may be that a patrol route this large may require a script that points at a specific reference rather than linkref'd markers. I'm thinking (without looking) that this is how the caravans do their thing. They travel between campsites as markers, rather than patrol markers. Since you can set any reference as a target, this seems logical.

 

I'll reduce the patrol route back to where it was - Whiterun to Rorikstead - and see if it's the patrol settings I gave her.

[JobVanDam]

Yeah I hate this f***in patrolling s***. I just want it to work. I'm fixing someone else's errors. I'd rather just work on my own s***.

 

Whats the Editor or Base ID of the Caravan packages?

Edited May 26, 2014 by JobVanDam

[DrNewcenstein]

Yeah, I messed up her Package. Got it fixed now.

 

Go into Character>Package and type Caravan into the Filter box, you'll see the packages for the Merchants and their Followers.

 

What I did find out is that you need a FormList to store your Packages in, and you need a Patrol and a Travel Package.

 

I went to Character>Package, and duplicated the PatrolStaticPathing package, and renamed it for my NPC (Anne, a quick-n-dirty duplicate of Anneke Crag-Jumper just for simplicity's sake).

 

I renamed it AnnePatrolStaticPathing, then duplicated that and named it AnneTravelPlans.

 

In 'Pathing, I set its type as Package and its Template as Patrol.

In TravelPlans, I set its type to Package and its Template as Travel. This is where you select Preferred Pathing (I did).

 

Next, I went into Miscellaneous>FormList and made a New List, and put these two packages in it, then assigned that List to the NPC's Default Package List dropdown.

 

 

Once all that was set, she worked just fine. She'll go after any Thalmor patrols on the road.

 

There is a bit of a trouble spot on the road between Rorikstead and Karthwasten where she (and every NPC) would only go so far, then go back towards R-stead, then back to the road, then back to R-stead. There's some sort of vanilla issue there as it did that on the 360 as well. Clairvoyance even has trouble there.

 

So, I baby-stepped Patrol markers through the turn, then down to Markarth, then looped it back to Whiterun.

[DrNewcenstein]

More news:

 

Reading the CK page about it, they do suggest using XMarkerHeadings instead of PatrolIdle markers. Looking over the worldspace, this explains why I see lots and lots of XMarkerHeadings and very few PatrolIdle Markers. Not sure of the difference in the end-result, which is all that matters, so I'm sticking with what I've got.

 

As for the NPC herself, Anne survived a relentless onslaught of Excessive Wolves....err...Immersive Creatures...:P , 4 Thalmor patrols (with goblins), 2 DB Assassins, and a score of Bandits, but she was no match for the Forsworn with infinite Stamina that was spamming Power Attacks. The crack-shot archer nailing her in the face with arrows didn't help matters. Never mind that these are Forsworn arrows, which can only do 7 damage.

 

But, she died near Kolskeggr in a flurry of blows and hail of arrows (despite having a 5000 pt Health offset), so I set her to Essential. Then I decided I'd make her a buddy instead.

 

You hate setting up patrols for one person? 2 is twice the headache. I can only imagine 14. Oy.

 

But yeah, at least he had a useable Default Package (SingleFileFollow). All I had to do with that was set the Distances to 96 Min and 128 Max and they're like two peas in a pod. Two Thalmor-hating heavily-armed genocidal peas in a pod.

 

However, I think the AI became self-aware during the last test, as they completely skipped a series of Markers that took them around the mountain that separates Rorikstead from the rest of the Reach, and instead took it upon themselves to follow a goat trail up to come out at Serpent's Bluff Redoubt. I had a marker that took them to the crossroads on the other side of Whiterun, as well, and they decided for themselves that they had done enough for one day and skipped that one, returning straight to the starting point by the carriage.

 

At any rate, I learned a lot about AI and Packages, thanks to the "mystery" this thread presented. Time for a Scooby Snack.

[DrNewcenstein]

Ok, so one last update:

 

I re-did the entire mod, and named the two NPCs Hansel and Gretel. They're Thalmor Hunters, with a house just outside Whiterun (near the destroyed shack by the Watchtower and Fort Greymoor). They've got an eat/sleep schedule, a Sandbox around the house package, and they travel from home to Rorikstead, up around Broken Tower Redoubt, continuing on to Kolskeggr, then down through the swamp, then circle back to the main road, then head home. If they encounter a Thalmor Patrol along the way, they go hostile.

 

I've got it set up so Gretel follows the Patrol route, and Hansel follows her. I'm using a duplicate of the SingleFileFollow package for him. I had to redo the mod because that package is assigned to Mammoths, and I kept getting errors about it. So, since that bjorked the mod, I had to redo it.

 

As well, I followed the CreationKit.com tutorial for setting up their packages, so it should all be "clean" in that respect. Still testing for bugs. Previously, I had been using PatrolIdle markers, but changed to XMarkerHeading as the tutorial suggested. Didn't have any problems using either one, but you never can tell.

 

 

They're not set up as potential player followers - they have their thing and they do it. This keeps the player from accruing bounties as a result of their peeps attacking the Thalmor.

 

If anyone wants to check it out, lemme know and I'll post it on the Nexus. It's fun to follow them around and watch them do their thing.

[JobVanDam]

I have no clue what's wrong with mine but it causes CTD's. I hate my life.

[DrNewcenstein]

Send it to me at "my username" at gmail and I'll see if I can find the problem.

[JobVanDam]

Wow thanks man appreciate the help but I found the problem. The esp is corrupted.

 

No clue what did it but my game is very stable, when I reenabled my patrol mod and started playing after a few minutes it would CTD without fail.

First thing I always do is investigate my most recent changes or additions. It was my patrol mod and a texture mod.

I completely removed all references of my patrol mod in the game, even in the Bashed Patch, but it still was CTDing. Finally I just disabled the mod and played for 3-4 hours.

 

I'm just gonna have to restart from scratch. This time though I'll do it increments.

First, I'll add bandit spawning to the animal leveled lists.

Then I'll make just one patrol and I'll track where it goes.

 

Also I might have to bite the bullet and make my packages with the Creation Kit. I've been making them with TES5edit this entire time and the interface isn't as intuitive as the CK.

[DrNewcenstein]

Good luck :thumbsup:

[JobVanDam]

When you were watching your NPC's travel from place to place did Hansel sometimes just run really far ahead? Because Gretel went off the road?

Or did you set the Preferred Path Only option to True for the leader?

 

At first it wasn't working I think because I was using furniture pieces as the reference point for where the leader should go. Then I started using vanilla X Markers and they started walking. Thing is the follower sometimes runs really far ahead if the leader goes off road, once the follower just went in a different direction then when the leader got too far then it caught up.