The "shops won't open" bug

[sclerocephalus]

After a recent new installation of the game (along with a large number of mods), I noticed a strange bug consisting in most of the shops - both vanilla and mod-added shops - remaining closed at all times and NPC's crowding on the streets in front of them. A search in the forum reveals that this bug was previously reported by several users, but a convincing solution was never presented. When you start a new quest, the bug is particularly annoying because it prevents you from accessing most of the shops in the IC Market District, many of which are essential to the main quest.

 

 

Meanwhile, I found out on my own that the culprit is "Jade Manor", versions 1.2 - 1.26:

 

This mod removes the door flags (!) from the vanilla AI packages "aaaServicesEditorLoc8x12LockatEnd" and "aaaServicesEditorLocLockatEnd" resulting in all merchants with these packages assigned never unlocking their shops anymore. The modified packages are used on an NPC who'll leave the house to the player after finishing a small quest which was added in version 1.2. Hence, earlier versions probably do not cause this conflict.

[Balakirev]

Good catch. :) Have you tried contacting the modder? Failing that, I'd drop a note here to the management, so they can consider if they want to continue offering the mod.

[sclerocephalus]

I have already sent a message to the author. Meanwhile, upon a closer look, it turns out that the modified packages are not used by any NPC in the mod. This was just an assumption because I had an older version of the mod installed some time ago with which I never encountered any problems.

This makes the bugfix very, very easy:

 

 

- Open the construction set and load Oblivion.esm and the Jade Manor.esp. Set the latter as active file.

- From the "Characters" menu, select packages.

- Locate "aaaServicesEditorLoc8x12LockAtEnd" in the list and select it with a double-click. Tick the "Unlock doors at start" and "Lock doors at end" boxes. Also untick the "Unequip Weapons" box in order to revert all changes to vanilla Oblivion. Leave the window by clicking the "OK" button.

- Do exactly the same with "aaaServicesEditorLocLockAt End".

- Save.

 

 

That's it. The only things left to do now are to re-establish the load order and to rebuilt the Bashed Patch (if you're using one).

 

However, there are other changes to vanilla AI packages evident from the esp file, everyone of which might cause a conflict at some point in the game. The simple fix outlined above will not cure all potential problems. Thoroughly cleaning up the esp file is likely the best solution.

[inggrish]

Hey people. Just to say, I am the author of Jade Manor; and I got the message from sclerocephalus; and I am sorry to all those that this bug affected. sclerocephalus has offered very kindly to do a fix of it if he can.

 

Matt (Inggrish)

[Vagrant0]

However, there are other changes to vanilla AI packages evident from the esp file, everyone of which might cause a conflict at some point in the game. The simple fix outlined above will not cure all potential problems. Thoroughly cleaning up the esp file is likely the best solution.

Yep, which is why mod makers should always use new IDs if they change anything vanilla, especially anything NPC or AI related.

[inggrish]

However, there are other changes to vanilla AI packages evident from the esp file, everyone of which might cause a conflict at some point in the game. The simple fix outlined above will not cure all potential problems. Thoroughly cleaning up the esp file is likely the best solution.

Yep, which is why mod makers should always use new IDs if they change anything vanilla, especially anything NPC or AI related.

 

 

 

Haha, I started using new IDs AFTER I created Jade Manor unfortunately. Which is why there are a tonne of bugs with Jade Manor. Is there a simple way of ironing out all of these bugs?

[DavidBudreck]

Try using Tes4edit to clean the mod. You could undo the changes to the AI packages this way. Tes4edit is the easiest tool in my opinion, but there are others.

[inggrish]

Try using Tes4edit to clean the mod. You could undo the changes to the AI packages this way. Tes4edit is the easiest tool in my opinion, but there are others.

 

 

Thanks all for your help. I have now fixed the problem, and to my knowledge, the bug with the merchants is no longer present. The new file is found at http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17455

 

If anyone could test this to make sure I have removed the bug I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Thanks again

 

Matt (Inggrish)