Fistfighting NPCs

[MichikoUnknownFox]

Is there a way to make NPCs not pick up weapons on the ground or from corpses? I'm trying to make a martial-artist type companion NPC, and no matter what I try, she keeps picking up any weapon she finds and uses that instead, even if her stats in that weapon type are crap and her Hand to Hand skill is very high. Even worse is that because of this behavior, if she gets attacked without a weapon and there's a weapon laying around somewhere in the current cell, she'll run all the way to get the weapon rather than stand and fight. I'd like to make it so she never picks up any weapon ever and only uses her fists.

 

Any ideas?

[razorpony]

Have you clicked the 'weapons unequipped' flag under the AI button for your NPC? It's supposed to prevent them from equipping any weapons so long as that AI package is running, but I don't know if it keeps them from picking a weapon up off the ground.

 

-Razorpony

[MichikoUnknownFox]

I'll try it, but I don't think it'll work because when they become companions I think they use a new package altogether, which is to follow me and do whatever I'm doing. Unless I rewrite the TalkieToaster Companion Share & Recruit mod, I don't think I can really achieve that. D:

[minutegold]

Unless I rewrite the TalkieToaster Companion Share & Recruit mod, I don't think I can really achieve that. D:

 

But you can make your own companion packages and quest quite easily. Look here for a start.

[MichikoUnknownFox]

Well the whole idea of using Talkie Toaster's mod is so I don't have to do all that myself and I just make any NPC with rumors enabled recruitable. I also learned that combat isn't a "package", and regardless of what package you set up for the NPC, when combat starts, it will try to equip the best weapon in its inventory (or pick one up from the ground if any are available). This is why NPCs like beggars that don't really have any combat tendencies can end up picking up weapons that mods add (those that are just dropped on the ground or added to chests). This means that even if I wasted my time in making my own companion mod, by the way the game works by default (unless I can figure out how to override that), NPCs will try to pick up weapons even if they're not very good at the weapon.

 

The only way I can force this NPC to not use a weapon is if I pick up all weapons in the area before she does, which is simply not feasible in combat situations.

 

I just got an idea, though. I'll try adding a broken weapon (0 health) to her inventory. I dunno if it'll work but it's worth a try. :P

 

 

 

- Edit: Haha I figured it out, almost by accident. I have the Beneath the Wall mod, and for those of you familiar with it, it adds a bandit named Jäger the Missile (actually this is an edit of an already-existing melee bandit). Now poor Jäger was apparently put together hastily, and he spawns with neither a melee weapon nor any arrows. Whenever I see him spawning in other places, like bandit camps and dungeons, he would always come at me punching, never using any other weapon, even if there's a lot scattered on the floor. I decided to fix him by making a patch for him to give him glass arrows and a new random glass melee weapon. While making this fix, though, I noticed why he never picks anything up: he has the option Can Corpse Check unticked!

 

I tried it with my companion NPC and it worked! Just now tested combat, with some of my weapons dropped on the ground, and she ignored them and kept fighting like barehanded wonder. :D

[razorpony]

Sweet. Good to know what that is for. I always thought it disabled the ability of the player to corpse check something.

 

-Razorpony

[MichikoUnknownFox]

Yeah. Epic discovery if I do say so myself. :D Also, it's nice to know that it doesn't interfere with TalkieToaster's "Loot Order" command, so they'll still loot corpses when you order them to.