Quest Compass Markers Help Needed

[gryphonaerie]

I am setting up a quest that requires the player to find an incomplete copy of a book. I have placed several copies of it all around Skyrim, and have them set to enabled at that stage (thankfully with an x-marker), but I would like to set up a compass marker that guides the player to the nearest copy of this book.

 

Is this possible?

 

If so, how could this be done?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you,

 

Gryphon Aerie

[Mattiewagg]

It's detailed in this tutorial. The target alias will be what the marker points to.

[gryphonaerie]

That much makes sense, after reading it over... unfortunately they don't go in how to have the game check for the nearest matching item for the compass marker.

[Mattiewagg]

You can apply this method to any reference, and fill that alias dynamically. You can then point the target alias to that dynamically filled alias.

You can also have multiple target aliases.

[gryphonaerie]

Question is will that look inside of the interiors of nearby buildings...

 

Or, am I over-complicating things?

[Mattiewagg]

Theoretically, it should be able to fill aliases in different buildings. I've not yet tested it, but here's the idea:

 

If you can fill an alias with a specific reference such as an NPC or XMarker, either in Markarth or in Whiterun, aliases CAN be filled from different cells than the one currently occupied by the player. Thus, unless you have a check like GetDistance, any alias should be able to fill it.

 

EDIT: Yes. It is possible. For example, when you dynamically fill a reference using a Story Manager event, or just a random alias fitting certain conditions (see Blood on the Ice), they can be in any cell as long as they fit the conditions.

[gryphonaerie]

trying something simpler, just set up a reference alias to each book, so the compass knows where it is. Thankfully I do not have to have it check for something like 'tundra cotton plant'.

 

Only issue now is how to get it to filter then by how close the player is, instead of how to have it call the reference.

[Mattiewagg]

GetDistance <=?

[gryphonaerie]

Well crud, it won't even show a marker when I set up an alias forceref to that item, and tell the quest to use that as the Target Ref!

 

Failing on step one is rather sad.

 

I do thank you for the other advice, as I am constantly learning new things about how to mod. I just wish I knew why it refused to set up the link to an object like that.

Edited September 18, 2014 by gryphonaerie

[Mattiewagg]

Try it with a non-dynamic alias and see if it works. Make sure you are displaying your objective.