Having Some NPC AI Issues Lately

[Slywolf15]

Lately I've noticed a lot of instances of AI problems with NPC's. One example is an aggressive AI charges at you with his weapon out but instead of hitting you, he just keeps running into you. This happened in the quest, "Caught in the Hunt," *Spoilers* When you finish the Hunters Den and exit the fort to find Kurdan draw his weapon and continuously run into Aleron. On one occasion Aleron actually became hostile to Kurdan and beat him down with his fists which was actually rather funny since the quest message that popped up talked about Aleron's death. I ended up having to use the console to kill Aleron to proceed.

 

Another thing that bugged me I noticed today was I came up on a group of bandits, one of which I alerted and while he came at me, the rest of his companions basically just sat there and watched me kill him. They didn't even turn hostile as I walked up to them until I actually tried talking to them.

 

I figured a problem might be with the mods I'm using. Right now I'm using FCOM with a variety of other mods so maybe anyone who sees the list and load order might be able to help me out in determining if this is just Oblivion's bad AI or something I might be doing to unintentionally cause it. This is copied from Wrye Bash's active mod list.

 

Active Mod Files:

• 00 Oblivion.esm

 

• 01 Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items Mod.esm [Version 4.5bSI]

 

• 02 Francesco's Optional New Items Add-On.esm [Version 4.5bSI]

 

• 03 Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esm [Version 1.34]

 

• 04 Mart's Monster Mod.esm [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 05 TamrielTravellers.esm [Version 1.39c]

 

• 06 FCOM_Convergence.esm [Version 0.9.9a7]

 

• 07 Kvatch Rebuilt.esm

 

• 08 Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp [Version 3.2.0]

 

• 09 DLCShiveringIsles.esp

 

• 0A Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch.esp [Version 1.4.0]

 

• 0B Francesco's Optional Chance of Stronger Bosses.esp

 

• 0C Francesco's Optional Chance of Stronger Enemies.esp

 

• 0D Francesco's Optional Chance of More Enemies.esp

 

• 0E Francesco's Optional Leveled Quests-SI only.esp

 

• 0F Francesco's Optional Leveled Guards.esp

 

• 10 FCOM_Francescos.esp [Version 0.9.9]

 

• 11 FCOM_FrancescosItemsAddOn.esp [Version 0.9.9]

 

• 12 FCOM_FrancescosNamedBosses.esp [Version 0.9.9]

 

• 13 Bob's Armory Oblivion.esp

 

• 14 FCOM_BobsArmory.esp [Version 0.9.9]

 

• 15 Oblivion WarCry EV.esp [Version 1.08a]

 

• 16 FCOM_WarCry.esp [Version 0.9.9]

 

• 17 Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esp [Version 1.34]

 

• 18 FCOM_Convergence.esp [Version 0.9.9]

 

• 19 FCOM_RealSwords.esp [Version 0.9.9]

 

• 1A Mart's Monster Mod - More Wilderness Life.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 1B Mart's Monster Mod - Extra Wounding.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 1C Mart's Monster Mod - Looting NPCs & Creatures.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 1D Mart's Monster Mod - Dungeons of MMM.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 1E Mart's Monster Mod - Gems & Gem Dust.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 1F Mart's Monster Mod - Hunting & Crafting.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 20 Mart's Monster Mod - Farm Animals.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 21 Mart's Monster Mod - Diverse WaterLife.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 22 Mart's Monster Mod - Slof Horses Complete.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 23 TamrielTravellers4OOO.esp [Version 1.39c]

 

• 24 TamrielTravellersItemsNPC.esp [Version 1.39c]

 

• 25 FCOM_TamrielTravelers.esp [Version 0.9.9]

 

• 26 Mart's Monster Mod - Shivering Isles.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 27 OOO-WaterFish.esp [Version 1.34]

 

• 28 Kvatch Rebuilt.esp

 

• 29 Kvatch Rebuilt - OOO Compatibility.esp

 

• 2A Kvatch Rebuilt - Leveled Guards - FCOM.esp

 

• 2B Mart's Monster Mod - City Defences.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 2C ATakesAll.esp

 

• 2D Mart's Monster Mod - Resized Races.esp [Version 3.7b3p3]

 

• 2E Beautiful People.esp

 

• 2F Martigen's Monster Mod - Resized Races.esp

[David Brasher]

Part of your problems sound like the basic vanilla Oblivion AI problems:

 

(1) Actor running into an enemy repeatedly but not fighting him. Actors will lock onto one particular enemy to fight, even if he or she is far away, hard to get to, and not the most logical enemy to fight. It sounds like the two colliding enemies were both locked onto other enemies and not interested in each other.

 

(2) There is a large group of enemies, but only some of them attack you and the rest stand around. There are two or more AI defects that cause this:

_____(a) Reaction radius. Actors who are too far away, even by half a meter, will not attack you until you get closer, even if their comrades one meter closer are attacking you.

_____(b) The game lags when many NPCs are in a small area. Some experts advise that you never have more than 8 NPCs in a cell. So the game just can't think fast enough to order the actors to start the attack. If you wait an unreasonably long amount of time, they may attack. I saw a really extreme case of this once. The mod had an army of 50 enemies for you to fight all at once. It did not work for me. Nobody at all attacked me. I mingled with the crowd pleasantly chatting about rumors. Then I bid them a fond farewell, said I had enjoyed the party, and left.

 

It is possible that your problems are entirely vanilla Oblivion and changing your load order or mod list will do nothing, except for if you remove mods that cause lag or remove mods that present you with situations that the game will make look buggy.