Companion Can't Move

[hawkfist]

Hi. This is my first post. I'll keep it brief. And I greatly appreciate any help. While I'm playing my othewise stable, massively modded, and otherwise totally awesome Oblivion, and using a Companion (one at a time), my companion eventually loses the ability to move. He or she falls to the ground like a brick (stiff, not a rag doll) and never gets up again. I can still talk to him/her, access inventory, etc. If I fast travel, he/she follows. But ... he/she never stands up again. Like a severed spinal cord, only stiffer.

 

Any help is much appreciated, and apologies in advance if I missed something simple and obvious. I did Google this issue and comb these forums, but I struck out.

 

I want to say a quick thank you to all the modders out there. The thousands of hours of amazing gameplay this community adds to Oblivion may be the greatest "free" materials in the world. Thanks to all of you for sharing your amazing talents.

[Balagor]

Have you tried to disable all other mods but the compagnion? It could be a mod conflict. A way to find out is to enable them all (in the start console) and see if the compagnion runs properly alone,

If that is so, them add the other mods one by one until you find the one that makes the conflict.

This is only a suggestion, there is no guarantee that it works.

[hawkfist]

Thanks for the tip. Is disabling the .esps in wrye bash enough to test this, or do the mods have to be uninstalled? Thanks again for the tip, and the newbie welcome over in that thread. It's nice to know you. Btw, has it happened to you? I was amazed to see that as far as I can tell from Google searches, no one has had this happen to them. That's pretty weird.

[Balagor]

First try only to disable the .esp. Its a big job to uninstall/reinstall. However if disable the .esp does not help.................... :sick: only the hard way awaits.

I can´t remember if exactly this has happend. I have played Oblivion more than 50 times or several hundred hours. I can remember that my compagnion once stood still (did not lay down) could not move, could not communicate

It was Rhiana, and it was a mod conflict. When you have multiple mods, there is a risc that the AI packages might intervene eachother, due to editorID errors somewhere in some mod.

Normally you can run multiple mods, but the greater the number, the greater the risc of a mod with an error, and a risc that a mod will reply on that error.

Hope I make my self understandable.

[Balakirev]

Does this happen to all companions when you use them, or just one companion in particular?

 

Also, checking under Wrye, is your CM Partners.esm still checked? Since companions are reliant on this, if it's accidentally unchecked then a companion will flop over on the ground and just lie there. (Tested this.) As happened to you.

 

Finally, try the 50% Rule: disable 50% of your mods (alphabetically, or in modified date, or whatever order you prefer), and try running just to see if the companion stays active. If it does, the issue lies somewhere between one (or more) of the mods you deactivated, and that companion's mod. Try re-enabling half of the mods you deactivated. Enter the game, and see if the companion's still moving, etc. Keep it up until you've found the issue.

 

Typically, companion mods should run towards the end of your lineup, close to your Bashed Patch. Make sure each shows up in Wrye in black, with no master files missing. I typically have 8-10 companions, of whom I usually go out with one, at most, two.

Edited November 26, 2010 by Balakirev

[hawkfist]

Thanks Balakirev. I will do as you suggest and report back after I've tested it. Just for clarification, my first companions were Raven and Krystal from Tessera, and it strated happening with Krystal, but not Raven. I went through a phase where I was travelling with four or five companions at one time, and invariably this would happen to one of them, eventually. Because of the problem, I did a complete reinstall of oblivion and all of my mods, and at that time I switched over from the CM partners that Tessera had bundled with Raven and Krystal to the original mod, which gave me a world full of NPCs ... again, the problem tended to happen with only one of them. Almost invariably, the problem began after one of three events: 1) a companion left to fend for herself took a severe beating; 2) I fast traveled; 3) I left the companion behind in one cell as I ran to another, then called the companion to me. Again, I reinstalled everything from scratch ... and this time I chose to use only the CM Partners mod (but not hiring any of the companions) and the Viconia DeVir mod. For a long time, Viconia worked perfectly. My CTD frequency was very low, and the game was running great. Deciding to push my luck, I installed all of the Better Cities mods and all of the Unique Environments mods ... at the time, I was working my way towards ownership of Hoarfrost Castle. I noticed pretty early on that a number of my mods were not compatible with Unique Environments, especially some locations from HentaiMania. Climbing mountains on the way to the Inverted Cathedral (itself stuck through a mountainside - apparently due to Unique Environments), Viconia collapsed for the first time. My first thought was that it had something to do with either Hoarfrost, Unique Environments, or Better Cities ... but at the same time, it was the old problem rearing its ugly head again from an early time when none of those mods were installed but companions were still collapsing. Needless to say, you guys are probably right - it's probably a mod conflict and I will do my research to figure out which one following the method you suggested. I guess my naive hope was that someone would teach me a console command that could bring my companion back to full mobility without the ultimate need to choose between Viconia and a given mod - since I greedily want to keep using eveyr mod I have installed. Thanks again.

[hawkfist]

Ah, here's a weird thought. My roommate also plays Oblivion, on his machine in his room. He's a disaster at computers, and tends to mess his machines up badly. His Oblivion directory had become such a tragedy of mis-installed mods, that I actually ported my Oblivion directly to his machine, completely replacing his install with mine. Amazingly, this worked. His game played beauitfully. Now, here's the weeeeird part. I installed all those mods I mentioned (Better Cities, Unique Environments) and did not put them on his machine. Amazingly, while he was off doing something totally different in his world from whatever I was about in mine ... our Viconia's collapsed within minutes of each other! We discussed what we were doing in-game with each other, and found no similariities. I had the new mods, he was doing what he usually does - gardening at the Arcane University or some such. And yet, both Viconia's were down for the count. Based on this, I decided that it had to be some kind of "timer" set inside Viconia ... or something. Actually, I decided I had no idea what the frag was going on, and came to the forums for help. :) Baseed on earlier experiences with Raven and Krystal, I came to believe that companions actually had limited life-spans; that they could exist in a world full of mods and function perfectly, until some combat or travel related or time-related event would blast their ability to move out of their little bodies. Jeez. Who knows? Despite all this, the method you suggested still seems best.

[Balakirev]

I suggest doing some research on Better Cities and Unique Environments, then, checking out the comments section of both mods. I have heard of compatibility issues with both, but they don't usually take the form yours have. That said, anything is possible. I certainly don't think it's a companion timer, since I've looked into the companion code of a few mods a bit, and there's nothing like that. Try removing only Better Cities, and check again.

 

And be sure to place your companions close to the end of your load list. There are many requests by modders for this, and it's usually for a reason. ;)

[Smooth613]

I suggest you use Actor Details to find out exactly which mods are affecting your companion when this issues occurs. This could give you some valuable insight into where the problem lies.

[hawkfist]

Thanks Smooth613! I will definitely check this out. I don't mod, but I'm really, really curious about how everything works so it sounds like your suggestion will give me the kind of glimpse behind the curtain the curtain that I'm looking for.

 

I followed Balakirev's suggestions, and removing mods and changing load order did not restore Viconia's mobility in that particular game (save). I can't comment on whether continuing forward from an earlier point without certain mods would have changed anything as I have not tested that.

 

To add some new information, my most recent "collapse" was Viconia going down for the count after she accompanied me on the final quest to obtain Hoarfrost Castle. This involves receiving a new lesser power that teleports you (the Hoarfrost Conduit) and I began to suspect that she lost her ability to move after being teleported. By returning to an earlier save, sending Vic home, and completing the quest alone, I have temporarily avoided this problem. In other words, without changing mods or load order, but by not bringing Vic with me on that quest, she has maintained her mobility. I have seen posts about companions being "lost" or losing their "gear" after entering Oblivion gates, so I guess this is a known problem. However, I still haven't seen anyone else posting about immobilized companions. I will check out "actor details." Thank you!