LE Wandering mannequins - What's the real fix?

[pufthemajicdragon]

K so this wandering mannequin thing is a royal pain in the aasimar. I thought the Unofficial Skyrim Patch fixed it, but when I place mannequins in my own mods, they still wander. I've been searching for days trying to find a decent workaround and I've come up empty. (Apparently the Unofficial patches only fix script issues, but don't do anything for the wandering.)

 

The best advice was able to find was to create an isolated navmesh "island" under the mannequin so it wouldn't have anywhere else to go. I did that, and so far the mannequin hasn't wandered, but now whenever I wait or sleep or leave/enter the cell there's a chance that NPCs I leave behind will somehow magically teleport onto that navmesh island and be stuck. I tried placing a collision cube over the mannequin surrounding the navmesh island (collision layer L_unidentified), but that didn't make a difference.

 

So what's the "official" best practice for modders to avoid the wandering mannequin bug? Preferably without side effects >.<

 

:EDIT:

 

So, for future reference, I'm putting the answers here so it'll be easy to find for others.

 

The "official" best practice is to create an isolated navmesh island for the mannequin. It's as simple as that and works.

 

However, there are some other bugs that can present themselves and be very confusing. If the mannequin's XMarkerHeading is the last XMarker placed in the cell, and (presumably, I haven't tested it) if there's no COCMarker in the cell, then NPCs may spawn on the mannequin when the cell loads. This can be mitigated by modifying or placing another XMarker elsewhere in the cell after you finish the mannequins. Teleport markers may work, I haven't tested that far either.

 

If the navmesh island is too small, the mannequin may still wander.

 

I've updated the CK wiki mannequin tutorial to reflect these issues.

Edited January 12, 2016 by pufthemajicdragon

[JetSteele]

Personally I'm not sure how to fix it since I never really tried anything with the mannequins myself but this mod fixed the mannequins; maybe take a look at how it was done to see if it could help you out:

 

h​ttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10652/?

 

There is also some information on modded mannequin making on the mod page so that itself might help you out.

[IsharaMeradin]

If the USKP/USLEEP version of the mannequin script did not solve your wandering issue, then the mod linked by JetSteele will not either. The newest version takes the USKP/USLEEP version and applies the pose/living change options.

 

My suggestion would be to place the mannequin on a raised platform of some type with its island navmesh rather than simply placing it on the ground. I've seen more issues with mannequins that were placed on the floor rather than placed on a platform. Doesn't mean that they still can't move but the chances are greater when placed at the same level as all the other navmesh in the room.

 

Another issue that triggers "wandering" mannequins is simply having too much loading in the cell. The script has to enable the mannequins AI in order to work around some other bugs (armor duplication). While the AI is enabled the mannequins can move. Once the AI is disabled, they are frozen and supposed to be returned to their editor spot. However, if too much is loading up it can cause delays and outright suspension of the mannequin script which in turn can leave the mannequin in an incorrect location. Therefore, Hearthfires introduced the ability to move the mannequin to its correct spot when it is activated (USKP/USLEEP carries this over too).

 

None of the solutions are perfect, but usually better than nothing.

[pufthemajicdragon]

Thanks for the replies.

The navmesh island technique does keep the mannequins from moving, and I can see other mods using the same technique.

 

But when I use it, any NPCs that are in my cell when it loads have a high chance of loading in on top of the mannequin's navmesh island, which leaves them stuck there. I can reproduce this consistently by entering the cell with a follower, then pressing T then E to wait for an hour. At the end of the waiting period, my follower will be stuck on the mannequin's navmesh, and this happens almost 100% of the time. Adding a pedestal makes no difference and it's about the barest cell in the whole game. This NPC navmesh hopping happens with such excruciating consistency (but only with my mod) that I can only conclude that I'm not doing the "navmesh island technique" correctly or there's simply a better way to solve the wandering problem, hence my question.

 

At the very least, my NPCs hopping over to the mannequin's navmesh happens so consistently that I'm certain someone else has encountered the same thing when using the navmesh island technique.

[pufthemajicdragon]

Screenshots to demonstrate:

Before waiting: http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg125/puf_the_majic_dragon/2016-01-09_00001_zpshfx3fkwm.jpg

After waiting one hour: http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg125/puf_the_majic_dragon/2016-01-09_00002_zpsopa7tfwo.jpg

Lydia's now dancing with the mannequin.

And my mannequin in the CK: http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg125/puf_the_majic_dragon/Untitled_zpsi5zod8zx.png

[IsharaMeradin]

That is odd behavior. Make sure you used the correct marker types for the mannequin. Could be possible that with the wrong type other NPCs might see it as something to go perform (like a chair or other idle marker).

[KnightRangersGuild]

When your creating your navmesh, Don't forget to "Find Cover Edges" then click "Finalize navmesh". If you do this this should fix your problem. When I create mannequins I always do that step and i don't have any issues with mannequins . I always create an island of nav under the mannequins, and make sure it's the same size as the collision box around the mannequin.

[Guest deleted5528329]

the best way to fix mannequins is to nav mesh them in and to also click on the mannequin and check the box that says turn off havok settle. do that also to the activator trigger , the x marker,the floor section, and the pedestal they sit on if you have one. The reason the mannequins move are because they are npcs so if havok settle is on they will move all over the place. I have no issues with my mannequins moving or npcs getting stuck on the island. did you put the nav mesh island to close to the main nav mesh or is the x marker going onto the main nav mesh that could cause mannequins to move or npcs to get stuck.

[Arthmoor]

As others have said, the script is only half the issue. Navmeshes need to be under the mannequins, which you provided. You do need to be sure though that the little islands are large enough. Your CK shot leaves me the impression that they may not be since your mannequin's feet stick out over the islands. Best bet is to make the islands fit the size of the platform they're on.

 

Finalizing should make sure the island is properly registered in the navigation info map and will keep regular NPCs from trying to use them. I don't think cover edging will help the islands, but it's useful for the rest of the cell so it can't hurt.

[pufthemajicdragon]

I started with a larger island, and then began shrinking it in attempts to deal with the hopping issue. In its present state, it's sufficient to keep the mannequin from moving.

I've found cover edges, and even edited some of them, and tested and finalized the navmesh. That's navmeshing 101. The xmarker for the mannequin is a standard XMarkerHeading as described in the mannequin tutorial with no scripts or changes attached.

 

Judging by the responses here, it seems my NPC hopping issue is not a common one, which just makes me more concerned, since it means I've done everything right and it's still broken.

I've tried rebuilding just the island, but it looks like it might be time to rebuild the entire navmesh.