How do I make an NPC smoke?

[Galather]

Hey guys

I have been modding for a few months now, so I am pretty new at this.

 

I am trying to get one of my NPCs smoking, I tried adding [AnimFlavorSmoking] into the keywords on the NPC.

It worked, but there is no cigarette in his hand.

So I am pretty confused. Does anyone know a solution for this?

 

Thanks!

[ThatSinisterGuy]

If you don't mind digging around in other people's mods, this mod is worth digging into to get an idea of what's going on:

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/13431/?

[Galather]

Thanks! I will check into that as soon as I can.

[PaddyGarcia]

What was the answer?

 

I'm interested in what makes vanilla NPCs smoke or not smoke. In FO3 and FNV it was a "smokers faction," but it changed in FO4. I've tried a few times but I can't figure it out.

[Hoamaii]

Cigarette in hand is an animobject - and I've been working on an animation mod for a while now, the cigarette does show in game when calling the AnimFlavorSmoking with a script.

 

You don't need to add the keyword to the NPC actor - it's better leaving Vanilla actors untouched anyway so not to risk conflicts with other mods.

 

If what you're trying to do is to get an NPC to smoke in a specific cell, the simplest way is just to spawn the "AnimFlavorSmoking" IdleMarker (can't remember its exact name right now, but it's easy to find in the CK, there are not that many IdleMarkers). NPCs will use them.

 

Another way is to cast a scripted spell on the NPC, and call "MyNPC.ChangeAnimFlavor(AnimFlavorSmoking)". Just don't forget to reset the AnimFlavor afterwards with "ChangeAnimFlavor()" - AnimFlavors are hard-coded and messing with them could mess up NPCs' AI. AnimFlavors are what the game uses to have NPCs change their attitudes and idles.

 

Then there's yet a third way which is to use the related animations, using "PlayIdle" in a script, but that's a lot trickier and very time-consuming. Animations in Fallout 4 don't work like they did in Skyrim, they're all made of shorter sequences of anim files (enter, exit, idle, Flavor1, Flavor2, etc. and have very enigmatic names too which doesn't help identifying them) which need to be called in sequences and precisely timed one by one to get them to play in a fluid manner. In the CK, you can find them in Game -> Animations, but whatever you do, make sure you create your own sets of anims in that list, again to avoid potential conflicts or dirty edits. And you can also check what these anims do by opening the IdleMarkerEmpty, adding "New", and test these anims on whichever NPC you want to see how they work.

 

I'm currently polishing a new mod which adds some 20 or more anims to both player and companions - and honestly it's taken me quite a while to figure out how it all works and get it all to work fluently :pinch:.

 

Depending on what you're exactly trying to achieve here, go to the simplest way if there's one ;).

[PaddyGarcia]

I'm not working on a mod, at least not for release. Just curious, mostly.

 

I'd kinda like Piper to be a smoker. That would have been extremely simple in previous games, but it's not worth a lot of work - I almost never hang out with companions anyway.

 

I looked at Trashcan Carla, who smokes, and Piper and a few others who do not, but I couldn't figure out how it's done in vanilla. (Are there maybe smoking idle markers at specific locations assigned to specific NPCs? That would be lame.)

 

So my question is still: how is it done in vanilla?

[Hoamaii]

I honestly have not investigated that much about why some NPCs smoke and some others don't. All human-like NPCs (HumanRace, GhoulRace like Hancock, SynthGen2Race like Nick, etc.) have the same list of potential animations they can use so they all can smoke. Why some do is probably determined by their sandbox packages. Carla smokes in Sanctuary for instance because there's an IdleMarker placed there for her to use and because her package tells her to use it - why Preston doesn't use it though, I don't know, I guess that's in his package too - or maybe IdleMarkers can be owned by NPCs, like furnitures.

 

I guess if you'd want Piper to smoke, you'd probably have to look at Hancock's packages and try to recreate one like that for her.

 

When my mod's out though, you should be able to get both player and companions to smoke (among other stuff) whenever you want ;).

[ComZiz]

Hello I have a similar problem.

You know Swanson from Covenant, I moved him (and all residents of covenant) to Vault 88 using console commands.

All good and working...But he constantly smokes without a cigarette. I know he used to hold a cigarette in his hand while smoking, while he was in Covenant...

I even added cigarettes in his inventory but he still smokes without a cigarette in hand.

 

What may have changed or got broken? How can I fix his animation?

[LarannKiar]

Hello I have a similar problem.

You know Swanson from Covenant, I moved him (and all residents of covenant) to Vault 88 using console commands.

All good and working...But he constantly smokes without a cigarette. I know he used to hold a cigarette in his hand while smoking, while he was in Covenant...

I even added cigarettes in his inventory but he still smokes without a cigarette in hand.

 

What may have changed or got broken? How can I fix his animation?

 

Create a Hard Save, open the console and click on Swanson, then type "CAF". CAF is short for Change Anim Flavor. If you don't type anything after CAF, the NPC will revert back to normal (no anim flavor).

Edited November 12, 2021 by LarannKiar