Custom NPC does not resume package after combat.

[EPDGaffney]

EDIT:

-- SOLUTION --

Unticked the Pretend In Combat and the Continue During Combat boxes.

 

Original post:

So, I have this custom NPC and whenever he has a fight with someone, after he kills them, which is usually how that ends, he just stands there with his weapon out and can't be interacted with. If I use the EVP command, he will resume the correct package. Otherwise, he uses a package that I can't actually find in the G.E.C.K. Now, bare in mind that I'm relatively new to this, and I may even have missed some crucial step in the tutorial to make an NPC, but when I use the GetCurrentPackage command it returns FF001CCA. This doesn't seem to exist in the G.E.C.K., but the other packages he uses all return the Form ID that matches the ones I've made for him.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Edit: What I'm saying is the package that returns FF001CCA is indeed the one where he just doesn't do anything and is uninteractable.

Edited October 18, 2017 by EPDGaffney

[dubiousintent]

The first two characters of a Form-ID are the "mod index" of the plugin's location in your load order. The "FF" mod index is reserved for instances (Ref-IDs) rendered in the "game world" which have been preserved in your "save files". You can't directly access those Ref-IDs. Which is why you are only getting the package to play when you use the EVP command, which is referencing the package Base-ID.

 

This difference in Form-IDs is covered in more depth under the "GECK Form-ID, Base-ID, Ref-ID, and Editor-ID" section of the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article.

 

-Dubious-

[EPDGaffney]

Thanks. I knew that in the back of my mind but for whatever reason it didn't occur to me. However, I don't know how to determine what package does it refer to, and that could possibly be helpful. I would say it's a regular idle package if I could interact with him.

 

After some more testing, it seems that both of my wander packages that I made for this NPC are the ones from which he can't seem to go into combat and then return to them after combat, at least not without a little manual help like EVP or Wait. I left the game on for about ten minutes and he never resumed the wander package he was meant to be using, but if I use the wait button for an hour, he will have the right package after that.

 

I have a sandbox package for this same NPC, and that one doesn't seem to have any trouble going into and out of combat. He has other packages that I haven't tested, which are all sandbox ones. I can try to test them later. Are there any known flags I may have set (or not set) or glitches with wander packages?

 

Edit: I had the Once per day flag set. I've removed it now, so I'll have a look. Although, I'd think that waiting just an hour wouldn't allow it resume in that case, but then, this engine is weird and I'm far from an expert, so I'll test this.

 

Edit 2: It turns out that contrary to what I remembered, the sandbox package that worked didn't specify a day, so it should have picked that one if it couldn't pick the wander package. As a result, after unticking the Once per day box on my wander package, it quite reasonably does not work, as that was never the problem.

 

Edit 3: Fixed it. Unticking either the Pretend In Combat or the Continue During Combat boxes sorted it out.

 

I thought those would add this cool effect to the way he wandered, but now I think they work only for packages where there's a legitimate destination I've set. I had presumed that as they were still available, the game would look at whatever location the NPC was wandering to in the wander package and consider that location the destination for the above tickboxes. But in reality, it seems the game doesn't actually know what to do with at least one of them in a wander package, so unticking them fixed it.

Edited October 18, 2017 by EPDGaffney

[dubiousintent]

Good to hear you resolved your problem.

 

As for how to identify the "base" AI Package from the "Ref-ID": I haven't done so with an AI package myself, but as I recall when chasing down an object from a Ref-ID, using xEdit to view the Ref-ID record in question (under the "World" category) would list the "Base ID" in the right-hand pane. xEdit is best for this as it will automatically include all the "masters" to the plugin in question while GECK won't. As I recall you could enter the Ref-ID in the "Form" Filter field to jump to it. You just can't use it as the object of a command.

 

-Dubious-

[EPDGaffney]

Wow, powerful tool. Thanks for that. See you round.