Random npcs marked as essential

[Velos2467]

Hello, so i am very new to modding skyrim, having downloaded just a buncha mods from the steam workshop and started playing.

 

Ive played for a few weeks now, and over the last few days mobs randomly are set to essential for seemingly no reason at all.

 

First time i cant remember, second time it was two bandits inside Volskygge. The FIRST TWO bandits were marked as essential, but the rest were fine.

 

Now i am at Ansilvund, and the necromancer npc outside the doors is also essential.

 

I looked up on skyrim wiki all the baseid's for the necromancer npc, and manually typed them all in and set them to essential 0, but that had no effect. I loaded a save from before i used those commands, shut down the game and went to bed.

 

The day after that, i used LOOT to rearrange my mods, and cleaned the mods that showed up red with SSEedit.

 

The only ones that had issues were Skyrim.esm Update.esm Dawnguard.esm, HearthFires.esm and Dragonborn.esm.

 

I cleaned those of errors, all showing up green atm, after i started the game again, the necromancer NPC was not marked for essential, but still behaved as such, then i quit the game, loaded it up again, and it was marked for essential, still not killable even with commands, except for delete commands.

 

I thought maybe the two follower mods did that (amazingfollowertweaks and get_no_dead_followers_sepc_sp0ckrates) so i disabled those, loaded the game again and the necromancer npc was still marked for essential.

 

I do not really know what to do now, so i signed up here to see if experienced modders know what i did to break it.

 

Does anyone have an idea what i've done and/or how to fix it? Ive googled the problem, but that only really resulted in forum posts about psychopaths wanting to kill children, and thats not quite what i need.

 

EDIT: i remember using an npc just like the npc in the story above (Arch Conjurer) to make a blood thrall with the better vampires mod, this npc however dissapeared after a few ingame days and doesnt appear when the summon all followers command is employed.

 

load order:

 

 

 

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Dawnguard.esm

Hearthfires.esm

Dragonborn.esm

unofficial skyrim special edition patch.esp

climatesoftamriel.esm

bring out your dead.esp

truestormsse.esp

skyland.esp

soulcairn-questmarkers-smautz.esp

circletswithhoods.esp

when vampires attack.esp (not enabled)

namedsoulgems.esp

forevercorpse.esp

goldtoseptim.esp

barenziahquestmarkers.esp

castle volkihar rebuilt.esp

magicalcollegeofwinterhold.esp

lamposts of skyrim.esp

run for your lives.esp (not enabled)

immersive patrols ii.esp

better vampires.esp

better vampire npcs.esp

bos.esp

modgirlyanimation.esp

idnecromod.esp

smarter combat ai.esp

chesko_lorebasedloadingscreens.esp

amazingfollowertweaks.esp

followerwander2.esp

get_no_dead_followers_sepc_sp0ckrates.esp

masterofdestruction.esp

the paarthurnax dilemma.esp

black mage armor se.esp

collegestudents.esp

ishs souls to perks.esp

icepenguinworldmap.esp

immersive citizens - ai overhaul.esp

alternate start - live another life.esp

relationship dialogue overhaul.esp

 

 

Edited May 20, 2018 by Velos2467

[BaronofHe11]

Hit ~ and then click on the NPC to get its ID. If it is a vanilla NPC you can get the ID from the skyrim wiki also.

 

Then install Xedit also known as SSEEdit.

 

At the top of Xedit there is a id field in the upper left, put the ID you got in the first in there and hit enter.

 

All instances of the NPC should be highlight. Look for one that is in a NPC tree and click on it.

 

Every mod that messes with the NPC will be listed. The mod on the far right is the mod changes you will see in game.

 

One of the flags from one or more mods will say essential. And there is your problem.

 

If you can't follow that just search for a guide on Xedit for Skyrim on youtube.

[Velos2467]

I have only hit one entry in the log, which you can see below, and i do not see any flags or mod names. Currently searching for instruction videos on youtube, but not entirely sure what to use as keywords, any ideas?

 

http://i68.tinypic.com/2a0cltw.png

[BaronofHe11]

Well that is a leveled NPC. So a script must from one your mods must have done it. Do you have any mods that make NPCs unkillable? The only ones I know of that do that are follower controller mods especially ones that can turn any npc into a follower.

[Velos2467]

oh this i do know:

 

Amazingfollowertweaks as well as GET: No more dead followers interact with the follower mechanic. No more dead followers makes all followers immortal, amazingfollowertweaks allows you to add npcs to the list that manages these npcs, letting you perform actions on them.

 

I disabled one mod, left the other, and loaded the game, same issue, reversed the order, again same issue.

 

Better vampires turns npcs into followers as well, called "blood thralls", supposedly letting you make them follow you around as a follower npc would, but this never functioned well, so i got amazingfollowertweaks and used that.

 

I've used ssseedit to clean those mods as well, but the program does not find any issues, doesnt turn up in red either.

 

Somewhere on google it said that somehow "run for your lives" mod caused immortality of npcs as well, so i disabled that, and that wasnt it either, as i am now playing without both those mods.

 

Possibly "immersive citizens - ai overhaul.esp" might interact with npcs, i have not tried that one yet

 

EDIT: turned off every mod related to followers or npc ai, the game console says the npc is not essential, yet as before, acts as though it is, does not respond to kill commands, either.

 

Once i turned an npc just like this necromancer into a blood thrall with the better vampires mod, then used the amazingfollowertweaks mod to teleport it to lakeside manor, but after a few days it dissapeared, didnt appear after consequent summon all attempts, and a week or so after that this started.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Velos2467

[BaronofHe11]

The essential status would be in your save file now. So uninstalling mods probably wont fix it but it might prevent it from happening again.

 

I think what you have to do as a temporary band aid is turn off the essential flag on the NPCs using console commands. I think that will stop NPCs on the same leveled list from spawning as essential. If you are lucky all the essential npcs you seen so far are all on the same leveled list . If you already tried that then I got nothing.

[Velos2467]

First i would like to wholeheartedly thank you, baron of hell, for your patience with someone as ignorant as myself.

 

I didnt know anything before this problem occured, didnt know loot existed, didnt know about dirty edits, or anything, really. I have to conclude AFT is either causing it or conflicting with with GET: no more dead followers and making bandits and necromancers essential, after having once used the mod on these radiant npcs.

 

I will follow your advice and look up all their baseid's and go over them with the nonessential command. I think you're right about the essential npcs all beeing on thesame list, as so far it has only been leveled bandits and leveled necromancers (the only mobs ive used AFT on), nothing else.

 

Once again, i am very grateful for your assistance and hope this thread might help someone else with my problem reach a much faster conclusion.

 

I do not quite know what to do with the mobs currently alive however, would using MarkForDelete cause any issues with my save file(s)? Theyre still alive in the dungeon and killactor or just kill does not react to them.

[BaronofHe11]

No idea if markfordelete would work. If you can not kill them after turning off the essential flag maybe waiting for the cell to reset will fix. I don't know how long it takes for cell to reset though.

[Barchetta3223]

If any of the NPCs are not dying properly during a quest and it is causing problems, you can always search the USSEP wiki for said quest and theyll inform you of many known bugs. For instance, the guy from the white phial wouldnt die after I gave him the repaired vial. Took some work but I eventually fixed my game using information from the wiki

 

 

@Baron - I believe it takes 2 days

Edited May 21, 2018 by Barchetta3223

[Velos2467]

It is not a quest, as far as i know, barchetta. Just seemingly random bandits and necromancers.

 

I have taken every bandit and necromancer baseid and marked them as nonessential, deleted every bandit/necro npc i knew was essential for no reason, waited 10 days to reset the inner cell, and the replacement npcs were also yet again marked as essential.

 

I have reset AFT, in case the mod thinks bandit/necromancer somehow belongs to it and needs to be protected, i have waited 10 days again, the cell reset again, and the mobs that were spawned were once again, essential.

 

Still only those specific two bandits and that one necromancer, just like every other time.

 

I'm starting to think i am better off just deleting my save file and starting over. No matter what i do, they seem to be hellbent on staying essential, no matter what commands i use.

 

Is my save file just permanently lost to this bug?