[WIP] Cerwiden -SMART Healer- AI Configurable Companion

[Moraevik]

Well, I finally broke down and bought Breezehome. You'd be surprised how hard it is to work out of Anise's Shack. It's nice to have everything more or less in one place. I also rescued Meeko. So now I have two women and a dog to keep me company. It's a nice, cozy little home, now, although Lydia is still the usual lump on a log and just hangs around upstairs doing nothing. At least I caught Ceri using the cooking pot. It's little things like that that help immersion in this game.

 

I haven't had Lydia out to play, yet, and left Ceri home when I got Meeko and took him to Silverdrift Lair to help me get a sample of Bosmer blood for the Discerning the Transmundane quest (I knew there was a dead Wood Elf there), so I don't know how well he and Ceri would work together. I'll probably test that out later on this evening. I've made a few changes to Meeko to make him a better follower (greater follow distance, less aggressiveness, and he's now essential -- more than that is entirely beyond my modding ability, I'm afraid). I did notice that when I conjured a familiar and he got injured that Ceri would heal him, not that it made much difference going up against Draugr Scourges and Overlords, but it was the thought that counted.

 

So far I'm extremely satisfied with Ceri. Most of the problems I noted earlier haven't reappeared since I reverted to an earlier save game. She still likes to get in way too close when she's using novice-level destruction spells -- virtually melee range, which makes her vulnerable to melee attacks when spells like Flames should really be used much farther away than that. I'm sure this is a default AI behavior, and I don't know if it could be altered, but it would sure keep her in fights longer.

 

I've been playing around with using her as a full combat companion, but still set to not attack except for protection. She has permission, now, to use weapons, and I gave her some good ones -- upgraded Falmer bow, steel arrows, and an upgraded Orcish mace. I'll have to say it like I see it. She's not a very good archer, but she has been the difference between victory and defeat on a couple of occasions. Her main utility is still that of a healer. I generally use followers to absorb enemy aggro to give me time to more effectively use my stealth and archery skills to make the kills, but she's doing a pretty good job of taking out enemies on her own. In fact, I'm seeing in her another solution to the fast-leveling that hurts this game so much. I'm getting the same fun (and loot), but she's getting about a third of the kills, which means my level is increasing more slowly. For me, that's a good thing.

 

Regarding her archery ... after the big fight to wipe out the Forsworn camp just outside Karthspire I found her using Forsworn arrows instead of her better steel arrows. She also seemed to have acquired a Firebolt staff that I didn't notice was there, before. Does she pick up stuff on her own and use it? If so, she needs to be able to discern between shoddy 7-point Forsworn arrows and her better 10-point steel or Ancient Nord arrows. Also, if she uses staves (and she did use that Firebolt staff), if I give her one for each element does her SMARTcast system let her pick the best one for a particular opponet, like she can with her spells? I don't use staves, myself, and always just wind up selling them, but if she'll use them intelligently I'll start giving some to her and keep them recharged for her.

 

At home she exhibited some very odd and funny behavior. I'm using Big Dialogue Overhaul and Better Followers. I should probably do some research to find out how these two interact with each other, but I installed both of them because one of them recommends the other, so I was pretty sure they'd not clash. I don't know what caused it, and it could be vanilla AI, again, but when I told Ceri to just relax in Breezehome she shifted into one of her outfits, but continued wearing her leather helmet. So, I rummaged around in my "to sell" chest and dug out a Fine Hat and gave it to her. She didn't put it on, so I just shrugged and went downstairs (I'm using a mod that adds a basement to Breezehome), to work on some crafting projects. When I came back upstairs she was wearing her leather armor, minus the helmet. On her head was the Fine Hat.

 

Bottom line: Can you make her evaluate the armor rating of her apparel when she's just hanging out and relaxing and have her not equip armor when she's wearing clothing? Conversely, I don't want her wearing her hat when we go into combat. I guess I'll find out later today whether or not this is going to happen.

 

Also, I remember a companion mod in Oblivion that gave an option to tell a companion that a certain place is "home", and even to indicate a bed that was to be his/hers. This would be much preferable than having Ceri hike all the way back to Riverwood whenever the player dismisses her. Upon dismissal she should head "home", wherever that has been indicated by the player.

[Mujuro]

So far I'm extremely satisfied with Ceri. Most of the problems I noted earlier haven't reappeared since I reverted to an earlier save game. She still likes to get in way too close when she's using novice-level destruction spells -- virtually melee range, which makes her vulnerable to melee attacks when spells like Flames should really be used much farther away than that. I'm sure this is a default AI behavior, and I don't know if it could be altered, but it would sure keep her in fights longer.

Glad to hear it. Regarding the low level destruction spells, I can't remember offhand what the 'range' is on those, but that could be a factor.

 

I've been playing around with using her as a full combat companion, but still set to not attack except for protection. She has permission, now, to use weapons, and I gave her some good ones -- upgraded Falmer bow, steel arrows, and an upgraded Orcish mace. I'll have to say it like I see it. She's not a very good archer, but she has been the difference between victory and defeat on a couple of occasions. Her main utility is still that of a healer. I generally use followers to absorb enemy aggro to give me time to more effectively use my stealth and archery skills to make the kills, but she's doing a pretty good job of taking out enemies on her own. In fact, I'm seeing in her another solution to the fast-leveling that hurts this game so much. I'm getting the same fun (and loot), but she's getting about a third of the kills, which means my level is increasing more slowly. For me, that's a good thing.

Her combat skills generally are set relatively low compared with her magic; this was something I'd intended, as I wanted her to be more of mage support than a weapon-user.

 

Regarding her archery ... after the big fight to wipe out the Forsworn camp just outside Karthspire I found her using Forsworn arrows instead of her better steel arrows. She also seemed to have acquired a Firebolt staff that I didn't notice was there, before. Does she pick up stuff on her own and use it? If so, she needs to be able to discern between shoddy 7-point Forsworn arrows and her better 10-point steel or Ancient Nord arrows. Also, if she uses staves (and she did use that Firebolt staff), if I give her one for each element does her SMARTcast system let her pick the best one for a particular opponet, like she can with her spells? I don't use staves, myself, and always just wind up selling them, but if she'll use them intelligently I'll start giving some to her and keep them recharged for her.

First off, regarding arrow usage, she's using the vanilla Skyrim combat AI/algorithms. Second, I'm 99.9% sure she got the other arrows because she was "hit" with them. This is a known Skyrim "feature" ... the ability to pull (unbroken) arrows from your body and fire them back at opponents. :P

 

At home she exhibited some very odd and funny behavior. I'm using Big Dialogue Overhaul and Better Followers. I should probably do some research to find out how these two interact with each other, but I installed both of them because one of them recommends the other, so I was pretty sure they'd not clash. I don't know what caused it, and it could be vanilla AI, again, but when I told Ceri to just relax in Breezehome she shifted into one of her outfits, but continued wearing her leather helmet. So, I rummaged around in my "to sell" chest and dug out a Fine Hat and gave it to her. She didn't put it on, so I just shrugged and went downstairs (I'm using a mod that adds a basement to Breezehome), to work on some crafting projects. When I came back upstairs she was wearing her leather armor, minus the helmet. On her head was the Fine Hat.

I've got a pretty good idea what's causing the clothes + armor hat issue; it's basically the vanilla "what do I equip" AI telling her that she should be wearing the hat. I'd put in various checks against that happening, but occasionally, she doesn't "evaluate" per MY rules and falls back to vanilla AI. See also my comment below.

 

Bottom line: Can you make her evaluate the armor rating of her apparel when she's just hanging out and relaxing and have her not equip armor when she's wearing clothing? Conversely, I don't want her wearing her hat when we go into combat. I guess I'll find out later today whether or not this is going to happen.

I'll see what I can do in terms of some additional checks against outfit switches. In terms of having her "evaluate" armor (properly), that's been the challenge of just about every companion framework modder. NPCs/followers just don't consistently do this right and, until such time as Bethesda releases the underlying code for how NPCs "evaluate", we're all just hacking the best we can.

 

Also, I remember a companion mod in Oblivion that gave an option to tell a companion that a certain place is "home", and even to indicate a bed that was to be his/hers. This would be much preferable than having Ceri hike all the way back to Riverwood whenever the player dismisses her. Upon dismissal she should head "home", wherever that has been indicated by the player.

 

There are at least 2 follower mods that do this (you can probably search Nexus or Google for more if neither of these suit your needs), Spouses Can Live Everywhere and My Home Is Your Home; many Ceri users are also using one or the other of these.

[masal57]

Hi Mujuro,

Thanks for your expended time for this mod.

It's really the unique original companion ever uploaded for skyrim.

Now that Ceri works with skse, It should have some other immersive function that have had some other companionin in Fallout new vegas, one was Willow, about i sew you have spoke about yet, another was Misty companion, if you want get an eyes on it.

 

They was able to go in a place gived for fight or guard, or wait, unlock some safe or interact with active objects.

Some of heese are features included in other companion frameworks, but often not work.

Obviously mainly of us would see Ceri having romance :wub: or background story, such as Viconia in Oblivion.

Only for suggestion!

Thanks again,

as usual sorry for my english... :P

[RasAlgethi24]

I personally, would like another smart follower of another archtype. I suppose the two remaining would be tank/twohand warrior, and stealth/dual wield assassin/archer type. Or perhaps a unique archtype. Maybe a male character this time would be cool. Although I wouldn't mind another hot female follower.

[MstrShakta]

Thank you! Regarding the ability to express gratitude to Ceri, that's a nice suggestion; never even thought about that one

 

You're welcome. Most modders have not thought of it before. I dont know how many times I have wanted to just say thank you... I say it all the time in real life, but it just doesn't "feel" the same as saying it and having them respond. That would be AWESOME!!

 

 

About the customization patch, let me know what you're trying to do and I may be able to provide some additional info. Most of the time if it "doesn't work right" is because of multiple dependent mods that need to be set as masters (particularly if the dependent mods are ESPs).

 

Apachii released a "additional" hair pack called "ApachiiSkyHairFemale_v_1_0" and I would like to change Ceri's hair to the number 2 option in that pack, and I would also like to change her eye color to Dark Blue, and change her skin color to something a little more tan. :biggrin:

However, when I attempt to do that it just doesn't work. When I change master files in Wrye Bash, it lets me change it and add the new ones but something gets lost in the translation after that. And yeah it just "doesn't work right".

 

I know you probably have a crap-load of things you are doing right now, but if you could help me out, that would be great!!

 

 

 

BTW, I understand that Emma's been working diligently on "Skyrim Vilja", so Ceri may have some company. :)

 

That would be AWESOME to have the two of them together!!

Edited August 21, 2012 by MstrShakta

[Caladyiel]

First; great mod so far : )

 

As for the topic: I don't think more/new followers are needed. There are allready a ton of good looking companion mods. Thus i would like more additions to make Ceri more unique.

 

Especially a quest driven backroundstory combined with unique voice would be absolutely awesome. And maybe a Baldurs Gate 2 like romance option? :)

Edited August 21, 2012 by Caladyiel

[Mujuro]

Apachii released a "additional" hair pack called "ApachiiSkyHairFemale_v_1_0" and I would like to change Ceri's hair to the number 2 option in that pack, and I would also like to change her eye color to Dark Blue, and change her skin color to something a little more tan. :biggrin:

However, when I attempt to do that it just doesn't work. When I change master files in Wrye Bash, it lets me change it and add the new ones but something gets lost in the translation after that. And yeah it just "doesn't work right".

 

I know you probably have a crap-load of things you are doing right now, but if you could help me out, that would be great!!

 

The eye and skin color changes, unless you are using specific mods for those, I'm assuming that you are doing in the CK directly? Are the changes showing up properly in the preview window?

 

I've not tried this pack myself, is it a new ESP that goes along with the usual Apachii ESM? Here's a way to verify you added dependent master(s) to CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp properly:

1. Open the CK and bring up Data Files to select mods
   
2. In the Data Files panel, scroll down to CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp and select it to be your Active Plugin
   
3. In doing the previous step, DO NOT select any other ESM or ESP, only select CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp
   
4. If you did the headers correctly, you should see ALL of the masters of CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp show up on the right side panel
   
5. At a minimum, the masters that show up should be Skyrim.esm, ApachiiHair.esm and CerwidenCompanion.esp, and in that order
   
6. If you have other dependent mods, they SHOULD show up between Skyrim.esm and CerwidenCompanion.esp
   
7. Note the ORDER that they appear; this order MUST match the RELATIVE ORDER when you PLAY Skyrim
   

 

An example may help. Let's say you use, in addition to Apachii, 2 other mods for Ceri's appearance. Let's say one is a racial mod (you want to change Ceri's race to something custom) and the other is a mod that adds more tattoos, freckles, etc. Let's then say your SKYRIM load order (when you play the game) looks something like this:

Skyrim.esm
(other mods)
ApachiiHair.esm
RaceMod.esm
(other mods)
Freckles.esp
(other mods)
CerwidenCompanion.esp
CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp

If you did the header dependencies correctly, when you set CerwidenAppearancePatch to be the "Active" plugin in the CK, your right side panel should show the following, and in this order:

Skyrim.esm
ApachiiHair.esm
RaceMod.esm
Freckles.esp
CerwidenCompanion.esp

If you are getting the correct "relative" load order in Skyrim AND the CK, then your changes SHOULD be taking hold in the appearance patch subject to some caveats below. For example, Apachii hair options should show up in the "Hair" dropdown in the Actor Chargen Parts panel. As a rule, any hair and eye changes should show up just fine in game, assuming you also did the facegen facetints export properly (the CTRL+F4 to avoid the gray face). Skin is a bit trickier, particularly if you use a mod that gives options for skin color (e.g., extended slider colors) ... you may need to make custom components if this is the case. Also for skin, make sure that the color you're choosing is CONSISTENT (available) for the race. This could be one reason why your skin color isn't showing up.

 

Note that there are a couple of known issues with FACES generally in the CK, but it doesn't appear that those are your issue here. By "known issue" I'm talking about changing lip(stick) color and those showing in the CK but not in-game; this occurs for certain other face elements/make-up stuff but I tend to mostly notice around lip color. There are probably some workarounds that I don't know about, but I just edit the exported facetint DDS to fix.

[MstrShakta]

OK I got it to work (thank you for the help btw)... kinda... I mean the hair, eyes and "body" skin is perfect, but now I have a different problem. She has a purple forehead and a gap in her neck seam. I uploaded a picture of her in my game on your mod page, titled "Help"

 

Please tell me there is a way to fix this.

 

I really do appreciate your help in making Ceri... perfect in my eyes. :)

[Mujuro]

OK I got it to work (thank you for the help btw)... kinda... I mean the hair, eyes and "body" skin is perfect, but now I have a different problem. She has a purple forehead and a gap in her neck seam. I uploaded a picture of her in my game on your mod page, titled "Help"

 

Please tell me there is a way to fix this.

 

I really do appreciate your help in making Ceri... perfect in my eyes. :)

Ah, the forehead thing is another common CK issue if you use certain texture replacers I believe. To fix this, open the CK with Ceri's appearance patch mod as the active plugin, go to the Char Gen Parts tab, under Face Tint Layers select "FemaleUpperEyeSocket" and set the Preset to "color average". Note you'll need to do the CTRL+F4 to regen the facetints again.

 

The next seam boils down to your body type replacer, I believe you can try different variants of "setweight" between 0 and 100 and then save + reload to fix the neck seams. If you're NOT using facepaint/tattoos, you may not need to save + reload.

[MstrShakta]

Thanks Mujuro, that fixed the forehead problem. The neck gap is still there and I cannot for life of me figure out how to fix it, I can always cover it with armor I guess. But that is not the worst of it... I AM PRETTY SURE I BROKE CERI !!!! :( :(

 

I don't have a clue what I did, but now Ceri isn't Ceri anymore... she doesn't heal me anymore, she doesn't do the whole SMARTCast thing anymore, etc. She is at level 29 and when I look at her skills, all of her magic skills are at 15, and all of her combat skills range from the 50's to the upper 80's. Somehow she turned into a warrior that cast spells because she doesn't have any weapons.

 

OK maybe if I explain how I "fixed" things, then you might (crosses fingers) be able to tell me were I "broke" her. OR You could ignore this post, say to yourself "This guy has no clue what he is doing. He is waaaay beyond help." Then write me off as a "crazed idiot."

 

Sorry, just feeling a little frustrated and down, anyway...

 

1. To "fix" the hair not showing up in game... When I added the ApachiiHairFemales.esm (it's an ESM btw not an ESP) in Wrye Bash to the "masters" list it worked just like you said it would. I even double checked it by closing and re-opening Wrye Bash to see if the save took hold, and it did. Then I opened up the CK, loaded all the necessary ESM's and ESP's just like the directions say to do it, making sure the AppearencePatch was my "active" file. Brought up the CHAR Gen Parts tab, imported the NPC file (after making sure the load order was correct), everything looked good, as far as I could tell (I didn't see the forehead and neck gap on the really small preview screen, that thing is very difficult to manipulate by the way!!). So I saved the file and exited the CK. I re-opened the CK and loaded JUST the AppearencePatch, again making sure it was set to "active". Once it loaded up I clicked on the name to high light it and did the whole Ctrl + F4 to export the face data. Saved again and closed the CK. Loaded the game and *POOF* her original hair and her head was that ugly gray color. This is what happened for days of me attempting to make this work, VERY frustrating. The thing that I did not notice, every time I saved the file in the CK, the CK would take the CerwidenCompanion.esp off the parent masters list. Hence the reason why it kept defaulting to the original head. How did I fix this? You may ask. Well I added a few more steps to the process by re-adding it to the masters list in Wrye Bash EVERY TIME I saved the file in the CK. This worked!! YAY!! This is where I ran into the purple forehead and neck gap problem...

 

2. To "fix" the purple forehead and neck gap problem... I did just like you said to fix the forehead, and that went pretty smoothly, except when I saved it in the CK, I forgot to re-add the CerwidenCompanion.esp to the masters list in Wrye Bash, and when I loaded the game she had her default head again. In the process of fixing that, I noticed the "ESMify Self" choice on the context menu and thought "Hey if I do that to the CerwidenCompanion.esp file, will the CK stop erasing it when I save?" After thinking to myself "Why not, what's the worst that can happen?" I did just that and "ESMified" the file. I probably broke it right there... But it did work, the CK stopped booting it off the masters list every time I saved it. It was then that I decided to go play for awhile because I had a headache from all the hassle, and that's when I noticed that what ever I did I REALLY broke her this time.

 

Now a couple more things you may need to know before you make your assessment.

 

1. During this time, while waiting for a response from you and just generally messing around, I got tired of Ceri's horse going back to where it came from every time she got off it. We would be half way to Solitude and I would have to stop to kill something or go check a new dungeon I just discovered, and as soon as she got off the horse it would take off and go back to where it came from. So, I decided to go get a horse mod that supported followers. I had used "Better Horses" before so I went and downloaded that one from Nexus. Tried it out for a little while and decided it was not "quite" what I was looking for. I went back to see if there was anything special I had to do to uninstall it and followed his instructions. I then went back to the Nexus and found "Convenient Horses" and installed it.

 

2. I think one or both or the installing and uninstalling of these two mods may have broke my game entirely. Now every time I go to load Skyrim, and choose the "Continue" option the game stops responding, and I have to do a Ctrl + Alt + Delete in order to get out of it and back to my desktop. I re-start the game and this time choose to "Load" a previous save, that usually works although I may have to go back a few saves before I can get the game to load at all. You may be wondering why I am telling you all of this in such great detail. Well I honestly don't know if any of this has anything to do with why the Cerwiden mod does not work any more. It probably doesn't but hey, you never know.

 

Couple of questions before I go put a .357 Bullet through my computer...

 

1. Is there a way to assign the CerwidenCompanion.esp to the master list of the CerwidenAppearencePatch.esp in the CK, or do it Wrye Bash in such a way that CK doesn't delete it from the list every time I save the file?

(I mean for all I know there is probably some easy as hell tutorial for this some place I have yet to troll across.)

 

2. Do you think that my game is even savable, or should I just delete everything and start over?

 

I went through this same hassle when I played Morrowind, and Oblivion. When I got Skyrim I said "OK I am not going to go through that again" and started doing as much research as I could on every mod I installed or wanted to install. Then my old computer's motherboard fried, just after upgrading the video card and power supply, so now I have this brand new "monster" machine, and cant seem to keep Skyrim running on it. In my old machine I had over 150 mods for Skyrim all running at the same time and only rarely would it CTD or give me any kind of hassle. Loading times were really long, but I didn't mind so much. All things said I would completely understand if you said "I dont have time to help this guy out anymore" and left it up to me to figure things out. Anyway... Thanks again for all the help you have given me so far!!

 

Peace

Edited August 22, 2012 by MstrShakta