Broken NPC schedules

[JoeyMadKay]

Hey,

 

first of all I should note, that I'm really not used to reporting technical issues. Should I have forgotten any piece of necessary information, just tell me and I'll try to add it.

 

So, here's my problem:

In my modded installation of Oblivion some of the NPCs (especially shop owners, since I'm playing some kind of thief it was easy to notice it here) seem to have broken schedules. To give some examples:

- the owner of Red Diamond Jewelry never seems to sleep and is standing behind the counter of his shop all night ready to sell his wares. (That by the way also means, that I actually can never trespass in his shop. It just seems to be open 24/7)

- In the best defense Maro Rufus is standing behind the counter all night, except for a short period of time, in that he wonders the city. Varnado and the Argonian wander the city all night.

- The Mystic Emporium is closed and marked for possible trespassing 24/7. I havn't broken in there yet, but I can only assume that it is some issue with the schedule of the shop owner.

 

Other shops (also in the Market District) work just fine.

 

I already tried to disable all mods I thought of that could possibly have an impact on the schedules of shop owners to find out the one that causes these problems but I had no luck with that. Then I thought: If I could find out which mods have an impact on a specific schedules (there's bound to be some kind of 'schedule-file'), I could try to rule out the problematic mod. The problem is: I don't actually know how to do that.

 

Anyway here's my load order:

 

Oblivion.esm

Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items Mod.esm

TamrielTravellers.esm

Better Cities Resources.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp

UOP Vampire Aging & Face Fix.esp

DLCShiveringIsles.esp

Better Cities .esp

Natural_Weather_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp

Symphony of Violence.esp

AmbientTownSounds.esp

Atmospheric Oblivion.esp

Drum_Fix.esp

Rainbows.esp

_Real_Lights.esp

AliveWaters_nofish.esp

Bedrollsanyone.esp

Blackmarket.esp

Q - More and Moldy Ingredients v1.1.esp

SoT_Holiday.esp

Tamriel VWD v0.5.esp

Living Economy.esp

Living Economy - Items.esp

Cutthroat Merchants.esp

kuerteeSittableRocks.esp

Musical Immersion 1.0.esp

DLCHorseArmor.esp

DLCOrrery.esp

DLCVileLair.esp

DLCMehrunesRazor.esp

DLCSpellTomes.esp

CapesandCloaks.esp

Thieves Arsenal.esp

DLCThievesDen.esp

TamrielTravellerAdvscript.esp

TamrielTravellers.esp

TamrielTravellersFactionAll.esp

TamrielTravellersItemsnpc.esp

ShiveringIsleTravellers.esp

ShiveringIsleTravellersFriendlyFactions.esp

Castle Ravenpride.esp

Bjornheim.esp

BrotherhoodRenewed.esp

LetThePeopleDrink.esp

Pond Cottage.esp

Scribe Supplies.esp

VaultsofCyrodiilBC.esp

WeaponsOfTheNine.esp

DLCBattlehornCastle.esp

Ash's DB Kah'Lil Quest.esp

DLCFrostcrag.esp

Knights.esp

The Lost Spires.esp

BrewHouse.esp

HanstHolm village.esp

Villages1.1.esp

xuldarkforest.esp

LostSpires-DarkForest patch.esp

xulStendarrValley.esp

xulTheHeath.esp

XulEntiusGorge.esp

xulFallenleafEverglade.esp

LostSpires-Everglade patch.esp

xulColovianHighlands_EV.esp

xulChorrolHinterland.esp

xulBeachesOfCyrodiilLostCoast.esp

xulBravilBarrowfields.esp

xulLushWoodlands.esp

xulAncientRedwoods.esp

xulArriusCreek.esp

xulRollingHills_EV_withoutWheat.esp

xulPantherRiver.esp

xulRiverEthe.esp

xulBrenaRiverRavine.esp

xulImperialIsle.esp

xulBlackwoodForest.esp

xulCheydinhalFalls.esp

xulAspenWood.esp

bartholm.esp

Natural_Vegetation_by_Max_Tael.esp

DecoratorAssistant with OBSE v1.1.esp

Drop Lit Torches Weight.esp

Dungeon Actors Have Torches 1.6 DT.esp

Exterior Actors Have Torches 1.3 DT.esp

kuerteeInventoryIsABackpack.esp

P1DkeyChain.esp

Alternative Start by Robert Evrae.esp

RealisticFatigue.esp

RealisticHealth.esp

RealisticForceMedium.esp

RealisticMagicForceMedium.esp

MidasSpells.esp

BoneGrind.esp

StealthOverhaul.esp

RenGuardOverhaul.esp

Dark Dungeons.esp

Dark Dungeons - SI.esp

eyja.esp

BulkyNord.esp

BulkyOrcs.esp

Better Cities Full.esp

Better Cities IC Arboretum.esp

Better Cities IC Arcane University.esp

Better Cities IC Arena.esp

Better Cities IC Elven Gardens.esp

Better Cities IC Green Emperor Way.esp

Better Cities IC Prison.esp

Better Cities IC Talos Plaza.esp

Better Cities IC Temple.esp

Better Cities IC Waterfront.esp

Better Cities - No LEYAWIIN Flooding.esp

LevelSlow-3x.esp

HTS-WithMessages.esp

MRMSM_v0.08.esp

Better Cities IC Market.esp

 

 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

PS: I don't use WyreBash and have no idea how to use it. If I had to use it for this problem, I would need some kind of short explanation.

[Striker879]

Have a look at the Bugs section of the Mystic Emporium UESP Wiki page for info on your Mystic Emporium problem.

[dubiousintent]

Schedules are handled by an AI package. That's something the mod maker has to correct, or a patch made. Such issues for vanilla NPCs are handled by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch (UOP). Can't tell which version your using from your list. The latest is v3.4.2. The release thread is 'here'.

 

I see you are using Better Cites. That affects some NPCs in the IC, but I don't know if it touches these. You can ask the developers 'here'.

 

Are you using BOSS to sort your Load Order? I can't pinpoint anything, but it looks slightly off to me. Might be nothing.

 

-Dubious-

[Nephenee13]

I would suggest loading your mods into TES4Edit and seeing what, if anything, is messing with those NPC's AI Packages.

[JoeyMadKay]

So, I used this TES4Edit and typed in 'MaroRufus' in the EditorID-search.

The only files that affect this NPC are the oblivion.esm, the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp (which I'm pretty sure I use the newest version of, since I downloaded it just a couple of days ago) and the MRMSM_v0.08.esp. As far as I could get it from the things I read the only file that affects the AI-package of MaroRufus is the oblivion.esm. The Realistic Merchant Storage obviously only affects the inventory by adding the keys (and it's one of the mods I already tried disabling).

 

I used BOSS to create the load order. The only thing I changed by hand was putting the Better Cities IC Market District at the end of the load order, because Survival Suite was editing the wells in the Market District, which was messing up the height map.

 

Edit: Tried disabling the Unofficial Patch, no effect.

Edited September 9, 2012 by JoeyMadKay

[JoeyMadKay]

Ok, I took a further look at my current saves and even started a new save to test a few things and it seems that the AI shows some strange behavior in general. The was, for example, a bulk of about 10 NPCs standing together in the Market District in the middle of the night. When I waited for an hour, there were gone.

Other NPCs seem to show their natural pattern. I followed Hieronymus Lex around for a day and he showed exactly the schedule, I can find in the wiki.

Is there maybe some general schedule file, that could be affected and I could check using TES4Edit?

 

Thanks in advance

[Nephenee13]

Load everything into TES4Edit, open Oblivion.esm and look through the AIPackages tree, see if any mod has edited the vanilla packages (which is bad practice, but happens sometimes)

[Hickory]

Ok, I took a further look at my current saves and even started a new save to test a few things and it seems that the AI shows some strange behavior in general. The was, for example, a bulk of about 10 NPCs standing together in the Market District in the middle of the night. When I waited for an hour, there were gone.

Other NPCs seem to show their natural pattern. I followed Hieronymus Lex around for a day and he showed exactly the schedule, I can find in the wiki.

Is there maybe some general schedule file, that could be affected and I could check using TES4Edit?

 

Thanks in advance

 

With the mods you have installed, you REALLY need a Bashed Patch to tie everything together, otherwise you ARE going to have the kind of conflicts you are experiencing.

[Nephenee13]

With the mods you have installed, you REALLY need a Bashed Patch to tie everything together, otherwise you ARE going to have the kind of conflicts you are experiencing.

 

Yes, this. You absolutely need a bashed patch.

 

Also, looking at your load order:

 

Natural_Weather_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp

 

_Real_Lights.esp

 

Take out Natural Weather and Natural Water, (you can leave Natural Habitat), and Real Lights and use All Natural + Some other water mod. It is far more stable and reliable.

 

You do, however, absolutely have to use Wrye Bash and a Bashed Patch, which is almost certainly what is causing your problems.

[JoeyMadKay]

So, I created the Bashed Patch and had no luck with that. (At least The Best Defense seems to work quite normal now. Other schedules on the other hand seem to get even worse. I have to of the Verus brothers from the Three Brothers store standing in the Temple of the One with their fists up 24/7.)

 

I Used TES4Edit to check the AIPackages tree and the only mods that affect those seem to be the Unofficial Patch and the Realistic Merchant Storage mod. Though the latter only seems to add the keys to the new chests, while to former adds or removes lines from what I figured to be the daily schedule of the NPCs. I'll try starting new games with both mods deactivated (together and separately) tomorrow. Maybe I can find out, wether one of those two is causing the problem.