SSE NPC merchant follower help

[sammidraco]

Hey all. So I'm trying to create a follower who's also a merchant, and I'd like to be able to buy/sell from them anywhere in the world. Doing the usual chest-in-the-void thing only seems to work when my NPC is in the same cell as the chest. I also don't want to put all of their store items in their inventory either, as I'd like to use their inventory like you would with any typical follower. Is there any other way that doesn't involve creating a script? As I have no clue what I'm doing in the scripting department. Thanks in advance!

[TheIronChicken]

Here's a great tutorial on making merchants:
http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Adding_a_Merchant_NPC_to_Skyrim

To have your merchant sell anywhere:
Faction vendor tab > Location > Near Self

[sammidraco]

Thanks for the response. But that's the weird thing, I've selected Near Self in the Location tab for the new faction I've created. Also, no matter where I am in the world, the dialogue option for buying/selling will pop up like it's supposed to. But if I'm too far away from the chest, the dialogue will still come up but the NPC will have nothing in their vendor's inventory to sell. Very confused.

[TheIronChicken]

If the dialogue pops up anywhere then it doesn't sound like the distance is the problem.

On your Faction > Vendor tab have you selected the right type of items in the 'Vendor Buy/Sell List' drop down and checked/unchecked the 'Not Sell/Buy' box? I've had the same thing happen because I forgot to check the box.

If you want them to be a general merchant select 'VendorItemsMisc' in the drop down box and put a check in the Not Sell/Buy checkbox.

Hopefully that should sort out the nothing to sell with a dialogue thing?

[sammidraco]

Yeah I've already got all that sorted. I've created my own vendor list as well, so the NPC is kind of a unique merchant who sells more than just your typical items. When I'm in the same cell as the chest, all the correct items come up like they're supposed to. It's after I walk a little ways with my merchant/follower and move out of the cell when the items disappear from the merchant inventory, even though the dialogue still pops up. (I've also tried with just a regular vanilla vendor list and I still have the same problem.) It also doesn't change the problem if I leave the Not Buy/Sell box checked or not.

 

I tried looking at other vanilla NPC vendors in the CK that travel and I can only come up with two conclusions. First is that if they're going to buy/sell anywhere in the world, they're items are not linked to a hidden chest, but are rather in their regular inventory. So if I wanted to, I could steal the items they're selling by pickpocketing. The second conclusion is the traveling NPC can buy/sell items only when they're in the same cell as their chest, or at least close by. I can't find any examples of an NPC accessing a chest from anywhere and everywhere in the world. And I don't want to use my custom NPCs normal inventory to put their sale items in because I'd rather use their inventory as a follower. But I'm starting to wonder if this is really an option.

Edited September 24, 2019 by sammidraco

[cumbrianlad]

I've seen this done somewhere else.

 

Create your own faction. I.e. 'MyMerchantFaction'.

 

Create a cell for your merchant.

 

Create a unique chest for the merchant's chest to go in.

 

Put the merchant's chest into the holder cell.

 

On the vendor tab for your faction, check 'Vendor', give it a reasonable radius like 512, select VendoritemsMisc, check 'Not sell/buy', give it hours if you like, Don't edit the location, but do choose the cell and the chest from the boxes on the right. Under the general tab, the 'can be owner' should be checked, of course. Assign this faction to your NPC.*

 

I think that's all you need to do. If not, it's maybe a good start.

 

*Edit: the notsell/buy will mean the merchant will buy/sell anything except miscellaneous objects. You maybe know this already. It seemed the most suitable for what you want. You can choose whatever you like!

[TheIronChicken]

You can put the stock that they sell into a chest.

The Khajiit Caravan Merchant chests for all 3 of the caravans are in the void just outside Markarth (nr Salvius Farm) and the Khajiits sell their wares all over Skyrim and on the road if you bump into them, they don't keep their wares in their inventories they sell it from those chests and it doesn't matter if they are in Whiterun or Riften.

I put the chests for the kitten merchants mod that I made in the same place near Salvius Farm in the void and set the vendors up just like in the above tutorial and they travel everywhere with the caravans and sell anywhere, they have custom wares too.

If I were you I'd go through all the steps in the tutorial and check everything, I found that it's really easy to miss something little.

Also it's good to know that if your npc is a merchant then they will sell anything that is placed in their inventory unless that object is marked as unplayable or you set up an alias. So your merchant will sell anything you give to them.

[sammidraco]

**Edit

I think I've figured it out. I'm almost positive that it has everything to do with having the NPC be both a vendor and a follower simultaneously. If you notice, the khajiits are always one or the other, but never both at the same time. So I decided to do a little experiment. Although beforehand I did what you guys suggested and even created a new test NPC and factions, as well as creating a non-accessable cell to place the vendor's chest in while placing the NPC somewhere in the world. But I'd still have the same problem. Even with the chest in a completely different cell, once I'd get her to follow me and we'd walk a little ways, she'd lose the connection to her vendor's chest. So once I thought of the khajiits I decided to test something. I created a travel package for my NPC that allowed her to walk all over Skyrim. She was still able to become my follower at any time but I just let the package run and followed her around instead. I'd intermediately ask what she has for sale, and as long as she was not my current follower she was able to retain the connection to her chest. Once she becomes my follower, no matter where she is in the world, after just a few steps in any direction she'd lose her connection to the chest. Even when leaving my service she doesn't immediately regain the connection. I have to either fast travel or go through a loading screen somewhere and come back, at which point she'd regain her connection to the chest again. I'm almost positive it's because for some weird reason the two factions interfere with each other.

Edited September 25, 2019 by sammidraco

[TheIronChicken]

I've done a bit of googling and it seems that this is a known problem.
There are posts going back a few years about a bug where if the container is in a different cell, then the merchant/follower won't work properly.

It seems it happens with spouses that are merchant/followers too - they will only sell stuff from their inventory when they are following.

Someone else suggested to have the chest be not visible by using an empty NIF and then moving it constantly to the same cell as the actor, which sounds complicated.

I have noticed that NPCs that have multiple 'jobs' also have '-1 JobMiscFaction' I'm not sure if that would make a difference but it's worth a try.

There are a few merchant/follower mods, you could open them up in the CK and have a look at how they work.

It might not be what you're after but a possible workaround is to have 2 NPCs, a follower and a summonable merchant? There is a Dremora merchant in Dragonborn so you could see how the CK handles it... I have no idea if that has bugs too so it might be just as frustrating.

[sammidraco]

Thank you for looking into it for me. I kind of figured that was the case after looking through the CK, considering the way that the vanilla NPCs are set up in the CK. Like the khajiits, as I've mentioned before. The potential khajiit followers are never simultaneously vendors. There are other examples too but you get the point. I do know that there are mods out there with followers/merchants so I know there's a way around it. I was hoping I could figure it out myself but I don't think I can, so I'll try your suggestion and download one or two mods to take a look at what they've done and how. I'll also try the -1 with the job faction and see if that does anything. I probably won't create a summonable merchant though since it's not exactly what I want. Plus I kind of think it would take away some of the fun in obtaining the ability to summon the dremora merchant in Apocrypha. But I appreciate the suggestion. Thank you for all your help and pointing me in the right direction! I really appreciate it. I'm glad to know now that I'm not the only one with this problem, and that there is a workaround somewhere though it may be difficult for me to do. But at least now I know. Thanks again!