CK: Setting NPC Combat Styles

[endersblade]

I'd like to tweak some of the followers I have access to, to do various jobs: Sword'n'Board, Bow/Ranged, and healer. I am using the Cerwiden mod, so caster/healer is taken care of. However, I want Lydia to be Sword'n'board, tank-like, etc, and one of my other followers to be ranged, as in using bows. After spending almost an hour scouring the 'net for, I don't know, maybe details on what each of the pre-con Combat Styles do and failing, I decided to come here and ask for help.

 

By default, Lydia is set to csHumanBoss1H. I have absolutely no freaking idea what this is supposed to mean. And in-game, she doesn't really function how I'd like (I guess I also need to figure out how to tweak NPCs to prefer specific weapons?).

 

Another NPC I have is set to csHumanMissile. Close, but no cigar. In-game, sure, the character will fire the bow, but often will run into melee range and start punching the target. Or, they'll stay at range, but fire one arrow like every 10 seconds. I want fully at range as best as possible, and I want the target to look like a freaking pin cushion. So changing the frequency for how often they fire, I guess.

 

In other words, is there A) some way to edit/tweak these, or B) are there Combat Styles already made that do what I want, and I just don't know which ones they are? I wouldn't mind learning how to tweak them myself if that's possible, I'm not really looking for a handout. Also, am I even looking in the right place? I just really want to make my 'dream party' lol.

Edited November 18, 2012 by endersblade

[KingsGambit]

You are indeed looking in the right place. I had to work this out for my most recent mod bringing Golden Saints back to Tamriel. If you open a combat style, you will see sliders representing the priority given to melee, ranged, staves, shouts, magic and unarmed. This page on the CK wiki explains what all the values represent, but in short, those sliders can thought of as representing the priority given to each of the different forms of attack.

 

If, for example, you lower the magic slider to the furthest left, the NPC will never cast a spell. If you give an NPC a weapon and a spell that do equal damage (considering all skills, etc), then setting one higher than the other will tell the NPC to prioritise that. If they have an iron dagger and a daedric bow, you will have to probably max melee priority to make them use the dagger over the higher-damage bow.

 

This all works in combination with inventory, skills and AI also. NPCs for example, if given an elven cuirass and a glass cuirass, will always wear the glass one, even if the elven one has enchantments on it that make it better. Similarly with weapons and spells, they will try to use the most powerful one they have. You might need therefore to remove items from an NPC you don't wish them to use. Further, if an NPC is configured to level alongside the player, they will gain more perks as they do so. This may make them better at destruction, or two handed and so their AI will prioritise those.

 

If you wish to edit only particular NPCs, I suggest creating new combat styles and assigning these as desired as this will avoid overriding other NPCs that may use the same style. You are welcome to open my mod to see how I did it, but effectively I created four new styles which I tweaked and tested in game to look for the desired behaviour. I made one for an archer, one for two handed, one for dual wielding (toughest one to get right) and one for sword/shield. Adjust sliders for desired behaviour, inventory to reflect your preference of weapon/shield choice and "Class" (on the Actor properties -> Stats tab) to prioritise how an NPC should distribute perks/skill points as they level up. In combination, this gives them an appropriate combat behaviour, they will level up with the correct considerations to their strengths and treat new equipment intelligently.

 

There are however some vanilla styles which, weren't quite right for me, you may find adequate for your mod. You can consider csForswornBerserker or csThalmorMeleeDual (for dual wielding), csAlftandHumanTank (one handed + shield), csHumanBoss2H (two handed), csHumanMissile (archer) and csHumanMagic (for a mage).

 

Note: If you do assign new combat styles instead of tweaking existing ones, any mods that alter the same NPCs will conflict. If you already have a Lydia mod for example (excepting appearance mods), this approach won't work. As such better to edit existing styles and understand that all NPCs who use it will have the different behaviour (and any other mods that alter those same combat styles will conflict, though this is much less likely!).

[Stemin]

To distill down what KingGambit is saying, it sounds like you're changing the right fields, but the fields available won't do what you want and you need to look into either modifying the existing combat profiles or create a new one.

[endersblade]

Awesome info :-) So, how do I go about creating a new one? I didn't spend a whole lot of time in the CK looking for that lol. And yeah, the wiki page is one of the ones I ran across while looking up info.

[Stemin]

Awesome info :-) So, how do I go about creating a new one? I didn't spend a whole lot of time in the CK looking for that lol. And yeah, the wiki page is one of the ones I ran across while looking up info.

 

I'm not familiar with the combat profiles, but typically whenever you duplicate something in the CK, the easiest way I've found is to locate it in the object window and then double click on it (as if you were going to rename something in windows.) Then rename it and instead of renaming the item it actually duplicates it. KingsGambit's post definitely has some good stuff as far as specifics on actually editing the combat fields and I'm sure you can find more help on this here.

[KingsGambit]

It's under Miscellaneous -> Combat Styles. Duplicate an existing one as suggested above, renaming it to something unique and idenfitifable. You can even start by duplicating one of the vanilla styles I mentioned above to give you a rough starting point. Open up the actor's properties page and change their style to the one you just created. Now any changes you make and save to your combat style should be reflected in game. Make a save game with your NPC in question about to do battle, preferrably with the weapons/items you wish them to make use of, and it will be easier and faster to test.

 

Obviously backup or make a hard save prior to all this messing about which you can roll back to once you're satisfied with your mod. To give you an idea of a combination that I found works quite well, see attached image.

 

http://s7.postimage.org/q5hc0r9ex/Untitled_7.jpg

[Darklocq]

 

Further, if an NPC is configured to level alongside the player, they will gain more perks as they do so.

 

 

Nope. NPCs do not gain perks or spells, just skill amounts (and base stats Health, Magicka, Stamina) While some followers are specifically scripted to learn perks (and spells, and sometimes even shouts), this is not true of the average ones, nor any of the vanilla ones. If you're, say, level 40 now and your followers have been leveling with you but still hit like a level-12, doing very little damage despite giving them great gear, or casting silly weak spells that annoy the enemy but don't really help, it's time to use the Console or a bat file to add some level-appropriate perks and spells to them. As UESP notes, this issue is one of the main reasons leveled lists exists. A basic bandit would always be a basic bandit even if jacked up to level 70; he won't have the perks to make him comparable to you at that level, so the leveled lists provided alternative bandits at higher levels that do have serious perks.

 

I do this follower perk stuff every 5 level gains: use Console or a mod to check their stats, then see what perks they qualify for in areas that make sense for the character. For new followers, I just use a bat file to auto-assign them some basic ones that match their overall class, e.g. a new mage I pick up gets the lower-tier perks for various magic schools that pertain, and basic competency with either one-handed (for dagger or mace) or two-handed (for a quarterstaff or something). I'll give them better ones as appropriate, after they level up a bit (or a lot, if I pick them up late-game and they zoom up in levels after I next gain a level). For a fighter type, I give them middling competence in all combat skills in most cases, and perks to match, so I can have them use what I want, though I make exceptions for special followers (e.g. one that comes with a fancy warhammer and ebony armor will just get Two-handed and Heavy Armor, since that was the character creator's intent). Or sometimes I ignore the intent; e.g., I made Inigo into a Two-handed specialist just to have a blue cat-man running around with a huge battleaxe for my amusement. I make all my housecarls Two-handed, as well, just so I have something to do with all these huge badass swords I find but don't use – and they just look cool with giant swords. If I find a mage follower with Heavy Amor I usually switch it to light, or even make them a clothing-only "pure mage" and jack up their magic skills and perks to compensate; I make an exception for a Battlemage type now and again, but am pretty traditionalist about mages not also being tanks.

 

ALL my followers get 100 Sneak and all the Sneak perks that pertain to being quiet (not to enhanced damage, etc.), so they don't interfere with my own ability to sneak if they're along with me. Otherwise the player's Sneak verges on useless if you have a follower in tow. So, just neutralize their influence by making them quiet. (If you're hardcore about roleplay, maybe don't do it with Muffled Movement, so a tank you have with you still clanks around.) Give them Lightfoot, too, or they'll set off every other trap you avoid as if they're blind. You don't have an in-game way to tell them "Hey, step around this thing, dumbass".

 

 

 

This all works in combination with inventory, skills and AI also. [...] This may make them better at destruction, or two handed and so their AI will prioritise those.

 

That part's definitely correct. Just setting a combat style (ZNAM) isn't going to control their combat behavior in detail or forever, and it may drift more and more as the game progresses and their stats change. I have one who nearly never uses a bow any more, despite depending on it heavily early on (seems to prefer shocking and stabbing now). I've got one thuggish-looking Nord who now uses Restoration pretty frequently, because their underlying class (Vigilant1hMeleeClass) has it and also gives a little leveling weight to Magicka. One of my mages has gotten very handy with a sword and light armor, too; more of a Spellsword now. And so on. I've got another mage who came so heavily weighted toward magic, and utterly incompetent at melee and missile, that she'll never change from that pattern. It's all magic projectiles and summons and wards for her. Likewise, my housecarls do nothing but fight the old-school way, and don't have any magic skills that I recall, other than I gave them Healing to try to prevent the "follower stuck in bleedout forever" bug.

Edited September 24, 2018 by Darklocq