Overpowered merchants in Immersive Patrols

[folgore62]

There is a bandit encampment with rock trap next to a bridge north of Rorikstead. If a patrol of Thalmor get triggered by the bandits, there's a fight and sometimes the Thalmor win and sometimes they're taken out by the bandit archers. By contrast, if a merchant caravan of three NPCs - a merchant who lacks armor and two bodyguards - gets triggered by the bandits, they attack and defeat the bandits who number about 10. The mod has the members of the caravan set up with a "protected" flag and they are set to "aggressive" and "brave." So not only do the merchants attack, but they can't be killed permanently by the bandits. They may be dead briefly but revive the moment the bandits' backs are turned. I tried removing the "protected" flag in xEdit and changed them to "unaggressive" and "cowardly" as well, but the merchants don't change. They behave the same and are unkillable. This mod has a bsa as well as an esp. Would the bsa override changes I make to the esp in xEdit? Would extracting the bsa but leaving the bsa change anything? Or would it break the mod? Any guidance would be appreciated.

[shumkar]

Hi folgore62,

 

I am a beginner modder, but I think that I can answer some of your questions:

 

Would the bsa override changes I make to the esp in xEdit?

 

Directly - it can't override. Because .bsa files can not contain plugins (.esp files) and, thereby, can't replace the plugin functionality.

 

The files containing in the .bsa archive can interfere with your caravan weakening indirectly, for example, the scripts can have some functions affecting the caravan power.

 

Would extracting the bsa but leaving the bsa change anything? Or would it break the mod?

 

For the game engine, .bsa or not .bsa - it's almost the same. The differrence is only that loose files (not .bsa) have priority. But extracting .bsa manually to the Data folder with the mod already installed will for sure break the work of your mod manager. If you are going to extract .bsa, you might want to do it in a dummy folder.

Edited February 2, 2020 by shumkar