SSE How to make a follower cast a spell when the player crouches?

[cumbrianlad]

Hi.

 

The ongoing saga of my un-stealthy stealth spider continues in yet another thrilling episode!

 

I exaggerate a touch, of course. It's a dwemer spider with custom race and skin. Giving it high sneak skill is a bit of a waste of time. Adding an enchantment of muffle, mag 1.00 to its skin and the 'silence' perk to its actor spells tab makes it silent. It remains fully visible to enemies. It casts an invisibility spell after every time it casts a shock spell. While it is invisible it is never detected by any new enemies, unless it bumps into them when we sneak past.

 

About all I can think of to rescue this 'Stealth Spider' is to have it cast an invisibility spell each time the player crouches to enter sneaking. Ideally it would be removed when the player stands back up again.

 

This still isn't ideal because it will lose invisibility each time it follows the player through a load door, but it's way better than how it is now.

 

The problem is I haven't the faintest idea of how to write a script to do it. I can't even find any actor events that look remotely likely to work.

 

Any ideas?

 

I do have one thought that would need minimal work, but it's a bit clunky. I could add a couple of lines of player dialogue into its follower dialogue quest. The start fragments of each response add and remove the spell. Problem is, by the time the player gets to the spider and asks it to be sneaky, we may have been detected. it would look a lot better and function quicker if it automatically went invisible.

[dylbill]

Hey, I don't think you need to write a script to do this. Just duplicate the InvisibillityFFSelf magic effect in the CK. Rename it, and change the casting type to constant effect. Then make a new spell, type ability, also with casting constant effect. Add the magic effect to your spell and put the condition IsSneaking == 1 and have it run on the player. Add the spell to your spider, and it will only be active when the player is sneaking.

[cumbrianlad]

Well worth a go. Thanks. I'll try that out tonight.

[cumbrianlad]

Right, dylbill, we have some progress. The magic effect, and conditioned ability worked as intended... until the pet first used a load door after going invisible for the first time. Once the effect was working, it would also cloak and uncloak when the player goes from crouched to standing, as many times as you liked until it used a load door.

Once it uses any spell or door the effect goes and can't be brought back until the player fast travels. Then the same cycle repeats again. There may be some mileage in using both methods (ability and dialogue commands), if this can't be cured. It looks like the age-old thorn in the side that invisibility is always removed when the actor using it activates anything, takes a hit or uses a weapon. I think that's one of the most ill-conceived of all of Bethesda's concepts for the game. I know that there are mods out there that remove this daft effect, but I can't rely on players having one. I don't feel it would be right to tell them to 'use one or the stealth pet won't work' either.

I took a look at Karliah and it seems as if Bethesda were trying to set up her invisibility in the Mercer Frey scene as a permanent spell. In the end they gave her a version with a 1 day duration added to it. I guess they were having problems, too.

I'll try the dialogue back-up route but make the pet cast a FF invisibility spell with a fairly long duration. At least the pet's dialogue lines show up when the player is sneaking, since it can't be pickpocketed. It may not be as clunky a back-up as I first thought.

 

I'll also take a look at those mods that remove the cancelling of invisibility by interactions, and if one looks suitable, ask permission to use the method and credit them for it.

[cumbrianlad]

Yeay!

 

One mod for invisibility required Net Framework, the other didn't. I downloaded the latter and tried it. It worked for my character but not little stealthy. I checked the esp in SSEedit and all the author had done was to uncheck the 'Recover' flag in InvisibilityFFself., same in AlchInvisibility. they altered the enchant shader from null to AbsorbBlue for that, too... maybe that's purely aesthetic.

 

I did that for my spider magic effect and hey presto! It now stays invisible when we go through load doors!

 

The author is ChiefLarak. I can use the assets w/o permission as long as I credit them, so I'll alter the magic effects for the player, while I'm at it. What a simple fix! Simplest is always best, I think. With that and no need for script, thanks to you, it should be super reliable. You're getting added to my growing credits list!

 

We now have one very stealthy pet follower. We've just waded through an entire fort with no detections.

 

It's lucky the dwemer spiders have steam wisps coming out of them. That's all you can see of it when you're crouched. Now I'm causing alerts before the spider and my character has 90+ stealth and all 5 basic stealth perks... not sure if I was using my ring with 55% sneak or not. I'm wearing hvy armour and don't have any muffle enchant, though... that's my excuse.

 

What a result! Thanks dybill, for pointing me in the right direction. I ought to have thought about conditions... but I didn't... "All's well..." and all that.

 

I just need to tinker with the little thing's speed now to help it keep up. I'll push it as far as I can without breaking the animations. Maybe look at making custom movement data for it, too.

[dylbill]

Awesome, glad you got it working! When you're done with the mod let me know so I can check it out!

[Thandal]

Which game? The appropriate place to post technical queries of this sort is in the Mod Builder/CK forum for that game. (I'd have moved this for you if you'd said.)

[cumbrianlad]

dylbill. I got it working then it stopped working correctly. Tear my hair out time. :ohdear: However, in a fit of total desperation i typed 'detection' into the filter in CK and selected 'all'. Up pops a perk MQ101increaseDetection.... ooh! I looked at it and it was to make an Imperial officer twice as easy to detect. Bingo!

 

I duplicated it and re-named it MBRVdecreaseDetection and edited the 2 perk entries to make the perk owner harder to detect, so as follows...

 

Mod Detection Movement changed from 2.00 to 0.05

Mod Detection Light changed from 2.00 to 0.05.

 

I gave my spider the modified perk and tested again... purr..fect! I'll keep the spider turning itself invisible when the player crouches but that's just a cool visual effect now. unless an enemy bumps into it, they'll never detect it, even if the player hasn't gone into stealth mode... at least that's what i hope. I'm going to test this to destruction.

 

I'm extremely close to uploading now. The mod is a player home/stealth quest mod with lots of Thieves' Guild undertones. I'll certainly let you know when i release. This will be my first mod on Nexus (though I've made dozens for personal use).

[cumbrianlad]

Thandal,

 

I don't see what I've done wrong by posting this in this particular forum.

 

Please respond to my PM on the subject.

[dylbill]

Hey, try changing your invisibility magic effect archetype from invisibility to script. You don't actually have to put a script on it, but that might make it so the invisibility shader effect persists even if something bumps into the spider.