SSE Hiding load doors in EXT. cells

[TyburnKetch]

Hiding load doors in Interior cells is not a problem. I always tick the "hidden from local map" flag no matter what - (does not seem to make any difference whatsoever) and then i will place a blackplane01 over the top. Hides the door from the local map.

 

But this does not work in exteriors. For some reason on the local map I can see the black plane square but i also see the door marker 'inside' the black plane, so to speak.

 

The blacklplane hides everything below it, bar the thing I want hidden! The load door.

 

Any ideas why this is happening?

 

Thanks.

[cumbrianlad]

Hi.

 

I noticed you hadn't got any replies for a while, so I thought I'd take a look at this.

 

This idea of hiding objects from the map seems to be completely broken.

 

I did a quick test where I duplicated a Nord load door and an ordinary Nord door. I marked these door forms as 'Hidden'.

 

I then made a little interior cell with 4 load doors into it and placed 4 ordinary doors inside. 2 of the load doors were mine. 1 of them I also flagged locally as 'Hidden From Local Map'. Two were vanilla. I flagged one of those as 'Hidden From Local Map'. I set up the ordinary doors the same way. I set up the 4 exterior load doors the same way. To be certain nothing daft was going on I linked the matching pairs of load doors together.

 

In game, every single door is visible on the local map, both in the interior and exterior. Not only that but the big white door symbols were visible for all 8 load doors!

 

As you say, this isn't great for a 'secret' door!

 

if I can think of anything else to try I'll do it since I now have a little test esp to tinker around with, but it's not looking good!

[cumbrianlad]

Okay, I have a workaround that may be of use to you, except it will only work for normal doors and you won't have an animation.

 

First make a static version of the door and un-check 'On Local Map'. It seems that this only fails on doors! It works on the statics.

Next make two new activators with no model (so that they are just coloured primitive cubes). For good measure uncheck 'On Local Map' on these, too. Give them an ID something like MyEspDoorActInternal and MyEspDoorActExternal.

In the 'Active Text Override' box of both activators, type Open. For the names give the internal one The name Skyrim. For the external one, give it the name of your internal cell.

 

So far, we have a pair of activators that do nothing. No worries.

 

We'll add a simple script

 

Scriptname MBtestMovePlayer extends ObjectReference
{moves the player to a marker on activate}

 

Actor Property PlayerRef Auto
ObjectReference Property MoveLocation Auto

 

Event OnActivate(ObjectReference actronaut)

PlayerRef.MoveTo(MoveLocation, abMatchRotation = true)

EndEvent

 

 

Add your static doors to the interior and exterior.

 

Add a pair of XmarkerHeadings to the interior and exterior. Place them roughly where your teleport marker would have been in front of your static doors. Lift them a touch to make sure they're not buried in the floor. Rotate them to point away from the door. Give the local XmarkerHeadings unique IDs to make them easier to find later.

 

Select each door and add your activators. Re-size them a bit so that they stick out a bit from the door. Edit the properties locally. Filling all properties will only fill the 'PlayerRef' property. You'll need to select the 'MoveLocation' property manually. For the exterior activator property select the XmarkerHeading in the interior cell (this is where it's easier to find them if you gave them unique IDs). For the interior activator property select the XmarkerHeading in the exterior cell. In the 'Primitive' tab of both activators, check the 'Player Activation' box, or else they won't work as intended.

 

Job done.

 

You now have something that looks like a door but doesn't show up on any local map. The 'door' is not really a door, so you lose the white door symbols from the local map. When you approach the interior door, the player sees 'Open Skyrim'. activating it moves the player to the exterior and places them where the Xmarker heading is and facing in the direction that it's pointing. Likewise, approaching the exterior 'door', the player sees 'Open My cell name' and gets moved inside when they use it.

 

The only concern I would have is that it may cause issues with NPCs inside, a bit like using COC does. You'll have to test it and see.

 

I suppose you could put ordinary load doors in rather than the statics and simply not link up the teleports to stop the white symbol showing up on the local maps, Have the activator as the activate parent of these doors. Then you'd get the animation and sounds, but your activator is what moves the player. You may want to add a line Utility.Wait(1.5) into the script before you move the player. This is just to give the door animation and sounds time to play. 1.5 seconds is just a guess. You'd then see the outline of the door on the local map, though.

 

To make it better with the static door set-up, you could find and add a sound FX to play in the script and you may even be able to add the load screen, but I haven't found how to do this last bit, if it's even possible. As it stands, the screen will just go black while the next cell loads and no door opening sound is heard.

[TyburnKetch]

I just want to say thank you for taking all this time and effort to post the above. Your input both here and elsewhere is hugely appreciated.

 

My set up: All 4 doors are supposed to be hidden. I have two doors in an interior, either side of an interior balcony, out of sight from the player. I have hidden these on the local map using a blackpane01 over them and removed their sound effects. All good. I have two doors in the exterior of the balcony that link to these two interior doors. (I have a balcony in an interior cell to mimic and match the exterior balcony). The markers are either side of the balcony and the physical doors are hidden in a mountain, in the exterior.

 

Unfortunately I already have multiple activators as doors in my mod. I know how to do this. The problem I have with this particular door set up is that it is purely for an npc. The player will never be on the interior balcony as it is only visable through a giant window. When the player is in the interior house, and the npcâs package has him on the balcony I am moving the npc to the interior cell balcony through script. He then needs access to be able to leave the interior balcony. I guess I could try and set up activators for him but getting him to use them at the end of a package or during a change in package starts to get a bit more involved. It makes life a lot less complicated to just have the doors there so he can leave the interior cell balcony at will, or when required.

 

Using a blackplane over a door works in my interior but for some reason it does not in an exterior. And as we know ticking the flag hidden from local map does not work on doors.

 

So it looks like I am stuck with this. Perhaps an activator would work ok. I have multiple door statics that are actually activators already, without the need for an activation box. But have yet to let my npc try and use them. I am not totally sure how to get my npc to use an activator, randomly, without building it into his sandbox behaviour. But then again I do not want him to use it until he has to. If the npc is actually inside my interior house there will be occasions that he uses the balcony to exit. I have him leaving the interior house, moving to the interior balcony and then his package directs him to the interior balcony door(s) so he can carry on his current package. Scripting him to go and use an activator is doable I guess.

 

A lot of hassle just to not have a door on the local map!

 

Black planes work in interiors but not it seems in exteriors, for hiding load doors. Why would that be?

 

Thank you, again, for your help.

 

Can you think of any instances/locations in the game that have a hidden exterior door? Could be worth going and having a look at how it is done.

Edited July 17, 2020 by TyburnKetch

[cumbrianlad]

Ah, well, it was just a thought.

 

I really have no idea why black panels would work in an interior but not in an exterior.

 

Sorry, I didn't realise from the original post we were dealing with an NPC.

 

And yes, it is a lot of hassle for one stupid door. This must be yet another bug in the game engine. I mean 'secret' doors that show up as big white door icons?

 

If anything else comes to mind, I'll let you know. Nothing at the moment, though.

[TyburnKetch]

Thank you. I should have made it clear to start with it was for an npc! Really appreciate the work you have put into this. Apologies. I have added an extra question to my last post. Do you know of any instances for a secret exterior door?

[cumbrianlad]

Off the top of my head, no.

 

All secret doors I've seen are for interiors. If you wanted an exterior one, you may have to re-texture an interior door to blend better with the exterior wall surface, so give a door a rock texture and hide it in a cliff with some rocks around to hide the door edges.

 

Edit: if it's in one of the cave entrances that normally use auto load doors it'll be darker and should be made to blend in quite well.