ARFloorSMASHER01 [ACTI:00025D64]
Dungeons\AyleidRuins\Interior\ARFloorSMASHER01.NIF

What is the effect in game of the Smasher being flagged Dangerous/Off Limits? Will NPCs avoid the traps? I thought the flag dealt with Trespassing?
I see the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6372mod makes this change, and if that is what it does, it's maybe not such a "wild" edit as I first thought...

Nobody knows? :cold:

I was thinking about bumping this. I am curious about the meaning of this flag too.

Not a clue. The discussion page on the wiki pretty much consists entirely of this question.

What have we been doing while playing this game for the last four years, not knowing one of the plugin flags...

I guess I'll just have to send my character to Lipsand wassitsname and check it out. If the NPCs do indeed avoid the Smasher that would be incredible, but I'm not holding my breath...

There are not any...closer cells with the flag?

It's not the cell that is flagged, but the smasher traps. And I *know* there is one in that Aylied Ruins.
Will test shortly.

Yeah...I kind of notice when you said "activator"...I was feeling lazy because I am tired with one eye open...

As I thought the flag had no effect on NPC behaviour. They happily step on the Smashers...

I don't believe that flag has any effect on activators or items when set. It's intended purpose is to mark cells as being off limits to the player. More than that I couldn't tell you because I can't even say for sure it works for its intended purpose.

I'm pretty sure I recall seeing at least one activator use that flag and have the "intended" effect - The fire in the antechamber of Barren Cave. I believe it keeps NPCs from walking through it and taking fire damage.

Did you add the "dangerous" flag to the activators in Lipsand Tarn? They don't seem to have it by default. Or maybe your point was that the other mod adds them to all those activators?

I don't think the Smashers have that flag because the preferred pathgrid goes around the activator and the designers may have thought luring them into the activator in combat was a valid tactic.

The mod adds it to all those activators.
Pathgrid don't help much when there is no way to circumvent the Smasher. But I've kept the flag, so I'll check it more later, if I can find a Smasher with more space around it. The one I tried was not in Lipsand Tarn, though, but on Nelowynn (sp) near Pell's Gate.

If it was Nenyond Twyll, then you may need to re-test. That smasher uses a unique base object "TestChappyFloorSmasher01" and is the only smasher that uses that base object.

It may not have been altered by RoT.

You're right though...the preferred pathgrid goes right through the middle of that one.

Did some more testing, and the flag seems to have no effect. But I didn't find a Smasher with space for NPCs to walk around it, so it's rather inconclusive. But I'll leave the flag in - anything that can potentially improve NPC AI is good in my book.

If you look at Lipsand Tarn in the CS, you'll see that the smasher itself takes up the entire passageway, but the trigger zone for the smasher is smaller and centered in the hall. There is just enough room to walk on the edges of the smasher without triggering the activator, and the NPCs preferred pathway is in that "safe zone".

The flag definitely has an effect, it prevents NPCs from walking into an object that is set as 'dangerous'. In my Sheogorad mod I have large fans that cause damage when you touch them (while they're running). Behind those fans are ventilation tunnels you can access if the fans are off. With the dangerous flag set on the fans NPCs don't follow the player into the ventilation tunnels, even if in combat. They just stand in front of the fan (about 100 units away from it) and wait till the player comes back out.

Doesn't the one in Nenyond Twyll need to have the Battlemage walk into/onto it to trigger a quest stage? That would be why it has a path grid going through.

IIRC path grids, and I presumed the dangerous flag also, are ignored once a creature or NPC is "in combat", so you can probably only test the effect with 100% chameleon, or invisibility, so they don't react to the player and ignore it, although Phitt's experience suggests otherwise. I know I've lured enemies into traps in a lot of places, that they don't just wander into when I'm not around, but that could just be a path grid setup, and not use the dangerous flag at all.

By default none of the vanilla traps have the flag set. At least none of the ones I checked. While the path grids are ignored in combat (albeit only if the enemy is very close to the player - if they are far away or pursue the player path grids are still used, even if in combat) the dangerous flag is not.