Okay, found the issue with alternate start. Is fixed now.
Also, the eye was just a missing mesh as far as I can tell.

Hey, thanks! So far all seems to be working OK, though we haven't got into any fights yet, so that's still to test. Although two mildly unusual things did happen while we were wandering around Anvil.

The first thing was with Arren changing clothes on his own. I had, when we got to the cottage, told him to put on his leisure clothes and wait (while I got some sleep). When we went out, I told him to follow and put on his armor, of course, which he did. So we walked to Anvil, stopped in some shops and guilds, and then went to the Count's Arms Inn. Now, I did not rent a room, but went upstairs to the Private Rooms cell (where there was no one), sat down on one of the benches in the hall, saved and quit. When I restarted the game and loaded the save, Arren was wearing his "street clothes". I can only think that this was because he felt himself to be in a "safe interior" cell, and in fact it was kind of cool and appropriate for him to do... except that we weren't staying (even to eat, as he requested ), and I was concerned that he wouldn't put his armor back on on his own. I told him to, and he did, and it was fine, but I was wondering if he would have put his armor back on himself, or if it was an error that he took it off in the first place.

The other slightly odd thing was not related to Arren himself but the mod as a whole, and is very very minor. As I was passing some NPCs on my way out of the inn, they were having a (the) conversation about disturbing events in the Somerset Isles. Because I have general subtitles on for Arren (I would have had them on anyway), I was able to notice that the on-screen subtitles for the line "They have powerful wizards In the Somerset Isles. This could be a serious situation." was in German, even though the audio dialogue was in English.

As far as I know, Arren is the only recently-added, possibly German mod that I have, so can I "blame" you for this missed translation? That was the only line I've noticed, and the audio is correctly English, so it's truly truly not a big deal in any way, but if you're tweaking, and this is a missed translation in the mod, you might want to check and see if any other subtitles need to be reverted.

Otherwise, so far we're doing fine!

Hi.

Arren is based on the USA oblivion.esm. He is also done completely in english.

As soon as you sit. Arren will get his street clothes and will sit down, too.
As we speak, or rather I write, I removed the armor unequip flag from his automatic sitting package. You have to tell him to unequip his armowhen you want to sit down with Arren and have a chat.


FYI,
I just finished creating the framework of a multipathed random dialogue. What it means is, Arren will want to talk to you about random things. Like, do you like Tamika wine? You get the option of Yes or no. Saying Yes, and Arren will like it. Saying No and he is saddened. Then it can be over (goodbye) or he wants to talk about heavy armor. You can say I like heavy armor or I use only light armor. Liking Heavy Armor makes Arren like you. This can go on up to 10 times. After 10 topics it is over to limit the length of the discussion . Your options that you have choosen during the talk influence Arrens disposition towards you.

Hiya, back again with more questions. Arren and I have had more time together (we walked-- or rather, ran-- from Anvil to Skingrad) and I'm getting more comfortable with his charmingly goofball ways (not least because he's so saved my bacon any number of times on our journey), but there are still a few things I don't quite understand.

1 . After tearing off to slaughter any threats to me (for which I am deeply grateful), Arren often comes back to me wearing full or partial Daedric armor, before he *blink* changes back into that hideous iron craphis standard iron armor. These Daedric items are not in his visible inventory. Indeed, I have also seen him "at rest" wearing leisure clothes other than the ones I have seen in his inventory, which he usually wears. Unless he stole the clothes from (or was given them by) the (female) mage whose room at the Skingrad Mages Guild he exited (just after she exited) when I came back from a side trip that took (game) hours longer than I planned (boom-chicka-wow-wow??!!), I have no idea where these clothes are coming from, and of course that wouldn't account for the Daedric, anyway.

I don't so much have a "problem" with this (especially since it usually saves my life that he has this stuff), but I am wondering if this influences how he "feels" about stuff I give him. Naturally if he has a set of "hidden" Daedric armor, he's not going to be too impressed if I scraqe my Septims together to gift him a set of Steel for his unmissable help. I guess my question is, the readme says "If he likes what you give him, he will wear it." How can I know what he might like (other than the obvious, I mean, I know he doesn't like light armor, for example), so I don't waste money buying him things that have no chance?

2. On the subject of Arren's desires, he has also expressed a desire to "stay at a tavern every three days so that (he) can wash (his) armour and (him)self". He expressed this desire literally right outside the Brina Cross Inn as we travelled the road from Anvil to Skingrad. OK, what was I to do if my companion manages such a big honkin' hint like that; naturally I went inside and bought a room. It was the middle of the afternoon and I wasn't tired (I use a survival mod), but I took a nap anyway. And then I didn't have any more reason to stay there (too broke to buy a meal for him or me), so we left. But did it help? Did it make any difference at all, or just waste time and money?

Actually, that morning we had departed from the unowned house we had been staying at for the previous 3 days (the oft-mentioned Fisherman's Cottage). Although Arren did meditate (I can only think that if I find him levitating in the lotus position that he must be meditating... quite expertly), exercise/dance (gotta stay flexible in that heavy armor) and read (which I know is a hobby of his from his conversation), I did not see him sleep in any of the companion-friendly beds, or eat any of the food lying around on the tables. Although, from the readme, I see that he does sleep and eat (I was maybe asleep myself, or in another part of the house). I think what concerned me was that he commented "I am so hungry", despite the fact that he had food in his inventory, and again, there's food available in the unowned cell we "live in". Was this then just "filler" commentary, or was Arren trying to send me a signal (like, "let's go out to dinner for once", similar to his desire to grab a beer if we enter a tavern) which I missed? It would be great, actually, if he expressed a desire for a beer in a tavern, I bought him one, and he drank it, then said "That really hit the spot, thanks!". That would be a wonderfully clear interaction, where I knew clearly that I had understood his desires and fulfilled them (or chosen not to), and also knew his response to my decision.

3. Which brings me to the last question-- Arren has a topic, "Go to my house, or one of our new places." I didn't dare to experiment in what I hoped would be a running game rather than just another test, but I didn't see any topic at the top level to let me tell Arren that the Fisherman's Cottage, for example, was my/our home for the time being. Now that I've joined the Mage's Guild, I would hope that if I chose that topic, I would get a choice to send him to the Guild Hall of my choice, as if that was one of our "new places", and that when I have one or more of the Vanilla houses, I would also have the option to send him on ahead to one of them, but is this the case? OK, I read the readme, and I know I can send him to any of the Vanilla houses (except the Waterfront Shack), but what about a Guild Hall (free lodging, I really have ony 20 septims in my pocket atm). He's a sort of spellsword, he should be at home at either the Fighter's or Mage's Guilds (although I'm not going to join the FG myself, it should be an option for PCs that do). If I buy a mod-added house, will that "count" to Arren (because it's a player-owned cell) or do I have to set it manually as an option? I see from the readme that I may tell Arren that two additional places can be called home... but the readme doesn't say how.... and is two places really enough? I guess we'll see.

Don't get me wrong; I'm really starting to get attached to him (and not just because he kicks butt, flinging spells and chopping highwaymen to kibble with his sword). He's kind of goofy and charming, and then I leveled up to 2 and he handed me the most alarming, unexpected and inexplicable object imaginable, starting a quest that I just have to complete, because I cannot even remotely speculate where it may lead (or indeed where it came from). Not to mention the very "just like Arren" converation we had about said object.... and the very fact that I can say that the conversation was "just like him" somehow, is quite telling as to how cohesive and understandable (although never predictable) his character is after a pretty short time.

So I think we'll be hanging around together for quite a while longer. I'd just like to know what I need to do to keep him comfortable and happy with our companionship, and would like maybe more feedback as to whether any actions I take in that regard succeeded (or not). It may be that the multi-pathed conversation framework you've created is the answer to all my questions, but if not, then, there you go . Oh and thanks for the confirm that the line of German text is added by some other mod, one less mod to search is... one less mod to search .

Hi.

1. As a great summoner Arren can of course cast the bound item spells. I randomised what spells he casts so that at a certain level he would not always use the full armor set. The leasure clothes are script given and force equipped to him.
If you remove all of his items and give him an armor set he will use it. Same for clothes (if you don't tell him to use leasure clothes. If you tell him to wear what he wants he will use the clothes in his bags.) What I mean with "wear what he likes" means "He wears what the game AI tells him to like." I think this means what item costs the most gold? Not sure.

2. If Arren/you don't sleep every 3 days he might go to a tavern himself if you are near one and will sleep for 4-5 hours. Also, if you are not near a tavern once a day after 3 days Arren's disposition will be lowered.
2.1. Every hour (I think, might also be game time minutes) the AI packages are reevaluated by a script, or at least should. This has been done as there are multiple AI packages for a given hour and without this, Arren would look crazy. I tried with getrandompercent as a condition in the packages. It didn't work out. So, he should sleep or sit down. I decided to use "use item at, furniture" instead of sleep as sleep in a house with no free beds is a wander package. A use furniture package is better, imo.
2.2. I think the "I am hungry." is just a filler as you said (If I would react on this, Arren would stop following you, and get an eat package. I can do this, of course). There are currently over 30 situations in which you can fulfill Arrens desires. The beer example actually is exactly like you said and plays out like you said. If you find a comment from Arren that should be able to be fulfilled let me know. I will go through them again and might come up with more. Also, FYI, Arren will only remember the last 3 desires. Not fullfilling them is not negative.

3. Arren can go to all vanilla houses and two player choosen destinations. No Guild Halls. The "New places" are just the places the player tells Arren is the new home.
3.1. Basically, a goody-two-shoes is what Arren likes. You start out with 0 Disposition, which is neutral. Stealing will lower it, just any law breaking will lower it. Reading books, getting fame, finding new locations, finding artifacts, joing the FG/MG will increase the disposition.

Oh, I completely forgot about the possibility of bound armor. I shouldn't have; it's not as if I didn't know he was a good conjurer, since he scared me half to death with that ghost the first time he summoned it. Thank you very much for the explanation of the difference between "wear what you like" and "wear your leisure clothes". I was a bit afraid to take any of his default stuff away from him, but now that I know how it works, I feel much more secure.



Ok, I get it that he's very social and must have some kind of contact with the community quite regularly or he gets snarky. But what I don't totally get is the tavern angle. Or rather, when I had just spent 4 days in a house with free beds (I was trying to reset the respawn timer, so I slept for 4 consecutive 24-hour periods), and indeed plentiful beer and food why then did he complain that he wanted to hit the tavern not 4 hours after we left? Is it really just a social thing (and I should have just sat at a table and bought him a beer), or did he not "use the facilities" of the house we were just in, because I had not told him it was "home"?

And just as a side question, do I have to buy a room for him to sleep for 4-5 hours, or will he just curl up on the floor or something (that doesn't sound like him)?



I wonder, now that you've said it, how you feel about this idea. I find myself (to my surprise) intrigued by it. On the one hand, it certainly would add to Arren's realism if he had certain needs that he would fulfill will-you or nil-you. Since I myself use a survival mod, I would not find it strange but rather cool for Arren to run up to me after a battle and say "Do you have anything to eat? That really took a lot out of me." Or indeed, if I didn't, for him to go searching for at least an apple in the loot . But naturally everyone is not interested in survival needs, or wants Arren to have quite that much personality (if it's going to interrupt their play to cater to him), and it might be a lot of work to implement without him looking 'crazy'. But it is an interesting idea.



Thank you, and thank goodness.



Glad to hear it about the disposition, I had checked his stats once and he had a dispo of 1 which seemed alarmingly low (in comparison to how Vanilla displays NPC disposition), but now I see that it was actually a good thing.

Technical question about the New Places... can I assume that the sub-menu to set this is in the "Go to my home or one of our new places" topic? Since I didn't want to send Arren away, I did not select that topic. How do I tell Arren that a given place is home? And can I later replace/remove that place if w move our base(s) of operations to a different area of Cyrodiil?

Thanks a lot!

I have fixed the weird sleeping issue. He will now comment on his sleepery needs after some days of not sleeping.

I have fixed this eating issue now. Now he will eat on his own, if he tells you that he is hungry for example.
The issue was that up to now you have to sit down with him. Then his eat package is triggered and that was enough. This is still the case for some of his comments where he wants to go to a warm place and eat or similar comments. For the other comments, as said above, he will eat on his own.


If there is no bed available, he will, well, wander around for the time being.


Yes, it is a submenu. The options available are: houses you currently own (vanilla), and two options to set the current place as a new home and to go to the new places.

Hey, Gurgl-- I know you're busy updating (and the new version of the JP translation just went up, so you may be finished), but something so odd happened last night that I have to report it. I'm going to tell you what I was doing leading up to the event, in case you see a clue to the cause that I missed.

I was in the Skingrad Mages Guild; got there around 7:30pm, joined up, told Arren to wait. I then ran over to All Things Alchemical and the West Weald Inn to talk to Sinderion and pick up a package for delivery from another mod I use. I then went back to the Guild and used the Guild Guides (also from another mod) to travel to Anvil and deliver the package (and acccept one for Skingrad again), then returned to Skingrad the same way, arriving back at about 10:30 PM. I sat down and ate something (Arren sat down across from me and ate as well), then went upstairs, sat down and read some books for the XP (I use Oblivion XP, which now that I think of it, is Arren's quest compatible with OBXP?), then went to bed.

Got up in the morning planning to head out for the Skingrad Recommendation quest, so I told Arren to follow, told him to put on his armor, and checked his stats (disposition of 20! He quite likes me!). I was out the door before I remembered that I hadn't actually accepted the quest yet, so we went back and talked to that annoying pigtail woman (the Guild head) to get it. If it turns out to be relevant, I also listened to the (charming but quite long) backstory, and accepted the quest, for a house mod (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37842). The thing is, the Skingrad Mages Guild Recommendation quest is an escort mission; in order to even start you have to talk to two more people (one to tell you the location of the target, and one to mark that location on your map).

So I talked to the first, and then the second. Actually I talked to the second mage for longer than I intended, as I chose the wrong dialog topic and had to click through the entire Red Rose Manor story a second time. But I did eventually get the map marker and turned to leave. To my surprise, Arren, in his traditional place just behind me, was covered in blood! Before I could even finish saying, "What's killing you???", he slumped to the floor, dead, and his Ghost walked away into the adjoining room. I resurrected Arren (that went fine, I'm happy to say) and checked his stats. His dispostion had dropped by 1 and he still had no kills, but one death.

Can you possbly explain what the heck happened, and what (not who, as there was no enemy seen or unseen, and Arren did not appear to be in combat-- although I was in conversation, Arren's combat is not so subtle that I wouldn't have noticed if he had been fighting) killed Arren in a safe, civilized interior with no enemies?

Do you have, by any chance, some mods that modify NPCs, health of NPCs? I think you use realistics mods. Maybe one of those changes NPCs as well? Like, NPCs have to eat once a day or every 2-3 days. IIRC, there are mods that do that and reduce fatigue if NPCs don't eat but I never heard of modifying health.
Another idea is that maybe, somehow, Arren found or used or whatever an item that has damage self effect, like poison apple.
If all of this is not the case, can you provide a savegame before of this? I can investigate with it. If you have, is it possible for you to check the magic effects list via tdt?

I should have a save; I'll check in a minute. But maybe I know what it was--- I had, as I mentioned before, edited the ESP to give him 'normal' eyes (I don't have any mods that modify NPC health or needs as far as I know, except for MMM, which I don't think would affect Arren, but I do have COBL TNR, which provides a whole lot of new eyes, including blind ones, which he seems to have by default). When I loaded the ESP in the CS, I got an error saying that Arren's Eat package was marked as 'must complete' but it could not be completed. So I .... unchecked the 'must complete' flag from the package to resolve the error.

Could that have done it? (He really can't have a poison apple, I have had no contact with the DB... we're only some 3 days old, and even if I wanted to join-- which I don't-- I would never give Arren such a thing!) If so, I'll re-enable the flag and not worry about the error.

Hmm... I will check the error about the eat package. Maybe I overlooked it.
Anyway, this and the eyes are not related to the dying. I can only think of another mod modifying NPCs. But if you have a save, please sent it to me or pm me a download link. Also, if possible, check what magic effects Arren has while he is dieing. Per console tdt and then sdt 8. http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Debug_Text

Sorry for the delay... http://www.4shared.com/file/8jMz2Hdv/Streamsave_10.html. It's an automatic streamsave from just before I talked to Druja (after which Arren dropped dead). I checked; Arren has 0 deaths when I loaded it and immediately requested his stats. I don't know how much help it will be though-- I just tried playing forward from that save, and nothing at all happened to Arren, and sdt 8/tdt showed no odd happenings that I could see. I'll keep my eyes open and if anything like that should happen again, I'll be quick with the console to see if I can catch info. And maybe there's something in the save that you'll see that I didn't. Thanks for checking, anyway.

Hi,

haven't found anything unusual in your save. No idea how or what has happened.

New version available.

v4.7
$Fixed an dialogue issue with alternate start mods
$Fixed some dialogue issues where Arren would complain but has no right to complain about it (like wanting to sleep but got right out of an inn)
$During repairing items he will no longer do other things except smithing
$Fixed a bug that let Arren magically know that you have murdered someone and start a conversation when he is with you again even though he couldn't know it
+You get now a big disposition boost if you do Arren's quests. You get a smaller disposition boost if you do the questchain
+Praying at the chapel altars and receiving the buff now increases Arrens disposition
+If your disposition decreases from yesterday to today, there is a 50% chance that you can apologize to Arren and get 50% to 100% of the difference back

Woot!

(That is all .)

Yaaaaaaaaaay, thank you, Sein_Spvssyn! :celebration: