» Mon Jun 21, 2010 4:32 pm Hey, I'm all for the concept of emergent behavior/AI - as long as it not too buggy!
One of the things that convinced me to get Oblivion a couple years ago (while still stubbornly holding on to precious MW) was playing it on a friends XBOX360 (though I play on PC now, obviously!) and watching a random theft in Skingrad and subsequent (quite lengthy) chase by the Skingrad guards who eventually caught and killed the thief... it may have been Shameer.
One of the things that convinced me to get Oblivion a couple years ago (while still stubbornly holding on to precious MW) was playing it on a friends XBOX360 (though I play on PC now, obviously!) and watching a random theft in Skingrad and subsequent (quite lengthy) chase by the Skingrad guards who eventually caught and killed the thief... it may have been Shameer.
My first memorable moment when interacting with npcs in Oblivion was when I to my surprise saw the countess of Leyawiin riding to the Imperial city. I had never expected that!
Another memorable encounter was sadly finding the body of Quill-Weave on the road (after doing the Rat quest she is non essential) as she was probably taking a walk to Chorral. I liked Quill-weave as one of the more interesting NPCs and was sad to see her meet such a random fate. I almost reloaded a previous save to restore her, but decided not to on principle. If I had had access to a 'resurrect' spell in game (don't like using the console) I would have used it on her though (a feature I would prefer over companions/npcs being set to unkillable).
Hmm... I suspect that 72 game hours later she was back in Anvil, safe and sound?? At least I believe this will happen with npcs that are killed along the roads.
On a similar note to your dialogue issue, whenever Sonia starts talking uncharacteristically about disgusting goblins and Colovian highlands and such I just pretend she's slightly insane though Valkar loves her all the same. :laugh: The same thing applies when she walks clear across a tavern to sit as far away from me as possible (usually even if I move chairs, she will move to the *other* side!) Either she's crazy or just always mad at Valkar (maybe he drinks too much or flirts with the female npcs there!) 
From your vivid previous description of Valkar, I strongly suspect that a) his breath smell of beear and B) that he has insulted her :wink_smile:
Of course, I know that last is an Oblivion game issue with 'persistent' chairs and such and can't be avoided with any companions, but it is slightly annoying sometimes! Maybe someone will make a mod that makes all chairs persistent or something? Or maybe there is a script solution for this? :shrug:
From what I have seen, this choice isnt about 'persistant' objects but some kind of order of form-id's for them. In player abode, I force Vilja to reposition to a chair once a day (it looks a bit odd as she actually teleports there, but it's quite necessary, as many abodes aren't pathgridded and companions might then get stuck and in need of getting 'unstucked). She then seems to pick chair in a certain order, and as some of the houses we are using I have made myself, I believe she picks the chair that was first placed in the interior. I wouldn't bet on it though...
Well, hope you get Vilja's "mud-crab" problems sorted out... 
She is already cured from the mud-crab syndrome
. And she doesn't even take off to kill deers anymore in order to protect me 
. 
) 
.. Like you said, its part of her charm.. 
.
