Somewhat perplexed by an occurrence in my current play-through, though I'm guessing that what it has to do with is an NPC follower's "criminal" inclination or whatever it is called. Thought it might be of some minimal entertainment value and would be neat to get clarification what is going on (probably).

First I should clarify this is with a heavily modded build:

I'm guessing the only mods that are or real salience to the issue might be Ultimate Follower Overhaul and Dynamic Things.

I have four followers: Faendal, Erik, Uthgerd, and Lydia (acquired in that order). We are a formidable force, with everyone decked out in Flawless or Epic quality gear (tempered by Oarland Graymane thanks to Loot & Degradation mod! ). I'm at about Level 10, killed one dragon, saw one more but he fled for whatever reason (hmmm, is that scripted I cannot recall . . .). I'm going to spend a couple more levels building up enchanted gear, and cash (must have spent nearly 10,000 just on tempering by Oreland!) and then start heading for Hrothgar. My toon is a light armor wearing hunter, so alchemy, bow use, sneaky, but also 1h and block. Haven't learned a single spell so far, and interested to see how far I can get in a play through without doing so.

Finally decided to go get Amren's sword. Me and the crew easily wiped out the riff-raff at the entrance. Started picking up the loot and noticed a "barrel of skooma" sitting on the table in the mammoth butchering area. Started filling up empty bottles, confident that I'd find a buyer somewhere!

At this point I heard that "Help! Someone! Please Help!" voice that occurs when non-follower NPCs are attacked or they see a crime being committed. Didn't think anything of it and kept filling up my bottles with skooma. Then I noticed a "40 bounty added to White Run" message on the upper right . . . Whaa? Nobody around here . . .

Next thing I know somebody whacks me from behind and I hear scuffling and combat taunts. Unsure WTF is going on I charge out into the open and cannot make out what is happening. I see several of my followers scrambling around but no clear sign of a baddie.

So I hop on my horse and charge out of the palisade to see what is up. At this point I notice Faendal running out the other exit and his horse is following him. Seems Erik is following him and by the look of it, they are both in combat mode. I scan around . . . not a baddie in sight.

"What!?" I think to myself. "Faendal!? My old buddy from Riverwood!? The same lying scumbag of a wood elf who asked me to lie and give an innocent young woman a fabricated love note just so you can (maybe!) get in her pants (if you weren't such a dweeb and followed grown Nord men around acting as a henchmen for your whole life . . .). You telling me you are a NARC!?"

I couldn't believe it. This was the wood elf who taught me everything I know (well, 20 or 30 levels worth of what I know) about archery. The same wood elf who charged into combat RIGHT in front of my drawn bow countless times, spoiling my shot, and hoarding the kill glory for himself. The same sour puss visage I've woken up to in this trackless frozen wasteland for weeks now, and the same idiot who keeps prattling on about "maybe you have met Camilla Valerius . . . *sigh* if only Camilla would rescind my affections . . .or if she was even aware of them" *flutter"

I was just absolutely floored that this same pathetic scumbag of a reject was also getting so uppity now as to draw the line at SKOOMA!?!

In seriousness though . . . His aggro was unswerving and once I realized he had turned against me (or us) I tried a few times to speak to him or calm him down. He eventually killed me.

I always thought Faendal didn't care about crime, no?

No, his moral setting is "No Crime." http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Faendal

Pure hypocrite.

"Here give this fabricated letter to this innocent young woman . . . but don't break any laws!"

I think this is one of the biggest problems that Skyrim's vanilla followers have. Aside from Housecarls(as theirs doesn't need to be), many of the followers do not change their morality upon becoming your follower. Seems odd that they would, I know, but many of them suddenly want to kill you, just because you do something that their morality setting considers wrong. I myself had Faendal turn on me when my character Valarye(a High Elf) attacked a group of Thalmor near Honningbrew. Storywise she was one of them, but after some obvious events, she doesn't like them at all. But why would Fendal care so much? I have no idea. But Faendal did not survive long after that, since I did not have the patience to deal with it.

I've come across an odd issue with some of the followers that do so because of a quest, wherein that if you bash a lock(a function/perk added by SPERG), they suddenly think you committed a crime, and they attack you. This could be a chest in the middle of a dungeon, or a door that would not get you a bounty if picked. Oh, and these are mostly characters who are depending on you to either do something or to help them.

I was surprised too when I found out how straight laced Aela was. Let alone the fact she wears heavy armour when her light armour skill is higher than her heavy armour skill. Some oversight by BGS no doubt.

Thank you, thank you. Consoling to know that I'm not the only one who faces the strange and psychologically warped creatures called "Skyrim NPCs" with a certain degree of disbelief, dismissiveness and downright callous cruelty when push comes to shove.

"Oh! Getting all moralistic now that I broke into a child-neglecters house in order to find evidence to convict her now are you!? Well fine, eat this sword [censored]!"

Of course, Skyrim is an absolute masterpiece of game design. It is my hope that everyone who has ever worked on this has achieved both prosperity and satisfaction because the end product is mind-blowing.

Still . . . even the Mona Lisa and the Sistine Chapel have their flaws, and as we all know Skyrim is not without its, erm . . . "deficiencies." Character behavior in particular seems to be an area for possible consideration of improvement in TESVI . . . still, the degree of improvement between Oblivion and Skryim is amazing.

"Characters" are still mindless robots who wander around repeating the same crap over and over and have little to no sensitivity to their context much less that of the Dragonborn. But they are at least highly NATURALISTIC! mindless robots

In seriousness though, I recognize it must be a huge task to create the code behind the behavior of these in game entities. Now that I'm just beginning my training in computer science and returning to this game I feel the old glimmer of interest in trying to improve on this "AI" in some way or another . . .

It seems to me that the basic structure to create a rather impressive "AI" is here in this game, but that (a) no one has spent the time to categorize all the myriad permutations and combinations and type them into code and in-game output;, much less ( anolyze the gigantic number of conflicts anything remotely approaching "realistic" human behavior would create; or © test it.

Still, if some of you guys would be good sports and give it a whirl and perhaps if a few of the more expert programmers around here would point me in the right direction and give me a nudge I'd be willing to start trying to add to the versatility of the AI.

I'm just now taking my first courses in JavaScript, C++ and Java so by May I should have a pretty sound basis in those three languages. Not Python (the language Papyrus is based on right?) but at least a basis.

It's practically everyone in Riverwood, which pisses me off cause if you have a bounty they'll immediately go after you and like...honey you got a big storm coming. Worst part is that sometimes you'll get a bounty for killing them even if they attacked first.

Even worse is that DELPHINE does the same which makes getting through the main quest annoying.

Funny! Always liked Faendal though.

People should really let you go once you sheath your weapon :/