First let me state that my quest is not start game enabled and I did create the SEQ file for the esp.

I can't get ForceGreet packages to work despite following a tutorial I found. Let me go into detail....from the tutorial:

"So now I always like to make sure that I can add my new packages to an NPC, rather than an alias, when I first create them - even if I only intend to assign them to aliases. It saves much hair-pulling later."

Okay, right now my ForceGreet is assigned to the reference alias in the quest, not the NPC and I'm wondering if this is the real issue.

"Now you've got your package assignable to an NPC, let's go back and specify that our package has TESTQuest as its Owner quest. This would let us use the quest's aliases when we are setting the package data. "But we don't need to!", you may protest; but do it anyway."

So he's assigning the package to have an owning quest even though he already stated he doesn't need to.

"Now go back and try to assign the package to an NPC again. All seems well, you can see TESTHildaForceGreet in the list of possible packages - but when you select it and click OK, it does not appear in the NPC's package list. Packages with Owner quests can only be assigned to aliases. So if a package you put on an NPC stops working, ask yourself whether you might have set it to have an Owner quest."

I'm trying to get this part straight. I should NOT assign the package to a quest because it won't work or I will have strange results? Am I understanding this correctly? As someone in software test I would really wish people would avoid walking people through unneeded steps. Why even discuss it if I don't have to do it? It simply confuses the user.

If I understand this right, for the package to work it needs to be assigned to the NPC and NOT the quest alias. Has anyone actually gotten this package to work?

I'm doing quite a few force greets in my Helgen Rebuilt mod, and here's how I set them up.

I create a force greet package with the topic I want my actor to say to the player set. I then add conditions to the package that set when the force greet is supposed to run. Most of the time they have been set to only be valid if my quest is in a certain stage. When that stage gets set in my quest, I have been calling an evaluate package on my actor, and the force greet package should be the only valid package for them in that stage. I have the package in the actor's stack, NOT in the Ref Alias package stack. This has worked without fail for me.

When the force greet is over, set a new stage that invalidates the force greet and it shouldn't run again.

Okay that makes sense. How do you call the evaluate package? Is that a script fragment somewhere? I thought they automatically did that.

Well, they do, but sometimes it seems to take a few seconds for them to respond to the default evaluation. And, if you look through the stages of MQ101, you'll see a TON of different stuff going on, and it seemed to me that almost every stage has someone going to a marker or whatever, and evaluating their package. I'm pretty much going by monkey-see, monkey-do, lol. So I've been doing it like they did. Anyway, it would be:

MyActorRef.EvaluatePackage()
OR
Alias_MyAlias.EvaluatePackage()

Just an FYI, I still have all my actors set up as aliases, I'm just not putting any packages in the alias stack (most of the time, lol).

Actors tend to evaluate their packages approximately every ten seconds by default but as Balok said, you can force them to evaluate their package stack through script.

I don't know the full details of what the tutorial you're following suggests, or how you've set up the rest of Viconia's functionality, but in general putting forcegreets directly on a follower's actor record seems like a bad idea to me. Generally what makes a follower follow is a quest/reference alias/follow package combination, and if that's the case with your follower, then the follow package attached to the reference alias will always have priority over any packages directly attached to the actor while the actor is following--so while the actor is following, the forcegreets will never happen.

I've never had any problems with forcegreet packages attached to reference aliases; the thing to keep in mind is just that what quest's packages are used depends on quest priority, so the quest with the forcegreets needs to have a higher priority than the quest with the basic follow package.

No. Putting the package on a quest alias is usually the best thing to do. The point I was making was that if you put an alias on an NPC directly, and then change the package to have an owner quest, it will stop working (which you can fix by assigning the package to a quest alias).


It's not a question of 'don't do it', though, it's a question of 'you can do this, but need to remember this side effect if you do'. Sometimes (not often) putting the package on the NPC is what you want. But if you later change your mind and give the package an owner quest, it will stop working on the NPC, because then you need to assign it to one of the quest's aliases instead.

I did mean to extract the pith of the tutorial afterwards and split it into 'Do this' instructions and a troubleshooting 'Have you done that' guide for the wiki, but have not got round to it yet. Sorry.

So I have done it properly. Then the only thing I'm left with is the priority of the follow package on the stock follower quest is overriding my quest priority and so the forcegreet never gets triggered. I think I have it at 60. I'll boost it and see what happens.

I pray I can get this working because I have to do this for over *80* quest stages. *sob*

(deleted, posted twice by accident)

I still can't get this to work. I've followed everything in the tutorial to the letter, the only exception is that it's assigned to the NPC, not the quest alias. The quest isn't set in the package. Package is not set to template.

I have tried a full mod reload, nothing works. I'm almost ready to give up.


I have two conditions on it. The quest stage must be 40 and it must be Viconia.


The topic is set to Normal. I can't figure this out. If someone wants to take the esp and see if they can figure it out I'll be more than glad to.

Maybe a dumb question, but do you have the topic info your actor is supposed to say when they force greet the player set correctly in your force greet package?

Yes, the topic is set right and is marked as 'Normal'.

upload the esp somewhere and I'll take a look.

Sorry I couldn't reply sooner, lost power due to Sandy. I'll PM you the link on 4shared when i post it. And ty, greatly appreciated.

Link sent.

PM sent back at ya!

Edit - got you email. Ill get back to you.

OK, I'm going to need all the scripts too. I'm getting lots of errors and can't load the esp in the CK.

Any errors should be a space in one dialog and the usual skyrim errors. It should load no problem. Scripts should all be in there.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. All your scripts & fragments are in your scripts folder. They're no longer stored in the esp like they used to be with the GECK and before. I'm getting WAY more than the normal vanilla errors.

Okay, I'll have to zip those up separately and send them to you tonight when I get home. Sorry about that.

Didn't get a a chance to do this yesterday, too much going on. I have a half day of work today and will do this and get it to you this afternoon. Thanks again!

Scripts sent this morning.

OK I'm still getting errors trying to open this file. It says "FORMS: TESDataHandler trying to create TESForm for unknown type 'NONE'

and,

Form counts don't match
File=Viconia.esp
Forms loaded=1
Forms in file=0

Do you want to correct the file header?

If I tell it yes, I get a MASTERFILE warning for unrecognized form.

Was this a TES4 file converted to Skyrim by chance?

Also, just looking at the plugin in the Details viewer shows no records of any type.

Very odd. No, this was created from scratch and I don't get those errors. Something is still missing. Let me try using the CK's archive feature and see if that will work.

The archive process is failing. Something is definitely wrong. Not sure why it even works for me in game. Thanks for your help. I'm suspending all work on this mod.