I am trying to get a CONSISTENT realistic low force push (5 feet or so ) using the pushactoraway command. I have all the issues worked out except for one irritating problem. This command "PushActorAway" yields dramaticly different results depending on some characteristic of the actor I have not exactly pined down yet.

This is what I have so far:

set FemaleFlag to target.IsFemale
let RefRace := target.getrace
set tmpfloat to GetRaceWeight RefRace FemaleFlag
set tmpfloat to tmpfloat * target.getav strength * .2

aadpRef.pushactoraway target tmpfloat

This seems to be getting close but still not good enough.

Anyone have a better idea of what the characteristic is I am looking for? I am worried it is not consistent as I have seen men in the street in the market district go flying 100 feet with push 20 and the same push power of 20 only knocks over the imperial guards a foot or two.

One thing that could cause this is the cell limit for havok objects. If an object starts to fly in cell A and then hits the border to cell B it will instantly stop flying as if it hit an invisible wall. This is a limitation of the game engine. Since the next cell border can be 4000 or 4 units away it is impossible to predict how long an object will fly in exterior areas. Just look how your targets fly. If they stop flying in mid-air and fall down to the ground then they hit a cell border. This limit does not apply in interior cells for obvious reasons (only one cell = no cell borders).

The only other thing that would cause a different behavior would be the different rigid body settings for actors. But since you tried with NPCs only (which all use the same skeleton and thus the same rigid body settings) I guess the problem is the one I mentioned before.

EDIT: Arrows are not affected by this limit until they hit something for the first time - guess they're not really in 'havok mode' until they collide with something for the first time.

Tried it indoors and the same thing happens.

At first I thought it was a difference in the male and females body nifs, but I have seen this behavior on some men as well, but in the opposite (meaning they fly farther not less).

I wonder if this "heavy" behavior is only with the guards. I guess I need to try this on all the men and women in the market district. It would not surprise me if it was just the guards as they often "seem" to have their own hardcode in the game.

Thanks for the comments.

Could it be that they just have more clutter in their inventory and this (it's weight) is taken into account, too?
In general npcs don't have that much in their inventory and (espacially in the city) don't wear armor while guards have a full set of heavy armor & a weapon.

Just guessing, though.

Well I really do not think encumbrance was taken into account by the DEV for the pushactor effect, but yes you are right I need to test his.

I almost have nothing else to try at this point.
I have revamped my formula with a female body check (resulting in a mod of .3 ) and it works better but still not perfect.

I am sure things like being female and race scale probably have nothing to do with the real cause, but it seems to be indirectly related so it works better than nothing at all.

Also I still need to check to see if it is only the guards that have this issue, mmmmm...... I need to try this on a female guard.

Another thing to try... maybe agility changes it... it supposedly is a factor in knock-back.