Thank you Emma for another fantastic mod. Vilja and I will use them as soon as I come back to Oblivion. Right now I've stopped to play because I've started working on my first mod evah :ahhh: I had always knew that mod-making it's addictive, but I didn't imagine it was so much.

When you make a post to request a mod be added to the masterlist, you should:

1) Type out the full esp filename
2) Give some info on what the mod does and suggest possible BASH tags if applicable, and note any possible incompatabilities.
3) Provide a link to where it can be downloaded.

This helps the BOSS team figure out where it should go in the masterlist.

Artorius

That would be a good idea Emma
A few, but hardly any, modders do that themselves, meaning that it is the users who tend to make the requests when they download and note that the mod is unrecognised.
It is not like it is a requirement of anything - would ensure that it gets in there real quick though.

Artorius basically summed up the best way to do it:
1. Provide the esm/esp name(s) (as that is what is added to the BOSS list.)
2. Link to a download location.
3. Brief details of the mod perhaps. Although the linked description may suffice. But perhaps Bash tag suggestions if known, dependencies, incompatibilities and/or special requirements ("Must load after mod X" for example.)

Thank you for the information, both of you .

I'll keep this in mind for future new releases.

INSTADL...maybe you could add more donkeys into future versions....another 3 in some other town.

Thank you
Although... if you have started on your first mod, who knows when you will come back to Oblivion? Modding is more addictive than gaming. :rolleyes:

The mod's esp is now ordered by BOSS.

Glitch report: Chico (not purchased) appeared at Faregyl.
By sheer coincidence we were in Chorrol (having just finished an Imperial Legion road patrol) when I installed Packdonkeys. We exited the city, looked over the three beasts, settled on Groucho, entered the stable office, and bought said animal. Brought him into the city, left him outside the fighters guild hall, loaded up with items I wanted the beast to transport, went outside, and transferred them to him. We then traveled to Faregyl Village. All well thus far.

Arriving in Faregyl late in the evening we decided to spend the night there, Once Vilja was comfortably abed downstairs I headed upstairs and slept until sunup. Next morning I let Vilja sleep in while I canvased the village for quest updates. Leaving the inn, to my great surprise not only was Groucho waiting outside, but Chico was standing next to him! "OK," I thought, "I know good and well I did not buy a second donkey." I opened my spell book. Sure enough, there is NO Chico Summon spell, only one for Groucho.

At that point it was late in the real-world evening. I exited the game and went to bed.

I launched the game this morning hoping that Chico would have vanished. But no, he was still waiting outside the Faregyl Inn. We left Faregyl much later in the game-day, Groucho in-tow. Chico did not follow. We have not slept since then, so I don't know if the glitch is triggered by sleep.

Note that I did not try to interact with Chico, not wanted to possibly make a bad situation worse.


Request: "Tether" option.
Groucho waits as Wolfgang does, roaming over a quite broad area. That's perfect for a free-spirited, hafl-tame wolf. But it seems to me that in most circumstances a donkey, carrying an adventure's loots and personal possessions, would be tethered in-place so it couldn't stray while the adventurer is indoors conducting business or exploring dungeons. In other words, it should behave as does an avatar's horse while the avatar is dismounted. For me this would be more visually appealing since the donkey would remain in-place outside shoppes and dungeons, and could be housed in stable stalls at the end of an adventure day. In any case, I'd like to see that as an option if possible. The present "roam while waiting" option is a fine alternative for those who prefer it.


Observation:
Traveling mounted works out well visually: me on Arrowspeed in the lead, Groucho close behind, and Vilja on Bruse guarding the rear. Vilja and Groucho occasionally bump together, but it's not bothersome enough to spoil the appearance of a well organized team. Yes, Groucho and Wolfgang share the same space while on the road, but effect isn't all that bad. So a thumbs up there!

On foot, it can look a bit messy, with Vilja, Groucho and Wolfgang crowding each other behind me. But we are almost never on foot (despite Vilja's protestations to the contrary) except when inside cities, wilderness structures and dungeons, or during those rare occasions we must traverse overly rough terrain. The sort of situations where Groucho is likely to be tethered in any case.

-Decrepit-

Thank you

Now, there was someone else reporting a problem with Chico, and he thought it to be related to that he was using Benjamin the donkey-mount. He and I re-tested and I looked in TES4Edit and there didn't seem to be any problems, also he couldn't reproduce his problems, instead it seemed to be related to a particular save in his game.
So, I'm just curious to know, do you happen to use Benjamin?

I have set the donkeys to slightly different distances to the players when travelling, this in order to avoid that they are constantly bumping into each other. Groucho is the one who travels closest to the player, and he is set to approx the same distance as Wolfgang. The other two should stay a bit further away.

I'll add the "tether"-option, will see if I can sort out the problems with Chico and add this during the upcoming week. If you'll find any further information to add on Chico, please do so. I imagine there must be some place in one of the scripts where I have replaced Grouchos name with Chicos or something like that; I'll look into it. (Would be interesting to know what happens if you try to interact with Chico - hopefully you will only get a message-box saying that this is not your donkey).

Thanks for the reply.

No, I do not use Benjamin. As to Chico, I should get in at least one more play-session today. I'll try and swing by Faregyl (we're in Bravil for a quest turn-in at the moment) and see if I can interact with him... assuming he's still there.

Sounds as if I picked the right beast, follow-distance wise. Did we travel more on foot, one of the other might be the better choice. Next time we're in Chorrol I might experiment a bit and try 'em all (without saving the game of course) and see which looks best while on the road. Heck, now that I think of it I can just load my save from when I installed Packdonkeys and see what happens. Easy enough to do. And thanks for the upcoming tether option!

UPDATE: I launched the game and loaded an earlier save from when we were still in Faregyl. You are indeed correct. Clicking on Chico brings up a message box stating that he is not my donkey.

-Decrepit-

Thank you!

Good to know that it is not Benjamin-related.

I'm just now pulling my hair out trying to find any reference to the wrong donkey in any script, so far without luck, but it of course HAVE to be there somewhere, else Chico shouldn't travel to Faregyl when you haven't bought him.

Just one quick question, because something just hit me... Do you by any chance know if either you or Vilja or Groucho had an apple or a carrot in your inventory (I'm starting to have a slight suspiscion here)

I first loaded a save from just after we had left Faregyl but were not yet in Bravil. At that time Vilja had an apple in here inventory. I had a carrot, BUT, I was 99.9% sure that I had acquired it in Faregyl AFTER Chico had already appeared there. I next loaded a earlier save from right before we left Chorrol after buying Groucho. I was right. There was no carrot in my inventory at the time. Vilja, however, still had her apple. Groucho carried no food either time.

(I guess this is one of those situations where my creating roughly a DVD worth of unique saves per month (which I dutifully burn onto disk) comes in handy.)

-Decrepit-

I've little new to report. Vilja and I spent the night at Weye Manor, Groucho parked outside. This time, Chico did NOT materialize outside when we exited the following morning. At least we didn't notice him...those darn donkeys can wander quite a bit while waiting. In fact, the last time we saw Chico (the evening before) he was on the road about half-way between Faregyl and Bravil. Odd beasts, donkeys. Minds of their own, it seems.

You know, I am suspecting that it is a little "feature" I have added that is causing this.

Ya know, this makes sense.

-Decrepit-

Seems that Vilja always has an apple in her inventory. I always see it when I check her gear. So if this is indeed the problem, the esp to remove that would be the best solution, as even if I remove the apple, but have her look for ingredients, she could get it back.

Well, you can't take Vilja's apple away, because then she'll go on the same theft spree as many other companions as soon as it is time for her meal. I.e. we add it through her script in order to avoid that she would else try to steal food.

Decrepit, if you also thinks this make sense, maybe my conclusion is right. I'll look through the scripts once more, but I think i have doublechecked them 7-8 times now without finding any mistakes, then I'll make a new esp.

My agreement is of course that of a total ignoramus when it comes to modding. I've never even installed the CS, much less messed with it. My biggest claim to fame modding wise is being able to add a NO CORPSE CHECK flag to player-ridden horses in several downloaded mods via TES4edit. (Not sure why modders tend to forgot that, jarring as consequences are.) That said, I too opened "donkeys" with TES4edit and looked for mismatched names. No luck, but I highly doubt I'd be able to spot something you yourself didn't.

-Decrepit-

Chico preffers carrots, the one preffering apples is Groucho. There is another posibility though. Decrepit, did you buy Chico and later reload a previous save without exiting first the game and then buy Groucho instead? When you load a previous game without exiting the program, some variables are not allways reseted and actors following mode is one of them.

Well, I changed Chico's preference to apples before I uploaded the mod :blush: I think you still are using the test-version? It's the only change I made and only for cosmetic reasons. Harpo is now the only one who prefers carrots.

. I usually update to the released version, but this time I forgot to do it. When I think about the amount of tests I had done about Decrepit's report with the incorrect version... .

Nay, Groucho is our first and only donkey. In any case, I never reload a save from the in-game menu but always totally exit and relaunch. I learned that lesson over a year ago.

Speaking of donkeys, Groucho is gonna be the death of me. We left him and our mounts outside a mod-added Chapel abutting the Yellow Road while Vilja and I combed the area surrounding Lake Canulus in a futile attempt to located a quest NPC. That having failed we returned to the Chapel. Groucho was nowhere to be seen. We followed the Yellow road south. No Groucho. We followed it north. No Groucho. We crossed the road a headed east a ways. No Groucho. Likewise we searched the area behind the Chapel. No Groucho. A combination of steady rain and darkness ended our search. We're gonna spend the night in the Priory and start afresh on the morrow. Unless Groucho returns of his own accord it could be a long drawn out affair.

I could, of course, simply use my Summon Groucho spell. But that's not my way. I avoid companion, pet and mount summoning if at all possible, which is usually the case. I will summon Groucho if I absolutely must, but I'd rather treat his wandering as an unexpected role-play opportunity, with us having to take time out of our "busy schedule" to track him down. That said, I eagerly await the "tether" command. Heh

-Decrepit-

My bad :blush:

I should have posted yesterday, asking if you or Blockhead had the time to test and doublecheck this problem, but got so busy with some real-life-family-things that I never got around to it, and today I thought I'd test my conclusion about the apple first...

I actually think the apple and the fact that Vilja is always carrying one might be the problem. My original donkey, Humphrey, prefers carrots and he hasn't caused any problems either. And I remember either you or Blockhead told me that a donkey had been following Vilja around when in wander mode.

Well... it seems I have created the first packdonkeys who not only have their own personalities bue also are born criminals - stealing, stalking, and being on the run.

It really sounds as if there will have to be a version 1.1 of them... with a less criminal behaviour.

Oh, other than the mysterious appearance of Chico in Faregyl things aren't so bad. Donkeys are, after all, contrary beasts apt to do what they want when they want. I think the upcoming "tether" option will go far to tame them.

Here's my first screen capture featuring http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/ElsweyrCorinthe1.jpg: my avatar in the lead, Wolfgang and Groucho close behind, Vilja bringing up the rear. We had ventured to Corinthe intent on furthering trade relations, Groucho carrying our Merchant Guild chits in his packs. Sadly, by the time we got there the real-life me was tired and lost interest. We ended up returning to Cyrodill empty-handed.

-Decrepit-

I'm not sure yet that this is caused by the apple, as I had just try fast travelling when groucho starts following Vilja (well, her apple) and Groucho has not teleported with us. Of course there may be many circumpstances involved, so making two tests is not enough to asume that he won't teleport when following the apple.

Please, don't reduce their 'criminal' vehavior. It's too cool to be eliminated.

I'm more and more convinced the apple has some bearing on Groucho abandoning his wait-point at the chapel for parts unknown. After yet another exhaustive search failed to find the beast I decided to load the save from when we arrived at the chapel but had no yet departed (sans mounts and donkey) for the Lake. With Groucho in wait mode, I moved Vilja and I to various locations near the chapel. After standing in-place for a small amount of time, Groucho would invariably make a beeline straight to Vilja and stop next to her.

My guess is that the donkey tried to follow Vilja and myself when we ventured to the Lake, and is (or was) somewhere in the wilderness between the two locales. That is very rugged terrain, heavily forested. A thorough search would take ages, even assuming my assumption correct. In the end I elected to delete all saves made after arriving at the chapel. No great loss really, since no quests were advanced. I preferred that to using the Groucho Summon spell.

Ironically, while searching for Groucho we retraced our steps all the way to Faregyl Village and met Chico again on the road to Bravil.

-Decrepit-