I have some basic CM Partners questions that anyone should be able to answer. I'm very new to it and a little confused, even though I read the readme:

1. I put some modded clothes on my partner. I'm sure they can be killed. What happens if she dies? How can I find her so I can get her clothes and gear? I tried showing her on the map but it points to districts in the IC rather than my partner.

2. I want my partner to loot after I kill, and continue to sneak around with me in dungeons. Instead when I picked for her to loot, she took off and alerted all the baddies in the dugeon. Am I expecting something different from what she should do? Or should I wait until the entire room is cleared and let her loot? Will she loot it all for me? Can she carry unlimited stuff or do I still have to go around and check?

3. Can she open chests for me (as part of the looting?) I don't know how intelligent the process is.

3. Unsure what to do when it comes to Oblvion gates. Should I Party Mark her at a place (like my anvil house for example) and then Party Return her before picking up a sigil stone?

4. SI: the readme says I can't use her in SI and I'd need to use a warp mod. I don't know to which mods they're referring - can someone suggest a stable one?

Before this, I only use Shadow Ranger and my companion just follows me everywhere without problems (not tried SI or gates yet though) and my previous game I used Vincente Malefactor and he was so simple to use without all these new features. So any help and suggestions you can give are great. Thanks!

You could use the essential versions of the partner mods. Aren't their commands by which you can set your partners' behavior? I thought some of these questions were answered in the docs. I know it comes with a few...

I didn' t know there was an essential version - I'll look at installing that. Yeah I was really confused about some of the answers from the docs. I'll try and read them again myself but I wasn't clear on some of them.

The problem I am having is that I think I am mixing up CM Partners features and Companion Share & Recruit features. After looking at the ReadMe, the bits about the behavior settings is explained right at the beginning. Why are you confused about those things?

Edit: The ReadMe says get into sneak mod and click on the partner you want to modify while holding down the spacebar, if you want to access...one of the menus. I only have this mod installed because it is required for HOD.

The essential are default, should be all the same package...
I haven't had much luck ay getting them to loot.
Lockpicking, repairs, and whatever will depend on their Skill in that area...
Haven't made it to SI with them yet, but no problems in Oblivion...
And Yeah, The can Hold a Lot, basicly Unlimited, but some things might dissapear. :unsure:

OK thanks that's some of my questions answered. I just couldn't find the rest in the FAQs or other docs included.

Also this particular NPC started following me for no specific reason (Tana, in Anvil's inn). I walked in, hung around awhile and I think I just activated her (sometimes I like to look at their faces). Later I left, but she joined me in the street and was following me. So then I talked to her to have her really follow me. She has pretty cool blonde hair so I'm keeping her with me for awhile but I thought it was a strange action that she'd just latch onto me.

I do have the essentials package installed already so I'm good there. I think my main thing is losing her and wondering where she is. I guess I have to get used to the rings, but we were in Ft. Nikel together and finished up there, and i went ahead and left. She did not join me. I went back in to find her and she was just hanging out in there alone. I'm not sure why she didn't join me but that kind of thing bugs me that she stayed behind. CM is still new to me so I guess maybe she would show up if I fast travelled. but I'd still like to know where she is.

(TOM - yeah I have Companion Share and Recruit too - have used that before with no questions.)

Yeah, they can get stuck if you leave without them, make sure there with you when you get to the exit, otherwise just toggle tour "Partners" ring on and off a few times...

When playing with CM Companions/Partners, I have found that installing the Companion Master mod and the CM Partners Hotkeys mod make the experience much more enjoyable. One feature of the Companion Master mod allows you to set a "quest" which will cause the green quest pointer to point to your companion (useful if you get separated). The CM Partners Hotkeys mod defines a set of hotkeys for the most common CM Partner commands. I find this makes playing with CM companions more immersive. Both of thes mods are on TESNexus

One piece of advice that I like to give anyone playing with any companion is to use the console to get the reference ID ( ) of your companion and write it down. If you get separated from your companion and nothing brings it back, you can use the console to bring it to you with the commands prid followed by moveto player.

Can I quote you on that last bit of advice? That is really helpful. I use those commands but have not thought of using them for a companion. I have only used companions that already have that quest, nor have I had trouble finding companions. I only used it to find some NPC I had tracked but lost amongst saving and reloading after having some crashing issues with one of the vanilla quests, I think.

This feature already exists in CM partner mod 1.9+, it's well documented (CM Partner use CMPQ quest for that).

If you have more than one companion mod loaded, this feature appears to show all companions. The Companion Master mod allows you to specify which companion you are looking for.