I recently noticed something odd with some of the NPCs around Dune in Elsweyr Deserts of Anequina and I was hoping someone might be able to offer suggestions on how to debug and potentially resolve the issue.

I'm using the July update to Elsweyr, which fleshed out Dune more than the prior version. What I've noticed is that the NPCs who try to move between the exterior of Dune and the market place via the main gate (or vice versa) seem to get stuck in some kind of loop going through the gate. I don't have an problem moving back and forth through the gate myself.

The NPC walks up to the gate, fades out, but then reappears, fades out, reappears, etc. Eventually when enough time passes that the NPCs schedule has it doing something else it will wander off but only after spending a long time at the gate unsuccessfully trying to pass through. The NPCs I've noticed it with include one of the guards trying to move from inside the city to the outside, and Shanar trying to move from the outside to the inside.

As an experiment, I tried to disable the gates to see if the NPC would just walk through, since the city isn't in a separate worldspace. However, what happens is the NPC walks up to where the gate used to be and then disappears entirely rather than walking through. The NPC doesn't reappear in that case. I also tried starting a new game and heading over there (just to make sure it wasn't something messed up in a save file) and the behavior is consistent.

The only mods I have running that alter that area are Elsweyr itself, and the AWLS and RAEVWD meshes for Elsweyr. AWLS or RAEVWD are just mesh replacers and don't alter the meshes for the gates or the wall around the gate so those shouldn't be related to the issue as far as I can see.

Any thoughts on what might be causing the issue here? Thanks.

as far as I experienced myself whilst modding...npc's can not properly use teleporter in the same ws...the same problem occurs for example if you try to force a npc to climb a wooden watchtower (ladder)...will have a look in the CS

This should probably be posted in the Official Elsweyr-Anequina thread, though that thread seems to be largely inactive now.

By sheer coincidence, I ran into this just yesterday. I hadn't visited Elsweyr in some time, so decided to check out the new AWLS Eslweyr additions and recent DatePalm update with Companion Vilja in tow. Vilja fell victim to the Dune Gate glitch you highlight. I got her inside by going into the Inn located right next to the gate. She materialized in there with me, and was OK from then until we exited Dune, when the glitch kicked in again. This time I just mounted my horse and rode away. A bit later POP...there she was.

-Decrepit-

Edit...as it seems Iliana created a complicated system of doors so that npc's can pass the city gate...this includes 2 teleport marker on each side of the gate, an interior (door passage) and 2 more gates/doors under the city gate...it is not my mod but I can't see the sense here...if cities are build open city style there is no need to use teleporter ...better to use a functional gate...
or if a closed door is wanted a triggerbox including a moveto script would do it as well...

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/1934/dunegate.jpg

I don't get the two door thing myself. The problem here is two-fold. There's no path grid connecting the interior to the exterior, and there's a subspace in front of the gate where the two guards are. NPCs will not cross subspaces when pathing, so any NPC leaving the city will become stuck and attempt to find another route, but there isn't one in this case. At the same time, an NPC trying to enter the city can't do so because the subspace cuts off access to the gate. The only two who should be able to enter and leave at will are the two guards.

Dune being an open city, there's no need for the door. Unless the reason is because a gate was desired but there isn't an animated version of it. To fix this properly, without using an animated gate, the current subspace at the gate needs to be deleted and a new one created that engulfs the entire city. The path grid would then be correct and AI would no longer be disrupted.

as Corinthe and Orcrest have no gates..I think best would be to remove the Dune gates as well :foodndrink: ...however hopefuly iliana will return soon, as there is also this strange bug with the flying lod tower...

What cell/area is this flying tower in? It could be simply that there's actually a tower there, and tes4lodgen is picking that up, yes?

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/2466/screenshot16f.jpg


there is no tower placed there in Ilianas esp....the tower itself is lod (it disappears if you come close)..this bug was reported by some people on Nexus playtesting tamriel heightmaps (TWMP_Valenwood_Elsweyr) and it occours only with ElsweyrAnequina active...

I found the same bug in Kiwi Hawks Summerset stuff...some meshes somehow produced strange lod objects ingame...so probably some meshes and or textures are messed up in Ilianas latest file ....

That looks like one of the old minarets. What happens if you delete the contents of the DistantLOD folder and then run tes4lodgen?

it is still there...

however I think I have spotted the nif...it seems to be the Palace Needle Tower meshes/Architecture/Dune/Palace...still don't know how it comes there...

Gotcha :flamethrower:

found it in tes4 edit...ElsweyrAnequina places a Palace Needle Tower at cell -14 -53 but deep under the surface...that's why I did not find it when looking in the CS

Thanks for the assistance with identifying what was causing the issue I reported. I've sent the author a PM with some information and a link to this thread, since the most recent release thread has been locked for some time.

I too saw this problem, and ended up console disabling both the gates to get some NPCs to cross the gate with me (the "Bosmer Heads" quest NPC that follows you - he had a hard time with that gate). This still hasn't completely resolved the issue as NPCs nopw disappear for a split second and are generally confused by this 2-gate system.
With some trial and error, I still get NPCs across, though getting that camel to follow me across the door is a big pain. I ended up jumping the fence on the west side of the city near the hill to get out...

The reason NPCs still have trouble getting through is because the path grid connection to the outside world is broken and there's no other means of getting into the city. If you can somehow manage to knock the NPCs off of the path nodes, they'll then move to the closest one they can find.

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8742/dunegate2.jpg to the problem was to enlarge the ANQDUNSubSpace5200x2600x700 object to 5500x by 6000y by 2500z and then place that over the city so that it covered everything in it. I also removed the small one from in front of the main gate. NPCs now come and go freely without issue. One may need to delete the hidden doors under the landscape if this doesn't work completely, but so far it seems to do the trick.

Just to close out this matter, I was able to report the issue with the gate to Iliana via Nexus forums and it is now fixed in the latest version. :whisper: :celebration:

Thanks for all of her work on this wonderful mod.

Oh, cool. An update. Not sure that nested subspaces don't work, I don't think I've had occasion to need to try that, but it worked when I used it that way. Removing the gate works just as well though and should eliminate any weirdness a subspace would cause.

Thanks for the notification, I wouldn't notice it otherwise!

If you frequent Nexus often, you can "track" your favorite mods.
Whenever there is an update, you'll be notified when you log on.
It's a really Neat feature. I haven't missed and update to a mod in 4 months...

Thanks for the tip to you too aellis! I forgot about that!