» Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:02 am http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8622
Cornelius the packguar is one of the most advanced creature followers to date. He has several of the latest companion scripting advances, allowing him to:
- warp behind the player if he lags far behind (using the most up to date version of Grumpy's follow scripting)
- teleport along with the player.
- be summoned to your location with a magical ring
- not disappear through load doors while levitating along with the player
- fix his AI if it's not returning the proper value (which can cause all sorts of problems for companions)
Cornelius even has an MWSE add-on that will allow him to follow you as you teleport to any location, even interiors, even using scripted teleportation.
This interior teleportation can be disabled using the StayOutside variable, so that he remains outdoors when you tell him to.
He can however be summoned to an interior using his ring, which will reset the variable (because it's assumed if you want to summon him inside, then you would like him to go indoors with you.)
A spell scroll is available that will teach you a set of companion command spells.
With these you can instantly tell your packguar to follow, wait, wander, and stop combat.
I've also included one of my books from Books of Vvardenfell: Packguars, Our Faithful Friends.
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Installation
*****************************************************************************
Packguar Advanced comes with two .esp files. The first is the main mod, and the second is the MWSE add-on.
If you decide to use the MWSE add-on, then you must load both files.
The MWSE add-on also requires MWSE or MGE. Any of the latest stable versions should work.
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Finding and taming Cornelius
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Cornelius and his owner have run into some trouble with a large camp of outcast Ashlanders.
Head due north of Mar Gaan and you will eventually find his (former) owner on the road, just along the border of the foyada.
Cornelius has had a rough time, so you'll need to tame him before he will follow you. You can do this by offering him food.
Once you've given him enough food to gain his trust, he will follow you so long as you keep him well fed.
Cornelius will get hungry over time, and if he gets too hungry he will stop behaving, so it's a good idea to feed him something every day to keep him happy.
One of the foods you can feed him is his favorite, and will give him double the scripted disposition that you'd gain with other foods. I won't spoil which one it is.
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Some notes about the beta, and useful info for other creature companion modders
*****************************************************************************
This scripting, particularly the dedicated MWSE scripting, is new and experimental. It seems to work great for NPCs, but creatures have their own hurdles to overcome.
For one, creature followers have the tendancy to sometimes get stuck in a sound loop if they're hit in combat. They end up constantly cycling through their attack noises.
This bug has been present in nearly all creature companion mods and it doesn't seem to mess up their ability to follow.
I've found that the AI checks out just fine when this happens. Because of this, the AI fix can't kick it, but this bug doesn't seem to be a big problem.
However, it's difficult to say exactly how they'll react to more advanced teleportation scripting, and much more testing is required to find out. This is why I'm releasing it as a beta, so that I can gather a wide range of data in order to improve it.
It seems that a teleport will stop the creature from its chronic grunting, as will a reload, at least until it gets hit in combat again.
It also seems that setting a creature's AI to a high flee setting will crash the game if it attempts to teleport while the player is in combat (particularly with a powerful creature that would set off its flee behavior).
Setting a creature to flee is just far too buggy to consider for a teleporting creature companion.
Because of this, Cornelius is not set to flee, and will instead fight alongside the player.
A stable pacifist script for creatures has yet to be discovered. It may not be possible, but I'm still working on it for the benefit of future modders.
Creatures also have trouble pathing, and you may notice they tend to run off and walk into walls a lot more than NPC companions.
The warp scripts should be able to take care of this. If your creature does run off, try wandering far enough to kick in a warp. In my experience they always reappear eventually.
Also, creatures have a little trouble with their animations keeping up, which is a problem using the classic companion speed multiplier.
Instead of running, you get a standing guar with a twitchy leg and he kind of jumps along behind you as the warp script kicks in.
It seems that creature speeds are limited to about 450 at an absolute maximum before the animations start to bug out.
Because of this, I've limited his maximum speed to 400. He still uses the same player speed multiplier as other companions, but it will be reset to 400 if it goes over that mark.
If you're using the MWSE patch, and your guar disappears somehow, please contact me with some info about what you were doing when it happened.
If he does disappear and you get him to reappear, I'd like to know what you did to get him back as well.
I've only run into this problem once, and I think I fixed it, but I can't be 100% sure yet. I need some more testers to help run him in bit.
- warp behind the player if he lags far behind (using the most up to date version of Grumpy's follow scripting)
- teleport along with the player.
- be summoned to your location with a magical ring
- not disappear through load doors while levitating along with the player
- fix his AI if it's not returning the proper value (which can cause all sorts of problems for companions)
Cornelius even has an MWSE add-on that will allow him to follow you as you teleport to any location, even interiors, even using scripted teleportation.
This interior teleportation can be disabled using the StayOutside variable, so that he remains outdoors when you tell him to.
He can however be summoned to an interior using his ring, which will reset the variable (because it's assumed if you want to summon him inside, then you would like him to go indoors with you.)
A spell scroll is available that will teach you a set of companion command spells.
With these you can instantly tell your packguar to follow, wait, wander, and stop combat.
I've also included one of my books from Books of Vvardenfell: Packguars, Our Faithful Friends.
*****************************************************************************
Installation
*****************************************************************************
Packguar Advanced comes with two .esp files. The first is the main mod, and the second is the MWSE add-on.
If you decide to use the MWSE add-on, then you must load both files.
The MWSE add-on also requires MWSE or MGE. Any of the latest stable versions should work.
*****************************************************************************
Finding and taming Cornelius
*****************************************************************************
Cornelius and his owner have run into some trouble with a large camp of outcast Ashlanders.
Head due north of Mar Gaan and you will eventually find his (former) owner on the road, just along the border of the foyada.
Cornelius has had a rough time, so you'll need to tame him before he will follow you. You can do this by offering him food.
Once you've given him enough food to gain his trust, he will follow you so long as you keep him well fed.
Cornelius will get hungry over time, and if he gets too hungry he will stop behaving, so it's a good idea to feed him something every day to keep him happy.
One of the foods you can feed him is his favorite, and will give him double the scripted disposition that you'd gain with other foods. I won't spoil which one it is.
*****************************************************************************
Some notes about the beta, and useful info for other creature companion modders
*****************************************************************************
This scripting, particularly the dedicated MWSE scripting, is new and experimental. It seems to work great for NPCs, but creatures have their own hurdles to overcome.
For one, creature followers have the tendancy to sometimes get stuck in a sound loop if they're hit in combat. They end up constantly cycling through their attack noises.
This bug has been present in nearly all creature companion mods and it doesn't seem to mess up their ability to follow.
I've found that the AI checks out just fine when this happens. Because of this, the AI fix can't kick it, but this bug doesn't seem to be a big problem.
However, it's difficult to say exactly how they'll react to more advanced teleportation scripting, and much more testing is required to find out. This is why I'm releasing it as a beta, so that I can gather a wide range of data in order to improve it.
It seems that a teleport will stop the creature from its chronic grunting, as will a reload, at least until it gets hit in combat again.
It also seems that setting a creature's AI to a high flee setting will crash the game if it attempts to teleport while the player is in combat (particularly with a powerful creature that would set off its flee behavior).
Setting a creature to flee is just far too buggy to consider for a teleporting creature companion.
Because of this, Cornelius is not set to flee, and will instead fight alongside the player.
A stable pacifist script for creatures has yet to be discovered. It may not be possible, but I'm still working on it for the benefit of future modders.
Creatures also have trouble pathing, and you may notice they tend to run off and walk into walls a lot more than NPC companions.
The warp scripts should be able to take care of this. If your creature does run off, try wandering far enough to kick in a warp. In my experience they always reappear eventually.
Also, creatures have a little trouble with their animations keeping up, which is a problem using the classic companion speed multiplier.
Instead of running, you get a standing guar with a twitchy leg and he kind of jumps along behind you as the warp script kicks in.
It seems that creature speeds are limited to about 450 at an absolute maximum before the animations start to bug out.
Because of this, I've limited his maximum speed to 400. He still uses the same player speed multiplier as other companions, but it will be reset to 400 if it goes over that mark.
If you're using the MWSE patch, and your guar disappears somehow, please contact me with some info about what you were doing when it happened.
If he does disappear and you get him to reappear, I'd like to know what you did to get him back as well.
I've only run into this problem once, and I think I fixed it, but I can't be 100% sure yet. I need some more testers to help run him in bit.
Just a note, I've run around with him for the entire duration of my UL testing, and he's been a faithful little friend, following me wherever I go and staying outside like a good guar (except when I forgot to feed him for a few days). So his scripting seems pretty stable so far.
