In a large worldspace, I have some hostile NPCs enabled that are supposed to fight the player and his two followers.

About 5 NPC's total.

The first few, nearest to where the player enters the worldspace, behave as expected. Combat music starts, followers and Hostile NPCs draw their swords, and they run toward each other into combat.

After those are killed, the few NPCs up ahead do nothing, along with the followers. They both draw their swords, and stare at each other, combat music starts, but they will not budge. They stare each other down indefinitely.

If I approach one of the NPCs in "stare down" he will swing at me. As soon as I walk away, he stops swinging, does not follow, and stares me down, still in combat.

Last time I posted, this was shrugged off as a pathgrid problem, but it is not. I assure you it is not. The pathgrids are perfect, and I've tried deleting them altogether, remaking them, everything. These NPCs just stare at one another, in combat, but don't fight unless their target it in their face. They won't leave where they are standing to fight.

Furthermore, if I kill every hostile NPC, a quest update is triggered that causes a player follower to approach him and talk. The follower, who previously would not budge and just "stare each other down" when in combat, merrily runs over once that update is triggered. Pathgrids have been ruled out in every way, shape, and form.

Any ideas?