Persistent ref is only really for scripting purposes. Though it's best to check it anyway just in case.

I have GotY version for PC, and I've noticed that in the CS when I only have the vanilla Oblivion esm loaded, there are some objects with a SE prefix in their IDs. I'm assuming they're from Shivering Isles since a lot of them are "SEMadness..." or "SEDementia..." even though I don't have the DLCShiveringIsles.esp loaded. If I don't want my mod to require SI, is it still safe to use these objects since I only have the Oblivion.esm (and my own mod) loaded?

SI changes the .esm file.

Great. Thanks.

Seen instances that when I add items to an NPC and equip them (after a 1 sec delay), one of the items is left unequipped.

So far, only seen it in MR (Frathen Drothan's cloak and the Morag Tong Assassin's hood). Umbra doesn't have this issue.

It only happens when I'm in the same cell as the NPC when the equip happens.

Is this a known issue?

Is it possible to stop arrows from sticking in a NPC after being shot by them? If it is possible how would one accomplish that?

Also is it possible to animate armor similar to the way weapons can be animated?

Think http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/IArrowInventoryChance GMST should change that behaviour.

I'm trying to make an arrow creating spell, that shoots a bunch of arrows from the casters hands or from the sky or something. The problem is I can't find and function that would allow me to do this.

Thanks for your time.

~I Hack Alot

I'm looking for the best way a persistent NPC which automatically levels with the player can upgrade its weapon/ armor/ spells without player intervention. (I'm building a summoned companion that won't have inventory control and should gain power as the player does.)

I guess it's not as easy as just using leveled lists, is it?

The way I do it right now is to have the summon spell script check i.e. the destruction skill and add new spells if it's 25/50/75/100. But that's kind of stupid since the summon spell is a toggle and not timed so the player (ideally) never needs to cast it again after the first summon.

To do that you'd need either:
A. an animation
B. a bunch of invisible NPC's that would be spawned in the air and shoot arrows at the enemy you shot the spell at
C. use the trick where you change the visual effect of a spell through a script. Remove all of the visuals from a script effect spell and then script it so that an arrow is spawned and follows the spell projectile through SetPos and dissapears once it hits something.

Yes but how would I spawn an arrow or npc's?

Make a dummy cell, add in invisable NPCs or an arrow, and make them persistance references with a name. Then in your script use:

[refID].MoveTo Player x,y,z

x,y,z being the units away from the player to put the arrow/NPC. Btw, the spawning arrow technique will require OBSE.

No I mean on a individual npc basis not every npc game wide. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Well you can add a script to the summon creature and add/remove weapons and armor from the beast when the player reaches a new point in the destruction skill: 25/50/75/100.

Well, my actual modding experience is rather low, except of toying around with other peoples work and doing a few quick and dirty mods for my own use. So I'm not completely ignorant to Oblivion modding but won't build the next huge overhaul soon either.
Point is, I really don't have any experience on how safe it is to have unneccessary scripts running in the background all the time in Oblivion. I know from other (older) games that permanently running scripts should be used with care as they're using up memory. Therefore I was trying to find a solution that would only call a script once in a while, do it's job and then go back to sleep.
However, if some experienced modder can tell me that it's safe to have a script running on my companion all the time, check if they qualify for an item/ spell upgrade and do the item/ spell swap if required, then I'll do it that way.

A dummy cel being a new room?

Usually that's not something to be worried about with oblivion. You would need A LOT of scripts running at the same time to make a difference. If all you would be doing is checking the player's destruction skill then it shouldn't have any noticable impact on performance


yeah a new room in the interiors section.

[BUMPED REPOST]

Seen instances that when I add items to an NPC and equip them (after a 1 sec delay), one of the items is left unequipped.

So far, only seen it in MR (Frathen Drothan's cloak and the Morag Tong Assassin's hood). Umbra doesn't have this issue.

It only happens when I'm in the same cell as the NPC when the equip happens.

Is this a known issue?

Never had such an issue.

Like the poster above said, you can get away with several scripts running at once. But if you are interested in starting and stopping scripts only when they're needed, you can do that too. Quest scripts are what we're talkinga about here. They're basically global scripts that run when the quest they're attached to is active. There's a command to start a quest (StartQuest [questID]) and a command to stop a quest (StopQuest [questID]). So when you tell those quests to start and stop, you're also telling their attached scripts to start and stop processing. You can also put the StopQuest command at the end of the quest's script so it shuts itself off.

Thanks for the reply. Encouraged me to take another look at the issue.

Changing from calling EquipItem with a levelled list to calling it with an item solved the problem.

Why I only saw it with MR, I have no idea.

I'm a little confused on something involving adding images to books/scrolls. On http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Book_Formatting#.3CIMG.3E page on the CS Wiki, they say:


But in the CS, the Black Horse Courier header image is 512x128 (ID: Broadsheet01). How does this resolution not crash the game when you look at the scroll? Is it a matter of total area of pixels, or do the width and height have max sizes?

I'm aware of the possibility of quest scripts. The problem is just, how would I tell the game when to start the quest? As I had to write a script monitoring my companions skills and level and then start the item swap quest anyway, I'll go with the NPC script thing right away. Thanks all.

Width and height of texture should be power of 2. Example: 512=2^9, 128=2^7.

I'm looking to increase the damage done by Spiddalstick gas clouds, but not sure which variable to modify in the script. Can anyone help? Thanks.