Run For Your Lives

A small mod that makes citizens in a village or city run indoors during a dragon attack.

This was born out of frustration at seeing the citizens all trying to be a hero and rushing headlong to their doom attacking dragons. Instead, when the guards yell for everyone to get inside, the citizens will actually do it. They'll run back to where their start locations are, locking the doors behind them. When the attack is over they resume their schedules as normal.

This should work for any NPCs added by mods as well, up to a limit of 75 in the area. After that, they're on their own. The NPCs chosen are first come, first serve by the game engine. NPCs who live in other areas will flee back to those areas, but will return once the fighting is over.

Guards and followers will not run, they will stand and fight. Farm animals will not run either, because they're stupid. That includes your horse.

Downloads

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23906
http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/1327-run-for-your-lives/
http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/files/file/372-run-for-your-lives/
http://afkmods.iguanadons.net/files/Run-For-Your-Lives-67/

Installation Requirements

Official Skyrim patch 1.6.89 or greater.

Installation - Wrye Bash BAIN

Drop the archive into your Skyrim Mods\Bash Installers folder, then install as usual.
Make sure the mod is active in the Wrye Bash mods tab.

Installation - Nexus Mod Manager

Use the "Download with Manager" button on the Run For Your Lives page at Skyrim Nexus. The installer should take care of things from there.
Then simply make sure NMM has the mod activated.

Installation - Manual

Drop the Run For Your Lives.esp and Run For Your Lives.bsa files into your Data folder.
Activate the mod using whatever management tool suits you.

Uninstall

Remove the two files from the Data folder.

This mod has no continually updating scripts so the contamination of your save game will be minimal.

Known Issues

Mods which generate multiple dragons in a single attack will only send the citizens indoors until the first dragon is dead. Afterward they will likely emerge into the thick of battle, so be careful.

Citizens whose start locations are outdoors will still be vulnerable to attack. This cannot be helped. Fortunately in the vanilla game very few NPCs start off outdoors.

Compatibility

This mod should be compatible with everything except another mod that edits the specific dialogue response my script has been attached to.

This addresses a very big issue in the game, part of the reason I didn't want to do the main quest. Any chance you could also make this work for Civil War quests, and the Forsworn assault in Markarth? It would be nice not to have people die every time there's a big fight...

This should already exist for the civil war. That's where I stumbled over the elegant logic and copied from to get this working.

The Forsworn attack has dialogue built in later in the game that talks about people being dead and it wouldn't make a lot of sense to hear about that when everyone ran for cover instead.

Will this work with the Essential NPC's mod and Interesting NPC's?

No REL tag? I thought Arthmoor was warning us about some inbound calamity at first.

This should work on any NPC who happens to be in the area at the time of the attack. Redundant for essentials, but everyone should run for their start locations. Yes, that means if you have out of town visitors that they'll simply leave the area until the attack is over.

There is a limit of 75 potential NPCs though, which is the same as the civil war quest I duplicated for this. I highly doubt there will ever be that many NPCs in one spot in need of evac.

Oops on the RELz tag.

Excellent. Waited a long time for a mod like this.

Will the npcs scream and cry out as they scarper? Or are they more calm and stoic?

Aaand another mod closer to the limit...

Dude this is brilliant. Such a simple idea, and yet wasn't included in the game. Now I don't have to worry about dragons killing poor farmers and maidens!

Could you add a few exeptions for NPCs like Mjoll, where it would make sense that they fight?

Of course a great mod, now is the only thing to worry about the stupid vampire attacks from Dawnguard.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21615

I just grabbed this though i use essential npcs but this is an excellent immersive mods.....my thanks to the author.

Excellent, thanks .

Arthmoor, there is a limit to how many incredible mods one person can release, and you've broken it. By order of the court, you're under arrest.

[Pay fine]
[Go to jail]
[Resist Arrest]

Finally other people will actually react to the GIANT LIZARD BREATHING FIRE AT US in the appropriate manner.

Fantastic mod just what I was looking for!
Can someone tell me the name of the mod that does this for the Civil War I've looked but I've been unable to find it.

I think he means he found the logic there in the vanilla scripts, so it should already happen for the civil war without a mod.

Arthmoor, I have so much for you right now!

I've just reread the post and yes you are right , now I feel silly

And another mod from Arthmoor in my data folder...

Well done, man!

Look up the quest CWCitizensFlee in the CK. That's what I duplicated and modified for this.