One thing I've never been able to figure out is what makes creatures and npc wait longer before attacking. I've noticed that the delay increases as you progress though the game. Some one said that fame will reduce the fight value.

Mods also tend to add to the delay. I've just completed a large balancing and tweak mod and i'm getting very slow reactions even from the start.

I was able to walk into an ancestral tomb past the tweaked creature with the id "skeleton", open the chests and walk out before it attacked. And its fight value is set to 90, unaltered. The inventory of the creature is modded though.

Anyone who can shed some light on this?

I sometimes experience the same issue. If your speed and athletics are high (around 80), and you have low encumberance, you can peacefully walk past a hostile creature before it starts attacking you. And as you said, this delay is increased with mods. I would like to know what exatly causes this.

I've speculated that it might have to do with NPC's disposition towards you making them less agressive, thus they might not attack you immediately upon seeing you, if that's the case, than it might be due to your reputation and personality increasing, I don't know if it's true or not, though, and if it is, it still doesn't explain why it should apply to creatures as well.

In either case, I wish I knew of a way to stop it, as with the delay, I'm often unwilling to attack NPCs I see in dungeons before they attack me because I'm afraid they might actually not be hostile, if they want a fight, I'd rather they just get it over with.

you may want to look at http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1097214-gameplay-mechanics-anolysis/. it is stated there, the awareness-check is performed every five seconds and there is no multiplier for NPC's disposition towards the player. if you are fast enough and quickly out of range, you wouldn't be noticed by the enemy.
i've also the feeling that lower framerates let them also react slower, maybe this script is skipped by accident.

Is there a way to change the way hostile monsters and NPCs react. Like having them attack only when you are closer, or having their chase cut off sooner?

Guess I am spoiled from playing some newer games, and used to the awareness in those games. And coming back to Morrowind, it feels like the mobs are aware of my character way too soon.

I wish that it was as simple as a framerate issue ive experienced this on a new rig.

This may explain many of the cases, but what about when you walk up to a bandit in a cave, have a chat, loot the chest behind them and then when you are walking away about 8-10 secs later the npc attacks.
As with my issue with my skeleton which was a 20 sec stroll around the room and going right up to it and walking past it. It is on the verge of gamebreaking. Maybe Hrnchamd will find something more concerning the creatures.


Some occasions might be because of statics which is partially hiding the pc from the creature of npc. Though this is simply speculations. And wouldn't explain the issues stated above.

Whatever it is, MCA seems to have 'fixed' it. With default NPCs I get that lag, but MCA-added hostiles in interiors attack on sight. Maybew this doesn't solve the question, but someone might be able to look at default vs MCA and find where the difference is.

default npcs have their fight ai at 90. MCA has the fight ai at 100. that's a huge difference in how npcs engage, moreso if you mess around with the gmst. lower fight AI means more checks before engaging.

If you are using MCP and have "Allow stealing from KOed NPCs" enabled, try disabling that option and see if it helps. It unintentionally causes the effects you are describing.

How exactly did you find this out? If there's a problem with the Code Patch, you might want to post about it in the MCP thread so Hrnchamd can fix it.

Its already known. In fact, if you click on the option, the user is warned of the side effect. I played with it on for a while but eventually disabled it because I found it too annoying. However, if I was playing a character that would take advantage of such a feature, I might find the trade off acceptable.

Edit: I don't remember if it effected any creatures in addition to npcs and I don't think it was tied to pc level (it would happen even when my character was low level), but the whole thing of walking into a bandit cave, standing around waiting for the bandit to attack or walking up to them and starting a conversation, was exactly what would happen when I had it activated, so I thought I'd throw it out there as a possible cause.

The warning in the patch is that it lets you talk to hostile NPCs (normally when you activate a hostile they agress you). It's part of the activate function, so it can't affect how the NPCs notice you, it doesn't run until you try to activate them. I have checked it after someone reported it last time, and slow reactions are caused by something else, either another option or a GMST mod. You need to have a precise testing process to properly attribute cause and effect. I'm trying to figure out what it is, but it may turn out to be a vanilla feature.

Interesting. I always took the warning to be describing the whole effect I was experiencing.

One thing I do know is I went from playing hundreds of hours with the delayed attack bug constantly in effect, to no delay at all after I disabled that MCP option. I'm going to go back and see if I can replicate the problem and figure out what I did at the same time I switched it. There must be something.