Reference aliases getting cleared

[WhippinGirl]

So I got a little bit of free time, and I decided to play around in the CK again.  I put together a little quest in which the reference aliases are forced to 'NONE' to start, and then eventually filled with a spell later using placeAtMe() and forceRefTo().  Yes, I know that placeAtMe() can cause save game bloat, but I'm being careful to delete them when done.  That's why I'm using reference aliases to track them. 

 

Everything works great - until I exit and restart Skyrim.  When I reload the game, all of the reference aliases are set to 'NONE' again.  This is from checking with showquestvars from the console.  I also checked before shutting the game down, and the aliases are getting filled properly.  If I just save the game and reload - without quitting the game - everything works fine.  It's only if I shut down the game and start it again.  I looked over my code, and I have logging turned on with trace statements in my code.  There's a log statement in every function.  It appears that none of my code runs on startup, which is correct, because I'm using events for everything.  So I don't see how my code could be causing the aliases to get cleared.  showquestvars also reports that the quest is running properly. If I understand reference aliases correctly, this shouldn't be happening.  Even the player alias, which is specifically forced to the player, is getting cleared.

 

Here's how I have things set up.  The player casts a spell, which creates the actor using placeAtMe(), and then forces the actor into a reference alias using forceRefTo().  The reference aliases have scripts and AI packages on them.  If there are no empty aliases, the spell fails and no actor is created.

 

Using another spell, the player can select one of the actors, and through an onActivate() event, the player can select a furniture object.  Once both a furniture object is selected and an actor is selected, the furniture object gets forced into a corresponding reference alias, so that actor uses that furniture object.  So I select the actor who is in *actor* slot 6, and then select a furniture object, and the script forces the furniture object into *furniture* slot 6.  Actor slot 6 has an AI package on it to use whatever furniture is in furniture slot 6.  If an actor dies, the reference is deleted via delete() in the onDeath() event.

 

This works great - except that when I exit the game and reload, all of the aliases are cleared.  I've created a script that reassigns the actors based on tokens in the actor's inventory when the game is reloaded, but this is a kludge and doesn't work for the furniture objects (they're getting cleared, too). It also runs in an update loop, which I was trying to avoid to keep papyrus load minimal. I don't want to take out the reference alias mechanism, because that's how I keep from getting save game bloat from placeAtMe().

 

Does anyone have any insight?

 

 

[WhippinGirl]

Now I don't feel so bad for not knowing how to fix this. LOL

 

So maybe if I knew what all non-code events can clear a reference alias, that would at least help me out.  Does anyone know?

[Heromaster]

No event clears an Alias out of the blue sky.

 

There is obviously something wrong with your plugin. I would have to take a look to get a picture because your problem sounds really bizarre.

[WhippinGirl]

Well, thanks for the reply and for thinking it through, but if it's going to be complex to fix, I don't want you to spend your time trying to fix something I don't intend to release anyway.  I'm really just playing around and trying to learn the CK a little better.  I was hoping it was something simple that could be fixed easily.

[trepleen]

Have you guys figured out this problem? I have the same issue.

 

When I save the game and reload, my reference alias that was set gets cleared.

[Heromaster]

Also the offer you, send me your project and I can take a look.

[trepleen]

I figured it out.  I was using too many reference aliases for a single NPC.

 

For my NPC companion I'm making, I only need ONE reference alias.  As soon as I resorted to using a single alias for my companion, I've had no problems with aliases getting randomly cleared.

 

I was basically using reference aliases the wrong way.

 

1. make a single reference alias

2. choose unique actor

3. attach a script that does a debug.messagebox("hi") on the onint() event.

4. start new game

 

When you see the "hi" messagebox, you know the alias has been filled properly AUTOMATICALLY, which is the way it was intended to be.

There is no need to use forcerefto that I can see.

 

If you need to use multiple packages for this NPC, add multiple packages to the reference alias, then apply conditions to each package, like GetStage = 500, For another package getstage = 600, etc.

 

Often times you can use packages for one time use by creating a scene.