I'm puttering around in the CK figuring out how NPCs work.

[Mister_Discrete]

To you experienced modders out there, this will seem quaint, I'm sure. But since I'm slowly learning how things work, I decided to just take a look at a couple of NPCs I have ideas for tweaking once I know how.

 

Anyway, I was looking at the differences between NPCs you can marry, and ones you can't. As eventually, I want to make one in particular marriable. Specifically Lisbet, in Markarth. So I opened her up in the CK, and I found something interesting.  Apparently, she's set as Thonar Silverblood's "Lover". I found that odd. Considering the fact that in all my many play-throughs, I don't think I've ever once seen these two NPCs in the same cell, let alone ever interact.

So I set about googling around to see if anyone else ever has. The answer is "No". But I did stumble upon a few people occasionally complaining about a "bug" where if you kill Thonar, Lisbet will hate you forever and refuse to trade with you.

So I'm wondering. Is this actually a bug? Or was it part of some cut content that was never fully realized in the final, released version of the game?

 

Moreover...if I were to eventually change Lisbet into a potential follower/spouse, would removing that relationship setting with Thonar break something else I'm unaware of?

[Fotogen]

Lisbet has relation with some other NPC: not a bug.

 

This relationship not used by game: it is. Kinda. If you kill that "lover", she hates you. So this is used by the game. She may also hire assasins to kill you.

It works like:

- if NPC dies, check if it had any friend or relatives(like this relationship Lover), then maybe hire thugs to revenge the dead.

- if NPC dies, check if it had any friend or relatives and then send inheritance to that friend or relative. Its where that letter from jarl comes. Sorry your friend died, heres hes inheritance, ...

- if NPC dies, an enemy of that NPC may actualy like the killer more

 

Remove relationship: it will probably not break anything. But you also don't have to remove it. Why would you do that? Plus, Lisbet will hate you only if you killed Thonar. Skyrim is a harsh world. Accidents happen ...

 

[Mister_Discrete]

4 hours ago, Fotogen said:

 Why would you do that?

 

Because I hate the Silverblood family for being Stormcloak sympathizers.  I also don't much like the idea of killing an NPC and then another NPC who never interacts with the one I killed off hating me for it.

 

Suppose I figure out how to make Lisbet into a spouse, then in-game Marry her...then later, kill Thonar. Would that make my wife hate me for killing her former(?) lover?

[Fotogen]

1 hour ago, Mister_Discrete said:

Suppose I figure out how to make Lisbet into a spouse, then in-game Marry her...then later, kill Thonar. Would that make my wife hate me for killing her former(?) lover?

Add Lisbet to faction PotentialMarriageFaction with rank -1 and your done.

 

You kill Thonar after? No idea. Never was in that situation.

 

I checked in CK. Thonar is husband to Betrid and Lisbets lover. Hes a sneaky one. He is also Essential. So hard to kill. But depends how that Escape from cidhna mine ends up, he may become not Essential. I think you side with Madanach/forsworn and at the end Thonar may get killed in final battle.

 

[Mister_Discrete]

24 minutes ago, Fotogen said:

Add Lisbet to faction PotentialMarriageFaction with rank -1 and your done.

 

You kill Thonar after? No idea. Never was in that situation.

 

I checked in CK. Thonar is husband to Betrid and Lisbets lover. Hes a sneaky one. He is also Essential. So hard to kill. But depends how that Escape from cidhna mine ends up, he may become not Essential. I think you side with Madanach/forsworn and at the end Thonar may get killed in final battle.

 

It's that simple? I assume it's a similar process for making her into a potential follower as well then?

 

Here's what I ultimately want to do.

 

1. Make her  potential spouse (got that solved, thank you!)

 

2. Make her a potential follower who can level up with the player.

 

3. Give her different hair and starting outfit.

 

Giving her different starting gear appears to be pretty straightforward.  The hair seems to be much trickier. In the CK, the new hair doesn't actually appear on her head, it seems to be floating over it.

 

As for the follower stuff... Like I said, I'm guessing it's similar to making her a potential spouse. But will she level up or forever be stuck at level 6?

[Fotogen]

For reference check lets say Lydia(housecarlWhiterun). Add to 2 factions and done. Leveling: in Actors "Stats" page, NPC must have Leveling Data / "PC Level Mult" checked.

[Mister_Discrete]

9 minutes ago, Fotogen said:

For reference check lets say Lydia(housecarlWhiterun). Add to 2 factions and done. Leveling: in Actors "Stats" page, NPC must have Leveling Data / "PC Level Mult" checked.

Alright. I will test that out.

[Mister_Discrete]

Well, I successfully changed her factions, hair, and outfit. So I'm calling that a partial success. When I got the the stats area, it seemed way more complex than I was anticipating. I'm not really confident enough to start manipulating those entries. A bit scared I'll break something.