Need help with "UseWeapon" procedure in Lead/Escort AI package

[Guest]

I'm trying to make a default AI package template for a number of my mods, where an NPC makes the PC go to a destination, i.e. the NPC walks in front of the player towards the destination, and if the player lags behind, they turn around, speak a prompt and give the player a few motivational lashes with a cane, then walk again towards the destination.
I have reverse-engineered the package used by Slaves of Tamriel called "SLTPKGLeadSlave". As far as I can tell, my recreated package is exactly the same as the original (except that I allow for the NPC to use a horse and preferred paths in the escort procedure, but even if disabled, this has no effect on the below-described issue).
The package works perfectly except for one major flaw. The NPC never actually uses the cane on the player. She starts walking toward the destination, and keeps going, if the player follows. If not, she turns around, walks back to the player, speaks the prompt, fails to use the cane, and heads back towards her destination. As long as the player doesn't move, she keeps returning and speaking the prompt, which is exactly the behavior I am looking for, except for the missing punishment. I've been staring at this for hours now, and I just can't figure out why this is the case. (even though this should not be necessary, I do have the same weapon placed in the NPCs inventory, but to no avail).
Can anyone please point me in the right direction? What am I missing?
 

 

Edit: Just as I was posting this, I've noticed that Slaves of Tamriel uses a Sequence-type branch rather a Stacked one, at the highest level. But even after changing this, the NPC still won't use the cane. The difference is hat she won't resume her journey, and just keeps standing in the spot where she walks back to prompt the player (she does speak the prompts).

Edit 2: The reason for the NPC stopping when the top-level branch is set to sequence was, of course, because "repeat when complete" was not checked. The cane not drawn and used issue persists, though. The NPC stays put even after checking the box (like it is checked in SoT). Whipping still doesn't work.

Edited October 9, 2022 by gargamel9

[traison]

I'm a complete noob at this so you'll have to wait for someone else to help, however I do have one thing to share; and that is that not all things in the CK actually do anything. What I typically do when "exploring new areas" is find an example of where the feature was used in the vanilla game. If it doesn't exist, its somewhat likely it was never implemented. For a simple example of what I mean, open the MGEF dialog. There's spell crafting stuff at the bottom which is not a thing in Skyrim.

 

If all else fails, I'm fairly certain you can make actors attack (or at least play the attack animation) using scripts. So if you can squeeze that in there, maybe that's "plan B".

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, traison said:

I'm a complete noob at this so you'll have to wait for someone else to help, however I do have one thing to share; and that is that not all things in the CK actually do anything. What I typically do when "exploring new areas" is find an example of where the feature was used in the vanilla game. If it doesn't exist, its somewhat likely it was never implemented. For a simple example of what I mean, open the MGEF dialog. There's spell crafting stuff at the bottom which is not a thing in Skyrim.

 

If all else fails, I'm fairly certain you can make actors attack (or at least play the attack animation) using scripts. So if you can squeeze that in there, maybe that's "plan B".

Thanks for your reply. But in this case, this mechanism does exist, and does work in the above-linked Slaves of Tamriel mod, and similar packages (not with an escort mechanic, but with UseWeapon) do exist in the vanilla game, too. And I can§t spot anything I am doing differently than how it is done in those... It's probably something really stupid, but I just can't figure it out. I don't wan't to resort to a script, if possible, for multiple reasons. And there should be no need to, as this can work. 

[Guest]

Solved! The issue was with the weapon I was using, in combination with the aforementioned wrong branch setting of Stacked, rather than Sequence. When I tested a different weapon, I still had the top branch set to stacked. With sequence, I only tested the custom cane. As to why my version of the cane breaks the procedure, I have no clue.