Animal Research: The Insatiable Scholar

[killer905]

10 minutes ago, eflat01 said:

 

Like I said she's like one of the first npcs I hit up in a game, so does escape me what dialog happened like a year ago in my current game save.  Personally I never had killed her because I enjoy her little quest to gain the skill and win her bow. Beside I like her character, that's why I mark her protected... sometimes if you're near her area she can have an encounter with a dragon, and my game's dragons are not pushovers.

 

Owwww, Angi love this post :3

[Donuts4me]

11 hours ago, KentuckyExpat said:

Not to be too dense, but why would Angi be dead? When Tirwin and our PC first meet her, she does threaten them and she could be killed at that point, but if that happened, there would be no Snowflake sex since, at that point, only Angi can summon him. Does she threaten them if they return to her camp afterwards?

 

7 hours ago, eflat01 said:

 

Like I said she's like one of the first npcs I hit up in a game, so does escape me what dialog happened like a year ago in my current game save.  Personally I never had killed her because I enjoy her little quest to gain the skill and win her bow. Beside I like her character, that's why I mark her protected... sometimes if you're near her area she can have an encounter with a dragon, and my game's dragons are not pushovers.

 

 

Some players can be jerks and kill innocent NPCs for no reason! 

 

But yeah, dragons are usually the leading cause of NPC deaths for me.

 

I looked at the quest through CK and noticed Gristle prepared for this. If Angi is alive when you approach her camp, the quest is set to have the player talk to her first and then the book spawns. If she is dead, Gristle used the GetDead function to make the book just appear when you approach the camp. Snowflake will appear after reading the book and there are different dialogue lines. The Snowflake quest can still be finished. Just an important ingredient will be missing. 

[killer905]

6 hours ago, Donuts4me said:

 

 

Some players can be jerks and kill innocent NPCs for no reason! 

 

But yeah, dragons are usually the leading cause of NPC deaths for me.

 

I looked at the quest through CK and noticed Gristle prepared for this. If Angi is alive when you approach her camp, the quest is set to have the player talk to her first and then the book spawns. If she is dead, Gristle used the GetDead function to make the book just appear when you approach the camp. Snowflake will appear after reading the book and there are different dialogue lines. The Snowflake quest can still be finished. Just an important ingredient will be missing. 

In truth, Gristle didn't know that PC could kill Angi, but I did. And that's the only reason why there is this feature ^^

 

 

But that doesn't mean that in my saves I killed NPCs for no reason

[KentuckyExpat]

19 hours ago, eflat01 said:

 

I don't remember Angi threatening us. She has always greeted me, "Hello friend"  - then again she's one of the first npcs outside those in Riverwood and Whiterun I go visit.

Maybe it's in the vanilla game but she initially is suspicious of who you are and tells you that she is a dead shot with her bow... or words to that effect.

[Gristle]

On 5/14/2025 at 5:42 AM, killer905 said:

In SexLab -> Animations Settings try uncheck "Disable Scaling / CTD Fix" and select "Even Actors Height"

 

In addition, it would be a good idea to check on another NPC High Elf to be sure that this only ditches Tirwin.... AND a screenshot would help illustrate the problem.

Tirwin's height was set in her Actor record in the CK to 0.94 to make her shorter than the standard female high elf height because she was towering over everyone and because it made her appear as a younger elf.  Based on that, I agree with your advice.

[eflat01]

5 hours ago, KentuckyExpat said:

Maybe it's in the vanilla game but she initially is suspicious of who you are and tells you that she is a dead shot with her bow... or words to that effect.

 

Well wouldn't you if some stranger just walked into your yard? 😂Well maybe your home.., her back story is great in explaining why she's living in a shack on the mountain. She very quickly warms up to you and gives you pointers in how to use a bow in hunting. (Then again the bodies of annoying vacuum cleaner salesmen and postmen delivering bills were probably dumped down the mountainside.)

Edited May 15, 2025 by eflat01

[eflat01]

21 hours ago, killer905 said:

Owwww, Angi love this post :3

 

A country gal will always catch my heart with little more than just a smile.

[killer905]

34 minutes ago, eflat01 said:

 

Well wouldn't you if some stranger just walked into your yard? 😂Well maybe your home.., her back story is great in explaining why she's living in a shack on the mountain. She very quickly warms up to you and gives you pointers in how to use a bow in hunting. (Then again the bodies of annoying vacuum cleaner salesmen and postmen delivering bills were probably dumped down the mountainside.)

[Slimreb]

Just wanted to post to say that I have enjoyed this mod so far. Tirwin is a great character. I can't wait for future updates to continue the story line for this mod.

Edited May 18, 2025 by Slimreb

[assassin394]

Hi. Is it safe to upgrade from AnimalResearch v0.22 SE to latest version mid game? I have 0.22 version installed on my current save. But I haven't even start the first quest yet.

Edited May 18, 2025 by assassin394

[eflat01]

1 hour ago, assassin394 said:

Hi. Is it safe to upgrade from AnimalResearch v0.22 SE to latest version mid game? I have 0.22 version installed on my current save. But I haven't even start the first quest yet.

 

Especially a yes if you had not started the first quest... 

 

There should be no issues mid-game unless you're in the middle of  any of it's particular quests. Then it's best to either finish that current quest before updating, It's either that or find and load a prior save which was "between quests" to use and then update.

 

I usually dismiss Tirwin back to the Bannered Mare before updating too, just to keep the little elf girl safe.

Edited May 18, 2025 by eflat01

[killer905]

2 hours ago, assassin394 said:

Hi. Is it safe to upgrade from AnimalResearch v0.22 SE to latest version mid game? I have 0.22 version installed on my current save. But I haven't even start the first quest yet.

If you have never visited Bannered Mare (The quest starts ‘hidden’ during the conversation between Naryu and Tirwin) since version 0.22, there should be no problems. Otherwise there may only be problems in the first task.

[killer905]

Note: 

Many problems/bugs have been solved/fixed, but there are still 4 more creatures waiting for the next update.

 

18.05 - The third quest has been completed.

 

An informative post for the next Animal Research update.

 

- 3 quets out of 6 (May change during development) have been completed.

- Redid the riekling/boar cave and quest and wiped out all mods to the vanilla cave

- Added repeatable quests for bear and elk. (Talk to Ria for bear, elk is just there)

- Fixed bug which caused Tirwin to have transparent hair if the user uses EMB

- Removed objective from innkeeper and placed objective on Naryu immediately after Naryu force greet during Netch quest

- Added additional stages to force greets to prevent double force greets
- Added backup dialogue if force greet dialogue is interrupted or times out - WORK IN PROGRESS: All non-post-sex force greets are done. About the first 1/3 of post-sex force greets are.
- Removed bug blocking Ragnar sex requests after arrival in Dragon Bridge
- Moved Northern Maiden Raven Rock crew back to Raven Rock after Northwind departs
- Moved Northwind crew back to Windhelm after voyage to Solitude is complete

[assassin394]

2 hours ago, killer905 said:

If you have never visited Bannered Mare (The quest starts ‘hidden’ during the conversation between Naryu and Tirwin) since version 0.22, there should be no problems. Otherwise there may only be problems in the first task.

I did visit Bannered Mare and when Tirwin approach me asking for help I turn her down.

[Donuts4me]

1 hour ago, assassin394 said:

I did visit Bannered Mare and when Tirwin approach me asking for help I turn her down.

 

You should be ok then. If you turned her down that means the quest has not even started. In my experience with modding, updating midgame is only dangerous when quests are already in progress.

[killer905]

1 hour ago, assassin394 said:

I did visit Bannered Mare and when Tirwin approach me asking for help I turn her down.

 

33 minutes ago, Donuts4me said:

 

You should be ok then. If you turned her down that means the quest has not even started. In my experience with modding, updating midgame is only dangerous when quests are already in progress.

Technically the quest is already in progress only you can't see it, but there shouldn't be any major problems.

[themodleyfool]

On a new play through and I encountered a problem that I didn't have the first time with the first / initial Main Quest. I picked up the Taming Wolves book from Ilinalta's Deep but the quest didn't progress. None of the dialog with Tirwin was available. I used the console to progress to the next stages - 40, 42, 50 - but at each point the dialog with Tirwin and Aela simply didn't show up.

 

After reloading I found that something had already set stage 65 of the quest, which seemed to prevent the earlier stages from running, or having any effect when I used setstage to trigger them

 

I think what caused this was the following:

• I started the quest by speaking to Tirwin in the Bannered Mare.
• I killed the bandits at the cage early on in my play through as these are easy kills for the XP.
• I must have picked up the key to the cage at that point, and it's possibly this action that caused stage 65 to be set.
• I eventually got around to Ilinalta's Deep, cleared it out and found the book. But then nothing happened.

 

So I think the preventative solution is to make sure that you do not pick up the key to the wolf cage if you kill the bandits before going to Ilinalta's Deep. I don't know whether it's simple or difficult for the mod author to disable the key initially until you reach stage 60, but this would presumably prevent others from making the same mistake as me.

 

If anyone else is having this problem, you need to pick up the book from Ilinalta's Deep, then run:

• setstage VAR_MainQuest 40
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 42
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 50
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 60
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 62

Kill any bandits near to the cage, make sure you've still got the key to the Wolf Cage with you. Open the cage then the quest and dialog should progress as normal.

 

As always, huge thanks to the mod author for all their effort on not just writing it in the first place, but continuing to support it and put up with all of our problems and complaints!

 

Edited May 19, 2025 by themodleyfool

[Serenity_XXI]

Hey I'm having an issue with the Werebear quest, when he transforms into the Werebear it works briefly for an instant, but then almost immediately the game switches the skin to the regular Werewolf one instead.

 

His race is still set to Werebear if I check via the console. But just the skin is changed. The correct Werebear skin does work briefly for an instant at first though.

 

I know this is probably not an issue caused directly by Animal Research, but likely something else in my load order, but any ideas what it could be? I've gone over all werewolf related mods I have and doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary that I could find.

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

 

UPDATE (problem solved):

 

There was some erroneous entry in Creature Framework under "werebear" which you couldn't assign a model for. Maybe leftover from something? Idk.

 

Using "Re-register all mods" from its MCM prior to starting the scene with Vilfred fixed the problem. He now keeps the Werebear skin as intended.

 

 

Edited May 19, 2025 by Serenity_XXI

[killer905]

3 hours ago, themodleyfool said:

On a new play through and I encountered a problem that I didn't have the first time with the first / initial Main Quest. I picked up the Taming Wolves book from Ilinalta's Deep but the quest didn't progress. None of the dialog with Tirwin was available. I used the console to progress to the next stages - 40, 42, 50 - but at each point the dialog with Tirwin and Aela simply didn't show up.

 

After reloading I found that something had already set stage 65 of the quest, which seemed to prevent the earlier stages from running, or having any effect when I used setstage to trigger them

 

I think what caused this was the following:

• I started the quest by speaking to Tirwin in the Bannered Mare.
• I killed the bandits at the cage early on in my play through as these are easy kills for the XP.
• I must have picked up the key to the cage at that point, and it's possibly this action that caused stage 65 to be set.
• I eventually got around to Ilinalta's Deep, cleared it out and found the book. But then nothing happened.

 

So I think the preventative solution is to make sure that you do not pick up the key to the wolf cage if you kill the bandits before going to Ilinalta's Deep. I don't know whether it's simple or difficult for the mod author to disable the key initially until you reach stage 60, but this would presumably prevent others from making the same mistake as me.

 

If anyone else is having this problem, you need to pick up the book from Ilinalta's Deep, then run:

• setstage VAR_MainQuest 40
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 42
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 50
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 60
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 62

Kill any bandits near to the cage, make sure you've still got the key to the Wolf Cage with you. Open the cage then the quest and dialog should progress as normal.

 

As always, huge thanks to the mod author for all their effort on not just writing it in the first place, but continuing to support it and put up with all of our problems and complaints!

 

stage 65, it's practically picking up the key.

 

Normally I'd suggest a resetquest, but it doesn't work in this case and I'd suggest you load the save before instantiating Animal Research or new save and experience the story from the beginning until the wolf is freed, then revert to the old save for further story.

 

As for the key, just picking it up triggers the quest also you would have it in the log.

 

I will report the problem directly to Gristle to fix.

 

The solution I see here is that the key will only appear in the chest after talking to Aela.

[killer905]

2 hours ago, Serenity_XXI said:

Hey I'm having an issue with the Werebear quest, when he transforms into the Werebear it works briefly for an instant, but then almost immediately the game switches the skin to the regular Werewolf one instead.

 

His race is still set to Werebear if I check via the console. But just the skin is changed. The correct Werebear skin does work briefly for an instant at first though.

 

I know this is probably not an issue caused directly by Animal Research, but likely something else in my load order, but any ideas what it could be? I've gone over all werewolf related mods I have and doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary that I could find.

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

 

UPDATE (problem solved):

 

There was some erroneous entry in Creature Framework under "werebear" which you couldn't assign a model for. Maybe leftover from something? Idk.

 

Using "Re-register all mods" from its MCM prior to starting the scene with Vilfred fixed the problem. He now keeps the Werebear skin as intended.

 

 

Nice that you succeeded in solving the problem and shared the solution ❤️

[eflat01]

4 hours ago, themodleyfool said:

On a new play through and I encountered a problem that I didn't have the first time with the first / initial Main Quest. I picked up the Taming Wolves book from Ilinalta's Deep but the quest didn't progress. None of the dialog with Tirwin was available. I used the console to progress to the next stages - 40, 42, 50 - but at each point the dialog with Tirwin and Aela simply didn't show up.

 

After reloading I found that something had already set stage 65 of the quest, which seemed to prevent the earlier stages from running, or having any effect when I used setstage to trigger them

 

I think what caused this was the following:

• I started the quest by speaking to Tirwin in the Bannered Mare.
• I killed the bandits at the cage early on in my play through as these are easy kills for the XP.
• I must have picked up the key to the cage at that point, and it's possibly this action that caused stage 65 to be set.
• I eventually got around to Ilinalta's Deep, cleared it out and found the book. But then nothing happened.

 

So I think the preventative solution is to make sure that you do not pick up the key to the wolf cage if you kill the bandits before going to Ilinalta's Deep. I don't know whether it's simple or difficult for the mod author to disable the key initially until you reach stage 60, but this would presumably prevent others from making the same mistake as me.

 

If anyone else is having this problem, you need to pick up the book from Ilinalta's Deep, then run:

• setstage VAR_MainQuest 40
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 42
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 50
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 60
• setstage VAR_MainQuest 62

Kill any bandits near to the cage, make sure you've still got the key to the Wolf Cage with you. Open the cage then the quest and dialog should progress as normal.

 

As always, huge thanks to the mod author for all their effort on not just writing it in the first place, but continuing to support it and put up with all of our problems and complaints!

 

 

Ya know, out of curiosity I have to wonder if : 

 

resetquest VAR_MainQuest

 

is a feasible fix for such things early on? If so, that would be a way to save players from a bit of headache...

 

Yes it's picking up the key is what sets stage 65. In many quests moving backwards in stages does not work depending on how the script snippets flow. (just setting stage may not work if a stage actually does some work like maintenance) 

 

In my first playthrough, I picked up the key before I was suppose to and had to put the key back and pick it up again to advance the objective to approach the wolf cage.

Spoiler

Yes my dragonborn is a shady thieving little fem fatale, with very sticking fingers - pun might be intended? She'll sneak , misdirect, bat her eyes, use her charm and all her womanly wiles, prostitute herself or maybe even just offer use of her body, just to deceive and rob near anything and everything not nailed down. 

 

In Markart, from prostitution, burglary, theft, and pedaling skooma her bounty was about a half-million spetims, which she had to take care of  when she got arrested while attempting to play through No One Escapes Cidhna Mine. 

 

Edited May 19, 2025 by eflat01

[killer905]

44 minutes ago, eflat01 said:

 

Ya know, out of curiosity I have to wonder if : 

 

resetquest VAR_MainQuest

 

is a feasible fix for such things early on? If so, that would be a way to save players from a bit of headache...

 

Yes it's picking up the key is what sets stage 65. In many quests moving backwards in stages does not work depending on how the script snippets flow. (just setting stage may not work if a stage actually does some work like maintenance) 

 

In my first playthrough, I picked up the key before I was suppose to and had to put the key back and pick it up again to advance the objective to approach the wolf cage.

  Reveal hidden contents

Yes my dragonborn is a shady thieving little fem fatale, with very sticking fingers - pun might be intended? She'll sneak , misdirect, bat her eyes, use her charm and all her womanly wiles, prostitute herself or maybe even just offer use of her body, just to deceive and rob near anything and everything not nailed down. 

 

In Markart, from prostitution, burglary, theft, and pedaling skooma her bounty was about a half-million spetims, which she had to take care of  when she got arrested while attempting to play through No One Escapes Cidhna Mine. 

 

Mhhm, I mentioned resetquest command, but unfortunately this causes the quest to block up i.e. setstage var_mainquest 10 will no longer work to get Tirwin and Naryu to start a conversation with each other. Other stages will also stop working after using this command.

[eflat01]

2 hours ago, killer905 said:

stage 65, it's practically picking up the key.

 

Normally I'd suggest a resetquest, but it doesn't work in this case and I'd suggest you load the save before instantiating Animal Research or new save and experience the story from the beginning until the wolf is freed, then revert to the old save for further story.

 

As for the key, just picking it up triggers the quest also you would have it in the log.

 

I will report the problem directly to Gristle to fix.

 

The solution I see here is that the key will only appear in the chest after talking to Aela.

 

Imo, and this would be quite a bit of work, but at some point that whole area including the caged wolf, etc... shouldn't be set up until the conversation with Aela. iow talk to Aela does a setstage which fires a script to enable the objects and place the items needed at the location.  

Edited May 19, 2025 by eflat01

[eflat01]

15 minutes ago, killer905 said:

Mhhm, I mentioned resetquest command, but unfortunately this causes the quest to block up i.e. setstage var_mainquest 10 will no longer work to get Tirwin and Naryu to start a conversation with each other. Other stages will also stop working after using this command.

 

I see, yes resetquest becomes a tricky thing - a gamble - when there are some variables and triggers involved. All it does is reset stage values which may leave other variables already set.

Edited May 19, 2025 by eflat01

[killer905]

1 hour ago, eflat01 said:

 

Imo, and this would be quite a bit of work, but at some point that whole area including the caged wolf, etc... shouldn't be set up until the conversation with Aela. iow talk to Aela does a setstage which fires a script to enable the objects and place the items needed at the location.  

The quest with the wolf was the first quest created, and it was not taken into account that the player would go there even before the Tirwin quest started. And here we have the effects that need fixing.