Temporary Actors? What determines this?

[varenne]

Been looking in CS, OBSE and on the web for an answer to this, for quite some time. What exactly determines if an NPC is of status Temporary Actor or not?

 

It is NOT that they are evil as some myths have tried to insist, as I have evil NPCs in-game that are not Temporary Actors. There must be some simple attribute that needs to be turned on/off.

[fejeena]

Perhaps set Temporary .

Most NPCs and creatures are  Persistent

But in some Mods I have NPCs and creatures in the Temporary "section"

 

here in a BravilUnderground cell you have Persistent and Temporary Actor/NPC

[movomo]

It's not evil/non-evil classification. It's about persistent/non-persistent. Non-persistent references do not persist in memory once they are out of your vicinity, so they are called temporary. They can't be referenced by the game.

Roughly you can tell they are dynamic references, and likely evil dudes, because many(but not all) of them are spawned bandits or conjurers which are your enemy. But being evil does not mean they are temporary.

[Slammer64]

From what I understand, varenne, is that temporary actors are respawning actors tied to a particular cell, I investigated this when I was working on xLoversMagic, as I wanted a way to enslave bandits and such. It appears to be a game engine limittation that you can't get around without some very heavy editing, namely removing the respawn flag and removing the actors from the cells and replacing them manually. Hope this helps.

[varenne]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! 

 

I've been using TES4Edit more and more lately, and it didn't dawn on me to use it to look for that, thanks Fejeena!

 

I recall from a while back being informed that if the NPC is evil (an enemy of your PC) it is more than likely of the Temporary nature, which I am only now finding not to be true 100% of the time. So now as I add in more AIed evil NPCs, I'm just making sure the game doesn't end up seeing them as Temporary. (Actually this works out quite well as I may want to make them roaming too. Sounds like a new experiment is in order!)

 

I'm not necessarily looking to change those that already exist; Conjurers, Bandits, etc. Instead I'll just add new ones that are not of the Temporary type, i.e., Persistent. 

 

What is everyone's thoughts on Roaming Evil NPCs, ones that travel multiple cells? Anyone perceive any issues with them being re-spawning or essential? I tend to prefer they be re-spawning so they can be killed by other NPCs as needed. I think some of the NPCs From2ch Lives or a related MOD had some that were evil, I'll take a look at them next as a sample.

 

Again thanks everyone!

[Gaebrial]

Just to echo, and perhaps clarify  , what others have said, it's about how they are set up when they are placed in the game world. If they are from a spawn point, then AFAIK they must be temporary. If you are hand-placing an NPC or creature, when you edit that instance/reference (not the base actor, but the instance you have placed in the game world), there's a check box called 'Persistent Reference'. If you don't check that box, then the actor is temporary, and appears in the temporary references in Tes4Edit. If you do check that box, then they are persistent, and appear in the persistent references section in Tes4Edit (but you probably guessed that ).

 

Temporary actors are not limited to a specific cell - they can go through load doors and such, but they do appear to be limited to a single worldspace. So if you have a temporary actor within a city worldspace, they can't follow you out into the Tamriel worldspace, and vice versa. But they can follow you between interior and exterior locations in the same worldspace.

[ljacquard]

That was very well explained and crystal clear to me. Thank you, Gaebrial.

 

I knew about the difference between Persistent/Respawning (temporary), but never understood why some henchies I added through MCS never would follow me to the next cell. Now I do.

 

One thing left that has me wondering is why some wild wolves in LBGW follow me around once "tamed" even if we leave the cell they spawn in, but other dogs spawned by "Slof's dogs" and "ordered" by MCS to follow are nowhere to be seen once I leave the IC, or enter an inn. Are there different kind of "temporary" actors ? Maybe does MCS only work as intended on persistent actors ?

[varenne]

You have to be careful with MCS spells and also Human Touch, when it comes to some 'followers'. Those with scripted follow commands or routines can go into spasms if you use either of those and the commands they contain, but especially follow.

 

For example, let's say I enslave a Hiyoko not born to my PC, and then try to use MCS Follow on it. It may not occur right away but typically they will just spas out. The issue is conflicting follow or direction commands.

 

It is not recommended to use MCS (or any type of follow command) on any temporary actors, and especially don't use enslavement as it will cause save game bloat, and may eventually corrupt the save game.

 

Using what Fejeena posted above about TES4Edit, you can compare the wild wolves in LBGW vs. those in Slof's MOD. My immediate guess is Slof's are temporary, partly based on what Gaebrial stated above; "they can't follow you out into the Tamriel worldspace".

[ljacquard]

Thank you for the good info, and warning, Varenne.

 

I will pay attention not to use MCS otherwise than on persistent actors.

[movomo]

Well, every hiyoko should be safe with MCS. Just to be clear. They are not temporary. It's probably just AI package conflict as Varenne said. (But MCS will eventually win)

 

In any case that you have to make a temp actor follow you, MCS allows one(just one) temporary actor slot.