Creating follower merchant, weird problems

[cp44]

I've created a follower for a new mod and I want that follower to also be a merchant. Everything works great until the follower goes outside their original cell with you. When they leave, they will only sell their inventory items but nothing from their merchant chest.

 

Now it gets weird. There are a few follower-merchant mods on the nexus. I downloaded and tried them all, and this bug persists with all but one of them (Ren Wolf). But in all cases, if I ask BOTH my follower and the downloaded follower to follow me, they somehow correct each other and I can then buy stuff from them both outside their respective original cells. Then I can dismiss one and the other will continue to work as intended (I've played for about an hour and did quests, etc, they even restocked after 48 hours with new leveled items when I hit the required level).

 

Things I've tried: removing AFT; copying Ren Wolf's factions and merchant chest location; adding factions that correspond to the merchant chest location; console command remove and re-add factions; change relationship to player; and some other things I'm probably forgetting. 

 

My working theory is that the second follower somehow forces a cell reset when you ask to see their items that affects the other's chest. So when you talk with the first follower afterward, they again stock their regular items. I could be completely wrong.

 

I could really use some help, I've been working on this problem for a few days and haven't made any progress. What could be causing this and what could I do to avoid it?

[Guest]

This is a known problem with the "container" associated to the Actor.

If the container is in a different cell, then the "vendor" function do not work well.

A possible solution I found in a mod, was to have the chest to be not visible (using a specific empty NIF), and moving it constantly to the same cell of the actor.

 

 

Not easy but it works.

[cp44]

Thanks very much for the reply. I had hoped that there was an easier solution but figured it might be difficult due to a lack of merchant followers. If this is the case, I'll probably just create a follower and a separate merchant rather than roll them into one. Not quite as nice, but it will do. I'll leave the thread open just in case someone can think of another possible solution.

[Guest]

I do use (often) a very light way to find the current cell of the player.

And it involved moving an object (invisible but real) to the player.

 

You can do a very similar approach by using a chest, and not having the player, but your follower, as target.

 

I don't see any possible problem for it. But be aware that I never tried before.

 

[cp44]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see if I can get it working.