Something Sunny this way comes...

[srayesmanll]

I am running into an odd situation with the Improved Sunny Smiles mod and my own. In my mod, a dialog is started with Sunny through the SmallerTalk mod (for some reason the "Top Level" dialog I created doesn't appear through the normal dialog, only though the ST mod). The result of the dialog causes a script attached to the dialog option to add Sunny's REF to a formlist (containing only 1 item), and the dialog ends. The strange thing is that if you now initiate a normal dialog with her through the companion wheel, the dialog options are as if she needs to be recruited again. However, her ai is acting like she is still a follower - she follows the PC as nornal, the companion wheel is still active, and other parts of my mod that rely on her being a follower still work. I checked through GECK to see if there were any obvious conflicts (specifically reusing the formlist name I created that was used in the script - nothing. I did a quick look in FNV as well. While it did find some issues with the ISS mod, there were not any conflicts between the 2. Has any else seen something like this with ISS? I have another non-vanilla NPC that does not exhibit the same behavior. I did try changing the load order so my mod was above ISS, but no luck - same problem. If I add her back as a companion, everything returns to normal. And again, her ai package acts like she is still a companion, and the companion wheel appears when initially talking to her in this state, it's just the dialog that appears is not right.

[aEuonym]

This may or may not be realted, but i think the top level conversation options with the Improved Sunny Smiles Companion mod are a bit wonky as well.

There are times when things just dont appear in top level, but if you go into the option to fire her, then backout to the top level (telling her nevermind, stay with me), then the top level stuff all shows up as normal.

 

I havent tried looking into why this is, but im betting its something in the sunny companion mod thats affecting the way her dialogue options populate.

My guess would be something related to hiding certain options based on if she is or isnt a follower yet, thats bleeding over onto other dialogue options.

But maybe not, thats just a guess anyways.

[srayesmanll]

My understanding is that Cass dialogs have some similar weirdness to them as well, and she's a vanilla companion, so not sure if that is an indication of what's wrong. I currently don't have a save where Cass is a companion, so I haven't tested with her yet. I have seen other issues (and others have reported in various threads) where Sunny will suddenly walk away like she's returning to Goodsprings. This was in relation to one sexout mod or another. Usually in those cases she just walked away like being dismissed. In my case, her dialog acts like she's dismissed, but she follows the PC like she's still recruited. Very odd.

[srayesmanll]

Boy talk about confusing. So what I'm seeing is that it appears that after calling the dialog I created (which only displays options and calls one script the adds the sunnyref to a formlist IF the proper option is selected, otherwise no script is run). After this point, the Sunny dialog reverts to the generic GoodspringsFreeform dialog Greeting, except it mixes and matches some dialog options that are based on Sunny being a hired follower. The Sunny mod has some dialog issues - the various dialogs options will check 2 different variables to see if Sunny is hired (script variable 'HasBeenHired' and quest variable 'isHired', although it appears that 'ishired' seems to be the prevalent choice). The fact that is pulling the generic greeting from one quest for the "freeform" GS dialog, but not pulling any other dialog from there, and then pulling mixed dialog options from the sunny mod is what's confusing me. I'm tired of this and will sleep on it.

[srayesmanll]

HOORAY!!!! I figured out the issue. And it's odd. Seems that calling GetSelf within the start or end script of a dialog option causes some funkiness. In this case, a variable attached to an object script that is attached to the SunnyRef object (the NPC) reset to zero. In this case it was the HasBeenHired variable. Right before the getself call, it was set to 1, after it was reset to 0. And this is one of the variables that the sunny dialogs check. I removed the getself calls in the scripts and so far no issues. I wonder if this is some of the dialog issues that have been reported with Cass?

[GECK.O]

@srayesmanll

 

I also use Improved Sunny Smiles mod. I feel Sunny behavior is not right too. I wonder if your problem mentioned above, is in your created mod or in the Improved Sunny Smiles mod?

 

If in Improved Sunny Smiles mod case, can you share the fixed version you mentioned above?

[srayesmanll]

The fix was within my mod. In the dialog code you can have scripts that run before and after a particular dialog selection. In my script I had a call to the command "GetSelf". This is a GECK command that gets a pointer (ref in GECK terms) to the current ref. I was using this to get a ref to the current speaker. This call in the dialog scripts seemed to cause Sunny to reset, particularly certain variables associated to the Sunny "object" (npc). Come to find out that within a dialog, it's not really necessary (although it should be), and calls that can use a ref will use the default ref of the speaker. I removed the GetSelf command and my problems ceased. Dialogs in general have some wonkiness within the game (several people has noted problems with Cass dialogs) so the issues I had were probably not unique to Sunny.

[RDKateran]

Yeah, the dialogue issues with Sunny is the same as the dialogue issue with Cass. Haven't encountered any such problem with Veronica, though.

[srayesmanll]

I think Cass has a lot more complications in her dialogue because of a lot of dependencies. Sunny I really didn't see that much, but there is a lot of generic Goodsprings dialogue across a couple of different "quests", so that can be an issue as well. Never looked at Veronica's through the GECK, but remembering her from times I played doing her quests, I don't remember them being as complicated.

[KGRam]

Just out of preference I modified Sunny's hair and added Mikoto's as a master to her esp. Afterwards, I could not get her to join after completing the ghosttown quest. I restored the original mod, made an override patch of the NPC portion, and modified my override and all was well. Something about changing that original esp made her unhappy. Not sure what hair has to do with dialog.

[KainsChylde]

Ive noticed with Sunny that anything that changes her directly will break jer AI and make her automatically head back toward Goodsprings any time you zone change (fast travel, COC, etc.). A workaround I found was to make sure the Sunny .esp was always last in the load order, then apply any changes through an fnvedit merged patch.