Skyrim Chain Beasts

[MysticDaedra]

On the new Klymer quests, the first part where I replace the girl in the chainbeast... it crawled me all the way to Riften, literally took an hour and a half (real time) with frequent stops and pauses as the AI tried to get around a pebble in the road. There were also semi-frequent CTDs (about every 15  minutes or so) during this stage. Eventually I ended up in Riften behind Mistwatch where the training dummies are, with the quest target on a guard hitting the dummy... saved at this point, but very quickly after arriving at the guard I get a consistent CTD.

 

I don't know if this was happenstance or if it is designed to haul me from Whiterun to Riften... but if it is the latter, this is very poor game design. That kind of slog is zero fun in real time. Now I'm not sure how to proceed, and I'm not sure I want to try starting over because I don't want to repeat that hour-and-a-half crawl to Riften.

[MTB]

On 8/14/2021 at 4:51 PM, MysticDaedra said:

On the new Klymer quests, the first part where I replace the girl in the chainbeast... it crawled me all the way to Riften, literally took an hour and a half (real time) with frequent stops and pauses as the AI tried to get around a pebble in the road. There were also semi-frequent CTDs (about every 15  minutes or so) during this stage. Eventually I ended up in Riften behind Mistwatch where the training dummies are, with the quest target on a guard hitting the dummy... saved at this point, but very quickly after arriving at the guard I get a consistent CTD.

 

I don't know if this was happenstance or if it is designed to haul me from Whiterun to Riften... but if it is the latter, this is very poor game design. That kind of slog is zero fun in real time. Now I'm not sure how to proceed, and I'm not sure I want to try starting over because I don't want to repeat that hour-and-a-half crawl to Riften.

 

It will use what ever is configured for punishment. So if you have set Simple Slavery as destination it will try to take you to Riften...

Some settings approaches that may be useful here:

(Avoid the send to SS):

- If you use send to SS `only when no local furniture'; try freeing a little later - when the devices come into view.

 or (temp) disable this option in the MCM

(Avoid it taking so long):

- set max player travel time in the MCM.

   (Note you can see the destination of the player/NPC and fast forward them in the MCM status menu).

 

> consistent CTD

At that point the hand over to SS should happen. So something is going wrong there apparently. No idea on exactly what/why though. (And not able to test anything atm).  If fast forwarding also does not work all I can recommend is to avoid this outcome scenario for the time being (deselect in MCM).

 

[cerebus300]

One thing that would be cool and give more variation, now that Devious Devices have furniture built in that lock up the pcs, you could have the creature call a DD furniture and imprison the player in one of those. There are some really cool ones.

[MTB]

On 8/16/2021 at 7:22 PM, cerebus300 said:

One thing that would be cool and give more variation, now that Devious Devices have furniture built in that lock up the pcs, you could have the creature call a DD furniture and imprison the player in one of those. There are some really cool ones.

 

I don't know how DD furniture works, and it's not on my planning to look into it, so I'm unlikely to add it any time soon.
However, if someone wants to create a plugin to enable this I can support them.  It may be feasible to create a plugin for this if entering the device can just be done like with Zaz: by activating the device using an AI procedure, possibly with post processing. (If it needs something else to get into it, it would be much trickier.)  Things that would be needed:

• Finding DD furniture; in SCB_FindDeviceQuest the Alias Conditions should be updated to also / instead choose DD furniture.
  • likely a keyword check or else an inlist with a list of the usable devices. Should be very easy.
• Post processing of device entry; OnActive event of Script SCB_DeviceScript ( used by SCB_UseDeviceMultipleQuest `DeviceX' Aliases ) is called when the device is entered by the victim (this starts the count down to release).
  • For Zaz furniture it is used to realign the victim to the device. If DD furniture needs something done upon entering, it should be added here.
  • Else likely a condition to avoid the realignment on DD furniture should be added. See example below.
• Releasing the victim: The Function PassToNext in SCB_UseDeviceMultipleScript (amongst other things) releases the victim from Zaz furniture when it is time by calling:

a.getRef().activate( victim, true )     ; as victim is already in device this will release them

• if getting out of DD furniture needs to be done differently, this line would need to be updated. eg

if a.getRef().hasKeywordString( "zbffurniture" ) ; its a zaz device

  a.getRef().activate( victim, true )

else ; if a.getRef().hasKeywordString( "zad_furniture")  ; or whatever keyword DD furniture uses...
  ... What ever is needed to remove the victim from furniture a.getRef() ...
endif
 

For any device that can be triggered by using an `activate' AI procedure that should be all that is needed to support that type of device. Be it DD, display model or ... .  (Assuming I'm not overlooking/forgetting anything of course...)

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by MTB
corret typos

[Yoen]

Just to confirm. i've brought in Red the Bandit Spy and she has been interrogated a bit and the guy told me to search for another spy in one of the holds. I also found a scribbled note in Red's cave that mentioned Morthal

so im assuming there is a spy there, but i cant find them, but when i told the guy there might be a spy in morthal, nothing happens, do i wait for investigation some more or am i missing something?

 

[MTB]

19 hours ago, Yoen said:

Just to confirm. i've brought in Red the Bandit Spy and she has been interrogated a bit and the guy told me to search for another spy in one of the holds. I also found a scribbled note in Red's cave that mentioned Morthal

so im assuming there is a spy there, but i cant find them, but when i told the guy there might be a spy in morthal, nothing happens, do i wait for investigation some more or am i missing something?

 

 

That is basically how far this quest goes for now.  After a little while the quest should end. (They need some time to investigate your tip, more if you sent them on a wild goose chase.)
(In v0.5.1 a hint about a possible, but not yet implemented, follow up is given in the TJH quest.)
 
> note on ...
There is more on this table than that note; is there some pattern here?
 

Spoiler

There are 9 potential spies (8 brethren and red). Does that number ring a bell?
  

Spoiler

A spy coming from outside of skyrim would need to be given some background on the hold they are assigned to.
Seems Red thought (s)he still had time to gather background on Morthal, so that spy certainly has not arrived yet.

 

 

[Yoen]

Ive made some personal edits to 0.5.0  (just npc cosmetics) and i kind of dont want to update unless there are some substantial changes between versions so what exactly has been changed/added?

[MTB]

On 8/25/2021 at 6:17 AM, Yoen said:

Ive made some personal edits to 0.5.0  (just npc cosmetics) and i kind of dont want to update unless there are some substantial changes between versions so what exactly has been changed/added?

 

Please see the change log under `latest changes'  in the description.

 

Note: If you save your changes as a separate plugin, they will likely remain compatible with the next versions (maybe not if your editing core quests but certainly for NPC cosmetic edits).

If you saved your changes directly into one of the plugins like integration or DB then you can likely recover them and turn them into a separate plugin by making a copy of the esp and editing that in Xedit, removing everything but the NPC edits.   (If you put back the original version of the plugin after making the copy, and also select that when loading in Xedit, you can easily see the parts that changed so should not be deleted...).

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by MTB
(added suggestion on how to keep changes)

[Inte]

@MTB,

I found a game exploit where I can escape the cage quite easily, I'll explain it in a spoiler. 

 

Spoiler

While in the cage I can grab the pickaxe by the cage door see bellow,

 

 

...and then I can activate the mining mound by the back of the cage, which will pop me out of the cage.

 

Now granted, this will only work once per cell reset, but still, I wanted to let you know.

 

A very simple solution for this would be to add a collision pane on the back and right side of the cage wall.

 

[MTB]

2 hours ago, Inte said:

@MTB,

I found a game exploit where I can escape the cage quite easily, I'll explain it in a spoiler. 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

While in the cage I can grab the pickaxe by the cage door see bellow,

 

 

...and then I can activate the mining mound by the back of the cage, which will pop me out of the cage.

 

Now granted, this will only work once per cell reset, but still, I wanted to let you know.

 

A very simple solution for this would be to add a collision pane on the back and right side of the cage wall.

 

 

I'll have to see if only side is enough - I don't want to block the back;

Spoiler

The reason for that is actually visible in your second screen shot.

else I'll have to think of some other solution.

 

 

[Scrab]

4 hours ago, Inte said:

A very simple solution for this would be to add a collision pane on the back and right side of the cage wall.

Wouldnt it be even more simplistic to just move the pickaxe out of reach for the player. If Im not mistaken it looks like your inventory is cleared upon being put into that cage, meaning the only way to be able to interact with this ore in first place is to move the pickaxe away

.. or disable player controls, abActivate, so the player cannot interact with anything while inside the cage

Edited August 27, 2021 by Scrab

[Yoen]

MBT you good if i upload NPC appearance edits or send them to you and see if you like to add them to your optional downloads? they just require apachii hair and almost everone has that

[MTB]

10 minutes ago, Yoen said:

MBT you good if i upload NPC appearance edits or send them to you and see if you like to add them to your optional downloads? they just require apachii hair and almost everone has that

 

Would be great; I suggest uploading them so anyone can use them already.  I can make it an option in the installer when I get around to a next version so it does not add requirements for those that do not have apachii hair.

 

[MTB]

53 minutes ago, Scrab said:

Wouldnt it be even more simplistic to just move the pickaxe out of reach for the player. If Im not mistaken it looks like your inventory is cleared upon being put into that cage, meaning the only way to be able to interact with this ore in first place is to move the pickaxe away

.. or disable player controls, abActivate, so the player cannot interact with anything while inside the cage

 

That was my backup plan indeed, but you could still quickly grab it while outside the cage ... and I do want the player to be able to active some things (eg the cage door) in specific cases.

Anyways, a collision plane seems to work (I already had a collision cube there but that did NOT work?? Changing it to a plane seems to do the trick).

(This quest does need some work maybe I'll give it another go if I get stuck with the main quest line...).

 

[Inte]

On 8/27/2021 at 5:47 AM, Scrab said:

Wouldnt it be even more simplistic to just move the pickaxe out of reach for the player.

It would, but it is a good modding practice not to modify vanilla records unless absolutely necessary to reduce the risk of conflicts with other mods.

 

On 8/27/2021 at 5:47 AM, Scrab said:

.. or disable player controls, abActivate, so the player cannot interact with anything while inside the cage

I would like this solution, however most players will not. That is something I'll never understand, players install a bondage mod and then complain when their PC gets bound. 

[Inte]

On 8/27/2021 at 6:51 AM, MTB said:

Changing it to a plane seems to do the trick).

Great. 

 

On 8/27/2021 at 6:51 AM, MTB said:

(This quest does need some work maybe I'll give it another go

Yes please! 

[badbat111]

my mistake it wasnt chainbeast its a diffrent mod i dont know which but no beasts was out and it happened again the pheramone i used console command to spawn it even though it was 100% the mines in riverwood didnt spawn any the player turned purpleglow on them but nothing happened didnt get sent to the devices

[MTB]

On 8/30/2021 at 8:17 AM, badbat111 said:

my mistake it wasnt chainbeast its a diffrent mod i dont know which but no beasts was out and it happened again the pheramone i used console command to spawn it even though it was 100% the mines in riverwood didnt spawn any the player turned purpleglow on them but nothing happened didnt get sent to the devices

 

The normal mines will never conjure pheromone beasts. These type of beasts are only used in one quest (later on in the main quest line, after you start TJH...) at the moment.

When captured by pheromone beasts, you won't be sent to devices, unless their preferred punishment is not possible.  It should take you somewhere, where something will happen.   (After a few seconds you should be in the move quest and you can check where it is trying to take you in the status menu...).

You can also test them out by setting test beast type to pheromone (MCM>DEBUG) and using the (self) test capture spell (recommend having quick capture active for this.).

 

 

[zwdragonbone8314]

Hi I just try to download this mod 0.5.0 SE version. However, after I downloaded and installed from MO2, it indicated that its version is 0.4.4 beta, is that the right one?

[MTB]

1 hour ago, zwdragonbone8314 said:

Hi I just try to download this mod 0.5.0 SE version. However, after I downloaded and installed from MO2, it indicated that its version is 0.4.4 beta, is that the right one?

 

Yes it's the right one, I just forgot to update the meta information in the MO2 meta.ini file. Should not have any impact other than the version number that MO2 shows (you can override manually if you want).

Edit: Also applies to other recent versions; all after 0.4.4 up to 0.5.2 will likely still show 0.4.4. Next version should have that fixed, or at least show 0.5.3 or later...

Edited September 4, 2021 by MTB

[EinarrTheRed]

Couple of quick observations from my limited tests.

 

I noticed that chain beasts will sometimes attack animals like carriage horses, chickens, etc.  Probably shouldn't.

They'll also strip conjured beings like Dremora Lords.  While this is kinda funny at first, they permanently remove their outfit and forever after in your game your Dremora Lords are running around naked... all of them.  So should probably add a filter preventing stripping of conjured beings, (or just non player races, that is require the NPC to be of a player race for the stripping action to happen, otherwise it just attacks them and attempts to knock them down or what have you, maybe instead of stripping them if it can knock them down it banishes the conjured being).

 

Funny mod and enjoyable to play for laughs.  Hope you keep developing it! ?

[neghthraw]

On 9/6/2021 at 2:27 AM, EinarrTheRed said:

your Dremora Lords are running around naked... all of them

You mean even newly summoned ones?

[EinarrTheRed]

43 minutes ago, neghthraw said:

You mean even newly summoned ones?

Yup.  Including those summoned by other NPCs. 

[neghthraw]

25 minutes ago, EinarrTheRed said:

Yup.  Including those summoned by other NPCs. 

To me, that sounds like the mod changes the outfit of the base actor (the "template" NPC used to spawn NPCs) instead of one specific NPC (the one specific summoned dremora who got captured in this case).

[MTB]

On 9/6/2021 at 12:27 AM, EinarrTheRed said:

Couple of quick observations from my limited tests.

 

I noticed that chain beasts will sometimes attack animals like carriage horses, chickens, etc.  Probably shouldn't.

They'll also strip conjured beings like Dremora Lords.  While this is kinda funny at first, they permanently remove their outfit and forever after in your game your Dremora Lords are running around naked... all of them.  So should probably add a filter preventing stripping of conjured beings, (or just non player races, that is require the NPC to be of a player race for the stripping action to happen, otherwise it just attacks them and attempts to knock them down or what have you, maybe instead of stripping them if it can knock them down it banishes the conjured being).

 

Funny mod and enjoyable to play for laughs.  Hope you keep developing it! ?

 

On 9/7/2021 at 2:28 PM, neghthraw said:

To me, that sounds like the mod changes the outfit of the base actor (the "template" NPC used to spawn NPCs) instead of one specific NPC (the one specific summoned dremora who got captured in this case).

 

All (summoned) DLs naked; I'm able to reproduce this. The scripts do set the outfit on the actor, not on the actorbase.
However, doing some testing it seems that even when setting an outfit on an actor, the outfit is actually being set on the leveled actor base rather than the actual actor.  This works fine for unique actors as there is only one copy.  It also seems to work on leveled actors as a temporary leveled actor base is created for them, and it seems to be different for each actor that is created. However, for actors that are not unique but also not created from a leveled actor, such as the DL, that means that all copies are affected. I'll see if I can address that, eg only set outfit for unique or leveled actors.  Means others may occasionally reequip (parts of) their outfit, but that seems the best compromise possible.

 

> I noticed that chain beasts will sometimes attack animals like carriage horses, chickens, etc. 
That should only happen if the `cloak of authority' setting is turned off in the MCM (gameplay). Then they will attack/be attacked by anything. With it active they should only attack/be attacked by valid targets and their allies.

 

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by MTB