Wandering npcs

Tsongo · November 13, 2021, 8:36pm

I’ve been testing my mod and I’ve got a bit of an annoying issue. Some npcs that are neutral are wandering around during and after the fighting. Not the usual get out of the way thing they finish up a long way from where they were. One lot were in a room with no fighting and finished up later in the corridors.

It’s not the same npcs it’s random and I’m wondering if it’s a spell thing. In the party are a favoured soul and a bard both that can do mind affecting spells so could they be confusing or scaring npcs even if they’re not hostile ?

It really doesn’t matter that much and wont destroy the game but it’s definitely annoying and in one case a man guarding a door finished up around the corner saying “you really don’t want to go in there !” Go in where ? You’re in a corridor !

Also whilst on the subject of annoying for some reason either horrid wilting or destruction wont stop making a noise even after resting. You have to leave the area or save and reload to stop it. I think it’s the one with the pink clouds coming out of the sky but the battles are a bit intense and all sorts are going off at once so it’s hard to tell. Any ideas how to stop that or why it happens ?

Shallina · November 13, 2021, 8:47pm

There is a special check on commoner class , It makes them flee and not engage combat.

It may be this.

For your sound problem I nevers had this problem.

Tsongo · November 13, 2021, 8:59pm

Shallina… They’re a custom neutral faction and love everybody. It’s so random as to who moves that it makes no sense unless it’s something that happens in the fighting but they shouldn’t be affected.

Tsongo · November 13, 2021, 11:15pm

Back again, the spell that keeps making a noise is destruction I tested it with the companion if she can’t do it then it never happens, give her the spell and at some point she lets it off and it never stops. Hopefully it’s just my sound card or computer as I had this issue with one of the visual effects in the toolset when I was looking at them all ages ago and I can’t stop it. It makes a noise and whizzes about even when it’s not there !

Or maybe I’m mad and hearing things

kevL_s · November 14, 2021, 12:07am

the sound in sp_destruction.sef is set to loop … I don’t like the sound and its worse looped … but it can be fixed

save this to /override as sp_destruction.sef

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<EventList>
  <Name>
  </Name>
  <MaxDuration>0</MaxDuration>
  <SpecialTargetPosition>0</SpecialTargetPosition>
  <FogMultiplier>1</FogMultiplier>
  <Event0>
    <Type>1</Type>
    <Name>
    </Name>
    <DefinitionFile>sp_destruction_fx1.pfx</DefinitionFile>
    <DelayTime>0</DelayTime>
    <MaxDuration>4</MaxDuration>
    <Position>
      <x>2</x>
      <y>2</y>
      <z>10</z>
    </Position>
    <UseOrientedPosition>0</UseOrientedPosition>
    <SourceAttachment>0</SourceAttachment>
    <TargetAttachment>0</TargetAttachment>
    <SourceAttachmentObject>1</SourceAttachmentObject>
    <TargetAttachmentObject>1</TargetAttachmentObject>
  </Event0>
  <Event1>
    <Type>1</Type>
    <Name>
    </Name>
    <DefinitionFile>sp_destruction_fx1_1.pfx</DefinitionFile>
    <DelayTime>0</DelayTime>
    <MaxDuration>4</MaxDuration>
    <Position>
      <x>-3</x>
      <y>1</y>
      <z>10</z>
    </Position>
    <UseOrientedPosition>0</UseOrientedPosition>
    <SourceAttachment>0</SourceAttachment>
    <TargetAttachment>0</TargetAttachment>
    <SourceAttachmentObject>1</SourceAttachmentObject>
    <TargetAttachmentObject>1</TargetAttachmentObject>
  </Event1>
  <Event2>
    <Type>1</Type>
    <Name>
    </Name>
    <DefinitionFile>sp_destruction_fx1_2.pfx</DefinitionFile>
    <DelayTime>0</DelayTime>
    <MaxDuration>4</MaxDuration>
    <Position>
      <x>1</x>
      <y>-3</y>
      <z>10</z>
    </Position>
    <UseOrientedPosition>0</UseOrientedPosition>
    <SourceAttachment>0</SourceAttachment>
    <TargetAttachment>0</TargetAttachment>
    <SourceAttachmentObject>1</SourceAttachmentObject>
    <TargetAttachmentObject>1</TargetAttachmentObject>
  </Event2>
  <Event3>
    <Type>1</Type>
    <Name>
    </Name>
    <DefinitionFile>sp_destruction_fx3.pfx</DefinitionFile>
    <DelayTime>0.8</DelayTime>
    <MaxDuration>3.5</MaxDuration>
    <Position>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <z>1</z>
    </Position>
    <UseOrientedPosition>0</UseOrientedPosition>
    <SourceAttachment>0</SourceAttachment>
    <TargetAttachment>0</TargetAttachment>
    <SourceAttachmentObject>1</SourceAttachmentObject>
    <TargetAttachmentObject>1</TargetAttachmentObject>
  </Event3>
  <Event4>
    <Type>1</Type>
    <Name>
    </Name>
    <DefinitionFile>sp_destruction_fx5.pfx</DefinitionFile>
    <DelayTime>1</DelayTime>
    <MaxDuration>6</MaxDuration>
    <Position>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <z>0</z>
    </Position>
    <UseOrientedPosition>0</UseOrientedPosition>
    <SourceAttachment>27</SourceAttachment>
    <TargetAttachment>0</TargetAttachment>
    <SourceAttachmentObject>1</SourceAttachmentObject>
    <TargetAttachmentObject>1</TargetAttachmentObject>
  </Event4>
  <Event5>
    <Type>8</Type>
    <Name>
    </Name>
    <DefinitionFile>sfx_prj_necromancy.wav</DefinitionFile>
    <DelayTime>0</DelayTime>
    <MaxDuration>0</MaxDuration>
    <Position>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <z>0</z>
    </Position>
    <UseOrientedPosition>0</UseOrientedPosition>
    <SourceAttachment>0</SourceAttachment>
    <TargetAttachment>0</TargetAttachment>
    <SourceAttachmentObject>0</SourceAttachmentObject>
    <TargetAttachmentObject>1</TargetAttachmentObject>
    <SoundLoops>0</SoundLoops>
  </Event5>
</EventList>

the only change is right at the bottom: <SoundLoops>0</SoundLoops> – was 1

ps. It goes on forever (and the cut between loops is … bad) in both [my] SpecialEffectsViewer and the VisualEffectsEditor toolset plugins. Am seriously considering editing the wavefile … like, its grating

/anyway

Shallina · November 14, 2021, 12:39pm

commoner class, not commoner faction.

There are special checks if the NPC has the commoner class in the AI to make them flee.

Tsongo · November 14, 2021, 4:50pm

kevL_s. You’re right about the grating it’s a horrible noise and when it’s stuck on repeat and you have to run out of an area and come back to stop it then it gets really bad !

Thanks for that I’ll give it a go, I presume I just save it in notepad and the naming ( sef part ) will do the rest.

Shallina… Thanks I will investigate and that could be a reason… I’ve got a lot of npcs to investigate although I’m sure one that moved was a fighter because he’s a guard.

kevL_s · November 15, 2021, 7:52am

@Tsongo how’d it go?

Lance_Botelle · November 15, 2021, 4:20pm

@kevL_s

I did not realise the sef files were simply editable via text!

Tsongo · November 15, 2021, 7:42pm

kevL_s… So far so good but it’s hard to tell if it works completely when lots of other things are happening in a big riot. It takes a couple of hours to get to a point where my favoured soul can cast it and there’s a massive fight.

But I can say it definitely stops the noise when fighting is over in a very clear area. What I did was loaded a save that is just before the next module and jumped the party into it. I made the first area completely empty and I put a load of fire giants in it. Went in, killed them all, some with the destruction spell and when the fighting stopped so did the noise, unlike before.

Whether or not it will work when there are loads of sounds all at once I don’t know yet but I’m leaving it in my override and will find out when I do a big test.

Thanks for saving my sanity… Fingers crossed !