125 replies to this topic

[schatten]

File Name: Arren v40
File Submitter: schatten
File Submitted: 13 Dec 2010
File Updated: 22 Jan 2011
File Category: Co-Op Beta Testing

Name: Arren
Version: 4.0.10
Date: 01/22/2011
Category: Companions
Requirements: Shivering Isles Patch 1.2.0.201
Author(s): Sein_Schatten
Source: http://tesnexus.com/...ile.php?id=9926
Source2: http://planeteldersc....Detail&id=5370



Description
===========
Arren is the most complex companion. He has a lot of dialog, depth and character. Probably so much dialog that one playthrough won't show you all. Arren has his own items but you can give him what you want and if he likes it, he will use it. He is balanced with FCOM in mind.
He is not a romanceable character. Though he has comments and opinions about all quests, all locations, every thinkable situation and has general banter. His comments and behavior is dependand on his disposition towards you. When he likes you he will be a very loyal companion. If he hates you he won't do everything you want and might not follow you all the time. He has very surprising consequences.
Arren has 4 single quests and a questchain.



Location
========
Arren is placed in the second start dungeon. Right after you open the door with the key from the goblin corpse.
If you don't start a new game Arren will come for you. It might take a few in-game hours until he finds you.
If you are out of the start dungeon you are given the call spell automatically. For the impatient ones read the spoiler section to give yourself a Call spell to summon Arren, he will give it to you anyway.


Details
=======
-Arren has now a dispotional state towards the player. This changes dialoge and actions dependand if he likes you or not
-Location specific behavior
-Funny scripted events
-You can tell Arren to wait, follow, go to any of your houses except Waterfront, he goes to the Merchant Inn instead
-You can also mark up to two places as his new home and tell him to go there
-Arren has sometimes a mind of his own. He will go to where he wants. This is rare and only happens in cities.

-dialogchoices to change Arren's clothes. You can choose between Best clothes, leasure suit, nothing and his normal battle armor
-he repairs his own armor if you tell him to. He needs a repairhammer and gold to do it. The goldcost is (playerlevel/34)*setcost. Setcost is (250 for iron, 520 for steel, 1165 Dwarven, 2610 Orcish, 5550 Ebony, 13850 Daedric and 18000 for Arren's Unique set)
-access to Arren's items. Read the known issue section for details
-Arren has its own horse and a teleport spell to call it if it is too far away

-scaled items and spells
-unique item set at lvl 35

-4 Quests. One at lvl 10, one at lvl 20, one at lvl 30 and one at lvl 40
-A long questchain. Currently implemented one quest for each level from lvl 2-7, 9, 11, 12

-Arren is balanced around FCOM

-uses a torch while you use one
-sits if you sit (he will say random things every 10-90 seconds)

-After you get 10.000 gold Arren approaches you and ask for his share of the loot. You can tell him "no" and he runs back to the Merchants Inn or you can say "yes" and he will take 5% of the gold you find. When you ask him for a rapport you can see the total share he got up to that point

-won't report your crimes. You need to sneak when you steal valuable items to not get reported

-if you are invisible (or sneaking) and Arren is not in combat you can sneak around without aggroing monsters with Arren. Arren will either cast invisible on himself or sneak depending on what you do

-spell to attack a target until it is dead; spell to stop the attack started with the attackspell

-has a runspeed bonus to not fall behind you. He is always a little bit faster than you to catch up on you
-automatic teleporting to player position if a certain range is exceeded and a spell for manual teleport

-Arren's Master summons are leveled
-Arren's summoned mobs don't attack you now during combat. If you want that your summons don't attack Arren get the mod "friendlier summons". (http://tesnexus.com/...ile.php?id=2926)
-the size and stats of Arren's summons vary randomly now for each cast

-Arren gains an aura depending upon the players fame/infamy. If the player has enough fame and only a few infamy points Arren gets a holy aura. Same for the unholy aura.

-When Arren's bounty reaches 500 gold you get a messagebox with three choices. First is to do nothing and the guards will attack Arren. Second choice is you pay Arren's bounty if you have the money, if not Arren will pay it. The last choice is to send Arren to the IC jail. There you can help Arren get free. Just give him a lockpick and he will catch you later; or let him rot.
-When Arren dies you can revive him after the battle by activating his corpse.
-After Arren dies he will release a Ghost. The Ghost stays at the corpse's location and attacks enemies. If the Ghost is alive, you can resurrect Arren like normal. When the Ghost dies, you must go to a chapel and talk to a priest. It costs playerlevel * 100 gold to resurrect Arren.

-Arren has a full 24hours day cycle if you tell him to wait. Activities differ if Arren is indoor or outdoor (see spoiler section for activities)
-When Arren reads, hunts, gathers herb, wanders around or trains he will say something every 1-3 minutes.
-Additionally he says something every 30min to 1 hour while he follows you.
-He will also comment on quests on his own.
-A lot of comments on quest. Ask Arren about his opinion on the quests you are currently on.
-Arren will have a lot of more or less useful tips if you ask him about them. The topic won't always show up, be patient. Most tips are quest dependend.
-A lot of dialog for the place you are in currently. Cities, Wilderness and dungeons depending on inhabitants
-At lvl 2-19, 21 Arren tells you a story. Ask him about it
-Unique Greetings depending on various conditions
-Arren will occasionally start a conversation with other NPCs who are following the player
-Arren has his own conversation dialogs


Please read the readme for more details, like version history and so on.

Click here to download this file

[drakon136]

Seems great to me. I'll begin testing right away.

[drakon136]

Okay, so far, this has been a good mod. Still in the Imperial Substructure, with a probably bad problem.

First, Arren summoned his helmet, and began fighting some rats. Right after it wore off, however, he immediately took off all of his armor, and started running around everywhere. He then began ignoring every one of my commands to change out of the clothes he isn't wearing, and a quest popup appeared that siad "Where is Arren right now?" He also began opening the same chest over and over, and he randomly alternates between his greetings, and default Breton greetings.

Summoning him doesn't help, as he just appears beside me, and runs back to the chest. None of his armor is broken, so that isn't the cause of the clothing problem. I'm afraid that if I leave, he won't follow, and if I summon him while I'm past there, he'll run all the way back.

EDIT: He doesn't follow me when I leave, but when I summon him, he won't run back to the prison.

Edited by drakon136, 13 December 2010 - 09:03 PM.

[Khettienna]

I'm gonna give him a basic shakedown tonight to verify that he is basically working right. This is a very involved mod, testing-wise, so it will take some time to check all the details! We'll need to test him with characters of varying levels to make sure all of his quest stuff works well.

[Khettienna]

Okay, here are my initial impressions:

1) I notice this mod invokes the need for a Script Effect Silencer type mod to make that pesky noise go away; you will want to mention this in your Readme.

2) This excerpt from the readme is bit misleading:

If you don't start a new game Arren will come for you. It might take a few in-game hours until he finds you.
If you are out of the start dungeon you are given the call spell automatically. For the impatient ones read the spoiler section to give yourself a Call spell to summon Arren, he will give it to you anyway.

I decided to intially test with my usual level 38 character. He didn't come find me after five days of waiting in the IC Market District. I also received the "Call Arren" spell right away, as listed, but I didn't have to read spoilers for that, so I'm not sure why that is mentioned.

3) On the same subject, when he did arrive, one of the dialogue options asked him for the summon spell, which I already had.

4) He immediately told me about his trouble with Welkynd stones, and gave me a beating heart for a second quest only a breath later, and right after that thanked me for helping him out of that last dungeon. Except I hadn't taken him anywhere yet. I followed the dialogue about the Welkynd stone, deciding to tackle that quest first. He didn't follow me to the Arcane Uni, where I figured the nearest mage would be, but I got the info I needed from Raminus just the same. I summoned Arren to me to tell him the information, and said he had more to say but wanted privacy, and told me to follow him. I did, and for quite a long while... but everytime he went through a teleport door, he'd disappear, and I'd have to resummon him. Then he would go about walking to this unknown destination, but occasionally stop to pace back and forth or read a book. I decided the quest was broken, but I would at least take him through a dungeon or two to test him in combat while I was at it. Which brings me to...

5) He still won't follow me, even though I've asked a few times. I give up for now!

[schatten]

O_O
Wow. I thought this is all working. I didn't change anything regarding "the first meeting" at all.

drakon:
How long does this behavior last? This could be an issue with the looting script. Per default Arren will loot items after each fight. This last, maybe IIRC, 15 or 20 seconds. I'll have this checked today. Very strange.

Khett:
1) Why? I have, IIRC, for every add command a message "".
2) Okay, readme might be a bit old. I think I added the summon spell in a quest. I will update the readme. I will check why he won't find/come to you. Looks like a package issue.
3) Yeah, I will remove it.
4&5) Crap! Looks like I added too many packages and variables which might have broken this.

I am sorry for this.
I will have this fixed and checked ASAP.
I have always tested this with an existing game. Guess that is the reason for this as the saved variables are, well, already saved and not reset as with a new game/clean save. This is a bummer...

[Khettienna]

I don't know precisely the cause of the repeating spell hit sound that is induced by some mods, just that it is related to script effect spells. Mods like this one here fix it just fine as long as they get loaded last. It doesn't necessarily mean there is something wrong in your mod, but you'll want to document it to cut down on complaints from folks who don't know how to fix it already. Don't stress about it.

[drakon136]

schatten, according to my research, it lasts... indefinitely. It's been several minutes and he's still at the sam chest. He's opening/closing it right now, too.

Edited by drakon136, 14 December 2010 - 03:37 PM.

[schatten]

Okay, I was able to fix the following issues:
#fixed a bug with the looting procedure
#The topic in which Arren gave you the summon spell will no longer appear when you are already out of the beginner dungeon and you were given the spell
#Arrens single quests will now start one after another and not all at once
#Fixed dialog for the first quest of the questchain when the player is highlevel (Didn't accompany him during the tutorial) when he meets Arren


drakon:
I can't replicate your problem. Starting a new game with no mods results in flawless behavior.

Khett:
Your issues are mostly fixed, see above.

There are two issues now open:
1) I can't see drakons problem. I have no idea what to do except testing with no mods, then see if the issue still persists. I forsee no. Maybe there is a mod interfering here. If we can find out what mod that is I can make a workaround. But let's wait until I have fixed 2).
2) Maybe drakons issue is also part of Khetts issue. I still need to find out the strange behavior regarding adding Arren to an existing game. I added to several scripts a condition that you must have talked to Arren before they start running. Was not helping. Arren moved from the starting dungeon outside, as wanted by me, but then he moved back into the dungeon... NOT wanted. I can only explain this to the addition of varios scripts and packages. I will check this further tomorrow.


Thank you for your help.
Sorry for not having more, better updates ATM. I am sure I can fix this tomorrow by deactivating some quests and attached scripts to find the culprit.

[drakon136]

Eh, might have something to do with OOO. I'll turn that off, make a new save, then try.
-----
Nope, doesn't help. Fresh save, no mods active, still happens.

Edited by drakon136, 14 December 2010 - 08:02 PM.

[schatten]

I will locate Khetts bug today, then upload a new version. I hope this fixes your bug, too.

[drakon136]

Okay, thanks. I'll download that new version.

[schatten]

I uploaded a new version:

#fixed a bug with the looting procedure
#The topic in which Arren gave you the summon spell will no longer appear when you are already out of the beginner dungeon and you were given the spell
#Arrens single quests will now start one after another and not all at once
#Fixed dialog for the first quest of the questchain when the player is highlevel (Didn't accompany him during the tutorial) when he meets Arren
#Fixed a dialog issue with the comment for quest MS05
#Fixed an issue with Arren not meeting up the player


I have "fixed" the issue that Arren won't meet up with you. I was not able to get behind the root cause but he will now meet you.


drakon:
Please use this new version. If the issue persists please create a new game with no mods. If the issue still persists please email me your savegame. My email Adress is in the readme.

Khett:
Please try the new version. Your issues should all be fixed. This "unknown" location is the tutorial dungeon (setstage arrenquestfollow 10 and you will get a quest target on Arren). I was not able to understand why he does it. I have overridden this behavior with a package. So he WILL move to you and initiate dialog so you can make him follow you.


When you get Arren to follow you, which should now be possible, the most important variables are set. So no more unusual behavior can, should and must occur.

[Khettienna]

Woot! He found me! And he follows!

I played for about an hour, though I suspect this is just the beginning. Here's some notes!

--Once again, right off the bat, he gave me both the Welkynd Stone quest and the Beating Heart quest. This time, though, he didn't thank me for pulling him out of any ruins before we'd gone somewhere.

--"Don't grap my loot." Is that supposed to be "Don't grab my loot."?

--In much of your dialogue and messages/messageboxes, you haven't capitalized "Arren".

--The topic "Can you show me the way out?" displays even when Arren & the player are outdoors.

--In the Welkynd Stone quest, if the player asks Raminus himself first instead of any other mage, Raminus recommends the player ask... Raminus.

--Arren led me properly to the sewers this time, instead of wandering all crazy around the Imperial City. When we entered the Arboretum on the way there, I thought I had lost him for a second, because I hadn't seem him in his town clothes yet and walked right past him.

--When he force-greeted me right after we loaded into the sewers, he was still facing the sewer exit ladder, rather than me. Maybe wait a frame to force-greet, or use an XMarkerHeading instead of an XMarker to pre-determine which way he is facing first? (I haven't looked in the CS to see how anything is set up yet.)

--After I defeated the first daedra, however, Arren was still standing but "unconscious". When I came back a second time with the Summoning Skull to check on him and kill the second daedra, he wasn't there - I mean, he was, I got a cursor when I moused over where he was, but he was invisible (no life detect, either). This righted itself when I sprinkled the bonemeal on him, but it was odd, and I'd hate to think of what would have happened if I'd forgotten where I'd put him last.

--The sprinkling of the bonemeal was a bit weird, because I had to "equip" the ingredient, which made me worry I might eat it instead. A message box or message or something would have been reassuring for that split-second.

--The dialogue at the end of this quest is a bit fuzzy. He says "I can't remember when it happened exactly but during our travels I woke..." except it had only been a few game hours since we'd met, and he'd not slept.

--Anyway, then he was brooding about something, and there was a mage in an Ayleid Ruin we had to go kill off. This went without any hitches, as far as I could see. Though, at the same time he told me about this, he also told me he owed favors to the owner of The Main Ingredient, so this is again that the quests were given two at a time.

--Arren's cat's body is invisible, except the paws and face (missing mesh?).

--I think Arren must like my character because he likes to show off, by posing and flexing and break-dancing. I find him quite likable.

--I meant to take him to The Main Ingredient after we killed the mage, but it was past nine o'clock by then. He said he was going to rest at the Merchants Inn. I went after him and didn't find him there, so I rented a bed for the night, figuring maybe he'd pop up in the morning. He didn't. But a strange man in a red robe did pop up, and set up a meeting about the Beating Heart business. I went to The Main Ingredient, summoned Arren, and he immediately greeted me with something about the man in the red robe. Except he wasn't there for it!

--His combat seems fine so far, though my character is a ranger and most things tend to die without breaking stealth, so I haven't put him to the real test about it yet. He is good about staying stealthed until detected, though.

--I had a companion critter with me, and they played nicely, no in-fighting or any such thing.

--I haven't really explored any of his options yet, but so far he's doing quite nicely.

That's it for now, more to come!

[Khettienna]

Also, Talos forgive me, I can't resist:

[schatten]

Oh my... That's a lot to fix. I hope I get enough PC time today to fix this.

--Once again, right off the bat, he gave me both the Welkynd Stone quest and the Beating Heart quest. This time, though, he didn't thank me for pulling him out of any ruins before we'd gone somewhere.
This is okay.
Do you think I should wait 1 day or two after the quests start?


--"Don't grap my loot." Is that supposed to be "Don't grab my loot."?
This stops the looting. Arren loots after each fight. Something wrong?

--In much of your dialogue and messages/messageboxes, you haven't capitalized "Arren".
This sadly occured because of the rename process. If it is not too much maybe give me some hints where this occurs so I can capitalize it.

--I think Arren must like my character because he likes to show off, by posing and flexing and break-dancing. I find him quite likable.
This should not occur constantly. It is constantly happening for you? If so I need to fix this.



The rest will be fixed ASAP if I get enough time today.

[Khettienna]

Don't stress about updates. Arren is playable, and I think it is easier on us to do what we can do in large chunks - if you update, I have to start over . At least let me get through his quests.

You don't have to give time between his quests, I just didn't know if you meant to or not. There's no harm in letting them come two at a time, as far as I can see, it's just unusual so I wanted to make sure you were aware.

This stops the looting. Arren loots after each fight. Something wrong?

"grap" versus "grab" - I think you want it to say "grab" but you have "grap" in the dialogue.

If it is not too much maybe give me some hints where this occurs so I can capitalize it.

There are too many, if the first few quests are any indication. I would spend as much time transcribing or reformatting screenshots as it would take you to open up the CS and re-review it. The one example I remember for sure, though, is the "Status Report" topic - all those messageboxes say "arren".

He's not posing/flexing constantly, so far only once per game day or so. I'll let you know if it gets to be more than that. Unless you meant for it to only occur at very specific times, of course.

[Khettienna]

I may have spoken too soon about the posing/flexing - he definitely does it more often than that. It seems like natural behavior, though - I mean, he doesn't do it so often as to be ridiculous or disruptive.

Anyways, more notes!

--"Cloud Ruler Temple is a safe heaven..." I think the word you want there is "haven".

--"Hello. My name is Arren Masterson. How are you doing?" Arren continues to say this all the time even though we've been together for a few game days, now.

--I have noticed that corpses have blood spatters on them, and I'm reasonably sure they didn't before. I will double-check, of course, but I wanted to make note of it before I forgot. If this is something your mod adds, though, you should document it, as it doesn't seem related to the point of the mod.

--I asked Arren to "Wait here" in a dungeon, and he put on his casual clothes. He did not re-equip his armor when I asked him to follow again. Also, his "Change your clothes" topic doesn't seem to have any choices that lead him to being armored and armed.

--Arren doesn't start combat with enemies as long as I am sneaking, even if the enemies are directly hitting him.

--When returning to the IC to turn in the quest at The Main Ingredient, Arren immediately called out that he was going to First Edition to read. Since I am doing this quest for him, that seemed rather rude!

--This time he was actually in Merchant's Inn when he said he would be. I went in after him to check. Everytime I sat down anywhere, he got up and moved to a different chair. Maybe I smell funny?

--Later, as he was wandering freely around IC, I noticed him jerking back and forth a lot, like he was trying to make up his mind where to go, and changing his mind with each step. I don't know if this is package-related or not, but other NPCs in the vicinity weren't having the issue, so I don't think it was pathing-related.

--After we killed the wizards at the Mysterious Meeting Point, he said something like, "Murderer, I am not sure I am going to follow you any further." as a conversation info, but then he force-greeted me to talk about the quest. I also notice that he is often referring to me as "Murderer" or "Listener" - and while these are not false accusations, I can't think of any reason he would know these things.

--When I ask him what he thinks of a place, he sometimes responds with something about the clouds hiding the sun, even when it seems reasonably sunny out. I have All Natural installed and active, if that is relevant, which it would be if you had weather checks as conditions.

--When I ask him what he thinks of our quests, he asks if I'm sure I want to hear it - I say yes (the only choice), and the only option after that is "Nothing". Maybe the topic itself shouldn't be there unless he has something to say? Or maybe he just needs some generic/I don't know responses?

Now I'm out of Arren quests until Arren has had time to think about the Beating Heart, so it seemed like a good stopping point for the moment. I'll bring another companion with us on a few missions to see how they play together. I'll also try to let Arren die a couple times so I can test out your death handling.

I have some questions:

What's the script effect on Arren's sword? I looted what seemed like a better one and went to give it to him, but didn't when I saw the script effect, because I didn't want to break him.

This is not a bug, but could be an annoyance for stealth-based characters: Arren is a really lousy sneak. Maybe he could have an option where he casts invisibility on himself while I sneak, if I tell him? Alternately, I will be giving him some mega overpowered sneak ring or something. Most companions I've tried have the same weakness with this, by the way - I am only suggesting since he will already cast invisibility on himself if I do, so it seems reasonable.

I want to test paying off Arren's bounty, but I have no idea how to get him to have a bounty in the first place. What do you recommend?

Despite all the Dark Brotherhood nonsense, my character's fame far exceeds her infamy, but I haven't seen evidence of Arren having either aura. I am not sure how to test for it - does it have a visual effect I can look out for? I have OBSE running, I suppose worst-case scenario I can use the HasSpell function in the console and see what it returns for both auras' form IDs.

And, what are the unique misc items in his inventory?

Oh, oh, and as of now I've been letting him collect loot instead of giving him 5% of my gold earnings. But I haven't seen him pick up any loot, other than unowned food to stuff in his face. His inventory looks the same after all this as it did when we started. Is it getting put in a different remote container or something? I know there's some switcheroo going on there somewhere!

Okay, I let you be for now, and go play.

[schatten]

--I have noticed that corpses have blood spatters on them, and I'm reasonably sure they didn't before. I will double-check, of course, but I wanted to make note of it before I forgot. If this is something your mod adds, though, you should document it, as it doesn't seem related to the point of the mod.

Only corpses from my mod have this. I use FCOM and MMM has the bloodsplatter effect. I was allowed to use the script and effect and I added it to my mod.


--Later, as he was wandering freely around IC, I noticed him jerking back and forth a lot, like he was trying to make up his mind where to go, and changing his mind with each step. I don't know if this is package-related or not, but other NPCs in the vicinity weren't having the issue, so I don't think it was pathing-related.

Do you have a savegame while he is doing this? I want to check which packages are running currently.


--I also notice that he is often referring to me as "Murderer" or "Listener" - and while these are not false accusations, I can't think of any reason he would know these things.
I just check if you have murdered at least 4 people. I think this is okay. 4 "accidentally" murders.
Do you think all of those conditions (Murder, Listener, Archmage...) should only be true while Arren is in the party?



--What's the script effect on Arren's sword?
Just a simple kill counter for statistics.


--Arren is a really lousy sneak.
What do you mean? I can just set his sneaking skill to 100 with an ability.


--Maybe he could have an option where he casts invisibility on himself while I sneak, if I tell him?
Should I do the above or this one or both?


--I want to test paying off Arren's bounty, but I have no idea how to get him to have a bounty in the first place. What do you recommend?
You can use the attack spell to have Arren attack the target or you can use the console setcrimegold 500. The break point for Guards to attack an NPC in vanilla is 400 or 500.When Arren has this much bounty a popup appears with the options.


--Despite all the Dark Brotherhood nonsense, my character's fame far exceeds her infamy, but I haven't seen evidence of Arren having either aura. I am not sure how to test for it - does it have a visual effect I can look out for?
If you do ALL quests you won't see the effect. If you do all "good" quests you will see it and if you do all "bad" quests you will see it.
You can test by setpcfame and SetPCInfamy. Set one to zero and you will see the effect.
I wanted that only really good or evil characters get this effect. Not someone who has done all quests.


--And, what are the unique misc items in his inventory?
I added them for flair. Just for fun when you look into his inventory to have some flair and misc items.


--Oh, oh, and as of now I've been letting him collect loot instead of giving him 5% of my gold earnings. But I haven't seen him pick up any loot, other than unowned food to stuff in his face.
Is he activating corpses? If he can't pick up stuff he won't get any items. I know that he puts the stuff into his inventory but only when he really activates the corpses and containers and stuff.



--Don't stress about updates. Arren is playable, and I think it is easier on us to do what we can do in large chunks

Cool. Because I wasn't allowed and had no time to mod yesterday. I will do it today evening and tomorrow morning. I hope I can fix all of the reported stuff in that time. If not then I will work further on Sunday.

Thanks for your testing. I very much appreciate such indepth testing.

[Khettienna]

Do you have a savegame while he is doing this? I want to check which packages are running currently.

I don't, but I can try to duplicate it, since the circumstances are easy enough. If I can't repeat it, then probably not worth worrying about since it did right itself eventually.

Do you think all of those conditions (Murder, Listener, Archmage...) should only be true while Arren is in the party?

It would make more sense to me -- but this is a valid design choice, you really can go either way. It was just in the category of things that could have been bugs or could have been right depending on your intentions, and I like to be better safe than sorry when it comes time to report.

Should I do the above or this one or both?

Whichever suits you better! They accomplish the same, in the end.

I wanted that only really good or evil characters get this effect. Not someone who has done all quests.

Ahh, that makes a great deal of sense, then. My character has 30-something infamy and 100-something fame... a pretty large disparity, but still not black or white. Might be worth noting in the readme so players know whether they are missing the feature or not. I'll test it with the console, and the bounty thing, too, while I'm at it (I dunno why I didn't think to just use the console ).

I added them for flair. Just for fun when you look into his inventory to have some flair and misc items.

Yay!

Is he activating corpses?

I was actually just running him through a random fort to try to win him some better gear and test him with another companion, and I finally did see him corpse-checking regularly. No idea what he'd picked up, game crashed before I looked (GPU overheated, not mod-related).

Speaking of which! I have a few new notes for you:

--He plays fine with my usual companion. There was no in-fighting, even with both of them conjuring creatures, and even after a little friendly fire.

--I have noticed that Arren seems to charge off a short ways with his setalert flag still on for a second or two after combat.

--Arren doesn't like to go home. My character owns Benirus Manor and a half a dozen mod-added houses, and he wouldn't go to any of them no matter what commands I gave him about it. He'd start to run off, then stop 30 feet later, change to his town clothes, then start his wander/idle/sandbox package stuff.

--Additionally, if I told him to go home a second time, he would do the same - except he would put his armor back on, and kept going back and forth about it.

--I haven't seen anymore instances yet of "Arren" not being capitalized. So, that being the case, when I play through again after your update, I'll try to catch them all.

I'm a little curious about the sword and the kill counter. Will this break, then, if players give him a new weapon? Or if he kills something with only spells (I've seen him do that a few times)?

Oh, I wanted to note, too, that I'm not running any loot/monster/spawn/magic/leveling/combat overhauls save a simple retroactive health and magicka mod. I run a fairly vanilla game overall, and I play on 50% difficulty, and my character is currently level 38. Arren doesn't seem overpowered in this setting at all; it still takes him a lot longer to kill something by himself than it would take my character, but he can still do it; and this balance seems very natural and comfortable.

Okay, I go test some more! Do I need to do something to trigger the next stage of the Beating Heart quest?