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Stupid Pathgrid Tricks, or, Oblivion AIs Driving Me Insane


syscrusher
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I have a scene in my mod where a number of NPCs move from Point A to Point B in the exterior Tamriel world space.

 

The pathgrid for most of that journey has been marked with the blue "preferred" nodes where I want the NPCs to follow a trail.

 

For the most part, they do so, but right near the end of the journey every single one of them turns aside and take a really stupid, roundabout detour to get to Point B.

 

I've checked, and the detour they pick has a higher count of nodes traversed, and does not follow the preferred path.

 

I've checked for continuity of path from the detour point to the destination.

 

The detour point clearly has a link between the node before the detour and the one they should hit next.

 

Any ideas what else I should check?

 

Is there any way I can transfer myself inside the game so I can personally whomp the stupid AIs with a clue-by-four?!

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What Jamo would do:

 

If you really, REALLY need them to move a certain way... just delete the alternate path they are taking. It won't destroy anything combat wise (NPCs ignore that stuff in combat) and unless other NPCs are using that exact pathgrid for something stupidly important like a main questline or something then do it anyways. Dirty edit! I like the heavy handed approach...

 

What you should probably do:

 

Check their AI packages again, you never know.

Change the preferred path's color and see if it changes anything.

Delete the pathgrid and add your own new grid over the areas you deleted and reconnect everything.

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Sometimes there ist something in Landscape leveling that makes the NPC behave like this, check it out,

 

The other point might be; Is it a cell border and the cell has to much conections with the neighbour cell. This makes the AI go mad.

 

Last point is the way ist to narrow. If there is more then one PC to use this way at the same time, they will block each other and no one uses the way. Make a second and a third pathgrid just close to the preferred one. By wandering around one after the other can reach the point.

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Sometimes there ist something in Landscape leveling that makes the NPC behave like this, check it out,

 

The other point might be; Is it a cell border and the cell has to much conections with the neighbour cell. This makes the AI go mad.

 

Last point is the way ist to narrow. If there is more then one PC to use this way at the same time, they will block each other and no one uses the way. Make a second and a third pathgrid just close to the preferred one. By wandering around one after the other can reach the point.

 

Ooooohhh, that bit about the cell border may be the key. This situation is, in fact, near a cell border. I'll check how many connections there are with neighboring cells.

 

It's not a problem of being too narrow; it happens even if there is only one NPC walking through there at a time.

 

Thanks for the tips, Harvald and others who've replied.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm so sorry! Actually, what happened here is that I replied during a short break in the middle of my workday. I remembered multiple replies, and didn't realize all of them but one were from Harvald. Just skimming the scrollback my brain registered multiple people, and I was in a hurry.

 

I'm truly sorry about the slight -- it was absolutely not intentional, and I did actually follow all of your ideas except (so far) the one of deleting and recreating the pathgrid. The AI packages are simple, and the preferred path is an unbroken line of blue nodes. I tried deleting the connections where they are straying aside, and what happened is that they just strayed aside in a different place. Argh!

 

My next step is to check the connection counts between cells, as Harvald suggested, and to take your final suggestion of deleting and recreating the pathgrid.

 

If all that fails, I'll take your *other* suggestion of just leaving it alone, since my quest doesn't depend on their exact route. This is just an annoying cosmetic issue, not a quest-stalling fatal bug.

 

Again, please accept my humble apologies for allowing my haste to displace good manners.

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