XMarker

[Vereta]

Does anyone know what an xmarker is and what it's used for? I looked it up at the TESCS Wiki, but it came up with many article, but not just an article specifically for the xmarker.

Also, is it safe to delete this one (picture) because I'm planning on getting rid of the sheep pen fo the UAE (Unoffcial Aleswell Expansion.) There is also a marker inside the patch of land that has farm plants and one just outside it. I know the one just outside of it is for the quest (invisibility) but what about the other one? Is the one that's in the farm land important? What's safe to delete and what isn't?

[Guest]

Try not to delete them, as they are... Rather important.  If you edit the height and such of the landscape, make sure the to put back the xmarkers on their correct location, example - the sheep pen, next to the sheep.

Eeeeeh, let's see... What are they?

They're a fantastic creation, useful in a big number of ways. They are invisible ingame.

Say, i can make a quest, where the player is directed to a house in Bruma.  I can place an xmarker inside that house, put a script on it that: Whenever the player gets in 15 feet range close to the xmarker, the player will receive a questbump such as "i have reached the house, i should start looking for that key that the guard captain mentioned".  So as you can understand, they are very very important for questmaking in Oblivion. Another use can be of teleportation spells, mark and recall spells (if you played morrowind).  So try not to remove them, if you had for example removed the one at the sheep pen, you might have messed up those sheeps, making them forever invisible  

[Guest]

Anyhow, when/if you start making quests, you will start loving them for their simple name, and complex magnificence!

[Vereta]

How is the one in the sheep pen tied to the sheep? What if I don't want the sheep? Is it so the NPCs in Aleswell tend to the sheep?

What about the one in the small farm land? Is it so that the NPCs in Aleswell will hoe the land?

[Guest]

Well, if memory serves.  Aleswell is cursed with invisibility, i remember the sheep also being invisible.

So, the Xmarker could be used by the quest, so that at a certain stage, preferably the one where you remove the curse, the xmarker will relate to NPCS within a specific range, and make them visible again.   Same one with the small farm land i suppose.

[DarkRider]

In that situation the xmarker in the sheep pen is tied to a travel AI package. There is a shepherd who picks the sheep up in the morning and walks them into the woods down the road to graze, then brings them home. The markers are for the shepherd, so he goes to the sheep pen and then goes to the xmarker that's in the woods.

Angel is right about xmarkers being versatile, but I would say 90% of the time they are used to govern NPC behavior. Deleting the sheep markers will make the shepherd's AI packages void. He won't have anything to do then and will just stand around.

Best idea would be to move the xmarker if you want to move the sheepfold, but not delete it, the shepherd needs a job and he's one of the few working shepherds in the game; he even has a sheep dog who helps him!

The xmarker in the farm field is also a work marker, it tells the farmer where to stand to work. If you go ingame and watch the town for awhile you'll notice the NPCs go to the same spots every day. They go to the mark and do what they are programmed to do. The shepherd herds and the farmer farms.

IF you delete the markers, and it wouldn't necessarily mess anything up, you would need to replace those AI packages and give those characters something else to do. Otherwise they'll just stay in their houses!  

[Guest]

Yes, yes, NPC Behaviour, i missed that one...    Seeing as it's about 90% as you say, i'd call it a big miss  

[grond]

I should have been much much more specific when I wrote to 'check the AI of the NPCs' in your WIP thread.    That would have answered these questions before you had to ask them.  Thanks to Angel and 'the commander' for finishing the lesson I barely started.

[Vereta]

Thanks guys, very very useful. About the sheepherd. I'll probably end up moving it to give more room for other things. Also, how can I tell whom the marker effects?

[DarkRider]

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Thanks guys, very very useful. About the sheepherd. I'll probably end up moving it to give more room for other things. Also, how can I tell whom the marker effects?

Easiest way is to click on the marker and hit delete. A dialog box will open that shows what AI pack that mark is attached to. Just choose the "no" option to close the box without actually deleting it. Another way is to just double click on it, a different box will open. The Reference Editor ID usually has the name of the character or some clue in it!  

[Vereta]

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Thanks guys, very very useful. About the sheepherd. I'll probably end up moving it to give more room for other things. Also, how can I tell whom the marker effects?

Easiest way is to click on the marker and hit delete. A dialog box will open that shows what AI pack that mark is attached to. Just choose the "no" option to close the box without actually deleting it. Another way is to just double click on it, a different box will open. The Reference Editor ID usually has the name of the character or some clue in it!  

Thanks again!