Creating Dead Actors

This page was prompted by a discussion at the Bethsoft forums, and aims to provide a simple guide to adding actors who spawn dead, or are dead, and positioned in a certain way within your mods. [1]

How To Create a Dead Actor

A dead actor is simply, an actor who is defined in the CS by having 0 health. When placed in a cell, this actor will be dead. When creating an actor you want to be dead, it is suggested that you create that actor by either duplicating and modifying an existing actor, or defining an actor from scratch. Both NPCs and Creatures can be used.

• Quick note about levels. When used with an inventory containing leveled items, the level of the actor will determine the MAXIMUM level to which the leveled items will be rolled to. A level 1 actor will always appear with low level items, regardless of player level, a level 30 actor will appear with low level items when the player is low level, and high level items when the player is higher.

Dead actors should always have "no low level processing" checked. They are dead, therefore they have no reason to be checked for processing. Having "respawn" checked will cause that actor's inventory to refresh every time the cell is reset (3 days by default), but the actor will still be dead. Dead actors cannot have autocalc stats or PC level offset active. If you want actors who change levels with the player, see below.

Once defined, you will want your actor to be situated somewhere. To do this, load the area you want the actor to be placed in, and drag the actor from the object window into the render window. Move the actor roughly where you want them to be, double checking things like height and proximity to various statics. Once near where you want the corpse to be, turn on the havok simulation. This will cause the actor to hopefully fall to the ground in usual ragdoll form.

If they don't go limp, double check to ensure that the actor has 0 health.

If they go limp, but get hung up in walls or the ceiling, turn off havok simulation, move the actor, and turn it back on (with skeletons and other creatures that break apart, you may need to use the undo button to reset the creature havok).

If the actor falls in a position you aren't too happy with, fear not. With the havok simulation on, select the actor, then hold down CTRL + ALT. Holding down these keys will allow you to select the individual havok shapes of that actor, allowing you to pose the actor. Keep in mind that the parts of the actor have their own weight and rigidity, so getting things exactly how you want may not always work out. Using collision boxes (located under Statics) can help out in some cases by trapping limbs, but can also interfere with movement through that area.

Using Dead Actors In Leveled Lists

Using dead actors in leveled lists allows you to create a bit of randomness in your dungeons and exteriors by adding bodies which are not always in the same place, or don't always look the same. Although dead actors (as explained above) can still use leveled lists to generate their inventory, they will always generate that inventory based on their pre-set level, and not the level of the player. The purpose of using leveled lists in this case is not merely to adjust the level of the items to the player, but instead add variation and non-predictability in the appearance of dead actors.

• In order to be added to a leveled list, an actor needs to have positive health, so the method of placing and positioning these actors is not something you will be able to have as much control over. This also means that these actors will need to have an ability added to them which has a large damage health effect so that they die as soon as they spawn.

• As the health of the actor is no longer important, you can now use autocalc and level offset, although there is not much difference between doing this, and just having the actor at a fixed level.

• Since actors will be alive at spawning, but die soon after, they may cry out when they die, or make other sounds. Due to this, it is suggested that none of the locations be near any entry points (load doors, teleport markers) to the cell.

For best results, you should utilize either several different leveled lists, with a chance none greater than 75, or a multi-tiered approach with diminishing chances. Placement of these spawn points should be near walls or other statics, preferably on mild slopes due to how the actor will usually just fall face first upon spawning.

Notes

You can use scripting that makes use of a SetLevel within an OnDeath block, and a GetRandomPercent to further randomize the levels (and thus inventories) of the dead actors. However, be aware that this may, in some cases cause a crash bug. Although it appears that this bug was fixed with one of the patches, or only happens in specific cases, some caution should be used.

See Also

• Run_Havok_Sim
• Shortcuts
• Leveled_Creature
• GetRandomPercent