Talk:Simple Companion Tutorial

Thanks for the tutorial Mightylink, it looks pretty nice and thorough. There are a few things that need to be done to wiki-fy it, though. As this is a wiki, no pages are allowed to have by-lines so the credits section would need to be removed. It would also be good to section the article using headers. There are other goodies on that page, including how to link to internal wiki pages, that are good to know. Again, thanks and welcome to the wiki!--Haama 11:51, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

I removed the whole credit section, along with the byline notice Haama put up. Haama already explained it well enough, I don't have to do that again. And I'd like to add that a companion tutorial is most welcome, thank you!

--Qazaaq 12:04, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

Ya sorry im still new to wiki and cs, im very surprised I even made that tutorial and wondering why more advanced users havent done so already, it was quite easy to make after i figured out how to use quest variables. I would of killed for that tutorial but like they say if you want it done right you gata do it yourself. Now others dont need to struggle like I did :P I'm also gana change the part about quest priority, I didnt know how it worked till now.

--Mightylink

Please help!

I did everything exactly as you did in the tutorial, planning to change the name of the NPC and relocate her in a small new cave, surrounded by baddies. I also was planning to use the inventory sharing thing that you said about. however, every time I get to the part where you type code into the result script box and hit compile, I get a bunch of errors! they all say: trying to access local variable 1 in script 'AAveroniascript'-- variable not found continue? yes/no/yes to all.

Please help!!!! just breaking into the NPC section of the CS. did the basic NPC tutorial you have a link to. understood it fully. made a couple of test NPC's. I am semi-proficient. I had not been exposed to questing or dialouge, but I did everything as you dictated and meticulously checked and re-checked it. Is there something different with the post Shivering Isles CS? I know the lip syncing thing is supposed to be broke but that shouldn't affect the stuff done in this tutorial. I am very frustrated right now as I have spent 2:00 (home from school) to 10:00 (10 minutes ago) trying to get this to work. --Ben cope 18:35, 4 April 2008 (EDT)

You had the same trouble as me when I first started :P You use the quest name not the script name.

set questname.variablename to 1

See my forum topic here: http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=826601&hl=

Mightylink 06:58, 6 April 2008 (EDT)

Please sign your edits on Talk pages with ~~~~

Thank you

Dragoon Wraith TALK 06:47, 6 April 2008 (EDT)

Sorry, still a wiki virgin here <_<

Mightylink 06:58, 6 April 2008 (EDT)

Umm, ok, but what about this?

Instead of making a companion, i'm planning on making a pet, but how do you do that? --Lordnincompoop 06:16, 10 April 2008 (EDT)

Reasonable question. I imagine that it's not much different from this, but you use a Creature instead of an NPC.

For dialogue, though, you couldn't use a creature... hmm.

My guess would be that if you want to be able to talk to the pet, you create an invisible dummy NPC (using SetActorAlpha 0), which you position in the middle of the pet (using MoveTo and SetPos), and when the player Activates the pet (an OnActivate block in the pet's script), you have the player talk to the NPC. Because the NPC is invisible and in the middle of the pet, the player will look at the pet, so the pet will look like it's talking. Then you just have to modify the dialogue on the NPC to affect the pet.

Alternatively, you could try using a MessageBox menu. We have a tutorial for that.

These are just some ideas, I've never actually tried to make a companion or a pet. If you're looking for more information, you may want to try the Forums. If you find anything, it would be awesome if you reported back here!

Also, please sign your posts in Talk pages with ~~~~ at the end of your post. Thank you.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 16:30, 10 April 2008 (EDT)

Take a look at the fairly old mod Cheydinhal Petshop for an example of a creature companion. I haven't playing it in so long I don't remember what method it used for controlling the pets, but it should give you some basic ideas.--Speedo 17:03, 10 April 2008 (EDT)

FormID/Naming Suggestion

I'd recommend telling people to use their initials + modname initials or something to ensure the IDs are unique among other mods or you're likely to get weapons called AAGlass and armor called AAGlass. This is a problem when merging plugins. It's not recommended to use common names and recommending people to just use "AA" contradicts that advice. Besides, you can quickly find your items by selecting the 1st item in the list and start typing your initials to quickly locate them in the long lists.

--LHammonds 16:21, 13 May 2008 (EDT)

Good call, that is poor advice. I'll see about changing that.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 01:49, 14 May 2008 (EDT)

Better organized simple companions

I wrote a more optimized tutorial, after becomeing really confused i needed to rewrite it just to understand it and make it more simple. i feel this article is more to the point let me know what you think.

Rion Ukyo

It's nice that's it's less chatty and more concise, but this is mostly the same info in a different order so I can't say it's better (yet). For now, I'm reverting to the previous version as it followed the CS wiki standards a bit better. While it isn't mentioned in the guides, please capitalize the first word of every sentence. Also, please try to match the page syntax with the editing syntax. For instance, your edit above appears on the edit page as

I wrote a more optimized tutorial,
after becomeing really confused
i needed to rewrite it just to 
understand it and make it more simple. i feel this article is more to the point let me know what you think.

Rion
Ukyo

This makes editing the page difficult, and causes errors such as

leave the npc window open

If you're using an external program, go through and fix the spacing and line-breaks after pasting to the wiki, or use a different program that doesn't insert the line-breaks.--Haama 19:48, 3 June 2008 (EDT)

Help

I created a companion, slightly different from yours, but using the same scripting and following the same steps, but when i try to test it, nothing changes in-game.

I placed the companion in Rindir's Staffs to make sure that the NPC wasn't walking away, and then removed wander scripting completely.

I put some items in Rindir's Staffs to check it wasnt a problem with the NPC, but they weren't there either.

Could you please tell me whats going on? --Deathant2 02:14, October 30, 2008 (EDT)

Well, it looks like your plug-in isn't loading.

Have you checked the .esp file in the Data Files thing, or Wrye Bash or OBMM? (one of the latter two is heavily recommended for other reasons) Are you using v1.2 of the CS, and if so, do you have a fully patched game? (should say v1.2.416 in the bottom left corner during the game's main menu)

Also, please sign your comments on Talk pages with ~~~~, thanks! I've fixed your last one, but for the next one you should use it at the end.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 11:25, 30 October 2008 (EDT)

Following Doesn't Stop

The companion I created continues to follow me when i tell it to wait. I double checked all the script and condition and they all match the tutorial(except the names but i checked those for consistency) Sigil Baram 18:14, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

I have read through some of the Beginner's Guide and I think I found a solution. I added the following line to the end of the result scripts for the wait and follow dialogs.

EvalutePackage

This makes the Wait and StopWaiting calls unnecessary as it simply makes the companion reevaluate its packages for the first one who's conditions are met. Just make sure this line is after the 'set' line in the result script

It would be nice if this article was rewritten to be more concise and better structured like the Beginners Guide is. Perhaps I'll do it myself if I finish reading that guild and feel motivated enough. Sigil Baram 17:25, 3 April 2009 (EDT)

Incomplete tag

I just want to know why this artical has been marked incomplete, it is a fully finished tutorial with a working companion. Most problems people are experencing are from incorrect setup, probably the ai packages not set up right or they set got a 1 and a 0 mixed up somewhere, I have followed this tutorial 3 times on both 1.0, 1.2 and SI and it works fine :D :--Mightylink

I don't know. I put it there, but I cannot remember why. Since you are the primary contributor, you may feel free to remove it and add in appropriate categories.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:19, 26 May 2009 (EDT)

Thank's I will do so, however I am not saying its a perfect tutorial, I am updating whatever info that needs to be and ty Sigil Baram for mentioning evp, its a much better alternative then wait, however as far as being unfinished I disagree on that, its a fully working tutorial, I think the 10 or so people who have problems or make mistakes ask for help here, wile the other 700 just dont post at all and enjoy the tutorial :P

I'll keep going through it to try and make it easier to understand, sorry it had to be so long I just wanted to include all the nessiccary info to prevent the reader from getting lost.

Maby you did it cause all this companion gives you is follow and wait, I figured that was a good start because scripting inventory sharing and teleporting is a whole other tutorial on its own, I figured it would be better to link to more experenced modders tutorials for that stuff. --Mightylink

Quest not Showing in AI Package Functions Parameters

I've followed your instructions as best I can, but my quest will still not show up when I try to set the function parameters for getquestvariable. What could I have done wrong? --Notthross 00:35, 7 October 2009 (EDT)

Sorry, I found what was wrong. I neglected to add the script to the quest. Dur.--Notthross 05:10, 7 October 2009 (EDT)

Link Not Working

The TesNexus link to Easy Companion Share doesn't work. Does anyone know the real link to it? Thanks --Arch-Mage Matt 15:08, 19 August 2010 (EDT)

Ah, sorry - it doesn't seem to exist. Really, your best bet is to try asking on the forums for which companion package is best...

Also, as you might have noticed... 'anyone' around here usually means me. I'm not the only one who edits here, but I probably am almost the only one to watch the Recent Changes list with any regularity these days. The CS Wiki has vanishingly little support.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:04, 20 August 2010 (EDT)

Topics do not show up after initial GREETING

On 1.2 and SI here. I created a voiced companion NPC from scratch using this tutorial (a male one, since they're so rare in Oblivion), but I think it omits some very important things when it comes to making the quest, and the dialogue. One is that the new NPC will still use default conversation options for the rest of his class/race/etc. More on the aesthetic side but still important enough I think for the other tutorial 'Removing Default Dialogue' ([1]) to be linked here.

The other is more serious. Though I don't know if it's just because I did something horribly wrong. There are no topics at all after the NPC first greets me (I removed both the persuade and the rumor options). I thought at first that it was because of the 'Add Topic box' bug mentioned elsewhere, but I really didn't use it. Didn't even see it. The voice works perfectly (even had lip files made especially for it), and the NPC greets me. Then nothing afterwards. Just an option to close the conversation.

It was only when I saw another tutorial - Lesson 6 of a Beginner's Guide to Quest Dialogue [2], when I came across a function: Addtopic

It fixed it for me, my companion now showed the next correct topic after the Greeting. I simply placed it on Result Script box of the GREETING topic as follows (this is using the example names and variables used by this tutorial):

addtopic AAFollow
set veroniafollow to 0

It needs more variables of course, probably counters too to avoid topics repeating. I added the second line to ensure that when the player talks to the NPC he will always stop following unless told to follow again (personal preference). But am I wrong in assuming that this was actually required in order to have dialogue show up? I am not a coder (I'm a 3d artist), and I've only been modding Oblivion for a week. So I don't really know. Plus no one seems to have experienced the same bug.

It's a very helpful tutorial nonetheless. More accessible to us nooblets than the others which are a bit more... coderish. Hehe. Don't remove it, it's a springboard to the more complicated tutorials. --S14 05:15, 30 August 2010 (EDT)

Game Crashes

I've followed this tutorial to make a companion, and I've triple checked all the variables and names, and they're all right. However whenever I enter the cell that my companion is in, the game crashes. I've placed her in a shop I made myself, which was working fine before the companion was added. Anyone got any idea what's going on? Mikeh12 14:20, 25 August 2011 (EDT)