Here is what I did:

Made a new new simple quest called TestActivateActor.
Type : Misc
Priority : 50
Event: Player Activate Actor
Unchecked [ ] RunOnce

Hit [OK]
Re-opened quest, went to script tab and put in the following:


I realize there may be some tricks I have to do to get it to fire more than once, but for this simple test, I was looking for a single fire to confirm the event actually works.

Went to Character -> SM Event Node -> Player Activate Actor

Right Clicked Player Activate Actor -> New Quest Node
[ID: TestActivateActorNode, checked [X] Shares Event ]
Right Clicked TestActivateActorNode -> Add Quests -> Selected "TestActivateActor" Quest

** No conditions. Should happen no matter what.

I hit Okay, saved with the name "TestActivateActor.esp", started up skyrim, made sure my mod was checked and then loaded a save game. But when I click on actors, nothing happens.

Some things I noticed: Most SM Event Nodes have a stacked event at the top. If you right click it and look at use info, you see all the other event stacks for that SM Event. However, this is not the case for Player Activate Actor. Right clicking the top entry, the Use Info always reports 1 entry and that is the Change Location Event. (Which makes no sense to me).

So one theory is that it points to an invalid event (Change Location Event) which appears like an event that does not share the stack... so anything else that is added to that event gets ignored.

Anyway, maybe someone else can confirm that this is broke or that they can get it to work and it is just a problem on my end? I have searched these forums and google and I can't find anyone talking about it being broken, but I also dont see anyone claiming to actually use it.

I can confirm that it doesn't work. It's not the only such event - lock pick doesn't work either (nor Flatter, I imagine).

Flatter certainly doesn't ... That whole little set of functions appears bugged as b*ggery!

Lockpick is widely reported not to work (or, at least, not how we understand it should work)

And Activate Actor, much like LockPick, certainly doesn't function how we expect it to.

StoryManager ... A great if poorly explained and probably poorly executed idea

(I keep looking through the stacks, expecting to find a "bad share" by Beth ... but I never do )

Thanks for the confirmation. I guess what surprised me was that normally when things are broken, the wiki mentions it in the notes or discussion. I may look into updating it. Also not certain if this worked in the past with an older version of skyrim/ck.

While I am here, I will note that OnStoryActorDialogue event works (similar event) But not when the conversation involves the player. Only seems to fire when there is a dialogue between two non-player characters.

Copypasta from one of my posts on another thread:

Actually I did some more testing and found that the story manager is working for me but its strange what is happening with my quest.

Basically I am using the crime gold event to start a quest that only has one script attached to it. The script uses the OnStoryCimeGold event and it tracks the type and number of crimes committed by the player, storing them in global variables. The last line of the script stops the quest so every time the player is caught committing crimes, story manager starts the quest, the script runs and then the quest is stopped.

When I commit a crime, there is a 15-25 second delay before my script runs. Its inconsistent too. If I steal more than three objects in a short space of time it will not record every crime. Though that only seems to happen if I commit multiple crimes in a matter of seconds so its not a major problem but still, why the delay? Has anyone else found the story manager to be slow at starting quests?

Some Story Manager events seem to be very responsive but others are not.